Carnaval del Toro--And Lauren Comes to Town!

Decked out in our 10 euro gypsy costumes for Carnaval

Ciudad Rodrigo decorated for the festivities

Kristen, Lauren, and me watching the running of the bulls


Silly people taunting the bull

Plaza Mayor, before the bull fight

The good torero and the bull

Bring it on, Bull.

Final staredown between torero #4 and the bull

the completely packed Plaza Mayor

children in absurd cigarette lighter costumes


Here it is, Sunday night, and after another fun weekend I can’t bring myself to do the reading that I’ve already gotten so behind on (Spain has made me very lazy), so instead I’ll let you all know about my friend Lauren’s visit to Salamanca and our Carnaval adventure! Lauren is Kristen’s and my friend from Georgetown, and she is studying in Madrid this semester. She arrived in Salamanca Friday evening to stay for the weekend. Kristen, Mary Kathryn, and I went to the train station to pick her up and walked back to my apartment to drop off her things. Fortunately my host mother was perfectly happy to let Lauren stay with me—my Georgia roommates left that afternoon, so Lauren got their room and didn’t have to get a hostel. We all came up to the apartment together and had a chance to chat with my host mom. It was nice to be able to introduce my friend to the legendary Mari, and I think she really enjoyed talking to all of us girls. The other girls said they could tell how much Mari likes me, so that made me feel special! I really lucked out with my host family, they’re so amazing, and Mari always helps me with my Spanish. At dinner tonight she told me my Spanish is much improved from when I arrived, which was VERY nice to hear. Anyway, after our stop at the apartment we went out for pinchos and had a nice time catching up with Lauren.

Saturday was Carnaval! (Carnaval technically runs through Tuesday, but we only went Saturday.) Ciudad Rodrigo, which is about an hour outside of Salamanca, apparently has one of the best Carnavales in the area, so Kristen, Lauren, and I spent Saturday at the town’s Carnaval del Toro. We took a bus to Ciudad Rodrigo with a bunch of other Salamanca university students Saturday morning. Carnaval is kind of like Mardi Gras combined with Halloween because costumes are a huge part of it, so we went all out in full gypsy costumes that we bought for 10 euros. People were in costumes all weekend long in Salamanca. Ciudad Rodrigo’s Carnaval consists of a fair, a running of the bulls, a bull fight, and general merry-making. When we arrived we roamed around the fair for a while, checked out all the ridiculous costumes and drunken revelers, and then camped out on top of the old city wall to eat our picnic lunch and watch the running of the bulls. The running of the bulls, or encierro, was not really what I expected. All the images I’ve ever seen have been of a herd of people running down a street followed by a herd of stampeding bulls. What we saw was more like one bull at a time would come running down the street, chase people around for a while, and then continue to run down the street. It was really nerve-wracking to watch people climb up the walls along the streets to escape the bulls; one guy was actually picked up by the bull and thrown against the wall. Fortunately he was ok, but it was still scary, and I was very glad to be watching from far above. I saw on the news that at the Sunday running of the bulls a guy was actually gored by the bull and taken to the hospital. I’m happy I didn’t see anything that bad on Saturday! It was fun to watch, but it seemed like a really stupid thing to participate in. To each his own, I guess.

After some more strolling through the fairgrounds we made our way to the Plaza Mayor for the bull fight. I had very mixed feelings about seeing the bull fight. Up until about last November, I had always thought that a bull fight consisted of just the dance between the bull fighter (torero) and the bull. But in my Spanish class last semester, I learned that the whole point of the fight is to kill the bull—I don’t really know how I didn’t know this before. When I came to Spain, part of me really wanted to go to a fight since it’s such a big part of Spanish tradition and culture, but the animal rights activist in me couldn’t stand the thought of it. Despite our misgivings, we decided to go—I’m sure my sister, and probably others of you, will be appalled that I did. We sat next to a really nice guy from Peru who is also studying in Salamanca, and he explained to us everything that was going on. So, the way the bull fight works, with all the gory details: a group of toreros stand around the plaza when the bull comes out, and they all wave bright colored scarves at the bull to agitate it. Then a guy on horseback comes out and sticks a spear into the bull’s back; I don’t know if this is to make it mad or to make it less dangerous or what. Then the main torero comes out with his red scarf and dances with the bull for awhile. Another torero comes out and sticks long frilly spear/baton things into the bull’s back. Then the dance with the bull continues until the torero sticks a sword into the bull’s back to kill it. Yeah, it’s really pleasant. And we had to sit through four separate fights. The first one was really hard to watch, and I spent a good bit of it with my face behind my hands. The second one was better: the torero was really talented (and really good-looking), and it was fascinating to watch how close he would get to the bull without getting attacked, just by twisting and swaying his red scarf thing around and making the bull follow it. The killing part, of course, was not fun to watch. After the second fight was done, everyone stood up and started waving hats and scarves at the torero—the more people that wave, the better the torero is. He walked around the plaza to do the traditional acknowledgement of the crowd; they would throw their hats and scarves into the plaza and he would throw them back. People were having him kiss their babies, and one girl even ran down into the plaza to get a kiss. It was kind of funny how enthusiastic everyone was. Oh yes, and as a prize the torero gets the bull’s ears. Nice. The third fight was definitely the worst because it took the torero five tries to kill the bull. No one waved for him because he had made the bull suffer—because all the initial stabbing and prodding doesn’t cause suffering, clearly. The point is to make the bull die “honorably,” and I guess as long as it’s quick it doesn’t matter if you die with spears in your back. The fourth fight was better. All in all, it was a very interesting cultural experience, and the actual dance between the bull and the torero was amazing to watch. I’m glad I did it, but I will not be going to another bull fight in the near future—one is enough for me.

