Can I just take a moment...

to complain?

I'm sorry, I try to keep a positive tone to my posts, but, when looking back at these in years to come, I'm going to want to remember every detail, not just the good.

I've been extremely frustrated with my classes here the last few months.  Like REALLY frustrated.  I'm not saying that I blame my teachers, myself, or even the classes themselves.  I want to blame something, but really, 1) I can't and 2) It's not like it's going to help anything anyways.

I'm currently taking undergrad courses.  And don't get me wrong, I'm learning a lot.  And it's really interesting.  However, the testing is all memorization and NO application.  "Here, take this wonderful book, read it, but on the test I just want you to tell me the entire history of the author, the year it was written in, and the main topics that it contains (without, of course, developing any of those topics)."
What hurts my heart a little, is reading these books, which I love, finding SUPER interesting themes and topics, but knowing I can't do anything with it.  If it weren't for the fact the the teacher just puts random paragraphs on the test, and you have to identify which text it comes from, I probably wouldn't have to read the book at all!!  I just want, SO BADLY, to write a research paper, investigate SOMETHING, ANYTHING!! I feel like I'm mentally trapped. Every time I open a book my mind goes crazy with thoughts, questions, ideas... but to what end? I can't do anything with them!!

I will never again complain about having to write a research paper.  You can hold me to that. 

Alright.  I'm done.  Sorry for the rant.  But sometimes, it just feels good to get it out.  I'm going to try to keep a positive attitude, and take away as much as I can from these classes, and hopefully be able to apply it all down the road somewhere...

Carnival in Ciudad Rodrigo!

So, this post is a little late, but here it is!!

So, on Feb. 9th (?? maybe...) I went to a city, about 45 minutes away from Salamanca called Ciudad Rodrigo to celebrate Carnival!! (For those who don't know, Carnival is kinda like Mardi Gras.  It's the last huge celebration before lent.)  I went with two friends from the States who are also living in Spain right now, and we had a great time!
Everyone dresses up for this event, and a lot of times, groups dress up together.  We decided to dress up with the traditional masks, wore sparkly tights and scarves, and painted our nails!!

The first part of the day was spent walking around the city, taking in the sites, enjoying some drinks and tapas, and taking it all in.

 Walking around the outside of the city...

 View of the bull ring... we couldn't tell if it was still in use or not, since the bull fight they had that day was in the city, and not there...

Some people walking around all dressed up.  

Some of the more interesting things we saw were...
Cute costumes!!

 And crazy rides...

After walking around, we went to see a bull fight!! I was really conflicted about if I wanted to see one or not.  I'm not a fan of what happens, but at the same time, it's such a part of Spanish history and culture, that being a student of Spanish culture, I felt I should see. I will say, I had no idea what to expect, and I didn't think it would be as awful as it was.  There were times I almost cried!! But, I saw one, and if in the future any of my students have questions about it, I can tell them about my experience.

Here are some pictures.  I'm not going to put any of the sad ones up, and I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about what a bull fight entails.  I will, however, put up a video soon explaining it all (just me talking about what I saw... haha) so if anyone wants to know, they can watch it, but if they don't, they don't have to.  I'm also putting the video up more for myself so I can remember everything, since I highly doubt I'll be going to one ever again.

Overall, it was a great day!
And it looks like there were a lot of people that had a good time as well...