El fin de Salamanca

I am officially done with the semester! I took my last final exam yesterday, which means not only am I mercifully done with the Spanish school system, I’m done with my junior year of college! I’m also sadly almost done with my semester in Salamanca—I can’t believe how fast it went by.

So, my last month in Salamanca: My last day of class was Thursday May 7, so I had exactly 3 weeks between my last exam and my last final. I’m used to studying for and taking all of my exams within a period of 10 or so days, so this seemed like a really long time to me. I needed the time because I had a lot of work to do, but I didn’t really start working hard until about the second week and spent about 10 solid days in the library, so I ended up putting in the same amount of hours as I do at Georgetown. However, the stress level was waayyyy lower than it is at home, I think mostly because I just have to pass these classes, so there’s really no incentive to go above and beyond to get a good grade. My exams went pretty well, although they were kind of frustrating. I automatically passed my Indigenous American History class because I came to class regularly, so I didn’t have to take that exam (yay!), my Spanish Poetry exam was a commentary on a poem, and my Modern Spanish History exam was a 6 page paper about the documents we read in class and then a short oral exam. I felt pretty good about both parts of that exam, especially because the professor simplified the oral questions for all the foreign students. It’s really nice that so many of my professors are understanding about having foreigners in their class! For my Inquisition History class I had to write a ridiculous 20-page summary of all the documents of the class, which is probably the biggest busywork assignment I’ve gotten in college, but I think I did a good job on it.

And then there was Hispanic American literature. I took this exam yesterday, and it was pretty awful. We covered A LOT of material in that class, and most of it was history of literary movements rather than actually analyzing texts. Because of this, we all figured that our exam, which was a commentary on two of the texts from class, would be on the major works of the class that could be discussed in detail. The professor told some students during office hours that the test would be on the important works, and, for the test that was given a couple of weeks ago for student who had a time conflict, the commentaries were on two of the biggest works of the class. Well, for our exam, we got two really obscure texts that, out of the people I talked to, no one felt they were able to analyze well. I misidentified one of them, but I got the other one right, so I’m hoping that will give me points enough to pass, but the whole thing was very frustrating, especially because I went into the test feeling like I knew the material well, and then I didn’t have an opportunity to demonstrate what I knew. If I had been given the name and the author, I would have been able to give a much better analysis. That’s a big difference between the European and American university system: here there’s a much bigger emphasis on memorization (as in, memorize everything we read so you can identify it on an exam) whereas at home there’s more of an emphasis on analysis (professor gives me an identified text and I talk about how it’s important in the greater literary movement). I like the American way much much better, and I really hope the fact that I couldn’t identify a random stupid avant-garde poem doesn’t keep me from passing the class, especially when I knew everything else so well!

Ok, enough rant. So, for the past few weeks, I’ve just been studying and hanging around Salamanca. On Saturday May 16 we had our final group dinner with the Georgetown program, and we went out to a nice Greek restaurant in Salamanca. My program director Celia told me during dinner that my host mom had told her how much she liked me, which I was of course happy to hear! I love my host mom, and she’s made my experience here so much more comfortable and enjoyable. Nothing else terribly eventful has happened: I went to a friend’s birthday party, went out for tapas a couple of times, met with my intercambio/language buddy, various new roommates came and went, and I’ve started the process of saying goodbye. I also finally saw a bit of Salamanca’s traditional tuna music. Back in the Middle Ages, the tuna musicians were poor students who would play music around town to make money, and today there are still students who dress up in the medieval ensemble and sing in the Plaza, although I think nowadays they mostly play for bigger gigs like weddings. I was on my way home from school one night, and I got to see them! It was pretty amusing, because I had definitely seen a couple of the guys hanging around school before, and it was funny to see them in their troubadour outfits singing medieval songs.

Wednesday night the Barcelona soccer team defeated Manchester United for the world cup! I’m sure many of you have already seen that on the news, it was a huge deal, especially here. Since it was such a big game and soccer is such a big deal in Spain, I decided to take a study break to watch the game. I went over to Kristen’s apartment the night of the game for dinner/study session/game watch, and it was really nice to just hang out in the living room and watch tv like I would at home. Of course, everyone was deliriously excited that Barca won, especially in Barcelona; from what I saw on the news, it looked like there was absolute mayhem. We were in Barcelona the night the team won a regular game, and that was crazy enough; I can’t imagine what it must have been like for this!

So that’s basically my last month in Salamanca. I packed up my room yesterday, and this morning my host mom taught me her wisdom on how to make a Spanish tortilla—my favorite Spanish dish that I’m sure I’ll be making a lot once I get home. I’m going to spend the next couple of days sightseeing and enjoying Salamanca a bit before I leave for Paris on Sunday! I’ll be traveling for the next 3 weeks, so the next time you hear from me I’ll be back in the States!

Also, I want to wish my sister Meg a HAPPY GRADUATION!!!! She graduates from high school today, and I wish I could be there to see her!! I’m proud of you Meggie!

Georgetown does Barcelona

Barcelona Harbor

ENORMOUS pans of paella....yum!!!

The Sagrada Familia

Georgetown girls in Parc Guell--me, Joelle, Kristen, Lauren, Alli

deliciousness at Boqueria Market

football mayhem after Barcelona's victory over Madrid

This weekend I went to Barcelona, my last trip of the semester before I leave Spain and travel a bit during the summer and then head home to the States. As of yesterday, I have exactly 4 weeks left before I leave Salamanca for Paris, and while I’m obviously incredibly excited to go to Paris, I’m going to be really sad to see this semester come to an end. The next few weeks are most likely going to be kind of miserable because I’ll be in finals crunch-time mode, but I want to make sure that I take the time to say goodbye to Salamanca and appreciate my last few weeks here. Now that I’m down to the final month, the end seems so much closer, and I want to drag it out as long as possible!

Kristen and I skipped our two classes on Thursday so we could leave early in the morning to catch our flight to Barcelona. Mary Kathryn and one of her friends joined us on the trip to the Madrid airport; they were both going to Paris this weekend. Our friend Lauren, who we haven’t seen since we visited her in Madrid in mid-March, joined us at the airport and came with us to Barcelona. We got into Barcelona in the evening and had a nice time catching up over tapas and sangria and then over Ben and Jerry’s ice cream at the hostel. A little bit about Barcelona: it’s the capital of the region of Cataluña, an autonomous state of Spain. Catalans see themselves as Catalans first and Spaniards second, and there’s a moderately strong independence movement in the region. The official languages are Spanish and Catalan, which is surprisingly similar to French. Even though I could get by perfectly well with Spanish, it was still a little jarring to see Catalan on all the street signs, newspapers, and everything in Barcelona. So while Cataluña is officially a part of Spain, the area definitely feels somewhat separate from the rest of Spain.

Friday we spent the morning exploring the Old City area of Barcelona and wandering around the harbor. We didn’t really do any sightseeing but just roamed through the city and enjoyed the weather. After lunch, we met up with our friends Allison and Joelle from Georgetown. They are both studying at Sciences Po in Paris this semester, and their university organized a trip to Barcelona, so it was nice that all of the Georgetown girls were able to meet up for the weekend. Allison was my roommate over the summer and during the fall semester, and I hadn’t seen her since the end of last semester, so it was really nice to see her! After getting some delicious gelato, we walked through the city a bit more and planned on heading up to Montjuïc, a huge park on a mountain on the edge of the city. We wanted to ride the funicular, which had ski lift-like chairs that took you across the harbor to the top of the mountain, but we missed the last ride, so we headed back to the hostel to relax and get ready for dinner. Joelle had left to meet up with some other friends at this point, and Lauren, Kristen, and I made sure that Allie was able to try all the classic Spanish fare for dinner, which consisted of paella, tapas, and sangria—and more gelato for dessert. We finished dinner probably around 11:30 (I’m still not used to these late meals) and, being exhausted, went to bed so we could get up early on Saturday and sightsee.

