Glass Blowing and More Dessert

Also we got our first snow!

Last Friday, most of the other students were off traveling to various parts of the world; a few to Rome and the rest to Morocco. That meant that there were only 4 of us in class, which might have been sad, except that I think the professors all felt sorry for us. So in art class we went to a cafe and talked about everything under the sun with the professor. In grammar we did a fun little personality quiz in Spanish, which was hilarious. And for my European Union class we went to the glass factory museum in La Granja, a small town about 15 minutes away from Segovia. It was a very cool experience. We saw the tools used to make glass before as well as now. The factory is one of the oldest industrial factories in Spain, which was impressive. We also got to see an exposition of contemporary art using glass as a medium. It is incredible what people can do with glass.

Afterward we had the opportunity to visit the workshop where they make glass figures that are later sold. It was the coolest thing I have ever seen in my life. The person working would take the hot glass, on the end of a long metal pole, out of the oven and would proceed to shape the glass mass with a stack of wet newspaper (newspaper!) and blow into one end of the pole, putting a big air bubble in the glass. We watched them for about 15 minutes making what looked like vases, but I could have watched them for an eternity. It is amazing to seem them work the glass, and all as cool as cucumbers.

Today was the last day of the year long celebration of the 25th anniversary of Segovia being named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Because of this, there was a celebration in the Plaza Mayor. I went over there today with another one of the students. We got free cotton candy, making our mouths brilliantly blue, and then we waited in line to get the commemorative dessert of the 25th anniversary. Unfortunately, while waiting in line, the beautiful blue sky disappeared and we were completely soaked by a surprise attack of rain. However, it was worth it to get to try the dessert. It was like ponche segoviano but a lot more fancy. It was made up of several layers of: cake, cinnamon custard, chocolate cake, orange custard, cake, and marzipan. The cake was all soaked in a syrup made of liquor, water, sugar, and a liquid made of anise seeds. It was delicious and almost immorally sweet.

A very nice weekend in all.