Well, my classes have started. While I am studying here, my classes at the University of Valladolid include Spanish culture, grammar, history, geography, and literature. The professors are fantastic and I'm excited to go to class every day!
In my classes, the majority of the people are from Eau Claire (there are 47 of us here). The next biggest group is from Stevens Point (about 15 I think), but we also have people from California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tai Wan, Korea, Japan, China etc. in the program. It was funny today though because we were talking about stereotypes Americans have of Spaniards and someone said that it was cold in Spain. Then the professor looked around and asked who was from Wisconsin and all but 4 people (2 from Tai Wan and 2 from California) raised our hands. Yeah, we don't think it's cold here.
It's been about 5-7 degrees Celsius here which, I think, is about 40-50
Fahrenheit so it's been perfect! It's basically Spring!
Since being here, I have been able to explore a lot of the city. I have seen most of the well known places, including where Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand were married as well as the biggest and oldest churches in the city and so much more! The city itself is fairly condensed, but the school is on the opposite side of the city from where I live so I have about an hour walk to school every morning and an hour back afterward. But that's alright because then I can explore more parts of the city. This morning when I wrote this originally, I was able to say that I hadn't gotten lost yet, but tonight I kinda did so I can't say that any more! Oops, oh well. Que lástima (what a shame). Everyday I walk about 9-10 miles to get from place to place so I've been able to see the vast majority of the city (I think). The only thing I know I haven't seen yet is the beach, but apparently it's really small, and I'll wait to go there til it gets a little warmer.
So far, it has been fun getting to know about the culture here in Spain and how different it is from Wisconsin. Everyone here walks pretty much everywhere! Pretty much the whole city of Valladolid practices La Siesta (all stores close and everyone goes home to eat lunch with their families and then take a nap. It usually goes from about 2-5), the majority of people stay out extremely late, and everyone enjoys eating/drinking tapas or café con leche when they go out.
P.S. the tapas are fantastic! here are a few pictures from the café that I went to the other night. Hope you enjoy!
Hasta luego!
Café con leche a un café de la ciudad
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