Fifth Week in Salamanca and Final Week in SPAIN

So a short story. Doing laundry at my señora´s house costs 12 euros (she originally told me 10, but whatever) and giving it to a company to do cost €6.50, so clearly I will choose the cheaper option. I took my laundry in on Thursday afternoon after class, and he said I could pick it up in the morning, but I told him that I couldn´t because I was going out of town (to Zaragoza!), so he said I could pick it up that night by 8. I thought this would be fine because I thought I was just going to the cathedrals with my señora´s brother, but alas we went more places, so I didn´t pick up my laundry. I asked a friend to pick it up for me on Friday because I wasn´t sure what the company´s policy was for picking up laundry. She said yes, so I gave her the receipt and the money to do so. I am going to fast forward a bit to Friday afternoon where I am about to take a siesta at Paco and Angelines´house, when I get a call from my friend saying she lost my money and my receipt because it fell out of her pocket on her way to go pick it up. So I was a little nervous, but everything was there when I picked it up on Monday and the guy didn't care that I didn't have my reciept because he said that he remembered me.

Sunday night we out with guy named Martín from Buenos Aires, which was fun because we got to practice our Spanish. It is really funny when I hang out with the twins and Caitlin because I am the only brunette, and they get a lot of attention from being blondes in Spain where almost everyone is a brunette.

Monday must have been uneventful since I don't remember what I did, except I did pick up my laundry and talked to Manny on skype. It was pretty uneventful because we studied for our exams on Tuesday. I am sure I did other things though.

Tuesday was the day of exams, which were both super easy, unlike all the other exams that I have taken at college. In my U of M class we didn't have an exam, but we have to do a final presentation later in the week, so in class we went to this crazy museum made by this guy to protest stuff though art. It was cool, but a little dark and I for sure did not understand all of the art that was there. This museum was on the other side of the world of Salamanca, so I made an adventure of it walking home, trying to get myself lost, but I found that it could not be done. It was a nice walk home and I checked out this HUGE, beautiful park on the way. Later that day I shopped around and explored a little more. That night we all went out for a really long time and a huge group of us waited until this churros and chocolate place opened (4:30 am) and got them. They were so incredibly amazing.

On Wednesday, I went shopping for things to remember Salamanca and to enjoy the time I have left in this beautiful city. I also read a little bit in the Plaza. During the few hours walking around the city, 4 old men started a conversation with me. The longest was while I was reading in the Plaza when this little old guy joined me on the bench. We talked for almost a half hour, it was really funny. Then I met up with some people from my culture class to celebrate the birthday of this kid from China. No one can say his name, so everyone (including the teacher) calls his Javier or whatever Spanish sounding name comes out first. After dinner, I made my final presentation for class on Thursday and then went to hang out in the Plaza.

On Thursday, I spent the afternoon at the pool and then went to this museum of old automobliles with my host uncle. When I got back, my host mom and host uncle gave me a gift which was candy and two nice books with pictures of Salamanca. Then I went out with some friends and this guy from Salamanca named Julio. He was cool because he took us to fun places that were mainly Spanish people instead of international students.

Friday was the last day of classes. We went to a restaurant with my culture class to say goodbye. After all my classes were over, I got my certificate of completion and then went shopping for a few last minute items. I wanted to get Elena (my señora) a gift since she got me one too, so I bought this stuff animal frog (on this building of the university, there is this tiny frog along with thousands of other designs on the wall and anyone who finds it will have good luck on exams or life, so frogs are kind of a symbol in Salamanca) and my señora liked it a lot. I knew that she would because she loves stuff animals. While my señora wasn´t really a good host, I still wanted to get something for her, especially since she didn´t really enjoy the gifts from MI that I brought her (Sander´s hot fudge, Mackinac Island Fudge, MI Cherry Tea, a heat mitt shaped like the MI hand, and probably something else tiny...she doesn´t really eat, so the food products were kind of a waste on her). I also picked me up a Universidad de Salamanca sweatshirt and a really cool ring that I was told is another symbol of Salamanca.
After shopping, I met up with Rachel F. and we tried to find the river where a whole bunch of people hang out, but we never did find that part of the river, but we did find this shop that nuns sell cookies in and we bought some that were super delicious. I originally planned to give these cookies to Maria and Francesc, but they were very delicate and crumbly and by the time that I got them home, they were all crumbs.

