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| Sam, Ste, Kayleigh & Me :) |
Well here I am halfway through week 7 of my Year Abroad! I have been meaning to write a blog for a few days now, but it’s just been so busy here I haven’t had chance!- especially as the wifi has now gone ! (yes... you heard me right, it’s broken!- will write about that in a bit!) My last weekend was really great as on Saturday I went to Valladolid with a few friends! It’s a city about an hour north of Salamanca by bus, and in the region of Castilla y Leon. It was a much smaller city than I had imagined, and seemed to be really quiet too!- but then again, we were there during the famous siesta hours! First of all we went for a walk in the main park there which was called ‘Campo Grande’, and just wandered around for a while enjoying the gardens. Kayleigh was enjoying it so much she actually stated that she felt like ‘snow-white’ among all the nature! Hahha! There were also peacocks in the park, and I was quite tempted to try and pluck a feather- but was too scared in the end! After our ‘nature experience’ we went for a wander into the city and found the Plaza Mayor. It was quite small, and definitely not as charming as the one in Salamanca- but it was nice all the same. The cathedral was also quite grand- but again, not as big or as magnificent as the one in Salamanca. It is also built with a totally different type of stone to Salamanca’s one. The buildings I most liked though was a church called ‘Nuestra Señora de la Antigua’ as it looked a bit like a fairy-tale castle! The main wall of the University was also really pretty! After wandering around the center, we found a tapas bar and we all had a coke and a ration of tortilla as well as pan de tomate which filled a hole! We then went in search of the beach!! (Yes... I know what you’re thinking..... an inland city with a beach) but it actually does have one! It’s on a riverbank and has sand as well! (check out the photo below!) I wish Sala had a beach! It’s about the only thing that I liked about Valladolid though!
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| The river-beach at Valladolid! |
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| Kayleigh, Sam and Me on the Plaza Mayor |
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| All of us in the park! |
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| Main street in Valladolid! |
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| The fairy-tale looking church! |
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| University building! |
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| The cathedral at Valla |
Sunday was also a pretty good day as I just slept and relaxed most of the day! (Trust me; it’s needed here in Spain!) Erasmus life is tiring.... it’s not a ‘Holiday’ like my Dad refers to it as! Then in the evening on Sunday Florian and I went to the cinema and we saw ‘One day’ with Anne Hathaway in it! I saw the film before coming to Sala in England, but it was really great to see it in Spanish too- and here you can actually claim that going to the cinema is educational!- It’s Spanish related! Haha! I wonder if my parents would see it that way too!
Right, now on to the less fun aspects of week 7 of Erasmus life! Modules = the bain of my life! It’s been an absolute nightmare trying to get to the right amount of credits for Semester 1! I have tried so many new modules this week, and I think my favourite time was when Stephanie and I went to try ‘Teoría de la Literatura’ (Theory of Literature). We walked into this room packed with Spanish students about an hour after the class had started, and then just sat down and after about 2 minutes of looking at the board we understood NOTHING and just started giggling! I honestly didn’t think it would be so hard to understand the classes here as my Spanish comprehension level is quite high.... but oh my gosh did I under-estimate that! It’s near on impossible! The lecturers speak so quickly and it’s so difficult to understand what is going on and take notes! But as I said, after a few minutes Steph and I just gave up and resorted to Uni-wifi stealing for the rest of the hour as we were both too embarrassed to get up and walk out after only just getting there! Another incident like this happened yesterday when Steph and I went to try another module. This time we went to ‘Narrativa Española del siglo XX’ (Spanish narrative from the 20th century) or at least that is what we thought we were in! But after speaking to another Erasmus girl next to me, we realised we were in totally the wrong module- complete waste of an hour!! Then at the end of the lesson (which was a load of students reading poems in Spanish- riveting ......... NOT!!!) I went to speak to the lecturer who explained that there had been a room change for the class we wanted to be in! ----> Dear University of Salamanca.... don’t you believe in altering the online list of modules, times and rooms when there is a change? ARGHHHH! Honestly, the organisation here is a nightmare! :)
Problem number two this week has to be the FRIGGING internet again! If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you’ll know that the other week Laurie and I actually left Salamanca on the hunt for the wifi box, and spent about 8 hours of our day trying to get the internet sorted! And well, after that we actually got it working and we lived happily for a week with the wifi working in the flat- I thought that never again would I have to go to a hostel/cafe for wifi stealing again in Sala! Oh was I wrong though! As here I am, once again, sat in a lovely hostel...... (Note the sarcasm here!). I was just sat in my room on Sunday using the internet to find out information on Pavia (my semester 2 Erasmus destination in Italy) when suddenly google wouldn’t work. My heart literally skipped a beat and NOOOOOOOOO was all I could think! I rebooted my laptop, rebooted the wifi box, typed in the passwords numerous times... and still it wouldn’t work. Lorena phoned Orange, and they were supposed to be sending around someone to fix it within ’72 hours’ of Sunday..... so that means in a few weeks right? – we are in Spain after all! The Spanish are so dammed slow with everything and relaxed! Are they never in a hurry? and is stress an unknown concept here? Sometimes I wish I were in England where people understand the concept of ‘URGENT’ lol. Anyway, today is day 3 of Orange’s promise to send someone around to fix the wifi.... and I bet they won’t come today. We’re meant to be waiting for a phone call stating the time they will come... but I’m not getting my hopes up! I have said to Lorena though that if it’s not done by Monday when I’m back in Sala I will actually lose the plot and put my foot down as I am paying for the wifi now.... and also I’m spending a fortune once again on drinks in cafes! It’s a joke.
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| The French and the English last night! |
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| Me & the French girlies! |
Right, now onto a more fun topic! Last night was amaaaaazing! It was a French/Belgian party at the Irish Rover pub in town, and a big group of us went along and had such a good night! It was free bar too- which means you pay 5 euros and can drink as much beer or sangria as you want! Great eh! They even had face painting of the French/Belgian flags! And towards the end of the night they only played French/Belgian music and at one point I was surrounded by all of my French friends and Florian- our lovely Belgian guy... and they were all singing along to the music so loudly and doing the dance routines as well.... I was so lost, but I just laughed as it looked like they were all under a spell or something doing those dance routines and singing in French! :)
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| Kayleigh sporting a Belgian flag and Sam with a French one! |
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| Morgan and Laurie! woooo viva Francia! |
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| Rach, Me, Kayleigh and a random guy... I think he was Salamantino!? |
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| Florian and Me :) FRANCIAAA flag! We didn't see any Belgian ones! :( |
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| IRISH ROVER!!! so so so busy! |
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| Laurie and Me :) |
Right, that’s all from me for a few days as I’m off back home to the UK tomorrow for a long weekend! I can’t wait to just relax and spend time with my family! Then it’s back to ‘MI VIDA ERASMUS’ on Monday! :) so hasta luego for now! xxxx
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