Elizabeth in Salamanca!!!

Hola tod@s! My program had a trip to Salamanca today! Since we were only there for the day, we only really had time to walk around, so there's a lot of pictures from touring below.

We started in Plaza Mayor. It's a little smaller than Plaza Mayor in Madrid. When the tour guide asked, I guessed it was bigger, but I guess it just felt that way because it wasn't as crowded. One of the first things we learned about Salamanca is they have a ton of limestone and they use it for every building. So that's why this looks exactly like Indiana. I felt right at home.

Plaza Mayor.

Still Plaza Mayor.

Just outside Plaza Mayor, I just liked the vibe.

Also outside Plaza Mayor, also cool vibes. (Elizabeth in Madrid is rebranding from food to vibes for this post. Get ready to read "vibes" a hundred times probably.)

Casa de las conchas (seashell house). Sorry for the bad picture--I had to use .5x zoom to get the house this much in frame and it was super bright so I couldn't see my phone screen. Anyway there are 300 shells on this house. Pretty fun. (Tess--we should start doing that.)

Pretty sure this is inside the seashell house. I don't really remember, but Google is backing me up on that. Anyway... vibes. We should get into courtyards.

Second floor of the courtyard. That's that building from three pictures ago.

Walking around the historic city vibes.

The historic wall.

A lizard on the historic wall for Liam.

On the Roman Bridge. Every town in Spain has to have one, it's the law. Featuring our tour guide, Pablo, pointing at something. Pablo was also our tour guide for El Prado and the Madrid walking tour. He is so good at his job; he knows everything. Except where to find casadiellas in Madrid, but no one knows that, so it's not his fault.

Sorry but this was so vibes.

Walking back into town.

Walking by the cathedral. I wish I got some better pictures of this. My phone screen is too little and I was too close to capture how insane this is. If you feel so inclined, you should Google some pictures. I forgot the translation into English exactly, but Pablo said this style of design/carving is called silver working because it's so precise and detailed that it's like jewelry. Pretty cool. Pretty cool.

The cathedral (blocked by this tree).

The cathedral (sans tree).

Palacio de Anaya. I don't know anything about her it was just vibes.

Inside the cathedral. This cathedral is cool because it's two cathedrals in one cathedral: the old cathedral and the new cathedral. This is all the new cathedral; I didn't take any pictures of the old cathedral (it wasn't as vibey).

Cathedral. Pablo explained that this cathedral is also really cool because construction started on it during the Gothic period, but it wasn't finished until centuries later, so it morphed into being in the Renaissance and Baroque styles too.

I love this ceiling.

I already feel like I've learned so much about art styles from Pablo, from my art class at school, and from being here and reading plaques when I go places and stuff. It's so neat to be able to look at this picture and kind of tell what elements are Gothic, what's Baroque, etc. And it hasn't even been a month; I'm really excited to keep learning more.

This picture shows a crack in the cathedral from the Lisbon earthquake in 1755.

After the cathedral we breaked for lunch. (Again, if any of my linguistic friends wanna talk about that "breaked" I'm open to discussion.) Here's the view from the cafe we ate at.

I forgot to take a picture of my food, sorry. What happened was Bernadette and I ordered the same thing and when they brought all the food out they put both the plates in front of Bernadette, who was on the other end of the table from me, and the plates were tiny (we definitely ordered a plate sized thing but evidently the waitress put down we wanted a tapa size situation), and it sounded like the waitress told Bernadette they were both for her and everyone else also thought that, and then I kept waiting for my food, and then when Jisenia asked for me, the waitress was like "I brought all your food that's all you ordered." So basically Bernadette accidentally ate my food, then I reordered my food, then it came once everyone else was done eating, so I just ate it real fast to not hold everyone up.

Anyway I did not need to write that all out but I already did the work so I'm not deleting it. TLDR there was a mixup and I got my food after everyone, and it was tiny and not that good (I don't think the group consulted any reviews), so no picture.

