There is a pig leg in my kitchen

I put more pictures up in all of the albums on the site linked below, so enjoy those. If you have an questions about anything you see, let me know and I will most definitely answer them, if I can.

Nothing much is new with me, so I will entertain you with randomness. My class is going well, though it isn't to difficult and there isn't really any homework. I am at the point in my Spanish studies that I want to start thinking in Spanish, and sometimes I do, but mostly I still don't know enough of the language to think fluently, but my English seems worse in my head, so sometimes I find myself not thinking at all because my mind is tired. Also, I have started pronouncing English words with a spanish accent because that is the only way I hear them any more. For example, my roomate's name isn't "Katie" it is "Kaitee" a slight but significant difference.

I will be heading to Italy to take in Milan, Venice and Rome in the week or so between my intensive course and the begining of regular classes on February 7th.

There is a tradition in Andalucia,the region of Spain that I am in, to have a pig leg in the kitchen. My host dad explained it within the first day or two, so my Spanish wasn't as good, but what I got from what he said, as I scooted around the hoof, visible underneath the towel they usually throw over it is that poor people used to sell the legs on the pig, but keep the belly and inards for themselves, so that having one of the legs will bring you good luck, because it means you aren't poor. For the life of me, I could not find the story online in English, so correct me if you know I am wrong, but I'm pretty sure that is how it goes. Anyway, the pictures above is the one in my house. It had a hoof, but they sawed it off soon after we came because they didn't want to scare us I think. the pictures in the link are not wrong, either. That is actually how it is, no matter where you go. On my way home from school I will probably see three or four shops selling the legs hanging from the ceiling. It's crazy.