La vida diaria (daily life)

Even though I am not incredibly busy here, I've definitely been doing enough stuff to keep me busy and satisfied. Classes are going well, and I am loving the fact that Spanish professors don't give out much homework! =) I'm continuing to improve my Spanish skills (very slowly, but surely!), and I've got an intercambio that I meet up with once a week to chat. An intercambio is a language exchange where one person is a Spanish-speaker learning English, and the other is an English-speaker learning Spanish, and you talk in one language for half an hour, and the other for the other half hour. I actually don't really like my intercambio very much because he is significantly older than I am and we don't have very much to talk about. He also isn't much of a conversationalist, and talking to him is kind of like pulling teeth! I'm considering trying to drop the intercambio since it doesn't really benefit me that much (I would be speaking Spanish anyway!), but I'm not sure how that would work. We'll see!

Another activity that I just started last week was volunteering at a local colegio (primary school) called Colegio Carmelo. I help out in the English classes there, which I really enjoy. I am working with 13 and 14 year olds, and they are pretty fun to chat with. Plus I get to speak ONLY English while I am there! =)

I also got to experience my first Spanish theatre production. We went to see Federico Garcia Lorca's Bodas de Sangre, and it was interesting to say the least! I'm not really a huge fan of Spanish literature or theatre because it is often pretty out there and usually depressing, and this play definitely lived up to that expectation. However, it was very well-done even if I didn't really like the work itself, so that was a fun evening.

I've been filling some of my free time just walking around the city, and one weekend I was taking a walk with some people from our group and discovered this gorgeous path that goes for miles next the the little river that runs through the city. It is really popular and there were tons of families and runners and bikers out enjoying the sunny Sunday afternoon. It is also a great walk because it takes you out of the city and into the countryside, which is a nice change of scenery. I think I will probably be doing a repeat of that paseo as often as possible!