mis clases

Hola! Today I had my first full day of class, I woke up at 715 to start my day (WAY TOO EARLY FOR ME) For breakfast we had this toasted sugary bread that was very good with jam, in addition to cinnamon tea.

It takes me about 30 minutes to walk to school because I am in the farther of the 2 buildings for the Centro de Lenguas Modernas. Its very chilly in the mornings, and it’s a different kind of cold than in Wisconsin, I’m not quite sure how to describe it.

Along the walk to school someone stopped me to ask for directions, she had a map so I was doing my best to explain where we were  in Spanish but she seemed confused, finally I was sighed and said “oh jeesshhhhh” and she responded “WAIT DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH I SPEAK ENGLISH”, it was hilarious because we were both trying to communicate in Spanish with difficulty when we had the same native tongue. I almost never hear English spoken on the street so I think we all just assume everyone only speaks Spanish, or aren’t naive enough to try and begin conversations en ingles.  

Class was interesting, there are 10ish students in my class from all parts of the US, crazily enough one of the girls is from my high school and we graduated together! I knew she would be in Spain, but the chances we were in the same class were almost nothing, so the fact that she was and knowing someone has been wonderful!

For the first hour of class my professor is a woman named Àfrica, y for the following hours the nobre de el professor es Emilio.

During our 3 hours with Emilio we did some role playing with some strange and very…forward topics. For one of the scenes I was a police officer in a talk show discussing the problems with racial profiling with another student who was playing una persona con piel oscura (dark skin). It was difficult to show my knowledge on the topic because it is sensitive even when speaking in English. For another group there was a nun, a Rastafarian, and a feminist who was told by the teacher that she supported abortion and enjoyed smoking weed. It was an interesting conversation, but I think everyone was taken aback by the variety and intensity of some of the topics.

Overall a good first day of class, I’m sitting in my familys living room and the sunlight is streaming through the windows onto the glass table that I’m sitting at. Lunch is at 15:00 so I still have to wait another 50 minutes. IM STARVING, but whatever Elba is cooking smells great (no surprise here).

flowers on the balcony

Our pet birds are chirping away on the balcony. Their names are Curry, DJ, y Pochita.

The birds stay on the balcony during the day and come inside at night. 

At 1630 I am meeting with my SOL group to tour the Cathedral and the Royal Chapel, I’m not sure on my plans for tonight but I’m sure drinks and tapas are in order after a difficult week like this one!

Estoy emocianado! Hasta Luego