Bienvenidos a Salamanca

After the half hour drive to the airport, hour flight to Newark (that was delayed), hour and a half layover, 7 hour flight to Madrid, 3 hours spent on the floor of the Barajas airport waiting for our program to get organized, 2 hours on the bus waiting for it to leave, and a 3 hour bus ride, I am finally in Salamanca!

One thing you don't always think about when going to Europe is the time change. You arrive in Madrid around 9am their time...it's sunny, everyone's full of energy. But you feel like it's 3am, because of the 6 hour difference. I'm pretty much adjusted now, but the first day is always rough.

On the bus ride to Salamanca, we stopped for a few minutes in Ávila:


Ávila, about half way between Madrid and Salamanca, is especially famous for its medieval walls surrounding the city. You can walk on the tops of the walls and check out the view, but we only stopped briefly. One of the biggest things I remember from Ávila last time I was there was the local specialty, yemas. Our language teacher recommended them to us, but they were disgusting. They are egg yolks covered in sugar, and we just about gagged.

After Ávila, we continued on to Salamanca. After the hot bus ride, some of the other students and I decided we needed to get some helado. We went to the Parque de Almedilla and relaxed a little before heading back for dinner at 9. (In Spain dinner is much later than in the U.S...it's unheard of to eat before 8:30 at the earliest!)

This morning our classes started. I'm taking two graduate classes: one on the modern Spanish novel and popular Spanish music, and one on Spanish grammar for teachers. We watched a bunch of Youtube music videos in the former....remind you of any class you've had? =) In between my classes I went to the librería to buy my books, and to la Universidad de Salamanca to look into their Masters programs for the future. On the way to the University, I went through the Plaza Mayor:


I've been to a bunch of Plazas Mayores in Spain and Spanish speaking countries, but personally I think the one in Salamanca is by far the best. It was blown up in a movie that just came out, I believe, but I can't think of the name of it. The Plaza is a great place to get (overpriced) food, or to just people watch.

And lastly, something I just learned about Spanish culture: when you buy fruit at the grocery store, you have to buy it separately at the frutería before going into the checkout line. Yea, I got scolded by the checkout lady for that one yesterday.

¡Adiós para ahora y espero que todo vaya bien en Columbus para vosotros!