Hiking, dancing, and living like a Spaniard

 Buenas!!
Today marks the fifth day that I have lived in Granada, and I am happy to report that I absolutely love it here! On Thursday and Friday I took intensive language classes for five hours and found them to be pretty low key, but very enjoyable. My class is full of wonderful people who I already feel close to. I can already tell that this is going to be an incredible four months!

The Spanish life is a very interesting one; you wake up early in the morning for a light breakfast, attend classes for a few hours, take a coffee break, go back to class for a couple of hours, go home for a huge sit down lunch, nap, walk around the city, go out to tapas, go to a bar, and then go out dancing!
Aaaahhhh!! Basically, the day starts at 7:00 am and ends at 3:00 am, it's insane, but I'm totally starting to love it! The coolest thing about this lifestyle is that the whole focus of day- to-day life is socializing (something that I am quite fond of). It is very unheard of to sit in your room all day and watch terrible TV shows, which is probably why everyone here is beautiful and fit. The best part about this is that it doesn't matter how old you are, everyone is always walking around and running into friends on the street. Another very traditionally Spanish thing is that everyone walks arm in arm, best friends, kids, and lovers alike! It's all so romantic!

I am also in love with the tapas scene, every night you are expected to go out at around 9:30 to meet up with friends and eat the free tapas that come with any kind of drink. In the past few days I have had a myriad of different foods and have broadened my taste horizon a ton! Most of the time you don't even know what they are going to serve you, and man, that's very different from my usual 'eat the same thing every single day' lifestyle. The other day I went out to two tapas bars and was served everything from a ham (literally pork) burger and fries to clams with pesto pasta, it rocked!

But I have to say that the best day I have had while in Spain was yesterday. Our program took everyone on a bus to Alpujarra, which is a beautiful area in the Sierra Nevada mountains and we hiked for three+ hours. It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen! Throughout the rolling hills were little communities of white stucco and stone houses as you can see in the above pictures. The communities had a very warm feeling about them, which made me want to pack up everything and move right on in (apparently loads of British people have felt the same way and actually did it!). Upon arrival, we stopped for a coffee break, and it is in a small café that I found paradise. I ordered a hot chocolate and was given some chocolate filled pastry from a friend, I have honestly never tasted anything more delicious in my entire life! The hot chocolate was basically a melted chocolate bar, it was so thick and rich, I would do anything to drink it every day. And the pastry was exactly how I imagine pastries to taste in France, so incredibly delicious!

After that absolutely perfect experience our group was led through the town to a trail that has been used for centuries to travel between mountain villages. I decided to choose the easier of the two hikes (so embarrassing!) but found it to be surprisingly tricky. We walked up and down through the hills and reached three levels of altitude during the hike. During this time I became really close to our guide, José Camillo, and learned a ton about the nature and culture of the region. We also had a lot of hilarious conversations with Riana and Maria about things such as sugarmamas (which I had to explain) and how much Americans struggle at hiking because they take so many photos. All along the way, Riana, Maria, and I were singling our heart out to Levels by Avicii and stumbling through the rocky terrain (our guide probably thought we were total n00bs, but he loved us just the same!). The hike was absolutely gorgeous and totally fun, yet another way of showing me how incredible this country is. When we returned to the little town, we were happy to discover that our guide (who is pictured in the third picture) actually wanted to stay in touch with us-- he is my first real Spanish friend, I'm so excited!!

Upon returning to Granada, Riana and I walked home for a quick nap and shower so that we could be super fresh for the evening. At 10:00 pm we met up with Maria and had some delicious tapas at two different places. We then decided to go to a discoteca, Camborio, with a bunch of our other friends in the oldest and most beautiful area of town. We learned that arriving at midnight is really uncool, and were the only ones dancing for about an hour. That being said, we totally started the party! Over the next five hours Spaniards arrived and danced the night away with us. It was really fun because we got to teach some locals how to do the Dougie and other hilarious American moves while they taught us Spanish ones. The wonderful thing about dancing is Spain is that people don't grind all over each other, but instead dance happily in groups, it's so much more fun! And much to my surprise, the men were way less sleazy than in the clubs in the US. But at around 4:30 am Riana and I got tired and decided to head home; right as we were leaving we noticed that a bunch of locals were entering the discoteca... I still have no idea how they can function like that!

Once we got home we slept like little rocks until about noon. Then our host mama's kids came over and we got to meet the whole family. One of her daughters has a son named Hugo who is two-years-old. I have honestly never seen a more adorable child in my whole entire life! He was dressed in a little sweater and khakis with baby loafers and had huge eyes and curly hair. Riana and I fell in love with him! And his mom told him to tell us that we were really pretty, making our hearts melt even more than they already had. Our host mama also told her kids about how she was planning to fatten us up, which she has been quite successful at-- I have never eaten this much in my entire life! But who cares... when in Spain!

