A few key photos!

I would venture to guess that most everyone who reads my blog has seen my photos on facebook, but for those of you who might be less technologically adept, here are a few key photos from my time here!

One of many artistic heladerías

Luna and Tortuga in their natural habitats.

The view of the Alhambra from the balcony where I live!!

One big happy family! (From left: Gloria, Rafael, Liz, and if you don't know who the last person is you probably shouldn't be reading this blog ;) )

Our guided biking trip!

Festival de la Virgen Angustius!

Cuevas de Nerja (I saw this on the CLM excursion that I mentioned)

A beautiful beach in Nerja.

The sunset from my balcony the other day...absolutely stunning!

1 Month!

I have now been in Spain for a little over a month! It's crazy to think that a month has already gone by! Though not quite as hard to believe as I sit here attempting to study for my intensive month final tomorrow and I realize how much stuff we have learned/how much I material I should be reviewing.

Next week I start the classes that I will be taking for the next three months! I am taking the next level Spanish class (assuming I pass my exam tomorrow...), a contemporary art history class, a history of flamenco class, doing an internship in a school, and also taking German! I told them that I wanted to take German 1, but they told me I should take the placement test anyway since I've already had some German. So I went to take the placement test... and me oh my. I didn't review at all because I figured that would be cheating, I get there and I'm like "wow all I remember how to say is 'I speak no german" and 'I'm thirsty'." Two very important phrases, but not going to get me very far... Then I get the test and understood some of it, but had no idea what to put in the blanks for the multiple choice because all of the answer choices were like "ein, eine, einen, der, dein, diene, die, etc." all things that I never really bothered to try to put in my long term memory back when I was actually in German 1 because I didn't think any of that was important... On the essay I basically wrote that I didn't know how to answer the question because I took german for 1 year but don't remember very much (all in probably very broken german...) Then for the grand finale was the oral part. I forgot how to say numbers when he asked how old I am. I never thought this would happen, but after that embarrassment, speaking spanish to the guy was a relief... I'm really not sure if I should take this as a good thing or a bad thing. Anyway, there are only like 4 levels of the other language classes, so he put me in 1B.

I met another fellow victim of german memory loss (she's from Granada though!), and she said he put her in 1B also but it didn't work with her schedule so now she's in 2A and was told to study study study before classes start. Anyway, I'm actually looking forward to brushing up on German and then I can impress Anna and her family when I stay in Germany for 2 months. Though it should be interesting to learn German in Spanish... but then again, I have been learning Spanish in Spanish for the past month, so maybe it won't be so bad.

I'm excited to start my new classes, but also kind of sad because I've come to really like all of my level 8 class mates and I'm not sure how often I will end up seeing them now. The Iraqi woman in my class has been really interesting to talk to and hear her perspective on different issues that we discuss. One thing that she sort of reluctantly admitted is that women in Iraq have had much less freedom since the war with the U.S. She also talked about how although Iraq is now a "Democracy" it is only so in name.  For a Muslim Iraqi woman, she really has a lot of freedom. The social system there is basically set up so that if a woman dates someone and then doesn't marry the man/they break up for some reason, it is always the woman's fault and she is ostracized. Homosexuality is also illegal, and if someone is proven to be homosexual, they are killed (Whereas I learned today that in all of Spain gay marriage is allowed and in Andalucia, getting a sex change is free!). In her particular case, she met her husband while studying Spanish at the same University and they knew each other for a year before they started dating, and eventually got married.

But enough of school stuff, last Saturday I went on a CLM excursion to Almuñecar and walked around a castle, then to the Nerja Caves which were spectacular, and then to a beach in Nerja which was also amazing! I had never seen water so clear and blue and beautiful. I also recently booked my flight to Barcelona to go stay with Emma for a weekend, as well as a flight to Paris to go stay with Francois! These are probably the two "biggest" excursions I will be making, but Liz and I may end up going to Cadiz or Seville at some point too! So basically I am very excited to be travelling a little bit around Spain and Europe! Instead of YOLO, we use YOIGO here (You're [maybe] Only In Granada Once). My mom, sisters, and grandparents will also be coming over thanksgiving, so I have a lot to look forward to!

