It's decided... Next semester I'm going to Spain! I'm going to be studying abroad in Madrid for a semester, 3 whole months! It's kind of overwhelming being that the only time I've ever been out of the country was going skiing in Canada (and lets face it, there isn't much of a difference between the culture in Canada and the US, especially if the only culture you see is on a tourist filled ski mountain). Needless to say, I'm somewhat excited to experience "culture shock" for the first time.

One of the most exciting things about studying in Spain is being able to practice (perfect) my Spanish. All students in the program are required to sign a contract which says that they will only speak Spanish while in the program. That is particularly nice because it means that even when talking with other students in the program, I will still have the same immersive experience.

In the meantime, I am looking for any opportunity available to me to practice up on my Spanish such that the transition to speaking only Spanish will be easier. I plan on finding a night course or other opportunities to practice during the summer after work (such as tertulias), however I may be limited to just reading novels and studying vocabulary.

Random Thought:

As I entered a new number in my phone today, I wondered to myself, "how much of the alphabet do the (first letters of the) names in my cellphone span?" The answer: 14. That makes 12 letters, fhilpquvwxyz, which don't appear. As I thought about it some more, I realized that I couldn't really think of many people whose names start with these letters. I need to broaden my horizons... That being said, my goal for the rest of the year is to finish filling up my cellphone to the point that I have every letter of the alphabet represented. I don't know how realistic this is because, after all, I can't even think of a name that starts with q. Nonetheless, it is worth a try.

Today I went shopping for some groceries. I was very proud of myself when I got home because I only bought healthy things, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, a diversion from the normal frozen pizza. I decided that I wanted to buy some English muffins, one of my favorite breakfast foods, so I made my way to the bread aisle. I was astonished to learn that the bread aisle had been replaced by the matzah aisle. There was not one slice of bread in the whole aisle, just matzah. It's understandable, as the grocery store is in a largely Jewish community, but what annoyed me was that there were no signs telling me where the bread had been moved to. It turns out, they sprinkled the bread throughout the store with small selections of different types of bread in various aisles, a loaf here, a loaf there, making it extremely difficult to find my English muffins. After about 10 minutes of searching, I gave up. No English muffins for me.

:(