As for right now, that's pretty much it. I am so happy here and am looking forward to becoming more and more engrossed in the Spanish life!

Hasta luego!

Magical Madrid and Granada's Grandeur

HOLA HOLA!
The past few days of my exciting trip to Spain have been quite the whirlwind. After traveling for twenty hours straight, I finally arrived in the beautiful city of Madrid. I can honestly say that Madrid took my breath away (as cliché as that sounds). The architecture was incredible with such great detail, even apartment buildings seemed to be a throwback to the Renaissance. Despite the fact that I was utterly exhausted, Natalie inspired me to wander aimlessly around the city for hours, and I am truly grateful for that. We found ourselves walking through beautiful plazas, laughing at the bizarre street characters (including men who painted their faces like babies and hid behind a sheet that was attached to a stroller with a fake baby sitting in it-- yes, it was as bizarre as it sounds), and eating at the oh so famous Museo de Jamón (museum of ham... questionable/hilarious). We quickly realized that Spaniards are obsessed with ham and they really enjoy hanging it everywhere. We also learned that Spaniards love croissants and that the Chinese love to live in Spain-- there are Chinese restaurants everywhere!

After our first exhausting day we decided to go to bed early, which is so not Spanish. We woke up bright and early the next day to meet up with another friend, Clarissa, and headed to the Prado. Wow, all I can say is wow when it comes to the Prado. We spent a whopping four hours looking at the beautiful paintings done by some of Spain's most famous painters including Velázquez, Goya, Sorroya, El Greco, and many more, while also including beautiful works from Italian and Flemish painters. Although I loved practically all of the paintings, I became fascinated with paintings of the crucifixion-- I couldn't stop wondering how the nails didn't rip out of Jesus' hands and feet with the weight of his body (gruesome, I know). Luckily Clarissa was also fascinated by this and we talked for a long time trying to figure it out, especially because in each painting the nails were portrayed in a slightly different way (some had four nails, some had three, and some had a little foot stand that he stood on), interesting, right?

Following that, the three of us decided to undertake the wild experience of going to one of the largest clubs in the world... El Kapital! This bad boy is five stories tall and plays different music on each floor, crazy! But in Spain it is very uncool to go out before 2:00 am, and honestly, we were not on that level yet. After an hour of sitting in McDonald's (sorry) and getting hit on by 14 year old skater kids, we decided to enter the club at midnight. With this, hilarity ensued. I was proposed to quite a few times, told that I was loved, and offered a job at hollister... I guess my blonde hair really sticks out here!

The next few days included nice experiences with tapas, museums, walks, and parks. I fell in love with El Parque Buen Retiro. It was a giant park in the middle of the city full of picturesque fountains and statues. The three of us decided to rent a row boat in the little man-made lake, which was not only adorable but loads of fun! Basically, Madrid was made perfect in my eyes for that park alone. And despite a scary run in with bed bugs at a neighboring hostel, the trip was purely wonderful!

Then came the beginning of my study abroad program, and Natalie, Clarissa, and I took the high speed train to Málaga to meet up with our group. The train experience was really fun, I got to watch my favorite move, Paul, and look out the windows at rolling hills and small stone ruins-- I couldn't have been happier! Upon arriving in Málaga, I ran into one of my best friends, Riana, and began to explore this precious beach town. It was really fun to meet a bunch of new people and go out for delicious tapas.

This brings me to the present. Our group got to our final destination, Granada, and Riana and I moved in with our incredible host mama. The very second we met her we knew we were going to have the greatest time ever! Her name is Angélines and she lives alone in a beautiful apartment that has marble floors and wood everywhere. She is the mother of four and grandmother of two, and loves them more than anything. But beyond that, she is very talkative and outgoing, she managed to get us to tell her everything in a matter of minutes, and it was fantastic! She reminds me a lot of my own mama, and for that I am extremely grateful. Our first night in our homestay consisted of eating and talking-- both wonderful things. But Riana and I were pretty tired and decided to go to bed early so we would be wide awake for five hours of intensive Spanish classes. We woke up at 7:00 this morning to a wonderful breakfast of toast, tea, and fruit, and took a leisurely walk with our mama to the study abroad center.

The classes today were surprisingly really low key and I learned a ton about the Spanish culture. I really like my teacher and all of the people in my class, it's going to be a wonderful semester! I'm really excited to better my Spanish and become a Spaniard myself. I think I'm already on my way there through my coffee breaks (well, hot chocolate), long siesta, and love of walking around in the evening. It is really cool because in Spain it is not typical to spend much time in the house, instead you are expected to take long walks through the city and meet people for tapas and drinks-- it is a very romantic way of living!

But as for right now, that is all. I am extremely happy and loving everything about Spain! Hasta luego!!