Odds and Ends of Salamanca

It's been a nice couple of days discovering the city a little more, poco a poco. I'm posting a few pictures of the city here, it really is beautiful. At night, with all the monuments lit up, it's really special.

Today was the last day of the International Conference of Teachers of Spanish as a Foreign Language, and then Monday we will start back at our normal classes, which will be good.

Yesterday I went to buy a few folders for my classes, and as they rang us up, they explained why they charged us more than what the tag said. As of yesterday morning, the government raised the taxes again by 2%, so that the products you buy, have an 18% tax added to them. You can compare this to CT, where we have a 6% sales tax. If you buy something in CT for $100, you will pay $106. Here in Spain, it would be like $118. Although, to be clear, here in Spain we use euros, which currently has a better exchange rate for Americans than we've had in years. For every 100 euros, it is about $124. It's still to our disadvantage, but it is a much stronger showing of our dollar than before. The European Union is having many financial difficulties (as does the whole world), especially in Greece and Spain also.

A few notes about the Universidad de Salamanca, where I study. It is actually the oldest university in Spain, and amongst the oldest of Europe. It's been a university for almost 800 years - since 1220! Everywhere you walk here in the Old City it is steeped in history. While this may sound boring, it's really cool to be a part of it.

This weekend I will be doing two day trips - Saturday to Avila, and then returning to see the World Cup games (Spain tomorrow night!), and then Sunday to Valladolid. More about those excursions later! Feel free to comment! :)