After the bull fight there was a costume parade through the plaza. There were all types of costumes, including some bizarre cigarette lighter costumes, and a family dressed up as a slave master, children, and a slave—in blackface and a mammy costume. We were really shocked by that one, considering how a costume like that would be viewed in the US. We also saw a group of guys dressed up as Arabs and heard a Spanish guy call an Asian girl “China.” America may have cross-cultural problems and stereotypes, but we do have a certain standard of appropriate behavior, and it’s very interesting to see how those standards are different in other cultures. That’s not to say that Spanish people are intolerant of other cultures; they just seem to have a more blunt attitude towards people that are different and are less concerned about political correctness.

We strolled through the fair one more time before heading back to Salamanca. Once we got back and changed out of our costumes, Lauren, Kristen and I went to dinner at an adorable café. I always enjoy eating out in Salamanca since I do it so rarely. We had the menu of the day, which included dessert, so I ordered the seasonal fruit. When dessert came, I got an orange—not prepared at all, just a whole orange on a plate. It was kind of funny, I guess because I can’t imagine an American restaurant ever giving me a plain orange for dessert, but here that’s completely normal. After dinner we went to a discoteca, which was really fun. Sunday we went to Mass at the university, which was nice, and I actually understood a lot more then I thought I would. We took Lauren on a tour of Salamanca and had lunch at one of our favorite cafes. After lunch we got some dessert and sat in the Plaza Mayor to enjoy the beautiful weather. Then we took Lauren to the train station—it was sad to see her go, but we’re hopefully going to visit her in Madrid in a few weeks!

Funny sidenote that has nothing to do with this weekend: last week, my American history professor was talking about all the different cultures of the foreigners in our class—Mexicans are this, French are that, etc. When she got to Americans, she told everyone that we are the most loyal, steadfast, and best friends a person can have. The Americans in the class got a big kick out of that, and it was nice to know that at least one Spaniard appreciates us!

A Magical Land Called Switzerland

Zurich, Switzerland!

church with stained glass by Marc Chagall

boats on the lake


Heidiland!!

The town of Rapperswil

being silly at the castle in Rapperswil

view from the top of the castle

the Alps!

Posing in front of the train station

Extremely blonde Europeans...I found them amusing


I’m back in warm and sunny Salamanca, basking in the beautiful weather we’re having after weeks of cold winter rain. The Plaza Mayor is packed every day with people enjoying the spring weather, which will hopefully stick around. The other day I was sitting in my poetry class and the sound of someone playing a guitar outside wafted through the open windows—I felt like I was back at Georgetown, listening to people out on the lawn playing music and talking to their friends. Switzerland, on the other hand, was a winter wonderland the entire time I was there this weekend, and I loved it! I haven’t seen snow like that since I went skiing in Colorado four years ago, and I had forgotten how much I love it (when I don’t have to shovel it or drive in it, of course). Unlike in Georgia, where “snow” is one or two inches of slushy white rain that sticks to the ground in the early morning hours and melts almost completely by noon, but is still reason enough to call off school (which I’m never opposed to), the Swiss snow was several inches of soft, fluffy, powdery snow that coated the trees and stuck to the streets, and I couldn’t help but smile every time I stepped outside. I know now why people love to go skiing in the Alps!

