Yesterday I went out for a long walk before dinner. I didn't sleep so well the previous night, and I think it because I haven't been getting enough exercise. I decided to walk all the way around the outside the city - the same route that I took with Veronica. I stopped half way for a 'clara' which is half beer, half soda water, because I was really thirsty. The whole walk took about an hour.

This time it was a little bit later than the previous time, and I saw lots of people on the way. There are a lot of places up in the hills with a couple of car parking spaces, and people seem to come here to relax and talk. There were quite a few couples sitting together and kissing (sometimes quite vigorously!) and also groups of 2 or 3 girls sitting on the wall by the side of the road talking and smoking. I see groups of people like this all the time in Spain, normally in the evening in all of the public spaces that are out of the way: In the park on my route home; down by the river; up in the hills around the city. I think that people in Spain use their public spaces quite differently to us!

I commented afterwards to Charo that I saw a lot of couples kissing and she said that in the winter when it is too cold to sit outside they normally park up somewhere quiet and do the same thing inside their cars. I think it's different here because people don't tend to hang out in their parents houses with their friends / girlfriends, which is a lot more common in the UK. Besides, if normal people actually used public spaces in the UK where would all of the chavs hang out!

After my walk I went to the same restaurant where I had alcachofas, and I had the same waiter again who recognised me. I especially like this place when I am eating by myself because I can sit outside, and there are always other people but it is not too busy. It's a good place to sit and watch the world go by! This time I ate 'Pisto Manchego' which consisted of courgettes and peppers in a tomato sauce. I had it with some bread and it was really nice. When I got my bill it said that the waiter's name was Roberto so I commented that by brother was also called Robert - it's good to find any excuse to start a conversation so that I can practice speaking with someone else! I expect I'll be back to this place because I like the food (even if it is a little bit expensive) and the location is ideal.

I slept well last night, until about 4:00am when the cat jumped in my window. I didn't really mind but it woke me up because it jumped down onto my bed first (it's directly below the window) and then onto the floor. I had just drifted off to sleep again when it decided to leave and jumped back on my bed and out of the window, waking me up again. Now I was wide awake and it took me a while to get back to sleep.

Today in our break from class we were split into 2 tables - 1 with all of the Americans (their level of Spanish isn't quite high enough to join in the conversation with us yet) and the other with me, Jeremy and the 3 professors. I spoke quite a lot today and it was actually easier because there were so many people with a high level of Spanish.

After class I came home and had lunch: I had peas with bacon to start, followed by lasagne again, and some shop bought 'natillas' for desert. The desert was nowhere near as nice as the home made version. Charo did ask me beforehand if I wanted lasagne again or something else but I was quite happy to have her lasagne a second time because it is excellent!

After dinner I spent some time playing with Paula whilst some men came and did something to the air conditioning system outside on the balcony. I installed a program previously on my laptop that is meant for 2 year olds so we had a go at that today. Previously I had tried to play pacman with Paula but she is not so good at using a keyboard, and this program was easier because she could just move the mouse and it would draw shapes on the screen and make noises. It kept her amused for a while but not too long.

It's a bit frustrating talking with Paula because I normally can't understand anything she says! She speaks in this slow, droning way that most little kids seem to speak Spanish, which in itself is difficult for me to understand, but she also has difficulty pronouncing some of the sounds because she is from China and has only been in Spain for less than 1 year (Paula is adopted). After about an hour with Paula I was exhausted and needed a sleep!

When I woke up after my siesta, I came downstairs to the living room and it was extremely hot. I decided it would be best to close all the doors and put on the air conditioning but the remote was nowhere to be found. Cristian popped in to say goodbye because he was going out to play tennis, so he tried to help me look for it before he went but he couldn't find it. He left to play tennis and Charo came in carrying Paula - Paula was fast asleep so she put her down on the sofa. Charo had a good look for it with me too. We looked in all the drawers, we looked outside on the balcony, we looked under the table. Charo emptied Paula's bag and there were all sorts of strange things in there. For some reason she has this huge bag that she carries around the house and it had shoes in shower caps, bits of cloth, all sorts of things - but no remote control. We were just beginning to give up and think that the air conditioning repair men must had taken it by mistake when Charo found it in a little push chair with a doll. God knows what it was doing there! Still it was quite funny and we laughed a lot.

Tonight I have a tour of the casco with a theatre group (Teatro de Rojos). It is going to be a tour, where the performers will stop to perform various local legends in the street (I think) and costs €6,00. I will let you know how it goes tomorrow!