Hola mis amigos. I am almost done with my first week of classes and the teachers here are really nice and supportive. I have decided to sign up for Oral Spanish instead of Composition to improve my speaking skills. Although this will probably be my most challenging class, I hope to get a lot out of it! Anyways, this week has been full of more new foods, uncomfortable situations with my host family and...shopping!

Today I had a version of spaghetti with some kind of tomato sauce with pork and I thought it was pretty tasty. Yesterday for lunch my señora made a delicious lentil soup with carrots and potatoes-followed by hotdogs! She fried them in a pan and gave me some barbeque sauce to dip them which was awesome. I´m not sure if that is a staple food here in the Andalucía or if she prepared them for me but it was a nice reminder of a meal in the States :)

I´ve been doing a lot of window shopping for shoes and purses. I haven´t found any heels yet that look possible for me to walk in (especially on the stone-paved roads here) but somehow Spanish women make it happen. I guess I´ll have to give them a try sooner or later...I hope my international insurance covers sprained ankles! Anyways, everyone here is super-stylish, but I have seen an abundance of mullets on a lot of the guys here and I hope this is one trend that does not make it across the Atlantic.

As for my living situation, I enjoy talking to my señora when I can understand what she is saying, but her accent is extremely thick. The accent here consists of dropping consonants and speaking with a lisp. In other words, my education in Spanish listening comprehension up to this point is pretty much useless when it comes to conversing with natives. Luckily, I know the key phrases such as "please slow down" and "I don´t understand" which are frequently used in our daily conversations. Today I learned the word for dishwasher which is fun to say (when I can remember it) and she helped me with my Spanish Culture homework. This morning she showed me how to turn on the hot water in the house-unfortunately this demonstration was AFTER I took an ice cold shower!

I have posted some photos (bottom of page) from our trip to the Alhambra last weekend so I hope you have time to check them out-hasta luego.