starting to find a home away from home

So remember when I wrote about the nice weather coming in and how exited I was about it and how it made me feel a lot better? Well I definitely spoke way too soon because the very next day, it snowed. So much for warm and sunny days, it’s back to coats and scarves and definitely shoes with socks. Not so fun.

But it was a fun week anyway; I did a lot of fun stuff. I’m realizing I only have about 4 weeks left here in Salamanca, so I’m trying to get out there a lot and do all the things that I have wanted to. I had the normal classes Tuesday through Friday- we didn’t’ have class on Monday, that was pretty cool. Hannah had a little get together at her house on Monday night, so Mike and I hit that up and saw the usual friends.

sofie and me at their apartment

Tuesday I had class, only two though, so nothing that bad. Mike, Lisa, Juliette and I met up with Hannah in the afternoon and spent some time together. Hannah had this geriatrics conference at the hospital this week, so she was really busy, but she wanted to meet up with us for just a short time. That night, I just did homework and hung around the apt with Maggie.

Wednesday I had my classes in the morning and then in the afternoon I hung around with some girls in the program. We went to a tapas bar and got some dinner and just talked and told stupid stories about when we were kids. It was awesome.

lisa and me at a cafe

After that I met the girls for our Bible study, we met at this small sandwich place. After bible study I went to meet Lisa and Katie and some other JMU kids for trivia night at one of the local Irish Pubs. I really enjoy now going out with the JMU kids. At first I couldn’t really handle it, but it’s becoming much more fun. So they have trivia at the pub and you have teams of 3-5 people and they ask questions about geography, history, literature and all that stuff, then they have a part on movies and then music. It was pretty fun, and I got home early too, so that’s always great.

katie and juliette-two girls in my program

Thursday I only had three classes because one got canceled. I hung out on the Plaza with Lisa in between classes and had good conversation with her. She’s becoming one of my really good friends here too, she’s an amazing girl and I love that I’ve made new friends from JMU. Cause I get to keep them when we get back!!

lisa and her boyfriend brantly-he came to visit a few weeks ago

After my class at 6, we headed to meet the group because we were going to go see ‘Teresa: El Cuerpo de Cristo’ the movie about St. Teresa of Avila, a Spanish nun who is famous for her visions and who contributed many important works of literature to Spanish history. It was alright. I wasn’t too impressed, and I don’t feel like it really did that much for me. Maybe it would have meant more if I was Spanish and I knew the story and how important this woman was. I think her story is interesting; she was basically a headstrong woman who fought against gender identity and role in her time. As for the movie though, I guess it was worth my time, but I’m not 100% sure.

After the movie, we went and grabbed some dinner at this great, cheap tapas place. We then headed to En Vivo, where we met up with Hannah, Matthieu, and Sofie.

en vivo

We stayed there and hung around with some of those people for a while and then headed to Sian’s because she was having a little party at her apartment. It was a Primavera themed party, so we were supposed to buy or get flowers and wear them. I decided to make mine! At Sian’s I got to talk to some girls from Italy, a guy from Mexico, a guy from Holland and I met a few more of Sian and Hannah’s friends. Gosh I am trying to take this all in before I head back, because I feel like I’m never going to have this around me in the US. I mean, when in C’ville can I go to a friends apt for a party and meet people from all over the world!!!

After Sian’s, we headed to Posada for just a bit. It’s a classy little bar that they go to a lot. I had been a few times before, but never with Hannah and her friends, who are just so much fun.

hannah and becki, friends from school


mike and me


matthieu and me
notice the flower, i made that!!

Friday I had two hours of Cine and Lit. At the end he handed us a packet of the reading we have for next week. And guys, this is not your normal packet. This is a 50 page packet, front and back, two pages of text to each page of paper. This is basically 200 pages of reading, IN SPANISH. So clearly we were not very happy with this. We’ll see how this goes.

After class Laura and I went to the Plaza and just sat for a while before lunch.

We saw Lisa walking toward us after a while and she had been sitting with her parents who had come in for the weekend to visit. So we went and sat with them for a while and talked about Salamanca and everything. It was nice to meet them!

Friday afternoon Laura came over and we looked at old pictures of Katie and Kelly and Notti. It’s funny how she’s such good friends with them but we never hung out. Now she’s one of my best friends here. We’re so excited to go back and all hang out together.

I miss them!!

wow- i can't wait to go back to this one

and this nut too

Friday night I went to Hannah’s house for dinner because her flatmates were making dinner for us all. It was so much fun, Matthieu made crepes, Sylvana made tortillas and Manuela and Alexandra made pasta with ham and creme. It was really fun, we ate international foods and listened to international music. What a great time.

After dinner I just hung around with Hannah and we had a sleep over which was super fun!

sylvana making tortillas


mike trying his hand at crepes


Saturday morning Hannah and I got up and did a few hours of homework, which was really great. She’s only got a few more weeks here so she’s got tons to do, so it’s good to hang around with her---she keeps me studious. After that I went home for lunch and then around 4 Maggie and I met up with Laura at the roman bridge and sat in the sun and did school work until it got cold.

down by the river
for the record, we all hate the 'kissy face'
we just do it to make fun.

We then met up with Hannah and sat on the plaza. We were going to the cinemas later that night, so Hannah and Laura wanted to go get some candy at a local candy shop. Well 30 minutes later, they emerged.

this picture is entitled- 'This was so all your fault!!'

So after that I went to Hannah’s and we ate dinner and then Laura, Hannah, Mike, Mattieu and I went to the movies. We went to see 300, a movie about Sparta. Don’t see it Mom. I loved it, a neat mix of war and art, but not for everyone.

One of Sylana’s friends was having some people over at her apartment, so we all headed over there after the movie. It was another place to meet tons of internatnioals. Gosh I love this life.

mike and matthieu deep in conversation
someone should probably tell matthieu to brush his hair

After that we went out for a bit all together because it was Sylvia’s last night in Salamanca. She’s one of Hannah’s roommates and just one of the sweetest girls I’ve ever met. I’m pretty sad she headed back to Italy without being able to spend much time with her. We just started to get to be better friends this week.

sweet sylvia!

Sunday we got up and hung around and then ate lunch. Then we headed back tot eh river for more sun and reading. It was a beautiful day!!!

After that I went to the Plaza just for a bit and did some more work. Sunday night we watched some of Miss España competition. It was HILAROUS watching it with Rosa nd Sylvia—they are so harsh. Each one that came out, it was, “Ella es muy fea!!” Translation= she’s really ugly. Gosh I’d never want to go on that show.

laura and i are pretty excited about lazarillo de tormes


down by the river...

So that’s been the week. I’m starting to really love it here. Could be because I’ve finally found a ‘family’ of people that I spend time with. I’ve made some really great friends and it’s hard to believe I’m heading home in 6 weeks. I start to get scared when I think of having to head home then. I know I’m really going to miss it. So it’s nice to see a change of heart in me. It’s nice to finally really be enjoying stuff here in Salamanca. But it just make it that much more painful to leave.