Birthday Fiesta and Life-as-Usual

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How does one celebrate a birthday in Spain?



1. It begins with lots of “felicidades!” - good wishes.

2. A breakfast of churros with a cup of melted chocolate - delicioso!

3. Receiving a beautiful bouquet of flowers and lots of letters, gifts and calls from home.

4. A surprise cake, birthday sombrero and gift from my new friends in Spain!

Not a bad way to spend a birthday!

“Muchas gracias” to everyone for making my 20th a special birthday.




The next day it was back to ordinary life in Salamanca:

1. Gazing out on Salamanca’s cathedrals and plazas while attending classes at one of the oldest universities in Europe.

2. Going to museums and cultural tours of the city and its historical buildings.

3. Kayaking the Rio Tormes

4. Hanging out with friends in the Plaza Mayor, cafes, or shops.

5. Dance class to learn the salsa, bachata, cha-cha-cha, and meringue.

6. Going out for tapas, movies, or live music.

7. Doing a little studying or taking a siesta after a hearty Spanish lunch.

8. Eating ice-cream in the Plaza - I think they may have more flavors than Ben & Jerry's. Everything from Fruits of the Forrest, Irish coffee, orange chocolate (my fave) and even peanut flavored (I haven't tried it yet!)

9. Planning my next weekend vacation



As you see, life here is pretty tough - but I think I’m adjusting well!

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Photos

Chocolate & Churros
A wonderful breakfast! You should have seen the look the waiter gave me when I ordered eight churros! Apparently Spaniards only eat a few (like 2!), but I can't waste all that chocolate on just 2 churros!

Studying after a hearty meal
See, I don't go out everynight!

Lauren's side of the room and our window
Nothing too spectacular to see outside, but nice to let in some fresh air.
Notice all of the birthday cards displayed with the flowers!

Not my favoriate tapas...
But I've gotten pretty good at peeling shells and taking off shrimp heads - I still prefer them they way they come from Publix.

API Early Start Group
On top of the Cathedral. Now the new group has arrived too so there are close to 40 of us total.

From the River
View of the rio, cathedrals, art museum and city center.

Casa Lis Art Nouveau/Art Deco Museum
Which I toured with my art-history class. I was enrolled in the class by mistake, but it turned out to be the most interesting class all month!

Kayaking the Rio Tormes.
Andrea and I rented a two-person kayak, but the other chose a rowboat and its harder than it looks!

Me on the Rio
The weather was perfect that day and the river wasn't very cold yet. Thank goodness too, since our kayak had a hole in it and I was completely soaked by the end of the trip.

Kayaks
Place where we rented boats.

Disco?
I don't remember what dance this was, but I think I must have been confused!

Learning to Salsa
I'll need to buy some salsa music so I don't forget the steps!

Carlos (the teacher) & the class
The teacher was from the Caribbean so I guess he knew his dances pretty well. He taught the class completely in Spanish which wasn't that hard since you don't really need words to learn to dance.

Laura and I
She's probably over a foot taller than I am; it was interesting when we were doing spins!

Dance Class
It was a lot of fun, hopefully I can find a class in Gainesville to continue.

Entrance to the Apartment building
Hopefully I’ll start taking more photos of the home life soon.