salamanca. safety. snow.

I wish the world was flat like the old days and I could travel just by folding the map. No more airplanes or speed trains or freeways. There'd be no distance that could hold us back. Deathcab.

Let's talk. I got back from Salamanca, Spain at 3.30 AM on, I guess what is still today. I will tell you tomorrow if all of the painful traveling was worth it. I kinda think it totally was. Maybe as the realization of how much fun I had sets in the memories of the traveling will fade and become an unimportant recollection.

On Monday night I did not sleep because I was writing a history paper. On Tuesday at 8 PM after I finished said paper, I slid it under the history secretary's door and walked home. I made dinner, packed things for Spain, and said goodbye to my flatmate who was going home for Christmas. At 1.45 AM I walked downtown to the bus station. At 5.30 AM I arrived at the Dublin airport for my 7.30 AM flight. I landed at 11 Madrid time. Then after lots of walking and two metro stops later I figured out how to get on a 1 pm bus to Salamanca, putting me there at 3.30 PM.

I must give a special thanks to Kelsey Paul for sending me very detailed metro and bus instructions, without which I may have never made it. I would also like to give a special thanks to Austin Jones who helped 48-hours-of-no-sleep-Molly back from the bus station, without which I may have never made it. I would also like to give a special thanks to Susan Walters, who was really excited to see me...that just made me feel good.

So at this point I am in Salamanca. The city pretty sweet -- very Spanish in my mind, but then again, it is the only Spanish city I have seen. The buildings and walls are made of this tan/golden stone and there are a good number of big old churches. The streets are cobblestone and there is an awesome big plaza (more on the plaza later). The summary of the trip is that it was great to be with friends in the place they have been living all semester. We hung out in gift shops, in restaurants, in the Wake student centro, in bars, in the plaza, on a bridge (is that loitering?), and in the cathedral. It was freezing all week. I wore the toboggan Luda made me and bought some guantes.

The lovely Susan Edwards of Winston-Salem, North Carolina and Mount Tabor High School is studying through the Wake program in Salamanca, so we got to catch up. What fun. What a small world. She is still the same great gal as she was in Senor Boyst's class.

On Wednesday night the Wake program was having a final dinner and Susan Walters checked with a prof to see if I could come. She said I could. So I went. And everyone was like -- who the heck is this girl and do how do I not know someone in our program after 4 months? It was fun, plus tapas are delicious.

Ok, now for the best story. There is an event in Salamanca called Nocheviaje. It is basically a huge early New Year's party for the students in Salamanca before they go home for Christmas. It. Was. Unreal. There were 30,000 students in the plaza. You might say -- Molly, that seems like a lot of crazy college students to be in one place at one time. And I might say -- yes, yes it was. I do not believe that I have been on an emotional roller coaster as steep and curvy as Nocheviaje in my whole life.

Five of us, Kelsey, Austin, Susan, and Susan's roommate, Andrea headed toward the plaza a few minutes before midnight. Within a couple of minutes we found ourselves in the huge jumping crowd. I believe I thought something like "Ha, ha! This is crazy!". After about two minutes of being at the mercy of the crowd my thoughts suddenly switched to "No ha ha. This is not good at all." We all looked at each other, well not Andrea because she got pulled away, but the four of us made eye contact and it was clear we were all in self-preservation mode. After hand/shoulder holding, a punch in the face, a crushed water bottle, hand signals, lots of pushing and squeezing through, and a meeting place, the five of us made it out. It was one of most insane times of my life.

Because I care about you, dear reader, and think that getting crushed in a crowd would be a horrible way to go out, here are some tips if your find yourself in a similar mob situation. An excerpt from an article entitled Large Crowd Safely (you will notice that my friends and I employed some of these potentially life-saving tactics):

"Panicked crowds move fast and release an incredible amount of energy, usually compared to the energy generated by a running train: once a crowd gets moving it is very hard to stop, and the flow of people could literally sweep you off your feet.
So, if you find yourself in the middle of a moving crowd do not fight against the pressure, stand still or sit down, because you could easily get trampled.
Do not move against the crown; instead, move in the same direction of the crowd, take advantage of any space that may open up to move sideways to the crowd movement where the flow is weaker.

If you fall, get up quickly. If you cannot get up because you are injured, get someone to pull you back up.

Because the noise level in a crowd could be too loud for shouting to be effective, use gestures to communicate to each other.

Grab your friend's hand or shoulder to remain together. Alternatively, decide on a gathering point where you will meet and account for each other, should you get separated.
The worst scenario is to be pushed by the crowd against an immovable object. Try to stay away from walls, fences or barricades, as the crowd pressure can build up rapidly.

If you fall and cannot get up, keep moving by crawling in the same direction of the crowd, or if that is not possible, then cover your head with your arms and curl up into the fetal position."

The rest of the trip was grand as ever. Being abroad is real fun. Friends are real fun. Traveling back was not as awesome. It was similar to the way there except add 30 minutes of walking to the Salamanca bus station in freezing rain, an extra hour on a Spanish bus due to snow (see picture above), an extra 30 minutes helping a young lady from Greece who was crying because she thought she had missed her flight (we ran to the check in place and she just made it), a Spanish couple making-out beside me the whole time on the plane (never ok, but especially when you are elbowing me in the head, sir), and three hours waiting for the next bus to Galway. I did shell out the seven euro to take a taxi back from the bus station at 3.30 AM. That was for you, mom.

Here is a picture of the same sculpture found in the first picture of this blog entry. The first picture was taken Wednesday night in the plaza in Salamanca. This picture was taken on Saturday in the Madrid airport. I turned around after hugging the Grecian girl and there it was. Interesting that a two-ton metal bust has such an easy time traveling traveling Spain. It seems to mock me.
Closings thoughts:
-My Skype isn't working -- bummer. I will have to wait to talk to people in person.
-It smells like pumpkin muffins with raisins in my room for some reason and I want to be home.
-I have an exam tomorrow morning on the History of Irish Thought. Yikes. I have to take a bus to get to the exam site.
-I got my hair cut pretty short in Salamanca. It cost 14 euro. I know mom, just because it's cheap doesn't mean it's a good deal.
-Seriously, why does it smell like muffins?
-Just when I was loosing faith in humanity while traveling (post plane PDA couple), I saw a crying grandmother throw down her bags and run to her special granddaughter who screamed with excitement and jumped into her arms.

We can walk out after dark
Because it's Christmas time
Colored lights glow from the park
Because it's Christmas time
And the bells on the reindeer sled say
It's Christmas time
And the quilts on the back of the bed say
It's Christmas time
-Sufjan