Today I have uploaded a few photos of the spectacular view from the terrace of Carmen’s (and my!) apartment.
The towers of the Basilica of Our Lady of Pilar rise above Zaragoza. Although not in the physical center, the basilica is the focus of the city; in the first week or so of October, “all of Spain” (according to one of the teachers) comes to Zaragoza to celebrate the fiestas of Pilar. I still don’t know much about it, but I’ve heard that all the goings-on are fantastic.
Here is the tower of La Seo, a gorgeous cathedral.
On the top right you can see another tower, this one with a mudejár (Islamic) design. Arabs conquered Zaragoza a long time ago (when my history class starts, you’ll hear more about this!) and the effect is still felt in the mudejár buildings, an Arabic block or two of the city, and the abundance of Arabic food in the supermarkets. Today I found harissa, which I could not for the life of me discover in Whole Foods or Stop and Shop! However, I don’t know whether my host mother likes spicy food or not, so I resisted buying some…for now.
These houses face our terrace. I absolutely love the roofs!
The streets here are much narrower than those in Sunderland – but of course, I am in a much larger place! I know that all cities have narrow streets, but these seem to be more so. The cars are also very aggressive – or, their drivers are! Definitely no jay-walking unless you are on a tiny one-way street – here, we always wait for a green walk signal.
This is the view from my bedroom. The window reveals a small open space, bordered by other apartment walls. Since I am on the top floor, I can see the sky – however, I cannot see the ground.
¡Vale! (BA-lay, the Spanish “okay”)
Today, the last day of orientation, we had an asemblea about the rules and regulations. Afterwards, we were released into the city for a scavenger hunt (en Español, ¡por supuesto!) in teams of three. Our task: find various plazas and stores and find out facts such as what statues represent or how much a kilo of shrimp costs. Luckily, since I love maps, I had studied the folding map of Zaragoza which we’d been given in school the day before, so I could find everything easily. My team tied for first, and we each won CDs of Spanish bands. Now I have some real Spanish music on my iPod!
After school, a few friends and I, all speaking Spanish, bought a few notebooks, stamps, and shampoo from three different stores. We also went to the library to use the computers. Ahora I’m at home; my host mother is running some errands and I’m writing this with the Spanish radio in the background (they just had a sound clip of Obama). Tomorrow I discover what classes I have and go to them as well…¡estoy muy ilusionada!
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