A Change of Pace

Here in Spain the rain stays mainly on the plane, well at least, it used to... we have been having torrential down pours the past several nights and even into most of the day these past two days. The storms at night are ridiculous. The thunder and lightning come at almost the exact same time and it just pours and pours and pours...so the rain is very loud as well. It has been throwing what little schedule we had completely off...plus the entire area does not know what to do with itself...it is a bit comical, but not really. For example, yesterday Glòria and I went to her high school (it was only their second day of school and they didn't have classes or anything, just anouncements) and there was mass chaos in the foyer. All the students were gathered in this tiny hallway at 10 in the morning...and no one was showing signs of caring. Plus, there was a torrential down pour outside. What happened was that the students were supposed to go home because they were done for the day, but none of them wanted to walk home in the rain...probably because they weren't prepared for it...it was pretty funny. Glòria and I meanwhile kept on trekking with our errands and were both rather wet by the time we got home...oh well.
So life has been crazy here the past couple days, but it has been absolutely amazing and I think I love it more each day. Everytime I go out I end up seeing a different part of the city...and I am not quite sure how I do this because it isn't very big...then again maybe I just keep passing the same places without realizing it...I don't think so though. I am getting my barings a little slower than I would like, but definitely surely. I wouldn't say I get lost everytime I go out to get something on my own...maybe just momentarily confused.
My big accomplishment yesterday was that I successfuly made caldo (a home made chicken and other meats and vegetable broth...you serve it with pasta and then later make a soup with it if you want). It really isn't very difficult since all you do is put everything in the pot and boil it...but still, I was happy.
Today I ran lots of errands that unfortunately by the time I got done with them didn't really matter, but it kept me busy. I also got to try a yoga class, which I absolutely loved! The studio and the teacher were wonderful, plus it was in Spanish, so that was pretty fun. I am hoping to have enough time to take at least one class per week, but we'll see, I know things are going to get busy, well they already are... I also found Catalan classes here in Reus...and the beginning classes are free! Tomorrow I will find out how I did on my spanish test for the classes for Spanish in Tarragona, with just those two classes alone plus being an au pair I know I will have more than enough to do...but i want to do more...
Tonight I made lots of friends and it was wonderful. I went back to Absenta (the bar...see previous post for further explanation) and met the people who were there last week. The couple who started the whole thing, Sergio and Merichel, go hiking pretty much every weekend and have invited me to go with them, so we exchaned numbers. They are both really awesome and kind and Merichel does yoga as well! Then later three girls came who are PhD students at the university and it turns out they know Ferran...so that was very funny. I bonded with two of them very quickly and we exchanged numbers as well. Plus I made a friend when I pre-registered for classes last week and we may go out Saturday. Yesterday Andria introduced me to Marta and I plan to keep up with the weekly coffee trade...so that will be very good.
Everything is coming together here even though it is still all over the place. I'll take pictures of the house and Reus soon...now it is off to bed.