¡Hola amigos!
The past few weeks have been full of interesting experiences, new people, and some surprises. I´ll start from the beginning:
I took a group flight to Granada so there were about 30 plus other students on my flight. I got to scope out the crowd and see what kind of people I would be spending the next four months with. The plane ride was fine until I started to feel like total ass. I felt sick at the end and basically wanted to die. We went from Chicago to Madrid, and then from Madrid to Granada. We had to wait in the Madrid airport for a few hours where I continued to feel worse and nauseous. This feeling was only heightened when I was lucky enough to sit next to a mother and her 2 year old daughter on the plane. Previous to boarding the plane I was admiring how cute this little blond Spanish girl was. I even was dumb enough to say, ¨Awww, she would be cute to babysit.¨ My feelings soon changed when the child vomited in her hand and her mother´s before sitting next to me on the plane. And yes, she sat on her mother´s lap smelling like puke and kicking me every five minutes to remind me she was there. So needless to say at this point I was ready to throw in the towel. After some rest in the hostel I felt a lot better. I still felt nauseous the first few days, but eventually I picked up an appetite.
The first week in Granada I had orientation with my school, Cegrí. The unique thing about this school is that it is much smaller than some of the other language programs offered in Granada and other parts of Spain. I think there are a total of 55 students here and each class has 5 to 12 students per class. With the orientation we took some tours of the city. Although it was slightly confusing at first, I am now starting to feel comfortable with the need-to-knows of Granada. There is still so many places to explore and get lost here so I am excited to continue to learn the city.
I actually have friends!! And yes I am the oldest person here. Most of the students are 20 or 21 years old. I definitely have some friends that are 20 years old, but I must say they display a great amount of maturity. I know that if I was 20 and in Spain, I would be an idiot. A friend that I spend a lot of time with, Kate, is actually the sister of one of Gabe Altenhofen´s friends. We came to this realization this past weekend while relaxing on the beach.
The eating schedule here is quite different as some of you know, and yes siesta does exist but it is not necessarily nap time. Don´t get me wrong, if you want to take a nap it is certainly welcome. Lunch is usually between 2:00 - 4:00 pm. and dinner is between 9:00 - 11:00 pm. Lunch is the most important meal and dinner is usually something light. If you go out for dinner tapas is available, but there are full dinners you can order as well. One of the unique things about Granada is that if you go to a tapas bar and order a drink, you get free tapas with your drink. Not all cities in Spain give you free tapas with your drinks. Some popular tapas items are small sandwiches, olives, fries, clams, chips, calamari, ham, cheese, and there is so much more. It depends are the tapas bar, but some places allow you to pick the tapas you want while others bring out whatever they are serving that night.
The past few weeks have been full of interesting experiences, new people, and some surprises. I´ll start from the beginning:
I took a group flight to Granada so there were about 30 plus other students on my flight. I got to scope out the crowd and see what kind of people I would be spending the next four months with. The plane ride was fine until I started to feel like total ass. I felt sick at the end and basically wanted to die. We went from Chicago to Madrid, and then from Madrid to Granada. We had to wait in the Madrid airport for a few hours where I continued to feel worse and nauseous. This feeling was only heightened when I was lucky enough to sit next to a mother and her 2 year old daughter on the plane. Previous to boarding the plane I was admiring how cute this little blond Spanish girl was. I even was dumb enough to say, ¨Awww, she would be cute to babysit.¨ My feelings soon changed when the child vomited in her hand and her mother´s before sitting next to me on the plane. And yes, she sat on her mother´s lap smelling like puke and kicking me every five minutes to remind me she was there. So needless to say at this point I was ready to throw in the towel. After some rest in the hostel I felt a lot better. I still felt nauseous the first few days, but eventually I picked up an appetite.
The first week in Granada I had orientation with my school, Cegrí. The unique thing about this school is that it is much smaller than some of the other language programs offered in Granada and other parts of Spain. I think there are a total of 55 students here and each class has 5 to 12 students per class. With the orientation we took some tours of the city. Although it was slightly confusing at first, I am now starting to feel comfortable with the need-to-knows of Granada. There is still so many places to explore and get lost here so I am excited to continue to learn the city.
I actually have friends!! And yes I am the oldest person here. Most of the students are 20 or 21 years old. I definitely have some friends that are 20 years old, but I must say they display a great amount of maturity. I know that if I was 20 and in Spain, I would be an idiot. A friend that I spend a lot of time with, Kate, is actually the sister of one of Gabe Altenhofen´s friends. We came to this realization this past weekend while relaxing on the beach.
The eating schedule here is quite different as some of you know, and yes siesta does exist but it is not necessarily nap time. Don´t get me wrong, if you want to take a nap it is certainly welcome. Lunch is usually between 2:00 - 4:00 pm. and dinner is between 9:00 - 11:00 pm. Lunch is the most important meal and dinner is usually something light. If you go out for dinner tapas is available, but there are full dinners you can order as well. One of the unique things about Granada is that if you go to a tapas bar and order a drink, you get free tapas with your drink. Not all cities in Spain give you free tapas with your drinks. Some popular tapas items are small sandwiches, olives, fries, clams, chips, calamari, ham, cheese, and there is so much more. It depends are the tapas bar, but some places allow you to pick the tapas you want while others bring out whatever they are serving that night.
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