Cathedrals, Gardens, and Wine, Oh My!

Written: Thursday, June 2

She's so surprised, too.

I was so surprised…that Spanish classes are almost exactly like American classes.

So a couple nights ago, after posting our last blog, we went out to dinner with T&E. They paid for everything—salad, potato things, Coke (Spaniards love Coke), lemonade, wine, beer, and paella. First, the potatoes were delicious—everything here is so fresh, and even the fried things don’t taste fried and greasy. Second, the waiter never brought our table beer, so I have no idea how it was—though I’m sure it was still gross, since it was beer. Third, the wine was pretty good—it was weird drinking wine with dinner, but, hey, when in Spain. It was actual red wine—a little dry, not too strong, and pretty smooth—but I still wasn’t a huge fan. The taste just lingers too much, or something. But anyway, finally, the paella was creepy. Yes, I did mean creepy. If you don’t know what it is, it’s basically rice, saffron, and a bunch of seafood. And by “a bunch of seafood,” I mean, “shrimp with eyes, clams with shells, and questionable hunks of meat. The rice was actually pretty good, but in the end we all we too creeped out to eat a lot of it. Apparently every Spaniard agrees that the paella in Salamanca is terrible, and that the dish should never be judged by Salamanca’s version. I’m a little wary, but if I ever get over to Valencia, I’ll still try the “real” thing—that’s where it originated, by the sea—weird.

Doesn't do it creepy justice.

So anyway, we took our placement exams yesterday morning to find out what level of Spanish we are, and so they could place us in classes for today. Fast workers, right? After that, we went on an inside tour of the cathedrals. The Catedral Vieja and Catedral Nueva are connected by one wall, and are completely linked inside, so we got to wander through both easily. They are simply stunning. The architecture is so beautiful and intricate in the new cathedral and so blocky and commanding in the old one. We were all in awe, basically, walking alone the walkway above the main floor. We also got to take a bunch of scary, stone stairs up onto the different balconies outside. The views from those heights were gorgeous. You could see almost the entire city from up there, and it really gives you a sense of just how massive the cathedrals are. There is just tons and tons of stone building up at least fours stories high. Amazing.

One of the MANY gorgeous views from the Catedral.

We also toured the Huerto de Calixto y Melibea, which is a garden used in one of the first novels written. It was so beautiful and green, and there was a cute little well that had a bunch of padlocks hanging from it. It sounds weird, but apparently people—lovers, since the novel was a tragic love story—write their names or initials on padlocks and attach them to the well. I assume it’s to symbolize their everlasting bond or something, but we never got an explanation. It was just a cool and strangely pretty scene.

Later that day, at 6, we hustled back down to the Plaza Mayor to meet our group and get our books and class schedules. Giana broke off and walked to a sort of mall with a couple other girls in our program, but Caroline and I didn’t join because we were afraid we wouldn’t make it back in time for dinner with our family. Oddly enough, after telling our “mom” Giana wasn’t going to be there, she showed up at 8:55.  (Did I tell you Spaniards have crazy eating schedules?) Oops. Yolanda wasn’t very happy they had to prepare another plate when they’d been told she wasn’t coming, but it was all good in the end.

After dinner, we decided we wanted to be out of the house, but not at bars. So we walked down to the Plaza, sat down at a table in front of a restaurant/café/bar thing, and ordered sangrias. When in Spain, right? Well, sangria, by the way, is pretty strong—at least from the place we got it. It was really tasty though—it still dried out my mouth and made me sleepy, as wine apparently does, but it was actually really nice. We sat for a couple hours, people watching and chatting and laughing, looking out at the lit-up Plaza Mayor. The place is so gorgeous, and I loved that. We will definitely have to do it again sometime. (And we have.)

Sangria!

Also, look at this giant leaf!

Classes today were pretty good—sounds like everyone (in our group of three) mostly has some awesome professors and some interesting classes. For our grammar classes, we all got into some good ones. The proficiency levels go from 1-4, 1 being a native speaker, and I assume that the decimals after also go in ascending order, though I’m not exactly sure. But anyway, Giana’s at 3.5, Caroline’s at 3.2, and I’m at 2.1. Not bad at all. None of us have any classes together, which sucks, but at least we’re meeting new people—and there’s a hot German guy in 3 of my 4 classes. :]

Other than all our random adventures, we’ve mostly been eating (mostly good, and sometimes great, food), taking siestas (or doing random things while Caroline and Giana siesta), walking, walking, walking, and chatting with our family. It’s really interesting to talk with them. They’re very supportive, and still constructively critical, of our Spanish usage. They don’t speak English at all, and I’ve been trying to let Giana and Caroline get practice in too, even though sometimes it’d be easier for me to step in and answer for us. I feel more proficient than ever, especially in listening to Spanish, and it’s only been a few days. I would strongly recommend living with a host family any time anyone wanted to study abroad—it seriously forces you to use to the language constantly and lets you become more comfortable with it.

There was my little plug for anyone thinking about studying abroad, and now I’m done with that. Sorry this post is so long…I just have so much to say! It should slow down a bit next week, when I’m in classes all morning and in the groove of things, but until then you’ll have to put up with a lot of information all the time. :]

Well, it’s 6 pm here and about time to wake the kids up to wander or something before dinner. Tonight, we’re trying the nightlife. Just a small taste, I hope, since we still have class at 9 tomorrow…Ugh. Pues, ¡hasta luego!