Day Five - Sunday

THE OLD MAN THAT PEED ON THE SIDE OF THE BIBLIOTECA

Yeah, you read that right. Let me explain. Or do you prefer to be in the dark on that one?

Too bad, here comes the story:

Chelsea and I had agreed to meet up with some of the girls to go to a local outdoor shopping center, mostly to browse and check out the possible future souvenirs. We met up at Plaza de GG with the other girls, who were mostly already there, and Jen was chatting with a much older gentleman who was trying to explain the most direct route to the sidewalk vendors. After Jen gave up, I came over and we discussed routes, then came to an agreement on direction and I thanked him for his time. Such a nice man! I shook his hand and we headed out to our destination.

On our way to the sales, Jen mentioned in passing that I might want to wash my hands... it turned out that, when Jen had arrived at the Plaza (in which there sits a small public library), the same old man had been peeing on the side of the building! I was mortified! So... much... hand sanitizer...

WE GET THAT A LOT, REALLY

Next to the sidewalk vendors was this cute little parque, with a beautiful giant planter filled with flowers. Around the planter were benches where people sat and soaked in the sun. In the nearby pond, a bunch of ducks and geese swam and chilled in the shade. Chelsea really wanted a group photo in front of the planter, so she asked an Asian woman and her twenty-something son to take one... who promptly said no.

I know, I was weirded out too.

When that didn't work, we asked three older ladies if they would please take it, and they agreed to do it. One of the women stood and took the picture, all the time saying something like, “wow, what good-looking girls you are!” and “what pretty faces you have!”

We thanked them for the photo, and they asked about our trip. I did a lot of the talking and told them that we were a university group coming to immerse ourselves in the culture, and which parts of the country we were going to visit. They were very impressed with my conversational skills and complimented me on them, which made me feel pretty special since I usually freak out when I have to speak to a native speaker for fear of looking foolish by using the wrong word or verb tense. Not bad for the ego ;)

After the sales, the group split up to go either home for lunch or out for more shopping. Chelsea were the only ones in the first group, because we had to be home by a certain time to get fed (have I mentioned that Pepita is a great cook? Because holy wow is she some kind of good). Chelsea and I were interested, because the biggest portion of nutrients that we've had has been carbs, and yet the people aren't massive – very different from Americans. The whole dietary and eating schedule situation is incredibly fascinating, I think. Clearly, we should adopt it in the States!

Chelsea had to go do some things on her own, so I decided to go exploring on my own. Before those of you that know and love me freak out, it's okay – during the day, Salamanca is pretty safe, and there are tons of cops driving around. I stayed in pretty highly-populated places and enjoyed my self-guided tour immensely!

I AM SO TOTALLY ONE OF THE PEOPLE

The time had come. I had to be inducted into the ranks of the local Salamanca student population.

I had to buy a Universidad de Salamanca sweatshirt. Kind of didn't pack my own hoodie...

And because I'm a poor university student, I had to do it at one of the local “junk” gift shops that sells them for something like 10 euros ($15).

Photos coming soon!

WHAT HEAVEN WILL PROBABLY SOUND LIKE

After my amazing (purchased) induction, I headed back over to the fachada to explore beyond it, since we hadn't gone farther than it the day before. Along the way, I was weirded out by how much French I was suddenly hearing! Everywhere I looked was another French school tour group, or a couple speaking French to one another! It was so disconcerting, I almost stopped and asked aloud, “am I in Salamanca still? How far did I walk?”

Once I passed the fachada, I turned down a side street and encountered (what I think was) the Catedral Vieja, this beautifully ornate cathedral with so much bird poop on it that it made the local trash dump look like the inside of an OCD person's kitchen sink. Seated right outside the catedral was a man playing guitar, and man was he good!

This would probably be the soundtrack to the best moment of your life:

Video coming soon!

Gorgeous, right? I sat there and listened for a very long time before heading into the Cathedral to check out the interior.

ASSASSIN'S CREED HAS RUINED EUROPE FOR ME

(Sam, this is for you)

Okay. You know you've watched too much of someone constantly playing the entire Assassin's Creed video game series when you walk into your first European cathedral, which is so ridiculously beautiful that a blind man would start crying on the spot, and your first thought is, “okay, that'd be a good grab point, and I wonder if the Borgia flag would be there, and would that column tip over and give me access to the higher levels of the room later? And where is the secret area, I wonder?”

Sam, I hate you. I love you, but I so hate you right now.

And yes, I can hear you laughing in Spain. ALL the way in Spain.

Photos of the interior of the cathedral are on my Facebook, and will be coming soon!

(Sam, stop laughing already!!)

