The Subjunctive

Who knew I would get yelled at if I didn't update this thing every day. Sorry people, sorry. So much has happened in the past 2 days I hope I can remember it all! Let's see on Tuesday I don't think I did anything too exciting. Just class, lunch (tortillas with some tomatoey sauce), siesta, went for a run around El Parque Norte with Amanda, dance party, homework, bed. Pretty typical day for here I suppose. Running around the park was like death. Between being in a high altitude, 90 degrees of blazing sun (it's stronger here because we're closer to it on the mountain) and hills, I thought I was going to quit breathing and die from exhaustion. Then yesterday we had class for one hour less than normal and went to Baeza for the afternoon. It's Ubeda's "sister city". It's a little more modern in part of it, but there is an older part too. I uploaded a video of the panoramic view from Baeza. If you look really, really hard you can Ubeda in the background.


After we got back from Baeza, I came home and siesta-ed like there was no tomorrow. I woke up and ate some lunch that was left for me. It was lentils in some kind of Jumbalaya like thing. (Use you imagination here.) Then I went shopping with Amanda and her hermanas, Marta y Sofia. After that we went back to their house for a little and then it was time to meet up with some of my classmates for drinks and tapas. I invited my host brother out too. It was a good time. Maybe too good of a time, because every single one of us struggled to stay awake in class today.


Speaking of class today, we were learning the subjunctive, which doesn't really exist in English. I hate it. Hate it more than the past and future tenses, ser vs estar and por vs para all combined. Well, it may be a tie if it's all combined, but still. Spanish is such a difficult language to learn. In English we have I run, you run, he/she runs, we run, they run. In Spanish each person is a different conjugation of the verb. UGH.


Today's lunch was some fish (I think tilapia, maybe?) and french fries and a ham sandwich on special Ubeda bread (Mom's side of the family you will appreciate this: it's pretty much bread that is covered in seasoning salt) and cherries. Delish. And of course, as always, there was "salad" aka tomatoes, tuna, cheese, and maybe pears? in olive oil. Yummm. And just a bit about the olive oil here: the stuff you buy at the grocery store in America is NOT olive oil. The real stuff is so good and rich. The people here eat it like candy. They put it on everything. Even their skin is olive toned (okay...too far?). But seriously. Olives are everywhere and olive oil is more common than butter and grease in the United States. Hard to believe, I know.


The other day when I was talking about how horrible I was at Flamenco, I wasn't kidding... here is a video a girl in my class posted on youtube. I'm in the pink shirt. Seriously, try not to laugh TOO hard at my complete lack of coordination. I have a couple other videos I need to upload. Like one of Amanda teaching Dani how to Flamenco. (His reaction: "I am learning Flamenco from an American?!") Another is when my host momma and Dani were showing Amanda and I how to Salsa. Maybe in the next blog. This one is long enough and it's cutting into my siesta time!