first day of class!

today was my first day of class, and i definitely felt like a little kid! i woke up this morning at 6:30 (so early...) to begin the process of getting ready, eating breakfast, getting to the bus, and making it to the center on time. despite waking up so early, chelsea and i ended up leaving the house a little bit later than planned because it took us forever to close and lock the door! you would think that it wouldn´t be that hard, but i guess the lock is really out and it sticks and you have to position it just right (at least, this is what my host mom told me. she may have been trying to make me feel better about my inferiority at door locking). anyways, it took us almost 10 minutes to open the door, close it, and then re-lock it. it was pretty freaking ridiculous.

after chelsea finally conquered the door, we headed off for the bus stop. as we were walking, i kept looking over my shoulder, trying to make sure that we didn´t miss our bus. when we were about 2 blocks away, i saw it coming, so we took of running--SPRINTING for the bus! we barely made it, and i´m sure that we looked absolutely ridiculous. two crazy american girls running for the bus. awesome. once we were on the bus, i had a crisis of directions and became immediately convinced that we were on the wrong bus. so after a few stops, chelsea and i hopped off. then, we consulted the map and realized i was definitely wrong. it was a good moment. fortunately, another bus came immediately after ours left. it was from a different line, but it took us exactly where we needed to go, so we hopped on. needless to say, it was an interesting morning as far as public transportation goes.

we arrived at the center super early despite our travel mishaps, and i consulted the schedule to find out that i made it to the advanced class! yay! i´m one of three in class (originally, we had one other girl, but she dropped after today). that means that i am one of 3 of the entire 83 people in the program in the advanced class. that was the confidence booster i needed after the great lock mishap of this morning! unfortunately, of the three in class, i am the only non-native spanish speaker. it´s a pretty daunting feeling. the other girls were talking about how they are originally from mexico and guatemala and how their parents speak spanish and how they speak spanish at home. when it came time for my introduction, i was like, ´yeah, i´m white. i´m from idaho. i learned spanish in school and definitely don´t speak it in my home.´ it was a pretty great moment really. despite all this, i think that i´m really going to like the class. it is completely focused on developing vocabulary, grammar, and conversational skills. because we are all considered fluent, the class is all about polishing our speaking abilities. class runs from 9:00 - 12:45 every day of the week with a half hour break. it´s a lot of class! the first half of class, we spend our time talking about sharing current events. then we tackle questions of grammar and vocabulary. the second half of the class is spend in tallers--workshops. we are doing a theatre workshop and movie workshop. for these workshops, we read the first few acts of a spanish play, dissecting the language as we go. once we´ve done that, we get to write the end to the play. then, we get to act it out. then, we get to see the actual ending of play. it´s going to be really fun! i´m excited.

in addition to my grammar class, i have two other classes: a folklore dance class and a class called cultural realities of spain. my first day of dance class is tomorrow, so i´m sure i´ll have stories to tell about that. i have dance class twice a week, on tuesdays and thursday, for an hour. cultural realities starts wednesday, and i only have it for one day a week (wednesdays). my schedule really isn´t bad, and i´m pretty glad to be in class.

after class, i signed up for a bunch of different activities that the university is offering this september. i´m going to a bullfight with chelsea and rachel (sophie didn´t want to go). i´m also going to a flamenco dance and dinner, and then to a tapas bar to eat tapas and drink beer with my professors--how funny! very different from whitworth. i also signed up for a tour of the local palace (seriously, where in the u.s. do they have a local palace?), and a few other activities. i´m pretty excited. between that, traveling to portugal this weekend, traveling to cordoba the weekend after that, and then having weekly excursions every thursday, i am going to be a very busy girl.

i´m excited to see what this week holds for me. between starting all of my classes, attending several activities, and finally being under the jursidiction of the spanish only contract (yep... wed definitely have one here), it´s going to be an interesting week. already, i think i´m ready for a siesta.

abrazos a todos (hugs)
m