Pues...las tiendas en Espana estan cerradas los domingos.

For the non-Spanish speakers among us, that means that basically everything in Spain (or Salamanca, anyway) is closed on Sundays, except for a few of the smaller cafes and candy stores here and there. So even though this is the first day where I've honestly had nothing to do (I decided to skip the flea market and catch up on my sleep, since I think it happens every Sunday and I have a huuuuge sleep debt I'm still paying off), I can't actually do anything, because there's nowhere I can go. Ahh, the irony.

So anyway. Yesterday was quite fun. We got a bus to the mall (centro comercial!) for an all-you-can-eat buffet lunch - deliciousss. I, for one, was very excited to have a slightly wider array of food choices. There was even pizza! Admittedly nowhere near as good as pizza in the U.S., but it had sauce, and cheese, and tomatoes, and a crust. Good enough for me! And there was frozen yogurt for dessert!! I need to stop getting so enthusiastic about food, haha. Afterwards we shopped around the mall for a little while (stupid exchange rate) and then saw a movie - Viaje al Centro de la Tierra (that would be Journey to the Center of the Earth, starring the esteemed Brendan Fraser - true cinematic gold, I assure you). It was a good time, though, and the McFlurry has returned to my life. Alas, not the Flake McFlurry a la Spranceland '06, but they have an Oreo one with fudge here that is also quite delicious.

Whitney and I met some friends for dinner after the mall at a bar/cafe/pub place called Erasmus. It was nice to have a meal out a restaurant - it feels like so long since I've done things like that, or like riding in a car, even though it's only been a week. After dinner we hung out in a little cafe we found until everyone else came out, since we didn't feel like going home and coming all the way back.

Salamanca is crazy at night right now because this is festival week, so there are hundreds (maybe thousands? I'm bad with numbers) of people in the streets starting at 8ish and going until at least 3 (later than that, I have no authoritative evidence, haha - I'm not a true salamantina who stays out till 7). The little casetas, which I think I mentioned before, are hugely popular. They set up high tables all around where people can bring their drinks and little plates of tapas, and everybody kind of just mills around socializing and enjoying the music. I think there are also going to be bullfights in the Plaza de Toros, so hopefully I get to go see one of those this week! I have to find out what time they are, plus I couldn't figure out whether Mary told me they cost a lot of money, or nothing (you would think that would be semi-obvious, no? Hah) so we'll see.

Lunch today was seafood paella - honestly one of the most delicious things I've ever had. We also had a pork chop, but I was still too happy about the paella to care haha. And then a chocolate pudding, yum. (By the way, sorry if this totally reads as a daily catalog of my meals. However, I enjoy food.) We watched the news with lunch today too, instead of what we usually watch - either Los Simpsons (haha) or a really bad Spanish reality dating show. So that was pretty cool.

I'm in the midst of uploading some photos from the past week to Flickr.com, so you'll be able to view them here: . Right now I'm having a little trouble uploading in bulk, but I'm sure I'll figure it out soon.

Tomorrow we're taking a day trip to Segovia, which is supposed to be a fantastic city. So hopefully I will have lots of pictures to show from that trip! Then the rest of the week will just be more Spanish classes (we have our oral exam to place us in our classes for the semester on Thursday, yikes), salsa and flamenco classes two nights this week (!), and actually registering for classes. Hopefully I will find a laundromat soon, because I'm running out of clothes (yeah, and they told me, "No one ever complains that they didn't have enough clothing" in the stupid guidebook. Lies!)...

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!