happenings as of late

Yesterday (Tuesday) we all took a language placement quiz which consisted of an written portion and an oral one. I honestly thought I did ok on both, but today I found out that I got into Spanish 1 (there are 3 levels) and instead of an elective I got stuck with this "special" class for people who need extra practice in Spanish. Go me... They keep telling us that we're not in the class because we're less smart, but we all just give them these "yeah right" looks. I think that everyone in the class is pretty disappointed. Oh well, like the Spanish say "no pasa nada". On our first day our orientation leaders told us about that phrase and in fact everyone here says it all the time. It sort of epitomizes the lifestyle. The phrase literally means "nothing happens", and really, nothing ever happens. If you have to wait a few extra minutes for your coffee... no pasa nada. If you're stuck in traffic... no pasa nada. If you didn't get into the highest Spanish class... no pasa nada. All in all, I think I like these people. It's almost existential in a way. Nothing really happens.
Mati is great and I'm making friends with Taby the gato-perro, as they call her. She waits by the door, like a dog, when Manolo is due to come home every day. Mati watches A LOT of TV, and I think a lot of people here do. It's good for me cause I listen and ask her questions, but I don't get how she does it.
Monday night everyone went out to a bar called Bambuddha and though it wasn't a discoteca, there were like 20 of us so we sort of took over the place and started dancing anyways. At 2am I quietly opened the front door trying not to wake anyone, only to find Mati and Manolo still sitting around watching TV as if it was an early evening. They go to bed at about 2:30 or 3am every night. The schedule here is definitely crazy.
Last night I went to a free flamenco show at this old, open air court and it was amazing. The dancer wasn't that great, but the musicians were incredible. I think it's some sort of an anniversary here, so they're gonna have free flamenco shows every night for some time. We're also gonna have free flamenco classes through the university for anyone who wants to take them and I'm definitley signing up.
This weekend a lot of people are going to beach towns like Malaga and Cadiz, but I kinda want to stay around Cordoba and explore. I also don't want to roll into town with 20 other Americans and go around in a huge group. I think I'm gonna wait another week to see exactly who I want to travel with.