Otoño ha llegado! :D - Salamanca and Segovia

Autumn is officially here in Salamanca! I woke up this morning to the perfect stay-at-home-and-never-change-out-of-your-pjs weather (raining and cold!), so that's precisely what I've done all day! It was nice after a pretty busy week to get to just sit on my computer or lay in bed and enjoy.

Aanndd I may or may not have busted out the Christmas playlist on Spotify. I couldn't help it.

Anyway, so like I said, this week has been fairly eventful! In classes I had an exam and we got  new teacher for one of our classes. I like the new prof, but I miss the old one. Oh well, only one more week left of these classes then we take the placement exam again and start new classes (with new professors)! Although Amanda and I are hoping to keep our prof from our second class-Juan! He's so funny and interactive, his class always flies by.

This coming week we have final exams on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then the last day of class is Friday. Why do they test in the middle of the week, you may ask? They do it because many people who are in these classes aren't in a program that takes care of everything for them like I am, so in order to get their grades they have to get them on the last day of class. Because of that, the professors have to have time to grade the exams before the last day of class. So yeah, I won't be going to class on Friday, not only because I don't really have to, but also becaauuuseee...

I'm leaving to go to Portugal that day! Yaaayyy! I'm so excited about this trip. I'm not going to disclose the city we're going to yet because I don't know if there are crazy stalkers out there, so you'll find that out in the next blog post when I get back. :) Anyway, I'm going with three of my friends and we're staying in a hostel, which makes this whole traveling thing reeaaally really affordable. Since there are four of us, we get a room to ourselves! I can't wait to take pictures and show you guys. The city is supposed to be gorgeous because of its location. Can't wait!

So this Friday we went on a cultural tour of Salamanca with API. I'm actually really glad I went because even though I see these things every day I didn't necessarily know their significance. It was a really good tour. We first started in the Plaza Mayor (of course), and then made our way to the Casa de las Conchas (House of Shells). It was a palace build for a guy who was marrying a relative of the king. He was marrying up and wanted everyone to know, so he built this palace and put the shells all over the outside because it somehow symbolized his wife and her family. Now, in order to be able to maintain the building, it's being used as a public library. I want to go back there and take pictures of it sometime later, since I walk by it fairly often.

All of these are of the Catedral de Salamanca!

We went afterwards to the old University of Salamanca building. There are no more classes there, it's more like a museum. Then we went to the Puente Romano, or the Roman Bridge. It's the oldest thing in the city, which was pretty cool. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the outside of the university or the Casa de las Conchas, so I don't have any to show you now, but I plan on going sometime soon!

 Afterwards we went to the Catedral de Salamanca, or the cathedral in Salamanca. There are actually two parts, an old part and a new part. It makes me laugh, because you want to guess how old the "new" part is? It's about to celebrate it's 500th anniversary. Ha. Not exactly my idea of "new." I really loved the visit here because we got to go up and outside in/on the towers of the cathedral. It was such a pretty view, breathtaking, really. Pictures couldn't possibly do it justice. The weather was so great, the sun was shining, there was a slight breeze, and it was just beautiful.

The tour ended there, but Amanda, Aaron and I had to leave a little bit early because we were meeting up with a friend, Datong, who Aaron met at school and who went back home to Germany yesterday, to hang out one last time. We started with a hunt for a place to get tapas, which was a challenge because apparently nobody eats tapas on Fridays at 7? We finally found a place and hung out there for a little bit. I got a tosta with jamon, huevo y queso with a mosto to drink. Mosto is a drink made from the same grapes as wine but it's not alcoholic and it's very sweet. Basically it's like a much better version of Welch's white grape juice, and that stuff is pretty darn good to begin with. After we finished our tapas we went on a journey to find some helado (ice cream)! We ended up in the Plaza with the most delicious ice cream I've had in a while. We sat in the plaza (on the ground), because that's what all the young people do. It was so refreshing to spend an evening hanging out with friends.

Saturday Amanda and I got up earlier than usual in order to catch the bus to Segovia! It was a trip organized by University of Salamanca Cursos Internacionales, so our fee included our tour guide, admissions into the attractions we visited, and the bus ride there. I'm so grateful that we live with a family because our host mom made us bocadillos (sandwiches) along with other things to complete the lunch. It was a good visit, but honestly I find Salamanca to be prettier. Maybe I didn't see the best parts of Segovia, but I was ready to come back "home" by the end of the day.

