such an American day...

I think Michelle and I had the most American day possible (well, for being in Spain at least). I had frosted flakes (frosties) for breakfast. We had class as usual and a meeting. After our meeting we stopped at dunkin donuts and got a donut before we went home. I grabbed my credit card and we ran to Corte Ingles, their version of Macy’s/Walmart/everything in one store. We recharged our phone cards and then went to get pizza and cokes for dinner. Then, we went to a bar and had tapas (not so American) but turned around to see the Sox Yankees game from last night playing in the bar! We went in and watched the rest of the game (red sox won, I must add). The waiter was talking to us about the United States and asking questions about baseball. Overall, it was a pretty damn American day.

Tomorrow we’re going to the Alhambra. I’m sure I’ll have tons of pictures from that to upload!

I didn't want salmon, I said it four times!

Amy asked our professor if we could play more games in class or at least do more conversation. The professor didn’t really understand what she was saying (hence why we should probably do more conversation practice!). I’m really not a fan of Susana, the professor we have for the first two hours. If the question is between ser and estar, and you ask her “Why is it ser?” she doesn’t answer the question, she asks you “Well, why is it estar?” I’m pretty sure if we knew, we wouldn’t ask the question…

Today we had salmon for lunch. Like an entire salmon. I’m pretty sure the serving on my plate was the size my mom usually gets for 4 people. I don’t even really like salmon and I had to eat like a 20 oz piece. ¡Coño! Not to mention, all I could think of was Will Ferrel the entire lunch… “I didn’t want salmon, I said it four times!” Then my host mom got in an argument with me about why my sister doesn’t eat meat but eats fish. Ridiculous. I eat it so what does she care what my sister eats? Sheesh.

We had a tutorial with Jose today, and he taught us a ton of swears so we know what people are yelling at us. We also decided today that we are going to Portugal! We have a four day weekend in two weeks so we’re going for 3 nights. I can’t wait!

Anyways. We had cheese sandwiches for dinner before we went to get sangria tropical with Ethan and Amy, two people from my class. Danielle meet up with us two. It’s possibly the best thing I’ve had since I’ve gotten here. (Despite the fact that I was still tasting salmon from lunch…)

That’s all for today!

Vamos a la playa

Yesterday, we met at the bus at 9 to go to Nerja. It’s about an hour south from Granada. When we first got there, we went to the caves (La Cueva de Nerja). It was pretty cool but we couldn’t use flash so our pictures didn’t really come out. We were there for about an hour and then left for the beach.

At the beach, we all sat together and just relaxed. We were there from about 12-5. The view was beautiful! There were mountains and cliffs behind us and there were some waterfalls in the cliffs that hung over the ocean. The water was about the same as in Maine. I thought it would be a little warmer, so I didn’t go swimming. But we walked around and took pictures. I’m kind of sunburned today, almost lobster status, but not so bad that it’s uncomfortable. Our host mom thinks it’s horrible how red we are, but we explained to her that we’ve had much worse. I told her I was Irish and Swedish and her response was, “Ahhh, eso es porque eres muyyyy blanco!”

Today, Michelle, Melissa and I went to the park near our house (Parque Federico García Lorca). We walked about 20 minutes to the Parque de las ciencias, but it closed at 3 so we wouldn’t have enough time to see everything. We want to go back there sometime during the week though. It seemed like their version of the Boston Museum of Science. We walked back to the first park and ate lunch. We played on this see-saw type thing that also spins and took a bunch of pictures on that. Michelle and I realized that we only have pictures of buildings and stuff so we’re trying to take more with people in them. We were at the park for about 4 hours today just hanging out. It’s nice not to rush around and feel like we have to be somewhere.

Third times a charm (for getting lost)

Today we didn’t have any tutorias or meetings, so Alejandra, Danielle and I did our assignment from Veronica. We had to find two theaters by asking people on the street where it was. It was pretty easy considering Michelle and I got lost twice yesterday and had to ask like 8 people where to go. After, Danielle came back to our house so I could get my lunch, because I had forgotten it. We hung out here until Michelle got back. She had taken Melissa to the doctor because her stomach has been bothering her since we got here. I feel so bad! :[ Hopefully everything will be figured out, but she might have to go back if what they said to do doesn’t help. When Michelle got back, we walked with Danielle to get some snacks for the beach tomorrow at the grocery store. We want to be good to go for the beach and the caves, so we’re just hanging in tonight and the three of us are going to watch Despicable Me! Today was pretty low key.

Guys, I realllyyyy have to pee

Yesterday we had paella carne for lunch. It was really good and I even tried the artichokes. Later we had tutoring with Jose. He’s so cute! He’s under 5’8 and wears jeans and flip flops. He really likes the English expression “shit a brick” and he’s obsessed with Diana Ross. He gave us a lesson on ser and estar but focused more on different phrases. I was falling asleep. I think it’s probably cause I haven’t eaten iron since I’ve been here. Whoops! After tutorias, Michelle, Melissa, Danielle, Carina, Maureen, Nicole, and I went to café futbol to get churros y chocolate. We split una jarra de sangria tropical. It was so good! But Maureen had four glasses of it so I only got one while everyone else got two. That’s jenk as Danielle would say. We had ravioli for dinner and Maria, our host mom, told us her cousin died yesterday! :[ So we got her flowers after school.

