First Day of School!

          Okay so in a complete 180 from when I was little, I was SO excited for school to start today. Nerdy, I know. But my first day at Alcalingua did not disappoint. I tested into Level 6, and there's a bunch of Loyola people in my class. There's also two German girls and one Taiwanese girl who is completely lost. My grammar teacher, whose name is Cristina, is the teeniest thing and is like a one-women hurricane. She bounces around the classroom talking a mile a minute and handing out worksheets. She told us she's "not THAT old" so we can feel free to ask her questions about the nightlife in Alcala (she's 36). My conversation teacher is an absolute riot. He's only 26 and jumps around the room like a crazy person. We had to go around the room and talk about ourselves and he cracked jokes until the whole room was hysterical with laughter. I think I'll learn a lot from him because he said we'll do vocabulary, phonetics, listening, and mini-presentations. 

          Sadly Giovanna isn't in my class :( but hopefully we'll be back together when regular school starts. The intensive language course is from today until September 29, and then regular school begins on Oct 3. Stupid Loyola complained that students coming back from being abroad didn't have strong enough writing skills, so we're losing our conversation course in favor of a composition course come October. A lot of us (our director Maria Jose included) think this is ridiculous, because it's so much easier to write when you hear your voice in your head. It's difficult to do that in a different language when you can't speak it. Apparently it's also causing a problem with Alcalingua because they don't have anyone to teach it. Also, the people in our group span 4 levels (4-7) so it would be difficult for a teacher to grade all of us the same on a writing assignment. Maria Jose talked to us today and told us how she thinks it's a good idea, buuuuuut I think that's just so it doesn't get used against her in the future. Hmph. 

          It's still ridiculously hot here, but oddly chilly in the morning. I resist the urge to bring a sweater though because I don't want to carry it later when it's 90 degrees. My host mom, Cris, told me that soon after Halloween it gets freezing here, so I'm sure I'll be whining about being cold soon enough :) 

<3