Salamanca

Well! Sorry for the delay in updates! Getting settled here in Granada has kept me quite busy! Also..it's actually pretty hard to put pictures in my blogs..every time I put in a picture it takes a really long time beause sometimes it won't upload or the picture will be in the wrong place..etc..

As you could see from the video posted below, it was somewhat magical to be back in Salamanca again. Every time I walk through the Plaza Mayor in the center of the city I just have to stop and take in its beauty. It's strange, having walked through that same plaza every morning to go to class, that it would still be something new, something just as awe-inspiring as it was the first day I walked through it.

But other than the opportunity to walk through my plaza once again, I had a wonderful week in Salamanca visiting with one of my best friends, Jackie, my host family, and other friends in Salamanca.

It was surreal walking out of the train station when I arrived. Being back in the city again, seeing everything just as it was when I left was a strange mix of newness and familiarity. I've been trying to find the right words to describe this feeling. It's as if I'm back to a world so familiar, but that feeling of familiarity and comfort in Spain is a new feeling for me. Ha, tell me if I'm making any sense...I wasn't really in that honeymoon stage anymore where the newness of everything leaves me in this exciting, uncomfortable state of not knowing what to expect. Now, I do know what to expect: I remember the culture, I remember the effort it took just to understand what people were saying to me, I remember constantly being self-aware, not always knowing the right thing to say or do - all uncomfortable, yet exciting new adventures for me. But returning to this, I had reached a different level of comfort. I was coming back to people and places that I knew, to a world that I've been to before - and that was a new, different feeling; with its own kind of honeymoon and adventure.

So the very first night I arrived (at around 12:30am..) Jackie turns to me with this big smile on her face and asks me if I want to go to our favorite salsa club, El Savor. Surprisingly I had energy (I have no idea why after almost 24 hours of traveling), and said yes! So we had a nice night of dancing, came back at about 4am, went to bed around 5am, and I didn't wake up until 2:30pm the next day! I went out to coffee with another Salamanca friend that afternoon and then went to my host family's house. It was so good to see my host family again - my host mom, Maruchi, was so excited to see me and we chatted it up for a good portion of the night. She was so generous, giving me a key to her apartment and reminding me that her house was my house. Her house had changed so much, though! But not just her house..her tiny little dog changed quite a bit! Observe:

BEFORE AFTER

Don't know if you can see it that well, but it grew quite a bit! So I visited with Maruchi for a good portion of the week (ate her paella - the BEST paella in the world) and Jackie and I went out dancing at El Savor just about every night that week. It was good to be back. Nothing had really changed that much, the people that I know from there just as nice and welcoming as before. Jackie held 2 dinner parties at her house with delicious plates of tortilla espanola (which she covered in mayo and ketchup..actually quite good - with the word "amigos"/"friends" as you can see)

She also made a delicious lasagna another night, we went out to karaoke another night (where it looked like some guy was plugging his ears as we sang "Cielito Lindo." This made us laugh very hard as we were singing and made it difficult to finish the song. We later discovered he was just talking on the phone..hahaha), I spent the last couple days at Maruchi's house and went out to a very nice lunch for her birthday that Sunday. Overall, I had a good time in Salamanca and miss my homies there, but am also excited about being in a different part of Spain for this upcoming year.

Thanks for reading and sorry again it took so long to post!!