Lazy Sundays

From the front:

Nothing new has happened so far. I just finished the Orientation courses on Friday and as it turns out I should be in intermediates but that won't happen until I've had the placement exam which is tomorrow. I plan on studying a little bit of the material that they've given us already. As it turns out, a majority of the students understand Spanish to some extent while only a hand full can really actually speak with a small accent. Also, two forms of Spanish exist in Spain. Castellian Spanish which says the "ce" as a "th" as opposed to Sevillian which pronounces "ce" as "se". Or to be frank, Castellian Spanish sounds fruity and gay compared to Sevillian Spanish (no one ever quote me on this).

The exam itself shouldn't take more than an hour long max. There's a multiple choice and a written section that needs to be finished within thirty minutes followed by oral section with the professors. I'm not too worried though. I've decided that it's easier to realize that there things just out of your control such as the academic expectations of professors and other people.

Salamanca itself is pretty different from Williamsburg. Where Williamsburg caters to the old, retired and dying as well as tourists, Salamanca caters to the tourists and students (there are at least 2 bars to every church. And there are a lot of churches here.) Also, Slamanca is a city that best resembles Charlottesville. I decided to go to some of the museums which were nice and cheap. There's an Art Nouveau and Art Deco museum that was and where I bought a few things. The automobile museum was interesting to visit but I won't go again. I'll put up pictures when I get the energy and the will. Hopefully, I won't be too poor when I get back to the States.

Fashion tip from Europe:
Apparently, hats are coming back. Not necessarily with a vengeance but they are coming back. I've seen more than a few Frank Sinatra hats running around on the heads of young men such as myself as well as a few floating around in displays of stores such as H&M and Zara. Granted, none of them are as good as a pure fur felt or a finely woven Montecristi or Cuenca but still better than nothing. Speaking of which, look up panamabob.com and use the coupon code: JUNE to get 18% off an already discounted hat. Random, I know but if you want to stay ahead of the fashion curve get the best or at least better than what's commercially available.