La tarde y noche de lunes

After my nap and showing photos to Sandra, I uploaded the blog post and then we watched telenovelas which are similar to soap operas. I would start to understand the conversations and then it would switch scenes, and I'd be confused.  At 6pm I walked to the plaza, and didn't get lost! I was so excited! I was early so I went inside to look around and found a poster describing an archeology trip and had an Anthropology major freak out. If it hadn't already started I would look into signing up. 

I then met up with the group before walking to Iglesia de San Pedro. We all described our siestas and our families on the way. Together we attended the welcome orientation complete with a flag presentation and diplomatic speeches. The flag presentation was very cool because after each flag was presented the representative student would say a sentence in Spanish and then in their native language. Then the diplomats spoke. I understood about 60% of one speech, about 45% of the next and only about 30% of the last. I was behind a pillar so it was hard to watch expressions and gestures which ususally help me understand what's being said. 

The program for the welcome orientation party

We then went to the Centro de Arte Toledo for bebidas y tapas (drinks and appetizers). They also had a sword fighting demonstration and interaction. Mariah, our fourth degree black belt, went on stage to pretend sword fight and did very well and it was exciting to watch her. Since it is legal to drink alcohol at 18 in España, I drank about 2/3rds of a sangria and ate my way through a plate of tapas. I needed to get back to the casa for cena so a classmate and I walked back to the escalators with each other and parted ways at the round about. I only had four blocks left to walk, and even though it was about 9:30 it was a bright outside, sort of how it looks about 7 or so back in Nebraska now. 

Sword fighting

Olivia and I with our first legal sangrias

When I went back home to the casa we ate dinner of rice, fish sticks, uvas (grapes), and this tomato soup type drink that I can't spell or find online **post edit: it's gazpacho** but its really common especially in verano. During the summer they eat later, about 930 or 10, and in the winter around 830 or 9, because it is so hot during the summer.  During dinner we watched a television show with Will Smith and his son, it was in spanish but Will spoke some spanish and the english was dubbed over so it was a delayed reaction between the english and spanish so that was interesting. Después de cena, mi mamá anfitriona and I watched  "Corazón de tinta" which is Inkheart with spanish dubbed over. I think that this might be a good way to learn Spanish because we talk durante the commercials and I understand what should be happening durante la pelicula. During the commercials we talked about birthdays and my allergies to every kind of plant that grows, and her mother's pueblo that has an intact castle that was a royal's summer home that wasn't impacted by bombs during the wars. 

Tomorrow we get our class placement and learn what level we placed at. I'm hoping that I know enough Spanish to be placed in a level that I understand but can still get credit for 303/304. 

I'll post again tomorrow! 
Love you all!