Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Sunday 1/9/11 10:06PM
Hola! Today was my first full day in Granada. For those of you that are reading this (I know tere aren’t many) that don’t know anything about my tirp I am spending 5 months in Granada with 25 other Bucknell students, a bucknell professor, and a program director. I don’t have internet at my house right now so I will be posting several days at once.
We woke up at 9am which was very early considering that we were out until 4am! The nightlife in Spain is unlike anything I have ever seen before. It is so much fun and more about socializing and enjoying yourself than consuming alcohol. We went to a bar and then to a discotecta called Granada 10. We danced and danced and danced so this morning was very difficult. We had breakfast at the hotel (coconut yogurt, crossaint, and salami). After breakfast we moved out of our rooms and began walking around the city with Professor Delgado (the professor, obviously) and Ana (our program director). The professor is different every semester and my group is veryyy lucky to have professor Delgado. He teaches at Bucknell but is originally from Granada so he knows all the secrets and all the best places that most people don’t know about. He is the sweetest little man and tells the best stories! So we walked around the city and he took us through the part that has the most evidence of the Arab influence. The architecture was beautiful and there were many resturants where the menu was in Arabic instead of Spanish. There were outdoor markets and artists on the street. IT was soo cool! After we wandered we went to the Bucknell en España office where we began some orientation and learned even more about what was ahead of us. After that we walked around some more until lunch at 2pm. Lunch in Spain is very different than lunch in the US. For example, we ate lunch from 2 until 5 and it was many courses. We ate lots of differet types of tapas and we had lots of Sangria! It was very delicious. After lunch we went back to the hotel and gathered our suitcases. Between the 26 of us we had LOTS of luggage as you can imagine. Our host moms were waiting for us at the hotel and it was very funny to see everyone meeting their host mom. It was kind of awkward because we really didn’t know what to expect. I am lucky enough to be living with my best friend from school Katie. We live in a very nice apartment. I don’t really know the location of it yet because the taxi ride was kind of confusing and we haven’t left the house since we got here. My Señora’s name is Lolita and she has 4 chidlren and 9 grandchildren. I believe she is a widow but I’m not sure. She showed us to our rooms which are very nice and simple. We unpacked and then sat down in the living room with her while she told us the rules and we asked questions. She speaks VERY fast but she is from Toledo so her accent is much easier to understand than the accent of Granada. We talked and talked and talked and it was so much easier to communicate with her than I expected. She even complimented me on my Spanish! After that she made dinner. Dinner was kind of strange and she said that she didn’t know what we would like so she made us pizza and pasta. During dinner we watched TV which was strange for me but we talked throughout. She doesn’t speak a word of English but I brought my dictionary to the table and we had no problem communicating. I am absolutely exhausted right now. I’m sure I’m leaving things out so I’ll probably add them later. Tomorrow we’re taking our placement tests so they know what kind of classes to put us in. I have to be up at 7:30 AY DIOS MIO. Its really funny to be writing in English right now because I haven’t heard English all day. I feel like as my Spanish gets better my English is getting worse haha (or maybe its just because I’m tired). That’s all for now! Hopefully Katie and I figure out a way to get internet tomorrow because I’m writing this in a word document and I’ll have to copy and paste it when I have internet. Miss you all!

5 comments:

  1. i know i dated it on sunday and its tuesday but i wrote it on sunday and i just got internet. i haven't written yet about monday. stay tuned!

    also, I'M GETTING INTERNET SOON. my Senora is getting it for us :) SO excited! We didn't even ask she just brought it up. IT would've been soooo expensive if katie and i wanted tos plit it and its really hard to communicate without it.

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  2. Yay... internet! Did you figure out your phone thing too?

    Why was pizza and pasta a strange first dinner?

    Congratualtions on your good spanish... see? You're going to be better than just fine!
    xxoo love, love, love
    11:11 1/11/11

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  3. Happy 1/11/11 LUCIA! I know you're probably snug in bed, so SWEET dreams... are you dreaming in Spanish yet? Thanks for the BLOG. I wish I had this technology when I was in Kenya! Love reading your updates. Keep 'em coming. :o)
    xo Maya

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  4. aaaah! this is great! i have a great picture in my head of all your adventures to date - tho i have to say that your descriptions of the meals are making me hungry.... maybe jorge and i will have to go for tapas tonight.

    a bunch more snow here - tigresa is watching it all from the window, and we are padding around in our cozy clothes.

    lots and lots and lots of love and can't wait for the next update! can i send my parents the link to your blog?

    s and j

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  5. yes of course you can send it to them!

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