Salamanca, España (Day 2 and 3)

THE CATHEDRAL:
The first thing that strikes you when you enter Salamanca is the golden glow of the city because it was built almost exclusively in sandstone. Unlike southern Spanish towns in Andalucia that are vibrant with colors, the Castile region of Spain appears more as an antique.

The cathedral is composed of a new and an old part. The old part began construction in the 12th century while the "new" cathedral is significantly larger and was begun in the 16th century. Cathedrals expand any imagination one may have about castles and medieval architectures. I was fortunate enough to climb to the top of the cathedral and overlook the city and be blown away by the architecture that was achieved with such little technology of the day.

The exterior of the cathedral is ever changing. During my stay in Salamanca, the tallest tower was surrounded by scaffolding in effort to continually restore the building to its past magnificence. Weather and pollution can greatly damage such precious buildings over time. As it is traditional of cathedral restorers to include a contemporary symbol on the building, during the 1992 restoration, an astronaut was added to the building as well as a demon licking an ice cream cone. As is life, little features can go unnoticed if one doesn't fully embrace their surroundings and absorbs all that they can until their senses reach an overload. [I basically live in a constant state of overload]

Astronaut on the cathedral

The interior of the cathedral is an astounding as its accompanying exterior front, although I am afraid that pictures simply cannot do justice. As an engineer, however, I am baffled by how they are able to secure the structural integrity of the cathedral after almost 900 years. The Lisbon (note: Portugal) earthquake in 1755 took its toll on the cathedral in Salamanca leaving cracks and broken windows to their day, despite efforts to repair the building. I spent a good part of my day climbing small staircases to the top of these towers putting my trust in architects from hundreds of years ago. Yet, these great architectural achievements like the Coliseum or St. Peter's Basilica may possibly outlive some of our best buildings of this century despite all of our technical AutoCAD simulations.

THE UNIVERISTY:
The University of Salamanca was founded in 1134 and chartered in 1218. It is claimed to be of the same age as Oxford University in England and is the oldest university in Spain. As Salamanca is still a major university, it was great to see a majority of young people on the streets. As most college-towns, this city is aimed for the youth. Back in the 15th century, Colombus (Cristóbal Colón) came to the University of Salamanca to speak about his ideas of voyaging around the world to the Indies. Although this was blasphemous talk in the day, the University of Salamanca was known for being one of the most open-minded universities and they studied his ideas. Although his origin is unclear (originally believed to be from Italy, now it appears he is from Cataluna near Barcelona), it was the Spanish Queen Isabel I de Castilla who eventually granted his wish. 

Intricate facade of the university

One interesting feature of the university is the fading red markings that should not be confused with graffiti  The walls are marked with the legacies of past students, who, upon graduation, have written their initials in an ink made from bull’s blood, olive oil, and herbs. As it used to be incredibly difficult to graduate from the university (only around a 15% graduation rate), those who were fortunate enough to succeed were granted the privilege to write their name on the university as a form of advertising their achievement. This student then proceeded to pay for their own celebration afterwards where they would treat all of the faculty of the university. This tradition stopped over two hundred years ago.

 Previously I had never seen one in real life, but Salamanca, at least in mid-winter, is home to several STORK nests. Each year the same stork will come back and rebuild its giant nest in the same location. These are most commonly seen on bell towers and church steeples. I cannot believe how huge these birds truly are! And this leaves me to the question of who brings the baby storks...?

 Another oddity of Salamanca is the California Redwood Tree that is found in a courtyard. This was a gift of some sort from the United States. The tree is about 137 years ago, so still has a lot of growing ahead of itself.

Last of the oddities is the "House of the Conch-shells" (La casa de las conchas). It is just a huge building covered in sandstone conch-shells. The story is that a man married a wealthy woman who's family's symbol was this shell, so as to advertise (they didn't have internet then) his marriage he covered their home with them. Its little quirky places like that that provide such character to the city.

So maybe Mr. Cozart from sophomore year of high school instilled it in me (along with a love of the Mongols), but the Roman Empire was legit! Not only did they unite lands and cultures that had previously remained isolated, but they revolutionized government as we know it. Salamanca was including in a Roman road, known as the Vía de la Plata. Today there is a walking bridge that dates from the 1st century that was once a Roman bridge on this road.