Kristen and I left Salamanca for Zurich, Switzerland on Thursday evening. We got in late Thursday night and checked into our hostel. It was my first real hostel experience, and I actually really enjoyed it. Friday morning we woke up and had breakfast at the hostel with our Australian roommate. Then we hopped on the tram and headed to the tourism office in the train station downtown. We had seen in a guidebook that we picked up at the hostel that there was a “Heidiland Great Countryside Tour” excursion that went through the Alps and all the little villages that were allegedly the inspiration for the novel Heidi. Kristen and I were REALLY excited for this tour (especially since the adorable Heidi look-alike in our brochure made it look like there was no place in the world better than Heidiland), so we were delighted to find that there were tickets available. As a side note, Kristen and I are kind of obsessed with adorable European children, especially the really fashionable ones. We have a running joke that we’re going to take one home to Georgetown as a pet. Anyway, we didn’t need to worry about tickets for our tour, because there were only 6 people on the bus, including us. Our tour guide, Peter, was this middle-aged Swiss guy with a heavy German accent and a very blunt way of speaking, and he was absolutely hilarious. We started our tour by driving through the city of Zurich, and we had a chance to get off the bus and look around. Then we headed out to the countryside. As we drove through the neighborhoods surrounding Zurich, Peter told us all of their names: the “Gold Coast” was where the very very very rich people lived, the “Silver Coast” was where the just plain rich people lived, the “Copper Coast” was where the poor people lived, and the “Diamond Coast” was where the chicky-mickey people lived—the showy rich people who wanted to see and be seen. Peter really loved the phrase chicky-mickey. After driving for a while we stopped in the town of Rapperswil where we toured a medieval castle that was once inhabited by the Hapsburgs or one of their many royal relatives, and we had traditional Swiss cheese pie for lunch. Then we drove on to Heidiland—there is actually a real Heidiland. The scenery on the way was breathtaking: huge snow-covered mountains, snowy farmland, little villages nestled next to lakes in the foothills of the mountains. When we got to Heidiland we saw the Heidi Fountain, but not Heidi’s village, which is only open in the summer. That was too bad, because I really wanted to see the little Heidi girl, and the goats. Peter told us about the organic wine that is grown in the area and how organically grown animals in Switzerland are called “happy”: happy pigs, happy chickens, happy cows. And I thought happy cows came from California! Ha ha.

After Heidiland we drove to the independent Principality of Liechtenstein. It was a cute little town, but I definitely wouldn’t want to live there—they pretty much survive on tourism and the wealth of their prince/king. In Lichtenstein we bought some souvenirs, had hot chocolate, and roamed around. Then we took the bus back through the Alps to Zurich. As we drove back into Zurich, Peter pointed out the “chicky-mickey” night club in town, but said that nice conservative girls like us would be happier checking out the top-of-the-line sewing machine store across the street. Like I said, he was kind of ridiculous, but in a good way.

For dinner that night we went to a fondue restaurant that Peter suggested. We were originally going to make a reservation for the next night, but since that was Valentine’s Day, there of course weren’t any openings, so we decided to just go ahead and have dinner. We had pear and brandy cheese fondue and a bottle of white wine—which ended up being 40 francs, or a little less than $40. Oops. Not a good price for two college girls on a budget. That will teach us to check the price before we order from now on! But it was all delicious, so in the end it was worth it. After roaming around town a little bit more we headed back to our hostel for the night.

Saturday morning we spent wandering through Zurich. It was snowing when we woke up, and it continued to snow all day. In the morning we went to the Swiss National Museum, which was pretty cool. It was in what I think used to be a palace, and Kristen and I felt like we were in Harry Potter’s Hogwarts as we looked out the windows at the snow. As we were walking around town, I took a picture of this toothbrush ad that I had seen all over the place and found quite hilarious: it’s a guy and a girl, both extremely blonde and blue-eyed and with perfect white teeth. I thought it was funny how very stereotypically northern European they looked. It was actually nice looking like everyone else for a change; in Spain, my blonde hair makes me easily identifiable as a foreigner. Although people almost always speak to me in Spanish, they can tell before I open my mouth that I’m not a native speaker. In Switzerland, however, people would automatically speak to me in German, even though most people there know English as well as a couple other languages. I didn’t realize how out of place I felt in Spain until I went somewhere where I actually looked like I fit in.

We had lunch that day at a restaurant near the university called the Crazy Cow where we had some yummy Swiss macaroni and cheese. In our wanderings that afternoon, we also hit a Starbucks, a Swiss chocolate shop, and a popular Swiss bakery called Sprüngli. Basically, we stuffed ourselves with food all day. Apparently Starbucks and McDonald’s, both of which are all over the place in Switzerland, are big competitors there, which I found amusing since no one would consider them competitors at home. Just from peaking in the window, I could tell that the Swiss McDonald’s is way more sophisticated than the ones in the States. We really wanted to watch them make chocolate at the chocolate shop, but unfortunately we missed it. But we got some cute Valentine’s pastries at the bakery. On the way back to the hostel that afternoon, I got roasted chestnuts (marroni) from a street vendor. They were delicious, and with all the snow falling around me, I felt like I was living a Christmas carol.

That night we had dinner at an Italian restaurant where we had managed to get a reservation—we didn’t know what would be available on Valentine’s Day, so we were glad to find an opening. As soon as we walked in the door, we realized that it was not the place for two single college girls: it was a moderately upscale place, and practically every party there was a middle-aged couple. The food was good, but the service was slow; we think our waiter was punishing us for only ordering soup and salad rather than one of the very pricy entrées. We did get some incredible tiramisu for dessert, but I really missed my mom’s traditional Valentine’s “cherry berries in a cloud” dessert! Afterwards we went in search of the Zurich nightlife and bumped into our two new Australian roommates at a bar. After a round of margaritas, the four of us tried to find a club that was in our guidebook. Our map was not very helpful, and there were no crowds of partiers in the streets that we could follow (another way Switzerland is very different from Spain—Kristen and I were shocked at the lack of people in the streets on Friday and Saturday night). We concluded that Zurich either didn’t have much night life or it was just incredibly difficult to find, so we went home.

