I'm home!

I'm home! Thanks for keeping up with me for the past month-I've enjoyed all your comments and emails! All in all, Spain was a great experience. I ended up getting good marks in all my classes too, so I'm happy about that! I got into Madison Monday around 3 AM, so it was a long day(s) of traveling...we added it up, and we were awake for about 46-48 hours...ah! I slept a little on the planes, but not much! We've also decided that France has the stupidest airport but their airline, AirFrance, has some pretty incredible food. The flights back were pretty uneventful-met a couple from St. Louis on my long flight! And our flight in Atlanta got delayed 3 hours, but we were so happy to be back in the United States we didn't even care. I'll try and get some pictures up sometime soon, either on here or on Facebook. Hope you're all doing great! Love you all!

¡Mi ultimo día de escuela!

Hey everyone! Well, time is winding down! Today is my last day of school, and by the time most of you all read this, I´ll be done! School has been incredible-I never thought I´d learn so much in only a month. We´ve done a really intensive study of the past tenses (there are a lot in Spanish and can be very confusing to differentiate!) and I feel like I´ve learned so much. I´m definitely going to be using all this information one day in a classroom! My teachers are PHENOMENAL-I love them! I got to talk to Cruz, my first teacher, about teaching Spanish and different ways to make it easier and more fun to learn-she makes me so excited about teaching-I want to start now! She gave me her email address, so I´m sure we´ll be in touch. She said she has a ton of material she could share with me! How exciting!
We get our final evaluations today, so we´ll see how much I´ve learned and what they think of my español!
I love Salamanca so much, but I think the thing I´m going to miss the much is school and my teachers-class is actually FUN to come to, and they´re always really encouraging and whenever you´re wrong, they just correct you and keep going-it´s great! I wish I had a native speaker to follow me around all the time and help me...

Spanish has also gotten easier....and harder! I´ve realized how much more I need to learn, and a lot of it is going to be on my own, and not in a classroom. But the other day Cruz was talking, and I swear it was English because I understood everything! This trip has helped me to think in Spanish, so now I don´t spend all my time trying to translate words in my head...I just know them! But, I still have a long way to go. This trip has kind of ¨reinvigorated¨me to study more and be the best that I can be at Spanish.

We leave Salamanca at 3 AM on Sunday morning, and I´ll be in town Sunday night around 10 PM....but it´s going to feel like about 3 AM to me! It´s going to be a long day of traveling, but I´m so excited about coming home! I´ve gotten all my stuff packed already, and it fits better than when I came...don´t ask me how!

Well, I´m off to my last 2 classes-I´ll let you know when I´m home! Thanks for keeping up with me-I´ve loved your comments and emails. They´ve helped me feel like home is closer! Love-Rebecca

I´ve got lots to tell you!

Well, get ready for a long blog...it´s been awhile since I´ve been near a computer to update you all!

Where to start? Well, the weekend began on a good note Friday afternoon after class. I returned home to eat lunch, where I ate the most interesting thing that I´ve had since I´ve gotten here. My tastes have definitely been stretched and broadened since arriving in España! I´ve had lots of fish and vegetables, ham one day, and quite a bit of soup. The meal on Friday was just that: soup. No problema-and I knew if was a type of ¨marisco¨soup (seafood) when I arrived home because of the smell. Again, no problema. (i´m getting better mom! ha!) So I start eating and as I´m scooping the soup, I realize there´s something in it, and I was thinking ¨sweet! There are noodles in this!¨But no...when I stuck my spoon back in, I scooped out an ENTIRE HUMONGOUS SHRIMP! And not just the meat mind you-it´s beady little eyes were staring at me! I gagged. Somehow I managed to eat the rest of the soup, but I did NOT eat the shrimp...

Onto weekend travels--this weekend was FULL of them!

On Saturday, we headed to Segovia and Ávila, two towns close-ish to Salamanca-about 2 hours away. I absolutely loved Segovia! It was very quaint, but the castle there was an inspiration for the Walt Disney castle-it looks just like it! After chatting with some other folks, we´ve discovered that there are a few other castles around the world that look like the Walt Disney one, but this one definitely had it´s resemblances! We got to go inside and tour around-it was incredible. It had a lot of Moorish and Roman influence, so the detail was phenomenal-very ornate, and they definitely did not hold back on using gold to decorate with! We saw lots of really old stuff, and there was an artillery musuem within the castle, so I got to see (and touch!) cannons and spears from like, the 12th century! How awesome is that?! I later saw the sign (it was REALLY small) that you weren´t supposed to touch anything...whoopsies...