After lunch, I went out to walk around the city for the last time. I saw a whole bunch of it and I went into this store and found a cute dress! I was very excited.

Then I went to the goodbye dinner at Don Cochinillo for my whole program. It was a delicious meal, but it was really sad because it was the last time all together in Spain! Afterward, I went to the Plaza Mayor to get ice cream with some friends and then I joined the twins and Caitlin to go out for a little bit on our last night. Before going back home, I called my brother, John, with my calling card that I had to get rid of since it only works in Spain. It was nice to talk to him and he, Jenn, and Dori were out looking at houses. Super exciting stuff! Then I was planning to go to sleep when I got back home, but then I got nervous about forgetting things, so I searched up and down and around everywhere. I am pretty confident there is nothing of mine left in the house. At 5:30, I took a taxi to the bus station where I would take a bus to the Madrid Airport (where I would take a plane to Brussels to see Maria and Fransesc!).

Weekend in Zaragoza!

To get to Zaragoza, I took a train to Madrid (Station Chamartín) and then I took another train from a different station (Atocha) to Zaragoza. I was a little bit nervous to have to switch stations because they are not exactly right next to each other, but the transportation system in Madrid is amazing. I didn´t even have to leave the station to get on a train to the other station. I had two hours to get to Atocha, and I made it in less than 20 minutes. I left Salamanca at 5:40, arrived in Madrid at 8:30, had a two hour layover, left Madrid at 10:30, and arrived in Zaragoza at 11:48. I did a very good job sleeping on all of my trains, which is something that I normally don´t do very well. The train from Atocha to Zaragoza was a high speed train (which goes over 280 km/hr!), so it only took a little over an hour to get to Zaragoza from Madrid. It was really cool.

When I got off the train, Paco and Angelines were there waiting for me. They were so cute and Paco refused to let me carry my backpack. At their house, Angelines made a delicious lunch and then I got to take a lovely siesta (I was pretty tired from the lack of sleep from the night before). I was so excited to be sleeping on a comfortable bed (the one at my senora's house is about 3 inches tall and too soft, so I sink into the bedboards underneath). When I woke up, Luis was home and then Becky called us on Skype! We got to see that cute little nephew of mine. Then we went to the pool in their neighborhood. It was so nice and relaxing and the weather was fantastic. After getting ready back at the house, we went into the city of Zaragoza to explore, walk around, and eat dinner. We ate at this bocadillo (sandwich) place and we each ordered a delicious sandwich and split them four ways. Each one was super tasty and then we got ice cream. I am so happy that coconut ice cream is at almost every ice cream shop so far in Europe, as it is my favorite kind and I can rarely ever find it at home. After exploring a little more, we went back home and went to bed.

The next morning we went to the pool again (after I ate a delicious breakfast) and hung out there for a while. Then when we went back home, we had a barbeque on there really cool grill that looks kind of like a chimney. The meat was so amazing. I always think that there will be one course for lunch, but at this house I am always wrong. We had one plate of different meats and a salad and then another plate of meat. I thought that was going to be it (because I was so full already), but then Luis and Angelines popped up and ran back to the barbeque to make some other meat. It was super good, so I really didn't have too much trouble making any room for it. Then Becky, Paco, and Ethan called and Ethan was crawling all over the place and being super funny. After the call, Luis left for the mountains to hang out with this camp that he used to go to before he started working. We went back to the pool for an hour and then we went downtown again to see a different part of the city and eat delicious tapas. It is nice going to eat tapas with people who know which ones are the best. Also, one of the cool things that we walked by was this ancient roman theatre that was just found underground about 30 years ago. I thought that was really awesome. We also got ice cream this night too, which was super good.

The next morning I had another amazing breakfast (jamón, bread, melon, juice, and jams). Afterwards, Paco showed me a book about Brussels because I am going to visit Maria next weekend and after looking at it, I am very excited to go! Then I walked with Angelines to go buy break at the store in their neighborhood and when we returned Paco took me to their next-door neighbors to talk for a bit.