Saturday we saw Barcelona’s most famous sight, the Temple de la Sagrada Família by modernist architect Antonio Gaudí. It was a really beautiful building and unlike anything I’ve ever seen before; in my trusty guidebook, Rick Steves aptly describes it as “cake in the rain” architecture. The church is a work in progress and isn't expected to be completed for another 25 years, so we decided we're all going to reunite in Barcelona when we're 50 and see the finished Sagrada Família. There’s a lot of Gaudí architecture in Barcelona, and after the Sagrada Família we saw Parc Güell, a beautiful park he designed that was apparently featured in America’s Next Top Model. We had lunch in the Old City and went to the Mercat de la Boqueria, a huge covered market with beautiful tables of fresh fruit, chocolate, and other treats. Then we toured the Picasso Museum, which was really interesting; I had no idea that Picasso was so talented when he was a child. We were going to try to get up to Montjuïc again to see the “Magic Fountains,” a cool-sounding show with lights and fountains, but we hit trouble on the way: Lauren lost her wallet. We don’t know if she dropped it in the metro or got pick pocketed (Barcelona is one of the worst cities in Europe for pickpockets), but we had to take a detour to the police station in order to file a report. Fortunately none of her most valuable items in her purse were stolen, just the money and ID cards in her wallet, but it was really sad to have to deal with that when we were having such a good time. Once that mishap was straightened out, the five of us were able to have a nice dinner together, and we got to introduce Allie to the magic of churros and chocolate for dessert. I wasn’t really into churros when I first got to Spain, but they’ve definitely grown on me, mostly because they are so quintessentially Spanish. But I’ve decided that they’re pretty tasty too. Saturday night was a HUGE soccer match between Real Madrid and Barcelona—there’s always been tension between the two cities, formerly for political reasons, and now mostly for fútbol—and all the bars were packed with people watching the game. Well, Barcelona squashed Madrid 6-2, and when we came out of the restaurant at about 11:30, about an hour and a half after the game ended, the streets were still completely packed with people screaming, cheering, climbing on telephone booths, dancing around bonfires….it was insane. The only other times I’ve experienced anything like was when Georgetown got into the Final Four during the NCAA basketball tournament my freshman year and all the students stormed the streets, and when Obama was elected president and everyone in DC stormed the streets. It was absolute mayhem, and so much fun; even though I didn’t watch the game, I felt like I was participating in a really big part of Spanish culture as I cheered in the streets with everyone else.

We said goodbye to Allie and Joelle Saturday night, and Lauren, Kristen, and I headed back to Madrid early Sunday morning. The next four weeks are going to be hard, but hopefully not too terribly stressful, and before I know it I’ll be off on another adventure, and soon enough, home!

Adventures in the North: Asturias

This past week was full of various fiestas, meaning I only ended up having 2 ½ days of school, which was awesome. Monday was a half day because of lunes de agua, and there was no class on Thursday because it was Día de Castilla y León (Castilla y León is the region of Spain where Salamanca is), and I spent most of the day outside in the sun trying (and mostly failing) to study. And Tuesday was free scoop day at Ben and Jerry’s—even in Spain!—which I was sure to take advantage of…more than once. Also, all the various schools in the university have their own fiestas during the school year, and the history school had theirs on Wednesday. It was really amusing because all the history students were dressed up as funny historical characters all day, like Roman soldiers and flappers. Spaniards are really into dressing up whenever they get the chance! I liked that they got so into celebrating, because for the most part it seems like Europeans aren’t all that into school spirit or school-wide activities and festivities the way American universities are. So it was nice to see all the students getting together to celebrate their school.

Friday was the last day of classes at Georgetown, and also Georgetown Day, our annual celebration/carnival/general day of craziness and fun celebrating the end of classes. It was so weird to not be there for Georgetown Day with all my friends. It’s even weirder that they’re all in the middle of studying for exams while I still have a week of class and then three weeks of studying and exams after that. I won’t get home until more than a month after all my friends at Georgetown! However, I had my own fun on Friday, which was the day the Georgetown group left for Asturias, the central-northern region of Spain. It’s always nice going on Georgetown-organized trips because 1) I don’t have to pay anything (it comes out of my tuition) and 2) I don’t have to plan anything! We left early Friday morning and drove to Oviedo, the capital of the province of Asturias. We toured the city, had lunch in the park, and saw some cool Roman buildings and the city’s cathedral. I’ll be honest, I barely listened to our tour guide Antonio because I was really tired and cold (we all were), so I didn’t really learn that much about what I was seeing, but I enjoyed seeing it regardless. That night we drove to the small town of Cangas de Onís, checked into our hotel, and had a nice dinner before crashing in bed.

Saturday was a very outdoorsy day: we visited the National Park Picos de Europa and hiked through the beautiful mountains all morning. The scenery was pretty spectacular, full of lakes and waterfalls and caves and green fields. We even got a sprinkling of snow! On the way up the mountain into the park our bus got stuck behind a herd of cows, which was kind of amusing—cows are a really big deal in Asturias. We had lunch in town, where I sampled some of the local cider and had some cider-cooked sausage for lunch. Cider (“sidra”) is a really big deal in Asturias. Traditionally, the bar tender holds the bottle above his head and pours the cider into the glass below, which produces bubbles as the cider falls. We didn’t get to see that but just had a fancy little contraption that poured it for us instead. After lunch we toured the countryside a little more and went to a cheese museum and learned all about Asturian cheese, which is called Cabrales and is soft and very strong. It was pretty interesting to learn about how they make the cheese, which they store in the caves in the mountains as it changes from milk curd to cheese. We ended the day with a quick tour of the town of Cangas de Onís. Sunday we drove to the city of Gijón, which was really beautiful. It’s right on the ocean’s edge, and the juxtaposition of the blue ocean, the green fields, and the grey mountains was really stunning. We had lunch at a beachfront restaurant, where I had fresh-caught fish for lunch and tried some of the best paella I’ve ever tasted, before heading back to Salamanca. It was a nice little trip and nice to get away before the studying gets too serious. I have one more trip this upcoming weekend, to Barcelona, then I actually have to buckle down and study for the rest of May!

Un día precioso—a lovely day

Yesterday was one of those days that was full of a bunch of little things that put a smile on my face, making it overall a very nice day. My new roommate is a 23-year-old German girl, and she’s the first roommate older than middle school or high school age that I’ve had since my first batch of roommates in January. We chatted during breakfast yesterday, and it was so nice to not only have a roommate that actually talks to me, but that has about the same level of Spanish as I do, so we had a really nice conversation! Plus, she told me I don’t speak Spanish with an accent, which is good—I may not have the Spanish accent down, but at least my American accent doesn’t come through!

