Week 1 of Spain

Wednesday January 20, 2010 12:30 pm

I have been in Spain for four days now, and I am excited because I feel like my Senora’s Spanish is slowing down! This is great because I can actually understand what she is saying haha (most of it at least) but the Minnesota guys are great and explain it to me slower than she does if I don’t get it the first time. And if all else fails we wait until after dinner, and they tell me in English haha Yesterday I had a pretty busy day. Brett and I went to a couple places to find a phone, and we also were laughed at a few times but it happens! We finally found one for pretty cheap. The numbers here are kind of weird. Instead of having four digits at the end there are only three here. We started classes yesterday, I tested into the Lengua y cultura, and I am happy about that because I won’t have classes on Friday. I will be able to travel on the weekends now so that will be good! I think we are going to plan a trip to Switzerland and some other country (haven’t decided which one) because I don’t think that we have classes or anything from Feb 2 until Feb 9.

Last night we went out around 11. I was walking out the door and my senora yelled “espera espera” (wait wait) and I said what?? She got mad at me because it was about 50 degrees and all I had on was a T-shirt haha so she made me put on a coat AND change into better shoes! Apparently she is much more fashionable than me! (not surprising) The bars were a lot of fun. We went to a bar at about 11 pm called chupitas (shots). The price was really cheap. It was 1 euro for a shot, and they had a list of 115 shots on there walls. It was pretty cool. Then of course we thought it would be a good idea to go to a karaoke bar. It was pretty funny, but some lady had to show us up haha she had an amazing voice soooo we left. We ended up heading to a discoteca pretty late. It was hilarious when we got there because the music was so loud and everything but then we opened the door and we were the ONLY ones there in a huge building. Apparently its weird to go out on a Tuesday night in the middle of the week haha who knew? Oh yes and classes so far are easy because we are still in orientation. We start classes on the ninth of February.

Friday Jan 21.

A few nights ago I was using the internet at a café and kind of got kicked out. The owner or manager got mad at me for being in there for 2 hours using the internet that isn’t even theirs! Haha So it is more difficult for me to get online now because I haven’t found another good place to go to, but I will find one eventually. We started planning our trip to Switzerland yesterday. It is actually pretty difficult to find flights that go out when we need them to and everything but it is pretty cheap. For instance a flight from Madrid to Switzerland one-way is about 40 euros… 60 bucks. Not too bad at all if ya ask me. I believe the hostels are only like 20 euro to stay in also soo it is pretty inexpensive to travel. My host mother’s food is still really good but she is starting to stray away from American food haha.. Yesterday our meal was mushrooms and rice with fish soup. Im not a huge fan of the ol mushrooms but it wasn’t that bad I guess! Today we had picantes … green peppers and then also potato soup which was all right also… it will just take me a while to get used to the whole vegetable and fish scene haha. The other day we had tortillas de camarones.. Shrimp tortillas and one of the guys from Minnesota (Pat) had an allergic reaction to it, and his hands swelled up really bad and are still red from it. Looks like we wont be having shrimp for a while, and I am okay with that!

Yesterday we went to the Albaicin. All I can say is WOW…. The albaicin is like the old neighborhood of Granada before the rest of Granada was conquered. Look at the pictures I put up because I think that some of them don’t even look real… but they all are. The albaicin is on one mountain and the Alhambra is in the other with the Sierra Nevadas in the background…. Both of the two main mountain (albaicin and the mountain with Alhambra) look over the city of Granada as you will see. There is a huge river that flows between the two mountains that used to have gold in it from the Sierra Nevadas hence its name Rio de Darro… River of gold. There was a drinking fountain up in the albaicin that comes straight from the Sierra Nevadas and that was pretty cool! That’s basically all I have for now. Tonight we’re going out again.. Oh yes I forgot to mention one night I got back at 3 am and my senora got mad at me. BUT not for coming home too late but for coming home too EARLY haha she told me that if I expect to be immersed in the culture I need to start staying at the discoteca until at least 6 am. She is crazy! Haha she told me that she used to stay out until 9 am and then slept all day and did it again… I have decided all she wants me to do is eat a ton, sleep, and to have a good time. She is really cool! Welp that’s all I’ve got for now. I will have pictures up of the albaicin today probably and we go to the Alhambra tomorrow.