"Donde la vida comienza cuando en el resto de Europa las luces se apagan."

Our reading for class today is a description of Spain and that quote came from there, which literally means "Where life starts when the lights go off in the rest of Europe." I'm still amazed by how easily I've adapted to the culture here. I have loved everything about Spain so far, from the food to the people to the night life...just everything.

Classic first day of school picture with our
backpacks!

Yesterday was our first day of class. Maggie and I went over to school early and got coffee before our first class started. I have a feeling coffee is going to become a staple in my life here. I was so glad for class to finally start and it seems like we won't be having too much work (which I'm also very happy about)!

Our first part of the class is language with Angeles, and then we switch rooms and go to culture class with Fernando. So far (even though I've only had two days of class), I find the culture really interesting. We only have this class for three weeks, so it is a condensed version, but I'm glad that they give us some language practice and some culture background before we're thrown into the University with real Spanish students!

After class we went home to a delicious dinner of chicken and what they call "poor man's potatoes" and then watched the start of the Barcelona vs. Madrid soccer game (which is a HUGE deal in Spain, as well as in our house). It was fun to watch the game with our family, and Maggie and I really bonded with our family over dinner too. It was the first time when we've had a long conversation with both of them, and I can already tell that my Spanish is improving tons. Our mom was so excited to show us all of her favorite things to cook, and we learned last night that our parent's know much more English than we thought. Apparently the two of them met in Ireland where our mom was studying abroad, so she speaks English very well. Luckily we haven't had anything bad to say about her, because we had no idea she could understand us!

We left about halfway through the soccer game and went to a free sangria night that a travel agency called Discover Sevilla was hosting for all of the UNC students. They gave us sangria at their office and then took us to a club. It was pretty fun, and even though we were the only people out, we still had a good time.

This morning we had to wake up and find the tiniest book store ever that is the only store carrying the book we need for our class. Our teacher decided that she would tell us the first day of class...after the store had already closed...that we would need the book for tomorrow. She then proceeded to draw possibly the worst map ever drawn of how to find this tiny hole in the wall store. Luckily we were able to find it and get the book, but it was certainly the most trouble I've ever had to go to to get a book for school.

After we bought the book we had to do a little bit of homework, and then went to our second day of class. We're home now and are just hanging out. The kids will probably go to bed soon and then we are going to try to start our homework for tomorrow. Or maybe we'll just catch up on some much needed rest.