Madrid a Salamanca

BEUNOS DIAS!! So i'm in Spain. I don't think it has quite hit me yet that I will be here for the next five months. Of course there are constant clues that I am in fact in Spain, such as Spanish everywhere. Like when I type in google.com it automatically goes to google.es. Or when I'm typing on a computer here, the enter bar is longer, and you have to press alt+the number 2 instead of shift + the number 2 to get the @ sign.

I arrived in Madrid on the 24th. I had a connection in London at 8:15 am, and the plane from Dulles arrived at Heathrow airport at 7:40 = run your butt off to make it there in time. I literally sprinted from one terminal to the other, taking a 15 minute bus ride in between to get to the other terminal. I made it, but my luggage didn't. No worries though, my luggage was sent to the hotel the next day.

My group did the touristy stuff in Madrid and Toledo. We had a tour guide who had heard of the American saying Holy Toledo, except he pronounced it holly toledo which cracked me up.

Sunday night we got to Salamanca, my home sweet home. My senora is awesome. She has a six year old daughter and 18 year old son. She cooks great and insists on fattening me up. The apartment is about a 20-25 minute walk from classes which is quite nice so far. It rarely rains here (i've only been here 3 days, but that's what I hear). Salamanca is not what I intially pictured. You know when you're going somewhere and you get a picture of what the place looks like in your head? Salamanca is like a mini, entirely walkable New York City, with a population of 180,000. There's block after block of tall buildings, and every store you can imagine. The University campus is the second oldest in Europe. The buildings are beautiful.

The major adjustment here is the Spanish. Spanish, spanish, spanish all the time!!! My senora doesn't speak any English and my classes are all in Spanish. I'm kinda hoping that if I just sit and absorb everything the language will just click and i'll be speaking fluently, haha. I don't always understand what my senora is saying...i'm usually pretty good until a question is aimed at me and then my brain freezes and refuses to produce Spanish. All in time, all in time.

Until next time, hasta luego. I miss everyone from home, both NOVA and the burg!!!!