We headed back to Salamanca on Sunday morning. I rode a European train for the first time for all of five minutes to get to the airport. I was sad to leave; Switzerland is an amazing country. It’s so clean and beautiful and peaceful, and being there made me want to learn German just so I can live there someday. But the trip home was not pleasant. After our 2 hour flight, we had to take the 3 hour bus ride from Madrid to Salamanca. I’ve now made that bus ride 3 times, and every time it’s been miserable. It’s so difficult to travel to the rest of Europe from Spain, and from Salamanca specifically, because it’s so far away from everything! But I was happy to be back, and my host parents seemed happy to see me when they greeted me with the standard air kisses on each cheek. Also when I came home, my new roommates had just arrived—they’re from Georgia of all places! Like the French girls that were here last week, these girls are only here for a week. As nice as it was to get out of Salamanca for a change, I did miss it, and I felt so at home when I walked through the Plaza Mayor on my way to class on Monday. Still, I wish I could not take classes and just travel this entire semester. My classes are slowly getting easier, but it would be so much more fun if I could just trek around Europe for 5 months!

Penafiel and Kate’s visit!

The medieval square in Penafiel

Tower of the Castillo de Penafiel

View of Valladolid from the top of the castle

The town of Penafiel

Kristen, Me, and Kate at the wine tasting

Georgetown group and friends at the wine tasting

Castillo de Penafiel

This weekend was fantastic! I really enjoyed getting out of Salamanca and seeing a new part of Spain, and of course I had a blast with Kate. She arrived on Friday afternoon, and Kristen and I took her out for hot chocolate at one of our favorite cafes. For dinner we went to a place called Erasmus; it’s a popular hang-out for international students, named for the international study abroad program in Europe. We met a couple of the other Georgetown girls there and had cerveza y pinchos (beer and tapas) for dinner. One of the pinchos was really delicious—a toasted slice of a baguette topped with caramelized onions and goat cheese and raisins. It was a fun, relaxing night, and it was great to catch up with Kate after not seeing her for so long.

Saturday morning we got up really early to go on our excursion to Penafiel with the entire Georgetown group. After the 2 hour bus ride to the town of Penafiel in the province of Valladolid, north of Madrid, we went on a tour of a wine factory/bodega. We went through the building and learned about all the different steps in the process of making wine. The tour was in Spanish and was a little difficult to understand, but it was interesting nonetheless. After the tour we had a wine tasting. We learned about looking at the color of the wine, smelling it, watching it drip down the inside of the glass. Then we got to sample the wine and some traditional Spanish snacks: sheep milk cheese and Iberian ham. It was really fun, especially because, since we’re a bunch of 20- and 21-year-olds, we felt very grown up having wine and cheese at a Spanish vineyard. And I was very impressed with Kate’s ability to understand Spanish; she only knows a little Spanish, but her knowledge of Italian made it easier for her to know what was going on, and she was actually able to communicate quite well with us in Spanish.

After the wine tasting we went to a rustic restaurant called Lagar de San Vicente. It was at the base of the hill where the Castillo de Penafiel is located. We had wine, bread, salad, whole little roasted chickens (which were quite the adventure to eat, at least for me) and patatas fritas for lunch, with café con leche (espresso with a lot of milk—the coffee drink of choice here) and some sort of creamy, flaky pastry for dessert. We were all very full and happy afterwards. When we were done eating we went downstairs to check out the restaurant’s bodega, which was located in an ancient cave in the basement. When we were done at the restaurant, we took the bus up to the castle (castillo) of Penafiel, which was built in the late 9th/early 10th century and overlooks what seemed like the entire region of Valladolid. The whole area is known for its wine, and we went through the castle’s wine museum before touring the castle itself. I unfortunately didn’t pay much attention to the tour of the castle; we were at the very top of the castle, outside, on top of a mountain, and the cold and wind made it hard to pay attention. It even snowed a little! But there was a gorgeous view of the town and the surrounding vineyards and farmland and the snow-covered mountains in the distance. The castle itself was really cool too, and I enjoyed walking through it. When we finished at the castle we stopped to check out the medieval town square, which looks exactly like what you would think a medieval square would look like. I believe my program director said that they still hold bullfights there.

Our Penafiel excursion was very fun, and it was nice to get out of Salamanca for the day. Once we returned to Salamanca, Kristen and I took Kate out to dinner at the restaurant we went to with our program on our first night in Salamanca. We had a nice leisurely dinner (and late, like true Spaniards—we finished around midnight!), and Kate got to try Spanish tortilla, which is one of my favorite foods here. After dinner we went out to the clubs and bars. We ended the night at this bar that was apparently having oldies night; they were playing a bunch of American oldies, and there were very few people there under the age of 40. It was a little awkward for us, but we had fun dancing, and I think it’s pretty cool that it’s so acceptable here for people up through their 60s to go out to clubs late into the night. I also found it amusing how surprised Kate was to see the number of people out in the streets at 3am. It’s absolutely true that Spaniards party till all hours of the morning. When we headed out Saturday morning at 7:30am for our Penafiel trip, we saw numerous people just ending their night and heading home. I guess that’s why they invented siesta.

