So I had this teacher... Professor Palmer- David Scott Palmer. The class was Latin American Politics, a seminar style class with 100 people that met twice a week. Lucky me, I was one of eight who had an extra weekly section to attend and 6 extra papers to write. The professor was certainly one of a kind at 6 foot 8, 60-something (70-something?), a former Peace Corps volunteer, writer of two books, and with a heavy Boston accent that disappeared when he spoke fluent Spanish. He seemed like the sweetest grandpa-like professor I had ever had... until he returned 10-page paper on the validity of the Hugo Chavez regime with a B- on it. I had the chance to revise and get a different grade on it, which I did, but in all honesty, I was expecting an A the first time and I started to resent for several months. I attended office hour after office hour, begging Professor Palmer to tell me what he wanted. I argued with him, he challenged me, I almost cried; this was NOT my favorite class. This was NOT my favorite teacher. This whole analyzation-across-a-spectrum-of-time-and-not-including-my-opinion concept was difficult for me when he said he especially did not want a research paper. I did not think there was something besides opinion piece and research paper. He did. Even when Professor Palmer invited our small section to dinner at his home in Boston, I admit I was still not his biggest fan, even while he told us impressive stories about spontaneously hopping on a private plane to get out of Cuba in the 60s and his dabbling in Quechua, the indigenous language of Peru. It was not until I found one of the most well-deserved A-´s on my transcript after the semesters end that I finally started to like this professor. I know this is a little shallow and I know really dont care.
During the summer working in Boston, one of my friends was also in one of Professor Palmers class ,so we decided to go out to lunch with him during one of our breaks and it was beyond pleasant to spend time with this professor when grades, papers and analyzing Latin American regimes were not part of the discussion. He told us he would be on sabbatical in Salamanca, Spain, not too far from Madrid, during the spring semester of next year and we briefly discussed me visiting, since I would only be 2 and a half hours away.
A couple weeks ago, after lots of emailing back and forth with my professor, I finally arrived to the old city with Natalie (of course) and our new awesome and feisty friend, Kristely.
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| Kristely and I en route to Salamanca! |
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We enjoyed café con leche in the Plaza Mayor, then started exploring. Natalie and Kristely in Plaza Mayor de Salamanca  |
The city felt a lot like Segovia to me, of which I was a fan. We went to the New Cathedral first, constructed in 1500 and it looked like... a cathedral (I am jaded when it comes to Cathedrals). Then, we went to el Convento de las dueñas, of which we unfortunately could only enter the courtyard.
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| Convento de las dueñas |
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| The New Cathedral |
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| Impressive organ in the New Cathedral We visited the must-see Universidad de Salamanca, the oldest University in Spain and the fourth oldest in Europe (dating back to 1254) too. We saw the famous ornate facade and found the carved frog (according to legend if you find the frog, you will have good luck for the next year, have good academic luck for life, get married in the next year, have success in Spanish, and/or other ridiculous things will happen). Finding the frog was NOT easy. I will warn with a spoiler alert before I post the picture that shows where it is. Inside, we got to see the oldest library in Spain and an old Classrom with some very uncomfortable looking seats.
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On top of the skull on the way left (a little right of center in the picture)
I met up with my Professor after that in the Plaza, which, even though he towers over any normal sized person, was very difficult, due to the abundance of people soaking up the perfect afternoon weather. |
We went to Restaurante Cervantes (they really love that guy in Spain) and I had a very delicious salad (I know. I know. Salads are not exciting AT ALL, but when you are living in a home-stay that rarely gives you vegetables and NEVER gives you vegetables that have not touched a large amount of oil, they are). I had never been so excited to choose how much dressing I wanted on my salad. My professor also treated me to some house wine and made me order a lemon ice scream for dessert for which I am very grateful. Can you say “BU tour-guide fodder”?
I introduced my professor to Natalie and Kristely and he showed us around the city a little more and brought us to the Old Cathedral (built in 1150). He took us across the Old Roman Bridge, which has since been fixed up from its construction in the 1st century and we headed to his car to visit his house on the outskirts of Salamanca.
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| Professor Palmer and some midget girls |
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| Old Roman Bridge and El Río Tormes |
Professor Palmer drove us back to the bus stop, on which we fell asleep instantly. Somehow we all managed to wake up to see the city wall of Ávila (built in the 1090 at the request of Alfonso XI). We only got a bus view, but it was still pretty awesome.
Needless to say, Professor Palmer and I got over our differences and he is now one undoubtedly one of my favorite people.
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