After the castle (alcazar), we walked around a lot of town, saw some old churches and buildings then, de repente (suddenly) as we turned the corner, there was the INCREDIBLE Roman acqueduct. It has to be one of the most fascinating things I have ever seen in my life. It was enormous, and all made out of granite blocks that the Romans hauled over from the mountain nearby...nearby as in about 20 km or more! The acqeduct itself is only about 400 meters long, but it runs from a mountain 20 km. away with a 1% slope to it. Just looking up at it and touching it was astounding. I wish I could´ve seen how they built it. Lots of simple machines, but still...I´m going to put a link in the upper right hand corner to a picture of it-it´s so cool. We got to climb up and see the top of it and just being up that high makes it seem impossible to construct it. All of the arches are perfect and exactly identical, and the most amazing thing is that there´s no adhesive holding the blocks together-it´s self-supported! AH! So cool!

After Segovia, we hopped back on the bus and headed to Ávila, to see the murallas. (mu-rai-yas), or the walls that encapsulate the old city. They were really neat and provided a great defense to the city back in the day. We thought it´d be cool to watch an invasion attempt on Ávila...by this time we were all feeling a little delirious and our bodies were wilting...it was quite hot and we´d been walking around all day...

We got home around 10:30 and then left the next morning for Santander at 7 AM to catch an 8 AM bus. We rode the bus for about 5 1/2 hours, but it was so worth it! Santander is on the north coast of Spain, and I absolutely loved driving through Spain. The terrain is beautiful-lots of farming, but there´s also this great mountain range that we drove through that was so cool-definitely felt European! Lots of windy roads and tall trees with huge dropoffs--can´t say I didn´t fear for my life a little bit becuase a few of our bus drivers were CRAZY! We arrived in Santander around 1:30, went to our hotel, which was on the beach, then hit the beach! It was a great way to finish up our time here-just relaxing. We spent the afternoon on Monday on the beach too, then headed home around 4:45.

European beaches...are quite different...We definitely saw a LOT of topless girls....Well, let me rephrase that:topless women and topless ancianas-old women. The first one was at least 55 years old-who wants to see that?! It was quite bizarre. Then, this man laying in front of us with his wife, took off his bathing suit to reveal a Speedo. Ok, I can handle Speedos-I did work with a bunch of swimmers for 4 years. But then....oh man. He rolled it up to make it into a THONG! Ah! It was horrible! And, to make it even better, his wife had a thong on too, so they matched. We nearly died laughing-silently, of course, but it was so gross.

The beach though was amazing. The water looked like the Carribbean-very clear, gorgeous, but a little chilly! Colder than our Spring Break water, but we still got in, but only about to our knees. It was incredible. I have lots of pictures!

So all in all the weekend of travelling was great. School is flying by-only 3 more days! I can´t believe tomorrow is Wednesday! I have loved my time here-Spain is a great country! When I get home I´ll see what I can do about putting up some pictures. I hope you´re all doing great-can´t wait to see you all. Thanks for reading all of this! Love, Rebecca

We have plans!

Updated....sorry-had to cut if off early to go to class the other day!

We´ve finally decided where to go for our last hoop-la in España...on Saturday, we´re headed to Segovia and Ávila, two towns very close to each other, that have some really old cathedrals, castles, walls, and a HUGE ancient Roman acqueduct-I´m excited! On Sunday, we´re headed to Santander, a town on the north coast of Spain. We´re also hoping to head over to Bilbao, about an hour away, to visit the Guggenheim Museum, this really cool modern art museum. I think it´s going to be really neat to visit up north because where we are is in the Basque country, which is an autonomous community in Spain. They speak there own language that is one of the oldest languages in the world and it has no ties to any other language, so it´s really interesting! It also makes it IMPOSSIBLE to understand, because there are NO similarities, but they all speak Spanish, so that´s good.

There are four official languages in Spain: Castellano, Catalan, Gallego, and Vasco. Everyone is required to speak Castellano, which is what I speak (it´s the normal Spanish). Catalan and Gallego are similar to Spanish, but definitely have their differences. And Vasco...is just plain weird-very ancient!

Salamanca has storks! I have been meaning to tell you all this for weeks now! Storks, like bring the baby home storks! So cool!

Salamancan style: more discoveries...the guys here definitely wear capris...weird, and I do NOT recommend it for our guys.

This weekend we´re headed to Segovia, Ávila, and Santander...I´m so excited!
Segovia has the castle that was the inspiration for the Walt Disney (Cinderella) castle! I´ll be sure to take lots of pictures.
Miss you all so much-countdown is at 8 days before I get home!

I wish the € was equal to the peso...

