learning french in spanish

In a decision that superficially makes not-so-much sense, I am taking French classes. I realize that I am in Spain, where they speak Spanish (imagine that!), teaching English. Let's consider it a last-gasp effort to continue to educate myself, and a desire to see how much language bombardment my poor brain can take. Currently, I am enrolled in the Institut Français (ballin') in the basic level. Being the only nonnative-Spanish speaker in my class can sometimes have its drawbacks. Usually, since the level is pretty basic, things go smoothly with only the occasional hitch. For example, I was unable to explain how I knew that "charme" in French meant "charm" to a fellow classmate, given that my vocab for this specific word was lacking in Spanish. Things hit the skids, however, when we started fashion. Racing through words and phrases, my French professor would shout out what seemed to me like random sounds that I couldn't comprehend in whatever language they were coming out in. It involved a lot of nudging whoever was sitting next to me, and saying "QUÉ??," which they then followed with a word in English, or a complicated series of gestures or sometimes even a drawing. Really, I'm lucky people continue to sit next to me. The advantages of this would be now in French, I can only think in Spanish. I made the commitment with the purchase of a Spanish-French dictionary, so now you know I'm serious. Unfortunately, when trying to speak French, it comes out in Spanish, which is not the most helpful of situations. I also have this great Spanish accent in French now. Well, a Spanish-American attempting to speak French. In other words, I'm doing great.