El mes de octubre en Salamanca

First of all, I’m sorry for the ridiculously long gap between my last blog post and this one!…Things have been crazy busy here with midterms and IES excursions, etc. I will try to be better about updating more often :-)

So, on the first weekend in October, our whole IES Abroad group went on an excursion to Andalucía in southern Spain. There, we visited two amazing cities: Sevilla and Granada. I was especially excited to see Sevilla, because several friends of mine studied there last year and told me how amazing it is. Sevilla has turned out to be one of my favorite cities I’ve visited in Spain--after Salamanca, of course ;-). It has a really warm, cozy feel to it. My favorite part was the gorgeous Plaza de España. I also really loved the cathedral in Sevilla. It’s the fourth-largest cathedral in the world. We got to climb all the way to the top of the giralda (basically, a giant tower, about 30 floors up) and thus had a really gorgeous view of the cathedral and courtyard. Another highlight for me were the Jardines de Murillo (beautiful gardens!) and also just wandering around the beautiful city to explore.

A view of the courtyard and cathedral from la giralda:




La Plaza de España:




We spent about 12 hours in Sevilla and then went on to Granada the next morning. There, we had an amazing tour of La Alhambra, a palace and fortress complex built by the Muslim rulers of southern Spain in the mid-fourteenth century. It’s probably one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen in my life. After that, I spent some time wandering around the city with friends. Then, that night, we went to a Flamenco show at an underground bar/restaurant. I envy the grace of people who can dance Flamenco--it’s insanely fast and requires tremendous coordination. We left Granada Sunday morning and got back to Salamanca later that day.

La Alhambra in Granada:



After a whirlwind weekend in Andalucía, I settled back into life in Salamanca. We had midterms last week, which was a little bit stressful, but we all got through it just fine. Last Tuesday was my señora’s birthday, so Kelley and I decided to bake her a surprise birthday cake. We went grocery shopping Tuesday night, which was an adventure, since birthday cake in the US sense of the word doesn’t really exist here. For example, instead of using cake frosting, we had to use Nutella, since they don’t generally sell canned frosting here. Anyway, after we went shopping, we borrowed the kitchen of our friend Sarah, who has her own apartment here really close to the Plaza Mayor. We went back to her house the next day to finish decorating the cake, and then carried it home for lunch. It was raining that day, so we got some pretty funny looks as we walked home, Kelley with the cake and me with the umbrella protecting the cake. We both got wet, but the cake was safe, so that’s all that matters! Haha. We only realized about ¾ of the way home that Kelley should probably hold both the cake and the umbrella…whoops. :-) Anyway, we also got Esperanza a pretty scarf as a birthday gift and we both wrote her cards. She loved everything so much that she cried! Mission accomplished!

Esperanza blowing out her birthday candles:



This past Friday, I spent the afternoon with my friends Andrea and Sarah and our Spanish amigo Nacho, which was so much fun, and great practice with Spanish. We talked and laughed a lot and generally had a great time. Then, we went to a 21st birthday dinner for our friend Amy at a restaurant called El Bardo en la Casa de Las Conchas.

This Saturday, after midterm week, we had an excursion to Toledo, which is another of my favorite cities in Spain. It’s a medieval city with a really rich religious history and so much beautiful architecture. I had a really great time exploring the city. I’ve discovered that the best way to get to know a city is to get lost in it. That’s fortunate, because I tend to get lost a lot anyway. ;-) After we got home from Toledo, I went out to El Savor, a salsa club here, with some friends. Every night for the last week, El Savor featured a different Latin American country. I went to Mexican night, Chilean night, and Puerto Rican night. Puerto Rican night was my favorite, because we all learned how (or attempted to learn haha) salsa and merengue.

A beautiful view of Toledo:



This morning, I had my teaching internship once again. Friday and today we had a Halloween fiesta for the kids. I read them a simplified version, in English, of The Tell-tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe and we watched a horror movie called The Others. My favorite part of the fiesta was on Friday when I did the Poe story with the intermediate-level English kids. They understood pretty well and we had a good discussion about the story. It was also great Spanish practice for me, as I stopped periodically to explain the story to them in Spanish so they all understood. Next week, I’m planning to do an exercise with them using English tongue-twisters to work on pronunciation. A lot of Spaniards have trouble pronouncing the letter “s” at the beginning of a word of the “s” is followed by a consonant…for example, “Scott.” There’s a guy in our IES program named Scott, but all of the teachers call him “Eh-Scott,” because they can’t pronounce the smooth S. Therefore, his new nickname here is “Eh-Scott.” So, I want to use tongue twisters as a fun way to practice sounds like the S.

