The Things I´ve Gotten Used To...

Well, I was planning on posting another one of these before the week was over, but because so many of you have been bugging me about it for the last few days, this post has moved up priority-wise. And if I’m tired in class tomorrow, I’m going to blame it on those of you (ahem, Aunt Pam) who pressured me into staying up to make sure I got this done.

It’s still a little hard for me to believe that I’ve already been here for almost two weeks! As is always the case for me, time has flown. I’ve become used to many of the cultural differences here, as well as the city of Salamanca itself – so much so that I can get around most of it without need of a map…and I’ve figured out how to find my way back when/if I get lost without the helpful guidance of square blocks. Most of the daily life here revolves around the weather, as the people complain about the cold every single day (whenever it gets below 0 Celcius, or 32 Fahrenheit) and mealtimes, which occur every day around 8:30, 2:30, and 10:00, with tapas (snacks) in between if necessary. My schedule is slightly different, as I have a 20 minute walk to my classes that begin at 9:00 (or whenever everyone finally shows up…sometimes around 9:20). Therefore, I usually eat about half an hour ahead of the rest of the country, and I’ve become even more addicted to my cup of coffee every day – if not two cups. Five days a week I have class with four other girls (two from China and two from Brazil) for four hours with a half hour break between our two different classes. After these classes, I come back to the “casita” (little house) that I live in with Rosa, my host mom. By this time of the day, she has already made my bed, done my breakfast dishes, and is making my lunch (and did I mention that every Thursday she also does my laundry?). We eat and chat together, and when I try to help her clear the table, she firmly says no and tells me to go rest – because I got up so early and have been studying so much grammar that I surely need a nap. So I take one – but only because she insists. Then I usually have free time to walk around and explore, go shopping, or find someplace with wifi and use my computer (which I can’t really do at the apartment because there is no wifi).

Over the last week, I have spent a lot of time finding so many interesting things (old and new), which is so easy to do in any historical town in Europe. For example, every other day or so I walk by the cathedral, which is a beautiful old enormous European-style church, but never understood why I saw so many people clustered around the door on the southwestern side. Upon further inspection, I found this on the side of this church from the 1600s – an astronaut?  Yes, an astronaut. Apparently, when this tiny little section of the exterior was being cleaned at the end of the 1900s, someone decided that there ought to be a piece of the 20^th century on the exterior of the cathedral – and there it is! I also have to walk through the Plaza Mayor everyday (poor me) to get basically anywhere, and it is probably one of my favorite places in the entire city, along with the cathedral and La Casa de Lis, which is pretty much the only building in the city that isn’t built of or at least covered with ¨piedra,¨ or sandstone.   

Someone rich enough to do what they wanted with their house once lived here and had the entire façade of the building made with a breathtaking pattern of stained glass, but now it is a small art museum of all sorts of interesting things – toys, dolls, paintings, jewelry, ceramics, pottery, and glass. I spent about two hours admiring everything in here, but especially enjoying the scenic view of the Río Tormes through the glass. After this free time, I go back to don Quijote  for another hour of class, 

and after eating I either go out to the discotecas or bars (Salamanca is a university city, after all) or use the time to catch up on homework. Apparently I’m a pretty mild student, as I only go out 3-4 times a week (every Monday and Saturday, and Thursday and/or Friday) to various places around the city – my favorites are the Irish Rover, La Chuputería, and Camelot, if any of you are familiar with the ways of the Salamantinos. The problem with going out every night is that Spaniards don’t actually frequent these places until after midnight, as they don’t usually eat until 10:00. Therefore, by the time I get home and to bed, it’s basically time to get up for classes again. Good thing I have my afternoon naps!

Did I mention shopping yet? At this time of year, every shop in the city (and the country) is having a huge sale “las rebajas” on everything that isn’t part of their new collection. When I mean huge sale, I’m talking entire streets of stores with most of their products priced 70% off. (In case you’re wondering, yes, I am my mother’s daughter and almost started drooling when I saw this for the first time.) Needless to say, I now have two new comfy shirts, a great pair of sunglasses, and an entire outfit (dress, earrings, bracelets, and necklace) for a grand total of 22€ (about $28.60). For you 4-Hers, it’s really too bad that I can’t compete in Frugal Fashion this year. I’m also really glad that I have a wedding to attend this fall so that I could have a good excuse to buy that 5€ dress that I didn’t actually need.

This time of the year is when the least number of international students come to study at the language institute, so I’m studying with a pretty small group of students. Therefore, the weekend excursions that the school puts together usually don’t have enough students to actually make it worthwhile to rent the bus, but we were fortunate enough to be able to go to Toledo this past weekend. Although I absolutely hate walking around with a huge group of tourists, I did learn a lot of really interesting things about this city. The most interesting (or so I thought) was the obvious presence of so many different religious groups that have historically not cohabited well. In Toledo, there are large influences and mixes from Judaism, Islam, and Catholicism – from synagogues to mosques to churches to churches that used to be mosques and churches that used to be mosques (I think you get my point).

  There are also great displays of swords and ceramics all across the city – two of the other things that Toledo is known for. 

After a long day of walking around and exploring the city (as well as getting lost once or twice) it was almost refreshing to see the bridge of San Martín, where we were to meet the bus that was going to take us back to Salamanca. 

This week, I’ve mostly been busy with homework since we started learning a whole new way to use the conditional and subjunctive tenses – and for those of you who have studied Spanish, I hope you can understand why I’ve been studying so much. I still haven’t quite figured out how I tested into an advanced level (B2), but for the first time, I feel challenged by this material – which I like. A lot. In spite of all of my studying, I of course made time in my schedule for my Monday night trip to the Irish Rover with some of the other girls who are studying at my school – they are from Holland, England, Germany, France, and Turkey – and I’m planning on going out with some Brazilians tomorrow night. The great lengths that globalism has brought us may never cease to amaze me! If we get enough people to sign up, this weekend’s excursion is to Madrid…but I’ve also heard that a certain visitor from Portugal may be coming to Salamanca sometime in the next few weeks, and of course I’m looking forward to that! I hope this is enough to keep you happy at least for a little while… ¡Hasta luego!