Granada...Girona...Granada...Girona...GRANADA

So the decision has finally been made, and Granada it is.  Quick run down of why:

• Spanish vs Catalan- in my mind Spanish was always going to win, 0.5 units of next year are Catalan, my degree however? 50% Spanish.
• Location- I chose Granada in the first place because of it's location and the fact that I know it is a lovely city.
• Convenience- This way I can leave here on the 22nd ish of Jan, go home for a week or 2 just about and head out to Granada.

This afternoon was intended to be for doing my reading for ISTI and take a look at DELC 310, this failed as instead I spent the entirety of it doing my application for Granada.  For a European University their organisation is really quite something else!  They have timetables and exam dates online and ask us to pick our courses now.  I have managed to put together a horrible timetable which starts at 8.30 every day (Must find somewhere close to live...) and on two days of the week ends at 9.30PM!  I do however get Friday off.  The reason this took me so long to do though was becuase seeing as I could access the exam dates I tried my best to finish as early as possible in the hope that I might make it back to Lancaster for Grad Ball and Extrav.  I finish on the 19th of June and my best guess tells me that Grad Ball will be somewhere around the 23rd/25th sort of time- bonus!  I've settled on Intro to Latin, History of Women, Cultural Anthropology, History of the modern world, and a course on Spanish dialects.  That might sound heavy but its actually fairly light subject matter compared with some of the other courses I could've done.  That's the important part of my day over with!

This morning I did a dictee (dictation, the Francophones love them...) with my flat mate for some work I need to do for ISTI and then we went out to lunch.  Was really nice to get to see a part of the city I've not been to, and as it is so close to me I'm not really sure how I've missed it!  I had a tartine which is apparently very Belgian and is essentially just an open sandwhich.  I also had a glass of Jus de pomplemousse just because I love saying the word!

That brings us to the end of week 3 folks, roll on week 4! This will actually be the first "normal" week I've had here with no random days off or trips to go on.  A bientot :)

Brussels- European capital of repetitive radio!

Come back Heart Essex, all is forgiven, I have found worse radio.  I listen to Radio Contact here in Belgium but seriously, I hear the same songs everyday. 3 or 4 times.  Add to this the fact that there is a hell of a lot of British 90s music (Fine at Sugar on a Friday but everyday?!) and Heart radio actually becomes quite appealing.  I stick to it for the French practise but if anyone can reccomend something better please do.  Having said this whilst writing I am being treated to a song I've never heard before!

This week there has been a real lack of anything interesting going on really as far as ISTI is concerned.  Getting into the swing of classes and even starting to get given work to do which for now is actually a bit of a novelty but no doubt it will wear off soon enough.  In the end I've taken 29 credits which is just 11 hours of classes and means that esentially I can afford to fail a few credits (namely the Law module and the English to French translation as they're the only non Erasmus modules I'm doing) because Lancaster just take our best 22.5 credits per semester.

It would be nice just to have a straight forward week or 2 without getting stressed about other things but the other day my mind turned to semester 2 and my plans to go to Granada, possibly the Uni in Spain with the most Erasmus students and the biggest "party" atmosphere.  Doesn't sound exactly perfect for me does it?  Why this has only just occured to me I'm unsure but I am now seriously considering starting a fan club for one of my Spanish tutors who even offered to Skype me to talk about it.  I'm hoping to switch to Girona where I think I'd be more comforatable, I know someone already there and someone who would be starting at the same time and I'd get to improve my Catalan at the same time, bonus.  (Another added bonus is that I would most likely be back in England in time to say good-bye to people at Grad Ball which would be quite nice but that really would just be an extra).  Nothing is at all confirmed about this at the moment but hopefully I'll hear back soon and know one way or the other.  I have nothing against Granada, it's a lovely place and I'm sure I'll have a great time if I do go there, I just think I would be more comfortable in Girona, despite meaning that I'll more than likely have to fly out straight from Brussels with my Mum bringing a case of "Spain clothes" to swap with me- not ideal!

I'll keep you updated with it all!

Got an exciting trip tomorrow down a mine and then around Liege, not got any exciting plans for the weekend other than discovering a shopping centre and town and hunting down a cheap but small case for my trip back to Lancaster.  Wish me luck and I'll blog again soon!