This weekend, I am headed to Paris with some friends, Andrea, Karin, Megan, and Christine. I’ve never been anywhere in Europe before this semester, so I’m extremely excited to visit my second European country!

¡Espero que todo vaya muy bien en los EEUU! J
(I hope that everything is going very well in the US!)

¡Besos!
Rachel

My Little Corner of the World

Hello everyone!

I have officially been in Spain for over a month! I cannot believe it! It feels like just yesterday I was sitting at the Off-Campus Studies office in Gettysburg trying to decide where I should study. Good news: I made the right decision. After just a month, I already feel so attached to this city. I know I’ll miss it when I leave, and I know I’ll come back to visit someday.

Last Friday, I started my English teaching internship. I help to teach English at a school called Las Siervas de San José. It’s an escuela concertada (concerted school), which basically means that it’s a mix between a public and a private school. In the past, it was a private Catholic school, but now it receives money from the government. In spite of this, it still has a strong Catholic affiliation. For example, the teacher prays every morning before class starts. Anyway, I really love the internship. The kids are wonderful! They range in age from 11 to 16. There are several different age groups depending on language level. I’m planning to make up some lessons about cultural stuff from the US that they’d be interested in, and possibly some anti-bullying lessons that I’ve used in the past for SARA in Gettysburg. Also, we’re going to have a Halloween party for the kids. The teacher asked me to find some scary stories that I can read to them in English. I’m planning to talk about some Gettysburg ghosts! J

In other news, some friends and I found this really amazing spot where you can watch the sunset over the whole city. It’s absolutely beautiful. The other night, when we all reached the end of our ropes with non-American food, we bought some McDonald’s and ate it while watching the sunset. Classy, I know.

On Saturday, my program had an excursion to Picadero Valverde, a horseback riding ranch about 20 minutes outside Salamanca. We rode for about an hour and a half and I have a WONDERFUL time! I got to do my favorite thing in the whole world in SPAIN!

On Sunday, I went to mass at La Pastoral Universitaria, a Catholic church for university students in Salamanca. (There are 2 big universities here: Universidad de Salamanca, the public university, and Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca). Although I don’t usually enjoy Catholic services that much, I’m always up for anything that lets me practice my Spanish, and this service was surprisingly lively for a Catholic church. Afterwards, I got to meet Nacho, a Spanish friend of my friend Andrea, and some of his friends.

Andrea and I recently made a deal that we have to speak Spanish whenever we hang out. We both felt that we’d been speaking way too much English, but we came here to learn Spanish. It’s so easy to be lazy and speak English since most of the people you make friends with here are other Americans in your program, but I don’t want to look back on this and regret not taking advantage of the opportunity to learn Spanish. In just a few days, I feel like my Spanish is already improving. Speaking in Spanish during the day makes it a lot easier to talk with Esperanza when I come home, because my brain is already in Spanish mode.

This weekend, my program is going on a trip to Andalucía in southern Spain! We’re going to see two amazing cities: Sevilla and Granada. Two of my friends from Gettysburg studied in Sevilla last year, so I have a lengthy list of recommendations for restaurants, shopping, etc. Then, the next weekend, Andrea and Sarah and I are planning a day-trip to Madrid to explore the city since it’s only a short bus ride away.

I’ll try to update again after my trip this weekend! Love and miss you all!

"Come along with me to my little corner of the world. Dream a little dream in my little corner of the world. You'll soon forget that there's any other place..."

¡Me encanta la vida salamantina!

I have officially been in Spain for three whole weeks! Time flies by so quickly here! Before I arrived in Salamanca, I kept thinking, “Wow, I have a whole semester in Spain!” Now, I realize how fleeting a span of time four months really is and how quickly the semester is going to go by, and that makes me want to appreciate every single moment of my time here. I am so incredibly fortunate to be here, and I really feel like God has put me in this particular for a specific reason, although I’m not sure what the reason is yet. For those of you who don’t know this story, I almost went to Lebanon Valley College because I was really interested in their study abroad program in Salamanca, but ended up choosing Gettysburg instead for financial reasons. Then, when I got to Gettysburg, I didn’t think I would have time to study abroad, much less graduate with a double major in Spanish and English, but somehow all of my courses managed to fit into my three-year graduation plan. Finally, the semester I found out I could actually go abroad, Gettysburg decided to start a new program in Salamanca. If that’s not fate, I don’t know what is.

