Fried eggplant sticks —and the college metropolis of Salamanca

September 27, 2023

Natacha Sanz Caballero

Greens, Occasions & Journey
AATSP convention 2023, berenjenas, Universidad de Salamanca, vegetable backyard, vegetarian

I by no means imagined after I planted two small eggplant crops in my vegetable backyard that they’d develop to offer such beneficiant manufacturing for our household. I get 2 to 4 eggplants each couple of weeks, simply sufficient to produce us with produce to make a few of the dishes we’re conversant in, like pisto, (verify the recipe right here) or fried eggplant sticks. Comfortable on the within, crunchy on the surface, they’re so addictive that you simply will be unable to cease at only a few!

I depart you with just a few photographs of the eggplants within the backyard, used to arrange right this moment’s recipe, fried eggplant sticks. However I needed so as to add some extra to this submit. Immediately is Nationwide Instructing Spanish Day, and I couldn’t assist speaking about it. Why? As a result of Mrs. Becker, Spanish trainer at Bishop Dwenger Excessive College, and I attended and introduced on the one hundred and fifth Convention of the American Affiliation of Lecturers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP) just a few months in the past in Salamanca, Spain, and what a venue that was!

On the Palacio de Congresos, the place we introduced our session DE LA NAO AL AULA

One entrance to the Escuelas Menores

View of Salamanca Cathedral from my lodge room

View from the Gardens of Calisto and Melibea

Salamanca’s Plaza Mayor (or the part of it that matches within the picture) at night time

Salamanca is a beautiful, historic metropolis within the area of Castilla and León in Spain, about 200 km from Madrid. It’s a smallish metropolis, with about 160,000 inhabitants, whose inhabitants will increase while you add the 35,000 school college students that attend its two main universities, the College of Salamanca and the Pontifical College of Salamanca. 

When you’re wanting ahead to studying Spanish and wish to have an expertise overseas, I’d advocate many Spanish areas, after all, however I’ve to confess that Spanish in Salamanca is obvious and accent-free, and the ambiance within the metropolis, heat and welcoming. Strolling via its streets, its Plaza Mayor, its completely different gardens, squares, bridges, cathedral, convents and monuments make you’re feeling such as you’ve stepped again in time.

The Backyard of Calisto and Melibea

The obligatory typesetting all through the town

The College of Salamanca spectacular facade

Patio de las Escuelas Mayores, College of Salamanca

Salamanca’s Roman Bridge over the Tormes river

Salamanca’s Roman Bridge

However not simply that, you’re feeling such as you’re strolling within the footsteps of Alfonso X el Sabio (writer, astrologer, lawmaker and King of Spain within the thirteenth century), Santa Teresa de Jesús (founding father of the Order of the Discalced Carmelites and Physician of the Church), fray Luis de León (poet, priest and professor imprisoned by the Inquisition), Antonio de Nebrija (essentially the most influential Spanish humanist of the period, writer of the Spanish Language Grammar), Ignacio de Loyola (founding father of the non secular order of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits), Abraham Zacut (astronomer, astrologer, mathematician and historian whose charts and astrological devices have been utilized by the primary navigators, like Vasco da Gama and Christopher Columbus), Miguel de Cervantes (considered the best Spanish author, writer of El Quijote, amongst others), all of whom lived between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, or Miguel de Unamuno, writer and professor between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.  

Patio de las Escuelas Menores, College of Salamanca

An entrance to the Escuelas Menores, College of Salamanca

On the shadow of Fray Luis de León on the Patio de las Escuelas Mayores of the College of Salamanca

The College of Math and the College of Lecturers, College of Salamanca

View of the Clerecía from calle Libreros

The College of Salamanca, based in 1218, is the oldest in Spain, and one of many oldest in Europe, along with the colleges of Paris, Oxford and Bologna. It’s also house to many prestigious language faculties and facilities whose certified {and professional} workers have made Spanish educating a practice of Salamanca.

