Christiane's Clamor's: Mas Aventuras

The week following Alicante, I got to experience a few local events special to the city of Granada. We were invited by Racquel, our academic advisor, to a special concert put on by the University of Granada symphony orchestra. My school department, the Facultad de Ciencas de Actividad Fisica y Deportes was hosting this in honor of the person that founded this particular department. So, on Thursday evening, the girls and I got all dressed up and attended the orchestra concert. I must say, it was really nice to be in a musical atmosphere again. While it may not have been a musical, I was still smiling the entire time. The concert consisted of pieces from Mozart, Hindemith, and Dvorak and all the compositions performed were outstanding.

The next day/evening, you could feel the excitement in the air around the city because Friday was game day. No, not American football. The Spain soccer team, which won the most recent World Cup, was playing in Granada! Tickets were waaaay too pricey, but we were told that he games were going to be played in parks for free all around the city. So around 10 pm, we ventured down to an area by the river where we were met by hundreds of people watching the game on a large jumbo tron outside. The atmosphere surrounding us the entire game was nothing short of intense. These people, both young and old, LOVE their soccer and they're not afraid to show their pride. From boos and hisses complaining about bad referee calls to screaming and jumping about after a goal, the crowd said and did it all. Spain ended up beating the Czech Republic 2-1 and thank God! For a while I was worried we might have to duck out early in order to avoid a riot. But all ended well. :)

That Sunday we were greeted by one of our Athletic Training professors, Cordial Gillette and her husband. Cordial got a grant to visit Spain to see how the first year of our grant program was going. Since at that point we had still heard no word on our internship yet, we had plenty of time to be tour guides. She came to one of our Spanish classes and we took her to our Facultdad, where she sat in our Biomecanics class, and met Racquel, who gave us all a tour of the Facultad campus. In addition, Cordial seemed to be the good luck charm that we needed because we received word that our rent is paid in full and we now have our internships squared away! We start on April 11th and will be doing 3 different rotations, the Sports Clinic, a women's Clinic, and an athlete rehabilitation Clinic. I will start at the Sports Clinic and I could not be more excited! While nerves are obviously a part of my emotions, I'm excited to be out on my own, hopefully learning a bunch of new things.

The girls, along with Chuck, Cordial and I decided to take a couple days and head down to Nerja, Spain on the coast. It was fabulous to soak up some rays for those two days, despite the fact that we all got burned. Red color is better than no color, right?! The mini road trip was definitely time well spent in the good company of Chuck and Cordial. They left early Saturday morning and I was sad to see them go!

Missing all of you, mucho!
Besos,
Christiane