Leaving in one week!

In one week, I leave Portland on my way to Spain. I'll spend about five days doing some travel within the States, but after that I'm heading off to Salamanca!

Here are some things I'm looking forward to:

First and foremost, my host family and simply studying and living in the Spanish language and culture. I'm looking forward to simply trying to slip into the culture of Spain while I'm abroad. This is really what I'm looking forward to the most, being immersed in Spain. Everything else that I'm looking forward to is part of this.

Of course, being a bibliophile, I had to love these pictures of the biblioteca antigua. I'm sure that I will find a library--if not this one--at the Universidad de Salamanca, and spend many a happy hour there. I have to have something to read after I finish La sombra del viento.

This is a picture of one of the cathedrals, but I am looking forward to churches in general as well. Which brings me to the next concept: art.

It seems practically impossible to try to find a picture that shows art in general, so I won't even try. But the art in the architecture and in museums is something I expect to enjoy. Not to mention art in music, which I love dearly.

Food. I have eaten Argentine food, which is quite similar to Spanish food, all my life, so it isn't as if this is going to be terribly exotic. But I do love that food and am looking forward to being surrounded by it.

Just getting lost on the streets. There is little I like more than going out to wander on streets that I don't know (with a map or enough knowledge of the area to get back safely, and preferably with a cell phone), and I greatly look forward to doing this while I am abroad.

See you in a couple weeks, after I arrive in Salamanca!