As of Tuesday night, I have a cell phone here in Spain, although I’m going to request that people from the states not call me on it too often because it’s expensive to receive international calls. Just in case, the number is 692422967 (don’t forget the 01134 if you’re calling from a different country.) I got my phone at a really cool mall that was basically an enclosed square shape with a huge open air courtyard in the middle. The strangest thing about the mall was the fact that the upper levels (3-6) are apartments! I think it would be great to live in a mall-you’d never have to leave the building to get anything (especially since this mall had a grocery store). It was a really long walk to get there but it was through the beautiful Santiago so it wasn't too bad. I also bought a really cute pair of shoes for 10 euros.

We have started our language and culture class, which mostly consists of us learning useful phrases and asking questions about what is "mal educado" or bad manners. The teacher of that class is a really nice woman who doesn't seem much older that us, despite being the subdirector of the program here. She's also teaching essentially the same class to another group, from Colgate, who are doing essentially the same thing we're doing (starting here and then going on to Madrid).

Yesterday was a really interesting day because we went to el Museo del Pobo Gallego (Museum of the Galician Society), an ethnographic/anthropologic museum about the region we're in. This is going to be the first time I actually post pictures for you guys. The museum is based in a converted convent built over three centuries.


The church part of the convent was built in the 14th century by the Domincan Friars. It's a beautiful gothic church with some very typical features according to our guide. I fell like my Spanish is really improving a lot because, despite the unusual vocabulary our guide used, I could understand pretty much everything he was saying. The newer parts of the church were completed in the 17th century and are more Baroque in style. There are some really beautiful altars in the church, and one of the best preserved things that the monks' books sat on in the church (sorry, I'm not sure what the word for that is.)

The coolest architectural feature of the church was a set of three spiral staircases going up to a beautiful balconey overlooking the city (see the picture at the top. The spires in the background are the spires of the famous cathedral here.)























Because it's an ethnographic museum, there are tons of exhibits on the everyday life of the people in Galicia. We started in a section that focuses on imigration and the reasons for immigrating and moved onto a section on traditional costumes and beliefs. The weird straw thing above is a raincoat which is supposedly so affective that even in a downpour, not a single drop of water would get through. The creepy looking things above are wax representations of various body parts which would have been left on an altar to ask for assistance with an physical problem with that part. There were a lot of model houses and buildings to give you an idea of truly traditional Galician villages. The last section was on jobs that are traditionally held by the Galician people. Of course there are all of the usual professions, but for the women there is the most beautiful lace work, which is done the the way you can see to the left.

Today, we're going on a guided tour of the cathedral here. I'll post about that next time with any good photos I manage to take. I actually have to leave now for that (I've used my entire siesta writing this post and making it look pretty) but I'll be sure to post again before too long.

Que os encuentrais bien.