I walked almost for an entire day straight around Salamanca and achieved great coverage of the city. I had to have walked over 30 miles. No wonder all my clothes are getting loose, I may actually be "working out" more than I did a year ago when I'd "work-out" with running five miles and then lifting weights for an hour. I need to slow down the pace. I can't afford any more food than I'm buying already! (College life)

One more note on Salamanca: the bars and clubs are CHEAP. Actually, just everything is cheaper than it is in Madrid. Whereas Madrid is a giant-metropolis of a city, Salamanca is a college town catered to college students. I enjoyed this. We found a small tapas bar to eat dinner one night where a glass of wine and two tapas was only 4 euro. And this was a satisfying Spanish dinner. For the first time I tried ham and cheese INSIDE my Spanish omelette. I recommend this. While in Spain I might as well embrace their obsession with all things ham and enjoy it. In terms of going out, in Madrid you almost always have to pay a cover just to get into a dance club, but in Salamanca they all seemed to be free. They were smaller, but still a lot of fun. Its a great opportunity to talk to some Spaniards (work on some of that Espanol) and in general, I just really like to dance. And unlike American college parties, people actually dance here. I LOVE it! And I'm starting to just all-around love Spanish club music. Side note: the night life is a little more manageable in Salamanca because unlike Madrid where the party lasts till 7am, things slow down a LITTLE more around 4am. Regardless, if you want to be out all night, Spain is the place to go.

On Sunday we checked our from the hotel and left. I just slept in and did not go around the city that morning, but we were back in Madrid around 3pm, so I decided to go Salsa Dancing in Madrid later that night.

Salamanca, España (Day 1)

Part of my API program included a three day trip to Salamanca which is about 2 hours northwest of Madrid in the region of Castile and León (Castilla y León). Most famous for its ancient university [chartered in 1218), Salamanca is still known as an important university-city where a large portion of the population is attributed to students.

WINE TASTING:

Upon arriving in Salamanca, the API group of 50 divided into two groups. I was put in the group that first went to the wine tasting! We drove out of the city into the countryside where we entered a GORGEOUS vineyard which is also a hotel and a spa. What a marvelous hotel stay it would be. You can read more about it here and here. All I can say is that this would be such a "dream-wedding" location. I suppose that means I need to marry a Spanish fellow...sorry Kevin ;)

I could have easily spent a lot of time just looking around this beautiful vineyard, just because it was so picturesque that my photos do not do it justice. But obviously as I am not 21 years old, I have not previously participated in a wine-tasting so this was very fun and also a crash-course into the art of wine. 

Upon entering the building, we walked into the room where they keep the wine. There were so many barrels of wine I cannot even give an estimate on a quantity. The temperature was much colder in this room, which is why it was very cute of them to give us each blankets during the tasting. Each of us were also give three glasses of wine (two red and one white) and then an assortment of cheese and olive oil to taste. What I found really interesting was the lights that were built into the table so that you can better see your wine and food: so fancy!

As college students can rarely afford good wine, this was probably the first time I've ever drank a higher caliber wine. I will also admit that it was all REALLY good, so perhaps I will leave Spain as a wine-snob? Probably not, I'd still rather spend money on trips.

Some of the things that I learned had to do with the color of the wine when it was held in the light. Apparently white wine will appear green in the light if it is a young wine, for example. Also the darker the red wine, the stronger the wine it is in terms of alcohol content. Furthermore, the shape of the oval the wine makes when you swirl it around can tell you about how much sugar is in the wine. So many little things. The lady running the tasting also kept asking us to sip it again and see if we can taste little things like the tobacco taste from the wine being stored in old tobacco barrels or if we could taste lactose like milk or yogurt. I suppose that my taste buds are not yet so cultured and so I could merely taste wine, haha. 

I do not believe that I had ever tried white wine before this day, and I loved it! The white wine was definitely my favorite although I did like the one red wine a lot as well. The other red wine was much too sour for me. It appears that I like very sweet wine. Such a girl.

