Last day!

Just got done eating my last lunch in Sali and I'm all done with my exams now, hurray! My host sister is opening her first restaurant tonight so we're going to go there for dinner. Last night we had our little "graduation" ceremony. It was chaotic as usual with everyone standing up at the same time...all I can say is that we do it much more organized in the U.S. I really had a good time here but I'm so ready to be back home...it's a long time to be away. Tomorrow I leave bright and early..well, early but not quite sunny bright. Hasta luego :)

Relaxing long weekend!

I'm just finishing up a nice long weekend. We had off today and got Paella for lunch because it's Santiago Day...People walk or bike across the country to go to this cathedral in Santiago, which is the capital of Galicia just north of Portugal. So it's a religious holiday and people get off of work. Actually the whole country doesn't recognize it. Anyway, yesterday I went to the rastro in Salamanca; it's a huge flea market that opens every Sunday. I also climbed the tower of the new cathedral of Salamanca. Very cool veiw! I'll post some pics. When I got "home" my host mom, Filo, asked me if wanted to go with her to the pool. She goes almost every afternoon after work. It was so cool and a short walk...There were two pools. One normal sized outdoor and a huge olympic one that was heated with a dome that can open and close like Miller Park. When I was suntanning I found two four-leaf clovers too! I have an eye for them even in Spain I guess ;)

Pasta night

The night before last the girls and I made pasta in the dorms. It was yummy to have some different food for a change. We "made" some gazpacho out of a carton and ate it out of plastic cups. It surprised us how good it was, considering all we had to do was pour it out of the carton, lol! Nothing else is really new...just studying again. Exams start Tuesday!

El Escorial

Today we went on our last group excursion to El Escorial. It was kind of a light day in comparison to some of our other trips where they try and fit 2 or 3 things into one day. It was cool because we saw real paintings by Valazquez, who we´re learning about in our art class right now. It was also a little creepy because it´s a place where they hold dead royalty. When we went into this small room, there were stacks of caskets from the floor to the ceiling. I didn´t like it one bit...I was getting carried away with my imagination! It was pretty cool though I guess. I couldn´t take any pictures of the inside, otherwise I would post them. For lunch we had the menu del dia at this really busy place and ate outside. (The gazpacho was yummy.) Nothing else is really new. Last night we went to see Resacon II (The Hangover II) en español and Mary spilled the popcorn all over the floor, lol. In the movie theatres here you have to choose your seats. Also, they don´t have butter for your popcorn! I guess that resists the temptation! Hasta luego!

Ahh la siesta!

I'm actually posting this from my bedroom as I'm relaxing and trying to nap...I was starting to think I was getting used to the siesta. I'm only able to get internet from my Kindle from inside the house-I was psyched to see it worked! I am past the month mark...now I have been in Spain longer than any other country. I can see how people can do it for longer, but I still like being in my own home :). Tomorrow I'm going to go shopping and see a movie and Sunday our excursion is to El Escorial. Hasta pronto...9 days left of class, not that I'm counting...

Estudiando...

Tomorrow I have three exams for Art History, Grammar, and "España Actual," which doesn´t translate the best, but is a study of the differences in how Spanish is spoken within Spain. So I´m off to study some more. I´m fighting off a cold, so I´m hoping I can stay awake long enough to get enough studying in...Hasta pronto!

Otra excursión

We arrived back from Madrid Saturday afternoon around 4, after only sleeping about 3 hours Friday night. We went to the discoteca Kapital, which has 7 different floors. One of the floors had karaoke and the girls and I sung Backstreet Boys, "I Want it That Way." It was hilarious and really bad, since we only had one microphone and there were 4 of us. It was also fun for dancing because it was packed, so we weren't the only ones dancing.

On Sunday we went on another excursion with our program to three different places in the province of Salamanca: Alberca, Mogarraz, and Miranda del Castanar. This was my favorite excursion yet! In Alberca there's a big pig that walks around freely and gets fed by the people. In September every year they raffle him off to get eaten. Sad, but true. Jamón Ibérico is a huge part of the culture here. It's kind of like Italian prosciutto, but better. The pigs run around freely and only get fed this certain acorn thing. They also cure the ham for a minimum of 2 years--crazy! The houses were really old looking in Alberca and they all had flowers on them; it was cute. I also got my cat fix--I miss my Simon. We ran into two adult cats and just as we were leaving Miranda we found two kittens in a whole an old building. The view was beautiful in Miranda--very green actually, and mountainous.

Madrid (otra vez!)

Hola! Another week gone by...crazy! I´ve been studying for mid-terms, which are already next week. It´s nice because we don´t have classes Friday afternoons, so we´re going to leave soon for Madrid. We love Salamanca, but it´s good to get away for a little bit. Some other girls and I are going for one night. We have our excursion on Sunday like usual. I can´t remember where I´m going for that...I will try and post some pix soon too.

La ruta de las fortificaciones de frontera

On Sunday we went on an exursion to the border of Spain and Portugal. We saw some old fortifications that were constructed for the defense of the land in the 17th and 18th centuries. They are now just ruins, but we saw what they were designed to be and what they were when they were first built. It was really a cool design...in the shape of a star kind of with 8 different points. Pretty interesting.
When I arrived back ¨home¨after the excursion I had two new American ¨sisters.¨ They´ll be living with us for the rest of the month. They´re 21, but I feel a lot older than them, lol! I feel like my teacher is coming out of me. Yikes! Í´m shaking right now so much. It´s probably because I had a really strong cup of cafe con leche this morning. I don´t know why it would be hitting me now though. Classes are zooming by! So much to study. I´m at the residence right now, but I´m about to head back to study. We didn´t really do anything special yesterday for the 4th of July, but had our inauguration, so we had two less classes, which was cool!

A la piscina!!

Hola! Hoy vamos a ir a la piscina! Today we´re going to go to the pool! It´s our only free day of the week, so I´ve been taking advantage of the time by relaxing. I walked to the park nearby and sat on a bench to people watch. There was a group of older men playing something like boccee ball. Lots of older people at the park today. My host mom is not here this weekend because she had a family wedding to attend in Bilbau, which is north of here. It´s been kind of nice having the place to myself. She was so worried about me having enough food, etc. while she was gone. She prepared all of this food and put it in the fridge for me and then asked her two daughters to come to stay at night with me. I thought it was really sweet because she bought apples especially for me because she said they keep better when you pack them in a bag lunch, since I have my excursion tomorrow. So sweet. I was talking awhile with her daughter yesterday about a lot of things, and one of them was about the cost of college. I never knew this...in Spain public colleges are free. Insane! I wish it was like that for us! Pretty cool :) She couldn´t believe how much we pay to attend college and that even so, so many people still go in the US. Anyway, I should get going because the girls just got back from lunch and we´re going to head to the pool! Luego!