more Spain

Since we lived out at the farthest northern point of Salamanca, it was great fun to go exploring outside the city. Behind our house there were these little hills (las colinas we called them in spanish), they were somewhere between hills and mountains actually - I know because I used to run up them. It was the perfect run - outside, off roads & sidewalks on dirt paths, no trees, just pass the garbage dump and then you run around these idyllic farm fields, and up a huge final hill. When I made it to the top of the last hill, there was this spectacular view of the city - you could see the cathedrals and the university and the bridge and the river. I was usually running at sunrise or sunset, when all the normally golden buildings would look rosy in the Spanish light. It was almost a honey, or tawny gold- indescribable, but beautiful. My roommates didn't run with me very often (knee problems apparently), so I found it a great place to go and pray.

There were other places to work out - our University had a track and a "gym" which was more rudimentary than many of the gyms I go to in rural Africa. Then there was also a park near our house, where my roomies and I did some workouts outside (pushups, jumping jacks, our old cross country stretches) - we scandelized the locals. Working out is not something you do in public in Spain. Ever.

One of my roommates joined a local gym (it was too expensive for me), and she would take the aerobics classes. She always came back with hilarious stories of women in full makeup and street clothes doing these dance moves. Em is such a good sport- it's tough to take jazzercise in a foreign language, but she was totally faithful.

My last run up las colinas was (thankfully) right at the end of my program - it was midday, and I was home early because I had a class cancelled. I was home just before lunch, so I decided to go for a run - not my normal hour for running, but no big deal, right? wrong. After getting followed up the block by 2 policemen (gracias, i felt so safe) - I rounded the corner, ran up the first hill, and immediately was overlooking about 17 shady characters on the next hill below me. I couldn't tell what they were up to, but they did not look friendly. I was sooooo disappointed that my spot was actually miscreant meetup locale, and I never went back.

The other workout memory I have from Spain is when my roommates & I decided to create our own workout routine in our rooms. It was a pretty intense couple hours of running in place, some pilates moves, lots of jumping jacks, pushups, and situps. Sadly, we were discouraged by our Mama (who by the way thought we were loonies) telling us that if we jumped, we would 'disturb the neighbors.' We had to keep quiet, but we were still really good at figuring out exercises to do!