Christmas Eve

     So this evening I was walking through the city a bit, just kind of existing, and I stopped in front of this building. This building that has stood there for almost 800 years. 800 YEARS. And as I stood there trying to find some kind of context in which to contemplate this building, everything it has stood through, I found that I just couldn't! Standing there in the cold in the dark with my head craned back and my brain all a-jumble, I felt like Christmas Eve.
     You know on Christmas Eve when you're frantically trying to finish wrapping the gifts for your family and it's already almost midnight and you have to get up early to open presents or go to church and you're on the last gift and it's a basketball, or any other really incredibly difficult-to-wrap gift, and you're struggling with the wrapping paper but no matter how much tape you use (or how much wrapping paper you use) there are still holes on either side and part of the gift is sticking out and the paper just won't fit? That's how I felt standing there, as if Salamanca, bueno, Spain rather, were the awkwardly shaped gift and my brain the wrapping paper that just couldn't quite wrap around it.
     But in the end you always leave the gift wrapped as best as you possibly can because, even with parts showing through, you know whoever receives the gift will enjoy it just the same. So that's what I'm left with, my brain only partially wrapped around this wonderful place and only 16 days left to enjoy it and try to add some more tape.

time just keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping...

So, let me start by saying the thing that has been occupying my mind for the last couple of days, I have LESS THAN 3 WEEKS LEFT. ACK! I have such a mix of feelings about this, I am at once elated that the day is approaching when I get to see my home(s) and family and friends and sad that my time here is quickly winding down. I've done and seen and learned so much but there is forever more to do and see and learn! In any case, I will be aprovechandome (taking advantage) of the time I have left here in Salamanca to continue getting the most out of this experience [or at least trying to do so :) ].

Last weekend I went to Madrid with my housemate, Katie, and another of the Gettysburgians here, Allison. The city was awesome, easily my favorite of all the big cities I have been to. We ended up staying at Way Hostel, which I highly recommend if you are ever travelling to Madrid! The hostel has such a great vibe, it was very clean and comfortable, and we met some wonderful people there. Apart from the hostel, we saw a lot in the city (we also walked a LOT). In about two and a half days we saw el Real Jardin Botánico (Royal Botanical Garden), El Prado museum, Palacio Real (the Royal Palace), an authentic (albeit displaced) Egyptian temple, beautiful vistas of the city, innumerable tiny side-streets with cozy cafés and bars, Gran Via (the main shopping street), calle de Alcalá (famous for it's imitation of the architecture and street planning in Paris), a whole ton of elaborate beautiful buildings, la Plaza de Cibeles (a plaza with a giant fountain of the Roman goddess Ceres that is kind of iconic of the city), el Oso y Madroño the symbol of the city (a female bear eating fruit from a strawberry tree), el Palacio de Comunicaciones (the former post office, now you can take tours of the building and go to the lookout on top for a great view of the city), lots of prostitutes, the Plaza Mayor, demonstrations against 20-N (the presidential elections) replete with a whole ton of policía in full SWAT gear, street performers, homeless people, a National Geographic store (we were really excited about this), and lots of people! I'm sure I'm forgetting some things but those are basically the highlights. Unfortunately as I didn't have my camera I only have a few pictures; they were taken with my LG camera phone so the quality is not that great, but better than nothing!

 The Egyptian temple

Not sure exactly what this building is but I liked it.  

Part of the Royal Palace 

Snapshot of the Royal Botanical Garden

Thursday was of course Thanksgiving, and we had our own little IES family Thanksgiving dinner which was delicious. I of course missed all of my fam at home but being able to share the evening with great friends and great food here was wonderful. All of the following pics are stolen from Joe Sharp; if you want you can check out his blog here: http://lifeisnotawaitinggame.blogspot.com/

 wine (of course), water, gravy, and blueberry sauce (apparently arándano, the Spanish word for cranberry, is also the Spanish word for blueberry, oops!)

 yum :)

 It was a good try Spain, but your pumpkin pie just does not compare with that back home. Although edible, it was a little heavy on the pumpkin and light on any other kind of spices. 

 ¡hermanas! 

Our table :)

I've just been enjoying a quiet weekend here in Salamanca, catching up on news in the US, writing postcards, and walking around through the city. Something I've come to realize: I see more dogs here on a daily basis than I have seen children in the entire 3 months I've been here! So many dogs, so few I can pet. 

Today I went for a stroll through the city attempting to get lost and discovered that it is nearly impossible, at least within the city center and surrounding area. However, I did find some cute streets that I had not been on before and it was just nice to be out and about enjoying the city without having any particular place to go. 

I'm not sure if this counts as full-fledged creeping or not, but my neighbor in the building across the street is a painter (who frequently leaves the blinds open when he paints) and occasionally while I'm here at my desk working I watch him paint (reminds me of countless hours of watching Bob Ross as a child). Today he was painting a portrait of a man with sunglasses who looked scarily like John Belushi. I can't say for certain, but I'm pretty sure that's who it was. 

Anyway I hope you are all enjoying your weekend and successfully recovering from Thanksgiving/Black Friday. Until next time, ¡love and un abrazo! 

ps. it is 22:33 here as I am finishing this. neat! 

pps. I also discovered this week that there is a significant population of Jehova's Witnesses here in Spain, who knew?? 

