Nora, Nathan, and I went on a short overnight touring adventure this weekend to Salamanca and had a great time. We got up early on Friday (no school), took a bus to Plaza de Castilla, took the 5 minute walk over to the Charmartin train station, and then took the 2.5 hour train ride to Salamanca.
(A short digression: In Spanish, instead of saying “take” the train, you can say, “we caught” or “nosotros cogimos” the train. When I was writing the previous sentence, I found myself writing “we caught the train” instead of “we took the train”. This seems to be happening more and more – where my thinking about Spanish is influencing the way that I write and speak English. As another example, when in a restaurant and ordering a drink, in English we might say “I’ll have” water or a beer. In Spanish, one might say “Yo tomo” water or beer, where “tomo” means I’ll take. So in English, I find myself saying, "I'll take" instead of "I'll have." Finally, I’ve also noticed that we refer to lots of different foods by their Spanish name instead of their English name, including pipas (sunflower seeds, a popular snack here), chorizo, leche (milk; Seth says “Quiero more leche.”), and pan.)
Salamanca is a beautiful city. Back before there was an America, the university in Salamanca (which was founded in the 13th century and which was at its height in the 15th and 16th centuries) was one of the most important universities in the world. There are lots of interesting old buildings, churches, and streets to explore. The Plaza Mayor in Salamanca is gorgeous, especially when it is lit up at night. The kids enjoyed searching for the frog in a famous building facade at the university. (This is one of those wonderful university traditions, similar to not stepping on the “M” on the Michigan Diag, not stepping through the gates at Brown, rubbing John Harvard’s foot, etc. Supposedly, if one can find the frog without assistance, one gets good luck and also, some believe, will be married within a year. None of us found the frog without help, but we did find it!) We also found and ate at a wonderful vegetarian restaurant – not a common site in Spain. Our hotel was lovely - perfect for the 3 of us for a night. We took the train back on Saturday – it was a very fun overnighter.
Needless to say, we have not done much for the Jewish high holidays this year. (I think this is the first year since I graduated from college that I haven’t fasted on Yom Kippur.) We have had a lot of time off from school (either a perk or a drawback, depending on one’s perspective, of attending a Jewish school). For the four weeks beginning on Sept 26, we only have 3 or 4 school days per week, as a result of various Jewish holidays. Certainly we could have found a temple to attend, but we are viewing these days off as an opportunity to explore Spain. It seems like the chance to spend time together, taking advantage of the unique environment we are in, is an appropriate way to celebrate the New Year.
This week we have 3 days off for Sukkot. All 5 of us are getting on the AVE train (this is Spain’s ‘bullet’ train) and going east to the Mediterranean coast – Valencia. A drive that would normally take 4 or so hours will only take 1.5 hours on the train. We have rented an apartment for 3 nights there and are looking forward to exploring the city a bit as well as sticking our feet in the Mediterranean. (The last time Heather and I saw the Mediterranean was 10 years ago on our honeymoon.)
Finally, here is a picture I just snapped of Nora with two of her friends from the apartment building. Flo (left) is a tad older than Nora, and her sister Bella (middle) is a tad younger – they are from the UK. These three gals are the nucleus of the girl group in our urbanizacion.
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