So… I did not end up going to the pool yesterday. I was just not in the mood to flaunt my out of shape body in front of everybody in Salamanca. Instead I went with my friend Alli to a park where we walked around. After our walk we headed to meet some people at the train station in order to plan a trip to Pamplona for the running of the bulls, which is on the 8th. We sat around and tried to come up with a plan. It is really hard because we are doing it last minute so everything is pretty much booked for that weekend. There are no hostels or hotels available and even train and bus tickets are hard to come by. So Katherine and I are thinking of just taking a late bus and arriving at 2 in the morning than going out all night because the festival is all week 24/7. We would just stay up until the running of the bulls at 8am and walk around Pamplona for a while until we felt like heading out. It is a pretty crazy plan but hey I don’t know when I will be here next so why not go for it plus it is cheap since we will not have to worry about paying for a place to stay and we were thinking of just packing a meal so we would only have to play for one.
I am also trying to decide what excursions to go on. We get two excursions included in our program fee and then there are others that are for the whole weekend that we can pay extra for. It is hard deciding which ones to go on because we are only here for 5 weekends. I am leaning towards the one to Toledo and then the weekend one to Andalucía region. I really want to go to Barcelona but it is so far away and expensive I just don’t think it is going to work out and I would rather see both Seville and Granada on the Andalucía excursion. I have to let Pedro know soon so I think I will email him sometime this afternoon.
After meeting with some girls to discuss Pamplona, I went to a supermarket with Alli and Katherine because I was in desperate need of a water bottle. They also wanted to buy some fresh fruit because the food here is not the healthiest and we all miss having some good fruit and veggies.
I got back from the market and had a couple hours before dinner so I went in and chatted with my senora. I feel like I haven’t had much time to talk with her and I don’t know much about her past so I decided to ask her some questions. I asked her where she grew up and how many kids she has, etc. She has lived in Salamanca her whole life but has moved about 8 times since she was born but just to different parts of the city. It is really common in Spanish culture to live in one city your whole life. In America people often move locations but it is very unusual here. She also told me she was the only girl among her siblings and had four older brothers. She herself has four children, three boys and one girl. She continued to talk about them and ended up showing a video of her daughters “boda” or wedding. I thought this was really cute because she got really excited about it. After this I remembered I still hadn’t given her the gift I brought her from the US so I brought it in. She was very surprised and grateful for it. She liked the jam and chocolates. I am glad I brought the homemade jam because that is what we have for breakfast every morning; tostada con mermelada y café. The coffee here is very good. I don’t know where she gets it from but I love it! Anyway I was happy that I got her that because it is very applicable to her life here. After giving her the gift we kept talking about various things. I told her about my family and then asked if any more students would be moving in after Sarah left. She told me no because she likes to have one student. She said she likes having a closer relationship and a familiar face around. This made me happy knowing that she wants more than some to just sit around with. She is very nice and I feel at home here. Haha she also has a sense of humor that I can appreciate. She has a doormat outside her apartment that I noticed yesterday that when translated says you are now entering the democracy of my own house. She laughed when I said that I liked it. Also she loves to watch gossip shows, which are similar to shows that are on E! like E! news, etc. Yesterday she went into a rant about the latest scandal involving a famous Spanish singer and how he was cheated by his wife and she stole all his money. It was pretty funny how she got all caught up in it.
When conversation got slow I grabbed my book, which I hadn’t read in a few days and sat out on the balcony. It is such a nice place to read. I loved it. When I was finished reading I facetimed my family. It was so nice seeing them. I miss them a lot. I am not homesick or anything because I feel so at home here but it doesn’t mean I can’t miss them or think about them. This whole experience would be perfect if my family lived 10 minutes away or something so I could visit them. My papa got on the facetime also and tried to speak Spanish to me. I really hope it is not how I sound like to my señora haha but it is cute that he trys J and some of the stuff he gets right.
After facetiming I had dinner with my señora and then chilled in my room. I was getting kinda bored and didn’t know what the plans were for tonight but I decided to switch into some heels and head to the plaza. I was certain someone I knew would be there since some one is always there. As I was walking there I noticed everyone was going in the same direction. After 10pm the plaza acts like a magnet. Each person is pulled towards the center. This wasn’t even a busy night. I cant imagine what this weekend is going to be like. In the plaza I hung out with Katherine for a little while and then Rachel came and met up with us. Pretty much every night a big group of us meets at 11-11:30ish to do something. I really like the girls I have hung out with so far. Of course I love Meg since I am living with her next year but I really like Katherine and Rachel. Katherine is really easy to talk to and we both have a lot in common. I feel like we are on the same page about a lot of things. Plus she likes to dance so now I have a goofy dance buddy. Rachel is really fun to hang out with too. Everyone in the group is so much fun!
Last night when everyone met up we went to the Irish Rover, which is pretty much an American bar. Not really much branching out going on but it is mainly a bar for all the international students. So it is fun meeting students from other countries and it is a nice transition to the real night life in Madrid. We got to the bar around 12 and it was pretty empty. Around 12:30 it got crowded. It was a lot of fun dancing and hanging out with everyone. I love to dance even if I am the only one and I look like a dork. There were some creepy Spaniards, similar to the creeps at Necto that were coming onto us but we can just say dejame pas, which means leave me alone haha. I walked back with my friends Julia, Janie, and Megan since we all live really close to each other.
This morning was rough because I didn’t get much sleep last night but I knew I had my nap time to look forward too. I met up with Julia and Megan to do our homework for class. We had to go to a grocery store and fill out a worksheet so we could compare in class American supermarkets to Spanish supermarkets. The discussion in class today was pretty interesting. Spanish supermarkets have smaller carts and the dessert aisle is almost nonexistent. Half of the grocery store is ham, fish, and cheese. They really love their ham here haha. A guy in my class loves ham and gets excited about it anytime we talk about “jamón”. After class our teacher took us to get hornazo, which is a pastry that Salamaca is famous for. It a crust like pastry filled with carious meets and cheeses. It was very tasty. After that people went their separate ways but I didn’t want to go back to my place yet so Rachel, Megan, Juila, Natalie, Grace, and I all went to the Plaza where we sat and had some café con leche. It was cold this morning but was warm when we were sitting out in the plaza. And when I say cold I mean it was 75. I pulled out the capris though and I felt very European.
Now I am just planning on taking a nap then after I may go to the art museum with Alli, Rachel, and Megan before I head out to get Tapas with my class. We are going “tapas” hopping to three different tapas bars. I am really excited and may even try the lengua de vaca at one of the places. But you will here more about that later. Hasta Luego. La vida esta bien J
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