Lazy Sunday.

Well, not so much hahah. I've gone to church (yay St. Thomas of Villanova), been to el gimnasio, showered, and eaten a delicious lunch (chicken not pork!), so semi-productive. And we're going to see a bullfight at the Plaza de Toros tonight as part of festival week, so that should be an interesting cultural experience (hopefully not a very gory one).

So let's see, what have I been up to the past few days?

Ohh. Well, I finally did get clean clothes, though there wound up being a big laundry debacle that totally stressed me out. I've already told the story about eight times to various different people, so if you don't already know and you're that interested, just ask me haha. But they're clean, which is all that matters.

Our second dance class was quite fun as well, although I found flamenco to be a lot harder than salsa. And the fiesta we had afterwards was nice too (although for the record, Telepizza is pretty damn gross) - they had a mariachi band from the University come and sing for us, which was so cool. They wore traditional costumes and played their own guitars, and they definitely had fun with it - they brought two girls up to serenade them, and then made four of the kids from my program sing solo lines with them (in Spanish, which just made it even funnier).

I signed up for all of my classes without a problem, and those start tomorrow. As of right now (provided I don't add/drop anything, which I can do till Oct. 3), I'm taking Regionalism in Spain, History of Spain after the Civil War (both for humanities credit), Comparative Religions (theology, obviously), Advanced Spanish Grammar & Syntax I, and Introduction to the Spanish Novel (for my English major). The first four are all IES classes, meaning they're just with the other kids in my program and are taught by IES professors. The lit class is the one I'm direct enrolling in at the University, so I'll be in a class of Spanish students with a professor there. I thought about taking two University classes, but when I looked at the reading list for the lit one, I decided doing that might be a little much if I actually have to read the entirety of Don Quixote in Spanish. So yes, I'm excited and embracing my nerddom re: classes.

Friday we had our last day of intensive Spanish classes and then an IES sponsored outing at a karaoke bar here in Salamanca. That was pretty funny, since people sang not only to songs in English ("I Want It That Way," anyone? Yay for BSB throwbacks) but also tried to sing in Spanish as well. Very amusing.

Yesterday we took a day trip to Toro and Zamora, which are both about an hour north of Salamanca. In Toro we visited a bodega (which is actually the Spanish name for a vineyard/winery) and got a tour of the wine-making facilities. We also had a wine tasting and got to sample some of the red and white wines they made right on the estancia (farm or estate, I believe; the place was called Estancia Piedra). After that we went over to Zamora, which is where one of the directors of our program actually grew up, and walked around there for a bit. He showed us the historical parts - the Romanesque cathedral, the walls around the city complete with slits for the archers to shoot through, and the ruins of the old castle. We ended the day with a very unique lunch in a converted wine cellar.

Okay, I kid you not, we got off the bus and walked through what looked like a sketchy, abandoned ghost town - we did not see one person, and I half expected to see one of those tumbleweeds roll past as eagles cried in the distance. We passed by a bunch of entrances to private wine cellars, which are basically just steel doors that open onto a staircase underground and so look like bomb shelters. And then we finally got to this restaurant and we go downstairs, and voila! People! Haha. Lunch was already - a bit too much meat for my taste. The salad and bread were delicious, but then we had chorizo (I kind of liked that, reminiscent of kielbasi at Easter), what I think was supposed to be pork bacon but was actually more like grilled slabs of fat, and then ribs (pork again). Everyone (especially Whitney, who's from Texas haha) laughed at me because I'd never had ribs before and was totally unaccustomed to the idea of a hands-on method for eating them. Anyway, then they brought out dessert - ice cream bars (yay Cornetto cones) and coffee. And we thought that was it. And then the owner was like "CHUPITOS!" and brought out two bottles to every table, one of which was a NEON green liquid that looked like Kryptonite and tasted like green apple Jolly Ranchers. We were all really, really perplexed by the fact that we were being encouraged to end our meal by doing shots, but the guys at the restaurant were very excited about it haha. (I feel like they must play it up for the Americans - "Okay, the crowd from the U.S. is here! Bring out the booze!")

