Good Day

Hola a Todos! Today was my second day of school and we reviewed a couple of past tenses, which I needed a lot of help on. Luckily, I understood all of it and feel as though I'll remember it now. We don't have that much homework, which is also a relief.
After class Meg and I came home for lunch and we had this weird kind of fish that I wasn't in love with. But there were also peaches, so that was a plus. Today Arcadia scheduled us for a tour of La Catedral de Ave Maria and La Capilla Real, which is where the King Fernando and Queen Isabelle are buried. It was interesting, but two hours long and during the middle of the afternoon, so very hot. We also missed siesta, which obviously is a tragedy. The tour guide is a teacher at the CLM (Centro de Lenguas Modernas) and she was pretty sarcastic. She kept saying "Entienden?" (do you understand?) and then answering "no, claro qu no" (no, of course you don't). It was a little offensive, but I think it was just her sense of humor.
After our tour Meg went to the phone store b/c her Spanish phone hasn't been working. A bunch of the girls and I went to the Arcadia office and bought bus tickets for the beach tomorrow. We're going to be there from 12 to 6, so I'm pretty excited. Also, I talked to Christine, who is head of our program and due to have twins any day now. Apparently I got into all my classes and I'm going to be receiving 18 credits at Denison instead of just 15 because this month long intensive course I am taking in September counts as a class! Which is fantastic. I am going to be taking a grammar class, a conversation/composition class, a literature class, an art class, and a culture class in October and November. They are all 300 level classes, so I don't think they will be too difficult AND they transfer back to Denison in such a way that I'm going to finish all my Gen Ed Requirements as well as my Spanish minor. Now that I have that all confirmed, I feel a lot better.
Our teacher told us to buy our book this weekend for class, but I was told there was a library in the CLM, so I just went there and checked it out for free for the month. It's so nice that I don't have to spend money buying the book, but the book they gave me is kind of falling apart, so I'll have to be careful. It already needs some more tape : (
It turned out that Meg thought I wanted to meet at home, which actually turned out to be a really good thing b/c I walked home by myself without a map and actually didn't have any trouble. I think I'm starting to get the hang of the city even if I can't name all the streets.
We had dinner, which was some kind of porkchop and potato. We also had a really great conversation with Maria Carmen and her daughter Julia. I felt very comfortable and Meg and I both talked about our families and about our classes pretty fluently. We are meeting the other people in the program at midnight tonight for our real first night out and Meg and I are both really excited. Hopefully we won't have any trouble getting into the apartment tonight. Haha, we have been practicing with the key all week, so I don't think it will be a problem. Anyway, I have to go get ready, I love everyone!

Love Always,
Em

The Start of School

So today was my first day of class and it wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. I am in a class with about 15 other students, all of them from America except one who is from Germany. From 10-12 we have class with Susanna, who seems very nice and is easy to understand. I had no problem understanding what she was saying and after some of the other students talked, I felt as though I was in the right level. So hopefully that feeling will continue and I will be comfortable talking in class. We split into groups of four and played a board game in which we had to answer questions in Spanish. Meg and I were with these two girls who are actually based in Madrid and are only here today and tomorrow. I was a little sad that we met and liked some people in the class, but they are leaving.
We have a 20 minute break at noon and then we have another class from 12-2. This is with Pilar, who is much younger and more energetic. We played a game in which we were split into pairs and had to make assumptions about the other person, like where they were from or what their favorite band is. I got a girl from Oregon and we both did pretty well on guessing what the other person was like.
Overall, the first day of classes was very easy and just focused on breaking the ice and talking about the requirements. We have to buy one book, which Meg and I will get this weekend, and we are allowed to miss four classes. Which I think is a little ridiculous since the class is only a month long, so that means you could miss once a week. Either way, I'm not planning on being absent.
After school, we came home and had a really good lunch, probably one of my favorites. We had salad and meatballs and french fries. The custom here is to have fruit for desert so we usually have some kind of melon or yogurt as well.
Then we took a siesta and I accidentally slept for 5 hours, so when I woke up it was time for dinner! During dinner we watched The Closer with Kyra Sedgwick in spanish, which was pretty amusing. Now I am registering with the US Embassy to let them know I am in Spain and I think Meg and I are going to have a pretty early night. I miss you all!