My afternoon classes were cancelled yesterday because it was lunes de agua, a holiday that only takes place in Salamanca. Allegedly, it’s to commemorate the day that, historically, the local prostitutes were allowed back over the river into the city after being kicked out during Lent and Holy Week (or something to that effect). I don’t know how true that is, but nowadays Salmantinos celebrate lunes de agua by canceling classes and closing up shop for the afternoon (this is Spain, after all, the land of the 2-hour lunch break and of nothing open on Sundays) and having picnics and music down by the river or out in the country. It’s been cold and rainy here since we got back from spring break, but the sun returned just in time, and Kristen and I had a lovely picnic by the river, with an ice cream in the Plaza afterwards.

Also yesterday afternoon, I met with my intercambio José for the first time. An intercambio is basically a language partner; a native English speaker and a native Spanish speaker pair up, and you practice speaking each other’s languages. We had a nice chat, and I was really proud of how well I held up when we were speaking in Spanish. I think that the magic of the Blarney Stone may actually have worn off on me, because I’ve been feeling much more confident about my Spanish lately. Even after 3 full months in Spain, I still get such a happy feeling listening to myself having a decent conversation in Spanish!

When I got home for dinner, my host mom served me some lunes de agua wine, and we watched a bit of Sex and the City (or Sexo en Nueva York in España) on the Cosmopolitan channel (aka the American TV channel), which was a nice little taste of home. All in all, a very lovely day!

Spring break abroad, in London and Ireland!

MK, me, Jen, and Kristen at Abbey Road Crossing

Jennifer, Kristen, Mary Kathryn and me at a retro diner in Soho

fun at Big Ben


Standing on the Prime Meridian, in the eastern and western hemisphere!

Beautiful County Kerry, Ireland

Biking through Killarney National Park

Enjoying my pint of Guinness at the Guinness Storehouse, with Dublin in the background

Easter Sunday in St. Stephen's Green, Dublin

**For those of you reading both mine and Kristen’s blog, sorry if this is redundant, but we were together for all of break, so we did all the same things!**

I spent my weeklong Easter vacation in London and Ireland, and I had a fantastic time! Given the length of this trip, the following post is going to be pretty long (even longer than usual) so I apologize in advance, and I thank those of you who actually read the whole thing! : ) Other than Switzerland, this was the only international trip I’ve made since being abroad, and my only trip that’s been longer than an extended weekend. Mary Kathryn, Kristen, and I departed from Salamanca on the morning of Friday April 3. While we were in London, we stayed with my cousin Beth and her husband Josh. After the bus to Madrid, the metro to the airport, the plane to London, a train to the Tube, and a little bit of walking, we finally made it to Beth’s flat around 9pm, about 12 or so hours after we had started our journey! My friend Jennifer, who is studying in Paris and joined us in London for the weekend, was already there, and after settling in, all six of us ate dinner together. Saturday was packed with sightseeing, starting with Notting Hill in the morning. We had breakfast at an adorable tea room then browsed through the Portobello Road market. This market was much closer to what I imagined a European market to be; there were lots of antiques, vintage posters, and cool jewelry. We stopped at a book store and stocked up on English books, and after lunch in a pub (fish and chips!) we saw Kensington Palace and wandered through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. We got some ice cream at Harrods department store and roamed through the store, but by that point we were exhausted and headed home. After a relaxed dinner at a pizza place in Beth’s neighborhood, we crashed.

Sunday morning we went to Abbey Road crossing, where the Beatles took their famous photo. We hogged the intersection for a while from all the other tourists and tried to—rather unsuccessfully—reenact the photo, while also trying to dodge the cars that patiently (in most cases) waited while we played the part of annoying tourists. We then went to the British Museum, via Regent’s Park, with a lunch stop on the way. I went to the British Museum when I was in London last year, and both last year and this year I enjoyed seeing items from my art history classes as well as famous artifacts like the Rosetta Stone and Cleopatra’s mummy. By the time we were done with the museum we were again exhausted (walking all day does that to you) so we stopped at a cutesy ’50s diner in Soho for some sweet treats to rejuvenate us. We had planned on doing the Harry Potter London Walk after that, but when we reached the tour meeting spot and saw that there were about 50 people on the tour, we decided to do our own impromptu tour (which involved decidedly more walking than the other tour must have!). We saw the building that was the basis for Gringotts Bank and Leadenhall Market, which was the inspiration for Diagon Alley. We wanted to go to Platform 9 ¾ at Kings Cross Station, but we were too tired by that point. We said goodbye to Jennifer that night since she was getting up early Monday morning to go back to Paris and classes. It was so much fun seeing her and traveling with her!

Monday morning (my dad’s birthday!) we saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace (which mostly involves watching the soldiers march by then trying to see over the heads of the people in front of you for the actual changing). We wandered around downtown London for a while until it was time to meet up with my friend Angela, who is studying at the University of Kent, about an hour or two away from London. It’s so nice having so many of my friends abroad at once! After lunch, we saw Parliament and Big Ben, but unfortunately missed the tour of Westminster Abbey that we had wanted to do. We did, however, see a huge demonstration of people protesting violence in Sri Lanka. It lasted all night and into the morning, completely shutting down traffic around Parliament. It seemed pretty harmless, although apparently some people were threatening to throw themselves into the river, and two guys actually did. In the afternoon we toured the Globe Theatre, one of my favorite sights in London (even though it was built in the 1990s; the previous Globe was destroyed in the 1600s, so London was without the Globe for 350 years!) Then we went to Covent Garden Market, where we found the much anticipated Ben’s Cookies shop. Alexandra came to London during Georgetown’s spring break, and she had posted pictures online of “Ben’s Cookies,” these delicious-looking American-style cookies that Kristen and I decided we simply must try (those kind of cookies are hard to find in Spain!). After much hoping and searching, we finally found the shop in Covent Garden, and the cookies were delicious! Although I had to escape from a one-legged pigeon who was maliciously eyeing my cookie before I could sit down and eat it. I think we caused a bit of a scene trying to run away from the pigeon…We went back downtown in the evening with the intention of riding the London Eye (the huge Ferris wheel on the river) but to our dismay we had missed the last ride of the night. So we rode a nearby carousel instead, which was quite possibly just as fun, and 15 pounds cheaper! After that it was time to tell Angela goodbye, and Kristen, Mary Kathryn, and I went to an Indian restaurant in Soho before heading home.

Ever since we planned our trip in January we were hoping to see a show in London, and Tuesday morning we were finally able to get our tickets to Les Misérables! After buying our tickets we joined London Walks tour of Greenwich Village. We took a lovely boat ride on the Thames then had a tour of the maritime village of Greenwich. After the tour we went up to the observatory, home of Greenwich Mean Time (the basis of standard time for the rest of the world) and the Prime Meridian (0˚ longitude), and we stood on the line and were in the eastern and western hemisphere at the same time. After returning to London from Greenwich, we tried to take the Tube out to Wimbledon, only to find out that it was a lot farther than we thought it was, so we weren’t able to go, much to Kristen’s dismay. We headed back into town to see Les Mis, which was definitely a huge highlight of London! As most of you know, I love Broadway musicals, and I was singing all the songs from the show for the rest of our trip. It was a great close to our time in London.

We left for Ireland Wednesday morning, which I was extremely excited for. As I said in my last post, I’ve dreamed of visiting Ireland since I was in middle school. My mom informed me that I’m not ¼ Irish as I thought, but am actually closer to ½, but regardless of the percentage I’ve always identified pretty strongly with my Irish heritage. I look Irish, and my mom always told me about how my great great grandpa Charlie Cronin came to America during the potato famine and other such Irish tales. So I was pretty delighted to be in Ireland and spent a lot of time bursting out with the few Irish songs I know and repeatedly telling Kristen and Mary Kathryn (to their great annoyance, I’m sure) that I was returning to my homeland. Even when it rained, I didn’t care because it was Irish rain! And an interesting little fact that I found in my guidebook: Ireland’s population is 5.7 million. Before the potato famine, the population was 8 million. 150 years later, and they still haven’t recovered from all that emigration and death.

Anyway, we flew into Dublin on Wednesday and took a 4-hour bus to Cork. While the weather in London was perfect (it didn’t rain once either of the times I’ve been there!) the weather in Cork was cold and rainy. We got there in the evening and after checking into our hostel summoned our energy to venture out to a pub for some dinner, after which we immediately went to bed (complete exhaustion was a common theme of this trip). Thursday morning we took a 20-minute bus ride out to the village of Blarney to see Blarney Castle, home of the Blarney Stone. It was much more difficult to kiss the Blarney Stone than I imagined; I had to hang over the edge of the castle with a guide holding my legs and kiss the stone on the bottom of the overhanging ledge. I still don’t know why they would put such an important stone in such an inconvenient place. In any case, it’s supposed to give me “the gift of gab,” which I hope means that I’ll now be able to speak Spanish flawlessly and pass all my exams with flying colors. Ha. After returning to Cork we tried to do a bit of sightseeing. We went to St. Anne’s Church, where you can ring the church bells, and we climbed up into the bell tower, but we didn’t last long at the top because of the freezing rain and wind. After that we gave up on sightseeing and spend the rest of the afternoon shopping and having tea and scones. The rain cleared up by that night, but my umbrella unfortunately did not survive.

Friday morning we made the 2-hour bus ride to Killarney in County Kerry. I was especially excited to visit County Kerry because it’s where my Cronin ancestors are from and why my cousin Kerry spells her name the way she does. Cronin is still a prominent name in the area, and I saw lots of signs for businesses like Cronin’s restaurant and Cronin’s hardware. County Kerry is known for its lakes, and we took advantage of the scenic landscape by spending the day biking through the Killarney National Park. It was absolutely beautiful and very much the type of scenery people imagine when they think of Ireland. It was a pretty easy trail, but by the afternoon we were tired and sore, so we spent some time exploring the town of Killarney. We had an early dinner because we knew we had a bike ride back to the hostel ahead of us, and our tiredness resulted in a very giggly return journey as we laughed over how pathetic we were. But we biked about 10 or 12 miles total, which I think is an accomplishment!

Saturday we made the 6-hour cross-country bus ride back to Dublin and arrived in the mid-afternoon. The thing about Ireland is that there isn’t a ton of stuff to actually do; even in Dublin, there’s a lot less going on than in other European capitals. The biggest appeal of Ireland is the scenery, and I really enjoyed just wandering around and appreciating the country’s beauty and charm. I would love to go back someday and explore all the little tiny villages in the rural areas of Ireland. Also, I never believed people when they told me this, but the Irish accent really can be impossible to understand. Half the time I didn’t know what our cab drivers were saying, and sometimes sitting on the bus I honestly couldn’t tell if the people around me were speaking English or not! We spent our first afternoon in Dublin exploring Trinity College and St. Stephen’s Green. After dinner we went to Temple Bar, the cultural/artsy area of Dublin, which has a really fun pub scene. I got a cider at the Temple Bar pub, but it was so much more expensive than what I’m used to; in Spain, drinks are dirt cheap. Ireland is actually one of the most expensive countries in Europe because their cost of living is so high. Lucky us. We caught the very end of a performance of Irish music at the pub, and I really wish I could have heard more Irish music while I was there, I love it.

Sunday was Easter and the first time I haven’t gone home for a major holiday. It was really weird not being home and celebrating with my family, especially because holidays are always such a big deal in my house, but the place I actually would have liked to be was Spain. Semana Santa (Holy Week) is a HUGE deal in Spain; there are tons of processions, costumes, gatherings in the Plaza, and celebrations for the whole weekend, and I was kind of sad to be missing such a big aspect of Spanish culture. It was kind of funny to think about what was happening in Spain in comparison to what I was doing in Ireland: to celebrate Easter, all I did was go to church and buy a Cadbury egg. It was surprisingly hard to find a Catholic church in Dublin for Easter Mass; even though 90% of the country is Catholic, Dublin is almost 50% Protestant, and most of the major cathedrals in the city are Protestant. We went to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which we thought was Catholic but is actually is Episcopalian, and the service was really nice. After church we met up with my friend Brian who lives in Dublin and who I met when working in Senator Kennedy’s office last summer. He took us around Trinity College, where he studies, and got us in to see the Book of Kells and the college library for free! The Book of Kells is a vellum illuminated manuscript from the 800s of the four gospels, and the library is where the library scenes in Harry Potter are filmed! It’s a huge, long, arched room with walls completely covered with books, and it’s very beautiful. We hung out with Brian a little longer, stopping at a pub for lunch and to see the big rugby match on TV, then we parted ways. It was nice to have a chance to catch up with Brian, and to have a native Dubliner show us around a bit! We three girls went on to the Guinness Storehouse, where Guinness has been made for 250 years. The tour was really cool, and it had a good balance of how the beer is made and the history of the company. At the end, we went to the bar on the top floor and saw views of the entire city and got free pints of Guinness. I actually really like Guinness now; I hadn’t tried it since I was in London last year, and when I tried it then I hated it. My appreciation for beer has definitely increased since turning 21, because I’ve had more opportunities to actually try different beers. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around town and grabbed a quick dinner before heading out to the airport. We spent the entire night in the airport because we had a 6am flight and didn’t want to pay for an extra night in the hostel, and I was surprised at how many other people were spending the night too. I didn’t sleep at all, but as soon as I got on the plane I fell asleep before we had even finished boarding. I finally made it back to Salamanca around 3pm Monday afternoon, and I now have only 3 more weeks of class and then 3 weeks of studying and exams before I’m done, then have 3 weeks of travel before heading home. I can’t believe it’s going so quickly. I know I’m going to miss Europe terribly, so I’m trying to appreciate my remaining time here as much as I can!

Fun little slice of America that has nothing to do with spring break: on Tuesday, Obama gave a speech about the economy at Georgetown. I was kind of sad that I wasn’t there to be a part of all the excitement, but my chances of getting a seat were highly unlikely, and the vast majority of students that actually are on campus didn’t get to go. On Wednesday afternoon, I was watching the Spanish national news during lunch when who do I see on TV but Jack DeGioia, president of Georgetown, shaking Obama’s hand! I started screaming, “That’s my university! That’s the president of my university!” It was really cool to see my school on the news when I’m 4,000 miles away. Apparently the speech—and Georgetown!—was all over the international news, which made me very happy. It’s hard to believe that I saw Obama speak in the same hall in fall 2006, and now he’s the president, and came back to Georgetown to give such an important speech! Just one of many reasons why I love my school.