The College of Salamanca is likely one of the most vital buildings within the metropolis, and a gem of the Spanish renaissance artwork. It was based by king Alfonso IX de León and later continued by Alfonso X el Sabio. The jewel of the constructing is its façade, within the plateresque fashion, utilizing the well-known native Villamayor stone that give, not simply the college, however most buildings in historic Salamanca, its golden glow. This very elaborate façade is alleged to be an homage to Queen Isabel and King Fernando for the privileges they gifted the establishment with on varied events. Inside are the spectacular stairs, the room the place Fray Luis de León taught and the very beneficial and distinctive library.

The Pontifical College of Salamanca

La Casa de las Conchas, throughout from the Pontifical College

A view of the Clerecía, the Pontifical College

Sandwiched between the Pontifical College and Casa de las Conchas, on calle Compañía

Throughout from  the college fundamental constructing are the Escuelas Mayores, Escuelas Menores (whose development began in 1480 and the place excessive school-like topics have been taught) and the Cielo de Salamanca, Salamanca sky, a mural that used to cowl the college library’s cupola. It was painted in 1480 and was moved to its current location within the Escuelas Menores in 1950. They’re an astrological illustration of the sky that was in all probability used within the educating of Astrology on the College beginning within the yr 1460.

At Salamanca’s Palacio de Congresos

The opening ceremonies panel included varied personalities

Monument to Antonio de Nebrija, writer of the Grammar of the Spanish Language (1492)

Plaza Juan XXIII, the place the Cathedral and our lodge have been positioned

With the Director of the Actual Academia Española, Santiago Muñoz Machado

With the President of the Junta de Castile and Leon, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco

The opposite main college, the Pontifical College, is positioned within the constructing often called La Clerecía. Building of this historic spectacular constructing started within the seventeenth century by order of queen Margarita of Austria, spouse of King Philip III of Spain. Initially often called a Royal School of the Firm of Jesus, it’s constructed within the baroque fashion. Its public part consists of a church and rooms the place the Jesuits taught. There’s additionally a non-public part the place the monks used to stay. The church has a powerful three-floor baroque cloister.

The architectural ensemble fashioned by the Clerecía and the well-known Casa de las Conchas, positioned proper throughout the road from it, defines the town’s profile and will get built-in within the city cloth seamlessly.

Three conferences to rejoice the Spanish Language

The convention befell on the Palacio de Congresos, a brief strolling distance from our lodge, which was positioned at plaza Juan XXIII, a good looking small sq. south of the cathedral that supplied essentially the most magnificent views of it (see the vue from my room within the picture).

Additionally strolling distance was the Roman Bridge crossing the Tormes river, scene of certainly one of Spain’s oldest legends, that of El Lazarillo de Tormes, printed in 1554 by an nameless writer. The Gardens of Calisto and Melibea, named after the 2 lovers within the tragicomedy of the identical title, regarded as written by Fernando de Rojas and printed on the finish of the fifteenth century, are additionally positioned near the Tormes river.

I’ll get into extra of the monuments and church buildings, just like the Plaza Mayor, the Casa de las Conchas and the cathedral that make Salamanca one of the vital lovely, cultural and historic cities in Spain, and which have granted Salamanca to be declared a World Heritage Website. However I depart you on this submit with a small pattern of its facilities of data to rejoice the Spanish language and the educating of the Spanish language.

The one hundred and fifth convention of the AATSP was celebrated along with the convention Español para Todos and with the VII Worldwide Congress of the Spanish Language, and we had the chance to take part in lectures introduced by personalities like Santiago Muñoz Machado, Director of the Actual Academia Española or Richard Bueno, from the Instituto Cervantes in New York. The opening ceremonies panel included Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, president of Castile and Leon, the mayor of Salamanca, the dean of the College of Salamanca and the ambassador of america to Spain, Julissa Reynoso Pantaleón. What a improbable approach and venue it was to share concepts with our friends and to be taught from them! Mrs. Becker and I additionally introduced our program DE LA MAR AL AULA at one of many classes, elevating curiosity from quite a few faculties, each in america and in Europe. What a privilege!