Salamanca, Ávila, and Home

It is December! I can't believe that September, October, and November have already passed me by.

Streets of Salamanca

This past Monday, I went with the program on a day trip to Salamanca and Ávila. We spent most of the day in Salamanca which was fabulous because it was an incredible city. The center of the city, where the university and the oldest parts are located, was closed off to cars and had a wonderful atmosphere. I don't want to betray my Harry Potter geekiness too much, but it felt like we were in Hogsmeade. It was chillier than it had been so we were all bundled up, scurrying from old building to old building.

We visited the (gothic) Cathedral of Salamanca which was incredible. Especially living in Alaska, where everything is super new, it is hard to comprehend just how long it takes to construct a cathedral. A year, or two maybe is what we are used to, but to imagine that it took at the very least 100 years to construct a building is mind blowing. The evidence of this can be found easily in the Cathedral of Salamanca, because construction continued into the 20th century. Because of this, there are small relics of modern times: an astronaut and a lion with an ice cream cone in the facade of the building.

Astronaut sans arm

Lion enjoying ice cream

We also visited the University of Salamanca, the oldest university in Spain and one of the oldest and still operating universities in Europe. We learned some amazing stories of professors that worked at the university.

One professor was giving a lecture about literature and pronounced "Shakespeare" in a Spanish accent, causing a student to laugh out loud at him. When asked why he was laughing, the student responded that he was laughing because the professor couldn't even speak English; how could he know anything about English literature. The professor said something to the effect of "Is that so?" and proceeded to give the rest of the class entirely in English.

Another professor taught for years and years and was an expert in theology and had translated the Bible from Latin to Spanish, I believe, and some accusations were made against him and he was arrested by the Spanish Inquisition on charges of heresy. He was held and tortured for five years. When he was finally released, he returned to the university, walked into his classroom, strode to the pulpit at the front of the room and said to the students, "As we discussed yesterday..."

We also visited Ávila before returning to Segovia. We spent very little time there, but it was incredibly fun, mostly because it started snowing. I have not seen snow since last winter and I couldn't believe how much I had been missing it. What is Thanksgiving without snow? We were all walking through the streets with our mouths wide open trying to catch snow flakes on our tongues; we probably looked ridiculous. But it was wonderful to see snow.

Snow!

It made me think about home; I am coming home in just a few weeks, and I can't believe it. It feels like I have been here forever, and simultaneously like I haven't been here very long at all.