After arriving at our host-mother's house (Esperanza), we talked a bit, received a quick tour, and the went to settle in. Her "apartment" is more like a flat- she has many large rooms and lots of space- it just happens to be on one floor instead of a house. The street we live on is practically in the city center.
After our naps, we woke and saw the wedding outside. Men in the wedding party yelled something up to us and got the whole group chanting, but unfortunately I did not understand what they were saying. Later, at 9 pm, we had dinner and all of the other students appeared out of nowhere. Two girls from the UK, two from Singapore, and one from the US. I think there might be another girl who is staying her, but I'm not quite sure. I'm not sure I understood what I was told, but I believe there are two more girls from Ireland coming to stay here as well. The only bad part is that all of us (all girls) have one bathroom to share. Fun… Anyways, the two girls from the UK are here until Thursday, the girl from the US is here for two more weeks, and the two girls from Singapore are here for three more weeks so we will have some people who know what's going on for a while.
Esperanza goes and visits her mother (I think, although my understanding was a little foggy this afternoon) on Saturday nights and Sunday mornings so her friend Inma came and served us dinner and watched the house. She is very nice, but she talks a lot faster than Esperanza. I followed most of the conversation but didn't understand a word she was saying when she was talking about the pictures of people Esperanza has out on a shelf. For dinner we had a vegetable soup, pork, and bread which was perfect to have a kind of hearty meal. Our "dessert" for the end of dinner was yogurt, which our professor from Seattle U raves about all the time. One time in class she just randomly started talking about how bad Yoplait is. Anyways, I had a plain yogurt, but it was very palatable and distinct- I'm definitely looking forward to it again (one of the girls who has been here a while says that we have yogurt every night).
After dinner, Lindsay A. and I wanted to walk to the Plaza Mayor. From the directions we gave us, we turned to the right and walked down the street. As things got quieter, we felt lost and that the Plaza should have been closer so we asked two older women where the Plaza was and they pointed us back in the direction we came from. So, Lindsay A. and I walked back past our house to the Plaza Mayor, which really is two minutes away if you don't walk in the opposite direction first. In the Plaza, all the lights were on and there were a lot of people. They were setting up for a concert (which we didn't stick around for because it was getting late), but from the speakers they were playing these old, scratchy records of Spanish love songs and slow dancing music. Couples in the square were dancing, and a lot of people gathered around to watch them. Typical of Plazas, so I'm learning, the outer rim of the plaza was filled with tables for a lot of restaurants. Lindsay A. and I saw a lot of people walking around with ice cream so we decided to get some as well. I had a waffle cone with chocolate chip mint ice cream- it was nothing amazing, but it fit the scene well. We sat on a bench, ate our ice cream, and watched people dance until we started getting tired.
Lindsay A. and I wanted to go to a Catholic Mass in the morning , which would have been very convenient since there is a church right across the street, but sleeping in was much too tempting for both of us. After breakfast, we met up with Johanna's (Chicago girl) classmates at the Plaza, picked up more of her classmates on our walk, and went to a mercado (market) that happens by the river every Sunday. It was kind of like a farmer's market. There were lots of clothes, pirated DVDs, sunglasses, fake designer purses and sunglasses, shoes, and other stuff. I only ended up buying sunscreen because it seems that I actually managed to forget to pack sunscreen. It was a little overwhelming because there were so many people there, and vendors were yelling at everybody about their cheap prices-some even with megaphones in the middle of the aisles. There was also an old guy wandering up and down the market screaming "La verdad! La verdad! Jesus Cristo es la verdad!" (The truth! The truth! Jesus Christ is the truth!). Lindsay A. and I had some time to burn before meeting up to leave with the group so we sought shade at a little sandwich place in the market and watched people. My only complaint about Spaniards is that they never say "Excuse me!" or move out of the way when walking on sidewalks. They also don't smile but that doesn't matter. It just makes me wonder how Americans have earned the reputation of being rude in Spain.
Inma was here for most of Sunday as well. After lunch, she had Lindsay A. and I sit down with her and listen to her tell us about all the sites in the cities- churches, tennis places, discotecas, churrerías (places that make churros- apparently churros with chocolate are a big thing here), the universities, legends of Salamanca, art, museums. It was a lot to take in, and I think Lindsay A. and I caught most of it, but it was a large workout for my brain. I was mentally exhausted by the time we finished talking.
Esperanza came back later in the afternoon and made dinner of Spanish tortillas which are omelets with onions and potatoes. They are served cold, but are delicious. I accidentally made some beeping noises at the dinner table which turned into a difficult discussion of explaining insulin pumps in Spanish. Two more people showed up today- a girl from Belgium and a girl from Holland, which makes a total of 11 of us here. Afterwards, a group of us from our house went to the Plaza Mayor for ice cream. It was a little rainy, but nothing to deter us from getting ice cream. Also, tonight the United States soccer team was playing the Brazil team, and since the U.S. just beat Spain, all the Spaniards were cheering for the Brazilians. The Brazilians won while we were out, and the entire Plaza erupted into cheers about how great the Brazilians are. Let's just say, I wasn't telling anybody that I was American.
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