February 5

2-5
Hi everyone,
I’ve been slacking a bit on the blog front. There hasn’t been much to tell the last few days. I had my oral placement exam yesterday and it went pretty well. It was really easy; just ten minutes or less of her asking about me and my Spanish experience. Patricia sent an email with the results of our placement testing, but obviously I didn’t get it. One of the other girls told me I´m in the high advanced level. The different levels are intermediate, advanced, high advanced, superior, and 2 levels of bilingual. I’m going to the university tomorrow to get the schedule for classes. I’m also having trouble activating my Carlos III email, so I’m going to try to figure that out too.
Yesterday afternoon I didn’t have any plans so I popped Shrek into the computer and watched it in Spanish. It’s funny to hear how they try to get the voices close to those of the original actors. Shrek was pretty good, but Donkey was kind of annoying. After that I started reading Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal. That’s right; I have Harry Potter in Spanish. I am just that awesome. I was going to buy the other ones when I was at a bookstore here, because I only have the first one, but the only ones I could find were in English and French. I suppose that’s because I was in the international section. It doesn’t make much sense to look for Spanish books in the international section of a Spanish store . . . . Oh, I did find them in another place, too, but they were hardback and too expensive. So I’ll have to look around. I know, I’m nerding out a little, but hey, I’m ok with that! J
Today I met with 4 other girls to be touristy. We were going to go to the Planetarium, but it was closed when we got there at 2:00. Stupid siesta. It wasn’t going to open again until 5, so we decided to save it for another day. We decided to go to Goya’s tomb instead, so we went to the metro stop closest to where it was, and then were trying to figure out where to go. This nice old lady saw us looking at the map and helped us (in English!) find where we were headed. She also gave us recommendations of places to go, like a couple of convents and stuff. We were heading toward Goya’s tomb, but we were all really hungry, so we found a restaurant to eat. They have 2 course meals here, with dessert and drinks included for a pretty reasonable price, so we did that. But there was only one person that we saw working there, and the service was really slow. It took us at least an hour and a half to eat lunch, if not more. By that time we were getting kind of tired and decided just to go to the Plaza Mayor (which was really close) to shop. We did that for a while, and then we went to another part of the city where there were lots of stores. It was getting late-ish and we were done shopping around 7 so we just went home. So I don’t feel like we really did much today. But that’s ok; we have plenty of time for sight-seeing.
I’ve been listening to piano music today. Currently playing: Ravel Piano Concerto in G Major, movement I (Allegramente). I had iTunes on random and then a Billy Joel piano piece came on and I got in the mood for piano music. I went through all my music and made a playlist of just piano solos and concertos. Oh, and I think there’s a duet in there somewhere. Good stuff. And I figure at least the instrumental music doesn’t get me thinking in English. I need to buy some Spanish music to listen to.
Manuel was encouraging me today at supper to find somewhere to teach English. I am still torn about that. I had thought about it before I left, and there was a time when I felt really strongly that I should and wanted to, and then I felt like maybe I didn’t want to and it would be too much. I think he was talking about a private tutoring kind of thing with just a couple students. I don’t know; it might be good, but on the other hand I don’t know if I have enough time I want to give up for that. I have classes into the evening almost every day, and I don’t really want to give up weekends. I don’t know! I’m torn. (Danny, are you thinking what I’m thinking? A certain song just popped into my head and I know it’s all your fault! J)
I found another, closer internet café on my block and then another one right next to my house. I don’t know how I missed them before. I just walked past, so I haven’t tried it out yet, but the closest one looked pretty nice just judging from looking in the window. I have to check that it’s still 1 euro an hour. But that was a nice surprise that it’s right next door!
I feel like I’m starting to get a cold. That sucks, because I was just recovering from one when I came here. I’ve been congested and runny since yesterday afternoon. (Side rant: How is it possible to be congested and runny at the same time?!?! It makes absolutely no sense and should not be physically possible!! Pick one so I can take the appropriate medicine and get better! Sorry, just had a little moment there. . . .) I hope it’s just allergies. Hrmmmm.
I think I’m going to read some HP and then call home.
‘Night all,
Bethany