Muchos Cosas para Hacer

Lo siento, I know I haven't updated in awhile. I've been incredibly busy with things to do, and trying to get some sleep, that I haven't been able to find the time. On top of that, the internet here is very very slow, muy lento, and it's hard to get a lot done in a short period of time. I'll try not to ramble on here as I recap the last four days.

Monday was the placement test. I got into the third level, intermediate, with another member of my group. Today another girl transferred into our class whose in our group as well. I really like our teacher. She's animated, happy, funny, young, and keeps the class light. It's mostly reviewing the different tenses right now. She hasn't given us much homework, so knock on wood that it stays that way. Some people have a lot more homework than we do. Especially those in the advanced classes. Even though we're not technically learning new grammar, you learn just by speaking and listening. In class it's taught completely in Spanish. We get a ten minute break and a half hour break for coffee or a tapa. Monday night a lot of us went out to the bars. We stopped at La Chupeteria to get our favorite shot, then to the Irish Rover. One of the girls works there and she gave us free drink cards. Not that the drinks are a lot anyway.

Tuesday we stayed in and relaxed because we knew we would be out and about for the game the next day. Class is at 10, ends at 2, then it's lunch, a nap or whatever, dinner, etc. We do a lot of walking around and checking stuff out. I have yet to buy a watch, since siesta is during the hours after class and all the stores close. Tuesday we did go out after five and we bought jersey's and face paint for the next day.

Wednesday, or yesterday, we had a walking tour of the city. If you can imagine walking for two hours in almost 100 degree weather, that's what it was like. By the end I felt like I was on the verge of heat stroke, which I used as an excuse to get some mango ice cream. The ice cream is amazing here, close to gelato. So many different flavors and they are all over the place. It's hard to resist when it looks so delicious! and cheap, a small ice cream is about 1,70 euro. The tour was beautiful. I took about 80 or so pictures of the beautiful buildings and sights. We got to see the famous churches in Salamanca, and a statue of a bull that had been there since the Roman era, probably 100 BC.

After that, we changed and went to la corta igles for the semifinals. Spain won 1-0 against Germany. Afterwards the streets were insane. So many people celebrating, honking their horns, flying flags. Some people even had little fireworks that they kept lighting in the streets. We went to the plaza mayor, which was packed, for something to eat afterwards and hung out.

We also decided that many of us are going on a trip for a weekend to an island called Ibiza. It's absolutely gorgeous there. Mostly we're planning on going to the beach and relaxing, which we're all really excited to do.

Today, we went to class, and wanted to buy a watch. It's very hard to travel without a watch. But, because of siesta, the store was closed. So we ate a quick lunch and went to the pool. It was a short bus ride away and the pool was pristine looking. They don't allow cameras or I would have taken a picture. We relaxed, took a swim and cooled off. Now I'm back here. We're planning on going out to eat tonight, get some Italian food which I'm incredibly excited about. Although the restaurant where we get our food from is fine, it gets a little boring sometimes and is definitely not a great representation of the Spanish cuisine.
Adios para ahora.

Mini Tour, Giant Mall

So today was nice and laid backish. We had a small breakfast, mostly croissants, toast, that sort of thing. They have this amazing chocolate and white chocolate spread that rivals nutella for amazingness. We had a short walking tour of where we had to go tomorrow morning to take our placement exam, and where the Colegio de Espana is. They're very old buildings, and the building that the college is in was built in the 16th century. Then we walked to the plaza mayor and they told us which ways to go for certain things. Then we went for lunch and I had my first paella (no meat for me though) and it was incredibly delicious. Very rich. Most of the food at the restaurant that we're eating at is very salty, however.
Then we went back to the hostel and a few of us went back to the mall where we had watched the game and went shopping. I bought a few simple shirts since I couldn't really find anything that fit me nicely. Usually we'd have much more shopping options in the streets surrounding the hostel, but on Sunday's most everything is closed. We did find a supermarket that was in the basement of the mall and I got some fruit and little things to eat while I'm here. The mall wasn't really like a usual mall, it was almost like a gigantic macy's with different designers having different sections all around the five or six floors of the building.
Now I'm back, after sitting out eating strawberries and reading on the balcony. We're eating around 8, and have a meeting to talk about information we need to know (buses, stamps, etc) and the plan for tomorrow, and then i'm pretty sure i'm just going to relax. Last night we went out and had a few drinks. One of the girls who was with us even won a booty dancing contest and got 30 euros!

