Res

I figured now would be a lovely time to post about Res and it's Spanishness. My res is called Oviedo, named after some guy no doubt. I think there are like 3 floors with rooms and a basement but honestly I haven't walked around so I don't really know. Naturally I was put in the residence farthest from the part of campus were my classes are. It is about a 15-20 minute walk now that I don't get totally lost any more.


I have a double room. I share it with a very nice girl from a small town a few hours away. Although I googled it and it' about the size of Ajax or Whitby so not really that small. The thing is she smokes. I have no issue with that, but apparently in residences here you are allowed to smoke in your rooms. They come with ash trays (although we can't find them...). If I had known I would have requested to room with a non smoker, but that thought never crossed my mind at all. But she doesn't really smoke in the room so it's okay.

The really great part about our room though, is that we have our own toilet, sink and shower! The works! Oh and also a bidet. Wiki it. The private washroom is awesome. No need to share with a whole floor, especially when our room is so close to the main entrance, it would be kind of weird.

In terms of residents, most of the people are Spanish. I'm sure this 30% the schools international students are hiding out elsewhere because I can't seem to find them. I only know of two or three other people in res who aren't Spanish. One's a girl from Hong Kong and there is a guy from Germany. But I know international students exist!

Meals are at really random times. Breakfast during the week is between 7-9. I have never been because I've never been up that early. Most of my classes are in the afternoon. Lunch is from 2:30 - 4. It is a very Spanish thing to eat late. One of my teachers was saying how afternoon doesn't start until they've eaten lunch. So if you see someone at 2 and say good afternoon and they haven't eaten yet, they will respond no it's still good morning. Dinner is 9-10:30. The food isn't super fantastic. I don't really know what I'm eating most of the time and fries have been served with every meal I've eaten there. I'm not quite sure the concept of desert is as strong as it is here. Apples, oranges, bananas and yoghourt are not desert in my mind. But my stash of oranges grows because they make a good breakfast. Also, bottled water is served with every meal. Bottled water is served everywhere. No such thing as tap water I guess. 

(p.s. There were issues with commenting before but now anyone can comment!)

(Because this song is awesome and you probs haven't heard it in a while) (p.p.s. Estelle Rocks):

The "Cheer-Off"

Last night there was a cheer-off, although I'm not sure I can quite call it that. Based on my two years of being a froshie (each year at a different school), I can say that usually a cheer-off involves another party who cheers/insults back. This time the insults came in the form of eggs, water balloons and buckets of "water" (honestly, the content of those buckets was quite questionable in my humble opinion.)

At 10, right after dinner, which was at 9 (as it is every night because the Spanish seem to believe in  unreasonably late dinners), all the "novatos", or froshies as we call them in Canada, were to go outside. We had to wear a piece of paper taped to us that said our names, where we were from and what we were studying. And then we got our cheeks marked in permanent marker with an N. The "verteranos", or veterans of the residence had V on their cheeks, or overlapping Vs or V+s to symbolize they were more veteran than the others.

We all gathered in the cold outside while they taught us cheers. We took an oath, not that I understood most of what was being said, and then proceeded to cheer and taunt the residence across the street. Bear in mind that this is now between 10:30 and 11 and we allllll have class the next day. As we were standing outside the res singing songs at them, they come out onto their balconies and start throwing eggs, water balloons and buckets of stuff. I was never directly hit, due to pure luck and extreme tactical skills on my part. Apparently I can dodge like no tomorrow.

Eventually we left the res grounds and ventured en masse towards the city centre. We are approaching midnight at this point. There are a few hundred of us, in a very disorganized group, crowding the street (like the actual road, where people are trying to drive) singing and chanting what, we're not quite sure - or at least I am not. All the while the veteranos are armed with permanent marker and maintain the right to draw as they please where ever on your person or force you to do ridiculous things. You know, the usual. But I can tell you that getting "Chinflu" (someone's name apparently) written across your head in permanent red marker ain't the greatest. Neither is having some random creepy 18 year old lick whipped cream off your neck or having to propose in a mix of English and Spanish to some one, ain't that fun either. But watching other people do it is quite enjoyable, I admit.

After a while we ended up at a club. Honestly I didn't see it coming. If I had I would have dressed better, like not in some old hoodie, flared jeans (NO ONE in Spain wears flared pants. No exaggeration), and the oldest flats I own. I might have put on some make up too. When I left after dinner I thought we were just going outside and would be back in about an hour. Silly me. But it was fun. Alcohol is crazy cheap. And between the euros my roommate and myself could muster up we were able to get a few drinks each. And then we danced, she smoked, we danced some more. At about 2 something in the mañana we took the 20 min walk back to res. And that was last night.

