Good Ol' South

             I returned to my house at 3:30 in the morning on Thursday to finish packing, take a 20-minute nap, and then get up and eat breakfast so that we could leave by 4:30 to meet at the meeting place at 5. After everyone finally got there, we set off on the over six-hour bus ride to Seville, completed with two bathroom/food stops. When we arrived, we found out our hotel was attached to the Estadio Olímpico, which was never actually used in the Olpimics as Seville failed in its bid attempt. Then we set off to see the Plaza de Toros and el Torre de Oro (Golden Tower), eat tapas, and tour the Catedral (which has the largest tower in Spain, La Giralda, from a former Islamic Moque) and the Alcazar (Moorish Palaces and extensive gardens). By then, most of the group wanted to go back to the hotel, which was lame, so three of us continued to walk around the city, along the river, and then ate dinner at a place in what turned out to be a dog park, where everyone seemed to be local. We were excited to be at a place with no tourists. For dessert, we ordered the most delicious chocolate cake ever. When we were finished, we were debating on whether or not to take a taxi back since our feet hurt. Some lady overheard us, and offered her help. She recommended a taxi, but said that first we should walk a couple of blocks down to a park because a lot of young people hang out there. We walked over and found a nice bench near a restaurant that had someone playing music outside of it. We proceeded to people watch for quite a while before returning to the hotel. On the way back, we saw a bunch of people under a bridge and realized it had been converted to a rock-climbing wall, which was pretty darn cool.

            The next day we got up and stopped at the Plaza España, built for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929 before heading off to Granada. Running late as usual (because very few people from our group know how to be on time) and because of a mix-up in tour times, we didn’t realize until it was too late that we weren’t going to make it to the Alhambra on time. Luckily the people were nice enough to move our time from 4 to 7, which meant we had from a little after three (you have to pick up your tickets an hour before your time) until seven to explore the open parts of the area. It was the last Moorish stronghold during the Reconquista and was then used by the Spanish royalty. We had lunch and then explored the gardens, Generalife, Palacio de Carlos V, and the fort area. After waiting in line, we were able to get into the main part at our tour time. It was beautiful, but had been built up a little too much for me, which wasn’t helped by the fact that a large section, including the baths, was closed. We did get to see the just recently finished, restored lions from the fuente de los leones. On the way out, they let us peak in the Convento de San Francisco even though a wedding was going on. We went out for tapas after, and on the way, walked through a cool street market that took over a couple of blocks and La Santa Iglesia Catedral Metropolitana de la Encarnación de Granada (but we didn’t get to go inside since it was closed and we had to go to the later tour time at the Alhambra). After tapas, a few of us split off from the group and walked around a little bit more, got ice cream, and had nice conversation.

            First thing in the morning, we set out for Córdoba. Our rooms were not ready at the hotel, so we headed straight out to see the sites. We walked across the Puente Romano, and even thought the water below the bridge looked gross it would have been nice to get in it since it was so hot. Then we had free time for lunch and shopping in the Jewish Quarter of the city. My group found a cute little restaurant patio to eat at, but Rebecca and I never got most of the food that we ordered. We had to go, so we just told the manager to take it off the check. Then we had our tour of La Catedral de la Asunción de Nuestra Señora (aka la Catedral de Córdoba or Antigua Mezquita de Córdoba). Currently, it is a roman Catholic Cathedral inside of an old Moorish Mosque on top of an ancient Visigoth church in the Jewish Quarter of the city. A little confusing right? It was very interesting, and definitely the most unique cathedral I’d seen in Europe. All of the other sites were closed by time we finished with this, so we decided to go to a tearoom. After that, we returned to the hotel to freshen up, and then went out for tapas and to see a public concert that was going on. It was absolutely packed, and as usual most of our group just wanted to go back, so only four of us stayed. The other group, although, ended up getting back after us because they stopped to get drinks for a few hours. Our group managed to push our way to almost the front of the concert, got a few pictures, and then left. We stopped and a few people got drinks. Then we decided we wanted ice cream, so we asked a nice looking old man where to go, and he recommended a place right around the corner. When we got there, there was a line outside the door, so we new it had to be good. After trying it, I can say it was the best ice cream I’d had in Spain, and David Rico sure does know how to make ice cream. On the way back we found another concert and the filming of something for TV in the courtyard of the Catedral, so we checked that out for a little bit. We asked a random guy whatall was going on, and realizing we spoke English, tried to explain in English, but we insisted on him speaking in Spanish so we could practice. We talked for a little bit, and after saying we were from Texas and how difficult it was to understand the Spanish here, he did a really good impression of Mexican Spanish.

