One thing I’ve discovered since being here.. I don’t really like flying.
Turbulence is a killer.. and the 7 hours over here was full of it let me tell you! It didn’t help either that our video system wasn’t working correctly so I managed to squeeze in half of the movie “Definitely Maybe,” and then the first episode of “Men in Trees”—which was actually good, may start watching that when I get back to the states.. Very Sex in the City meets Alaska-ish! Anyway, there was a plus about our plane ride.. Every hour or so I would look out my window to see.. well a lot of nothing. I finally managed to snooze for about 30 minutes thanks to Rascal Flatts, and when I woke up and opened my shade again and there it was in all its glory. The big dipper fit perfectly in my window. It was absolutely enormous—almost as if I could touch it! It doesn’t sound like a big deal really, but it was a sight to see! (Or maybe I’m just a little dorky.)
Any who, enough rambling about my plane ride… I made it! 7:45AM Spain time. Anticipation built up for over three months and finally in Salamanca!!! We arrived in the airport (us meaning 3 of us-Meredith, Candice and I) and one of the first things we saw was the Spanish special Olympics team! (We think) or something of the sort. There were at least a hundred men in red jumpsuits with sports equipment, wheelchairs, and Beijing logos on the back of their jackets... I took a picture-of course. So that was eventful. Next big event was trying to find Terminal 1, Arrival gate 1, which is where our group was suppose to meet at 1pm. Just outside of the gate we looked around for some kind of sign, finally saw one pointing up to Terminal one. We took this moving ramp up with all of our baggage, just to find that Terminal one was, infact, downstairs where we just were. Thus, the sign we saw was pointing straight.. not up. Sooo.. we found an elevator, which could only fit one of us at a time. Meredith went first and turned back to me as the doors were closing with an.. “Oh shit, which button do I push to go down?!,” look. Then she was gone. My turn was up next. I squeezed in with the entirety of my luggage.. Las puertas began to shut, and I realized exactly why Mer had nooo clue what to do! The buttons look like a big calculator. There are literally numbers 0-9 with + and – signs. I pushed 1 (not realizing that it was the floor I was already on) and went up. Great. Went up to level three where there was a worker there waiting with boxes to take somewhere else. He made me get off so he could go down. (Again, very small elevator) and I was left upstairs with all the airport employees minding there own on the 3rd floor. ha.. Meanwhile not knowing what happened to Mer or Candice, or whether they even got to the bottom.. Which we later figured out was floor 0. Everywhere in Spain, including my casa, starts numbering floors at 0. Ground Floor=0. Good to know...will explain why in another story. So, finally the elevator came back to me and I made it to 0 with the other two. For the next 5 hours we fought to keep our eyes open to watch out luggage until Jesus and Felix (study abroad directors) saved the day with a big comfy tour bus to sleep on during the 3 hour journey to Salamanca. (And you can bet we took advantage of that.)
Once we arrived, our families all met us at La Plaza Gabriel y Galan to swoooop us away and take us a casa! My madre, Natividad, y mi padre, Roberto, are absolutley adorable! Danielle and I are so lucky to have received such a sweet host family! Honestly, so sweet, very funny, and very good cooks! Danielleand I each have our own rooms complete with armoires (spelling?), full beds, a desk, bed stand and even chandelere! (To mom—I will send you pics this week!) Our house is just about a 10 minute walk to La Plaza Mayor y La Universidad! We really couldn’t have asked for anything more perfect. (Well, Wi-F-Fi would be nice... but that’s what campus is for—although Danielle and I haven’t given up hope just quite yet!)
So my first day, Friday the 29th, was a whirlwind. Barely awake, yet trying to comprehend all the Spanish speaking that I’ve been immersed in, unpack, walk around the town, and get accustomed to the culture. So far, so good. Mis padres no pueden hablar nada ingles. .. This is for the better. My ear is already beginning to tune-in to the language. Last night my roommate and I had dinner (which is around 9:30 pm here) and then fell asleep for twenty minutes while our padres went to el hospital to visit Natividad’s sister. It’s right down the street so they go like 10 times a day for fun. (Here in Salamanca, once you become old your days consist of cooking, cleaning, sitting on benches on the calles (streets) and watching the world go by… and drink vino- lots of vino. mis padres visit family at the hospital every hour (it seems) to give hugs them and kisses. (Her sister isn’t very ill, I think she said she is being discharged this week sometime.. not entirely sure because the conversation was in Spanish and I just sort of nod and agree, really only understanding the general topic.. this will change in a month once classes begin and my Spanish improves.) It’s nice to have a roommate because if one of us doesn’t understand something, the other usually does. Good to have the extra set of ears! So last night I fell asleep at 11, woke up at 11:30pm completely disoriented and forgetful of where I was haha, then went out! Daniela and I walked over to La Plaza Mayor, all lit up and beautiful, and just admired the people and the ambiance and chatted. We have both been to Europe before so the initial culture shock has passed and we really get to just appreciate what is around us. We walked around to bars a bit, and finally some of the guys from our JMU group found us! They had met to townies, Sonia and.. (for get the other one’s name), well they showed us around and took us gringos (Americans) to a bar where all the Salamanca students hang out called Clavel Ocho. Really cool place, multi level. We all sat around a table (the 7 of us) and argued about the upcoming election (typical) over beers (for the guys), Tinto de Verano, which means “color of summer”.. Pretty much red wine, spritzer water, and a lemon (Danielle and I), and cigarillos (for our “tour guides”—they smoke a lot here...blehk.) At around 2:30am we stopped in this place for a snack and ordered “pollo.” Souded safe.. It was a baguette with white sauce and really dark meat chicken in the shape of balls… ergo-sketchy. We tried it though- made it even more sketchy.. annnd we appropriately renamed the Salamanca cuisine “chicken balls.” Movinnng on, we piddled around the streets with the guys for a while until we got tired and lost. We decided to head home. Bed by 3:30.
Today mi mama woke me up at 10 with a table of breakfast all spread out. Toast and jam, milk and cereal, orange juice, aannnnd most importantly COFFEE AMERICANO! (which they actually DO drink contrary to many beliefs!..everyone else said it was only espresso.. wrong!) I had a piece of toast (they are half the size of ours at home in the states) a little bit of milk and cereal.. and coffee, claro! (“of course!”). After that we had orientation which consisted of 19 students following Jesus around town (again, Jesus is our Salamanca director) with our huuuge maps wide open taking notes as we were showed where everything was. Which, by the way, is mas more confusing than I thought because the streets here are, if not more dysfunctional, than D.C. – on a smaller scale. It takes a student about 30 minutes to walk one side to the other.. two square miles or so.
In a nutshell, since my battery is almost dead...Spain rocks!!
