Martes - 21:50

Well, dinner was an experience last night. It was gazpacho and a ham and cheese sandwich. I did not like the gazpacho at all, but I ate it all anyway because I didn't want to tell Pilar that I didn't like it. I'll just hope it's not served again I suppose. The sandwich was delicious though. I pulled a Brandon and scraped the extra cheese off my plate haha. I ate an apple for dessert too, it was delicious. I cut it into strips and ate it like French Fries :)

This morning I got to campus really early again, this time on purpose. I was able to take a lot of pictures of the main areas where I usually am at. I was also able to stop in and see Gabriela and Susan in the office. There was a problem with the fax machine in the office (and around campus) so Susan wanted to know if she could scan the form for Tech and email it instead of faxing. I said yeah, no problem. As long as it gets there, I don't really care how. Class was good again today. I understood more today than I did yesterday. There's still a lot I don't get, but it'll get better I hope. I put sunscreen on before I left this morning, and it's a good thing I did, because I sat in the sun for a half hour after class and noticed my right arm was starting to burn. Just my right arm. It was a bit odd. I went back in the building after a bird pooped on my bag.

I sat with some people that were in my next class, Spanish Culture and Civilization. It's taught in English, so I understood all of it. It turns out to be a history class, which I don't know if I was expecting, but I don't mind it. When she was lecturing, it was all interesting and I didn't get bored at all, which obviously is good. The book is pretty interesting to read as well, though it covers so much time that the people and conquests of Spain kind of blend together at points. We need to have news about Spain and what's going on for every Thursday as well.

After class ended at 1:30, I went and ate lunch in the restaurante. I chose a salad again, this time it had tuna on it, and it was really good. The main course was some kind of fish. It was really soft and squishy, but it tasted pretty good. It was served with french fries too, which were crunchy. It was a good mix of textures. I took the bread and apple home with me to eat later in the day, if I get hungry so I don't need to buy snacks. I think I'm going to do this every day. I'm trying to be frugal. I headed home after to drop off my heavy bag with books, paper and my camera. Then I took a nap, which I probably shouldn't have done, but I'm so tired! I'm doing so much more walking than I'm used to, and in direct sunlight too!

After my nap I headed out to find Parque Retiro to take pictures. I walked along the main road (a bit past my apartment) and passed about four or five parks before I realized they were all the same park haha. I eventually found the area I wanted to photograph, and proceeded to take lots of pictures. There was a point where I went to take a picture of a monument type thing and there was a little girl playing on it, so I waited for her to move because I don't know that I want to take pictures of someone's kid while in another country. She saw me and came up to me with a spinning top. I'm not exactly a fan of kids, so I just kinda stood there until she had it above my camera, which was in my hands. So I took it, and then gave it to her mother, who was standing beside me. It was a bit awkward to say the least.

I also saw a squirrel! It about made my day. It's partially domesticated too, because a man on a bench called to it and it ran over to him, where he proceeded to feed it. It was cute haha but I really like squirrels :) I took the metro on the way home because I wasn't sure how to get out of the park or which direction to head. I have decided I don't like the gray line. It's waaay too crowded. The purple line, which I take to school, is exactly the opposite. This morning, for example, I sat in a section of seats. The two in front of me and one next to me was empty, as were the four in the section next to me. It was nice. The blue line, which is the one I use for anything other than school, is a mix in between.

After I got back I started on my homework - a 350 word essay, in Spanish of course, about anything about our respective universities. I wrote about Carnaval Invierno (Winter Carnival). I had to look up a lot of vocab, but the verb tenses and everything I had down. We'll see how well tomorrow, when a peer is going to go through and look for errors. I'm not sure I'm exactly qualified to peer edit, since I probably wont know a lot of words in the other person's paper, but I'm going to try. I also had two sections of multiple choice questions about the use of two similar verbs. It was easy. Then I got on email and emailed Karina back. We're planning on meeting up on Friday so she can show me around Madrid. I'm so excited!! I hope I don't chicken out and stay quiet the whole time. She seems pretty outgoing though, so I don't think she'd let me if I wanted to.

I've been trying to think in Spanish too, which is actually pretty easy. I've decided that there's a disconnect between my brain and my mouth. I need to put them through therapy so they'll start working together. I can think sentences pretty easily now, but saying them I get all tripped up on the words and I second guess myself, especially if a Spanish speaker is nearby. But it's a start. I talked to Monica a little bit more than normal today at dinner too. I actually said full sentences when talking about my classes. Wooh! Dinner was really good too. It was a pasta salad type dish, with lobster, tuna, potatoes, peas, hard boiled egg, green beans, and olives, with a creamy sauce. It was really good. I didn't eat the olives though. For dessert, I had yogurt. I grabbed the spoon today, and Monica commented to Pilar and Maria Teresa about how I grab the "cucharilla" (little spoon) too. That's another thing I've noticed about Spain. Fun fact: the spoons are huge!! The cucharilla is the size of the normal spoon we use at home, but the normal ones here are about three times as big. I can't fit it all into my mouth (though I bet Jason could), I have to sip from the side or eat from the tip of the spoon.

But for now, I think that's all my exciting news. Now onto reading or uploading photos... probably both :)

P.S. I can also say today was a record with being able to unlock the main door of the apartment. It only took me six tries today!