Personajes gordos no existan en espana! (Fat people don't exist in spain.)

...which led to the purchase of my gym membership. It's three buildings away from my house and very nice inside! Men here aren't all about lifting weights in gyms and there's not many bulky "meat-heads." Which I find unfortunate. Haha... More people are into cardio and literally THERE ARE NO FAT PEOPLE IN SPAIN. People eat healthier, smaller portions, and walk EVERYWHERE. My legs and feet have been pretty sore from walking miles and miles every day... My senora said tonight at dinner that Americans are fat and eat a lot of grease and for Spanish people it's just unacceptable. Yesterday I ate at the school cafeteria with some friends. I took my tray to the register to pay and the guy charged me for two lunches becuase he thought I had bought lunch for a friend! He looked at me wierd and said, "are you really going to eat all of that?" and he didn't believe me! He ended up giving me some money back, but it was SO funny. I told him, "Corro mucho?" I run a lot? Conclusion: Americans are fat. And apparently no one thinks Americans work out because at the gym I feel like I was an exhibit becuase people were staring. They were very nice however and helped me with the equipment.

I began classes yesterday. MY FAVORITE CLASS is latin rythms and dance! I switched from flamenco becuase this is more my style. We will learn the cha-cha, salsa, tango, etc and put on a performance at the end of November for the whole school. Apparently it's a huge event. Yesterday in class we danced to Ricky Martin and learned some basic salsa moves. Later on we will go to dance clubs at night on the school's dime. My teacher is so great and enthusiastic and a great dancer. She used a gal as an example when she was teaching us a dance move and she was grabbing the girls butt and saying thats what men try to do but it's not appropriate! Hilarious. Teachers here are so much less conservative in many ways. My teacher in my spanish oral communication class wore super tight jeans and a belly shirt! She was a babe! haha. SO I won't be getting wierd looks for my short skirts. Still blending....with my pelo rubio? blonde hair :) I literally walk down the street and people say, "es americano." Oh well. I'm a patriot.

I am a little discouraged with my Spanish classes. The teachers talk very fast and in no English. While I think I may be able to pick up most of what I'll be learning in the classes, it is going to be very difficult as I am in three Spanish classes here. I am thinking about dropping one or two and picking up a photography class--I would be taking photos while walking around the streets of Madrid, or some other fun class like that. I am going here for school though, so classes must be a priority, especially becuase the grade transfers to Baylor.
I had my first class in English today-interpersonal communications. I am the only person studying abroad in that class. All of the other people actually attend St. Louis University and live in Madrid all year around so it's nice to meet some people who know the city and are extremely fluent. Our teacher is a beautiful Spanish man. Me gusto mucho este clase!

My school has about four buildings. The campus is surrounded by neighborhoods and shops and there's a few bars and sandwich shops and restaurants. It isn't a beautiful location, like downtown, but it is quaint and I feel safe there, and it is nice. I like it. There is a courtyard outside of one building and there are always students gathered there talking, eating, studying, hanging out. I can always meet someone new, and I'm making quite a few friends! Like I believe I said before, many people came in groups, so it's wierd being one of the only people here that didn't know anyone to begin with, but it's going well! :)

It was two of my new friends birthdays last night! I made it through my first full night of traveling in metros and cobblestone streets in high heels. We went over to a friends apartment and hung out a bit and then went to a few bars after midnight on calle de sol-the happening place- to celebrate. Everyone goes out late. If you arrive anywhere before 12:30 or one you're just wierd. I was a dancing machine and we all had SUCH a great time! There was this Spanish couple sitting in the corner and I made them both dance with me. They were really shy, so they enjoyed some liquid courage and then decided to dance conmigo. I met a few people and began speaking my broken spanish. They couldn't understand me and said they were from Austria and I should speak in English. I just assume everyone speaks Spanish...They were very nice and beautiful people. I believe we are going out tonight to our first actual dance club experience? So that will be great fun!

All of the young people in Spain go out at night on Thursday Friday Saturday definately and then a few nights during the rest of the week if they have nothing to do. Our senora encourages us to go out to bars and clubs-what a different culture than America! Adults encouraging young people to go out and drink and dance and party. It's different. Spain rocks.

I did learn today though to not come home at five am when you have school the next day...

After school everyone in my house just passed out. The gals that didn't go out were extremely tired becuase our plaza is so loud and they said that Spainards were partying all night down there and singing songs and playing music until four am or so... And in our apartment, five stories above, we still have to keep our windows open becuase it's so hot.

It's ten pm so time to get ready... voy a la discoteca anoche!