Sunday morning Kate, Kristen, Mary Kathryn, and I went out for chocolate and churros—you can’t come to Spain and not have churros! Then we showed Kate the sites of Salamanca and hung out in a café until she had to catch her bus to Madrid. I’m so glad she was able to come visit us, and I had so much fun showing off Salamanca to a visitor! That evening, the Georgetown group went to see the musical Jesucristo Superstar. I was familiar enough with the music, and obviously with the story of Jesus, to understand what was going on, but it was pretty impossible to understand the actual Spanish words they were singing. But the singers were fantastic, and I always enjoy musicals; this one was no exception. It was a very fun-filled weekend, and next weekend I’m going to Switzerland!

Becoming a Salmantina

I’ve just completed my second week of classes and, after about a million changes, finally have a set class schedule. I ended up dropping my art history class for another Spanish history class—the art history was just way too hard for a foreigner. I’m struggling with having all of my classes in Spanish, but I know it will be worth it in the end. As the only person in my Georgetown group who has never taken Spanish at the academic level (I’ve only taken grammar classes, although I should have been in a writing class this past semester but chose not to take it), I feel kind of behind all the other Georgetown kids. It takes a lot of energy to pay attention enough to understand what is going on, especially because lectures can be up to 2 hours, but it’s slowly getting easier every day. I just keep reminding myself that as long as I pass my classes I’ll be ok; since my classes are in a foreign language, Georgetown doesn’t factor the grade I receive into my GPA, I just get class credit. Also, all my professors seem really understanding and accepting of having foreigners in their classes, so that will be helpful!

I’ve been enduring some mild culture shock the past couple of weeks. I always imagined that culture shock would come from something actually shocking: the way people interact with each other, how they go about their daily lives, etc. Instead, my culture shock has mostly come from practical annoyances. For example, I went to buy my text books on Saturday afternoon and had to wait an hour for the store to reopen after lunch. And on Sunday, I tried to go to the library to do some homework, only to discover that the library isn’t open on Sundays, and closes early on Saturdays. That was pretty frustrating, considering Georgetown’s library is open 24 hours. So then I went to an internet café so I could use the internet to do my homework, and proceeded to surf the net rather than study. Working out a class schedule was also really annoying because practically every class I wanted to take overlapped with something else. But now that I know how things work here, I’m hoping I’m over the culture shock (for now) and will know how to deal with it in the future. It was just a little difficult to adjust at first. Also, the Georgetown group met with a psychologist today to talk about culture shock. It was a really interesting session, and I know that what I’m going through is completely normal. She gave us a lot of good advice on how to get over culture shock and adjust to Spanish life, which will hopefully help me make the most out of this semester.

I joined a gym here and went for the first time Wednesday. It’s a really nice gym, and I love being able to work off all the food my host mom feeds me! Also on Wednesday, my new roommates from France finally arrived. They were supposed to arrive on Sunday but couldn’t get here because of all the snow in France. It’s snowing like crazy all over Europe except in Salamanca—it just rains all the time here. They’re 2 18-year-old girls, both very sweet, and they’re here for a week. Tonight at dinner they told me that they are Gossip Girl fans, and it made me laugh to see, once again, how American culture has taken over the world.

A funny anecdote: Kristen, Mary Kathryn, and I were planning on going to Barcelona for the second part of our spring break to see the Coldplay concert there on 4/9/09. Mary Kathryn ordered the tickets, and as soon as the confirmation page popped up, we realized that 4/9 is not April 9, as we thought, but September 4! Of course we should have known that, being in Europe and all, but I still don’t understand why they wouldn’t have written the date out on the web page. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to return the tickets because the show is now sold out, so if anyone is going to be in Barcelona on September 4, 2009 and wants to see Coldplay, let me know!

Another cool anecdote: I met a girl from Omaha yesterday in one of my classes!! She’s actually from Denver, but she goes to Creighton University in Omaha. And she even lives kind of close to where I used to live! It always makes me happy to meet a fellow Nebraskan/Midwesterner, and who knew I would meet one in Spain?

A few more observations I’ve had about life in Spain:
-You know how people in the States will stand on street corners and hand out literature or ask for donations to a charity? Well, they do that here too, but I have never been approached by one of these people. I don’t know if they’re just not as aggressive as they are in the US or if they avoid me because I’m American or what.
-I really don’t know how people know I’m American. Of course I’m clearly not Spanish, (the blonde hair, white skin, and 5’9” height kind of gives me away) but why do they always assume I’m American rather than some other nationality? Maybe America is just the safest bet since it represents pretty much every nationality, or maybe I just really don’t look European at all.
-A lot of the public bathrooms are semi-unisex; there will be men’s and women’s stalls but shared sinks, or two rooms but no gender labels on the door. It’s still weird to me to wash my hands with a guy at the sink next to me.
-There are churrerías, or churro venders, everywhere. They have these little stands on the street corners that are just like the hot dog/pretzel/popcorn stands that you see in big American cities. Spaniards certainly love their churros!

