Thursday

Today I had my conversation and grammar classes. I really enjoyed them today, because we did a lot of talking about things I was actually interested in like American perceptions of Spain, the American education system, and whether or not bull ring spectacles should continue. Though I often mess up verb tenses, I feel like I am improving a lot. I am really good at reading, writing, and doing written exercises, but when speaking, I butcher all the verbs.
It is rainy today. This is the first day I have seen rain on the island. The clouds behind and above the mountains looked amazing earlier. It is also very cold and all in all, not a very pretty day.
I do not have any classes until Monday! I am so excited for this time to rest and explore Palma more. I do have a lot of grammar homework, though.  The classes her are so laid back. I am not in my semester long courses yet, but I can tell it is ridiculously laid back and easy going. Both of my professors were more than 15 minutes late today and never said a word about it. Also, we are all trying to figure out what classes to take. The two I picked out overlapped by about an hour. Well, I talked to Juan Miguel about it, because one of the classes I want to take is one of the classes he teaches and recommends for us to take. His class will be Mondays from 11-1pm and Tuesdays from noon-2pm. The other class I want to take, Women in Spanish Literature, is Mondays 1pm-2pm and Tuesdays 1pm-3pm. Obviously on Tuesdays I can't be in both classes from 1-2pm. So, I asked him about it and without hesitation, he said I could leave his class an hour early every Tuesday to go to my other class. I told him that is really weird but sounds good to me! I love the style of school here. A lot of it is independent learning, and the professors have been wonderful so far. I am actually excited to start my real classes in 2 weeks.
My friends from Vandy are going to hike in the mountains this weekend, but the pain behind my knee hurts too much and is keeping me from going with them. I don't know if I would last that long anyway due to my lungs and lack of strong muscles, though. I have nothing to do until Monday, so I think I'll relax, sleep a lot, and perhaps do some shopping. I want to get another pair of jeans (I only brought 4) and some undershirts/tank top to layer under my other clothes. I want to hit up Zara tomorrow for sure and maybe H&M again.
Tonight my host family is having some of their family over for dinner like they do every Thursday, so I am excited to get to meet new people. Hopefully everything will go well! My host mom, Carme, just brought me an adapter so that I can plug 2 things in at once (heater and computer), and I plugged my computer into it and sparks flew everywhere.. so I will continue alternating them when my computer battery dies haha.

Hasta luego!
-Lynne (or Leena, as my grammar teacher says)