Paris tomorrow!

Sorry this post is a little late! I've been trying to fight off sickness for the past week so I didn't have much to share! However, I am happy to report that I (yes, mother, finally) went to the doctor on Monday and she gave me an antibiotic, so I feel substantially better! This past weekend, on Friday I believe it was, I was feeling well so I decided to go out and snap a few pictures of everyday Salamanca. I didn't get to take many because my camera died, but don't fret, I will go out again sometime with a fully charged camera battery. I know you guys want to see the monuments and stuff, but I also think sharing a little bit of everyday life can be interesting sometimes too. :) Not to worry, should you find this post boring, the next post will be full of pictures from Paris! This trip to Paris is one of the trips with API, so it's going to be a really fun trip with all of my friends there. I can't wait! :D

So, I'm going to start with how I start my day! I get up in the mornings, shower if I didn't shower the night before, and then I get dressed and go downstairs for breakfast. For me, my breakfast usually consists of plain flakes cereal with milk, and of course some sugar sprinkled on top. :) Amanda has cereal or she makes halfback pb&j sandwiches and eats a cup of yogurt. We could also make this stuff called ColaCao, which is like hot chocolate. Usually if you make that you eat some breakfast cookies dipped in it, but I usually save that for the night time, like an after dinner snack. The picture here is what my breakfast looked like last week: cereal, two different meds, water, and the little sugar box. What I found reallllyy interesting when I first came here was the fact that they don't refrigerate their milk until after they open it! When I opened the breakfast cabinet and saw that there were boxes of milk (no plastic gallons here, boys and girls!) I was honestly a little afraid! However, I must say, the milk here is really rich and I think a little bit sweeter than in the states! I like it, but it's not something I just drink a glass of like I would back home. I haven't had a glass of milk since I left home. I am SO looking forward to the day I can sit on the couch with a bag of powdered donuts and a tall glass of milk! Haha, it's the little things you miss. :)


These pictures are just things I see basically on a daily basis. There are some days where I just stop and look around and I have to wonder "Is this real?" Sometimes it just looks like it's straight from a post card. I love the history. There are so many stories being told everywhere you look. Some things I don't really understand because I haven't lived through the history here, but they are things I am interested to learn about.




So there's a street that is lined with cafes where people can eat al fresco. I'm really sad I never had lunch there before it got too cold, but we always have lunch prepared for us here at home, so I can't really complain. Speaking of food here at home, Concha, who is the sister of my host mom, is probably one of the best cooks ever. The woman who owns the house doesn't live here, so Concha basically always cooks for us. I LOVE her food. Back home we're all about flavor and spice and salt, but she mixes foods with sweet things instead, like fruit or chocolate. For example, one of my favorite foods I've had here was Concha's empanadas! She makes them with ham and cheese and DATES! Ohh my gosh the mix is heavenly. I could probably eat that every day. So THANK YOU Concha for taking such good care of us! :)

Okay, back to that street! These pictures were taken on that street, however there are many streets like this one. One of the pictures is of a "menu del dia" that I told y'all about earlier (I think in the Toledo post), and another picture is of a "50's Diner" that's supposed to be "American," but according to Aura it's not all that great. Another picture is of the typical "pharmacia" here in Spain! They're everywhere, and you can always find one by the big green flashing "+" sign outside!

The picture in the top left is one of the ham places!
Those are PIG LEGS hanging from the ceiling! YUCK.

Now I must say, one thing that I have hated about Spain has been their love of pork! I can't stand pork! There are these stores EVERYWHERE that sells cured pork. I can't stand walking by one of those stores because the smell is so pungent it makes me sick. I have to hold my breath every time I walk by there! Ughhh! BUT, I had to share because it is such an important part of life, at least here in Castilla y Leon. There's a special kind of pork from Spain called jamon iberico that comes from a pig that has been raised on bellotas (acorns) from a certain kind of tree here. Also, from what I've seen, they graze their pigs like we graze our cows, but there are always clusters of these trees everywhere for the pigs to eat from. Not my thing, but apparently that kind of pork is really good if you enjoy it!

Anyway, that's all the pictures I have for now! Like I said, I intend to do a much more in-depth photography session at some point, so in the future you'll see more posts like these. :)

So I have to admit that this Texas girl only THOUGHT she was ready for fall. It is COLD here. Today, for example, I had to go out and get travel-sized contact solution for the flight tomorrow and of course it had to be raining. It was a chilly 54 degrees farenheit and raining. We don't get weather like that in Texas until the end of November! Haha, when I asked for fall I meant 70 degrees and sunny! These people need to get it straight! It would be so bad... if we had heating in the house! They have some sort of heating system, but they don't turn it on until it gets "cold" (whatever THAT means- I'm not sure I'm ready to find out!). SO currently I'm decked out in my tall volleyball socks, pajama pants, an undershirt and a long sleeve shirt, topped off with my cozy blanket from home. I am COLD people, this is not what I asked for! Haha

Although I have to admit that today was actually a nice day to go out. I mean, it was rainy and cold and miserable, but it's something we don't get to experience very often. Amanda and I were walking towards Calle Toro (where all the shops are) and I said "do you smell that?" and she said "what?" and I said "the pine! do you smell it?!" and then yeah, after taking a second to sniff she did. It smelled like winter! It was such a lovely smell, the smell of pine needles mixed with someone's fireplace burning somewhere... it was almost dreamy. :) It was one of those moments that I will always have a snapshot of in my mind.

