Day 12 & Day 13 & Day 14

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So this is what happened this weekend:

On Friday we went to class a little early and went back to have lunch. Directly after lunch we went on our next excursion. The excursion this weekend was to Salamanca and Ávila. These are two cities that cannot be any more different. But I will get to that later.

After the hour and a half bus ride we arrived inn Salamanca and enjoyed the best hotel that I have ever seen. It was a four star hotel that our professor booked and it was a success. The only problem was the weird showers, which had a pressure washer in them and a waterfall for a showerhead. Other than that it was a lot of fun. We pretty much put our stuff down and met up to walk out and see the old city. Salamanca is absolutely beautiful. The first few streets we saw were the shopping street and the old quarters (for lack of a better name), which are right near each other. There was a lot of history and it was weird trying to imagine someone from 500 years ago being right where I was. The street with shopping was full of souvenirs, chocolates, and bars. We went back there later.

We got to our destination afterwards, which was the massive Cathedral of Salamanca. The cathedral has two parts, La Catedral Nueva fro the 16^th century and La Catedral Antigua from some time before that. If you want to learn more here is a link: http://www.catedralsalamanca.org/. I think the best part is definitely the new part, but it should be. The inside was higher than any cathedral I have seen. I thought I walked into a tunnel of the dwarves from Lord of the Rings. It was solid stone and looked pristine. We were able to go to the roof and the balconies. There were numbered tiles on the floor that had covered the graves of those killed in an earthquake that happened in Salamanca years ago. The cathedral had so many different relics that had religious importance. The strangest part was on the outside there was a monkey eating an ice cream cone (invented post 16^th century) and an astronaut. I mean really similar to the moon walkers. I think that it was added after the moon landing but then again I do not believe in prophecy. Then we headed back to the hotel and stopped by the Plaza Mayor and enjoyed another great view. We looked around in the area at the numerous ice cream shops. After that experience we went back to the hotel and enjoyed a wonderful dinner at the hotel.

The next day, we went to see the art deco museum. There were a lot of knickknacks from around the world. It was cool to see but it was not my favorite thing in the world. The coolest part of the museum was the movie of glass blowing. Here is a link to it: http://www.museocasalis.org/nuevaweb/en/.

After that we had a free time for shopping when I think that there was nothing to do but wait. When that ended, we all went to lunch that for me consisted of paella (yellow rice and vegetables and seafood) and some very succulent baked chicken. For desert I ate some time of really sweet ice cream. It was like a piece of heaven.

After lunch we left Salamanca and went to Ávila. Just to sum it up, it’s a wall, a church and 100 shops. I think that the views were pretty, but when are the views not pretty in Spain?

On Sunday I got to hang out with friend and do homework. I really enjoyed it because we went to the park and I got to work on my footwork. I forgot how much I enjoyed it in preschool. I can say that I can roll the ball backwards and hold it in my foot. I got mad skillz. Anyway other than that the day was full of doing nothing much except work. I hate those days but they are necessary no matter what.

So here is the plan for the week. I will probably send out a could more blogs before I go to Barcelona Thursday afternoon. One will outline what is happening this week and the other will outline what my daily routine is and my living situation because I need to write that one before long. Well, thanks for reading and until next time…

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Photos

Cathedral Interior
This is the hall of the dwarves. No human could have made this.

The Shower
I hate this thing. Give me one nozzle and one lever. That is all.

Space Man
This is the space man on the cathedral.