All the little things

Hey guys!

I hope everyone is staying safe and warm with all of the bad weather going on at home in the States!  Today it is lovely in Madrid.  I am sitting outside in the courtyard on campus enjoying the beautiful sunshine.  I would enjoy it being a few degrees warmer, but the sun is absolutely glorious!

Yesterday was a normal day.  I’m learning a lot in Spanish, and we have our first quiz on Wednesday.  Wish me luck!  For my break between Spanish and Philosophy, I hung out in the student lounge with some friends (kind of on a rotating basis, depending on who didn’t have class).  I also got a letter from Grandpa and an awesome care package full of candy, coffee, and peanut butter from M!!  I definitely felt loved yesterday and my friends appreciated the treats. 

Philosophy was interesting.  I’m not really enjoying the class because it all seems so irrelevant and unnecessary to me.  Yesterday we talked about an “Experience Machine,” which is capable of giving you any subjective experience.  I still have no clue why that was relevant to the discussion of Xenophanes’s thoughts on religion and gods.  So confusing.  I’m definitely never majoring in philosophy!

Last night, Maria made an awesome pasta dish that I really enjoyed.  And I got to Skype with Brittany for a long time!  Yay for good food and friends!

Today has definitely been a good day.  I met with Maria (the girl who I’m doing the English/Spanish exchange with) this morning, and we had a good conversation.  It’s a little difficult to think of topics to talk about though.  Her English is very basic, so again, I did most of the talking.  But it’s good practice for me!  Then I walked to campus, and it was such a great walk!  The sun was shining, there was a band playing “The Saints Go Marching In,” and I just couldn’t help but smile.  :)

Positive Psychology today began with us watching a few scenes from Dumbo.  Kind of random, but we were talking about why the scene was humorous.  Then we learned about different humor theories.  You’d think that it would be relatively easy to discuss humor and laughter, but it’s actually very complicated because we don’t have good descriptions and vocabulary to describe the emotion that we’re feeling.  It’s all very interesting, but also frustrating to know what you mean but not have the right words for it!

Okay, it’s almost time for Art History, so I’ll post this and talk to you all later!

Love,

Elizabeth