            Since we didn’t get to see it the day before, we toured El Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos. Then we got back on the bus to head back to Salamanca. Once again, we made two stops. Everyone was pretty worn out and slept most of the way.

            Extra notes from the trip: it’s really hot down there. It’s not as hot as it is in Texas, but most places don’t have air conditioning, luckily our hotels did. Our tour guide was Javier, a cute little man. He wasn’t much older than us, but he tried so hard to make it the best trip ever for us. He had done the trip three times before, but this was his first time to do it in English.  Our bus driver was José, but we preferred to refer to him as Gaston since he reminded us of the guy from Beauty and the Beast. Our group is not made up of many good travelers. Most people complain, are never on time, move slow even when we’re in a hurry, and would rather sleep than see these beautiful places. That is why I was so thankful to be able to spilt off from most of the group and be able to actually enjoy the splendor of wherever I was. By the end of this trip, I was very ready for a break from almost all of the group and how absolutely inconsiderate they are, but I only have a week left, so that will come when the trip is over. Four days of class, one quiz, one essay, one test, and one night in Madrid until I head back to the real Good Ol’ South.

Free Time, What's That?

            Let’s start with the only free day that we have of the entire trip— no traveling, no class, no tours, no nothing. I woke up only a little later than normal to go for a run. I intended to run through a park near our house, but I found a bike trail that I assumed went around the park. I started to follow it and before I realized it didn’t go around the park, I was pretty far from it, so I decided to just follow it anyway. After a while, I lost it because of construction, which was good, because later that day I found out it goes around the entire city. After I got home, showered and finished my homework for the weekend, Rebecca and I gave ourselves a self-tour of the city, and by that I mean we picked the one section of the city we don’t normally spend time in and just started walking. We found a lot of pretty parks and bridges, probably the dirtiest part of the city (since they clean most of it three times a day), and some cool buildings. We walked by one of the main parts of the University and most of its dorms. At one point, we were walking through a park and saw lots of people running past us with numbers on, so we realized that we were walking through the end of a race, which was a little embarrassing. We finished our tour walking along the river, by the business school (go Neeley!), and back to the plaza where we started. After lunch and siesta time, a group of us met up to go shopping, which some of the girls do pretty much everyday. Then a few of us went to the plaza to study and hang out. We ran into Rebecca’s housemate’s friends from France and talked with them for a while. Later after dinner, we met back up again to go out for the night, which was night number five in a row for me (which became 6 the next night, and I have no idea how Spaniards survive).

            The next morning my alarm didn’t go off and my roommate slept through hers, so our house mom woke us up 32 minutes before we had to meet over 20 minutes across town for a group excursion, which we weren’t even sure what we were doing or where we were going. We somehow managed to get ready and eat breakfast in eight minutes, allowing us to arrive exactly on time (not that almost everyone else wasn’t late though). We drove on the bus for a couple of hours with a crazy drive that wouldn’t allow food or backpacks in the bus. They stop in a shabby little town where some crazy nature lady with a walking stick meets us. In the town, everyone wanted us as young people to stay because one example was they only have 2 fourteen year olds in the entire surrounding area. As it turns out, we had to hike about a mile to some look out spot for the local nature reserve and then even further to a building to watch birds feed, but that day they hadn’t put out enough cows so we didn’t even get to see anything. After we finally make to back to the bus, we drive down a canyon to find the biggest hydroelectric dam in Europe. We stopped in another little village where they told us we’d be having lunch, so we took our food and walked for 15 minutes after they said it would be 5, to find out that we couldn’t eat there because most of it was private property and they were having a concert that night so we were not allowed to eat in their pavilion. We had to stop and look at a far away view of the dam and the house were the dam engineers stayed (fun fact: it’s currently being renovated to be a 5-star hotel). Then the crazy nature lady proceeded to talk about every type of tree we passed on the way back to the bus, making it even longer. So we got back on the bus to be dropped off at the dam where they assured us we’d be able to eat. We got off the bus, but then they told us we had to walk across first. Halfway across we have to stop and hear all about the dam and how it works, as if we didn’t know how a dam works. By walking across we crossed into Portugal, where we finally got to eat lunch, on cement steps, looking at a cement wall.

            We returned to the bus to go to a boat tour of the river. Apparently, our bus driver got lost, so it took way longer to get there than it should have taken. While he was lost, one of the guys from our group got sick and vomited all over the bus, which did not help the situation at all, but it was a little bit of karma going back to the bus driver– so much for no food on the bus. Finally we found it, waited in line, and got on the boat. Going with out luck, the tour was in Portuguese, but we figured out at the end that it was about rocks, so it really wouldn’t have been much better in Spanish. Then there was a bird show, once again in Portuguese, and the most any of us got out of it was that one of the bird guys was really cute. It didn’t seem humane how they kept the birds chained up, and we couldn’t even see most of them, so we were happy to head back to Spain. The bus ride back was miserable because the guy remained sick for the entire three-hour trip.

            My Sunday started with quiet time in the park. Then a small group of us went to the local, Sunday market. It was a lot of fun and there was a lot of cool stuff and some interesting stuff (a lot of underwear stands). We bought gifts for people, clothes, and searched for good parachute pants, which are a huge hit here. Later our group went to a bullfight. I knew that they killed the bulls, and I had heard that they were gory, but I guess I never really thought about how they would be gone about. The torero was the very gorgeous Juan del Álamo. We learned a lot about it and it was a very cultural event. Most of the people there were older men. The women, as always, we dressed up and walking around in heels. He killed six bulls that night, but it wasn’t as hard to watch with each one. After dinner there was a firework show because the next day was the day for the patron saint San Juan de Sahagun. We were the only school in the city to have school the next day, but we got over that by looking at it positively, we improved our Spanish.

Lucked Out

            So last weekend, we managed to pull off a trip to Barcelona with eight people from our group. We got out of our Thursday night cooking class so we could make it to Madrid on time to catch the overnight train to Barcelona. The train from Salamanca to Madrid was fine; we all got to sit together. While waiting in the Madrid station, two Americans asked for help finding which platform to go to, and as it turns out, they were on the same train as us. When we got on the train, we could not find out seats. There was a dining room in our car, so there were only like 40 seats in it. The numbers went from 50 to about 90, and we had seats in the 100s. We kept walking back and forth between two cars asking the workers for help, but they just kept sending us back the other way. Everyone else on the train thought we were dumb American tourist that couldn’t find our seats. After about twenty minutes, one of the workers decides to actually show us where are seats were, and it would turn out that he could not find them either, mostly because they didn’t exist. After about 20 more minutes of waiting along with a worker and some security guards, a higher-up worker comes and upgrades us to the next class, which with the extra space turns out even better for us.

