Verano en Soria!

Hello all! I hope everyone’s summer is going well. I just wanted to post a quick update to tell you all what I have been up to here in Soria for the summer. I am giving individual classes to students and adults that want conversation classes. I have a few classes of adults who want to better their English for work or other things. I am giving one class to two boys that live in my apartment building, their parents approached me to see if I was willing to give them conversation classes and we meet everyday in the apartment to speak in English for a half hour to an hour. I have a few classes with children, ages 8-12 where we play a lot of games now in the summer. I have one class with a 12 year old girl, Alba, who is the daughter of one of the bar/cafeteria owners in the bar that I go to frequently. This is one of my favorite classes because we meet and just talk about anything. Often we take walks through the park, go somewhere to have a drink or walk through the city and talk.
Other than classes I meet with Kim a lot for coffee or for walks. The city is full of terraces to sit and have a beer or coffee at any time and just watch the entire city go by, great people watching and you’re sure to run into people you know.
Kim and I went with some friends to El Cañon del Rio Lobos, a nature reserve area that includes a canyon with caves and hiking trails, for a friend’s birthday. We climbed through caves with some really great formations and hiked about 8 kilometers. When we finished we had a huge picnic lunch with homemade bread full of meats and we had cheeses, tortilla and pasta salads with a wine drink, like a sangria. After a nap in the park we went to El Burgos de Osma, a village in Soria, for a mid-evil market.
For the fourth of July I went kayaking with some friends in the Rio Duero. Some of my friends are expert kayakers. It was my first time kayaking! I did ok, I managed to make it almost the entire way with out flipping, but 30 seconds before we finished I ended up in some branches and flipped. I went with a big group of about 15 other people; some went down the river in inner tubes and the rest in kayak. After we finished we headed to a small village in Soria for a dinner. There was tortilla and salad and kidneys (didn’t try them!) and tripe (intestines, again didn’t even try them). We sat around outside drinking beer mixed with a lemon soda (like a shandy) out of a traditional glass container that gets passed around and poured into your mouth. Afterwards they moved the table and everyone danced and had some after dinner drinks.
Just outside of the city of Soria (you need a car to get there) there is a water reserve that I have gone to a couple times to swim in. It was made years and years ago by damming the river and allowing the valley to fill up, however there is a village that’s under the water, they just filled the reserve up over it and still when the water is low you can see the church tower and the tops of some buildings. It’s beautiful there and the water is great! They made some sand beaches and there are a few spots where there are huge rocks sticking out of the water you jump off of into the water. We spent one night there, watching the sunset and then cooking dinner, they have something like a grill there for the public to use. After dinner we sat around with some friends that all play instruments listening to their music. Because it’s outside the city there are no lights so the sky is very dark and I have never seen so many stars, it was amazing!
Other than that I have been with friends in bars that we frequent talking and hanging out. I have really enjoyed the summer here, the city’s atmosphere changes dramatically in summer. The people are always in the streets having a beer (at any time of day) and enjoying the summer for all its worth and I’m loving every second of it!