ANOTHER DOWN! and Hell Week begins...

Woke up to my alarm this morning at 11. Hell week had begun. I had an exam today, I have one Wednesday, one Friday, then my last one a week from today. Oof. Here goes! I got ready and walked over to Starbucks and studied the rest of my notecards, pounding Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, and Barroque art into my head as best as possible. This hot, business guy (of about 30) sat across from me in my direct vision and we kept exchanging looks for a good hour and a half as I studied and he made business calls. Finally he walked over to me and struck up a conversation. He asked if I was staying in Sevilla, and I said that I'd be leaving in about a week. Damn. He looked disappointed. He asked if I was German, I said no, then Irish, no...I told him American. I usually get confused for German, Irish, or English here, but never American. How funny is that? I like that better than being seen as American, I must honestly say. He then said that he would have wanted me to come work for a new real estate agency he was starting. Somehow I feel like that was his excuse to come talk to me, but how funny is that--I got offered a job at a real estate agency in Sevilla. Haha. We actually had a very coherent conversation and we understood each other really well; it's actually one of the first Spanish conversations that I've had here that has completely flowed as if I was fluent. Am I fluent? No. But I feel like I'm almost there. Wow. Mission accomplished, people! At 2:20 I left for lunch. Lunch was ridiculous. It was delicious, but I've never eaten more food in my life. It was almost painful. She made that veggie hash and egg and chorizo dish that I love, but since it was just Maruja and me eating, she made a lot. So I had a plateful of that. Then, right as I began to dig in, Maruja gave me some leftover pasta from Saturday's lunch. She told me to put it in the hash dish because it had tomato sauce in it so it would taste better that way. So I literally had a mountain of potatoes, green beans, chorizo, egg, tomato sauce, penne, and ground beef on my plate. And I ate it all. Then we had croquetas, and I had to eat six of them. I felt like a heifer. Then we both got two slices of watermelon each for dessert. This, people, is why I've put on weight here. But seriously, I've never eaten so much. Holy crap. I could barely walk. I did a little bit of studying after dinner, then walked to the center where I glanced over my notes a bit more before heading to the University for my Historia del Arte exam. Before leaving Maruja and her daughter and granddaughter (they're Julia and Elena's host family) walked in to meet with Luisa (probably to get a paycheck). Hehe, it was so funny to see Maruja in "my territory"! She wished me luck on my exam. I took that as a good omen. Then I was off. It was so hot out, by the way. Like, holy shit hot out. Walking to the University was kind of strange since I hadn't been there in almost two weeks. How weird! I was early, so I waited outside of the consejeria (secretary office, basically) waiting for my prof. to show up and looking over my notes. Our plan was to meet at the consejeria at 5 and find an open room (I was the only person in my class taking the exam early). He showed, and we walked down the hall to a room. It was kind of awkward, being just him and me. The exam was quick and easy, just what I had expected: he showed me five slides and I had to identify what art period they were from and why (according to the attributes). He showed a slide of Egyptian pyramids, an ancient Greek temple, the Mezquita (mosque) of Cordoba, a Romanesque cathedral door, and a Gothic painting. And they were all images straight out of my text book. Although my writing wasn't top notch (I wasn't using a dictionary), I am sure, without a doubt, that I passed. No doubt. Feels good. I finished the exam at a little after 6. I thanked him for a great semester which was pretty awkward since I kind of stuttered and fell over my words. Oops. But he understood. I told him that I really, truly enjoyed his class and that I learned a lot. I really did! I am so proud of myself about this class. Thinking back to how I was in that class at the beginning of the semester--how I couldn't understand a word he said and didn't know how in hell I would pass the final. Turns out I actually enjoyed the class and learned a lot! Who knew? And the exam was no problem at all. I am so proud. That just shows my progress, for sure. Triumphantly, I walked back to the center where I bummed around mindlessly online until the center closed at 7. Then Melissa and I walked back to los Remedios. I went to Starbucks to read Lope (it's hell week, one exam down, and onto another), then Melissa met up with me and we studied together until 9:20. I walked home for dinner, not hungry at all being that I was still full from lunch. Stacey showed up at around 9:35 from her history exam that was at 7. She was so worried about it because she didn't know anything from class--she literally had to cram everything that she could before the exam. She thinks that she passed, she actually sounded kind of confident. Whatever, she definitely passed. She was quite satisfied. Then we had dinner: cream of corn soup of some sort, then hot dogs (3 each...oy) without buns, and pureed potatoes on the side. Eh, whatever. Then we had honeydew for dessert which was delicious and so sweet. Oh man, I was so stuffed after dinner because I was stuffed going into dinner! Afterwards I sat down in front of the laptop for a good hour and blogged like it's my job. And here I am finishing up. I've either been studying or bumming around, so the blog has taken a backseat lately. But now we're all caught up. Yay! My next plan of action: go to the living room, watch some "Mira quien baila" whilst typing up the rest of my Iconografia notes. Then go to sleep as early as I can cuz I have a hot study date with Courtney tomorrow. Woooooo. And hence, hell week continues.