I figured beforehand that they would provide us with little snacks, but I didn't realize that they would give us cheese and olive oil that they made at the vineyard! Their cheese was absolutely amazing. I really wanted to know what kind of cheese it was, but apparently its only made there so does not have a specific name. I was disappointed in hearing this. They have us a soft cheese that we licked off of a spoon and also a harder cheese that literally melted away in your mouth. All three wines very much complimented this second cheese. The biggest surprise of all was the olive oil. I know that everything here is cooked in olive oil and I do love all of their food, but I also hate olives on their own. For this I was surprised when I took a swig of olive oil and discovered that it tasted like I had just drank a garden. It was a fresh garden. That was all I could taste and I cannot elaborate more other than it was amazing.

It was a lot of fun to go with my new friends from API. After the tasting was over, we were allowed to chat while we finished our wine. Although it was only three glasses of wine over a few hours, I had just gotten out of the hospital with low blood platelets and so I was probably feeling my wine-tasting wine more than I should have. This is probably also attributed to the fact that I never want to spend money on something like alcohol. At the very end, they allowed us to buy their products and I was very surprised at their prices. I just always assume that wine is incredibly expensive, but the white wine that I loved was only 6 euro a bottle, so under $10. 

 

                                                        Afterwards

EXPLORING:
After the wine tasting we had the rest of the day to do as we please and sight-see whatever we would like. We grabbed some ice cream and explored for a few hours. Knowing that we had a walking tour the next morning we just wandered around saving the big stuff for the next day. Even though I had been the one sick with mono, everyone got tired after a few hours, so I wandered around by myself, which was still fun. I didn't want to waste a few hours in the hotel doing nothing when it was still a beautiful day outside in the city of Salamanca. So I decided to take full advantage of my time there. This is basically my mindset for my entire stay here. I should just take full advantage of all of these blessings that have been bestowed upon me and experience as much as I can while learning as much as I possible can.

Plaza Mayor: Salamanca

There are many Plaza Mayores throughout Spain, and although the one of Madrid is a close rival, the plaza in Salamanca overwhelming in its great magnitude and intricate features. It begs you to bask in the sun and enjoy your afternoon without a worry in the world with old friends while making new. Surrounding each arch are carved heads of Spanish kings, famous Spanish novelists, famous Spanish heroes such as "El Cid", and even Franco. Its not hard to guess which head has been covered multiple times in graffiti.

Classes

Now that I am no longer bed-ridden in the hospital, I am free to go out and explore as much as I'd like! That is, when I'm not in school. I go to La Universidad Antonio de Nebrija (Nebrija University). Fortunately, this is not even "school". I'm fairly certain that I had to put in more work and effort into my middle-school studies than here. If anything I have two to three hours of homework each week. Most of my classes do not have homework at all. Granted, I will have a mid-term and then a final exam for each class, but those only compromise 34% of my grade. 33% of my grade is attendance, where I am allowed 2 absences. Then the other 33% of my grade is class participation and homework. So basically what am I doing with my life being an engineering student?

The best part of this semester is that I do not have any classes on Fridays at all. During the early-start language month I technically had classes on Friday, but seeing as I was seriously ill I think I only went to one Friday class. This makes traveling so much easier because travel tickets are much cheaper on Thursday afternoons than Friday afternoons, not to mention you have an entire other day to enjoy your trip. Also, I do not have class until 11:40 on Monday and its only one class, so I could theoretically get into town Monday morning, go to class, and then sleep the rest of the day. I have a very travel-friendly schedule. Thank you Nebrija University!

Unfortunately I have an hour commute to school each day, so for my Tues/Thurs 8:30 classes, I have to leave my apartment at 7:30, meaning I wake up around 7am...which is just far too early for a college student. But then on Mon/Wed when I only have one class, I end up traveling more to get to and from the school than I spend time in school which is also a bummer. At least I have Ana who makes me delicious Spanish meals every night and at least I live in a residential part of Madrid like where most actual Madrillenos live. It's all part of getting the experience. Besides, I get to see all the beautiful people on the subway each day and then I have a 15 min walk to the subway and then from the subway to the school: an hour of walking each day just to go to school is a pretty solid built-in workout to my day.

I will admit that AP World History is basically carrying me through my culture classes. I still remember so much from that class even though I took it as a sophomore in high school. Now that I am in Europe, everything I come across pertains to some major empire or civilization that we studied in high school. I just absolutely adore world history, so maybe that's why I do not find history very difficult to remember: I'm just so interested. Not only are my classes easy because I already know much of the history lessons, but because I've only taken literature Spanish classes in college, I've already read a lot of the famous works. 

