It’s been a pretty busy past week or so, we’ve been gone a little and we wrapped up classes just yesterday, so that brought on a lot of work too. We went to Cantabria this past weekend, in the North of Spain and when we got back I basically just did work most of the time, with a few breaks here and there.

Also, last week, before we went to Cantabria, was Rosa’s b’day, which was super fun, Maggie and I got her a cake and we all celebrated!

rosa!!

And Friday was Ivania’s birthday, a girl in our group, so Friday night we all went out together and hung out. Though I’m really different than most of the kids on this trip, I’ve really come to enjoy spending time with all them and getting to know them.

me and john micheal, probably the craziest boy on this trip.


lisa and me.

As I said, we were in Cantabria this past weekend, which ended up being the best excursion. We left early Saturday morning and headed to the north and stopped first in this small town where these prehistoric caves are located. We went in and toured one cave, which has drawings from thousands years before Christ. Some pretty cool stuff. There were drawings of animals, like bison and horses and negative paintings of hands. It definately the oldes piece of history I've ever seen. That's a cool feeling.

town near the caves.

After that we drove to Fuente Dé, the small town we were staying in for the night. So this place is in the middle of nowhere, it took like an hour and a half to even get out there. Yeah, and hour and a half of curvy mountainous road. On a bus. No fun.

But the final result was amazing, as this was definitely the coolest place I’ve ever been in Spain thus far. We were staying in this ski lodge type hotel at the base of the Picos de Europa, these magnificent snow-covered peaks. And the best thin g was that we just had all day to go and do whatever, which included climbing up the mountains and exploring. So Stacy, Will and I went out for a while and wandered around and climbed around the rocks and snow. It was so great, I didn’t’ even mind that it was cold and rainy. It was the most relaxing thing to just have nothing to do for a whole day and have no where really to go, that is, except exploring in the mountains.

view of the mountains from our hotel room window.

That evening, Jesus told us that there was some kind of festival at the base of the mountains, and that there would be fireworks. Well this was a festival alright, to say the least. Come 7pm, tons and tons of people where pouring into the area near our hotel and picnicking out and such. I think that there were thousands at least. And so after or dinner we headed out back, cause really the peaks are right out back, and there were all these people sitting on the grass and standing on the ground near this big field out back. There were all these people doing stuff with fire and there was this strange, almost creepy music playing. It was like some religious festival to celebrate the end of the holy year. Then this huge man-made man type thing, which branches on its body was lifted up with this huge crane and it moved all around the field, while this really strange electronica music was playing in the background. After that moved around a bit, one of the cable cars that goes all the way up to the peak of the mountains came into sight and there was this girl hanging doing this gymnastic type stuff from it. With like ribbons and all that stuff. So we all watched her for a while as she descended to the ground, and upon touching down, she is taken to the big tree man and rides on it’s back, as it’s now in a laying down position, like she’s some type of queen. Then they took the big tree man and put it in this circle of fire and all this smoke rose from it. And then that was it.

Just writing this I almost feel like a crazy person, and trust me if you are at all confused at what occurred, I’m totally right there with you. At the end, we were all just like, “What the heck?? Does anyone know what just happened??” And all of us just had to shrug our shoulder just say, “No.”

some kind of fire thing.

Soooo….how can I top that? Gosh, let’s see.

The next morning we got up and the whole group went to the cable car station type thing and we all got in and took it up to the top of the mountain peak. It was pretty mind-blowing, actually. It was warm and sunny at the bottom, but at the top of the mountain it was snowing and a little chilly. But we had about an hour or so to wander around and just do whatever we wanted, which just basically meant climbing and walking as far as you could on the rocky and snowing cliffs until you couldn’t walk any more. It was just so beautiful, the view on the valley and the grass below was perfect and the white snow on the dark mountains was like nothing I’d ever seen before. It was amazing to just be able to sit in fresh air and look around and just be so thankful for being exactly where you were.

snow caps.


mike and the valley. this should be a post card.


stacy and me.


katie, juliet and me at the top.

After going up on the mountain, we had a little time to just hang around the hotel and the park outside before we headed out from Fuente Dé. Then we all got back on the bus and headed back through the countryside, the beautiful countryside, to Santenilla del Mar, another small little village. We stopped here and had lunch and then had some time to just sit and the boys played soccer. We met up and went a looked at a church and then we went to the ‘Museo de la Inquisicion’, which actually ended up just being, ‘El Museo de la tortura’ So most everyone went in, I don’t know what I was really thinking going in, as within in 2 ½ minutes I was right back out the door. I know it’s important to know both the good and bad parts of a country’s history, but learning about manners of torture is not really anything I want to do. I felt just sick to my stomach after going in. It was just horrible.

one of the prettier sights in santenilla del mar.

