Orientación y gira del centro del día 2

This morning, we met up at a branch of the university to meet with my professor, do an orientation with the professors here, and then went on a tour of the centro. During the orientation, each professor went over a BUNCH of places to know and that are well known, haha none of us think we can absorb it all that quickly. After a couple hours of that, Ibán, the Spanish culture professor at the university, took us on a tour around the centro to show us some main places to go like plazas, bars, tapas bars (tapas are like snacks/appetizers they eat with coffee or beer here) and the shopping centers. We also walked by several historical buildings, churches, museums, and shops.

On my way to walking to class, we passed by this museum. It's a modern recreation of the house of Cristobál Colón (Christopher Columbs) that they turned into a museum.

Colegio Mayor...the school that students go to before starting at Universidad de Valladolid

An old sanctuary that now has exhibits of African and Contemporary art displayed inside

The courtyard inside 

University store of Valladolid where you can buy school supplies and clothes from the University 

The original building of Universidad de Valladolid that was founded in 1241. Now it has expanded throughout basically the whole city and has more than 30,000 students 

A statue of Miguel Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote, who was born in Valladolid. We learn about that story pretty much every semester in one of my Spanish classes

La Gran Catedral. They use this cathedral as a reference in the city because it is the tallest building in the area

A famous very narrow, but very tall bar with a very tiny door, haha

This is Plaza Mayor which is the spot in the very middle of the city where everyone meets up to go to the bars, drink coffee and beer and eat tapas. We use it to meet up with our group a lot.

This is the building ("city hall") where the mayor works in Plaza Mayor

Statue of Christopher Columbus, they say he died in the center Plaza Mayor...

A very tiny sign for a very big plaza 

This is a well known bar on Calle Santiago called La Sepia ("the squid" I think). Iván said that Valladolid is has the second highest population of bars in one city, next to Las Vegas. He said that those two cities are the cities of alcoholics, haha.

Calle Santiago is a really popular street connecting to Plaza Mayor where there are a lot of historic shops, bars, and other buildings

Today was avery busy day roaming around the entire city. I'm trying to catch on as fast as I can so I know where I am going! Luckily, my host mom is walking me around everywhere when we meet at school and in the plazas and showing me reference points to remember where I am and where I am going. I have to meet back up with everyone at 6pm (in 2.5 hours) to go around and do some things with my professor. I think we're going to learn how to use the banks and post offices and then walk to the building at the University where we will have classes every morning starting tomorrow. Hopefully I can find my way there again! :)

Right now is lunch time, which they eat a little bit later than we do at home. And it is also much bigger. We ate very little in the morning, she made me some caffeine free coffee, and they also eat biscuits, cookies, and sweet muffins, which I'm definitely not used to that early in the morning! They ate the Girl Scout cookies I brought them for breakfast.

For lunch, they serve in 2 plates, or 2 courses I guess. First Felisa made rice and they mix it with tomato sauce (kind of like spaghetti) and then the second plato was DELICIOUS chicken and some bitter lettuce-like salad. Everything we've had for desert so far has been fruit, which tastes way better here! Last night we had kiwi after dinner and today she had strawberries..much sweeter and tastier than at home!

After lunch the dad takes a nap before he goes back to work and the girls go back to school. And for now, I'm scared to take a siesta because I want to sleep tonight! Haha, we'll see what happens...