Ben in Salamanca

21 de agosto

I don’t know if anyone is still checking this journal, but just in case, here is the final chapter:

Our story resumes on Thursday, May 24^th, as I finish packing my bags for both a short trip and a very long one. That afternoon I flew directly from Salamanca to Barcelona, where I checked into a youth hostel in the Plaça Reial, just off the main pedestrian street of the old city, Las Ramblas.

After a rather noisy night in the hostel, I set off Friday morning into the Barri Gòtic, the medieval heart of the city. I wandered through narrow, twisting streets, visiting the major landmarks of the central Plaça de Sant Jaume, the stained glass-filled church of Sta. Maria del Pi, the cathedral of La Seu with its lavish crypt of Sta. Eulalia and cloister full of white geese, and the open, airy church of Sta. Maria del Mar, which ended up being my favorite. I ate lunch in the grassy Parc de la Ciutadella, then visited the Museu Picasso, which had a large collection of paintings from throughout the artist’s life. Later that afternoon I went to the Museu d’Art Contemporani (MACBA), but it turned out to be a little too “contemporani” for my taste.

Saturday I made a day-trip to the nearby city of Girona. I started out by seeing the church of Sant Feliu and the cathedral, which one accesses by way of a long and imposing staircase from the plaza below, then walked through the Call, the city’s old Jewish neighborhood, which houses a museum about Judaism and Jewish life in Spain. After a nice lunch at an outdoor table, I climbed up onto the city wall and walked around it, appreciating the views and at one point discovering a beautiful little garden. At the other end of the wall I visited the ruins of an old bath-house, then wandered through the city streets until it was time to catch my train back to Barcelona.

The next morning I headed for the Eixample, the 19^th century expansion of the city where most of its famous Modernista architecture is found. I saw several outrageous looking buildings designed by Gaudí and others, eventually ending up at the immense church of La Sagrada Familia, which is still unfinished more than 100 years after Gaudí started it. It looks like a gigantic sandcastle, covered with intricate and bizarre carvings, and I was shocked to learn that neither the main façade nor the highest tower has been built yet. After that I made my way to Parc Güell, perched on a hill overlooking the city and full of Gaudí’s most absurd and whimsical buildings. That evening I went up to Montjüic, another hill overlooking the sea, to watch the sunset, and on my way down got to see the “Magic Fountain” sound-water-and-light show in front of the old Palacio Nacional.

Monday I made another day-trip, this time to the mountaintop monastery of Montserrat. I connected from the normal train to a cog railway to get up the monastery, where I was able to hear their famous boys’ choir sing in the big, ornate basilica. I then spent most of the rest of the day exploring the mountain by way of footpath and funicular, visiting tiny hermitages clinging to cliff-sides and enjoying the spectacular views in all directions. It is a truly beautiful place. Before leaving, I managed to go back to the basilica and climb up to where the revered statue of the Virgin of Montserrat is housed, in a small chamber that was probably the most lavishly decorated room I have even been in. All day people file past in order to see the statue up close and to touch the orb that sits in its hand. I then caught the last train back down the mountain, and returned to the city.

My last day in Barcelona I went again to Montjüic, to see the museums there, going first to the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC), which is housed in the old Palacio Nacional. I would have liked to spend more time there, since the collection is enormous (they have entire reconstructions of the fresco-covered interiors of a number of Catalan Romanesque churches), but even a somewhat rushed visit was well worth the effort. I then went on to the Fundació Joan Miró, where I got to see many of his paintings and sculptures, and a few magnificent tapestries. After that, I continued up the hill to catch the cross-harbor cable car to the beach on the other side, where I spent the rest of the afternoon. On my way back to the hostel that evening I passed through the pretty, quiet neighborhood of Poble Nou, where I stopped for dinner.

Wednesday I flew back to Salamanca, finished my packing and said my last goodbyes, and early Thursday morning I caught a bus to Madrid with Lane, who was on my same flight back to New York. I was coming down with a cold, but the trip went smoothly, and late Thursday night I arrived safe and sound back in Burlington.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for sticking with me—I hope that you’ve enjoyed reading this journal, and I’d love to hear what adventures you’ve been up to any time!

15 de junio

Once again, my profuse apologies for taking so long to update, but now I’ve been home for a little while, and I have the time to sit down and write about the end of my time in Spain.

Our farewell dinner went well, though unfortunately Salustiano didn’t end up coming. The professors all sat at their own tables anyway, so it didn’t really make any difference. The following day I had my poetry exam, which (I think) I did pretty well on. We got to choose one of three poems to write a commentary on, all of which we had studied in class. The one I picked, “Romance sonámbulo” by Federico García Lorca, was one that I had actually studied and presented to my Spanish class back in tenth grade.

That Friday saw the last of my classes, and the next day those of us from the Colby program who had taken the Poetry class went to our professor’s house for the afternoon. He lives in a beautiful house out in the country west of the city, where he has an arrangement with one of his neighbors by which the neighbor’s horses spend time grazing on his land (conveniently keeping the brush under control). After a very good lunch we got to walk all around the fields with our professor and his wife. On the way back to Salamanca we stopped to see the town of Ledesma, where there just happened to be a local artisan craft and food fair going on. In the end, we didn’t get back to the city until after nine.

Monday I thought I was going to have my History of the Language exam, but due to a lack of communication with the professors, it ended up getting postponed a day. When I did show up on Tuesday, though, expecting to be handed a question sheet and paper to write the answers on, the professor instead told me to sit down and then said, “So, tell me about the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language.” It turned out to be an oral exam (except for the part where I had to assign an approximate date to a text based on its linguistic elements), which went very well. I especially liked that, unlike in a written exam, the professor could interrupt me and say, “That’s enough, let’s move on.”

Wednesday entailed lots of goodbyes, since it was the last time that most of us would all be together, and I was even persuaded to go out that night with the group and dance some salsa. I was the first to head home, though, not able to make it past about 3:30 a.m.

Next entry: my trip to Barcelona… I will finish this, I promise.

16 de mayo

Two weeks to go, and probably two more entries after this one before I go home! Our group farewell dinner is tonight, since some people are actually going to start leaving in the next week. They’ve invited our professors to the dinner, which should be interesting, especially if Salustiano (the crazy medieval history professor) shows up.

Last week was both a weeklong city book fair and the Week of the Bicycle. There were a bunch of stalls set up in the Plaza with various booksellers and publishers, displays of recommended books, and even an “outdoor library” with kids’ books to read on the spot. I didn’t actually get any books, but it was fun walking through every time I passed through the Plaza. They also had a stage set up where they put on concerts and puppet shows every day, a few of which I got to see in between classes and meals.

As for the Week of the Bicycle, I decided to rent a bike for the weekend, which turned out to be a lot of fun. After picking it up on Friday afternoon I rode up and down the river bank, stopping in a nice grassy spot to read for a while before heading back home. That evening I participated in one of the organized events: a bicycle tour of the historic sites of the city. There was a good sized crowd, and we stopped at about seven different spots where our “guide” told us legends associated with each spot. The next day I was rather saddle sore (having ridden quite a bit after not touching a bike for at least five months), but I had planned to go on a longer ride to the town of Alba de Tormes, about 20 kilometers upriver. I rode there on the road that goes straight from Salamanca, then spent the afternoon in the town, visiting the remains of the castle of the Dukes of Alba and the church where Sta. Teresa de Jesús is buried. I also had lunch at a café in the Plaza Mayor, and found a park to relax and read in for a while before heading back to Salamanca. On my way back I took a smaller road through the farm fields, which was great until I had to turn west into the wind, which was rather strong that day, but eventually I made it back home, where I promptly collapsed onto the sofa.

