Starting Classes

Greetings! The past two days have been pretty busy for me, classes are finally getting up and going so I am becoming more occupied with serious studies. Sunday night my Señora and I were invited for dinner at her friend's house in another town close to Granada, so we went over there and had a good time. Before we went to his house, we made a detour and drove up through the mountains and Martín (her friend) showed us the view of Granada from atop. He also showed us the indoor bull-fighting ring up close, which is rare to find because normally the bull-fighting rings are open without a ceiling. After the pleasant and informative detour, we finally went to his house and he cooked us shrimp, onion rings, and croquetas. Everything was very delicious and by the end of the meal, I felt like I was pregnant, hahaha. Martín is very humorous and I enjoyed meeting him, and he also showed me his journals full of poems and short essays he has written. Very beautiful pieces of work in there.

Anyway, Monday we had a "placement exam" to figure out what level of spanish we are and which classes we will be placed in. I received a score high enough that I needed to receive credit hours, so I was happy. Today we actually began the "language intensive" month, where we just review a lot of grammar, vocabulary, etc. Starting in February we will actually sign up and begin our "real" classes. I have two professors during the language intensive course, and they both seem pretty outgoing and nice. They seem very genial and I think they really want to help us get better at every aspect of Spanish, so I am excited for that.

Other than that, life hasn't been too eventful lately. Just getting into the swing of things is pretty tiring in itself. In my free time I have been running, eating, or exploring by myself or with friends. Usually going to a tapas bar or going out at night with friends to practice our spanish some more has been fun. The other night my friends and I met two very sincere Spaniards and we ended up talking for a long time. I am hoping to meet up with them again this weekend to practice some more and get to know the culture here even better with people my age.

Here are some photos of the mountain view and the bull ring: