I have officially survived my first full week in Leon, classes and all. It has been overwhelming, emotional, fantastic, and a very dream-like week. Here a few things I've decided about Leon:
1. It is one of the most beautiful and historic cities I have ever been to
2. Spaniards have pits for stomachs and think that Americans don't eat enough (I know right, who would ever believe that Americans eat too little!)
3. I'm really excited about the fact that a glass of wine costs less then 2 euros here and that I receive a free tapa with any drink I purchase! (A tapa is a small plate of food. Each bar has their own special tapa that they serve).
4. Spanish films are not that great and I'm not looking forward to my film class this quarter.
5. Every woman I see dresses impeccably. I'm always underdressed with my jeans, flats and my hoodie on.
6. Sitting at a dinner table in Spain with a large family is like stepping into a war zone. Not only can I hardly understand them because they talk so darn fast, but everyone is yelling and talking over each other to make sure that their voice is the only one heard. So crazy. I wish I could videotape it for you.
One of the first night's out with my girls. This cute little guy sat underneath our table outside and we fed him scraps. We weren't quite sure who his owner was, but he was more then happy to hang out with us for a while.
Some girls from class. Love all of them. We are already becoming quite close seeing as our class consists of 13 of us.
This weekend and this next week, Leon is having a huge festival to celebrate their history and their city. Last night we went to a light show at the church called San Isidoro. The light show was amazing and the church was stunning.
The images displayed throughout the light show represent the church's history, which includes many monarchies and the survival of Roman soldiers and citizens.
After the light show a few of us walked around the city taking pictures and wandering. Roun found a hobbit sized door that was just the right size for her! We ended up at a bar drinking wine and gossiping about our host families. I'm almost positive I've already drank my weight in wine and I've only been here for a week.
Today my host mom took me to the festival of Leon which included a giant parade. The entire city of Leon attended (at least that's what it felt like to me). During the parade men march through the streets carrying these giant flags only from a holder connected to their belt! So crazy! There were a few times when I thought the men were going to fall down with these giant flags attached to them.
All of the flags lined up in the Plaza Mayor, one of the most popular plazas in the city.
Leon's version of floats.... Carriages carried by horses and oxen.
Bonnie, the miniature pony. Very sweet. My host mom stopped the parade just so I could take a picture with this sweetheart.
After the parade I met up with one of my classmates, Roun, and we went to a cafe to study for a while. We have quite a bit of homework already and we have also decided we dislike our poetry homework very much, especially because reading it in Spanish makes it 10000 times harder to understand. As if poetry in English wasn't already hard enough to understand. This weekend has been incredibly long and so I'm going to lay in bed the rest of the night catching up on my shows.
Besos!
