By: Abby Stanley

Hello again! Hoping all of you have had a wonderful start to this week! I have much to share with you guys!

We had a five hour drive to Cordoba from Segovia, in which most of us slept the entire way.  When we arrived in Cordoba, we had what seemed like a 30-minute walk to our hotel, but only because it was unbelievably hot.  We were given the opportunity to watch an actual Flamenco show in the evening. I was expecting a theater or auditorium of some sort, but the show was actually outside in what I’m going to describe as a small courtyard surrounded by walls with no roof over it. That may not get the picture across very well, but just trust me on this—it was so quaint and beautiful that I could have just sat there all night long.

The dancers were wonderful and very entertaining. The singers sing in a much different way than American singers, but it was still very interesting! Later, we toured the Mesquita which used to be a Muslim mosque, but it was made into a Cathedral. Not too long after that we left Cordoba and headed towards Cádiz, where we met our host families for the rest of our time in Spain!

I’m a southern girl that grew up eating whatever was put in front of my face, so I’m not a very picky person.  I’ve done a pretty good job of eating whatever my host family cooks for me since I’ve been in Cádiz. However, Tuesday I turned my nose up to the first thing that I just could not bear the thought of eating—some kind of potato salad stuff drenched in mayonnaise.  They put mayonnaise on everything. Mayonnaise to them is like ketchup to most Americans.  They now know that I will only eat mayonnaise on a sandwich and always put ketchup on the table for me!

Classes have been going very well for all of us here, but Tuesday was not such a great day for me. My day started with a cold shower because I did not realize I was supposed to turn on the hot water heater (with a lighter, might I add) in order to take a hot shower. So, needless to say, I went from dragging my feet tired to completely awake in seconds! I got over that, but then I got to school and was called out in front of my whole class by my professor for being too insecure when I speak in Spanish (SO embarrassing).  I got over that, too.  Then, in the last class of the day, near the end, we were discussing the future tense of verbs, but I did not understand a word my professor was saying. She kept calling on me to answer questions, and I wouldn’t know the answer. She finally told me (again, in front of the whole class) to ask more questions when I do not understand something.  The problem with that is, I literally didn’t understand anything she was saying and didn’t want to hold the rest of the class up.  Anyway, that class ended with me in tears and the question, “What am I even doing here?”

Don’t worry, it didn’t get any worse! In fact, my day got a lot better as soon as I talked to my parents, and booked a trip to Paris, France, for my free weekend July 18-21!

Wishing you all a great week in the United States! Hasta luego!