            Rebecca and I planned to stay with her aunt’s good friend Ashleigh, who lives about an hour’s train ride from the center of the city. However, we decided to stay with the group on Friday until we left to go out to the house. From the train we got directly on a metro that took us to where their hostel was. Within 20 feet of the exit was a Starbucks, which several people had to go to, so that was breakfast. How American. Then it was off to the hostel to drop luggage off. Upon arriving, they find out that they booked one bed, not one 8-bed room. Luckily, the guy was nice enough to call around and ask other places he knew of if they had room, and when that didn’t work, he let them use the hostel’s internet to look for a hotel. After about an hour, they found a much more expensive hotel, a little bit further out, but it was a place to sleep. By the time we finished all of that, we walked around for a little bit and ended up eating lunch at the Hard Rock Café because some of the people haven’t quite grasped the idea of embracing the culture while we’re here, but I will admit I had an excellent burger. Then we walking some more, stopping to shop, mostly at store that are also in Salamanca, followed by ice cream and walking down Las Ramblas, a well-know street for its shopping (although with a little bit more Spanish culture) and beautiful buildings, ending up taking a coffee break in a mall.

            At four, they decided they wanted to go back to their hotel and nap. I couldn’t say that Rebecca and I were disappointed that they left. To give you the full picture of why, we didn’t see them for the next two day, and when we got on the train to return to Salamanca, this is what they told us about their weekend: most of the group went out the first night, all of the group went out the second night, they ate at McDonald’s twice, Starbucks again, a few meals in their hotel, they saw the Sagrada Familia and spent a few hours down by the port. My only thought was you paid that much money to come to Barcelona and do nothing. Well Rebecca and I proceeded to give ourselves a self-tour of part of the city, during with we saw lots of pretty buildings and plazas, Parc de La Ciutadella, Hivernacle, the zoo, Mercat del Borne, Museu de la Xocolate, Palaus Meca, Cervelló and Dalmasses, Museu de Picasso (which we didn’t know it was there and just thought the street was absolutely packed), Arc de Triomf, Sant Pere, Monument a Casanova, Palau de la Música Catalana, and La Catedral.

            Then we made our way out to the house we were staying at. About half of the hour train ride was along the Mediterranean Sea and was absolutely beautiful. So here’s the run down of the family that we fell in love with. Ashleigh is the mom. As it would turn out, she graduated from TCU and she had no idea about us and we had no idea about her. Go frogs! She use to own a gym before she had their daughter, and she’s a bit of the overbearing mother type. Her husband Alec was really goofy, and another random connection, his mom was from Salamanca. The two of them met in the States while he worked there for over 10 years. After they got married, they decided to move to Spain, and then a few years later had their daughter, Arielle, who is now three. She’s an only daughter, is absolutely precious, oh and knows three languages and is kind of learning three more. Their house is on a mountain over looking the Mediterranean Sea. Needless to say, I was a little jealous. Every time we came home, they had tapas (Spanish appetizers) waiting for us, and water and snacks on our bed. I’d relate it to a 4-star hotel plus some meals for the price of three €6 train tickets.

            The next day we got up early to start our day. We went to the Sangrada Familia, which was enormous and very different from every other cathedral I’d seen. We wanted to go inside but the line went down the street and around the corner and was not moving, so we decided it would be better worth our time to go do the other things on our list (the night before we consulted the family on where we should go and got insider information).  From there we took a metro to a train to a street cable car to a funicular to reach the top of a mountain on the outskirts of the city. Tibidabo, the mountain, had a beautiful church that Rebecca and I fell in love with. In the church, we took an elevator, stairs, and then more stairs to climb to the top were we stood at the feet of Jesus (there is a giant statue of Him on the top) and overlooked the entire city of Barcelona and the sea. It was such a God-filled place, and we did not want to leave, but after stopping for a quick lunch, we made out way back down the mountain to go to another mountain Montjuïc. There we saw Plaça Espanya, Plaça de Toros les Arenes (an old bull fighting ring that was converted to a shopping mall), took pictures outside of el Museu Nacional D’art de Catalunya, went to Poble Espanyol de Barcelona (which has replicas of many important site in Spain, so it’s like we have been everywhere, but it was a little bit of a let down, but we’re going to say it was just our low point in the day), Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys, and finally Castell de Montjuïc (by way of air cable car).