€ = the euro...the exchange rate is terrible! It´s about a $1.42 to 1€, so that´s not too much fun. Because of this, it looks like we may not be going to Granada. Unfortunately, Salamanca is kind of out of the way from just about everything else, making cross-country travel a little bit of a challenge...when we discovered how much it was going to cost just to GET to Granada, much less stay there, we about all had a heart attack. So we´re looking to places closer...like Portugal! We don´t know what we´ll find, but it´s a possibility! Ha! Just means one more stamp on the passport!


Hope you´re all doing great--read on down below for the Toledo trip notes!

¡Toledo!

Exciting news...I just figured out today how to put this website in English! Yes!

On to more exciting news for you...Toledo! A group from MSU and from Boca Raton, FL went to Toledo this past Saturday. It drizzled/misted on and off all day while we were there and was a little chilly, but I was thankful for it because usually Toledo is about 40 degrees...Celcius! Which means it´s in the 90´s in the afternoons, so we were glad for the cold front! Toledo is a beautiful city. We discovered, through our wonderful tour guide, Jema (who couldn´t stand the kids from Boca--it was hilarious. She kept making fun of them in Spanish and they never understood her...I don´t blame her-they were all hung over and really really rude...) that Catholicism was first founded ( in Spain) in Toledo. They have a beautiful cathedral and we visited an old hospital which was really neat, and got to see tons of tile and ceramic art dating back to 1024! I took pictures, don´t worry. It is so neat to see all this historic stuff-it´s so much older than anything in America!

Toledo was later invaded by the Moorish (Muslim) people and also had a Jewish phase, so the architecture there is incredible-it´s a huge mix of everything! Renaissance, Arabic, Christian-era...so cool! I needed my architecture buddies there to help me out! The Moorish architecture is really easy to distinguish because it´s all arcs-looks very Arabian/Aladdin-ish!

Toledo is probably most well known for it´s midevil feel and for it´s steel. Jema said that if you´re a matador, Toledo is the place to get your swords, among other things. They also have this really pretty damascene art, which are these plates that are inlaid with gold and silver in geometric designs-absolutely gorgeous, and all handmade. (well, at least the expensive stuff is!)
All in all, it was a good day in Toledo. We got home after about a 3-3.5 hour bus ride and went out to this Turkish place and had...PIZZA! It was SO good!

Today in culture class we learned about the ¨fiestas¨of Spain...they have 12 national days of fiestas and 2 local-can you believe that?! And they have a holiday for each of them! They are very elaborate and a lot of them have Catholic undercurrents.

On Sunday, we decided to try and find the ¨Rastro¨, or giant outdoor, flea market type thing. And, like always, we decided to walk. Little did we know that it was about 4 miles away. After walking for about an hour, we decided to give up and return home. We were wet, cold (it was raining), and extremely happy to see that Sofía wasn´t home because that meant hot showers for us!

Another Spanish tradition, which I´ve been meaning to tell you about, it the way that they greet each other. I´m sure you´ve seen people joke around and kiss both cheeks of the other person when they greet each other...well, they actually still do that here! To see someone shake hands is an automatic ¨foreigner¨sign. They also don´t believe in ¨personal space¨- they always stand very close to each other!

And on a personal note, I finally got my clothes washed! Sofía has been fighting me, telling me that I was going to have to pay her, even though laundry was included in my tuition. Finally she did it, but in Spain they rarely have clothes dryers, so my clothes got ¨washed¨in the machine and then ¨washed¨two more times by the rain...but their washers aren´t very good here-I definitely handwashed quite a few things with me in the shower this morning!

I hope you all are doing great-there are so many things I want to tell you and show you! We´re about to go plan our trip to Granada, so that should be exciting! Can´t wait to see you all!

Halfway There!

Well, today marks the end of two weeks in Salamanca for me! The first week went by pretty slow, but the days are flying now! We´re enjoying some really great weather here-it rained and got chilly yesterday, so we had some amazing hot chocolate last night, but today it´s breezy and a cool 65 degrees-perfection. Hate to rub that in to all of you, since I hear we´re having a pretty nice hot spell!

Tomorrow we´re headed to Toledo-I am so excited! We were supposed to go to Sierra Francia, the mountains, but the group wasn´t big enough.

There´s a phrase in Salamanca that you have to know if you ever come here-it´s ¨debajo el reloj¨, which means ¨under the clock¨. It´s the common meeting place for...everyone! In the Plaza Mayor, there´s this beautiful clock and underneath the walkway is a perfect place to meet with your friends because it´s nearly the center of town, so it´s pretty convienent for everyone! I´m going to try and attach a link to a picture of the Plaza, so look in the upper right hand corner of the blog...can´t promise anything, because the whole site is in Spanish now, so I have to do some major translating!