Suddenly, it was time to go to the train station to drop me off. The weekend flew by! Paco and Angelines are so sweet and I had such a great time! Also, this weekend was probably the best experience to practice my Spanish, since that was the only language that I had in common with the whole time. It was really great because in Salamanca, the students in my program speak English all the time, which is a real pity, but oh well.

Anyway, I can't wait to see them again, and I know that they are super excited for Becky, Paco, and Ethan to visit in September!

Fourth Week in Salamanca

On Monday, I went to a different park and read for a little bit and then went shopping (however, my mission for a dress or skirt is still incomplete). I love that Salamanca is full of beautiful parks to walk through and relax in. Later that night, I went out with the twins (Lauren and Allison) and our friend from New York that we met in Salamanca, Caitlin. Caitlin had met these two Spanish guys, Roberto and Jorge (not my instructor Jorge) and they tagged along too. It was pretty fun and it was cool because we had to talk in Spanish because neither of them knew English, so a very good practice. We went to a few fun bars around the city. There is this one bar here named Jacko and it only plays Michael Jackson music and all the drinks are named after things in his songs or things he would do in concert, like Thriller and Black or White. It is pretty funny. The other places we went to were O´haras and La Perla Negra (The Black Pearl), which were both fun.

On Tuesday, I went exploring in Salamanca because there is still a lot of the tourist stuff that I haven´t done yet. I found another beautiful cathedral and I found this free art exhibit that displays pictures of Salamanca from 100 years ago. It was really neat, and the Plaza Mayor, which is already so awesome, was even cooler 100 years ago because it had a garden in the middle with a gazebo in the center of that. And there were Christmas lights outlining all of the Plaza, but I still love the Plaza Mayor here. Seriously, it could be one of the most beautiful plazas ever. At 7:00, a group of us went to a soccer field and played. It was a mixture of people from my program as well as others and a few of the instructors that some people have for the cursos classes. My team totally dominated, which had very little to do with me as I have realized that I am a better soccer player when I play with children, not people my size and bigger. Despite my poor soccer skills, it was really fun. That night, I met up with the same people from Monday night and we had sangría in the Plaza, and since the Spanish boys were there, we were forced to speak in Spanish. FYI, Roberto is really cute and Jorge not so much.

On Wednesday, I was really tired so I took an amazing siesta. It was awesome. When I woke up, I went to a different park and wrote a paper for class. While I was there, this cute 13 month old named Laura was there with her grandma and she toddled over to me and wanted to watch me write. She was really cute. Later I talked to Becky and Ethan on Skype. I swear, my nephew gets cuter every day.

On Thursday, I bought my bus ticket to Madrid on the 1st of August, when I will be leaving Spain. I can´t believe it is so soon! At 6:30, my señora´s brother (so my host uncle?) took me to a few places around the city. First we went in the New Cathedral and then the Old Cathedral and then we climb up to the roof and saw the city from above. It was awesome. After that, we went to a museum called Museo de Art Deco y Art Nouveau Casa Lis. It was pretty cool, too. He wanted to take me to this car musuem, but it was closed, so we might go later next week.
That night I went out for a little bit with Lauren W., Maria, Lauren F., Allison, and Cailin. We went to a few places and then I left them a little after 1 because I had a train to catch at 5:30 the next morning. I packed and went to bed for 3 hours. On my way to the train station at 5 am, I ran into Lauren W. and Maria walking home from their night out. It was funny because the last time I walked to the train station in the morning before the sunrise, I ran into them too.

Anyway, next stop: Zaragoza to stay with Paco´s family!

