The Bday Party - Happy 20th Niko!

One of the amigos in our group from Minnesota had a birthday! And you know birthdays are just an excuse to go out. So of course we splurged and bought him vino, a cake, and took him out to dinner… yum!

But it was a lot different experience here in Spain than it would be in the US. If in the US, we’d go to Publix, grab a cake with the name embroidered on, then go out to say Ruby Tuesdays and have the waitors sing for him.

Here I searched everywhere for a simple cake… even the bakeries didn’t have what I was looking for. Finally the supermercado had a decent mini chocolate cake for 7 euros.

And the restaurant experience, that was definitely my favorite! It was 12 Euros for a 2 course meal, free vino, and dessert. YUMmmmm. *You have to take a look at this food! It was the first time we’d been out to Spanish restaurant since we’d arrived in Salamanca, so it was interesting comparing this food to our families’ food. I do have to say my Senora is a great cook! I ordered things I remembered her serving me which was kind of cool.



Oh, the singing experience. That was funny. Megan and I went in the back and the “camallero”, waitor and the ladies in the kitchen helped us put 20 candles on the cake and we all came out and sang “Cumpleanos Feliz!” It was so cute!!
And of course, Megan and Bruno had to end the evening with a non hands eating contest. Pictures below…





HAPPY BIRTHDAY NIKO!

The Eurotrips - Oh the Places You'll Go!

So originally, my plan was to just stay in one location and EMERGE EMERGE EMERGE! However, I’m getting quite jealous of my friends abroad who have already been to all these cool places like London, Amsterdam, Barcelona, etc. So, it’s been pretty hectic, but my friends and I have been working out some fun places. Here’s the Schedule. The Starred ones are the ones already booked. Any suggestions???

Jan 15-17: Salamanca
Jan 22-24: Salamanca
*Jan 29-31: AVILA (a day trip, 1 hour away) Salamanca Futbol Game (Sunday)
*Feb 5-7: Portugal w/ Friends
*Feb 12-14: Seville w/ Program
Feb 19-21: Free weekend… London??
*Feb 25-28: Rome w/ Program
*March 5-7: Barcelona w/ friends including Elyse from home!
*March 12-14: Segovia w/ Program
March 19-21: Free Weekend…Valencia- Las Falles (Thurs, Friday); Mayorca (Sat, Sunday)
*March 26-28: Salamanca with Parents
*April 2-4: Barcelona with Parents
*April 16-18: Caceres w/ Program
April 30-May 2: Free weekend. Potentially Belgium and France with my French American Friend!
May 7-9: Last weekend in Salamanca
May 14-May 21: Program is ended. On my own!

The Intecambios - Best Invention Ever!

Salamanca is heavily known for their influx of international students. As a way of learning each other's languages, there is an informal intercambio "exchange" program. Basically, you meet up with a local who wants to learn English and you talk with them/hang out with them for however long at a cafe and such once a week. It's really supposed to improve your language and convo skills and it's a great way to teach each other about your cultures. To find one you submit something like this online or on a bulliten board. Here was mine:

“Hola, me llamo Lauren Garcia y soy de los Estados Unidos. Tengo 21 años y ahora vivo en Salamanca. Me gustaría practicar español con un estudiante nativo. Mi correo electrónico es lmgarci@g.clemson.edu . Gracias.”

Unfortunately, unlike my friends, I only received one email back. Booo. I’m going to assume that it’s because I had a Spanish last name and they wanted a blonde haired legit American, but we can never be certain. However, this is probably a good thing. Why? Because it forced me to go out and meet the locals! I now have 2 intercambios that I found on my own:

#1 Rosa – How I met her was briefly mentioned below in the last blog. Basically, I met her through her friend and she has been a miracle! She is so sweet and the best Spanish teacher ever! She studied Economics at the University of Salamanca, and then entered the Erasmus program in which she studied in Belgium for 10 months. Now, she’s out in the real world working for a bank and teaching middle-high schoolers English. Her English is so great and she helps me with the Spanish “street talk” which is awesome! I can’t wait to be fluent with her help.. and of course enjoy some more good times with her and her fun friends! :)




#2 Miriam. – I met Miriam late late on Saturday evening/Sunday morning. I’m so glad we met because she is so intelligent and so clean cut wonderful. I aspire to be like her! She studied physics for 4 years at Salamanca, 4 years of Economics, and now is looking for a job. Wow, it’s so crazy how educated people can be and how hard it is to find jobs here in Spain. Who wouldn’t want to hire this girl? She says that knowing English is an important part of getting a good job. So I hope I can help her and ditto for me! Stay tuned for all the cool things I learn from Miriam  And will have a picture of her too soon!