I really do like my host family a lot, but I'm glad Liz is here to be just as confused as I am. For example, this past week and a half, we have only seen our host dad maybe twice. We considered asking where he's been, but since neither of them mentioned it, we figured it's best not to ask just in case they are having marital problems or something (though the two times we have seen both of them together they have seemed very happy so really we have no idea what the situation is).

Now briefly, there is not much to report on Luna and Tortuga, but Luna has basically been the same little weirdo as always, and Tortuga has been hiding from the rain we have had the past two days (a little bit contrary to how you might think a turtle would behave in the rain). The facebook page "Turtles Eating Things" also "shared" my photo of Tortuga eating some lettuce, so that was definitely a high point of my day hehe. Also, for those very few of you who don't have facebook, I will post some of the photos I have been taking so that you can see some of what I have been talking about!

Exercise? What's that?

I feel like a lot usually happens in between my blog posts, but a some particularly remarkable things happened in these past few days. Including, but not limited to, me voluntarily going for a run...but I'll get to that later.

I had a pretty relaxed Saturday because we didn't end up going to the ranch in the mountains (but we will most likely be going in October and if I understood correctly it's also a tomato farm... so we are going to learn how to can tomatoes for the winter, Gloria (my host mom) said this is a very traditional thing to do). But also on Saturday was the celebration of Granada's patron saint the Virgen Angustias. To celebrate they have this huge flower market open and a big mass service and then at the end of the day put up a bunch of flowers all over the church to celebrate. I went and observed a lot of the ceremony and it was pretty cool! Since there were only two of us eating lunch my host mom made cheese fondu so we had that with bread out on the balcony and I'm pretty sure we were both feeling very spanish.

Then Sunday two very unusual things happened. As aforementioned, I decided I didn't want all the ice cream to start building up so went for a run. According to this book with stuff to do/see in Andalusia, there is a giant rastro (flea market) in Granada, so I decided I would run there and back since the supposed location was a decent distance and in an area across the river that I hadn't really explored yet. I used google maps to find a really easy route and was all set and ready to go. Keep in mind that I honestly don't remember the last time I went for a run... and I kind of felt like I had forgotten how to, stemmed by the fact that I almost grabbed a snack for part way through but then remembered that is not something you do. Anyway, it was really good for like the first 10 minutes and then I hit a roundabout and realized that I had no idea which part of the circle to get off on and didn't remember the name of the plaza I was headed too or any of the surrounding street names. I searched on for a bit but then gave when I felt like I was dying and went back. Now on the way back, I chose a slightly different route, that I had previously avoided because there were more people around but this time jumped at the chance because more people translates to more chances to walk without feeling guilty. And where should I end up but right in the middle of the rastro. I think anyway...it was definitely not where it was supposed to be though and also not very exciting, so maybe there are two sunday flea markets in Granada.

Anyway, the next odd Sunday event occurred later that night. It was about 9:30 and Liz and I were kind of wondering where Gloria and Rafael were and when we would be eating, when they enter the house with two 16 and 17 year old Italian guys who are staying in the extra room here for a week. They definitely didn't tell us this was going to happen, but hey, we aren't complaining.
Monday I had another flute lesson with the same teacher as before, and she was really funny so that was enjoyable. When she walked in she asked for a glass of water so I gave her one but apologized because there were only small glasses clean, and in the whole hour she drank less than half of it. Not that this would normally be of note, but I found it funny anyway.

Then today I went on the mountain biking excursion that I signed up for and it was awesome! This was without a doubt the best possible day it could have been because it has been slightly overcast today and the coolest in temperature! There were only 4 of us going and then the guide, which actually worked out nicely. One of the girls runs marathons, so needless to say she lead the group. The guide said he was really surprised by how fast we were going, but what he meant was how fast she was going... Anyway, the first 1.5 hours was entirely going up. Not going to lie, I felt like I was going to die pretty much the entire time. I ate an embarrassingly large amount of milano type chocolate cookies yesterday (too much to even say here... that's how bad) and I was really feeling/regretting that. Halfway up the mountain I'm pretty sure I had a wake up call and realized I really need to get back into shape... We reached the top and had a beautiful view (despite it being overcast) and then partway down had an arial view of the Alhambra! After we got past the rocky/rooty mountain part of the descent, we were flying down the roads, and got back in probably a quarter of the time the climb took. At the end, our guide was like "okay, now I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is, you guys get a CLM-Deportes (sports) t-shirt!" I'm still pretty stoked about the t-shirt. "And the bad news is, you are not going to have much fun sitting down tomorrow." So I decided to write this post now while I'm still in that "yeah I feel awesome" mode.

Now for a brief Luna/Donna Flor update. I think it was Saturday, but regardless, I have never seen anything like this. Luna was at the table begging as usual, so Gloria gave her some of the cheese fondu but she then decided she was too good/didn't want it. Meanwhile, the turtle comes over to see what's going on. What occurred next reminded me so much of the tortoise and the hare, except that Tortuga was booking it. I have never seen or heard of a turtle running so fast... and chasing a cat nonetheless! They spent a good five minutes running around and then chasing each other in circles. Immediately after, Donna Flor went to sleep and Luna resumed her futile begging. It was like in one of those stories where as soon as the animals realize they are being watched by humans, they go back to acting like animals and stop whatever crazy unrealistic thing they were doing before.

3 weeks!

It has now been exactly 3 weeks since I left the U.S.! I would say it definitely seems like longer than 3 weeks. Not so much because time has been moving slowly or I haven't been having a good time, but rather because I feel like I have done more than three weeks worth of stuff.

Nothing too incredibly exciting has happened since I last blogged, though I am slowly adjusting to the Spanish ways (and the Spanish are slowly adjusting to my ways ;) ). The presentation that I was so worried about actually went quite well, and after having to research and talk about important monuments in Cataluña, there are now quite a few of them that I want to go see! So I think making a Barcelona trip (and staying with Emma!) will definitely be happening. One of my teachers today also leaked a rumor that we might not have a final exam if both of our teachers think we have all reached and accomplished the level they want us to reach (so this is a good thing, but I also don't want to be the one that brings the class down....)

Another exciting thing that happened this week is that I discovered a coffee machine in CLM that is only 70 euro cents a cup, and is actually pretty good! This I suppose could be seen as both a positive and negative because I'm finding it's the little purchases that add up until eventually one little straw (or stirring spoon, one might say) could break the camels back. Speaking of spoons, Liz (my housemate) and I discovered this AMAZING gelato place. We asked a group of locals what the best place in town was, and they all had a different answer (which must mean they are all actually just really good), but one particularly convincing fellow pointed us in a wonderful direction. I had nutella mousse and strawberry. The nutella mousse was actually just like nutella (which is already awesome) in gelato form, making it even more awesome. And the strawberry, which may seem like a boring flavor that you can get in a mcdonalds milkshake, was like if a strawberry went to heaven and asked the ice cream gods to make it into ice cream. I also met a german girl wearing lederhosen for the germany austria soccer match that evening. So basically it was an all around great experience.

My Señora Gloria (that's how one refers to a host mother here) knows someone who has a ranch in the Sierra Nevada mountains so she invited Liz and I to go with her and stay in the cabin this weekend, so we will probably do that which is exciting. If I understood correctly, there will be lots of wild animals also which is always a plus!

