Home Stay: Segovia

The photos to accompany this web site are available at http://www.pbase.com/rkolettel/segovia .

August 31, 2001 - September 20, 2001
At the end of orientation we got on a bus and drove to Segovia. It is a very old city with and aquaduct that was built by the Romans. I met my host family at the bus station in Segovia. They took me to their home in San Cristóbal de Segovia wich is only a few kilometers outside of Segovia. For the next three weeks I only saw the other students when we went to class in Segovia a few days a week. The rest of the time I spent getting to know my host family and exploring the "pueblo" (village) where I lived. We were required to interview residents and write papers about the villages where we were staying. I was the only student assigned to my village. I think I was the first student from my school to stay there. For three weeks I was immersed totally in Spainish. I only heard English a few times. By the end of the homestay I found myself thinking in Spanish. I was sad to leave my host family.

Extra: Arival in Segovia
We took a chartered bus from Salamanca to Segovia. When we arrived at the bus terminal some students got on other busses to the villages where they would be staying. The rest of us sat in the bus terminal waiting for our busses to depart or for our host families to arrive to take us home. All of our suitcases were lined up outside the windows of a store in the bus terminal. As each host family arrived the program director would introduce herself to them. Then a student and a suitcase would leave. We each only had one suitcase at this point because the rest of our luggage was in storage in Madrid. There were gaps in the line of suitcases so I kept moving everyone’s suitcases together. I was worried that omeone would walk off with a suitcase. I think the program director was surprise to see that her suitcase had moved about six feet when she went over to it.
When there were about four students left I decided to try to buy a soda from the vending machine. When I got up, a man started talking to me. He was my host father. He had been standing a few feet away trying to decide if I was the American student who had come to stay with his family. The program director talked to him for a moment then we went outside to the car where my host sister was waiting. My host father told me that it would take three hours to drive to their house. I had seen a sign that said San Cristóbal, where my host family lived was 3 km from Segovia. I did not know how far that was, but I knew it wouldn’t take three hours to drive there. As it turned out, my host family’s home was within walking distance of Segovia.
I think I ate lunch when I first arrived at my host family’s home. In Spain, people usually eat lunch around two o’clock. At that time all stores close and all the children who can walk home from school for lunch. Some schools dismiss before lunch. In Spain, you say good morning to anyone you meet before you have eaten lunch. School was not in session when I arrived in Segovia so my entire host family was still home for summer vacation. They did not start school until a few days before I left for Madrid.

Segovia
San Cristóbal de Segovia
La Granja
San Cristóbal de Segovia continued
Segovia continued
La Granja continued

Segovia, Segovia, Castilla y León, Spain

Fuente Isla, Segovia
I went to this park in Segovia with my host sister on the day I arrived. The black line running across the stones in this picture is not a shadow, but a trench with water running through it. I imagine that this is some form of drainage system, but I thought it as pretty and different from streams I had seen in the United States.

Alcázar, Segovia
I took this photo from Fuente Isla park. An Alcázar is a palace. I believe that the word comes from Arabic. (Many Spanish words come from Arabic.) My host father said that this palace inspired Cinderella’s Castle in Disneyland. I do not know if it did or not. I found out much later that Queen Isabella (Isabel in Spanish) had visited the alcázar.

Here I am standing in front of the Alcázar.

Acueducto, Segovia

This is the Acueducto (aqueduct) that runs across Segovia. It was built by the Romans to carry water. On one side of the Acueducto a statue of Saint Mary has been added near the top. The Acueducto serves as a landmark and meeting place in Segovia. Cars can not drive under it at this point so in order to enter the city you must either drive up or down hill to a place where you can come into Segovia without going under the Acueducto. When I was done with class for the day I would walk from the college on Calle de la Trinidad where our group had rented a classroom, down the street, across the Plaza Mayor and down another street to the Acueducto. That is where my host mother would meet me in my host family’s mini-van. On another occasion, when I went into Segovia in the evening with my host sister, we were dropped off here
and met her friend nearby. The tourism office is located next to the Acueducto. There is also a
small statue nearby showing Romulus and Remus being fed by a wolf.

San Cristóbal de Segovia, Segovia, Castilla y León, Spain

Nuestra Señora del Rosario, San Cristóbal de Segovia

(Our Lady of the Rosary) This is the church in San Cristóbal. It is a Catholic church located next to the town hall. The large round object on the top of the steeple is a stork’s nest. The streamers in front of the church were left over from a festival. The car parked in front has an M on its license plate for Madrid. A large yellow mailbox sits near the church for people to mail letters in. As far as I know there is no post office in San Cristóbal. I do not remember very well what the church looked like on the inside. I know it had candles and the things which are usually in churches and I know there was a sacristy to the side of the church. That is where I went to interview the priest for my paper about San Cristóbal. He worked in two parishes in two different villages so both Zulay and I ended up interviewing him for the same class.

Consulatorio Medico

farmacia, San Cristóbal de Segovia