¡Viva Graná!

So things are starting to settle in very, very well.
A couple things have changed: I´ve grown much more confident in my abilities to speak Spanish, I´ve learned that I´m not that far away from everything like i first though (however, I still am the furthest wah wah wah). At best, I´m a 20 minute walk from the Centro de Lenguas Modernas which is where I have my intensive classes daily from 10-2. My professors (two of them) are complete night and day. The first, Montse Osea, is reminiscent of a nervous Chihuahua. She´s very "proper" and is often correcting people in the middle of their sentences, which then results in people sitting their in silence the entire time. The second, Carmen Triviño, is unreal. I sit through the 2 hours with her pinching myself making sure that what is happening is really happening. There´s a group of us (the 4 Americans, the Dane and the Norwegian that take our 20 minute break together) who have compared her personality - her being as being that of 50% witch, 50% porn star.

Other than that there´s been a ridiculous amount of things happening while Í´ve been here, I´m feeling rather absent-minded so I´ll approach the next few points in a "bulletin" style.

-I´ve become impressed with my ability over the past week to seek and steal internet (however not that impressed as I was defeated today and reduced to using an internet café). There´s a place that offers free wifi, but it´s a café and you´ve gotta get something (which isn´t bad.. but they don´t have any enchufas [electric plugs] for me to plug my computer into). I´m slowly but surely working on getting better internet access though as I am missing facebook and y´all.

-I live in a Franco-era complex that´s gated and such, I´m on the 2nd floor (which is actually the 3rd) with my own room. For now it is just myself and my señora. She has told me however that there are some people from France and Germany that periodically stay with her, in fact the Frenchy is going to be coming in a while for a few weeks. Speaking of my señora, I have fallen in love with her. Her name is Mª Ana Morzano Alpujilla. She´s a cute 50-something widow who has 5 kids who live in the surrounding areas of the autonomous provence of Granada. She´s a mean cook and always, ALWAYS gives me a ridiculous amount of food.

-I´ve started to become used to siesta. Yes, it actually REALLY does exist. It was REALLY inconvenient the first few days I was here (everything but the HUGE stores close at 2:30 and then open back up at like 5). The past 3 days though, I´ve come home, eaten a fantastic lunch and then taken a perfect siesta.

-I´ve become absolutely obsessed with this show called "Pasapalabra." It´s this show where celebs are invited to compete in this primetime (10pm) gameshow where it´s all these different word games. Ana and I will often sit on the couch together while we both yell at the tv with what word we think it is (not to brag, but I´m pretty damn good at the games). However, there´s a part which I still haven´t figured out. It´s an extremely easy part where they give you a word and you have to make 5 rhymes before 10 seconds. Now, the host (who is EXTREMELY attractive) will pick one of the women (the selection process is beyond me, however next time I blog I will be determined to find out) to do the rhymes. Now, if the contestant gets all of the words right, they are "superinvitado" and are given a bocadillo de chorizo (a ham sub) and then they make some awkward face with it that is then put in freeze frame with the words "TODAVÍA SUPERINVITADO" and shown the next day on the program... the celeb then gives it to a member of the audience. I love this television. I´m definitely thinking that the EE.UU. needs a show like that. I´ve also learned some great vernacular like "tener las plumas" = to be gay, "Tener la mosca detrás de la oreja" = To suspect, "Ya vaya bolla" = to be in a hurry.

Also while I´ve been here Spain is in one of their "worst" winters in the past 100 years, so I´m told... and I believe it as it has always been below 0 at night and sleeping without heat is terrible to wake up to. But the Andaluces (people from where I am in Andalucía) have a much different way of talking than those of the rest of Spain (save the people who speak Catalán and Gallego and Vasco). But the minister of something or other, Magdalena Álvarez (she´s from Andalucía) has come under great pressure from other politicians of the way she´s handling the traveling situations and the economy during this harsh winter. Some politicians have even been critical on the way she speaks. None the less, this has been the "talk of the town" in class and on the streets which I´ve found very very interesting (here I go with my lingüistas). Sorry for the lack of substance and neatness of this post, I´m trying to get as much out because I´m not sure when the next time I´ll use the internet will be and am running a little late to dinner.