Nos queda poco tiempo...

My time in Salamanca is coming to an end, and I don't want to leave. We have all been quejándonos that we don't want to go, that we want to stay the entire year here, that it's going to be sad, etc, and it's only been barely 2 weeks! And not even in our main attraction, Madrid! We've made great friendships with our professors and tonight we're going out to dinner with some, and then out out. It's bittersweet to have to leave.

We had more examenes today, in grammar and composition. In grammar especially, we have learned TONS of idioms that Spaniards use every day. And the best part is that studying means saying these wherever we go and impressing the Spaniard we're talking to with our knowledge of the language. For instance, Estar como un tren, literally meaning 'to be like a train' means to be extremely pretty or handsome. As an idiom, that might have the parallel of a phrase in English like 'to be drop-dead gorgeous'. Instead of being scared like a chicken, one of the idioms is being scared like a goose. It's funny.

Además, in our culture classes in the afternoons, we have gone to cafes just to tomar un café and chat (with one of our teachers, who is wayy gracioso). While we chat, outside the confines of the classroom, we learn so much more about how to describe our surroundings and the people we see.

Yesterday, a few of us went to the Museo de Art Nouveau y Art Déco - Casa Lis in Salamanca. Anyone that knows me can affirm that I HATE museums, but this one was so different than any I had ever been to. It was full of Art Deco from the 1920's, with flapper costumes, dolls, vases, fans, sculptures. I enjoyed it bastante.

Anoche, we had dinner at El Corrillo, a great restaurant near the Plaza Mayor with our entire group. The dinner, like always, was too delicious to describe, and we all had trouble walking home, especially with those truffles and cream for dessert.

Here comes the horario for the next days. Tonight some of us are going out for tapas with people from the school, and then out for the night because Thursday is a big party night. Tomorrow we have class, but tomorrow is also the start of the Feria y Fiestas de Salamanca, in which the entire city turns into a fiesta. The streets are full of casetas, which are kiosks that will each specialize in a pincho, or tapa, and a drink, for very little money. Along with these tons of casetas, there will be music from regions, time periods, and different countries on each main street, as well as tons of theatre exhibitions and art galleries. Tomorrow night we're going to a concierto of the popular Spanish Pop-Rock band, Amaral. We bought our tickets today, and we're getting very excited. Then Saturday we move out at 1pm. Unfortunately we will be missing most of the Feria, but maybe we can manage coming back next week. Pictures will come when this internet doesn't APESTAR TANTO!!!! :)

Ay!

It has been a few days since I wrote last, but I have good excuses, I promise. Actually, I've been sleep deprived. I want to take advantage of the time I have left in Salamanca, so I am active and go out... but that means that every second of free time I have, I spend durmiendo siesta or simply sleeping. During mealtimes, I have to manage my time efficiently (which means I scarf down some bread or meat and then RUN to my room to fit in some sleep). I've become de mal humor at mealtimes, haha.

One of our excursions in the past week was to meet the stone sculptor who renovates the old churches in Salamanca, Miguel. People call him a visionary... at one of the churches, he had to renovate some very detailed trim, and instead of following the pattern, he put in an Astronaut, a dragon with ice cream in his hand, and other contemporary things. It's only if you go up close that you can see it. He was like the 'mad scientist' of sculptors and he had the most contagious laugh of anyone I've ever met. He wore glasses, and his hands were covered in polvo from the stones he works with (which make up all of the buildings of Salamanca), sedintary rocks. He taught us how to carve stone, and then handed the tools over to us so that we could try. I asked if we could make a smiley face (cara sonriéndose), but unfortunately, 'smiley face' didn't translate correctly, and we started to make an entire face with depth and features. It was a huge task and we barely made a dent. But so much fun. When Miguel would describe cutting and hitting the rocks, he would always say, "y... PLAF!" to describe the sound. It was so great.

On Friday night, a few of us went out to a Salsa Bar called Boogaloo, as I wanted to see if I could keep up with native salsa dancers. I taught some of the students the steps to Salsa, Merengue, and Bachata. At first the club was empty (and I got to practice with someone one on one and actually go over some of the turns), but it began to fill up. Meanwhile, I was dancing up a storm, panting and sweating and having the best time ever (even though there were some sketchy fellows there). One of our professors met us there with a friend (he was the one who recommended the place to us), and it was altogether one of the best nights I've ever had. I absolutely love dancing salsa. Some of the international students were leaving that night, so we had to despedirnos and it was sad.

However, that morning our tren to Lisbon, Portugal was to leave at 4:50 a.m. of the madrugada. So those of us who went dancing didn't sleep a wink because we finished dancing at 2:30 a.m. We made it to the train station, and started our 7 hour trip to Lisboa. In our compartment (the trains have compartments with 8 seats, 4 facing 4), we met these 4 Portuguese guys who were returning from their trans-Europe trip. They spoke great English, even though we could understand their Portuguese pretty well (es parecido a español). We tried to sleep as much as we could, played cards, and chatted with them.

Lisbon itself was absolutely beautiful. We stayed at the Old Town Hostel which we had reserved days before, and it was better than I expected given the price. It had a lounge, kitchen, flat screen tv's, computers with internet, and lots of amenities. The people there were all from around Europe, and we could always find a common language, often Spanish or English.

