Las pulgas están debajo de mi nariz! The fleas are right underneath my nose!

          Interesting fact, in Spain they don’t say “it was right under my nose”. I found this out by saying something along those lines when I was looking for a napkin in the kitchen. Instead they say “in front of my eyes". One of the many miscommunications/weird things I’ve accidently said while trying to say something else … there have been MANY mistakes… quite embarrassing ones at that… it is only Día 6!           

            In the 6 días that I’ve been here, we have done SO much. I arrived in Madrid and immediately met my group and we took a tour of el Prado (incredibly famous art museum in Madrid). El Prado was conveniently across the street from our hotel. Our tour guide in el Prado gave the tour in a Spaniglish mezcla (mix), heavy on the Spanish. I was incredibly excited to realize that I could follow along with the tour guide in Spanish. 

After el Prado, we went to the Palacio Real. ¡Qué bonita el Palacio Real! The Palacio is huge, hundreds of rooms and an amazing collection of everything imaginable, por ejemplo, they have 5 Stradivarious (sp?) instruments (a mix of violins, violas, and a small cello looking thing).

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            While the tours were interesting and I learned a lot, the real fun started around 11:30pm when a small number of people from our group and a couple of people from the ISA Málaga group went to a Chocolatería for chocolate and churros J Deliciosos! We saw the Madrid nightlife coming to life as we walked home around 1am.

            The next day, we traveled to Toledo, one of my favorite cities in Spain (be forewarned…I saw this about every  city in Spain). Our tour guide had a great sense of humor, and he also gave our tour almost entirely in Spanish. Some highlights from the tour of “the city of anti-cholesterol” (Toledo)

(there is a freakishly large number of hills in this city) were the “Priest Factory” (a monastery), 

el monastario de Isabel la católica,

 el zocodero, y lunchtime.

            For lunch we had “pulgas”…translation…fleas! No, we didn’t eat actual fleas J Pulgas are sandwiches that are about half the size of a normal sandwich (sandwiches here are made on a baguette, and you get the entire baguette).  We met up again with the ISA Málaga people that we went to the Chocolatería with us later that day for dinner at the hotel.  In Toledo, I found out I that I have a roommate in Salamanca!

            The following day (day 3), we were headed to Salamanca (finalmente) with a short stop in Ávila. Ávila is (again) my favorite city in España. We heard the history of Ávila, and then had a couple hours of free time to find lunch, and then we were off to Salamanca! PS, Ávila has a lot of birds… we felt like we were in the movie “The Birds”.

            LLegamos a SALAMANCA!!! We arrived in SALAMANCA!!! Our host mom met us at the bus stop and took us to her apartamento. Our room is incredibly tiny, but we’re doing alright sharing it. We have about a foot of space between our beds, there is a hanging light I keep hitting my head on, and we have to move a little table in order to open the closet door all the way, but it’s pretty comfy J I had plenty of room for all of the things I packed!

            Salamanca is an amazing city! La Plaza Mayor is the prettiest in Spain, at night when it isall  lit up… I can’t even describe how it looks! This is where watched the Spain v Portugal game the other night, and where we meet for meetings with ISA. If you are going to meet someone in Salamanca, you say you will meet at (whatever time) in La Plaza Mayor, and everyone knows that means under the clock in the Plaza. ALWAYS.

            My roommate and I have gotten lost a few times in the 3 days we’ve been in Salamanca… however, getting lost doesn’t seem to be helping us discover the city… our program director tried to give us directions to a mailbox today and told us to go past one of the university buildings…. We knew what the building looked like… and what was around it, but we were so turned around when we were lost earlier that day we had no idea how to get back to that part of the ciudad. Luckily, my roommate and I are both here for two months (instead of one like the rest of our grupo), so we have PLENTY of time to figure this city out J

            Today (day 6) at dinner, (by the way, Mari Paz, my host mom is an amazing cook!) we had las albondigas (meatballs) so, Dad, I of course told  story of  “¿Dónde están las albondigas?” Mari Paz, my roommate, and I had a very long, interesting and fun conversation about food today after dinner-I learned a lot of new vocab, and Mari Paz learned about all of our weird eating habits, and foods that we love in the EEUU (US). It is so great t o be able to have a conversation entirely in Spanish! I love talking with Mari Paz, I learn how to say phrases and a ton of new words every day (usually having to do with food, go figure!).

Also, the "dread-mullet" is HUGE here! It's like a mullet, shaved on the top, adn then dreads down the back...its a little...odd :)

¡Hasta luego!