So, I have been in Cádiz for one week as of tomorrow. My days are not that interesting. I get up around 9 am, get ready for school (shower if I need to, but usually our room is so hot during the day or we go to the beach so I prefer to shower at night), grab some bread or cookies, then go up to school early so I can check my e-mail in the library before class. Then I had linguistics with Dr. Koike from 10-12 pm, and literature with Rebeca from 12-2pm.

At first, my classes scared me to death. It is exhausting speaking Spanish to a family all day, then going to the university and enduring four hours of class in Spanish--analyzing first the way words are formed and then analyzing pieces of literature. Plus, it's summer school, so things move quickly. In fact, my first linguistics test is on Thursday. But things have gotten easier; my teachers are so understanding and nice and I'm realizing that more than anything, they want us to enjoy our trip here.

After class ends, Bobiejo and I walk down the street (about five minutes) to our apartment, and our señora, Mercedes, makes lunch. She doesn't understand that Bobiejo is a vegetarian; she just thinks she's extremely picky, which is hilarious, because she always tries to sneak her meat or gives her huge portions of fish that she doesn't really like but eats only because she has to. Our señor, Ramón, is originally from Galicia and is impossible to understand, but just last night we sat down with Mercedes and she talked to us for about an hour on her political views (let's just say that she's not too happy with things).

We have eaten all sorts of things here, my favorite of which so far has been this sort of lentil soup that Mercedes made yesterday. We also eat paella, tortilla espanola, chicken, fried and grilled fish, salad covered in olive oil, this soup that has spinach and chick peas in it, gazpacho, fruit, and french fries/onion rings. It's all very interesting food. We don't usually go out to eat just because that means spending money, but tonight we plan on eating at a bocadillo shop (that means sandwich) by the cathedral. There's also a Ben and Jerry's in the same plaza! We do splurge on ice cream (helado) occasionally, but that's because it's very cheap (and like heaven!).

After 2 pm, the city closes down until 6 pm. After staying in our room during one siesta, we realized it was absolutely miserable in that hot room during the middle of the day and so we started going to the beach for three or four hours each day. It was amazing because the beach is literally downstairs and the water is freezing and men push carts selling water and Coca Light. I love it. But we got a little beached-out, so today we opted to go to the library, which is where I am now. I'm doing my linguistics homework, but took a break so I could post.

This Friday morning, we are leaving for Ronda and Granada, where we will be for about two days. We're going to do all the tourist things there, including a flamenco show! I'm extremely excited about that!