Two months.

As of today, I've been in Spain for two months. Adapting to life here has definitely been one of the most challenging times of my life, but also the most rewarding. I've become much more comfortable with using Spanish in my daily life, and with playing impromptu rounds of Charades when I don't know a certain word. Every day I learn something new about Spain, or at least another vocabulary word. (Today I learned that the word for pomegranate is granada, and the symbol of Granada is the pomegranate - handy! Also that the chains, or cadenas, represent Aragon on the Spanish coat of arms.) The other students in the program are great to hang out with as well; the consortium is made up of six small, northeastern, private, liberal arts colleges so everybody comes from a similar academic background. My classes are going fairly well, although there are several assignments coming up. Arabic class in particular is a lot of fun; the past few classes have all been dry, boring grammar but last class we read self-introduction dialogues and it felt really rewarding to finally put all the grammar to use. Two months is generally the time it takes for me to get really accustomed to a place, so I hope that it'll be smooth sailing from here on out ...