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ha! guess what key i found on the spanish keyboard? that´s right, the ñ! excelente! so from the previous post espana should be españa and senora should be señora. yep.

so classes started yesterday. i´m taking 2: advanced composition and conversation and 20th century spanish history. both are taught only in spanish, but i´m not having any trouble so far... my professors and all of the institute staff are incredibly nice, too. they don´t even judge you when you clearly butcher something in spanish (or maybe they do, but they´re just really good at hiding it...).

last night was our first night in sevilla as a group, and we went to a flamenco show and dinner. for those of you that don´t know, spain runs on a way different schedule than the states, with breakfast at 7:30 (after we get up), lunch around 2:30 and the biggest meal of the day, and dinner around 9-10. so the flamenco show started at 7:30 and dinner was after. the show was incredible. i can´t even fathom moving my feet that fast! and with all the stomping i would have shin splints for a decade of sundays. crazy.

dinner was in el barrio de santa cruz, a neighborhood about a 35-40 minute walk from our apartment. we did, however, have a local guide. stewart, one of the institute staff, grew up there, and showed us around, treated us to dinner (ham, spanish tortilla which is more of an omelette, paella, sangria, and various desserts). after dinner we went to his church sponsored bar (odd, no?) and then back home to bed. we didn´t get home til after midnight and went to bed around 1, only to get up at 7, but hey, we´re only gonna be here a short time, and we want to milk everything out of it that we can. you can always sleep when you´re dead.

tonight we have a tour of our barrio (neighborhood), and tomorrow is a local holiday, so everything is closed. we´re thinking that we might to a sunday day trip to cadiz or granada this weekend, but plans remain uncertain. gotta head back to class now... :o)
-kl