ice cream in the middle of winter

Today was the first day of classes. It was pretty cool, actually. I really like my professor and although most of the work we are going to be doing involves working in groups, I think that it will be a fun, if not really intense 2 weeks and a half. We have our final (and only) exam on the 27th.

I have class from 10:30 to 14:30 each day and next week the AHA program students will start another class in the evenings that will go from 18:00-20:00. So not too much class, but enough to keep busy.

After class today, I went with some girls from my group(!) to register for different extra-curricular classes. I signed up for a tango class. Two others are doing salsa and another is doing guitar classes. I am *ehem* very excited about this. It won´t start until February but still, it´s something awesome to look forward to. YAY!

I was a little late getting back for lunch but I think Feli forgave me. Again, it was another fantastic meal. I am quite happy that we are staying with such a good cook! I decided to go and buy my book that I need for my class at one of the librerias. See the thing is that I thought that I would be able to find it at any of the small bookstores nearby. I was mistaken. I was told to go to these more specialized bookstores which no one had any idea where they were located. Long story short, I spent my afternoon wandering the city. I didn´t mind though, the only thing that was worrying me was that I wasn´t going to find the book in time for class tomorrow but I ended up getting it at this international bookstore that is waaaay at the other end of the city. Well, actually I have no idea where it is really, but it was very far away and it seemed like it must have been on the other side of the city, I think it was near the river. I was pleased to get it but come to find out that my madre has the textbook already and so I just needed to buy the workbook. Um, so yes, I now need to trek all the way back to this place to return the text. Oh well, another adventure. It was nice to get outside and just be a little lost. Plus, it wasn´t quite as cold as it has been. All the clothing stores are having their after Christmas sales where clothes are marked down...way way down. Up to 50% off some top names too. It´s neat to see all the shoppers trying to get the bargains. Heh.

I was kinda wishing for some ice cream so I stopped at this little ice cream shop and got a cone. Strawberry. I´m a traditionalist I know, especially when there are other flavors that are "local" that I should have tried! But oh well. Interesting to note that here, like in many other foreign countries I´ve been to, the portion sizes are much smaller than in the U.S. I mean my cone was no bigger than oh, say a 1/4 of a cup of ice cream. But see the thing is that it satisfied my craving and I wonder why they don´t do that in the U.S. Give smaller servings...oh well, I was just happy with what I got.

I must have appeared slightly silly with an ice cream cone in the middle of January but oh well, it was good!

LaDonna (my roommate) and I are talking about going to Malaga this weekend. We can get there by bus for only about 7€ so that would be awesome to go and see where Picasso was born. So much history in this country, really.

Anywho, tomorrow is another busy day. So much to do and so very little time!