I am also adjusting very well to the food, Gloria is a very good and creative vegetarian cook and she has come up with some delicious meals for us. As I mentioned in a different post, the dinners here are really small (one night they actually just made about 5 pieces of asparagus for each of us... my theory is that because they both smoke so much they don't have much of an appetite come dinner). There was also one night when they were going out so they told Liz and I we could make ourselves frozen quiches when we were ready for dinner, so we made ourselves one each (they really aren't very big) and our host parents witnessed this and were shocked and asked if we were seriously going to each eat that much. Ever since that night, they have been feeding us slightly more normal sized dinners and we, in turn, have started occasionally having smaller appetites at dinner (probably due to snacking more during the day on our offbrand nutella splurges).

Anyway, I will give a quick "Luna/Tortuga" update and then call it a post. So today I walked over to find Tortuga and he/she (I'm pretty sure the turtle is a girl but I can't help but think of him as a boy) sleeps in the funniest position sprawled with a few limbs out of the shell and head tucked in. If I didn't know better I would think him dead. Luna is also becoming quite the greedy little beggar. Every time any sort of food is being eaten, she comes over and puts her little paws on my lap and puts on her cutest face with her largest pupils. Today she was also walking around on the stove, and I was like "Luna, what if the stove were on..." then I remembered she doesn't speak english, so repeated myself in Spanish and she gave me the typical luna slit eye look and jumped off. And who said animals don't understand humans?

Pros, Cons, and Oddities

After two weeks in Granada, I have noticed quite a few interesting differences between Spain (in particular Granada) and the U.S. (in particular Chambana). Some of these pros, cons, and oddities are very general, whereas some are more specific to my situation. But never fear,what I'm referring to should be clear.

PROS:

- People here eat tomatoes with everything! Tomatoes spread on toast, Gazpacho (a cold tomato based soup), tomato sauce on rice (pretty good actually), tomato sauce on pasta, tomato on tortilla (note that a spanish tortilla is very different from a mexican tortilla... the spanish tortilla is eggs potato and cheese!), tomato on meat for those who eat that, you get the idea. Gloria also made this really surprisingly good dinner the other day of just sliced tomato, cucumber, onion, pepper, salt, olive oil, cheese and then microwaved for like 3 minutes. I had never eaten hot cucumbers before but this was tasty.

-In general everyone is very relaxed and laid back, which often translates to no one is on time, which works out nicely for me.

-The town layout makes it easy to walk pretty much everywhere!

-The city is beautiful.

-As mentioned before, Granada has awesome water.

-Sensodyne toothpaste is cheap!

-Some food items are also very cheap (like chocolate! I can get a fancy european bar for about a euro!)

-Wifi is pronounced "wee fee" as would be expected, but it makes me hide a chuckle every time someone says it.

-I might be able to play flute in the Granada Youth Symphony

-Another student at CLM is living here now too and she is really cool and we get along well. Liz is 20, goes to Villanova, and is from Manhattan. It's also nice because we can experience and discuss all the weird/funny things that happen here (such as not realizing that both Gloria and Rafael would be gone this weekend...).

-We also definitely seem to have the best host family situation for many reasons.
1. LOCATION
2. Gloria and Rafael are very cool, nice, welcoming and actually want us to feel like this is our home now. We usually eat lunch and dinner with them, breakfast is whatever we want, but we can also eat anything from the kitchen if we are ever hungry. This is appreciated more now after one girl told me that she isn't allowed to touch the fridge and her host family makes and serves her portions of food so sometimes it's too big, other times not enough, and they have also forgotten to feed her...!
3. A con to this is that they don't eat fruit... but lately have been buying more because they know I like it (there are actually about 50 plum things just sitting loos if the fridge right now hahaha).

-I have been been making friends! Joy Shapley is also here in Granda with a different intensive spanish program, so I had lunch with her and that was fun!

[Side pro: Sometimes you just want a piece of candy so I was happy to find left over biaggis mints from senior supper in one of my bags.]

-And as always, Luna and Tortugita/donna flor are a big pro!

CONS:

-Butter is never used here... only olive oil

-If you are laughing or smiling in public people assume you are american or drunk

-Coffee is not a thing here. It's even hard to find a cafe with coffee, and those that do have it charge a lot for a very little.

