Summer no más.

Wedding in Waseca, MN.

Hello 26 inch pizza in Nisswa, MN!!

Where did summer go? My summer was spent working 60 hour weeks, deciding what to bring to Spain, packing for Spain, working out, laying out, swimming, partying and shopping. Not necessarily in order of importance or frequency. Not to mention the longest week in Minnesota ever, at the lake, Mall of America and a beautiful wedding! Here in Granada, I think that it is still technically summer, and it sure does feel like it! The weather has been between 80 and 90 degrees every day since I have been here, which is perfect! I am not sure how much longer this perfect weather can last though! Over the past week the nights have started to get a little colder, not cold enough to make me want to wear a coat but I am definitely noticing the difference. Last night it actually rained! Well, I don't think that I could actually consider it rain, it lightly sprinkled for about 3 minutes. There weren't any puddles on the ground but it was so nice to feel rain! (No, I didn't get to use my umbrella during the sprinkles Courtney...). Anyways, from what I have understood from my professor, summer is supposed to go until about mid-September. If we are lucky, it could last up until the end of September! (Cross your fingers!). Fall starts technically in mid-September and lasts until about mid-December according to my professor, which is fine with me! That means that when I get home from Granada, the cold weather of Illinois is going to be horrible because I won't even be close to used to it! Anyways, I had my first full week of classes this last week. 10am to 2pm every day! Talk about a killer! Que horrible! Well, I guess it isn't actually that bad because I like both of my teachers, Rosana and Augustina, but four consecutive hours is just rough, no matter the language! Rosana is from the Basque region in Spain (I think that's what she said!). Augustina is from Andalucía, which is the part of Spain that Granada is located. Augustina has triplets! They are both really cool teachers, basically the whole first part of the class with Rosana is just speaking and working with a partner, answering questions that she asks, learning about basic things like how real Spaniards would order something in a restaurant, or not saying "Lo siento" every time you bump into someone, Spaniards say "Perdona". "Lo siento" is something that is only used when you really do something bad. Also, Spaniards don't say "gracias" the way we use thank-you. They say "gracias" when someone does something that is unexpected or unnecessarily nice. You don't say "gracias" when someone passes you the water at the dinner table or when the teacher gives you a piece of paper. At a restaurant you don't say "gracias" after the waiter brings out each individual part of the meal, only once at the end when leaving. Spaniards also don't say "gracias" when someone cooks them a meal, because it is expected of whoever did the cooking and she/he doesn't expect a thank-you. Thinking about it, it makes sense, are we really that thankful for everything all the time? Thank-you in the English language doesn't have as much of a sincere meaning as it does in the Spanish language. A person might say that we use it to be more polite, but would anyone consider the general population of America overly polite? I wouldn't exactly say yes on that one! Spaniards are blunt, I definitely wouldn't say rude, but hey, if you're not cute today, someone will tell you (: