Monday, August 1, 2011

El 31 de julio...estoy en casa....

Saludos...

I'm home! This blog will officially rest until 7/25/12 when it will start up again as I am going back again next summer. Sorry about not posting the pictures but exams were looming and I didn't have time to post them!

Stop by room 200 if you would like to see my pictures when school starts...

Hasta la vista.....

Monday, July 25, 2011

July 25th

Saludos a todos,

We have a three day weekend so yesterday a few of us went to Portugal to go to the beach! It must have been seventy degrees with forty degree water...it was cold! I have some terrific pictures of the seaside town with its beautiful, tile covered facades....if I can figure out how to post the pictures I shall.

Back to Salamanca very late last night. It took four hours to get to Aviero Beach in Portugal and of course four hours to return. Back to my studies as our exams begin tomorrow. I feel pretty good about them as I study every day ....

I can not believe that I shall be home Saturday night...I can not wait!!! For all of you who have followed this blog, I thank you and as soon as I can get someone to help me post my pictures I shall. The pictures will be of Toledo, Avila and Portugal....

Take care for now and HASTA PRONTO.....
Nancy

Friday, July 15, 2011

July 15th

Saludos a todos....

In my profile there is a picture of me standing in front of a Roman bridge built in 100 BC. Salamanca was part of the Roman trade route originating in Sevilla ending in Galicia.

The rest of the pictures are of the Cathedral of Salamanca, Segovia, Zamora, and Coca. The picture of the 4 ladies is (right to left): Blanca (from Spain), Pelage (from Cameroon), Gabby (from Peru) and your´s truly...
These are the ladies with whom I do everything.

The Cathedral of Salamanca has a very interesting story. Orignally it was built in 1200 in the Romanesque style. My classroom is right across the courtyard from it. My classroom building was also built a long while ago in the early 1400´s. Back to the Cathedral....in the early 1400´s ¨they¨decided to build a bigger  and better Cathedral. Guess what? They actually attached the newer building to the original one! There is an archway that you can walk through to go from the old to the new.

We´ve seen terrific things thus far and I have to say that I am very impressed with this program, and the academic level as well. We just took midterms this week and I am happy to report that I did great!

I am learning so much inside the classroom as well as outside the classroom ...It is a terrific program and would be perfect if my family were here with me!
I hope that you are all well...I shall be home two weeks from tomorrow and I am looking forward to my return.
Blessings!
Nancy

Friday July 15th










Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Tuesday, June 28th

Saludos a Todos...

I arrived in Salamanca, Spain at 5:00 pm on Sunday. It is 6 hours ahead of Raleigh time...

My ¨dorm room¨is very sparce and that is all I am going to say about that!

Salamanca is a beautiful city made up primarily of the University; it was charted in 1218! None of the original buildings from 1218 are left but we do have classes in a building from the 1500s! Very cool! The only structure which still stands from 1218 is a chapel connected to the impressive catedral. I do not know the name of this Cathedral yet but hope to go to mass there Saturday evening...We shall be taking a tour of this soon.

My classes begin at 8:30 am with 1. Evolution of the Spanish Language(wicked interesting). 2. Contemporary History of Spain (from La Guerra Civil 1936 and up) 3. Grámatica Español 4. La Literatura (our professor is heavily into La Generación 98) 5. Class of how to write the Masters Thesis. Each class is 1 hour long and I am finding them all very interesting.

Then we walk 1 mile to the cafeteria and eat comida.

At 4:00 we return to class until 7:00. Today we had a culture class (super interesting) but yesterday we did a walking tour of the University with an expert from the school. He discussed architecture, history etc. It was great.

Our group is made up of approx. 120 people. Surprisingly, most of the people are hispanic! There are very few Northamericans!

I am really glad that I decided to do this and that my family is going along with this. So far...nothing outrageous has happened, this is a good thing. I am actually quite the hand raiser in my grammar class and am finding it very easy! Yesterday I had to explain the differences between the Preterite and  the Present perfect  ( called Preterite perfect) to a cuban man who was sitting next to me...imagine that!!!! In his defense, he said that he was a gym teacher.....

The language is all coming back to me and I am very happy about that! It is truly like riding a bike...

One of my class mates and I are organizing a field trip on Saturday to eat Paella in a restaurant near the Plaza Mayor and then we want to go see the Leonardo DiVinci exhibit and mass....Blanca and I are sending around a sign up sheet tomorrow. This is of course not during class when the prof. is teaching!

Forgot to mention that yesterday we sat outside at a café in La Plaza Mayor and had a glass of wine and just watched people and chatted...my day is 100% in Spanish.

I´ll sign off for now as I have to go do HOMEWORK and I want to begin to study. Our midterms are coming up mid July and I want to do well.

Blessings!