Real life beginning. Location: Madrid

Big news: I finally have a schedule! Hurray! Today I went to the class I was hoping to switch into since the hours and workload of psychopathology just don't seem worth it. The class is called "Psychology, Culture and Society," but it's really more of a psychology and art class (visual art and music). The professor is suuuper chill and as such, a bit difficult to understand. After introducing the course to us today, he said he had 3 things to tell us about himself

1. He swears a lot. Which, I did indeed find is true throughout the class. I should start counting the number of times he says "joder." (I'll leave you to look that up at your own risk)
2. He is a bit pedantic. 
3. He is very narsissistic. But, evidently, self-aware.

I think this is going to be a much better fit for me, as he is understanding and the class will be much more conversation-based than memorization-based. There are a few other Americans in the class, although they are none from my program. When we all ambushed him at the end of class to introduce ourselves, he mentioned that it would be no problem if we want to turn in papers in English, French, Italian... whatever. Everyone else seemed thrilled with that and while I'm happy to hear he is so understanding, in no way am I planning on doing anything in English at UAM. Regardless, I'm excited that I won't spend this semester sick from lack of sleep or overwhelmed by how much time I'm spending at the university. A friend of one of the students who works for the program is in the class too and already offered to be my study abroad "godmother" and help me know what's going on.

Yesterday, my sociology class started too, although it doesn't really start until next week because the professor wants to wait until students finish exams from last semester. He is also very understanding, as he is familiar with the program and there are 3 of us in that class. He honestly seems more tickled than anything else that we're there and practicing Spanish. When we first met, he outright told me that my Spanish was great, chuckling all the while, and then looked at my friend Lucas who is also taking his class and said, "you, not so much." Oh, the classic Spanish directness. At least I fit in well here.

Last night, I took my first dance class. The studio I'm going to is called "El Horno" and it's enormous, with like 12 different spaces and a huuuuge variety of classes (from Salsa to Belly Dancing to Ballet to Bollywood...). I liked the hip hop class I took a lot and it was so great to get back into it. The teacher told me after class to come to the higher level tonight because she thinks I'll enjoy it more, so I'm going to go check it out. Luckily, I like her style a lot, which was a concern of mine... particularly when the Spanish often call hip-hop "funky" or "sexy style."

It feels a lot better to have my life a little more organized. My host family continues to be great... they're very excited for Hal to visit in 2 weeks and my host mom keeps asking me what kind of food she should make him and what not. She bought him some special canned fish because I had mentioned he likes that kind of stuff and keeps reiterating that he is her guest too. Much like my host grandmother, who, upon hearing about Hal's host mother's custom of not wearing a shirt sometimes in the house, said she would welcome Hal with "brazos abiertos y tetas tapadas" (open arms and covered tits).

Okay, I'm off to my second dance class now. I'll post about this past weekend in Segovia with pictures sometime tonight or tomorrow.

xoxo
Anj