WEEK 14- NOCHEVIEJA UNIVERSITARIA & CENA DE NAVIDAD

HOLA!! What a week >>> WHAT A WEEK! It has really been one of the best weeks of MI VIDA ERASMUS here in Salamanca, and quite fitting seeing as it is the last week before the Christmas Holidays. I really can’t believe that there are only 3 more days until I fly home! This is the end of week 14, and I was reading some of my first blogs from back in September and it seems so long ago now! People I met back then are now so important in my life, and it seems like I’ve known them forever! – I’m thinking of three people especially- Laurie my Frenchie, Marta my lovely Spanish girlie, and Florian too of course! You’re all great people and have really made my time here amazing. OS QUIERO!!! (I love you all!)

The promotional logo for the event

Another promotional poster

A view of the plaza and the stage

The 40,000 people on the plaza.... photo taken from google!

Wow where do I start with week 14’s events then? Ok the most important event I think was the Nochevieja Universitaria (University New Year) which took place on Thursday 15^th December. Basically as the majority of the foreign students of the University of Salamanca are not here in the city for the real New Year, there is a night organized especially for all students before everyone leaves for the Christmas holidays! It is incredibly well known throughout Spain, and people come from all over the country to Salamanca just for this night as it is known to be ‘de puta madre’ (AKA fucking amazing). The event started 10 years ago when a small group of foreign students gathered in the Plaza Mayor to say goodbye to each other and eat the traditional 12 grapes eaten at New Year (one for every chime at midnight to give luck for the coming 12 months) and then the following year the group staged a party in collaboration with a few of the bars in the city, and then two years later around 5,000 students joined on the plaza to celebrate, followed by 30,000 in 2007 and now over 40,000 students participate in the event every year! More or less it is a ‘macrobotellón’ (gigantic out-door drinking festival) but there are cultural activities during the day such as a tapas market with lots of different stalls of local gastronomy, as well as live music on the Plaza Mayor until midnight! Also check out the video I found on Youtube below- there are some amazing views of all of the people on the plaza!

Me, Irene, Rachel, Elizabeth, Marta, Ana, Laurie & Morgan on the plaza

Elizabeth and Me

Laurie, Ana, Irene, Marta and Me!

Laurie, Morgan, Florian and Me!

Me and Laurieeee! (the best 'compi de piso' *flatmate* you could ask for!)

Florian and Me! <3

Florian and Mee!

The night really was great- it was just an amazing atmosphere, and the live music was fantastic! It was also great when the crowd were hitting inflatables all over the plaza! (see the photo below taken by Laurie- she's one amazing photographer!) Elizabeth and I had bought a bag of grapes to eat at midnight- one for each of the 12 chimes; however we left them in her flat! (We’re entirely useless!). After midnight, Laurie, Morgan, Florian and I went to one of the local bars ‘Posada de las animas’ for a few drinks and a dance, however the place was packed!    

The throwing of the inflatables! Amazing photography here Laurie!

View of the crowded plaza from one of the side streets!

A panoramic photo of the plaza.... once again all credit to Miss Laurie Charvet!

Students, santa hats... and one very pretty lit-up Plaza Mayor!

After all of the excitement of the Nochevieja Universitaria, we then had a wonderful Christmas dinner party hosted by Elizabeth and Irene to look forward to on Friday! We all put on our nicest clothes- dresses/skirts for the ladies and shirts for the gents! and had a lovely evening being wined and dined! Many thanks to Elizabeth and her sidekick Martha for an amazing roast dinner, home cooked apple pie and yule log... as well as several bottles of alcohol, truffles, chocolates and turrón! It really was a night of fantastic conversation and yummy food with good friends! 

The wonderful dinner party!

Me, Elizabeth, Marta and Stephanie!

The lads! Florian and Morgan!

Laurie and Me! guapasss! <3

Elizabeth (the lovely host!) and Me!

Me and Florian

After the wonderful dinner, a few of us walked home in the freezing cold (Yes here in Sala it’s around 0 degrees now!) but we stopped in the Plaza Mayor to take some photos as they had put up the Christmas decorations! I thought that they would have put a traditional tree up, but it was some kind of Christmas display with pretty lights! It wasn’t up for the Nochevieja Universitaria, and Marta explained that if then there had been this display, or a tree, then people would have tried to climb it like in previous years when the decorations were up before the Nochevieja! Anyway, I think the Plaza now looks lovely and very festive!

The Christmas display on the Plaza Mayor

Florian, Me, Morgan and Laurie!

Florian, Me, Laurie, Morgan and Stephanie!

Florian and Me! <3

Now if all that excitement for two days wasn’t enough, this evening Laurie, Morgan, Marta, Anne-Lise (a French Erasmus student) and I all met up for an evening of tapas! The problem was however that being a freezing cold Saturday evening, hardly any of the bars and tapas restaurants had tables free! I think we entered in 5 before we finally found a table in a small tapas bar in the centre not far from the plaza. It was crowded so we were very lucky to even get a table without a reservation! I had a goat’s cheese and red pepper tostada, a small vegetarian pizza portion, and a slice of Spanish tortilla and a diet coke! The tapas were so cheap though- the first one was 50 cents if you bought a drink, and then further tapas dishes were 1 euro 20. The funny thing was though, that when Marta and I went up to the bar to order our tapas dishes, I saw that my goat’s cheese and red pepper tostada had an anchovy on the top! And being a vegetarian, I don’t eat fish... so I very nicely asked the waitress behind the counter if she could take off the anchovy for me before bringing it to the table...... to which my reasonable request (I am the customer remember... and we all know the customer is always right!) was met with more or less ‘er no, how about you take it off yourself eh!’ HAHA! I didn’t know what to do so just looked at her with my eyebrows raised, and then went back to the table! Honestly, some Spanish are so rude it’s incredible! We all enjoyed our tapas and then went to the Chocolatería Valor for some indulgence time! I had a HUGE portion of chocolate cake, Marta had a cheesecake AND a vanilla milkshake!! Laurie and Anne-Lise shared a chocolate truffle dessert and a set of 4 different melted chocolate drinks and Morgan enjoyed a vanilla milkshake! 

Anne-Lise, Morgan and Laurie!

Anne-Lise, Laurie, Morgan, Me and Marta!

My chocolate cake! Mmmmmm!

Marta's extra-large cheesecake portion!

Anne-Lise and Laurie tucking into their little chocolate heaven!

Ok it’s now just passed 3am here in Salamanca, so I think I’ll call it a night now! This is the last blog of 2011! Wishing you all ‘Una Feliz Navidad y todo lo mejor para el año próximo!’ (HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND ALL THE VERY BEST FOR THE NEW YEAR!) I’ll be back with my VIDA ERASMUS in January when I have 3 weeks left in Salamanca, followed by the start of a whole new Erasmus adventure in Pavia in Italy in February! I’m incredibly excited, and should find out in the next few days about my accommodation there! I have asked for a flat-share with some Italians, so we’ll see what I get allocated! Fingers crossed! Anyway, thank you so much to everyone in my Salamancan life; it really has been an amazing semester 1.... See you all in January- let’s make the last few weeks unforgettable.  =]  xxx

DECEMBER IN SALAMANCA & VICKY'S VISIT!

Laurie, Me, and Marta on the Plaza Mayor

Well here we are at the end of ‘la semana de la puente’! – basically as I explained in a previous blog, ’puente’ means bridge, and this week we’ve had 2 days of official bank holiday which were Tuesday and Thursday... so in order to have an extra long holiday, the Spanish took Monday, Wednesday and Friday off as well to give themselves a week’s holiday!- That’s the Spaniards, anything for a holiday period! Anyway, there were no complaints from me as I’ve basically had all week off Uni! A definite plus of going to University in Spain! 

Last Saturday was a great evening as Laurie and I met up with Marta our Spanish friend to go for drinks and tapas at Marta’s Dad’s restaurant! It’s called ‘El Asador’ and is situated right in the centre of Salamanca on the Plaza Mayor! We each had a ‘tostada’ (toast) tapas dish and theirs was of duck pate whereas I had a goats cheese and caramelised onions one! They were so yummy! Delicioso! Then the three of us had a wander around the centre and went for some more drinks in another bar until the early hours of the morning! It was a really great relaxing evening, and perfect for Spanish speaking practice! Marta taught us quite a bit of common Spanish slang which might just come in useful! For example if you say that something is ‘de puta madre’ then this literally means (of the prostitute mother) and although it may sound contradictory, this is an expression to praise something meaning "very good" or "excellent"! For example you could say ‘Tiene un coche de puta madre' (He has a car of the prostitute mother) but it really means ‘He has a fantastic car’! Great eh!? Man I love this language!  Marta also taught Laurie and I the colloquial short-hand equivalents of some words- for example the word ‘Una película’ means ‘a film’, and the colloquial to use among friends is ‘una pelí’. In addition instead of saying ‘por favor’ (please), you can say ‘por fa’ among family and friends..... but be careful not to use it with University Lecturers or elderly people! 'pasame el libro por fa’ (pass me the book please) would not go down very well!  

