Tuesday, March 12, 2013

I was told to expect colder weather today, but it was about the same. I arrived at school about ten minutes before class and when I got to the classroom, I was the only one there. The next person arrived just before 9:30 and the teacher and a couple of others arrived a few minutes later. At least three others arrived between 30-45 minutes late. I guess they must have attended some of the late night cultural activities! One student is new today because she overslept the day before. She is from Switzerland.

The first teacher, Diego, grills us unmercifully about what we did the day before because, after all, we are practicing the past tense. He breaks into little songs that he makes up about things people have done and it is just hilarious. He makes me laugh out loud. The afternoon teacher is very sharp; she is always tuned in to what is going on in the room (we can't get anything by her!)  and uses various interesting activities to get us all involved.

After class, I headed back to my apartment to get rid of my books and have some lunch. My plan for the afternoon was to head back to Las Arenas (the bullfight ring which is now a shopping center) to see the stores when they are open and to see if they are my kind of stores. I started at the bottom and worked my way up. The stores are high end and mostly appeal (IMHO) to the younger crowd. It surprised me that there is a supermarket in the lower level and I bought some hand lotion and hair conditioner there, items that I did not bring along. That is one drawback to living in an apartment. Some of the things we take for granted when staying in hotels are, of course, not provided. I was warned to bring my own towel and I have bought other things like paper towels, toilet paper, and laundry soap.

I wish my apartment came with some instructions. For example, I had to google instructions on settings for the washing machine and I could not figure out how to turn on the television. Doesn't that seem like an easy thing? I was talking to the young man at the school about it and he told me I had to turn on the cable box too. I tried to explain to him that I was not able to power on the television. I decided that I would figure it out and discovered that I needed to press the power button AND a button labeled program on the TV and, of course, power on the cable box. It was lucky that I figured this out because there was  a big futbol game on, playoffs of some sort, with Barcelona against Milan. The game started about 8:30pm and I confess that I did not really follow it. I could tell when something exciting happened because a man upstairs yelled loudly and I would hear fireworks from outside.  I went to bed before it ended and found out this morning that Barcelona had an "epic" comeback and won the game. I am sure there will be a lot of excitement for the next game.

Well, I did not mark my homework very well for tomorrow, so I am not sure what it is. If I don't have it done, I will just have to wing it. I feel like a real student!