Homework GALORE.

Sorry that I haven´t posted in a few days.  I´ve gotten several emails about not posting, but I´ve been swamped with homework and getting ready to register for classes.  Registering for classes is a disaster because their university system is so different from ours.  They are only allowed to take classes from the department of their "major" aka they are more specialized in their area of study because they don´t have the liberal arts education that we do.  Therefore, all the classes are listed by the department.  So you have to go to each individual departments site to find classes that you want to take.  Not only that, but the have all classes listed on the schedule, 1st semester, 2nd semester, and annual classes, so you have to make sure you are looking at one that´s offered the semester you need it (for us, 1st semester).  As you can see, I´ve been swamped with trying to find classes!

Let´s see, yesterday was full of schoolwork and me not feeling too great.  I had a runny nose and a sore throat, but I think it was just from allergies.  I´m feeling much better today though.  We also went to a parade of sorts in our neighborhood last night.  Our señora´s grandson was in it and so she invited us to go with her.  It was realllllly interesting.  It was a procession for "Nuestra Señora del Juncal" or the lady of the neighborhood.  There was a fancy float (picture below) with tons of candles and tons of people out to watch it.  Apparently it´s a really big deal---it was most certainly a really cool cultural experience. 

Today has just been more school work and trying to figure out classes.  Still no idea what I want to take, but we´ll see how it goes.  I have a pretty good schedule figured out, but I need to find one more class to take.

Let´s see, sorry that there´s not much exciting stuff to blog about.  A couple of my recent observations:  they don´t use ice very much here.  As in, hardly at all.  I miss it so much.  There´s nothing like a glass of water FULL of ice.  Or a Coke with ice.  And when you do go to a restaurant and get ice, you get like 2 big pieces.  Not small, crushed, delicious ice.  Oh well, ice is something I can live without.  They also don´t keep their fridges and such very cold.  I assume it´s to save on energy bills.  And maybe it´s just because I keep mine very cold, because there´s just nothing like ice cold water or a nice cold glass of milk. 

So my sunglasses broke the other day.  Well, not exactly broke, but the screw fell out and I couldn´t find it to put it back in.  There´s an eye doctor on the way to my school so I stopped by there today on the way back.  I asked if they could fix my sunglasses and she said they could, I would just need to leave them and come back and pick them up later today.  So I went back at 5:30 today to get them and asked how much it cost to fix them.  IT WAS FREE!  I couldn´t believe it.  I mean really, NOTHING is free.  I was ecstatic.  Ahhh, it´s the simple stuff in life that´s amazing.  So after getting my glasses (which she also cleaned VERY well for me---for FREE), I went exploring a little.  The eye doctor was in a shopping center so I walked around a little.  I went into a bookstore, because I´m such a nerd, and looked at all the amazing books, but I didn´t buy anything.  Then I went into the grocery store.  I just wanted to compare prices with the other grocery store that I had been in.  This one was a little bit cheaper than the first one I´d been in.  I got a pack of face-wipes (kind of like make up removing wipes) for 1.10 euro for a pack of 25.  Not bad at all.  I also got 4 packs of FRUIT gum (due to my mint allergy...sad day) for 2.30 euro for all 4, not bad.  And of course, a nice cold Coke.  Like I said earlier, nothing is really cold, but someone had taken this one coke and put it in the freezer type section so it was delightfully and refreshingly chilled (and not frozen!).  It was amazing! 

Well, it´s back to homework for me.  I have a test tomorrow!  Here´s pictures from the parade!