Getting Adjusted

For the past week I’ve gotten a chance to learn more about Salamanca and it’s history, culture, and points of interest. I’ve settled in to what my day-to-day life is going to look like for the next 3 months, and I will say that I’m liking how it looks.

This past weekend we took a culture tour of the city of Salamanca. We learned about the history city and the university. The fact that the University was founded in 1218 is pretty amazing. Also, the fact that I got be in a “classroom” that was used in the 14th century was pretty unbelievable (apparently before they had seats in the room the students would sit on the floor, but since it’s so cold in Salamanca, the students’ servants would sit on the floor before class to warm up the seats :) We also took a tour of the two cathedrals of Salamanca, and some of the older University buildings. The amount of history and culture in the town seems endless, and it makes me glad that I chose to study here even more.

On Sunday we were planning to go to the market but it was raining and we decided to go to the Plaza Mayor instead where we found out there was a protest going on about a bank merger. We chatted with some Salmantinos about it which was quite enjoyable.

This week it’s been class, homework (we actually get homework? what kind of vacation is this?), and eating lots of good food. I’ve also started meeting with Spanish students of the University in what we call intercambios. We set up a time to meet up and get coffee and practice our Spanish/English. It’s basically like blind dating (or a box of chocolates), pretty awkward but gets better. But I really do think it will be beneficial for me to get some one-on-one practice with native speakers.

I’ve been venturing off during my 1-hour break between classes to explore the city and found some pretty amazing places. It’s unbelievable how many shops, cafe’s, and bars there are in Salamanca. Also, with a short trip across the river at the edge of town you get views of the city like pictured below.

This weekend I’m heading to Madrid to meet up with Ike. I’ve seen a lot of Madrid already but I had one of my “Estoy en Espana” moments where I realize that money and hassle shouldn’t hold me back from traveling and seeing all that I can see (and I figured a mini-trip would be good travel practice with the bus system). Upon my return our Senora will be preparing Paella which is one of the most well-known Spanish dishes, and considering what my host mom has cooked already, I expect nothing short of SCRUMPTIOUS.

Overall, I'm feeling pretty good. Getting used to things a bit and enjoying my time here in Salamanca so far. I think some of the culture shock is starting to wear off a bit as well. I'm looking forward to some trips coming up and becoming more comfortable with the language thing. Until next time..

‘ta luego,

Nico

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

Madrid & Arrival to Salamanca

The first few days spent in Madrid were a lot of fun. I got to meet all of the American students in our program and tour the city with them. We visited the Prado museum, the city of Toledo, and a city named El Escorial. Some of the Cathedrals that we saw were unbelievable (especially Toledo—pic below). It’s crazy to think about how much history Spain (or Europe) has compared to the United States. Madrid is a fun city though. I’ve enjoyed talking with people and exploring Spain’s capital. Last night we ate at a restaurant called Botín. It is the oldest restaurant in the world, started in 1725. We split meals between two people and it still ended up being 22€ each (~ $30). But the band from University of Madrid that came and played for our table was definitely worth it (not to mention some really good wine).

I enjoyed watching some locals attempt to skate at the rink set up next to the Catedral de Toledo

Arriving in Salamanca today to a ground full of snow made me feel quite at home (and gave me a good laugh for those complaining). My roommate Britton and I met our Senora, Vicente, a 60 year old woman who lives with her 13 year old German Sheppard “Ades” (nicest dog in the world), bird “Pipi”, and her 40 year old son Angel (it’s not uncommon in Spain to live with your family even when you’re grown up). Vicenta doesn’t know any English so that will be a challenge but so far I don’t think it’s been too bad. One thing I definitely have noticed is how pure Castilian Spanish (Spanish spoken in Spain) is. Compared to Latin American Spanish it is a lot easier to understand and more….crisp? (can you describe spoken language like that? Sure) anyways, basically just less slurring of words.

I walked around the area and so far Salamanca seems really nice—plenty of young people out as expected for a city with 20% of it’s population being college students. I found it amusing that about 2 out of every 3 cars I passed had hand prints from people grabbing snow off the cars to make snowballs. Apparently these rare snowfall are an entertaining thing for all ages (I’ll post pictures later).

For the first time on the trip I’ve started to feel significant emotion. Realizing what my life is going to be like for the next four months gives me a little unsettling feeling. Being separated from the 25 other (English speaking) Americans that I’ve been hanging out with the last few days is tough. But I know that after these first few weeks things will hopefully become a lot easier. Tomorrow I get to take a placement exam and then tour the school and city. I’m really looking forward to it because, well, I like school :)



Feel free to check out more of my pictures on my flickr site, http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickjwelch

El Viaje

Estoy aqui en Espana. It's pretty hard to believe I'm sitting in a hotel in Madrid right now. I mean who would have thought coming to Madrid would mean 30 degrees, snow, and 20 mph winds? I thank North Dakota for making me accostomed to this :) The flight over was interesting. My itinerary was:

Fargo->Chicago->Frankfurt->Madrid--14 hours total.

Here was my 9 hour flight in a nutshell

• Baby crying two rows behind me
• Small Asian woman in front of me who needed her seat back the whole time
• Flight attendants bringing food and beverage every 30 minutes
• My water bottle leaking on my seat so my butt was wet
• A flight attendant waking me up two times from my (scarce) slumber so that I could show her that my seat belt was buckled
• I tried watching a movie on my laptop only to find that in the first 30 seconds of the movie there was a sex scene and I felt extremely awkward because I know everyone could see. That was the end of my attempt to watch movies
  

But here's where the fun begins. I get to Frankfurt and am going through customs where I first get taken aside to get patted down. A German worker proceeds to take everything out of my backpack and then throws it back in to get rechecked (of course not in any order at all). Jokes around (in German) to one of his co-workers. Makes me re-check my laptop. Two men in suits ask me to follow them to a closed room where they check my laptop with some crazy machine. And then they finally let me go where I catch the bus by about 20 seconds. Thank you Germany!

So for the next few days we are staying in Madrid and meeting everyone in our program. We are here for a few days and get to go see some of the sites and explore while getting to know everyone. I can't really describe my feelings right now. I thought I would be really excited but I don't think it's really hit me yet that I'm in Spain. Jet-lag probably doesn't help either. But this is where the adventure begins. And I'm looking forward to every minute of it. Bienvenidos a Espana!