Love,
Em

La Día a la Playa

Today was fantastic, but last night was terrible. After dinner, Meg and I went out with the whole Arcadia group. We went to this Cuban club that was giving free salsa lessons and spent about 2 hours failing miserably at dancing. It was a lot of fun, but once you realize how bad you are at keeping rhythm, you don't want to keep doing it for the rest of the night. Unfortunately, it was a Tuesday night and most of the native Spanish students aren't here yet. Therefore, nothing was really going on and we kept running into the same groups of different study abroad programs. While it was nice to see other Americans, it felt as though we were the only ones out and that the night wasn't very authentic.
Around 2 am, Meg and I decided to call it a night. We had to get up early today in order to go to the beach, so we just headed home with Zach, a guy in the program who lives a block away from us and walks us home when it's late. Zach dropped us off at our building and we went up to the apartment door and could NOT get the keys to work. It was as if they weren't for the door. They would fit in the lock alright and even turn, but it wouldn't open the door. Meg tried to call Juan Carlos, the son, but he didn't pick up his cell phone. Finally, at around 2:45, we had to ring the doorbell and wake Maria Carmen, our host mom. She was so sweet and showed us how tricky the locks are here. You have to turn it to the left as soon as you get it in, because if you move it to the right, the door double locks and you can't get in. It's just some flaw in the lock, apparently. It was really embarrassing and we both felt terribly for waking her up. Of course she said "No pasa nada", which is the people of Granada's favorite phrase for "don't worry". I'm just glad that we didn't come home later in the night.
This morning we got up around 7:30 and got ready to meet the group in La Plaza de Isabella to catch the bus to the beach. The ride was about an hour, but it was completely worth it. While the beach was rocky, it was the Mediterranean Sea and absolutely gorgeous. We rode waves for hours and laid out until about 5 pm. There was also this rocky hill that we all climbed that looked over the city and the sea. It is definitely one of the prettiest places I've ever been. Our senoras packed us all lunches, so we ate on the beach and watched the waves. The only bad thing is that European women have a tendency to go topless at the beach, so we had to get used to that.
After the beach we arrived back home and now I am waiting for dinner. We are staying in tonight and relaxing because tomorrow is our first day of class and we want to be well rested. We got our schedules today and Megan and I are in the same class from 10 am - 2 pm for the whole month of September. I am very excited and am looking forward to tomorrow.
I know I've been writing a lot on this blog, and I probably will continue to during the next week or so because every day we do something different. As I get more accustomed to being here and Arcadia stops planning something different for us every day, I probably won't keep up with it as closely. Thanks for following me so far and I hope it's not too boring! I miss you all.

Love Always,
Em

Croquetas Again?

