my european adventure: a new discovery

i think my 15 minute walk to class has become my thinking time. i don't walk to class with anyone from my group because i'm the only one that has to go to that particular building. this morning as i was walking i wondered if the residents of salamanca take their scenery for granted. as an american i'm in such awe of the architecture and the character of all the buildings. i'm sure that people who live here don't realize how beautiful it is. the building here are so much more interesting to look at than in the US, but i guess the US doesn't have the long history that spain has. well atleast not in the midwest. i mean come on, this city has a new and an old cathedral. the old cathedral was completed during the 14th century and the new cathedral was completed in the 18th century. there's nothing new about that!

i've also noticed there's a lot of graffiti here, and that really bothers me. people take an absolutely beautiful building and destroy it with their careless acts. (although i must say i am a bit proud of myself when i can read what it says if it's written in spanish). a friend of mine lives of a cute little street and up the entire street the outside of the buildings are covered in graffiti. it just really makes me sad.

after class i walked around the city. i like taking new roads and finding buildings i haven't seen yet. salamanca has a lot of really small roads that connect to the main roads. today i found a shortcut to my friend's house that i didn't know about.

for lunch i had soup, fish, and salad. fish is really starting to grow on me.. when i walked in the door from my adventure i felt my nose cringe when i realized my senora was making fish for lunch. it really is pretty good, and i ate the whole thing. i had watermelon for dessert.

after siesta i met with some of the girls i'm going to travel with.. we were talking about our trip to paris and trying to figure out the details. i noticed that we had read some of the prices incorrectly and it turns out the trip may be way more expensive than i thought. we're kind of in a dilemma as to what we should do. i'd really love to go to paris, but i think i would like to stay more than just the weekend. unfortunately, my schedule just doesn't allow that. i guess i'm creating more reasons to come back! :) we're starting to look into possibly traveling somewhere in spain, but haven't made any decisions. it is so hard to plan a trip to a foreign place while in a foreign place. our directors have been absolutely wonderful with helping answer questions, and helping us look things up. they really don't want to take charge of planning our trip because they want us to experience it. not to mention every time we find prices for things we have to convert them from euros to dollars to see what it would cost in the states. it's really making my brain hurt.

our activity for the day was a bit of a let down. our program directors told us that there were spanish students our age that wanted to meet with us so that we could practice spanish and they could practice english. everyone was really excited to meet with them and practice. there were about 20 people from my program that went to meet with the students and there were only 2 spanish students there. they organized a basketball game, but i didn't play because i had flip flops on. i didn't expect to be playing sports.. everyone thought it would be more relaxed and that there would be more spanish students. oh well, i guess you live and learn.

for dinner we had something new. i'm not sure what it was, but it was very good. it had bits of ham, potatoes, cheese, and egg. we also had slices of ham, and salami. i had yogurt for dessert. there's so much ham here. i will have had my fair share by the time i leave.

i still have homework to do tonight. i should probably do that soon. it's 10pm here and it's still light outside that is a bit deceiving. i'm used to it getting dark much earlier, but i love having long days.