Real Life Begins

On Saturday night after returning from Ronda I was able to meet up with Jordan who was on an excursion to Granada with his program from Alicante. It was great to talk in person with someone I’ve known for more than 2 weeks… Just talking about Spain and how great it is, what we’re missing at home. Tapas and a paseo. Fun :)

This Sunday was pretty wonderful. I got up to meet Hannah for a walk through the park; the weather was absolutely beautiful. After a while we met up with a few other friends to go to the festival of St. Cecilio (first bishop of Granada and a martyr) in Sacromonte. It was a notably long uphill walk, but so worth it! It was basically like a street fair in LS except on a Granadino hill… We waited in line for a free sack of traditional St. Cecilio festival food: a little loaf of bread, a few lima bean pods, and a piece of cured fish. I tried all of it…I liked the bread :) The fish was SO salty, couldn’t handle it.

The 5 of us sat on a hillside watching/listening to traditional flamenco, and watching the crowd grow steadily larger. I kind of got grass stains on my pants but I rinsed them and soap should finish the job. No pasa nada.

At 7pm I went to mass at the Parish of St. Raphael. It’s a really tiny church on the first floor of an apartment building, but it was actually really pretty inside. The altar was nice, sparkly but not overdone, a Mary statue, etc… Oh and the tabernacle was behind the altar (@Justin). This was definitely an old-people church…but the priest was really nice, although sometimes difficult to understand.

I LOVE the universality of the Catholic church. I was feeling sort of homesick after chillin with Jordan, so going to mass was very comforting. I can’t recite the prayers in Spanish, but I can listen to them and follow along in English in my head. Isn’t in wonderful how God’s love is not limited by languages? So comforting.

Today was my first day of classes at IES. My language teacher seems pretty cool. I’m excited about my Federico Garcia Lorca (a Granadino) literature class. A few of my friends are in there with me. My class about Spain and the European Union sounds like it’s going to be very interesting, but I’m glad I’m not taking it for credit…less pressure. Econ: not my best skill.

Well, it’s just another Monday night off. No one does much on Mondays so I’m taking it easy at home. Maybe I’ll go to bed early, more classes tomorrow! I’m actually pretty enthused about getting into a “real life” routine with school, homework, etc. It will help me truly settle, I hope.

Oh, several people have asked about this, so here in a central location is my mailing address:

Elizabeth Behm
c/o: Institute for the International Education of Students
Pisas, 2 - 2º
18010 Granada, España

…receiving mail would be super exciting, but I don’t really know how postage works here, so…good luck! :)