I have definitely been enjoying my time in Salamanca thus far. After a very uncomfortable plane ride, I took a bus from Madrid to Salamanca, and then once in Salamanca waited at the train station with all the other program participants for our families. When the señoras started showing up it was really exciting because everyone was anxious to know who they were going to be living with for the next six weeks. After a little mix up, there's a another girl here with the same name as me and she almost went home with my señora, I was dragging my suitcase down the cobblestones to Sagario's apartment. While we were walking Sagario, my señora, was talking a lot. I didn't understand the first 5 minutes of what she said and for a little while I had this horrible feeling that I'd have to spend the next six weeks pantomiming to communicate. Luckily things have gotten much better.
During the first week we did lots of work with our practicum groups and tried to become familiar with the city. With Sagario that was easy because every other second the first couple of days, she's pulled me out on to her 8th floor balcony and point out landmarks. I live a few blocks away from a gigantic shopping mall so when I thought I was lost the first night walking home, it was a relief to see that.
One of the primary impressions I have about Spain so far is that the population overall seems very relaxed. On the sidewalks everyone casually strolls to their destination, no one drives particularly fast, unless it's after a Spanish futbol victory, and there are lots of very young children running around the streets,playing unsupervised. The eating schedule here is relaxed as well. The Spanish eat much later than we do in the states and as opposed to having everything out on the table at the beginning of the meal, other courses start to come out just when you think dinner was over. This was hard to get used to because I'd have a bowl of soup and salad and be full and suddenly Sagario puts boiled eggs and ham in front of me.
The most rewarding challenge about being in Salamanca is conversing with the local population. It's difficult because you don't know if they're going to be receptive to your questions or just look at you like you're an idiot. Last weekend I was going to Barcelona, so I went to the train station early to buy tickets. No one was in line so I went right up to the counter and the man looks up at me and just says, "Numero," and then went back to his computer screen. After a bit of confused looking around I saw that I had to take a number ticket and wait for it to be called to get service. Once my number was called everything went smoothly until the woman helping me said, "This is price, four persons." I only needed one ticket and didn't want to accidently get charged for more. After two minutes of trying to clarify this I realized that she had meant "for" and not "four". We laughed about that and I successfully got my tickets and spent the weekend in Barcelona.
Barcelona was fantastic because some of my friends from high school and their families were there, so I had a really great weekend catching up and exploring the city with them. The first thing we did was go to the Picasso museum. That was a very incredible experience because I got to stand inches away from paintings that I'd read about and studied in earlier classes. It was also very interesting because there were lots of paintings of figures by themselves, and we started making up stories for these people, who they were, why Picasso painted them etc. It was really interesting. After that we spent the afternoon at the beach, and then watched the Spain vs. Portugal game in an Italian restaurant. Barcelona was not nearly as into the World Cup as the people in Salamanca are. The only people I saw wearing jerseys were tourists and the locals didn't seem to care about the game. The next day was the Fourth of July and I spend it on an 8 hours train ride back to Salamanca.
The next week classes started. It's very nice to finally have a set schedule. Also now we know where to go to get internet access, where to do laundry, where the pool is, and overall we're much less lost and wide eyed since last week. Everything was going very well until Thursday. I had to go to the hospital because I had a sore throat and later in the afternoon I had a fever. Sagario's thermometer is in Celcius so when it read 39.9 C I didn't realize that converted to 103 F. Sagario insisted that I eat fried fish because that's what she gave her sons growing up when they got sick. It wasn't chicken noodle soup but I didn't question her. I missed the weekend excursion to Portugal but luckily was healthy enough to watch Spain win the World Cup with everyone else. I don't think I've ever seen so much excitement in one place, from so many people as I did that moment. Celebrating in the streets with the rest of Spain is definitely an experience I won't forget anytime soon.
Plaza Mayor
La playa!
Watching the game in Barcelona with high school friends.
Great post, Quinn! No doubt - the next few weeks are going to be memorable.
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