Updates!

Hello again! I know it's like some kind of miracle, it's been such a short time since I last posted haha.
 Just a few things:

1. It is the coolest thing that now when I'm walking down the street in Salamanca I can pick up parts of random conversations and actually understand them!

2. MILESTONE! Two Spanish people yesterday complimented me on my Spanish, woo! :)

3. I have seen two rockin' mullets here in the last two days, I'm not sure what that means but I fear it's some kind of omen referring to my impending return to the US...

4. Algo agridulce (something bittersweet): today marks exactly one month until I will be back on US soil :D/:'(

5. I have posted my pictures from Toledo and Porto on facebook, here are the public links:
     Toledo and Rain in Oporto.

Hope you're all having a great Wednedsay, ¡un abrazo! 

Crazy tour guides in Toledo, trabajos in Salamanca, rain in Oporto

Hello loved ones!
I hope as you're reading this all is well, I'm doing great here, a little stressed out because I seem to have misplaced my camera, but I'm in the process of getting that worked out and otherwise I am happy and healthy. We're heading into the home stretch to I've been pretty busy with homework (hence the 3 week gap in posting) and various other excursions.  I have so much I want to tell you about!! But I made myself an outline so that I can keep this post as short, sweet, and attention grabbing as possible.

The weekend after my last post was the weekend of November 1, Dia de Todos los Santos or All Souls Day and once again I had to go to el cementerio to check out the scene for homework in my religion class. Nov. 1st is a national holiday in Spain so every year on that day everybody and their brother heads to the cemetery to spruce up the tombs of their loved ones and chat with the other people in the cemetery. It is as much a day for remembering and honoring the dead as it is a fiesta, so outside of the cemetery of course there were casetas (food vendors) and I even saw that someone ordered pizza delivered to the cemetery. It was fascinating to see the cemetery transformed from a forest of stone to an especie of garden with all kinds of flowers imaginable.

 One of the casetas outside of the cemetery. 

The following Saturday, Nov. 5th, all of us IES kids went on a day trip to Toledo, Spain. Toledo is the famous "city of three cultures" because for many years Muslims, Christians, and Jews all lived in Toledo together in peace and tolerance. For this reason there is a lot of cool blended architecture in the city. Toledo is also famous for it's swords. There is something special about the water that runs in the river Tagus that makes the steel produced in Toledo especially good for sword-making, who knew? In fact, the swords used in the Lord of the Rings movies were all made in Toledo. We took a tour through the city with a cantankerous old man who received about 20 cell phone calls during the course of the tour and also walked in a strange manner. In any case, it was fun and I got to see swords and eat marzipan for the first time!

 View of Toledo from the opposite side of the river. 

 girls :)

 Toledo's sister city is Toledo, OH. 

 This is our goofy tour guide, whenever we passed these guard rail things he would walk over top of them instead of around. Also one of the few phrases in English he knew was "Let's rock and roll!" so we heard that a lot haha.

 I thought this little corner was cute. 

 View of the river Tagus and the city.

 The bridge and the city.

 Swords!

Sword made of mazapan.

Incredible sunset on the way back to Salamanca. 

So, the week that followed our trip to Toledo was kind of intense, I had two large papers due and various other trabajos so I didn't do much else than chill in my room and do work. However, this weekend I traveled to Oporto, Portugal with two other girls from the IES program, one girl from Mexico and another from Colombia! The trip was wet (it rained about 75% of the time we were there) and exhausting (in the best way!) but wonderful! It was the closest thing to a real life adventure that I have probably ever had haha. We arrived in Oporto at 6:45ish in the AM, in the dark and rain and with almost zero idea of where to go to find our hostel. Thankfully one of the girls I was with is a whiz with directions and after about half an hour of trudging through the cold and rain we made it to our hostel, Eden House. We spent the weekend walking around and exploring the city (but mostly walking). We saw various museums, churches, cool buildings, and even the beach! Allison and I got caught in a serious storm while we were visiting the beach but despite the crazy wind and rain we managed to enjoy ourselves quite thoroughly (and of course when we went back to the hostel looking like drowned rats there were a slew of bombónes -cute guys- there haha). Unfortunately I only have the pictures from our first day because I've lost my camera, so none of the ocean unfortunately, but enjoy what few I do have: 

 Cool church, there were a lot of buildings with this type of white and blue painted tile.

 On Friday we went to the market, it was really cool!

 Another church w/ the tiling.

Hanging out in a cute park we found :)

 We went to this military museum that had miniatures of soldiers from every major civilization and war since the prehistoric age. Seeing as it was just Veteran's day a few days ago, I thought this was appropriate. 

 And yet another church. I think this one was my favorite, too bad we couldn't go inside though.

 The Lion Fountain.

 Our hostel!

 Not sure what this building is, but it is pretty and the picture turned out kind of cool. 

 La torre of a church in the city center. 

 Sunset.

 Another church.

La torre at night. 

Well, I think that's it! I hope the pictures were enough to keep your attention, there will (hopefully) be more as soon as I find my camera! In other news, I'm going to Madrid this weekend! Also I will post all of my pictures from the last few weeks on facebook and get public links up on here as soon as that's done. 

So how's home everybody? Leave me some news in the comments! 

Until next time, love you all and God bless :)