Becoming a Spaniard...

¡Hola from Spain!  Let me update you a little bit on my last couple days here.  On Wednesday and Thursday, we had orientation, safety/culture tips, and figured out our class schedule.  Wednesday night, we split into groups and took a walking tour of the city with some locals.  Thursday night we had a pizza dinner at the school and then went to a bar to see some flamenco dancing!!  Friday was our first day of classes!!  Mine are Cuentos Españoles (Spanish Short Stories), Gramática Avanzada (Advanced Grammar), Arte Español (Spanish Art), and Historia (History).  They went really well!  The professors are really nice, and they must speak slower and more clearly for us, because I could usually understand most of what they were saying, which is nice.  My classes start at 9:00 AM and end at 1:30 PM (and that includes a 50-minute break).  This would be a good time to tell you about the schedule of a Spanish day.  --For us (me and Amber), breakfast is in the morning before we leave for school (our señora is not out of bed when we leave).  We go to school until 1:30 and then come home in time for siesta.  There’s not much else you can do because pretty much everything closes from 2-5 PM.  So usually Amber and I come home and do some things in our room, maybe take a nap during our siesta, and then lunch for us is usually at 3:30 (the TV is always on during meals).  Stores and restaurants usually reopen around 5, and sometimes Spaniards will have a merienda, or a little snack of maybe coffee or pastries or churros around this time—when Americans would probably be eating dinner.  Spanish dinner is usually not until about 9 or so, usually 10 at our house.--  So anyway, Friday afternoon we met up with some friends and enjoyed a merienda, which for me was café con leche (coffee with milk) and an ice cream cone (it’s a pretty nice excuse for ice cream!).  Then we did some shopping, looking around for good bargains, as it is rebajas (sales) season, and then we hung out for a little bit at the apartment of our Student Ministries Director.  Saturday we did a photo scavenger hunt around the city, which means I walked for about 4 hours!  We met back at the school in the evening to go over results and then went out to eat (typical of Spain—at the restaurant we went to, the kitchen didn’t open until 8:30).  Today is Sunday, which means that most things are closed in Spain.  A lot of the students in our group went to the same church this morning, which was about a 20-25 minute walk for us.  We didn’t do much today, but we did have a merienda at a nearby chocolatería (which IS open on Sundays)—churros con chocolate=YUM!  Tomorrow we start our second day of school!  Hope things are going well back in the states!