New friends and football

So I've been here almost 3 weeks now and it's exciting because I'm starting to meet new people. Yesterday I played soccer (or football as it's called in Europe) with 3 girls from my program and some guys that one of my friends introduced us to. 3 of them are from Brazil and the other was from Poland, I think. They were all really good at soccer, but the girls showed them that our skills weren't too shabby either. Even though I've never played on any sort of team, and it's been forever since I've even played just for fun with friends, I managed to get a goal for my team! (And accidently get one for the other team too but whatever haha). The guys were really nice and it's really cool to meet people from other countries. That's one good thing about taking classes for international students, but the downside is that the majority are from the U.S. which makes it very tempting to speak English all the time. I'm hoping to get out of that habit soon.

To help with that, we have the opportunity to do what are called "intercambios," which is basically meeting with a Spanish student to talk so we can practice Spanish and they can practice English. I have my first one tomorrow and I'm really excited, but also a little nervous. I know I shouldn't be worried because she's probably feeling the same way I am and I know it's a great way to meet people who are actually from Spain. Tomorrow I'm also meeting a girl from England who I started talking to through a facebook group for international students. She just arrived here and doesn't know anyone yet so I invited her to hang out with me and my friends tomorrow night, so that should be fun too.

Also, on an unrelated note, I went to a bookstore the other day and bought a copy of the second Harry Potter book in Spanish. I'm really excited to read it and I hope it will help me with my Spanish reading skills. One thing I noticed while I was in the bookstore is that books seem to be slightly more expensive here than in the U.S. It's the first time I've noticed a significant difference in price (even taking into account the exchange rate) and it was interesting to see. Some of the smaller paperback books were 10 euros or more, when I would guess they would be about 7 or 8 dollars in the U.S. So unfortunately for me, one of my favorite pastimes is more expensive here. :(

I feel like there are so many things I want to share about my trip so far, but whenever it comes time to write about them I can't remember what they are. Oh well, maybe I'll remember eventually haha.