Acrobat show!

This is a scene from a free acrobat show we saw in the Plaza Mayor this past Tuesday night. This show was part of the FACYL international art festival that is going on in Salamanca this week. The acrobat troupe is from the Republic of Equatorial Guinea in Africa.

Cariños,
EuroSistersK&M

View of the Plaza Mayor

This is a view of the Plaza Mayor from the City Hall balcony. We were invited there to hear a speech given by the Salamancan Head of Turism who was welcoming us to the city. This balcony is really old (of course) and has held important people like celebrities and royalty from many different countries . Michelle's mom will be excited to hear that Princess Diana stood in the same spot!

Cariños,

EurosistersK&M

From the roof of our hotel in Madrid!

Cariños,

EuroSistersK&M

Video!

IT FINALLY WORKED!!!!!

So we have had the hardest time uploading pictures and videos on our blog because the internet and computers at our school are slooooooooooooooow. But today I got it to work! HUZZAH!

This is the first video we took on our first night in Salamanca, the first time we saw the Plaza Mayor beautifully lit up.

MORE VIDEOS AND PICS TO COME!

Cariños,

EuroSistersK&M

Our Daily Walk

We wanted to devote a post to walking because that is what we do. We walk at least two hours a day. It is 30 minutes to school one way, and we go at least twice a day. During these 30 minute intervals, we must find ways to entertain ourselves. You might think that walking through the lovely Plaza Mayor and in view of 800 year old cathedrals, our walks would be simply delightful. But no. After the second time you walk to school, you get over these things and you notice how much your feet actually hurt. So we have developed a few things that help us get though our walk.

1. Staring at the mannequins in the windows. We walk through a shopping area and look forward to when the mannequins' clothes change. Like yesterday all of them had new clothes! Yay!

2. The sidewalks here are made out of old tiles and cobblestone. Some of these tiles are loose. When you step on them a certain way, they shift and make noise! We like to count how many we step on that move and see who has the most. Currently Kendra has 6 and Michelle has 3.

3. Natalie. So on our walk, we pass a few bus stops that have advertisments. For the first two weeks these advertisments were of Natalie Portman and some perfume. It's nice to see a familar face. However, now the advertisments are different, but it was nice while it lasted.

We also have to avoid being hit by cars or splashed when those cars drive through puddles, but that is not really entertaining....

Paz. Hasta Luego.
EuroSistersK&M

The Many Things We Do in Spain

So we do not have internet on the weekends. Over the past few days, we have been doing many things here in Salamanca. 
We had a tour a few days ago and we were shown a pretty little park that we have chosen to call the Love Garden. We like to go there to read for class. We call it the love garden because there is a well with locks hanging from it. The locks are hung there by couples in love. We often get rained on in this park. The weather for the next week is going to be rainy which is awesome because we walk everywhere. By the way, it really happens like the movies when a car drives through a puddle and the water splashes all over you. 
On our tour, we also saw the famous facade of the University of Salamanca. We found the frog that is hidden in the facade. The legend says that finding this frog will bring you academic luck! Huzzah! Our tour guide, Roberto, also showed us this chocolate place, VALOR!, that specializes in churros con chocolate. You can also order and drink pure chocolate. Thanks Roberto!
Last week our host mom Angela sang to us and showed us some Sevillan dance moves. She then proceeded to dress us up like Flamenco dancers! No worries. We have pictures. 
This past weekend we spent our time going to the 7 story department store, El Corte Ingles. We also went to the new and old cathedrals, where we saw cathedral cats. No, its not a musical about religious cats. They are just cats that live in and around the cathedrals. We also had dinner with our group and enjoyed a magic show. It was pretty hilarious. Saturday night we went to a free concert put on by the art festival Facyl. We saw Javiera Mena. Facyl is an international art festival that is put on by the city of Salamanca every summer. It is a week long festival with concerts, art shows, performances, lectures and hot air balloon rides, no joke. A lot of it is free so we have been taking advantage of these things. 
Over the weekend we noticed several things. 
1. Saturday is the day to get married in Salamanca. We saw at least 4 different weddings all over the city.
2. Sunday is the day to paint Salamanca! Even if the forecast is rainy. There were lots of student artists out on the streets painting the buildings.
3. Twins. Salamanca is full of baby twins. We are not sure what causes it, but just in case, we are not going to drink the water...


Hasta Luego
EuroSistersK&M

(Insert Clever Title)

Hello Blog Readers!

We woke up late this morning. We were 30 minutes late to class. huzzah!

So there some things that we wanted to mention on our other posts, but they just happened to slip our minds.

1) KEVIN!

So, we have a groupmate named Kevin. He tends to get left behind, kind of like Kevin from Home Alone. When we were in Avila, our group walked to the bus station. We were there for about 45 minutes. When we walked back to the information building, suddenly, Kevin appeared! He didn't realize that we had walked away or which direction we went. So now, whenever we go somewhere as a group, we always double check "¿Esta Kevin?" Once, while taking a tour of Salamanca, we saw him and our professor walking the wrong direction. When we called them over she said "¡Por que estoy con Kevin!" Hilarious.

2) Showers

Our shower is a lie. In order to save hot water, which is expensive, we were told by our host mom to bathe as follows: 

-Turn shower on to let water heat up to 38 degrees C.

-Take handheld shower head and rinse body. Turn off water.

-Lather with soap.

-Turn shower back on and rinse off.

It's more annoying than it seems because you are standing in the cold. So no more typical hot showers. This makes Kendra very unhappy.

3)Food!

Our host mom is a very good cook. Yesterday we had tomate sopa con pan tostada and pollo y papas fritas. Also we have albaricoques every day. SO GOOD! There was also this potato soup mush thing that we dipped Spanish pork rinds into. We also always have bead with every meal. It is a type of baggette. This makes Kendra happy! They always serve Michelle too much food. They always want her to eat more.

4) While we are having fun, we miss you all very much.

I miss your faces! (Kendra) We are having the hardest time trying to download pictures with this internet.

Hasta Luego
EuroSistersK&M