Monday January 24th- Wednesday January 26th

Monday was devoted to school work. Maggie and I had really weird fish and shell things for lunch. We were kind of freaked out. Luckily I had a peanut butter sandwhich to hold me over until dinner. I hauled myself back to school to attend one of my teacher's office hours. Which is much more intimidating than attending them in America. But luckily it went well. I only had a couple akward Spanish fails. Dinner was definitely dissapointing because we had pureed garbanzo beans. As a course. It was bad. I'm so glad I brought peanut butter with me

Tuesday I was exhausted in class, but thankfully the coffee vending machine came to my rescue again. We had good pork chops for lunch but they weren't enough. I feel like after school I could compete on Man vs. Food and win. After lunch we walked up a mountain (literally) of stairs to get to the Carmen de los Martires. It was a beautiful garden and has the highest point in Granada. After walking around for a while and taking pictures, we made the long trip down the mountain and met Maria and Cristina and one of Maria's friends at the post office. We took the bus to travel to Maria's mother's house for her mother's birthday. We had weird meat that I was scared of but I loved the empanadas, cheese, and chocolate torte. It wasn't as awkward as I thought it would be. We pretty much just sat around a table and ate and watched weird spanish TV. Coming back on the bus was crazy because the bus tried to make a turn in a construction zone and got stuck. The driver struggled for about 5 minutes backing up and then had to take an alternate route.

Today (Wednesday) I watched half of a really weird spanish movie/musical in class about a couple cheating on eachother with another couple. All of our homework activities seem to also tie in with relationships. For lunch we had a mountain of potatoes and eggs which was pretty good. Maria tried to make Maggie and I eat more but we stayed stong! It looked as though we hadn't eaten much but it was a huge plate. Now I'm just doing homework and travel planning/preparations until intercambios tonight.

Wednesday- Sunday January 19th-23rd

Wednesday we went to school and made progress on booking our trip. We waited around and did homework until it was time to go out to dinner with our friends. Maggie and I walked to a meeting place in town only to realize that the restaurant was right across from our house! Which was really rare because usually our house is very far from everything.

On Thursday we went to see a beautiful tour of Albaycin. We got to see the alhambra and Arab castles from the height we had to work to climb up. I got excited because I saw someone sitting by a unicycle but I didn't want to try and ask who's it was. It was a really neat place where people were selling jewelry and playing music. Even though most of the people were really creepy. Our tourguide said to never come there at night, but my friends and I want to come back there when it's warmer and take some more pictures and hang out. We were supposed to get some Arab tea but we got jipped out of that somehow but it was still a good day. Maggie and I got gelato (of course) on our way home but it was worth it (as always)

On Friday I had my first relaxed day in class. Maybe it was because 5 people decided not to show up, or just that the Professors were glad it was friday. My parter and I won the spanish version of "Two truths and a lie." I had everyone convinced that I was born in Germany. I was very glad that my test for the end of this intensive course is this friday instead of the next monday. So that gives us more time to travel.

We came home and napped because both of us were exhausted. After a nap we went for churros with chocolate with our family, which was delicious. Then we went around to various department stores with our sister because the sales are still good. Then we were home for the night! And very glad to stay in and go to bed early because we had a crazy day in store for Saturday....

On Saturday we got up early and ate breakfast and left with our host sister for the bus stop to go to Malaga. It's a beach town that's 2 hours south of Granada. We got on the bus and we all got to be very worried because the bus was late, to get to the other bus stop. As we reached our stop, Cristina informed us that we were going to have to run to the bus station. We began running all over the bus station. Cristina and I had to run and save a spot for Maggie because of her stress fracture but she was still keeping a great pace. As Cristina and I were running we came upon the escalators with no stairs, pretty much like a conveyer belt. And since she was running down it, I figured I could too, and both of us about fell over on the escalators so it was close. Luckily we made it safely to the bus. The rode to Malaga was nice and short. when we arrived unfortunately it was very cold, and we hauled ass for about an hour around the town until we found Cristina's friend. Then we went to a place that gives samples of strong alcohol. Maggie and I weren't thrilled about it because we had an empty stomach. We met about 7 of Cristina's friends there, and it was very overwhelming because in Spain they do the kiss one side of your face then the other. My cheeks definitely felt violated after that.... And after we had to say goodbye to everyone... After the wine tasting we went to have some delicious fried sea food at a restaurant and then went to a bar with Cristinas friends. We made some random italian friends there, and I was happy that I was actually understanding people and having simple conversations in Spanish. Then we walked around to different shops and saw the cathedral in malaga. Maggie and I were rushed yet again when burger king took forever to get our food and we had to power walk through the malaga mall to get to our bus. Luckily again, we made it in time and caught the bus in time to get to our house and we passed out from being tired.

