I have officially been in Granada for one week! If everything continues at this rate, I think I’m going to get to know the city and my family really well in no time. This weekend we went out for the first time to explore the nightlife in Granada. There ended up being about 10 people from my program all trekking around in one big group. I told my brother that it reminded me a bit of Freshman year–a huge mob of people wandering around together, looking lost, all trying to find a place to party! Once we actually got out, though, it was a really good time. We hopped around from place to place starting at a chupiteria (a shot bar) and ending at a discoteca. Anne and I left a little after 3 and that was considered early!!! It’s definitely going to take some getting used to. It does help, though, that we usually probably won’t even leave our house until 11:30 at the earliest. One part of the Spanish culture that I already love is the fact that they go out for tapas! Tapas are, más o menos, hours’ devours but you usually eat them a few hours before dinner, rather then right before. Here is Granada (I don’t think it is like this in the rest of Spain) many bars give you free tapas with each drink you order! A wonderful idea, in my opinion. Yesterday (Tuesday) Anne and I went out for tapas after our afternoon class and it was a great decision! We each ordered a drink called tinto de verano, which I think is kind of like the cheap version of sangria– it’s red wine mixed w/ some sort of bubbly sprite-like soda. Not only was the drink super delicious, but we also ordered a tapa that was amazing–a toasted piece of bread w/ a slice of brie cheese covered in warm honey. I recommend that you all go to the store right now and get some brie and honey so you can try this!!
Sunday morning, I went on a tour of the barrio Albayzin, which is the oldest part of the city. It’s like the neighborhood I described earlier (called barrio Realejo, by the way), but even better. The whole area is built into the hills surrounding Granada, and when you climb up to the top you get the most spectacular view of the Alhambra (if you google pictures of the Alhambra, that’s the view I had). All the churches in the area (and there are many) are really old and different from anything you would see in the US. Originally they were Muslim mesquitas (mosques) that were later converted to Catholic churches. The bricks from the mesquitas were retained, but the front entrances are now all made of stone and are adorned with statues of saints and what-not. It’s really interesting to see such a blending of cultures and religions all in one building. Like in the barrio Realejo, the Albayzin is a maze of white houses and winding roads. Each house has a ceramic plaque on the front gate saying the name of the house. The houses are called “Carmen ____”, the blank being the last name of the family that lived there. I’m not exactly sure if those are the names of the original owners or not, but it’s pretty cool regardless. It would be sweet if we named our houses in America! The Albayzin is definitely one of the coolest areas in Granada, and I’m going to have to go back there soon to explore a bit more in the coming weeks and months.
At school on Monday Anne and I met a girl who was nervous about the English oral test that she was about to take. We talked to her for a bit and learned that she speaks 4 languages!!! She is a native of Portugal, is in Granada to learn Spanish, knows a fair amount of French and is near fluent in English. There is another girl in my grammar intensivo named Guru (awesome name!) who is from Norway. She is only 19 but has already spent a year in American learning English and has been in Granada for a little more than 3 months. She didn’t know any Spanish before coming to Spain and already speaks it really well. When I meet people like them, I wonder why I am not fluent in Spanish by now! It makes me really respect the European approach to learning languages–I think it is an important skill to have, but when our schools don’t stress it, few people are inclined to learn a foreign language.
More about school– I’m half way done with my first week, and so far everything is going well. We have 4 hours of intensivo in the mornings, 2 hours w/ one teacher and 2 hours with another, and it is generally pretty laid back and interesting. I’m learning a ton of new vocab every day, but the hard part is going to be remembering it all. I think the intensivo is a good way to ease into taking content classes in Spanish. Because I got placed in a high enough level, I won’t have to retake the placement exam in order to take the content classes, but I still have to pass my intensivo classes, which I imagine will be easy enough (although our program director tells me that my teacher María Angeles is one of the hardest intensivo teachers there is). Because of the program we are in, we have to take an additional class in the afternoon that prepares us for the DELE (like the TOEFL in the US). I already can’t stand that class–it’s like taking an SAT prep class, but for and hour and half every day for 3 weeks. All together, we have about 25 hours of class each week, which is way more than I would have at GU. Luckily, once these three weeks are over I won’t have nearly as much class (who said I came to Spain to study??).
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