I took it easy for most of Sunday, but in the afternoon I went to the theater to see a puppet show called La mata de albahaca, which I think was based on a traditional Andalusian fairy tale. The plot wasn’t exactly profound, nor was there much of a moral, but the production was well done and it was fun to watch. The best part was the audience full of kids shouting advice to the characters, such as, “He’s hiding behind the tree!” or, “It’s the prince in disguise!”

Classes finish up this week, and I have my poetry exam tomorrow. I feel pretty prepared, and I think that with a few more bouts of studying I’ll do fine. Our poetry professor has invited the four Colby program students in the class (we’ve also had an additional hour just with him every week) to go to his house in the country for lunch on Saturday, which I’m looking forward to. Other than that, I’ll be getting ready for my History of the Spanish Language exam on Monday. Then I’ll have a few days to get last minute things done and say goodbye to people before heading to Barcelona on Thursday. I’ll write again before I go to let you know how my exams went.

8 de mayo

Apologies for the delay in updating; as you’ll see, I’ve had a lot of other things on my mind recently…

May Day weekend was our Colby program trip to Galicia and Oporto, which was a lot of fun. Saturday we drove to Sanxenxo, a Galician port town, where we took advantage of the unusually sunny weather to spend the afternoon on the beach building sand castles and wading in the frigid ocean water (a few brave souls even went in). That evening we went on a little boat tour of the harbor in a nearby town, where we got to see a bunch of family-owned “shellfish farms”: rafts with hundreds of shell-encrusted cords hanging down into the water. They also served us fresh mussels on the boat, which were quite good.

Sunday we took a trip into Santiago de Compostela, the historic pilgrimage destination to which thousands of pilgrims flock every year. After a tour around the impressive cathedral and other important buildings, we had some time free for lunch, and I went with a few others for a very good fish meal at a real restaurant (others found a supermarket). I would have liked to have more time to look around the city, but we returned pretty early to Sanxenxo for some more relaxation time. The weather had become gray and wet, but a few of us decided to go poke around the rocks and tide-pools anyways, which was rewarding. Then, somehow, we decided that it would be a good time to try a swim in the ocean (I don’t know what inspired us), so we jumped in, and ended up staying in for a good fifteen minutes. The walk back to the hotel was almost painfully cold, but the shower at the end was heavenly.

Monday found us in Oporto (Porto in Portuguese), Portugal’s second city, located at the mouth of the Duero River. We had the whole afternoon and evening to ourselves, most of which I spent wandering around the streets, quays, and bridges, first with one group and then with a different one. The city felt very different from anywhere I’d been in Spain. First of all, it was odd to be surrounded by people speaking a language that was neither Spanish nor English. More than that, though, something (possibly the early 20^th century architecture) made it feel more European that a lot of Spain. In any case, it’s a beautiful city, with lots of glazed-tile facades, and I had fun just wandering around. I once again opted not to get dinner from a supermarket, and ended up having another great fish dinner with Marissa in a restaurant by the river.

We headed back to Salamanca on Tuesday, and the rest of the short week passed without incident until Friday night, when I went to see Spider-Man 3. It was the last thing I was planning on doing, but friends called to invite me, so I figured I might as well. The movie was fun, but in the theater I started to get chills, and by the time I got home it was clear I was not feeling well. When I finally laid my hands on a thermometer the next day, I confirmed that I had a fever, which proceeded to effectively knock me out for the rest of the weekend. I felt better by Monday morning, though, so I didn’t miss any classes.

In the midst of all that, I’ve also been starting to prepare for my two final exams (Poetry and History of the Spanish Language), as well as trying to figure out what to do with the time in between my last final and when I fly home. I was beginning to feel overwhelmed, but today I got a good start on both fronts: I started studying and synthesizing my Language notes, and I booked a round trip flight to Barcelona for the last five days before I leave. It’s really hard to believe the end is coming up so soon! I know that this month is going to fly by, though, before I know it (it’s already the eighth). Part of me is ready to go home, but another part of me knows that it’s going to be hard to leave the people and places I’ve gotten to know here. I suppose that’s probably the way it goes with most people. I’ll just have to find a way to fit in everything I want to do before I leave!

27 de abril

Two weeks of classes since vacation, both abbreviated, and now we’re about to head off again… but I’m getting ahead of myself. Classes started again last Tuesday (Monday being the holiday of Lunes de Aguas). The weather was beautiful, if a bit hot, all week, which made it difficult to get back into an academic frame of mind, and I spent a lot of time reading in the shade in the Parque de los Jesuitas. In my History of the Language class, we’ve moved on to the 16^th and 17^th centuries, which also entailed switching professors (back to the one we had at the beginning of the course, who I think I like better).

The weekend was uneventful, with more nice weather and relaxing. It was also another three-day weekend, since Monday was a double-holiday. The reason we didn’t have class was because it was the local holiday of the Community of Castilla y León, commemorating a 16^th-century uprising against Carlos I by some of the cities and towns of Castilla. More importantly to me, though, it was National Book Day, the anniversary of the death of Cervantes (also, incidentally, of Shakespeare). All the city’s booksellers set up stalls in the Plaza Mayor and sold books at a 10% discount. The plaza was packed with people browsing through the books—it was great!

Wednesday the weather took a turn toward the gray and drizzly, which I took to be a good sign, since I’m not really ready for summer to be here for good. Then, yesterday, the Colby program got a treat in the form of a private visit to the historic University library, which is off limits to the public. The library is the oldest university library in the country and the first to have had a full-time librarian (in the 12^th century), and still holds an incredibly valuable collection of historic books and manuscripts. I must have been showing my interest pretty clearly, because the librarian who was showing us around picked me to touch and compare pages from three different manuscripts, one from the 1000’s. Then, when he took us into the climate-controlled, vault-like room where the oldest and most fragile manuscripts are kept, he picked me again to help him unroll part of a scroll, which turned out to be a 16^th-century Torah! Needless to say, I left feeling extremely lucky, and a more than a bit awed.

Tomorrow we leave on our group trip to Galicia and Oporto (Portugal). Since next Tuesday is May 1^st, Labor Day, we’re taking Monday off so we can have four days for the trip. We have time planned in to go to the beach, but the forecast doesn’t look too promising at this point. In any case, I’m looking forward to visiting Santiago de Compostela, supposedly where the Apostle St. James is buried, which is why people have made pilgrimages there for hundreds of years. And then, when we get back, it will be May, and there will really be very little of the semester left!

17 de abril

Here I am back in Salamanca after a nice, long vacation. Showing my parents around Salamanca was a lot of fun, despite the unusually cold weather, and we even went to a few places I hadn’t been yet, such as the classrooms and library of the original University building. The highlight of the week, though, was the Holy Week processions. These are solemn processions in which members of different religious organizations wearing the traditional penitent’s dress of long robes and pointy hoods carry statues of Jesus and Mary around the city on large, very heavy, and lavishly decorated platforms. I had reserved my parents a room overlooking the main pedestrian street in the city, not realizing that this would give us great views of almost all the processions as they went by. It did limit the amount and quality of my parents’ sleep (various processions went by at one, three, and five in the morning, almost all accompanied by hundreds of spectators), but the view was definitely worth it.

