The best group in the whole world

Two nights ago we had three hours of orientation about what to expect in the coming weeks with regards to our classes and housing. We also learned about something called interest groups which are like clubs and have meetings and activities throughout the year, with the experience culminating in a trip in April to places such as Barcelona, Valencia, Morocco, Mallorca or Lisbon. I'm interested in joining one of the clubs that goes to either Morocco, Mallorca or Lisbon because I think it will be easier to travel to the other regions of Spain and I would welcome a guided trip to other countries.

After this orientation we headed out to a Flamenco show, it was amazing but definitely not what I was expecting. The first two numbers was two men singing and playing guitar, then a man danced, then a woman and then they danced together, which I thought was interesting because I had expected more partner dancing. Everything about the show was over the top, they both moved so gracefully and so quickly that sometimes I could hardly tell their feet were moving. The show was in this beautiful, courtyard like setting of a hotel, there were vines everywhere and the lamps were gorgeous!

Ticket for the Flamenco show. 

 The guitar player and the singer.

The female flamenco dancer. 

After the Flamenco show, my group all went out for tapas again, it seems like all I've eaten for the past few days is tapas, tapas and more tapas. However, I like the tapas we had for dinner much better than the ones we had at lunch that day. We a lot of food but my favorite things were a greek salad, and manjara pollo, which means chicken dish. It was baked chicken in an almond sauce, it was so delicious. With dinner we also had a spanish drink called tinto, which is red wine, fruit juice, sprite and lemon slices all mixed together. I learned that the difference between tinto and sangria is that sangria has many different kinds of cut up fruit in it and tinto just has lemon slices.  After tapas we went back to the hotel and a bunch of people in the program all hungout in the lobby and chatted, it was our last night all together in the hotel which was bittersweet. 

Me and some friends at the Flamenco show. 

Yesterday was a very busy and stressful day, it was the day we were going to be moving into our homestays and we had an oral interview to make sure we were placed in the correct classes. So everyone was rushing around to eat breakfast, pack up, check out, do the interview and make sure we looked presentable so our Señoras would like us. I was pretty nervous for both the interview and meeting my Señora, but it turned out I had nothing to worry about. The interview was just a conversation about where we lived, where we went to school, what our major was, and what we wanted to do in Spain, very simple stuff. Then my Señora came and picked me up, and we went to her apartment. She is very nice, and a great cook. I live with her and her gatito, little cat, whose name is Pantera, which means panther, the kitty didn't like me at first but now it wants to snuggle. It is so funny because it doesn't really meow it squeaks/squawks, it's bizarre, maybe that's how Spanish cats meow, hard to say. I'll post more about my house later, when I have some pictures to put up with it!

Later that day I had my first experience navigating the city on my own, we had to make it from our homestays to a plaza where we met up with our groups, I only live about seven minutes from the plaza but it was still a little difficult, but I made it. Then we all went to yet another orientation on culture, health and safety, boring but necessary I suppose. After the orientation we had free time, and my group just walked around the city together, and then we all went to dinner with our guide at an Italian restaurant. I had pizzeta verde, which was pizza with a white sauce, cheese, mushrooms, onions and spinach. It was our last night of dinners togethers as groups which was sad, because we have all gotten really close to each other and our guides. My guide's name is Itizar, and she is twenty just like us, it is strange that the people who are taking care of us are the same age but she is so nice and our group calls ourselves "el grupo mejor en todo el mundo" or the best group in the world. 

After dinner, because it was our last night, all of the groups and guides went to a bar to watch the Real Madrid vs. Barcelona game. Everyone in Spain hates Barcelona because they never lose, and tonight was no exception, but it was still fun to be out with everyone. It gets cold at night but they still have tables outside the bars where people hangout, it's not could though because they have heat lamps everywhere. I walked back to my homestay with two other girls in my group who live near me, actually I walked to the plaza with them and then took a taxi about three blocks to my house because I wasn't exactly sure how to get here, but the taxis here are so cheap it was worth it.