Spanish Theater of the 20th Century: This class is based around reading scripts from famous Spanish plays. We often act out important scenes to understand what's going on. Basically this is nothing like any engineering class I will ever take. I actually really like theater (okay maybe more like Musicals), and think it'd be really fun to be in a play. We're currently reading "La Casa De Bernarda Alba" by Federico Garcia Lorca. I already read this play back in my junior year of high school with Mr. Martinez. Granted at the time none of us had ANY idea what was going on as we could barely speak Spanish but he explained it to us in English. A lot of his analysis came back to me when I read it again making me feel really intelligent when I could analyze the suppression of women based on the references to heat in the play and among other symbols.

Spanish Business: Although I thought that that was going to be an actual business class such as a finance class of some sort, it turns out that this class is just to gain the vocabulary necessary to use Spanish in a business setting. This is very convenient if I want to be an engineer abroad. Another focus of the class is to understand how different cultures (like Spain, obviously) determine the line of what is and is not appropriate in the business setting. In Spain, for example, it is not uncommon for people to take a two hour lunch break to hang out with co-workers and then remain at work until 7 or 8 at night. In general, Spaniards are just a lot more social at work. They spend more hours at work than the other European countries, but are also known to be the least productive...well, at least they're having fun! And obviously this cannot be applied to all Spanish businesses. This is probably my favorite class because our professor is so funny. She's young and tells it like it is and always had the cutest clothing.

Art and Architecture of Spanish Cities: This is the only class that I am taking in English. I am getting credit for the "Creativity and the Aesthetic Experience" area at Virginia Tech. Some days we don't have class and instead just walk around Madrid and learn about the buildings and art work that we see.

Contemporary Spanish History: I learn more in this class than probably the others combined. Its just an hour and 20 minutes each day of straight lecturing about Spanish history. This class goes a lot more in-depth than the others so I've learned A LOT about monarchs which is something that I never truly could grasp before. We never have homework but you need to be on your game to keep up with her. She flies.

Spanish Cinema: This class is actually really interesting because we watch movies in class every day in chronological order to see how the Spanish cinema progressed. History even impacts cinema as Franco obviously censored everything during his dictatorship in Spain. We have to write a one page report on each movie we watch. I'm really excited for the recent movies at the end of the course!

All in all, I am taking 15 credits, and they will all transfer as meaningful courses that I need for my degrees. I'm incredibly lucky because its very hard to get classes to transfer, and so a lot of students study abroad and receive very little credits for their time. On the other side of it, if I was a business or communications major (like a lot of students are), I could double-dip and take easier communications classes here than in the states, although they are in Spanish. Regardless, this semester will by far be the best semester of my college career for an infinite number of reasons. 

I love being a student in SPAIN!!

Carnaval (Marti Gras)

As Spain is traditionally (and currently) a Catholic country, the time before Lent, along with other religious holidays, is celebrated to a grand extent. What we call Marti Gras in the United States on Fat Tuesday is celebrated for 5 days of "Carnival" in Spain. The Spanish seem to always be either preparing for some sort of festival or are currently celebrating one. I love it. Two weeks of Christmas until January 6th is still my favorite, however. During Carnaval, its not uncommon to see people going out in costumes at night and children in costumes all day. I love the children's costumes!

                  My little buddy at the parade           Just creeping on kids on the street, usual

 The inauguration of the Carnival Season took place on Saturday, February 9th. My friends and I attended the parade and fireworks show for the kick-off. We knew that we wanted to see the fireworks show at the finale, so we purposely stood at the end of the parade route, which worked out perfectly. It was a really fun atmosphere because a LOT of people were in costume. Being clueless Americans, we did not even know what carnival was until the day before and did not dress up.  The parade was primarily for the children but there were people of all ages. I've noticed that festivals in the city are always very family-oriented. Spain in general is a family-oriented society. They don't plan their time down to every minute because they just enjoy life, take it easy, and spend time with their kids. I like it. 

