Training with a former Olympian?!

What?! YEA! Javier Sánchez is a Spanish sprinter who went to the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996. I was able to train with him yesterday along with a group of other professional Spanish track athletes and a girl training for the Police Academy here in Spain. It was SO MUCH FUN. Javy (I don't know if that's how you spell his nickname, but that's how I'm going to spell it) was awesome. His English is very good and I was able to understand everything he told me. He still has such a love for the sport. It's incredible.

The other athletes were awesome as well. Clara, the girl training for the Police Academy, spoke very good English, even though she didn't think she did. But she was so nice and helped me get home on the Tranvia. She is my first Spanish friend! Aside from the family I live with of course.

Murcia is a very cool place. When I'm walking around the city, I very much feel like I am in one of the boroughs (think Brooklyn or Queens) of New York. There are people everywhere, buses, the Tranvia, shops, bars, and eateries etc...  Wednesday night I was walking home from a bar in the City Centre at 12:30 and there were still people everywhere. Even when I cut off a main road into my neighborhood area I still felt safe and there were still people walking around.

Anyway, I was able to hang out with Liz (an American friend here) on Wednesday and she is an awesome person. She has been in Spain for a total of about a year and a half now and she loves it. We watched the Real Madrid vs. Barce game at a bar with a group of other Americans, although I wasn't able to meet very many of them because the place was so packed it was hard to move around. Barce won 2-1.

I am learning and understanding Spanish more and more everyday. It's good that I can see a steady progression of my knowledge of the language, but I still really can't wait to start the class!

Monastery on the mountainside.