Hablemos sobre Valladolid [Let's talk about Valladolid]!

Hey!

After fielding some questions about what I'm actually doing here in Valladolid, rather than just traveling, I thought I would write about my life here in Valladolid for a short bit, and show you what MY town is like! 

It took me a while, but I know the city pretty dang well now.  Almost like the back of my hand.  This took a lot of getting lost and finding my way home, but it was all worth it.

I've already done an entry and showed you the city a little bit, but I had a lot ot photos at night from that entry.  Last week Sunday I walked around our city and pretended I was a tourist, rather than a student.  I found some great things to share with you all!

I'll start with our university.  Our campus is about a 40 minute walk from our house.  Since it's been getting nicer out, the walk is much more manageable, however, it's still slightly chilly in the mornings.  Our "class" consists of about 85 students from Eau Claire, Stevens Point, IUP (in Pennsylvania), some students from California, as well as South Korea and Japan.  We are then split up into groups 1 through 7 depending on our Spanish speaking and comprehension levels.  My group has 17 students in it.  We all sit in one room, and our teachers change classes, rather than us switching rooms every hour.  Our classes normallly start around 9:30 am, and they all last 1 hour.  We have 2 classes until 11:30, and then we get a 20 minute break.  Depending on the day, we might have none, one, or 2 classes yet after the break.  We're normally done by 12:50pm, with the exception of a few days here and there where we have more classes (or less!).

Every few weeks our schedules change, so right now I'm in the middle of a schedule, and it ends on March 16th.  After that, we'll get a new schedule and that will most likely go until our spring break, which begins on March 31st.

Above is the main building on campus, and we actually enter in the small brown building behind it.  This whole area, as you can see below, is called the Campus Miguel Delibes.  He was a famous Spanish author. 

 So that's our campus.  There's also another campus in the city, not too far from ours, which is where a lot of the other students go.  There is a building on our campus directly devoted to foreign students taking classes (where we go) as well as a cafe/computer lab where we can print things, and a building for technology and science.  On the other campus, there are buildings for different subjects as well.




 Valladolid is a city with a lot of history.  It was the capital of the Spanish empire from roughly 1469 to 1561, when a great fired destroyed a lot of the city.  At that point, King Philip II moved the capital to Madrid.  However, the city still has a lot of really awesome historical buildings.  In fact, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella (two of the most prominent figures in Spain's history) were married here, Cervantes (author of Don Quixote) lived here for quite some time, and King Philip II was born and baptized here.  

This church is called La Antigua, and it stands in the shadow of the cathedral.  They're literally neighbors.  I was standing next to the cathedral when I took this photo.  I think it's kind of sad that I'm living in this beautiful city, but I've already become accustomed to seeing these things on an almost daily basis.  Sometimes, I  have to remind me to open my eyes and see the beauty around me, rather than thinking of it as my daily walk to class. 

 Here's the cathedral, or at least part of it! 

 And this is called "Plaza Universidad".  It's a plaza near where the other university is, and it's close to a lot of high schools.  There are statues of lions in front of this building...and legend has it, he who counts the lions in the plaza will be riddled with bad luck.  Needless to say, I haven't counted the lions! They are lions that are holding a shield, the shield of the university.  Lions are said to be a very protective animal, so they're widely used as a symbol here in Spain.

 This is the house that Cervantes' and his family used to live in.  It's here that he finished the first half of his magnum opus, "The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha". 

 Our city also happened to be the city in which Christopher Columbus died in.  The plaque on the wall behind the replica of this ship marks the location where he died.  There is now a huge museum dedicated to Christopher Columbus' journeys to the New World, and how Spain grew as a result of his discovery.

 Here are some more modern buildings in our city - this is the view I see every morning when I cross the river going to school!  It was so calm and precious one morning, I just had to snap this photo.  I see people fishing in this river, and I've even fed the ducks!








 Here's a photo of the plaza mayor during the day time.  It's a beautiful square in the middle of the day with people and cafe's strewn about, especially now that the weather is starting to pick up!








 Here's a photo of the river along with some buildings - they're all apartment buildings similar to the ones I live in!  

 And here is a peacock that roams the city's park, called Campo Grande.  I saw one the other day open it's tail (it's mating season) but unfortunately didn't have my camera on me!



 


Here are some photos of the fountains in our city.  The large one with the rainbow is located in Plaza Zorilla, and it's my favorite. It's absolutely gigantic, and it is near my house - a 10 minute walk across the river.

The smaller one to the right is called Fuente Dorada (fountain of gold) and it's been frozen several times this semester - which is a rare occurrence here in Spain!  For a while there we were getting our winter air from Siberia, but it's gone now!


And finally, I'll throw a picture of me in here.  :)
 

I love living in this city, and I'm so grateful to have this experience!

I hope you too, enjoyed another short entry about Valladolid!

Love and miss you all,
besos y abrazos,

Erin