SaMash aNd RoddBot: Day 4: First Day of Class

Today was our first day of class. This is our schedule every day:

8:00 - 8:45 am - Get up and ready
9:00 am - Eat breakfast. Usually juice and some type of bread/toast/cracker with jam or other type of spread. All meals are prepared by our 'Spanish Mother' (Nuestra madre Española, Marisa).
9:15 am - Leave the apartment and walk to school. It's about a 12-15 minute walk.
9:30 am - 1:30 pm - Class. They are completely in Spanish. We study grammar for two hours and practice conversation for two hours. When class is over around 1:30 pm, we leave the school and walk home. Spaniards have a siesta (break) time every day from 1:30 - 4:00 pm.
2:00 - 3:00 pm - Lunch time at home with our family. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day, so it typically has several parts and takes at while... about an hour.
3:00 - 4:00 pm - Siesta time. This is our first break of the day. This will probably be spent doing homework.
4:00 - 6:00 pm - Tours of the city, visits to different sites and landmarks, group activities, etc.
6:00 - 7:00 pm - Lectures on Spanish History (Mondays), Art (Tuesdays), and Literature (Wednesday). Thursdays and Fridays we don't have these classes.
7:00 - 8:30 pm - Break. Because of the long break in the middle of the day, the stores don't usually close until 8-10 pm so we have time to do any shopping that we want or need to do. If nothing else,studying and homework. :)
8:30 - 9:00 pm - Small dinner with our family.
9:00 - 11:30 pm - Time spent updating Facebook and blog, doing homework, studying. Then to bed.

Our day is really full. With a 15 minute walk to and from the school we're walking for at least an hour every day, sometimes 2-3 hours when we have tours of the city. It's a huge change from sitting at a desk all day! :)

Rodd and I are in different classes. There are six people in my class: three of us are the U.S. (One is from Mexico and the other is a returned missionary), there other three are not with our group. One is from Germany, one from Italy , and one from Russia. We are all women. I have two different teachers: one for grammar and another for conversation. Our conversation class is all speaking about a topic and learning about words and how they are used. We talk about holidays and traditions in our own countries and such, we just talk about whatever and practice our conversation. It's really good practice and interesting to learn about different cultures.

Rodd and his classes:
"I'm taking a grammar class and a conversation class. I've been taking Spanish since 1st grade, and I have been taking it from almost exclusively Latin Americans. In Latin America they strongly emphasize speaking in the 3rd person (usted) rather than the 2nd person (tú). Well here in Spain, they only speak in tu, and vosotros for the plural version. They only use usted when showing respect to old people or authorities. Well today was only my second day, but as I was saying something to my grammar teacher, I referred to her as usted one too many times, and she flipped out at me. It was kind of strange. She stopped the class, pointed at me and said, "Don't refer to me as usted, my name is Belen, or tu, I'm not an old lady." I explained to her that I'm accustomed to using usted because of my Spanish background. She said, "I don't care, I don't want you to learn anymore Spanish until you learn to call me by my name or by tu." It was weird.

My second class is taught by a woman by the name of Marivi, and is a conversation class. I prefer this class, because it's not quite as structured. We end up talking about the strangest things. The funny thing is that when I called her usted yesterday she went into a discussion about where usted came from and why they don't use it in Spain. So when I told her that Belen freaked out at me, she said, "I warned you" and then she laughed. She's much more easy going. She has a hard time remembering my name though. I go by Jeffery, because people who speak Spanish have a hard time saying my name. She called me Freddy today, and I said, "Who's Freddy?" She said, don't remember your name, I guess I can call you Brad Pitt or George Clooney, I never forget their names. :) I said, "That works!" Anyway, it was an interesting day."
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After classes, we took a tour of the city center. The architecture is amazing.

A little shop where we bought a notebook to use in our classes.

Lunch! Paella con pollo y verduras (Rice with chicken and vegetables).

Lunch dessert. :) Melón de piel de sapo.

Our group touring the city.

Palacio de la Duquesa de Alba

One of the many palaces in Salamanca.

Facultad de filologia

Casa de las conchas

Cocha means shell. This is the 'house of the shells'.

Our group. :)

Patio interior - Casa de las conchas

Calle la rua

La rana

One of the renovations included a frog on one of the skulls on the cathedral.

Funny addition

Puerta lateral de la catedral

A major cathedral in the center of the city.

La Catedral Nueva

When they renovate and preserve the buildings, they add funny things for the tourists. This picture shows an astronaut on the left and some other creatures on the left... :)