First Impressions of Granada

When we were flying over Granada and about to land, we could see olive orchards everywhere. And we could partially see the Sierra Nevada mountains that are 30 min southeast of Granada.

We landed on the tarmac, and got to touch land to walk into the airport terminal. The heat was like a thick heavy hot wind. I turned to Kenneth and said "Welcome Home"! Man how weird is that? tight.

We are living in the Colegio Mayor de Isabel la Católica, and it´s so beautiful. It´s the same ornate style as many of the churches, and has gorgeous carvings and is tall and tan and pretty much amazing. I am worried I might start to annoy people with how often I say "damn this is just so incredible and gorgeous" about everything, but it´s hard not to. I can´t believe this is my home city this year, we´ve all shared the feeling that it seems like we´re on vacation and we´ll be flying home soon.

We had a brief orientation Saturday morning after we took our placement spanish test which was a breeze. During this orientation we met out Monitores, University of Granada students who will help us with everything we need this month to get accustomed and situated. Most importnantly they wil help us renew our visa and locate our alojamientos for the year, our rooms or apartments where we will live. My monitor Sergio is great, I talked him up a lot yesterday and he´s friendly and helpful.

I love speaking Spanish everywhere! And their Castillian, lispy accents are beautiful, we all hope we get them. I am already unconsciously lisping my C´s and Z´s so that´s a good start!

We tried to all buy moviles, cell phones, yesterday. However, there were like 15 of us in this one tiny corner shop of the phone company Yoigo, so it was crazy and hectic. After waiting for almost an hour, I heard that we needed our passports fpr ID and I had just taken mine out of my purse, so I ended up running back to my room a couple blocks away to fetch it. Picture this: the worst heat of the day, and me running in my skirt and my loud echoing sandals clutching my purse and notebooks and running running down the street. Various different Spaniards called out at me, haha I probably looked mad. Anyway, I got back to the store and I am sweating like crazy. I mean, I normally don´t sweat much at all, but I am just dripping. Anyway, I´m sure you can imagine haha. But, after all this, it turns out they have run out of phones and so we all have to come back on Monday when they open next to buy our phones. So the running was pointless! Ah.

My feet are so sore and I already have a couple different blisters from my different sandals. You walk so much here, on all hilly, dusty cobble'stoned streets, that your feet really get beat.

Oh, random- I bought some food at the Maxi mercado, and when I got home I saw that all the food I had bought was expired! I was surprised but decided I´d live life dangerously, and ate it. Only hours later after feeling rebellious and maybe sick did I remember that they write the dates differently here, with the day first and then the month. So all the food wa perfectly fine. Yay! Little victories.

By the way, here at the internet cafe the radio is playing and it´s mostly American pop and hip hop, but songs we know that have all been changed a bit, either made more techno or something added. We just heard a hip hop song that started with the Lion King´s circle of life and then there was rap! The four of us American girls looked at each other and cracked up. It´s awesome.

We walked around late into the night last night and explored. We saw the edge of La Alhambra illuminated in all it´s glory, which heightened my flabbergasted feeling of holy cow, I live here!? Ah!

Five of us finally chose a chinese restaurant for dinner at 11 last night and it was fun. So weird to hear the chinese servers speaking spanish. And I can see how they stay up so late here, the sun sets way later and so it always seems way earlier than it is, and you also have to walk everywhere so that takes time.

Tapas are awesome. Buy a drink for less than 2 euros and they bring out a tapa of their choosing, which is a substantial bit of food. I´ve had jamon pizza, tuna salad, tuna sandwich things...good stuff! And I like what they call Tinto de Verano which is sort of like Sangria but more fruity and less alcoholy, so I actually like it! I tried that last night. For lunch yesterday a group of 18 of us had tapas together, and I was the only one who ordered a non-alcoholic drink when I got a Coke. Haha. So it´s exciting to actually enjoy a drink here that´s not coke or fanta.

The streets are so lively here! There was an outside concert on a random plaza last night, with lots of people dancing....

I love it!