Weekend in Andalucía

So I went home for dinner at 10 on Thursday night and my señora was no where to be found. I started to get a little nervous because I was meeting my friends that were going to Andalucía with me in the Plaza at 11:30. After ensuring (multiple times) that I was all packed and ready to go, I knocked on the door to my señora´s room. Still no answer. I was pretty hungry at this point and I only had a 20 minutes before I had to leave, so I decided that it would be okay if I made me a sandwich from the food in the fridge. After eating that I wrote a note to my señora telling her that I had to go and that I ate a sandwich and was about to head out the door when I heard a small voice saying ¨Rachael, a comer.¨ Apparently my señora had been sleeping (I didn´t actually check inside her room because the door was closed, but I did knock and call her name). I told her that I wouldn´t be able to sit and have dinner now because I had to go to the bus station and that I already ate a sandwich. She felt bad because she knew that I had to leave for the station that night, so she quickly put some fruit and some empanada in a bag for me to eat on the bus. Then I left and met the group in the Plaza and we walked to the station. Our bus was supposed to leave at 1 am, but it didn´t show up until 2:30. This bus was taking us to Sevilla and we had to get to another train station in Sevilla in order to get to Granada (which was where we were staying Friday night). Our layover time in Sevilla was supposed to be 2 and half hours, but since our bus was an hour and a half late, we made it with very little time to spare.

After arriving in Granada, we took a bus from the station to around our hostel, which was named Funky Backpackers Hostel. It was actually really nice and the staff was really sweet. Our rooms came equiped with a bathroom and a mini kitchen with a sofa/living room. We then went to the Alhambra, which is this huge muslim palace on top of the mountain. We had pre-ordered our tickets and when we printed them, the worker there said that we couldn´t enter until our time (3:30). So we waited to enter and when we did, we took our time in the garden that leads up to the Muslim Palace, which is called Palacios Navaries. By this time it was a little after 4:00. We went to go in the Palacios Navaries, but the guard people wouldn´t let us because our time had expired. Apparently we had to go in the Palacios Navaries at 3:30, not just enter the Alhambra as a whole at that time. The stupid ticket checker at the beginning skrewed us over. After I tried to talk to them to let us go in (in Spanish), they still wouldn´t let us in. So we had to go buy new tickets to enter. It was ridiculous. While it was beautiful, I was a pain to have to spend more euros to see it.

That night we went out for a tapas dinner. When you buy a drink in Granada, you get a free tapa (that is chosen by the restaurant/bar), so at our first restaurant we got little sandwich tapas with a really good meat inside. We also got some other tapas, like chorizo frito and patatas ali oli. Then we went to another place, got drinks and a seafood tapa, but I couldn´t eat that one. Then our third place we got a plate of three things (Patatas fritas, little sandwiches, and tuna salad) with our drinks. We discovered a new drink that is similar to sangría called tinto de verano, which is red wine with lemonade in it. It is super good. After this we got ice cream. This ice cream is the best ever. From afar, the display of it looks like beautiful, colorful cakes, but it is ice cream! There were so many flavors and I think that the workers knew that their ice cream was magical because they happily let us try as many flavors as we wanted and they knew we would buy a cone. I had bizcocho ice crea, and it was amazing.

The next morning we went to Sevilla by train. Sevilla is probably my favorite city that I have visited this trip. The main thing that I love about it is that it is a city, but it is really relaxed and the people are friendly. There are many little alley streets that are fun to explore and it has so many cool things to see. We got to Sevilla at around 3 and were checking into our hostel, but two of the girls (Lauren and Allison, the twins) didn´t bring their passports, so the hostel wouldn´t allow them to stay there, so I went with them down the street to another hostel (San Francisco Hostel) to see if we could stay there. The owners were really nice and allowed them to write down their passport info for his paperwork and our room was a private room with 3 beds and a bathroom. It felt more like a hotel than a hostel and we paid the exact same that we would have at the other hostel. It was also cool because the workers only spoke Spanish, whereas the guy at the front desk at our original hostel was English, so we were able to practice our Spanish more. We then walked around the city and bought tickets to a flamenco show that night. After lunch, we went to Parque María Luisa to explore. While exploring, we encounter these bicycle carts for four people, so we rented two of them for a half hour and explored even more of the beautiful park, probably looking like fools, but it was super fun. Connected to the park is the Plaza España, which is beautiful with a big fountain in the center and a bridge and beautiful buildings. Then we went to get ready for the dinner, the flamenco show, and the rest of the night. We stopped at this little restaurant for tapas and had a great meal and then we went to see the flamenco show (the professional shows are called tablaos). It was super cool! It was a hour long show and the performers were really good. Some of the others had not ever seen flamenco before, so they were shocked by how cool it was. Later that night, a few of us from the group went out to see the more orginal version of flamenco that is in certain bars in the city (called tabernas). I actually enjoyed the songs and dances in this bar a little bit more than the earlier performence, even though the dancers were better and more professional, the small, intimate setting of the taberna showed the roots of flamenco more clearly. After that, we went across the river to Calle Betis, where this is a higher nightlife. The river at night was so pretty and there is a really beautiful view of the city.

