HOLA!
I have a lot of updating to do. I haven't been very faithful to my blog lately just because I have been busy or haven't had time. So here it goes...
Let me start off with this past weekend. On Friday myself and some of the girls signed up to go on a cathedral tour of San Esteban. We arrived at the meeting place and of course no one was to be found. We got arranged with a group of 12 yr olds who didn't speak Spanish and was given a piece of candy from their professor every time they answered a correct history question. It was quite bothersome and wasn't the right place we were supposed to be at. We decided to ditch that and go on our own cathedral tour. We ended up checking out the Cathedral de San Esteban, where Christopher Columbus once studied. It's one of the most amazing places I have ever seen. The outside itself is beautiful enough. When I first entered the cathedral I was speechless. There is no words to explain how eye striking this cathedral is. I strolled through it as slow as possible. When I got to one of the rooms that had a HUGE alter, foggy mirrors, statues of all different saints, and jesus on the cross I couldn't stop myself from crying. It sounds overrated, but to be honest the fact that you are standing in a church that is from the 13th century and gives you goosebumps you can't help but feel something in your heart. I couldn't stand in there much longer so I went to the main Church. I walked in and I was introduced to a cold, HUGE, old, and beautiful home of God. I walked through each station of the cross to look at each display. It was just crazy to think about the whole thing. I kept wondering what it was like in the days that Christopher Columbus walked those floors. It's definitely one of things you have to see in order to understand the feeling. catch my drift? It even had those really old king-like chairs for the choir and it was awesome.
LATER ON...
Myself and Daryl decided to take a bus to Madrid with the T&E program and spend the night there. We went into this brilliant idea with no planning just playing by ear. We had no hotel in mind nor aware of a bus that would take us back home because the program was doing a day trip so therefore we were pretty much on our own once we touched down in Madrid. All we knew is that we DID have tickets to the Real Madrid game VS Levante UD and we were going to make it to the game no matter what. Let me rewind a little bit before this though..
So prior to Saturday morning when our bus had to leave at 8am Daryl, myself, and our other girlfriend Marylisa went out to dinner with some Spanish business men who were staying the night in Salamanca and just wanted to enjoy their night in the city. It was great. I had Salmon. The night continued with glasses of wine after glasses of wine. After that we met up some of our Spanish friends here in Salamanca that we met. They had just began their night so we decided to continue ours. Mind you it was already about 3am. I knew I had a bus waiting for me at 8am to go to Madrid, but that didn't stop me from staying out. I ended up getting home at 7:20am. Was i packed for Madrid? No. Was I worried about where we were going to sleep after the game? No. Sooo.. I threw some clothes in a bag and brushed my teeth and ran to the bus. I was a minute late. I got on the bus and just knocked out. I can't tell you how the ride was but it was quite short for me because I slept the whole way. It was great.
After two hours we arrived in Madrid. Big city, noisy, a lot of people walking every which way, and tall buildings. It kind of reminded me of Chicago. The coordinators reminded us about 500 times to watch our bags and hold on to them tight because its dangerous. We did just that. So we had about 6 hours to kill before we had to get to the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu for the Real game. Three of the others girls had the same game plan as us and already had a hotel room booked at a Best Western so we hoped that they had more rooms and followed them. We lucked out and got a room. Showered right away and got straight to business, touring. We decided on going to the Prado Museum. We took the Train every where. It was 1 euro and was very similar to the trains in Chicago actually. It wasn't too hard to navigate considering all of us are used to traveling and come from large cities.
The Prado Museum.... It was beautiful. All the paintings from Goya to Velazquez were just awesome. You weren't allowed to take any pictures so I was kind of bummed about that, but being able to see all the artwork was good enough for me. I absolutely loved it. We spent a few hours walking all around the museum to look at all the artwork. My favorite was The Garden of Earthly Delights. Check it out. It's beautiful.