Today I woke up at 8 am and immediately broke the watch I had bought specifically for this trip. I am now on a search to find a new one. The day did not start out well, and I had to go to the CLM (Centro de Lenguas Modernas) and take my proficiency test in order to determine what classes I can take while I am here. Needless to say, i was a little nervous. The test only took about an hour and a half and consisted of three parts: a writing sample, multiple choice, and an oral exam. The first part was simple, as was the first half of the multiple choice, but then it just started to look like gibberish to me. A lot of the phrases and words were never taught to me so the second half of the multiple choice was very difficult. Talking to everyone else after the exam, though, I found out that everyone had felt the same way and that those questions were for those who were at a "superior" spanish level (definitely not me!). The oral exam was very simple and just consisted of me talking to a woman and explaining that Chicago no longer is the home to all the members of the mafia. I don't think I got through to her. After the exam she told me I was in the Intermediate B level, which is higher than I thought I would be. I will be taking an intermediate class four hours a day five days a week for the whole month of September. After that I will have a break in which I will travel in Spain with Arcadia and then perhaps to Germany and Italy with a few friends. I will then start the normal classes (art, literature, culture) at a higher level, most likely Expert A.
After the test, we all headed back to the hotel and brought our luggage downstairs to wait for our senoras. Meg and I had packed our luggage the night before and brought it down because the senor of the house had come to pick them up so we wouldn't have to drag them across the city. We didn't get to meet him when he came last night because we were out to dinner, but he and his son, Juan Carlos, were the ones who picked us up at the hotel today. This made Meg and I the only ones to have guys waiting for us, the rest of the hotel was filled with older Spanish women.
We are staying in an apartment across the city. It is beautiful and Meg and I get to share a bedroom and our own bathroom. They also have WiFi (they pronounce it wee-fee here) in the apartment, which is unheard of. We are very lucky! This way I can work on my blog and skype my friends and family from my own room instead of using an internet cafe.
After we arrived at the homestay, we ate lunch with the senora, her son who is 24 and her daughter, Laura, who is 22 and studies business at the University. As far as I can tell, neither one of them works and the son doesn't go to school. The lunch was good, it is the main meal of the day so there was an insane amount of food, including croquetas, which I've now had three times in two days. She kept trying to make us eat, which is a normal Spanish custom, so I had to say I was full three times before she would let me leave. In Spain, it is customary to watch the news while you eat lunch. The news here is so much different than in the States. There is a lot more detail and much less censoring. You can see everything on the news and it seems as though humor is a big part of the news as well.
After lunch, Meg and I took another siesta. Our apartment is no air conditioned, so it got terribly hot in the afternoon. When we woke up, Juan Carlos and one of his friends walked us to the University where we had another orientation and talked about academics and classes. It was during this orientation that I realized I had forgotten an important piece of paper at home which detailed the classes I wanted to take and the credit I would get at Denison. Luckily I was able to skype my mom later and ask her to look for it, so hopefully it won't be a problem much longer.
I brought my blackberry with me to Spain and it did get really great service here. But AT&T charges a lot for international calls, so everyone from my program went to the phone store nearby and bought a Spanish phone/SIM card. Since I already had a phone which my dad had unlocked for me, I just had to by a SIM card which gives me a spanish number and lets me call anyone with the same network in Spain for free. This made me a lot less stressed because now I can get in contact with my new friends from Arcadia.
Meg and I returned home around 8:30 and I talked to a few friends online before we had dinner. Meg and I were the only ones to eat, although the Senora did sit with us and talked to us in Spanish. We had a really great conversation and I felt that Meg and I both did a good job of communicating in Spanish, our first REAL communication since we've been here. For dinner we had yogurt and tomatoes and chorizo (sausage) as well as some kind of grilled cheese sandwhich, which was AMAZING.
Now we're getting ready to go out with some people from the program. Tomorrow we are spending all day at the beach that is about 45 minutes away, so we're really excited to just relax. Finally I am unpacked and moved in, so I feel much less stressed than I did yesterday. On Thursday we start our classes, so wish me good luck. I hope they aren't too hard, but I feel like my spanish has already improved in the three days I have been here. I miss everyone!

Love Always,
Em

P.S. A special thank you to Paul for reminding me that I was remiss with writing my blog. You're a real friend.

