Once again I apologize for taking so long to write to you guys. There always seems to be something to do here and the weeks go by so fast! It is amazing to me the difference between how fast a 4 day school week flys by compared to a 5 day school week. Transitioning from high school to college I didn't notice it but now going back to the 4 day week once I again I remembered just how nice it was. My weekdays are filled with classes and homework, (actually just literature to read, my professor is crazy, she assigned us 133 pgs of spanish lit to read in two days during midterms week...) and then all my volunteer activities with teaching english. Monday I go to an elementary school and am in a class of middle schoolers and am supposed to help them with their pronunciation but it is hard because it isn't a very personal environment and I am in the front of the class with them all sitting down in rows. The majority of them look bored out of their minds too. I feel like their professor is really strict though and that there isn't a lot of fun incorporated into that classroom. Middle school is a hard age.. I know this will be a bit of a challenge for me but good practice! Then tuesday evenings I spend an hour teaching a 6 and 9 year old english and they are so adorable, the little boy has such a craving to learn it but it is much harder for the girl since she is so young and doesn't have as much background knowledge. It is so much fun though and makes my spanish better to teach in spanish.. Wednesday's I meet with a professor who I help improve his english and he helps me with my spanish and Thursday's I meet with another professor who pays me for english conversation classes. The little bit of extra spending money is definitely helpful. The weekends are filled with traveling. Since I last wrote I have been to Carmona and Jerez de la Frontera both just Saturday day trips. Carmona is a cute little town, not too far away and we got to see all the white washed buildings and historic sites as well as the Roman necropolis which is a burial ground. The best part was the crepes we had there! Jerez es un ciudad muy famosa para las bodegas. We toured one of these wineries, Tio Pepe which is one of the most famous wines in Spain. It was really neat to see the wine cellars and learn about the process of how it is made. Although the two wines we sampled were the best I've ever tried I still am not a fan of wine. I am just fine without it. We had midterms this past week and the three I have had seemed to go fine. They were all easier than I thought which was really good. I have one more on monday in fonética but I am not too worried about it. Today we went on a hike in Cazalla de las Sierras which was a cute little town that you could tell wasn't as much of a tourist oriented town which was nice. Our hike was really pretty and brought us through several fields of farms and we had had to open and close the gates of the pastures to continue it. We got to see one of the farmers plowing his field with his pair of donkeys, very old fashioned and so cute. I love the laid back life style over here and the fact that such a simple lifestyle can exist with no problem. I think I am going to have such a hard time adjusting back to the fast paced life of the states.. I feel though that because I am trying to see so much here that I haven't fully adopted the simple lifestyle. It hit me real hard today just how short of time I have left here and that there is still so much I want to do and see and truly never enough time. Yesterday for my birthday I saw my first flamenco show which was a very cultural thing and one of my spanish friends came with us and told me he had never seen one before. I guess it is more of a traditional art and more performed for the tourists as well. The art of Flamenco for the people, I have been told is more focused on the singing then the dancing as well. The whole thing was full of emotions and it was really something to watch and I think the dancing added so much to it. My favorite part was when there were several people dancing and performing more from the heart toward the end rather than the one person who was dancing to a routine. It was a great night. Being here is always like a roller coaster though and while there are days when I am happier than ever there are others or even just moments when everything just gets overwhelming and I miss home a lot. But I know I will get through it and that when it is all over I won't want to leave. God has blessed me with so much and I know that he won't stop watching over me and I am so thankful. It gets hard to speak spanish all the time as well which is why I am thankful at times to have my english friends to speak with but I wish we all spoke more spanish within each other because I have not improved as much as I had hoped I would and know if we continue to speak so much english i wont return at the level I would like. But I have noticed I can speak more smoothly and have been told it is getting better so there always is the light at the end of the tunnel. My english is also going away and my grammer at times is awful or I will add a spanish accent to the english words or completely speak Spanglish. It is hard for me at times to transistion back into english, especially in my classes, and I want to speak to everyone in Spanish. So I'm sorry for the spanish that comes through in my blog. Tomorrow we are going horseback riding on the beach, I cannot wait! So there's a little update on the crazy things I have been up to! Until next time!
Besos,
Lindsay
