Hola Todos!
Today officially marks the half way point
of my time in Salamanca. Three weeks down, three to go, and I still have so
much of this little city to explore!
Class work really picked up this week. My
teachers have started to assign regular homework and I just had a presentation
for lit on Wednesday. Next week I have an art midterm, so I’m going to have to
do some studying on the bus rides this weekend. Also, my grammar class has been
extended from an hour to an hour and a half on Tuesdays. All the extra work
isn’t exactly my favorite when all I want to do is enjoy Salamanca and the
other cities we visit on the weekends, but I guess the study part of study
abroad is important too. And besides, I wouldn’t even be here to begin with
without it!
Last weekend there seemed to be a large
influx of new American students studying at the university. I don’t know that
for sure, but the sudden abundance of young English speakers in jean shorts
seems to be a good indicator of this. Thursday morning my art class was cancelled, which meant I didn’t have class until eleven. This was the first (and possibly last) time I got to sleep in past 8:30 since arriving in Spain. Another first on Thursday: rain! It hadn’t rained once in Salamanca since I arrived here, but last night we got a mild thunderstorm first at seven and then again around ten pm. The rain was unwelcome when I got stuck in it briefly, but today the weather is much cooler and more pleasant, so the rain turned out to be a good thing in the end. It’s been uncomfortably hot here the past few days. Actually, it hasn’t been that bad, but the lack of air conditioning in most of the building makes it near impossible to escape the heat for even a brief moment.
Also on Thursday, we had a group outing to
the movies. I was a little skeptical that I was going to enjoy it, but I had a
lot of fun! The movie we watched was a French movie with Spanish voices dubbed
in, though the songs were still in French. To make it more confusing, it was
about a girl whose family is deaf, so aside from trying to understand the Spanish
and French, there was also a lot of sign language. Nevertheless, the movie
(which is called La Familia Bélier) was really good! It was both touching and
funny, and thankfully not too difficult to understand. Honestly, the worst part
about going to the movie was that the popcorn didn’t have any butter. In
general, butter isn’t really a thing here. They serve bread with literally
every meal, but you either eat it dry or occasionally with olive oil. They also
cook primarily with olive oil. It’s healthier that way, but the complete lack
of butter has definitely been a bit of an adjustment.
I have a bus to catch to Madrid in an hour,
so I’m going to wrap this up. Hope you all have a great weekend!
Hasta Luego!
Aubrey