Some other cool things about Salamanca...they love frogs! (Ranas, in español) They´re considered good luck and the ¨special¨one can be found on a skull on the front of the old university. It´s very small and quite hard to find, but supposedly once you do, you´ll have good luck and good studies at the university. Salamanca also has a very cool tradition with their buildings-they´re all built/covered with the same type of stone. It´s a stone that´s only found in Salamanca, and it´s very sand based, so it´s mixed with some type of chemical/stone that oxidizes over time, so the buildings all have this caramel brown-reddish color-it´s beautiful! I´m desperately trying to find something that I can bring home that´s made out of this type of stone, but no luck so far!

School is going so great. I have never enjoyed learning this much! They teach everything in Spanish, but it makes so much more sense now! Watching and observing them has given me some ideas about how I want to teach Spanish, because I´m beginning to realize that there are quite a few things that could be much better. My teachers are absolutely phenomenal-I can´t get enough of them! They are so encouraging and correct you every time you mess up, which is so helpful because you usually won´t make the same mistake again!

Food in Spain....is quite different! They use a lot of what we do, but in a much different way. I´ve had quite a few unidentifiable things-you all would be proud of me for branching out! =) But, last night we found a Mexican restaurant-it wasn´t very good, but you should have seen us-we were like little kids because we finally found something familiar! We´re saving a night for pizza when we´re really craving ¨home food¨. I think I´m going to make a list of things I want to eat when I get back to the States...

I hope you´re all doing great! I can´t tell you what a great time I´m having over here! We´re in the midst of planning our long weekend trip to Granada for next weekend-should be lots of fun! There´s lots of Moorish influence there from when the Muslims occupied most of Spain from around 700-1492. We´re going to visit the Alhambra, where King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel gave Columbus the OK to travel overseas and where all kinds of history went down-it´s incredible-I can´t wait to see it! Have a great weekend (mine´s already here-haha!!) and I´ll keep you posted on anything exciting! -Rebecca

Pictures!

Hey kiddos--I can´t put pictures up because I don´t have the correct device...but, for those of you who have Facebook, search the group ¨Salamanca June 2007¨, (I´m in it) and they´re are pictures of who I´m hanging with and of the bull fight, and I imagine as the weeks go on, they´ll be more from Salamanca. Hope this gives you a glimpse of what´s going on!

Fifty in Fishnets, PDA, bulls, and HOT WATER!!

Ah! I have so much to tell you all! Sorrry that these keep getting lengthier...I can´t keep it concise! So the other day I found out another fashion type, and this one is for the ladies over 50--bring back out your fishnets! Any color, pattern, or design that you so desire, because I´ve seen quite a few old(er) ladies wearing them. Can´t say it was the cutest thing I´ve seen, but whatever.

Another interesting cultural fact: Spain is VERY romantic. In fact so romantic that it is totally acceptable to kiss, make out, feel up, or do whatever you please in public. I doubt I´ll ever be grossed out by PDA in the United States again, becuase I don´t think it can get worse than this!

Yesterday was a holiday-one of many in Spain. This one was strictly for Salamanca though, to celebrate San Juan, our ¨patron saint¨. They seem to have a LOT of patron saints here...I think it´s just an excuse for a party...but there was the most amazing fireworks show I have ever seen Monday night. It lasted at least 30-40 minutes with the most incredible finale-they just kept shooting stuff off! And, guess where they shot them off of? THE ROMAN BRIDGE---AKA, by far the OLDEST, MOST ANCIENT part of the city, much less, the CONTINENT! I couldn´t believe it. But it´s still standing! Lucy, from London, and I went to watch the fireworks and afterwards we went to the Plaza and watched this weird French opera/theater thingy....this man scaled the entire wall of the Plaza! We sipped sangría and talked until about 2 AM then we headed home. She´s very cool-she´s already been through Med school, and after her next job, which starts in August and lasts 3 years, she´ll be on her on to do GP-General Practice. She´s 26 and has the most charming accent. Which reminds me-when we were in the ATL airport, we saw the Durlings-they were coming back from seeing Mark at SCAD-small world! (Old church friends from home, for the MSU people...)

Yesterday I slept in and then decided to walk around Salamanca and take pictures and enjoy the day. I went to the Roman Bridge by the ¨river¨of Salamanca...more like a fast moving stream if you ask me, but whatever. Then I went and sat in a pretty little park and read Francine Rivers-the day couldn´t get better!