-No one wears birkenstocks unless very old or american (but even still I have spotted maybe 5 birk wearers including myself in the probably thousands of people I have seen walking around)

-It's rude to stretch in public?

-No one wears t-shirts, no one wears athletic shorts, and definitely no one wears them paired together (though ironically enough that is what I am wearing right now...)

-It's easy to think 1 euro = 1 dollar

-You can't touch or pick out your own fruit from a market/store

- I didn't learn the vosotros conjugations and everyone uses it :(

-I have to give a group presentation with 2 of the native speakers in my class tuesday and each of us has to talk for 10 minutes about an aspect of the cataluña region... so basically my 10 minutes will either have much less info or will be much longer than 10 minutes ;)

-7 hours behind me, my sister is rudely taking and wearing my clothes without asking.

PROS/CONS:

-There are very few fast food places here, though I happen to live right by what seems to be the only fast food place in Granada (a burger king that also has the best coffee deals).

-No one "goes for a run" here... (though I might try to do this tomorrow morning if I wake up on time... I even wore my XC shirt to mentally prepare myself)

-Pretty much everyone looks good all the time (this is mostly a con)

-There are ice cream places everywhere! (There are 3 different ice cream places right next to/across from where I live)

-My spanish classes are really hard

-There are so so many shoe stores around here (I bought a pair for only 9 euros!)

ODDITIES
(I didn't think these really fall under pro, con, or combo)

-They don't refrigerate milk/ it's all pasteurized... the milk isle at the grocery store is very foreign to me.

-The sleeping and eating schedule is very strange. People go to sleep very late after a very small and very late dinner, wake up at a respectably early time and eat a standard breakfast, take a long midday nap after a large lunch. Repeat.

-In Granada there are not many bugs, but for some reason a vespidae (yellow jacket wasp for those who don't know) has taken a liking to my breakfast location each morning.

-Everyone uses cash!

-The Spain accent is very strong and very noticeable here (for those who don't know, it's kind of like a lisp... example: "gracias" is pronounced "grathias")

-It is practically a crime not to have an actual leg of ham (hoof and all) just sitting out in the kitchen.

I'm sure there are many other differences that I cannot think of right now, but fortunately my list of cons is much shorter/more trivial than that of pros and I have been having a great (but also challenging) experience thus far!

Classes begin!

A lot has happened in the two days since I last blogged! Yesterday everyone doing the intensive spanish month took a placement test to see what level we should all be in. This was the first (and maybe only) time that we were all in the same place at the same time and I was surprised to see that there were at least 100 (and probably more) people there. Most everyone that I heard, talked to, and encountered was American, speaking english, and from a university program. Going into it, I didn't really know what to expect because they said that gap year students come and take these courses but I didn't realize that the CLM is actually a very big study abroad destination for a lot of universities. While waiting for the test to begin I did find a few other stragglers, who like myself are not here with any particular program and therefore did not have a group to cling to.

So we began the test with a 40 minute written section first. The questions went from easiest to hardest and we needed to use some complex grammar to answer some of the harder questions, but it was all just talking about ourselves... so therefore not very difficult (I suppose writing essays in spanish basically every day for Señora Finch paid off). And then we had an hour to answer 80 multiple choice grammar questions. So also not very hard because it was multiple choice... and again I had a grammar drill sergeant to prepare me. I was pretty sure I got quite a few wrong, but just decided to turn it in without checking my answers because I forgot how tiring taking tests is. The part I was most worried about was the Oral because speaking is pretty difficult, but actually they just called us in one by one and talked about our exam and what level we should be in.

While waiting for the oral part, I learned that there are 9 levels, so I was thinking/shooting for 4 or 5. Maybe 6. But then he called me up and we had a conversation and talked about my exam and he laughed at my answer to one of the questions that asked our current worries and emotions which was basically that I wouldn't make friends because I'm here alone. I told him that I was also worried because I can read and write much better than I can speak, and he was like "okay, I'll put you in level 8 then." ..... I was shocked. Asked if he was sure/serious. He was. So there I am feeling pretty pleased with myself but also thinking that the lower levels must be really low, etc.

