First Impressions

I officially finished my first week of class in Granada! Of course, it went as fast as the first week of any semester does. I think my classes will be fairly easy, but speaking in Spanish 24/7 is work in itself. I think I'll have a lot of free time; usually I take 15 credits each semester, but I'm only taking 12 credits this semester since that's all I need to graduate. With that, I'll be trying to volunteer in a school to help teach English, and I'm also looking to volunteer somewhere healthcare related. My Señora also has a family friend that has a 19 year old daughter who is going to college for nursing who wants to meet up with me once she gets back from her Summer break so she can practice English and I can practice my Spanish. It's my goal to start getting more involved with the locals here!

Some of my first impressions of Granada:

Food: my Señora is an amazing cook. She definitely feeds me enough, but if I don't eat ice cream or pizza with my friends, it's the perfect amount. Here is a typical meal: meat, potatoes, veggies, bread, cheese and fruit for dessert. 

My favorite meal so far. The melon they have here (in the bowl) is seriously my favorite fruit now.

Señora: it's different to change my living arrangements from an apartment with friends (and my sister) to living with my Señora, however I'm already very independent in the house, which makes it much more pleasant. I've learned that communication is key. Even though we have different primary languages, I've already discovered that if we both explain where we will be and at what times, everything goes much more smoothly. We have never seen each other in the mornings, and I just eat cereal (seriously it's my crack). For lunch and dinner, if I'm going to be home later or earlier than she's making dinner for herself, she'll just make me up something that I can heat up, or makes me food first that she'll eat later. It's actually quite awesome. I feel spoiled. And for trips, rather than buying food, she packs me a "bocadillo" or a sandwich. Super awesome. Also, we've already had in depth conversations about Obama, universal healthcare, Syria, etc. Didn't think I'd be able to jump into those kinds of conversations so soon, though I'm not going to complain. In short, I think I was assigned a pretty good Señora! Did I mention I have my own bathroom and giant closet? 

Siestas: Granada is scorching hot in the summer, about 110 degrees, by mid afternoon, so everyone goes home in the afternoons for "siesta" to have dinner, nap and talk with the family, resting up to go out at night when the weather is actually bearable. It's a little weird not getting my 8 hours of sleep each night since I go to bed later than normal, but the siesta nap definitely makes up for it. The streets of Granada during siesta (about 2-5pm) are dead, but at about 8 or 9pm until 1am, there are people everywhere, the waterfalls are running and lit up and all the bars give free tapas with drinks.

Streets & Sidewalks: they are definitely different than in the U.S. Most of the sidewalks are tile (very slippery when wet). 

They have the best "walk" signal to cross the street.

The walking guy starts blinking at 3 seconds, so I caught it at a bad time, but doesn't this green guy have swag?

 

The cleanliness on the streets is insane. Every morning people are outside mopping the sidewalk tiles, cleaning all the windows, and people even clean the stoplights and paint the poles each morning around the city. My teacher claims that they need to do this because Spaniards are super dirty, so if they didn't clean every day, the streets would be a disaster. They even have Zambonis that clean the streets and sidewalks, I've seen them around town at all hours of the day. 

Water: the water in Granada is the best in all of Spain because it comes directly from the mountains, meaning all the vitamins and minerals are 100% natural. It's a little weird drinking from tap water though since I've drank from either a Britta or the well water for the last 21 years of my life. But, I will admit, it is very refreshing in 100 degree weather (even if it's warm water). I've also realized that I need to drink at least a gallon a day otherwise extreme dehydration kicks in.

There are many more things to talk about, but I'm going to leave it at this for today. This weekend starts my trips that I'll be taking pretty much every weekend. So prepare for blog posts each week from some crazy awesome place around Europe! Trip 1: Nerja, Spain. You should look up pictures, it's beyond beautiful!