Ok... there have been some suggestions that I talk a little bit about the food. First of all, Spaniards don't eat nearly as much as Americans. The portions are much smaller, and the food, by all appearances, is less greasy and fairly balanced. For example, the typical dinner in the dining hall consists of a soup or salad, some meat entree (like pork chops, hamburgers, sausage, fish, etc), and dessert (fruit or yogurt, sometimes flan). Lunch is similar, although generally heavier. At breakfast we have cups of cereal, fresh squeezed orange juice (squeezed by yours truly), and chocolate milk. Bread is served at every meal, and the only thing to drink is water. It sounds bad, but you really start feeling good about it... it's so much healthier. The eating schedule is also much more stretched out than in America. Breakfast around 9am, lunch around 2pm, and dinner 9pm. This is another thing you have to get used to... I'm always hungry at every meal... I tell myself that's a good thing. A general note on the Spanish diet, however, is how much meat these people eat. Lots of sausage, beef, and pork, though less chicken. It's pretty great. One other great Spanish food, tortillas de cualquier tipo (espanolas, francesas, de patatas, etc.). It's basically a potato omellete, with cheese, sometimes ham or mushrooms. They're awesome. You can also eat it as a sandwich, which is really good. Enough for now, time to sleep. Buenas noches

Ok... A slight change.

Well, I haven't posted on this like I wanted to in the beginning. So I'm going to try again. As I'm in Spain now, I figured I'd change this more into a running commentary on my time here. We'll see how it goes (i.e. if I actually keep up with it).
So I went out for the first time last night with my Spanish friends. If anything, I know I'm going to have to work up my stamina. They're pretty incredible. Firstly, we drank a drink called calimocho. Calimocho is about a half-half mix of cheap red wine and Coke. Yeah. Sounds good, doesn't it? It's actually not that bad. It tastes a lot more like Coke than wine, and the wine's so bad you'd want Coke in it anyway. Try it for kicks :-). Then we drank another gross wine mixed drink called lingistoria (I'm not sure exactly how this one is spelled). This one is rose with orange soda. But not orange soda like Sunkist or Fanta... it's more tart. Anyway, this one is better than calimocho, and you should try it too. You'll be surprised at how good it is, but don't blame me if you don't like it.
So enough about drinking gross Spanish drinks. Now a short report on what life is like here. I live in the Residencia San Agustin, which is about a 10 minute walk from the center of Burgos. I just took some new pictures of the town, which you can see on my shutterfly account. If you're having any problems accessing the pictures, send me an email. I'd like to put them some place where people can download them, but I haven't really found a good place to do it. I know there is such a thing as a photoblog, but I haven't had all that much time to figure it out (I know there's a bored little sister out there somewhere who could do this for me ;-)). The Spanish eating schedule is a bit different than the States... breakfast around 9, lunch around 2:30, dinner sometime after 9. Siesta after lunch is pretty awesome, except that all the stores close and you can't really accomplish anything. So they basically force you to nap. Gotta hate that.
My classes currently consist of only a seminar called "Contemporary Spain." Our professor is pretty cool and easy to understand. We've gone on a couple visitas to see an NGO called La Rueda which helps abused women (this is a big problem here) and also to see the alcalde (mayor) of the city. He's a pretty important politician, who used to be the vicepresident of Castilla y Leon (Burgos is a part of this province) and he used to be a Senator, representative in Congress, etc. During the Spanish Civil War, Burgos was the capital for Franco's regime. In the city hall (ayuntamiento) there is the desk that he used for three years. That was kind of creepy, actually, considering what a bastard he was. However, from my Contemporary Spain course and talking to my professor, it seems like a strong central government was necessary to prepare Spain for democracy afterwards. They had tried to form a republic two other times, but the government was too decentralized to be effective. Just a thought...
I live in the aulario, which is a small building behind the main building of the Residencia. See pictures for further explanation. I'm tired of writing, will write more later, hopefully. Feel free to leave comments for other stuff I should write about (questions, etc). Peace.