No more Mr. Nice Guy

My parents would be proud to know that one of my professors used me for an example in class today because I always say thank-you (well, "gracias" actually) when she passes out papers. Except it wasn't a good thing... Apparently Spaniards typically don't use thank-you for little things or things that are part of your job (like teachers passing out papers). However, if someone does thank you, it is rude to ignore them. So the moral of the story was to not thank her so she doesn't have to say "de nada" 20 times in a row.

Besides that, what's considered polite is pretty similar to the US. Like in the US, you don't always use please & thank-you with family and friends, especially for small stuff. You're close enough with them that you don't have to express gratitude for every little thing they do. Strangers are a different story, though. Be polite! Don't come to Spain never thanking anyone and blame it on me (please)!

...Thanks for reading this! Oh, wait...

sudadera nueva

Today I bought a Universidad de Salamanca sweatshirt. And yep, I am blogging about buying a sweatshirt... feel free to judge me. Anyways, almost every one of the hundreds of tourist shops in Salamanca sells these USal sweatshirts in every color imaginable. I needed something warm to wear for my morning jogs, so I decided to give in and buy one, even though I might as well buy a shirt that reads, "Hey, I'm a tourist!" Oh well... I like it and it's warm.

The reason I'm blogging about this incredibly captivating story is because I managed to go to a shop, speak Spanish, and leave without making a complete fool of myself for the first time... (kind of)! Even though I learned most of the necessary phrases and vocabulary in my freshman year of high school Spanish class, I always seem to forget everything I've learned as soon as I step into a tienda. 

At the first shop I stopped at, I managed to politely greet the lady working there, ask about sweatshirts, prices, colors, and sizes without any problems. Unfortunately she didn't have my size in the color I was looking for, so I moved on to a second shop. Everything went smoothly at the second shop until I went to pay for the sweatshirt. She told me it was 13 Euros ("trece") and I thought she said 30 Euros ("treinte"). I was expecting it to be around 15 Euros like most of the other tourist shops in the area, and thought she was trying to charge me double the normal price! I froze, confused why such a seemingly-nice lady would try to rip me off, and asked her "¿Cuánto?". She gave me the sympathetic awwe-you-don't-understand-Spanish-very-well look that I'm all too familiar with and wrote down the price to show me. I was soooo close to making a purchase without embarrassing myself. Oh well, at least I got my sweatshirt (and it didn't cost 30 Euros)!

Random fun fact: Most ATM's in Ames charge me more to withdraw money than the ATM's here in Salamanca. Hmmmm...

¡Llegué a Salamanca*!

*la semana pasada.

Our ISA group left Ávila last Monday and arrived in Salamanca after a short bus ride. After reading Megan's well-researched post about Oviedo, the city where she is studying abroad this semester (found here: http://meganannkingery.blogspot.com.es/ ), I felt like I should give some background information about Salamanca. It seemed like such a shame to duplicate information that's already out there, though... so if you're interested in a well thought out and detailed description of the city, you can find that aqui: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salamanca.

Here's my own Cliffnotes version: Salamanca is a "college town" of 150,000 located in the northwest part of Spain. The University of Salamanca was founded in 1218 and is the oldest university in Spain and 3rd oldest in all of Europe (pretty cool, eh?). Roughly 30,000 students attend the university, including around 2,000 international students. The University of Salamanca and the city have a good reputation for being a good place to learn Spanish, so Salamanca attracts students from various countries all around the world. Tourism and the universities are the biggest income-generators for the city. It is in the top 20 for most bars and most churches per capita in Spain (I guess that balances out, right?).

Plaza Mayor en Salamanca

When we arrived in Salamanca, our host mom was there to greet Jack and I and take us back to her apartment. Jack is my roommate for the semester. We are staying in a cozy apartment just north of the downtown area in Salamanca. We are staying with a retired couple, Patro y José. They both seem really nice and have been patient with Jack & I as we practice our Spanish. Neither of them speak any English, which is excelente because it forces me to practice my Spanish! After a week, I feel like my Spanish has improved already (or maybe just my confidence has). I can't talk politics with them yet, but we can at least hold a conversation... and I have a feeling that they would love to talk politics with me as soon as I can!

We jumped right into things once we got to Salamanca. The morning after we arrived I took a placement test to make sure I'll be able to handle courses with locals. They haven't sent me back to the States yet, so I must have done OK. Wednesday (the day after the placement test) I started classes! For the first 3 weeks I'm taking 3 "intensive" classes with other International students: Spanish Language, Conversation & Grammar, and Spanish Culture. Spain's second semester starts in February, so that's when I start taking courses with locals.

San Isidro, where I have 2 of my classes

The original University of Salamanca building
(now just a museum)

I don't know why I put intensive in quotes, because so far my classes have been fairly intense! I only have 4 hours of class a day, but I also get a few hours of homework every night. My grammar and conversation classes are basically a review of everything I've ever learned in Spanish class. I'm glad I get a chance to practice before the classes with locals start, because some of my verb conjugations were a little rusty. The culture class is interesting as well. I didn't expect Spain to be so different than the US, but is definitely a completely unique culture!

The joke about not selling Colgate toothpaste here isn't true!

After finally having enough confidence that I could find my way back to our apartment (which looks exactly like the other 1000 apartments in a symmetrical circle around the center of the city), I went on a run for the first time this morning. It was crazy how deserted the city seemed at 7 in the morning. I barely saw any cars or people anywhere! Normally it's the complete opposite, with the streets and downtown packed with people of all ages walking around. Most places don't open until at least 9 and typically people seem to sleep in more here. I could get used to that!

