Day of Rest

Happy Sunday! Today is our first day without anything planned, a much-needed break. I think I’m pretty much over jetlag and I’ve come to terms with Spain time now. Also, I went to mass with Pepita today. I feel pretty good about the new week that awaits me.

I’ve only been in Granada for five days, but it feels like a lot longer than that already. Thursday and Friday we had language/orientation class in the mornings. It’s about a 20 minute walk from my house to the IES center where class is. I’ve gotten the hang of how to get there efficiently, and I haven’t gotten lost again like the night in Málaga. I’ve also met a few people who live within a couple blocks of me, so we can walk home together. I walk basically everywhere; kind of wish I had a step counter just to see.

Night life here is so different from in the US. In the Centro (commercial center) at night there are SO MANY people walking around, shopping, talking… Also it’s really weird and American to have dinner before 8:30 or 9.

Thursday night a friend and I went out for tapas.

Tapas. Granada is the BEST place for this. You buy a drink. Then you get free food. Tapas are small portions for a light dinner. Granada is the only place where the food is free with the drink—everywhere in Granada. It was only 5 euro for Hannah and I to both eat. I think I chose the right city :)

Friday afternoon my orientation class took a walk through the Albaicín. [see pictures on fb]

Friday night IES set up a soccer game, Americans vs. Spaniards. I was one of only 2 girls playing—kind of intimdating—but we won and it was really fun. And now I’ve played fútbol in Spain!

Yesterday we took a field trip to hike in the Sierra Nevadas. I almost didn’t go because of being so tired from walking around so much then playing soccer and staying up late (well late for me, kind of early for a Spanish person on a Friday night…), but I’m so glad I didn’t skip out on the hike. I don’t think I’ve seen an actual snow-capped mountain since the family vacation to Colorado when I was like 8. It was cool! There are lots of pictures fom that on fb too. Those of us who went split into a less difficult hike group and a more difficult hike group. I went for less difficulty, which ended up being rewarding in many facets: only about 10 people chose this one (the other group had like 70 people in it) so I could always hear the guide and we were able to move quickly AND stop for photo ops frequently, there were only girls in our group :) and I don’t think my muscles would have appreciated any more work than the shorter hike demanded. Overall super awesome. If you want to know more about La Alpujarra (the region of the mountains where we were hiking) I can share, but I don’t want to bore anyone who doesn’t care about mountain facts ;)

The internet doesn’t work in my room so I can’t check the weather every morning :\ but weather patterns here are not like in the midwest where it changes significantly, daily. It’s been in the high 40s all week, but the sun finally came out in Granada today!! Hurray!

I haven’t figured out how to keep the shower at a steady temperature…maybe someday…

Can someone have my sister Laura read this: Hey Lolo, Remember that day when you had on shorts with leggings underneath and I told you you should change because that was a WEIRD fashion statement? Well it turns out you were just ahead of the fashion curve in the US. I’ve seen sooo many girls here wearing shorts with tights and boots. lol

I’m looking forward to talking to my family tonight :)

¡Hasta luego!

Jet-lag

I love Spain already! Besides the fact that I haven’t really had a good night’s sleep since Saturday night and I’m exhausted, I’m doing quite well.

Traveling was surreal. When I sat down at the gate to wait for my plane to Dallas in the KC airport, I started wondering what I was doing hopping across the ocean all by myself. The flight to DFW went by really quickly though; I spent most of it reading Ezekiel and looking out the window. The transatlantic flight wasn’t too bad. There were 3 empty seats next to me so I was actually able to lie down to sleep. The London airport was very interesting. I sat in a general waiting area people-watching for about an hour and a half before I could even find out which gate my flight would be at. Once I got there, though, I met another girl from TU who was going to Granada too. ha!

Customs in the Málaga airport was insanely simple: “Hola.” “Hola.” *looks at info page and visa in passport, stamps* “Gracias.” “Gracias.”

¡Málaga!

The program started at the Hotel Puerta Málaga. I wanted to get on the internet to let the fam know I was alive, which I barely achieved…all 115 of us had the same idea, so the internet disconnected itself about every 2 minutes. After a short post on fb I gave up on that. :\

The orientation directors took us for a walk to the commercial center, then I had the best calamari I’ve ever had for dinner, good conversation with 3 other girls in the program, and an extra-long (as in, we sort of got lost along the way) walk home.

I love being able to walk around in nothing heavier than a sweater at 10pm. :)

After a full day of orientation talks, this evening we finally made it to Granada. I met my Spanish grandma (“Pepita”) and 2 of her granddaughters who are something like my age; one could speak English but they said my Spanish was pretty good. Win! Understanding the andalucían accent will take a bit of practice though… I set my room up, Pepita made me a delicious little dinner, and now I am here, worn out, and still kind of overwhelmed, but overall content, and very excited for the rest of this semester.

Buenas noches…

Background

I don't actually leave for Spain till January 24, but I got jealous of Ali, Emily, and Maria with their blogs all ready to go. I should also mention Matt Knoff's blog which will help keep us only a click away from life back at TU, plus I owe him credit for my blog's name.

The background image is a picture of a garden at La Alhambra in Granada, which was built by the Muslims in the 14th century, changed possession a few times, and is now a World Heritage Site. In a couple weeks, La Alhambra will be the sight I see when I look out my classroom window!

I'm getting really excited.

Some background about where I'll be:

More specifically, here are the places I'll be spending most of my structured time:

The yellow balloon shows approximately where I'll be living, the red balloon shows the IES program center (where most of my classes will be), and the black box shows the University of Granada (where I'll have a couple classes). There isn't a scale on this map, but essentially there is about a mile between each of the three spots. I'm looking forward to walking the city daily!

I don't have much else to say at this point, except that I can hardly wait!! I'll be updating this periodically once I get to Spain. Follow along if you like. Thanks for reading!