60 Second Update

So this one's going to be short... no really.  Spent last weekend in Jarandilla de la Vera at an English professor's conference that our program coordinator invited me to.  La Vera is a region of northern Extremadura that is a string of little mountain villages.  

It was a lot of fun!!!  Got to know some really nice Spanish people, brushed up on my Extremaduran (mah o menoh) and really just enjoyed the relaxed rural way of life.

Got to see the Monasterio of Yuste (where Carlos V died) and did some hiking in the mountains.  Getting excited for the Camino!  Back to school this week, and the weather has been really gorgeous.  I've enjoyed my walks to school immensely!

This week I had a midterm.  Call me a nerd but it was actually kind of nice to be tested again - the classes are a little bit easy here.  But, I'm getting my education outside of the classroom - like hanging out with the choir at a café after practice.  Now that's fun!  Not much sleep this week, but lots of preparation: Holy Week trip, other weekend trips, Camino, getting homework done in advance, and planning for my FAMILY to come this week.  THEY'RE HERE!!!!!!!  Mom, Dad, my brother Daniel, and his wife Amanda flew in on Tuesday, and will be here for a week.  How exciting is that?  And already they've come to see how life is at Calle Caleros.  A little bit of a homecoming for Daniel who was with the same family 1 1/2 years ago.  Manoli prepared us some DELICIOUS homemade chocolate, and we had a nice time introducing Mom and Dad, Daniel and Manoli catching up, and all the awkward translation moments.  It was really quite nice!  I know my mom liked seeing where we live and meeting Manoli, my mom for 3 months.  Moms are pretty special!!!  So, after classes tomorrow we're going to a mystery location... really, we haven't decided yet.  I think we'll just follow the good old Spanish sun wherever it takes us!  Until then!