As much as I like Salamanca, after 3 weekends here I’m ready to get out. I also really want to meet some Spanish people! This weekend should be really fun, though, because my Georgetown friend Kate, who is studying in Florence, Italy this year, is coming for a visit! I’m really excited to see her because I haven’t seen her since August, and I’m looking forward to showing her the city. She arrives in a couple of hours, and on Saturday the Georgetown group (Kate included) is taking a day trip to the castle of Penafiel for a wine tasting. It will be nice to go somewhere new, and it should be a really great weekend. And next weekend Kristen and I are going to Switzerland, which I’m very excited for. We’re busily making preparations for lots more trips this semester!

Las clases han empezado

Me with my host parents, Antonio and Mari

Plaza Mayor, the center of town

In front of one of the cathedrals on the first day

Yesterday was the last day of my first week of classes at Universidad de Salamanca, and it was quite the experience. The weekend before classes started was pretty lazy because I had absolutely nothing to do. That was a pretty weird experience for me; even when I’m home for vacations I always have some sort of project around the house I can work on, but here that’s not the case. I’m getting used to, and enjoying, the slower-paced life here, although once classes get into full swing the lack of stuff to do will not last. Last Saturday Kristen and I attempted to run and ended up walking through the city. It was nice to get some form of exercise given the huge quantities of food my host mother serves me! I had a marathon internet session at a wifi café in the afternoon, and I got to skype with my parents for the first time, which was fun. That night, we decided to see a Spanish movie. We settled on Bride Wars (Guerra de Novias) because we figured that anything with a more complicated and serious plot line would be too hard to follow. It was really funny to see Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway with Spanish-dubbed voices, but it was still kind of hard to understand. I got the gist, though, and now I’d like to see it in English. We were going to go out after the movie, but both of us were really tired and I was starting to get sick, so we called it a night. Oh yes, the latest movie showings here are around 1am, when people are just starting their nights. Tickets are way cheaper, too.

Sunday I was feeling pretty sick (stuffy nose, sore throat, head ache) so I stayed in all day and spent a good chunk of time laying in my bed watching Gilmore Girls on dvd. Classes started on Monday, and that’s when it hit me that I really don’t speak Spanish! Sure, I may have been taking it since the 7th grade, but that does not qualify me to take actual university classes in Spanish! I’ve become really envious of all these foreigners who aren’t doing direct matriculation and therefore aren’t taking university classes. I know that it will get better eventually and that I’ll slowly and surely improve, but it was a stressful week for everyone in my program. Not only are we trying to work out satisfactory class schedules, which can be a chore even in the States, but we’re trying to learn an entirely new educational system as well as improve our Spanish. I’ve changed my schedule multiple times and had to drop a few of the classes I originally signed up for. The most disappointing one I had to drop was North American Literature. Since I’m an American Studies major, I was looking for classes here that have something to do with the US. I found a bunch of American Lit. classes, but all of their syllabi were in English, so I couldn’t take them. Finally I found one in Spanish and was so excited that I would get to take American Lit. in Spanish! I went to the class on Tuesday and was the only foreigner. I felt terribly out of place, and it gave me a whole new respect for minorities. I was really nervous, but the professor seemed nice and the class seemed interesting. But then, he passed out the syllabus, and it was in English! So I had to drop the class, and the literature nerd in me was very disappointed that I would be missing out on all that classic American lit. After lots of tedious changes, I think I finally have an acceptable schedule. I’ll be taking Introduction to Spanish Poetry, Modern History of Spain (Inquisition and Society, 16th and 17th centuries), Hispanic American Literature, 19th and 20th centuries, Prehispanic and Indigenous American History, and Symbolism and Art Noveau. I have 15 hours of class a week and never start class before 10am. I get out by 2pm on Thursday and have no classes on Friday, although I do have evening classes on Monday and Tuesday. It’s a pretty awesome schedule. Also, we didn’t have class on Wednesday because it was some saint day, so I’ve only had 3 days of class so far! And my class this afternoon was cancelled. Oh, Spain.

One of my best friends from high school, Mary Kathryn, is also studying in Salamanca this semester. She arrived on Sunday, and I bumped into her in the Plaza Mayor (the center of town) on Monday. She’s doing a different program here, but she’ll be here through May and I think we’re going to get to hang out a lot together. On Wednesday, she, Kristen, and I planned our spring break, which is the first week of April. We’re going to England for the first half and Ireland for the second half, and we’ll be spending Easter in Ireland! I went to London for spring break last year to visit my cousin Beth, so I’m hoping this year I can see some more of England as well as London. And I’ve always wanted to go to Ireland (I went through a bit of an obsession in middle school) so I’m really excited for this trip. I’m anxious to start traveling, there’s so much of Spain and Europe I want to see. I just hope classes don’t get too much in the way!

