Spanish Update #3

Firstly, my classes. They are going very well now. I enjoy my Spanish class, coz it´s going at the perfect pace for me. Sometimes it´s a bit fast (the rate at which mi profesora speaks her Spanish), but I am able to catch up, thank you God. The other class is Civilizacion y cultura españa, and it´s really good coz even though my teacher speaks pretty fast, I can understand her 90% of the time, and I´m learning a lot about Spain and the culture (like duh, right? Haha!). For example, I learn that Spanish people think it´s really rude to not finish the food on their plates, because they remember their younger days during the wars (guerras) when food was hard to come by. So I bet they think it´s weird or bad that we foreign students just can´t finish our food most of the time, especially los americanos. Not because the food is bad, but we´re just not so used to it, ya know? Spanish food is quite good but most of the time we want to eat food that we´ve eaten already, but in time we´ll get used to it, me thinks. I know I wanna get used to it. Also, for them, water is a luxury. Mi profesora told us that they used to cut the water supply after 12pm, so it was impossible to cook or bathe, unless you have your own supply from keeping it in big buckets or tanks. For Spanish people, bathing means a 5-min bath, not a 20-minute soak. Water is expensive for Spaniards, and so is electricity. [My other class has not started yet, so I cannot say anything about it.]

Yesterday a bunch of us from the Spanish class went to one of our houses, an apartment, near Plaza Nueva, to celebrate 4th of July. I of course am not an American, but one of the girls, Randa, was so nice to invite me coz she knew that I was alone. She said, “You may not be American, but you can´t spend 4th of July alone!”, so I went with another guy named Eric to Gabriel´s house. (Randa, Gabriel, Eric and I are Spanish classmates.) Before we went to Gabe´s house though, Eric and I had tinto de verano, a special Spanish drink, which is half a glass of red wine mixed with Fanta. It´s really good, and no, I don´t get drunk on it, trust me. After we had our drinks, we went to have some chawarmas (some sort of kebab) for dinner, and it was SO GOOD. But I couldn´t finish my chawarma coz it was a huuuuuge portion! Haha.

Anyway, after that, we walked towards Gabe´s house, but we stopped for me to get a scoop of delicious helado (ice cream) called dulce de leche, but of course I couldn´t finish it coz I was full to bursting. I just bought it only to try it for the first time in my life, and also because it was near Gabe´s house, and far from mine. Eric was mean – he didn´t help me finish it! Haha. He also bought some more wine and Fanta so that we could make tinto de verano.

When we reached the house at 10pm (the sun had JUST set) we realised that they had cooked dinner, and it smelt so good, but I felt like puking coz I was so full. I had a great time there though, coz Randa is a really cool person to talk to, and I also met other people, mostly Americans. There was one Spanish guy there, his name is Santi, and he is the landlord of the apartment. We found out later that he had smoked marijuana right next to me and Randa, and I was a bit freaked out, but thank God nothing bad happened.

I also met people like Rio and Nico, two girls who are Randa´s friends, and they are very nice too. Randa is Filipino American, while Rio is a quarter Filipino, a quarter American (I think!), and half Italian. It was fun to know more about them.

After talking a lot and taking some pictures, Randa and I left with two other people to our houses at 2am, because Randa and the other people lived in Camino de Ronda too. (In fact, if I had known that I would have to walk back alone without a friend, I wouldn´t have gone. I know my safety precautions ). I was so tired, but I took a cold cold shower and fell asleep instantly. What a night!

This Saturday I might be going to Cordoba with the Chinese girl I met, Jia Wei. It should be fun! Next weekend I will be heading to Sevilla to meet Luis, yay . And the following weekend, Janice will be coming to Granada to visit me! We´re going to the La Alhambra together, wooohoooooooooo! And then, the last weekend, we´re going to Barcelona. Yeah, I am very psyched up about my weekends, haha. They are the best things to look forward to!