A "Student" Once Again...

I've been a very dedicated little student this week, spending every afternoon and evening after class studying my Spanish.  I was not put into a pure Beginners class, as expected/hoped, but into a "A1+" class which was already finishing up Chapter 7 of the textbook(!), so I have a lot to catching up to do.
There's 5 of us in the class: one each from England, Holland, Japan, and a lady I met at the registration desk who's also from Southern California and who's just finished a Camino!   We're taking Spanish Immersion, so it's supposed to be conducted wholly in Spanish but I'm afraid I tend to insist on some explanation in English when I'm totally confused.  Luckily everyone speaks perfect English so I don't feel too selfish taking up the instructors' time :-)

We have classes from 10am - 2pm with a half hour break in the middle which is ideal.  I have time to do my last-minute homework in the morning, and we finish at the perfect time for a long, large lunch which is so popular here in Spain.  The route I take from my apartment to school is right on the main pedestrian shopping street which runs from one end of the historic center to the other and is lined with bars and restaurants and gourmet food shops so I'm spoiled for choice.




My apartment is ideally located on a small square, surrounded by car-free streets and with a large Carrefour supermarket just 50m away.  My bedroom window looks out into a huge maple tree with a church beyond so I've a peaceful view, much better than the other bedrooms that stare right into the school classrooms opposite.

Add caMy building is to the right of the picture, you can just see the green of my maple(?) tree

The girls I live with are friendly and they've had a massive cleanup of the apartment as they hosted a Bachelorette party last night for one of the flatmates who's getting married at the end of the month. I took some pictures of them while they were prepping for the party and they knocked on my door at 11:15pm asking if I wanted to join them but as they were practising for going out to a Karaoke bar later, I graciously declined.

The girls were "stewardesses" and they had a "pilot's" costume for the Bride-To-Be!

The Chinese student moved out Saturday so I had huge scrub-down of our bathroom and am no longer afraid to go barefoot in there or touch the walls of the shower. I'll have to set some cleanliness rules with the next lodger I share with!

Salamanca is a wonderfully vibrant city that's full of young people due to its two universities and countless language schools.  There's lots to offer tourists too: cathedrals, squares, shopping and cafes. It's all astonishingly clean and in good repair, as if all the old buildings have recently been power-washed so their soft golden stonework glows brightly.  That'll be the topic for my next blogpost - Salamanca's sights!