As part of my language commitment in my spanish class and with my program, we are required to attend a cultural event put on by CIEE each month. (in addition to meeting with our spanish "intercambio" twice, posting on the CIEE blog, and only speaking spanish in class). So for april, i went to a bodega in alicante on Monday! A bodega is a winery in Spanish. We saw the vineyards of grape trees and they told us how they make the wine. The leaders were teachers of this gastronomy class that is taught in Spanish for upper level kids, but I was still able to go, so I didn't catch everything because he talked pretty fast.. We tasted wine from 1944! It was actually really gross and tasted like brandy.. I didn't like it. Then we went upstairs and had normal wine :) Abby and I got a bottle, they were only 2 euro!! Thats less than $3! And it was good. So we're going to have wine and cheese night after spring break to detox before the canary island :) maybe not so much detox, but relax at least..
Earlier that day, we met with a Spanish class of students learning to be teachers and they have to know English, so we meet with them and they practice English while we practice Spanish. It is kind of eastward since its a forced meeting and we don't choose who we meet with, but it's fun to talk to kids our age. We usually end up learning all of the slang terms and bad words we can't ask our teachers but it's fun teaching them about the US. Everyone says they want to go to New York when we say have you been to the US before! Surprise surprise.. I tell them all to go to Chicago, it's cleaner and prettier :) ironically, I got the same girls this time as I did in the beginning of the program! As we talked, they told me my Spanish had gotten a lot better! That was really encouraging to hear, especially from spaniards.. I have been trying really hard to pay attention and pick up on as much as possible, so aside from my grades, I guess I really am learning! Yay!
We had another round of grammar tests before they let us loose for spring break for 17 days!! April 5-22nd! It's crazy! We finished those tests and jumped into packing mode to attempt to pack for the first 8-day leg. Then we land in Alicante for a few days before heading off for round 2 of vacationing, this time a little less stressful and a little more tropical :) the canary islands in an all-inclusive resort with 12 of my best friends from the program! Cannot wait! Time to finish some last minute research before take off! (a week ago..) spring break posts to come! I'm halfway through the vacation part right now :) it has been wonderful.
-k
No comments:
Post a Comment