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| Carmen y Pepe |
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| Pepe, Carmen, and Fabiane, a Swiss girl who lived with us for a month or so |
November 20th- Salamanca
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| Whale graffiti before the entrance to Salamanca |
On this brisk Saturday morning, we all loaded up two buses and headed one and a half hours southwest to the college city of Salamanca, whose wispy, inviting streets lay smoothly to lure us in as if it were a force of magnetism. It is home to La Universidad de Salamanca, the single oldest university in Spain (founded in 1218), and it is also the fourth oldest western university in the world. Like the other group excursions, Agustín and Alfredo walked us around, pointed out major sights around the city, and then let us loose to explore on our own. I passed a good portion of the day sauntering aimlessly along Salamanca's ancient roads, my face shivering as fresh, late-autumn currents of cold air came blowing across the river, chilling my pores; cool tears periodically slid down my cheeks. The following photos may illustrate part of Salamanca's beauty.
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| Façade of a 16th century convent |
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| Same convent |
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| Even baby fashion is big in Spain |
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| The Plaza Mayor on late Saturday Morning |
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| Casa de las Canchas. Depending on how you translate this, in Spain it means "House of the Shells," but in Latin America it would mean "House of the Cunts." I bet they put up all these shells on the outside so that South American tourists wouldn't think it was a house full of women's genitals... Just a theory. |
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| Part of the façade of one of the University buildings. Every visitor must play the game of finding the skull with a frog on top of it. I made it easy for you by showing you a smaller portion of the façade on the next photo. |
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| See it? |
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| Pals |
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| Gargoyles for rain drains |
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| House of the ... |
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| In a weird way, this spells out "Victor" which means victory. Throughout history, when a graduate student finally finished his doctoral thesis, he was allowed to paint 'victor' in bull's blood on a wall of the university. Today I think they just use paint. |
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| 16th Century cathedral |
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| Skipping in front of the cathedral |
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| La catedral |
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| In the 20th Century, they added this astronaut to the façade of the cathedral, who today would be the only amputee to go to space. |
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| La Catedral |
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| I guess this statue illustrates the untold portion of San Sebastian's death. After shooting him with arrows, they smeared bird poop all over his upper body—a most humiliating death, but now he's a saint so I guess everything works out in the end. |
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| Thug Life |
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| Thug Life Part II |
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| Inside of a high end clothing store that was once a palace... |
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| La Catedral |
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| This is an 11th Century Romanesque church that stands next to the 16th Century cathedral |
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| Inside la catedral |
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| Inside la catedral |
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| Inside |
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| The choir portion inside the cathedral |
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| This man tragically lost his arm in a freak arm-wrestling accident inside, or I just can't remember Alfredo's explanation of why there is a corpse arm inside the cathedral |
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| Me, Kevin, Fernando, and Patrick on top of the cathedral |
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| View from on top of the cathedral |
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| Sunset in Salamanca |
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| Roof of the Cathedral |
November 25th- Día de Acción de Gracias
It does not matter where you may find yourself in the world; when Thanksgiving rolls around, any and all Americans must give thanks and celebrate. And what better way to celebrate the pilgrim harvest of 1621 than going to a Chinese operated Chinese restaurant in Spain? I had no better ideas either. The only way I could think to make it more authentically American was to invite Fernando, the Japanese gang, and the Taiwanese gang. Us Americans played the role of pilgrims while the Taiwanese graciously filled the role of Native Americans. Unfortunately us pilgrims were not completely true to our ancestral role because we did not kill the Native Americans and take their land...
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| We are the Walrus |
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| From lef: Juana, Me, Fernando, Maria, and Kristen |
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| It's not quite Grandma's "Mashies", but I've heard that many pilgrims opted for chow mein rather than turkey |
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| The best way to simultaneously keep clean and fashionable |
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| Me, my mustache, Monique, and Luz |
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| Juana and I saying grace |
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| From left: Monique, Brycé, Monsei, and Celia |
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| Patrick and Kevin quite happy to be alive |
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| Dinner Time Hair Molestation |
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| They could have been the cutest couple if Juan would have put the moves on a little harder... And notice Brandy in the background |
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| Best friends for life |
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| For those who still craved turkey, I guess duck would have to suffice |
A Night with the Taiwanese
Friendly, loving, and pictorially evolved, the Taiwanese gang was a force to be reckoned with. They invited a few of us Americans over (along with Fernando of course) for a night of card games, music, and good old fashioned oriental bonding. Here are a few images from the night:
End of November
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| As November came to a close, the frost (escarcha in Spanish) began to accumulate in the mornings. This obviously excited Monique as we walked to school one morning. |
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| 16th Century Pre-Chewbacca sculpture in a museum in Valladolid. George Lucas is a fraud. |
More to come soon...
