So it begins...

I've finally got around to starting a blog a little over a week after arriving here in Spain. I landed in Spain on the 25th and it already seems like I've been here forever because I have done and seen so many things here.

I landed in Madrid on the 25th then had to fly to Granada and then take a bus down to Malaga for the first 2 days of orientation. From that point we came back to Granada and this is where I'll be spending the next 4 months and I couldn't be happier. This city is beyond incredible it has a life and energy all its own that is completely different than any other city I've ever seen in my life.

It's only been a week that I've been in Granada but in that time I've climbed a mountain in Las Alpujarras, visited the Alhambra, and gone out to discotecas and stayed out till 5:30 and 7:30 in the morning.

Adjusting to the new schedule is really tough but I'm slowly coming into it. The day starts at 7:00 am and basically ends typically around 3:00 am. Typically we wake up around 7:30 am or so then we go to class for 2 or 3 hours, then we have a break for coffee and tostadas, then a few more hours of class and then we come back to our homestay for lunch followed by a siesta. The siesta I found out recently is supposed to be only a half hour and I had been taking naps that lasted anywhere from 1 to 3 hours so gonna have to make some adjustments there. Then around 10 you meet up with your friends and go out for tapas.

Now tapas might be the best thing ever. You go to a "Bar de tapas" and tapas can literally be anything. The way they were described to me is that they are small but elaborate meals to eat that are meant to be shared with others around you. One of the things I love most about Spanish culture is the emphasis on being around other people and being out. People love to go out for what they call "paseos" which really just means a walk around town and when they run into people they go out for tapas. Most tapas have some kind of bread and then everything from fish to chorizo to jamon to ternura but some of my favorites are rascas, which are essentially a bagel with a garlic butter spread, jamon, and cheese and I had one last night that was a tortilla with lettuce and a spicy sauce on it, no idea what it was but it was incredible.

Probably the best part about tapas in Granada is that they are free with drinks here. In most other cities in Spain if you order a drink you need to order and pay for the tapa separately, but here in Granada you order a cheap beer like a Cana for 1.80 Euro and you get food for free, which is perfect for all us poor college students.

So you have 2 or 3 tapas and around midnight or 1 you head out to a pub. A pub here is the equivalent of a bar in the states and you have a few drinks there before heading to a discoteca which is the same as a club in the states. The two times I've been to the club here in Granada I've gotten back to my homestay at 5:30 and 7:30 in the morning. The funniest thing about that is that it is common, they go out like that then wake up for class the next day, its insane but at the same time so much fun.

The schedule is one obstacle to overcome but the most prevalent obstacle is the language barrier. I have been studying Spanish since middle school and its my minor in college but Andalusian Spanish is a whole nother ball game. The Spanish in Granada is very similar to Puerto Rican Spanish or Latin American Spanish where words sound as if they're all combined and they don't pronounce any "s" at the end of the words which makes it very difficult. Also in Spain they lisp the letter s, z, and c so that's another adjustment I've been making since I've been here. It can get very frustrating because there are time where everything comes so easily and you can say whatever you want and understand everything you're hearing and others where you feel like you've never learned anything about Spanish in your life. I know it's going to take some time to really get it down I just gotta keep working at it.

I live in Granada with a woman named Mavi and a roommate named Paul. Mavi is 47 and divorced and has 2 children who are 25 and 20 years old neither of whom live at the apartment where we live. She is a very friendly, extremely accommodating woman who wouldn't even let me iron my own shirt, she had to do it for me. I've found the more time I sit and talk with her the easier everything becomes because she has a thick Andalusian accent and when I work to understand her everything else is cake. We met her and her daughter the first night here and they said they are going to show us all the best bars, clubs, and pubs in the area and even teach us how to dance salsa, merengue, bachata, and whatever else we want, needless to say we lucked out with our homestay.

Both Paul and I have our own room which Mavi cleans once a week and she also does our laundry once a week. As part of the program she has to prepare a breakfast and lunch for us everyday then we are responsible for dinner every night. It's a great set up because we get the real Spanish experience then have the nights to spend with our friends.

The weather here has been colder than I expected but everyone has been saying it will heat up very quickly and I'm looking forward to that because I barely packed any warm weather clothes. But I don't want it to heat up too quickly because we are all trying to organize a trip to snowboard in the Sierra Nevadas which we have heard is the best snowboarding in Spain. The mountains are absolutely breathtaking, by far the most incredible I've ever seen and I can't wait to explore them more as the weather gets nicer.

Granada is kind of the ideal location we are 30 minutes from the mountains, 30 minutes from the beach, in the South of Spain, and 30 minutes from a major airport in Malaga so not only is traveling easy but we also have everything we could need right here. Granada is a city of roughly 300,000 but is home to University of Granada which has 65,000 students so it is a very young, lively city. When you go out on a Thursday night there are just thousands of people in the streets and I love it. People here seem to smile so much its amazing.

One very interesting thing for me being here is that I am not your typical Andalusian. For this reason people tend to stare at me a lot. In fact most people haven't seen a redhead more than a couple of times in their life so when I walk in the streets I've gotten used to confused stares, people pointing, and even the nice Spanish girls who called me a "muneca blanco" which means a "white doll". The funny thing is many of the things that would be considered rude in American culture are commonplace in Spain. Staring is more a way of showing curiosity than being rude, calling someone a name that might be offensive is what they call a "broma" here which means that it is said in a joking way. Also people in Spanish culture are much more direct than in English culture so it takes some adjusting to get used to it but when you accept that as the culture it makes things around you much funnier and more relaxed.

The ease in traveling is something so incredible about being in Europe. I've already been to the Alpujarras and  Malaga and this weekend we are going to Ronda and Sevilla. Then we have a Morocco trip planned for later in the semester and all kinds of other possible trips. I am definitely going to travel to Portugal at some point and I want to travel all over Spain as well to really get a handle on the culture on the country itself. Also I'm in the works for trying to make it to Ireland for Saint Patrick's Day which should be incredible. As my plans develop I'll post them here but as of now the world is my oyster and I could literally go anywhere.

I literally could probably write another ten pages worth of info about what I've learned, seen, and what I want to do but I imagine anyone who does read this blog has better things to do with there time than read about how awesome everything in Spain is so I'll end my first entry by saying I am in love with Spain and am having an absolutely incredible time here. There is so much opportunity that lies ahead of me in the next four months and there is nothing bringing me down or holding me back. I am going to work to take advantage of every opportunity I can while I'm here and I can't wait to see how much I learn in the coming months about myself and the world outside of the U.S. To all my friends and family back home I miss you like hell but I'll try to keep in touch as much as possible on Skype and facebook. I'll try to keep my entries frequent so anyone who wants to check in can keep up with me on my time here in Spain.