City Tour

I really wish I could tell you what all these buildings are, but I can't. Not because I couldn't understand the guide, mind you, because I understood her perfectly. More likely because during the entire tour I was thinking about the repast you see in the last picture. That is a bocadillo con jamon serrano, endive, tomato, and some kind of yummy, crazy-stinky cheese whose name I can't recall at the moment (I'm seeing a pattern here...hmmm).

My classes continue to be great, and I am speaking Spanish all day long. It's amazing. I can understand 100% of what the teachers say, and I would estimate perhaps 75% of what everyone else says. I'm like a baby learning to speak: I can understand everything, but when I open my mouth to speak I make all kinds of fatal gramatical errors... My favorite expression the teacher uses when she talks about grammatical mistakes the Spainards make (because, let's face it, some of us make mistakes even in our mother tongue) is "No es mal, es fatal!" I think I'm going to use that phrase from now on in reference to fashion no-nos.

Serena and I are starting to assimilate into the culture of the country and the city. We are learning our way around (we only took a short "walk" yesterday before we figured out where we were), and we even went to the market to buy food to have at the apartment to cook instead of eating every meal at a restaurant.

Our school-sponsored activity for this evening is watching a Spanish movie together. The film theme of the month is Pedro Almodovar, and tonight at 18:30 (really, that still cracks me up) we're watching "Hable con ella". Should be interesting.

Tomorrow I'll post photos of the apartment and of our first cooking adventure. You're riveted to your computer screen right now...I just know this...