Tapas y Más...

Tapas are basically one of the most awesome things ever. If you buy a drink, you automatically get a little appetizer. The tapas range in type: there's everything from ham, or roasted pig, to egg and potato tortillas, to seafood. The other night, my food class went tapa hopping with our professor and he showed us some of the best places to go on Calle Van Dyck. The first place we went to, I tried the sangria and cochinillo asado, which is like roasted pig. It was so tender and the skin was really flavorful and crunchy. At the next place we went to, I tried the ribs (costillas). Dad, I think yours are pretty good compared to these ribs, actually. I also tried queso de oveja en pan which is sheep cheese on bread. It's a firm cheese, but it was pretty good. I was kind of surprised because I usually don't really eat cheese, but I've found myself enjoying this. (I had several slices of curado y semicurado queso de oveja en clase today.) My favorite tapa I tried was tortilla with calabacin, which is zucchini. I think this was my favorite tapa so far. Today, I also tried calamari, which is super, super fresh here and not as tough to chew.

Aside from that, the nightlife is pretty bumping here in Spain. The bars are open until at least 5AM as far as I know and natives laugh when I say that 2AM is late for me and I want to go home and sleep! But it's lots of fun here. They play A LOT of American music which I think is funny because they don't even know what it means, but that's alright... At least I'm familiar with it! I wish I could hear some more cultural music though sometimes.

For the most part, everything is going well. I think I've adjusted pretty well so far. I think I'm going to Madrid this weekend so I'm pretty excited about that!

Pictures to come soon!

Las Diferencias Entre España y los Estados Unidos

I've noticed a couple of blatant differences between here and home which I think are totally interesting. For one, about 75% or more of people DO NOT have their dogs on leashes as they walk around town. They just let them loose. It seems like the dogs pretty much stay by their owners. This makes me nervous especially by busy streets, but they just don't use leashes. Maybe not as many as I think, but it's definitely very apparent that there's a generous proportion of individuals who don't leash their dogs.

Also, this is really interesting, but I noticed an ambulance driving through the street the other day and no one pulled over or stopped! I asked my teacher about this and apparently it doesn't matter; there's no law saying that you have to pull over and stop! Interesting.

Other smaller things are obviously the hours of meals and how they work. Breakfast is at a normal time, but isn't a very big deal here. Therefore, I don't eat very much for breakfast but my host mom did buy me some cereal. Every day at breakfast I also get fresh fruit and maybe some other kind of pastry. I miss my eggs and bagels. They don't know what bagels are here or pancakes. Lunch happens at at least 2PM. In my house it consists of two courses. Baguette is always served. Dinner happens at 9:15PM in my house. SO LATE! But I'm getting used to it. That's how Spaniards stay out so late; when you have dinner that late it really keeps you going for a while.

Primer Día Completo en Salamanca

Dad, this hat is for you! Today was orientation at USal and it seems great. I can't wait to start my classes. This week, we don't have any of our official classes, just the one-credit practicum course. I'm taking the practicum A Foodie's Guide to Spain, which is basically a survey of all the amazing food here, what it means, and the best part is we get to try it and explore the city. This morning, I walked to the University with Rosa at 9AM and then had my food class at 11. We learned about different types of Spanish meat and the amazing selection of fresh seafood that Spain is known for. We also learned that there are certain types of meats that are practically only available in Spain... unless you're interested in paying $200/lb. at Zingerman's in Ann Arbor!

After discussing some of the food traditions in Spain, my group went out on the town to explore the cathedrals and the actual university building, which is 800 years old! Our teacher then took us out for tapas at a little place called Bambú. I got some sort of potato omelette pie thing stuffed with lettuce, tomato, some kind of sauce, topped with tuna and cheese, and served with a slice of delicious bread. I also tried sangria, which was also incredible. After tapas, I went with some friends to Vodafone to get a prepaid phone card. Luckily my old phone from the US worked with their SIM card, so I didn't have to get a new phone. My phone allows me to call and text my friends in Spain and I just have to load credit as needed. I think I can also call the US, but it uses up a lot more credit, obviously.

After I came home for lunch, which was pretty delicious. I had a sampling of some of Spain's finest meat, and delicious cherries (I'm assuming from the fruit market I saw by my apartment). After this, my friend Alli and I went for a walk and checked out some of the shopping on Toro. Looks like there's some pretty awesome stores and I can't wait to go back once the summer sales start. Literally shoe stores every other building!

Later in the evening, the entire group went out for dinner at Telepizza. I chatted with some girls and found running buddies. Tomorrow I think I'm going running with a friend before we have class at 11AM. Tomorrow should be a pretty good day. I have my food class, and then we're going out for tapas later in the evening to replace Wednesday's class. Sounds like heaven, right? I'm enjoying it. Besides this, life is good. I'm not really experiencing any jet lag, which is optimal. It's just kind of confusing since dinner happens around 9PM on average, so it kind of gives you too much energy before you have to go to sleep.