On Saturday we took a day-trip south to the little town of La Alberca. The town, with its twisty streets and rustic architecture, had a very old feeling, and we had fun just walking around, buying candied almonds on the street, and eating lunch at a bar where an old man came over to our table and told us jokes (I translated to the extent that I understood).

Sunday we headed north, stopping in Zamora to walk around and see the cathedral, then again in Astorga, where we hoped to be able to visit the archbishop’s palace designed by Gaudí. The palace was closed, but we got to admire its Gothic-but-modern style and visit the nearby cathedral before it started to rain and we headed out. We stayed that night in Santiago Millas (Barrio de Abajo), a little village outside Astorga, in a building that used to be the house of a wealthy mule-driver.

On Monday we drove into León, where we walked around enjoying the warmer weather, saw another neo-Gothic Gaudí building, and marveled at the stunningly beautiful stained-glass windows in the cathedral. We bought some food on our way out of town, then headed north again, stopping to have a picnic lunch by a reservoir with the dramatic backdrop of the snow-capped Cordillera Cantábrica. After lunch we pushed on through the mountains, crossing into Asturias through a pass where there was still snow on both sides of the road, then descended into the Somiedo natural area on the other side. Still marveling at the views, we followed the valley of the Somiedo River to the north end of the park, then doubled back and followed another valley up to the very last village, where we went for a walk among the cow pastures, then spent the night in a building that probably used to be a barn (most of the other houses kept cows on the ground floor).

We left the mountains behind on Tuesday and headed for the craggy Asturian coast, where we found a beautiful, rocky point with a lighthouse to walk around before making our way to Cudillero, the fishing village where we were to stay that night. After checking into our hotel, a former smokehouse, we walked down to the port, then later climbed up to a lookout tower about halfway up the steep headland under which the town is tucked (it only has one street wide and flat enough for cars). We topped off the day with a very good (and very expensive) fish dinner at the hotel.

On Wednesday we headed east and slightly inland, into the foothills of the Picos de Europa, to an organic farm and guesthouse outside the tiny town of Collia. We made ourselves a picnic lunch that we ate in the garden, then set off on a beautiful walk through the rolling green countryside, before returning for a simple but good dinner made from lots of organic and local Asturian ingredients.

A lot of Thursday was taken up by driving, back down through the Cordillera Cantábrica, through past León and Valladolid, eventually arriving in Segovia. Here, back on familiar territory, I showed my parents the Alcázar, the cathedral, the 16^th century mansions lining the main streets, and the famous aqueduct, and even took them on the walk outside the city wall that I had taken the first time I was there. The next morning we went inside the Alcázar, then drove to La Granja, the nearby palace that was built to be the Spanish version of Versailles. Before visiting the palace itself we went to a glass museum in the town, which turned out to be great, with exhibits about how glass used to be made, as well as expositions of glass art from throughout history. After that we spent a while walking around the palace gardens, which were not as in-bloom as I had hoped (relative to when I was there in January), but still quite spectacular, then toured the palace itself, which was even more lavishly furnished and decorated than I had remembered. That evening, back in Segovia, we went to an organ concert in the cathedral that I had seen a sign for, which was fun for a while, but we left before it was over.

Saturday we got up early and drove to Toledo, where we parked near the Alcázar and then walked down to the cathedral, where we spent quite a while admiring the sacristy, which is full of paintings by El Greco and richly embroidered cassocks, as well as the main cathedral itself. We then went to the Sephardic museum, which is housed in what used to be one of the city’s synagogues and houses a great collection of Jewish and Sephardic related artifacts. It was great to have time to explore in depth places like the museum and the cathedral, which I had rushed through when I went with the group trip in January. In the afternoon we went to the Museo de Santa Cruz, which had a big exhibit on the history of the Visigoths in Spain, and another on the patron of the city, San Ildefonso. After an early dinner we drove to our hotel in Madrid, getting completely lost but eventually stumbling across it by sheer luck.

We took the metro into the city on Sunday, going first to the gigantic Rastro market, then walking back downtown before taking the metro to the museum area. We spent a lot of the afternoon in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, which in addition to a stunning permanent collection spanning 800 years also had a special exhibit of “The Portrait in the Century of Picasso.” After some more sightseeing downtown and another early dinner, I took my parents to the famous Chocolatería San Ginés before heading back to the hotel.

Monday morning I went with my parents to the airport, said goodbye, then took the metro to the train station and caught a train back to Salamanca. It being Lunes de Aguas (an odd local holiday commemorating the annual return of the prostitutes who used to be banned from the city during Lent and Easter), most of Salamanca headed down to the banks of the river in the afternoon to have picnics, and I met up with friends and did the same. The weather was great, so we ended up spending the entire afternoon down there, in a perfect end to a great vacation.

4 de abril

April already – my how the time flies! I had a great weekend in Madrid, though for the sake of preserving some sort of chronological order, I’d like to mention one thing I last week before I went. On Thursday night I went to the multi-purpose room at the public library to see a screening of film shorts, part of a series that had been going on all week. That night was devoted to films produced by students at an international film school in Cuba, which I thought were very good. I especially liked one documentary in which the director followed for a day the life of a Cuban garbage man, who explained why he was proud to do the job he did because he knew it was an indispensable service to the community.

And now on to Madrid… I took the two-and-a-half hour train to the city early Friday afternoon, took the metro to my hostel, and checked in. The hostel was very nice, especially considering the extremely low price, but I didn’t waste any time in getting out to see the city. I called my friend from Wesleyan, Larissa, who is studying in Madrid with the Wesleyan program, we met up at the famous Madrid landmark of the Puerta del Sol, and she showed me some of the main sights downtown, including the Plaza Mayor and the Royal Palace. She then went home, and I continued on my own to the botanical Garden, which even without that many flowers in bloom still had a very nice atmosphere in the slanting afternoon sun. I had dinner at a Japanese restaurant that Larissa had recommended, then went to bed relatively early so I could get up early the next morning and go to Shabbat services at the synagogue.

Shabbat services were an interesting mix of the familiar and the foreign. The basic structure of the service was the same as what I’m used to, as were things like the yarmulkes and tallises (prayer shawls), but their pronunciation of Hebrew was at times bewildering, and even some of the wording of the most basic prayers was different. They also had a very interesting way of distributing the honors for the service, such as reciting the blessings before reading the Torah: at one point everyone was handed a plastic chip with a number on it, and then they pulled matching chips out of a bag—if your number was called, you got an honor (kind of like bingo, I couldn’t help thinking).

After services I went back to the hostel, where I found a nice Canadian student who was waiting for his laundry to be done. I was planning on walking over to a nearby park where there is a reconstructed Egyptian temple, so I invited him to come along. The temple was mildly interesting, but it was a nice walk, so I continued wandering around after the Canadian guy went back to the hostel. I met up with Larissa and we got falafel for lunch, then walked over to the Parque del Retiro, a truly gigantic park in the middle of the city. After strolling through the park for a while, she walked me to the nearby Reina Sofia museum, but didn’t come in. I, however, spent quite a while in the museum, which has large collections of paintings by modern Spanish painters, including Picasso, Dalí, and Miró. The main attraction is Picasso’s Guérnica, which is complemented by a large collection of preparatory sketches, earlier works with similar themes, and a series of photographs showing the process of creation of the painting.

