Un Viaje De Su Vida: Back to the Real World....or is it?

No, I'm not coming home. I finally started school. And let me tell you, it was so hard the first few days to sit in class for four whole hours. My program is considered to be "Language Intensive". I enjoy my 15 minute walk to my school which is more of a building in the middle of a random street tucked away in Granada.

My classes begin at 9:00am and go till 1:00pm. I have two different teachers. My first teacher, Montserrat Olea, is a total sweetheart. She teaches mostly grammar and that is from 9:00-10:50ish. We get a 15 minute "coffee break" in between. Its not a definite 15 minutes, you can go walk around, take a smoke break outside..which is extremely popular in Europe, or be like me and eat my cracker cookies and do my homework! Then a new teacher comes into my class room for the next two hours. My second teacher, Rosana Uriz, is kind of a tough cookie. She has really dry humor but makes me laugh. I really like them both. Rosana works with us on speaking. My class consists of 10-12 people. There is so much diversity! A girl from China, a guy from Belgium, Australia and France. Also there is a 60-something year old man from Arkansas. We do have about a half hour to an hour of homework each night. Nothing I can't handle! By 1:00pm my stomach is growling and I'm ready for some lunch. Except I have to wait till 2-2:30 for my lunch! I can't complain, Jaqueline's (host mom) food is amazing! I keep wanting to take some pictures of her food but I keep forgetting. On my long list of things to do!

The last weekend my roommate, Kylie, went to visit a friend in Paris so I found myself kind of lonely in my room. I spent a lot of time walking around checking out some parks and clothing stores, hanging out with the neighbor boys (three kids from the US and two from Spain. They rent from our host mom and she cooks for them too), working out at the gym, and spending time with my host family. I've gotten to know my host dad, Juancho very well. The little English he knows is from listening to movies, music, and the study abroad students. He is really friendly and great to practice my Spanish with. Also, I've become great friends with my "brother", Migue. He is our host mom's 16 year old son. He is fun to joke with and his English is fluent! We've made some plans to hang out and show me around town. Yesterday he took me to the Cafe that Juancho and his mom own.

Besides getting in the flow of school and a regular schedule after my amazing trip to Morocco, I've been planning Mom and Dad's trip when they come visit in March! You will have to ask my Mom, I'm quite the travel agent! I booked their flight out of Spain over to Naples, Italy and I'm even going to go with for the weekend!! Its hard to believe that in just less than a month they will be here. I'm already making a list of things to do and see here! Its so beautiful, there is so much!! A must-do is enjoy an order of "Churros con chocolate". Its a fried croissant like pastry and you dip it into a hot chocolatey mixture. I went with a friend earlier this week to try it out...and let me tell you, it lived up to be as good as everyone said!