Class Registration and Weekend Fun

This week is pre-registration week for next semester at Georgetown. I worked out my schedule this weekend, and it was blissfully easy compared to what I did in January to register for this semester in Salamanca. I’m registering for my classes months, rather than days, before classes actually begin, all the classes will be in English, the online course listings are easy to navigate, and all of the classes sound so interesting—overall, much better than registering with a completely unfamiliar system for Spanish classes the week before classes begin. Granted, registration can be difficult no matter where you are studying (this semester was by far the easiest time I’ve ever had registering; usually I agonize for hours over working out times and selecting classes) but I definitely appreciate Georgetown’s system more now—it seems so easy and familiar and logical! Plus, I just really miss the American style of classes and knowing how the system works and what is expected of me. Here, my classes are pretty much all lecture. Even in classes where professors say they expect participation, no one really participates, and the professors don’t really force us to. There’s a much bigger emphasis at home on participation, discussion, and learning how to think critically, whereas here it’s a lot of memorization of facts and concepts. Plus it will be nice to take more classes for my American Studies major (which, in case you didn’t know, I’m kind of obsessed with my major. All of the AmStud classes at Georgetown are so cool!), since it was pretty challenging finding good classes to take in Spain about America. I was practically dancing I was so excited about my classes for next semester, and the fact that all their times fit together perfectly, which is definitely not how I feel about my classes here. I’m really looking forward to being back on the Hilltop!!

This weekend we had a great time celebrating Phase 2 (i.e. the alcohol phase) of Kristen’s 21st on Friday and going to the Salamanca flea market on Sunday morning. The markets here are not quite what I expected when I think “market.” I had this image in my head of quaint little markets in Europe where you can buy vintage clothes, antique books, handmade jewelry, and quirky knickknacks. I’ve now been to the market in both Salamanca and Madrid (which is the largest in Europe, as you may recall) and it’s pretty much all knock-off designer purses and watches, cheap jewelry and scarves, and bootleg dvds. I did manage to find a cute necklace and a beautiful red dress that is apparently the style to wear at the Sevilla April Fair, so I was happy. It was freezing cold, though, so we didn’t last long. I got new roommates, again, on Sunday and they left today; I counted and this is the 10th batch I’ve had since I’ve been here. I kind of enjoy it, though, because I get to meet a bunch of French and Italian high school students.

My spring break begins this weekend, so on Friday Kristen, Mary Kathryn, and I are setting off to London tomorrow! Jennifer is going to meet us there from Paris for the weekend, and after five days in London we’ll spend the rest of our break, including Easter, traipsing around southern Ireland in Cork, Killarney (in County Kerry, where my ancestors are from), and Dublin. I went to London last year for spring break to visit my cousin Beth and had a blast, and I’ve wanted to go to Ireland (which I fondly call my homeland, even though I’m only about ¼ Irish) since I was about 12, so I’m really really excited for this trip!!!

The lovely land of Andalucia

Barrio Santa Cruz of Sevilla

Sevilla's cathedral, the biggest Gothic cathedral in the world

the Alcázar, a 10th century Moorish palace

Sevilla's Plaza España

Flamenco dancing!

Barrio Santa Cruz again

Beautiful Granada

The Alhambra!

Generalife Gardens of the Alhambra

Me and Kristen with Granada in the background

Last weekend Kristen and I visited Andalucia, Spain’s southernmost region. We didn’t have class last Thursday because it was Spanish father’s day, so we spent our four day weekend touring Sevilla and Granada. I now know why, according to the vintage postcard I bought, Spain is “the country of sunshine and joy.” Andalucia is full of palm trees, orange trees, sun, and happy tourists, and is quintessentially Spanish. We left for Sevilla after class on Wednesday and got into our hostel around 2am. After a nice breakfast on the roof Thursday morning, we set out to see the sites of Sevilla. We started by wandering through the Barrio Santa Cruz, the old Jewish quarter of the city. It was full of whitewashed buildings, flowers, wrought-iron gates, and shady narrow lanes dubbed “kissing lanes.” Then we toured the Alcázar, a 10th century Moorish palace that still functions as a royal palace, which was beautiful. We had lunch around 12:30, extremely early for Spanish standards, at an outdoor table at a café. I got some authentic Andalucian gazpacho, and Kristen and I split a liter of sangria. It didn’t take us long to realize how strong it actually was! After lunch, we headed over to Sevilla’s cathedral, and as we walked through the cathedral we kept giggling to each other about how tipsy we were—in the middle of the afternoon. The cathedral was very impressive; it’s the third largest church in Europe, and the largest Gothic-style church in the world. It was originally a mosque, but the Catholics tore it down in the 1400s and built the cathedral instead. The only thing that remains of the mosque is the bell tower, which has a ramp going up instead of stairs because back in the day a horseman would ride up five times a day for the Muslim call to prayer. Well, we were hiking up this ramp when all of a sudden a horde or rowdy schoolchildren came down the other way, and Kristen tripped on a brick and smacked her head against the brick wall. She fortunately wasn’t in so much pain that she couldn’t laugh about it, and I’m pretty sure the sangria had more to do with her tripping than the annoying kids did. We finally made it to the top and got to see a great view of Sevilla. Before we left the cathedral, we also got to see Columbus’s tomb, which was pretty cool. After the cathedral we bought some picnic supplies at the Corte Inglés grocery store and had a nice coffee break at a café. Then we meandered over to Plaza España, stopping to take a peak at Sevilla’s bullring. The plaza was stunning; it was originally constructed for the 1929 World’s Fair and was massive. It was completely different from any other Spanish plaza I’ve seen. We had a picnic dinner there of bread, cheese, jam, and strawberries, our go-to picnic foods. After dinner we got to see a flamenco show! It was really really cool, and it was incredible how the dancers, musicians, and singers all stayed in such perfect rhythm.

Friday morning we did some more wandering in Barrio Santa Cruz then visited an old 18th century mansion with lots of antiques, which was frankly really lame. It took us forever to find, cost 4 euros, and there was really nothing to see. We had some time to kill before heading out, so we checked our email at the hostel, got sandwiches at the bus station, then spent the rest of the afternoon in transit to Granada. I absolutely loved Granada; it’s definitely now one of my favorite cities. It used to be a Moorish stronghold, and there is still a lot of Middle Eastern influence there. It kind of made up for the fact that I’m not going to get to go to Morocco this semester, like I had hoped to do. I also really wish I could make it back to Sevilla at the end of April for the April Fair, which is the traditional festival the city puts on every year. They set up tents—the most exclusive tents, for the really rich people in town, have bouncers—and the entire city eats, drinks, dances, and sings nonstop for the entire week. It sounds so fun.

