First day of "class"

Well, the website for this blog has officially changed to Spanish, so I have no idea how to navigate it.  As I have said probably 50 times in the last four days, I guess I will have to learn!

Anyways, I guess siesta is technically over, but I am extending my rest period until five, which is when I'm meeting my friends to plan our traveling excursions! Dinner here is not until nine, so five is actually considered the middle of the day.  Unfortunately, this means I spend most of the warm and sunny part of the day inside eating lunch and resting.  Oh well, at least I get good food!  My senora made me pizza last night and I devoured it in under 5 minutes.  I ate a salad (yes, Mom, I really did!) to make up for it.  I actually eat a lot better here than I do at school, since I eat fruit after breakfast and dinner.

Today was the first day of "class." Class is in quotes because well, class doesn't really feel like class.  The building we are in does not feel like a school, and the professors told us that they understand we are all studying abroad, and do not want to give us time consuming work.  Well, at least I think they said something along those lines.  Everything is in Spanish, so who knows.  My history class that I have to take for my major meets at 8:30 AM (ugh), and due to the early hour, there are only six of us in the class.  The professor's voice sounded more like a lullaby, which I think I am somewhat okay with since we only have four one page essays and two open note exams.  Que facil!

This is my new school building. Makes Arjona look even worse.

I had Advanced Spanish Grammar right after that, which actually scared me a little because 1. I have not taken any kind of grammar class since sophomore year and 2. I have always, always struggled with the subjunctive and past perfect tenses.  I have always understood the material in class, but when it comes to exams I blank out and do terribly.  I told my professor this after class (which wasn't too too awful) and she told me, "No te preocupes" (do not worry).  So, hopefully it'll be okay!

Afterwards, some of the UConn group and I wandered around the area surrounding the school.  We found this great area that was very Arab influenced and had cool shops selling pocketbooks, backpacks, many MANY earrings (this could be a problem for me-I wanted to buy them all! I am obsessed with earrings.), lamps, and other items like that.

Chillin' in front of a huge display of earrings. Trouble? I think so!

The days here are fairly relaxing.  I came home from lunch, cleaned my room a little, talked to friends on Facebook, and I've been sitting and watching television since then.  Unfortunately, the Spaniards on tv talk way too fast for me to understand.  On a funny note, my Senora could not remember the name of the president of Spain.  I had to look it up for her.  If anyone is curious, his name is Mariano Rajoy and he is apparently "better than the last one," in my Senora's words.  I asked her if she knew about United States' politics and she said she didn't, but most people here do.  It's so interesting to hear an outsiders perspective about the United States-in Granada, they seem to like us Americans (hey, we spend our money when we come here, so why not?)  Spain is suffering through a huge recession (much much worse then the United States), so there are always crowded streets full of people just standing around, usually smoking cigarettes.  At first I wondered why the adults weren't at work, but then I realized there are no jobs to be found! By comparison, the United States is well-off!

Sierra Nevadas in the distance. Not a bad walk to school, huh?

That's all for now. I didn't mean to make this so long, and now I'm late for meeting my friends. It's okay, everyone here runs on Granada time, which I feel like is always 5-10 minutes late!

Love,

Lauren