That evening I hung out in the hostel’s common room for a while with the other people who were staying there. Interestingly, the conversations around me were made up of a combination of English, French, and German, but almost no Spanish. I ended up going out to get sandwiches for dinner with two Germans and a French woman, then taking them to the famous all-night Chocolatería San Ginés, which I had read about before coming. They then insisted that I go with them to a bar, which turned out to be quite a way away, but when they moved on to another bar I begged off and went back to the hostel. It was a very multicultural, kind of odd, but overall fun experience.

Sunday morning I went back to the neighborhood where I had gone to the synagogue, since they told me that around the corner there was a kosher butcher where I could buy matzah. And so there was, though I had to wait for a while, as I was not the only one doing last minute Passover shopping. Back downtown, I headed for the Rastro, a weekly street market I had heard about from a number of people, and which turned out to be absolutely gigantic. Stalls selling everything imaginable filled the entire neighborhood. Then, in the middle of a crowd of thousands of people, someone started poking me, and after a moment I realized it was another Wesleyan friend and fellow COL student, Jackie. The two of us continued walking around the Rastro for a while together, then went and got paella for lunch at an outdoor table in the Plaza Mayor. After lunch she walked with me to the Museo del Prado, where I spent the rest of the afternoon. I spent most of the time in a special exhibition of Tintoretto, which was definitely worth it, but didn’t leave me much time for anything else. I ran around to a few other rooms to see paintings by Goya, Velázquez, and El Greco, then ran back to my hostel to get my bag, ran to the metro, and just barely made it to my train on time. All in all, quite the satisfying weekend.

As soon as I got back, I started getting ready for the Passover seder we had last night, which went really well and was a lot of fun. I managed to find all the necessary foods for the seder plate, Julia brought traditional Passover desserts her parents had sent her, and we made matzah brei (I have no idea how to spell that, but it’s basically fried matzah and egg). Vacation starts and my parents show up tomorrow, which I’m getting really excited for, so I’ve also been planning out where I want to take them for the four days we’ll be here in Salamanca. I may write again before we leave on Sunday, and if not, I’ll write a nice long entry once vacation is over.

26 de marzo

Time for another update! Life here has been uneventful for the most part, and people are starting to look forward to our vacation, which starts on April 5.

Last Saturday a lot of the people from the Colby group were traveling in various parts of Europe, so those of us who stayed behind got together at Marissa’s apartment and had a cookie-baking party, which was a lot of fun. We made a ton of cookies, so I brought a big bag home to share with my flat-mates, who were naturally happy to help me eat them.

Thursday night I went to a concert in the New Cathedral where they inaugurated the church’s newly-restored Baroque organ. It was really interesting because in between the pieces they gave explanations of how the organ works, accompanied by a live video projection of the parts of the organ they were demonstrating. All the while, a little flock of birds up in the cupola kept chirping, as if in accompaniment to the music. It was pretty cold in the cathedral though, especially after the sun went down, so I was definitely glad to get back to my warm apartment afterward for dinner.

This past Saturday I spent the better part of the afternoon reading in the park, then went out after dinner to see a movie with Jenny, another girl from the Colby program. We decided to see Lola, la película (Lola, the movie), a new Spanish film about Lola Flores, a flamenco superstar from the 50’s. It wasn’t great, but I feel like I should try to see Spanish movies while I’m here, rather than American movies dubbed into Spanish, which make up the majority of all the films showing in theaters.

Yesterday I went for a very long (4 ½ hour) walk, over to the other side of the river, down the road to the neighboring town of Santa Marta del Tormes, and then out into the surrounding farm fields and pastures. It was a warm, sunny day, and I had fun wandering down the dirt roads through the fields, listening to birds chirping and horses neighing, and smelling the smells of grass and dirt that I miss when I spend too much time cooped up in the stone-filled city.

In the mean time, I’ve been making various plans for the short- and long-term future. For the long term, I’ve been looking for a job for the summer, working out housing at Wesleyan for next year, and looking at my options in terms of classes for next semester. For the short term, I’m getting ready to go to Madrid this weekend. I’ve been looking through a guidebook, and I called the Jewish community organization today to find out what time Shabbat services are on Saturday—I want to see what they’re like here, considering the long and twisted history of the Jews in Spain. I’ve also been planning things to do with my parents here in Salamanca when they come.

Classes are still going well, especially since our writing class has been suspended for a few weeks while our professor is on vacation. I had two more short papers to write for my medieval history class over the weekend, which I think I did fairly well on, even though the topic for one of them was a rather obscure character from the late 15^th century (on the margins of the time frame of the course) who had come up more or less randomly in class, and about whom it was very hard to find any relevant information. Today in that class the professor decided to take us all on a mini field trip to examine the façade of the historic University building, which made for a nice break from the routine, even though it was a chilly evening.

Lastly, I should say that the problems among my flat-mates never resolved themselves, and in the end the two who have lived here together for a while decided to ask the new Japanese woman to leave. I feel pretty bad about it, since I think that the problem at heart was simply a failure of communication, but there’s not really anything I can do. Elizabeth placed an announcement looking for another person to move in at the beginning of April, and a Spanish student came tonight to see the apartment. We’ll see how that turns out.

That’s all for now. I hope that those of you who have had a Spring Break enjoyed yourselves, and that this long but last leg of the semester is getting off to a good start. I’ll write all about my trip to Madrid when I get back.

17 de marzo (Happy St. Patrick’s Day!)

It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long since I last wrote, but the time just seems to be flying by. Perhaps it was due to the almost ideal weather we had all this past week: clear blue skies and temperatures in the mid- to upper sixties. And speaking of time, believe it or not (I certainly find it hard to believe), my time here in Spain is half over! I’ve been here about seventy days, give or take, with the same amount to go before I head back home.

As for my week, I have a number of quite nice experiences, many of which had something to do with food. On Saturday night most of us from the Colby group decided to go out for dinner on our own to an Indian restaurant (in fact, the one on the bottom floor of the building where I lived with my host family). I invited people to come see my apartment and have some snacks beforehand, but for various reasons, they ended up only stopping by for a few short minutes. The dinner was very good, and it was nice to see everyone outside of the classroom setting.

Friday I had gone for a rather long walk along the edge of the river and discovered a large park on the outskirts of town, with lots of trees and grass, so Sunday I decided to pack myself a picnic lunch and the Spanish version of the 4^th Harry Potter book, and headed back to the park. I spent the better part of the day there, lounging in the grass with my shoes off and reading… it was really wonderful. The park also has a number of athletic fields and courts for different sports, and they were all full of people of all ages, kicking and tossing balls around and just having fun. The only downside to the day was that we had a sort of house-meeting that night to talk with Junko about how we could all live together more comfortably. It was difficult because she got very defensive and asked if we were going to throw her out, but I think that in the end it was good to get everything out in the open. I’m not really bothered by anything anyone is doing, but I hope that we can work things out so that my flat-mates are all comfortable, too.

