La primera dia de escuela

Today was the first day of classes. I woke up at 8:00 to get to classes at 8:30. At least they were just down the street. I met a few of the people in my house, but we did not have a lot of time in the morning. I went to the school and took a test for classes. The test was pretty hard because I couldn't remember how to conjugate any of the verbs except present tense. I did the best I could and handed it in to the girl at the desk.
After the teacher graded the tests, the secretary gave us a tour of the school and gave us our books and our schedule. I had class today at 2:45, so I decided to go back to the house and sleep a little bit since I did not get much sleep in Madrid. I took a good 2 hours nap and then got up for school.
The class was good. It was three hours long with a break in between. I did not go to the culture class today, however I think I will try it tomorrow because it will be an extra hour of hearing Spanish.
The whole class is taught in Spanish. It is nice because it really makes you hear everything and makes you feel ridiculous not trying to answer back in spanish. I did the best I could. I was able to get my point across. What was nice was that we weren't required to speak or anything. In the first class we went around and did and exercise that they had had for homework over the weekend. I was able to keep up with the class and felt they placed me in the right place since I can understand what they are teaching but have trouble making sentences.
The second class was vocabulary. We learned food and drinks, very important for shopping and eating in restaurants. We got into groups and made posters and then learned other words the teacher thought we should know.
I really liked the teachers. It was different from Spanish in the states because they are animated and when they describe things they often use very exaggerated body language to get the point across but it helps you put and action with the word. The first lady, Isa, was very funny. I enjoyed listening to her. Our second teacher whose name I can not remember, but I think it's Rodrigo, was also funny as well. He had a great way of explaining things.
It was difficult to concentrate for 3 hours on a language that requires me to watch and listen very intently. I felt very tired by the end of it.
After class I came back and was able to have some time to be on the internet. I finally got a hold of mom, which I was waiting for. I also went to the market to get some food. It was hard in the market, I think the worst I've felt yet, because if I wanted something I didn't know how to ask for it. Wait, I went ot teh market before class, because then I learned all those words. Oh, well. I will know them for next time.
I had homework and was going to work on it tonight but I ended up hanging out with one of the girls, Melanie, from the apartment for a while. She is from Holland and lives in Belgium. We talked for a while (in English - although we watched Spanish tv and she helped me with words I didn't know). She's been here for three months and will be leaving the same time I leave to go to Sevilla. She is leaving for Australia. We had fun watching tv and then I was going to show her on a map where New Jersey was and we found a quiz and took the states quiz. Then we decided to find one for Europe. I realized I didn't even know half the names of the countires in Europe. How sad. So now it is a goal to learn the European countries!
Well I'm going to go to bed. I have a busy day of homework and the like tomorrow.

Jenn