On concerts, rain, and a disastrous event

We are in Salamanca, a very cute little town, and we are staying in a real live hotel! It is definitely amazing. No elevator, which is nice because that means the prices are quite reasonable, but also not-so-nice since we are staying on the 4th floor (which in the US would be the 5th floor). We arrived here around 6 after a 2 1/2-hour train ride from Madrid which took us through a whole bunch of Spain that looked a whole lot like Nebraska. It´s raining on and off, unfortunately--the rain must have left Madrid two days ago and came here. Hopefully tomorrow will be nice. It´s quite chilly, though, so Sarah and I bought University of Salamanca sweatshirts...we only brought one night´s worth of stuff and left our big bags in lockers at the Chamartin station in Madrid, where we will return tomorrow. Now we are both cozy warm and full of school spirit. We are visiting the university tomorrow, so at least we have appropriate attire for that. The girl who sold us the sweatshirts was so nice; we were able to talk to her a little, even with our poor Spanish. She asked if we were ¨gemelas¨ (twins).

After dinner we walked to the Plaza Mayor to get to this internet cafe. We were hoping to get hear some of the local tuna music (which has nothing to do with the fish, but is just students who form groups and play for tips during the week and weddings on the weekends). We got a real treat--a community band with a few low strings was playing in the plaza! We enjoyed the two pieces we heard quite a bit, in spite of the fact that three loud men were sitting to our left, passing around a suspicious-looking bottle and a cigarette, and a woman was standing to our right with a very dandruffy and sweaty-smelling man. It was definitely an experience for all the senses--especially once the rain started again towards the end of their last song.

Now to the disastrous event--our dinner. It was nice, although fairly expensive for our budget, but the food was quite good. We both ordered roast beef, because it sounded delicious and the place seemed too nice to order two different things and share. The beef came with French fries and a flaming orange gravy, which I enjoyed but have no idea what it was. The real disaster was when I was experimenting with holding my knife European-style (more like a pencil... except that I am left-handed, so I never hold anything like that in my right hand). Instead of cutting the roast beef, the knife went flying over my shoulder and clattered hugely onto the floor. I really have no idea how it happened. I just know I had gravy on my shirt, both at the collar and at the waist, all over my napkin, a knife on the floor, and Sarah trying to stifle her guffaws across the table from me. When a nice waiter man came running from the other room with a new knife for me, her laughter reached a new level of riotousness and emerged as a snort. I calmly continued with my meal, trying to pretend I didn´t know her. The meal continued uneventfully. We had some interesting desserts... prepackaged, but good. I got a limon, which was lemon sorbet that was actually served in a lemon. It came in a plastic bag, which was interesting, but I really enjoyed it. Apparently Spain has lots of crazy ice cream, as Sarah read in the local newspaper today. However, the meal ended on a slightly disastrous note... After bringing us the tip, the waiter asked if we wanted... something. Neither of us had any idea what he was saying, so we just looked at him helplessly and smiled like damsels in distress, and he went away. However, he came back with two little glasses of something that looked potentially alcoholic in tiny glasses with an ice cube. Sarah tried it and thought it might not be alcoholic, so then I drank mine as well (I signed a contract with Northwestern that says I won´t drink while I´m a student there). It was like fruit juice, but with a kick... I really have no idea what it was. Pretty good, though. The biggest disaster, though, was when we didn´t have any small bills for a tip, so we ended up leaving just under ten percent (European tips are much smaller than in the US)... but it was mostly in small change, like ten eurocent coins. I felt so, so tacky. So we put down the tip and ran. At least finding the concert ended our evening on a good note (pun intended). We intend to have a very leisurely stay here, although it´s less than 24 hours. Our hotel room has a bathroom--and a shower, a tub-sized shower. It´s amazing. We both intend to use the toilet whenever we want to, and shower for as long as we want to. What a treat. Then tomorrow we will just be wandering around the town, seeing the university and the outside of the cathedral. We have seen many, many cathedrals so I think we´re going to skip the inside of this one, but apparently a 1993 remodel resulted in an astronaut being added to the cathedral carvings... this I have to see.