First Classes

There has been a lot happening in my life since my last post. Friday night I went to see the Ballet Folklorico de Madrid. Although we had front row seats, we were late arriving so we had to sit in the very back. From the back you could see all of the formation changes and get a pretty cool visual image. At intermission we moved to our actual seats and it was like seeing a whole different show. We could see the amazing costumes the dancers wore. Each one was so intracate and fabulous. We were so close we could see the expressions on their faces! I thought it was one of the coolest things I'd ever seen. They did all sorts of traditional dances, including ballet and flamenco. Saturday I had a relaxing day with my host family. I went for a run in Retiro park and had a HUGE lunch with some of my senora's friends. We ate paella (and by we I mean they since there is lots of meet in paella). Then we sat around eating, talking, and relaxing for a few hours. Saturday night a group of us planed to go to a discoteca called Kapital. This is one of the hugest and most famous discotecas in Madrid. It is seven floors with a different type of music and dancing on each floor. On the sixth floor there is a movie theater and the top floor is a lounge for relaxing after all that dancing. Well discotecas don't even open until midnight and they don't really get going until 2 or 3, so I had to take a nap in the afternoon to prepare myself. We first went to a couple smaller, free clubs and danced until it was appropriate to go to Kapital. Kapital is so huge we didn't even make it to all of the floors. We had to wait in line to get in, wait in line to check our coats, and wait in line for the bathroom. There were just so many people there! We finally got to dancing and had a really great time. It was hard to not loose anyone but we stuck together pretty well. Needless to say, I slept pretty late Sunday so I missed el Rastro, the famous flea market. Luckly it happens every Sunday and I will be here for another 4 months. Me and Sondie went to the Prado Sunday afternoon durring its free time. Apparently a lot of other people had that same idea. Again there was a lot of waiting in line, but eventually we got to go in and see our favorite paintings. Luckly I am taking an art class that meets at all different art museums around the city so I will definitly get another chance to visit the Prado. Yesterday was my first day of classes. I had my language class first, which is about what I expected. It is an intense study of grammar and speech. I think it will definitly be good for me. Then I had a 4 hour break in my schedule so I thought I would check out some other classes. This week we can go to any classes we want to see how we like them and then we turn in our final schedule on Friday. I sat in on Spanish literature but there was nothing very thrilling about the class. After that was my medioambiente y sociedad class (Environment and Society). I think I am absolutly going to love that class. We discuss the relationships between environment and human beings and take excursions around Madrid and other parts of Spain to view the actual environment. Today I had two more classes. The first is called cuentos, which means story in Spanish. In the class we will discuss the characteristics of short stories and practice reading and writing short stories in Spanish. I think this will be great practice for my Spanish writing skills. My last class of the day is my favorite of all. It is called estudios culturales (Cultural Studies) and the teacher is just a little ball of energy. I am really interested in the culture of Spain so it should be a good class for me. For lunch, me and a few others ventured to a little sandwhich shop in town that all the students rave about. Now I know why! You can choose anything to put on your sandwhich...I mean anything and it is really cheep. You get the sandwhich on a whole baguette. I got pesto, havarti cheese, tomato, and lettice- not very adventurous I know, but I will definitly back to try more things. This afternoon it was really sunny and finally in the 50s so I went for a nice run in the park. As you all know, Valentine's day is quickly approaching. I believe that Valentine's day is the most wonderful holiday in the entire world and I am trying to wear all of my Valentine's day socks this week leading up to the big day. I've also madly been working on Valentine's for my family whenever they aren't home! Well, school really tires me out so I am going to go rest up for my third day of classes!