The International Amigos!

One of the coolest things about being Salamanca is meeting new people from all over. Salamanca is a college town of students from various countries. But I’ve noticed that Salamanca is also a place where young people who have graduated will come here to live. My goal was to come to Spain and meet the locals in order to really LIVE like a Spaniard. The hard part is that I love my American friends so much it’s hard to part from them. So, instead we meet the locals together!
It all starts with “Donde eres” (Where are you from). And then we take it from there….

ENCOUNTER #1 The first night of our Salamanca night life exploration, I ran into 3 awesome girls from Santo Domingo and Bolivia! We exchanged numbers and I introduced them to my friends the next weekend. It’s been great Spanish practice and we love dancing with them as they know the hippest places to go! Meet Karen, Margaret, and Rosa (intercambio).




ENCOUNTER #2 Along our excursions, we also met some awesome Frenchies who are studying here until March! The funny thing is that they’d rather talk to us in English than in Spanish. One time I was talking to them and Meourn yells, “English, English”. I responded, “silly I am speaking English!” Honestly, we’re really speaking Spanglish, but hey! That’s a start right? Meet Margoux below!




ENCONTER #3 So, there’s a place called the Irish Rover that plays lots of American music, but there are surprising a lot of locals and international students. One night I was lucky enough to meet a very attractive Espanola from the Canarian Islands. Unfortunately, he’s just graduated and now back home, but I asked him if he had a friend who wanted to learn English and he set me up with Rosa Jaspe. Rosa is the bomb & we started an intercambio. Stay tuned for my blog about Intercambios!




ENCOUNTER #4 Our newest international friend we met taking our language exam last Monday. Her name is Ana, and she is a 26 year old sweet heart from France. She speaks Spanish so good and not much English which is PERFECT. We’ve taken her out to café con leche a few times and looking forward to meeting her some more! She is in the superior Spanish level classes and it’s so much fun talking with her and looking up words while we both try to figure out this middle ground language. One of the girls in our program, Justine, is French but has lived in the US for half of her life. Listening to them speak French to one another is so cool. Gosh, I just wish I could learn every language! PIC SOON TO COME!

The Day at the Doc - Spanish Medicine System

Megan and I were a little under the weather by the 2nd week. Apparently it’s normal for foreigners to get sick, but I was so determined to not be that American! Ugh, I woke up with an awful sore throat one Sunday morning and it just kept getting worse. Megan woke up with a puffy face sort of like a sinus infection. We called Maria, one of our program directors and she took us to the doctor.



OMG the doctor was hilarious. He had Megan go first, then Me. He mostly spoke in Spanish, though he knew English. Maria said he likes to practice it. He had me sit on the patient bench and looked down and up again and said in ENGLISH in a very serious tone, “I like your boots.” Hahahah my black Uggs. At least someone does here in Spain!
Then somehow we got on the topic of what we were learning in our converstation class – basically all the names of animals and what they really mean. Like Zorra is a fox and means prostitute. And Cerda is a pig and means you’re a little dirty… and an Octupus means you can’t keep your hands of girls, etc. The doctor started chiming in with his own words. OMG it was funny


Afterwards, he gave us our prescriptions and now looking back, he didn’t even give us a diagnosis (like Redfern haha). Sort of like, “here” take these magic pills! Hahaha. And it was so inexpensive. Apparently in Spain, you can also just go up to the pharmacy, tell them what’s wrong and then they prescribe medicine right there to you for cheep! My medicine was $25 total for antibiotics and ibuprofen. I woke up the next day feeling FANTASTIC! But I have to keep taking the antibiotics or else I will get immune to the medicine and it won’t work next time… ugh. But yay for the Spanish Medical System!

