Mi vida diaria y Cabo de Gata

I've been very very busy since my last post. I ended when I was about to go on the tour with my language group--that was really fun! We began at the IES Center, which is really close to the Alhambra (if you don't know what the Alhambra is, you should look it up on Wikipedia. I don't want to mess up the history). Our goal: to walk through a neighborhood/part of the city known as the Albaycin. The name is Arabic, because it was a predominantly Arab neighborhood. It was hot and hilly, but the views were gorgeous. I've uploaded some pictures now, so I can show you!

This is the Alhambra as taken from the "Paseo de Tristes"
From this picture, I'm sure you understand that the Alhambra is a HUGE palace. The Moors used to live here in Granada and rule over Spain, until Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand defeated them at this, their last stronghold, in 1492. I haven't gotten to visit the Alhambra yet, but don't be too angry with me: this weekend I don't have anything going on, so that's what I'm going to do (I think). I have other pictures, but uploading takes a long time, so look for them on Facebook in the next couple of weeks.

After that, I've just had orientation and class. Our regular classes STILL haven't started yet (next week...) but right now we're doing intensive language prep. I placed into one of the higher groups, which means that we spend most of the day working on our conversational skills and filling in gaps in our vocab. My group's professor is SO cool. We spend a portion of every day "en el calle" (on the street) in different parts of the neighborhood around the IES center, learning about things like markets and shopping and how to navigate the neighborhood here. I registered for my real classes yesterday, and am still waiting to hear whether or not I'll have an internship here in Granada. Here's hoping!

My program has about 80 people in it, and I'm having a tough time learning names (because I'm just bad at that sort of thing). There are only 16 guys, which is pretty funny. I go out every night because dinner isn't provided, so that's been a really good way to meet people. I wish they had a Newcomer's Guide here...

I really want to go shopping and just buy all new clothes. It's not like anything is wrong with my clothes, but they're just so...American. It's hard to describe, but everyone here dresses really well, and fashion-forward. No one wears tshirts and jeans unless they're a tourist. And no one wears flip flops either. I want to wear my gladiator sandals, but they're new and they keep cutting my feet. And there are SO MANY amazing stores here. I've been browsing a lot thanks to the "on the street" parts of class that I mentioned earlier. But the exchange rate is so bad that I'm almost afraid to spend money. Stupid economy.

The other exciting thing that I've done since I arrived here was go on a trip to a place called Cabo de Gatas. Now, I'm a little bitter about this trip, so before I start a complaining sarcastic narrative, let me first say that this place was GORGEOUS. Mountains, beaches and desert all together. It's the southernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula, and something like 90 miles away from Africa. So it was a total trip getting to hike there and see everything. Here's a picture:




Why am I bitter, you ask? Well, the description we were given of the hike was as follows (sort of): "the hike is 10 miles, but not difficult. You should be able to do it in sandals, but not flip flops. It will be very hot, so bring lots of water". All of the above is the biggest understatement I've every heard in my entire life. First of all, this was the toughest hike I have ever done. Now, I don't go hiking a lot, but I do go running a lot and I would consider myself in pretty good shape (the hikes in Hawaii this summer seemed to be proof of this). I think my guide was crazy or grossly overestimated our hiking talent because he took us ALL OVER the place--down steep rock faces, up steeper rock faces, and across several beaches (none of which we got to stop at, I might add). Going down one of the steep rocky hills, I slipped, and now have ginormous scrapes up my legs. Then, we had to climb the mountain. This was not bad (paved road), just steep, and therefore difficult, especially since I was in a lot of pain. Going down the mountain was gorgeous, but then we rounded a corner and the wind started. I'm talking like 30 miles an hour here--we were pretty high, but it was almost blowing us backwards. But then we finally made it to the beach, ate lunch, and went to go swimming. EXCEPT the wind hadn't stopped. So, we got buffeted by gusts of sand the WHOLE time. It hurt, especially when one is wearing a swimsuit and most of one's back is exposed to forced microderm abrasion. The wind also meant that the waves basically beat us up the whole time as well. But, even though we were exhausted and sunburned and now covered in sand, we weren't finished! Because the desert portion of the trip was up next. This part wasn't difficult (it was hot, but whatever), it was just long. We were all tired from the first half of the hike, so this was just like a massive endurance test. People started running out of water, the wind was still blowing at 30 miles an hour, and we kept stopping at random places for no reason. Result: everyone was covered in sand and dirt and was now sort of dehydrated. My scrapes stopped hurting, but that was probably because my muscles started.
We finally ended the hike from hell in a small town called San Jose. I was so tired that I couldn't eat much of the delicious food that the restaurant provided. I slept on most of the bus ride back to Granada, then came home and had to empty sand out of my shoes, bag, and everything that was in the bag. And then had to get up and go to class by 9 the next morning. So here's a warning to anyone who wants to do this program: they are lying when they say Cabo de Gata is easy. Go shopping in the town instead.

And after that...everything is fine. The food here is great, the only thing that's been messing me up is the meal times. Breakfast is normal, but lunch is at 3 and dinner is at 10. So I am always hungry. I've been having a really good time eating at different tapas bars, and my host's apartment isn't that far from the city center. Keely and I also went to see "Up" in Spanish at a very nearby movie theater. It was just as adorable--but I didn't cry this time! So that made it better.