As for touring, Lisbon is an old city with marble streets and buildings (akin to Salamanca in being made completely of stone). We took the metro from the train station very easily. We walked around, had lunch at cafes, and went on a walking tour. I didn't last (because it was 3 hours long), but Johnny and I had an adventure taking their trolleys back to the Hostel, in the Barrio Alto or old neighborhood. The next day, after my first REAL night of sleep, we walked around, found shops, and just enjoyed the area. We soon had to hop back on the 7 hour train ride back to Salamanca.

This time on the train, we were in a compartment with a portuguese woman who had a job as a factory worker in France (the final destino of the train). Her Portuguese was very difficult to understand because she would interject French words, but we managed to play card games and talk to each other. I think she cheated in those games because she always won, and the rules were never clear. What great people we met!

And after this weekend, we have had classes as normal. The grammar is getting harder and harder for me, and I often get frustrada y confundida. Some of these things I don't even know in English!

I also had my intercambio yesterday, where a Spanish student meets with you simply to meet a native, talk Spanish (and then switch so they can practice their English), and discuss differences in culture, life, and anything under the sun. My student's name was Berta, and she was 26. We got along perfectly and had a great time, going for a drink and then out for pinchos. I imagine that we will try to meet again before I leave for Madrid.

More and more, I'm falling in love with Salamanca. This is the perfect city. It's safe at night, beautiful during the day, you can walk everywhere, and the people are very abierta and nice. Our professors in the school are such great people, so sweet, always joking and laughing, giving us a great medium to practice. I am also happy to say that my Spanish is getting better each day. Sometimes can't find the right words, or I mix up pronouns or gender of words, but since Portugal, where we spoke in spanish and they responded in portuguese, I am more confident. I can express what I feel and can tell an extended historia without the fear that nobody will understand me. This place is maravilloso. I'll upload pictures later.

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.

Clases

Things are heating up, literally. During the day, we walk around the city and if you walk in the sunlight, it's like a sauna. The mornings are freezing, but by mid-day everyone is begging for the shade. The sky is always an electric blue, and things are even brighter reflecting off of the stone buildings. It's days like today that make siesta so appealing. We now have our cell phones, so we don't all have to walk around together and die in the heat.

Last night, we went to the Plaza Mayor (like most nights) to have a drink out in the square, and listen to the traditional Spanish bands. We had our sangria and enjoyed people watching. It's even more beautiful walking at night because all of the cathedrals and old buildings are illuminated, so you can see the littlest detail.

This morning we started clases at the Escuela International. It's not REAL class in that our grades are moot and these aren't real teachers. But it's fun to be forced to study grammar again. There are other international students there, some from France, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Germany. It's so cool that our only common language is Spanish because I'm so used to it being English. We have a little tarea to do tonight, and a mini test each Thursday. It's cute.

And we went to tapas today instead of the cafeteria lunch. It was delicious a very nice experience to have cerveza with lunch and share our dishes. I should have looked at the prices, because I seem to have picked the most expensive tapas steak on the menu... I'm pretty sure that when I said solomillo I meant the cheaper one. But those waiters will always charge you more if they know you're not a native. Spaniards would never fall for that, oh well. It was delicious nonetheless.

Now it's siesta time, and then tonight we're taking a tour of the newer cathedral (12th century is new, huh). Until then!

Situada!

Today has been two days for me. My travels started at 6:00 a.m. on August 23, where I traveled from Newark to Atlanta to Dulles to Madrid to Salamanca, and ended at 2:00 p.m. on August 24. I finally arrived and it's UNREAL. Madrid airport was probably bigger than where I'm from. It took us at least 30 minutes to even walk to the train that would take us to the baggage claim... eventually.

On the way to Salamanca, we passed the mountain that the dictator Franco's grave is on... you can see the gigantic cross even from miles away. Everyone was trying to take pictures from the bus, but we'll go there eventually.

Our group is a great mix of people! We're all talking and finding out about each other, as well as making plans to explore the city. This is great.

I'm working on my acento castililano. Everyone is trying to remember years of vocabulary at once, as well as respond quickly to what is said. It feels like a test and everyone, at first, was sizing each other up. I believe that we came to the conclusion that we're in this together, and it's the first 30 hours of our trip. Let's do this as a group. No judging to see who is proficient, because we will all improve drastically in a matter of days. I seem to understand everything going on, but my response time and vocabulario is rusty. Pretty frustrating at first...

...until we put our stuff down and went to explore Salamanca. Manuel showed us through the town (even though on Sundays, the downtown area is almost deserted because the shops are closed). Salamanca has old architecture, dating back to the 8th Century or 12th Century, like this cathedral? I wouldn't know.

The entire plaza is granite cobblestone, everywhere. Everyone was sitting out in the Plaza Mayor where the huge Ayuntamiento is located (just like in most cities). People everywhere, dogs, pigeons, tourists, families. We had coffee and enjoyed the view. Since then, this was my first time to shower and truly sit and relax in over 30 hours of being awake. In the Residencia, our rooms are doll-house sized. We'll see how that goes!

I'll upload the pictures later :)

Preparándome

I put the 'list' in estar lista because I have been packing for over a week. I know exactly how many pairs of underwear I possess.

In two days, I begin my journey to España. I'm flying from Newark to Atlanta to Dulles, and then our group is flying to Madrid and taking a bus to Salamanca. I don't know what to expect, but I know this semester will be an adventure. I'm keeping an open mind and a passion for cultura nueva. I hope to record here some of my experiences here, as well as photos, anecdotes, and social commentary.

Stay tuned!