transition

granada´s charm is starting to rub off on me now... i´m starting to understand granidians better now and my speaking is coming along. hopefully i´ll be exiting the culture shock stage soon. but of course, i had a stroke of bad luck... i was on crutches. i busted up my foot and my toe is broken. no glorious story to go along with the break either. it wasn´t from dancing the night away at a discoteca or climbing mountainous terrain, but rather from slamming my foot into a door frame at my host family's apartment. classic klutz.
now i've made the smooth transition to wearing a boot. i finished 3 weeks of intensivo - 4 hours straight of class in the morning, the first 2 hours with a speaking class and the second 2 hours, a grammar class, and a DELE class for an hour and a half in the evening. the DELE is similar to the US TOEFL, therefore testing spanish proficiency. as part of the program, we are required to take the DELE exam in may (it's offered in november and may). after finishing intensivo we have about a week off. we went to córdoba and sevilla with the program, involving about 29 students, and now i broke off with a group of girls and we're in barcelona. córdoba, a smaller town, was one of those classic european towns, with narrow winding streets, old apartment buildings with small windows and shutters, with clothes hanging on clothes lines, and small cafés with patios in plazas. we were only there for about half a day and soaked up the beatiful muslim mezquita and bathed in the arabic bathes. how heavenly- i think i will have to live close to bathes such as those or construct a miniature version when i have a house. i would welcome all my guests there. afterward we bused off to sevilla, a much larger scale city than córdoba, walked through the remains of an ancient roman city, toured a museum and the third biggest cathedral in the world, went on a short boat tour, visited the gardens and a muslim palace. when i get my computer, i will finally post pictures. now in barcelona... amazing city. huge and gothic- one of my favorite types of architecture. we are still in our first days, and i am sure i will write more about this enchanting city. staying in a hostel is crazy interesting, i've met some people from all over the world, the most amiable have been a group of 12 irish students studying in england. we went to a hole in the wall type of bar last night that is more of a local spot and it was great. i spoke some spanish with some locals who were really encouraging me to practice, it was fun. anyway, i hope things continue to perk up... no more hospital visits. my first was with a friend who was attacked by a dog in the streets. it was our first time hanging out. the dog didn't dig into her skin, but knocked her on her side and she twisted her ankle. such luck. the dog was being walked by an owner and it just went crazy. we saw the dog in passing the other day and now it has a muzzle (: serves it right.