On Location Spanish – 26 Mar 2013

130326-iain¡Hola y bienvenidos! Welcome to another installment of On Location Spanish, once again coming to you from Iain in the University town of Salamanca.

Salamanca has recently been doing its finest impression of the Scottish climate – over the past week, we have been experiencing all four seasons in one day, with a fair amount of rain and snow for good measure. This has been an excellent opportunity to push my weather vocabulary beyond the basics, adding new phrases such as:

hay un vendaval and hay lloviznas
“it’s blowing a gale” and “it’s drizzling”

Looking back on my preconceptions of living in Spain for a year, I certainly didn’t think I’d still be tramping about Salamanca wearing a ski jacket, jumper, a scarf and gloves mid-March, so therefore I’m hoping this weather is short-lived. In typical Spanish humour, my classmate Carlos introduced me to another phrase to describe something that is short-lived, hopefully like this changeable weather:

pasa como una nube de verano
“it passes by like a cloud in the summer sky”

Oh, what I would give for a cloudless blue sky right now… On perhaps a lighter note, the vibrant Irish community here in Salamanca made sure that the recent celebrations for el día de San Patricio (of course, “St. Patrick’s Day”) were well attended. The lights in the Plaza Mayor were turned green for the weekend in honour of the Irish patron saint, and I can confirm that a few pints of Guinness were consumed by both Spanish and Erasmus students alike.

As March passes, thoughts turn towards the Easter celebrations here in Spain – which I’m very much looking forward to. However, after Easter it’s just a few short weeks until my Erasmus exchange period is over, which is a frightening thought…

Bueno, ¡hasta la próxima!

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