Demasiado comer y caminar! (Too much eating and walking!)

Dressed up for la boda tradicional (a traditional wedding). I have a video too- we'll see how it posts!

La ranita (the little frog!) Legend says that those who find la ranita in this facade will have good luck in all their studies at La Universidad! Do you see it? It's very small!

Que tal? (What's up?)

I haven't written for a while, so this might be a bit long. Well Sunday I was very tired so I slept during siesta and, no surprise to those who know me well, felt really weird the rest of the evening since I don't do well with naps. I went to Mass with Jenn at a beautiful church called Nuestra Senora de Carmen (Our Lady of Carmen). Read my comment on the previous post for info on Mass. We wanted a quieter night, so we went out to a little cafe close to our apartment to get postres (dessert). I had a meringue...yum! Then, since the boys had just barely showed up when the place was closing, we all headed to a hookah bar near the Plaza. It was a nice, fun night, and we got in early (and by early I mean before 2!), so that was good for classes the next day! I'm really starting to enjoy spending time with most of the people in the group- it's the sort of experience that brings together people that are very distintos (different) that wouldn't necessarily be friends, but makes you see how much fun you can really have together!

I had my first two classes yesterday, and they went really well. For my Spanish Civ class, I have to read a short novel and write a paper on it for our final; for Art our exams are to explain things we see on our excursions to the rest of the group. Very cool! I like both of my professors, too. I also went in to learn about the position at the collegio (high school) speaking English with the kids. Jesus, one of the program directors, came with us to this, and he was also teaching the class we had right after that (art). We got out of the collegio with maybe 12 minutes until class, and a 10 minute walk ahead of us...and Jesus decides we're going to get coffee. There's such a different concept of time here! Jaja. A few of us also walked around a lot yesterday down by the river. The trees produce this weird white fluffy stuff in HUGE quantities, so that it looks like it's just snowed.

In the evening, we went out again, but not too late. The bar we went to, The Irish Rover, wasn't very Spanish, but it also wasn't all American. I think this is the hot spot for international students from all over, because U. Sal. (Universidad de Salamanca) is one of the most popular places in the world to study Spanish abroad! We met some guys from France and a group from Hungary, and we definitely heard a lot of British accents, too. Almost all of the music was American. It was really fun, and again we only stayed until around two. I still want to go to a few more authentic bars though!

Today, I got up early and went around by myself since most of the people in my group have early classes. My intention was to take pictures of the insides of some of the churches here, because they are gorgeous! There are probably 25 or 30 within a 15 minute walk from my apartment...it's sooo Catholic here! However, they are all unfortunately locked except when Mass is in session or a half hour before when people are praying, which I didn't want to interrupt. Oh well, hopefully sometime I'll be able to. I did eventually venture into the Catedral Vieja for the first time... I nearly cried! Es increible (It's unbelievable). We're going again for a more extensive tour later as a group, which should be awesome.

I had my two classes again, and I went to the collegio to actually speak with the students for the first time. I will be going every Tuesday and working with three sophomore girls who are very sweet! They wanted to know all about America- they mostly asked if things were like the movies. Are the cheerleaders really the popular kids? Are the schoolbuses really yellow? And are the parties really that crazy? It was fun, and good practice for them.

This evening, I also had my first meeting with my independent study class. It sounds like it's going to be pretty difficult... We have to read a decently long (200 pages) Spanish novel about La Guerra Civil de Espana (the Spanish Civil War) of all things and then write a paper on it. Thankfully the paper is only 6-8 pages, not 20 like Jesus told us before! Then, we went out with our tapas group to two different tapas bars. I ate WAY too much! It was delicious, though. So many food pictures! At least I'm walking enough to balance out a lot of the food. I am a terrible estimator but I'd say I walk AT LEAST 5 miles a day, sometimes probably 7 or 8 or more. My feet are angry with me!

For the first time, we're staying in 100% tonight. I actually have a lot of reading to do for my classes now, so it works. Tomorrow I might not have much time because Jenn and I might go see a museum, and then we're probably going back to the Irish Rover for karaoke!

Una cosita mas (one more little thing)... I'm going to Lisboa (Lisbon), Portugal this weekend! I'm not sure if I'd mentioned that before. We're going to the beach one day, which should be amazing. Again, if you know me, you know how I feel about la playa (the beach)! :)

Les echo de menos (I miss you)...besitos!

Caitrin