Estudiantes una vez más - Students Once More

 Today Marco and I enrolled in a week long super-intensive Spanish course.  Well, I actually thought I had enrolled in just an intensive course, which I figured would be enough, but I guess Marco amped it up some more.  This means that we were in class from 9:15 until 3:15 pm!!!  Un poco loco, no?

The school is located in a beautiful Spanish building.  And the teachers were all delightful.  Each class had less than 10 students (our afternoon conversation class only had 4), which meant tons of time to interact with the teacher and to speak.  I've felt my vocab increase dramatically after just this one day - but honestly, I am so glad that I put in time before the trip by using Rosetta Stone!  It's given me a lot of foundational knowledge that has been so helpful today.  This is particularly true because we had to skip out on the first day of class, which was yesterday, on account of my still not feeling well enough for such a long day.  However, because of my preparation with Rosetta Stone, I did not feel that we were behind at all with the material.

The Patio

Tomorrow, I will take a camera into class to see if I can take a photo of everyone so I can post it here.  So far, the majority of the students are German, including one guy who totally reminds me of  The Situation from Jersey Shore.  Whenever we have any activities that include a long list of activities, and we have to pick just one that we like, he always replies "nada."  Then after much prompting, he ends up trotting out with "beer, oh and cognac, and ...." and basically lists a bunch of alcohol.  Hmmmmm.....

Anyway, now I think that 4 days is just too short!! But hopefully I will have enough at the end of it to keep up a basic conversation, and I can just sign up for conversation partnering after that with locals who want to learn English.

Another bit of exciting news - last night I managed to book tickets to Alhambra, a massive palace in Granada that is known as the most resplendent and significant work of Islamic architecture (Nasrid period) in Spain.  Usually people have to book the tickets to tour the palace weeks in advance but we lucked out.  We'll be on our way this Sunday!  Be on the look out for photos!