Salamanca, soccer, & art

Sorry it’s been a while again since I’ve written. Nothing too exciting has happened this last week and I’ve been crazy busy. I had 2 midterm exams (because we’re halfway through the semester) a presentation, a quiz, plus all the regular daily assignments we have for our classes. I started the week thinking it was going to be AWFUL, but it actually turned out to be a pretty good week J 

Last Friday we went on a group excursion to Salamanca. Salamanca's a college town, so there were lot's of students there that gave it an energetic feel. My favorite part of the visit was getting to tour the University of Salamanca. It’s the oldest university in Spain and the 3^rd oldest in the world! Walking through the stone halls of the original part, it was hard to believe that people actually went to school there!

Plaza Mayor in Salamanca

Last Sunday I went to a Real Madrid soccer game! I’ve always liked soccer, but I’ve never really followed it (mostly because it’s not that big in the U.S.) But here, it’s a huge deal! It was so much fun. Everyone got really into the game and Madrid won 5-0. It was definitely a cultural experience and I’m so glad I went.

            For the last couple weeks they have been redoing the street outside of our apartment. Here, it is quite the ordeal, since all the streets are cobblestone. They literally dig up all the old stones and then lay new ones. It’s amazing how much trouble they go to in order to keep their streets the way they’ve always been. However, what’s not amazing is the fact that we can wake up any given morning and not have water (because they’ve cut it off; sometimes for several hours) and that due to the high amount of traffic on the street they like to work on it at 2 a.m. (which includes using a jackhammer)...life is certainly never boring here.

The street outside of our apartment

          Another neat experience I’ve had is in having conversation partners. All the students from my program were matched up with students taking English in one of the schools here, and we meet regularly to practice speaking in Spanish and English. This weekend, Annie (one of my friends) and I went with one of our conversation partner and some of his friends to play padel, which is a game similar to racquetball. It took me a while to get the hang of it, but it was a lot of fun to get to experience playing a Spanish sport J

         Yesterday, I went with 2 other girls to Madrid and we went to the Prado, which is huge art museum in Spain. I’m taking an art class here and it was so cool to see paintings that we had studied (or are going to study). We saw paintings by El Greco, Velazquez, and Goya, among others. There is so much in the Prado that we weren’t even able to look at everything!

        Well, that’s all for now! It’s hard to believe that I’m over half way done. The time has flown by… 

p.s. I’m going to London in just a few days!