Jan 9 - A compliment, A Coke, and Ice Cream!

So, today I had my second class today - Vocabulary. My first class was Spanish 315 which is for cross cultural engagment. I'm just gonna take a minute to go on a little rant. I live on a special floor called Grassroots which requires that I take an extra class for Cross Cultural Engagement. I have lived there for three semesters, and you only need one CCE credit to graduate - I have three. This class Spanish 315, is another three credits of CCE except I have to give a twenty minute presentation and write a 5 -8 page paper in spanish! Along with weekly journal entries about a crisis in Spain! I just don't know why I can't be exempt from this class! So much work for a credit I have two times over - now five times! Anyway-

I had vocabulary which I think will be very interesting. But today I got an odd, semi-agressive compliment. I know that sounds weird - and it was. My professor went through attendance and asked everyone where they were from and what languages they spoke. When she came to me I said I was from Indiana in the United States and that I spoke English and a little Spanish. Then she went on to everyone else in the class, but when she gets to the end, she looks at me with a stern face "What is your name?"
- "Me?"
- "Yes, you."
- "Lauren."
- "And where are you from?"
- "Indiana. In the United States."
- "How long have you been studying Spanish?"
- "Six years more or less"
- "Your Spanish is very good. Why?"
- "Ummm my high school was completely immersed."
- "Oh well your spanish is very clear I wanted to know why."
- "Oh! Thank you...?"

It was the strangest compliment. But I very much appreciated it. Then she passed out the syllabus; our final is 50% of our grade -_- Great.

Then I had a two hour long Spanish history class. A two hour long class in English is difficult, but two hours in Spanish, with unfamiliar content that is just a real struggle bus. After class a bunch of went to go get school supplies. But that class was so draining we needed comfort food - Coke and Ice cream. It took us forever for a place that sold Coke in something other than a two liter and or a six pack of cans. Finally we found a little corner shop that sold cans of Vanilla Coke. Haven't had that in ages! He was so excited to sell it because it was imported from the United States and our cans are bigger than the ones in Spain and Vanilla Coke is hard to get. The Coke was actually kind of difficult to drink, because all I have had for a while is water and wine. But the ice cream in the cream sold in the mall was 3.4 euros for one scoop. Crazy! So we decided to walk around the city for a while until we found a cheaper one. We walked for about 30 min in the opposite direction of campus looking for a Heladeria (Ice cream shoppe). I asked one lady if there was one near by and she said no. Literally a block we found an ice cream shoppe and actually we ended up near campus and our houses. The ice cream was only 1.8 euros and it was delicious. The flavor I had is Turron. The best way I can describe it is that it has the same consistency as fudge and it had nuts in it. Someone told me it can come in different flavors. This ice cream had a sort of carmel, coffee taste. Yumm! A much needed treat.

Que Será, Será.