Salamanca I: Mi casa nueva y mi horario

Enjoying a great day in Salamanca. This is a view from the city
toward Rio del Tormes, the river that passes through Salamanca.

When I thought about studying abroad, I never thought about to much about how I'd be living with a woman I'd never met before. I never thought about the fifty point turn necessary for my host-mom to get her compact out of a parking spot with mere centimeters between her car and the others parked in front and behind. I never thought about the cold sweat and extreme anxiety I'd feel waking up in someone else's home. At the same time, I never thought about how I wouldn't really be on my own. I didn't think people would go out of their way to guide me back to my apartment after making a wrong turn at night. And I certainly didn't think my host mom would sit and chat with me at each meal to make me feel at home. In my first few weeks here, I've realized that in the gap between what I expected of my study abroad and the actual occurrences here have made each day memorable.

Starting off with the nuts and bolts:

I live in an apartment near the Salamanca train station, about 25 minutes walking distance from the University of Salamanca. My host mom, Vicenta (goes by Vicen), is a grandmother and has her granddaughter Maria and her son Angel over frequently.

My schedule (horario) for a normal weekday...

8:00-Wake up. Light breakfast (most often pastry and tea).

9:00-11:00: Spanish grammar class. My professor, Merce, makes the class very casual and spends a lot of time joking with students. It's a great way to start the morning and the students—many from the U.S., Taiwan, China, and Japan with one woman from Brazil—make the class very entertaining. One thing I've noticed is that Merce knows exactly where our weaknesses are in learning Spanish and gives us some good colloquial expressions to sneak into our day-to-day conversations.

11:00-12:00: Spanish conversation. Taught by an extremely energetic professor, Charo, this class focuses on conversation and essential vocabulary. The other day, a student from China brought in a "1000 year egg," a Chinese delicacy. I actually didn't mind the taste (the process involves preserving an egg for a few weeks, sometimes months) although the texture of the egg white was more like gelatin and had an iron-like aftertaste.

Blurry picture of Salamanca city hall, built into
Plaza Mayor. Everyone meets under this tower
and you hear people say "bajo el reloj"—under
the clock.

12:00-1:00: Arab influence in Spain. Although this class is a lot more difficult for me, I really appreciate the effort of the professor, Dolores, to explain the appearance of Spanish words influenced by Arabic (e.g. Azúcar-sugar, almohada-pillow, berenjena-eggplant).

1:00-2:00: Spanish
art history. Our professor, Enrique, pours a lot of emotion into this class. This week we focused on El Greco and in past weeks we talked about prehistoric art in Spain and Roman architecture (even analyzing the process for building the Roman Bridge here in Salamanca).

2:00: Return for lunch. This is an enormous, multi-course meal incorporating chicken, fish, meat, bread, soups, and salads on a rotating basis.

3:00: Here comes the famed siesta following lunch, a time when people relax or get in a quick snooze before hitting the streets (my host mom characterizes the people in Salamanca as "gente de la calle" or "people of the street") or returning to work. During siesta, I'll go play pick-up basketball at Parque Picasso nearby, talk with my parents and brother back home, read, or sleep. Then, I might work on homework or, most often, go into town to check out some shops near Plaza Mayor or go down to the Rio del Tormes to cross the Roman Bridge (Puente Romano) or explore some of the other reasonably-priced cultural museums around town.

9:00: Return for dinner. Very similar to lunch except lighter, often served with yogurt and a small piece of candy.

10:00: Either meet up with friends for some exploring or hit the hay.