letras de casa :)

i received some love from home today! ... it inspired me to send some back. :) thank you mommy!

favorite pictures in salamanca!

salamanca!

this past weekend me and a small group from my program went to Salamanca, Spain! i have a friend who i've taken a few spanish classes with at state named Allegra who is studying there and my friend Sarah does too.. so we decided to take a weekend trip. they were great tour guides and it was also awesome to see some familiar faces and do some more exploring. Salamanca is located a little more centrally.. closer to Madrid. it was a long bus ride, but well worth the trip, or 'vale la pena'.. one of my favorite spanish sayings. we had a great time and really enjoyed people watching and discussing how different everything was from the landscape to the style of clothing/hair, etc. there were a lot of dreads and alll of the girls wore tights with jean shorts. there is also a lot more english spoken there because it's known as a huge 'college' or really 'study abroad' town. the boys were also more attractive... hehe. but all things considered i'm definitely glad i live in Santander. i gained a lot of respect for how clean and conservative our precious little town is! i feel a lot safer here as well, but probably just because i've been here for almost a month now.. how crazy! this week our schedule changes, yet again. i'll be in school from 9-1 mondays & wednesdays and 9-12 on tuesdays & thursdays, with fridays off! we also have an excursion to Bilbao on friday. photos of Salamanca to come. un beso! xo. meg

canciones!

for those of you who dig foreign music.. latin music.. discoteca music... i thought i'd post a few of my favorites we hear out on the town.. for your listening pleasure. 


"danza kuduro" - don omar
"ai se eu te pego" - michel telo (portuguese)
"rain over me" - pitbull ft. marc anthony
"hotel nacional" - gloria estefan .. this one is my favorite, esp. b/c of the poor english
"bailando por el mundo" juan magan ft. pitbull & el cata
"o ritmo do amor (kuduro)" - emanuel
"tu olor" - wisin y yandel
"ven a bailar" - jennifer lopez .. yes, it's "on the floor" in spanglish
"lovumba" - daddy yankee
"rabiosa" - shakira

this is where i live!?

 the weather here is no longer so dreary! i go for runs by the beach and just soak up the fact that i live in this beautiful town! now i really can't wait for it to be warm enough to lay out! :) xo meg

las tres gracias

i just wrote my second paper here about this work of art. it's called "The Three Graces" or "Las Tres Gracias" in spanish. it's by Peter Paul Rubens.. and i like it. we'll be seeing it in El Prado in Madrid at the end of my trip.

Manolo - mejor profesor del mundo.

i'd like to dedicate the first of probably many blog posts to my teacher Manolo. he is the funniest man i've ever met, ask Cristina. not only is he hilarious.. but he is the best teacher i've ever had. he's taught us ways to remember different verb tenses and sayings like i never have before in my 6 years with the spanish language. he throws chalk at the chalkboard, drops chairs with enthusiasm, teaches us cuss words and often blatantly yells at us. this past friday he told us he was going to give us a sorpresa (surprise.) we were all anxiously awaiting for our surprise .. when he made us have about 10 minutes of class in the men's bathroom. this may seem uncharacteristic of a good teacher.. but believe me, i will never forget how to say faucet (grifo) ever again. he also continued on in the classroom by describing a bide. he made my classmate josh stand on top of his desk and demonstrate how to properly use one. all things considered.. i look forward to his class every day. one more week of intensive spanish - 3 hours/day.. with an excursion to Bilbao to follow! ciao! meg

una canción

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVcZhLDws5c&feature=related
this song gets played everyyy night out! i'm starting to love it.. i really have no choice.

primer nota

por todos que saben.. soy una 'nerd!' 93 en mi primer nota :)

cosas buenas

AHHH! I am ecstatic today. I ran errands with Cristina earlier and we finally found Mango! (my beloved/favorite Spanish store...other than Desigual in Barcelona, of course.) After about 45 minutes of walking around and asking numerous different Spaniards how to get there, we finally did.
I was also excited to go to 'lupa' the grocery store here - to buy larger toiletries.. which may sound weird.. but it made me feel like my stay seems a lot more permanent/real. :)

anddd... I came back to find a Valentine's Day package from my mommy!...which consisted of girl scout cookies :)

