Welcome to our flat

Hello and welcome to our apartment! If you will allow me, I shall give you a tour and show you how we put a little flavour (not really) into our new flat. But how did you come across your humble abode?, you may ask. Why, I shall tell you.

ON THE PROWL

About a week and a half before the Christmas break, Vi, Em and I said, "Hey, wanna move in together?" and we all replied "yes". Cue the frantic emailing and apartment hunting as Em left for Canada a few days later and Vi and I went away the following week. We emailed and called and finally were able to see three different places in the last few days before winter break. The first place we went to, about 4 minutes from residence, was not so great. It was really old, kinda small, not the best upkeep and didn't have an oven, an essential part of what we were looking for.

The second place was great. It was big and spacious with a lot of natural light. It was in a great location, about 7 minutes closer to school in an area we were familiar with. There was a good sized kitchen, bathroom and two balconies. The last place was in a not so great area but the apartment itself wasn't bad. The landlady was nice, really old, liked to talk a lot and there wasn't a oven (notice a trend here? - I think it's a Spanish thing). We realized that we would have to decide that night if we wanted any of these places because Vi left for the airport the next morning.

Drum roll please.........

Piso numero 2! The sunny big apartment on the main road. At first Vi and I were gonna wait for Em to respond about our decision but we didn't have the time, with the 6 hour time difference between Canada and Spain. So we went ahead, called the guy and thus we are here.

So, let's begin with this "tour" thing. (the pictures are a mix of pre and post move in).

THE ENTRY

Behold le entrance and le long-ass hallway. I swear we have the most complicated locking system I have ever encountered. It takes me like 3 minutes to open the door every single time. And I also have a great amount of trouble with my key when I enter the lobby! I have buzzed up twice already - and the sound the doorbell/buzzer makes in the flat is as scary as really scary stuff. 

THE KITCHEN

As I said before, no oven. But don't worry, we solved that problem. Meet Toasty the toaster oven. We bought him a few days ago and he has solved all our oven needs (ignoring the fact that he stunk we first turned him on. But he's supposed to do that apparently). We've got all the essentials like sinks, a stove, a fridge, a wine bottle opener, some weird brown glasses with strange insignias, some creepy clown mugs - you know, the usual. Might I also add that out of the three of us, Vi is by far the best cook and under her tutelage, I vow that by time I return to the motherland, I shall be able to make a proper pot of rice! 

THE BATHROOM

It's just a regular old bathroom where ducks hang out.

THE BEDROOMS

my messy, messy room

There are 3 bedrooms (mine is the biggest).  The pictures above mine are from before we moved in. Since I currently have a crazy amount of free time on my hands before the Paris trip next week and second semester starting the following Monday, I wrote a little poem and then made a video about my room. The current reaction from my friends has been that it's "cute". Judge for yourself. 

THE LIVING/DINING ROOM

This is the most central part of the flat. We spend a lot of time here, since it has the most natural light, the television and the best wifi signal. And you know to chat, eat and all that since we don't have a proper dining room. Also, we have started a liquor cabinet. Because we're cool and classy like that. Below the alcohol is junk food. Because we're lazy and addicted like that. But in all honesty, it's the best room. The worst part is probably the couches, because the covers constantly side off. That's just annoying. But having a television is great. We figured out how to get some channels in English so we now get Discovery Max and the Disney channel in English thus we watch a lot of Auction Hunters and Jessie (that show with the baby sitter and incredibly sassy/hilarious little girl). Los Simpsons, Walker Texas Ranger and Love It or List It in Spanish are great too. We watch marathons of Love It or List often, because it's always on in the middle of the day.

And that is our apartment. If I know you and you live in Salamanca, stop by! (Creepy strangers not invited).

Tupac is watching you.

 Happy Groundhog Day!

Random Musings #2

- I'm just going to go ahead and call ham Spain's national dish. It isn't but it's everywhere, so it might as well be. The other day on res they served a giant piece of honey dew melon, delicately covered in....wait for it....a giant piece of thinly sliced ham. Yup.

