This morning Whitney and I walked to the University of Granada Campus and located the “oficina de deportes” (office of sports). I was able to speak with Jordi, the swim coach. I told him I was looking for a team to practice with while I am in Spain. Thankfully, he spoke English and was very nice. He said I am welcome to come try it out, so when we return from Italy I am going to practice with them on Monday. Hopefully this will work out well because it would be very difficult to go four months without swimming before summer league starts.
Orientation classes ended yesterday and our level test was this afternoon from four to about six thirty. I was not too concerned about this test because I placed comfortably into the Language and Culture Program (level 2A) from the placement test at the beginning of orientation. I would have had to move up two levels to 3B to place in the highest program Estudios Hispanicos. Susana (grammar lady) had told our class that moving up one level was very difficult, but two would be impossible. Well, I definitely tested into Estudios Hispanicos. Now I have to choose four classes, instead of three, from a better selection of courses. The main difference between the two programs, besides being slightly more advanced and having more class choices, is that I only have a required composition class instead of a required composition and grammar class. I was very surprised at my results of the test since I did not feel like I learned that much during orientation and I definitely did not even consider studying for the exam. Oh well, I am still pretty excited about it; this means I must be better at Spanish than I think. At the very least I am gaining more confidence and initiating more conversations. I was able to have a fairly intelligent conversation with “mi familia” at dinner tonight.
We are leaving in a private bus at 8:30am tomorrow morning for about a 5-6 hour drive to Madrid. Right after arriving in Madrid we will go to the Museo Prado, which has many works by El Greco, Velazquez, and Goya. This means I will get to see in person many of the paintings I have studied in previous Art History classes. (Even more in Rome!) Sunday we are going to the Teatro Munoz Seca to see thhe play “La duquesa al hoy y la viuda al bollo;” Veronica, our program director, said it is a comedy. Monday we will see the Palacio Real, where the Royal Family lives. Then Mitch, Whitney, Cassandra, and I are on our own for another night in Madrid and fly to Rome Tuesday afternoon.
I am so unbelievably excited to go to Rome; I have always wanted to visit Italy. I can’t wait to go to the Vatican museums, the Sistine Chapel, the Coliseum, and see my favorite piece of art (ever!), Michelangelo’s Pieta. We will be there until Saturday when we fly back to Madrid. Then we will visit Toledo and catch a bus back to Granada on Sunday. Classes for the semester will start Wednesday, February 11th. Not a bad way to spend the break, huh?
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