            When we got back to the house, Ashleigh and Arielle were already asleep, but of course there was delicious food and snacks waiting for us. Alec was watching the Spain vs. US fútbol game and asked us several times if we wanted to grab a beer and watch with him. I took him up on the game part and watched until half time, but by then it was after one, I was exhausted, and I still needed to shower. It didn’t really matter because the US ended losing pretty badly. The next morning they informed us that they wanted to take us to do stuff in the city that day until we needed to leave. It was then that Rebecca and I decided that we were like their grown-up children that never come home but when they do, the parents do everything they can to make it the best trip ever. First we went to Parc Güell, which was interesting but crowded. Then we drove around the city for a little bit. We saw the Estadi del FC Barcelona (it’s humongous!). Then we had lunch at a local place. For once, we weren’t in tourist central, but we kind of ruined that when we took a picture while leaving. But this place supposedly has the best patatas braves in the whole city, so it was legit. After driving around for a little bit more, we had coffee on top of the bullring converted into a shopping mall on mountain Montjuïc. They left us after that because Arielle was worn out after the long day. Rebecca and I went back to the main part of the city and walked around for a couple of hours before we headed to the train station to meet up with the rest of the group (so sad to be leaving…) . In all, it was an amazing weekend- a nice, quiet break from the rest of the group, feeling God’s presence in a dark country, and hitting all of the main spots in Barcelona in two and a half days. We seriously lucked out with how everything worked out perfectly.

Stay in Spain

While on the trip, we get two free weekends. Well, we didn't find these out until the first Monday of classes aka we had four or so days to plan the first one. The majority of the group agreed that we wanted to go to Portugal for the beach for one and Barcelona for the second one. Since Barcelona is a much bigger undertaking, we decided on Portugal for the first one. We were having trouble figuring it out since it isn't the biggest tourist spot, so there are not a million websites with recommendations. Harriette's host mom is a whiz at traveling, so she helped us work up a plan. She recommended Porto (or Oporto as they call it here) and a couple of other cities because they have nice beaches, are less expensive, and the quickest to get to from Salamanca. Porto was chosen solely because the bookstore from Harry Potter is located there. Everyone from our group including our professor except one person joined in on the trip.

Friday morning at 4:15 am, we meet at the train station (a 40 minute walk from our house- ugh) to catch our 4:30 train. We had one switch at the border, and then arrived in Porto at 9:30ish. On the second train, Harriette was sitting next to a middle-aged guy researching Rockport, Texas so she struck up a conversation. Apparently, he was from Germany but had spent some time in the States, but was now studying in Portugal. He wanted to go to some concert in Rockport, even though we're not sure why he'd pick there over all places. Once the train arrived, he showed us how to get to the closest metro station, recommended which tickets to buy, and which stop we should stop at. What a nice man! Once we got off the metro we followed the map to our hotel (from the hotel website) to find ourselves at the public library. Luckily, there were signs pointing us in the direction of our hotel. After leading us in a giant circle, we found ourselves three blocks down from the public library.

The lobby of the hotel seems very nice, especially since each person was only paying 13 euros per night. We left our luggage, went and ate lunch, and then returned to take a quick nap before hitting the town. Our rooms are on the third floor, and as we are walking up we can see the different floors becoming worse and worse, more and more deteriorated. Maybe every third light worked in the hallway. The floor and the stairs were uneven. I was in the best room. Four beds and a balcony. The only thing wrong with it was sometimes when you turned the sink on, the shower would come on and viceversa. Another room only had three beds, but it was tiny. Then there was our favorite, five-bed room. The door was metal and looked like it was made for a bomb shelter. We believe there were blood stains on the floor. There were definitely several holes in the wall. It looked like a balcony had been walled in and carpeted. If you looked out the window of the "sun room" at the balcony below, there were no walls or railing of any sort. After seeing this, we decided we had to check out the fourth and final floor. It looked like an abandoned house. There were holes in the walls, floor, and ceiling. None of the lights worked. It was covered in dust and mold. Every step caused the whole floor to creak. Several people were probably murdered there, and we told everyone it was haunted.

