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