...Sustanciosa.

Remember that whole "we don't have much homework" time period. Over. We have a lot of presentations, tests, and various other work for the end of the semester. None of the projects are singularly monstrous... but there's one for every class, and we have a lot of classes.

The sudden mountain of tarea is a bit stressful, but we really are learning an awful lot. Here's a bit of a description (very subjective... I know...) for most of our classes:

History - pretty much everyone's favorite, mostly because our teacher is amazing. Um... well, we are going to know a lot of Spanish history when we get back... It's very different from American history, learning about all the crazy monarchs instead of the presidents. Hm... this is hard to explain, but trust me, the class is amazing. Rachael, Tracy, and I are going to do our presentation on Monday about the War of the Castilian Succession - how Isabella and Ferdinand came to power and united (haha... at first I wrote "untied") two parts of Spain. Oh, funny story! We went to Burger King and asked for the crowns so we can have them for our presentation. Yep, they thought we were crazy, but we got them :-)

Art - this class wins the most-improved award. Actually, it didn't really change all that much, but it grew on me. At first it was really hard to know what was going on with no background knowledge in art, but I sort of figured out how to make the most of it, and now I love it. Bascially, you just have to listen really hard and take a lot of notes so that you can make connections and look up stuff if you don't catch enough of what the teacher is saying. He is one of those people who you realize is so smart that what he is teaching is barely tapping into all that he knows.

Literature - as much as I love literature, I'm never that crazy about actual classes in it. This one is about the same. It's good, but not mind-blowing. I like it when we get stuff to read in class cuz I get so sick of two hour lectures. And we have read a few very interesting pieces outside of class too. Reading Spanish literature is still an area in which I would really like to grow. I think it's harder than reading history and other more factual things. There are a lot of unique allusions, and there is a zillion times more vocabulary.

Music - this is an interesting one... I loved the most recent class, but sometimes it's a bit of a drag. But whenever the teacher picks up his guitar and starts to play... everything is well again. AMAZING. He plays frequently, so that's good. It's hard to focus when he talks cuz he's sort of hyper and abrupt, but when I do, it reminds me of what I said about art... there is so much to learn, and we are getting just a taste of it.

Grammar - ah! This is the one that has improved the most. It's really obnoxious to walk to because it's from 6-8 on Mon. and Wed. night and takes a half hour each way, but whatever. We have to do it. And at first it was pretty boring, but our class is getting along better and our teacher is figuring out what we know, and sometimes it is surprisingly fun :-) Rachael and I had a pretty severe laughing fit last class. And we learned that in England (and who knows where else...) crosswalks are called "zebra crossings." So please, help us start that trend in the US. And say it with a British accent.

Methods of communication - this is a really strange one. We've learned about Spanish TV. Ok. But this teacher is ever more hyper than the music one. It's sort of a fun class. I think most other people enjoy it more than I do, especially the last class when he was asking us to name actors and actresses who always seem to play either the good guy or the bad guy... yeah, my pop culture knowledge is almost nonexistent. The teacher calls me (in Spanish) "State of New York." There are a few of us who he picks on. Whatever. I'm usually all for sacrificing my dignity if it makes people laugh.

Society and politics - aw. We have the nicest and most adorable teacher for this class. She puts up power points and talks about society and politics, yet we still love her. Sometimes the stuff is interesting... but even when it's not it's ok because of her. For example, she's very interested in learning English, so sometimes she asks us about words. One time she asked how to say "zoro," so we told her it was "fox." And she did this laugh that clearly said, "Haha... that can't be a real word." Hm... that was probably not funny at all, but it would be if you had heard her try to say "pretzel." Oh, and she tells us we are really good at Spanish... which is not true... but it is the best self-esteem boost ever. Lately, she has been giving us news articles to read, and that makes it even better (anything, but more lectures!).

Tracy has a different S&P teacher, so maybe she will want to comment on her class. I'm sorry if that was really boring and/or the kind of the thing where you really have to be there... It's just that we don't really write much about our classes, so I sort of wanted to describe them.

Today (as opposed to the rest of the weekend when we slaved away... I promise!) we went to a barbeque in the mountains with the youth group from church. We took a wrong turn on the way there and learned that a GPS is just as funny (if not more so) in Spanish. We played soccer for awhile (that's always fun and terrifying and embarrassing all at the same time). Then... we ate an incredible amout of meat. This is Tracy's plate, already half eaten!


The green stuff is a sauce made mostly with mustard. Also some cilantro and other ingredients that I don't remember. Here is a picture of the picnic/bbq area. It was an authenic Spanish experience. That's amazing, especially because I'm not sure we've had our fair share.

After we ate we played volleyball. I think soccer is way cooler, but I'm not as bad at volleyball. The net was crazy high, but it was really fun. Especially when I realized that the guys even make fun of each other when they mess up. It seems sort of intense, but they are just having fun. And when you do something good, there is an equal amout of attention.

We had to leave sort of early because a thunderstorm came (for real!!!). So we went back to church and had some delicious lemon pie that our friend Ashley had made. Good day!

Betty