¡Bienvenidos a Salamanca!

Wow. It's been quite the journey to get to where I am now. Even thinking back years, I've always dreamed of spending a semester in Spain, let alone being in the country in the first place. After many hours of organizing and packing a semester's worth of clothes and necessities into one checked bag, one carry on bag and my backpack, I get to the airport with my parents to find out my carry on bag is 4 pounds over the 50 lb limit. After some rearranging (mostly putting stuff in my backpack...more joyful things to carry around...), we managed to get it to 49.5 lb! Woohoo, good to go! My first flight was pretty quick but loud since it was a smaller plane with loud propellers. I read a bunch of Water for Elephants, which helped pass the time through all my travels. Unfortunately, I had a 3 1/2 hour layover in the Philly airport, but managed to pass the time by eventually. It was so clear that I was in the international terminal at the airport because of the different languages being spoken but also how people dressed and simple mannerisms. I probably did not quite fit in with the Europeans, but hey, that is why I am NOT from Europe. The flight went relatively quickly as I read my book, listened to music, pretended to fall asleep, was served dinner & breakfast, and watched Soul Surfer (in Spanish, of course!). I could tell a bunch of people on my flight to Madrid were college students, heading to Spain for the semester, but didn't find anyone in my program until after getting off the plane when we walked probably a good 15 minutes down this long narrow hallway to get to customs. I heard someone mention Gettysburg and I instinctively turned around. Sure enough, it was Joe Sharp, one of the four Gettysburg students in my program. We met up and shared experiences about our fun journeys to where we were now and went through customs, exchanged money and waited for our luggage. It felt so good to be able to use my Spanish at the customs counter. The guy knew I was studying abroad, but didn't hesitate to use Spanish with me. He knew I was exhausted but that didn't stop him from joking around with me, saying all I needed was a nice glass of wine and then I'd be ready to run off to Salamanca. As Joe and I were trying to find "El Lugar de Encuentro" as described by our program, I hear 2 people call out my name. I turn to find Katie Ragon (from Gettysburg) and Aly Madan (from Pittsford Mendon). It was so weird seeing two worlds collide but also think wait why don't they already know each other? Slowly, more people began to trickle in and by 10:00 AM (granted, this is 4:00 AM EST so I was essentially pulling an all-nighter other than maybe 45 min accumulated of sleep on the plane ride), we had met with the IES staff, received our info packets and were headed outside for our buses to take us to Salamanca! The bus ride was fairly uneventful other than observing things as we went along - it got to be kinda repetitive after awhile with brown grass/hay, lots of trees, cute small towns every once in a while. To change it up, there were a bunch of windmills up on a mountain and it was pretty neat looking!

Finally the bus arrived at Salamanca and from what I could see, the city sure does have some great places to explore. We pulled up to a building where at least 20 mid-age and elder folks were gathered...our host families! It was quite comical but also nerve-racking, waiting for our name to be called off for us to meet our families. Finally, my name was called off and I walked off the bus to be met by my host father, Isidro, who greeted me with the European kiss on both cheeks. I quickly found out that Liz, a girl from Brighton (town next to my hometown) will be living in an apartment across the hall from me here! Also, her "señora" (Esperanza) was so excited to hear I go to Gettysburg because one of her last guests goes there. She immediately gave me a hug and kisses and just welcomed me and we've gotten close already. Isidro, Esperanza, Liz and I all piled into a taxi and rode to our apartment building, which is in the middle of the city and a pretty typical apartment (pictures to come later...). Mi señora, Teresa, greeted me just the same way everyone else had already - so lovingly! She gave me a quick tour of the apartment and brought me to my room, which is simple, small but cute. After chatting for a bit (granted, all in Spanish, of course!!), she left me feeling welcomed as I unpacked my things.

In the middle of unpacking, I hear the door open and some more welcomings. Family! Teresa and Isidro's son, Isidro Jr., arrived with his wife and two young children. They live in Madrid (2 hours away) but made a special trip to meet me. Their daughter even gave me a special necklace of happiness to wear for the meal. Lunch was late (as per usual en España), but was absolutely delicious. We started off with fresh bread and a lentil-type soup. Next was calimari, fish, chicken (a little bit of everything for me). They finish off their meals with a dessert of fresh fruit. It was the first time I have ever eaten a peach with a fork and knife - not very efficient, but hey, when in Rome...? I have a feeling this semester I'll be having a lot of first experiences.

After a bit of relaxation, I met up with Liz and we walked over to Plaza Mayor to meet up with a bunch of other people, regardless of the sporadic rain showers. We explored around and I realized that I am absolutely in love with the city!

It is incredibly quaint and I can't get enough of it. We managed to buy cell phones & plans to use just within Spain/Europe. Another delicious meal made by my señora of an omelet, empeñadas, bacalao (possibly?), fresh bread and of course more fruit with utensils. It was interesting to me that they left the news on while we ate and we basically just watched it together and made comments about it. I've been told Europeans are much more aware of what's going on in the world and here is a prime example!!

The next few weeks are full of orientation good times, so I'm looking forward to exploring the city more and meeting everyone else in the program!