Today a girl in my class, Amy, and I tried to get William to move. William is from Hong Kong and is really nice, but insists on talking to me while the professor is talking, and we all know I have enough trouble hearing people, nevermind when other people are talking to me. He also puts his elbows on my desk and hits Amy’s feet every five seconds. The way the seats are set up, he sits in the corner of the room and my desk and Amy’s block his. Amy put her bag on the chair and we moved our desks so that we would have to move our entire desk for him to fit through. Of course he walks in to class and stands right in front of us and waits for us to move it. After the break, Amy told him that he would probably have more room on the other side of the room with the three empty seats now that people have left our class. I’m glad she did because he was annoying me.

After class, we went to the little shops near the cathedral. We had no idea where they were so it was a process to get there. I got people some gifts and I got myself a bracelet. I can’t wait to give people what I got them. I got a few postcards and sent Sam one for her birthday. (Nikki if you read this, please don’t get mad, you will get one soon! Hers had a time constraint. But I got you a gift already and it’s your favorite color! So I hope that makes up for it :] ) Michelle and I tried to make it back quickly to be on time for lunch and ended up getting lost. Wah Wah. We weren’t that late though.

After lunch we napped and went to a meeting. Everyone decided to meet at 10:30 to go to a tapas bar. We found a little tent with music and drinks in one of the plazas. It was fun, but there were these extremely drunk French guys that decided to dance on our table and broke it. We had tinto de verano which is wine, soda, and other stuff. Then Carina had to pee so bad so we had to go to Burger King (yes, they have a burger king…) and buy something to use it. It was the nicest burger king I’ve ever seen! They tried to find a bar after, but Michelle and I just went home because we had class in the morning. 

Today we had our first day of class. We are in a different building than the main center, so we have a 40 minute walk to class. There are about 12 people in my class, one guy is about 75 and has worse hearing than I do! Melissa and Nicole are the only ones from Central in my class. We basically learned the logistics of the courses and played getting to know you games. We had a little homework and have to present the information we learned about the person in the class that we interviewed.

After class, a few of us went to the book store to buy the book for our class and a sweatshirt from la Universidad de Granada. (I got a purple one, shocker.) Then we ate lunch and met up with the rest of the group for a tour of Albaycín, which is a sub-section of Granada up the side of the mountain. There are many gypsies there. When we got to the top, there was a beautiful view of the city, Alhambra, and the Sierra Nevada. We took a few pictures and went back down.

After the tour we had a meeting with Veronica, followed by a lecture from Jose on the uses of olive oil in Spain. After the long tour, I was exhausted and could barely pay attention, but we did talk about HDL and LDL cholesterol, and I actually followed what he was talking about. Nikki would be proud! I was the only one who knew what it was and I told him it was because my sister is a dietician.

I think I’m going to learn a lot in my classes and a lot of history from our excursions. We start tutorials tomorrow with 3 or 4 of the people in the program and Jose. I think I lost my phone today, so I’ll probably have to buy a new one tomorrow :[ wah wah. I had to add more international minutes anyway, and the phone only cost 19 Euros, but still.

La Clase

Today, we took the placement test for our classes. We had a writing part for 30 minutes, grammar multiple choice for an hour, and then did an individual oral test. I was placed in the 5^th of 9 or 10 levels, so I’m pretty happy with that. The professor said that my grammar placed me a level or two higher, but my speaking needed a lot of work (no kidding, that’s why I’m here!). He said it like it was news to me, but I’m really looking forward to improving my conversation skills.

After the test, Veronica, the program director, took us for a tour through the city. One of the professors led us and told us the history of the city. The cathedral is one of the focal points and changed from a mosque to a cathedral when control switched over. It is the only cathedral in the world that depicts the archangel who was banished from heaven and sent to the underworld (el Diablo). We saw gypsies in the street near the cathedral yelling at one another and carrying around rosemary to “read your palm.” We saw a cute marketplace with semi-tourist type gift shops and I want to go back. They had aprons and I’m tempted to get Nikki one for her cooking shows. You know, in case she ever does a Spanish one.

After that we went to a café to use wifi because Veronica was going to send us an email with our class information. We ate dinner at 9:30 (scrambled eggs and ham, tomatoes, which I managed to choke some down, and more fruit) and met up with the rest of the Central College group for sangria y tapas (my first legal drink! Kinda).

So far, I’ve noticed that people are way less concerned with the time and don’t rush anywhere. I’ve barely used my phone to check the time and only do to be back for a meeting or dinner. Our host mother is getting more and more talkative and even praised me for using a Spanish phrase in conversation. She’s very helpful and really tries to get us to say what we mean.