Ávila

I'm falling behind on my blogging already! Yesterday we arrived in Salamanca, but on the way there we stopped in Ávila. Ávila is a historic city much like Toledo, famous for the walls that surround the city. We were only in Ávila for a few hours, so we didn't have a lot of time to explore. After taking a tour of the city, I ventured off with another ISA student to have lunch at an out of the way cafetería (basically a café or small restaurant). I think I'm starting to get the hang of ordering food here without making a complete fool of myself! After lunch, we each paid 3.50 Euros to climb the wall and walk along it. Probably the best 3.50 I've spent in Spain- the view was amazing!

view looking back at the city from the wall

view from the wall

Rodrigo, part of the ISA Salamanca Staff

Madrid, Toledo y Ávila all had giant metal Christmas trees (see photo below) around the city. Apparently the trees themselves are relatively new decorations. The reason that the decorations were still up is because they celebrate Christmas until Jan. 6, El día de reyes (3 Kings Day, or I believe we call it the Epiphany in the US). It's a national holiday in Spain, so they get off work to celebrate. Students typically don't have school from the middle of December until after this holiday. It also marks the beginning of after-Christmas sales, so people go out in droves to find good deals. It seems similar to Black Friday in the US. I'm sure Mom would be going crazy with all of the rebajas (sales/ discounts) advertised in almost every store.

la plaza mayor en Ávila

Most cities in Spain (and every city that I've been in so far) has a Plaza Mayor, or main square. There are usually lots of people standing around and hanging out at the shops and restaurants that surround the plaza. Usually the local government building is located somewhere on the plaza. The history behind the plaza mayor is that long before television, phones, and radio were invented, important news was shouted from the balcony of the local government building (pictured in the photo above, beneath the clock where the flags are hanging). Residents of the town would often hang out in the plaza mayor in order to stay informed. Today the plaza mayor is still a popular spot meet with friends, go shopping, eat, etc.

This post turned out much more educational than I anticipated. Sorry to boar you if you're reading along, but I have to cut out my adventures running away from the Spanish police so my Mom doesn't find out abou-- whoops! Oh well, adios!

Toledo

From Madrid, we traveled to Toledo (The city in Spain, not Ohio... although Toledo, OH is one of Toledo's sister cities.). Toledo is divided into two parts- the old city and the new city. The new city is like any other city in Spain, but the old city is protected by an enormous wall on one side and a river on the other three sides. According to our guide, Toledo was so well-protected that it was never taken by force.

The Tagus River with Toledo on the left

Tourism is the main industry in Toledo now, but they used to be known for their metal-working and making swords. You can still find swords in almost every shop, along with pocket and kitchen knives (for the more practical shoppers).

tienda típica en Toledo

Madrid

Hola! I arrived in Madrid yesterday (Jan 4) around noon. All of my flights were (thankfully) uneventful, although the pilot did start my flight to Paris by announcing "I apologize for the delay, we were just having some mechanical issues with the plane." Not exactly what I wanted to hear before traveling over an ocean in said plane, but everything turned out fine.

 I left Des Moines on the 3rd at 1:30pm and flew to Detroit, then from Detroit to Paris, and Paris to Madrid. My layover in Paris was only an hour and a half, so I assumed that I would not have to go through Customs until I arrived in Madrid. Unfortunately, I was wrong and ended up not only having to go through Customs, but also go to a different terminal and go through security again. When I finally made it to my gate, I discovered the flight was delayed 20 minutes, so I had plenty of time.

In Madrid, I met up with the ISA representatives and other Salamanca students and we headed back to the hotel for a safety meeting and then took a bus tour of Madrid. It was nice seeing the sights but hard to stay awake since it was now 11am Iowa time and I had only slept a few hours on the plane.

After the tour, a group of us headed out to get supper (and test our Spanish for the first time). We ate at "El Brillante," a well-known restaurant in Madrid recommended to us by Rodrigo, one of our ISA reps. I had a delicious "bocadillo de camarones" (shrimp sandwich). I should mention the weather here- it's been really nice compared to the 15º F temperatures that I left in Iowa. During the day it's been in the 50's, which I think is a little warmer than usual for this time of year.

Today (Jan 5) we did a lot of sight-seeing in Madrid. As a big group, we toured El Museo del Prado and El Museo de Arte Reina Sofía. It was interesting learning about famous Spanish painters such as Goya and Valásquez. After the tours, I spent the rest of the afternoon exploring Madrid with Andy, another ISA student. El Parque del Retiro, the largest park in Madrid, is right next to our hotel. It didn't seem that different than a park you'd find in the US, with lots of joggers, dog-lovers, rollerbladers, and kids running around. Then we walked to the Plaza Mayor, a giant plaza surrounded by shops and restaurants. The plaza itself had a merry-go-round, people dressed up in costumes (Spongebob, Patrick, & Spiderman were all there), a guy on stilts, and tons of people hanging around. We ended up getting lost on the way back to the hotel and going completely the wrong direction, so we decided to keep going to the Palacio Real, since we were already so close. The Palacio Real is where the royal family used to live. Now it is only used for official business and the king lives in a "more modest palace" in Madrid.

Tomorrow morning we leave for Toledo.

View from right outside the Palacio Real

Palacio Real

Plaza Mayor