Fue vale la pena?

Hola otra vez. I feel like I always update while I'm waiting for meals, haha.

Today we had some really weird weather - it was cold in the morning, which it always is, but it didn't really warm up. It was SO windy, and in the late afternoon/evening we had rain and drizzles. It looked like it was going to thunderstorm, but it never did. I don't know how to dress for this climate! Haha. I think it's an artful system of layering I've yet to figure out.

Anyway, Spanish classes were good today. We have four more days of "intensive" classes, next Tuesday through Friday, before real classes start the following Monday. I do think my language skills are getting better, though, which is exciting - I can understand usually 85% of what my host family says to me now without having to ask them to repeat it, and I can carry on a conversation pretty decently. Hopefully it only gets better! I'd like to have a more authentic accent; some of the students in my group sound like natives when they speak and I'm way jealous.

After classes I took a fantastic siesta, and then we headed back to campus for an indoor soccer game with some of the Spanish students from the Universidad. It was actually a really good time! I haven't played soccer in forever, haha, but a lot of the other girls hadn't either (the guys were, of course, ridiculously competitive, but what else is new?). We split into four teams and had a tournament of sorts. Mine was eliminated in the first round, but it was fun to watch the championship. The Spanish guys were really nice, despite most of our ineptitude.

Lunch was actually really delicious today too! My Google searching tells me it's called Arroz Cubano, which doesn't really make sense, but hey. It was white rice with a fried egg on top, and then it had tomato sauce ladled over it. Then Felipe (my host dad) showed me how you're supposed to mix it all together rather than eating it separately the way it's served. SO good. Now if we could just get the salad to consist of something more than a bowl of plain lettuce leaves (I'm not even kidding! I think there was one day we had lettuce and tomatoes with olives together. The rest of the days it's just been a bowl of lettuce, and last night even just a bowl of tomatoes). Hopefully dinner tonight will live up to lunch, haha.

Tonight starts the week-long annual festivals in Salamanca. The feast day for la Virgen de la Vega is sometime during the week, and there's concerts, exhibitions, bullfights/runs, all sorts of things from now until next Sunday. There are also like 80-something of these little casetas all over the streets, which are basically mini-bars that are extensions of the actual bars. Each one gets a permit from the city (because you're not allowed to drink on the street by law here) to serve alcohol outside during the festivals, and they each offer a specialty, usually some kind of tapas and a drink, for like 1,85 Euro. I haven't had tapas here yet, so hopefully I get to try some of those!

Since I have to stick to my MO of only talking about food (haha), I have to take a second to gush about churros and chocolate. It's a breakfast thing here I think, but you can get them anytime. It's basically what it sounds like - a mug of hot chocolate, but thicker than in the U.S., and 4 or 5 warm churros to dip in the hot chocolate (which you then drink the rest of, naturally). Mmmmmmm. Hahah. They even have churrerias solely for the purpose of serving this. Love it.

Tomorrow and Sunday we actually don't have to get up early, which will be nice. There's a buffet lunch for us somewhere tomorrow, and then I think we're going to one of the malls nearby (well, relatively nearby, since we need a bus). Then Sunday we're taking a trip to one of the local flea markets, which should be kind of cool. And Monday is a day trip to Segovia!! I'm very excited about that; I hear it's nice. I'm sure I will have lots of pictures. :)

Anyway, that's all for now. Hopefully dinner will be ready soon - even though we eat such a big meal at 2, I still can't get used to waiting until 9:30 or 10 pm for dinner. Sigh.

I'd really love to hear how people are doing. I'm still telling myself "It's only Day 5," and that it's going to take time I guess to be comfortable here and stuff. But I miss everybody, and hearing from all of you really makes my day. And thanks for all the comments and emails and stuff from the people who do read - love you and miss you!