Sometimes traveling can be especially taxing for the introverted parts of ourselves. That’s how this day started out, as I walked to a coffee shop by myself for breakfast and felt uncomfortable walking among all of the people I don’t know in a country I’m not from. But I went anyways and figured out how to order a pastry and coffee with milk, and I sat down without wifi or data and just thought. I’m so glad that I went despite being uncomfortable and when it would’ve been ten thousand percent easier to stay home and eat something there because I ended up brainstorming ideas for different posts and feeling a lot more comfortable with where I was. If I had stayed home, I wouldn’t have had the same inspiration or thoughts, and I probably would’ve been significantly less productive and satisfied with my morning.
In the evening, the AIFS group met up to go watch fireworks in the park by the river. All of Salamanca is in a buzz right now because every year at this time they have little vendors in the streets with delicious food and free concerts in the Plaza Mayor at what they call “ferias.” This year is the school’s 800th anniversary! It’s incredible that I got to be here for such an exciting tradition, but even cooler that it falls on that big of an anniversary. At the concert with heightened emotions from the whole event, I felt a little teary-eyed when I heard the singer yell out “SALAMANCA” over the crowd and I remembered that I’m actually here.
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