Saturday

11 - Octubre - 2008
This is another weekend spent inside. I would like to think I'm recuperating from my cold, I'm resting, I'm getting better so that I can be fully charged in 2 weeks for Italy. But I'm pretty bored now too. It's cold today, and rainy. Yesterday, Dani and I spent most of our day wandering around el Centro going into shoe stores, H&M, Pimkie, (another pretty awesome stores where Dani bought clothes), and I just looked. I wasn't in the mood to shop, I didn't want to buy anything, after all, I just bought some clothes on wednesday, I really didn't need a whole lot more for a while, perhaps a jacket or closed-toed shoes. But I didn't need anymore shirts, or pants, well, maybe something other than jeans. . . Anyway. So we did all that yesterday, plus some cake shopping for Salud's birthday in a week. But today is another day spent inside thanks to the rain; I really wouldn't mind going to a cafe to study, but at the same time I don't want to. I want to leave the house. And no one is answering their phone, and my roommate is of the mind to stay inside and not leave, she's not exactly the cafe type. I miss the Mill, and a Car. I wouldn't even mind taking the bus somewhere, but I haven't figured that out yet, I haven't needed to.
BTW My group won the photo scavenger hunt; we get a free movie and snacks. It has to be a Spanish movie, or at least in Spanish, without subtitles. it won't be a problem.
Creo que ahora yo puedo hablar mejor, yo puedo escuchar mejor, y quisas puedo escribir mejor. Eso es todo que quiero.
I don't want to come home unimproved. I want to be great! I want to be fluent, but I'm not sure that's at all possible in just 4 months. I want to stop speaking English with my roommate, but she makes it difficult because she doesn't have the same conviction, but she does have a Chicago accent so she doesn't pronounce words correctly. (ex. formación is formashion: all c's and z's are transformed into sh's).

I want to be able to tell you all about the places I travel, but I can't, I don't travel here. I want to, but I'm not in that group of people who travel a lot; I can't just jump in with a group that's already planned everything out; moreover, they all go to school with each other. We were predefined. I suppose I'm just saving my money and energy for the 10 days of traveling. plus there'll be more later. I want to go to Granada to see La Alhambra; I want to go back to Toledo just to relax for a weekend or a day; I want to Barcelona, just to go to Barcelona.
My señora has given us her opinion on some of the places I wanted to travel: there's nothing there, you don't need to go (Portugal); it's cold; it's rainy this weekend. . . Etc. Etc. And my roommate doesn't really have anyone to travel with aside from me, she doesn't do much with other people in the class unless she has to; if she doesn't want to do it, we're not doing it. She already had plans to go shopping in Sevilla this weekend over a week ago. She needed Flamenco shoes which she didn't end up buying.

It's hard to believe that in just two weeks I'll be traveling in Italy and when I come back it'll be November, and my birthday (Happy 21st!), then we have just over a month left here.
I signed up for a class called "Actualidad" (which is like current events) and it starts next week. We'll be learning about current economics and politics and perhaps modern art. I'm not too sure what all the classes will be on. But the classes will be Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5:30-7. Seeing as I already have 18 hours I'm just auditing the class, I really wanted to take it and I'm not sure how the credit will transfer or if it will, but that's ok. It'll be something else to do. I really love learning more about the Spanish culture and history. It seems like there's this big chunk in history that I just don't know. All that we really learned in the US was that at one point in time the country was ruled by Muslim's and then came Aragón & Castilla-Leon and the middle ages and everything was Catholic, there were some inquisitions, then came Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus), (I forgot his name just now, only because all I could remember was his Spanish name "Colon".) His body is here in Sevilla in the Cathedral. and Yes, it's really his body, they did DNA tests to prove it. I really want to go to Mass (Misa) at the Cathedral tomorrow. I have yet to go for a church service but we did get a tour this last week. it's HUGE, 7 naves. normally there are just 3 or 5, but this one has 7. (naves are the rows, there's one big central nave and then there are 3 more on each side separated by rows of Columns).