When I went to the parade for the coming of the three kings "Los reyes magos" the parade consisted of giant floats and candy. This parade instead featured a lot of dancers in crazy costumes and typical carnival-type performances. Being, well, ME, I just absolutely loved every part of it. They had a lot of Bolivian dancers in their traditional dress which was really impressive, especially because they were still dancing away at the very end of the parade. It made me want to dance. One groupd danced to a song from one of my old jazz routines called "Magdalena." There were some floats as well. 

At the finale of the parade was a fireworks show on top of an old castle (later a post office, now a general government building). What made the fireworks show so spectacular, besides its location, was the coordination of music and fireworks. The fireworks went with the classical music that they were playing over the loudspeakers. Very technical, very impressive: probably my favorite fireworks show. I felt like a small child seeing fireworks over Cinderella's castle in Disney World, except this was a real castle and I'm learning that fairy-tales can be real life, though maybe without the glass slippers and fairy-godmothers.

In general, small children would be seen in costume all five days, as well as young adults heading out to bars and clubs at night. It made everything a light, fun mood. Most clubs embraced the carnival season, which makes things fun. I went Salsa Dancing that Sunday night, and a LOT of people were in very legit costumes. They even had a costume contest. Again, as an American I didn't realize this would be happening and did not dress up. You never want to be the one in a costume when no one else is, but when a lot of people are dressed up, you wish you were part of the fun too!

The only other carnival activity that I participated in was the final closing of carnival. In Spain they celebrate it differently than any other part of the world. On Ash Wednesday is "El entierro de la sardina" (the burial of the sardine). This is one of the more ridiculous aspects of the carnival season and is a lot less popular because it is very odd and very much for the elementary school kids. But I figured, why not?

It is a funeral parody that culminates in burning the symbolic figure of the sardine in a bonfire in Madrid, although in coastal cities they will bury the fish in the sand. The people solemnly parade the fake sardine through the streets of Madrid. They are "sad" because the parties, costumes, and games must come to an end...and also because the sardine is dead, of course. The fish represents the excesses of the festival (lots of drinking for example), which is why it is burned. 

              

"Men and women dress up in black period costume clothes, with men sometimes daring to dress up as weeping widows. Women do cover their heads with the traditional black Spanish lace veil. The procession is headed by someone pretending to be a public prosecutor, and whose role consists of clearing the streets ahead of the procession to allow the passing of the carnival carriage. He is followed by a fake priest, the priest's young assistant and the people in charge of driving the funeral carriage. The wooden carriage is adorned with palms, flowers and other offerings with the sardine resting in its interior, as if it were its hearse. The widows follow, confessing their “sins” to the false priest and lamenting the death of the sardine with fake screams and weeping. Someone dressed up as the Devil tries to prevent the passage of the sardine by trying to abduct it, but a supposed group of policemen scare the devil away and maintain order among the procession attendees. When the sardine's carriage reaches its destination, the people's collective euphoria intensifies."

They asked for a picture, so I took one myself too...

No one is really sure why it is a sardine. And even to Spaniards its just a fun, ridiculous tradition. From 1812-1819, the famous Spanish painter Goya painted about this festival in one of his famous works:

"Entierro de la sardina" - Goya

If I'm ever back in Spain for Carnaval, I would LOVE to travel to Cadiz, where the festivities are supposedly insane. People celebrate on the streets of this southern coastal Spanish town from 5pm till 7am the next day, or at least that is what a friend of mine told me who went this year. I have heard however that Brazil is THE place to go for Carnival celebrations as a few Brazilians I have met say that Spain doesn't even compare. Maybe one day.

Madrid Fashion

Supposedly Europe is almost an entire year ahead of the United States in terms of fashion. I'm not sure that I entirely believe this. I think that Europeans are just more fashionable in general and so they show off the latest fashions more often, whereas in the US people are not as brave or willing to put in the effort when it comes to fashion.

For the first month that I was here was Rebajas: the month long sale following Christmas that gets progressively better each week or so. The issue with this intense sale is that everywhere in Madrid is quite skinny and so all the smaller clothes go rather quickly. It was not uncommon for me to find a really cute shirt only to find that only larges are left. No one seems to be a large in this city. Not even the men, who are incredibly lean and surprisingly fashionable. Actually, almost every clothing store I go into will have women's clothes on display in the windows, but then upstairs will sell very fashionable men's clothing. I still have no figured out how the men even know that there is men's clothing in that store other than recognizing the brand.

