Hola! Como esteis? Well, this is the end of my first week since leaving home in California. To think of how much has changed! Not only am I thousands of miles away, but I've had to say goodbye and learn to deal with the fact that there really is no way home for the next five months. One of the first things I've learned on my trip is of the disconnect between what we expect and reality, what actually happens. I've been thinking about Spain since I first got my first acceptance letter in March, not overly much, but enough to romanticize how much fun it will be, how much I'll learn, and where I'll go. Maybe I'm just too much of an optimist, but I never think about the not-so-great aspects as well. Like the adjustment period. Combined jetlag, culture shock, and language barrier have made me waaaay more homesick than I usually get. Nothing is familiar, I can barely even communicate with my family here. And the fact that I don't have close friends here with me is making it kind of hard also. I'm so used to having close friends around, not knowing anyone except for the people from PLU(and those only a bit) is hard to get used to. Especially when I'm looking for people to travel with, it's making things a little tough. This is where faith comes in. God will provide, I know that, it's just the waiting the sucks is all.
Life is Spain is interesting, still something to get used to. We've been having our orientations which get slightly annoying after awhile but intensive Spanish classes will start tomorrow (yay!). I'm ready for some sort of schedule instead of this wishy-washy nonsense. Our school is made up of students studying Spanish from all over the world, though mostly Americans. Starting February will be when my real classes start, super excited for those. They'll be more exciting than grammar for five hours a day thats for sure.
My host family is amazing! Mi madre es Sacramento, she's about sixtyish and is adorable. Can't understand about half of what she's saying to me but it's all good, it'll come with time. She has a couple of daughters that are both adults, they show up every once in a while. Everyone in Granada has an apartment because it's a walking city so everything is crammed close together. Our apartment is really nice, right in the middle of everything and close to school, about a ten minute walk. One thing to get used to is that electricity and water are scarce. Translates to less than five minute showers and unheated homes. Yesterday Melissa (roommate) and I spent the entire siesta and then some in our respective beds-sleeping, reading, talking-because it was just too darn cold to do anything else. On that note...
It snowed again today!!! Beautiful, yes, but I've decided I don't like snow as much as I thought I did. Well, when you are forced to be in it at least. Having to walk through the city for about an hour was miserable, with my Converse I couldn't feel my toes by the end of it. The snow can stay in Montana and Idaho, thank you very much. I'm quite happy without it here for awhile now, dreading going to school tomorrow a bit because of it.
Went to my first discoteca anoche! Awesome! The Spanish sure do know how to have a party. The dance was in an old theater all done up with lights, a dance floor, and tons of people. One nice thing about it is the only thing you pay for is coat check and drinks. Paid 2 Euro for my coats and there we go! Whole night of fun for cheap because I don't drink. If everyone counted alcohol into their budgets, I should be good to go and not spend as much. Ha, I'll probably be laughing at that statement when I start to see travel costs but oh well. Oh, and one of the first three songs of the night at the discoteca? I Gotta Feelin. Not to mention YMCA later on in the night. It's odd seeing people from another culture dancing and singing to songs that are so ingrained in ours. Not to mention hearing it sung with an Andulusian accent.
Haven't taken out Nikki much yet (afraid of her being stolen while I'm not streetwise in Granada) but I did get a chance to take a few pictures while on a tour with the school group. Graffiti is everywhere around the city. A lot of it is political but an overwhelming amount of it is just plain pretty, as one of the pictures shows. The one with the plaza is the first picture I took here, it's of snow and the view out of my window! This post has been a bit longer than I intended, but I have yet to give some sort of picture of what life is like here so I guess it's okay. Hope you're all having fantastic days! Miss you!