One Month Down

As of February 6 (yesterday), I have been in Spain for a month. How crazy is that? I can hardly believe that, one month ago, I was getting on a bus from Madrid to Pamplona, trying not to have a panic attack, or something equally drastic. It's encouraging to think about how far I've come since then! I've found my way around the city quite well, established a routine for the most part, made some friends, and learned a ton! Still working on the language thing, but it's getting a little easier.

This week has been fairly eventful. Thank goodness for my journal, or I'd never remember it all to tell you! The beginning of the week started out slowly, as they seem to do here. My days are even less full now that I've dropped translation class (still hoping I made the right decision there...making choices is still not my strong point), so I bummed around a lot on Monday and Tuesday. Things started picking up by Wednesday, however, right at the point where I was starting to get a little crazy from boredom.

Lauren had heard from her host mom that Wednesday, February 3rd, is the festival of San Blas, and that there is a nifty little market in Casco Antiguo. Julia (Lauren's host mom) said it was worth going to look at and take pictures, so Lauren, Julie, Maja, Skyla, and I went to check it out for a while. San Blas is the patron saint of people with sore throats, apparently (which I thought was really random and amusing in its specificity :-P), though there didn't seem to be anything relating to head colds at the festival, that we could see. There were a bunch of stalls there, all selling the same thing - yummy-looking sweet bread and a couple of kinds of candy. We couldn't figure out why there were so many stalls if there was no variety among them (how do you decide who to buy from?), but it was interesting to see. We even got to try a couple of samples, which were quite delicious. Julie and Maja left not long after this because they needed to get some food for meals at the regular market, but the rest of us stuck around Casco Antiguo for a little while.
Also, on the Dia de San Blas, the cathedral on Calle San Nicolas is open, so we decided to go inside. The place is gorgeous, and we got a lot of cool pictures. We even got into the balcony and saw the most beautiful pipe organ I've ever seen! It had a bunch of gold and sculptures on it and was painted with some really neat designs and pictures.
Another interesting fact about San Blas - if you bring food items, there is a priest that will bless them for you. We didn't witness this, unfortunately, but later in the day my host mom brought our bag of little muffins and had them blessed. I haven't tried them yet to see if blessed muffins taste better than normal ones, but I hope to someday soon :D

After we'd gotten our fill of the San Blas festivities, Lauren and Skyla and I went shopping for a little while. I found a gorgeous (purple!) scarf at a chino store (can't remember if I've mentioned these, but they're the have-all stores...quality is a little sketch, but they're good for small items, and prices are great) and one of those long shirts that are super popular here (generally worn with boots and leggings). It's sort of funny...I never cared that much about having the latest fashion back home; I just wear what I like. But here, I feel compelled to become a fashion conformist! Weird. Just one of the many unexpected things I've experienced.

That night, I was invited to go out to a bar/Marengo's. The bar is called La Habana, and they have reeeeally good mojitos (pretty much my new favorite alcoholic drink, no joke). Also, on Wednesday nights, they apparently have salsa dancing lessons, though we arrived after those were over. However, everyone there was raring to go as far as dancing went, it seemed, and us girls were asked to dance several times. I only did so once, with a man who was old enough to be my father :-P But he was really nice, and he taught me how to dance the merengue, which is nice and easy - perfect for a coordination-challenged person like me. And I had lots of fun watching the others - a couple of the intercambio girls can dance the salsa like pros!

After that we headed to Marengo's - this was my first experience at a discoteca, since we have nothing like that at home, really. I liked it, for the most part. It was super noisy, but there were a lot people I knew there, and the music was cool. After dancing for a while, I decided that it was getting way too late for a school night, so I headed back. I'm lucky enough to live two blocks away from Marengo's, so it was a nice, quick walk home, and it was well-lit with no one sketchy wandering the streets (read: Mom and Dad, you don't need to worry :D). My host mom was still up when I got back and said she was really worried - I must not have explained my plans for the night fully enough. So I felt really bad. In the future, I'm going to make sure to tell her when I plan to be out really late.

The next day in class, we were all pretty wiped, but we made it. And then, Thursday evening was our (Lauren, Lise, Kristen, and I) first Latin dance class! It was pretty cool. There are only two men in the class, so many of us women have to take the guy's part in the dance, but we kind of expected this. And it was a lot of fun! We've begun learning the cha-cha and the tango. I couldn't get the turn move down for the cha-cha, which of course made me feel really awkward, but whatever; it was only the first day of class. I did rather better with learning the base for the tango, even though that one is apparently harder (I think the styling is going to be the hard part, not the base), so that made me feel a bit more confident.

Friday was quite interesting as well. And long! Besides the fact that I woke up with a terrible crick in my neck (I still can't turn my head all the way), it was a fun day. Or should I say, evening. I went out with Valentina, Silvia, and Marco - my friends from Italy. Marco of course speaks English, but Silvia feels more comfortable with Spanish and Valentina doesn't speak English much at all, so this forced me to practice Spanish, which I was glad for. Anyway, we went to Casco Antiguo and had the obligatory pintxos and beer at Bar Burgales (I think the bartenders are starting to recognize us). After that we wandered around Casco Antiguo for a while and then headed to Bar Ensayo, where we knew a lot of intercambios would be hanging out. We got a little lost on the way, but after asking for directions a couple of times, we made it there a little before midnight. I didn't get anything to drink there (5 euro is plenty to spend on food and booze for one night, thank you very much), but I enjoyed talking with people, and was happy to see a lot of classmates and friends there. The bar quickly became extremely crowded and noisy, so we made periodic trips outside to breath some (comparatively) fresh air. Three hours later, after being hit on, squished in the mob, meeting some interesting new people, and probably breathing in the equivalent of a cigarette or two in second-hand smoke, I was more than ready to go home. It took a little while to shove our way back out of the crowd and round everyone up, but in the end, I ended up walking with Skyla to the Ciudadela. The buddy system was a good plan, we thought. And we talked the entire time in reasonably fast and articulate Spanish! I was proud of us. Maybe Spanish flows easier at three in the morning? Kind of strange, but cool.

So my consensus of the evening was that it was pretty fun, but I definitely do not want to do it all the time. I'll never be a party girl, I think, so once in a while is plenty. It definitely is interesting though - you never know what you'll see!

Today, I'm just chilling out. I'm going through church withdrawals, so I watched a sermon-thinger on the internet (not really a church service, so I'm not sure what to call it). At some point I'll get to a church, but it hasn't worked out yet. And there are really no protestant churches to be found in Pamplona, as far as I can tell, so I'll have to give the Catholic thing a go sometimes. It'll be fun to see what it's like to worship in a different style, I daresay.

Later, I'm hoping that Lauren and I can go get our tickets for the bus to San Sebastian, from which town we will get to our train to get to Paris on Wednesday! I'm sooo excited! I won't be bringing my computer with me (too risky, and too heavy), so I won't be updating for a while, but rest assured that I'll be posting about our adventure to France when I return :)