Puente.

This past weekend was Puente.  What is “Puente”? Puente is what the Spanish call an extended weekend.  When there is a holiday that falls on a Friday or Monday, they call the weekend Puente.  Well, since I am a language assistant, my Puente began on Wednesday evening, as I only work every third Thursday – and they gave me my first Thursday of Puente weekend OFF!  So, I had Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday to do absolutely nothing! Where did I go? Salamanca!

Thursday evening, Maria and I went out with Mamen’s friends in Navalmoral.  For dinner, we met with Diana and Jose Miguel, two of our new friends in Navalmoral.  We had a wonderful dinner of bacalao dorado (cod cooked with chips and eggs) and a sartén (pan) of huevos rotos (broken eggs) fixed with pimientos, fries, and chorizo.  Both were extremely tasty, as we shared them Spanish style – all eating from the same plate!  After dinner, we went to bar El Abuelito (The little grandma) where Mamen says they start drinking every Thursday night.  We then went bar hopping to Canterville, Boulevard, and MundoPop.  The night was spent with new friends (Mamen, Diana, Jose Miguel, Oscar, Ismael, Dioni, and Maria of course) sharing drinks and overcoming the language barrier, which of course got easier as the night went on! It was such a fun night out! Today is Thursday and I couldn’t be happier to see where the night goes.

Oscar, Maria, Jose Miguel, Dioni, Mamen, Ismael, Me in Canterville

Friday morning, we took a 7:15 bus to Caceres to do NIE paperwork again, step 2 of 3.  Having gone out Thursday night until 5:30am, it only gave us about an hour to “nap”.  It was such a long morning spent in the international immigration office, but we accomplished what we needed to do.  Now, I must wait until Novemeber 22, when my international identity card will officially be complete!  For lunch, Maria and I met up with another auxiliar, Kristen, who lives and teaches in Caceres.  We picked up some food at the supermarket and cooked at Kristen’s flat.  We finished with just enough time to run to the bus at 14:00/2:00pm and start our journey to Salamanca!

After the four hour journey from Cáceres to Salamanca, we were exhausted.  But, we were in Salamanca, and nothing was stopping me from going out.  We stayed with a friend whom I met in 2008, Tasos, who offered to let us stay with him for the weekend.  After tapas on Calle Van Dyke and getting ready, we set out for our first Salamantina night.  Friday night, the Spanish national team “La Roja” was actually playing IN Salamanca against Lithuania!  How weird to think that the team who won the EuroCup and World Cup were in the same town as us!  We watched the game on a big screen in the Plaza Mayor as we waited in line to take a picture with the “La Copa del Mundo” – The World Cup trophy!! We were also fortunate to see different memorabilia from years past, including the EuroCup trophy from 2008! It was such a cool experience! The rest of the night was spent in Irish Rover, Paniagua, Chupiteria, and Khandavia.  It was surreal being back in Salamanca – such a good feeling seeing old friends!

Plaza Mayor packed with people watching La Roja vs Lithuania.

Watching the game as we wait in line for our picture with the World Cup trophy!

EuroCup 2008 Trophy

Spain's 2010 FIFA World Cup Trophy

Jorge, Me, Nacho, Maria outside Chupiteria.

Having a drink with Whitney in Paniagua! Viva Las Whitneys!

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Saturday, we walked around the cuidad dorada, looking at the famous Rana/frog, The Astronaut, Casa de las Conchas and Calixto y Melibea garden.  We had a nice meal Tasos had prepared for us, complete with pumpkin soup, barbequed chicken with rice, and ice cream!  We met with two other auxiliaries later in the evening and had churros con chocolate in Valor! I enjoyed showing everyone Salamanca as I know it.  We saw a religious festival/ceremony happening in the street as we walked from Valor to the Plaza Mayor - I can't wait to see Easter celebrations as they do similar things in the streets, but 10x bigger and better! Saturday night, 12 auxiliares from Extremadura all met together in the plaza for a much needed night out!  We started at Paniagua, Chupiteria, Gatsby, Camelot, Irish, Cubic, and Khandavia.  It was a typical night out – with group photos in the Plaza Mayor and at “the statue”!  I danced on the speaker at Camelot for the first time – something I had only seen my 2008 house mates Annie and Emily do multiple times!  I am now part of the club. J

Casa de las Conchas - House of Shells

View fromCalixto y Melibea garden - looking toward San Esteban Monastary on far left

Maria and I in Plaza Mayor by day

Religious Ceremony in street in Salamanca

Plaza Mayor by night!!!

Extremadura Auxiliares in Plaza Mayor

Proof that I danced on the Camelot speaker!

Maria(Scotland), Kim(Scotland), Laura(England), Me

Sunday.  After a long night out, we awoke the next morning to a steak dinner with potatoes and peas, mushroom soup, and ice cream!  What a nice wakeup call, right?!  We got ready and went to the Salamanca soccer game with some other auxiliaries.  What we thought was a “short walk” turned into a 45 minute brisk walk, along the Camino de Santiago (a pilgrimage that takes you on a hike across all of Spain-taking about 40 days!).  Maria and I bought soccer scarves: mine of Salamanca, hers of España.  Our seats were in fondo Sur – on the south side behind one of the goals.  The only other time I had been in the Salamanca soccer stadium was in 2008 when a group of us study abroad girls were invited to attend their practice!  There were only 6 of us in the entire stadium – this time was much different! I think there were 7,000 or 8,000 fans in attendance for the Salamanca/Granada game, which they say is a small crowd.  But, the atmosphere was incredible! People were constantly singing, beating drums, blowing whistles, waving flags, and throwing their hands up and shouting/cursing at the players.  I’ve never been a fan of soccer, but if I could attend more live Spanish games, I could totally be a fan! Sunday evening, we went out again – it is Salamanca – the town that never sleeps!