On Wednesday we had another group dinner, this time organized by the Colby program, at a very good Greek restaurant. There was a ton of food, including about four different kinds of fried cheese, and I went home feeling like I was about to burst. And lastly on the food front: a lot of people in the group are traveling this weekend, so those of us staying behind are getting together this afternoon to have a cookie baking party in Marissa’s apartment, which should be a lot of fun.

There’s not a whole lot to say on the academic front. I handed in the various assignments I had for my medieval history class, and I think I did pretty well on them. In my poetry class we did a brief study of Antonio Machado, one of my favorite Spanish poets, and have now moved on to Federico García Lorca, who is more difficult but who I also like quite a bit. In my Indo-European class we’ve begun the unit on phonetics and phonology, which is really the heart of the course, and in History of the Spanish Language we’re looking at the regularization of the language in the reign of Alfonso X (13^th century). We finally got the photocopied packet of required readings for the course, and I’ve started off with a kind of fun one, a collection of short reflections—some literary, some linguistic, some cultural—on each letter of the Spanish alphabet.

Other odds and ends… I booked my return ticket to the US for May 31, which gives me plenty of time to finish up everything I need to, and even maybe travel a bit, without needing to worry about paying rent for the month of June. Maybe I’ll go to Barcelona in that time, since I’d really like to go at some point… who knows? I also made a reservation at a hostel in Madrid for the last weekend of this month, so I can go visit Wesleyan friends there and see the sights (there’s a show of Tintoretto at the Prado that I want to see). And then, the week after that will be Semana Santa (Holy Week), and my parents will be here! I’m definitely looking forward to seeing them and traveling with them up in the northern part of the country.

And now I’ll stop, since this has been a rather rambling entry. Keep your eyes out for signs of spring!

8 de marzo 

One week in my new apartment, and things are going pretty well! I’ve been eating very well so far, and on Monday Elizabeth (my Spanish flat-mate) took me to the cafeteria where she usually eats, which turned out to have good food in large quantities for a very reasonable price, so I’m probably going to end up going there pretty often. She’s going to try to get me a discount through her university (she studies at the Universidad Pontificia), but even if that doesn’t work out, it’s a great deal: €4.20 for an appetizer, main dish, and dessert.

I spent a good deal of Saturday morning scrubbing the cabinet doors in the kitchen, with the happy result that my fingers no longer stick to them when I go to get a dish. In celebration, I decided to bake cookies, which turned out to be quite the adventure. First I converted all the measurements to grams, but then I realized it didn’t really matter, since we don’t have any measuring implements in the house. Between Elizabeth and I, we estimated everything, then she showed me how to use the gas oven, which has no thermostat and can’t be on at the top and at the bottom at the same time. Surprisingly, given the circumstances, my chocolate-chip cookies came out pretty well, and were enjoyed by everyone. After an exhaustive search I finally found peanut butter in a store today, so I’m going to try to make peanut butter cookies next…

But enough about food; I should tell you about my flat-mates. Elizabeth is very friendly, and we’ve been getting along really well. She’s studying education and child psychology with the goal of becoming a sort of guidance counselor. Svetla, an older woman from Bulgaria who’s here working in a biological research lab and taking Spanish classes, is also very nice, but quieter, so we haven’t really talked as much. Lastly, there’s Junko, a Japanese cultural anthropologist who’s lived and worked in Bolivia for the past ten years. She’s pretty timid, and is having a hard time adjusting to Spanish culture and timetables for eating and sleeping, which has led to a little bit of tension around the issue of noise in the house, but hopefully we’ll be able to compromise and get things settled soon.

As for me, I’ve been working on making my room nice and comfortable, exploring the neighborhood to find nearby bakeries, fruit and vegetable stores, and other convenient places to know about. The apartment is much closer to all my classes than where I was living before, which has been a nice improvement. It’s also near the south entrance of the largest park in the city, the Parque de los Jesuitas.

It was incredibly warm on Sunday (close to 70ºF, I would guess), and very windy. It’s cooled down since then, but the wind has kept up. Today a piece of roofing blew off our building and landed in the interior patio—it was funny to poke my head out the window and see three other people doing the same, all asking, “What happened?”

 I suppose that’s all for now. Thank you for all your e-mails and replies to my last posting, they made me smile!

1 de marzo

Happy March! It’s hard to believe that two months have gone by already. As I write, I’m sitting at the table in my new room, with the window wide open. I spent my first night here last night, after moving all my stuff from my family’s apartment in the afternoon. There are a few kinks to work out, but for the most part it’s been great so far. My flat-mates are very nice, I’ve fixed up my room so that it feels comfortable (a paper shade over the ceiling fixture, a tablecloth and a desk lamp on the table…), and I’m really appreciating my newfound gastronomical freedom! Last night I made myself scrambled eggs, then went out and got a chocolate croissant for dessert, this morning I had yoghurt for breakfast, I went to a schwarma place for lunch, and made pasta and salad for dinner. I won’t keep giving you detailed updates of my diet, but in case you wanted reassurance that I’m eating well, there you go. I’d still like to find a better tablecloth (I think the piece of fabric I’m using was meant to be a rug), and do something to make my chair more comfortable, but I think that I’ve done pretty well in the one day I’ve been here so far.

 In other news, I went out to a café with some friends on Sunday and had an amazing concoction: an island of ice cream surrounded by a moat of thick hot chocolate, all sprinkled with little multicolored candies. I was close to bursting by the time I finished it, but the experience was definitely worth it. It got up to 16ºC here on Tuesday, which is over 60ºF—rather different than the reports I’m getting from New England. I’ve also been reading the Harry Potter books in Spanish in my free time, which is lots of fun, and I’m currently on number three (Harry Potter y el prisionero de Azkaban).

My classes continue to go well. History of the Spanish Language is still my favorite, but I like the others, too. I don’t really like the professor of the obligatory writing class all that much, but it’s only two hours a week. My Medieval History professor continues to be extremely tangential, but I find the classes entertaining. Interestingly, even though he still hasn’t given anything close to what I would call a lecture, we now have three writing assignments due over the next two weeks—I’m a little nervous, but they don’t seem too difficult.

I feel like I should write more about my new apartment, but I don’t really know what else to say. If you have any questions, by all means, send them my way, and I’m sure I’ll think of more things to tell you all by the next time I write. It’s always nice getting messages from anyone and everyone, even if it’s just a couple lines, so if you feel like responding to this post or sending me an e-mail, please do. I’d love to hear from you!

21 de febrero

 Hello again! Not a whole lot has happened since I last wrote, especially in terms of classes, since we had Monday and Tuesday off for Carnavales. I didn’t do much over the weekend, other than go to a flea market on Sunday to look for things for my new room. On Monday, however, Will (another Colby program student) and I decided to take the bus to nearby Ciudad Rodrigo, since that’s where the major Carnavales celebrations are in the area. There, while there certainly is lots of partying and people dressed up in costumes, the real focus is on the famous Festival del Toro.