Especially during Rebajas it was noticeable HOW many people were out clothes shopping all-day and then till around 9pm at night throughout Madrid. Sometimes later. There are entire streets that are no longer drive-able as they have been claimed by the masses of shoppers. Just about every store participated in Rebajas, even non-Spanish stores such as H&M, which is cheaper here in general probably because they do not have to ship the clothes as far. Two of the big Spanish clothing lines are Zara and Mango. Zara supposedly only keeps the current clothes on the shelf for two weeks when the clothes are then sold cheaper at their other store, Lefties. I love Lefties. And then Mango has really expensive clothing, but their adds always have the best looking models. I took the picture below. I just want her body...okay, or maybe just her abs.

Shopping Las Rebajas in Madrid 

         Gorgeous Mango models

People really are more beautiful here: men and women. A lot of it has to do with their attention to fashion. How people dress to "go out" in the US is their daily clothes in Madrid. When people work-out, they even dress very fashionable, its just insane. But let's be honest, no one works-out here. I have yet to see an incredibly buff guy. Everyone walks so much in their normal life that there is no need to make an extra effort. The women all have incredibly long, gorgeous hair and I rarely see anyone with acne.

Of course, every store will lore you in with its wonderful window-displays. They just have adorable clothing EVERYWHERE that I look. A lot of stores will get me to enter to just look around, but dress shops I just cannot allow myself to go in. They are absolutely stunning, but incredibly expensive. Wedding dresses are even more amazing here from what I've seen in windows. Its true that heels are much more common here. In fact, there are clubs that you cannot enter unless you are wearing heels. And eye make-up is incredibly common as well. I will admit that I am surprised how few "curvy" women I find here. They are all very skinny and straight: confidence booster, haha. I guess walking around a city all day, everyday will do that to you.

The most common item I see on the street is a pea coat. EVERYONE (man or woman) is either wearing a fitted pea coat or a bunchy, black ribboned coat. And every one is wearing a scarf. I almost think the bigger your scarf means the cooler that you are. 

Black boots are very common for women, as are ankle-bootlets. Then tights, tights, tights. Its incredibly common for women to wear shorts with tights underneath. I'm not brave enough to go for this style quite yet, but some girls really rock it, even middle-aged women. I will say, its bizarre because even middle-aged people shop at the same stores as the college students. People dress trendy their whole lives, unlike in the United States where many people dress outdated at times as they age. Some girls can also rock leggings and cute tennis shoes ("sneakers"), and not look athletic but fashionable. Loose shirts and leggings are all around popular right now, and I keep seeing shirts with tigers on them in every store. Its a random trend, but it actually looks really good on certain shirts. Looks like the US may see some tigers soon. Any sort of pant is always incredibly tight, which only accents everyone's amazing legs. I love the current cargo jackets and would love to buy one for myself, but any jacket is expensive. They are not for me, but many women wear fur vests and look really good. I particularly love how all the old women here wear fur coats. People are just classy.

 

For men, unlike in the US where a suit is the staple "nice" outfit, they have many options as they are experienced in fashion themselves. For this, man in business suits actually stand out on the subway, whereas in every American city they would be all one would see. Men just know how to dress well.  I have yet to see a boy with saggy pants, and could count the number of times I've seen anyone in a standard T-shirt. Most guys wear fairly fitted jeans with stylish leather shoes. Well-kept tennis shoes are also common, but not the bulky kind you'll see in the United States. They look classier.

So of course, I have to buy some clothes for myself. I bought two incredibly cheap summer dresses that I posted in one of my first blog entries that I bought upon arriving in Madrid. I'm a sucker for clothes with a red tint, so in my next shopping "spree" I only bought one red shirt. I need to cut back. I miss las rebajas because each item I bought was 10 euro or less. I've gotten really into the trend of wearing leggings everyday. Before living here, I saw girls in the US wear leggings without pants/skirt but always felt weird doing it myself, but now all of a sudden it seems completely normal.

          Lose shirt that cinches my waist              The first strapless dress I've ever bought

         Red shirt with a really cute belt             Always something that's too expensive to buy