I then proceeded to buy my plane tickets and start to make plans for Barcelona with some of my group from March 16-19.
Ahhh... good day. Ahora, escuela!

por la noche

love the people in my group! it's definitely a group full of characters :) makes for some seriously hilarious nights out... just the way it should be!

day to day

to explain how timing works here, i thought i'd blog about it! only because timing for skype dates, etc. has been hard. primero, i am 6 hours ahead of US time.. so for example, if it is 12 pm there.. it is 6 pm here. i also wake up and eat breakfast a little later.. therefore lunch is around 2 and then we have siesta! (nap time!) all the stores close and a lot of people leave work just to sleep for an hour or two. awesome right? then everyone gets back to work and dinner is around 9 or so. young people go out around 1 am which sounds crazy.. but since the day is pushed forward it makes sense. then you sleep in, depending on whether it's a week day or weekend and then you start all over again. :) i think the spaniards have figured everything out quite nicely!

speaking of everyday things...

there's a drink here called vip. it's a combination of vino tinto (red wine), rum/any random cluster of liquors, and orange soda. i thought it deserved it's own special shout out on my blog. my group will appreciate this!

mas de vida cotidiana

mi cuarto! my dad asked specifically for me to post more pictures of everyday things.. so here's a start. so tiny! haha

vida ocupada por excursiones

Lo siento! I haven't had much time to blog this week because we've been touring Santander and have been on excursions across the basque region every day! Today we went to a replica of the Altamira caves because the real ones have been destroyed by tourists. Even the replica was cool, I thought. We've also been to Los Picos de Europa - the nearest, most beautiful little town - because the weather was too terrible to climb to the top. We also went to Comillas which is a tiny little town with some Gaudi architecture and an even smaller town called Santillana del Mar where we ended up just eating paella and drinking cervecas. The beginning of the week was rather harsh as we suffered through wind, rain, sleet, and snow during the excursions but today and yesterday were just a little chilly. here are some photos of the past few excursions:

 la ciudad debajo de Los Picos de Europa

 fue hecho por Gaudi en Comillas

la vista encima de Santander

un poco de cotidiano

i have now successfully learned how to take the bus, navigate el centro (more or less), obtain a cell phone, and call a taxi by phone. all in one day! i'm no longer sleep deprived and could frankly use a little structure in my life. today we tour the city - for real this time. and orientation is tomorrow. this weekend we have excursiones! besos. meg

primer entrada

¡Hola todos!

Everything is going really well here in Santander. I slept a total of 19 hours last night!! My host mom is so sweet.. she is super hospitable. (My director told me she gets paid 24 euros/day to take care of me, so i'm glad i like her! haha) and she is definitely going to be my biggest vice in learning Spanish. She lives by herself and her mom is here visiting for 2 weeks so she doesn't have too much to do.

Today at 5 we go on a tour of the city and then later I think we're all going to watch the super bowl somewhere. I really like everyone on my program so far. 

Funny story, especially for those who know my luck- I've been a little airheaded so far, so my group is already picking with me. I forgot my book (The Help) on the plane, so my friend Patrick brought it to me at customs. Also -- I get to customs and I have misplaced my wallet. The entire group goes through customs except for me. Awesome. A nice bilingual black man who works for security has to go search for it for me. Everyone was very nice and humored by the situation. So the whole group watches me talk and flirt with about 8 policemen while the security guy goes backkk to my plane to fetch my wallet complete with passport. A dios mio. He found it and I gave him a great big American hug only to remember in the middle of the hug they give kisses. -- Needless to say it was an awkward hug. Haha, so everytime we get back on the bus someone yells something like.. do we have Meg?! :) Other than that everything has gone very smoothly and I'm happy to know im only a 5 min. walk from the University. Also - I can see the ocean from the office window of my apartment, not bad huh?

More to come!

Xo - Meg

pictures outside of my homestay

mas fotos de la vista de mi casa!

my view!

view from my house!

el camino a Santander!

fotos del viaje de Madrid > Santander