I’ve been sick with a cold pretty much all week, which has made me very tired and worn out, so I haven’t done much other than go to class and lay in bed watching tv on my computer this week (to the few who care, I’m almost done with Gilmore Girls!) Plus it’s been really rainy and gross all week. But last night I finally did get to go out because it was the 21st birthday of one of the Georgetown girls. We had dinner at a nice Italian restaurant, and the food was delicious, but our meals didn’t turn out quite as we expected—our Spanish culinary vocabulary is rather limited, so we didn’t exactly know what we were ordering. I think the biggest surprise was the raw egg that came on one of the pizzas (it was gross). But it was fun to eat out and hang out with the whole group. Since I’ve been here, I’ve only eaten out for a meal once because my host mother provides me with 3 meals a day, so it was nice to do something different. After dinner we went bar-hopping and took advantage of Spanish nightlife. I went home at 4am, and all the bars were still packed. Spaniards certainly know how to party. It was a really fun night, and today I don’t have class! I’m a big fan of the 4-day school week. Plus, it’s a gorgeous day today, which is a nice break from all the rain we’ve had, so I’m looking forward to a lazy afternoon out.

My Wisconsin roommates left Wednesday morning; they will be replaced with some French people on Sunday. It’s very common here for people to just open up their homes to boarders, which is nice for traveling students. Some other observations I’ve had since I’ve been here:-Spaniards don’t drink water. I’m used to drinking a ton of water every day, but nobody here really does. I miss free water at restaurants! I also miss all the fruits and vegetables I’m used to eating. I eat a LOT more meat and bread here.
-Spain is much more conscious of water and electricity use. All the lights in public spaces like hallways and bathrooms are on timers; you turn them on and they go off again after a few minutes, which I think is really cool.
-Smoking is allowed in many if not most public places, much to my dismay.
-American music is everywhere here—in the bars, in the stores, on commercials on tv. It’s striking how pervasive American culture is around the world. I really can’t escape it.

I miss you all and hope you’re doing well!
Love,
Molly

La primera semana

Hola a todos! I have now been in Salamanca for a full week, and I love it! I’m having so much fun living in a foreign country and learning about Spanish culture. Before I talk about the past week, let me rant a little about my internet situation: my host family doesn’t have wireless internet in their house, which made my first few days here really hard. I wanted to be able to check my email, skype with people at home, and read up on all the inauguration coverage, and it was especially frustrating because everyone else in my program has wireless internet where they live (albeit rather inconsistent wireless). I bought a portable internet device, but I had to go back to the tech store where I bought it 3 times before it worked; it still only works about half the time, so that whole situation was really frustrating too. So, being a spoiled American who has access to internet wherever she goes, I was really upset about not having internet for the first few days. While it’s still hard to not have internet whenever I need it, I’ve gotten used to the idea of using internet cafes and my portable internet during the rare times that it works. And once classes start on Monday I’ll have access to the network at school. So things are not as bad as they seemed (they rarely are, I suppose), but just to warn you, if I have a skype date with you and I don’t show up, I apologize in advance; I probably just wasn’t able to find an internet connection.

Now, my journey to Salamanca. I left Georgia on the afternoon of Thursday Jan. 15. My friend Kristen from Georgetown is also studying in Salamanca this semester, so she came down to visit me in Georgia for a couple of days, which was really fun, and we flew out of Atlanta together. Thursday morning I finished up my packing, ran a few errands, and took my sister Meg lunch at school. She was practicing an a cappella song with her friends for their upcoming talent/rock show (Coffee House), and I got to listen! I’m glad I got to watch them, but it really made me miss my a cappella group at Georgetown, the GraceNotes. Then Kristen and I went downtown to have a final lunch with my friends Jennifer and Mary Kathryn, and my parents drove us to the Atlanta airport afterwards. It was hard to tell my parents goodbye, but I wasn’t as emotional as I thought I was going to be. (I will admit, I did cry a little bit Wednesday night as I was packing. I was pretty nervous.) We flew overnight from Atlanta to London and then had a 7 hour layover in the London airport, which was primarily spent surfing the internet and fighting off jetlag. It was during this first part of our journey that we realized that we weren’t going to arrive in Salamanca until about 11pm, and we started getting really nervous about getting to our host families late at night with no means of communicating with anyone. So we decided to hastily book a hostel for Friday night and deal with contacting our families on Saturday. It was extremely nerve-wracking trying to book a hostel and figure out all the transportation, and fortunately Kristen handled all the details, for which I was very grateful. After landing in Madrid, we had to take a bus to Salamanca. Our bus platform wasn’t posted until minutes before departure time, and once we got down to the platforms the numbers kept changing, so Kristen had to race around finding our bus while I tried to keep an eye on our 6 bags and not get trampled by the traveling Spaniards around me. The 2.5 hour bus ride felt about twice as long, but we finally made it to our hostel (fortunately the reception desk was still open), took showers, brushed our teeth, and crashed. It was an exhausting 30 hours.

