Salamanca, Avila, y La Cena

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12 de julio de 2011: Salamanca, Avila, y la cena

Today we went to Salamanca and Avila as a group excursion. One of our teachers was late today by 8 minutes then two students were late by 10 minutes. I am very frustrated by this especially since Rachel and I are always at least 10 minutes early. Come on people, we all have to be there at 7:30am. Suck it up.
When we finally left, we took very curvy roads which did not help my motion sickness...plus the bus had NO air on. I thought everyone in the back was going to get sick, so I clearly asked for the air to be turned on.
Side note: The air was so hot and gross that it seemed as though we were not meant to breathe used air. (this means that there was no oxygen left in the air, it was like poison)
The bus driver turned it on medium for like two minutes then low, but any air was better than nothing.
An hour and a half later, we arrived to Salamanca. Oh, don't worry it was freezing. We were all dressed for very warm weather considering every day is hot and all of our past excursions have been in the 90's. Nope, not today. Granted, I can't really complain because I would rather be a little cold than not being able to breathe like on the bus. We had another tour guide, but she was a lot better & spoke in a way that I found her very easy to understand.
Our first stop was la Vniversidad Salamanca (yes Vniversidad not Universidad). This is one of the oldest universities in the world, dating back to before the 15th century. We saw the school, some of the classrooms, and much more.
Including: the oldest library in all of Europe. You can't even enter the room because it is being temperature controlled to preserve the books and furniture in the room. We also saw a beautiful, small chapel that was only allowed to be used by students who attended this university. A lot of people wanted to get married here, but only those who had attended the school have the privilege to get married there. I would get married there. It is small, quaint and gorgeous (on a much smaller scale than St. Mary's downtown-family).
We stopped at 2 cathedrals. The first one was the older cathedral. Very old cerca de 12th century then the newer one from the 15 century is almost identical to the one in Toledo & Segovia. Gorgeous large, dark cathedrals. Thank goodness we did not spend almost 2 hours in them like in Toledo because that was torture.
There were a lot of other spots we stopped at in Salamanca, but most of the city is just like Segovia. The tour guide basically compared everything to Segovia. We then had 3 hours of free time. We were going to go back to the Cathedral to go to the second and third floors, except we would have to pay again to go! Ridiculous. Why we couldn't just go when we were there, I don't understand. Granted, I don't understand a lot of the things we do because I would organize the trip much differently and be actually organized. Oh well.
In our three hour downtime, we ate food since the food that our senoras make us for our trips aka bocadillas are disgusting. we have to eat somewhere. The best part about the trip to Salamanca was finding futbol jerseys for 10euros of the Spain team for the world cup. yay! (On Monday we are touring the field and stadium in Madrid after our weekend in Barcelona).
Okay, so we are suppose to meet up at 3pm to leave to head to Avila. This happens, but it starts to rain. I mean pour down rain and storm. Oh great. I am glad I have a rain-jacket and umbrella with me. not. No one did. So frustrating. We are all getting soaking yet. The bus arrives 20 minutes late..what a great start to a bus ride. ugh.
On the bus ride, Jillian, who is from St. Jouliet, which is near Nashville, informs me that her friends are friends with the band members from CTE (cage the elephant) only one of my favorite bands. Oh don't forget she is the girl who was in the Taylor Swift video "You belong with me."
Side Note: I can't remember if I told all of you ( I don't think I did) that no one liked Taylor swift in high school and she dropped out before her music career to be home-schooled since she had no friends. Her ridiculously wealthy family paid money for an album and then continued to pay for some of her success. Apparently everyone in St. Jouliet hates her. (I say hate to mean hate). How interesting.
Okay we arrive to Avila. When we exit the bus for our 2 hours of free time with no direction, it is not raining. The city looks cool from the outside because it is a town with a wall around protecting the city.
Side Note: It is so impressive to think that all of these monuments and buildings have lasted this many thousand of years and that nothing in the states will be around this long except maybe the new Palladium in Carmel (haha).
Well after 10 minutes in Avila it starts pouring down rain. Since we are just somewhere on the street, we clearly go into a bar and get a glass of wine to wait till it stops raining or is closer to the time to meet up. Luckily the rain stopped right as we had to walk to the bus...or rather the place where the bus will show up when it is ready.
Finally around 6:30 we arrive back to Segovia. Oh not too happily though since it is POURING down rain. Rachel and I Get the privilege to walk the 10 minutes uphill in the rain back to our casa. That was really not an enjoyable walk. Homework till dinner.
DINNER!
For dinner our señora cooked us mussels and gambas aka shrimp. Now, the shrimp were full shrimp. This means head, tail, legs, and skin. I thought Rachel was going to have a heart attack as I casually cut off the head, broke off the tail, removed the skin and pulled out the vein. There will be a video of me doing this for Rachel on her facebook for further understanding. The mussels were very good except they were almost cold. I don't like cold food when I think it should be hot. So, if they would've been warmer it would have been much better. Rachel, to no surprise, did not try the mussels. She didn't try them when I made them at school, so I would've been shocked if she would've tried them now. Oh and we also had deviled eggs, but I don't really care for those..so I gave most of those to Rachel since I had to eat some of mussels for her. (yes, had to, so our señora isn't upset by the lack of food eaten).

Okay that is really it for now. I need to sleep & finish studying for my quizzes (granted this won't get posted until tomorrow when I have internet & you all are asleep)

Hasta que el proximo,

Em

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