At 6:30, we went to a Corrida de Toros-aka, a bullfight! It was quite interesting! The arena was a smaller one, so we had good seats. Usually they fight 6 bulls, but last night it was 8 because it was a holiday. I have pictures and videos to show you all when I come home, but here´s about how it worked for all the bulls....
First, they stab this dagger thing in their back before they come out so that they´ll be mad.
Then, these guys use pretty caps to attract the bull. The bull comes charging at them and the guys run and hide behind these wooden barriers so that they won´t DIE. Then, these two men on horse back with huge spears come out. The horses (Clydesdales, I believe), have huge iron blankets covering their entire body and are blindfolded-I was most amazed at how well behave they were! Then, the guys with the caps coax the bull to come towards the horse and then the man on top ( who has leg guards on) stabs him in the back, in between his shoulder blades near his neck. The bull always pushes against the horse, but they never fell over.
THEN, these crazy guys come out and coax the bull towards them, and as the bull approaches, they stab him with these barbed prongs that stay in and flop around on its back.
After all of this, the matador comes out and ´wows´the crowd with how he handles the bull. It´s kind of like a dance with death it seems to me. It is very majestic.
After a while of this and dizzying up the bull, he waits for the right moment to plung his sword in between the bulls shoulder blades. Then the bull freaks-umm, so would I. The bull usually falls down pretty soon after this, and then they take a smaller knife and stick in somewhere right behind his head, which immediately kills him. Once dead, these two Clydesdales come out and the tie a rope around his head and drag it off.

repeat, 7 times.

It gets a little desensitizing-which is scary.

The weirdest part is though is that the matador cuts off the ear of the bull and throws it to the crowd. It´s considered a great honor to get it. Well, it came our way and it was quite disgusting.
So there´s a Spanish bull fight! It´s not as disgusting as it sounds, but I think one is enough for my life time.

And finally, probably the MOST exciting news...I HAVE HOT WATER! Now how do you have hot water Rebecca? You make ask. well, my roommate and I discovered it! Ha! What a find! Turns out Sofía NEVER SHOWED US how to turn it on...so I´ve been taking cold showers for a week and was never told that I could make it hot! And the pressure....oh, it´s great too. But, but but...Sofía UNPLUGGED the hot water heater while Crystal was IN THE SHOWER. IN THE SHOWER!! She said it was only for her son since he was young. So I guess she thinks we´re ok taking cold showers for a month?! And we caught her in her lie because she showered Monday afternoon, and she turned it on for herself. So, we keep using it. AND, we discovered how to mask the noise! HAHA! Things are getting interesting in that house!

Well, I think that´s enough for today. Thanks for staying with me to the end-I just don´t want you to miss out on anything! Ha! Love you all, and I miss you tons!
And GO Dawgs!!

Scrappy Trees and Graffiti

I wrote 3 blogs today (Monday, 11th), so keep on reading!

Here´s a little info on the ¨landscape¨of Spain. (Gran, I thought you´d appreciate this!) The trees here are all really scrubby-very short and stumpy. And if they´re tall, they´re very skinny and don´t grow out much. In Madrid, in the center of the Paseo del Prado, a main road, there was a ¨median¨of sorts, with cafés and such, with beautiful landscaping. But as for the untailored parts, the trees are quite scrappy compared to ours. They have some trees that look like cedars, but they´re pretty dinky!

There is also a TON of grafitti all over Spain-it´s quite bizarre. Mostly on newer stuff, but I have seen some on some of the old buildings, which is quite sad. I think it´s called ¨tagging¨, where groups or individuals (probably stupid teenagers) write their name or nickname everywhere in spray paint...it really takes away from the beauty of it all. Erinn, my MSU teacher, said none of that was here when she came before, so it´s a recent change that is not quite pretty.

Keep reading for Madrid trip notes!

Life Lessons and Various Adventures

This weekend, we went to Madrid. I think you could call this weekend ¨Life Lessons 101¨, because I sure as heck learned a lot, whether I liked it or not. We left Salamanca at 8 AM on a bus-the usual, cheap, public transportation, and got to Madrid around 11:15. We decided to buy a pass for a double decker bus route that went all around the city, and I´m so glad we did. I got tons of great pictures and we got to see all the ¨highlights¨of Madrid-very cool old city. That afternoon, we went to ¨El Museo Reina Sofía¨, which houses modern art; most importantly, Picasso´s ¨Guernica¨, Spain´s most famous piece of art. It was simply amazing to stand before it. It´s huge! Look it up online and see what it is. He painted it in 1937, during the reign of Fransisco Franco, a Socialist dictator who was chummy with Hitler. Franco told Hitler basically that he could have a ¨practice round¨ with a certain type of bomb (sorry boys, I don´t remember what kind!) on one of Spain´s cities-Guernica. Franco also decided to not TELL the citizens of the city, so this painting is a renidition of what Picasso thought Guernica looked like and felt after the bombing. Morbid I know, but absolutely fascinating. There were also a bunch of Salvador Dalí´s paintings, along with some Yves Klein, who made up his own monochromatic color of blue-Brian and Erin should remember this from Art Appreciation!!

