First week in Spain: Granada

Here I am, exactly a week after arriving in Spain, sitting in my host family's apartment, on my bed in the room I share with Eliana--another junior at Wash U who is an awesome person all around.

Last Monday I said goodbye to all the Texas fam, flew from Houston to Philadelphia, then connected a couple hours later to my overnight flight to Madrid. I sat down in my row of 2 on the left side of the plane, a seat that I had chosen at random when I bought the ticket, ready to kick it and zone out for a good 7 hours. Right then, a guy about my age came and slid in next to me, and was honestly one of the most talkative people I've ever met. I am a big fan of talking to strangers, but daaang. He wins. He told me where he was from and that he was heading to study abroad in Sevilla, and it didn't take long for us to realize he was also one of my Wash U friend's high school ex (craaazy coincidence), which made for some fun conversation. He was super friendly and was very into showing me how funny the show he was watching was, on the tiny little screen in front of his seat ("You HAVE to see this. Do you mind?"), reached over to take some coconut shavings off my little fruit salad that came with the flight dinner ("OH it's coconut! I have no personal bubble..I'm sorry" to which I quickly responded I went to jew camp, it's all good) All in all a more active flight experience then I've had in a while, but entertaining nonetheless.

I arrived in Madrid around 10 am on Tuesday, then got to go take my stuff to the host fam's and hang out there for about 3 hours, before it was time for my train to Granada. Our apartment is tiny and cozy, We live with our mama Gloria, and our host sister Daniela, an adorable 9-year-old who is incredibly smart and hilarious. OH and we can't forget the hamster, Caramelo..Daniela would be upset if I left him out. That whole first day was a haze, but I met Gloria and got to have lunch with her before leaving. She is extremely dynamic and warm and sassy, and definitely has her own way of doing things. The apartment is colorfully painted and stylized,  and Daniela takes after her personality a lot (I will take pictures of them and the apartment soon).

After a 4-5 hour train ride to Granada I finally made it to the hotel and arrived just as the group was starting off the night.  Although I hadn't slept in a few days I decided it would be fun to go out with the group..what's a few more hours right? Always an experience going out with 21 Americans in a foreign country. We had fun and the group was so welcoming to me, which I definitely appreciate!! We spent the week seeing the city in the mornings, and taking an 'intensive' class in the afternoons, which really meant four hours a day of learning any and every way to say the most useful and 'local' parts of the language, if you know what I mean. Definitely useful.

The week in Granada in photos:

 

Flamenco! We walked up to see Flamenco performed in an old cave transformed into a little restaurant and performance space. There were three musicians (guitar, flute, and vocalist) and three dancers (2 women and a man). Apparently the gypsy tradition that started flamenco took place in these caves. It is such a fiery, passionate dance. The music is incredible and I definitely want to see more of it here!

  

Granada, on our walk to class. It was pretty rainy most of the time, but still a cool-lookin city. The people in Granada were overall a bit cold, which some locals told us is because it is so small. It does have a really amazing Arab culture, and the food in that part was the best by far.

 

The beginning of the day of perfection... We spent Saturday in the small towns surrounding Granada.  They are in the Sierra Nevada mountains, so the towns are hilly and streets are very narrow. Our first stop was an old olive oil mill, and on our way back down we saw a water source, which comes down straight from the mountains. Our second stop was a vineyard, which was also beautiful.

 

On our way to lunch, we stopped on the side of the road to pick oranges. Juan, who was showing us around, moved with his wife and young sons from Madrid, where he has lived all his life, to a town of a thousand people. He told us that because oranges are so expensive to collect and are sold so cheaply, thousands are just left unpicked and are up for the taking. Yum!

 

After lunch, we went to Juan's pueblo, called Bunüel. Here women used to wash their laundry and gossip. Now, he says, although almost everyone has washing machines, many women still like to come and do their laundry here sometimes to keep the social part of it alive. 

A man in Bunüel.

 

Walking around the town. I asked Juan what it's like to enter a community where everyone knows each other, and has for generations..what it's like or if/how the people welcome you. He told me he's not gonna lie...it's HARD. People are nice, but he has little in common with a lot of them, especially the people who work in agriculture. He says that although he likes it here and doesn't want to go back to the city, they will always see him as somewhat of a foreigner.

 

I got distracted while Juan was talking by these kids playing..so obviously I wanted to play too! Didn't know my friend Ali was capturing the moment, haha.

 

Our last stop of the day was climbing up to the top of the town to have coffee at a house that belongs to an older couple, which is sometimes also a tiny hotel. They were so welcoming and had such interesting stories to tell. This is the view from their house, as the sun was setting. The houses are kept very white because it represents propriety and cleanliness, and Juan says they repaint their houses almost annually. It was honestly the most beautiful, peaceful day..one that my friends and I have talked about realizing we will remember it for a long long time.

LA ALHAMBRA: Since I was late, I missed the day the group went to the Alhambra. Luckily, we had a free day and my friends Allison and Krizia, who are on a different Wash U Spain program, came to visit and I went with them. Absolutely breathtaking.

And now it's back to Madrid! We got back yesterday, and we were ready to come back. I'm excited to get to know Madrid. Today we saw the campus of our school, Universidad de Carlos III for the first time, and this week is orientation. Besos, I miss you all!