My classes started on the Wednesday of my second week here in Spain and are going wonderfully so far! I’m taking one literature course at the Universidad de Salamanca, which I really love so far. My class has surprisingly few Spanish students in it, which means that my professor is very willing to help out non-native students like me and the four other IES Abroad students in the class. For example, we only have to read four novels during the semester, while native Spanish speakers will read five. I’m also taking a course called Literature and Cinema in Contemporary Spain, which is really fun and interesting so far. Basically, we’ll be comparing movies and their book counterparts. I also have a class called Regionalism and Spain and a Spanish Grammar class through IES. Finally, I’m most excited about my teaching internship through IES Abroad. Basically, I have class once a week for an hour and a half, where we study the Spanish education system and teaching techniques, and then I have six hours where I actually teach in a local school. I find out my school assignment tomorrow night!

Last weekend, we had an IES-sponsored excursion to Toro and Zamora, two smaller towns in the Castile and Leon province. In Toro, we went to a beautiful vineyard called Estancia Piedra. We got a tour of the winery, and at the end we had a wine tasting. Then, we visited Zamora, the hometown of one of our orientation leaders. We had some free time to explore the city, and then we had lunch (which, by the way, is the biggest meal of the day and happens around 2:00 in the afternoon) at this awesome underground (literally) restaurant.

After the excursion, I had another four days of classes (no classes on Fridays here!!!), which flew by incredibly fast. Then, this weekend, I took a wonderful trip to Asturias, a region in northern Spain, with a few of my friends, Xina, Laura, Jenn, and Matt. We stayed at a hotel in Noreña, just outside Oviedo, the capitol city of Asturias. We got there at around noon on Friday, went to the hotel to check in, and then explored Oviedo for the night. We spent a few hours in a Sidreria, a cider house/bar, because Asturias is famous for its cider. The next day, we traveled to Gijón, which was definitely my favorite part of the weekend. We got to see the Plaza Mayor of the town, where there was a wedding going on, and the Iglesia San Pablo (a church) near the beach, where there was another beautiful wedding. Then, we walked along the gorgeous beach for a couple of hours, just talking and collecting shells and enjoying the view. We had dinner in Gijón and then went back to Oviedo for the rest of the night. We got back to Salamanca at 8:00 Sunday night, where I came home and had dinner with my señora. I love her so much! She was almost as excited to see me after the weekend as my own mother would have been.

Tomorrow, I’ll start my second full week of classes. I’m really looking forward to getting into the swing of things with classes and getting back into school mode, which has been a little difficult here, since there are so many wonderful things to do in Spain besides homework! To wrap up, I still love it here, and I know I’ll come back and visit this city again one day. It already feels so much like home that I can’t imagine not coming back. The transition to life here was just so much smoother than I ever imagined beforehand, and although I miss my family and friends at home, I’m having such a wonderful time here, and I know they’ll be waiting for me when in December. I know this semester is an experience I’ll cherish forever, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

And now, to end on a semi-inspirational note: when my parents left me at Philadelphia International Airport at the security gate, I hugged them goodbye and turned around to face the gate. Immediately, my eyes landed on a sign nearby that was advertising the Peace Corps. It said, in huge block letters, something along the lines of, “Never have to start a sentence with ‘I should have…’” The timing of this was so perfect, as I was feeling sad and a little scared after saying goodbye to my parents and sister. Thanks to this semester in Spain, I will never have to start a sentence with those words.

La primera semana: ¡He sobrevivido!

¡Hola a todos!

I cannot believe that by this time tomorrow I will have been in Spain for a whole week! On the one hand, the week has gone by incredibly fast, as I have been extremely busy with orientation and intensive Spanish classes every day. But on the other hand, I feel like I’ve been here for several weeks already because I’ve had to adjust to so much in such a short time. To put it simply, I LOVE IT HERE. Salamanca is an amazing, beautiful city, a strange mix of a big city with a small town. It’s so lively and colorful and the pace of life is much more relaxed than in the US. Every day here feels like several days, especially because the Spaniards don’t eat dinner until 9 or 10 in the evening. That means that socializing doesn’t even start until around 11 or 12, and can continue well into the early hours of the morning. You can also be late to everything here, and no one cares. This is one thing I especially adore about the Spanish culture, since punctuality is not my forte.

