hey! First, I'd just like to tell you that I fiiiiiiiiiiinally found peanut butter...I have been looking forever..I'm so happy. We started our real classes last week...I'm taking Spanish (I moved up a level after the intensive was over..wahoo), Spanish Civilization and Culture, Women's Roles in Spain, and Spanish Cinema. I was sick all last week and only got to go to one, but I'm excited about all of them and I'll let you know how they go this week.
-The rest of the CEA program got here last week (60 more people..so now there are 80 students total). We got a new roomate, Jen, and she's great..really fun. All the new kids had their own orientation and got to know eachother really well so she has been introducing us to her friends...they are all really cool and I'm glad they are here.
-Our program went to Cuenca this past weekend...Cuenca is a small town about two hours away from Madrid..It was gorgeous there..beautiful mountains and really cool architecture...plus it was great to hang out with all the new people. We left on Saturday morning...when we got there, we took a tour of the city and walked around the area. We stayed at a hotel that used to be an old monastery and it was so pretty. We ate lunch at our hotel and then explored the town a little more. We had dinner at the hotel that night and then our whole group went out to the bars in downtown Cuenca..we took one of our buses so there were like 70 of us, plus our two program directors...they are awesome. It was a fun night..On Sunday, we ate breakfast at the hotel and then went to do our "activities"...you had a choice of cliff jumping, kayaking, or horseback riding. Jessica, Miriam, Sarah, Claire and I chose horseback riding. It was sooo pretty..we went back in the woods and up the mountain a little bit..the leaves were changing and the weather was perfecttt..it was great. The area reminded me of Jackson Hole a little bit..so gorgeous. They grilled out for us after our activities and we got back to Madrid at about 7pm. It was so nice to get out of the city for a couple of days... I didn't realize how much I missed grass and clean air and open space...ohhhh tennessee how I miss you. Anyway, back to the real world...hope you all had a good weekend!