Hi. I'm Courtney from Texas...My State is Red.

Yesterday was my first day of school. It was a pretty typical first day of school... wake up extra early to make sure you get to class ok. Double check your schedule and room numbers a million times so you don't have to be "that person who realizes they are in the wrong room" who then has to get up and leave in the middle of class... etc. etc.

Well good news... I made it on time and to the correct locations to all my classes... the bad news is that I borderline crashed and burned while talking about myself. The story goes like this:

So.. I'm sitting in my grammar class (all in Spanish.. duh) and our teacher (looks like a Mafia member) tells us that he is going to call our names and ask us a few questions about ourselves such as:

• Name
• Where we are from
• What we are studying
• What we want to do in the future

Simple right? I thought so.

So Mafia Mike calls my name "COOR-NEY REESH-ARSON"... I raise my hand and he looks to me for some confirmation to the correct pronunciation of my name. I confirm "CORT-NEE" and he replies "COOR-NEY" I tell myself that's as good as it's ever going to get and we move on. He then proceeds to ask me where I am from and I proudly reply "TeXas"... hearing me say the word TeXas apparently struck a cord with him and he immediately began to speak rapid Spanish, throw roman numerals on the board, and go off on some tangent about TeXas being converted to TeJas and how "tejas" was the spanish word for shingles so on and so forth... at the end of that sermon I didn't know if I was supposed to say TeXas or TeJas so I'm hoping it never comes up again. He then asks me what color Tejas was. Me still being stuck on the fact that tejas meant "shingles" hesitantly answered... rojo? (I was thinking of those Mediterranean houses with the clay looking shingles).. you know the ones. He looked at me with surprise and then started asking "it's flat, it is like a desert... etc." I thought to myself, "CRAP!"(let me point out that I was not the only one from Texas in my class... there was also a guy decked out in burnt orange garb, and another who I would then have to face in my next class... I thought I was sunk)Thankfully, the Lord provided me with the best word ever "depende" [depends].. I told him it depended on which part you were in. I got off the hook, but now everyone thinks I'm from Lubbock or Amarillo.. whatevs.

My grammar class is by far my hardest. It may kill me.

After a 2 hour break I headed to my POE class (Producciones of Oral y Escita).. this class is super small and 60% of my grade is participation. It's purpose is to help us with our fluidity and build our vocabulary a little bit... I pray my teacher is a miracle worker. After an 1 1/2break I went to my Geografia de Espana--en Ingles... of course I was there super duper early and when it was 5 til and no one was there I started to get a little bit panicky. Thanfully a guy (American) walked in and and asked me in Spanish... Geografia de Espana?... I smilled and shook my head.. I dare not say a word because I knew he thought I was a Spaniard (WIN!) Then two more people walked in, one of them being my new friend Haley from Alabama. She asked the 3 other people who were in the class if they were all from The States and we all said yes... (I just couldn't lie)... the guy who spoke to me before said to me "Oh, you are too?"(American) I gave a hearty chuckle and said yes. Two minutes later Javier walks in and informed us that we were in Geografia de Espana--en Ingles, but informed us that he didn't really know much english so he was for the most part going to speak in Spanish and do his Power Point in English as well as give us notes in both English and Spanish. I thought to myself... great... I have options. I can learn it in Spanish or English... what a deal.

This moring (Tuesday) I went to my Historia de Arte en Espana--en Ingles and surprise surprise.. I was early once again. At about 8:15 (class starts at 8:30) a tall, blonde-haired lanky fellow walks in looking a little distressed, takes a good scan of the room, and walks over to me (with out saying a word) and points to the room number on his schedule... I smiled inside... fooled another... man I'm getting good. I smiled at him and gave him a good head nod to calm him... and thought to myself WIN!... AGAIN! My professor walked into class at 8:30 (spanish time... meaning late) and I was impessed by how well she was able to pull off the bright purple eye-shadow she was wearing, and how there was no way I could do such a thing. We talked about class procedures.. blah blah blah.. and then I hustled it back home, popped a few Benadryl (for my poor itchy foot), and took a 4 hour siesta. WIN!