After the musuem, we met up with the group for dinner and headed back out to the hotel...which on the website, said it was 800 meters from the big musuems in Madrid...well, I think they forgot to put ¨kilo¨in front of the ¨meters¨...because it was definitely an adventure trying to find it! One of our taxi drivers had to look it up in this huge book to find it! Turns out it was closer to the airport. But, it was a 4 star hotel, and I slept great and took the hottest shower i have had in Spain there, so I´m not complaining! And it was pretty cheap with four people in the room. (You were only supposed to have 2/room...whoops!)
That night when we went back to the hotel, there was a ¨fútbol¨ (soccer) game, Real Madrid vs. Barcelona, so we couldn´t get a cab for almost 45 minutes! We definitely chased one down-I mean, full out sprinting to it, all laden down with our bags. Looking back on it, I´m sure we looked RIDICULOUS.

The next day we went back into Madrid for the adventure of our life...and it wasn´t pleasant. We were trying to find a way to get home, so we went to the train station, but there were only two trains running that day to Salamanca, and one was too early, the other too late. Then we got on the Metro, went to the bus station, bought tickets for a 5:00 bus, got back on the Metro, and finally got to go see what we wanted to see that day. I know it doesn´t sound that bad, but it took us 2.5 hours total. We were MISERABLE. We waited in line for about 20 minutes at the train station, and we had to change metros quite a few times, and all those minutes add up...frustrating, and we´ve decided now to buy our tickets IN ADVANCE! We had planned on doing that, but people talked us out of it, but they´ll never do that again!

So Sunday afternoon, Caroline and I went to the Prado Museum--more art! haha-I´m a dork, I know! They have the big dogs- Goya, El Greco, Velazquez (Las Meninas!!!), Rembrandt(not Spanish), and so much more! I could´ve spent DAYS in there! Not much of Picasso-I don´t know where all of his Blue and Rose period stuff is.

Madrid was great, but I´m so glad I´m studying in Salamanca-much easier to understand and navigate. It was kind of like NYC for me-2 days was PLENTY. We were all dying to get back to Salamanca-we just didn´t feel safe in Madrid.

We got home around 8, and we just relaxed and took it easy. School went well today, and we have tomorrow off because it´s a holiday. We´re celebrating San Juan, the patron saint of Salamanca. Sweet! Fireworks and concert tonight, tomorrow, there´s no telling!

Hope you´re all doing great!!

Midnight Mischief and Milk

Ok, I´m going to write a series of blogs today chronicling the events of the past few days...so firs, Thursday! We went in my culture class to the ¨cueva¨-cave-of Salamanca. Very cool-they think there was a Satanic cult inside! ah! We went out to eat with Erinn Holloway, our MSU chaperone, for dinner because she left on Sunday. (So now we have no adult contact in Spain...kind of scary!) We had a great dinner with a great view of the cathedral...all on MSU´s tab!! Haha! When I got home around 12, Sofía, my house mom, sent me and Crystal (Kristel) out to the grocery store, because she didn´t want to go...so we went! And we needed to find milk, so where do we look? The REFRIGERATOR, DUH! But was it there? Oh no...Spanish milk comes in these cartons that are only about a foot tall and 2.5 inches wide. And the worst? IT´S NOT REFRIGERATED! I mean, Sofía puts it in the fridge at home, but in the store, it was just sitting on a shelf! Disgusting! Crystal told me it wasn´t very good, and since she found out it wasn´t refrigerated, she hasn´t drank any more of it...

One week down...

Well, I´ve finished my first week at school! It feels good to have a break-I´m getting a little worn down. I didn´t really have any jet lag when I got here, but it caught up to me about Wednesday and I haven´t felt great since then. I think I´m a little bit sick, so I´m trying to take it easy tonight. Sofía smokes in the house, and it´s really started to irritate my eyes and throat.

We´re headed to Madrid in the morning--yay! We have a tour with the school around the city, and we get to visit some wonderful places-like the Prado museum! Which has works from Fransisco de Goya, Velazquez (Las Meninas-one of my favorites), and el Greco...this probably means nothing to those of you who didn´t have Sra. Clough´s Spanish 4, but these are some of the most famous Spanish artists of all time, and I can´t believe I´m going to be able to see their work right in front of my face! They also have some of Picasso, but his famous piece, Guernica, is in another musuem, so I hope I have time to go see that too. We´ve decided to go to Toledo another weekend because it was going to be crazy to try and cram everything into one day in both cities.

I think we´ve finally put our finger on the Spanish style...it´s kind of like grung, punk rock, ´80´s wear...Lots of leggings, weird hair, and I saw a girl with a cut off shirt and sports bra on today--¡máma mía! That´s at least what people my age are wearing...everyone else has on too many clothes, I think. It´s hot here and they´ve got on jackets, blazers, and sweater vests! It´s a little chilly in the morning, but by the afternoon, it´s quite warm.