Here and GOAL

So after we arrived in Madrid, we went to get our baggage and I was one of the lucky ones whose got rained on because they obviously weren't smart enough to put a tarp over the luggage when they transported it through the rain to the other airplane. All of my important informational papers, new notebook, journal, towel and jacket got wet. Thankfully nothing's fully damaged, and if I can't get a new notebook I can use the one I have. And one girl got her luggage lost, poor thing.
Then we take a two hour bus ride to get to the hostel. I got to claim my room (the biggest single of the bunch) and as I was talking to my fam for the first time since I got here, the power goes out, and the internet with it. Apparently this is the first time that has happened. I have a feeling we might be cursed.
but we got the power fixed. Went to dinner and I found out on the bus ride to the airport that there's another girl whose also a vegetarian. They really didn't have much for us to eat, however. Rice, pasta, peas and corn, and salad. After that I changed and we went to watch the soccer, or futbol, game with a huge crowd of people. They had this massive screen set up and a bar for drinks, soda, and food. there were hundreds of people there and it was an incredible experience not only watching the game with them, but celebrating their score and the win. After wards walking back there were tons of people in the stretes, horns honking, flags waving, people singing and shouting, it was crazy. We got to walk through the plaza mayor and it was absolutely beautiful. It really did look like the buildings were made of gold.
Well, that's it for now. I'm here, unpacked, got power and drying off!

Delayed Flight

Well, I'm delayed right now in Charles de Guarde airport, so I thought I'd take the time to write about my trip so far.
The ride here did not go very smoothly. THANK GOD FOR DRAMAMINE cause I wouldn't have made it here without throwing up without it. The turbulance going up and especially landing was really bad, and even during the flight I kept getting woken up by our plane shaking and going up and down. There was also a couple with a small child that refused to stop crying almost the entire ride. As well, there was a large group of people who are mentally challenged, and although they did behave, they constantly were using my seat as an armrest, kept getting up during the first few hours to talk to each other and bumping into me (i'm seated now as well) and they could not stop talking and yelling over to each other from different aisles. OY VEY!
but despite all that I was able to get some sleep. The airline food was good, I had yellow curry with long grain rice, tofu and peas, with a fruit platter, a fruit cup, a salad with lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes, water crackers, and a roll with butter. For breakfast as well I got a vegetarian meal of mostly fruit, which is right up my alley since I'm trying to eat only fruit for breakfast.
However, i'm starving and eating sour cream and onion pringles that I bought for six dollars at JFK. The prices were so astronomically high. When I got to JFK and went through security, we got something to eat and my small salad and water bottle cost me $11.40. yeah, i know. ridiculous.
Thank goodness I brought my earplugs, blanket and neck pillow because if it wasn't for that I wouldn't've gotten any sleep. the seats were not very comfortable and there was very little leg room. I had an aisle seat that was in the middle of the plane, so I did have a little more room since I could put my legs out a bit into the aisle, but other than that it was very cramped.
Out flight was delayed out of the gate since the runway was so backed up; we had to let four planes go ahead of us and one plane land before we could take off. So it's a good thing our connecting flight was delayed because we definitely wouldn't've made it, we walked through the airport for at least a half an hour to get to the terminal and go through security again.

I guess that's it for now, I'll update again when I get to Spain.

Leaving Tomorrow

So tomorrow I leave for Spain. My flight leaves at 7pm and I should be in Salamanca by 9am tomorrow morning US time, about 2pm Spain time. I'm incredibly excited and I hope that I remember everything, cause knowing my track record I'll forget something and I can't go back and get it this time around. Everyone wish me luck!!