Yesterday, after I finished writing up my blog post I watched a bit of TV. The program was called 'Destino: España' and is a program I often watch at home using the internet. This show is about foreigners that have moved to Spain, and each episode shows several different sections about the life of a different foreigner living in Spain. This episode was about Castilla la Mancha which is the area I am in, and it even had a section on someone living in Toledo.

After the program Paula came in again and sat with me, and Charo brought in Paula's dinner. She asked me if I wanted to eat too so I had dinner in the house and sat with Paula. Paula takes a long time to eat her dinner and kept asking me if I wanted some ham off of her plate. Every time I left the room (to get water, change my clothes) she would ask me where I was going and I have to say "I'll be back in 1 minute". By the time I needed to leave she still hadn't finished and she asked if I was going and if I could take her dinner downstairs for her because she didn't want to be by herself. It's amazing to see a three year old easily using a lot of the grammar that I find really difficult (like the subjunctive!).

After dinner I left to go on another tour of the city that Maite had arranged for me. On my way to the tour a group of Spanish tourists asked me for directions, and I actually managed to convince them that I knew what I was talking about! I think I'm making progress.

The tour was actually pretty interesting - it was a tour of Toledo with lots of myths and legends of the city being explained. More than half of the people on the tour were part of the same group of Italian students (learning Spanish too obviously) so I wasn't the only foreigner.

During the first half of the tour I understood virtually all of what was said, and it was the first time that I noticed that I could understand something, without having to translate everything into English in my head first. They showed us various places where 'witches' used to live, most of it being narrated but a few bits being acted out. They told us about a woman that could apparently summon the devil in the form of a black dog, or a black pig, and you could ask the 'devil' questions about the future and about family members that had died. The pig/dog would then turn in one direction for yes and the other for no. Apparently this woman became quite wealthy as this kind of service was in high demand in the middle ages!

After about half way through the tour, it became very difficult for me to concentrate and I could understand less and less as time when on. I don't know why, but I find it very difficult to understand and speak Spanish when I'm tired. The tour ended at the other side of the casco, and it took me half an hour to walk back home. I was really tired by the time I got back. I spoke a bit with Cristian, but it was a struggle because I was so tired. Normally I speak to him when I'm at my worst!

In school today I noticed that Jeremy's accent had improved a lot. Yesterday I pointed out to him that the he wasn't pronouncing the end of the words properly, and was often 'swallowing' the end of the words like French. Today he didn't do this at all so I could understand him a lot better.

At the end of school Maite told me that they were going to watch a Spanish film at 5:00, and also told me that she had organised an intercambio for Friday. An intercambio is where you meet with a native Spanish speaker who is learning English, and spend half of the time speaking in Spanish, and half of the time speaking in English. As the school also teaches English, Maite has arranged for me to meet with an English student and have a few beers. This is the first time that I have done this so it will be interesting to see how it turns out.

At lunch today I ate mixed grilled vegetables, followed by something Charo made up - it had layers of rice, egg and tuna and was actually really tasty! After that I managed to squeeze in a siesta before leaving to go and watch the film just before 5:00.

The walk back to the school was hard work! Back in England, whenever the sun is shining it is great to go outside and walk in the sun, but when it is 40 degrees (that's 104 to all you crazy Fahrenheit people!), and you have to walk up a steep hill, then it's not so pleasant! Since I have been in Toledo I have not needed to use sun tan lotion once because when the sun is out in full force you have no choice but to walk in the shadows. I still prefer it like this to the miserable weather in the UK because every day it is lovely to walk in the morning and in the evening, and there's always air conditioning (and the siesta) for the hottest part of the day.

The film was pretty good - I can't remember the name of it because it was a word that I am not familiar with, but it was pretty funny. It was also interesting to watch because one of the main characters was Argentinean, and they have a really strange accent. In Argentina, whenever you would make a 'y' sound in Spanish, you instead pronounce it kind of like a cross between a 'j' and an 'sh'. It was also interesting because there were a lot of swear words, and we don't really get to see how they are used in class.

I'm going to head back out again soon to get something to eat, so until tomorrow: Hasta luego!