The first few days of school

It's been three days since we've started class and so far, so good. Our teacher, Javier, is the right kind of teacher to gently prepare us for a semester of classes. He's going to be our only teacher for the first two weeks, and he's begun by teaching us the most useful words for communicating verbally. He's teaching us curse words, how to talk to the telephone or ask directions on the street, and other stuff too. Slang here is definitely different than the Spanish I have heard in the US and in Honduras. But for the most part it's the same language.

I have decided to go to Portugal for the first free weekend at the end of January. Almost everyone in the group is going through a travel agency. I'm excited and nervous to go to a country where i don't speak the language. Although hopefully my Spanish skills will help me to understand what they're saying over there.

Our home is still working out perfectly. Both Hannah and myself still find it difficult to adapt to the weird eating schedule, along with the diet. It's just full of olive oil. It's like the only thing they know how to cook with.
This is how people park in Spain:


Hannah and I decided to go for a walk yesterday during the siesta instead of lay down with a full belly of food, and we stumbled into the public library. What a beautiful building! It has a courtyard in the middle with a (nonfunctioning) well. I have been to New York City plenty of times, and I never gawk at all the amazing buildings and architecture towering above my head, but I simply can't help it here. I walk to and from the University with my mouth open, almost drooling with awe. And the fact that these ancient buildings are being used to sell plastic souvenirs and $5 ESPANA t-shirts is pretty funny too. People that are born here probably think buildings in the US are so odd. Our madre just visited NYC for the first time last year, and she said "all the buildings are made of glass and crystal." Well, all of the buildings here are made of gigantic stone bricks. And it's hard to distingush what was built originally as a church or for other reasons, becasue everything looks so...cathedral-like.

Yesterday was also the inauguration. Hannah and I watched it at our house with our madre and her sister. It's the first time that I wish I were at home instead of here. I went out with two other girls to celebrate. I thought more people here would notice we were from the US and high 5 us, but no one did. Oh well, I was high-fiving myself all day.