Chillin in Malaga

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Hey everyone!
How are you all? I miss everyone, and I hope you are all good. I am pretty good. Everything has calmed down here a little bit. My classes have started, so I have more of a schedule for every day instead of everything always being different. It is nice. I have 2 hours of class every day right now. It is just my spanish language class. Then, in 2 weeks, my elective classes start so I will have 2 hours of spanish language, then spanish culture, and then spanish literature. I really like my language class that I have right now, the teacher is really nice. Yesterday was a little bit funny in class. There are 6 of us in the class from ISA, the group that i here with, and there are I think 6 other students from China and other european countries. So, the teacher told us that she speaks spanish, french, and english, and then she had us all go around and tell what languages we spoke. All the other kids spoke at least 2 languages besides spanish. There was one girl from Norway who speaks Norwegein, German, English, and spanish. And a few others spoke like portuguese, or chinese, or french, or german, or whatever else. It was kinda embarrassing when we all were in a row and all 6 of us just said english. It was kinda funny, but we felt pretty stupid at the time. The class is pretty small though and the teacher is really good at speaking clearly so that we understand her. Because in this part of Spain, in Andalucia, they kinda have an accent and they very often drop the end of the word off, so it can be hard to understnad when you are just learning. For example, when they say gracias they drop the end and is gracia. It can be a little hard to understand what the word is if you are not used to it. But the teacher is really good and it is easy to understand her. It is kinda wierd that there are all of these people in the same class from all over the world who speak all these crazy different languages, and the only language we all have in common and all understand is spanish. I really like the class so far, and i feel like I have been learning some spanish, so that is good. The family that i am living with is really nice, but it is sometimes hard to talk to them a lot because they have 2 little kids and they are pretty busy themselves. There is not much else going on right now, except that tonight is the big Spain vs. France soccer game and it is here in Malaga. So I think that some of us are going to try to find a resturaunt with a TV so that we can watch it because the tickets are sold out, of course. I heard the final score of the superbowl was 17-14 Giants! YES! I was pretty excited. I went to the beach yesterday, and it was not what I expected. I thought that on the Mediterranean, the sand would be super white and silky and the water would be crystal clear. But it is not. The sand is actually really dark brown, a lot darker that on Lake Michigan, and it is kinda chunky sand. The particles are a lot bigger than at home. It is kinda soft, but not what I expected. And the water is darker than I thought it would be. It is really pretty, but in a different way than what I expected. The water feels like it is in the upper 50s already, so I hope that by the time I leave I will be able to go swimming. Sorry, I don't have pictures yet. I am planning on going around all day on Saturday and taking picures of the beach and the whole city and everything, so I should put them up sometime next week. Then you all can see where I am living! Well, I hope you are all having fun and are healthy!
Love from Spain,
Meghan

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