After the museum we headed to the futbol game. At this point of the day I was so exhausted running on about 2 hours of sleep. The day was crappy too. It was rainy all day and of course I forgot my umbrella. BUT i did not complain. I kept my spirits high and embraced every second. We took the train to the stadium and made it just on time. We bought seats that were in the "vomitoria section" Yes I know very high up but it was a great view with a great crowd surrounding us as well. Real Madrid won the game against Levante UD. The experience was wonderful because everyone in the US always talks about how that's the one thing that is a must if you go to Madrid and I can say I did that. I'm thankful.
We headed back to the hotel with a buttload of people cramming their way into the train station. It was ridiculous, worse than Chicago rush hour. Seriously. We finally got to the hotel and passed out. Daryl and I had to share a twin size bed. I like to sleep in the fetal position and the whole night Daryl wasn't too happy about that but on the contrary we DID get a good nights rest which was much needed.
NEXT MORNING...
We woke up bright and early and while I was getting ready Daryl went downstairs and jacked all the fruit and snacks she could for our adventurous day that we had no idea what was ahead. We ended up coming across the idea of heading the one of the largest open flea markets in Europe. We mapped out the trains we needed to take to get there and made moves. When we got there they weren't lying when they said it was one of the largest. This flea market had 3,000 different stands. It was outrageous. It was packed from beginning to start. To top it off the weather was beautiful too! We were happy campers. I bought some souvenirs for some people back home :) but that's about it. We walked around for a while until we came across a plaza and took a nap in the park. LOL. Ya i know bums. We slept on an incline.. I had my bag underneath my head and Daryl had hers wrapped around her leg, so if someone were to try to snatch our stuff they would take us with them. Funny because we were totally content with it. That didn't phase us... which i know it should be one of our first worries but we blended in for the most part.
We decided to go to a local bar for tapas. We got our favorite tapas... calamar y croquetas. AMAZING. I'm going to bring some back with me to the states. Daryl and I talked about how good life is right at this point. We exchanged words about how we were happy, healthy, safe, enjoying the time spent in Madrid, how the trip worked out without plans, and the most important one of all.. LIVING IN SPAIN. We are definitely thankful for every day that passes by here in Spain.
We finally decided to head back to Salamanca so we bought tickets for the next night bus that was heading back to Salamanca. We slept the whole way of course. When we drove into Salamanca at night the whole city was lite up and everyone was in uuuhhss and ahhhs.. Me and Daryl looked at each other and said "we live there." Honestly I missed Salamanca when I was in Madrid midday Sunday. I can say I finally feel like I can call it "home." It was taking me a while to get adjust but I think I have come to that point right about now. It feels great :) How am I ever going to leave this beautiful place? i am not sure yet...
When we got home Victoria asked us how it was and made us dinner. We had lomo and ensalada. She read our minds because we were talking about how much we wanted salad if we were to eat anything tonight. She's goooood!
Back to classes on Monday...
I do not dread class. I love classes. It gives me the opportunity to learn more and more spanish every day. I really don't get homework so that's awesome, but overall school is cool in my book. no complaints. My art teacher is extremely attractive which is really cool soo.. ya. he rides his bike to class every day, it's probably the cutest thing ever. I like to call him Senor Guapo Rancho and no I don't know his real name.
Que mas??
Everything is wonderful with my host family. Me and Daryl are getting along so well and Victoria is loving as always. And yes we still catch Oscar coming out of the bathroom with his computer playing warcraft. The days are getting nicer and nicer as far as weather goes. It has been oh so sunny! I LIKE IT! My mom called me sunshine today to so I was extra happy.
I bought more orange juice again. I love it. oh and water because the jamon water stil isn't doing my stomach and taste buds too good.
Monday night TAPAS with Ramon and Shama.
