Finally home in the pomegranate city

I finally made it with my family on saturday. Carmen, mi mamá, came to pick me up at my hostel. I pretty much have my own bathroom here, with a great size room, and a desk for my computer. I spent the day practicing my spanish and getting to know my family. The husbands name is Jesus, but they don't pronounce the s at the end because of their Andalusian accent. The little boy is named after him. Vanessa and Sandra are the two girls. We had siesta around 2:30 and the meal was great. This is usually their biggest meal of the day. They gave me a tour of the city and we went for tappas later. The rest of the night I watched the Spanish Disney channel with little Jesus. I slept great that night. Things are different living here because they conserve so much energy. Every time I leave a room I have to turn off the lights and unplug my computer when I'm not using it. Because there is no central heat we sit at a table in the living room that has a heater under the table and a blanket over the table to keep the heat in. This is where we eat and relax to watch tv. This is how we stay warm. Carmen is a great mamá because she knows whats important for me to be aware of in these first weeks. I noticed that when I say something in Spanish she repeats it back to me to help me learn. For example if I said, "I am going to shower now." She would say, "You are going to shower now." I talked to my friends in this program that are teachers because I figured it was a teaching tool, and they told me it is, and that it is called recasting. I feel very much taken care of.

Today we went to the Alhombra, the walk to get there was rediculous because the hill is so steep to get to the entrance. It is quite apparent that I haven't worked out in a while. However when we finally got there everything was beautiful. This used to be an enclosed Catholic city, but there is so much more history. Our tour was in Spanish at took about 6-7 hours. The views were breathtaking and made me realize that I really am in another country.

Today is my first day of school at CEGRI. I'm looking forward to doing it. Carmen will be walking me there at 8:30 tomorrow. I will come back for siesta and then go back to school again. I seriously hope that this will keep any cerveza pounds off of me.