ok time for a bloggie about my what i get up to and my routine etc here in Salamanca. The picture I´ve posted is the view from my bedroom window the morning i woke up and discovered snow!!! i was so excited. It hasnt really snowed here since then.
well, how to start? lol. Everything works so very differenty here to in NZ - its a completely different lifestyle
My classes start at 9am so I get up a bit before 8. Breakfast is 2 pieces of toast `cooked in the frypan, there is no toaster in the house - i don´t know if that is normal or not] with jam, a cup of tea [no kettle - she heats the water in the microwave!!!] and sometimes fruit.
Its about 15, maybe 20 minutes to walk to uni from the house. one day I´m gonna get out my camera and take some photos of my route to uni - just because.
Classes are from 9-2, or 2.15 really. first up 2 hours of grammar, followed by one hour of conversation/writing [its a fun class haha] these are in the same room with the same people but 2 different teachers. I nornally sit between my friend Ofelia, who´s Korean, and Paula who´s from Brazil. Lots of Brazilian girls at the uni, oh and a couple of guys. Also a lot of Koreans! In the class theres also a Norwegian girl who i talk to a bit. Then theres a couple of American´s who always have things to say to get the class laughing, and about 4 or 5 more Koreans, oh and an older guy from Italy who is a) difficult to understand because of his accent and b)really annoying! lol. But yeah the class is awesome, and now I ramble. The teachers are fantastic, really good at what they do and funny also.
After conversation class, Paula and I have to walk abt 10 minutes down the road, back through the Plaza Mayor to the other building where I have the last two classes. Spanish culture is totally awesome!!! It´s interesting stuff, though some of it I already know...but the teacher is the coolest ever. She´s really energetic and animated and really really funny. The last class, (Spanish/latinamerican film) however, is kind of an anticlimax lol. Not quite so interesting, and by then I´m always super tired and starving hungry, which makes concentration difficult. And lately when we come into the room it reeks like a mixture of vomit, BO, and who knows what else so all the windows have to be opened, thus makuing the room freexing, but hey.
Enough about classes.
After that it´s home for lunch, which, as I´ve said, is huuuge. Almost always starts of with some sort of soup, with salad [best red capsicums ever!!!] and bread. After that Pascuala [thats my host mum] goes out to the kitchen and comes back with meat - normally some form of cerdo (pig), but sometimes chicken (like today) or something else. She never gives me fish, because on my second or third day she served fried squid rings - and i didnt like it. LOL
Ater lunch i stay around home for an hour or 2, normally do a bit of homework or whatever, and yeah. All the shops and offices etc shut down at 2, and don´t reopen until sometime between 4 and 5.30, then they stay open til 8 or 9. No one is ever at home at 6. except, it seems, all our host parents lol. It´s really weird, but we´re getting used to it.
I normally go out to meet friends at 4 or 4.30, either to do important things like booking bus tickets or whatever, or just to hang out etc. Oh and internet cafe!! Normally grab a hot chocolate at some point, since dinner isnt until 9. Theres so many things that are just never gonna be the same when i get back. Hot chocolate is one of them. They dont actually call it ``hot chocolate´´, its just chocolate. Larissa and I were wondering this arvo what they actually put in it because its soooo goood. Its thick, creamy, rich, and surprisingly hard to describe lol. Its almost like a chocolate sauce, but not really, because that sounds disgusting. But since I don´t like coffee, and the tea here is not so great, I´m pretty much limited to chocolate and orange juice. Both of which are amazing so i cant complain. In bars and cafes zumo de naranja is always squeezed when you order it - yum! good stuff.
Normally get home between 8 and 9. dinner is at 9, its a bit smaller than lunch but normally just as good! and when i´m at home theres almost always more study etc to be done.
Theres heaps of details missed out but i´ve written enough for now and I´ve gotta get home. Becuase I have a 15min presentation to start writing, and also have to get ready for our little weekend excursion. We´re going straight after class tomorrow way up north to Santiago de Compostela and maybe A Coruña, in Galicia, so should be fun :)
I´m out of here!
love everyone
xoxoxox
BEST BLOG YET!!!!
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