Pictures

Plaza Mayor: the Center of Historic Salamanca

My first day in Spain I saw this huge xmas festival in Madrid.

San Esteban: I lived about a block from here.

School

The program I attended consisted entirely of international students, the majority of which were European, but a lot were American like me. It was an intensive Spanish language and culture program: 5 hours of class per day. By the end of the semester, I was more or less fluent, which was pretty cool. By now I’m probably about half as good as I was then.

Day-to-Day Life in Spain

Host Family: I lived with a host family. My host parents were Inaqui and Montserrat; my host little brother was named Luis; and in addition to me, a Japanese exchange student named Midori lived with the family. She was the best. Needless to say, no one spoke any English, especially Midori. So this forced me to speak in Spanish constantly, and I eventually figured it out, mainly by watching team handball and dubbed episodes of the Simpsons on the tele.