Dormido Cómodo

So I bought a fan yesterday and with it on and blowing softly at me, I was able to close my window and block out a lot of the noise and voila! I slept well :) Which means I got up more or less on time and was able to shower :D

Grammar class went well. It's not super interesting because let's face it, it's grammar. But she does talk with us a lot and I've learned the proper way to say things that I didn't know before. For example, how to ask what someone does for a living. Since this is the advanced class, we're starting with things such as when to use the subjunctive...which on a case-by-case basis is tricky. Today we actually had homework!

After class, I did not have any particular errand to run, so I sat at one of the cafes and did my homework with a glass of coke. It was actually a little chilly this morning, so I sat in the sun and soaked up some nice Vitamin D. It was very nice.

UE class was all sorts of interesting as usual. I guess I don't know my history very well, because we learned some really interesting things about history again today. For example, I wasn't aware that the Isabel and Fernando that sent Christopher Columbus to explore the New World were the parents of the Katherine who married King Henry VIII and whose divorce caused the split of the Church of England. And her sister, Juana, was the mother of King Carlos, who apparently conquered most of Europe before Martin Luther came around split the Protestants from Catholics and caused Carlos to lose his empire due to fighting between the two. Before all his conquering though, when he had just become King and was all from Germany and stuff, one of the captains in Spain who incited the revolution was Juan Bravo from Segovia, and the main street right by the school is la Calle Juan Bravo!

We got through all the history of attempts to unite Europe by force and the beginning stages of the UE today. It's really interesting to hear about these things from a European perspective, because I don't think we have quite the same appreciation for the destruction caused by all the wars Europe has been through. We learn about the terrible destruction in WWI & WWII, but hearing about it from someone who lives in a European country is something else. I'm definitely liking this class.

After our discussions, we went on a mini-excursion to see Juan Bravo's statue. See, apparently there's a system for how many hooves of a horse are raised on a statue depending on how they died. Two for dying in battle, one for dying due to injuries inflicted in battle, and none for dying of natural causes. So she had us guess how many hooves were raised in Juan Bravo's case--she totally tricked us! He was considered a traitor and hanged, and that's why he doesn't get a horse. Bummer. After that, we went to la Casa de los Picos to see the mudeja art there. See, when a Muslim creates art for a Muslim owner, the art is Muslim. But when a Muslim creates art for a Christian owner, the art is called mudeja and it only exists in Spain. It was pretty cool, and I took a bunch of pictures. The floor was super boring and ugly, because they don't consider it worth decorating cuz it's all by the feet. The ceiling was pretty though. It's now an art school, and the students there were having an exhibition and the art was pretty cool. I took pictures of that too.

We got out early, so I took a more adventurous way home and made it okay. It was sort of a back way though, and I like walking by all the cute little shops, so I'm not sure how often I'll go that way. Millions and millions of steps too! Luckily downward. On my way back I met Amy, one of my classmates, in the park and we chatted a bit. She doesn't have any classes until after siesta, so she was reading the third Harry Potter in Spanish. This is apparently a very popular series to read among my classmates, because I know others who are also reading or planning to read it. I'm planning to buy the 7th book in Spanish while I'm here to complete my collection :D

After lunch, I siesta'd for too long again, though not quite as long as yesterday. I'll get on a proper schedule eventually! I started listening to my HP1 Spanish audiobook, but was too comfy to stay awake more than a few minutes. Afterwards, I went to my last class of the day, art class. I think I must be weird because I'm still enjoying this first, "boring" part of class when we learn about the composition of art, such as line, color, light, etc. I've never had a particular fascination with art, but I think it'll be fun to talk about art in those terms. We did watch a little video about how murals and wood art are made, it was pretty neat.

May or may not be going out for a bit tonight, we'll see! I've already finished my homework though, so no worries :)