I love the Plaza Mayor

So this post is pretty much exclusively a profession of my love for Salamanca's Plaza Mayor.

I've been enjoying an early summer for the past few weeks - thank you Spain!!! Salamanca is alive again - the streets are packed with people going for a stroll, meeting friends, etc. All winter, the plaza was just a place to pass through on the way to class. Now the cafe tables are out and the plaza is the hub of social life. I love summer weather - why can't we just skip winter every year?

All the Salamantinos enjoying the sun

 Plus, the plaza is the best spot for ICE CREAM! I've fallen in love with dulce de leche ice cream, btw...

Meredith and Christina

Last week I went out with some friends for tapas in the plaza's bars - delicious! I really haven't taken advantage of the cheap, delicious tapas as much as I should have this semester...

Yummy!

Other Plaza Mayor happenings... The Salamanca women's basketball team won the European championship Pretty big deal except that, let's be honest, no one really follows women's basketball. Regardless, the team celebrated in a ceremony on the town hall balcony and the plaza was completely full of people watching. I wish I had had my camera with me...

My Spanish professor, Emilio, told us that the movie Vantage Point takes place in Salamanca. I'd never heard of it, but it came out in 2008 and has a bunch of big movie stars. The main action takes place in the Plaza Mayor, woot woot! The only problem is, to the disgust of Salamantinos, the movie was filmed in Mexico where they built a replica. Now I really want to see the movie... even though it got bad reviews. Here's the trailer:

Bom dia, Portugal

Our IES group went to Portugal last weekend. It was a VERY rushed trip - we went to six cities in three days and probably spent about 15 hours on the bus - but it was still a blast.

Our first stop: Coimbra, an old university town (sort of the Portuguese version of Salamanca). It was a GORGEOUS day (75 degrees or so), and the city was beautiful!

The old part of town

Park where we had a picnic lunch

We toured some of the old university buildings. The Baroque library looked straight out of Beauty and the Beast! Apparently they have bats that live in the library to eat insects that might destroy the ancient books, though... creepy. 

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, so I stole this one off
the internet

We made our way down the coast to Lisbon, stopping at Batalha to see the monastery - absolutely gorgeous. It was wonderful to get off the hot bus!

They started building it in 1386 and finished in the 1500s - Europe
is soooooo old!

Lots of gorgeous stained glass inside... reminded me of the
children's book The Cathedral Mouse!

The courtyard

My favorite city that we visited was Sintra. Really, you only need to see this photo to understand why:

"I must just observe that the village of Sintra is the most beautiful
in the world." -Lord Byron

We explored the palace and then had free time to wander through the adorable village. Here are some photos of the gorgeous houses, just to make my mom jealous.

New life plan: learn Portuguese and then move into
this house...

...or this one

We drove out to the coast to see La Boca do Inferno (Hell's Mouth) - great photo op!

Reminds me of the Washington coast!

Add caption

Before heading back to Lisbon, we stopped in Cascais for lunch. Unfortunately, it started raining before we could enjoy the beach :(

The whole gang in Cascais

We really didn't spend enough time in Lisbon - we saw a few sites and explored the city center, but there was so much more to see! I didn't like Lisbon as much as I thought I would - really pretty, but also kind of dirty and sketchy. I haven't felt so unsafe in any other European city. A guy on a bike tried to steal our purses and then followed us around... creepy. But anyway, here are some photos (of the architecture, not the pickpockets!!):

Remind you of a certain bridge in California...?

On our last day, we stopped at the Basilica in Fátima, a Catholic pilgrimage site. In 1917 the Virgin Mary supposedly appeared to three shepherd children, and the Catholic church has officially deemed the apparitions "worthy of belief." Not going to lie - this all means absolutely nothing to me. But I had a good time with my fellow atheists/agnostics. This picture pretty much sums up how we entertained ourselves:

Acting out the apparition of Mary

The Basilica

Religious tourism! There were sooooooo many stalls selling Our
Lady of Fátima trinkets

Catholics walk on their knees to the Basilica - some came prepared
and wore kneepads!

A quick note on digital piracy...