The next morning we went to the Reales Alcazares, which is this really old palace that is so incredibly amazing. I think I actually liked this more than the Alhambra. Inside it shows some old rooms of the palace and outside there is the most incredible gardens that I have ever seen. Every view and place that I went was absolutely gorgeous. And to make things even better, this was free for students! After this we went to the Torre de Oro, which is basically this tower/old fortress that is also a museum and at the top, you can see the whole city. Unfortunately, it was at this tower that the battery in my camera died. I was very upset, but I am getting all of the pictures from other people cameras from the rest of this trip, so don´t worry Mom :)

After lunch, we went to the cathedral and the Giralda (the tower that is connected to the cathedral). Just a little bit of history, this cathedral is the third biggest in the world and the biggest gothic cathedral AND it is incredibly beautiful, both inside and out. If I lived in Sevilla, I would sit in the park outside this cathedral everyday (and nicely enough, the real alcazar is right next door). The Giralda has 34 levels of pure inclined ramps in order to reach the top of the bell tower, but the views through the windows going up were amazing and at the top you could see the whole city. It was awesome.

Well, this entry was a lot longer than I anticipated, but that´s all we did...ha. I would go back to Andalucía in a heartbeat.

Third Week in Salamanca

On Monday, I went to class and did a presentation of the avgolemeno soup that I made for my señora and watched the presentations of the food other people cooked or helped their señoras cook. After lunch I read on a bench near where I live for a bit and I was approached two separate times by Spanish people looking for things in the city. They had mistaken me for a native of Salamanca and asked for directions to places, both of which I knew how to get to, so I was able to tell them. It was pretty cool. Later, I went to store and picked up a bottle of wine and then browsed other stores to fulfill my mission of finding a cute skirt or dress, but the mission is still incomplete. After dinner, I met some friends in the plaza and we went to a nearby park and drank some wine. It was really nice.


On Tuesday, I went to the park from the night before and read for a bit after lunch because it was such a beautiful day. Also, I actually had homework. I mean, I have had homework in these classes before, but I was assigned stuff from every class and each of the assignments took a chunck of time and all of them required the internet. While I was working on a public computer, I was signed out by the internet café because the guy next to me was leaving and said that he was at my computer and I lost all of the work that I had done, so I had to re-do all of it. It wasn´t cool. But I did get to talk to Becky and Ethan on Skype, so I felt better pretty fast. After dinner I met the same group from Monday in the plaza. We hit a few bars and I broke off from that group because I was going to go home, but some other friends were having a drink in the plaza and the call me over, so I sat with them for a while. At the table next to us, there were three guys from England on a motorbike tour. They were pretty funny.



On Wednesday, Kelly M. and I went to see Harry Potter 6, which was of course dubbed in Spanish, but I think I liked it more because it was in Spanish (I wasn´t annoyed by Hermione´s voice). I was surprised because I understood almost everything (and it probably helped that I bought the HP3 book in Spanish here and have been reading it, so my Harry Potter vocab is up to speed). After that I went to a travel agency and booked train tickets to Zaragoza to visit Paco´s family for my last weekend in Spain (which is already next weekend crazily enough). I talked to my roommate Rachael a bit on Wednesday and also on Monday. She is meeting me in Milan after I finish this program and we are going to travel around Italy together. I also talked to Manny on g-chat for a bit and hopefully next time he will have a camara so we can video chat.


So I think that it is important to note that there are an unbelievable amount of twins in Salamanca. Everyday I see anywhere between 3 to 7 sets of twins (these are twins that are children, and about half or more are identical from what I can tell), and I can´t be sure, but I don´t recognize any repeats from day to day. It is crazy. It has almost gotten to the point where I almost expect the double stroller rather than a single one. I think that it is awesome, as I kind of have a fascination with twins. Also, there is one set of identical twins here together from my program and two of the girls that were my orginal roommates have a twin at home in MI (Kelly M. and Laurn T.). It is kind of crazy.



