Aventuras en la ciudad

 Today was the first official day of our program. This morning Belen walked me to la Fuente de las Batallas (fountain of the battles) where I met Amalia and the other GRIIS students. There are nine of us in all which is a great size. We then walked to the Centro de Lenguas Modernas (CLM) where we will be taking our intensive Spanish class for the next three weeks. At the CLM we got our Blackberry’s (yippee!) and also talked about Spanish norms. Here are a few things I learned:

1.       You should not walk barefoot in your house (Strike 1. Did that yesterday because I saw my host mom walking barefoot but I was wearing socks, not sure if that counts. Today, I have kept my sandals on the whole time.)

2.      The Spanish like to stare at people in the streets (I’m sure this is especially true when you’re American)

3.      You do not have to tip waiters (yay!)

4.      The Spanish do not stop for pedestrians (which was evidenced by when Brittany almost got hit by a taxi.)

5.      The Spanish finish everything on their plates at meal times (it is rude to throw food away). (Strike 2. There is always so much food and I can’t ever seem to finish it!)

Afterwards I walked home by myself and didn’t get lost! That was probably the proudest moment of my day. I had the biggest lunch ever (probably like ¼ of a chicken and potatoes and bread, very good!). I’m still not getting used to the portion sizes here but I did manage to finish my very large lunch. It’s strange though, I have yet to really feel hungry since I’ve been here and so eating large meals has been a challenge.

After lunch I had plenty of time before our meeting at 7:30 so I met up with Brittany and Kelsey and we walked around the city, getting familiar with the area and exploring the shops. (Side note: I live right around the corner from one of the main streets of the city which has tons of shopping. I’m looking forward to having time to do a little shopping although I keep reminding myself that I need to pace myself). We also stopped at Café Fútbol where we sat and chat. We then met up with Teresa and the rest of the group for our evening tour of Granada.

Teresa showed us around the city, stopping at various landmarks to explain the importance and also give us a sense of where we were in the city. I honestly can’t remember any of the names of the three or four plazas we stopped in (information overload) but it was helpful to explore a new part of the city and have some reference points. We did get to walk by the cathedral which we will be visiting later in the week and it was absolutely beautiful. Right next to it is this beautiful little church. I’m hoping I might be able to attend mass there on Sunday which occurs a las medias (new phrase I learned today meaning at the half hours i.e. 11:30, 12:30, 1:30.) I didn’t have a chance to take many pictures because I was just trying to take it all in but I’m hoping to return later this weekend to get in some good shots of the city.

After our little tour Teresa took us out for our first tapas experience! In Granada, anywhere you order a drink (even just soda) they bring you out free tapas. The bar we went to served great tapas! Also, for all my friends at the Hill, you will be proud to hear that I had my first drink ever tonight in Granada, whoo! For curious minds it was a tinto de verano (red wine with lemonade mixed in, I think). Anyways, it was very good and mom, I did discover that real wine tastes different than the wine they serve in church however, it did have a familiar tint…

Overall, I am starting to feel really comfortable here in Granada and I’m having a great time. There is so much to see and do and I can’t wait to get out and explore more parts of the city. I’m trying to set a few goals for myself for my semester here and two that I have for this upcoming week are to 1) attempt to take a different route home each day and 2) speak Spanish as much as possible (especially with the other American students as it is super easy to revert back to English).  I’m looking forward to what the weekend will hold and will do my best to post some pics soon!