First Week of Real Classes

My classes are going really well so far! I’m taking Spanish Civilization, Latin American Civilization, Spanish Cinema and Literature, Latin American Drama and Short Stories, and Special Studies in Spain which is an internship where I go to a local school and help teach English. I really like all of my teachers except the Cine profesora, who is super condescending. But including my intensivo class, loving 5/6 classes isn’t bad! And I think Cine will be really interesting despite the professor. My LA Civ professor is amazingly intelligent, and is the assistant dean of the College within the University that we’re attending, but she’s also crazyyyy and speaks extremely fast, stopping every once in a while to make a weird noise or act something out. My Spanish Civ professor seems really nice, and he likes to go off on tangents about the more interesting parts of Spain- the other day in class we were going over the mountain ranges and rivers in Spain and we somehow ended up talking about Spanish wine and beer for 90% of the class. My LA Short Stories class is taught by the professor in residence, Lucy, who I love. I had her last semester for Intro to Spanish Lit and although her class is one of the hardest I’ve ever taken, she’s also one of the best professors I’ve ever had.

Working in the colegio is different than I thought it would be. I go for one hour on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, and then for three hours on Friday. I started last Friday and it was fun, and the profesoras I teach with are really nice, but it was a little weird because the English teachers don’t speak English. Like at all. They went over the English sounds, and were pronouncing them wrong, saying the wrong words, etc. They also learn British English, so when they do exercises from the internet, the computer pronounces things with a British accent (fathah for father), and the children repeat it with a British accent. It is really good that they’re learning another language at such a young age, though. The first day I mostly just watched, but I did help them correct their homework and I read a few things aloud for them to hear the pronunciation. I’m really looking forward to working with them more, the kids are so unbelievably cute.

Overall my classes look like they’ll be really interesting and not an insane amount of work. I have a lot of reading and a lot of paper writing to do, but that’s alright.

This weekend we tried to go to Oporto, Portugal, but we decided that it’s pretty much impossible to get to Portugal from here. There’s a bus, but it leaves at the most inconvenient times so it made it either impossible or not worth it to go. Which is unfortunate. But staying here was fun, we all went out on Friday and Saturday night.

On Friday night, a few of us went to a hookah bar, which also serves Middle Eastern food that looks amazinggg, so we’ll have to go back. We saw a drink machine full of this liquid that looked very algae-esque, and when we asked the owner he told us it was lemonade with marijuana (joking), and then brought us a glass on the house. It was actually lemonade with mint, and it was so good- Maria, it reminded me of the fresh orange juice with mint in Nevis and it made me miss you! After that, we went to a place called Sabor, where people were salsa and meringue dancing. We were just watching in amazement when a guy came up and grabbed me- I obviously told him I couldn’t dance but he still made me go out to the dance floor. And he taught me! Not that I could do it by myself, but after awhile, with him leading me, I got the hang of it. This guy was not creepy in any way at all, he just honestly wanted to teach me how to dance. It was the most fun I’d had in so long, I wish I had pictures because I was spinning all over that dance floor haha J

Saturday we went to a convent in Salamanca. A priest told us that it’s the biggest church in Salamanca with one room (Jesus told us that a lot of churches have either one, three or five rooms, one I think is just for Christ, three is for the trinity, and I forget what five is for). He also told us that there were crypts underneath it with a bunch of Salamancan nobles- kinda creepy. It was gorgeous, like all the old buildings in Salamanca, and it had a beautiful courtyard in the middle. I think our Madre told us she got married there.

Sunday was El Dia de las Mujeres, so Saturday night there were a whole bunch of striptease specials a lot of the bars, which was hilarious, but we didn’t go. At around 12:30 I went to the Plaza Mayor with my roommate Veronica and there were people there dancing traditional dances, playing the castanets, and some of the women were wearing really pretty traditional dresses. There were a few people our age or a little older dancing, and Veronica and I were talking about how a lot of times, traditions get completely lost because they aren’t passed down. So it was cool to see the younger people dancing, and they did it really well! 

It's raining/snowing again right now. I'm wearing leggings, jeans, sweatpants, three pairs of socks, two longs sleeve shirts, a sweatshirt and a scarf. In my room. Under the covers. Feel free to do a sundance for me.

Besitos!