Me estoy aprovechando

We visited the two main cathedrals of Salamanca, the old and new ones. You really can't find anything like that in the United States. The architecture is almost taken for granted by all the people in the city. I am known for how little I enjoy taking tours of places of interest, but now I am enjoying every second of the time we spend going through the old city. I think I characterized Salamanca as a ski-resort town, but 10 times bigger, in that it's quaint buildings and cute shops. Who knows.

At a cafe chain, I tried this drink called leche merengada. It looked like a milkshake on the menu, but I knew it was some milk drink. Turned out it was a milk-sugar-merengue-cinamon drink and it was absolutely delicious. There is no American equivalent. I also enjoy every second of the time I spend sleeping during my siestas, because I've come to rely on them more and more.

I understand now why the Spaniards are considered the craziest partiers of Europe. The sleep schedule is unbelievable, and now that we have gone out at night, I understand even less how these people function at school, work, and staying awake. In the US, college students rush out at 10:00 - 11:00 pm, drink a ton, and stumble home at 1:00 am completely trashed. Here, people take their time. Since dinner is at 10:00 p.m., la gente chills at a table outside after dinner, and has a beer or a glass of wine slowly through the evening. They don't even think about going to the bar until about midnight. But even so, once they get there, it isn't just a frenzied mess of activity to get drunk. Spaniards are mostly there to socialize and talk to each other, maybe have a drink or two, and dance. It seems like they almost look down on people for being drunk.

We went to a few chupiterias and a discoteca and had a great time. Most of the employees can spot us americanos from a mile away, and end up speaking English to us anyway. We had a great time, and dropped out around 2am. It was so hard getting up at 8:00am for class, and we didn't even stay out half of the amount that Spaniards do. The siesta is keeping us all alive at this point, or at least alive enough so we can still salir come nightfall.

It's time to start thinking about what classes we're going to take at the University once we get to Madrid. We will be having academic advising meetings to choose the clases, but once we get to Madrid, the teachers will basically sell their class "shpiel" to us. They sit us down and explain why their class is worth taking.

This afternoon we will be taking a culture course at the school, and we'll have tuition-sponsored tapas for dinner. Thursday nights are big nights to go out, so I think our entire group will go clubbing together. It should be a really great time. Maybe we'll run into the other international students (like German, Slovakian, French) at the clubs like we did the other night.