When we left Santenilla del Mar, we headed to Santander, one of the main cities on the northern coast. We got checked into our hotel and then a bunch of us went down to the beach, as it was warm and mostly sunny.

That evening we had dinner in the hotel and then we all just stayed in, as it was a Sunday night and not much to do. I got to talk to my dad though, so that was pretty sweet. I think I also watched part of Pretty Woman, wow, what a fun night.

Monday morning we got up and walked to a part of town and went and looked at this palace that was built as a summer palace for the kings of Spain to try to bring tourism to Santander. Thankfully we didn’t have to go in and look around, as it was a beautiful day and we all wanted to be outside. From the palace, there was a great view of the sea and the cliffs. There was also a zoo type thing for water animals near the palace, so we went over and saw the seals and penguins there. They were precious. We got to see the penguins eating their lunch and they were so funny to watch.

maggie, jesus, and me.


coast of santander.

summer palace.


penguines

After that we just had all afternoon free, so we all headed to the beach and just hung out there all day. It was so great; this was by far the most relaxing excursion we had. And were all finally pretty close, and pretty much the whole group was together on the beach, so it was just nice spending time all together. Being outside the whole time was so good for me.

justine and me at the beach.

We got home Monday evening and unfortunately we came home to tons of work, so mostly all this week, I’ve just been working and studying and writing papers. It’s kind of lame how I finally have friends that I want to hang out with, but now I have tons of work, so it’s hard to do all I want to. Lame how it works that way.

But, gooood story. I was walking from class with Maggie on Tuesday afternoon, and I walked by this guy who looked a lot like this guy I was friends with in high school. I couldn’t believe it was him, but I turned around and yelled his name anyway, and what do you know, he turned around and it was him!! So here’s my friend Raphael in Salamanca visiting his cousin and I had no idea, because I haven’t even talked to him in two years. The funniest thing. He had been in “Europe playing tennis and then he’s heading to Argentina to train for tennis. So we met up for just a little bit that night and caught up. It was so random and funny! I enjoyed talking with an American who hasn’t been her eth e whole time.

raph and me.

So aside from that, I basically locked myself in my room until Friday. I had a bunch of work, mostly a paper for Cine and Lit, and so that meant not doing that much fun stuff with my friends. But I got it done Thursday and did a pretty good job, so that’s good. There’s not really anything better than knowing you make the right decision by staying in and working hard and doing a good job.

So after Friday, I was pretty free. I had an oral exam that morning, which was super easy, just a convo with my professor, and then two hours of cine. In the afternoon I met up with a bunch of girls from the program and we just hung outside for a while, sitting at a café on the plaza. Then I met up with Sophie, Alex and Matthieu and hung with them for a while. I hadn’t seen them much this week, so I was nice to get back together with them. I’m going to miss them so much when I go back. It’s just going to be really hard leaving.

kate, lauren and emily on the plaza

Friday night, Maggie and I had the privilege of having Sylvia, Marina and Patricia come out with us for the night. We had wanted to go out with Sylvia all semester, and finally we found a time to. It was so much fun. They came with us and got to meet all our JMU friends and it was just cool being with them outside the house. It was more like we were friends than people who lived together.

sylvia and me!!


patri, marina and sylvia


So today marks the last week for me here. To be honest, I’m pretty terrified about it. I’ve come to love being in Salamanca a lot, and though I would never want to be here long-term, I know how difficult it is for me to adapt to change, and I know inserting myself back into US life is going to be difficult. Also, I’m trying to rack my brain and think of all the things that I need to do this week before I head out to, while at the same time, trying not to panic about the fact that I only have 7 more days. I want to climb the cathedral tower and go to the modern art museum, and I” sure that there’s plenty of other stuff I’ll think of in the next few days.

i'm sure going to miss this.

It’s been kind of frustrating because when I get worried about something or really concerned, I tend to make myself physically sick. So I’ve pretty much been nauseous/ill for the past week and a half or so. I’ve just got this pit in my stomach and not really the peace that I’d been blessed with for some time here. It’s kind of frustrating, because I want to be able to fully enjoy this last week, and not be sick to my stomach the whole time.

So that's what I'm praying for. And that it stops raining in Salamanca.