Tuesday, July 3, 2007
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!
Friday, June 29, 2007
¡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
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
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
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
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
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
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!
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!
Hope you´re all doing great--read on down below for the Toledo trip notes!
Monday, June 18, 2007
¡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!
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!
Friday, June 15, 2007
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
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
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