Anyway, I left for Spain on Saturday, August 29, after three days of goodbyes in Gettysburg and Lancaster. I spent a few days at school visiting with all of my friends, and then spent Friday and Saturday with my family and one of my best friends. My family drove me to the airport Saturday afternoon, got me to the security gate, and then they had to leave since they weren’t allowed to go any further. I said goodbye to them there and managed to navigate the rest of the airport alone--I was quite impressed with myself. I loved the feeling of being on my own and getting myself where I needed to go. After a rather long flight with an hour delay and a seat-mate who spoke VERY fast and confusing Spanish, I arrived at the Barajas International Airport in Madrid, where I met up at the Punto de Encuentro with the other IES Abroad program students. There, I met my roommate, Kelley, and a lot of other people who have quickly become my friends.

After a two-hour bus ride to Salamanca, Kelley and I met our host mom, Esperanza Calvo Curto. She is possibly the sweetest woman in the entire world. She treats us like her own children and calls us niñas, or little girls. She takes such good care of us, and I am so blessed to have her as a host mom and Kelley as a roommate. Having a real home here has made the adjustment so much easier, and having Kelley to go through the first week with really helped, too.

This week, we had a lot of orientation sessions, where we talked about culture shock, cultural differences, and other practicalities of living in Spain for a semester. We also had intensive Spanish classes for four hours every day, which is very tiring when you’re already jet-lagged. I’ve also been busy discovering the nightlife that Salamanca is so famous for. Every night, the fabulous Plaza Mayor (basically the city centre) is crowded with people who sit at the tables lining all four sides of the square talking and eating for hours. There are also a lot of great bars and discotecas around. The Plaza is by far my favorite part of the city. At night, it’s all lit up and brilliant. There is often a band playing. For example, last night I had helado chocolate (the most delicious chocolate ice cream I have ever eaten) in the Plaza with my friends Andrea and Elizabeth, while a Flamenco band played in front of the brightly-lit Plaza. There truly is no place in the entire world that is more beautiful than the Plaza Mayor at night.

Today, our program went on an excursion to Segovia, a small city about two hours away from Salamanca. There, we saw el acueducto romano (roman aqueduct) as well as el Alcázar, the castle that inspired Walt Disney’s Cinderella castle. I’ve taken about a million photos of Spain so far, and today was no exception. Expect to see pictures on Facebook soon! Now, I’m getting ready to go out with some friends, because it is the first night of Feria--basically, a whole week of fiestas in celebration of Salamanca’s patron saint. We arrived just in time! There are casetas (temporary bars) set up all over town, especially near the Plaza, and people everywhere, as well as lots of good music and food.

I apologize for the rambling post. So much has happened this week that it’s really difficult to know what to write about. The bottom line is, if you ever have a chance to visit Spain, you absolutely must! It is a beautiful, culturally-rich country, and it’s even better than I ever imagined it could be.

¡Hasta luego amigos!

Algunas fotos de la Plaza Mayor:

¡La aventura empieza!

¡Hola a todos!

As you all know, I'll be leaving for Salamanca, Spain, in just a few short weeks! I just got my housing assignment, and I'll be living with a woman named Esperanza Calvo Curto. I'll have another American student from Amherst as a roommate there. My new home is a ten-minute walk from downtown Salamanca. Esperanza lives by herself and doesn't have any children, so she likes to have exchange students for the company. :) I don't know a lot about her except that she loves to draw and read. I'm looking forward to meeting her and getting to know her soon!

Right now, I'm busy prepping to leave. My flight leaves on the evening of August 29 from Philadelphia, and I'll arrive in Madrid around 8:00 in the morning, Spain time.

While I'm there, I'm sure I'll feel a little homesick from time to time, so I would LOVE to hear from you all! Here's my mailing address:

Rachel Rutter
Pº del Rollo, 32, 7º 4B
Salamanca 37003
Spain

Stay tuned here for updates about mi vida en Salamanca!

Con mucho cariño,
Rachel