This past weekend a group of us traveled to Southern Spain, Cadiz, to celebrate the largest carnival celebrations in all of Spain. If I had to describe it, I would say it was a mixture of Oktoberfest, Mardi Gras and Freak Fest (Halloween at UW-Madison). People dress in ridiculous costumes and stay up all night partying, dancing, drinking and singing. Our bus departed from Granada at noon on Saturday and returned the next day at 10a (it was a 4 hour bus trip)- this way you don’t have to pay for a hotel since you just stay up all night partying until your bus departs.

            

       Since a group of us decided late in the week to travel here, we bought tickets for a bus filled with only Spaniards. The ride to Cadiz consisted of them singing to Spanish songs and throwing balloons around. I sat next to this Spanish guy who started a conversation with me but unfortunately spoke extremely fast. Fortunately, living in Spain for a little over a month now, it’s become easier to understand the native speakers here! In all, the bus ride was a memorable way to start this weekend trip. We arrived in Cadiz later in the afternoon so we were just in time to watch the sunset over the Atlantic Ocean. This was probably my favorite part of the entire festival, being able to just sit and relax while looking over the ocean- it was so beautiful and blue! After the sun had set, the partying began as people crowded around the cathedral (main center of the city) to dance and blast music. Thousands of people gathered in this area making everything more entertaining. Overall the night was filled with much drinking, dancing, singing and meeting/talking to Spaniards! They definitely know how to have a good time!

           

       This week is my second full week of classes. So far, they have gone well! The material can be difficult at times to learn but in all I think this semester will be very interesting and educational with the courses I’m enrolled in. To categorize the students, they place us in levels depending on our ability to understand and speak the language. Out of 8 levels, I am in level 6 hence my grammar and oral/writing courses are more intense than most. Often when an individual is learning a foreign language, they will have strengths in certain parts of the language and weaknesses in other parts. For example, they are 3 main parts to learning Spanish, or any foreign language: writing, reading and speaking. To order from strength to weakness (for myself) it’s: reading, writing and speaking. I hope, by the end of this semester, to become more fluent and stronger in my speaking skills. Hence, I have been having intercambios, basically meeting exchanges, with a Spaniard every week to achieve this goal of speaking with more ease.

     This week I start volunteering at the elementary school here in Granada, 4 hours every other day. I plan to work with the infantil (students ages 1-3) and possibly the older children. My priorities will be to help them with writing letters, snack time, Basic English and more. Every other day, for specific courses (sciences and art) the teachers have asked us to help them teach the material in english to the students. I feel it will definitely help my speaking skills, as I’ll constantly be practicing even the most basic Spanish concepts. I’m very excited to start working with them and hope my first day goes well!