Like I said before every Monday there is tapas with a bunch of international students. It's arranged for students to mingle and talk in Spanish as well. It's ALWAYS a good time. Remember how I told you about the candle with Shama? Well he got gave me another one. Only this time is was big. When I say big I mean HUGE. So I was literally walking around with a 5lb candle in my purse. It felt like I had a toddler in my purse. Again he said it's for me and he sees it in my eyes. It sounds so much better in Spanish FYI. I don't know how to take it.. creepy? idk.. i take it as a sign of a knowledgeable man knowing what he's talking about. So it's a nice gesture. He said every tapa we go to he's going to get me a candle. I better brace myself for next monday with a pillowcase to hold the next candle... who knows how large it will be this time. The coordinators always take care of me. They treat me like one of their daughters and I love it because at times I feel so lonely and it helps a lot. They know I don't like jamon so they order me a separate tapa for "manda." It's overly nice of them but it shows they care and I appreciate it."MI FAMILIA AQUI EN SALAMANCA."
planes para la proxima semana...
Daryl has a friend in Grenada, Spain. We decided to get bus tickets to head there. It's a 8 hour bus ride, but it's totally worth it. We just booked a hostel for two nights. On Friday and Saturday we plan on touring the city and seeing different parts of the city. The third day we are going with her friend's program to Cadriz, Spain, which is in the South. We are celebrating "Carnival" there with the people of Cadriz. It's a huge celebration all day and we WILL be attending. On Sunday night we have to head back to Grenada so we will be pooped. When we get back to Grenada late at night we plan on parking out backpacks in a park or the bus station until we can catch a bus back to Salamanca. I LOVE TRAVELING WITH ALL THE SURPRISES. It makes it so much more exciting and adventurous. I also cannot wait for this trip as well. The south part of Spain... SUN!! yesss i need some hot weather soon!
Overall LIFE is wonderful here in Salamanca. I love every day as each one goes by SO fast. I have a lot more to talk about but I am getting sleepy and my contact just popped out. Like I always say this isn't luck this is a blessing
Stay healthy and live life every day like it's your last with peace and love in your heart <3
Hogar es el lugar de donde tus pies pueden alejarse, pero no tu corazón.
Home.. where your feet may leave, but not your heart. <3
Adios! I will update as soon as possible. Thanks for reading everyone.
HOLA!
I have a lot of updating to do. I haven't been very faithful to my blog lately just because I have been busy or haven't had time. So here it goes...
Let me start off with this past weekend. On Friday myself and some of the girls signed up to go on a cathedral tour of San Esteban. We arrived at the meeting place and of course no one was to be found. We got arranged with a group of 12 yr olds who didn't speak Spanish and was given a piece of candy from their professor every time they answered a correct history question. It was quite bothersome and wasn't the right place we were supposed to be at. We decided to ditch that and go on our own cathedral tour. We ended up checking out the Cathedral de San Esteban, where Christopher Columbus once studied. It's one of the most amazing places I have ever seen. The outside itself is beautiful enough. When I first entered the cathedral I was speechless. There is no words to explain how eye striking this cathedral is. I strolled through it as slow as possible. When I got to one of the rooms that had a HUGE alter, foggy mirrors, statues of all different saints, and jesus on the cross I couldn't stop myself from crying. It sounds overrated, but to be honest the fact that you are standing in a church that is from the 13th century and gives you goosebumps you can't help but feel something in your heart. I couldn't stand in there much longer so I went to the main Church. I walked in and I was introduced to a cold, HUGE, old, and beautiful home of God. I walked through each station of the cross to look at each display. It was just crazy to think about the whole thing. I kept wondering what it was like in the days that Christopher Columbus walked those floors. It's definitely one of things you have to see in order to understand the feeling. catch my drift? It even had those really old king-like chairs for the choir and it was awesome.
LATER ON...
Myself and Daryl decided to take a bus to Madrid with the T&E program and spend the night there. We went into this brilliant idea with no planning just playing by ear. We had no hotel in mind nor aware of a bus that would take us back home because the program was doing a day trip so therefore we were pretty much on our own once we touched down in Madrid. All we knew is that we DID have tickets to the Real Madrid game VS Levante UD and we were going to make it to the game no matter what. Let me rewind a little bit before this though..
