Little Brothers

Love 'em

First Day of School!

Today began classes with all kinds of (mostly) American students. Don't fret Mom & Dad, my classes with the locals will begin after this two week intensive class. We had two hours of language (I forgot how much I hate studying grammar), one hour of conversation (literally talked in pairs the whole time, best class ever), and one hour of culture (no one knew who the president was…). But it was a lot of fun actually.

This is the view from my classroom building...

 After class, a bunch of us wandered back towards the plaza, then we split off and headed home for lunch! María made us paella, so I had to tell her I hated shrimp… but the rice was really good!! We had a long conversation about how they speak the purest form of Spanish in Salamanca, so this is the place to be to learn!

Anyway, after all that we decided to go be tourists, because Megan has an internship at the tourism office, so she has to go visit all the sites! So we set off with another girl from the program to explore the city even more.

So we went to see Casa de las Conchas, the library that literally has stone shells all over the outside of it, and the first building ever built at the university (see library photo above) and then of course we had to get churros con chocolate at this place called Valor that was recommended to us by Bea from ISA. It was delicious, as predicted.

After a few more wanderings and church findings and shop enterings, we got back to the apartment in one piece. Megan and I noted that while we've only needed a map to get home once, we still take a different route every time. Yeah, that's the kind of layout this city has, that you can be coming and going from the same place every day and take a different route at least four times. Maybe more, I'm not sure how many times we've come home from the Plaza so far!

María had dinner ready for us, which looked like those breaded chicken breasts at first, but it turns out it was ham and cheese. Jamón in Spain, of course! And french fries too, those were good. And of course yogurt. She always gives us yogurt for dessert at night because it's good for our digestion. We spent a long time sitting in the kitchen and talking about her life pre-ISA students.

A very long, but lovely day. Loving it here still, even if I have to take class now!

Chau, os extraño!
(I miss you all!)

Week 1: Map

Cookies for Breakfast

Yeah, I ate cookies for breakfast, I kid you not. I wish I had photos. They weren't super sugary, but they were definitely cookies, and there were small amounts of chocolate involved. So we downed all of that then sped off to the Plaza Mayor with our mamá to meet the group.

After we said goodbye to María and the rest of the group arrived, we went to the College of International Studies for our placement test. It was one of those sneaky ones where you think it's gonna be super easy and then the last page is like, "If you have four apples and John takes three, calculate the mass of the sun." The grammar just got more and more complicated. But it was all multiple choice, and then we had a little oral part of the test, where she just asked me about if I'd taken Spanish for long, and if I'd visited Spain/Europe before. Super simple.

Next, we took a tour of the city! La Plaza, Universidad, abroad program offices, post office, shopping street, etc.

They turned us loose after a short meeting at the abroad office. Megan and I went to shop! She ended up with a Universidad hoodie, I got a clearanced skirt from Zala.

We came home to a very large amount of spaghetti that Maria had made for our lunch. We ate, she chastised us for not eating enough, showed her our purchases, and then she went off for a siesta and we went out to shop and explore more. We ended up wandering the Plaza, going into more shops, finding the library (Casa de Conchas), then going down to the New Cathedral of Salamanca. We were able to go inside this one and look around. Also, the outside was restored in the last century, and the guy who did it carved an astronaut into the facade outside the church! 

After more exploring and buying school supplies (one notebook), we walked back to the ISA office to get our schedules. Congratulations to me, I am in the Superior level class! Tomorrow begins the classes at the San Isidrio building, not pictured here. We then wandered back home, and are waiting for la cena (dinner). I think it might be tortilla española again, this time with the leftover spaghetti since we apparently don't eat enough. Sorry María!

Also, a few more photos of our exploration. We made it down to the Río Tormes and all sorts of places.

Casa de los Conches (the library)

And that is a human arm on display in the cathedral. We're really not sure why, we think it was a bishop or something... still not sure why. But we are all about dead people this week, I guess.

Salamanca, finalmente.

Today began with another buffet breakfast–gracias ISA!

 After that, we trekked back onto the bus and began our drive back north to just outside Madrid at El Escorial. El Escorial is quite large, and made all of granite, the same as the granite used in the aqueduct in Segovia! The Romans liked that one, apparently.

When we arrived, we met up with a tour guide who began in inglés but switched to español the moment we asked, so we could practice a little more! It's a really awesome thing that everyone in the group is excited enough to learn Spanish that we're actually asking for people to speak Spanish to us. Win. Other groups we've encountered on this trip have been… less than happy to be in a place where they don't speak the language. I believe the phrase "Get on the English train" was used the other day. We may have relentlessly mocked them ever since… Sorry guys.

Anyway, we went on in that giant door you see in the picture above, and, after going through our bazillionth bag & metal scanner, entered el Patio de los Reyes, where there were several quite large statues of kings that all were related to King Solomon's Temple somehow. Solomon is the one on the middle left I believe.

