Mi Vida Española

Welcome back, family and friends!

It's been an exciting few days here in Salamanca getting to know my new friends, the city, and using primarily Spanish to make my way through life.  If Meg were here, she'd be annoyed all the time because I have to speak a LOT of Spanish. (Wuv you Marge)

 Though I have been here for only 4 days, I feel as though it has been much longer.  Every day I wake up around 7:30 am and don't go to bed until midnight, so the days go on and on and on (thank goodness! There's so much to do and see).

I live in Las Residencias Universitarias in Colegio Cuenca -- that's just the name of my dorm.  In the map below, I've marked approximately where I stay as well as the city's central point: La Plaza Mayor.  The small red box is the dorm and the larger one is La Plaza.

The walk from my dorm room to La Plaza is about 20 minutes with several hills in between.  It has really shown me the importance of wearing comfortable shoes (shout out to Helene for that piece of wisdom!) I have to go back and forth to that area at least twice a day, which means I'm really getting in my daily 5000 steps (as recommended by Michelle Obama and my wonderful parents).  At school I would most definitely wear headphones and bust out some T-Swift and Kanye West on these long walks, but here it's a different story for a couple reasons:
1. It's so beautiful here, I don't want to stifle any of my senses for fear I'd be missing something.
2. Pickpocketing is a huge problem in Spain and I am a paranoid human being.

On the subject of my day-to-day life, I'd like to explain the general schedule of Spaniards.  They awake in the morning and work until eating "la comida" -- the biggest meal of the day -- at about 2 pm. (Almost the WORST time to eat, right Sarah?) Then everyone goes back to work until about 8 pm and dinner is usually between 9 pm and 10 pm. I have not quite adjusted to this schedule yet but hopefully I will be soon. For lunch, I eat in the student dining halls; here is my meal from yesterday:

Today, Tuesday, was my first day of classes, of which I have three. The first is my Spanish Grammar class, at the "Superior" level.  That name kind of intimidated me, but after going to the first class I am sure it's the right fit.  Two hours later I have Latin American and Spanish Film, a.k.a. Watching Movies. Finally, at 5 pm there is Conversation Practice, which consists of meeting at a cafe, drinking coffee, tea, soda, etc. and chatting.  Who knew you could get credit for talking to your friends? If Rice did that, I'd have approximately 10 Bachelor's degrees by now.

After classes today, we had a group salsa lesson, which was hilarious.  I'm really not a fan of those big mirrors at the front of the classroom which display just how non-sexy I can be, but the dancing itself was fun and a nice introduction to some Spanish culture.

Each day so far, we have ended our time together in La Plaza Mayor, which is just beautiful. And since it's light outside here until past 10 pm, our 8 o'clock meetings there feel like the middle of the afternoon.

I also climbed to the top of one of the towers in a cathedral and got some really cool pictures of the city. Enjoy :)

That's all I've got for now! I've decided not to write these blogs in Spanish, considering their length and the lack of Spanish-proficient readers.  ¡Adiós!