First Day of Classes

Wednesday night I was able to sleep pretty well for the first time since arriving, and I was definitely looking forward to our classes at Alcalingua the next morning. We got up pretty early and headed over to school together. The trip to school is well worth waking up for, as weird as that may sound. We just catch a bus into the city and then walk along the cobblestone streets to get to class. I just love wandering between the buildings that are centuries old and hearing the city come to life. It's honestly one of the best ways to wake up. I don't think it will ever get old for me. My favorite part of the walk is towards the end when we are almost at our school building. We pass by "una escuela infantil" (pre-school) and most days we are met by groups of 3-5 year olds running along the sidewalk and some walking hand-in-hand with their parents...most of them speaking better spanish than us...which is humbling and can be kind of depressing, but it always makes us smile.

Once we got to school we all split up into our different levels and went to our grammar class. Our professor's name is Alicia and she is so sweet and very funny. Since it was the first day, we really only talked about her expectations for the class, our books, etc. Between classes we have a short break to go grab tea and a small breakfast, so I made the most of that and grabbed a fresh croissant at una pasteleria (small bakeries...you would have thought you were in france!) and a chai tea! que lindo!

At 11 it was time for conversation class with another professor named Javier...not the same tour guide Javier, but he is still entertaining. Our grammar and conversation classes are with the same people, but different professors, and we switch to different groups for culture in the afternoon. In our culture class we are learning about Spanish film, and so far it seems like it will be really interesting. I've been frustrated with a lot of things about the program, but I really do love the mix of students at the University. There are kids from literally all over...China, Taiwan, Korea, Australia, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, Portugal, and all over the US. It makes classes really interesting and, not to be cheesy or anything, but despite our obvious differences, we are discovering far more similarities. It's very different from my usual spanish classes where when you try to describe a new word or saying to someone you can resort to the literal translation in english. Here it's very rare for the other person to know english so you usually have to circumlocute in spanish!...which can be ridiculously difficult at times. I had to resort to "baaah-ing" and having them touch my wool sweater to get my group members from China to understand "sheep" in spanish. Everyone gets along really well in the classes and it's nice to not feel any pressure because we're all just trying to get better, and we know we're going to make mistakes. My favorite classmate is "Diego" from China...yea the teachers make the Asian students come up with "Spanish" names to use in class so that they can pronounce them...a little racist maybe? Anyway, Diego is just the nicest guy in the world and he is such a fun person to work with because everything about Americans amuses him. He's just full of questions, so I get to practice my spanish and meet his needs for all US all the time ha. win-win in my book! After our culture class we headed to the mall to pick up some things for our apts and go shopping for our big night out in Madrid! We grabbed a bite at an "italian" place that served horrible spanish/italian food, but we were fortunate enough to at least have a nice waiter from Armenia who was studying English and wanted to practice with us. He ended up liking us so much he gave us free shots after lunch...something that has become common for us now haha...but we're not complaining!