mi casa es su casa (only not really because we can't have people over...)

Well, my first full week of classes are over... and those 4 days FLEW by! If every week is like that, then my 4 months here are going to be gone in a flash.

Every Monday and Wednesday I have Hispanic Literature from 2:30-3:45. We've already read "El Poema de Mio Cid", and thankfully our professor went through it with us thoroughly to make sure we understood it... I hope she does that with everything we read! That class is the only one I have that is taught in 100% Spanish.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have History of Western Art at 11:00, Introduction to Music at 2:30, and Ethics right afterwords at 4:00. So far (with the exception of Ethics) all of my classes seem pretty interesting. On Fridays I don't have ANY classes. Three-day weekends will be great, especially with the traveling I want to do while I'm here!

The walk to school is about a mile (alllllll up hill) and it takes us about 15 minutes to get there. Considering at home I drive to my friends' houses who live in the same neighborhood as me, this walk is NOT my favorite part about this whole experience :)

Our apartment is much bigger than I expected it to be. It's homey, and is decorated with the most random assortment of furniture, pictures and memorabilia ever. This is what you see right when you walk into our "piso"... my room is on the right (with the nasty light switch)



This is my desk area (which is right inside the door). This picture was taken last week, so it looks kind of different now.



Here's my bed! That's the heater right next to it... they turn it off for the night, but when it kicks back on in the morning it gets sooooo hot! Figment and Jellaman don't stay there all the time, haha, I just decided they needed to be in the picture :)


This is our living area (and my roommate Chloe! haha). There's a TV but we NEVER watch it. We get about 5 channels.



And finally our kitchen... ughhhh. I have to cook for myself here- so obviously I haven't been eating the greatest meals! If anybody knows any super easy recipes shoot them my way!

Right now I'm pretty much out of food. I ran out of cereal the other day, which was my go to meal! The whole cooking situation is going to probably be the hardest thing to get used to here. Yesterday I was making myself lunch and I felt like Amy Adams in "Julie & Julia". Only instead of making boeuf bourguignon or lobster bisque, I was making scrambled eggs in the microwave and toast on the stove... depressing.





Another aspect of our kitchen that is new to me, is washing dishes by hand. We have no dishwasher. :( At home, I definitely take that for granted! And even if I leave a plate sitting around the kitchen, it MAGICALLY disappears... that's not the case here. I have to wash every single thing I use as I go along. yikes.

But on a more exciting note, I have some trips planned! Two of my roommates and I are going to Amsterdam in April, and we're also traveling over a Winter Break that we have coming up in February. We have flights booked to Paris, and are wanting to go somewhere else during that time also. Today we found a relatively inexpensive way to get to Germany (Dusseldorf) from Paris by bus. Hopefully we get those tickets today! We have a pretty long break for Easter and are trying to figure out what to do during that time... Maybe Italy? I've been there before but never to Rome, so I'm hoping that works out!