The good news about lunch flopping is it justified me getting the biggest ice cream size available at the place we went to after lunch. I decided to do that while I was still eating lunch, and I thought that was going to be a way crazier move on my part, but I forgot this is Europe and they don't have that Route 44 lifestyle. I got a scoop of stracciatella and a scoop of mint chocolate :)

Lauren, Lauren, Bernadette, me.

After we regrouped we toured the University of Salamanca, which is the oldest university in Spain. This was my favorite part of the trip. Sorry to have to say it, but the vibes were immaculate. It was sooo pretty and cool. (One thing about my university in Madrid... it is not that vibey.) One of the skulls famously has a frog carved on top of it; Pablo says that the frog is a symbol of Salamanca and it also represents lust.

The unofficial but more well-known motto of the Unviersity of Salamanca is "Quod natura non dat, Salmantica non præstat," (in English, "What nature does not give, Salamanca does not lend") which means that if you don't have intelligence or dedication or the ability to learn, you're out of luck. I'm into it, it's a good motto. Way better than "Knowledge is freedom <3" and "Truth is light <3" like all the other universities have.

Another courtyard moment.

Blurry picture of El Cielo de Salamanca, sorry.

I'm obligated to take an egg selfie when there's a cool ceiling. Featuring Addie and Jisenia.

Inside the University of Salamanca.

They had all these mirrors along the walls, and we didn't know what they were for. We figured out they're so you can look at the ceiling without hurting your neck. We used them for selfies instead obvi. (Elsa, Izzy, me, Lauren, Jisenia.)

I understood hardly any of this but I knew it said something cool. And when I looked it up on Google I learned I was right. (There was also one that started with "Linguis" and then listed a bunch of languages in Latin, so you know that one went off too, but I guess I didn't take a picture of it because I can't find one??? Flopped.)

The library!!! Perfect vibes no notes.

<3

After that we had less than 30 minutes of free time before we left. Pablo had mentioned early in the day that the linguist who wrote the first Spanish grammar attended and taught at the University of Salamanca. I'd never heard of him (Antonio de Nebrija) before, but I was obviously interested. Then later when we were at the University, I saw that they were doing an exhibit on him for the 500th anniversary of his death. Obviously knew that that's what I would do if we got any more free time. So I used my thirty minutes to go to the exhibit. Luckily it was just this one little room, so I had plenty of time to look at and read everything. (Here is the link I got from the QR code from the exhibit, I'm putting it here for safekeeping: https://sac.usal.es/nebrija/)

This man is so cool. Not only did he write the first Spanish grammar in 1492, which was the first grammar of any modern European language, he also wrote the first Spanish dictionary!!! He was a lexicographer!!!

This one is titled "Rules of Orthography."

Grammat et Lexicographi<3 Anyway this whole exhibit was so cool that I teared up. I was fascinated and compelled.

I took this picture on my way back to Plaza Mayor to meet up with everyone else and take the bus back home. (Featuring a dove for Emily <3 You can't tell it's a dove in the picture but trust me.)

TLDR Salamanca was amazing. It was so beautiful. I was blown away by everything. Smiling through it all can't believe this is my life.

(Update: September 19) Here are some pictures Sofía took. This first one is a bus selfie I requested for the blog (and then forgot to have her send me). We couldn't fit the other side of the bus in the selfie, sorry. In the first row is Yonsoo and Sofía. Second row is me and Bernadette. Third row is Ben. Fourth row is Carson and Jason. Fifth row is Noah and Jisenia. Sixth row is Alondra and maybe Elsa? In the very back in the plaid is Alexia.

Elsa, me, Addie, Izzy.

Everyone! Back row is Sofía, Yonsoo, Pablo, Ben, Noah, Carson, Bernadette, Jason, Alexia. Second row is Elsa, Alondra, Izzy, Lauren S., me, Lauren W., Jisenia, Addie.

Here is me looking at the cathedral. There is a little astronaut carved into the design that's right above my head.