I can't tell you how many times Spaniards have casually talked about downloading movies and songs from the internet. Of course, "digital piracy" is huge in the United States too, but it seems like Americans discuss their exploits with a bit more secrecy and shame... My friend Miguel said that literally everyone does it and no one feels bad about it. So yesterday I asked my Spanish professor about it, since he is pretty knows everything. He told us that Spain has one of the highest rates of illegal downloading in the world, partly because Spain's laws are so lenient. Apparently the government is under a ton of pressure from the film industry to toughen up their laws, and a bill has just been proposed that would do just that. Needless to say, the bill is rather unpopular.

I looked this up on Google News and found these headlines:

"Spain Declared European Kings of Illegal Downloading"
"In Spain, Internet piracy is part of the culture"

Also, the second article said this:

"The unauthorized downloading and streaming of movies and television shows from the Web is a growing problem for the entertainment industry around the world. In a few key countries such as Spain, however, it has become an epidemic that is forcing movie studios to consider no longer selling DVDs in the country."

Chilling stuff, lol

Before I got sick, I went on a trip to Córdoba and Sevilla in southern Spain with a group called ESN Salamanca. The only other person I knew on the trip was Diana, my friend from Mexico (she's the person who told me about the trip in the first place).

w/ Diana

It was a fabulous weekend and I met people from all over the world - I love how international tiny Salamanca is!!! I hung out mostly with some people from Mexico, Argentina, and Italy.

First stop - Córdoba! Unfortunately it was super rainy...

Alejandra was the only person smart enough to
bring an umbrella... so we had to share

Córdoba is known for its Islamic influence (it reminded me of Morocco!) and its AMAZING mosque. Since the building isn't used as a mosque anymore (controversial topic...), non-Muslims can actually go inside, unlike the mosques in Morocco.

Outside the mosque

Grand entance

The mosque was huge - like a Costco building or something...

The striped arches went on FOREVER - so cool

The "mosque" is now a cathedral. When the Christians took over and kicked the Arabs out of Andalucía in 1492 (Spanish history note: everything important happened in 1492), they built their cathedral smack dab in the middle of the old mosque. Everywhere else, they destroyed the mosques and built a cathedral in its place, but I guess this mosque was so pretty they couldn't bear to tear it down...

The cathedral in the middle... looking VERY
out-of-place

The big controversy, for the past decade or so, is that Spanish Muslims have been asking the Catholic church to let them pray in their old mosque. The Vatican says no - rude.

Just to get a sense of scale...

We walked around the beautiful old city and found all sorts of adorable little streets and patios filled with flowers.

with Alejandra and Fernanda (Ale and Fer) on
La Calleja de las Flores

Another adorable street in the old Jewish
neighborhood - don't know the name of this one...

A few of us went to the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos, one of the castles where Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand lived back in the 1400s. The castle was fun to explore, but the best part was the beautiful gardens. Of course, the moment we went outside it started pouring.

Rain and... palm trees?

The gang in the rain - me, Felipe, Diana, Ale, Fer, Facu, and Keitaro
(Felipe and Facu are from Argentina, the othersvare from Mexico)

On Saturday we went to Sevilla. I didn't take as many pictures there, since I'd already been last semester... We went to the cathedral and Plaza de España, explored the city,

Sevilla Cathedral - artsy angle/attempt to fit
everything in the photo

ORANGES!!! I'm not sure why orange trees
make me so happy, but they do

Diana, me, plus the Italians Sergio and Alessandra

The whole group at the Plaza de España

Tomorrow night a bunch of us are getting together for a Mexican/Argentinean dinner, and Alessandra talked about having an Italian dinner sometime next week!!!!!!!!! Good thing I didn't make British friends, he he

Sick in Spain

This week is absolutely awful - lots of assignments, lots of mucus, and no voice. I skipped all my classes today and just stayed in bed, alternating between napping and writing papers. All my host mom's maternal instincts have gone into overdrive and she's been taking good care of me! I went to the doctor this afternoon, so now I'm all stocked up on meds! Now that I've experienced universal healthcare firsthand, I feel inclined to report that I didn't have to wait any longer for an appointment that I would in the United States. Also, my doctor was excellent - she gave me a full checkup and even gave me advice for my scoliosis. Excellent service even without the free market, lol!

Speaking of healthcare, in my Sociology class last week we were debating the cultural impact on philosophies of human rights, and the right to universal healthcare came up. The professor asked "Where's our American student? You should explain the situation in the US to us." I tried to defend us a little against the "Americans don't believe health is a basic human right" argument, since lots of Americans are in favor of expanding healthcare coverage... This also came up with my friend, Alessandra, who's from Italy, and pretty much with every Spaniard that I've met. Europeans can't even comprehend our system - it just goes against all their values. 

