I officially like Tuesdays. They are amazing. You know why? Because I don't have class until 6:20pm. I get to sleep in and enjoy the day leisurely without having to worry about getting to class. (It also gives me more time to finish my homework! ;) ) I got up at 12:00pm and ate breakfast. I then proceeded to do very little. Yaaaaay!!
I did work on a little homework (I needed to read the first part of Lazarillo de Tormes), so I was kind of productive. I mostly just hung out in the living room watching TV with my "mom" and "grandparents" and chatted with them. I did learn something though... My understanding of fast speaking Spanish speakers has definitely improved! At some point, one of their friends came up and visited for awhile. This was someone I'd never met before and wasn't used to the way she talked. But I understood most of what they were talking about! I was very proud of myself. OH! And we did watch a little bit of a Bones episode in Spanish! It's still funny in Spanish :) But, oh man, they all sound different with the voiced dubbed over. Maybe that's why it seemed funny to me... Hahaha...
Each time I watch TV or listen to conversations, I just have to laugh to myself. I never realized before how big Spaniards are on gossip. They gossip all. the. time. It's really funny. Most of the TV shows are talk shows where they talk about what someone has been doing, most of the conversations I hear are about what's going on with people they know... Not that doesn't happen in the U.S., but this is more exaggerated. For those of you who know me, I can't keep a straight face to save my life, so trying not to laugh out loud is really hard for me. The other thing I've noticed is that my "mom" talks to my "brother" every day. She calls him, asks how he is and then the very next question she asks is, "Have you eaten? What did you eat?" I have to be really really really careful not to laugh at that. Maybe it's just a custom here, but that's not something you would necessarily hear in the U.S. Except maybe from a grandparent ;)
At 5:30pm I caught the bus to go to the Fundación for class. It was my Service Learning class. I actually really enjoy sitting in that class. The professor is really nice and funny and I have friends in that class (not that I don't in others, but the combination of everything makes the class enjoyable). This time we talked about immigrants in Spain. More specifically, a group of immigrants that sell stolen items on the street. The group is called "Top Manta". Yuki, our professor, didn't know where the "top" part came from, but "manta" means blanket in Spanish. The idea being that these people spread out the blanket on the ground to sell their items, and if they see the police coming, they literally wrap everything up in the blanket and run. The laws have changed regarding the punishment for doing this. Before September 2010, they could get between 6 months and 2 years in jail and a fine. If they couldn't pay the fine, they could get another 6 months in jail. Now, if they have sold less than 400€ worth of items, then they just get a fine. If they've sold more than that, then they can get jail time. This class session was really interesting. I'd post video of the "Top Manta", but all of the ones I can find are in Spanish. If you are interested, just type "Top Manta Spain" into Youtube and you can find examples of these people.
After class, I came back and ran into my "parents" on the street. They were going out for a little bit and had left my "sister" and me dinner. They also told me to remind her that there was a new series on channel 5 (Telecinco it's called) starting at 10:30pm called Homicidios (I bet you can guess what that is in English!! Homicides!). Belén (my "sister") was on the computer when I walked in the door, but soon we both sat down and ate dinner. We watched Spongebob while we ate. In Spanish. It was definitely very different for me. I don't normally like Spongebob, even in English! But it was fun. :)
After dinner, I talked to a few friends on Skype (IMing only, no video chat) and watched the new episode of Vampire Diaries. OH. MY. GOD!!!!! Sooooooo intense. I don't know why I didn't start watching that show earlier. Thank you to Kristy, Kali and Alison for convincing me I needed to watch it! Though it's not quite the same watching it in a country with none of my friends and where no one can understand what's going on anyway... So I'm sitting there, squealing, yelling (quietly), gasping, making all sorts of sounds while watching this episode... and no one can understand why. Even if they could, explaining what is going on is nearly impossible without having watched any of the previous episodes. Oh well!! At least I still get to watch them! I'll just have to talk to Kristy, Kali and Alison via Skype afterwards! :)
After I finished the new Vamp Diaries episode, I meant to read more from my book, but I fell asleep for a little bit. At 11:30 I jolted awake. My "sister" came in and turned on the TV. We'd both forgotten (or slept through) the first half of the new series. So we watched the second half instead. It was good! Though a lot of the action scenes are kind of silly (at least for me), the plot line wasn't bad. Just before the end, my "parents" came home and watched the end with us. After the show ended, my "sister" went to bed and my "mom" and I stayed up talking (with the TV on in the background). We talked a lot about differences between here and the U.S. She asked about our meals and eating habits. When I told her that our biggest meal is dinner and not lunch, she said, "Your customs are very strange." Or something to that effect. We talked about how I eat at school and she told me that I need to eat breakfast and a bigger lunch and lighter at dinner. She's really funny... she's trying to get my to eat like a Spaniard even once I'm home. And you know what? I would, but I have to work with the cafeteria hours... I'd eat a light dinner at 8:30pm if the cafeteria would let me. We also talked about cost of universities and such. Here, there is no such thing as "In-state tuition", so trying to find a way to explain it and in Spanish was interesting. And also how "in-state tuition" doesn't apply to private schools, only public ones. It's also hard talking about costs because in the U.S. we are using dollars, not euros. I don't know how to explain how much $150 is in euros. So I do the best I can. It was a really interesting conversation. I like staying up and talking to my "mom". It's almost like what I do at home with my (actual) mom. It might not be about gossip about friends of mine, but it's the Spain equivalent, I think. It makes me miss home sometimes. But I know I can't dwell on missing home because it's going to be December before I know it and I will be missing Spain. I need to enjoy everything I can while I'm here and not focus on missing things at home. :)
We hit a natural stopping point in our conversation and I checked my phone to see what time it was, and I realized it was already 1:00am! I needed to go sleep!! So off I went so I'd be awake for my class the next morning.
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