¡Mas luego!

Oh y aquí están más fotos de mi cuarto...

Successful & Safe Arrival to Spain

Today I made it to Madrid at around 10AM on Sunday, June 26, 2011. I took off from Detroit at about 10:45AM on Saturday the 25th. My flight out of Detroit was delayed by about an hour, but it didn't really matter since I had a 7 hour lay-over in ATL anyway. While I was waiting, I unexpectedly ran into my friend, Alaina, who was also on my first flight from Detroit to Atlanta on her way to Ecuador. It was awesome to have company especially since I had to wait in the airport for a long time. I also met another girl on my program who was on both flights with me. I'm glad I had some flying buddies otherwise, I would have been slightly more lost!

The flights were awesome; it's been about six years since I've been on a plane, so I was totally thrilled by it all. I couldn't stop staring out of the plane window like a little kid! I just kept marveling at the incredibly engineering of airplanes and what they can do for us and being able to look at the world from a totally different perspective. When can you ever see so much at one time?

When I got to ATL, I pretty much relaxed and wandering around for a while. Waiting for my second flight went a lot faster than I thought. The international portion of the flight was pretty good. There were a lot more students from my program on this flight. I sat next to a woman from New Orleans who was going to Spain to teach and to do research. She was really nice and helpful the whole way and a good flight companion. The flight from Atlanta to Madrid was only about 8 hours or so. Flying over the ocean was totally crazy! So many clouds! The majority of the flight was over the ocean too. It's incredible how big it is. They served us dinner on the flight and I tried to sleep, but I don't think I got more than a few hours in... Not so comfortable! They woke us up at about 8AM Madrid time to give us breakfast and to prep for landing. Landing in Madrid was so surreal! I still can't really believe I'm actually in a foreign country.

I waited around at the MAD airport for a few hours with some people from my program. Everyone I've met so far seems really nice and cool. We eventually boarded the Avanzabus from Madrid to Salamanca at about 13:00 and headed on our way. I tried to check out the scenery for a while but I ended up falling asleep! I'm still super tired! It's 11PM here so I'm about to go to sleep after I finish writing this in hopes of getting on a normal schedule, but I think I should be fine within about two days.

When I got to Salamanca, we all met up in the bus station and then had the chance to walk around the city a bit before we met our host families. I walked around with a few other people and we stopped at a cafe in the main town plaza to rehydrate and then headed back. I was really nervous, but also excited to meet my host family.

I finally got matched up with my host mom. Her name is Rosa García Sanchez and she lives on Filiberto Villalobos street in an apartment. It's pretty nice. My room is near the front door of the apartment and it's kind of small, but just right for me. I put all of my belongings away and it's pretty comfortable. Rosa's apartment is really nice and clean. Across from my bedroom is a large room, which is like a hair salon. She said that she does hair in there... Pretty cool. Good thing I didn't bring any of my hair appliances... She's basically all decked out! Next to my room is the kitchen, then the bathroom is behind that, and then there are two more bedrooms and a family room/dining room. Pretty much we watch TV while we eat. It seems like a lot of TV watching happens on a daily basis. I'm also totally relieved that she has wifi in the apartment... I was a little worried. But this is great!

I gave Rosa the gift I had brought for her: a tile from Norther Michigan. I think she really liked it! Rosa's pretty sweet and nice to talk to. She said my Spanish was pretty good, so that's a relief since I'm only starting out here and I'm also pretty tired right now! Woah just heard English from the TV... Haha I think I'm beginning to think more in Spanish already automatically and it's only been a couple of hours. So far, it's also really hot here. Apparently, it's an "ola de calor" (wave of heat), but I'm pretty sure it was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit here today!

Rosa also has a 21-year old daughter named Sylvia who has graduated from the university already. I'm pretty sure she has another older daughter as well who has a baby boy. It doesn't seem like Sylvia hangs around here all the time, but I'll wait and see! She seems really sweet. I think she goes to take care of her nephew later in the day. Oh, and by the way, whenever you meet someone here, you kiss them once on each cheek. And next week, an Arab exchange student is moving in, which should be pretty exciting.

Dinner tonight happened after 9PM. That's normal for Spain, but I had a pretty good omelette with some cheese inside, a salad with some yummy balsamic vinegar-type dressing on it, bread, and a "paraguaya" which is a fruit that looks like a squished, fuzzy nectarine. I've definitely had these before in the US, but I forget what they're called in English.

Well that's all I've got for now. I'm probably going to fall asleep as soon as I lay down. I'm seriously EXHAUSTED!! I think I'm waking up around 7:45AM for some kind of group orientation at the universidad. Not quite sure what's going on yet. Also looking to get some kind of movíl (cell phone) set up tomorrow and pick up un diccionario (how did I forget mine?)... oops. Eh, maybe since I have internet I can live without buying another one. Google translate... YES!

Buenas noches y hasta la próxima vez.