- I learned a lot of Argentinian slang last week. I can't really repeat/remember most of it but let's just say that saying "pigeons" as if it were a Spanish word in Argentina does not mean small birds.

- Angelina Jolie has a brother. WTF???

- I've come to the conclusion that Catalan sounds like a mix of French, Portuguese and Spanish.

- A lot of European countries start teaching English (or another language) at an early age in school - like how we do with French, except they don't fail at it. I can usually talk in English with Germans or Scandinavians, which is nice :)

- All my favourite bands have decided that now is a lovely time to play in Toronto. When I'm not there of course.

- Irish accents are the greatest ♥

- I'm going to die from an M&M's overdose. Like actually, it's an addiction. 

A tapa with Whiskey and Coke

 

For Susan: Shoes bought in Madrid :)

¡BAILA!

Random Musings #1

The last few days haven't been terribly exciting so this post is just my observations so far and some thoughts (plus really random pictures) :)

• In Spain, Tuenti (pronounced like twenty) is the popular social networking site. Facebook is more for international people.

• There are a lot of roundabouts in Salamanca. Everywhere.

Can someone tell me if they've seen this in Canada??

• This "siesta" business can be frustrating. The Spanish siesta is a time of day, generally somewhere between 2 and 5 in the afternoon, when businesses, stores, government offices, etc., close up shop and head home for lunch. So for about 3 hours every day, things are closed. Places like convenience stores and some restaurants stay open, but most take a siesta for an hour or two earlier in the day, after breakfast. This whole process can be really frustrating when you have class from 12-2, so when you finish class everything is closed. Then class starts again from 4 or 5 until 8 or 9, when things close again for the night. And then everywhere is closed again on Sunday. Except for that one supermarket, 30 mins away. I guess it will take some time to get used to, and it seems the Spanish highly value their late afternoon lunch time, but to most of us international students it is just a hassle.

• Skinny jeans are the fashion. No flared jeans up in this place, it seems. Oh, and sweatpants are a no.

• Backpacks don't seem as popular here as they would on campuses in Canada. Most girls just carry small bags and either hold their books in their hand, or have bags just big enough to carry them. But then again, the use of textbooks don't seem that popular either (at least in my faculty).

• Mid-calf leather boots = all the rage. Gotta get me a pair.

• Regular lined paper is realllllly hard to find. Most of the notebooks or loose leaf papers here used grid sheets, like how what we would use for math. The only lined notebook I have been able to find so far looks like the picture on the left (and it is a bit confusing trying to figure out how to write on it).

• Facial piercings are EXTREMELY common here. Not that they are uncommon in Canada, but they are in abundance in Salamanca. The most frequently seen would be regular nose piercings, the bull nose piercings and lip piercings. Another interesting thing is that the nose jewelry for a regular piercing is a bit different. I tried to find a picture on google but all the pictures that were coming up were grossing me out. Imagine a lip piercing, in a nose. Hopefully that helps...


• English music is everywhere. I barely hear Spanish music when I'm in a store or restaurant. A friend and I were in a fifty's type diner and they had a classic 90s channel on the television that played such good songs. We were just singing along the whole meal.

• 9 McNuggets is an option. For only 3.50 euros! (which is 4.51 Canadian as of today.) And McFlurries are only 2.50 euros! (But I don't really like ice cream. I'm a gelato sort of girl - and that is in abundance)

• Cartons of orange juice on sale for 0.63 euros!! I've been drinking orange juice like a mad woman. It's brilliant. 
 

• It is hard to be a vegetarian in Spain. For example, at a Chinese restaurant the other day, I ordered a spring roll. First of all, this was not some small, dainty spring roll I'm used to. This thing was big - like 3 in one and really fried. And lo and behold when I start eating it, I discover there is ground beef inside! Ground beef in a spring roll!?!?! Meat is everywhere. Most days at meals on res, I don't even know what exactly I'm eating but I eat it. I paid for it. Might as well. 

The Spring Roll

The Roman Bridge in town

On the way to school (it's not usually so vivid - it is just the camera setting)

That's all for now!