My New Home

This week, we had our first Spanish civilization class. It was so interesting. Our guest speaker told us about the culture of Spain, specifically the culture of Spanish food. Of course, the Spaniards embrace their jamon. In Salamanca alone, I’ve seen about four tiendas de jamon. They hang it upside down. Apparently that’s a way for it to process and become well enough to eat. I thought it was merely decoration. I have yet to see a restaurant sin jamon. Our guest speaker also talked about the different wines and which ones to drink with certain meals. He also explained the different cheeses that are available. After class, he took us to three of the most famous bars in Salamanca for tapas. I thought tapas were a specific dish but now I realize that tapas is just another word for appetizers that are supposed to be eaten with wine or another type of drink. That was by far the best class I’ve had--I had three free tapas that night J

Spanish night life is insanely crazy! It starts around 11PM..bar hopping, karaoke nights, beer pong nights, 5  Euro nights (where you get unlimited Sangria and beer), and so much more! They usually end around 5 or 6 AM, sometimes later. One night specifically, I went bar hopping, and didn’t end up going to sleep until 7AM. It sucked, since I had class at 11:30AM that day..not enough time for sleeping! The school isn’t that far, though, and every now and then, I find myself taking a different route, completely by accident, and getting lost, causing me to be late to school. I’ve been here for almost two weeks, and today, I finally found the shortest route to school. The streets don’t run just parallel, but diagonal, and although it may seem you can take a certain street to get to a more familiar one, don’t assume it’s so! My roommates and I have gotten lost so many times already. It’s a good thing though because we’re learning more and more about the city and finding ways to remember where everything is.

Salamanquinos really value their legal quiet hours, 11pm-7am. One day, a lady yelled at my roommates and I for always wearing heels and making noise. It didn’t make sense to us because not only is she on the second floor(and us on the fourth), but the day she told us was the first time we had gone out in heels. Plus, we take them off as soon as we get inside because we know how loud they can be. We were more shocked than angry, knowing it couldn’t have been us, and we didn’t understand how she could yell at us as if we were her own children. Some late nights, my roommates and I have gone out to the Plaza for the free internet, and we always get people walking by, staring at our laptops, trying to see what we were doing. Some of them even asked us why we were outside when it was -1 degrees Celsius. I guess Americans are more spoiled than I thought, being able to have reliable internet in our homes. I was still willing to get frostbite just to say a quick hello to my friends and family abroad.

This weekend we went to Lisbon, Portugal J Angela and I went on a bus, without the group. Our hostel was pretty much amazing! Free breakfast, free laundry services, free walking tour, free wifi…only 18 euros a night. We bought the 6euro dinner both nights. It was delicious. The first night we had soup with chicken. The next night we had bacalou, sort of like paella. The desserts were amazing as well…a tart with strawberries one night and something like pumpkin pie the next. I’d definitely recommend that hostel for anyone going to Lisbon. It was right next to the river, so we were able to get some beautiful pictures. We weren’t that far from everyone who stayed at the hotel either. It was a pretty good weekend, though I didn’t enjoy it as much as I had hoped. We were allowed to drink in the streets, and of course, there had to be some hostility there, with a guy punching some girl who wouldn’t stop yelling at him. I felt pretty safe nonetheless, having met 5 other Spanish guys from Madrid who stayed at the same hostel, protecting us while we went clubbing. All in all, it was an okay weekend, but I was excited to get back to Salamanca.  This is the start of our third week here and already I’m able to call Salamanca my home.