Oh and also, just as a fun anecdote. A bunch of us went up to use the bathroom between lunch and dessert, and after finding out that we needed a key to the stand-alone, only-slightly-more-modern-looking-than-an-outhouse bathroom structure (guess who got to run back down the stairs into the cellar and up again with the key? Hi.), opened the door to find two toilet-like structures, both without seats, neither of which had toilet paper. Or flushed. Or had soap at the sinks. So THAT was fun. This is the reason why I carry Purel with me, honestly. I'll have to figure out how to fit the Charmin To Go in my clutch, because lack of toilet paper in Spanish bathrooms seems to be a theme. Blargh.

Anyway, that's all for now. I have to go get ready for the bullfight. I think Whitney and I are going to split a taxi there because it looks like it might be kind of far away. I'm going to post pictures from Toro and Zamora on Snapfish (for those of you who don't have Facebook), and I'm sure I'll have a bunch from the bullfight too. Love you and miss you, hope everyone's well!

Miercoles...un buen dia.

So, as all of you East Coasters are just waking up, I'm getting ready for lunch and a siesta. I've already had my four hours of intesivo today, which I actually like. We do stuff like putting on skits (today my group did one where a daughter brought her boyfriend over for dinner for the first time) and having Pictionary-esque contests to work on vocab. And we have discussions about current events and articles in the newspaper here too (El Pais) that also helps us work on speaking. The stuff that we focus on is also phrases and figures of speech that are actually useful - the differences between "llevar" and "traer" (to leave and to bring), idioms, etc., as opposed to when we spent like six months at SHA talking about the environment and mechanical bees, haha.

I am FINALLY going to do laundry tomorrow. As any of you who have been talking to me know, I am literally almost out of clothing to wear. But because of all the orientation activities we have scheduled, I haven't had time to take an hour or more out of my day to go to the lavanderia and figure out how stuff works there. Tomorrow we only have to register for classes (which apparently takes 10 minutes) in addition to the morning classes, so I'll have plenty of time to go and not be stressed about having to get somewhere else. I did walk down to the lavanderia earlier though, just to talk to the guy there and make sure that they're going to let me wash my clothes myself (they have this weird thing called a tintoria here where you leave your clothes and they wash and dry them for you, not quite like a dry cleaners but sort of in the middle). Hopefully all will go well with that tomorrow, or I'm going to have to start turning clothes inside out.

Last night we had a salsa dancing class as part of our orientation activities, which was muuuuy divertida (that's "very fun," Dad). Though it was a tad difficult having the guy explaining the steps in Spanish, haha - I'm rhythmically challenged enough as it is without having to translate as I go. :-P Tonight we have another class in flamenco, and then a pizza dinner / dance party sponsored by our program at one of the clubs here (though it's at 9, so it'll probably just be us haha - los salamantinos don't come out until like midnight or 1 am).

Yesterday I met one Katie Moran for a loooovely sangria and chat date near Plaza Mayor. It was wonderful to see my twinnie, and apparently she lives less than five minutes from my house, which is very exciting. Especially with the way I've been feeling lately, it's good to know there's a friendly face nearby (even though her program is so much more awesome than mine and she's traveling every single weekend from now until forever - jealous!).

So that's pretty much the practical stuff, what I've been doing and whatnot. As far as I'm concerned...the past few days have been a lot of ups and downs. I'm enjoying Spain, yes, but at the same time I've never been the kind of person who enjoys starting over and having to make first impressions all over again with a huge group of new people. I'm also not a fan of anything that can be called "orientation," but that's besides the point haha. I guess what I mean is, I realize that it's only been a week and I shouldn't expect to feel totally comfortable yet, but I hate being in that place where you're not sure who your "people" are yet, the relationships you're going to pursue and who's going to "fit" with you, you know? I suppose I'll find my niche in time.

The kids here start school next week, so I've seen a lot of moms out with their sons and daughters talking about school supply shopping (so cute to hear about "cuadernos de matematicas" and "el primer dia de clases" - I love that my comprehension is getting better so that pieces of conversation I hear are starting to make sense). I'm pretty excited to start real classes too (yeah, I've always been a dork like that), even though my schedule is pretty packed (or will be, provided I get the classes I want).

Anyway. I might actually try to run down to the lavanderia now because it's earlier than I thought it'd be after lunch. Hopefully all goes well! (Five minutes later - juuust kidding. Forgot that literally everything closes here from 2-5 for siesta. So frustrating!)