This Town Called Salamanca

It is now day 5 in Salamanca and it has been an interesting/not terribly exciting few days.  My mom and I have basically traveled all over the city -  walking, taking the bus and going by taxi. Salamanca is small enough that you can walk almost anywhere in 30-40 mins. But it doesn’t feel like a small town.  There is the historic centre, where the old part of the university is and where the main tourist attractions are. And then there is the rest of the city, which has sort of grown out from the centre.  The centre is probably almost a thousand years old and can be a bit hard to navigate because the streets aren’t labelled the greatest and can be very narrow. 

But it really is beautiful.

The Cathedral by my mom's hotel.

The last few days has basically been about setting me up and getting everything ready. On Thursday I moved into my room on res. And today, at this very moment as I write my post, my roommate is moving in, the day before classes start. For the last few days I thought I wouldn’t have one so naturally this came as a shock. But she seems nice and she’s Spanish. Ohhh how I wish the room was cleaner…

not the greatest pic of the outside of res

 

I also looked up classes and got some of the academic stuff sorted. The University works very differently from UofT. In Toronto, courses would have already been picked in July, all done online. The process for international students is different from the process for regular Spanish students, so I don’t officially enroll until October  1^st. This first week I attend classes as if I were in them, to see if I like them or not. By Friday I have to fill out a sheet with the courses I want, get it signed by the department coordinator and then submit it to my faculty – La Facultad de filologia (philology – the study of written texts – I def had to google that). Then I’m good to go and permanently locked into my classes. 

My faculty. Ain't it splendid!

Faculty of philology

Yeaaa that’s it for now. Not very exciting I know. Tomorrow’s filled with even more non-excitement/nervous anxiety as classes start and I’m going to attempt (once more!) to get a phone plan. The last time I forgot my passport, which they need to open an account. Hopefully I can find a very bilingual person to drag with me so I don’t get duped or something : P

A Long Day

As my friend Cayda said, "Welcome to Europe, where nothing makes sense." How true. I've only been here a few hours really and already it's so different. But different is refreshing :)

Salamanca is right above the 'M' in Madrid

This won't be a long post since sour lemon flavoured, Spanish pop is the only thing keep me awake right. The trip here to Salamanca was a long one. We (me and my marvelous mama who decided last minute to see me off all the way to Spain), flew to Frankfurt first and then had a connecting flight to Madrid. It was a ate afternoon flight leaving Toronto so by time we got to Madrid it was already early afternoon again. After spending almost an hour running around Madrid's unnecessarily annoying airport we eventually found our way to Salamanca, two and a half hours away. We ended up having to take a cab from the airport to the train station in the centre of the city to get to Salamanca. There is a bus that runs express from the airport, but for some reason having it run anytime between 7 am and 7 pm is unreasonable -_____-

When we got to Salamanca we had two options; option A: go to the hotel, put all our bags down, settle in a bit and then head to the university to get my lodging sorted out; or option B: go straight to the university. We opted for A. After the cheapest cab ride of my life, we came to a very lovely little hotel, apparently within walking distance of the uni but we never got that far with our day - intense hunger had led us outside to seek out edible deliciousness. But that was then interrupted once we saw the giant cathedral two minutes into our walk. Spanish architecture is something I really want to experience and it seems Salamanca if rife with it. After that we did what all bad tourists do - buy a pizza and eat it at the hotel. We were so tired we just didn't care.

And now I must go to sleep because I'm sure tomorrow will be filled with confusion as I attempt to move in, learn the campus and pick courses (yea that's right, I haven't done that yet :S). Oh and of course my residence has to be the farthest one from the centre of campus and is located in the science part of campus - WHERE NONE OF MY COURSES WILL BE!! uggghhhhhhhhh

Anywho, I leave you with random photos so far :D (click them to enlarge)

Sunrise in Frankfurt

What the Spanish country side looks like between Madrid and Salamanca. It's awfully dry and brown.

The beautiful cathedral of which I speak

Please take a moment to appreciate the awesomeness that is the sign

I think we need more vaulted ceiling in Canada. Just saying...

The Church part of the Cathedral. It's so freaking ornate

a prayer

time to confess

If someone could explain to me why they are eating pizza with chopsticks, that would be much appreciated

please excuse some formatting issues...still working on those! :)