Today all Maggie and I have done is studied and continued to plan our trip. We were almost glad that it snowed here so we wouldn't want to go outside. I'm glad that I have spend the majority of today studying because now I feel much more confident about my upcoming test.

Sunday - Tuesday, January 16th-18th

I can't believe it's the middle of January! Time flies by even though the four hour class is often a struggle to get through. But since I eat about six snacks now during the breaks in the classes I make it through. Classes are the only thing right now that makes time go slowly.

On Sunday we ate some sort of chicken with gravy and fries. We think it's funny that sometimes we get fed american food that we know they make it just for us. We then went to a tour of the Cathedral which was really beautiful. I only have one picture from inside since we are not aloud to take pictures. On Monday nothing exciting happened. We went to class, exchanged our money and went to the grocery store again.... successful with the apples this time! We had an awkward moment with our host family because Maggie and I are desparate for some protein the in mornings since all we eat is bread products for breakfast and then hike across town for school. We tried to see if we could have hard boiled eggs for breakfast and we got shot down. We think they were grossed out by the idea that we eat eggs for breakfast sometimes but we don't necessarily want eggs, just some protein. So we avoided making the moment more awkward and will try to get our point across again later. For now, I'm grateful I packed some peanut butter for myself.

On Tuesday I was relieved because class was more organized and structured. I made myself participate more because I guess 60% of our grade is participation/classwork and 40 % is the final test. Maggie and I came home to another awkward food moment. We are encouraged to say when we don't like the food, which hasn't been very much. But when we said today that we didn't really like the garbanzo bean soup, Maria just kept saying it was a really good soup.... So, that was awkward haha. We didn't know how to respond. But luckily after we hiked it back to Kenya for out academic meeting we went with a friend to get schwarma. Which is the equivalent of something like a chicken gyro. It was delicious and we made friends with the man who owned the shop who spoke english very well. Maggie and I stopped for gelato on the way home because we are addicted. I can't wait to try mixing white chocolate with dark chocolate next time. I have such a bad sweet tooth here. Since then we've just been hanging out at home doing homework after one more akward food moment. Having split pea soup, potato chips, and... wait for it.... scrambled eggs for dinner. hahaha. Oh and last awkward moment of today, I ended up having lots of mental blocks trying to talk at dinner (I couldn't remember the word wife in spanish) and ended up speaking some sort of spanglish. Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Saturday, January 16th

Today, Maggie and I went out with Maria and Cristina for tapas. I was surprised that the hamburger ones were actually really good. We took the bus back home and I was freaking out the whole time not sure if I was supposed to pay or not, because as we got on the bus Maria said something to me that I didn't understand. But I ended up getting off of the bus with no troubles. Maggie and I later went to the mercado to buy some apples... Which apparantly you have to weigh yourself and then print off a sticker from the weigh station so the cashier would just have to scan the tag to charge you. We found that out the hard way and didn't end up buying apples that day.

For dinner Cristina made us a great tomato salad that I want to make when I come back home. We had another awkward moment today because our towels never got washed from when Maria first did laundry. We thought they told us it was ok to use the towels in the bathroom that were clean but we found out it wasn't. And then Cristina later brought in other clean towels. Very confusing, but in the end we finally got some clean towels. Later on Maggie and I went out with our friends for another great weekend night at a chupiteria and our favorite bar.

Friday, January 14th

Today school seemed a little more organized and went better because I actually got some sleep. We had bean and churrizo soup for lunch. We also had some kind of fried meat things that I named "dunkers" Maggie and I took a rest and then went out for gelato and lemon fanta. After we got back from being out we chilled in our room and got ready to go out to a bar with some friends. It was a great time.

