Sorry it's been a while, BUT this was one of my favorites :) Right under us is the Casa De Conchas which translates to the House of Shells. It was build by the king? (or someone important, I forgot) for his wife and every shell is a token of his love for her. There is a second part of the story and some people think it ruins it BUT message me or comment and I'll tell you the last tiny bit :) I was SO excited for this. It is now used as a library.

 This is up close to the shells, they were pretty cool.

 There were TONS of shells. :)

 

Across the street from the Biblioteca (aka library), was the school I went to. This was one of the entrances. It seems that every important building had a red door.

 This was our tour in the Casa De Conchas.

 This was in the University Pontificia de Salamanca. This was my class. :)

 A well in the library. (sorry the pictures jump around. I put them in order then the blog switched them up:)

 Casa de Conchas

 

This was also in the Casa de Conchas. There were seashells everywhere, not just on the outside.

 

This is in the University. Not everybody gets to go in this special room, but this was where they brought us on the first day AND where we got our certificates for graduating. It was really pretty.

In the University walking to class :)

The big towering building was my school and you can see the Casa De Conchas on the right.

This was cool. In the university, a LONG time ago, when you got a doctrine (In whatever field), you could write your on VICTOR. Victor is Latin? for Victory and you would write it on the wall in an artsy way. But first you had to hold a big huge banquet for all the professors and give them all gifts, buy food for your neighbors, throw a party for the entire town and basically buy tickets for everyone in Salamanca tickets to a bull fight. When the fight was over, you would take just a little bit of the bulls blood, mix it with oil and that's what you would write your VICTOR with.

 

Today if you get your doctrine, you buy a gift for some professors, maybe throw a little party (its all optional now) and you write VICTOR along with your name and the year your got your Doctrine with red paint on the walls of the University. There are 100's of VICTORS if not more, plus the bulls blood fades so there could be a lot more that have faded away.

 

Random Pictures :)

 

Ooh. Do you see that HUGE nest up on the tower?
I saw big nest like that everywhere in Spain and could not figure out what type of bird would need a nest that big. When I came home, I did some research and found out it was a White Stork. It was super cool, I love birds :)

The University.

 

This was in the University. There were lots of cool stairs. :) We actually got in trouble for going up the stairs. :)

I love how much detail they put into everything. This is on the underside of the stairs.

 

Mas de el Casa De Conchas. More of the Casa de Conchas. (Sorry, sometimes I will be writing, home or school and then I'll look back and half of it is in Spanish :)

The door of the library.

 

This is the School from a higher perspective.

Okay, in Spain, my friend kissed every statue she came across and I took pictures of her kissing every one and I had to post at least one and this was my favorites.  :)

 

This quail is in front of the university and it has a cool quote on it about education. It's super tall.

This is the Casa De Conchas above the door.

This was in the Library, these Dog/Lion statues lined the stairs.

Hope you liked this, when summer comes, I'll be updating a lot more regularly. SMILE :)

SALAMANCA. I'm going to split this city into many posts. I spent the majority of my time here so there are quiet a few pictures.  :)

This is the Plaza Mayor. Every city has its own 'Plaza Mayor', and this one was the biggest of the ones I visited. This Plaza Mayor takes up an entire block. Basically, you would take a block and outline it with shops, restaurants, bars, and SUPER expensive apartments. Under the bell tower is where the mayor lives. This is the center of Salamanca, where all the activity takes place.

I'm not sure who this is but I just wanted to show you how many statues are in Spain.

Here is another statue. The little shop that says 'Regalos   Mary Cristy' is where I bought my dads present.  :)

My partner and I were walking around town one day and found this.  In the middle of apartments and shops, they made a little garden. I pulled my camera out to take pictures and my partner kept telling me that we had to hurry and leave. She finally added that she needed the restroom. I was taking my time because I would never see this again and when I was done, she pulled me away. Apparently she didn't need the restroom. In the bottom left hand window there were guys in there waving us in :) You can't see them in this photo but...

You can here...

and here :)  Besides the guys in the window, this little garden was cool.

Here are more photos of the Plaza.

THIS was my room in my host family's house. I had the bottom bunk and my partner took the top.

It was super cute. My family had the mom Raquel, the dad Daniel, and a little boy Diego. Diego was super cute and called us 'Las Chicas' The entire time. That means The Girls. He loves Michel Jackson and always spun around and yelled "OW!". He was funny.

Here is Rebekah in front of this cool painting that we found in between two shops.

And here's me :)

It was Holy Week in Spain while we were there and this was the Plaza with the decorations. We actually got stuck in one of the huge processions trying to get home one night.

This is the Plaza at night.

This is Diego. He loved hanging out with us.

And this was our mom Raquel. She spoke some English and would talk to us in English but for the most part, we had to respond in Spanish. I didn't get a picture of my host dad though  :(