¡El Fin de Semana!

After a long day of studying on Thursday and two tests and a presentation on Friday, we were ready for the weekend (el fin de semana;).

Friday night, an exchange student from Austria that studied at Bellarmine this past year was going to visit us in Segovia (Bernhard). He was going to stay with Lopez in his apartment, but was not getting in until late Friday night. But we wanted to go out, so we would be out on the town when he arrived.

First we decided to go to a Cuenta Cuentos...a storytelling festival that had been going on all week in Segovia. It was held in a little courtyard and a storyteller just told funny stories about everyday life in Spain. I think it might have been pretty funny, but none of us really understood it. Lopez was sitting with us and tried to explain some of it, but we were still kind of lost....he was cracking up though.

After that, MacKenzie and I still had to go home and eat dinner (it was around 11) and put on some makeup to get ready to go out. So we scarfed our dinner and got ready really quick. I did´t know it yet, but I was in for a long night!

We met up with a bunch of the girls from the group in the Plaza Mayor and headed to the street where all the bars are (Segovia is pretty small...so there is like one street where all the young people go). A bunch of us went to this bar and had some of the best sangria I have had so far. We hung out and talked there for a while, and then some of the girls headed to a dance club or went home. MacKenzie went home, so I stayed with Ashtin and Brittany. We were still waiting to hear from Lopez about Bernhard!

Around 3 a.m. we heard from Lopez and he said he still hadn´t heard from Bernhard, so he just came and found us. After closing out one of the bars, we went and sat in the Plaza Mayor for a while, just talking and watching all the people stumble home. But then we saw this group of guys carrying instruments and dressed in Medieval gear. Lopez got really excited and started yelling, "Tunas, tunas!" (that´s what they are called...tunas) They are groups, usually from a university that go around singing, usually for a free drink.

So there we were in the Plaza Mayor at 5 a.m. and the tunas decided to play for us. We told them we were from Kentucky and they sang us a song that had the line "Viva España!" in it and substituted, "Viva Kentucky...fried chicken!" It was sooo funny and so much fun. We sat there listening and talking with them until 5:30 a.m.! Man, I haven´t stayed out that late in a long time! It was so much fun though.

Saturday, we found out what happened to Bernhard. His luggage was lost and he was very late and decided to just stay in a hotel in Segovia for the night. But we met up with him Saturday. We walked around Segovia and showed him the sites, like Alcazar (the castle) and the park below. We even got our picture taken with a bride and groom who were doing their wedding pictures in the park! haha! When we made it back to the center of town, we decided to sit down for a drink in a cafe. And who did we see walking across the plaza? Las Tunas! We had to invite them to sit down for a drink. So they played for us again.

Later that night we had dinner and went out again. We went to a bar and had a few drinks and danced a little bit. It was a fun night...and we only stayed out until 3 this time! We needed our rest...we were headed to Madrid in the morning for a day trip!