It Seems I'm Never in School...and I Made the Local Paper!

So today marks the end of my first week of classes. All is well, but unfortunately, it looks like one of my classes is going to get cancelled because only 3 people are in it. No worries, though; my friend and I are resourceful and charming, so I have no doubt in our ability to talk our way into a second class in the University.

However, academic classes are not the ONLY classes I am taking this semester. Tomorrow, I begin cooking classes, tomorrow's focus being on Cordobesa cuisine (or food specific to Córdoba), and Tuesday was the first day of dance classes! While we aren't learning flamenco because the technique is too difficult to master in the short time that we are here, we are learning sevillanas, a flamenco-style dance specific to Sevilla (Seville) and popular throughout Andalusia.

All in all, it's been a very busy week, and I've been trying to get a routine down with eating, sleeping, classes, naps, café time, etc. but I'm still struggling a little. And what DOESN'T help my inability to get down a routine (although I'm not REALLY complaining about it)??? We don't have classes this Monday because it's the Day of Andalusia! I'm telling you; Spaniards celebrate EVERY holiday possible in order to take a day off of work and school. It would be like Californians celebrating the Day of California, which would inevitably result in a state-wide closing of work places and schools. I mean don't get me wrong; I love 4 day weekends just as much as the next college student (or person for that matter), but that just means the creation of a set daily schedule/routine has been postponed for yet another week.

And what am I going to do this four day weekend you might ask? I have no idea. It's supposed to rain everywhere in Spain this weekend, I don't want to go to the Canary Islands or the Baleares for fear of getting stuck on an island in a tropical storm off the coast of a continent that is not my home, and I have some homework I should really do. However, I just received an invitation to spend the weekend with my friend and her host mother at her sister's house in a small pueblo just outside of Córdoba, so maybe I'll do that. It sounds kind of relaxing, no?

So with all of this said, I will leave you with one last fun fact about what's been going on in my life in Córdoba thus far: I have made the newspaper! That's right, folks! One week in Córdoba and yours truly has made the local paper (El Día de Córdoba) already. I'm in the group picture (yep, smack in the center of the first row...which my host mother found hysterical), and although we all took pictures with the director of the program at la Universidad, my picture was hand-chosen to be the only student-director photo. So here ya go, and I will be posting again sooner than later.