Salamanca

Wow! Things have all started to run together as we are heading into the last two weeks of studying in Spain! I can't believe that I have already been here for a month! I feel like it was just yesterday that I was getting off my plane and heading to my host parent's house.

On Friday, we visited the Congress building. It's the oldest building in Europe that has been used only for that purpose. Everything in the building looks exactly like it did when it was built in 1850. The building was so ornate with all of the rooms (much different from Capitol Hill). We visited a few working rooms-one of which had a cool clock in it! It had all kinds of things going on with it-like the position of the sun and such. After that, we visited the room where the congresspeople actually meet to pass laws. It looked a lot similar to the one in the States-only a little bit smaller (by Constitution, there can only be 400 at any one time). There are special seats for the Ministers and every 4 years, the King and Queen come to visit the parliament. Our Culture and Civilization professor (Juan) led the excursion which was a lot of fun! It was a quick visit and then we headed back. Before we got back to the Metro, we stopped at Starbucks. Although I was really tempted to get a macchiato, I decided to hold out. There were some cute mugs though that I might have to go back and buy though.

Yesterday was our last "official" excursion to Salamanca. The day started out early and we rode on the bus for 2.5 hours. Fortunately I was able to sleep the entire time. When we got there, we had a 30 minute break in the Plaza Mayor to get some breakfast. Todd suggested that we go to the Cafe Novelty-they had some delicious looking muffins! We visited a lot of cool places during our day. We saw a house that was called the house of the dead (a very interesting story, to say the least) and then we visited this cool library. It actually used to be a palace that they then converted. When we were done there, we visited the university. It's one of the 4th oldest universities in Europe! Super awesome! We ate our lunches in the shade and watched a couple of wedding parties (Note: Hats are very popular in Europe!). Afterwards, we found an ice-cream shop that had the best ice-cream I have had in Spain. It was more of a yogurt texture and I got the house specialty (which had cherries and nuts in it). After our ice-cream break, we did a little bit of shopping although  I decided not to buy anything (Still need to buy gifts for a few people...). Our last tour was of the cathedral. At first I thought it was going to be like every other church tour we have been on. However, in this tour we got to walk up the towers of the church! The staircases were very narrow and a little scary. We saw the areas where an earthquake and a fire damaged the church. After that, we got to look outside the city! What a great view! We also saw the newer part of the church as well. We had to head out after that because we needed to get back to Madrid.

Last night there was a huge party going on in our backyard! The adults stayed out and partied until 4 AM! I am very impressed by Spanish culture and their willingness to have a good time-even if that means they are tired the next day. Today has been mainly spent studying for my art exam tomorrow over Velazquez. We are also experiencing a heat wave right now, so it is supposed to be 100 degrees almost all week--good swimming weather!

Hasta luego!