School

We started classes this week at IES. It's been so long since I've had a class (classes ended in late April) that it feels really strange. Obviously I don't want to be in class, especially when the weather is so beautiful. However on the other hand, having classes adds structure to my days which makes me feel like I am in Spain with a purpose and not just to go on vacation. Also the classes seem pretty innocuous and shouldn't be too much work or too difficult. AND I bought really cute notebooks here and school supplies are exciting.

One thing I have to do for three classes is current events. Hahaa brings me back to 7th grade. Yep, I will be cutting out articles, summarizing them, and bringing them to three classes. Oh I feel so mature doing that. The reality is that I would much rather just read the paper for pleasure like a normal/responsible adult. In the IES center I've been reading a Spanish paper between classes and the Metro paper also keeps me up on Spanish news. Most of the time, the big US news is in the newspapers here, but if not, I don't miss much because I compulsively check cnn.com and msnbc.com . I don't know why but I think this developed over the summer when I was bored at work.

Last night we went out and got SUCH a good dinner. And it wasn't too expensive. There were 7 of us and it ended up working out to 10 euros each. For those 10 euros we got a lotttttt of food. Shared by the table we had ensalada, patatas bravas which are roasted potatoes with some orange peppery/bbqish sauce and we also had Croquetas which are made of a "thick bechamel usually containing flecks of serrano ham (though chicken, fish and meat croquetas are also common), coated in breadcrumbs and deep fried." These little guys are everywhere and pleasing to probably everyone. For actual dinner I had kind of a chicken parm open faced sandwich but with sweet strawberry jam on top. Very good as well. Needless to say I was pretty full until the next afternoon.

This weekend I'm going to the Northern coast of Spain, the Asturias region, with an IES group. We are spending the weekend there hiking, beaching, and partying? It's not a huge town so we'll see. And I just paid for Portugal, so I will be going to Lisbon Oct. 24-26!!!!!!!!