New classes and other fun stuff

So this week is the first week of our new classes, which will go until December. We started the week with a placement test on Monday and then went to our first classes that afternoon. I surprisingly placed into the highest level for all of the classes I'm taking, which I was happy about. That means that in terms of levels, I'm supposedly at a "superior" level in Spanish, one level above the level I was in for the 3 week course. When I found this out it was definitely a confidence booster, and made me realize that I actually have gotten better at Spanish since I've been here. Yay!

So far the classes I've had are Spanish cinema, History of Spain, Spanish Culture, and Language. Tomorrow I have my first Literature class. So far I think I'm going to like all my classes, so hopefully it stays that way haha. All of the teachers seem really nice and I think I'm going to learn a lot.

Last night, I went to a Spanish-themed party at one of the bars that often organizes events for students, and it was really fun. They played all Spanish music, which is rare in bars and clubs here, and there were demonstrations of typical Spanish dances. I took some pictures, but none of them came out very good. I'll post some anyway to give you an idea:

Flamenco

 Bachata

Flamenco for 3 people

Salsa

Then today, there was una huelga general, a general strike, in the entire country. Many people were encouraged not to go to work in protest of the government, I think because of certain taxes or something that many people don't support. It was strange because as I was walking to class this morning, almost none of the stores were open yet like they usually are at that time, and they all had stickers on the windows that said Cerrado por la huelga (closed for the strike). Once I got out of class many of the stores had opened though, so it seemed like a lot of places opened late and closed early today. There were only a few that I saw that were closed all day. Teachers weren't required to go to work today either, and some of my friends didn't end up having any classes because their teachers just didn't show up. I only had one class and my teacher taught today. I also saw a demonstration as I was walking home from class and the police had blocked off a bunch of roads for it. I wanted to take a picture of the crowd but I forgot my camera so I couldn't. Another difference was that all of the buses had had limited service today, which I imagine made it much harder for people who normally take buses to get around.

Now onto the food portion yet again. The following are various soups that we had eaten over the past few weeks.

Bean and rice soup

Rice and veggies

A sort of potato puree with fried croutons

Lentils with rice

Then for our main course the other night we had this, which is meatballs in gravy with peppers and peas:

And for dessert, another one of my favorites, yogurt. This one is coconut flavored:

And I guess that's it for now. My group is taking a trip to Toledo and Madrid this weekend, so even if I don't post anything before that I will definitely have lots to tell about the trip when I get back.