¡España!: Finally on a Schedule

I have finally found myself on a schedule, which has helped me adjust to being homesick in a big way! The first day of classes were pretty simple. My first class started at 9:00 in the morning and my teacher just wanted to get to know us like our names, where we are from, if we are students, what our major is, etc. There were two high school students in my class, which was interesting since I am 3 to 4 years older than them. I couldn't imagine coming over seas in high school at such a young age, they are really experiencing something pretty amazing! Some are only here for two weeks and some are here for a whole month like I am. Our first class went by fast since it was only an hour long, but my next class was suppose to be 3 hours long, ah! Our teacher walked in and started babbling, my eyes got all big and my heart started to pound. These teachers don't teach in English, no matter what level you are put in, but they know a little bit of english in case we need help. She went through the same process of getting to know us except when she got to me, she was confused that I wanted to teach spanish, except she was thinking to young children and I didn't know how to say middle school and I couldn't look at my dictionary because she would have started to yell at me. Finally I found the right words and she started to understand. This teacher is a little loco to say the least, she is very spacey and says really funny things and makes really interesting faces. She let us take a 20 minute break and then we worked on two worksheets with partners. Since there is obviously no Spanish students in my class, there are other students from other countries in there. My partner was from Poland and he is pretty good with Spanish and knows some English. It was good that we could only talk in Spanish with the language barrier, made me practice more rather than slipping up and talking in English while working on our sheets. Finally class was over and I had a few errands to run. First, I met up with 2 people in my group to go rent our books from the biblioteca (library). Of course my last name was so hard to find, they couldn't let me rent the book, always happens with my funny last name. Next, we went to the ISA office so I could tell Julio what happened and he could help me, except he was not there. I waited for an hour and he never showed and I figured I would get home so Eli didn't wait on us to cook lunch. I got home and shortly after Heather walked in, Eli had made a pretty good lunch! It was chicken and a scoop of rice with what looks like alfredo sauce on top, but it wasn't. I am not sure what sauce it was but it had white pepper in it, it was really tasty! After lunch, Heather and I decided to take our siesta since we knew we were going out for the 4th of July here in Spain. We both woke up in time for Heather to walk to her last class at 6:00 and I walked with her to go try and talk to Julio again, he was finally there and gave me the card I needed to get my book. It worked perfectly this time without the hassle. After I got my book Liz, Sierra, and I walked around town since we were not ready to go home yet. We walked around in the markets and I found some goodies for my friends back home, except it is a surprise! Then we decided to get ice cream and sit down for a bit. Sierra is from California so she is amazed by what Liz and I are accustomed to in the south. We taught her some slang that we say a lot and she taught us a bunch of stuff she says. I will be coming back with California slang now, so beware to my friends and family ha. Sierra had never heard of Chacos, which I have been wearing mine every day and she did not know that guys like wear polos and khakis out all the time at night and even some times to class, she was pretty amazed by that. We have a guy in our group from College of Charleston and he dresses a lot like the guys do in the south and at first she was making fun of him but now she realizes it is just a custom where we live. Liz ended up going back to her house and Sierra and I decided to go shop in H&M with all the sales going on, getting a skirt for 3 euro is such a deal! I found a couple of things, but didn't go crazy. There were a lot of people in there so it only made me want to get in and get out really fast. It was like the day after Christmas shopping except it has been like that every day since the sales started on July 1st. We finally headed back home a little after 8 to have dinner. Last night, Eli made us pizza again, it was very delicious! We then got ready to go out and of course had our red, white, and blue on to represent! We all met up for tapas and drinks and then found an Irish Pub that was playing American music. It was perfect! At about 2:00 Heather and I decided to head in since I have a 9:00 class, we walked with some other girls and walked one of our friends Karen home since she lived back in some alleys. So glad she did not walk by herself, it was pretty sketch. We made it home and went straight to bed.

As for today, it has been about the same as yesterday. My class did the same type introduction except I was pretty tired and couldn't wait for 1:00 to get here so I could go home and take a siesta. We finally finished and I went straight home, Eli was gone so I laid down on my bed and I was out like a light! I finally woke up when Heather got home for lunch and Eli said she was laughing at me sleeping because I was sleeping with my mouth open. If Eli only knew how I see her sleep and snore in the morning she wouldn't be laughing too much, haha. For lunch today, we had a traditional Spanish meal: eggs, sausage, and french fries. Interesting huh? It was pretty good, they were not scrambled eggs, which I usually eat, but I am not really sure what type they were. Now Heather is resting and I am wide awake since I took my nap earlier. I need to do my homework and might meet Heather to go with her shopping since she was in class yesterday when I went. Pretty excited to go to Sevilla this weekend! Yesterday we got a card about our free weekend and how you can pay 139 euro to go to Lagos, Portugal for the weekend and it is your bus fare, hotel, 2 cruises out in the Mediterranean, breakfasts, and a bunch of coupons for bars and clubs. We are all thinking that might be fun and the hotel is right on the beach! We must decide soon since it is next weekend. As for tonight, Heather and I might take it easy since we are still pretty tired and tomorrow we are suppose to go to a salsa dance class, that could be so much fun! Below are some pictures of our 4th of July!