We got to tour inside, but sadly I couldn't take any photos. We toured the museum surrounding the church in the middle. The left side of Escorial is a private college, and the right side is where the monks of El Escorial live. So in the museum there were a lot of old paintings and old artifacts, things like old beds, an old office, et cetera. We saw the bed where el Rey Felipe II passed away while listening to mass, because the bedchamber has a door that opens to the main church room, so he could lay there and listen to mass, since he was sick. 

Then we went down to the crypt where a whole bunch of remains are kept. First we went to the main crypt where the kings and mothers of kings are buried. Beautiful dark granite and gold detailing. I was so sad I couldn't take photos. But since I have no photos, here's a fun fact I learned. They only put the bones in the caskets. So where, you may ask, does the rest of the body go? Well, when a royal passes away, they bring the body to a room that basically translates to "rotting room". And the body sits there for 25-40 years, until the bones can be separated to put them into the casket. You know you find that fascinating, even if it's a little bit repulsive. Anyway, at the end of this story, I'm about 80% sure I walked by the door of the rotting room where the parents of Juan Carlos, the current king, are currently residing and waiting to fill the last two empty spaces in the crypt!

Mkay back to real life now. We went to lunch, we got ice cream (dulce de leche flavor, yum!) then got back on the bus for 2 hours until we reached Salamanca!

Once in Salamanca, we trooped off the bus and all got picked up by our respective host mamás! Everyone was all skittery and nervous, it was kind of funny. Megan and I were picked up by David, María's son. He brought us back to the apartment building, where María met us on the first floor with besitos and a barrage of Spanish! She's absolutely fantastic and was so excited to meet us. So excited that we seemed normal too, she was scared she'd have crazy ones or something. She's been working with students for 15 years though, so she's got a pretty good handle on it! And our room is just the cutest thing, just like María. 

She made us tortilla española for dinner, which is basically a quiche-looking thing that has potatoes and eggs. It's delicious! And salad, which consisted of lettuce with corn on it. New, but actually pretty good. Also, everywhere I've been has a little holder for salt, pepper, oil, and vinegar on the tables, including María's house!

I'd love to write all about how amazing it is to finally be here, but we only get internet until 10 PM and I am just a few minutes outside of that, so I'll leave you with my first photo of Salamanca before I go! This is really all I've seen of the city. I get a tour (and therefore you get more photos) tomorrow!

Hola de Toledo!

 Okay, today began with a long bus ride through the countryside south of Madrid. Mostly it looks like the dry sections of Colorado. That is to say, all of Colorado. When we arrived in Toledo, our tour guide came aboard and we drove up to the top of a scenic overlook, so we could all disembark and take a million photos of the city! After this, we drove back down and walked across el Puente de San Martín (St. Martin's Bridge) into the old city of Toledo. 

 

We then proceeded to visit San Juan de los Reyes, a large gothic-style church which is now owned by the Franciscan monks. It was very  large, very well decorated, and had a beautiful garden inside the church. It's very pretty, and was built by reina Isabel as a biblical thank you after her soldiers captured her brother's daughter in a civil war battle, leaving Isabel the throne. It's just a lovely family story, I must say. In any case, it's definitely a gorgeous church. Also, that picture in the top right corner is one of the gargoyles overlooking the garden, which is a very large frog jumping off a much smaller fish. Less scary then the Notre Dame. And inside the wooden tiles, if you look closely, there's a castle (castille) and a lion (leon) inside the colored parts, to represent the kingdom of Spain, Castille y Leon, where Isabel was queen.

 

After the church, we moved on to the Synagogue of Santa Maria de la Blanca. Yes, Synagogue of Saint Mary. Obviously there was some contention in history about what kind of chapel this should actually be… Oh España. Next we went to the Catedral de San Tomé, where the famous masterpiece of El Greco is located. El Entierro del Conde de Orgaz is very large, and apparently painted in a style two centuries later than it should be. It's pretty amazing though, all of his paintings are. And El Greco painted both himself and his son into the painting, they're the only people in it looking at you, with very creepy eyes. After all of this, we wandered on down to the main plazas of Toledo, one of which had the main cathedral of the city. Unfortunately, it only opens for important people like popes and presidents and whatnot, but we did get to see the carving of The Last Supper over the main doorway.

After this, we trooped back onto the bus and went off to the hotel, the hotel at which they'd been promising us a surprise. The surprise was a lovely outdoor pool which we're really not going to get to use… but it is pretty! I ran down there right after we put our suitcases in the room, so I could read and swim in the sun, which was very relaxing. The sad thing is we leave tomorrow so unless you took advantage of it right when we got in, there's no way to really enjoy it. Still, this is a very nice hotel, with real people sized elevators and non-miniature rooms. 

