Segovia

This past week has been suuuper long, good, but long. Work was up and down this week. Wednesday I was really upset because a lady told me I don't understand much and asked where I was from, which basically shocked me. The culture here is so different..people don't try to sugarcoat things very much and just say things flat out. BUT on Monday I got to do something that made me feel really good about myself- I got to translate and do something that actually helped someone! An English speaking couple (tourists) came into FEDETO and asked me if they could park outside. Since I know nothing about parking, I had to turn to the guy next to me and ask him questions in Spanish (which I find funny since he was the man who told me on day 1 that I have bad Spanish) and then translate the answers back to the couple in English. I'm hoping I translated right and they found the right place to park!
I'm really sad to leave my boss, Luis. I LOVE him. He's super nice and knew when I was upset on Wednesday, took me out for a beer and sat there and told me that I'm not stupid and told me it's really hard to travel to a foreign country AND have a job there. He left yesterday for vacation so he won't be there for my last 2 days of work which I'm sad about. The other 2 guys in the office are really serious and don't talk. At all. In a previous blog post I talked about how they don't talk and I thought it was just me, but I really think they just sit and are really focused on their work..they rarely talk to each other! But Luis randomly will yell things to me across the office and burst out into song or blast the radio and do both. He definitely makes the 7 hours of silence a lot more bearable! He told me to send him my Skype contact before I go so we can stay in touch. Definitely a good contact to have.
This weekend the Fund took a trip to Segovia and my friend Katie and I stayed the night there which was SO much fun. My friend from WKU is studying abroad in Segovia right now so we hung out with him and got to meet some other Kentucky folk (and I have to say, I didn't realize how much I missed a little Southern twang in my life until I heard some of them talk) and some locals. Katie and I really lucked out on our hostel, both times we've traveled we haven't made a reservation in advance which is almost nicer because then you can look at the places yourself instead of trusting the reviews online. We had a long day of travel back yesterday, but everything went smoothly,  and we made it back to Toledo around 5pm. I was exhausted but decided it would be a great idea to go out again last night to this outdoor discoteca, we had a lot of fun but I am super tired today.
Segovia is a BEAUTIFUL city. There's an aqueduct there that was built by the Romans in the 1st or 2nd century and is still standing. If I remember correctly I think the tour guide said that the aqueduct is around 15 km (11 miles) long. The most impressive thing to me other than the aqueduct itself is the fact that there is NOTHING holding all of the stones together. I still don't understand how there are arches in it that don't fall! We also took a tour of the Alcazar, where the Catholic kings lived. It was a really pretty building and then we walked up approximately 32857 stairs to get up to the top, which was definitely worth it. Scariest staircase of my life though- very tiny and windy, all made of dark rock, with no light and really nothing to grab onto..the worst part was that people were trying to come down as we were coming up so I was basically crawling and clinging to the wall hoping I didn't go down!
The best part of Segovia? I was sitting in a park with my 2 friends, and this couple was walking what I thought was their dog but when they got closer I saw it was a PIG! It was one of the cutest things I've ever seen in my life. It had a harness and leash and everything and literally dragged its owners over to where we were sitting so it could see us. Ahhh it was precious.
Yesterday I got a chance to Skype a lot of the fam- the girls, Uncle Paul & Sandy, and Grandma. It was definitely good to see everyone and I can't wait to see you all when I get back!

My boss, me, and the other guy from the Fund who does his internship there

We went to go see the sunset on Thursday night in Toledo

Ok well apparently these are the only 2 pictures blogger wants me to upload, which is good because the rest of my pictures from the weekend are in another facebook album..so I'll just put the link on here

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1905499393952.2097304.1135770007&l=88298f85b3