Now you get to have a good laugh, today I went to my classes (which will be from 10-2 every weekday for this month, pretty sweet) and I scurry into the first session thinking I am running late, but no to worries because there were only 4 people there at that moment and the professor ended up arriving 20 minutes late (typical for Spain). So as the rest of the 9 in total people arrived we were all talking and introducing ourselves in Spanish. For 6/9 of the students, spanish is their first language. I repeat, spanish is their FIRST language. Not spain spanish, but still. Then there is an Iraqi woman in the class who also speaks as if she were a native. So that leaves me and this other girl who is also good at Spanish, but less intimidatingly so. I have very little doubt that I am the worst at speaking in the class, but I might know the most grammar. Aside from this overwhelming feeling of not being mexican, the classes were really fun and the teachers seem really cool!

Back to the daily routine, I need to get used to the whole waking up to go to classes again and with enough time to eat breakfast... that one is majorly important because we don't eat lunch until 3! And dinner is very small so if I forget about or do a granola bar breakfast, lunch is essentially 3 meals. Which leaves my American body with much hunger. There is an expression here that goes something like "eat breakfast like a noble, lunch like a king, and dinner like a beggar." I told my host family that in the U.S. that pretty much every meal is like that of a fat king and queen.

So finally for a quick pet and water update. Tortuga real name is actually Donna Flor. Luna is such a little tease, I feel like we are constantly playing cat and mouse. But I'm not sure who is the cat and who is the mouse. Just now she comes into my room with her little red ball in her mouth and drops it at my feet and kind of paws it around so I pick up the ball and try to get her excited but she just stares at it disdainfully like "what is that juvenile thing you hold?" so I throw the ball at her and nimbly moves out of the way and takes her ball onto the porch. I next start petting her and make another attempt to pick her up to which she starts screaming and brings out the claws. She leaps from my grasp and onto the ledge of the seven story building where she knows I can't follow her, leaving the beloved ball behind. As soon as my back is turned she returns and collects her ball, hides in the dead tomato plants and we eye each other cautiously. She then disappears anticlimactically and is now back in my room after she must have done her usual loop: my balcony --> building ledge --> other balcony --> inside apartment --> back into my room through inside door.

Last thing before I sign off to go to sleep, without even realizing it, I picked the city with the best water in all of Spain! Granada gets water from the Sierra Nevada mountains so it is actually mountain fresh and tasty. The CLM building where I have all my classes also has drinking fountains!

Luna the sneak and Tortuga the freak

I have now been in Granada for a week! And living here with Gloria and Rafael for 4 nights. They are both really nice and cool so that is great. When I first arrived there was an 18 year old girl from Ukraine living here and she seemed really cool (and really good at Spanish! she assured me that the couldn't speak really at all when she got here, so that was definitely a nice thing to hear) but unfortunately she left the morning after I got here and now I have her room (which is good because this is definitely the best room, with it's own balcony and "farm").

There was also a lady from California here and I'm not sure how old she was, but I have made an educated guess that she was 34 or 35. The California girl (was unforgettable, daisy dukes bikinis on top....not really) took me to a flamenco performance with one of her friends and that was really exciting. The performance was also on top of a hill facing the alhambra so we got to see it all lit up. On Thursday she showed me a few key places in the town, such as el Corte Ingles which is basically like a macy's type store that also has a supermarket (so a little like a walmart I suppose but classier and smaller). She was really nice, but left Friday morning so currently there are no other boarders here. Hopefully the Japanese girl will come? She might be coming for a different program, or not coming at all, so we will see.

