Apparently I've been here for a month already?

Now that is a scary thought right there.  Tomorrow I will have been living in Granada for a month and I honestly couldn't tell you where that time has gone.  The scary thing is I have 15 weeks left here, and I have plans for 8 of my 14 remaining weekends!  If the 4 weeks I have been here have flown by so quickly when I've not had plans or much work to do then how quickly is the rest of the time going to pass?!?

This weekend I've not really been up to much, I had a 4 day weekend because my only Thursday class was cancelled.  I could've used this time to work on my dissertation, finalize my essay for Lancaster or even do some of my Lancaster Award forms that I really need to do, but I've not done any of that!  I've done a few bits for uni here but not much.  On Thursday night I went out for tapas, I seem to be getting rather partial to a bit of tapas and sangria don't I..?  Yesterday I went to the beach, we had really nice weather for about an hour an a half but after that it got a bit cold so we went to have lunch at a bar just up from the beach.  Oh, what I forgot to say is that it was a rocky beach as opposed to sand, so not the most comfortable!  We're determined to find a sandy beach round here somewhere though...

Actually, I did do something vaguely productive, I wrote an article for Third Year Abroad called ebooks vs real books on a year abroad, which I am being paid for in Amazon vouchers, so I'm pleased with myself.  At least something was achieved this weekend.

This week may finally be a "normal" week for me where I get all my classes and actually go to uni 4 out of 7 days, but who knows what may crop up to change those plans, another random conference, a protest maybe? (There was one on Thursday, a feminist demonstration to tie in with International Womens Day, you should've seen the amount of police that were out for it, a bit excessive I think.)

Whilst I'm here, apologies to anyone that follows me on Twitter and was bombarded with #lusuelections tweets on Tuesday and Friday, it's all over now I promise! (Until next year...)  I should find out the results of the exam I took last week in the next few days, so that'll be nice to know how many points I have towards passing this module.  I'm only taking enough to satisfy Lancsaster this term, I took a few extra in Brussels but couldn't find anything I liked that worked with my timetable here.  I'm happy that I could pass 2 of the 4, but my Latin class and my Dialect class look like they're going to be rather hard.  As long as I get some points to take back to Lancaster with me though that's fine as I did alright in Brussels so I'm not going to get myself worried about it. Edit: Got 1.5 out of 2.5 marks available so that'll do :)

I've not eaten the most healthy food this weekend (tapas, Mcdonalds, chips...) so I'm going to try harder tonight, no doubt I'll end up snacking on chocolate later though!

This time in 3 weeks I'll be on holiday in Majorca!!!!

Only in Spain...

Only in Spain...

...would it be completely normal to walk into an exam part way though and it not be a problem.

...would it be completely fine for the teacher to walk in 15 minutes late and continue as if nothing is wrong.

...would nobody bat an eyelid when in the middle of the class someone suddenly gets out of their seat, lets it clatter and bang and then walk out of the room. (Today a herd of people all chose to leave at once when the teacher set us an activity to do)

...would I have had a 5 day weekend, followed by a 2 day week, a 3 day weekend, and then just a 3 day week before another 4 days off and it's not unusual at all.

On Tuesday my Latin teacher told us that we won't be having class tomorrow because it is International Womens Day and they want to encourage us to go to some conference or another.  That just means another day off for me then, and brings my week day:weekend ratio to 3:4, just slightly more acceptable than last weeks 2:5!

Today I had an exam, less than 3 weeks into classes and I'm already being assessed.  On the plus side it does mean that I have completed a quarter of that course already, it's nice to know that I've got myself some points already.  I'm only taking enough credits to fulfil what Lancaster need us to take, although I don't have to pass them they do count towards my grade for this year, so I want to do ok in them.

I'm not sure what my plans are for the weekend, tomorrow I think I'll try and learn the Latin that I'm not picking up very well in class and then in the evening I'm off out for tapas (chinese tapas apparently) with Jack and Anna, I met Anna on Twitter/Third Year Abroad funnily enough as she was in Belgium last semester and her blog was listed on the website.  We've not actually met up yet so it should be nice.

The rest of the weekend is a little vague, there might be a trip to the beach on the cards, but if not I really must force myself to get out and see things, take some photos and go for a walk rather than staying in my room even if I am being productive on my dissertation- that is not what I am here for!

A normal start to a normal week.

Today (as well as marking the start of my 4th week living in Brussels) was the first day of the first what you might call normal week out here.  There are no random public holidays and no trips provided by ISTI.  It is a normal week.  And boy, does it feel normal... it feels now like I've got more of a routine and I know what to expect of things now, I'm doing work and things just like normal...  I'm hoping this normality won't last or it won't become too boring, week 4 is too early for this! I have a lot more time out here yet and I don't want it to drag!

The other thing that has made today distinctly ordinary has been having the chance to moan about my department at uni.  There is nothing like it.  If I closed my eyes I could be back in Lancaster waiting for the latest piece of work that they want us to do and nobody understands...