of midterms

Just four days ago, I blogged about being a tourist and traveling and enjoying the magic of Spain (cranky servers and crappy service and all). Today I blog from a post-midterm world, where flowers are blooming again and the birds have started to sing again. Since my return on Sunday, my afternoons have been filled with highlighters, markers, pencils, unthinkable amounts of notecards and years to memorize, as well as useless facts such as the meaning of the word "arrebol." I was devastated to find that instead of properly testing us, we have been tricked by every professor in every test, adding a little more of a desire to do well on my part. Even though it is a program for teachers, we have been getting tests that are tricking us, without truly testing our understanding of concepts discussed or taught in class. It makes me very cranky. With that said, I got a 100% in film class, 95% in literature, 96% in syntax and am about to get another good score in history. I feel like I have conquered, and it feels oh so good. I was the highest grade of the course in syntax, and honestly after the kinds of classes we have had... I am glad. She did say it in front of a few classmates and it made me extremely self conscious. I love syntax but I don't want people to point at me like I am some zoo animal, ya know?

Anyway, today officially marks the end of midterms, and I am super excited to say tomorrow I depart to Lisbon! I will be missing school, we are allowed to miss one Friday, and leaving at around 7 am with the school organized trip. I only know one other classmate who is going, so it will be interesting to see who I get stuck with in the hotel room. It will be nice to take a trip that is a weekend, rather than just a half day or a day. I am almost done organizing my bag, but I am still not sure what to take since we do not have a breakdown of activities or anything... Once I have Internet connection out there I shall update you on everything we do! The coolest thing for me is that I will have visited three countries at the end if this summer. Mwaahahaha. 

Yesterday, at around 10 pm, some classmates and I attended the flamenco show that happens every summer at the Palacio de Congresos. I have never seen a flamenco show before, so I may not be the best person to give it a grade, but I thought it was wonderful. There were two guitarists, a percussionist, a singer, a dancer and another girl that I am still scratching my head to understand why she was on stage at all. The dancer was so kickass!! She was probably in her forties or mid forties and the woman could move, shake it, and not even sweat. It was incredible. Her expressions, her energy. I wanted to jump on stage with her. It was awesome. The lady singer was freaking amazing, we were still talking about her today because her voice was so distinct. I am happy I went and the company was also great! We laughed a lot and enjoyed being out of our rooms doing something other than studying. 

Here are a few pictures from the show... Enjoy!!