Aaanyway, I'm going to get off blogger and go do my homework and pack! I'll talk to y'all later! :)

Sickness is NOT a girl's best friend. :/

Hi everyone,

Unfortunately I don't have any lovely pictures to share this weekend, nor any exciting stories! I was supposed to go with API to La Alberca, which is a little ways outside of Salamanca, on Sunday for a hiking trip. Sadly, I woke up Friday with a somewhat-sore throat and by Friday night I knew I would not wake up a happy camper the next day. I was definitely right. Saturday was a total drag, complete with fever (the worst), stuffy nose, sore throat, and a cough. Of course I didn't leave the house on Saturday at all and there was no way on Earth I was going hiking on Sunday. Oh well, sometimes these things happen. At least it didn't happen NEXT weekend, when I'm going to Paris!

So, today is Monday, which is not that far from Saturday, so I'm still not feeling too hot. I went to school this morning (not the best decision) and finally went to the pharmacy this afternoon. I'm hoping that I start feeling better soon. Just so you all know, if you happen to travel in Spain, the pharmacy is where you go when you have a cold. Yes, you can go to the doctor, but the pharmacists here are like I feel they should be everywhere: you walk into the pharmacy, the pharmacist greets you and asks you what's wrong, you tell them your symptoms, and they give you meds that will help your symptoms. So easy, and no long waits in the doctor's office (sorry to all my future doctor friends, but you can't deny it's the truth), no co-pay or fees for getting some advice. It took me less than 5 minutes to walk in, tell her my symptoms, and walk out with some congestion medication and strawberry cough drops (why don't we have those in the states?!). I'm hoping to feel significantly better by tomorrow.

Anyway, this coming weekend I'm hoping to do a special project type thing that I've labeled "My daily life through pictures!" I'm thinking it will be quite a task, but I want to share with you all the small things that make life in Spain different from that in the States. For example, something I found really strange when I got here was the fact that they store their milk, which comes in little boxes not gallons, in the cabinet until it has been opened. The milk doesn't go bad, of course, but they do something that preserves it differently. I was a little freaked out when I first saw milk in the cabinet, as I'm sure you can imagine! It's things like these that I want to share with you all. I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to do it, but here's a link to my inspiration. If this project doesn't work out like that one, I will definitely be doing something like that when I have kids. I'm pretty excited about the idea. :)

Anyway, going to do homework! Talk to you guys next week, with a hopefully more exciting post! :)

Porto, Portugal!

Hi everyone!

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I know I throughly enjoyed mine. I spent this weekend with Ginny, Aaron, and Danielle in Porto, Portugal! It was a pretty hectic weekend, but I think we managed to cram in everything necessary about a trip to Porto! By the way, the city of Porto is actually Portugal's namesake, in a way. When you cross the river from Porto, the other side was once (or maybe still is) a different city, so to refer to the whole area it used to be named Portus Cale (Porto on one side and Cale on the other), then over time it became Portucale, then evolved into Portugale. By the 11th/12th century it was referred to as Portugal! Cool huh?

So para empezar, our bus was scheduled to leave at 11:40 am on Friday, but, running on Spanish time, showed up an hour late. We got to Porto around 4 PM (it wasn't an express bus, so we made lots of stops). We grabbed a taxi to take us to our hostel. We stayed at Pilot Hostel, which is fairly new. Since there were four of us we got our own room (2 bunk beds) and it only cost us each 28 euro for two nights, and that includes free breakfast. I love that Europe has such affordable travel options. I'm so sad the states don't have anything like that. I would travel a lot more within the US if there were.

Anyway, Friday night we kind of just wandered around a little bit. We got dinner right beside the university in a cafe that is known as a popular place for students to eat. I got a traditional Portuguese dish called francesinha. I can't wait to try to make it when I return to the states, it was SO DELICIOUS. There's a little story about how the dish came to be in the link that our tour guide told us. After dinner we went wandering around town and actually found out there was a fall festival of sorts going on! What luck that we chose to come this weekend, right? So we followed this acting group through the streets, and every so often we would all stop and there would be another scene to the story. It was pretty cool, but since I don't know a single WORD of Portuguese we basically had no idea what was going on. (p.s. that's a lie, I learned how to say thank you and refreshments while I was there, but I don't want to type it because I would butcher the spelling without a doubt.)

