First Week in Salamanca

Holaaa

Well I’ve made it though a week of classes. This past week I’ve been getting acquainted with the city of Salamanca and the University. So far I absolutely love it. I can’t think of a better place I could have chosen to come study abroad. Walking through the streets near the center of town you typically see two types of people: Students, or cute old people. What could be better?!

As I said earlier, the first day I arrived it had snowed, and the people seemed very fascinated by it. I really enjoyed seeing 2 out of every 3 cars with hand marks from people grabbing snow for snowballs . I even got to see a Spanish snowman! (Sorry these pictures aren't lining up the way I wanted them too. I've spent way too much time trying to fix it and I'm not happy with blogspot right now :)

Classes have been good so far. I’m taking Spanish Grammar, Spanish Culture, and Spanish and Latin American Cinema. So far my teachers are amazing. Very upbeat and have great personalities. I find the variety of students very interesting. There are students from all over the world: France, England, China, Japan, etc. The interesting part is that for a lot of these students, Spanish is the only language I have in common with them. So the only way I can talk to some of the students in my classes is through Spanish…kind of fun I think.

The picture on the left is what it looks like walking through campus—the buildings are beautiful (as expected from a University that was started in 1218). The home stay is going well. I’m beginning to feel more comfortable talking with our Senora, and I can understand her for the most part. The food has been AMAZING and I told her I was going to start taking pictures of our meals to show you all. Here is a picture of our room! Apartments are quite small here in Spain. Not very accommodating to tall people like me.

The rest of the city has fun to explore--there's plenty to see. We get an official cultural tour of the city/university tomorrow. The Plaza Mayor, which is the center of the city, is beautiful. There’s cafe’s and and bars everywhere you walk and it’s actually really hard to find things just because there’s so many shops and cafe's everywhere you go.

I was discussing with my roommate over breakfast the other day and I said something along the lines of, “Wow it doesn’t feel like we’ve been here for two weeks, it feels more like a month” He agreed and then it wasn’t until like 5 minutes later that we both realized we had only been here for 1 week. I guess time really does pass slowly in Spain! But It’s been hard for me to realize lately that I will be here for another 4 months. I feel like my “vacation” of sorts will end soon when in reality it’s just beginning. I’m not used to having all this free time and I’ve found myself pretty bored lately. But I think with time things will fall into place and I’ll find more to do (doesn’t help with the weather being rainy/snowy lately).

Some of the cultural differences are pretty significant here. The schedule is very strange. Small breakfast at 8, cafe (coffee) and tapas around noon, lunch (biggest meal of the day) at 3, dinner at 9 (10 or 11 for Spaniards, apparently only the kids, grandparents, and international students eat at 9 :), and then the nightlife doesn’t start until about 12 or 1. It’s quite different from what I’m used to and I think it will take a while to get adjusted. Also certain mannerisms are different. For instance, stretching in public is rude, having your hands by your lap during a meal is rude, you don’t typically tip with meals, people don’t typically say anything to strangers, it’s not uncommon to see friends (mostly girls) holding each others arms or hands walking down the street, when you walk down the street and bump into someone or get in someone’s way there’s no need to say sorry, because people’s personal space is very small here. There’s plenty of things that are different, and I find very interesting (and is one reason I really like my Spanish Culture class).

But of course I definitely miss home, and NDSU, and having a busy schedule. I think I need to learn how to relax more and be patient while I’m getting acquainted with this lifestyle. All in all it’s been a great trip, and I’m looking forward to making the most of every single minute of it (even the time that I take for siesta in the afternoon).

Check out my Flickr site for the rest of the my recent photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickjwelch