From the moment I made public my decision to embark upon this Spanish escapade, I was fortunate enough to have a flood of loved ones who were very willing to share their many valuable travel tips with me. Everyone from close friends to family members to AIFS advisors and even some locals were quick to impart any and all information so as to ease my transition into the formerly frightfully foreign Salamanca. These sages warned me of the ice-cold winds, the unavailability during siestas, the week-long rains, and perhaps most important of all, the absence of anything that even compares in the slightest to hot sauce. No doubt saving me many unnecessary hardships and headaches, this advice truly shaped the entire experience into the remarkable one that it will always be remembered as.
HOWEVER, as my time with AIFS dwindles and my plans morph into memories, I have found that along with the tips and advice that have possibly saved my life, there were some gems that were found to be slightly dull, though I feel this is due primarily to the ambiguity behind them. Thus, I have compiled the top ten fuzziest tips (in ascending order of importance) with additional explanations that clarify what the messengers really meant to say, all in the hopes of sidestepping any confusion for following travelers.
10. “The coffee at the Don Quijote Café is the best you can get.”
There is no doubt that a cup of café con leche at the convenient café right next to the school is absolutely breathtaking, but having been around a bit of the neighboring places, I feel that this mention forgot to add the condition, “As long as you don’t go to Portugal, Italy, France, or anywhere else in Spain”.
9. “Salsa dancing is easy.”
As we headed to salsa class, a false friend failed to elaborate that this opinion applies only to those who have intensely studied the art of dance for a minimum of ten years.
8. “We’re open until 8PM.”
Showing up at 7PM one night to be greeted by a CERRADA sign on the door of the dishonest photography shop and yet another time even earlier to a closed music store, I made the conclusion that it is apparently quite common for Spanish shops to use Standard Moscow time.
7. “ European soccer is crazy. You’ll get sucked in.”
To be fair, if you’re into watching twenty grown men kick a ball around, occasionally kicking towards a goal, you’ll definitely be content watching a ninety minute match that may end in a zero-zero tie. However, if you like your sports filled with tension, action, and competition at its peak, as in one where a clock ticks down to an absolute zero and not a random amount of extra time, you may find yourself imitating me in exiting ten minutes into a match.
6. “Don’t overpack. If you do need something, it’ll be really cheap here.”
Here I believe that the speaker meant to exclusively address those with parents in the oil/gold industry or members of various royal families, due to the fact that my wallet was nearly slain as I saw the price of a decent pair of jeans in the city. However, there is an alternate theory that this tip-giver’s colloquial English does not use the word cheap to mean inexpensive, but only to describe something poorly made, which if you’re not very careful, can be very accurate.
5. “ The girls in Spain aren’t very friendly to American guys.”
A very cold, pessimistic being relayed this depressing statement to me prior to my departure, yet when I arrived, I found the majority of them to be quite lovely, both aesthetically and socially. I soon realized that this person must have mistakenly omitted the word Central or South in front of the word American.
4. “You can get a plane ticket around Europe for the cost of a meal.”
After paying a still lower-than-expected average of about 90€ for a round trip flight to adjacent countries, I came to the conclusion that this person must have an incredibly refined taste for elegant cuisine.
3. “Don’t buy a return ticket for your bus. You can get it the day you need it.”
I believe the carrier of this tip was referencing the future wherein the Earth will eventually have 48-hour days due to the increasing friction upon the atmosphere. Though this may take up to two million years, so I recommend buying a ticket in advance to avoid waiting in excess of 5 hours for the next bus.
2. “Don’t worry, this doesn’t have any meat in it.”
I was promised this just before I was served a plate with a stack of murdered shrimp upon it. Now to be completely fair, compassion for our fellow living beings is not often seen in Spain, so I may have avoided this with more research. Fortunately for my more sympathetic readers, you will now know clearly that Spanish vegetarians consider the slaughtering and gorging of chicken, fish, and sometimes even cattle absolutely permissible.
1. “Salamanca will change your life.”
Harry Kerr, our lead advisor stated this bold quote at the orientation meeting and when the words hit my ears, my natural skepticism emerged and I scanned him for any telltale signs of a mistruth. Then, when I got to Salamanca, I spent some early time watching out for the validity of his statement. Now that I have been here for a bit and am entering the tail end of the experience, I have found that this one may have been the fuzziest of them all.
Travelling throughout Europe, living in a beautiful Spanish city, meeting new people, and trying things I would never have had the opportunity to try anywhere else did not alter my life at all. The reason this didn’t change my life is because the moment I stepped off of the plane in Madrid, my new life began. I suppose one might call this a change, but I felt it more like a rebirth into the person that destiny has called me to be. And as it was a rebirth, I feel I began again as a child with a strong need for guidance. Luckily for me, I was granted an army of advice givers, who, whether vague or spot on, were more than willing to take their time to help out a näive, confused, and a little frightened student make his way in the Eastern hemisphere for the first time. So to all of my friends, family, acquaintances, and the staff at AIFS that were kind enough to aid this former Euro-rookie, a very big and entirely fuzziless Thank You.
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