Soon after we arrived we got to watch the encierro, the “running of the bulls” through the streets to bring them in from outside of town into the bullring. We stayed safely out of the way, but saw lots of people running around in the streets with the bulls and leaping over the barriers if a bull came too close. The encierro led into some sort of free-for-all in the bullring, which was really kind of sad to watch, as it deteriorated into people waving things in the bulls’ direction, poking them, pulling their tails, and even throwing sand in their faces. After watching for a little while Will and I took a break and headed over to where a small fair was set up, complete with cotton candy, burst-the-balloon games, rides, and all sorts of vendors.

 Later in the afternoon we returned to the bullring to see a novillada, which my dictionary told me is when novice bullfighters practice with young bulls. The program also said there weren’t going to be picadores, the people who ride up on horseback and stick a short spear into the bull’s back, so I imagined it was going to be a sort of non-violent cape swishing demonstration. I was wrong. Right before it started, a man came over to where we were sitting and told us that we had to pay to watch this part. Seeing our confused looks, he explained that other parts were free, but that we were about to see two toros de muerte. I had certainly not been planning on watching anything of the kind, but there we were and it was about to start, so we paid up and stayed put. What unfolded was an abbreviated version of a real bullfight, up to and including the actual killing of the bulls. It was very impressive, I admit, and though I’m still not sure I would have decided to go if I had known ahead of time, in retrospect I’m glad to have had the experience, since it’s such an important part of Spanish culture.

 After the novillada there was a parade with lots of floats, but Will and I were rather cold and decided we had seen enough, so we took an early bus back to Salamanca. My host family refused to believe that I had actually had a satisfactory Carnavales experience, since I had not stayed and partied into the night, but I’m perfectly happy with what I did manage to see and do.

Yesterday I did some more shopping for my new room, and also raided the large stash of apartment fixings left behind by other students at the Colby office. The next time I write, I will probably already be moved in!

14 de febrero

Big news: I am now in possession of a set of keys to an apartment, which I will be moving into at the beginning of March! I should back up, though, so that you get things in a chronological order that makes sense…

Thursday was the first sunny day in quite a while, and I took advantage of the fact to go for a nice long walk. I went first to the library to apply for a card to check out books, then to the Cathedrals, where I climbed up into the towers (something I had been waiting for good weather to do). There were great views of the city and the river, the architecture of the two Cathedrals, as well as the interiors of both Cathedrals, which look very different when viewed from above. I then continued down to the river and walked along a pedestrian/bike path for a good ways before heading home, passing through a big park on the way. That night I went with others from the group to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Spanish, which was great. The adaptation placed the action on a beach in the south of Spain, rather than the Shakespearean setting of an Athenian forest, and the wood sprites were transformed into spirits of the sea. The characters were all gypsies, and the “mechanicals” (the one’s who perform the play of Pyramus and Thisbe) doubled as musicians who accompanied the whole show. We all had a great time, and a few people remarked afterward that they had understood the Spanish version better than the original Shakespearean English.

Friday was incredibly busy, as I spent the whole afternoon calling around to find an apartment. In most cases I was told that the room had already been rented, but I did manage to visit three potential apartments. That night I went out with some friends to a bar/café, where I had a very good chocolate milkshake J.

Saturday I narrowed in on the apartment I ended up picking. It’s very cheap due to its age and rather shabby appearance, but other than that is has a lot of things going for it. It’s in a great location, the other people who live there all seem nice and none of them smoke, and it has wireless internet. I wanted to look around a little bit more, though, so I didn’t finalize anything. In the evening I went to the movies with friends from the Colby group. They all wanted to see Shortbus, but I wasn’t interested, so I saw Babel instead, which I thought was very good, and not too hard to understand in Spanish.

Sunday we had an day-trip to the Escorial palace outside of Madrid and the walled city of Ávila. El Escorial, commissioned by Felipe II in the austere, German-inspired style he was enamored of, was quite impressive, but I wouldn’t call it beautiful. The best part was definitely the collection of paintings, including works by El Greco and other famous artists. El Escorial is also where almost all the royalty of Spain have been buried since the time of Carlos V (early 16^th century). We spent a lot of time at El Escorial, which only left us about an hour and a half in Ávila, which was too bad because it seems like a very nice, little Medieval city. It being Sunday afternoon most things were closed, so I’d like to go back sometime when I can go into the cathedral and walk around on top of the city walls.

On Monday I finally got the apartment situation all worked out. I paid my deposit and they gave me the keys to my room, which means that I can get things like lamps and bedding and get it all set up before I move in myself. I also found a hotel for my parents to stay in when they come in April, which was exciting, too.

That’s all for now. Classes are going well, the weather is very mild, and I’m happy and healthy. Feliz Día de San Valentín to you all—it doesn’t appear to be a big holiday here other than in the pastry shops, but I wish you well all the same!

8 de febrero

 ¡Hola! I’ve now been to at least one session of each of the classes I’m interested in, and I think I have a pretty good idea of what my final lineup is going to look like. My favorite is definitely History of the (Spanish) Language, despite the fact that it’s the only class I have on Fridays. It’s very small—eight enrolled students, only four of whom have shown up—but everyone seems really interested in the subject, and the two professors who will be teaching the different units both seem very nice, approachable, and patient with me and the other Norteamericano in the class. It helps that I’m already familiar with some of the basic concepts of linguistics and language evolution, so that I don’t feel at too much of a disadvantage compared with the Spanish students.

 I’ve also been to two sessions of History of Medieval Spanish Kingdoms and Societies, which seems like it’s going to be fun, if only because the professor is a riot. We’ve talked very little about the course material so far, other than the name, but we’ve spent lots of time talking about a whole host of other topics, from the professor’s name (Salustiano, apparently the source of a lot of embarrassment when he was a kid), to Greek mythology, to the province of Ávila, to Spanish stereotypes concerning American students. Some of the other students are concerned by the tangential nature of the class, but I have a feeling we’re going to learn quite a lot, if not all about Medieval Spanish history.

 The last University class that I think I’ll be taking officially is an Introduction to Poetry, which, while not as engaging as the two I’ve talked about so far, does seem interesting, and I think it will probably be good to have at least one literature-oriented class while I’m here. It also has the advantage of an extra hour of “tutoría” each week with just the professor and the four of us from the Colby program who are taking the class, where we can ask questions and clear up any doubts or problems we have in the class. The professor is nice, if a bit dry, and very committed to his subject, and I look forward to getting to know him better when the tutoría starts next week.

 Other than those three classes, I have an obligatory writing class with the rest of the Colby program, which should be helpful when it comes time to hand in written work in my other classes. I’m also thinking about auditing another class, though I’ll have to see whether I have the time. The class is an Introduction to Indo-European, which appeals to the linguistics aficionado in me, not to mention the fact that it’s the kind of course I would never get a chance to take at Wesleyan. I considered also auditing the Gender Relations in Contemporary Spain course that’s being offered only for our program, but after two classes I decided I really didn’t like it enough (the professor is a bit condescending, and made some generalizations about other cultures that I wasn’t really comfortable with). Finally, I should mention that I also tried out a class on Islam in the (Iberian) Peninsula, but I didn’t love it and it conflicts with my poetry class, so I decided not to pursue it.

