Hmmm, it´s been awhile.

We decided to have a cultural week.

Wednesday night we went to see a Flamenco lecture and show. It was only about the music, not the dancing. This 20-something guy gave a PowerPoint presentation for at least and hour about Flamenco music and it was pretty boring. I can't listen to someone talk in English for that long, let alone Spanish. Afterwards, this old gypsy woman and her musicians came out and did a performance. That was pretty cool, and the whole thing was held in a very cute cafe in the Arab quarter. So I ended up glad I went.

Friday we headed to Ronda as a group, but just for the day. It was really gorgeous. (Literally...there´s a big gorge that cuts right through the middle of the city!) It took us three hours to get there by bus, then we stayed for about three hours, and then rode three hours back to Granada. I thought about staying for the whole weekend, but in the end it was not worth the effort and euros. On the way home, I mentioned to Jorge (our trip director) that when we arrived in Spain we never went through any sort of customs or passport control, and then he seriously talked to me for 40 minutes about why Europe is different from the United States. As an example, he cited the first time he came to the States in 1980 and had to drive 20 minutes to get an ice cream. He´s quite the Chatty Cathy, and I still don´t understand why I never got a stamp in my passport.

As for my classes, they are pretty good. Right now I am taking a grammar class and a Spanish culture class, and the professors are both really funny and interesting. In the culture class we just finished learning about bullfights and now we're on Flamenco, so all the info is really useful for living in Spain. But these classes end on the 11th. I have some work to get done before then including a 10 page paper and 20 minute oral presentation on the Spanish education system. Speaking of which, yesterday Kiersten and I spent an hour trying to find the public library. We asked several people where it was, and no one seemed to know. Not surprisingly, it turned out to be the ugliest industrial-looking building amid an entire neighborhood of historic churches. All the people working there wore white lab coats and it was filled with row after row of what appeared to be the same encyclopedia. I felt like I was in some psychological horror film. I asked a librarian if they had WiFi, and she said no and directed me to the public internet computers. There were seriously 6 of them and you had to sign up in 5 minute intervals. It was pretty frustrating.

Last night I went to my first Spanish club. It was €10 just to get in and it didn´t get crowded until almost 3am. I don´t know how these Spanish kids do it...

There´s a bullfight today in Granada and some friends and I got tickets. Jorge told me to bring a towel instead of tissues because that´s how much I´m going to cry. He told me there are three things he doesn´t approve of and holds them in equal regard: Spanish bullfights, English fox hunting, and American boxing. (This was all during the 40 minute talk on the bus back from Ronda.) Then he said I will probably leave after the first half-hour screaming and crying. Sounds pretty dramatic... Actually, I have yet to meet a Spaniard who enjoys or even approves of the bullfights. We´ll see how it goes.

In other news, I saw The Office season premiere. I give it a B+.