I've had a fun, yet busy few days in and around Segovia. Classes have been rather challenging.
In Spanish Phonetics, we had three speech analyses. Two of which were analyses of my señora's speech. For two of the analyses, I had to transcribe phonetically recordings of my señora's speech, record my imitations of her accent, and analyze the differences between them. The final analysis was of my speech at the beginning of the trip and at the end. While I still don't sound like a native speaker, I have made several improvements in regards to my pronunciation. For example, I can "roll" my r's with little effort now. I now have no issues with pronouncing stable, short, and tense vowels. Lastly, I have a PERFECT lateral /l/. ¡Soy la leche! (I'm the coolest!) Haha.
In Advanced Oral Spanish, we got to pick any spot in Segovia and become an "expert" on the site. On Thursday, we strolled through the city, and everyone gave their presentations to the class, as if we were tour guides! Super fun, huh?! I chose to talk about la Iglesia de San Martín & the plaza right next to it. Dr. Pak always has such great ideas to make class fun and relevant for us. Speaking of Dr. Pak, she wrote the sweetest message on the back of my final journal entry:
In Spanish Phonetics, we had three speech analyses. Two of which were analyses of my señora's speech. For two of the analyses, I had to transcribe phonetically recordings of my señora's speech, record my imitations of her accent, and analyze the differences between them. The final analysis was of my speech at the beginning of the trip and at the end. While I still don't sound like a native speaker, I have made several improvements in regards to my pronunciation. For example, I can "roll" my r's with little effort now. I now have no issues with pronouncing stable, short, and tense vowels. Lastly, I have a PERFECT lateral /l/. ¡Soy la leche! (I'm the coolest!) Haha.
In Advanced Oral Spanish, we got to pick any spot in Segovia and become an "expert" on the site. On Thursday, we strolled through the city, and everyone gave their presentations to the class, as if we were tour guides! Super fun, huh?! I chose to talk about la Iglesia de San Martín & the plaza right next to it. Dr. Pak always has such great ideas to make class fun and relevant for us. Speaking of Dr. Pak, she wrote the sweetest message on the back of my final journal entry:
"Kelly, you have been a FANTASTIC student. Your dedication and positive attitude to learn the most possible demands an applause. It has been a pleasure to meet you, and I wish you the best when you return to the USA. If one day you need a letter of recommendation, you know I'm at Ball State, and I would be happy to write one for you."
Apart from classes, we had our final excursion this week. On Wednesday, we went to two small pueblos about 45 minutes away that boast two beautiful defensive castles. The first stop was Cuellar. We saw the old castillo from the outside. Nothing too terribly exciting about that, but you can see the pictures below. Afterwards, we all ate together at a delicious restaurant called Hotel Mesón San Francisco in the heart of the pueblo. The first plate was pasta with a tomato sauce & sausage on top. Next, was french fries with pollo de corral al chilindrón, an amazing baked chicken dish. For dessert, I had flan. Mmm! ¡Qué rico! Finally, we went to a bodega called Malaparte and got to see how wine is made! We even got to taste two different wines. The man who runs the bodega was SO sweet! I was more than happy to buy a bottle of wine to support his company.
The second stop was in Coca. We got to tour that castle inside and out with a guide. The coolest part about the castle was a room with twelve angled walls (like a big, almost rounded polygon) where the acoustics were such that you could whisper into the wall on one side, and SOMEHOW the sound would travel and amplify directly across the room from where you spoke into the wall. My friends and I played with that for a good twenty minutes. Haha. There were also some pretty views from the tops of the towers. (I didn't much care for the tiny spiral staircase leading up to the top, though!)
As for the last weekend here in Spain, I plan to stay budget-conscious and only go to Madrid for one night. I tossed around the idea of spending one night & one day in Córdoba, but having already been there two years ago and trying to stay true to my budget, I decided against going. Instead, I plan on going to Madrid on Saturday afternoon, seeing a couple of sites I didn't see a couple of weeks ago, grab a couple of souvenirs, chow down on some authentic Chinese food, and attend the best flamenco show in Madrid that evening. I'll return to Segovia in the early afternoon on Sunday to start prepping for my final exams. Sounds like a pretty good plan to me!
Thank you again for continuing to follow my journey here. It's coming to a close very quickly! I'll be on a plane in less than a week headed to the ol' US of A! I look forward to chronicling the end of my journey and reflections over the next few days!
Besitos,
Kelly
The second stop was in Coca. We got to tour that castle inside and out with a guide. The coolest part about the castle was a room with twelve angled walls (like a big, almost rounded polygon) where the acoustics were such that you could whisper into the wall on one side, and SOMEHOW the sound would travel and amplify directly across the room from where you spoke into the wall. My friends and I played with that for a good twenty minutes. Haha. There were also some pretty views from the tops of the towers. (I didn't much care for the tiny spiral staircase leading up to the top, though!)
As for the last weekend here in Spain, I plan to stay budget-conscious and only go to Madrid for one night. I tossed around the idea of spending one night & one day in Córdoba, but having already been there two years ago and trying to stay true to my budget, I decided against going. Instead, I plan on going to Madrid on Saturday afternoon, seeing a couple of sites I didn't see a couple of weeks ago, grab a couple of souvenirs, chow down on some authentic Chinese food, and attend the best flamenco show in Madrid that evening. I'll return to Segovia in the early afternoon on Sunday to start prepping for my final exams. Sounds like a pretty good plan to me!
Thank you again for continuing to follow my journey here. It's coming to a close very quickly! I'll be on a plane in less than a week headed to the ol' US of A! I look forward to chronicling the end of my journey and reflections over the next few days!
Besitos,
Kelly