Nothing important

So I haven't done anything exciting. Mostly, I've been tired and avoiding sun poisoning. Orientation is over, and we're starting classes. I've mastered the buses, and I can function walking around Malaga. So I'll move on to things I really like about the city.

It's really desert-like/kind of tropical here. There are palm trees, hibiscus, jacarda, jasmine, cacti, everything that grows in unbearable heat. And it is super hot, all the time, which is nice when you're just sitting, but not when you're running around in the city. Also weird about Spain: they don't refrigerate milk. And cold water is a thing of the past for me. But I'm okay with that.

I went to Eroski for the first time yesterday (it's like Spanish Wal-Mart), and bought my first thing in Spain: shampoo. I also got a notebook (european notebook paper is like our graph paper). But a note to anyone going to Europe: DO NOT GET TRAVELER'S CHEQUES. Completely useless, which I found surprising. No bank will exchange them for me. I'm going to the tourism office soon to see if they know where I should go, because there must be somewhere I can change them for euros. I think there might be an American Express in Malaga, so they should take them I would think.

Other than that...Hearing Spanish and speaking Spanish all the time is oddly exhausting. I tune it out in public places now, because it's overwhelming trying to listen to everything around you. My host mom and I are getting much better at communicating, and for the most part, I understand everything being said to me by people here, I just get flustered trying to respond. It's awkward not knowing how to say what you're thinking, so rephrasing it ten times in your head until you come up with the same idea in words you know. Very awkward even writing it.