My First Days

My aunt decided that I needed to have a blog so that she could live through vicariously through me and I ended up thinking it was kind of a good idea. Although I don’t have internet half the time, I’ll see if I can write on my computer and transfer it later. Okay so what have I been doing so far? On the 4^th of January I got on a plane at 5pm and traveled to Chicago, from Chicago I got on the 10:30 plane to London.

London
London was awesome (minus the almost getting hit by a car every 30 seconds), we spent our time going on tours, wandering the streets, exploring pubs and vintage stores and spending entirely way too much money. For those of you who haven’t traveled to London you should know it is impossible to not spend money. The British pound is worth about 65 cents more than the dollar making it very easy to think you are getting a deal before getting smashed in the face with a huge bill later. My roommate Emily and I explored knotting hill, Portobello road, and the eastern, western and southern quarters, including Covent Gardens, Hyde Park, Hampton, south Kensington and a Piccadilly Circus. We pretty much jumped on the tube and let it take us wherever it wanted. I explored abbeys, cathedrals, saw Buckingham palace, Big Ben, the London eye and a billion other things. I ate bangers and mash, fisherman’s pie, fish and chips, and drank tea like it was going out of style. We were supposed to leave on the 7^th but due to the 2centimeters of snow and half ¼ of an inch of ice (yeah…that little) our flight was cancelled. We spent our extra day exploring more streets and wondering why London turns into a bunch of ninnies at the sight of snow. It really was pretty pathetic the way the entire city shut down from so little snow. Our hotel was really nice so it wasn’t that bad to have to spend another night in a comfortable fluffy bed. I was even lucky enough to meet some great people along the way. The girls and guys in my program are beginning to be some of the best friends I’ve ever had and the memories are only getting better. On the 8^th of January our group jumped on a plane to Malaga a day late then we were supposed to and the fun REALLY began.

Malaga to Granada I wasJanu

As soon as we touched down on the runway you could feel the warmth. Coming out of London and its freakishly Minnesota-ish weather, it was amazing to see the sun and exit the plane into 50 degree weather. Malaga had palm trees and bright blue water, and people were barely even wearing fall jackets. Of course THAT couldn’t last. We got on the bus and began the 2 hour journey to Granada. I have never in my entire life seen so many mountains and hills as I did on the way to Granada, I’m talking snow capped mountains in the background and hills covered in olive and orange trees as far as the eye can see. People’s houses sit in the most precarious positions on the hills placed sparsely among trees and giant boulders. It looked like something out of a fantasy book where hobbits or something would live. It seems like you will never see anything but mountains again when suddenly out of the blue you hit a city, Granada.

Granada is placed right along the Sierra Nevada Mountains (which is where the water I drink comes from too) and is a bit colder then Malaga. When I say a bit, I mean a lot. It rains most of the time since it is the winter, and is either really cold (about 38 degrees and rainy) or a warm 47ish degrees and sunny. The sunny days I love, the rainy days… blegh. My senora or the woman who I will be living with for the next 5 months name is Luisa. She is a divorced woman with 4 sons, one of which still lives with her, his name is Paulo. She has an apartment in the southern part of Granada close to a huge park that I have yet to explore. Luisa is the sweetest funniest thing you have ever seen. She giggles at my Spanish but is patient and caring and ridiculously kind. She cooks us every kind of Spanish food imaginable and EVERYTHING is good. I have yet to dislike something she makes. For breakfast she makes us toast and tea and coffee and sometimes gives us pastries or donuts to take with us out of the apartment. For lunch which is at 2:30 or 3pm here, she has made us potaje (lentil stew) chicken and tomato sauce, chorizo and soup, bean soup, manchego and tomato salad, beef stew, and a million other things and there is always fruit for dessert. For dinner we have something completely different and always with bread. I can’t even remember how many different things I have eaten so far, today alone I have 3 kinds of chorizo.

Emily and I share a bedroom with two small beds, a closet, and desk, 2 chairs and some shelves. Nothing fancy but big enough for the two of us to share. Our first week in Granada was filled with placement tests for learning Spanish, learning our way to and from the university (a 30 minute walk each way) and visiting various tapas bars and monuments. Our second day in town we visited the Alhambra, which is considered to be the 8^th new wonder of the world. It is a very old Moorish castle that literally takes up an entire quarter of Granada, it is massive. There are multiple parts to it since it started out as one tiny summer compound and grew to ridiculous proportions. The views from the castle are breathtaking; you can see everything from the top of the castle since it is located on a very high hill. There really isn’t much I can say about it other than that, when you see the pictures you will understand just how beautiful it really is. In the picture below you can see what I’m talking about. It is a picture from a bridge at the Alhambra of the Albacin or the old quarter of Granada. In the background you can see the mountains I’m talking about; on the other side of me there were more hills and King Ferdinand’s summer house.

RIDICULOUSLY BEAUTIFUL!
More later... gtg