 That’s my situation in terms of classes so far. There’s not really much to say in terms of other news—I’ve been focused on working out my schedule. Julia moved into an apartment last week, the first in our group to do so, and she seems quite happy with it. I’m thinking more and more that I’d like to do the same, ideally moving at the beginning of next month. I have to give my family fifteen day’s notice if I’m going to move out, though, so I’ll have to start looking around seriously in the next couple of days. I went to mass again on Sunday, but at a small neighborhood church rather than the cathedral. It turned out to be a sort of kid’s service, which was kind of fun, and much more comfortable than the formal mass in the cathedral, with all of its pomp and incense. Other than that, I’ve been reading a lot. I’ve finished a play by Lope de Vega (famous Spanish playwright contemporary with Shakespeare), a Da Vinci Code-type mystery about cuneiform tablets supposedly dictated by the Biblical patriarch Abraham, and a book by Paulo Coehlo about the Camino de Santiago de Compostela. It’s nice having lots of time to read, but I’m going to try to get a library card so I don’t have to keep buying more books!

30 de enero

This will likely be a long entry, so do not feel obliged to read all of it. I just got back today from our group trip to Andalucía, and it was really wonderful. We were incredibly busy and saw a million amazing sights, so I’ll try to cover the highlights here.

 Friday was supposed to be our last day of classes at Cursos Internacionales, but we skipped them to get a head start on our trip, leaving early and heading south through intermittent snow as we made our way through Castilla and Extremadura. We stopped in the town of Mérida to break up the trip, where we walked around some impressive Roman ruins, pretending to be gladiators in the amphitheater. We didn’t spend too long because it was very cold, and after lunch we continued south, crossing into Andalucía, and eventually arriving in Sevilla. That night a few of us walked downtown and marveled at the impressive sight of the cathedral in the dark, but we held off major exploring for the next day.

Saturday morning dawned bright and clear, and we went on a guided tour of the city, including the pavilions from the 1929 Ibero-American Expo, the magnificent Plaza de España and Parque de María Luisa (Sevilla’s “Central Park”), the lavish Royal Alcázares (a palace complex with replete with all sorts of beautiful architecture and gardens), and the old Jewish neighborhood of Santa Cruz. Then left on our own, we visited the cathedral, mostly for the opportunity to climb the Giralda bell-tower, the converted minaret that is the most distinctive feature of Sevilla’s skyline, and take in the sweeping views of the city from the top. After lunch I went for a walk on my own that took me along the banks of the river, through the neighborhood of Triana on the other side, and back to the Parque de María Luisa, before I went to meet up with Julia, a girl from our group, to go to the Museo de Bellas Artes. The sun was setting and the air was warm as I walked back along the quay, and I stopped to get an ice cream along the way. At the museum, they had a very interestingly arranged exhibit, where they had paired up paintings from their own collection with ones borrowed from a museum of Spanish art in France. The pairings were based on anything from subject matter, to style, to a relationship between the two artists, but all were intriguing. That night after dinner we went to a Flamenco “Tablao,” a touristy but nevertheless powerful and exciting performance that left me tapping my feet and clapping my hands, though the constant stomping did not help the headache I had gotten earlier. I had planned to go out with others from the group, but instead went back to my room, where I watched the end of “The African Queen” dubbed in Spanish before falling asleep.

Sunday morning we drove to Córdoba and checked into our hotel, then a few of us went for a walk around the neighborhood, where we discovered a candy store with a truly mouth-watering array of goodies. That afternoon we had a guided tour of the old Jewish neighborhood, where Maimonides was born, and the Mosque/Cathedral, considered one of the world’s masterpieces of Islamic architecture. The interior is an immense forest of columns, connected by striped arches of white marble and red brick. In the center, as if dropped from the sky, stands the gothic cathedral, impressive in its own right but sadly destroying the orderly grid of columns. Despite this intrusion, however, much of the rest of the mosque is still intact, including the elaborate Mihrab, the alcove indicating the direction of Mecca. Emerging from the Mosque, we made our way over to where we heard there was a Medieval fair going on, which turned out to be a huge affair, filling several streets and plazas with craft vendors, food, and games. I spent the evening wandering among the booths, eventually returning to the hotel with the rest of the group, where we had a little party with the food we’d all bought.

 Yesterday brought us to our last destination, Granada, where I set out as soon as we arrived to visit the Capilla Real before it closed for the afternoon. This chapel, adjoining the cathedral, was built to be the final resting place of the Reyes Católicos, Fernando and Isabel, who with their conquest of Granada in 1492 brought all of the Iberian Peninsula under Christian control. After checking out the chapel and crypt, I took a look at the cathedral, had lunch at a little café, then wandered my way slowly back to the hotel, taking a more circuitous route than I had planned, but enjoying it nonetheless. In the afternoon we had a guided tour of the Alhambra, which was truly magnificent, though slightly dulled by a light but steady rain that had us all very wet and cold by the end. Right at the beginning of the tour I got quite a surprise when I happened to run into the people studying this semester with the Wesleyan program in Madrid! I had forgotten that they have an orientation in Granada before the semester starts. Unfortunately I didn’t get to talk for very long, and then as I ran to catch up with my group, I slipped and fell on the wet cobblestones, tearing a gigantic hole in my pants but thankfully leaving my body relatively unscathed. The various towers, courtyards, and chambers of the Alhambra were all incredibly beautiful, full of intricate mosaics, carved stucco, and ceramic tile, but by the time we were done I was more than ready to go back to the hotel and crash, which is just what I did. I went out with the group later to a bar, but after playing darts for a little while, I went back with the earliest shift.

 That brings me to today, almost all of which spent driving back to Salamanca. I start with university classes tomorrow, which I’m really excited for, so I think I’ll go downtown to post this entry and check my e-mail, then get a good night’s sleep!

21 de enero

¡Hola! It’s Sunday, and I’m sitting in my room, at my little desk, having gone t mass this morning at the Cathedral. I was able to follow most of it, and was struck by how progressive the sermon sounded. The priest (I think it may actually have been the bishop, but I’m not sure) talked about how, even though the Bible is supposed to be the Word of God, you can’t just take any random verse at face value, since Scripture has in reality come through so many different filters. If you want to get to the real Word of God, he said, you have to scrutinize and examine Scripture, and also place it in its appropriate context. I was impressed.

Yesterday was our day trip to Segovia and La Granja, which was really great. Segovia is a beautiful old city, with an impressive Roman aqueduct, magnificent cathedral, and imposing Alcázar (a fortress/castle where the Spanish kings often held court). The weather was perfect again, and in the free time we had, four of us went on a truly beautiful walk on the hillside below the Alcázar, where there are terrace gardens and great views of the whole city. La Granja, about 10 k from Segovia, was originally a farm run by monks, but was converted in the 18^th century into a summer palace modeled on Versailles, with room after room full of luxurious paintings, sculpture, and furniture, all surrounded by sumptuous gardens and fountains. We got a guided tour of the palace itself, but unfortunately only had about 10 minutes to explore the gardens, which were beautiful even with the fountains turned off and no flowers or leaves on the trees.

In other news, I have selected, at least tentatively, my courses for the semester. If all goes well, I will take an Introduction to Poetry (which has an extra tutorial session just for students in the Colby program), History of the Spanish Language, and a class on Jewish/Hebrew influences in Spanish culture and history, in addition to a smaller writing class which all Colby program students have to take. On Wednesday we had a very tasty farewell dinner for the Colby students from last semester, who are finishing up their exams, but other than that, there haven’t been to many big events.

