Orientation: Salamanca

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Salamanca, Salamanca, Castilla y León, Spain
August 27, 2001 - August 31, 2001
After arriving at Barajas Airport in Madrid, the group got on a bus and traveled to Salamanca for orientation. During orientation we tried to get used to speaking in Spanish and finding our way around in another country. We were also made aware of some of the expectations of the program. It gave us time to get over our jet lag and adjust to the Spanish meal schedule before meeting our host families. In addition to visiting sites in the city of Salamanca we also visited other places in the province of Salamanca.

Note: Additional stories are labeled with the word "Extra." Useful links are at the bottom of the page.

Salamanca
Ciudad Rodrigo
Peña de Francia
La Alberca
Salamanca continued
Links

Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain

Plaza Mayor, Salamanca
The sky is blue. The first thing I noticed when I walked out of Barajas Airport in Madrid was how bright the light is in Spain. It seems as though Spain is closer to the sun than the United States. There are cafés along the sides of the Plaza Mayor. You can buy orange juice there that is fresh squeezed by a machine that has oranges rolling around on the top. I discovered how difficult speaking using Spanish would be on my first day in Spain. I asked the waiter for orange juice the way I had been taught in school, but the word I used for juice was a South American word. The waiter had no idea what I was saying. Although I had studied Spanish for two years in high school and two years in college speaking the language was not easy. In the second photo you can see the bells that ring in the Plaza Mayor.

Casa de las Conchas, Salamanca
This house is decorated with sea shells. If I correctly understood our tour guide the sea shells were purchased with money that the house's owner received from the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church gave the owner the money to tear the house down, but the owner decorated the house instead. Do not quote me on this story. I did not understand everything that was being said in Salamanca.

La Clerecia, Salamanca
I think it is impossible to take a photo of all of this building at the same time. I could not take a photo of all of it without getting the Casa de las Conchas in the photo. This building is blocked by the Casa de las Conchas which is why the Catholic Church paid to have the Casa de las Conchas torn down. Once again, do not quote me on that.

Catedral Nueva, Salamanca
Catedral Nueva is Spanish for "New Cathedral". It seems strange to call it that because it is several hundred years old. The day before we left Salamanca I was walking past the Catedral Nueva with some other students when we noticed that there were a lot of peple gathering there. When we asked what whas going on we were told that there was going to be a procession and a special Mass with dancing. A group of people proceeded down the street dressed in the tradional clothing of Salamanca. The women in the procession were escorted by the men. The women were wearing black lace to cover their hair. The church was full of people. The other students and I ended up standing in the back during Mass.

Ciudad Rodrigo, Salamanca, Spain

San Pedro - San Isidoro, Ciudad Rodrigo
This is a church that our tour guide showed us while we were walking through Ciudad Rodrigo. I remember her saying that it was damaged during the Spanish Civil War. I really liked the carvings on the outsides of some of the churches in Spain. I was very impressed with the detail. The statues that are shown in the second photo show kings from the bible just like on the front of Notre Dame in Paris.

Ciudad Rodrigo
This is the wall around the outside of Ciudad Rodrigo.

Grupo de San Lorenzo
Row 1: Dra. C. , Brandt, Ivania, Chrissy, Melanie, Ellen, Rosanna, Martha, Christina
Row 2: Hannah, Darlenia, Klarissa, Kerry, Laura, Ivelina, Zulay, Justyna, Felix
Here is a photo of the whole group which was taken by our tour guide. San Lorenzo is what we called our school in Spanish. The word "grupo" means group. This reminds me of how the program director would say that we were her "favorite group" and then add that we were her "only group". I know she liked us.
You will notice that no one in this photo is wearing shorts. We were told before we went to Spain that it is not acceptable to wear shorts there except near the beach. Only children wear shorts in public in Spain. The temperature was at least 75 degrees Farenheit when this photo was taken.

Ciudad Rodrigo
This is an apartment building. I took the picture because I liked the architecture.

Peña de Francia, Salamanca, Spain

Peña de Francia
The temperature was much cooler at Peña de Francia than in Ciudad Rodrigo. There is a small dark grotto at Peña de Francia with water running inside. I think that the water was special because of its color. There were small black bugs flying around that the Spanish call "mosquitos", but they do not bite people like mosquitos in the United States do.
In the first photo you can see the view from Peña de Francia. I think that you can see all the way to Portugal.
The second photo shows the church that is on the mountain. It was very dark inside of the church. I rember seeing a statue of the Virgin there. The statue was dressed in clothing made out of cloth. It was not like statues I had seen before where the cloths are carved and painted.

La Alberca, Salamanca, Spain

La Alberca
The first picture shows some houses or apartments in the center of La Alberca that are covered in flowers. The second photo shows a carving on the front of a house that was used during the Spanish Inquisition.
Our tour guide showed us a church that seemed to have tombstones in the floor. Then we had freetime to explore the village on our own. I bought a package of almonds that were covered in a glaze. They were good, but they melted in the sun. Almonds are a traditional food in Spain. I ate them mixed with spinach. Also I drank almond milk and had turon which is a tradition dessert made from almonds.
There were South Americans selling sweaters and other hand made items in La Alberca. I think they were from Peru or somewhere in the Andees. I was surprised to see Peruvians in Spain.

More Salamanca

Convento de San Esteban, Salamanca
When I had free time in Salamanca I would go walking around the city with the other students. This was one of the buildings we walked past as we were exploring Salamanca.

Puente Romano, Salamanca
I walked to this bridge a few differenct times with other students from the group. We enjoyed this bridge because it was pretty for photographs and there was a park next to it. Our tour guide told us later on that the bridge was very old. It is a very famous bridge in Salamanca. I think it was built by the Romans.
If you look carefully you can see Brandt, Darlenia, and Ivania on the bridge.
I was still getting to know the other students while I was in Salamanca and Segovia. I had been in classes with half of the students before going to Spain.

Catedral Nueva, Salamanca
This is a picture of the Catedral Nueva from far away.

Hotel Residencia Condal, Salamanca
The room where I stayed in Salamanca. Hotels in Europe are different than hotels in the United States. The hotels were our group stayed in Spain had single and double rooms. Sometimes the hotels had a few triple rooms. In Salamanca, I was staying in a single room with one single bed. During the rest of our excursions I stayed in a double room. In the double rooms there were two single beds set up next to each other to look almost like a double bed. I took this picture because I had never seen such a narrow hotel room before.

Extra: Tour Guide
During our orientation in Spain we had the same tour guide for at least two days. I am mentioning her because she was one of the first Spainards that I met in Spain. I remember asking her about Spain during lunch. I had the idea that people in Spain never moved to other cities. I though they just stayed where they were born forever. She said that people moved in Spain to get jobs. I guess in that way Spain is like the United States. I thought that the training for tour guides in Spain was interesting. The guides do not give tours of just one site, they are capable or giving general tours of the entire city and they are required to know two foreign languages. I found all of this to be very interesting. When we said good-bye to our guide, Belén after our last day of touring in Salamanca, she kissed all of us good-bye as is the Spainsh custom. I did not know that the Spainsh greeted friends and said good-bye to them with two kisses. First you kiss to your left then to your right. I did this wrong the first time because I had only seen it done in France where they start in the opposite direction.

Links
Here are some links to web sites about the places that we visited during orientation. Some of these sites are run by museums, universities, or other organisations while others are run by governments or private companies. You can find many more web sites about Spain by using a search engine. I am not responsable for the content of these web sites.

This is not an official web site. The views expressed in this web page are my views. This web site is not affiliated with any college, university, or other entity.

Site Last Updated Sunday, October 01, 2006. 18:16:36