First Days in Spain

Hola y bienvenidos ! (Welcome!)

FIrst of all I'd like to thank Rob Ganim for the naming of this blog. Thanks Rob.

Okay!

I'm at the close of my second day here in Granada and its been quite an experience so far. In all honesty its 5:45 in the morning here and I couldn't sleep so I decided to write. First I'll recount the flight, because thats something I'll definately never forget.

I arrived at JFK in NYC at 4:30 for my 6:30 flight only to immediately find out that 

it had been delayed for 2 hours. Iberia airlines has a strong reputation for tardiness, but overall it wasn't such a bad thing. Not all the flights are late, and it gave me plenty of time to meet my group from Uconn and make some new friends. At least its not as bad Jamaica Airlines, which apparently has a zero percent rate of flights leaving on time. Everyone going on this trip is super friendly, and we are already somewhat of a family, relying on each other for help and being there for each other when planing trips.

After an 8 hour flight, which consisted of at least 4 hours of sleeping, 1 1/2 hours of a movie, and two surprisingly good meals (perhaps because I was starving) we arrived at Madrid.  It was around 10 a.m. Thanks to the 2 hour delay back in new york, our 4 hour delay was shortened to around 2 hours. Walking through the airport in Madrid was like following a labyrinth  with directions. 

One mistake and we would have been lost

 forever to eventually be bludgeoned and devoured by a rampaging minotaur. Fortunately we found our gate and we even met another student from Washington State studying abroad here as well. 

The next flight was an hour flight over to Granada. Being Iberia, it was of course delayed, but only by an hour. Needless to say, I fell asleep and woke up as we landed. The airport in Gr

anada is quite small and there aren't any terminals, we had to get off the plane and walk. 

After collecting bags, we met up with the program director Lourdes and put our luggage on the bus who brought us to our meeting point where we met our homestay

 family o señors y señoras. 

My senoras name is Manuela Garcia and from the second I met her we have been speaking spanish. For better or worse. She is an extremely patient woman who has taken students before, and I couldn't be more glad. To be honest, when we first drove through the streets to her apartment, I was worried. The city is quite unique and I was unsure how to interpret what I saw, but I'll explain more when I describe the city. I live on La Calle Purche off of El Paseo Bomba, an avenue here that runs along the river. I'm staying in an apartment that isn't very big, but its cozy. Its intimate and welcoming here, and best of all, about a 15 minute walk to the school, perhaps less once I learn the streets a bit better. There isn't internet here, but thats okay, there are internet cafes and will be free wifi at the school soon. Maybe I can find a

 wep cracker online to hack into someones wifi here (there are 4 BC points, but they are all locked.) There is one called "The Masters", so maybe they are English or American. Who knows.

To say that Granada is simply an interesting city is to say a cube has only 3 sides. Even after only two days here, it is clear that there are many more aspects to the city than immediately meet the eye, specifically coming from an Americans point of view. When first entering the city outskirts, we could see expansive fields which stretched to the city limits which ran to the base of the towering mountains of the Sierra Nevada whose snowy peaks disappeared into the clouds blanketing the region. As we drove in, we got our first good looks at the definitively spanish architecture. It really is beautiful and I'll post pictures as soon as I can, I don't really have words to describe simply because I don't know enough about architecture.

My second impression of the city was, however, surprise. Curse the invention of the spray paint can, because it seems that every building here has been tainted by graffiti. However, this impression may be faulted. Spain is an ancient country rich in history and heritage both great and horrible. And while there may be countless tags  marking illegible phrases and anarchy symbols, it seems as if there is more than meets the eye, and these symbols may represent an aspect of the city or country that I don't yet know about that goes beyond simple gang-like behavior. But I'll keep ya posted ;)

As soon as got the house, my senora showed me my room and offered me food. I feel very fortunate that she can cook very well, and seems to have a good sense of what I like. At this time it was around 3pm. We started off with dos juevos, arroz, pan y jugo de naranja, (two eggs, rice, bread, and orange juice). It was so tasty! I finished organizing everything, and soon met up with everyone at the PLaze de Isabella Catolica at 6pm where there is a gigantic statue of Christopher Columbus. Soon afterwards, we followed Lourdes, the director, to a taperia that served us all tea and pastries. This time it was free, which made us all pretty happy. We then walked around the city until 10pm. At this point I was pretty clueless about everything that was going on, took a taxi back to my house and was so out of it, I ended up doing an awkward handshake with the driver. ¡Qué dí apuros! (I was so embarassed!) I crawled into bed and fell asleep almost immediately. 

Hoy, tuvemos orientación a las doce. (Today, we had orientation at 12 (mediadía).) I was so tired apparently that I slept through both my alarms, woke up at 11:38, and was 20 minutes late! Boy, what a great start! I would have been only a couple minutes late, but I took a wrong turn and got lost. Forutenly, my spanish is good enough to ask for directions and I found my way soon enough. There are a million streets and side streets, alleys and passages here. So its easy to make a wrong turn. Afterwards, I went home and had lunch, lentil soup, bread, rice, and a very strong salad. Didn't like the salad, but the rest was good. Too much vinegar. Then I walked around the city with my new friends and looked at jackets. I think I'm going to get one here, I need something more classy. Granada is a very classy city, and I might get mugged wearing my columbia. haha. Thats my excuse anyway. 

Ok, well, I think I've talked your ear off enough here. I'll try and keep posting my experiences here. There is so much to do, so there will be plenty to talk about. So until next time,  Ciao!