Granada after 1 month! I can't believe it has been that long already!

Hola de Granada! An apology to begin with – I hope that this post makes sense, but since we speak so much in Spanish, sometimes we forget how to speak correctly in English :)

After we got back from England and Ireland, I had two days to recover before classes started on Wednesday. I am so thankful to have a daily routine now, and I really like my classes. I am able to understand my professors, and most of them are really interesting. I feel like I am being challenged but not overwhelmed, so I am very happy about that. I am taking Advanced Grammar, 20th century Spanish Literature, Translation, and a few other required classes. We have a lot of free time when I usually read (Mere Christianity by CS Lewis), explore Granada, and hang out with friends.

We had a 4 day weekend last weekend – a few highlights. 1. I volunteered at a soup kitchen with my senora. 2. We went to a concert of a popular Spanish pop band. 3. We spent two days on the beach of Almeria that was absolutely beautiful and perfect beach weather! It was quite strange to think, though, that here we were in Spain on the beach where it was about 85 degrees and we had only had 2 days of class so far with no homework, and our friends at Central are stressing out over midterms and it had snowed there!

I will close with a good quote from Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis: [when man does something good for God or gives something to God] “It is like a small child going to its father and saying, ‘Daddy, give me sixpence to buy you a birthday present.’”

There were mulberries on the side of the rode and they were delicious. The Trim Castle is in the background.

London Eye

Here is the matador with the bull inside the stadium in Madrid -- the largest bull fighting stadium in Spain.

Trip to Madrid, England, and Ireland

Hello all from 3700 feet! As I wrote most of this, I was flying Ryanair from London to Granada after an amazing week of travelling. We left last Saturday morning for Madrid with the Central program which meant that we stayed in a very nice hotel and given money for meals -- the ideal for a college student traveller! My favorite part of Madrid was the bull fight. Although I don't enjoy seeing innocent animals tortured and killed, it was a great cultural experience. On Tuesday morning, we flew from Madrid to London and spent three days there. My favorite parts of London were going on the London Eye and meeting up with Kaylee, a friend from Central who is studying in London, who was great at taking me to all the tourist-y places without spending any money. I also acquired a taste for tea with milk and fish and chips. We travelled by overnight train on Thursday night from London to Holyhead, Wales and then a ferry to Dublin. My favorite part of Ireland was going out of the city and into a small village called Trim. We visited the Trim Castle, the oldest castle in Ireland, built in the 12 century. This was also the place where the film Braveheart was filmed. All of Ireland was so green and beautiful, but very cold. We arrived back into Granada safely on Sunday night. I already feel so much better -- smelling better after a shower and clean clothes, and a great night's sleep. We finally start classes on Wednesday, and I am excited to get into a regular schedule and back to speaking Spanish. Hope all is well, and hope to hear from you!