Raining in Granada . . .

Strange thing about this side of the world: it´s early September and it doesn´t get dark until after nine PM and isn´t light until eight in the morning. I thought originally that the Spaniards were a bit college-student crazy to stay up until midnight todas las noches, but it turns out that the sun is late to bed as well. The whole Spanish world revolves around a night-oriented day.

Today was my first academicly-oriented day in Europe as it started off with a Spanish placement test. After a quick breakfast of toast, creamy milk with chocolate and O.J. Luke and I made our way through the soggy streets to the Plaza de Isabel la Catolica where we were supposed to meet the other students before continuing to la esculea.
But we were late and no one was there. So we headed up to the school alone. I´m glad Luke was with me, as he´s as good with directions as I am bad with them. Yesterday it took me two hours to get home after wandering around back alleys and hidden plazas and going in circles every which-way. I need to take Luke with me everywhere, like a walking, talking compass. Navigation is not a bad quality to have in a roommate. Saves me money on a GPS device.
We crammed into little tiny desks in a room on the second floor of the school -- at least three different study abroad groups were taking placement tests, so the small building was alive with chatter, mostly in English. Getting through the crowds was almost more difficult that the test, of which there were three parts.
The first was a bunch of short essays that was a relative cinch. It´s not hard to write about "what is a typical day like?" in any language you´ve got a passing ability in.
Then came an hour of multiple choice grammar questions. It´s not as fun figuring out what´s wrong with other people´s sentences than making up your own. Well . . . at least not when you don´t know the language well enough to be a smart-alec about it.
Then we took a break as the professoras corrected our tests and then called us in one-by-one for a short grammar section. This wasn´t hard as by that point they knew what we could handle. I got asked a lot of questions about school and such, and I only wished I could remember the verb for "to learn." It´s aprender, but that little revelation came about ten minutes too late.
It looks like I´ll be placed in one of the two intermediate levels, which is exactly where I thought I would be. Nice to know that the teachers have the same impression of my abilities as I do.
This Internet café is crowded y tengo much hambre. So for now, salúd!