the first day of classes and my thoughts on spain

MONDAY- my first day of school
No me gustan mis clases! Actually, I do but I’ve only had one. So remember the Spanish placement test that I thought I bombed? Yeah, not so much. It turns out I placed into the highest level of Spanish III. Comparatively speaking, that’s really not that awesome but I’ve only taken one legit year of Spanish. Anyway, I placed into the class that I needed to, but they split the class into two sections- a high level and a low level based on test scores. I placed into the high section. I laughed- go figure. My Spanish III class is set up a lot like the intensive classes that I took at Ole Miss- no English in the class, a lot of speaking, and in turn, a lot of learning! More to come on classes later…

OVERALL THOUGHTS- for now anyway
I love the program so far. The first few days were long and filled with lots of information, but alas, what did I expect. I’m excited about my classes. I go Monday through Thursday anywhere from 2-6 hours a day. I’ve made some friends. Naturally, I tend to stick with the Southern kids (there aren’t very many of us). It seems that every other person is from either Grand Valley State (in Michigan) or the University of Illinois, so finding other people who sound like me has made the transition a little easier. I love my host mom, but I wish we had internet and that we didn’t live so far away from everything. The commute is mildly annoying, but I’m in Spain so I can’t really complain. I love the fact that the Spanish wear American t-shirts with random English words on them. A fresh baguette is delivered to our apartment every morning, and I eat bread (pan) a whole lot. Every morning, I eat pan and this incredible marmalade that has the texture of American jam. I love it. My host mom has made a lot of frozen pizza, and I get potatoes at every meal. The water tastes a little different, and I’m learning to get used to it. I’ve had some of the guys get me American football scores because I don’t get to use the internet very much. I think most of them are surprised to meet an American girl who loves college football. BTW- what is going on with Ole Miss? I checked the game stats to see how my guys did and where was Dexter McCluster? And how about that Auburn game- losing to USF in OT? All I have to say is it’s about time. I’m surprised y’all couldn’t hear me yell with excitement across the ocean. Anyway, I guess that’s really it. I’ll post again eventually- who really knows when but that’s okay. God is good... all the time.