Well, after sleeping for about nine hours last night, I’m feeling much better today. It’s incredible what a good night’s sleep can do, and I feel like I have a whole new brain that can actually concentrate and perceive things accurately. With that being said, classes seemed to go really quickly today, and I again left school with a pretty light homework load…I could get used to this!
We’re currently reading a book of poetry in my Latin American Literature class and a few legends in my Romanticism class, and we discuss them as we go, so we haven’t had homework in either of those classes this week, which is really nice. It ensures that we’re understanding and catching everything we need to without having to commit hours and hours to reading and looking up words. My grammar class is really focusing on the Subjunctive tense, something we don’t exactly have in English, so I’ve been studying that lots, but that’s about all I’ve been working on outside of school. I’m glad that we’re taking extra time on this topic because the extra practice really helps me hear it and use it in daily conversations.
I’ve been writing lots this afternoon and yesterday to try to get caught up on my blog, and I can’t believe how long it’s been since I last posted. Somehow time has just been getting away from me…I’ve been trying to figure out where it’s been going all day, and I’m thinking that maybe it’s just because I’ve been so worn out. Sleep is definitely escalating on my priority list from now on. I don’t like getting into a cycle of being overwhelmed and over-tired; I’d rather just get the sleep I need and do an all-around better job in the time that I have.
Anyway…today I had my second meeting with my intercambio, Raquel. She picked me up at my apartment, and made our way over to Santa Cruz, a really cool, historic part of town. The streets there are tiny and very windy, and it’s the old Jewish part of town. Some notable sights there include a great Flamenco bar, a cross in the central plaza that was used as a symbol of the Christian conquest, and lots and lots of shops and cafés. The buildings there are beautiful, and it’s easy to get lost in Santa Cruz for quite a while.
After wandering for a while, we went to the cathedral, and I gawked at the incredible architecture of the building for a few minutes before we headed to a coffee shop where we both got drinks and talked about different Spanish traditions. Raquel mentioned wanting to practice speaking English, so we switched languages on the way back to the car and it was fun and very interesting for me to be in the opposite position for once. I’m so used to being the one learning the language…it was a good experience for me to be on the other end. Now I have a better idea of how hard it must be for these poor Spanish people to talk with me ;)
Raquel took me to another part of town where she went to college, and there were lots of cool buildings to see there too. Apparently, someone had a great idea to have each country sponsor the construction of a building in this area, and then there was a huge expo of the great modernist buildings. Unfortunately, no one really cares about the great buildings anymore, so instead of containing a bunch of cultural artifacts they now contain offices. It was kind of eerie to be able to see what the area was and hear about the big ideas people had for it in the past.
Eventually, I headed back home for dinner and to finish up my homework, and Corinne and I worked more on travel plans for this weekend and for our break in December.
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