Thursday I woke up super early to run to a computer lab to make a quick PowerPoint for my culture class. This oral presentation was worth 20% of my grade, and it could be on anything cultural, preferably something that can compare the US and Spain. I chose to compare the farming systems of both countries (which was easier than it sounds because I just took a class on migrants, which covered the US farming system pretty well and I basically just wrote a paper on it, so I just had to look up a few quick facts about Spain). Then I ran to my art history class, which was suppose to meet at 9, an hour earlier, because Jorge (the teacher) missed class on Friday so we were making it up, except he didn´t show up until ten because he said he had trouble with his car. Whatever. He is going to try and make us come early again, but we were all upset that we came to class twice now and he hasn´t shown up. Then I went to my culture class. Only the people who were not going to be in class on Friday had to give their presentations, which was about 5 kids that were traveling for the weekend. Before I continue, I would like to remind you that this presentation is presented in the syllabus as the el Examen Oral (Oral Exam) and is worth 20% of the final grade in the course, so I put a little bit of effort into it (this is my farming system presentation). Now my presentation was only 4 slides with little info on them, since the presentation only had to be 5 minutes, but I knew that I had done too much work as soon as the first kid got up in the front to speak. He said that he was going to talk about his experience in Pamplona, said 4 sentances about that (lasting for a total of 40 seconds) and then my instructor said Good Work and asked for questions from the class. Next, a girl went up and stated the obvious differences that we have already discussed. The third girl talked about the same thing. The fourth girl talked about her trip to Bacelona. All of these people brought up a piece of paper and basically read off of it. Then I came up with my intense PowerPoint Presentation comparing the farming systems in the US and Spain. It was ridiculous. Actually, it is really funny, thinking back on it, and I can say that I pretty much guarenteed myself an A in that course.

Back in my U of M class with Andy, we watched a movie called La Lengua de las Mariposas. It was in Spanish and we watched it without subtitles. Out of the class, I was one of the very few that hadn´t seen it already, but I feel like I understood most of it, and what I didn´t understand didn´t affect my understanding of the movie. It is a really good film and I highly recommend it. The little boy in it is amazing and so incredibly cute, with the cutest voice ever.

I won´t be going to class on Friday because at 1 am Thursday night (or one could argue Friday morning), I will be getting on a bus to a southern region of Spain called Andalucía. I will be visiting two cities: Granada and Sevilla. I am super pumped.

Pamplona and San Sebastián

So I left Salamanca for Pamplona at 2:45 on Friday. We had an hour and a half layover in a city called Vitoria. The travel agency that we booked our bus tickets at only printed one page for all of us (10 people total in my group, but 98% of my program went to Pamplona and San Sebastián this weekend), so a girl named Elise was in charge of the tickets. There was a bunch of buses leaving for Pamplona at this bus station, as well as a crazy amount of people, so Kelly M. and I became separated from the group. They all got on a bus and then that bus filled and started to pull away with Kelly and I outside, ticketless. We had a minor panic attack and banged on the doors of the bus and another girl from the group (Megan) ran to the front of the bus to explain the problem to the driver. He was really mean and wasn´t going to open the doors to help us out, but then he had to go talk to someone outside of the bus, so he had to open up the doors. Megan shoved the tickets in our hands and we ran to another bus and got on.