Then we had to have a long meeting about what to expect in classes and home stays, etc. Nothing truly revolutionary there, so I'll spare you all the details. The biggest news is I have to take a placement test on Monday… which is supposedly very easy, so that helps. Finally, when we were done, myself and a few others decided to take a taxi back to the Plaza to get some dinner (at 9:00. I was SO hungry, this dinner schedule is killing me right now). We found this little place on a corner in old town and decided to eat there. It was definitely the most successful food ordering process I've experienced yet. For some reason, the waiters are the most intimidating part about my trip so far. Our first night, the waitress kept getting all skeptical about the food we were ordering because it was more portions to share, not to eat yourself, but she didn't really help us fix it. The second night, the waitress spoke super fast and we were a disaster at ordering. Today was a lot better, at lunch our waiter just laughed at us for our extreme American-ness (the conversation literally went, Him: "Where are you guys from, the USA?" Us: "Yeah, is it obvious?" Him: *laughs and nods*), but we struggled through it and got done just fine. Tonight things went quite smoothly though, which made me very happy.

Anyway, if I have been supposed to Skype you and haven't yet, or if you're worried because my blog is late, the internet here supposedly exists but Megan & I have yet to find it! Maybe tomorrow. We'll be going to a monastery called El Escorial, then then to Salamanca finally to meet our host mom! Yay!

A Very Long Adventure

So today began with a breakfast buffet... that my roomie and I did not really get to enjoy because we'd misunderstood the times. We were supposed to be downstairs and ready go go by 9:30, not downstairs for breakfast at 9:30. So I chugged my peach juice, stuffed the rest of it in a napkin, and we dashed out to the bus!

Mmmmm breakfast foods

The bus took us to el Museo del Prado, a lovely little art museum. And by little I mean giant, but that's not the point. We took a tour, focusing on El Greco, Velazquez, and Goya. So I got to see a lot of religious pictures, courtesy of El Greco. And Las Meninas, from Velazquez, and a portrait of the family of Carlos IV, including his wife who got pregnant 24 times, courtesy of Goya. Don't worry though, she only had 14 of them. Only.

I couldn't really take pictures in the museum, so I only have one of a street performer who dressed up like Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter from Alice. He pretty much just sat there, pretending to drink tea, but he was very, very made up. It was pretty cool.

Museo Prado, Sidewalks, Reina Sofia, birds, Reina Sofia

After Museo del Prado, we duckling-trotted on over to el Museo de la Reina Sofia (see photos of sidewalk adventures...), then they turned us loose for 15 minutes to find snacks. I found a lemon Fanta (did you know that was a flavor??) and sat on a bench in the plaza by the museum with a few other kids. One of them had gotten potato chips, and was giving the crumbs to the birdies, which began inciting mini bird riots. Good entertainment, they're just so cute.

More art en la Reina Sofia! Modern this time though. Picasso and Dalí. We saw La Guernica, which I definitely could not take a picture of, and a lot of interesting surrealism paintings from Dalí. Not the clocks though, they did not have the clocks.  

The Reina Sofía was the end of the planned activities, so six of us went wandering the streets, and stumbled upon this pizzeria called Diablovetta (I think), which turned out to be really yummy. Also 5/6 girls in the group went to either high school or college in Colorado. And the DU people are really outnumbering the group, because ISA is one of our partner programs. It's kind of silly. There were only 2 of us at the lunch but I think there's roughly 8 of us, plus 2 CU people and one CC girl. Craziness. 

After lunch, myself, my roomie and another girl decided to go wander (sorta). We were on a mission to find some shopping locations, so we started off for Punta del Sol. We'd given our map to a girl who was taking the subway home alone, so we were not exactly equipped for this adventure. It was a lot of fun to explore the city though. We ran into the Plaza Mayor on our way there, so you guys get to see me for the first time in these photos! It's beautiful. The crazy thing about it is that you're bustling around this crowded, tall city, and all of a sudden you find this pocket of open space, and it's so pretty.

Palacio y Catedral

After the Plaza Mayor, we finally found the Punta del Sol, so I bought my token souvenir thimble (I was shocked they actually had them) and we stopped in a McDonald's to use the restroom. McDonald's is nice here. Two floors, nice decorations, etc. Why don't we get nice McDonald's??

Anyway, then we wandered to the Palacio Real (Royal Palace). Which is basically the largest horizontal building I've ever seen ever. What do they do with all that space?? We wandered along that for a while, then turned a corner and ran into another plaza between the Palacio Real and the Catedral de Madrid. Gorgeous, both of them. That's where I took the two photos on the bottom of this collage. The white one is the Palacio, the blue/grey one is the Catedral.

Fotos de la catedral

We decided to go explore the Catedral, since chances were good it wasn't too expensive. At first we saw a sign that said you could go to the top of the cupola, but it turns out that it was closed as of 14:30, and it was now almost 17:00. So we just went into the main cathedral room instead. Here's photos. It was very colorful for a church, I didn't expect such bright colors, especially the ones in the stained-glass windows and the ceiling!

We also toured the crypt of the church, which was slightly creepy but mostly cool. There were even some graves that had been laid within the last year, we didn't realize that people could still be buried there! 

We then decided to take the Metro home, since we were eons away from our hotel. We made it through that process mostly fine (buying tickets was an adventure) but then we got out of the station... and had no idea where our hotel was. So we walked for another 30 minutes, but obviously found it since I'm posting this!

Overall, a very busy but very fun day, I'm having a great time!