The first taste of Spain...

Weekend Trip: The words hit me like a blow to the stomach. How can Suffolk University even think of taking the entire University away for the weekend when we've only been in the country, not to mention the continent, for only a few days? I thought that they were crazy, but I'm always willing to work with crazy. The ride was long but the time spent in the touring buses was rewarded by our first view of Salamanca's twin cathedrals across the river in the old town. We soon unloaded our bags into our dorm rooms at the University of Salamanca and were off on our first tour of the old center. I might be a bit biased as i favor the over luxurious look of Baroque, but i must say that i slightly favored Salamanca's Plaza Mayor, (though who can possibly beat the paintings and enormous statue in the Plaza Mayor of Madrid?). We were able to tour the twin cathedrals and even see the famous University of Salamanca wall where potential students were forced to find a small frog in a puzzle of dazzling carvings before being allowed entrance to the University. That night was one to remember. After all of the students had had their fill of shopping and dinner (and hopefully a short rest) it was time to go out. As Salamanca is a University town, it has a thriving nightlife. SU Students found new friends during lunch and dinner and so that night large groups of students made the walk from the dorms to the old center, laughing, chatting, and dancing in the streets all the way there. After a few smaller places for drinks, Club Camelot was an absolute must. It is actually inside of a working convent and so the mix of loud club music and an international clientele make it THE place for visiting students to start the night. The fun lasted until almost dawn, though i had drifted back to the dorms a few hours before then, still on US time. The party continued in a similar fashion all three nights that we were there, each night the clubs getting louder and the return home being pushed further and further into the morning hours. The two full days that we were in Salamanca we participated in two separate activates. The first was team building/ laser tag in the hills outside Salamanca. I'm not one for violence or military games but the laser tag was amazing and the team building exercises made everyone laugh as we tried to golf over fields of dirt and brush and cross ¨water¨ with people we hadn't made met before, only using bricks and one plank. The second day was horseback riding and a tour of a real bull ranch. This must have been my absolute favorite day. A few of us even tempted fate and got into the ring with a real bull to test our skills. Both days included amazing food, much of it being gluten free including the most amazing sausage and other kinds of pork as well as tortilla and chorizo at the first ranch. The trip ended with a morning tour of the rooftops of the twin cathedrals, a not to miss tour if ever in Salamanca. Overall the trip was unforgettable and helped me to concentrate myself on the semester ahead.

Keep on Rolling...

Dirty water, ruined shoes, sore muscles, the best coffee I’ve ever had, and the chance of severe rain that was the mix that I received when I went for the most amazing bicycle tour of Madrid with Suffolk University this morning. The group with Amy as our guide met at campus early this morning and made our way down to the Temple De Bod to meet the guides and the bikes that would become our own for the next few hours. On the way we stopped at a small coffee and churro place called Bar Martin on the corner of Calle de Tutor near the Temple De Bod. When we saw the bikes all of us immediately became a bit nervous, but also excited. Though many of us had ridden bikes in the states since we were young, we all initially had a difficult time on the cobble stone streets and busy traffic ways of the city, though we soon caught the hang of city bicycling. We were able to see so much of the city in only a few hours. From the Plaza de España, to the Plaza Mayor, Retiro Park and all the way through Chueca, it was an amazing day that will always stand out in my mind. We departed around 2 having ridden eight miles. Back at campus I was also lucky enough to find that i had received a care package from home this afternoon from my mom, filled with gluten free cookies, peanut butter bars, and a few more useful items. The day was amazing, and was perfectly suited to the days’ worth of cycling. There are several places in Madrid to rent bikes either for a few hours or for a full day in order to do a bit of aimless wandering through the intriguing streets of the city.

The Adenture Begins #1

The sudden jerk, the fast stop, and Bang...the landing gear made contact with the hot tar of the Barajas airport. I could barely think coherently my mind was racing so fast. Millions of questions swarmed in my head. The plane rolled up to the gate and Bam, it hit me that I was finally in Madrid Spain on my way to meet Amy who would then take us to the Suffolk University Madrid campus. After months of work, emails, and trips to the Spanish Consulate to get my visa, it was finally time for everything to come to fruition. It´s been about three weeks since i first set down in Madrid and the enjoyable craziness of settling in and starting classes has finally calmed down-though the fun of being in Madrid has not. I can´t wait to see what Madrid has to offer as i continue to blog throughout this semester about my classes, trips, host family, and , of course, my incessant wandering about the amazing city of Madrid, Spain.