Saturday morning we woke up and hiked up to the Alhambra, the last great Moorish palace in Europe before the Crusaders kicked all the Moors out, and Granada’s main attraction. Celia, our program director in Salamanca, has a brother who works at the Alhambra, and he was going to get us tickets since it can be a kind of tricky process. So we got there at 9am Saturday morning, and he wasn’t there, and neither were out tickets. We were pretty mad, and spent the next hour or so frantically trying to figure out if we could still get tickets for that day. Fortunately we were able to get some for the afternoon, and Celia called us later telling us that her brother had gotten the dates mixed up and felt really bad. But everything worked out just fine in the end. We hiked back down the mountain and hiked up another mountain across town to San Nicolás church, which has the best view in town of the Alhambra. Back in town we did some souvenir shopping in all the little Middle Eastern shops, and I bought some really cool gifts. Then we saw the cathedral of Granada, which was possibly one of the most beautiful churches I’ve been in. We were planning on also going to the Royal Chapel (Capilla Real), which is where Ferdinand and Isabel are buried. We thought it was included in our entrance fee to the cathedral, but it wasn’t, plus we weren’t sure if we would have time to see it and still make our assigned time for the Alhambra, so we decided to skip it. Well, apparently it’s one of Granada’s top sites and really incredible. Darn. If I had known it was so worthwhile, I would have made more of an effort to see it. Instead, we dodged the ever-present Granada gypsy women (they try to give you a sprig of rosemary, read your palm, and demand 5 euros for payment. We knew this in advance and knew to avoid them!), grabbed some yummy falafel sandwiches for lunch, and hiked up the mountain—again—to the Alhambra. The palace and gardens were breathtaking, and it took us about 2 ½ hours to see everything. The architecture was amazing, and it made me really want to travel to the Middle East! Once we got back into town, we had tea and crepes at a cute little tetería, then relaxed for a while at the hostel. We had delicious Moroccan food for dinner—Kristen and I have become quite tired of Spanish food and rebel whenever possible—went to a couple of bars, then headed home. We spent Sunday on the bus back home, transferring in Madrid, and by that point I had gotten really cranky. I was tired of being on the bus, didn’t want to go to class the next day, was exhausted after two consecutive weekends of traveling, and just wanted to be home in bed. As much as I love traveling, and as sad as I get every time a trip comes to an end, it really wears me out! I’m glad I’ll be home this weekend. I also really wish we could have made it to Córdoba, the city in Andalucia where the beautiful Muslim Mezquita—with a cathedral right in the middle—is located, but there just wasn’t time.

More roommates came while I was gone—three little French girls, 13 and 14. They were definitely better at Spanish then the last batch of 14-year-old French girls! Plus they knew some English, so I was able to help them say things in Spanish. They left yesterday, and three French boys came right after, all 13. Tuesday was Kristen’s 21st birthday, and we celebrated by going out to eat with Mary Kathryn and having cake in the Plaza Mayor. That’s one of the annoying things about living with a host family: you can’t exactly invite your friends over whenever you want. But it was fun, and we’re going to be celebrating more, American-style, this weekend!

Madrileño Weekend

Madrid's Plaza Mayor

Palacio Real--the Royal Palace

man playing water glasses. People actually do this!

Retiro Park

Lauren, Kristen, and I spending Sunday afternoon in the park

I have a few brief days at home before I head out on my next adventure—Thursday is St. Joseph’s Day, aka Father’s Day in Spain, so we get the day off from school! We only discovered this last week, but since that means we have a four day weekend, Kristen and I are heading out for Andalucia tomorrow afternoon. Also, one of my classes last week was cancelled because of a huge strike against the Bolonia Process. I don’t understand all of the details, but essentially the Bolonia Process/Resolution/I don’t know its real title is an attempt to unify and standardize Europe’s university system rather than have such a wide variety of systems for the various countries. Many (most?) Spanish university students and professors are adamantly and vocally opposed to these changes because they believe it will diminish the value of a Spanish university education and make getting a university degree more like a business endeavor than a learning experience. There are a lot more political complexities that I don’t really understand, but I just thought this was worth mentioning because the resistance against Bolonia is a HUGE part of student culture here; anti-Bolonia graffiti covers the bathroom walls, students pass out anti-Bolonia literature on street corners, and strikes get my classes cancelled. It’s by far the biggest student issue on campus. Anyway, now back to how we spent this past weekend in Madrid!

Kristen, Mary Kathryn, and I headed out for Madrid last Friday afternoon, MK to visit some friends who were going to be in Madrid for the weekend, and Kristen and I to see Lauren, who is studying there this semester. After our train got in, we parted ways with Mary Kathryn and went to our hostel. As soon as I stepped off the metro, I was in love with Madrid. The more cities I go to, the more convinced I am that I belong in one; I just love all the diversity and the excitement—and the metro system! We headed to our hostel and were surprised at check-in. The hostel seemed like it was an apartment that had been converted to a hostel: there were a few bedrooms with bunks, a communal living room and kitchen, and the “lobby” was a desk in the front room where the youngish guy who ran the place sat at a computer. It didn’t seem all that legitimate, and we were a little concerned about the situation. We were especially surprised by the fact that we were rooming with boys, which we did not expect when we reserved our bunks online. But we reminded ourselves that the hostel got good reviews and decided not to worry about it. It ended up being just fine; it was well run, and it kind of had a cozy feel to it. Two nights was definitely enough for me, though. After dropping our things at the hostel, Kristen and I spent the remainder of the afternoon at El Corte Inglés, a huge Madrid department store that has practically everything you could ever want to buy. We shopped for some books in English and some groceries, and then plopped down outside in Puerta del Sol to have a snack and people watch and wait for Lauren to get out of class. She met us there, and the three of us decided to see a movie before dinner. We went to a theater that shows films in their original language (somewhat difficult to find in Spain, which as a whole is more prone than other countries to dub films as opposed to using subtitles because dubbing films into Spanish was required under Franco) and saw Slumdog Millionaire, which was an absolutely incredible movie. Then we went out for a delicious Indian dinner (we had a theme going that night, with our Indian dinner and movie) in the Lavapiés district of Madrid, which is the bohemian/immigrant section of the city, like DC’s Adams Morgan. At dinner, we got to meet Lauren’s friend Maria, who goes to Loyola University in Chicago and is also studying in Madrid this semester. She was really nice and joined us for some of our adventures during the weekend.

I didn’t get much sleep that night because my stuffed-up nose had worsened and turned into a cough, making it impossible to breathe, and all the street noise didn’t help. I definitely still heard people partying at 6am, and was not surprised in the least, considering Madrid is supposedly the party capital of Europe. And it’s Spain—no one sleeps here. Saturday morning we bought some groceries and Kristen, Lauren, and I had a picnic breakfast in the Plaza Mayor. Since we didn’t have any utensils, we ended up dipping our bread into our jar of jam and getting incredibly sticky. It was fun. I must say, I like Salamanca’s Plaza Mayor better than Madrid’s; it’s more architecturally interesting with all of its stone arches, but Madrid’s was nice too. We enjoyed watching all the ridiculously and elaborately costumed street performers roaming around the Plaza—they pop up all over the city to amuse the tourists—and listening to the itinerant musicians. After breakfast we walked to the Royal Palace, which according to my guidebook (or, as Kristen and Lauren know, my frequently-referenced Bible of Spain) is the third-greatest palace in Europe, after Versailles and Vienna’s Schonbrunn. After touring the palace, we walked to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, which has paintings by famous and not-so-famous artists. We had a snack in the museum café and then spent a couple of hours touring the museum. The paintings were arranged chronologically and followed more or less the same progression that we followed in my Renaissance to Modern Art history class last fall, so I enjoyed being able to identify all the various styles and some of the artists as well. After the museum we had a late lunch (even by Spanish standards—4pm) at a Thai restaurant. I knew I was tired of Spanish food, but I didn’t realize how tired until I was able to have so many other types of cuisine. It was so nice to be able to choose any kind of food I wanted for the weekend! Salamanca just doesn’t have that kind of ethnic diversity; other than Spanish, all we have, more or less, are pizza places and cheap Mexican and Chinese restaurants. After lunch we hit the Prado, which I was really excited for. As I said in my last post, a lot of really famous paintings by really famous artists, many of which I studied in art history, are housed in the Prado, the most notable of which is probably Velázquez’s Las Meninas. I had fun roaming around looking at more art, and we stayed until closing time. Unfortunately we didn’t make it to the Reina Sofia museum, where Picasso’s Guernica is, but we’re planning on squeezing in a couple more days in Madrid before we come home in June, so we can always see it then. After our museums we did a bit more shopping—Kristen and I stocked up on guidebooks for our upcoming trips—and went out for an Italian dinner at a cute little mom-and-pop Italian restaurant. On the way home we got to take a peak at Lauren’s host family’s apartment, which is beautiful and way nicer than my apartment! We had wanted to go out to the clubs on Saturday night, but I was still feeling sick and we were exhausted from all of our walking and touring, so we called it a night (but seeing as we finished dinner around 11:30 or so, then had to get home, it certainly wasn’t all that early). We’re planning on taking advantage of the Madrid club scene when we go back in June.

