Una gringa en Salamanca

Yes, I am a "gringa," or a "guidi," a foreigner in Salamanca, and I'm enjoying every minute of it! Salamanca is growing on me more and more every day, even though the Internet connection in my house seems to worsen every day. I sort of want my host grandmother, who I have had absolutely no interaction with, to leave so that I can get back in the room with the router. Oh well, at least I SORT OF have Internet.

Before I go any further, today is my mom's, and my friend Mary Kathryn's, birthday, so I want to wish them both a very happy birthday from Salamanca! I'll see MK in Salamanca in a few days, but I don't know when I'll be able to Skype next with my mom, since my internet has been acting up, so happy birthday Mummy! <3

I didn't talk too much about my host family in the last post, because I didn't really know them yet, but the many long meals that I've had so far on Avenida de los Comuneros have been excellent for getting-to-know-you time with the host family. My host mom is a really good cook, and, to tell you the truth, I really like the eating schedule that Spaniards are on. They have a normal-sized breakfast, a larger lunch, and a slightly smaller dinner. This week, with my 10am orientation classes, I have been having breakfast at about 8:45. Typically, Spaniards have a "pincho" (another word for tapas) in mid-morning, which for them is noon. Then, at 2 or 2:30, they have "la comida" (lunch), which, in my house, usually consists of some sort of soup, salad, and other main plate. Dinner sort of changes. Some of my favorite things that my host mom makes are: pumpkin cream soup ("sopa de calabaza") and a salad with pomegranate seeds ("granadas") in it. Sooooo good! And I have salad once a day, and fruit after every meal. I have never eaten more healthily in my life, and, even though I'm still planning on joining a gym, the fact that I'm eating really healthy food, am not hungry enough to snack (which is typically my Achilles heel) in between meals, and am walking everywhere makes me feel a lot better than I did with the endless supplies of bread in France. In fact, I'm never hungry enough to eat the ridiculous quantities of food that my host mom thinks I should be eating. Spaniards have the right idea, and that's why they're all thin (they also smoke like smokestacks, though).

Related to the smoking issue, I thought France, with its walls of smoke outside every classroom building, was bad, but Spain is about a gazillion times worse. Not only does everyone smoke, but smoking is allowed indoors (unlike in France, where a smoking ban in all public indoor places was recently enacted). So an hour in a café leaves all of my clothes smelling like cigarette smoke. It's really chilly here now, and I'm running out of sweaters! They all smell of smoke, and I can't bear to wear them again until after they're washed.

Well, that was an interesting tangent. To go back to my host family, they're absolutely awesome! As I said, my host mom is very accommodating to my vegetarianism, and, even though she tries to push food on me (in vain), I still really like her cooking. I had a very significant linguistic victory yesterday when she told me that I can "tutear" her (refer to her in the informal "tú" form, rather than the more formal "Ud." form), which is very significant. Spanish, like French, has very strict rules about who you can refer to informally and who you must refer to formally. Adults, people you have just met, and others generally worthy of respect are referred to formally, while you refer to people your own age or people who you are very comfortable with informally. So for me, the fact that Inés told me to tutear her means that she thinks of me as a part of the family, which feels very nice. I referred to Angelita (my French host mom) in the formal "vous" form for the entire semester, and, after only two days of living with Inés, she told me to refer to her informally. For a language nerd like me, these things are exciting! She also told me almost instantly that I speak very good Spanish, but I think she was just being nice when she said it, because, at that point, I was still inserting French words into my Spanish conversations. Surprisingly, though, my Spanish has come back to me very easily, so I'm pleased and am not feeling as lost as I thought I would at this juncture. She said to me yesterday, though, that she thinks that I speak Spanish with a French accent. Her 26 year-old daughter, Noelia, disagreed, and when I asked her what specifically sounded French to her, she couldn't give any examples, but it was interesting nonetheless.

