mantenerse ocupado: stay busy

These past few days have been jam-packed. Thursday morning I woke up for my final exam for my intensive month and I was all nerves. You know those moments when you wake up happy but then your mind clouds with the tasks of the day? I had about 3 moments of peace before I turned the lights on and saw all my notebooks strewn around the room from when I gave up the night before. I contemplated going back to bed, but, as with most difficult things in life, its best just to face it head on and get it over with (as if I actually had a choice). 

cloudy sunset Thursday evening 

The first part of the exam was a speaking portion in pairs. Taylor and I were partners and we talked for 8 minutes about the benefits of living with a host family vs. a residence hall style building while in Spain. It was pretty easy for us I’m sure we could have gone on quite a bit longer! The second portion was listening, grammar, writing, etc. this went about as well as I expected it would go…which was not well. I honestly don’t think I would have been able to prepare myself any better than I did, so I’ll just have to wait and see how I did and know that it was the best that I could do J

After the exam was over Taylor and I celebrated with tapas and sangria at a restaurant close to our school. Taylor described it as a “Spanish Perkins”, which was fitting. The food was delicious and for 4 tapas and 2 sangrias the bill was only 4 euro! We will definitely be going back.

I signed up for a free Pilates to do Thursday late afternoon through my program. Even though I had no idea what Pilates with a machine involved I’ve been trying to say “Yes” to whatever opportunities are given to me. So after lunch Peter, Lily, Annie and I walked into the room and were surprised to see 5 strange machines and boxes. I thought I was flexible but after that I’m not so sure that I am. The first problem came with me knowing very few body parts in Spanish, this, in combination with our teacher making us continually look straight ahead made it awfully difficult to know what was going on. Pilates is a very hands on workout and the teacher is continually adjusting your body to how it should be.

Pilates Machine

Annie and me

 I was really sore after the class was over, but we decided to go on a short hike to see the sunset. It was beautiful as usual! We also went to an area with an overlook of the Alhambra. There is a large flat space on top of the hill neighborhoods and it’s where all of the gypsies live.  Every night there’s a congregation of people smoking,playing the guitar, dancing around and enjoying the evening.This is also where the stray dogs congregate for attention and they run around happily drinking from the fountain and chasing bubbles. The atmosphere is relaxed and fits in well with the setting sun and location on top of the city.

Thursday night one of the guys from my program was going to be performing in an open mic. night so about 20 people from our group went to see what it was about. The first guy to preform was absolutely wonderful. As soon as he started singing I felt comfortable. His voice added to the songs he had chosen and by the way he was swaying to the music I could see how much he was enjoying himself up there. I love to see people so passionate about playing music, its much more enjoyable when you can see how much of their heart is in it.

 

First Performer!

This morning (Friday) I woke up at 11am,but I was convinced it was still 5 in the morning. Last night my host parents showed me the amazing miracle creation of black out blinds. I have never slept so well! After opening my curtains to blinding sunlight I got ready quickly and headed to meet people from my program. Since we had off our program leader took us on a tour of a private catholic school that’s about 5 minutes away from my house; we are able to volunteer here during the semester! Some of the parents even want to hire us to come to their house a couple times a week and work one on one with helping their children with their English. I would love this opportunity but I’ll have to see how crazy my class schedule is before I take on any more commitments.

Even though the weather was dark and the rain was falling seeing all the little kids running around playing and then discussing parts of America with the 14/15 year olds made my day. In Winona I volunteer every week as a mentor to students who are struggling and it makes me really excited to continue to help and volunteer in a new country J As I find more and more “pieces from home” appear in Spain I’m finding it easier to adjust to the lifestyle.