I’ve been learning more about my host family, bit by bit, and should probably share some of that. Neither of my host parents works (Tomás is retired but used to work with leather, while Angelines never worked), and they have four children that I know of, all at least in their late 20’s. One son, who I haven’t met, owns an orchard, from which we seem to have an unending supply of little yellow apples. Another son I met just the other day, together with his wife and her parents, who were visiting from Italy. Patricia, the daughter who I met the first day and thought (incorrectly) might live with her parents, I have seen a few more times but don’t know much about. And finally there’s Lucía, who was in the hospital since the 1^st of the year and just got out on Friday after having surgery. Tomás and Angelines were constantly going to visit her while she was in the hospital, which made “family life” here at home rather disjointed, but now she’s come to spend some time here, since the elevator is broken in the building where she normally lives with her boyfriend. There have been more family meals together since she got out (also including Angelines’ sister Maite, who spends a lot of time here), and everyone seems much more settled.

I think we’re having lunch soon, so I’ll leave things there for now (this has also turned out to be a rather long entry). I’m going with some friends this afternoon to see a museum exhibit about how chocolate is made, which should be fun, and will probably inspire us to go have some hot chocolate ourselves afterward!

14 de enero

One week down, twenty-three to go (give or take). Classes at Cursos Internacionales have gotten off to a good start. I have two hours of grammar class from 9-11, with a very good professor, together with other students from the US and S. Korea, as well as a Spanish and Portuguese teacher from Brazil. I then have an hour of communication skills with the same group but a different professor, which is not very challenging, but I suppose is valuable for the conversation practice that we do. After that class, I have a hurried walk to a different building, where I have a class on Spanish culture (geography, politics, cuisine, holidays, music, etc.). It’s a very general sort of introductory class, but the professor is very enthusiastic about Spanish culture and wants us to be too, which is fun. These classes will all go until January 25^th, after which the Colby group will go on our four-day trip to Andalucía. When we get back from that, we will start our regular university classes.

Yesterday we went on a day-trip to Toledo with a big group (two buses) of Cursos students. Even though we spent more time in the bus than in Toledo (seven and six hours, respectively), and when we were there had to move around in a huge, lumbering group, it was definitely worth it to go. The city, which was the capital of Spain up until the 1500’s, is truly beautiful, and the weather we saw it in was perfect. We visited the magnificent cathedral, saw several paintings by El Greco, and walked down twisting alleyways between buildings whose arabesque windows and mixture of stone and brick construction hinted at the Moorish influence in the city’s history. We also visited a building that used to be a synagogue (now known as the church of Sta. María la Blanca), and a few of us ran off at the end to take a quick look through the Sephardic museum.

Today I went with a friend from my classes to the Museo de Bellas Artes here in Salamanca, which has a small but good collection of art from throughout history, most of which comes from the local area. We also went to the museum that is housed in the original University building, but they threw us out in order to close, so I’ll have to go back another time.

Here's what I wrote a few days ago. I realize my posts are a little behind schedule, but I write them while I'm not on-line, and then post them when I go to the Internet cafe. Classes are going well, and I'll write more about them soon. I also came down with a cold, but it's getting better now.

8 de enero

My, what a lot has happened in the last few days! We’ve had a number of orientation meetings at the Colby Center, which is just off the Plaza Mayor, and are all getting along really well, both with one another and with the Colby program staff (especially Montse). We’ve also taken a few walks as a group so that we know where the important buildings are for classes, mail, medical treatment, etc. Most of my exploring has been on my own, though. The city is incredibly easy to get around, and at least once a day I’ve just set out with map in hand, either looking for interesting parks, churches, or plazas, or just exploring a part of the city I haven’t been to yet. Bit by bit I feel like I’m starting to get a basic feel for where the major streets and landmarks are, and how to navigate among them.

One nice walk yesterday evening took me past the cathedrals and down to the river. Salamanca has two cathedrals that are attached to each other: the big, imposing, “new” one, which dates to the 16^th century, and the “old” Romanesque one, which is so dominated by the new one that you can hardly see it except from the river, and from a small (and very beautiful) plaza right in front of it. Once I reached the river, I crossed to the other side and back by way of the Roman Bridge, which is only open to pedestrians.

This morning we took the placement test for our three-week intensive language classes, after which I bought myself a cell phone to use while I’m here. At 6:30 the results of the test were posted on a stone wall in a colonnaded patio off the plaza that was the center of the original University (scholastically romantic, isn’t it?). I placed into the highest level of language classes, which I hope will work out all right. In addition to the language classes, I also chose “Spanish Culture” as my elective class, which will also just be for the three weeks. I also checked my P.O. Box at the post office for the first time, though I didn’t expect anything to be there, and indeed, there wasn’t.

I’ve been eating very good food, for the most part, though some of the things my family has given me have been a bit challenging. Still, I’m trying to be a good sport, and my host mother Angelines told me that if there was anything I really didn’t like, I should tell her, and she won’t make it again. I’ve also had some trouble sleeping, but the early start I got this morning and the fact that I didn’t take a siesta in the afternoon should help with that tonight. I suppose that’s all for now; I’ll write again once classes get going.

Here's what I wrote my first night here (more to come soon):

5 de enero

This is it—I’m really here! I’m sitting right now in my small but comfortable bedroom at my host family’s house, less than a ten-minute walk from the Plaza Mayor. It has been one very long day (or rather two days, depending on how you look at it).

I left Burlington shortly after 11:00 a.m. yesterday morning and flew down to JFK, where I met up with the other eight people taking the group flight. We all hit it off pretty well right from the beginning, and soon we were on the plane to Madrid! The flight was smooth and easy, but I still got very little sleep. On the bright side, though, the woman in the seat next to me was a very talkative professor who teaches Spanish literature at the Universidad de Sevilla, and I got to practice my Spanish a lot with her. At the airport in Madrid we met the program director Javier and the associate director Montse (short for Montserrat). We all loaded into a bus for the two and a half hour ride to Salamanca, getting a glimpse as we left of the wreckage from last week’s bombing at the airport. The sun was just coming up as we left, and as we got out of the city, I caught a few glimpses through the fog of a rolling brown landscape. I slept for much of the ride, waking up at one point to find the bus totally enveloped in a thick, white fog.

Eventually we reached Salamanca, met our host families, and went to our different houses. My host mother is named Angeles and her husband is named Tomas, and they have an adult daughter (who I think lives here with them) named Patricia. At the house I unpacked, discovered that the bottle of maple syrup I brought as a gift had broken open in my suitcase, then slept for much of the afternoon, getting up only for the afternoon meal. In the evening we were introduced to the Colby Center, which is just off the Plaza Mayor, and met the Spanish students who are assigned to our group to help us get along here (“animadores”).

Because tonight is the night of the Three Kings (aka Epiphany, Adoration of the Magi, etc.), there was a big parade through the city, with floats, clowns and confetti, in addition to the Kings themselves. The Plaza Mayor was thronged with people, especially kids waiting to catch the candy thrown by people in the parade (the Three Kings play a similar role in Spain to that of Santa Claus in the US). One startling moment was when I noticed that the group of children accompanying one of the Kings were all in blackface. After the parade we wandered around the center of the city a bit, before returning home for the traditionally very late supper, which in my case was very light. Now I’m very much looking forward to a nice, long, uninterrupted sleep!