While in Segovia we saw the Roman aqueduct, which was an amazing sight to see. There's a legend about how it was build that I enjoyed, which goes something like this (however this may not be completely accurate because our tour was in Spanish, so I did the best I could haha): there was a woman who every day had to walk out of the city, down the hill to get water and then carry it back up the hill. The devil saw how tired the woman was and made a deal with her that he would build the aqueduct so she wouldn't have to do this anymore in exchange for her soul, but he had to finish it  in one night before the sun rose. He was about to place the last stone when the sun rose, and so he lost the bet and lost her soul. He was so angry that he grabbed/squeezed the aqueduct, which is what made the arches. Pretty cool story, huh? :)

Left: Aqueduct, middle: Alcázar, right, top down: Catedral, La Granja,
the morning, gardens of La Granja

Then we went to the Catedral de Segovia, which is stunning on the outside, but is almost identical to the new cathedral in Salamanca. It's not as lavish on the inside, though, because Segovia did not have as much money as Salamanca.

We also saw the Convento de Corpus Christi and Alcázar, among other things. I wasn't really impressed with the Convento, but Alcázar was pretty cool. It was a fort built in 1122, complete with a real moat and everything. Some say that Disney got the idea for castle for Cinderella from Alcázar, but I've also heard that it was designed after Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany, which I find to be much more believable.

After our tours we had a little free time, but then we had to get back on the bus to go to La Granja, which was a summer palace starting with King Phillip V. He's actually buried there in the church of the palace. Honestly, I feel that with palaces and cathedrals in Spain, once you've seen one, you've basically seen them all. By the time we were done with the tour I was so ready to leave it wasn't even funny. Overall, I'm glad I got to go see the things I saw, but I wasn't as impressed as I expected to be. Maybe I was just a tired grump, who knows.

Anyway, I know this was a pretty long post, but I wanted to tell you guys about my trips/tours! I can't wait to show you all Portugal next week!

P.S. my package from Matt finally arrived, about a week and a half later than they said it would be! And judging by the shape it was in, I should probably just be grateful it arrived at all! Yay for Kraft Homestyle Mac and Cheese! Thanks Pops, you're the best. :)

Salamanca, y pronto Segovia!

Hi everyone! Sorry it has been so long since an update, but I honestly just haven't had much to talk about! Life has basically been wake up, school, lunch, siesta, and then whatever for the evening, some evenings I have just relaxed at home.

Going caseta-hopping with API 

I am glad the ferias are over, honestly. I mean I enjoyed getting pinchas (tapas) at the casetas sometimes, but  I'm glad to have emptier streets again. There is a point that is a place where 2 fairly busy streets meet to make a cross and there's a fountain on one of the busiest sides, so during ferias  there were casetas all around the fountain, which caused human traffic jams. I saw them removing some of the casetas today, and I'm happy those will be gone!

Another thing I'll be glad when it's gone is this weather! It's actually been HOT for the past week. I know all the Texas people are like "yeah yeah, hot whatever" but trust me, it's hot here too! The "problem" here is that there are NO CLOUDS unless it's raining. Seriously, the sunshine is scorching. According to the forecast (which lied to me last time) it's supposed to be in the upper 60s starting next Monday, so I'm going to keep my fingers crossed for that. The worst part is that I didn't bring any shorts because a) API told us that people here don't wear shorts (LIES, I've seen more butts hanging out here than in the States!) and b) because I was expecting cooler weather. No stores are still selling shorts either because it's not supposed to be this hot out anymore. It's September people, it's time for Fall!

So I'm excited about a couple of things coming up. Tomorrow I have my first intercambio! An intercambio is where you meet up with a person (through a school program) who wants to learn your language, and you want to learn theirs. So for example, my intercambio partner is a girl who I think is 19 (maybe 20, I don't remember) and she speaks Spanish and wants to learn English, so during our meeting up we'll spend half the time speaking Spanish and half the time speaking English! How cool is that? I hope it's a great meeting. :)

Picture from the Roman bridge in Salamanca
with a view of the cathetral.

