27 Mayo 2010

Let me start by saying that I love love love not being in class right now. While everyone else is learning a lot, I am able to take each day as it comes, and I’ve done a ton of exploring as a consequence. In the last two days, I’ve walked I don’t know how far…basically all over the city from north to south, east to west. Granted, there are still plenty of streets and things I’ve yet to see, but I already feel pretty well oriented with Salamanca and have a good general sense of where things are. Now it’s more about hunting out the good little places to go for this and that. I’ve made it a bit of a mission to find places around town where Spaniards go, as opposed to spending so much time with foreigners.

Take yesterday as an example. Tina (my German flatmate) and I walked around town in the afternoon, stopping for ice cream and exploring some beautiful gardens by the old cathedral. While it started out as just her and I, we soon ran into a bunch of kids from my group, and then we all ran into more of our classmates, and pretty soon we had a herd of twenty or so foreigners all walking around together. It was fun, and admittedly very typical of foreign exchange students. But it’s not a real experience of Spanish culture…so Tina and I both decided we want to hunt out the places where the locals go and hang out.

Apart from being amused by the herd mentality of our group of students, I’ve spent the last few days very well. I’ve gone running and exploring, checking out big gorgeous parks and meandering down many a cobblestone street. I’ve also gone to see a movie for the last two nights in a row…not really something I ever planned on doing, but since the movies are in Spanish, I think it counts as good practice. Monday night I went with three other girls from CC (Bridget, Alex, and Jen) to see Robin Hood. Last night I went with Tina and her Brazilian friend Guliana to see Prince of Persia. Both movies were pretty good, and it was kinda nice to be able to sit and listen to two hours of Spanish without being expected to respond. And since the theater is in a shopping center a block from my apartment, it’s really easy to go.

Yesterday was my walk-around-with-a-camera-and-act-like-the-tourist-I-suppose-I-am day, and I took tons of pictures. I'll put up a few photos from the trip thus far in a separate post.

I’m formulating plans to head to Barcelona next week, and Gijón next weekend and into the next week. I want to spend a few days in both places, so it’s best to go now while I have the time to devote, instead of trying to cram a good visit into a measly weekend. I’m pretty excited about being able to go check out some other parts of Spain, albeit both in the north. I’m also working on plans to get down to Sevilla and Granada, although that won’t happen until the end of June. However, these plans are all pretty fluid at the moment...the joys of traveling on my own, that I can decide last-minute when and where I want to go.

That's it, for now. I hope summer stateside is treating everyone well. Take care, be great.
K