Fantastic Views

Today in conversation class, the randomly chosen topic on the handout she gave us was about… the environment and being green! So it was basically like being home, talking about saving the planet and whatnot.

We took a real siesta today, and it was fantastic. Hour long naps are way better than half hour laying-there-almost-asleep times.

Then we took an actual tour of the cathedrals, where we got to see the old cathedral, and then go up the towers! So I've now been on the roof of the old cathedral, on the second level of the new cathedral, and on the roof of the new ones. Here's some photos to demonstrate, because this was just super cool.

The Old Cathedral

Turns out, Franco's headquarters were in Salamanca, and this is the house where he used to live. The super nice Audis & Opels you see are there because there was a big meeting of all the ministers of education from all across Europe at the university today. Oh and the princes came to the University as well. So there have been policia everywhere for the last three days, just standing around and making sure no one's doing anything crazy.

Looking muy española today

This is what happens when they take us on roofs...

See that stripe in the middle of the photo? That's the balcony that goes around the entire church that we were standing on. Now see those white dots at the bottom? Those are people. Yeah it's that high up.

Earthquake problems. But it's been like that for several hundred years so, y'know, no worries, right?

Salamanca! Those big towers on the left are the Universidad Pontifica, which is a private college of the Vatican, if I recall correctly. The Plaza Mayor is on the left half of the photo somewhere, and my apartment (aka mi piso) is wayyyyy out there. But it is in that direction.

Adriana y yo

Salamanca's really unique because they have two cathedrals, which doesn't happen in like 95% of the cathedral-owning world. It's because they had the "Old Cathedral" which housed the original university. But then, because Salamanca is such a fantastic city, people started coming from far and wide to live in Salamanca. And with that, mass became a lot more crowded, as well as all the other functions the cathedral had. So they started building the new one, which was supposed to replace the old one. The thing is, and I'm not sure if you've noticed, but these things are large. And back in the day, they took a long time to build. So, three centuries later when the new one was finished, they were no longer like, "Hey, this old cathedral is small and slightly useless, let's replace it." They were more like, "Hey, this is a pretty sweet piece of history we've got, let's not tear it down." I'm sure it happened exactly like that.

Anyway, so we did the tour, then went to ISA and took this "pretest" that we'll take again at the end of the year to see how much better our level of Spanish gets. It was basically the same thing as the other test we took. Woo.

Then we came home and María's mom was here visiting, so we met her and talked for a short while, until they started arguing about the telephone service María's mom uses (everyone picture trying to explain technology to your parents…) so we snuck off to our room until dinner, which was a very delicious sandwich. Ham, tomato, lettuce, mayo, and delicious bread.

Tonight, Salamanca's big festivals to honor their patron figure Virgen de la Vega begin, so it was super busy when we came home for dinner. We'll probably go out and sample the festival a little later. Hasta luego!

Five Minutes

Things I Did Today:

• Went to class, required coffee to actually wake up. Mmmm café con leche. More milk than coffee, still worked!
• Ate a very large lunch of a very good carrot & potato soup
• Took my first siesta. It's the beeest.
• Had a meeting about registering for classes with ISA. Seems pretty straightforward, they'll pretty much hold my hand through the whole thing.
• Found out there's an OLYMPIC SIZE POOL a few blocks from my house! Going to explore the possibility tomorrow, didn't have time today.
• Had a very very long conversation with María about basically her entire life. She loves talking to us, probably because we only catch 75% when she gets on a roll and talks super fast, so we just smile and nod!
• Wrote a blog post in 5 minutes. G'night de España! Buenos Noches!

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!