Another thing I'm excited about is this Friday, when the rest of the students arrive, we're going on a "cultural tour" of Salamanca! I know we've lived here for almost a month now and have probably seen most of the things on the tour, but this is our chance to actually learn about them. When I say "the rest of the students" I mean all of the people who did not do an early start program. I chose the early start, which got me here 2 1/2 weeks earlier than them and I'm taking a full intensive month more than them. I'm glad I did it, for sure. This gives me the opportunity to brush up on my Spanish, and then we retake the placement exam after the month is over. This way I can either place into superior or into advanced again, but at least I know I've learned.

I think the thing I'm most excited about though is this coming weekend. The school of cursos internacionales has excursions on the weekends for affordable prices, so Amanda and I bought our tickets today to go see Segovia y La Granja! Segovia is the city that has the Roman aqueducts, and La Granja was a summer palace of the kings of Spain. I'm pretty excited about it! I wish I could go on other excursions with that program, but the one to Portugal that they have is on the same days as our API trip to Paris. Sad day, because I really enjoy it when one price is all inclusive and I don't have to do anything to plan it. :/

Flowers from Matt all the way in Spain :)

Life is finally about to get pretty busy around here! I'm looking forward to my weekends being filled with activities and traveling. :)

On a final, happy note, yesterday was my 2 year anniversary with Matty! Yay! I know that may not seem like a long time to some of you, but this has been my longest (and most wonderful) relationship! I'm excited to see what our future brings. :)

I think my goal for this blog will be to update once a week, because really, there's usually not much to say if I do it in smaller time increments than that! I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

yay weekends!

This weekend has been such a great weekend! I just recently realized that this is our first normal weekend here in Spain. I got to sleep in for the first time yesterday, and it was ah-may-zing. Of course, I also slept in this morning just because I could. Amanda and I were both surprised about how long we slept in this morning. I think it's just because our bodies are still recovering from the past week and a half of go-go-go-go-go. All I know is I slept like a baby.

So now that the first week of class is over, I can make generalizations that I think will continue to be true. I LOVE classes here. Our professors are so enthusiastic and just wonderful! I have already learned a lot in just the past week. It's amazing what different teaching styles can do for you. I mean, for the past three years in every Spanish class I've ever taken we've learned about the preterit and the imperfect tenses, but this is the first time that I have ever learned it the way I'm learning it now. It was a slightly mind-blowing experience honestly.

Oh, another mind-blowing little lesson for ya here: what do you call an umbrella for the sun? A parasol right? Well in Spanish, para=for and sol=the sun, so it's a parasol for the sun. So what's the Spanish word for umbrella? Paragua! Because it's para el agua! Isn't that crazy?! I will never forget how to say the word umbrella in Spanish ever again (and I bet neither will you!). :D

Anyway, I still don't have any pictures of the city really because the ferias started recently, so the city is a mess with stages and mini-bars out in the streets. I'm going to take pictures of those of course but I don't want your first impression of the city to be that! I just uploaded a few pictures that weren't affected by the festivales on facebook, so you can check them out there.

I've also decided that (I think) I'm going to start a new picture album on fb dedicated to all the different sweet things I have eaten/will eat in Salamanca! Here's a collage of the pictures that will be in there so far!

Anyway, I'm going to go shower so my hair can dry before tapas tonight!

xo besos! :)

Salamanca

Hola chicos, que tal?

I've been in Salamanca since Sunday afternoon. I haven't taken any pictures yet because I'm taking this time to just relax and settle in. It has been a crazy week and I needed (and still kind of need) a break. It was definitely an overwhelming first couple of days here. I mean I knew we would only be able to speak Spanish with the people here (obviously), but I guess it kind of just makes me miss home, where talking is so easy. Here communicating is a challenge, like a homework assignment that doesn't really have instructions or hints, nor does it have an answer key. However even though it is hard, I can already tell that my comprehension levels have increased by quite a bit and my speaking skills are improving. It's not just knowing the words, but knowing how to use them, you know? It has definitely been a learning experience thus far, and I've only been here for a week.

Classes started today! So far I'm really enjoying it. All of my professors are really awesome. It doesn't even feel like I'm going to school. We do have some homework, of course, but not much. The professors are so enthusiastic to be there and want you to learn, which makes the whole experience 10x better. So far, I'm really glad I chose Salamanca and this program. If things continue to be like they were today I have no doubt that I will learn SO MUCH this semester. No puedo esperar! :)

I promise I will take pictures soon! But hey, I'll be here for 4 months, what's the rush? :)