And I heard MSU´s playing to qualify for the College World Series this weekend against Clemson--yay! How exciting!

Things are going quite well...still no hot water, but these people don´t seem to believe in air conditioning either, so when you wake up in the morning, you´re so hot that the water actually (sometimes...) feels good!

Next week we have Tuesday off of school for some celebration...they celebrate just about every Saint here, so we get the day off to relax and join the festivities! I think me and some of the boys are going to a bullfight-I heard it´s kind of sad (they kill the bull right in front of you!), but it´s also part of their heritage, so we´ll see how that experience goes...

Hope you´re all doing great! ¡Adiós!

¡Adventuras en Salamanca!

Hello again! Things are going great over in Salamanca! School is going well-my teachers are FABULOUS. I am learning so much-a bunch of little details that I´ve never covered before, but always left me confused...until now! They have about a million ways to explain things to you, which is good, since everything is taught in Spanish. They know some English, but not enough to clearly communicate-but that´s actually a good thing, because it forces us to speak in Spanish. We went out for tapas-which are like appetizers-with our school last night. It was so much fun! I tried a sangría the other night-red wine mixed with fruit and some sugar...very good. But last night we had calímecho...my new favorite. It´s red wine mixed with Coke-I know, it sounds horrible, but all of the girls loved it. Probably because I couldn´t taste the alcohol! haha! Things are going really well with Sofía (my house mom) and Alejandro. I´m understanding her pretty well, and everyday we have about a 30-45 minute conversation over lunch, and that´s been really helpful. I showed her pictures the other day of the fam and friends, and I had the worst time trying to describe Dad´s work to her!! Haha!

The gente, or people, here are very different from Americans. I don´t stand out, but I definitely don´t look European. They´re all a lot smaller in stature and NONE of the guys are big-they´re all about5´8-6'0, and lanky. Their favorite haircut? The mullet! No joke! We see them everywhere!

We´re headed to Madrid and Toledo this weekend, so hopefully we´ll have fun down there. We´ve only been here for about 5 days, but it feels like weeks! The day is so long, because we go to class for 5 hours, but after about 3 PM, we have all day to explore, shop, study, and go out. I kind of like their schedule... I can´t wait to show you all the pictures...living here is like living in a dream-it is so beautiful. I showed Sofía pictures of the Drill Field ( the quad at MSU), and she was like, '¡es como las películas!'-it´s like the movies! Haha-I got a kick out of that. Well, that´s all for now. I miss you all so much, and I wish you could experience with me! But I´ll do my best to describe it to you! ¡chao!

Day 2!

Things are getting much easier now! Even though I´ve only been here 2 full days, speaking Spanish 24/7 is a good way to pick it up again! Things with my family are going well-still have cold showers, but rumor has it that you have to turn on the propane gas before you turn on the shower....well, mi mama didn´t show me how to do it, so I´m not sure if hot water exists in my house...

Yesterday we walked all around Salamanca, and the town is absolutely beautiful. If you could only see what I get to see everyday when I walk to class! I get to pass all these really neat stores and buildings. We took a walking tour yesterday of a lot of the monuments, so I have lots to explore over the next month now! Things here are so old and very ornate. Class today went well-unfortunately, it´s starting to feel like regular old class again, so the day felt much longer than yesterday!

The people here are a little different than what I´m used to. They certainly don´t have the Southern hospitality that I´m so accustomed to, but they are very friendly. Yesterday I didn´t have a set of keys to get into my house and mi mama wasn´t there, so I asked the neighbor how to use the pager-thingy...and she understood me! Also, toda la gente (all the people) seem to smoke! Ah! Everyone does it. And the Spaniards have interesting tastes in clothing and in hairstyles. You know those crazy hairstyles you see in magazines? Well I always thought no one was crazy enough to do that to their hair, but these people are! And the favorite hairstyle??? THE MULLET!! I can´t believe it! But all of the people our age have them-guys and girls! I´ll see if I can´t get a good picture of one...

I´m actually having a hard time writing this in English-which I guess is a good thing! I´m trying to actually start thinking in Spanish...I´ll let you know when that happens! Tonight we are going to start planning our trip for this weekend-we´re trying to decide between Segovia y Avila or Madrid. Mi mama told me that Segovia was boring, but I think secretly she has a wild side (like all these Salamancans) because she told me she loved karoke, to dance, and always talks about how great the night life is...we´ll have to see, because tonight we´re finally going out for tapas...I haven´t been able to go the last few nights because I was having dinner (at 11 PM!) with my family.

I hope everything´s going great at home!