Today, I also dealt with the more administrative side of things. I still hadn't broached the subject of payment to my host mom, so I finally asked her today. She said that it's fine with her if I pay her at the end of every month, which was sort of what I was hoping for. This semester, instead of paying a lump sum to Georgetown for the university tuition and room and board, we have to pay Georgetown for tuition and then pay the families ourselves every week, biweekly, or every month (the cost is 20 euros per night). This is the system that Kate has with her host family, and I remember thinking it was strange when I visited her. I still don't like it, but that's what I have to do, so I'll do it. Then, I asked her about laundry: if your host mom does your laundry and irons, it's 12 euros per week, but, since I don't need to have my clothes ironed, I'll hopefully get my laundry done for half-price. I asked the question in a way that suggested that I wanted to wash my clothes in our machine myself so as to avoid the charge, but she said that either she has to do it or I have to go to a laundromat, which would basically be a waste of my time. So I'm hoping I can get the reduction for not needing ironing done. Lastly, I told her that my mom wanted to send me a package, and got my pre-orientation packet with the address on it to verify the mailing address. Afterwards, she read through much of the packet to me, which includes, among many other things, a list of general house protocol that Celia, our program director, compiled for us. As she read through each do or don't, she would nod or shake her head in disagreement, so basically, without really meaning to, I got the rules of the house. So basically, as a courtesy, I'm supposed to announce when I arrive and when I leave, generally keep her informed of my plans, and not have friends over (although I may ask her once or twice if I can have a friend over; I'm hoping that, as long as I clear it with her ahead of time, it will be fine).

Our first actual night here, we finally got to meet Celia and the other Georgetown students in our program. There are 7 of us (6 girls and a guy), which is a small group, but I think that study abroad participation is one of those things that goes in waves, and this just seems to be a light year for the particular programs that I'm in. We went out to eat and got to know each other a little bit, and then five of us went out. I was still incredibly jet-lagged from my sleepless 36 hours of travel, but I didn't want to me the lame-o who doesn't go out, so I went. It was a lot of fun. We went to two bars, and I had three shots/shooters (my first!), for which I paid a total of 1 euro!!!!!!! I bought the first one, and then Carter bought a round for all four of us girls, and then, at the second bar, the bartender gave us each a free shot. I'm glad that drinks are so cheap here, and they sort of have to be in order to entice college students to come to bars. I'm hoping, though, that I have enough sense not to drink way too much, because that's when Spanish guys take advantage of girls, when they're at their most vulnerable. I'm not a native, I'm not very familiar with the city, and I don't want to get in a situation where I can't walk home. Salamanca, and Spain in general, is more dangerous than Strasbourg was, so in that respect, I just have to be on my guard more. I was able to enjoy those drinks and feel absolutely fine, so I'm going to try and be sensible about it. Nonetheless, it was a really fun night, although we left at 2 (which is incredibly early for Spaniards, who don't normally leave bars until about 5).

I would like to end with a little reflection on tomorrow, the inauguration of our 44th President, Barack Obama. I am excited beyond belief to begin this new chapter of American history that promises to be full of change and hope. I wish, more than anything right now, that I could be there, even though I probably couldn't get anywhere near close enough to actually see the ceremony without Jumbotrons. Just the idea of being there, of seeing history being made, makes me want to stand for hours with a few million of my closest friends. I mean, come on, waiting outside in the cold with tons of people to see an exciting event- sort of my forté ;) (à la Georgetown basketball, in case you're lost right now). The idea that some people at Georgetown, who can WALK downtown, won't be going makes me upset, because they don't know how lucky they are to have the opportunity to go. Anyway, my biggest hope is that all goes as planned and that there are no security/safety issues, both for our President-elect and for everyone gathered in downtown D.C. I'll hopefully get to watch video of the event tomorrow, and our group is most definitely going out tomorrow to celebrate, sporting our Obama gear of course. God Bless America!

Sending all of you my love, and I promise that I'll post pictures when my internet lets me!

Kristen