First of all, I would like to let everyone know that I added a slideshow feature to my blog (it's at the bottom of the page), so you can click on the picture and it will direct you to my Picasa web album for Spain.
These first couple days have been exhausting but very fun as well. I've realized that I understand approximately 1/3 of everything that is said to me, but hopefully this will improve after my classes get going. The first full day here we had a couple hours worth of meetings about academics things and the program in general. I am enrolled in the 5 classes I originally requested, those being Latin American Civilization, Spanish Civilization, Intro to Spanish Art, Conversation, and the Spanish Economy. All of the professors introduced themselves and they all seem very nice and helpful.
I'm still trying to get myself oriented with the city, it's a lot bigger than I am used to living in, but seems like a nice place to live. I went for a run for the first time this morning through some of the gardens that are everywhere here. I saw some huge trees that looked like they belonged in a rainforest, lots of fountains, and lots of people walking their dogs. I met my first Spanish dog on Friday night when my host mom's nephew brought his dog over. She is a golden retriever, but I can't remember her name.
I've noticed lots of different things the last few days here. The stoplights go from red to flashing yellow to green, then straight back to red. Needless to say the cars don't often stop when the light is red. I've eaten probably 3 of 4 loaves of bread since getting here, I have a big chunk of fresh bread with lunch and dinner. Most of the food I get at home is fried, which is hard to get used to but usually I am so hungry by the time we eat I really don't care what it is. I found Mercadona today, which is a supermarket with pretty much anything you could want. Everything also seems to be under 2 euro, which makes it easy to buy a lot. I was very excited to be able to buy Fanta límon once again, which is a flavor that isn't available in the U.S. It's delicious and basically tastes like fizzy lemonade. They also have some of my favorite cookies with chocolate in the middle, and chocolates called Buenos, which live up to their name in every way. I'm probably going to be a frequent visitor to that grocery store, they have a very wide selection of chocolate cereal as well.
Today our group travelled 2 hours North to a small city called Peñíscola, which is pretty much a Spanish version of the Greek island Santorini. It is almost an island, there's a small strip connecting it to the mainland. There is a castle at the top of one area that was built in the 1200's and was used by the Knights Templar as well as a variety of Catholic Popes. I will have pictures of this on Picasa as soon as I can get them to load at a decent rate.
I start classes on Tuesday, and tomorrow (Sunday) I plan to go to an outdoor market at Plaza Redonda and try to explore the downtown area. It seems like I am already downtown but the actual downtown has a lot of the restaurants, monuments, discos, and museums.
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