Hooray for being sick in a foreign country!!  I'm not sure I've ever done that before.  Carinne has, sadly.  She was sick in the Bahamas.  But I have never been sick in a foreign land! This is a first for me!  Glad I can check it off my list now.  Between the super long flight here, the lack of sleep, and stress of the last week, my immune system has not been at its very best, thus turning what probably would have been bad allergies and a mild cold into a severe cold that makes me have to stay in bed. After lunch, Ana (our host mom) gave me some hot water with lemon and honey and some magical cold medicine.  She believes that I'm sick now (until this point, she had been insisting that it was all in my head, but I couldn't really talk today, and that seemed to convince her.  She sent me to bed)! Which is good.  Hopefully I'll be feeling better in time for our trip to Segovia tomorrow. 

In other news, classes started yesterday.  I have a grammar class on Mondays and Wednesdays, and a culture/history class on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  The same profesora teaches both of them.  She seems very nice, and she's used to teaching students for whom Spanish is their second language--so our classes are in Spanish, of course, but she speaks slowly and clearly, so we all know what's going on.  We only had time for a placement test in my grammar class (321) yesterday, but we actually started learning in my culture class (345) today (which probably would have been more fun if I had been feeling better, but hey! así es. It'll be even better next week).  

Yesterday, my roommate and I found the BEST ice cream in Alcalá (or so we're told).  I believe it.  It was delicious. If you're ever in Alcalá de Henares (and if you can find an excuse to be in Alcalá de Henares someday, you should take it), the little ice cream place just north of la Plaze de Cervantes is AMAZING.  It's halfway in between ice cream and gelato. Try the chocolate and the dulce de leche.  We will be returning. Soon. 

Here's the story I couldn't tell you over FaceTime yesterday.  Most of what Ana makes is delicious, but sometimes it's hit and miss (she's better off sticking to Spanish food, honestly).  For the most part, I just don't ask what we're eating, and usually turns out good. Yesterday, though, for almuerzo (lunch), she made these spam meatballs that I still cannot even think about without gagging and served them with french fries. I think the spam part actually is Spanish, although I hope it's something that won't be repeated soon.  EW!  I ate about as much as I could handle eating, and then I told her that I was very sorry, but I wasn't feeling very well--which was true, but it had nothing to do with my stomach.  Lunch today was actually very good: a lovely chicken soup with cilantro and noodles, and a Spanish tortilla with some sort of pork and tomatoes.  Unfortunately, today I really wasn't feeling very well, and I really couldn't eat very much of it. Oh, the irony.  I have a feeling I'm going to get very good at hiding food. (Or giving it to Courtney, who seems to like everything.)  

Today, Ana took Courtney and Oscar to the circus here, and Courtney said it was very good.  Apparently it was here in Alcalá for a while, and Ana took Oscar to it while it was here, but she had a special invitation to go for something like 5 euros, so she wanted to take him again while it was nearby. 

As a side note, Ana es una socialista.  Thought you might appreciate that.