We checked out of the hostel at noon on Saturday, and Kristen and I parted ways as we went to find our host families (we are living on the same street though). When I buzzed up to my apartment, I was told that my host mother wasn’t there and to come back at 2. I knew they were expecting me, but I didn’t know what to do other than wait until 2, so I lugged my suitcases to a neighboring park and settled down with my book. It was actually quite nice. When I returned at 2, my host mother told me that she had been expecting me to come between 1 and 2, which is probably what the person I spoke to before (either her husband or son) told me, but I failed to understand. I really love my host family, despite their lack of internet and their tendency to fry everything they cook. The mother, Mari (nickname for Maria) is really sweet and always helps me with my Spanish and offers to help me with homework. She calls me “amable hija,” or kind daughter. There is also a father and a 26-year-old son—people tend to live at home for much longer here than they do in the US. I’m also living with 2 girls from Wisconsin, although I’m technically not supposed to live with Americans, but they’re leaving next week so I figure it’s not a big deal.

After lunch Kristen and I met up to do a bit of exploring. We got some hot chocolate—the really thick kind like in the movie Chocolat, which I’ve wanted to try ever since I saw the movie. It definitely lived up to my expectations. We eventually bumped into our friend Carter from Georgetown who is also studying here this semester but came a couple weeks early for a language program. He showed us around the city, and in the evening we met up with the rest of the kids in our program and our program director for tapas. Afterwards we did some bar hopping, but the 3 of us that had gotten in Friday night had to call it quits at about 2am—extremely early by Spanish standards…they usually stay out till about 5am. It was a fun night.

There are 7 students in our program, 6 girls and 1 guy. We are doing direct matriculation, meaning we are official students of the University of Salamanca (USAL) and take classes with Spanish students—15 credits, all in Spanish. Apparently most other programs don’t do it that way; students come and take language programs, and maybe 1 or 2 classes in the host language, which kind of surprised me. I’m excited and terrified about taking all my classes in Spanish. I know I’ll improve a ton, but it’s going to be hard. At least my grades don’t go on my transcript, so all I have to do is pass to get Georgetown credit. Also, it will be fun to study at USAL, which is the oldest university in Spain and the 3rd oldest in Europe. While not quite as prestigious as it used to be, it still is quite important historically.

On Sunday we went out for churros and chocolate, which is a traditional Spanish treat (who doesn’t love deep fat fried dough dipped in liquid chocolate?), and in the afternoon we had a historic tour of the city. Monday through Friday was taken up by orientation: we took culture and language classes, registered for classes at the university (an extremely complicated process), and adjusted to life here. It was a pretty laid back week, and it was kind of weird to not have a million things to do every day. Every morning we would have pinchos (small snacks, like tapas) around noon in one of the various cafes; this typically consists of café con leche and maybe jam or a small Spanish tortilla. Tortillas are absolutely delicious and nothing like Mexican tortillas. They are egg, potato, and onion concoctions kind of like quiche, but without the pie crust. I think they are my favorite food in Spain so far. Lunch, or la comida, takes place around 2 or 2:30, and is the biggest meal of the day. Literally the entire city (and I presume country) shuts down between 2 and 4 so everyone can go home for comida and siesta. Dinner is smaller and happens around 9 or 10. It’s a different system, but I like it. It leaves lots of time for hanging out in cafes with your friends, which is a custom that I really enjoy and participate in pretty much every day.

I haven’t really experienced much culture shock or homesickness yet, just a few small annoyances that kind of grated on me. However, on January 20 I wished with all my might that I could be back home in Washington for the inauguration of President Obama. I really can’t believe that after 2 ½ years of living in that city I missed one of the most important and exciting days in American history in my lifetime. I’m so envious of all my Georgetown friends who got to go; I’m sure I wouldn’t have slept Monday night so that I could leave in the wee hours of Tuesday morning to get down to the National Mall. I’ve seen pictures of the day's events that people posted on Facebook, and they are absolutely incredible. All of the Georgetown kids in Salamanca watched together in a bar on the Madrid news, which was fun, but I could have done without the Spanish dubbing. I’m going to have to go back and watch the speech in English on Youtube. But it’s exciting to see how the rest of the world is reacting to our new president; Obama is all over the news here, and there is a general sense of happiness and renewed faith in America. I’m excited to see what the next 4 years will bring.

Please forgive me if I rambled on a bit; there was a lot to write about from my first week abroad. I’m looking forward to seeing what the next 5 months will bring!

One week to go....

Hi everyone! I'm leaving for my semester in Salamanca, Spain in a week, so I thought I would go ahead and set up my blog, which I'll use to keep you all updated on what I'm up to. Right now I'm still at home in Georgia, packing and getting ready for the big trip. My friend Kristen is also going to Salamanca, so she is coming to Georgia on Tuesday, and we're going to leave together from Atlanta Thursday evening. We arrive in London Friday morning and fly to Madrid Friday night. Then we'll take a train to Salamanca, which is about 2 hours away from Madrid. Lots of travel time. I'll be staying a hotel Friday and Saturday night and I move in with my host family on Sunday Jan. 18. Then I have a week of orientation and classes start Monday January 26! And yes, all my classes are in Spanish, which still kind of terrifies me, but I'm sure after a week of Spanish culture classes I'll be much better prepared. That's it for now....I'll write again once I've arrived in Spain!