I'm here!

After two days of traveling, I finally made it to Granada.  I can’t decide if this feels like the longest day of my life or the shortest two days—I left my house early yesterday morning, but because of the time difference it kind of feels like last night never happened.  

My flights were long but not too bad.  I had something like a 5 hour layover in Madrid (I’ve had only the vaguest grasp of time all day), so Kimberly and I got to spend a lot of time checking out the airport and practicing some Spanish.  Most of the airport employees seemed to speak English, but I tried talking in Spanish a few times anyway.  Unfortunately, this usually meant that I didn’t fully understand their answers to my questions, but we made it through customs and onto our last flight okay.

After we arrived at the Frederico Garcia Lorca airport, Kimberly and I shared a taxi to take us to our hosts’ homes.  The city is really pretty.  It’s surrounded by mountains, and there are lots fields and little groves of what I think are olive trees around the outskirts.  We got to catch a glimpse of the Alhambra on the way in—which I’m super excited about visiting—and the taxi driver pointed out various neighborhoods and talked about the city. 

I got to my host parents’ house around 6.  They’re a middle aged couple, and they’re both really nice.  I can tell that living with them is going to help me improve my Spanish maybe more than anything else.  Neither speaks any English, but they’re both really friendly, and, since they’ve hosted students before, they’re used to speaking slowly and repeating themselves.  I imagine this must get annoying for them, but I certainly appreciate it! 

I took a nap after talking to my host mom for awhile, and when I woke up I couldn’t tell if it was early morning or evening.  The time difference is definitely going to take some getting used to.  After that, I ate dinner with Maria, my host mom, and Andrea, the other Centro de Lenguas Modernas student who’s staying here.  Maria said our dinner was a very typical Spanish meal—we had a Spanish tortilla (which is very different from Latin American tortillas—it’s made out of eggs and potatoes and onions and some other ingredients that I didn’t understand the names of), tomatoes in olive oil, bread, fruit, and chicken skewers.  We just finished a couple hours ago—the mealtimes are different here, and I guess dinner is usually around 9 or 10. 

Tomorrow morning Maria is going to take us to our first orientation session.  I’m not sure what else is planned, but I’m hoping to have a chance to explore the city a bit.  Also, I have internet here, which I didn’t expect, so I hope to skype some of you soon!