Salamaca, First Glance

I have now been in Salamanca for 10 days, and feel it’s about time to write about it. The problem is, there’s too much to cover.  And since starting classes this week, my brain’s all mumbly bumbly Spanish.  So, here’s a less-organized but mostly-covered advance of experiences, events, and stuff that, quite possibly, only I find funny.  Pictures are here. 

Breathtaking - Most all the buildings are this sandstone yellow, and create this golden hue on everything.  There are 2 ginormous cathedrals here called the New Cathedral and Old Cathedral, which left me stunned at first when realizing it took almost as long to build the New Cathedral as the US has been a formal country.   

Snowball Fights are Internationally Badass - It snowed on Sunday, which only happens a couple times a year here.  So we went on a walk in the city and proceeded to get into an epic snowball fight in the streets.  Still as legendary as they were as kids. 

Siestas - They’re real, and they’re spectacular.  Every day most all businesses go on siesta from 2-4, leaving you with only cafes and cervecerias to solicit.  This cultural habit took no time at all to get used to.

Festivals - On January 5, there was the Cabalgata de los Reyes Magos (March of the 3 Wise Men) festival and parade.  This city packed the streets and Plaza Mayor to see this festival wind through.  I guess I had higher hopes for… it was kind of cheesy Disney... but was still pretty fun, and looking forward to more.

Tapas - There’s really not much else to say.  Delicious mini portions of (mostly) good meat/potatoes/bread/fish, and most places they’re free with drinks. 

Cheaper to Drink Booze - Makes you think drinks are expensive, eh?  Price check: 1.25-2.20 Euro for a tapa and wine or beer, or add $.50 for coke/water.  Yep.  It’s cheaper to drink here than not.  Another proof point - my favorite wine so far is 1.51 Euro, and that’s twice as much as the cheapest here.  Coca-Cola is about 1.75 per 2L.  My beer is .23 Euro a can, vs .50 for Coke. 

Overdubbing (see, I said I’d get to it) - Spain is rich enough to overdub every program/movie that’s not made here, but can’t afford to hire more than two voice-over males and two females.  The Simpsons are on TV here., and apparently it’s much easier to overdub Marge and Lisa (or the women are better) than it is Homer and Bart.  It’s a disgrace, and I am concurrently writing to pledge they stop this nonsense and learn English.  Until then, I’m concurrently-concurrently writing to pledge repercussions for these people having to listen to that Homer for all these years.

Jamon - it’s ham, and it’s everywhere.  Giant legs of cured ham hanging from every corner.  And my friend Nevin (pronounced in Spanish ‘Nee-ben’) bought one… and it’s delicious.  Oh, and we even went to a bar that had their bartaps shaped like one.  

That’s pretty much it for now.  I had my placement test on Monday, and classes started Tuesday, and they’re intense.  In the past 2 days and 10 hours of class, I’d be surprised if I heard 10 English words from the professors.  And they’re fast talkers.  But, I’ll save that hasta luego.

Barcelona

At 12:30pm on December 30, I arrived in Spain for my first time on a flight from Dusseldorf. I feel this is important to note because if you ever get a chance to fly on Lufthansa Airlines, do it. On a 2 hour flight into Barcelona, I got lunch, a coffee and a Warsteiner, all at no cost. As a business student, I learned the value of economy, and a 11.3oz Warsteiner or a 6oz Coke I will tell you is a no-brainer. From Chicago to Dusseldorf I got 2 Warsteiners, dinner, brandy, water, orange juice, breakfast, coffee, orange juice again, and water (I brought a big water on with me, so I wasn’t being a total lush). Pro-bono promo over.

It only took an hour and a half longer by metro than was supposed to take per their website, so upon arriving everyone had gone out for a bite to eat, leaving the hostal locked. Waiting outside, I proceeded to yell ‘Hola!’ through the iron gates of the entrance for the next hour and a half… well, minus the 10 minutes I went to the sketchy bar next door and realized that my Spanish was not going to do any good in the world of Catalan... also known as the most worthless language ever invented. Eventually my friends came and I got inside and cleaned up, only to come downstairs and commence drinking games with 2 Euro bottles of wine. Let me tell you something - this hurts. Mix it with some Vat 69 and Cuban rum and it’s downright painful. When in Spain.

Well the next day (NYE) my friend Brooke and I mustered up the energy to go for a run to see the city. The first half of the pictures on Picasa are from said event. I quickly realized that somehow, Barcelona was even more beautiful on the ground than from the plane, which you’ll find hard to believe the first time you see it from 15,000 feet. We were staying by the Arc de Triomf, so we ran through that plaza area, through a giant park to the south, to the Mediterranean, and looped to the other side of the park via the beach. Mesmerizing. Still is. Speaking of mesmerizing, I learned of Gaudi. If you haven’t heard of him, he’s this crazy awesome architect that made some great buildings throughout Barcelona in the 1800s, including the Sagrida Familia (Sacred Family). The last half of the pictures are pretty much of his work.

Midnight. 12 grapes for New Years = 12 months of good luck. Done and done. We head on out to the bars at La Rambla, and a block away, Jackie gets her purse snatched off her arm by one of the many infamous pickpocketers. After a sobering high-speed (yah, right) foot chase through the bowels of Barcelona, the bastard got away. Warning - claw the hell out of your purse if you’re walking in a public crowd in ‘lona. In hindsight, it was great seeing a random cook come help us chase him through the city, and people on every corner pointing us in the right direction… but on the one 6-way humanless corner, he won. Back at our hostal and 6 hours of effortless partying later, everyone lost to the ensuing onslaught of an epic hangover.

We weren’t the only ones though. New Years day was hilarious. I’ve never seen an entire city move so slow. We didn’t wake up until 4pm, and I’m pretty sure we beat most of the Spaniards in arising. That night was pretty low key, and the next day we took off by train to Salamanca. En route we watched The Pink Panther dubbed in Spanish, but I’ll save the overall “dubbing” hilarity for a future post.

Sorry for lying about trying to keep these short, but sometimes you just have to write. Salud de Salamanca!

The Beginning

I titled this blog "To The Experience of Experiencing" because for the past 6 months - through the ridiculous amount of work that was 'The MBA Core' - I couldn’t help but non-verbally communicate my intense excitement of spending the next 4-8 months in Spain. And coincidentally, I got quite a few suggestions. After every fold of my gray matter was overflowing with places to eat, drink and see, I finally came up with one idea… that I would kindly listen to these suggestions, and remember as much as I could, but leave the majority simply to the experience of experiencing. Because honestly, if I live everyone else’s good times, I am left with nothing truly for myself, and if my New Years in Barcelona has any foreshadow to it, there will be a lot of experiencing to be had. Not to mention I forgot to write down what you and others have said…

I want to keep these posts short, so I will save my next update for happenings of my trip in Barcelona, and include some recent musings about Salamanca. For pictures from the BCN trip, you can view them now here.

Also, with so much happening in my life right now, there seems an infinitesimal number of things to write about. I appreciate any comments/suggestions you may have.

Salud de Salamanca!