Estoy Aqui

¡Hola de España! This keyboard is all in Spanish, so forgive me if there are a few typos! The trip over here went well. The flight from Atlanta to Madrid was about 8 hours through the night, but each seat had a personal, touch screen monitor, and you could listen to music, watch TV, keep track of your flight, or watch a movie! Very cool. There was also a large group of LOUD teenagers and a screaming baby, so we got about 3-4 hours of sleep. We arrived in Spain around 9AM their time-we are 7 hours ahead of you all at home, so usually when you´re going to bed, I´m getting up! I met my family yesterday-Sofia is 39 with a 5 year old son, Alejandro, or Alex. He ran around in his underwear all of last night and kept us laughing! Although, he is kind of hard to understand. There´s another girl in the apartment with me. Her name is Kristel, and she´s from Quebec, Canada. So whenever we have problems communicating, we work together! I also discovered the beauty of hot water...looks like a month of cold showers for Rebecca! It lasts for about 1 minute (literally), so today I planned exactly what I wanted to do while it was still warm! Needless to say, I get ready a lot faster here!

Spain is so very different from America. My first meal here was Chinese-weird, I know. Lunch is their big meal, and dinner is somewhat smaller. And siesta really happens! I definitely took a 3 hour nap yesterday!

Classes started this morning at 9. I also found out that I´m not ¨0 minutes¨from the school-try more like 15. But it´s a nice walk and I get to go through the Plaza Mayor-the beautiful center of town. Salamanca is like stepping back into time-everything is MUCH slower paced. We went for lunch in a cafe today, and the only thing open at 2 PM are the cafes and food places. All the stores and shops close down. Their usual business hours range from around 8 or 9 until 2, then they close and open up again around 5 and stay open until 8 or 9.

The architecture here is absolutely amazing. Very old, and quite a few cathedrals in Salamanca. Me and two other girls, Missie, from MSU, and Lucy, from London, walked around this afternoon, getting lost and then discovering where we were. All of the streets are black cobblestone. I can´t describe it-you´ll have to see the pictures.

As far as communicating goes, it´s going pretty well. Sofia talks very fast, but usually I can understand her. We ordered lunch today and asked where the grocery store was, so we´re doing pretty good! My teachers are very nice and the nice thing about Spaniards is that they ENUCIATE very well! They do have sort of a slur to their words and some letters are very soft, but all in all I think we´re going to be ok!

Well! There´s day one in Salamanca! I´m not sure how often I´ll be able to write to you-today was lucky. Probably every few days. Oh, and my Facebook currently isn´t working, so if you wrote me something, I´m not going to get it until I can figure out what´s going on!

Tonight we´re going on a tour of the city and probably out for tapas and sangrìa! Night life here is loco (crazy). They stay out until around 3-5 in the morning! They are insane! But my house is close to the Plaza, so at least it´s a short walk. Hope you´re all doing well!

Mi familia!

I found out today who I'll be staying with while I'm in Spain. Her name is Sofia, and apparently, it's only her in the house, so hopefully we'll be able to chat a lot and she can help me get closer to becoming fluent. And the best news is....I'm "0 minutes" away from campus...meaning, I have a very short walk! Some of the kids in my group are quite a bit farther away, so I'm very thankful I'm close by. I can't believe it's almost here-it's a very surreal feeling. I don't think it will hit me until I'm on the plane, or maybe once I land in Madrid and realize that no one around me speaks English...what an adventure!

One week to go...

I'm new to this, so I hope this works out...I just wanted to give all of you a way to keep in touch and keep up with all I have going on in the next month. I don't know how often I'll be able to update it, but hopefully at least every few days--I know Mom and Dad will be much happier knowing somewhat where their daughter is! :)

I leave in about a week- June 2nd, to be exact. I've never been abroad before, so this will be quite an adventure! I'll be in Salamanca, Spain for the entire month of June. (Salamanca is on the west side of Spain)

Every day we have class for 5 hours; 4 hours of grammar and then an hour of culture class--that's what I'm looking forward to! We stay with a host family, so I'll be getting the "real feel" of Spanish life...let's hope I like the food! I eat two meals a day with them, usually breakfast and lunch. We have lunch when we get back from class (we go 9AM-2PM) each day, and after lunch, we have SIESTA! Which, for you non-speakers, equals nap time! How amazing is that?!? From what I hear, at night we go out and eat, socialize, and whatever else we can think of. Spainards have a little different time table than we do here in America-we probably won't eat dinner until around 10 PM each night, and bedtime....is a looonnng time after that. I have a feeling though that I'll be asleep pretty early most nights!

In case you don't know, Spain is 6 hours later than the time it is here, just to give you a little perspective on what time it will be.

Well, I think that's enough for now! More exciting updates to follow!