Home Sweet Home

Well, well, well, here I am once again with more updates on my adventures here in Granada. Since I last wrote to you all, nothing extreme has happened, but exciting experiences have taken place none the less! I feel like I’m getting past the point of just thinking this trip is a short vacation because it’s starting to sink in that I will be here for 5 more months. Granada is beginning to become my new home.

This past weekend we had our very first visitors! Carli Gustafson, Jocie Lemus, and Lexie Bales visited us from Barcelona, Spain. Carli is a soccer player from UWL and is good friends with my Athletic Training classmate Jen Werner. Both Karrie and I knew Carli beforehand so it was nice to see a familiar face. The other two girls were great as well. Jocie is from Miami, Florida and Lexie is from Wisconsin. It’s so fun to meet other people that are from around the United States as well as native Spaniards. So, we packed all 6 of us into our apartment and had a great weekend! We walked all around the city and took them up to the Albaycin along with sight-seeing a portion of the Alhombra. I also bought myself a very Euro black and white scarf that I wear all of the time now! Many pictures were taken, fun memories, and great food was eaten. Speaking of food, I have found my new favorite Spanish food! It’s called “pan tostada con tomate y aceite.” Essentially, it’s a baguette sliced in half and toasted with tomato paste and olive oil drizzled over it. So simple, yet so delicious! We also found our favorite eatery to get schwarmas. These are amazing filled with chicken, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, olives, corn, carrots, and a delectable white sauce that had me hooked within the first bite. This schwarma will be my guilty pleasure for the remainder of my stay here (along with yummy European chocolate)!  Overall it was a great time had by all of us girls filled with borrowing each other’s clothes, shoes, and accessories and doing each other’s make-up and hair. Kind of like a weekend-long slumber party. J

I’ve also started taking baby steps in attempt to improve my knowledge of the Spanish language here in Granada. The girls and I went out for tapas to our favorite tapas place that I talked about in my previous blog and by now the workers there recognize us. After chatting it up with them for a while, we’ve come to an agreement that every time we go there, we are going to be forced to speak Spanish. The host, Jose, bartender Alvador, and cook Miguel said that they will help us with our Spanish if we help them with their English. Sounds like a deal to me! These guys are really nice and I’m excited to get more help with my Spanish speaking abilities!

If that’s not enough, I’ve made friends with a few of the students that study here at the University of Granada. We met Petra and Pedro one of the first nights that we were here in Spain. After exchanging contact information, we decided to all go out for tapas on Monday night. We all met up and walked through the Albaycin again and stopped at a tapas place on the way home. It was a solid two hours of being forced to speak in Spanish! Petra and her friends know English too, so it is really nice because if I don’t know how to say something in Spanish, we can figure out what I mean in English. J It’s another situation where I’ll be able to help them with their English, while I’m getting help with my Spanish. Win-win!

Jen, Karrie, and I are also going to be taking a Spanish class that will meet for 3 hours every Tuesday and Thursday until May. This class is offered through the university and specializes in being taught as a foreign language. This past Friday, we had to take what I would call a placement exam. This exam will determine what the class level of Spanish that we’re going to be in. This was also the first exam that I’ve ever tried to do poorly on! No worries, there was a rhyme and reason for me doing this. First off, my Spanish abilities are nowhere near where I’d like them to be, so being put in a lower level will help me get a solid base foundation to build on. Secondly, the lower levels of the Spanish class are about half of the price as the upper level. Either way, getting into some sort of Spanish class will help improve my lingual knowledge tremendously.

Here are some more pictures that I’ve taken, captions included. I’m still in awe of the scenery that I am blessed to see around me each and every day. Enjoy!

More Tapas!

Some beautiful grafiti on our walk to a park

Views from where the park where I run

Flower pictures from the park

Riverwalk!

Our visitors from Barcelona

Jocie, Carli, Lexie, Karrie, and myself

On our way to the Albayzin again to get some sunset pictures.

A universal phrase :)

Caves where the gypsies live.

Sunset on the Albayzin!

Look how close the clouds are to the Sierra Nevada mountain top.

So. Pretty.

My roommates Karrie, Jen, and I.

Overlooking the city.

One of the buildings across the street from Plaza de Isabel el Catolico

At our favorite tapas place! They have tons of seafood and yummy dishes to try. Here you see I'm actually eating a sardine! (I did, however, pull the tail off before indulging in it).