Cacahuetes

Ah, miercoles. I don't know how to say hump day in Spanish but i certainly welcome its arrival.
We had a wonderful intercultural therapist woman come in and do a seminar with us yesterday about integrating into Spanish culture and understanding the differences and why they exist. For example, you aren't supposed to have bare feet at home, because Spanish people think you will get sick if your feet get cold or something. Also, they think feet are unseemly. I looked down at my feet in tiny flats without socks realizing that it is hard to adapt to a different culture. Also, Spanish people have absolutely no problem with not saying "Excuse me" when they barrel past you and knock into you, but they insist that you always say hello to them when you enter a store or something. Also, they stand really close to each other when speaking, relative to American standards. The woman was really helpful with making us realize that we can't just instantly adapt and be able to speak the language. She mentioned this theory by some linguist that i forget the name of, but his theory was that to acquire a language the formula has to be I + 1. As in, to learn a language, the input needs to be what you know, plus a little bit. Most of the time it feels like I + 23409834987569875, but i am supposed to feel okay that i don't understand much because it's way above +1. that put my mind at ease a little, although it still is really frustrating to not understand what is going on.
After class yesterday, I went with three friends back to the same theater I saw the other play in Lavapiés to see one about crazy women in an insane asylum during the civil war. This one i didn't like as much as the first, it was longer and just didn't hold my interest as much. Then, we got out and it was 11:30 so we decided to search for dinner and stumbled upon an Indian restaurant and happily went in. Not that I don't like Spanish food, but it can get a little bland, and Indian food feels more familiar to me. It was a good meal.
Today, I went to check out the art studio where amanda and i are going to take watercolor painting class. it seems really low-key; there are no scheduled classes, you just come in with your stuff and do work there, and the instructor will sign a piece of paper saying that you did one hour or whatever. so i think i'm going to do two hours a week of that to equal one skidmore credit, which i don't really need anyway. then, instead of going to buy our supplies, we went topshopping. a weakness indeed. the topshop here is no where near as big as they are in london, but i love it still.
also, bananas are really really good here. they have tons more flavor and the texture is a little more dense. they call them "platanos." i have noticed this phenomenon in spanish language, where there is kind of a false cognate. like, what would they call plantains? or, shrimp are called "langouistinos" but what about a langoustine? or clementines are called mandarinos, but what about a mandarin orange? these things i wonder about.
anyway, i have a long day of testing out potential classes tomorrow at the university and am not looking forward to it. i thought i was going to have to go today but i got all ready (reluctantly) and realized that it ended the same time my class at skidmore center started and the two are about 30 minutes apart, so i couldn't take that class. i was so glad to not have to go to school by myself for the first time. tomorrow my english lit buddy and i are going to a bunch together so i'm happy i won't get lost on my own.