We decided to take the tour bus to get a general feel for the city. For only 19 euros we got 48 hours of use of the tour bus, a boat tour titles "The Six Bridge Water Tour," and a free port tasting. After seeing almost all of the city in less then two hours and only stopping at the Harry Potter bookstore, we decided to go back and get ready for dinner. After eating dinner in a mall because we had asked about a good place to buy ice cream (some of the girls on the trip are obsessed), we stumbled upon a concert being out on by several groups from Mexico. We, being very excited at being able to understand their non-Spain accent, knew we had to stay. We ended up staying until it ended several hours later and we had started the dance movement that made the concert enjoyable for everyone else.

The next day we set out to the beach, but soon realized that our idea to use the tour bus system as transportation was an awful idea because it took forever to get anywhere, but the metro system wasn't very good and it would have taken forever to figure out the city bus system. Finally, we made it to the beach. It was beautiful and we left after a few hours to get lunch. Then we hopped back on the bus to see the last 2/3 of the tour again only to get back to our hotel. Only this time, there was a road blocked, so we had to take a detour through the ghetto of the town. There was a lot of poverty, screaming at our bus, drug deals, and interesting people/ We then went back to the mall to have dinner, after shopping, because most people on our trip aren't as excepting of the food and have an addiction to shopping. Afterward we went back to the hotel to tell ghost stories and then went ghost hunting on the fourth floor of the hotel.

The final day we planned to take our "cruise" and do the port tasting. A bus driver had told us the day before where to go to for each, but when we arrived at where the cruise was suppose to be the other driver said no it's on the other side of the river, so we had to get back on and ride the blue line for the first time, all the way around to the other side of the river. Almost every time we were on the bus, there were two girls that fell asleep. One day when it was pretty full, two men needed seats, so they proceeded to wake both of them up since they were each taking up two seats. I've never seen two more confused faces. Eventually, ee found out that the boat tours were full until two, so we put out names down and then walked back to the other side of the river and up a giant hill to find the port cellar. I learned a lot, especially since I knew nothing about it other than the name. We quickly left to make it over to our "cruise." While on it, we saw exactly what we saw from the bus, only from the water. The only fun from it came from meeting two different couples from Canada with whom we discussed ghost sitings and hockey. After that we had to get back on the bus and see the city tour one more time before we got back to the hotel to leave and get on our train.

The city was really dirty, but we were coming from a city that gets cleaned three times a day. We had a blast on the weekend trip, but most of it came from bonding in misery together. Because of these incidents, we have created the motto "Stay in Spain." While there we could kind of communicate with the people that only spoke Portuguese because of its similarities to Spanish, but many of the words were different, which made ordering food difficult. For instance at one place someone thought they ordered a burger, but it came out as a beef patty with an egg over easy on top. We made it through the trip though, have some unforgettable memories, even though we may want to with some of them, and returned safely at 12:30 am to make it home for some sleep before class the next day. 

Mi Nueva Casa

After Toleda, we got back on the bus to finish the day with a three hour trip to Salamanca (wih a stop outside of Ávila, to see the city walls). Our host mom picked Shannon and I up (we're roommates here) and took us home. As soon as we walked in, we met the rest of the family. Here's the run down: 

The mom- Marta. There is no name for it, but as far as we can tell she works as what we would consider a nurse's aid. She works very different hours- usually 6-8, mid-morning-1/1:30, mid-afternoon-8:30/9, usually (most women work 4 hours in the morning, and then maybe a few in the afternoon). She is very nice and always concerned about pleasing us, and wanting us to go out and experience the Spanish night life.

The daughter- also Marta. She is 22. She isn't around much. I believe it is because she works in a bar, so she's gone at night and then is asleep when we leave, then well until last week, had classes in the afternoon and evenings. We enjoy watching telenovelas with her, even though we don't always understand what's going on (it's had enough to pick one up in English).

