To the rescue!

While in Portugal, I stayed the night in a small town called San Pedro the Moar. It´s a nice quiet seaside resort, that appears to have little excitment. The night I was there, a couple got stranded on some rocks at the bottom of a bluff. They had walked there, but the tide came in and trapped them. The firefighters came to rescue them, but almost needed soemone to come and save them in return. The truck they drove got stuck on the sand alomost as soon as it reached the beach. Some men hlped push it out and down to the water. They unloaded the boat they brought, but when the got it in the water and turned on the motor, it began to smoke. With the engine problems, all the men focused on the boat, not realizing that the tide was coming in fast, almost washing away the truck. They saved the truck and sent out a jetski to check on the victims. Eventually, they gave up a rescue by sea, and propelled down the cliff and brought the couple up the side. Everyone was safe in the end, and I hope I never have an emergency in San Pedro.

Portugal

We went to Portugal for a weekend. We went to Coimbra, where the oldest university is in Portugal. Then we went to a couple of beach towns and spent the night. The next day we went to Fátima, where Mary appeared to three shepards. There is now a very large church dedicated to the three children, and a chapel on the exact spot Mary showed herself. Pilgrims from all over the world come to pray and worship Mary and the shepards who have been named saints. The day I was there, thousands of people came to here a bishop give mass.

Madrid

In Madrid we only had time to see a few things. We went to the Reina Sofia Museum, where a lot of works of art by Picasso, Dali and Miró are. I liked the Picasso´s and Miró´s, but not the Dali´s. From there we went to the Prado, may favorite place in Madrid. When I have time I´ll post some pictures of paintings I saw. The last place we saw was the Plaza Mayor, it´s big, but I like Salamanca´s better.

Salamanca

Here are some pictures of the city. The top left shows the Plaza Mayor at night. This is the main hub of the city, everyone walks through it at least once a day. The top right photo shows a street by the university. The dome in the background is part of Pontificia where I study. The last picture is of the roman bridge with the Cathedrals in the background. Salamanca has two cathedrals that are connected.

Food

So far, I have liked all the food I have tried. My favorite is called Arroz a la Cubana, or Cuban Rice. It is white rice with a fried egg, tomato sauce, and a topping called pisto. Pisto is green and red peppers, zuchinni, onions and tomatos. This is put on top of the rice and egg.
Tortilla de Patata is another really good dish. It is like a quish made out of potatos. It tastes a lot like a potato patty.
Another dish we have had was hard boiled eggs stuffed with tuna. I didn´t think I would like it, but it wasn´t bad.
At every meal we also have cucumbers and tomatos, and for dessert we always have yogurt or fruit. Our whole group is thoughly sick of fruit.

Classes

We began classes this week. The grammar class is hard, the first day we bagan talking about something called a perífrasis, I still don´t have a clear idea what it is. It has soemthing to do with combining verbs and gerunds and other things. I was very cinfused when class got out. Now we are talking about the verb to be and how adjectives change meaning. The teacher is great though. She wrote a book of poetry about latin american authors. She said if we do well in the class, she´ll give us a copy.

My other classes are easy. I have a conversation class and a culture class. They are fun and realxing. In between class we all go to the coffee shop. Today I got a Media luna (croissant) bigger than my hand. It was gooood.

EU Elections

All the students on this trip have final papers to write. One of mine is going to be for a current issues class. Next week, the ellctions for the European Union take place, so I am going to write about the elections and two political parties. I am still very confused about it all, but I am reading news articles everyday. I found out that spaniards don´t care much about these elections, I´m hoping to find out why.

Camera cord

I found the USB cord, but now the computers don´t have a USB slot I can plug it into. So pictures will wait some more.

Storks

One of my favorite things about Salamanca are the giant stork nests on the tops of church towers. They come in around Janurary and stay´untill October, then they return to Morroco.

There are a lot of other birds around too, it made me want to sing the "Feed the Birds" song from Mary Poppins, but was scared a stork would come an squish me.

Salamanca

It has been a busy first few days. I have gone on a tour of the main part of town, and have taken my placement test. Monday we will find out what level we are in.
I am staying with a laday named Rosa, along with a girl named Shawnna. She has been very nice and is taking good care of us. She is very protective, she even wakes us up in the morning. She was going to give us a curfew, but then found out that we are "old". All the girls that have stayed with her so far have been 17 or younger. I have to go now, it is 8:23, and dinner is at nine.

Arrived in Spain

I made it! We flew into Madrid on time with no problems. Salamanca is a great city. In a lot of way it reminds me of Córdoba. I can´t post pictures yet because i forgot the usb cord. One of the other girls has one that should work though, so hopefully in a few days I can post pictures.