Bob Esponja

Today was the first day of class! To carry on the tradition of my mom taking a picture every year on the first day of school, I had my roommate take one of me in front of the door to our apartment:

I am taking two classes. One is from 9:00am-11:30am, and it’s called “España y la Unión Europea” (Spain and the European Union). I LOVE my teacher for this class. I was relieved to find out that I can understand at least 98% of what she says. And she seems very approachable and helpful. After the morning class, we have a break until 12:00. Then our second class is 12:00-2:30, when I take the one called “Traducción” (Translation). So far, this class kinda scares me. Which is backwards from what I expected, since normally I would be more comfortable with a class like that rather than one about government and politics and history (like my European Union class). But my teacher in this class is REALLY difficult to understand, which I find ironic since she’s supposed to be the one who teaches us techniques on translating. After this class, (at 2:30 in the afternoon) we go home to eat lunch.

The walk from the Universidad to our apartment is about 10 minutes. I took some pictures of what some of the streets and buildings look like between home and school. My roommate, Kaitlin, and I took the scenic route on the way back from school today to take some pictures of the historical sites and the everyday things we see around here. Here is a preview (the rest of them will be posted to facebook, of course):

According to the teachers, this is the most important and most beautiful building at the Universidad de Alcalá. (It's much bigger than just this view, but I couldn't the whole thing in one pic)

A pretty typical sidewalk in Alcalá.

One of the many beautiful doors around here. I'm starting a collection of pictures of the interesting doors (and windows, and balconies, and buildings in general!)

Today we also met Madre Carmen’s grandson, Javier. He was really cute! I’m guessing he’s about 4 years old. He had a book about “Bob esponja” (literally, Bob Sponge. But you may know him as Spongebob). We could hear him talking when we were in our rooms, and he was talking a lot, but when we went into the kitchen to meet him, he got really quiet and shy. Haha but he did tell us the names of the characters on his book, one of them being Bob Esponja.

We also decided to try the “Chocolatería y Churrería” down the street from our apartment. Basically you choose either coffee or melted chocolate to dip some churros into. The old man who served us was really sweet! He thought we were French rather than American though. When we told him we were American and he asked me if I wanted my milk hot or cold in my coffee (didn’t know that would be a choice). I said “caliente” (hot), and he said “Hablas inglés también?” (Do you speak English too?) and I said “Sí.” And he asked me how to say “caliente” in English. I said “hot.” Then later when our churros were ready, he gave them to us and told me, in English, “Hot.” He was so cute! I got to give him a little English lesson! I definitely want to go back there (and next time I’ll try the cup of chocolate for my churros! But the coffee was a good choice for today). So that was our first public experience of the Spanish food/culture, since every other meal we have eaten solely at our apartment with “Madre Carmen.” We plan on trying other authentic Spanish food at cafés and “restaurantes” (I’m assuming that word doesn’t need a translation… haha). So here’s a picture of me drinking my “café con leche caliente” (coffee with hot milk):

(This is also probably the reason I'm still awake right now. It's almost 1:00am, España time.) Also, notice how the cup I'm drinking from is more like a glass than a mug--no handle or anything. 

And a picture of what the churros looked like: 

 Mmmmm... delicioso.

Okay, that is all for now. It was a good day, but a long one. Ready for day 2 of class tomorrow, then a 3-day weekend! Adios.