Bienvenidos a Salamanca!

I haven't had too much internet access as of late so I'll catch you up on my last few days in Spain. sunday morning we toured the Alhambra in Granada. It was so beautiful. It's hard to believe we got to walk around a place so old and full of history. To the right is a bell that all the single girls in Granada ring on January 1st to hopefully change their relationship status during that year. The other picture is of one of the patios in the Alhambra.

From Granada we had a 5 hour trip to Madrid where we dropped off 2/3rds of the group while the rest of us continued on to Salamanca.

Salamanca has been great so far. Everything is smaller and more intimate. The people seem nicer too. Our padres could not be nicer. Carmen and Miguel are 65 and 70 years old but boy do they look good. Carmen is a hot grandma! She's also a great cook. We had potato soup, a ham and cheese panini, watermelon, and flan the first night. They love to sit and talk with us as we eat which is so nice. Miguel loves to talk futbol and Carmen loves bull fights. Such typical Spanish conversations haha.

Our first morning we slept in to recover from traveling. We woke up for lunch and Carmen had made us pasta and pork chops. Miguel then walked us to school and on the way we met Morgan and Megan (girls from Samford) because they live only a block away. We live about a 25 minute walk to school. Boy are we going to be in shape after this trip!

Our classes for this term will be in the afternoon from 2-5:30. I think it will be a nice change. School was just orientation and a walk around the city. It was nice just to be able to see what's close and have a Spaniard point out cheap places to buy necessities, grocery stores, banks, and good restaurants.

After school, the Samford group opted to take Flamenco dancing lessons! It was so much fun. Even the guys were good sports and participated. I only wish we would have had flowy long skirts and large roses in our hair. Then it would have been perfect.

From there we treated ourselves to the best ice cream we've had yet in Spain. It's a cute little shop in the Plaza Mayor that has a continuously long line but is worth the wait. Later, it started to rain in the plaza, but only in half of it. It was quite the strange sight! However, we did get to see a rainbow over the plaza on our first day in Salamanca. I think it's a good sign ;)

We made the trek home for dinner and had fish sticks and croquetas with fish and cheese. Don't faint, yes, I actually ate this. I've become quite the trooper. But we also had green beans and potatoes, some of my favorites, so it turned out alright.

Even though we were exhausted, we met up later with some friends in the Plaza Mayor because we heard it was beautiful at night. Do you recognize this picture?

From there we wandered around exploring and found all the beautiful old building illuminated at night. There's a great plaza near the cathedral that is absolutely gorgeous and I know we'll be spending more time there too.

Today, after an amazing breakfast of toast (actually toasted), strawberry jelly, orange juice, and COFFEE:) we managed to find the biblioteca that has free wifi. Life lesson of the day: don't take internet and communication for granted. I think it'll actually be good for us to have less internet access so we're not so dependent on it. Anyways, we're currently at the biblioteca just updating, doing homework, and writing our journals we have to turn in Thursday.

*Keep praying for us that we'll push through and be motivated to work hard in school. Love you all!

Alzaré mis ojos a los montes,

de dónde vendrá mi socorro?

Mi socorro viene de Jehová

que hizo los cielos y la tierra.

Salmo 121:1-2