Friday I had a productive morning by purchasing minutes for my phone here (whooo) and then walking over to CLM to ask a few questions. I hoped to be with the same receptionist as last time, but instead I happened to get the person who my mom and I had been e-mailing from the U.S. so that actually worked out perfectly! I also wanted to know if I could find a teacher or conservatory to take flute lessons with or participate in an orchestra or something while I'm here, and she just happens to have a son that plays flute so she called his teacher and this teacher happens to know the teacher that I had heard of and tried to contact before coming here. So I didn't get anything finalized, but basically the world seems to have this going in my favor.

Yesterday I was here alone because Gloria and Rafael went to a wedding in another town, so I decided to explore the town a bit and go to el Corte Ingles and buy some lettuce (believe it or not they don't really have many salads with lettuce here... and I was craving a salad for some reason). So anyway, I bought a head of lettuce and a large bag of baby greens (and a bag... they don't give you grocery bags for free here) for under 2.5 euros. I suppose I don't pay very close attention to the lettuce prices back at home, but that seemed cheap to me.

Anyway, I made myself a  nice salad and that was all fine and dandy, but what you probably really want to know about is the title of this blog post. So here comes the interesting part (sorry to every english teacher I have had for waiting until 5 paragraphs in to get to the subject).

Luna the sneak is the "adorable cat" I mentioned in my last post, and Tortuga the freak is their little pet box turtle. So Luna is without a doubt the sneakiest cat I have ever encountered. She is a small cat, but fully grown. We are working on our friendship, but I don't think she is used to having people like her, because both the california and ukraine girls despised her for creeping around so much. In this penthouse, the windows don't have screens and the doors to the porches are just open all the time to keep airflow (bugs don't seem to be a problem), so Luna will just climb/walk all around the ledges on this 7 story high building and enter from a window outside or from my porch when least expected. It can be pretty freaky to suddenly see her reflection in my computer screen leaping into my room. I've been petting her slowly more and more every day, and so far that's good but yesterday I thought we had reached the level where I could pick her up, so I did and she made me bleed as a result. She will also just sit outside my door meowing like a mad woman with her little ball, and I go out and try to play with her and she gets defensive of her ball and gives me the stink eye. So at this point, you could say we are more like frenemies.

But now it gets exciting as Tortuga the freak becomes a third player in our games. This morning I was eating cereal on the outside main porch as I have every morning when Tortuga (I'm not actually sure if he has a name... but I like to call him that) starts walking towards me at his slow pace. I think I might want a pet turtle now because  he is sooooo adorable. He investigates my toes and here I am thinking how cute he is and reaching down to maybe pick him up when he gets "scared shitless" (literally). Who knew that turtle poop could smell so bad... it was reminiscent of the rat lab when they would get scared and have diarrhea. ANYWAY, Tortuga keeps walking along and then I decide to make friends so go over to him and offer my hand, he bites my fingers and I see his pink little tongue which is unreasonably cute. I decide to feed him some of the lettuce I bought so I go get the crunchy snack and my camera to take a picture (I am doing a photo a day thing, and so far it has been working out quite well but I usually end up with too many good photos each day... that will probably change as everything becomes more routine, and I may end up with a lot of selfies and food pictures come month 4 here...BUT at the end I want to make a photo collage with them or something.)

If you have not seen a little turtle munching on lettuce, you are missing out. But as I am playing with and feeding and giving so much attention to Tortuga, my frenemy onlooking in the corner starts to get a little jealous. I turn around and Luna is standing there peering at me. She snuggles up to me like i'm the best thing since cat nip and starts like caressing my hand with her head (I don't know how else to describe it). I pet her for a while and now she followed me to my room where she is chilling. So basically if any of you in college are trying to make friends, use the jealousy tactic. It certainly worked for me ;) Oh and "Tortuga the freak" earned this name because he went over to his excrements and stared at it for a good 5 minutes.

I haven't decided what I will do with the rest of today, but tomorrow I have my placement exam and then classes start Tuesday, so hopefully my life will become a little more interesting and busy then. Hasta luego!