Spain - Week 2

My second week of Spain was also possibly my nerdiest. There were not that many isolated events throughout the week. Generally, my routine would go something like this. After waking up, I go to school. Since I can't understand the lesson, I generally sleep during the first class. Most teachers are fine letting me sleep since they probably know I don't know what they're teaching. There is one teacher who teaches a sort of presentation class where they have to give powerpoint presentations on whatever subject they want. I rather appreciate the teacher, actually. I don't know why though. She makes me stay awake and won't let me use the bathroom :).

After the first class, I generally don't sleep. I generally take one of their math textbooks and try to learn more for when my school starts up again. And that's no joke, I actually learned a lot of math and science from this. It was surprisingly easy to read wikipedia in Spanish. I read up on Alfred Waegner, which they were studying in Geology. I'd get really intense with the math and would really lose my apetite before their first lunch thing. I'm not exactly sure what to call it. It's more of a Mid-day Snack. I generally eat anyway.

After school, we return to the house, and then eat a second lunch. After lunch, I either play call of duty while my exchange student studies, watch How I Met Your Mother, play the guitar on the roof, or look at the ocean with a pair of binoculars. The first 3-4 days while my exchange student was studying, I either went to the beach with someone who wasn't studying or went to the main plaza to shop with my exchange mother. I didn't buy anything, but I like to get out. In the second half of the week, when he didn't have to study, I went with him to the beach with some friends. I REALLY like the beach. On Friday, afterschool, my friend group went straight to the beach and had lunch there. The hamburgers were pretty good, but I miss American hamburgers. Saturday morning moved slowly and I watched Cars and the Simpsons in Spanish for a while. The commercial breaks here are epically long. I don't know how people sit through them.

Afterwards, my exchange student and I go with our friend group to see a movie. The movie theatre is in the mall, or commercial center. Pirates of the Carribean 4. I've already seen it, so I end up half asleep for most of the movie. After the movie we go to the arcade and then we eat. At some point, while socializing, I realize I've actually been holding a conversation in Spanish. Before I came here, I would never have thought I'd be able to that. Now, I'm doing it almost without thinking. My Spanish teacher would be proud.

On Sunday, we go to the Alhambra. I actually hate sight-seeing unless I'm meant to be studying something. Maybe, I just don't have the intellectual capacity to know how to look at something and enjoy it, but I just really dislike sight seeing. So, at the Alhambra, I did everything I could to gain inspiration with little success. It all improved after passing the gardens and seeing the court of the lions. There was a impressive amount of detail in the design and architecture, and the design of the fountain was particularly intriguing. Still, there wasn't enough information available, and I had to put more research into it later. I wish I could go back to the Alhambra again with a new set of eyes. That way I could actually take in what I saw, and learn something from it.