The Second Day

The second day I was here, we had a normal Spanish breakfast of churros y chocolate at an outside cafe. I tried some Spanish coffee, which is extremely bitter. I think being here will break my recently acquired coffee addiction (Mom will be happy!). After breakfast, Cristina walked us around part of Granada and showed us some of the main streets and plazas. Granada is gorgeous because it is surrounded by La Sierra Nevada, which is a beautiful mountain range. The architecture here is beautiful as well; the streets are narrow and cobblestone, usually closed off from cars and buses. They wind around the city in a web of alleys, but they connect some beautiful plazas. So you'll take a turn and end up in La Plaza Real or La Plaza de Isabella. These plazas are large open spaces where there are many outdoor cafes and statues and flower/bread vendors. This maze and plaza combination gives the city an endearing charm and makes me feel like I have to wander a bit in order to truly know the city.
After our first tour of Granada, we went back to the hotel and had a little bit of orientation during which Cristine told us not to smile so much because that's what makes the Spanish guys think we are flirting. We were also told not to take offense at catcalls because that is just the "European way". The group talked about security and insurance and all the important things to know if you are an American staying in Spain. We then went out to lunch to this turkish deli, where we had really messy sandwhiches that were actually pretty good. I had an orange fanta with lunch and it tasted so much better than the ones in America.
When we arrived back at the hotel, we all took a siesta because it gets to be 90 degrees in the afternoon. The only way to not go crazy is to sleep through it, so we all cranked up the air conditioning in the hotels and took a nap. We then finished orientation and took another, longer, tour of the city. For the first time since we got here we were left on our own to find dinner, and 10 of us went to a beautiful outdoor restaurant where we ordered different chicken dishes and bottles of wine. Because it was our last night all living together in the hotel, four girls, including myself, decided to stay out later and went back to the hotel around 2 am.
It was a wonderful day, mostly because I got to know a lot of people from my program a lot better. They all seem really nice and down to earth and I hope that we continue to hang out even when we don't all live in the same area. However, it was the first time that I truly missed home. Arcadia gave us some calling cards, so I was able to talk to my sister and Mom (Dad was at work) during the day. It's hard to describe to them what the city is like and I can't wait until Mom comes to visit so I can show her all the fun places I have found.

Love Always,
Em

The Start of Spain

!Hola a todos! I finally arrived in Granada, Spain on Sunday around 5:30 pm. There was no trouble with the flights but it was a really long and tedious journey, so I was happy to catch up with Megan in Madrid. We had a five hour layover, which was when the jetlag really started to kick in, and then an hour plane ride from Madrid to Granada. On that plan ride we met some other study abroad students, some who are in my Arcadia program and others that are in other programs but that will be in my classes. Two girls in my program lost their luggage, but luckily I wasn't one of them. Everything went really smoothly.
We were picked up at the airport by Cristina, a 26 year old native who is the co-director of our program. The actual director, Cristine (hard to keep the names straight!) is about 8 months pregnant with twins. So Cristina will be taking over pretty soon. We arrived at Hotel Ingleterra which is in the middle of Granada. It is small, but very comfortable and air conditioned, which is the most important. Meg and I roomed with another girl named Amy who is from Connecticut (pictured above with Meg and I). We love her! She's so much fun and we had no problem sharing a hotel room for two nights.
After arriving at the hotel, we all went out for a group dinner. There are 15 of us in the Arcadia program, but only two boys. We will be taking classes with a lot of different students though, so it won't always be a small group. We went to a restaurant where you sit outside and we ordered a bunch of different dishes and then share. I love this dish called croquettas, which is cheese and chicken blended together and then fried. We also had sangria, which is wine mixed with different fruits, mostly orange. After dinner we all walked around until about midnight, which is when the jet lag really hit and we wandered back to the hotel to sleep.
What is so amazing about Granada, and Spain in general, is that the night life here doesn't start until about 11 or 12 at night. The days start off around 9 and you have a light breakfast of churros y chocolate or toast. You then have lunch around 2 pm, perhaps snacking on some tapas in between meals. Dinner isn't until 9 at the earliest, sometimes as late as 10:30 or 11. It is after dinner that you go out, and usually stay out, until at least 3 am. Basically, it's like Spain took the whole philosophy of college and turned it into a culture.
So, this was my first day. It was exhausting but it definitely eased my mind and confirmed that I made a great decision in choosing Granada. I can't wait until I feel more comfortable with the city and the language, I think I will truly love it.

Love Always,
Em

Tick Tock

Well, the day of departure is certainly drawing closer. I will be wrapping up loose ends here and saying my final goodbyes over the next few days. I have just started packing and am not very optimistic about fitting all my clothes in one suitcase (wish me luck!) This entry is just to inform everyone that, while I do have access to email and facebook, I also have a skype account in order to call/video chat. My skype name is emgo10 and I would love to hear from you. If you want to give me your skype name, feel free to comment on this blog or email it to me. Thanks! Hopefully my next blog will be written from España!

Love Always,
Em