Sunday morning we went to El Rastro, which is apparently Europe’s biggest flea market. There were rows and rows of stalls lining multiple streets, lined with everything from typical market goods like scarves, jewelry, and bags to random things like army gas masks. Yes, you can buy a gas mask at El Rastro. I stuck to just buying a couple of pretty Spanish fans. After the fair we bought some pastries and coffee and had brunch in the Plaza Mayor. The best thing to do on a warm Sunday in Spain is to sit in the Plaza and watch all the people stroll by, and it was so nice to sit in the shade with my friends and do just that. After checking out of our hostel, we whiled away the end of our time in Madrid in Retiro Park, a huge grassy park that was filled with Madrileños enjoying the sunny weather. We eventually had to tear ourselves away from the sun, and Lauren took us to the train station to head home to Salamanca. I didn’t want to think about coming home and returning to class, but I only have three days between Madrid and Andalucia, so it’s not that bad.

I had a couple of French roommates last weekend, two 14 year old girls. They were the epitome of silly little girls: they didn’t speak Spanish very well, so they mostly just giggled in French a lot. They were sweet girls, though. This week’s roommates are two boys from Italy, about 17 years old. They speak Spanish better than any of my previous roommates, and I think maybe better than me too!

La Vida Salmantina

This past weekend was the first weekend in several weeks that I didn’t go on some sort of excursion, and I actually really enjoyed just staying in Salamanca. Last Wednesday Mary Kathryn, Kristen, and I went out for lunch after class. It was nice to eat out on a normal school day, and I didn’t even have the excuse of having out-of-town visitors. I eat out so rarely here (although I go to cafes all the time), and I like to have a change of pace once in a while. Wednesday night Kristen and I went out for coffee with our friend Jimmy, the Peruvian guy we met at the bull fight and who is also a student in Salamanca. He asked us to go out with him and his friends on Thursday night, which we did, and it was really fun. There we a couple people from Peru, some French people, a Japanese woman, and some other Europeans. I usually only hang out with Americans (namely, the Georgetown people and Mary Kathryn), so it was nice to be with an international crowd. After going to a couple of bars, we went to the salsa club Savor, which I had heard about but hadn’t gone to yet. Jimmy danced with me, which was fun because he actually knew how to dance! It’s very rare that I meet a guy who can dance, and of course I never pass up an opportunity to dance. It was a really fun night, and Kristen and I were excited that we made some new friends.

Friday morning I met with my history tutor Isaac for the first time. Georgetown pays for tutors for us for any classes we may need them, so I got one for my History of Modern Spain class, and I think I’m going to get one for my Indigenous History of America class, too. I was really, really nervous to call him to arrange our meeting; I had never made a phone call in Spanish before, and I don’t even like making phone calls in English. I had asked my professor if he had any suggestions for a tutor for the class, and he told me to call Isaac, who took the class last year and apparently is the go-to guy for tutoring and such. After procrastinating for several days, I finally called him, after writing down verbatim what I wanted to say. Of course, I had no reason to be nervous. He was really nice, and we arranged to meet on Friday. The session on Friday went very well, too. He was very clear in all of his explanations and willing to answer all of my questions. So that was a big relief, because not only do I now have help for the class, but I also have someone to help me through the Spanish academic system.

I took a 2-hour siesta Friday afternoon because I went home around 4:30am Thursday night/Friday morning, and had to get up somewhat early for tutoring, so I needed sleep! That night, Kristen and I went to a botellón—essentially, a house party. I learned about botellones in my Spanish tutoring class at Georgetown last semester. I had to take 10 hours of tutoring because I didn’t do well enough on my study abroad placement exam, but I’m so glad I had to because I learned so much about Spanish culture in that class. I’m constantly referring back to it and saying, “oh yeah, I learned about that in tutoring.” My tutor described botellones as a party where everybody brings liquor and you hang out in a park or at someone’s house and drink. I think the really intense botellones are popular mostly with rebellious Spanish teenagers. The one we went to was pretty low-key and more or less the same as parties I’ve been to at Georgetown, only there was no keg and everyone was foreign. It was at the apartment of a French girl who Kristen and I have class with. We also encountered some other girls from our classes and their friends, who were from Belgium and Luxembourg. They were really nice girls, and we ended up hanging out with them for the rest of the evening. Kristen and I had been lamenting recently that we haven’t really found our niche in the social scene yet, so it was nice to feel like part of a group and meet some new people. We made lots of new friends this weekend!

Also, we spoke in Spanish the entire night (what? Spanish in Spain? No way!) which was great. That’s a big difference between Americans in Spain and other foreigners in Spain: the other foreigners are much better about speaking in Spanish all the time, plus they’re more fluent in Spanish in general. I think part of it is because other countries, at least European countries, are just better about language instruction, and students are used to speaking multiple languages. Another major factor is that the vast majority of Americans here aren’t enrolled directly in the university with Spanish professors and other Spanish students. Instead, they take classes at Cursos Internacionales, which is the branch of the university that is specifically for foreign students. Some of the students in Cursos know Spanish well and take their classes in Spanish (which is what Mary Kathryn does), but others are still learning the language. As frustrating as it can sometimes be, there’s definitely something to be said for being enrolled in the university itself (Georgetown is one of the few American universities with programs here that requires that we enroll directly). I may not speak in Spanish all the time, but having class with foreigners as well as Spaniards, and taking classes designed for Spanish students, really pushes me to practice more. While there are of course other nationalities that take classes in Cursos, a greater proportion of students from other countries are enrolled in the university instead of Cursos. This is especially true for European students, who can study abroad in European universities through the Erasmus program. What all of this means is that people in Salamanca are used to hearing Americans speak English. So at the party Friday night, which consisted mostly of Erasmus students with a few Spanish students too, people were shocked and amazed when Kristen and I introduced ourselves as Americans and proceeded to speak in Spanish. It was kind of funny that people were so surprised, but also kind of sad. I’m in Spain, people should expect me to speak in Spanish! (And I should be better about speaking Spanish too…) Hopefully I can help change people’s opinion that Americans just expect everyone to speak in English to them.