The son- José. He is seventeen and is still in high school, and a typical teenager. He blasts his American music in his room, where he spends almost all of his time at home. He can get an attitude with his mom, but for the most part is great. He is a super picky eater and does not like fruits or vegetables. Actually the only ones I've ever seen him eat is apricots and strawberries (covered in whip cream though).

Here's a typical day for me:

7:00 wake up and get ready for the day
7:45 eat breakfast (which Marta leaves out for us before she goes to work at 6)
8:10 walk to school
8:30-9:25 culture class
9:30-11:10 grammar class
11:20-1 conversation class
2:30 lunch at home
3-4:30 siesta (although I rarely have time to actually nap)
5-7 either one or two one-hour classes about literature, history, art, ect. or dance class (salsa or Sevillana)
9:30/10:00 dinner at home


somewhere in there I manage to fit in the studying, writing, reading, tours of the city, errands, shopping, cleaning, showering, and going out on occasion (to pretend I'm Spanish) on any night of the week. It doesn't matter. There are always people out. I now understand why it's the land of siesta y fiesta.


It's a beautiful city thought. It is easy to navigate since almost all of the main roads lead to the center of the city, Plaza Mayor. I could probably walk from one end of town to the other in 45 minutes, which I have nearly done probable four or five times. 


For the most part, I do enjoy the food, even though it is really different. Our house doesn't eat super traditional food, like some of the other houses do. Some of the combinations are different, but it's fun to try. There aren't nearly as many fruits or vegetables as I'd like, but I'll deal. At least, I'm walking everywhere to burn off some of the carbs. Every morning for breakfast we have the options of coffee, apple juice, cereal, something between a cookie and a cracker, and a croissant or other pastry type bread. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day and usually includes a meat of some sort (almost always ham or beef), a side like egg-potato salad or a vegetable/meat mixture, a little bit of a vegetable, and fruit for dessert. Dinner is smaller and may be grilled ham and cheese or pizza, etc. We don't really eat out, except when traveling, and even then we'll get sack lunches and snacks from our mom to save us money on a couple of meals. But then there's helado. In the plaza, which is right by the school, is a cheap, homemade ice cream store with the best flavors. 


Our room is a great size. We don't spend much time in it- sleeping and studying sometimes. We have a bunk bed, and I'm on the bottom for now. We share an armoire which can hold all of our stuff. Then we have a small table for studying and still have space in the middle to move around so we don't feel claustrophobic. The flat overall is big for Spain. We pretty much have our own bathroom because José uses his mom's in the mornings since we all get ready at the same time. We're on the third floor of the building and it's only 15 minutes from the plaza and 20 from school. we really lucked out because some families cram 6 or 7 students into their homes because they get paid to be a host for each. So some people from our group have students from several countries all crammed into two or three rooms.


We didn't know this until we got here, but we don't study in the actual University buildings. It's not as bad because they are spread out all in the city, unlike a cluster in the US. We have our own building with all of the study abroad students, which has its perks because they already know we aren't fluent, and if necessary, many of them speak English. In my classes, I have four kids from China and one girl from Missouri. I'm not a huge fan of the program just because it seems fairly unorganized and the system they have isn't the most efficient, but I am learning and improving, so I guess that's all I wanted from the trip.


The weather is nice for the most part. It has rained a few times, but it never lasts long. The middle of the day gets a little hot and on occasion nights get chilly, but for the most part it's perfect. 

La(s) Capital(s)

To start- I promise I am going to catch up on everything this week.

