Some of my favorite things about Granada, Spain are siestas
and tapas! Siestas are a must here. Between 2 and 5 in the afternoon
practically the whole city shuts down except for cafes. All the stores are
closed and it is really too hot to be outside at this time….which leaves the
perfect opportunity for a siesta (my favorite thing to do)! It will be a hard
to transition when I go back to the states. But another major reason for the
siesta are because in Spain everyone goes out so late! Bars and clubs don’t start
to get busy until after 2am and if you are home before 3 it is an early night.
For example, some of the students who live in my residencia will stay out all
night and go to class the next morning without ever going to bed! Then they
sleep during siesta…and this is completely normal and common! It again is all
related to the weather. This tradition was started because Spain is such a dry
and hot country that you wouldn’t leave the house until it was cooler at dusk.
It’s probably going to take me the entire semester to get use to this (the
staying out late part, not the napping part)!
And tapas! Granada is the only place in Spain where you
still get free tapas! Tapas are like little appetizers that you receive when
you order a drink at a café. My friends and I will go out and each order a
glass of wine for about 2 euros and receive enough food between all of us to
get full! And if you order a second drink the next tapa is even better than the
first! This is such a great idea and I think that the US should implement it
immediately! Tapas are the best thing especially for a student on a budget just
trying to get something to eat. I surprisingly love all the food here which is
a huge relief. I will definitely miss the Mediterranean cuisine when I go home.
I finally met up with Jenna, one of my best friends from
home who is also studying abroad in Granada. We hadn’t been able to see each
other because I was in Madrid for awhile and then she was traveling to Paris,
but last Monday night we went out to get tapas together. While eating our tapas
and discussing our experiences so far in Granada we began talking about the
differences between American and Spanish culture. Our waiter ended up joining
our conversation which turned into an impromptu intercambio. It is a nice taste of home seeing Jenna in
between classes and we are both going to Portugal this weekend and Barcelona
the first weekend of November!
Last Tuesday was my first day of school in the Centro de
Lenguas Modernas at the Universidad de Granada. The one thing I do not like
about school are that classes are 2 hours long…I originally had three classes
back to back on Monday/Wednesdays which is longer than having 6
Monday/Wednesday/Friday classes back to back except they are all in Spanish! I
changed my schedule around though so that I now I only have 2 classes in a row
a day and I get them all done with in the morning. When I went to my one class
in English my professor scolded me and 2 other students in the class who placed
high enough to take the class in Spanish but chose to take it in English. She
recommended we switched to take the class in Spanish which was a huge confident
boost on my Spanish abilities. After much deliberation the other students and I
decided to stay in the English class (2 hour classes in Spanish is exhausting
and we figured we could use the break for English). But I love the school and
all of my professors. One of my classes is in the Kenia building which is a 10
minute walk from the main building where the rest of my classes are. The main
building is about a 10 minute walk from my residencia. Classes here are very
different so far than classes at home. There is not much homework but when
there is it’s not checked or graded but is just to prepare us for the next
class. Most of my grade is based on my midterm and final, and when I say most I
mean 80%! Very intimidating. Also none of my professors speak English, besides
my one class taught in English (and it is English with an extremely thick
Spanish accent). Most of the students in my classes are from the United States
but there are also a lot of students from China, Japan, Germany and other
countries. Because of these reasons we have to rely on our Spanish to
communicate and I have to ask a LOT of clarifying questions! But my Spanish is
improving so much and I’m learning a lot and its only been two weeks.
Main building
Kenia building
On Saturday Sabrina and I took the initiative to plan a trip
to the beach. I usually hate planning things because I never want to be
responsible if anything goes wrong but I have to admit that I was extremely
impressed with myself figuring out bus tickets and times and the entire thing
went smoothly! We went to Salobreña which was about 45 minutes away. The
beach was beautiful as expected. In my last post I said that the Monochil water
falls was my new greatest life experience….now I’m changing it to cliff jumping
into the Mediteranean in Salobreña! Ah it was so awesome! From the shore
we climbed up the cliff and before I knew it everyone was counting down from 10
for me to jump. It took two countdowns because the first time I chickened out.
I have never felt more butterflies in my stomach but I had to just not think
about it and jump. Once in the water I couldn’t stop saying “Oh my god I cant
believe I just did that!” probably for the next 10 minutes. It was incredible
and I was so proud that I actually did it. Fortunately my friend Emily who did
not want to jump accompanied us to the cliff to document all of us leaping into
the sea.
I signed up to run a 5K in Granada on October 20th. And now
that it is published on the internet I can’t back out! So I have started
running after class to prepare. Sabrina and I went on a run together the other
day ended with a spontaneous hike up another mountain! I love that we can just
on the spot decide to climb a mountain here because we are surrounded by Sierra
Nevada mountains. It makes all of the landscapes look like paintings, and once
it becomes colder and it starts to snow in the mountains they will be even more
beautiful!
Sabrina and I also now have a map of Granada in our room and
we are marking off every street we’ve walked on so that by the end of the
semester the entire map will be marked up! Good luck mom and Daniel because I
don’t think you realize how much walking you guys are going to be doing when
you come to visit!
Tuesday night me and some friends got ice cream and walked
up to the Albaicin to watch the sunset. It was gorgeous and is supposedly the
second best sunset after the Grand Canyon. We have to do some more exploring to
find a spot where we can see it set over the Alhambra which I won’t mind
because I could watch the sun set over Granada every night and never get sick
of it.
Yesterday was my first day volunteering at El Colegio de
Caja Granada. I was in a class of 10 year olds and I’m going to be helping them
with their English. I’m so happy that API offers this volunteer option because
I miss being in the classroom and with kids. The students were so cute and I
loved hearing them try to speak English. They were also surprised that I could
speak Spanish which I found funny. I look forward to getting to know all the
kids in the class and working with them.
I’m getting ready to go to an intercambio tonight which is
pretty much when a group of people learning different languages get together to
hang out. So there I can practice my Spanish talking to Spaniards who are going
to be practicing their English talking to me. It’s also a nice way to meet new
people.
Even though I’m having a great time here I still miss
everyone from home and send my love! Xoxo
Abrazos y besos,
Kylie
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