Arriving in Pamplona was like arriving in a sea of red and white. Everyone was in all white with red scarves and other red accessories. It was pretty much crazy. I was originally wearing black capris, but I bought some white pants there for only 8 euros, and they were really comfy. It was a really good choice because it got kind of cold throughout the night. We didn´t have a hostel or anything, so we had to stay awake all night, which wasn´t hard because the streets were filled with people all night. There were fireworks about an hour after we got there. We found this really cool and huge rope structure, originally intended for children of course, but as I love all play structures, I played on it for a while with some friends. It was really awesome. We explored the city a bit and then at 4:30, we got these spots on a street that overlooks the encierro (the running of the bulls). We staked out the spot by having a few people there at all times. We had to keep walking around in order to stay warm. I would like to mention the state of the people at this celebration of San Fermín - incredibly drunk. Also, the streets strongly smelled of urine, as they were filled with it, but it was still a fun experience. Our spot to watch the bulls was right above where they pray to San Fermín for protection during the race, which is right by the start of the race. At 7:30 or so they put the decorations and the saint in a window thing in the wall of the street of the encierro and 10 minutes or so they crazy amount of people in the street did their prayer, and 8:00 the bulls were let loose. They run super fast and there were so many people in the streets. I took some really good pictures and got a video of the prayer and the bulls running. After that, I went down and walked the encierro and then explored some more of the city. At 2:00, our bus left for San Sebastián.

San Sebastián is beautiful. It is a city in the Basque Country, which is in the North of Spain and it is right by the ocean. We were really tired (as we didn´t sleep all night), so we went to the beach (super beautiful) and relaxed. Then we took a short nap at the hostel and then the Kellys, Lauren T. and I went out for tapas. We hit up three tapas bars, and at the second bar I had one of the best totilla patatas ever. Later we walked around and had delicious gelato (I had caramel and coconut) and then went to bed (we were so tired).

The next day all of my friends were bums and just wanted to go the the beach again, so we went. I found some time to go check out a church alone and then met them for lunch at the really cute, delicious, and cheap restaurant that was right on the water. Then we had to run and catch our bus back to Salamanca at 3:45.

Second week in Salamanca

We didn´t have class on Monday because we had to take a placement exam for our other 2 classes that would be starting on Tuesday. After that, I stood in a line to sign up for excursions given by the program. My friends and I really wanted to sign up for the Sevilla & Granada trip, so we waited in the line for nearly two hours and when we got to the front, there were no more tickets left. We were pretty upset, but we are just planning our own trip for the same weekend and it is going to be way better. We went to a travel agent to get our transportation to the cities and I got to put my Spanish to good use. I think that we are going to be saving a solid chunk of money by doing the trip ourselves.

Tuesday was the start of my new classes. I have an art history class with an instructor named Jorge and a Spanish culture class with an instructor named Elena. Jorge is really good looking and is really interesting, which is surprising because art history isn´t something that I am extremely interested in. Elena is nice and talks super fast, but she makes the class fun and interactive. Tuesday night, I went out with a few friends to different bars and had a really good time. There is this girl name Caitlin that studied in Salamanca in the past and now is working here. She knows all the really great places to go and she is really nice.

Wednesday I went to class (now they start at 10 and go to 1:30, so I am slightly more tired than I was). My homework assignment from my U of M class (the one that I have had everyday since arriving) was to make lunch or dinner for my host family and the meal had to be something that you eat at home. I decided to make avgolemono with a dessert of vanilla ice cream with Sander´s fudge (For my host family present I brought Sander´s hot fudge, Mackinac Island fudge, a Michigan oven mit, and cherry tea from Michigan cherries). I cheated a little bit because I used chicken broth from a box versus boiling a chicken and deboning it and stuff, but it tasted pretty good. I think I added a little too much orange juice, but it was still good, but nowhere near as amazing as my Mom´s. Later that night, I met some friends in the Plaza and we just sat on a terrace and had sangrías and talked. It was really nice.

Thursday, all I did was go to class and then work on my presentation about making my avgolemeno. I sat on a bench for a while reading a book and two times I was mistaken for a native of Salamanca and people asked me for directions to certain places in the city. Fortunately, I knew both of the places that I was asked and could give them directions, so that was pretty cool. I went shopping a bit before dinner and bought some white shoes for 7 Euros for my trip to Pamplona this weekend. After dinner, I am sure that I will meet up with some people from the program and hang out in the city somewhere.

Friday I will go to class and then run to the bus station because I am going to PAMPALONA!! This week was the San Fermín festival of the running of the bulls, so I will be watching the bulls run on Saturday morning! Then I will be going to a city that is kind of close call San Sebastian. It is supposed to be beautiful with lots of great beaches and things to do.