While excursions to other regions and cities of Spain are an integral part of the Proctor en Segovia experience, there is something comforting about returning to Segovia. Host families welcome students with warm, home-cooked dinners and are eager to hear of their adventures in Andalucía or on the Camino de Santiago. The granite and sandstone of the two-thousand-year-old Roman aqueduct and UNESCO World Heritage Site old town glows in the illumination of street lights. Inevitably, we have grown somewhat used to them, despite their grandeur, but they appear breathtaking again after a few days of absence. The return to our daily routine of meals with host families, classes at school on the Plaza Mayor and afternoon activities scattered throughout the city is reassuring. Estamos en casa, we are home, en Segovia.

Proctor en Segovia traveled to Portugal's Alto Douro region and second city, Porto, for the first time, and students were captivated.  Porto is, of course, still on the Iberian peninsula and only a half day's drive from Segovia, but we felt as if we had entered another world.  Students were captivated by the richness and contrast of the colors, and the contrast of modern and ancient, land and water, world languages, and Spain and Portugal.  Enjoy selected journal entries from Jaz and Eva!

Students trekked, climbed, hiked, wandered, skipped, leaped, walked, and ran (yes, many of them RAN most of the way) nearly 50 miles across Galicia on el Camino de Santiago. First, enjoy Jaz's "portrait" of one backpacker on the Camino de Santiago. Tales from our "pilgrimage" by Will and Jaz follow.

In their first two weeks in Spain, the Proctor en Segovia Fall 2015 group wastes no time in fully immersing themselves in Spanish language and culture. Luke and Haley write this post!

In the final weeks of the spring 2015 term, Proctor en Segovia hits the road, first traveling from Segovia to Barcelona via high-speed train and then north along the Catalan Costa Brava.  Next, on the final long excursion of the term, the group leaves from Segovia in rented vehicles, driving southwest along the Sistema Central mountain range, and then crossing into the Spanish region of Extremadura and Portugal’s Alentejo region. Finally, students traverse eastern Andalucía, visiting Sevilla, Cádiz and rural sections of the Costa de la Luz on the Strait of Gibraltar!