Class?? What??!!

Let me start this entry off by stating that today (the day that I am writing this) is February 1st, therefore the beginning of the greatest month of the year! Ohhh yeah, my 21st birthday is coming soon and I therefore foresee and excellent, excellent month. My birthday falls on the Thursday before UofM's spring break, so that will be a day to celebrate, and then a lot of people's families/boyfriends are coming to visit. Aaaaand it's a long weekend for Dia de Andalucia (four days, what what!). So bottom line is, I have a big birthday to celebrate, but my weekend has been looking pretty sad since everyone is going to be preoccupied. Henceforth, Courtney and I have been planning a little excursion out to Portugal that weekend, how fun is that?? Hells yeah, it'll be a pretty great weekend. Wooo! I'm turning 21!!!
Well, that being said, let me talk about this past Monday. It was my first day of class. Class you say? Yes, class. It's weird that school hadn't really started for me yet. Actually, it still hasn't because classes in the Center start this week, but classes at the University don't start till next weekend, and some not even until the following week. So basically I've had only 3 days of classes for a little more than an hour a day. So I guess it doesn't really count. Woke up around 9:30 on Monday, tired regardless of getting a little more than eight hours (Madrid recovery still not complete), made perfect toast, and headed down on a cold morning to the Center with Stacey for our first class: La Literatura espanola actual (contemporary spanish lit.) from 11-12:30. Class was really good, my profesora's name is Pilar, a short, cute, high-voiced, middle-aged woman. She's very enthusiastic, speaks pretty clearly, and isn't afraid to speak her mind. The course is going to be really great because it studies Spanish literature in conjunction with history from the Spanish Civil War and on. It's great, she's a pretty extreme leftist so she gets really passionate about speaking out against the Franco dictatorship and whatnot. The reading list is pretty standard: 3 novels, 3 plays, 3 poetry units, and 3 movies throughout the entire semester intermixed with history and geography lessons. Good, this is the kind of cultural/historical overview that I need because my Spanish (in terms of the country) knowledge is quite sparse. We were assigned a novel to finish by the following Wednesday called La familia de Pascual Duarte. I was also pretty lightheaded during class cuz I had been sucking on a ColdEez (which, luckily, I found in my raincoat pocket) because I woke up with a scratchy throat and I was afraid that I was getting sick again. Everyone else here is getting sick, and I thought that they had caught what I had already had. Apparently not. So I decided to really fight this one unlike the first one. After class we walked back, stopped at a couple bookstores and school supply stores in los Remedios so Stacey could buy some things (I didn't have enough money with me at the time). We returned for lunch, which of course was delicious. It was some sort of marinated chicken legs which were incredible, and I usually don't like to eat just plain chicken, especially off of the bone. The marinade was sooooo good and flavorful, I dipped bread in it like it was my job. The chicken was followed by a basic salad which was good, but nothing in comparison to Sunday's dinner's. Then fruit was served, and I went straight for the largest orange that I could find because I needed some major vitamin C since I had declared war on this impending cold. It has been so cold here that we eat all of our meals now at the table over the space heater, and after meals I just sit there and don't want to do anything. We sat over the space heater, me, Stacey, Maria, and Marta for awhile watching TV. Stacey took a short siesta there on one of the lounge chairs, and I had my first political conversation in Spanish! Marta, Maria, and I discussed the Israel-Palestine conflict. It's interesting, when discussing issues that you're passionate about, you find that it's easier to express yourself in Spanish and that it flows better. Does that sentence make any sense? But yeah, it was one of the more free-flowing conversations that I've had since coming here. Stacey woke up around 4ish, she had her first grammar/composition class at the center from 5-6:30. I decided to go with her because, well, I really like hanging out at the center, and it's much easier to work on my blogs there since the keyboards there have spanish accents and consonants, and the euro symbol! Hehe. On the way we gave into our sweet tooth and got pastries from a local bakery in los Remedios. OK, so I never crave sweets, but since I've come here, I've had an insatiable craving for sugar (Stacey, too). I've been pondering this, and have come to a conclusion. Here, our diet is high in oils, fats, and proteins, but very low in sugar and carbohydrates. We're basically on Atkins here because we get a small slice of a roll (about the size of the palm of my hand) at every meal. Every now and again we'll get some rice or something, but that's pretty rare. In the states, especially being a vegetarian, my body is used to ingesting a lot of carbs and therefore sugars. So, my body craves sugar because it's having withdrawals! I think that I've solved the puzzle. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I've never craved sweets until I got here. Crazy. But I digress. Stacey got the lemony elephant ear that she got last time, and I asked the man behind the counter what he recommended and he cut me a slice of some sort of spiced sponge cake. It was DELICIOUS. Very light, not too sweet, airy, and satisfying. Mmmmm. At the center I spent the full hour and a half of Stacey's class blogging, no joke. This thing is going to be the death of me. After that we headed into the center of Santa Cruz to run errands. We went to Corte Ingles so Stacey could buy batteries (which proved to be quite a feat...the word for battery is "fila" not "bateria" so we've learned), and so I could re-charge my phone and see if they sold/repaired Nikons (they don't, boo). After Corte Ingles we stopped at a couple stores, since it's inevitable due to Corte Ingles' central shopping district location. We also stopped at a farmacia so I coul buy floss (I dropped my previous pack in the toilet the previous week...), and some echinacea (the war is on!). Then we walked back. As we got to our street, we decided to take up Evan's Spanish advice and get some dessert coffee at Caffe Roma. Stacey got a chocolate caliente con leche condensada y nata (basically creamy milk chocolate in a cup), and I got the same, minus the milk and cream, plus mint. Both of our drinks were good, but not nearly as good as the ones that we had at Cafe Indias...I think that the chocolate here was made more from cocoa powder than from actual chocolate. After that we returned home, bummed around, ate dinner around the heater which was great as always: some green vegetable sauteed with carrots and beans, and those spam-like ham cake things wrapped in bacon (which I'm actually not a huge fan of, honestly, but I eat it anyways due to Spanish etiquette), and another huge orange for dessert. After dinner we all watched an awesome episode of "C.S.I. Miami" (I loooove that show now!), and was ready for bed by 11. I was soooo tired, combatting the damned cold, and determined to get a full night's sleep. I took a melatonin and passed out around midnight. Fantastic.