Wednesday: Breakfast. Class: “La Universidad.” We talked about the different organization of the education system in the US and Spain. It’s pretty crazy. I will address this in more detail later, maybe tomorrow if I’m awesome. I will say, I think I prefer the system in the US, although public college here is apparently crazy awesome and way cheaper. Comida: a tortilla Espanola (eggs, potatoes, ham, kind of like and omelet) for a tapita (little tapa, like an appetizer) and chicken and spinach with eggs. Yum! And a dessert, of course. I don’t know if I mentioned, but we have dessert with every comida, usually consisting of a fruit. I love “mandarinas.” And so far, I’ve mostly avoided platanos (bananas). Also, meals are always really fun. Nicole is trying so many things for the first time. For example, she tried a pear for the first time this week. And she is such a good sport. She tries everything, even the seafood, which is really hard for her. I’m also trying everything and I think I’ve done well so far. (I also like most things, of course). We had oral exams in the evening. During siesta, I hit a new nerd high. I was, quite literally, reading a dictionary. Yes. I’m starting a list of words that I know but sometimes forget or have learned recently or need to learn. Then I went to my oral exam. But…drum roll please…I found a libreria (bookstore) with religious-looking books on my way to IES. I stopped in. They had the Magnificat (March, again). I looked and found that it had all of the Mass responses and prayers in the middle, but I still wanted the February readings for daily Mass. Guess who was able to understand my crappy Spanish? Yes, my new favorite employee of Red de Librerias in Granada. I asked about February and she said, “No, we don’t have it. But…I can order it and call you when it’s in. Would you like that?” Would I like that!?!! I think I scared her a little because I was so happy. I almost started to cry. And some poor man looked very concerned for me. So…yeah. SUCCESS! My oral exam was okay. I was told that I speak Spanish very well. Which was generous, I think. But he explained that he can understand me and my accent is very good and I communicate well, but my vocabulary is small. More or less, I can communicate with patient Spaniards. Hooray! I went for tapas with friends after chilling in the lounge area thing at IES. By tapas, I mean we encountered kebabs. Kebabs! Okay, wow. Discovery of something fantastic? YES! No, I’m not talking about a giant toothpick with meat-veggie-meat-veggie setup. Although that’s what I thought at first. It’s a pita thing with thinly sliced meat and some veggies and it was SO GOOD! Again, thankful for “La Cuesta.” Not that I walked it last night. I actually rode the bus. Scary? Yes. I felt like Forrest Gump, a little. The bus driver was kind of mean and I was really confused, but I got home safely and with less energy for only 1,20 Euros. Not bad.

....uno mas...