Photos

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El Fin de Semana

La Ciudad:

I’ve been exploring the city and it’s so much to take in I can’t even describe it. The Plaza Mayor was the first place we met this morning with Tomás, our guide. La Plaza is a huge square that’s wrapped in carvings and beautiful engravings. One of the coolest parts about la plaza is that each ruler of España has his face engraved on the walls encircling the entire square. Tomás pointed out Franco, el dictador, and there was actually purple paint on the stone that someone had thrown where his face was carved. I have no idea how long it’s been there, but it was really interesting to see.

Siesta here is pretty standard to what you imagine it to be. We eat lunch (which is the size of a multi-course American dinner) and then usually retreat to our rooms to descansar (rest). I’ve finally gotten on the Spanish schedule of sleeping only about 5 hours at night but then getting another 2 hours of sleep during siesta. Yesterday the entire group had dinner out together at a restaurant around the corner from La Plaza Mayor. The food was very good, although a bit American for some reason – I think they’re trying to acclimate us slowly to the Spanish cuisine. But, I tried the Flan just for you, Meg! Then, some of us went to this bar for drinks called The Irish Rover (apparently JMU students are pretty well known there). The nights in Spain don’t end until super late…actually I really don’t even know when the bars close. La discoteca, Gatsby, was still super crowded when we left late last night.

This morning I got café and checked out las cathedrals for Sunday mass. We went to this one that was enormous (called the New Cathedral) and they did a traditional Catholic mass in Spanish. Although I had trouble understanding some of it, it was still really awesome to hear, and when the priest spoke his voice reverberated throughout the entire cathedral, which was pretty incredible.

Tomorrow we start a two-week long class, called Intensivo. It’s only for our group and it’s meant to get us up to speed with our grammar. In four days we’re headed to Barcelona for our first excursion, which is super exciting; I can’t wait to see the architecture and the Mediterranean! Look for photos, they should be up soon : )

Flight & Arrival

¡Hola!

 Primero:  The Flight

So, the flight was pretty standard.  I watched the Social Network (which I was kind of disappointed in) and tried to sleep (which didn’t happen).  But the best thing was that I had a whole row to myself, three empty seats next to me in the center isle and the plane was pretty much empty everywhere else. Then halfway through the flight, a woman came up and asked me a question in Spanish and after much pointing and an awkward English-Spanish combo conversation later I had gotten it across to her that the seats were empty and she could sit. Before I knew it, she was making a little bed for herself, sprawling out over the 2.5 seats and using my coat and shoulder bag as a pillow, which I thought was just awkward but apparently she thought was comfortable. I guess it was my first encounter with personal space being a bit different here than in America…if anything it gave me a reason to laugh as I sat there and watched her toss and turn trying to get comfortable. (She proceeded to ask me a few more questions throughout the flight, which I’m pretty sure only one of which I was able to give a solid answer to––and that question was:  “tienes el tiempo?”

Segundo:  España

Then I sat in the airport for 5 hours, took an almost 3 hour bus ride and finally found myself in Salamanca. My host mom’s name is Escoli and she’s really great. She doesn’t speak any English––and doesn’t really even try if you’re stuck. But she’s really helpful with Spanish and is willing to repeat anything we don’t understand or hear on the first time. I was pretty astounded when she asked us if we were hungry and said she would prepare a little something. A little while later we sat down to an amazing meal:  we had soup, then chicken with these potato things (which were great), bread, salad, and fruit for desert.  Other than that, I’m all unpacked and ready to go for tomorrow––we have a walking tour of the city! I’m still trying to communicate with Escoli as best I can but I seem to forget words that I know I learned in Spanish I (like bedroom) and I even forgot my towel on the way to the shower, but she reminded me; I think I’m really going to like her. ¡Adios!