Soccer game poster - Salamanca vs. Granada

Granada 2 / Salamanca 1 - still a fun match!

GOOOOO SALAMANCA!

Paniagua - everyone writes on the walls!

Khandavia with Helen and Javi

Monday afternoon Tasos made spaghetti bolognaise – some of the best I’ve ever had!  Maria and I walked into the plaza to find several other auxiliaries who had just arrived from Plasencia.  We spent the afternoon walking to el Rio Tormes and the streets of Salamanca. I found Carmen, my ISA director from Fall 2009, in the street near ISA and we caught up about all of the ISA-ers from Fall 2009. We had a drink at Don Quixote Café with Seodhna, an Irish girl who’s Salamanca life parallels mine – with an obsession with Irish Rover and its bartenders! She is also teaching English and we were able to share stories about Salamanca, students, and Irish Rover.  It was so nice actually sitting down with Seodhna and not just chitchatting at the bar like the past. After meeting with Seodhna, Maria and I ran across town to see Lourdes, my host mom from last fall, at her place of work.  She was peering out the window waiting for me, as we spotted each other while I was in the crosswalk!  It was like no time had passed.  It was so nice catching up with her.  Hopefully next time I am in Salamanca I can have a famous Lourdes meal!  I failed to remember they had a restaurant, so next time I’m in Salamanca, I will be eating at El Fogón and visiting Lorena, my old host sister. 

View of Cathedrals and Old Roman Bridge

Everyone searching for the Frog. (it's on the far right column about half way up!)

visiting with Carmen!

Don Quixote Cafe

I had been looking forward to Monday night for quite some time – as Monday means BP in Irish! However, this past Monday there was no beer pong as David and Oscar were in Barcelona for the Puente weekend.  After some tasty tapas, with a wonderful garlic sauce in Calle Van Dyke, we headed out for the night with the other auxiliaries. We spent most of the night at Medivo’s barre libre GRATIS para las chicas – free bottomless ladies night!  As you could imagine, we had a few sangrias too many!  Since most of other auxiliares were leaving Tuesday morning rather early, it was an early night – for everyone but me!  I headed to Irish Rover to see a few friends – and ended up seeing a few more friends I didn’t think I would see: Mary Angeles, AIFS student director from 2008 and Yussef, a friend Gina and I met in 2008. (Yes, Gina and Rachel – I saw YUSSEF! When I asked him for Hamza’s new number… he said “As you know I do not speak to my brother” – I’m sure you can hear him say it now! Rach – I also saw los jemelos!!!  Ow ow) I then went to Paniagua to meet with Nacho, which was the end of my night.

Megan, Melissa and I in Medivo

Two things I love: Yussef and Irish!!!

Two Irish Rover Girls - Mary and Whitney :)

Tuesday morning around 9:30am, Maria and I boarded a bus to Caceres which would then take us to Navalmoral.  We need to look for a better schedule between avanzabus, alsa, and renfe – as it took us way too long to get home when Salamanca is only 2 hours from Navalmoral!  After arriving home, Maria and I watched the Spain/Scotland soccer game that was taking place in Maria’s hometown of Glasglow, Scotland, just around the corner from her house!  However, at half time I called it a night as the weekend’s festivities had worn me out!

As you can imagine, Wednesday morning was horrible – as I had barely slept the entire weekend and found it almost impossible to sleep at times on the bus.  But, I only had 1 class with 3^rd and 4^th graders so it wasn’t too horrible.  I’m teaching these kids a play called “Pretty Ritty” that they will perform when the group of English speakers from surrounding eco-friendly European schools comes to visit. I had to speak in Spanish at times to explain what was going on – I think they found it quite entertaining as translating a play can be really difficult! But, I think it made them more comfortable with me as they could see I am still learning too.  After school, I came home to take a longgg siesta!  Wednesday night was spent skyping with family and friends back home, viewing pictures from my cousin Abby’s wedding through skype with my mom, and talking to Kortney in Colorado about our obsession with Salamanca.  It was a nice afternoon! (As you can see, afternoons, evenings, and nights all run together and are all intertwined.  The Spanish life style is definitely more night friendly and 19:00/7:00pm or 20:00/9:00pm are still “por la tarde” or afternoon… not night!) On the walk home, I saw two friends, Oscar and Ismael, who I decided to go to a bar with and have a drink! We went to a place called La Bodega de Jamon- yes, their ham was very good!  It was a nice hour or so with friends, which we mainly spent organizing our Welcome Dinner “La cena de bienvenida” which is happening tonight, Thursday! We are all bringing different things for the dinner – I’m in charge of cerveza as I told them about beer pong and they want to learn to play!! I think the dinner menu is wine, beer, bacalao dorado, crunchy meatballs, and dessert.  I’m very excited to learn to cook bacalao as it has been one of the best comidas I’ve had in Extremadura so far!  It will be an interesting night, to say the least!  I will let you know how it goes!

I could not have planned a better Puente than the one I spent in Salamanca: the Copa del mundo, el partido de futbol, mis amigos salamantinos, and the feeling of being “home”.  I cannot wait to spend another weekend in Salamanca.