The time here has been absolutely flying by!  Today was my last day of class for the 1st session.  I have absolutely LOVED my class (the Psychology of Learning a Second Langauge) here the past three weeks.  There are only 3 students in my class, all from different majors, so we each bring different perspectives and previous knowledge to share with the class.  We have videotaped ourselves in Spanish and in English and analyzed ourselves.  We had to introduce ourselves(1.5 minutes), discuss one topic decided by another person (2 minutes), and debate a topic with another person (2 minutes).   It was also interesting because we are all at very obvious varying levels of Spanish ability.  I have only been studying for 4 months, another student has had 4 years, and the other student lived in Spain with his family for 3 years when he was in high school.  We’ve watched several TED videos on second language acquisition (SLA) and learning as well as interviews with researchers and psychologists.  Another fun aspect of class is that we’ve gotten to take various tests ourselves such as the Modern Language Aptitude Test (developed by the US Army), the MSCEIT emotional intelligence test (which was in Spanish), Myers-Briggs personality test, the Big 5 personality test, language learning strategy surveys, and learning style inventories.  We would evaluate our scores on the test and link them to our own SLA and discuss how each aspect could relate to a person’s SLA.  Today our professor listed what we would need to know for the exam, and I was surprised to see that in 3 weeks we really had covered an entire semester’s worth of information.  The exam is on Friday and immediately following, we have a week “vacation” before session 2 begins.
The program I am in is great at highlighting various things around town.  I have visited Italica (ancient roman ruins just outside Sevilla), Alcazar (the fortress in the city center), Castillo Jorge (museum of the Spanish Inquisition and castle ruins), the mercado in Triana (market in a burro of Sevilla), Museo del Baile Flamenco (Flamenco museum), and Museo de Bellas Artes (fine arts museum).  All of these visits are included in our program and the tours are given by our professors, all in Spanish.  Depending on the professor giving the tour, I am able to understand a good 70% of the information, despite only having 4-5months of Spanish study. 
My favorite excursion so far was an optional leisure activity, going to Algarve, Portugal during a three day weekend.  We left on a Friday morning and arrived a few hours later to take a boat to the island of Tavira and spend the day at the beach.  Afterwards we left for Lagos and spent Saturday morning on the beach there.  My friends and I signed up to go on a kayaking tour of the caves and cliffs for the afternoon.  This has been my best spend 25 euros.  The tour was AMAZING.  I had so much fun kayaking and the views were breathtaking.  We got to paddle through some of the arches formed from the ocean and cliffs and into some caves.  When we were about 1/2 way back, we stopped at a beach to do some snorkeling/swimming.  It was absolutely incredible. 
The day kept getting better because that night we drove to Sagres “para ver la puesta de sol” (to see the sunset!).  Sagres is “the edge of the world”, the very edge of Portugal where they believed the world ended.  Despite being very windy, the sunset was beautiful.  The next morning I got up really early to see the sunrise at the beach by our hotel.  It was just as amazing, if not better than the sunset.  Later that morning, we left for Albufeira, another beach town in Portugal before heading back to Sevilla. 
I cannot believe my time here has gone by so quickly; its already half over!  I finally got a bike rental card, so my trip to school is now only 20 minutes (as long as I don’t get lost between the bike station and school!).  This is great for coming home in the afternoon because it is SO HOT…one thing I won’t miss about Sevilla when I’m gone, but I certainly will miss this experience when I am back in the States.

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