Vale, vale!

Since I've epicly slacked at updating this while I've been in Salamanca, I can only summarize lengthily the amount of love I feel for this country as well as how much more fun I've had here in comparison to Paris. All my A-team is away for the weekend, and for the most part, all of the St. John's kids went on a trip to Madrid for the day, so I am very much a lone ranger at my dormitories. But let's start from the beginning.
My last night in Paris was great, melancholy, and at the same time, relatively a disappointment to most of our expectations. What was indeed awesome, was the that I got to climb 700 steps to the second tier of the Eiffel. I can contest that rarely a city as beautiful as Paris exists. In the evening, we returned and had wine facing the Tower and reminisced in drunken delirium. We then took a cab to Rue de Princesse and failed to meet up with Ricardo and Lucas... which was a shame because they were such important stamps to our time there and we didn't even have the chance to properly say good-bye. Regardless, I was expecting (me expecting something? crazy right?) to have a wild blow-out of a final night... but due to much stress, alcohol, closed bars, and an early morning flight, our night ended at 2 AM. By 6 AM we were on a bus headed to the airport with our overweight luggage and groggy eyes.
Once in Madrid, we took a 2 1/2 hour bus ride to Salamanca, during which most of us slipped in our respective commas. Salamanca is antique and beautiful. I immediately felt warmth when I saw the cobblestone streets and concrete building walls; I suppose because I associate all of this with my life in Mexico, considering most of the town I lived in was of Spanish descent. I felt none of the shock that I felt when I arrived in Paris, I very much felt at home. Spanish lifestyles are typically so relaxed and easy-going... which is quite great for someone as paranoid as me. My residence building is a cozy hole in the wall that blends in with the permanent inhabitants around it. My room is spacious and boasts an adorable balcony, that only a handful of us were lucky enough to receive. Also, we are fed 3 (!) times a day, everyday (!) so I feel like I can hear my wallet shouting "Hallelujah!" sometimes. The only problem is that our meals are so spaced out... 7:30 AM, 1:30 PM, and 9:00 PM. Due to extreme exhausting and mere laziness, I did not go on either of the sight-seeing trips our school provided us with. But since we've had to walk a good 15 minutes to class every morning, we've basically covered the main points of this ancient city. Plaza Mayor is in the center, and easily the most gorgeous plaza I have ever seen, particularly at night. My description would probably never do it justice, so I will let my later pictures attempt to express its grandiosity. We take classes in a building for international students, but also live at Residencia Helvetica with Spanish students. Salamanca is by definition, a college town, which hosts La Universidad de Salamanca: the most prestigious school in Spain. I don't think that the word "lucky" even begins to explain my situation.
Now, this is the part when I become irresponsible, in the sense that the last 2 weeks have been very much a drunken blur, probably attributed to the cheap and free drinks, late hours, and dance floors available. Since Salamanca is so small, we pretty much end up going to a couple of the same places night after another. For some reason, we've realized that we are perfectly capable of going out on school nights here, as opposed to us conking out every week-night in Paris. So as of now, after 15 days... it's safe to say I've gone out for about 12 of those nights. On a typical night, we go to a specific area to pre-game because the well-known promo there is "12 shots for 5 Euros." So there we are, at either Gatsby's, or La Chupiteria, like clockwork at midnight every night. For as late as partying starts here, people seem to be incapable of holding their liquor... exhibit A would occur outside of Chupiteria, where a Spanish boy from my residence hall proceeded to get on one knee, tenderly grab my hand, look me in the eyes... and mid-"AWW" he proposed to give me oral sex. Probably the strangest and most hilarious proposition I've ever received in my life.
Ongoing, after 6-12 shots of Tequila, we generally see where the night takes us. So far, my favorite place is Cubic, which is a club with awesome lighting and music. Then there is also Kandhavia, which plays mostly Latin music that my 2 left feet can never grow accustomed to. Also, Ciao is responsible for intoxicating me the most with their "Agua de Valencia," which is quite literally a liter of champagne, vodka, and Fanta in a massive plastic cup. Candela and Bisu are also quite good, and due to some connections, we are able to party endlessly at Callejon, a reggae bar/club... essentially, there is nothing bad about any of the places we go to, only that they are empty at 1 AM, because as we've been told numerous times, "nothing gets good until 4 AM." The men here are not what I expected... not very outgoing whatsoever, and extremely centered on their other "bros." So much so that it's rather impossible to penetrate their standing circle on the dance floor. Also, the girls here are much colder than French girls, which I did not think was possible. I have been practicing my Spanish by partially communicating with some of the Spanish residents, mainly boys, but I guess I never realized just how poorly I speak Spanish now... In addition to our endless parties, we've managed to get out a couple of times to play futbol, and as silly as this sounds, those were probably the times I've felt the happiest here because doing anything athletic relieves my constant anxiety unlike anything else. And unfortunately, I've been having many panic attacks in Europe, most unwarranted... nonetheless I'm trying to work on it one step at a time. ANYHOW, I'm very much streaming my thoughts at this point because there is no way I can cover everything I've done so far. All I know is that my nights never end, my classes are easy, I'm obsessed with Spain, and that I don't want to leave. Ever. So much so, that I want to do an exchange with La Universidad de Salamanca in the future, and perhaps even look for work in Spain. Whether or not I have the independence to do so, I will discover later on. More than anything, I wish I was spending a full semester here, as opposed to a mere 5 weeks. As much as I like traveling, stability is also my cup of tea... so meeting people for a short while, leaving and never seeing them, or the places you've been to, ever again is one of the hardest situations for me to accept. For now, I can only enjoy the 3 weeks I have left here, which culminate with a Spain excursion extravaganza to Madrid, Barcelona, Malaga, and Granada. To be honest, I am so torn because although my time here has been so awesome, I can see in my peripheral vision the fact that we only have 2 weeks left in Salamanca... and since time has never been my friend and I am one to dwell on it, it makes me quite melancholy. I just want to establish something more permanent with what surrounds me. Needless to say, all I can do is live it up while I can, and I should probably stop writing now, since this is the messiest entry I've ever written and I can't do any justice to anything or anyone I see, want, or experience here. I just know that I could live like this forever.