I started out my journey in the "honey moon" phase, which rapidly came crashing down. Thanks to my amazing roommate and some great friends in the ISA program, I'm starting to truly appreciate everything that Spain has to offer and making it my home away from home. I unfortunately did not do as well on my placement test as I would have liked, but with some negotiation I will be able to stay in my advanced Spanish classes and work to receive credit for them. Surprise! Test taking is still not my forte...
On the up side, I found out that our university is located across the street from the beach. Needless to say I will be spending my breaks on the beach. Although the lack of "take away" coffee shops in Spain killed my idea of grabbing coffee in between class and sitting on the beach.
It has been hard to want to explore the city, especially at night. Málaga is experiencing some very unusual weather for this time of year. It is extremely cold! None of us were prepared for the cold weather, we all assumed that because we are on the beach, the weather was going to be nothing but warm and sunny. Thankfully it is supposed to warm up in the next week and hopefully we'll have more motivation to experience Málaga's night life.
This weekend we had our excursion to Ronda with ISA. Ronda is a beautiful city, but I feel like the freezing temperatures prevented me from truly appreciating it. Despite the undesirable weather conditions we did have the opportunity to go on an over 4 hour walking tour. We visited many of the cities famous landmarks, including "El Tajo", but the highlight of the tour was definitely "La Plaza de los Torros". I don't think that I could ever sit through a bull fight and enjoy it, but it was interesting to see behind the scenes and get our tour guide's perspective on the tradition. Our tour guide was an elderly man from Ronda; he was very passionate about the bull fights, explaining that they were rich in culture. He explained that the newer generations would never fully appreciate or understand the significance of the bull fights, but for him it was important to preserve the culture.
I'm hoping that as things start to settle down I will be able to establish some sort of routine. I feel like we have been going nonstop since we arrived in Spain and I'm excited to actually start living here. Today the weather warmed up a bit, which allowed me to go for my very first run on the beach. I can't imagine anything more perfect, but to end my first week in Spain with a run on the beach.
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