My first day of electives

Right now, I am on a break from my classes. Around noon I have over an hour to sit and relax between my Art class and Latin American History class. It is a nice time to have a break but I am not really up for going outside because ever since yesterday it has been raining. Rain here, is very rare, and when it comes, it comes for a long time without end. I think it should stop by Wednsday, that is my hope (and the forecast). We need rain so that we can drink more water out of the tap and take longer showers. I can´t wait to see how green everything will be next week. This weekend I took a trip to Cordoba but alas, I forgot my camera. I will get pictures from my classmates or my roommate eventually, but for now I have a picture Jess sent me of the two of us together. It was really amazing to see her this weekend because we are both sort of having similar challenges, what with being the outcast liberal art students and wanting to not do things in large groups of Americans and just having a hard time with other people not relating to us. She is going to visit me next weekend while my roommate is in Barcelona. I asked Victoria if this would be alright and she is very excited to have one of my friends around for the weekend.

My first class today was Literatura Español with a professor named Antonio. He is very guapo like Antonio Banderes although I have the notion that he is also very much like Jack from Will and Grace. Nonetheless, we hit it off right away. The next professor I have is for Art and her name is Christina. She also was the woman who gave us our tour of the Alcazaba and she remembered me right away. I am thrilled to have her as a teacher. She came in today wearing an Orange sweater, orange glasses, stripped knee-highs, horse-back riding boots and brown shorts. She is very petite and stylish with curly hair like Mimi from Rent. I think that these teachers will find ways to keep things engaging for me, right away they asked me about my tastes and looked very thoughtful as I began explaining.

Also, I have begun a translation project with Victoria because she has never had her poetry translated into english. She is widely read here, especially in honors level high school classes. After I read all of her work I am going to attempt a few translations and she is going to guide me, as she is also an English teacher. Our challenge together is going to be the change from Spanish, to her conception of English from London to my American and hopefully, very expressive English. Eventually, maybe I can post the work I do with her translations on this blog.

I am thrilled that there are people reading this besides Katie, I feel like I am learning a lot here and am trying to summarize these struggles and concerns here to organize them for myself and also to show what happens when someone like me goes abroad for the first time-- what to expect maybe.

Anyhow, I am going to quit hogging the computer. ¡Hasta luego!

xoxoxoxox

Mamie