Busy Weekends, Busy Weeks

Hollllaaaa,

It's rainy and yucky in Santander. But I'm happy to report that I laid on the ground in the beating sun for 3 hours in the middle of Plaza Mayor in Salamana and finally got some color to my pale body.

Salamanaca was Beautiful. Full of history which, as I travel I come to appreciate more and more. The city is built like a fortress and it was nothing like I've seen yet in Spain. The school there would be AMAZING to go to. It's in really old buildings with coble stone roads in the middle of the city. We stayed in a hostle about 20 minutes walk from town. They had an outdoor public track so Maeve and I got up each morning to work out. We had reallllly good beer Friday night when we got there. Saturday we went to an incredible vineyard out in the middle of no where for a tour and wine tasting. Then, Saturday night the ERASMUS group set up a dinner for us in a little pueblo outside the city. It was in an old wine cellar - turned resturant. We had grilled ribs, bacon, chorizo, and jamon with salad, freshly made bread, wine and shots at the end. It was the most traditional and by far the most delicious meal I've had so far.

If you are a student looking to study abroad for a summer for Spanish, Salamanca is seriously the best place you could go. Spaniards cannot speak English well at all but they are the best spanish teachers I have experienced so far. Far better than in Costa Rica. When I traveled to Costa Rica I went through ISA (International Studies Abroad) which, as I was walking near the University in Salamanca, I saw the ISA pisos. They are right by the school and in such a nice location. Just a thought...

Last weekend I went to Pamplona and forgot to add pictures so I've added them here. Unfortunately I'm not the most technology advanced student and have an extremely old, slow computer so the pictures come slowly and are very minimal.....until I figure out how to add more without it taking an hour.

As for school...lol...It's actually not a laughing matter at this point. I went from buying puzzles; buying books to read; taking on an extra spanish course; you name it...because i was BORED. After Semana Santa, however, I have had 8 hours straight of classes almost every day. I bring my lunch to Manolo's class (my intensive spanish class) because he is the only one that will let me eat in his class because I literally dont' have a break. As of last week, my Statistics class has started (go figure?) and not only is she attempting to fit in a semester's worth of the material in 3 weeks but is asking us to attend 6 hours of class on tuesdays and wednesdays (8-10 and 4-8), and 2 hours on mondays. 12 hours of straight class is just not feasible for me....Thanks for letting me vent, that is all I'll say about that...POSITIVE things - I LOVE MY SPANISH CLASSES! This week is my last week of intensive spanish and I will miss it like crazy. It's really the only thing that keeps my sanity throughout the long days of class and group meetings. But, one more month of class and exams will be here before I know it. My brother is coming to visit!!! (Trav) He's coming the 8th - the 21st and we are going to travel the south of Spain and try to dip into Marrakesh if the flight tickets don't get too high....

Bedtime for me, but have a great day and night to you :)