Climbing the ladder (of learning)

First day of classes at my new level - B2. This is the final intermediate level before the mastery level of Spanish. This means, I know most of the verb tenses, can express feelings, thoughts, desires for myself and others, can form and defend an opinion or argument, talk about the past, future and present etc, etc, etc. Well, that's the theory of it anyway. One other thing I have noticed since arriving in Granada is that I've been able to initiate conversation much better in Spanish and it feels more comfortable and automatic. This morning when I met some other new students, I was able to converse with them all in Spanish rather than resorting to English, which is often the case when people are nervous. I find I am not stretching for vocabulary so much in general day to day contexts and I have increased my confidence accordingly.

Now, if I can just keep all those uses of the subjunctive and all the past tenses in order, I'll be doing really well!

My introduction to the school here was the best so far. As there is another new student staying in the same host family as me, and he didn't know where to go, I walked with him to school this morning as he needed to take the entrance exam to sort his level. Having just finished in Valencia, I didn't need to take the test for this school. This meant I had approximately 1 hour free before starting classes. During this time, I also met and spoke to several other new students which was really lovely. They all seem a very nice bunch.

At 9.00 am, all the new students were taken on a brief walk (approx. 1 1/2 hrs) around the city, to get our bearing and to be shown some of the wonderful places to visit. Some of the history of the city was also explained. For me, it was a fantastic introduction to Granada.

At 11.00 am, we were given our class schedules and sent off to join our new class. My class is basically full. I believe a couple of them were missing today due to sickness. So, there were 5 others - Switzerland, Holland, United States, Korea, and England. We all introduced ourselves and had general chitchat before the teacher arrived so I think this group is very friendly and willing to talk in Spanish. Perhaps is it just that I have been in Spain for 3 months already, but I feel really comfortable here. So, I expect it will all go very well for the next 8 weeks. I have a feeling Granada is going to become my favourite place in Spain!