Granada

Hey all! I’m so sorry that it took so long to update this blog! They have kept us very busy with lots of orientation classes and other excursions. Anyway, we arrived safely in Granada after over 30 hours of travelling and sleeping! We got here on Friday night and our orientation didn’t start until Sunday, so we had a while to get adjusted to Granada and Spanish culture before moving in with our host families. We received many strange looks when we tried to have supper at 6pm. Spaniards normally have three meals a day at around 10, 2 and 9. Many of the stores are closed from 2-5 for the siesta time. Everything is going great here. I love speaking Spanish and being surrounded by the language. I am learning a lot, but am humbled by how much I have to learn. I am struggling the most with understanding the natives because they talk so fast and have a different accent than I’m used to, but I am learning. A few of my favorite experiences so far: 1. We went out for tapas (you buy a drink and get a free plate of appetizers). Afterwards we were just walking around looking for something else to do when I saw a poster that advertised free dancing lessons, so we went inside the building and asked the owner about the lessons. This was at 2:00am, and he called the dance professor and he came to the bar and taught us how to salsa and meringue. It was so much fun! 2. On Sunday, we took a bus in the morning to Nerja, a beautiful beach about 2 hours from Granada. We had a great day of adventure – I even jumped off a huge rock into the sea, about 15 feet! After relaxing on the beach and having supper, we made our way to the bus station where the bus was supposed to leave at 9:00pm. Well we soon found out that the last bus to Granada had already left – they use military time here, and we had translated 19:00 to 9:00pm. We will never make that mistake again! So we spent the entire night on the beach! It was quite an adventure to remember. There are so many more things I could write, but the café is closing. Hope to hear from you and hope all is well! I'll be leaving this Saturday for Madrid, London, and Dublin, so I'll be gone for a whole week! Pray for safety, and I promise an update afterwards!