The next day (Saturday) we got up and had the free breakfast, which was light just like Spanish breakfast. We had cereal and toast/breads basically. Then at 10:30 there was a free walking tour, so of course we took advantage of that. It was not an official guide but it was instead by a woman who has lived in Porto her whole life, so we got to hear stories and such that she had learned from her life walking around with her dad. It was a really good tour, but we only saw half of the city and it still took something like 3 1/2 hours! Afterwards we grabbed lunch (I just got a hamburger, boring I know) and then crossed the river to go to a wine tasting! If you didn't know, Porto is famous for its port wine. Port is a very very sweet wine, usually for after the dinner as a dessert wine. I really enjoyed the winery visit, I learned quite a bit about ports, and then we got to sample three different types, a white, a 7 year red, and then a 10 year red. I mean this may make me sound uncultured, but I just really really can't drink wine! I couldn't even finish my little samples haha, they were making me sick!


After our winery visit we were exhausted from walking all day so we went back to the hostel and took a nap. We had plans to go on a pub crawl that the hostel offers along with other hostels, but I wasn't feeling so hot so I chose to stay in. A pub crawl is where you pay a certain amount (this one was 10 euro) and then someone takes you around to different bars and clubs and you take a shot at each one or get a beer at each one, all as part of that one price you already paid. My friends went and they had a blast, but like I said I wasn't feeling up to it. I'm kind of glad I didn't go because Portugal doesn't have a law like Spain (or maybe just Salamanca) does where you can't smoke in bars or restaurants. Anyone who knows me knows how much I absolutely despise cigarettes and cigarette smoke, or any smoke for that matter, so I would have been so uncomfortable in those places.  Anyway I'm glad mis amigos had fun.

Sunday we had to check out by 11am but our bus didn't leave until 8:30 at night, so luckily our hostel was nice enough to let us leave our things behind their desk. After breakfast we went and hopped on a bus that took us to the beach! The weather in Porto was much warmer than Salamanca, but still not warm enough for me to bust out the bikini. The wind was really what made it chilly, but the water itself was FREEZING. There would have been no way on earth I would have actually gotten in that water, but I did at least touch it so I could say I have officially touched the Atlantic Ocean! YAY! :D We relaxed on the beach for a little while but then started walking to find lunch. We stopped and ate at a little cafe that was basically on the water, it was so nice. Once again I got a hamburger, but this time it also had an egg on it, which was delicious. Then we got back on the bus and went searching for Cafe Majestic, which is a cafe on the main shopping street in Porto. Apparently J.K. Rowling spent many hours there when writing the first Harry Potter book! Unfortunately since it was Sunday basically everything was closed, including the cafe, but we did get a picture in front of it! Afterwards as we were headed back to the hostel we were on the hunt for a place to get some coffee and a delicious sweet snack, and we eventually found a place that was open! I got a pastry that was covered in chocolate and had an egg based filling (like custard maybe?) and one scoop of strawberry ice cream that I'm pretty sure was the best strawberry ice cream I've ever had. Seriously. When we were fully stuffed we went back to hostel and spent about an hour there and then headed to the bus stop!

Now in case you didn't know, Porto is basically all hills. ALL HILLS. If you're not walking up a hill, you're walking down one, all the time. By the time we found the bus station (after walking to the wrong one!) I was pooped! It was funny, I was talking to Danielle today and we're both sore from hauling our luggage all around Porto trying to find the bus station! At least I got a workout! Our bus left late (of course!) and we had to make multiple stops again, so we got back to Salamanca around 4 am. I was SO grateful, first for my Dramamine on the bus, then for my bed and my time to catch up on my sleep today! That is, of course, after my placement exam this morning at 9! I'm pretty excited because I tested a whole level above my original test I took a month ago! It's exciting to know that I'm actually learning! Hooray! :D

In summary, Porto is a beautiful city. Hopefully you can tell by some of my pictures that it can be pretty majestic there. However, it's so sad because there is a lot of poverty and run down homes. The homes, we found out, are so run down because during the dictatorship there was a law created that said that if a person was renting a home for a certain amount of time the landlord couldn't raise the rent for the rest of the time that person lived there. Even though the dictatorship ended, the law was still in place for a while after that. So for example if the rent was only 20 euro and the person stayed there until they were 90 (which is a common thing) their rent was/is still only 20 euro. There was no way for the landlords to keep up the properties for such small amounts of money, so many of the houses are very very run-down. Also now that the area is a UNESCO heritage site the houses are worth a lot more but nobody can afford to buy the properties because they would basically have to tear it down and start over, and there aren't many people out there with that kind of dinero, especially with the economies the way they are now. It's a sad situation. Anyway, at least in most of the places where the houses are run down, beautiful purple flowers have taken over. It's gorgeous to see such beautiful new life in contrast to the poverty and sad history that you see there.

So yeah, new classes start tomorrow! I'll be taking 2 hours of grammar (required), history of women in Spanish history, Spanish lit, and business Spanish. I'm pretty excited about all of my classes, especially business Spanish! I think that will come in very handy in the future!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week and I'll talk to y'all next weekend! :)

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? :)