In The Winter-time When The Weather Is Fine...da da dum dum dooba dee dum budum

Oy, what to say? Today marks the 3rd week since I left dear old Durham. The first part was like being dragged behind a dump truck, but the second part was like walking in a garden of roses. Actually, more like walking along the beach, since that’s exactly what I’ve been doing. As soon as the weather got warm enough to even stand outside for any amount of time, I’ve been at the beach almost every day, since that is the best place to occupy myself for hours. Really, if I have nothing to do, I just walk down to the beach & see if my friends are there. Even if they’re not: hey, look, I’m at the beach, let’s take a walk in the sand.

On Saturday night my new friends & I (see facebook) walked to the beach at 4am and just sat there in the cold sand and the cold wind until 6:30am. We just sat. It was wonderful. And then the day that it was really really windy and my padre told me to put rocks in my pockets to keep from flying away, I went to the beach and just walked up and down the promenade (for the sand was flying up and pummeling people on the beach). And today was BEAUTIFUL the best day so far & nobody was even on the beach! So I walked in the sand enjoying the day & listening to my ipod. Can I just say that music makes everything better? I even sang to the songs (after making sure no one was in earshot). Ahh the beach.

Anyway, we’ve finally finished our intensive course in grammar! Funny story: I was put in the D level class for Spanish proficiency and was kind of bummed (kind of = huge understatement), until I found out that D level is the most proficient, not the worst. Whew! So tomorrow I get to rise at 9am to be there at 11 (the bus takes 45 minutes) instead of getting up at 7am. The schedule? Well, Mon & Wed we have conversational Spanish at 11 and then Spanish Civil War at 1. Tues & Thurs we’ll get a little bit of Women in Contemporary Spain (puke) at 1pm until my other class starts in March (the History of Gypsies).

The rule for CIEE is your homestay officially ends after your last exam (i.e. the family isn’t reimbursed for living expenses). The problem is: there is no final exam for the Gypsy class (contrary to what we were expecting). It appears that I am potentially kicked out of my house starting May 20th and my plane ticket is set for June 6th. So I either change my ticket to the 21st, or….

Anyone wanna travel around Spain with me for 16 days?

Oh, you don’t know about chorus, do you? Well, last Wednesday I went to the open chorus in the University. There were a total of 3 boys in there, but the girls were really nice. One, Ruth, is an English teacher in an elementary school, and Sandra lived in NY for 3 years. The young, but bald teacher, Paco, spoke super fast and I didn’t understand anything but his hand motions, but reading music is a language that crosses all cultures so fortunately my talent for easily picking up tunes came in handy. It also wasn’t too unfortunate that they are singing Pachelbel’s Canon and West Side Story!

But the rest of the story is this: There was another new girl there, too, Isabel, and it turns out she’s from Germany and she’s an international student, as well as the girl from France who plays the piano for the group. We talked on the bus, the English-speaker, German-speaker, and French-speaker, and we all communicated in Spanish. So now not only do I know a bunch of Spaniards, but a couple more people NOT from America. Tomorrow is session #2.

Did I mention West Side Story would be AMAZING? Wait…and wasn’t it during that very play that Linda & Jim met (or something like that)?? Hmm…

So what’s up with this weather? There was a ton of wind this week and in a nearby city, 4 children died when crushed by a wall (or tree) that fell because of the wind. The first week I was here, it snowed like crazy in the north, more than anyone had seen in years. And now all of the sudden, today there was footage of flooding (not sure where) but it showed cars almost covered by water and people wading through a river in the parking lot! Apparently France is having some major trouble too. Weird. Is it like this in the States?

Oh My Goodness! I'm just gonna throw it out there that: I love it when boys dance and I love it when boys sing loud, but my favorite part is when the Spanish boys sing the words to an American song and they have NO idea what they're saying.

Love it. So adorable.

Later!