fresh-squeezed orange juice.

Buenas tardes,

Sorry I haven't been writing much - this month has been so crazy! As it turns out, our interim class is quite demanding, and this week, I had my big presentation on a region of Spain. But it went well, and I ended up learning a bit about a really cool place. The region is Navarra - not only home of the running of the bulls, but also Europe's leader in renewable energy use (>70%!!!). Now we have our final essay and exam coming up. Uf! I can't wait for the regular semester.

All that school stuff aside, things have been GREAT here. We've done so many cool things, like day trips, fun nights out, and walks on the beach. But the everyday life is wonderful too. An average weekday for me looks like this:

8:15 -Get up, get ready, etc.
8:45 - Eat my breakfast (cereal! my favorite) and drink the orange juice that my Mamá squeezed while i was getting ready minutes prior. The oranges are grown by a family friend right outside of Denia.... it is the best orange juice ever. (How am I ever going to drink tropicana again?)
9:10 - walk to school (a good 15 minutes) along the south end of the city, looking at the mountain as I go.
9:30 - 11: Class on the regions of Spain with Prof. Bierling
11 - 11:30: break! I usually go outside and sit in the sun, eating a bocadillo (baguette sandwich, usually ham and/or cheese) that my Mamá makes for me.
11:30 - 1: Literature class (regional Spanish authors) with Prof. Zandstra
1 - 4: Home for our big meal of the day (2:00) with my Mamá and Papá (and my little sister on fridays). This food is AMAZING! My Mamá sure can cook. Oh - and I usually take a little siesta (nap) too.
4 - 8:30 Back to the UNED (our university) for some reason or another. Half of the days, we have a group errand, a movie showing for lit. class, a short excursion... But then I usually work on homework with friends at school or at a café.
8:30 onward: home again! We usually eat a light supper around 9:00, and then I finish up homework and try to get to bed between midnight and one. I'm getting more sleep than I have since elementary school - it's great - but I need it more than ever since then, too! My friends and I have all noticed that we end the days wiped out, but sleep really well. We can't handle our usual deficient (in my case, extremely deficient) college-student sleep schedules, because our brains have to work so much harder here to process speaking in and listening to Spanish all day.

By the end of the day, I've walked at least 1 hour, but it's great. Not only is it great exercise, but the route is beautiful, and it's wonderful not to need a car to get around. (But I do appreciate it when my papá picks me up in the evening on his way home from work!)

Ok, well I've gotta hit the books again. Hopefully I'll write again soon with more updates on all the fun things we've been doing.

grace and peace,

Emma

p.s. decided to add a few pics:

This is me on the porch outside my room:



On the 15th, we went to Jávea, just on the other side of Montgó, where they had a reception for us and we got to tour the old part of the city, too. The 2nd and 3rd picture are from on top of the cathedral.







We went to Valencia on the 16th, which is the nearby big city. It was amazing! The architecture is a beautiful mix of old and modern. And Europe's largest aquarium!











I had the priveledge of going back to Valencia already on the next Tuesday. My mamá and little sister, Raquel, and I went to visit my sister Mireia, who is 19 and studies Economics and German at the University of Valencia. Of course we hit up the rebajas (sales), which Spain has for the 2 months after Christmas.



This is on Friday the 22nd, when we toured Denia's castillo (castle).