Valladolid- 10 January

Today, we went on a walking tour of Valladolid with the whole group. We heard about the history of Valladolid, and learned many intersting facts about the city in which we are staying! For example, Christopher Colombus died and was buried here, and Fernando and Isabel were married here! We were outside in the wind and cold for a whie, so we got to stop for some churros and chocolate along the way! Afterwards, we did a scavenger hunt in the area surrounding the “Plaza Mayor”, where we found stores, monuments, and signs with the help of maps, and also by asking locals for directions. We then went our separate ways, in order to be with our families for the rest of the day. With my host sister and her parents, we went to eat “la comida” which is their biggest meal of the day, and in my family, it is eaten around 3:00each day. For this meal, I went to my host sister’s grandparent's house (they live in an apartment very close to her school.) We ate a soup with garbanzo beans, fresh bread, a side salad, and more types of meat than I could count. Her family asked many questions about where I plan to go to college, various customs we have in the United States, and my favorite parts about Spain. After our meal, I walked around Valladolid with my host mom while my host sister had tutoring and basketball practice. We also stopped for some coffee at a local cafe, which was delicious! And after picking up my host sister, we returned home, and the whole family took a quick nap before (we had missed the siesta that they normally take earlier in the day.) We ate dinner at about 9:30 which consisted of pizza with mushrooms and ham, a tossed salad, and a banana for dessert. 

We have had another great day here in Spain, and I feel as though we are getting accustomed to the lifestyle here very quickly, as well as improving our Spanish! 

-Rachel Singleton


Today we all met up in the Plaza Mayor of Valladolid. Once we were all reacquainted, we began a tour of the city and its monuments. Today it was very cold, although it was sunny for the most part. We saw multiple churches, for example the Catedral de Valladolid, and the University of Valladolid as well. We also visited a convent where the nuns sold pastries. Along with this, we visited Campo Grande Park that had peacocks which was very unusual but interesting! To get away from the cold, we took a nice break to enjoy some churros with chocolate and warm back up. After this we continued our tour of the city and began a scavenger hunt to find certain places and things throughout the city. My group was able to accomplish a few of the items on the list, although we had to return to the group pretty quickly because we all had to return back to our families and homes for lunch. Leah, logan, eleanor, sarah, Bradford, Sydney and i all returned back to our school, Maristas, and waited a little bit for our host siblings to get out of school and go home to eat lunch. For lunch i had soup along with chicken and oranges. After this, i chatted with my family for a little while and then i rested for a little while. After this Paula, my sister, took me to the Catedral de Valladolid, expect this time we were able to get a tour of the church and go to the very top of the tower, which had an incredible view, although it was very cold from all of the wind. After this, we went to a few stores to find a gift for her mom because her birthday is coming up. On the way home we stopped at a pastry stop to try a pastry that is very common in Valladolid and it was amazing!! For dinner we had a dish with potatoes, eggs, peppers, ham, and other vegetables along with bread and yogurt and candy for dessert. It was a very busy, but very interesting day and I can’t wait to see what is to come in the next few days!!

-Natalie Simoneaux