Pop-Eye

Yesterday was a long day.  School felt like it could have dragged on forever, possibly because I was so tired I could barely answer a question.  We had two subs for school because our grammar teacher wasn't there.  Our first sub was Bagona.  She was teaching us about the plusmasperfecto when we heard a loud whistling noise that sounded almost like a Peter Pan flute.  She stopped immediately and told us all to listen.  We listened quietly wondering what the noise was and why it was so important.  She informed us that the noise was coming from a man that they called, Afilador, was a man that rode his bike down the streets sharpening knifes and scissors and that the flute/instrument he played was used to inform people that he was there.  She said that this used to be really popular in Spain, but its becoming more and more rare and that's why she made us listen to it.  It's kind of like an ice cream truck in America, but for old people.  You hear the flute and run downstairs and have the man sharpen you knifes.  It's really quite strange but I guess it's an old Spanish tradition, so I was pretty excited that we were able to hear it.  I found some videos on Youtube of it so I thought I should share it with you all so you can hear it.

After school Ryann and I went to the beach and ate our sandwiches that Carmen had packed us. It was so ridiculously hot out.  When we got home, after being at the beach for 3 hours, it was 93 degrees, so I can only imagine what the temperature was when we were at the beach.  It was so hot that I could see the heat rising off of the sand.  Needless to say, we were in the water a lot.

After the beach we came home, showered, did homework, ate dinner and talked with Nick and Ben.  After a long day we were very tired so we went to bed.

This morning we woke up and I didn't want to go to school at all, but Ryann dragged my butt there and I'm glad she did because I had a really good day.  In our conversation class this morning Alvaro took us to the food market.  It was awesome.  They had fish, meat, vegetables, spices, bread, candy, wine and cheese.  Everything was fresh and look great, except for the dead, slimey smelly fish that were staring at me with their dead eyes.  They were semi-creepy.  Alvaro took us to the market so we could learn food vocabulary.  I learned a lot of words that I didn't know and I was really interested in learning so Alvaro attached to me and literally grabbed my arm and took me to all of the stands and pointed out certain things to me.  It was really cute! My favorite thing I learned today was the word for spinach in Spanish, espinaca.  At first, I didn't realize what he was pointing to was spinach and when I finally did I replied, "Oh ha, like Pop-Eye!"  His face lit up and immediately he started to sing the Pop-Eye theme song in Spanish, "Popele marino, soy" and grabbed my arm rocking back and forth.  It was so adorable. I found the theme song on Youtube so you could sort of imagine what I was hearing :).  I love Alvaro and his class.  He is so animated and loves teaching us things.

In our grammar class I felt a lot more comfortable today and was actually able to talk to Paqi about what Ryann and I did yesterday (using the preteri, past perfect and imperfect...quite an accomplishment for me:) ) and about how hot it was and how weather changes are normal in Michigan, so we are used to having it be cold one day and hot the next.  She explained that it's not normal in Spain and this year has been rather strange weather-wise. I felt pretty good about myself.  I think I am beginning to feel more comfortable speaking the language here after 3 and a half weeks :).  Por fin!  

After school we came home and Carmen had made us Paella with watermelon and bread.  It was really delicious and filled up my empty stomach.  We just woke up from our daily afternoon siesta and are getting ready to go to the Picasso museum with some of our friends from ISA.  After the museum we are going to a Mexican restaurant, because I am obsessed and need some Mexican food in my stomach before I go crazy.  I'm really excited to eat chips and salsa for the first time in almost 4 weeks.  I'm not used to have Mexican food withdrawals.  It should be really fun!  I can't believe we leave Malaga in exactly two weeks from today.  Time has flown by!

Vaya con Dios!