Thursday, January 13th

School was a struggle today. I was exhausted. After school we had lunch and had to head out to town again to take the sport tour to see all the gyms in town. I'm not going to get a gym membership here so I didn't really pay attention much but I loved being out in the nice weather. The tour was longer than we had expected. And at the end we were all in some random part of town and then the tourguide just left. So we were a little lost. Maggie and I wanted some gelato (as always) so we went to the mall with some friends but the gelato wasn't that great. We made it back home and had a little salad for dinner and relaxed for the rest of the night. It was a great idea to hoard my peanut butter in my room so now I have a great midnight snack.

Wednesday, January 12th

Today I have done more walking than usual. Maggie and I took the long haul to school. Four hours of class in a row is really long but luckily we have time between the two classes and during my first class they take a 15 minute break between the two hours. And everyone attacks the coffee vending machine. After I got through the classes which were more overwhelming with information than hard, Maggie and I walked back to our rooms. I went out with my friend Laura and we took random pictures throughout the city and shopped at a funny chinese store that had everything super cheap! It was great. Except this creepy asian girl followed us around the store I think to make sure we didn't steal anything. It was so creepy. Then we ate at this great sandwich place. We ordered a drink and got our amazing huge sandwiches. Then I walked home and ate a little bit of this frozen pizza our senora made for us but didn't like it very much and I wasn't that hungry. Now I need to do my homework and get ready to go out!

Tuesday, January 11th

Today was exhausting. Maggie and I walked together after breakfast to where she has school and I continued to walk from there with two other girls to my school which is about 15 minutes further. SO MUCH WALKING. But it's great in the long run. I probably walk about 2-4 hours a day. But I'm finally getting used to it. Despite the walk my classes went well today. I feel that I'm in the level I should be. I really liked my first profesora Susana who is a very expressive and direct person like me. After two hours with her I had another teacher Ana who was a little hard to understand at first but it turned out fine. 3 more weeks of this walking to Kenya every day (the name of my school) and then a week break! But I am looking forward to drastically improving my spanish through this intensive course. Not taking spanish last semester is showing through my speaking. But on the bright side... there's a coffee vending machine! in my building. So that's very cool. After class Maggie and I walked back from Kenya to our house to have some delicious pasta made by our host sister and then we took a nap before walking back to her school so I could purchase a book for my class. Then we met some friends for churros con chocolate which was delicious. I drank all the chocolate. Then Maggie and I walked home and ate dinner with our senora and have been doing homework and sitting in our room since then. It is going by so fast.

Monday, January 10th

These blogs are going to get shorter and shorter if I am this tired every night. Once I get in a routine with classes I think the schedule will be easier. I had a placement test today which went really well. I did better than I thought I would. I did really well on the grammar, allright on the writing (I ran out of time and had to write a bullcrap answer for something) and I did kinda bad on the speaking but the teacher knew I was nervous and said it was fine. Then we took a bus tour through the city which was really cool because we go to sit on top of the bus but it was really cold. I realized how big the city really is. Then we were all starving and went to a local restaurant which had chicken and pumpkin soup. But it didn't taste like pumpkin. We were all so hungry that we didn't care. After that Maggie and I ate our first gelato of the trip! I had raspberry cheesecake. We made a pact to eat all the gelato we can during out time here and wherever we travel to. After that we came home and relaxed for the rest of the night.

Sunday, January 9th

Today Maggie and I got up late and decided we were up too late to go to the cathedral. We then went outside to enjoy the sunshine and study.We ended up not studying too much because we were distracted by all of the people and colorful buildings. We heard a group of Americans and we wondered of they were the next CEA group. Then we came back and ate a giant meal of alfredo pasta with bacon/ham bits and mushrooms. then we had a delicious chocolate dessert like chocolate soupy cake or something but it was great. After lunch Maggie and I rested. She took a nap while I studied. Then we decided to go for a walk and take pictures. We ended up in the rain in some sketchy neighborhood with some detours and made it home. Then we sat and skyped/studied. We had dinner which was a potato tortilla and salad and some candy.