So prior to Saturday morning when our bus had to leave at 8am Daryl, myself, and our other girlfriend Marylisa went out to dinner with some Spanish business men who were staying the night in Salamanca and just wanted to enjoy their night in the city. It was great. I had Salmon. The night continued with glasses of wine after glasses of wine. After that we met up some of our Spanish friends here in Salamanca that we met. They had just began their night so we decided to continue ours. Mind you it was already about 3am. I knew I had a bus waiting for me at 8am to go to Madrid, but that didn't stop me from staying out. I ended up getting home at 7:20am. Was i packed for Madrid? No. Was I worried about where we were going to sleep after the game? No. Sooo.. I threw some clothes in a bag and brushed my teeth and ran to the bus. I was a minute late. I got on the bus and just knocked out. I can't tell you how the ride was but it was quite short for me because I slept the whole way. It was great.
After two hours we arrived in Madrid. Big city, noisy, a lot of people walking every which way, and tall buildings. It kind of reminded me of Chicago. The coordinators reminded us about 500 times to watch our bags and hold on to them tight because its dangerous. We did just that. So we had about 6 hours to kill before we had to get to the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu for the Real game. Three of the others girls had the same game plan as us and already had a hotel room booked at a Best Western so we hoped that they had more rooms and followed them. We lucked out and got a room. Showered right away and got straight to business, touring. We decided on going to the Prado Museum. We took the Train every where. It was 1 euro and was very similar to the trains in Chicago actually. It wasn't too hard to navigate considering all of us are used to traveling and come from large cities.
The Prado Museum.... It was beautiful. All the paintings from Goya to Velazquez were just awesome. You weren't allowed to take any pictures so I was kind of bummed about that, but being able to see all the artwork was good enough for me. I absolutely loved it. We spent a few hours walking all around the museum to look at all the artwork. My favorite was The Garden of Earthly Delights. Check it out. It's beautiful.
After the museum we headed to the futbol game. At this point of the day I was so exhausted running on about 2 hours of sleep. The day was crappy too. It was rainy all day and of course I forgot my umbrella. BUT i did not complain. I kept my spirits high and embraced every second. We took the train to the stadium and made it just on time. We bought seats that were in the "vomitoria section" Yes I know very high up but it was a great view with a great crowd surrounding us as well. Real Madrid won the game against Levante UD. The experience was wonderful because everyone in the US always talks about how that's the one thing that is a must if you go to Madrid and I can say I did that. I'm thankful.
We headed back to the hotel with a buttload of people cramming their way into the train station. It was ridiculous, worse than Chicago rush hour. Seriously. We finally got to the hotel and passed out. Daryl and I had to share a twin size bed. I like to sleep in the fetal position and the whole night Daryl wasn't too happy about that but on the contrary we DID get a good nights rest which was much needed.
NEXT MORNING...
We woke up bright and early and while I was getting ready Daryl went downstairs and jacked all the fruit and snacks she could for our adventurous day that we had no idea what was ahead. We ended up coming across the idea of heading the one of the largest open flea markets in Europe. We mapped out the trains we needed to take to get there and made moves. When we got there they weren't lying when they said it was one of the largest. This flea market had 3,000 different stands. It was outrageous. It was packed from beginning to start. To top it off the weather was beautiful too! We were happy campers. I bought some souvenirs for some people back home :) but that's about it. We walked around for a while until we came across a plaza and took a nap in the park. LOL. Ya i know bums. We slept on an incline.. I had my bag underneath my head and Daryl had hers wrapped around her leg, so if someone were to try to snatch our stuff they would take us with them. Funny because we were totally content with it. That didn't phase us... which i know it should be one of our first worries but we blended in for the most part.
We decided to go to a local bar for tapas. We got our favorite tapas... calamar y croquetas. AMAZING. I'm going to bring some back with me to the states. Daryl and I talked about how good life is right at this point. We exchanged words about how we were happy, healthy, safe, enjoying the time spent in Madrid, how the trip worked out without plans, and the most important one of all.. LIVING IN SPAIN. We are definitely thankful for every day that passes by here in Spain.
