I LOVE THIS PLACE!

And I haven't even arrived in Salamanca yet. I'm still in Avila.

After some minor mishaps, my plane landed 45 minutes late into Madrid. Nevertheless, I made it to this diamond in the rough with my miserly Spanish. The accent isn't too difficult anymore, it's just the phrases and colloquialisms that I need work with, but that is why I'm here.

I arrived in Avila just after noon. Long story short, I couldn't find the monastery my mom and I had booked a night at. To be honest, I forgot the name besides "Santa Teresa". Everything here is "Santa Teresa". How did I not see this coming? So this elderly lady native to the region took me under wing and took me to three possible locations. Two of them turned out to be student dorms. So now I'm staying at Universidad de la Mistica. It's a retreat for the study of Santa Teresa since she was from the region.

For 34 euros per night, I get breakfast, a location on the outskirt of town, and an immaculate bedroom with two single beds. I think the girl at the front desk upgraded me to this room because she saw how much stuff I had.

Back to the elderly spanish lady. We ate dinner together and now I know I don't like Sopa Castellana. She would just talk and talk and talk and I would shake my head in the appropriate direction and the appropriate time. It was awesome. I think she may have had dentures because her speaking was a tad muffled. She was still cute though, in her white blazer and orange creme colored slacks.

She wants me to send her a post card from Las Vegas.

I just finished breakfast which was successful. I ended up sitting with a group from Atlanta. I'm joining them for the duration of the morning. Mary, Wallace, Isias, and Antonio--thank you for making my first Spanish breakfast an enjoyable one!

There was this one awkward moment, though. I heard some people speaking German so I asked them about the breakfast cereal--is it oatmeal or muesli? I got the message that it was muesli, but then one of them just kept going and going....uh, ja das ist gut. 

hehehehe

It's been a beautiful life.