Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!
So I have to admit not being home for Thanksgiving and being away from my friends and family has made me miss home a little. However, last night a few of the other Auxiliaries and I organized an American style Thanksgiving day dinner. We went all out and ordered two turkeys from the butcher shop along with preparing other traditional Thanksgiving dishes. I had the honor of cooking one of the turkeys in my oven and it actually came out pretty well. We invited all of the other Auxiliaries, our roommates and some of our other friends we have met here; many of them never have seen a Thanksgiving dinner before but all enjoyed it very much.



The Dinner


Me and my roommates at the dinner

I have had an eventful two past weekends. Two weekends ago I went on an Excursions for the day with my roommates and other students from their study abroad program to Pamplona and two other nearby cities. Every once in a while their study abroad program takes a bus to another region in Spain for the day led by one of their professors and if they're is extra space on the bus anyone is welcome. So I took the opportunity to go to Pamplona with them since I have never been. Our first stop was in Leyre Spain where we visited a monastery. There was a beautiful view surrounding the monastery with many mountains and a valley around the monastery.


My roommate, Francesca, and I






After we stopped in the center of the city of Pamplona, where we just had enough time to walk through the city. It is a beautiful city but unfortunately I wasn't able to see much. Francesca, a few of the other students and I had lost the group and were unable to take part on a small tour of the city. I would love to go back and see more. Pamplona is known for the fiesta of San Fermin where they have the running of the bulls every summer.



The Ayuntamiento de Pamplona (Town Hall)





Our last stop for the day was to Olite to where we saw the Palacio Real de Olite, which was a very large castle. There were many different towers to climb which did consist of very narrow stairways and were a little challenging to navigate when others were climbing down. There was a wonderful view from the top. My legs were surprisingly soar the next day from all of the climbing I had done. When I was at the top of one of the towers, I had asked one of my friends to take a picture for me in Spanish of course. There was another boy on top of the tower with us who must have recognized my accent and asked where I was from. It turns out that he is also American; he is from Pennsylvania and is studying in Pamplona for the semester. It is really neat occasionally running into Americans especially since there are very few I have met since coming here.












So last weekend I traveled to Leon which is another city in Spain in the region of Castilla Leon. Two other Auxiliaries who I had gone to Salamanca with a few weeks ago, Dana and Brooke, had met me there. While there we saw many different sites with the two most important consisting of the Basillia de San Isidoro, the cathedral and Convento de San Marcos. The Basilica is a church that has a bell tower which can see from the city when walking toward the center. When visiting the cathedral, We had the opportunity to climb up to the top of the Cathedral. The climb up was a little scary with several flights of stairs to climb outside but once we got up we were able to see a small view of the city. El Convento de San Marcos is a convent which has been converted into a very nice hotel with a museum. We also visited Casa de Boutines which is one of the only pieces of architecture built by Gaudi not in the region of Catalunya. It is an old bank with the bottom floor consisting of an art museum.


Group Picture

Casa de Boutines

The Convent of San Marcos

The Cathedral

Inside the Basillica

Outside the Basillica with Brooke





Teaching in the school has been going pretty well. I am definitely getting more accustomed to giving lessons and starting to like it a lot. It can be frustrating at times when the students don't quite understand me and I have to restate what I want to say in simpler ways. On Thanksgiving I taught two additional classes at the school right next to mine. It is the same school but consists of different students who I believe are typically at a lower level and have a higher percentage of immigrants. They had wanted me to give a lesson on Thanksgiving to these two classes. Their level of English was noticeably a lot lower and in both of the classes the professors would occasionally have to translate what I was saying into Spanish. However they were all very excited to have me in the class and couldn't stop asking me questions at the end of class. The teacher told me should would like me to come back and give lessons on other American holidays. She even wants me to start giving her English lessons as well. I am hoping as I become more experienced in the classroom I will be able to find more effective ways to engage the lower level classes in what I have to teach to them.

Next weekend is a long weekend and I will be traveling to Barcelona with my roommates and meeting a few other Auxiliaries there. I am very much looking forward to this trip since I have yet to see this city after all this time I have spent in Spain. It is definitely a good time to go as it is getting a lot colder here. I woke up this morning to the first snow but unfortunately now it is raining.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Stay tuned for my trip to Barcelona!

Back to Salamanca

Hi Family and Friends,

Sorry it has taken me a little longer than I expected to update my blog. I have been getting pretty busy with all of my tutoring sessions.
As I mentioned in my last blog, I spent two weekends ago in Salamanca. I probably would have rather travel to somewhere new and different but since I knew someone going there I decided to go. I met a girl named Brooke half way there along with other Auxiliares that live near her. So in total there was 6 of us. 3 Americans, 2 from England and 1 from Ireland. Brooke also has a roommate from Salamanca that met us there later and showed us around. It was great to go back. When I arrived on Friday, I met up with one of my tutors, Rocio, I had when I was studying in Salamanca. It was great to see her and she was so happy I contacted her. On Saturday we spent the day just walking around the city. I forgot how beautiful it really is. The hostel we stayed in was close to the cathedral so it was really pretty walking past it at night with all of the lights.
The Monastery with Brooke
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A view of the city of Salamanca with the Cathedral. I am with Dana, Joe and Fran.
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The three Americans overlooking the river and bridge. Its is a beautiful walk along the bridge and there is also a park that surrounds the area.

I also made a surprise visit to my padres house. When I was studying in Salamanca I had a host family I stayed with, they were called my padres (parents in Spanish). I wasn't sure how they would react to having me show up at their house with no notice but I am so glad I did stop by. They were so happy and surprised to see me. As I walked in they called me hija (daughter) and kissed me on the cheek. I stayed and talked to them for a while. They brought out some cafe con leche (Spanish coffee with milk) for me which they remembered I loved so much. They told me that I could come back whenever and stay with them since they are not hosting anyone this year. So that was really nice. I am definitely planning on writing to them and thanking them for everything!

Salamanca was the perfect place to go to for Halloween. Since it is such a big international city with the University there were many people out dressed in costumes and all of the bars were decorated. We all got some sort of costume to wear. Before we went out we all met in the Plaza Mayor, which is the main plaza in the center of Salamanca. There we saw many groups of people dressed up which was fun. It was nice meeting some other Auxiliaries. I am planning on possibly meeting up with them again and doing some traveling with them.

In our costumes in the Plaza Mayor

I spent this past weekend in Vitoria, which was nice just to relax and hang out with the other Auxiliaries here. I am starting to play in this tennis ranking league where I just play other people and move up the ladder when I win. I had my first match on Sunday. I didn't win but it was a close match and its' nice to finally get involved in something. In order to play tennis here I had to purchase an athletic card. So now I have access to all of the Civic Centers in Vitoria which have a variety of athletic facilities along with classes I can take at a lower cost. I have also started to hang out with my one roommate, Francesca, more. It is nice because it has allowed me to meet other international students here.