Reflections after a MONTH in Spain

I can’t believe that I have already been here for a month!  Time has flown and it has certainly been a whirlwind.  In this month I have learned hundreds of new words, phrases, and a whole new culture.  Until you are removed from what’s familiar to you, from the language you were raised on, from your home culture, from everyone whom you love most, you take it all for granted.  Not in a bad way, but living here without all of my close friends, family and wonderful girlfriend has made me appreciate them all that much more.

That being said, I miss them dearly, but the friendships I am making over here are awesome, and certainly lasting ones.  We are all learning the same thing, and it is an experience, a phenomena that is tough to put into words.  We are forming an awesome relationship with our madre, she is a trip and big joker, which is perfect for us.  Each and every day, I learn something new, something I didn’t know before – whether it’s a coloquial phrase specific to Salamanca, or learning a new basketball term when I go to the park and play.  The regulars who play basketball at Salas Bajas (the university sports complex) now know me, and we talk and play and banter just like back home.  

My taste buds have fallen in love with the Spanish food, they have some great flavor combinations and the Iberian ham here is out of this world.  The weather has been picture perfect, we had rain our second day in Salamanca, and on our trip to Cantabria, but aside from that EVERY single day has been blue skies and sunny, between 70 and 85 degrees, without much humidity.  The general adult population of Salamanca is not very friendly, store workers give you short, one-word answers and just are not very nice.  The college students of Salamanca, the spanish ones and other international students like myself, couldn’t be nicer.  Everyone is really cool and it sometimes works out that I want to practice Spanish and the spanish speakers want to practice english, so we will have a bi-lingual conversation, which is pretty neat.  A lot of times we just speak Spanish, which is what I prefer, right now I’m working on getting my Spanish accent better.  It’s tough because the phonetics are totally different, so Spanish words we would pronounce one way with our English phonics are supposed to sound a whole other way with the Spanish phonics…I’m getting there, slowly but surely.  

Big shout out to my sister BETSY who I AM SO PROUD OF for getting some awesome job offers and interviews, she has worked harder in her college studies than anyone I know, and deserves every single one ten times over.