First Weekend

So this weekend was pretty chill. I was exhausted and spent a lot of time relaxing. Saturday, Lindsay and I both slept in until 3pm. I have never slept so late in my life! Then, after lunch, we went to the internet cafe. We wanted internet and hadn't had it since we had gotten to Spain. That was when I last updated my blog. We both stayed there for hours, skyping our families and going on Facebook. After that, we went back to our house for dinner. Dinner in Spain is late, and we ate at like 9pm. After that we pretty much just went to sleep.

Sunday morning, I wanted to go to church, so I asked my senora if she was going, and she said she would take me. I also invited Lindsay, and it was an especially exciting experience for her. She has never been to church because she is Jewish. Senora, Lindsay, and I walked a few blocks to Iglesia de San Francisco. (Iglesia means Church in Spanish.) It was very similar to church at home, except they don't sing at all. And the homily was way longer. Plus, for communion, they don't all go up to recieve it. I did, but my Senora didn't. They don't go by row either, they all just kind of walk to the front and then walk back. Church lasted for 45 minutes, and then our senora asked if we wanted to see the park. We went to el Parque de Garcia Lorca, or something like that. Garcia Lorca was a famous guy who had a summer house in Granada, and the park surrounds his house. There was a little pond with ducks, places to exercise, benches to sit, and lots of pretty trees. She explained that it is more popular in the summer. Then we walked back home, passing the Neptuno Mall. I can't wait to go there.

The rest of the day was very chill. We couldn't get the internet, so I read my Europe and Spain books. I even showed my senora the books and she told me more about the stuff I was reading about. She also told me about the places she's traveled in Europe. Then Lindsay put The Office on her computer, so we watched a few episodes. After dinner, we pretty much went to sleep, but we couldn't fall asleep until like 1am even though we were both really tired.

Monday we had to wake up really early. We had breakfast, and then went to the post office again to meet the CEA people and the other students. We all walked together to a place to get our pictures taken, but I'm still not really sure why we did that... Then we walked to the school. We take classes in the CLM, or Centro de Lenguas Modernas, or Center of Modern Languages. It's a beautiful 2 story white building with a courtyard and fountain in the middle and the classes in a square around it. All of us from ISU went into different classrooms and had to take a test to determine our level of spanish. I was in a room with Angie. We had 40 minutes to complete a worksheet with questions (in spanish of course) and lines to answer them. They started easy, like tell us about yourself, or what is your favorite memory. Then on the back, there were situations you had to respond to. I didn't even answer one of them I was so confused. After that we had 40 minutes to complete a grammar sheet. This one started so easy. I realized it got harder, and then saw that every 10 questions represent a level. I was hoping for level 4, because level 5 is where I want to be in February, and you go up a level automatically from your January level. After I gave up on the grammar, we had an oral exam. It was short, but I thought I sounded clueless. After about 5 minutes of talking to me, he said in Spanish that he was going to put me in level 6. I stared at him in shock. I told him I thought that was too high. He said that, after it starts, if it's too hard I can move down if the teacher and I feel it's necessary. I agreed. On the plus side, I'm in the same class as Angie! On the down side, Angie is wayyy smarter than me.

After the test ended around 12:30, the ISU kids went on a double decker bus for a tour of Granada. It was soo pretty!! I took tons of pictures and we went all around the city. We saw the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and they were beautiful. However, the tour was about an hour and a half, and everyone was freezing. It was sunny, but it was also super windy. I froze on the way to the restaurant after the bus too. We all ate lunch at this place called Yerba Buena. Also, kids who just got to Granada from other places in the USA joined us, so it was a good opportunity to meet people. After lunch, I went shopping for a little bit with Anna, her roommate Melissa, and Lindsay. Then a bunch of us went to the cell phone store. Some people had to buy cell phones, but I had a problem with mine. No surprise. They posted our classes for tomorrow, so obviously I needed internet, so Lindsay and I went to the school. We found out where our classes were tomorrow. Mine is from 9am til 1pm. Then we returned home and had dinner. Then senora told us the internet might work at the kitchen table, and I skyped my family and put my pictures on Facebook! Lauren wanted a tour of the house, which I will have to show her sometime. She will be happy to know there are no mirrors in my room. =] Then my mom and sister got to meet my senora on skype. She asked if my family spoke spanish. I laughed. It was an interesting conversation. She also got to meet Carmel!! And I have been online ever since!!