Reading, Romanians and Running

  This morning, one of the pastors told me,  Every day is interesting here in Spain. You just have to look for the interesting and exciting. So even though it seemed uneventful, here are some interesting things about my day.


Reading
   I went to two new classes today, Conversación and Composición. So far, all my classes are intimidating! It's exhausting trying to listen to understand everything. There's a lot of reading. A LOT. And it's all in Spanish. 100 pages here, 250-300 there, and yet another 100. And I haven't even been to all my classes yet! Some of the reading will be from a book of my choosing, but that's still a lot of time spent with my Spanish-English dictionary. Not to mention all the writing we will be doing.
   Before we started, another girl in Advanced 2 told me she heard that Advanced 2 students don't have time for anything else. They are always reading and writing. I believe it. But I'm not here to just goof off; I'm still in school, and I really want to learn Spanish finally. I just hope that understanding will get less exhausting!
   I had to drop flamenco, so that makes my load a little lighter. Only 15 people are allowed in that class, and 35 signed up. But next quarter...!

Romanians
   The last couple days, some of my friends and I have been eating with the non-Americans. We don't want to go listen to even more English at the American table, so we go and sit with a group of theology students, staff, and deans. Several of the theology students are from Romania, but they speak Spanish and English. We all have fun attempting conversation in Spanish. Sometimes I'm not too bad. But other times... Sorin joked that he would have to go and talk to my professors about my placement test. Put her back in Intermediate! Of course, when you combine my awful hearing, a noisy cafeteria, and mumbling lunch mates, you can't expect very much.
   I've been learning lots of Spanish words from them. We have had long discussions about how to say persimmons and peaches in Spanish. (Melocoton and durazno are both words for peaches; the internet says that persimmon is cuipa, but they haven't heard of it). I also learned the Spanish words for spoiled, umbrella, and stutter. They've already come in handy!

Running
   This evening, after a day of classes and homework, I was feeling antsy. I knew my friend was thinking about going running, so I went and knocked on her door. As it turns out, her evening had taken a turn for the worse, and she was listening to gross music to distract herself. Running was just the thing for both of us. We ran on the road through the orange trees, admiring the castle lights on the hill. It was fun, until we got to the really steep hill to the gym. I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die... Ahh! flat ground and nothing but downhill left! Amazing how conquering a simple hill can make you feel so proud.

Well, I'm off to bed. Tomorrow, we're off on a school trip to Sagunto! Roman castle, ampitheatre, flea market... I'm excited!