Saturday was a really relaxed day. Kristen and I spent the afternoon studying in one of our favorite cafes, and that night I started reading in my Spain guidebook about Madrid. We’re going to Madrid next weekend to see our friend Lauren, and I’m so excited, it seems like such a fun city. I’m especially excited to see the Prado museum, which houses some of the world’s most famous paintings by the most famous artists. My guidebook mentioned several of the artists with works there, and I studied many of them in art history last semester—El Greco, Velázquez, Goya, Titian, Rubens. I can’t wait to see all of their paintings in person! Sunday was another lazy day; my Italian roommates left, and Kristen and I went to Mass. It was a gorgeous day and there were people out everywhere enjoying the spring weather. We really wanted to go sightseeing, and it was a perfect day for it, but we had to get homework done for a change. We still took advantage of the perfect weather by going to a park to study in the afternoon, and later going back to our café. And for dinner last night, my host mom served me some delicious homemade bread and wine from her hometown, which she returns to once a week or so to check on the old family farm. All in all, a lovely weekend!

Extremadura Excursion

The Roman Arch in Merida

Merida's Plaza Mayor/Plaza Espana (the name depends on the region you're in)

Gladiator ring

Georgetown group in front of the ancient Roman Theater in Merida

Roman aqueducts outside the city

Castle of Trujillo

Spain pretending to be Ireland

Our rooms at Finca Santa Marta

Finca Santa Marta

Plaza Mayor of Caceres

My past month of weekly trips has earned me the nickname Molly the Tourist from my host father. This weekend the Georgetown program planned a trip to Extremadura, a region in western Spain on the Portugal border. We—the seven Georgetown students in Salamanca and our program director Celia—left Salamanca on Friday afternoon and arrived in the town of Mérida in Extremadura that evening. We stayed at a beautiful hotel that used to be a monastery. The architecture was very Spanish, and it had orange trees outside! We saw lots of orange and lemon trees during our trip. Friday evening we explored Mérida on our own; Kristen and I got a take-out pizza and claras (a Spanish cocktail of beer mixed with lemony soda) to eat in the Plaza Mayor. We were very excited about our claras, because we’ve tried to order them a few times before and always somehow ended up with plain beer. On Saturday morning our group set out to explore the history of Mérida. Our tour guide Marcos, who was our guide in all three cities we visited, was hilarious; he spoke to us in a mix of Spanish and very British-accented English, which was funny to hear. He was also a big fan of breaking out into American songs. In Mérida we saw tons of Roman ruins, which was really cool. I’ve never seen Roman ruins before, and I love how they were so integrated into the rest of the city. I feel like most historical sites in the States are somehow set apart and distinct from everyday life. Maybe the Roman ruins struck me because they are SO old, and we just don’t have history like that at home. In any case, it was interesting to see ancient Roman columns standing next to a modern café, or a Roman arch reaching across a heavily trafficked street. The highlights of the tour were the Roman theater and antitheater. Plays are still performed in the ancient theater, and the antitheater was a big arena where gladiator fights took place. It was called “antiteatro” in our brochure, so I assume that translates to antitheater in English, but I’m not really sure. We also saw the National Museum of Roman Art, which had tons of cool Roman artwork and artifacts. On the drive out we got to see the aqueducts. It was amazing to see visual proof of how truly far-flung the Roman Empire was; they were literally everywhere in Europe.

After lunch in Mérida we drove to Trujillo, which was a more medieval town. I honestly felt like I was in Ireland there. Surrounding the city, there were sprawling green fields strewn with huge stone fences and ancient rock piles. We climbed to the top of the castle in the town and looked out at all the beautiful scenery. After roaming around Trujillo for a while we drove to a farm, or finca, a little ways outside the city, where we would be spending the night. The finca was beautiful, and we had these adorable rustic rooms with Dutch doors, which I love! After we settled into our rooms we had wine and appetizers with the man who established the resort at the finca. He used to be a diplomat from Holland, and he told us all about Finca Santa Marta and its history. Apparently it’s a really popular site for bird watchers. The bird we saw the most of was cegüenas: huge stork-like birds that build enormous nests in church steeples, on tops of trees, everywhere. We saw them all over the place in Extremadura, and we have them in Salamanca too. The finca also produces wine and olives, and we got to see the old wine vats and olive presses and the pits where they used to stomp the grapes. And there were groves of cherry trees and almond trees outside. Our host, Henry, spoke to us in English (even though he was fluent in Spanish), and it was the first time most of us had ever heard our program director Celia speak in English. She usually makes us speak in Spanish all the time, but she kind of gave up on that this weekend. At dinner, our conversations kept bouncing between English and Spanish, which I really enjoyed. It’s fun to talk to a group of bilingual people, especially when their Spanish skills are more or less on par with mine! We had zucchini soup and a lightly curried chicken for dinner—not very Spanish, but delicious. The next morning we had free time to roam around the finca and wander through the fields. When I got home, I told my host mother about the finca, and apparently she grew up on one that was very similar. She talked about how she had a wine press and how her house had a lot of the same architectural features (I showed her pictures in my brochure). It’s nice that we got to see something that is apparently a very traditional part of Spanish culture.

From the finca we drove to our final stop, the town of Cáceres. There we toured all the old churches and Roman and medieval buildings. I honestly don’t remember much of the historical significance of anything there, even though I know there was plenty, but at least I enjoyed looking at the architecture. We wanted to try the local cheese dish for lunch, which was basically a melted cheese wheel that you dip bread into. We failed at finding a restaurant that could bring it to us fast enough for us to get back to the bus on time, so we ended up having sandwiches in the Plaza instead. After lunch we headed home to Salamanca. It was a really lovely weekend, and I enjoyed seeing a new region of Spain. I’m still always surprised at how big Spain actually is, and there’s always something new and different in every region!

And a little bit about life as usual in Salamanca: this past week my housemates were two little Italian boys who came last Monday and left sometime this weekend. They were both 15, which seems pretty young, but I guess American kids travel abroad when they are that young, too. They didn’t speak Spanish very well, but I liked their Italian accents. One thing they did understand was soccer, which they would watch with my host father. It’s a universal obsession, at least in Europe. My new Italian roommates arrived today: three girls, two 17 and one 19.

Last week we had a writing tutorial with our professor from orientation. We talked a little bit about academics in Spain, which I’m still finding it hard to adjust to. Our professor is from Chile and, like us, when she first came to Salamanca she was surprised at how different the university system is. Students here take notes in paragraph form, copying down virtually everything the professor says, which is really intimidating when I’m struggling to write down any word or phrase I understand. And it’s sad because I take such good notes at Georgetown! But, while they may take incredible notes, they don’t really learn how to think critically or research or analyze; their goal is to memorize facts and spit them back out. I can get away with not doing reading here (which I definitely need to be better about!) because I’m not expected to participate. At home, if there’s a day when I go to class without doing the reading, I’m nervous throughout the entire class that I’ll be called on to give my opinion; we’re expected to think and analyze and form our own opinions. I guess that difference kind of reflects the Spanish way of life, which is essentially based on enjoying yourself. Talking with your friends over coffee, being with your family during your 2-hour lunch break, strolling around the Plaza at night are more important than killing yourself over working out an answer to some complex question. Which is why our professor repeatedly emphasized to us to not stress and to enjoy the laid-back lifestyle while we can. Basically, we’re not supposed to let our classes get in the way of our education while we are abroad. I like that philosophy. But I must admit, it will be nice to go back to Georgetown and not only understand what’s going on and understand the educational system but actually be able and expected to participate.