Busy Week!

Wow this has been a busy week!
Just like normal school..all the professors decided to give their tests in the same week. This definitely does not make for a fun week.

Sunday was fun!
While Caroline was still in Florence for the weekend i was home alone in my home stay with my Senora Paqui and her daughters Julia and Blanca. Sunday morning, Paqui and Julia invited me out to lunch with them at a local "Cerveceria"/tapas place. We headed out to lunch around 2:30. Come to find out that Paqui knew almost everyone at the Cerveceria! She was chatting it up with some of her little man friends and giggling like crazy. She kept introducing myself and her daughter Julia. I was known as her "North American Student." They were all so excited to meet me and kept giving me the normal welcoming kisses. I tried my best to stay up with the conversation between them but sometimes their conversation became a little too fast for me and i just continued to nod and laugh. When it came time to order food I was a little nervous. I had no clue what anything on the menu was! All i recognized was "pescado" or fish--which i had no intention of ordering. Paqui knows that I do not care for fish and went ahead and ordered me a little ham and cheese sandwich. Julia and I both had the same thing. It was not to bad but i have a hard time watching them actually carve the ham and then put it right onto the sandwich. I ate it quickly with a positive mindset! When i was through, Paqui proceeded to ask me what else i would like to try. I was a little nervous to try more...but she had another good call when she ordered me some eat with a side of salsa. I am not sure what the meat was but it was very good! I am glad that i did not share in what they ordered....sardines! We stayed at this cerveceria until it closed and all Paqui´s friends had gone home. It was probably around 4pm. At this point Julia and I were both craving something sweet. Our next stop was to a little bakery with ice cream and churros! yum! Right when we walked in Julia noticed that her Grandparents and Great Aunt happened to be there as well. We went ahead and sat down with them. Once again I got the introduction as their "North American Student" which came along with plenty of welcoming kisses. I definitely felt like part of the family! We sat for a while and ordered churros and chocolate. Before sitting to the table Paqui had quickly told me that her family was a little crazy and very talkative. This was quickly proven to be true. The girls, Paqui, her mother, her aunt and Julia were chatting up a storm. So quickly i could only catch a couple of words. The little grandfather just kid of sat there and watched, on ocasion he would get in a quick comment! Every so often they would look over at me and smile, sometimes i had not clue what they were talking about and I would just smile and laugh right back. One thing the grandmother said that i thought was very interesting was that she thought that I did not look like a "North American" and that i was "guapisima" or very pretty. I wonder what they assume that a North American looks like??? After a fun little family gathering we eventually made it out the door and on our way home---right across the street. It was a fun experience to be able to go out with the family.

Going home meant that i actually had to concentrate on school work! This was just the beginning of a loooong school week. Monday I had a spanish literature paper due as well as a presentation and a quiz. Tuesday I had a midterm in my Literature class. Wednesday I had a test in my Art and Culture class and another quiz in my grammer class. Thursday was a break :) aka catch up on sleep lost from studying for tests! Today, Friday I had a test in my Spain and Islam class and a paper due in my grammer class. It doesn't seem too bad but its all in spanish!

I am so glad that it is Friday and that the week full of tests and papers in over with!
This weekend we will be heading to Granada with our program. There are some great sites to see here. Hopefully the weather will be nice for us!