Fiestas de Letras

I am currently very happy, due to some great news just received from my Geografía Humana profesor.

Sally and I went to him to see if we could be given some sort of extra project en lugar de todas las practicas. He just sent us an email telling us that we can translate some academic research articles into Spanish! Instead of having to spend hours trying to figure out the practicas, we each only have to translate 13 pages. Although that will be a task in itself, it will be a much easier task! I'm so, so deeply grateful. One seriously heavy thing has been taken off my plate. I still have ten history practicas (~three pages each), a ten minute presentation for Técnicas de Comunicación, and several practicas for Turismo Sostenible, but this is monumental.

I'm going to head to the library tomorrow in attempts of printing out the articles so that I can bring them with me and work on them over Spring Break. Sooo great!

In more exciting news for readers, I have recently returned from las Fiestas de Letras! Because I have two Geography classes, I am part of this Facultad...not that that really matters because students from all Escuelas and Facultades come to the Fiestas.

Me, Sally, Kayla (it's just coke) & Natalia

Last week I bought the pulsera for three euros; it includes six cerveza tickets and a bocadillo. As much as I thought I would be able to fill my stomach with Spanish beer, I only drank three, and wasted the other half of my tickets. Oh well, at least I prevented myself from getting sick but was still able to have a fun time.

Like the Fiesta de Derecho, it was crazy. I kept thinking, "for real? This is a school event?" You can probably see in the picture below how many people there were. The whole plaza was full of people dancing, run around, drinking heavily. I wonder if this was what college was like for my parents...?

We gathered up the courage to talk to some of the students in our Geography (+History) classes. We noticed that Spanish students tend to become much more friendly under the influence of alcohol. How novel!

The folks in blue are from our geo/history classes! Sandy is next to me in red.

I talked to some Tourism students that I had never talked to, ever; they were so excited when they found out I was from the US. (I think the US is pretty great too) I also found it hilarious that the Spanish DJ played several American classic rock songs (like, Twist & Shout and Living on a Prayer). The Spanish students sang aloud as excitedly as we would have!

Enfrente de la Universidad

After we were sufficiently exhausted (of course not Sandy, because she is Spanish and therefore hardcore), we went to Come Come (pronounced Co-may Co-may; eat eat) so that Natalia, Kayla, and Sally could try pastel de carne (a pastry with meat, egg, cheese, etc). As usual, it was delicious!

As always with Sandy, we had some wonderful culture exchange conversations about school, drinking, daily schedules (when people eat, sleep, work), siesta, and more.

The first picture of me and Sandy!