THAT'S BETWEEN YOU AND THE RIVER

One of my favorite movies of all time is Sabrina. It's a 90's remake of a much older movie by the same title about a girl and her transforming adventures to Paris and how it changes life for her back in the States. (This will be relevant in a minute or five)

After I walked out of the Catedral Vieja, I turned and found myself on a side street, but I could hear cars and water. I knew that I was very far to the south, so I knew that Rio Tormes must be nearby; I headed down the quiet street and, sure enough, there was a major road and the rio!

I forgot to mention, on my way to the cathedral I had bought a bottled Coca-Cola. I had this, my journal, and my purse in hand as I walked to Rio Tormes, and once I had crossed the street I looked back behind me and felt the impact of the city's unassuming beauty hit me like high tide. When you're within the city itself, it's very interesting to see how the old and new architecture all kinds of fluidly runs together, as if it was planned that way. When you're on the outside looking in, you see so much of the old architecture and the ruins of previously-grand buildings, and it's heart-breaking but also exciting to see so much of every era in the structures.

Now, I turned around and found myself by one of the many bridges that crosses the river, and this is where the movie comes to mind: there is a scene, one of my favorites, where Sabrina, the protagonist, is at dinner with Linus, the potential love interest, and is describing one of her favorite parts about Paris:

Sabrina

(reminiscently)

There are twenty-three(? Doing this from memory) bridges across the River Seine. You pick one, you take your coffee and your journal, and you go there every day and write nonsense in your journal... and you listen to the river.

Linus

(with an air of dismissive disbelief)

And what does it tell you?

Sabrina

(very honestly)

That's between you and the river.

The best part of this whole thing, is that I felt exactly like that for a few moments: I was standing on that bridge, looking down into the water with my Coke open and my journal out as I wrote new slam poetry lines that had just popped into my head, and I realized suddenly how great this time was and how very much I loved being alive right then and there. I was overwhelmed by it, how much it consumed my thoughts and how it had been such a long dream in the making that I was now really living.

There's another line that Sabrina says that I remembered:

Sabrina

I promised myself dozens of times, hundreds of times... and now, I'm invited!

And that's exactly how I felt.

VIRGINIA VERSUS VENEZUELA

On my way back across the bridge, I was approached by an older woman asking me the name of a cathedral off in the distance. I was sorry to tell her that I didn't know, though I did agree that it was an incredibly beautiful structure. Rather than just walk away, however, she stopped and asked me where I was from to have such a shaky command of the language (yep, she actually said that)... I told her that I was from the US, and she immediately said in perfect English, “Ah, I see, so you're learning Spanish as a second language? What a good choice, especially for Americans who live so close to it and interact with its people on a daily basis!”

About twenty minutes later, I found out that Rubina was from Venezuela visiting her niece (who stood nearby, smiling politely and chiming in every few minutes) and her niece's husband, who lived in Madrid, and that they were spending the day in Salamanca to relax and take in some local sights. We discussed Spanish, the culture of Spain versus Venezuela versus the US, potential jobs for my future (why is it that every other conversation that I have with an adult ends up talking about jobs? This is a sign, clearly), and how for some reason my hometown is famous in Venezuela! Rubina kept saying how she knew of Manassas well, but that she couldn't remember why it was such a famous place. Kind of crazy to hear that venezolanos know of my quiet little city by name!

The conversation about the languages was my favorite, I have to say, because we talked about how the culture factors in to the dialect, the speed of speech, how much outside influence a language has (like English on Central American dialects), et cetera. I was so excited to talk to more native speakers about everything that I had been thinking about, and they seemed to agree on a lot of points. Rubina's niece told me to write a book about it! Maybe... after I publish my poetry, haha!

HORARIO

Here's what I'm pretty sure my Monday through Friday schedule will look like:

07:00/08:00AM – 09:30AM – Get up and shower, have breakfast

09:30AM – 12:00PM – Go to one of the university buildings and use Wi-Fi, do homework

12:00PM – 01:00PM – Class (Latin American Drama & Short Stories)

01:00PM – 02:15PM – Siesta, lunch, work on homework

02:30PM – 03:30PM (Tu, We, Th) – English Conversation Practice for children at Colegio

03:30PM – 04:55PM – Work on homework, possible internet time

05:00PM – 06:00PM – Class (History of Spanish Art)

06:00PM – 07:00PM – Class (Independent Study)

07:00PM – 08:00PM – Go to JMU Office and use computers/chill out until it closes

08:30PM – 09:00PM – Dinner at home with Chelsea, Pepita and (possibly) her sons

09:00PM/11:00PM – Study, do homework, update blog text, go to sleep

ONLY ON WEEKENDS:

11:30PM – Wake up and get dressed to meet friends at bar for drinks

????AM (preferably before 3:00AM) – Come home and go to sleep

(Trust me, this is apparently how the Spanish do things)

Thank you for reading my blog so far! Next week's update will be on Monday, so keep a lookout for it!