Clases y la vida de la noche

I haven't been keeping up with this very well since classes started. School has made my day a little busier, but I am finally adjusting to the time difference. I have to get up early for class and then I come home for lunch and a siesta. I have been able to explore a little this week, and have made it to the gym a few times, so hopefully I won't be too sore next week when the really heavy lifting starts. So far, I haven't bought anything, but I have been trying a lot of things on! There are so many stores close, I have barely made a dent. My favorite are all the shoe stores. They all have so many options! And they are all cute, summery shoes, which I need more of since I didn't bring that many. In the same area as all the stores there is a taco bell, where my house mom took me for dinner the other night! Haha, I didn't expect to come to Spain and eat taco bell. They have a deal here where every Tuesday you can get a taco supreme and a beer for 1 euro. Yes, taco bell serves beer. This is probably the funniest cultural differences I have encountered so far. I am taking two classes, one art history class and one grammar class. I actually really like my grammar class, which is so weird for me. It is a small class, only six of us, and nuestra profesora is awesome! It is nice because we all just get to practice our spanish, but it is such a small setting and everyone is practicing, so we aren't afraid of messing up. My art class is a little tough to make it through, especially when all the lights are off for the powerpoint. When I am really tired and the lights are off, I have a hard time paying attention to the art because all I want to do is sleep. We went to la casa de Cervantes yesterday for the art history class, and that was a fun trip. Afterwards, we went to el Museo Archeologico Regional, which was near Cervantes' house. The museum was interesting, but we walked around a lot, and spent a lot of time looking at rocks, so it got pretty monotonous pretty quickly. I came home and took a nice siesta before getting in a workout at the gym. After dinner, I met up with some friends from my program and we checked out the night life. It was such a fun night! After getting turned away at the first club we tried because the guys in our group weren't wearing long pants (stupid!), we went to la Puerta del Sol and went from place to place around there. We met people from Spain, Germany, Belgium, and even some American military men who are stationed in Turkey and here on business. There are people selling random trinkets on the street, like the really big oversized clown sunglasses, hats, and tiaras. Obviously we needed them, but we were not going to pay 6 euros! We bargained and only had to pay 2 euros for each thing. In total, our group got two pairs of glasses, one hat, and one tiara that lights up! We returned home and tried to get a little sleep before getting up for class this morning. It was a little tough to get up, but after lunch I am sure we all took nice siestas! Tomorrow morning, we leave for a one-night trip to Seville! I am very excited to see another city, and my host mom has given me all kinds of food recommendations, especially seafood (yum!), so I can't wait to get there and eat! HSB, don't worry, I'm totally prepared to Ralllllyyyyy. I will be eating dinner soon tonight, then hopefully exploring a little bit more (probably getting some helado), and then heading to bed because we have to be at the train station muy temprano. 

Outside la casa de Cervantes, Don Quixote and I
with my teacher photo bombing