We finally decided to head back to Salamanca so we bought tickets for the next night bus that was heading back to Salamanca. We slept the whole way of course. When we drove into Salamanca at night the whole city was lite up and everyone was in uuuhhss and ahhhs.. Me and Daryl looked at each other and said "we live there." Honestly I missed Salamanca when I was in Madrid midday Sunday. I can say I finally feel like I can call it "home." It was taking me a while to get adjust but I think I have come to that point right about now. It feels great :) How am I ever going to leave this beautiful place? i am not sure yet...
When we got home Victoria asked us how it was and made us dinner. We had lomo and ensalada. She read our minds because we were talking about how much we wanted salad if we were to eat anything tonight. She's goooood!
Back to classes on Monday...
I do not dread class. I love classes. It gives me the opportunity to learn more and more spanish every day. I really don't get homework so that's awesome, but overall school is cool in my book. no complaints. My art teacher is extremely attractive which is really cool soo.. ya. he rides his bike to class every day, it's probably the cutest thing ever. I like to call him Senor Guapo Rancho and no I don't know his real name.
Que mas??
Everything is wonderful with my host family. Me and Daryl are getting along so well and Victoria is loving as always. And yes we still catch Oscar coming out of the bathroom with his computer playing warcraft. The days are getting nicer and nicer as far as weather goes. It has been oh so sunny! I LIKE IT! My mom called me sunshine today to so I was extra happy.
I bought more orange juice again. I love it. oh and water because the jamon water stil isn't doing my stomach and taste buds too good.
Monday night TAPAS with Ramon and Shama.
Like I said before every Monday there is tapas with a bunch of international students. It's arranged for students to mingle and talk in Spanish as well. It's ALWAYS a good time. Remember how I told you about the candle with Shama? Well he got gave me another one. Only this time is was big. When I say big I mean HUGE. So I was literally walking around with a 5lb candle in my purse. It felt like I had a toddler in my purse. Again he said it's for me and he sees it in my eyes. It sounds so much better in Spanish FYI. I don't know how to take it.. creepy? idk.. i take it as a sign of a knowledgeable man knowing what he's talking about. So it's a nice gesture. He said every tapa we go to he's going to get me a candle. I better brace myself for next monday with a pillowcase to hold the next candle... who knows how large it will be this time. The coordinators always take care of me. They treat me like one of their daughters and I love it because at times I feel so lonely and it helps a lot. They know I don't like jamon so they order me a separate tapa for "manda." It's overly nice of them but it shows they care and I appreciate it."MI FAMILIA AQUI EN SALAMANCA."
planes para la proxima semana...
Daryl has a friend in Grenada, Spain. We decided to get bus tickets to head there. It's a 8 hour bus ride, but it's totally worth it. We just booked a hostel for two nights. On Friday and Saturday we plan on touring the city and seeing different parts of the city. The third day we are going with her friend's program to Cadriz, Spain, which is in the South. We are celebrating "Carnival" there with the people of Cadriz. It's a huge celebration all day and we WILL be attending. On Sunday night we have to head back to Grenada so we will be pooped. When we get back to Grenada late at night we plan on parking out backpacks in a park or the bus station until we can catch a bus back to Salamanca. I LOVE TRAVELING WITH ALL THE SURPRISES. It makes it so much more exciting and adventurous. I also cannot wait for this trip as well. The south part of Spain... SUN!! yesss i need some hot weather soon!
Overall LIFE is wonderful here in Salamanca. I love every day as each one goes by SO fast. I have a lot more to talk about but I am getting sleepy and my contact just popped out. Like I always say this isn't luck this is a blessing
Stay healthy and live life every day like it's your last with peace and love in your heart <3
Hogar es el lugar de donde tus pies pueden alejarse, pero no tu corazón.
Home.. where your feet may leave, but not your heart. <3
Adios! I will update as soon as possible. Thanks for reading everyone.
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