The Amigos de API! – XOXOXOXOX

So here’s a tribute to my amigos/amigas of API that I’ve met thus far. If they weren’t so “guay” (cool), this experience would not be the same/I would be begging my parents to take me home. They are so wonderful, love to speak Spanish all the time, love to go out, love to stay in, love to meet new people and live up this awesome experience. So, meet mis amigos:

Megan [Left] – My chica from Bahston (Boston). She loves using the words “wicked” and “bang a left/right”. She goes to school in University of Miami & studies Economics. She’s in the same program as me and so we’ve been in our first 2 weeks of classes together. IT’s been the BOMB with her & I’m so glad we have each other to make the all the plans via skype/meet up for café/shop/gossip about life! PS. If anyone knows Meghan Foley, they are like the same person… crazy I know!

Britni [Right] – Megan’s roomie from Michigan! She plays soccer for her school & is so hilarious! I love her facial expressions in all my photos and she speaks some pretty awesome Spanish. She sings at her school choir which will be performing in Scotland for the whole month of May! Tan Guay :)




Loren [Leftt] – She’s like my little sister and loves to go out just as much as I do, possibly more if that is possible. She’s from California taking a gap year and has some awesome style. We both have money saving issues because of our shopping fetish! She reminds of a younger version of myself & her mom’s of Spanish decent! She is a sweat heart and I can’t wait to bring her home to my sisters at CLAIM-SUN (her version of me saying Clemson).

Meet the BOYZ:
Bruno [Above with Loren]: Bruno is the shizzle, our witty friend from Colorado!
Niko: [Bottom]: Our blonde from Minnesota who goes to school in North Dakota. We love his Minnesota accent and H & M style.
Britton [Bottom]: Our Tex Mex friend who loves to speak in Mexican.. Munde! jejje

Kat [left]: My roomie in Madrid for 3 nights! One of the most creative girls you’ll meet. She can pull of any color of hair and can draw these really cool abstract paintings. She’s a legit art major from James Madison and her boyfriend, Will, and his friend Ian are also here for the semester. Good times!

Pics to come soon for the following chicas!!:

Maeve – Chiques hippie girl around. I love her red lip stick and fantom poses in all our pictures! She’s a really smart cookie going to school at Bard College in NY.

Dartmouth gals! - 4 of them and so sweet: Annie, Cristina, Kendal, and Maddie. Their residencia is awesome and we love to go over there before the night begins. They are from California, up north, and yonder... Cristina's mom is Colombia which is kinda sweet too!

Cailey [Right]: Awesome chica who’s a sophomore at Wellesley. She came for just 2 weeks to study and sadly back at home. She’s super fluent in Spanish as she studied in Madrid – so wish she was here to translate some more and have a good time.. but all good things come to an end lol… “Te echo de menos!”



Miranda [Left] – We found Miranda basically right off the elevator when she arrived at our hotel & since then she’s stuck with us for LIFE. Miranda is half Korean, from California, and taking a gap year as well. She’s headed to Harvard in the fall – tan guay! She’s basically the funnest dancer and also the best mom because she takes care of us to make sure we’re safe and sound!

So many more other awesome people in the program are Courtney, Ashton, Jessica, Margaret, Michelle, Jessica #2! We always have good times :)

The Oldest University – Aka My New School!

We took an awesome tour of my school the first weekend I got here. Did you know that the University of Salamanca is the oldest university in Spain? It’s basically the Oxford of England as it was founded in 1218. On campus, there are two old cathedrals, one’s called the La Iglesia Vieja and the other La Iglesia Nueva even though they are both fairly old. A cool fact about the school is that the teachers used to dress up to match the classroom, so you’d know if you were in the correct class or not. Also, the students had no books or paper and pencil to write on because it was all from memory… I could not survive!

The library in the school is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. (I think haha). There is a lot more to know about the history of this place, but if you want the full update, check out Britni and Niko’s blogs. Today there are about 12,000 students there according to my intercambio, Miriam. It is also known for its Spanish courses for non-native speakers, which attract more than two thousand foreign students each year. Here are some more pics!






Below are some sweet views from atop the Churches!




Look carefully in this last pic. Can you see a frog anywhere?? Well if you find it on your own without anyone’s help, it is said that either : 1- You will pass your exams. 2 – You will return to Salamanca. or 3 – You will get married this year! Yikes…