Nochevieja Universitaria 2011

A Salamanca tradition that also happened to fall on the second-to-last-night of our program, Nochevieja Universitaria was the perfect ending to my first semester in Salamanca.  Nochevieja translated literally means "old night," or new year's eve. The tradition of celebrating Nochevieja in mid-December started about 15 years ago for university students in Salamanca, and has now grown to be popular destination-fiesta in all of Spain.  Students from as far as Pais Vacso, Valencia, and Sevilla journeyed to Salamanca to count down to the faux new year's.

Setup, around 7pm

The Plaza Mayor was decked out with a stage directly underneath the clock, and green and red lights lit the plaza, with a strobe light in the middle.  Packed full of young people, it was literally impossible to move around. People came as early as 9:30 to have good spots in the plaza; upon arrival, they were given red santa hats and a bag of gummy bears.  Why? At midnight, with each of the 12 strokes, it is tradition to eat a grape for each hour to ensure good luck for the next year.  Instead of grapes, people now eat gummy bears, though.  Invited to a small get-together with my Spanish friends beforehand, I showed up to the Plaza a mere 10 minutes before midnight and squeezed my way through the crowd with a couple girlfriends to catch a glimpse of the action.

Agains everybody's advice, I took my Canon with me because there was NO way I was going to not document this.  So glad I brought it. Here's some of the shots I got:

HAPPY NEW YEAR'S!

Police after the celebration; note ALL THE TRASH. Litter everywhere.

The same street on a normal evening...

Here's a youtube video that captures it all: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J0lieqgnZA

Afterwards, all the bars were packed full of people and the streets were littered with garbage and trash from all the festivities.  Salamanca has never been so crazy! Needless to say, it was a good time, and it was the perfect ending to first semester.  Today I said goodbye to most of my American friends as they headed back to the states for Christmas.  I am so lucky to have met everybody on my program, and I will not forget any of them or the memories we made.  It's not goodbye, just see you later.  Because so many of us go to school in Colorado, we are hoping that reunions will happen in the future...

That being said, I finally made my way to Copenhagen (after sleeping in the Madrid airport; ugh gross) where I am going to try to catch up on sleep, visit some museums, enjoy the cold, winter weather, and soak in the positive vibes from the people! (Apparently, this is the happiest city in the world).  More soon!