Time flies

Almost finished with my 3rd week in Spain, time is flying by! Tomorrow, we have our exams for our first two weeks of classes, and next week we start an entirely new set of classes. Not exactly sure what I will be taking yet, but pretty sure it's Spanish history, literature, culture/civilization...stuff like that.

The past few days have been spent on the beach, and walking around my side of town. I really can't describe how gorgeous it is here on a sunny day, so I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Our group is working with a local school here in Santander Monday-Thursday. We go to the school for 2 hours in the afternoon and work with the kids helping to teach them english. Today was my first day going, and it was most definitely the highlight of my day. It was definitely frustrating at times because of the language barrier, but it was such a great experience. Carly and I worked with some rowdy 6th graders, and 2 groups of adorable 4th graders. I'm so glad I'm getting an opportunity to work in the schools here in Santander. The students attend school from 9am until 5pm everyday. If the live close enough they can go home for lunch, but if not they stay at the school for the entire day. Also, the school has students of all ages- from infants to 20 years old. It's definitely a small school, but it is precious. I can't wait to go back. 

I also have more spanish songs to share. The past few days in class we've been listening to some pretty typical spanish music, and it's pretty good. Here are a few of them:

 This is Meneito by Rosario Flores. Apparently she was pretty popular in Spain about 5 years ago, but this song is fun, and has a good beat and rhythm. The lyrics are about a man who has this strange shake/wiggle about him. The name of the song, "meneito" literally translates to a shake or wiggle. 

This song is called "Las Cosas Pequeñitas" (the littlest things) by Nolasco, who is from southern Spain. This lyrics of this song are describing little things that this guy loves about this girl. It's kind of difficult to understand what he is saying because of the way he pronounces his words. In the southern parts of Spain a lot of the people cut off the endings of their words when they're speaking. For example, in this song he says "y es un vamano paya" instead of "y es un vamanos para alla." I love the fact that every language has it's own accents, and that an accent can say so much about where you're from and who you are. 

Lastly, I am so so excited to say that my parents will be visiting me for spring break, along with Karin and Taylor! I can't wait to see them and show them around Spain. Our plan is to start in Santander, then go to Barcelona for 3/4 days and Seville for 3/4 days. We will be doing day trips to some other local cities around Barcelona and Seville.