Random side note: our Spanish professor told us a joke/poem that's very popular in the European Union. Found a version in English online:

Heaven and Hell

Heaven is a place  where the police are British, 

the cooks French, 

the mechanics German, 

the lovers Italian, 

and it is all organized and run by the Swiss.  

Hell is a place where the police are German, 

the cooks British, 

the mechanics French, 

the lovers Swiss, 

and it is all organized and run by the Italians. 

Aren't stereotypes fun! And a longer version, that includes both the United States and Spain...

Heaven is a place where ...

the Germans are in charge of the organization; all the police are British; all the environmentalists are Norwegian; the French are the chefs; the Swiss are the bankers; all the salesmen are American; the Belgians make the chocolate; the Swedes are the lovers; the goldmines are run by South Africans; all the storytellers are Irish; all the distillers are Scottish; the opera singers are Italian; the Danes are the brewers; all the spices are provided by Indians; the fishermen are Icelandic; all the footballers are Brazilian; the Spanish run the holiday resorts; and the Dutch are the merchants.

Hell is a place where ...

all the police are German; the British are the chefs; the Norwegians are the singers; the French are in charge of organization; the Australians are the lovers; the Swiss run the navy; the Americans are the brewers; the Belgians put up the signposts; all the comedians are Swedish; the South Africans are in charge of racial integration; the only logic is Irish; the speech therapists are Scottish; the Ethiopians are in charge of agricultural policy; the Italians run the armed forces; the Indians are in charge of birth control; the tour companies are run by Icelanders; all the economists are Brazilian; the Serbs are in charge of human rights; the Spanish are the road builders; all the orphanages are run by Romanians; ...and the common language is Dutch

Spaniards are CRAZY

This week, Spain celebrated Los Carnavales, which is basically a combination of Halloween, New Year's, and Summer Send-Off (Kenyon reference...). It's a five-day party all over Spain, but there are several cities that go ALL OUT for this event. Like, literally, they spend the whole year preparing the festivities. Luckily for us, one of the huge spots for celebrating is only about an hour away from Salamanca. Tiny Ciudad Rodrigo is an adorable small town that everyone says is the most boring place in the world the rest of the year.

Away from the party - typical Spanish small town...

...but just a few blocks away the streets were packed

Check out some of the costumes:

priests!

chickens!

Rubik's cubes!

Mario Bros!

Zorro!

We didn't put much effort into our costumes... just bought some cheap masks (not an easy feat on the day before Carnavales - the store was packed with everyone buying costumes and it took about 20 minutes navigate our way to the check-out counter).

Los Carnavales in Cuidad Rodrigo are distinct from the celebrations in the rest of Spain because they incorporate bulls! They have an encierro (running of the bulls) and corridas (bullfights). Yes, I attended both, and I realize that some of you will never forgive me... more on the controversy later.

The running of the bulls was SO MUCH FUN to watch - there were hundreds of people participating (so many IDIOTS!!!!!). Check out these action shots:

Here they come!!!

Idiot... (also, love the guy in the wedding dress)

All guys - I think they're the only ones dumb enough to participate

WHY ARE YOU SO STUPID?

two escape routes: over or under the fence

Also, they had a fake running of the bulls for the kids - cutest thing ever:

unfortunately I couldn't get the kids in the photo (they ran by before
I even knew what was happening...)

And now for the bullfight... Just so I don't leave you all with awful Spanish stereotypes, here are some facts to consider: only about 25% of Spaniards support bullfighting, the "aficionados" are mostly old men, and bullfighting is now illegal in a few regions of Spain, such as Cataluña (where Barcelona is). So I viewed it as a dying art that I wanted to see before it disappears completely. I want to assure you all that I am against bullfighting, but I thought it was important to actually see a corrida in order to understand it better. Parts of the spectacle were really amazing to watch - the interactions between the torero and the bull were almost like a dance. It's obvious why it's considered an art rather than a sport. I hated all the other parts, though - stabbing, blood, etc.

So, if you wish, you can scroll down to see the photos (don't worry - I didn't include any gory ones)...