First week in Spain, here we go. After landing we shared a shuttle from the airport to our hotel with two girls. As it turned out, they were the Welsh Womens Badminton Team. Apparently the American team has one really weird player- over confident and does not follow proper etiquette of badminton. Go figure. The three of us that went to Paris stayed at a cheap hotel because the rest of the group did not arrive until the next day. The hotel was decent, but our room was decorated with an oriental theme and classic Spanish paintings, a bit odd, if you ask me. We asked about wifi (or wee-fee as they call it), and the guy (who in his tattered casual wear did not look so competent) said they had it and gave us the password. To clarify, by yes we have it, he meant it goes as far as the lobby, but luckily our bathroom was right about one corner of the lobby. If we laid on the far right corner of the bathroom, then we were able to get it. This is when I began to realize that wifi in Europe is not as accessible as it is in the States. That night Shannon and I went to eat dinner at a place a couple doors down. We walked in and they told us what table to sit at, and then almost immediately asked if we wanted menus in English. So much for the blending in goal. The first thing we saw on the menu was a section for vegetables, so of course we got these, having almost starved ourselves because we couldn't bring ourselves to eat any more ham, cheese, or bread in France.

When leaving the next morning we asked the guy at the desk (different guy in a suit and seemingly more competent than the guy working the night shift) how to get to a metro station Sol (one of the most used stations in Madrid), he quickly become worried and highly suggested a taxi for us, then proceeded to walk down the street, wait for a reliable company, get the taxi, and tell the guy where to take us. I was impressed. We arrive at our hotel (three stars, what an improvement), but they explain that they were out of space and that our group was going to be staying at a hotel owned by the same company, but it was right next door. We assumed that we'd we going back down to a two-starer, but little did we know we were going to get the hook-up at a four start hotel. We left our luggage and then went to breakfast while we waited for the rest of the group. We ate at a place called Nebraska and were once again reminded that no one in Spain likes to do anything quickly, except talk.

Eventually the whole group arrived at the hotel (well, except Rebecca who missed her connection in New York due to bad weather and wouldn't get there until that night), then we got a very brief tour of the city. It was nice, not as pretty as Paris, although it was comforting to be somewhere where I could at least kind of speak the language. We ended the tour with a trip to Museo Nacional del Prado. I enjoyed it, but almost everyone else looked like they were going to pass out because of jet lag. The next day we received tours of Museo Reina Sofía and the Palacio Real. Also, while walking around the city, our professor who lived in Spain for several years, including time in Salamanca where I'd eventually end up, could throw in interesting facts, especially those about the long-time twentieth century Franco, who people had spent the last thirty years trying to forget. While walking anywhere in the city, it was almost impossible to avoid Plaza del Sol (the location of the metro we had tried to take) where we realized why the hotel guy had not allowed us to take it. It was only a few days before the local elections on Sunday, so it was packed with protesters, tents, makeshift living areas, signs, banners, and trash. The people participating were interesting to say the least. If any of them had showered in the last month, I'd be surprised. Dreads, shaved heads, weed, bubbles, and dogs were quite popular among these people.

That night, we went to a Flamenco show, which was interesting for the first hour and a half, but I'd recommend not going to a four hour show. It was a little different than I expected, but I know that I could never do that. After the show, most people from our group decided to go out and experience the Spanish culture. Someone had heard of a seven story discoteca (not club, because that's a whorehouse here), so naturally we had to go. I was  slightly disappointed, but maybe because it had been hyped up. We had a lot of fun. Among the happenings included meeting the PR guy for the club, who gave us his number and insisted that when we came back to call so we wouldn't have to pay the cover. When we left at 5 am (which is early for them, by about an hour, hour and a half), I was amazed at how many people were still out. It was almost just as many as during the day. It was ridiculous, and I'm still trying to figure out how they survive with that lifestyle. It was later explained to me that the metros typically close between 2 and 6 am, so people go out around one and then stay out until after 6 so they can catch the metro or train home. Smart, I suppose. 

The following morning at 10 am, our group set out for Toledo. It was the capital of Spain until the Moors took over in the 700s. It was absolutely gorgeous. We got a short tour of the city, and then were given free time in the afternoon to walk around and explore. A couple of us paid to go into the Cathedral. El Greco lived there for part of his life, and so his art influenced the city. It also was a mixing point of the Jewish and Muslim cultures, until they were kicked out of the country. Overall, it was an interesting and gorgeous town.