The Plaza Mayor's main façade at night! It's so pretty all lit up!

Laure and Me in 'El Asador'

Our yummy tapas dishes!

This week as I said has been really relaxing due to not having Uni, so I’ve just been getting on with Uni work and completing grammar exercises in my Italian and French books! Then on Sunday Florian and I went to the cinema to see ‘Gato con botas’ – AKA puss in boots! It was perfect for a lazy Sunday evening, and somehow it made it seem much more like Christmas after seeing an animated film! I love going to the cinema in Spain firstly as the listening practice is incredible, and secondly because it’s so much cheaper than in the UK! Here I go at least once a week! I think next on the agenda is to see ‘Happy Feet’ in Spanish! I will drag Laurie tomorrow perhaps! – Yay I can’t wait, more animation films before Christmas!   

 

Today I woke up incredibly late at around 11.30am when I was supposed to meet Vicky at the train station at 11.20! She came over from Valladolid for the day to see Salamanca, and despite the weather being a bit dismal, we still had a great day catching up! Firstly we went to my favourite tapas bar called ‘Mandala’ in the centre for some lunch as we were both starving! We both had their speciality- a spinach and cheese topped tortilla portion! Afterwards we wandered over to a secret garden in the centre with wonderful Mediterranean vines and took some great photos. We were then getting a bit cold so made a trip to a specialist chocolate cafe called ‘Chocolatería Valor’. It is known for the best chocolate and churros in Salamanca, and it definitely didn’t disappoint! Vicky had a half/half dark and white hot chocolate drink, and I had a dark chocolate one, and then we shared a ración of their wonderful hot churros! After our indulgence splurge and god knows how many calories later, we decided to ‘dar una vuelta’ AKA go for a walk around the centre, and even though it was a bit overcast and rainy, it somehow wasn’t as gloomy as in England when it rains! Perhaps because here you are still surrounded by magnificent buildings, cobbled streets and plazas! Check out some of the photos below and see if you agree with me! Spain in the rain is still incredible! 

The Plaza Mayor

The Cathedral- South side

The Cathedral North side

My faculty building! The Palacio de Anaya

Vicky and I in the gardens

Our chocolate & churros splurge!

To finish off a fantastic day we went for a bit of shopping time in the centre, and as it became darker, the streets had a different feel to them because of all of the Christmas lighting! We walked past a ‘Vendedor de castañas’ – a Chestnut vender where the smell was incredible- a very distinct fragrance! In Spain around Christmas time in the centre of cities there are these little stalls everywhere, and they roast the chestnuts on an open fire and then for the bargain price of 1€  you get 12 of them! We decided to share a little bag, and I’m not going to lie- they were delicious! The perfect thing to warm us up when our hands were freezing cold!!  Then on the way home we passed a small market of all different things- mainly clothing, and decided to have a look! Vicky and I both fell in love with these giant coloured patterned 3D stars.... but refrained from buying them much to the annoyance of the vendor! 

Salamanca 'Toro' street at night!

Me and the portion of castanas!

A close up of them!

The stall selling castanas!

The street market

Well that’s all for now! It's been a great week once again living MI VIDA ERASMUS, and now there's only one full week left before the Christmas holidays! There is lots planned once again such as the University New Year night (Nochevieja Universitaria) on Wednesday 15th which will be an incredible night out especially as students travel from all over Spain to come to Salamanca for this night! There is also the chiming of the bells on the Plaza Mayor and all of the students go there for midnight! There will be an amazing atmosphere I'm sure! Then I have a Christmas dinner at Elizabeth and Irene's flat with lots of Erasmus students next Friday to look forward to! Right, time for me now to go for a nice long soak in the bath and read my latest Cosmopolitan magazine in Spanish!  Hasta Luego! Besos xxx