First Day of School - 2nd part

12:23pm
Monday, July 28

First day of classes in second month

Hola chicos!

Today was my first day of class in the second part of the program. In Civilization we are learning about the history and culture of Spain from the findings of Homo sapiens at the cave of Altamira to today. The class consists of much information packed into 16 days of class. Also I am taking a Spanish commercial class in which I learn the lingo of the business world. Many commercial words came from the English language and are thus very similar. Marketing = Marketing and Administración = Administration

We took the public bus for the first time to and from school. Since we have 22 people in our group, compared to 60, we no longer have the private bus. It takes about 40 minutes to get to school now, in comparison to 30 before. I enjoyed using the bus, and we actually met a few people from Ohio as well by exploring the public transportation.

Today I had a Spanish conversation partner. Due to the private donation to the program, we have conversation partners available for anyone who is interested in talking to natives for two hours in the afternoon. They are about 25 years old and live an hour from here. One of the girls I spoke with today loves Paris. She told me a few things that I have to do when I visit, such as take a boat tour from the Eiffel tower that will give me a view of the city in addition to Notre Dame. We are going to visit the city of our conversation partners this week to see another part of Spain and understand their culture. Today we just met at a local café.

After the conversation partners, I went for my second run here. I cannot explain my feelings of contentment once I ran. It is extremely hot here from 3 to 5 (noon heat in the US). I was a bit nervous about the heat, however, we I ran about 8:30pm, the skies became overcast and a short rain came. Ten minutes later, the temperature dropped 5 degrees Celsius. It was the perfect weather to run, as many other people had the same idea. I ran for about 35 minutes in the park close by. It is a beautiful scene with mountains to the left and children playing to the right.

Due to all of our walking, my feet need a pedicure pronto. I am on the look out for a ped-egg in Spain.. wish me luck! I think I’m going to wear tennis shoes for a few days.

Tomorrow at 8:30pm (1:30pm your time), Spain plays Portugal in the World Cup. The US lost against Ghana this weekend, so you should now show your support to Spain ☺. I look forward to watching the game and donning my new Spain apparel singing “A por ellos, ole” – all for them, oye – this is the theme song for the team.

Also, here the large birthday is 18. At this birthday you can drive, smoke, and drink. It is all in one birthday. Wahoo!

Heading to bed with a full day tomorrow.

Buenas noches,
Kristina