Saturday, January 8th

So far today Maggie and I slept in which was really nice and then ate a small breakfast before leaving for the city. It is beautiful and about 65 degrees outside with the sun out! We were definitely loving the weather. All of us walked around the city and visited several shops because everything is on sale this time of year. Maggie and I bought some toiletries and then we headed home. We then tried to figure out how to charge our computers with an "American" power strip our senora gave us and then we ended up blowing their fuse twice! Luckily it wasn't a big deal and we ended up using a converter I had and that worked to charge our computers.

After a while of resting at our house Maggie and I decided to try and go out and take some pictures because the lighting was really nice but we ended up waiting too long and it was dark out. We still decided to take some pics and walk around town and it was a good time. We then came back and rested some more and then got ready to go out with Cristina for tapas with two of her friends. Luckily one of her friends was pretty good at speaking English and could help us out but it was so hard to understand everyone because the music was playing so loud in the tapas bar. After we ate there we walked home while Cristina's friends took a bus because they were from out of town.

The first day here

Our first day here was a busy one. Cristina walked us to correos (the post office) which turned out to be much farther and confusing than we thought. After our whole group got there we all walked to the Centra de lenguas modernas (out school) and we had a long orinentation about academics and housing. We will not have classes on fridays except for a couple make up classes which is great. I will take a placement exam on monday and then start my 4 week intensive course. Then we will have a 1 week break and another placement course and official classes will start in February. I am nervous because there are 2 campuses and one that we visited today was very far away from not only our house but also correos. Maggie and my house seems to be very far away from correos also so we will definitely be getting our daily dose of walking! After the long orientation it was raining so Maggie and I braved the weather and attempted to find our house alone. We walked for a while with some other people and then finally made our way home. We ate with Maria and Cristina and then layed down for about 45 minutes and then walked again with warmer clothes to correos again to take a walking tour through the city. We were supposed to go on a bus sight seeing tour but they changed it to monday because the weather will be better then. Maggie and I took the long walk home from the tour after buying a hair dryer from a random store and then rested a little and ate dinner. We are currently nervous to try a converter because we don't want to fry our computer! We tried giving the spanish directions to Cristina but she didn't know how many watts the outlet had... so we'll see how it goes! Tomorrow I am excited to have tapas with our family and some of their friends. For now... more unpacking!

Traveling to Spain

After leaving the Chicago airport it still hadn't hit me that I was on my way to Spain. The 7 hour flight wasn't too bad and the food also wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Luckily I was in a window seat and not in a row of four people so I wouldn't have to choose to wake a person up to go to the bathroom or just hop over their lap to get to the bathroom. We all know how that would turn out if I tried that. I was afraid that I would get sick from the sneezing man who sat next to me but luckily that didn't happen. After arriving in the Madrid airport jetlag already had kicked it. I wasn't able to sleep at all on the plane so my brain felt like it was the wee hours of the morning so the 4 hour layover in Madrid was rough. After my roomate Maggie and another friend and I found our way around the airport and through customs we were on our way. Everything went smoothly which was great. After just one more flight of only one hour we made it to Granada! It was surreal hearing the flight attendant say that we had arrived and I stepped off of the plain into what seemed to be 65 degree weather surrounded by mountains. Much different from my ice covered home town surrounded by corn fields.

We met with the other people from our group and luckily none of our luggage was lost! I was nervous that my luggage would be lost since apparantly it's common enough that we were sent an email of spainsh phrases to say if that were to happen. Maggie and I went to our house via taxi. The taxi driver pulled over, assisted us with our luggage, and then asked if we knew how to get to our host families apartment. We said no and he was nice enough to show us. We buzzed in and lugged our obnoxious amount of heavy luggage up a flight of stairs and then we found a tiny elevator. We took the time to try and fit it in, when our host sister Cristina who is about our age rescued us and came down and told us we were on the wrong staircase!! All of that hard work for nothing. But atleast it makes for a funny travel moment, which I am sure more will come. Then Cristina took us upstairs to meer our senora Maria. She is really nice. Luckily I have Maggie here to help me communicate with Maria and Cristina because they don't speak English. However Maria and Cristina are patient with us and understand what we are saying most of the time. I find myself lost a lot in trying to follow a conversation but it really forces me to always speak spanish and I'm sure my skills will improve. After we met them, we ate a big lunch and took a nap. It was great for me because I hadn't slept in over 24 hours. We unpacked and ate again around 9pm and Maggie and I unpacked some more after talking with Maria and then we went to bed.