Finally in Granada...
Trip Start
Sep 23, 2005
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Trip End
Ongoing
Granada, Spain
Monday, October 24, 2005
Ok, so I'm settled into my apartment in Granada, finally (ok, I've been here a few days, but settling in took longer than expected due to the city orientation CEA gave us and the mandatory trips to the bar at night). This city is absolutely gorgeous. My apartment is probably close to what you guys think that the average college student would occupy in a fairly large college city in Spain. Throw in the mud/plaster walls of the building and the crazy colors painted everywhere (my room is purple) and the fact that we have no dryer so we hang dry our clothes outside the window, and you can get a good picture.
My roommate is Erin, she is from Oregon University (home of the infamous Joey Harrington, and is very fun). Picture my type A personallity and sarcastic sense of humor, but in a woman, and you can pretty much picture her. Oddly enough, we get along very well, which is weird when you figure in the personallity issue, but it's still early in our stay, who knows what can happen.
Our Spanish roommate, who owns the apartment, hasn't been here, but is scheduled to come home tommorow, so we've had the place to ourselves, which has been weird. It would almost be better if she was here cause we are just kind of exploring the city on our own, with a few of the others from the program. A tour guide would be kind of nice, but we've managed to find a few cool tapas bars and cervecerias.
All throughout the city there are these awesome plazas, one every about 2 blocks, with awesome buildings, fountains and statues. I attached a picture of a building by one of the plazas very close to the apartment, which is truley magnificient. The cool thing about Granada is that drinking in public is not illegal, so these plazas at night are just huge parties, and this is all during the week. I've heard that during the weekend they get really crazy, and plus about 80,000 students are coming back to school this weekend, so it's about to get real crazy. They have bands playing in the plazas sometimes, and there are a ton of outdoor restaraunts in the plazas so you can just sit and drinnk and listen to the guitarristas play guitar or just chat with friends. The nice part about Granada, and Spain in general, is that when you get a beer, usually about a euro, maybe 1,5 euro, that is how much you pay. There is no tax, and amongst the Spanish, it is generally accepted that the price that you pay is also paying the wage of the worker, so tipping is not necessary. Usually on a tab of about 20 Euro (which includes the drinks of the whole group going out) a tip of 1 to 1,5 Euro is more than enough. A few times before we figured this out we were using the same 15% theory and we got some great service there after.
Last night we found this bar called Martini's (bet you can't guess what their specialty is) which has a laptop with a ton of American music on it. (actually we have yet to find a bar, or department store, and pretty much anything besides the wholes in the wall that don't play American music) I was picking songs all night off this laptop, which was fun, got pretty drunk cause this was the first night where most of us didn't have anything to wake up for in the morning, and only spent 5 euros. A martini cost 1,5 Euros, and they were STRONG...
Today, I woke up and Erin, Jenni (who I call Jenny in the forest gump voice, she really likes it) and I went to this high end clothing store called Zara. They had the nicest suits and sweaters I have ever seen in my entire life, yes better than Banana Deej. Price tag for the most expensive one, 129 Euro (multiply that by 1.22, that's how many dollars it would cost...yeah, exactly) This place is unreal, I'm definatley going back when it gets to winter time, cause I couldn't really pack anything very warm. They also had a maroon velvet suit that I couldn't bring myself to try on, but I bet I will at some point, I have to. After walking a few stores we decided to go to the Arab Market, B I think I saw your Aunt Akmed, she says hi. All jokes aside, this is the coolest thing I've ever seen in my entire life. They have the nicest stuff that you could buy at Bombay Co for under 20 Euro. Probably not the same quality, but the environment is amazing. The outdoor markets were awesome too, until we got to the Marketa de Carne, which is the meat market....outside.....with all sorts of great meat, but the smell and the appearance was a little less than appetizing.
I start school with a placement test on Monday, then classes on Tuesday. I go to school from 8:30 until 12:30 with a few breaks in there, and then my classes are done for the day. SIesta goes from 2-5, and I wasn't kidding when I described it to you guys. Everything, except the bars (thank god), shuts down from 2-5, and you literally are expected to eat a great meal and go to sleep to re-energize. The Spanish feel this is a far more productive way to live, because you get to spend great family time together, and you feel better when you go back to work. After experiencing it, I can't argue. The only downfall about living in the apartment, as opposed to with a spanish family, is that we don't get out meals cooked for us. Normally that wouldn't be an issue, cause it is really fun to cook here, but I've heard about the meals the other students are getting fed, and I am kind of jealous.
After siesta, those of us who don't work, go to cafes and drink coffee and just hang out until about 9, when dinner is... after that, everyone comes out and parties, literally everyone. The streets are packed by 10, and the bars are crazy by 11:30, every night. Siesta helps I guess ;).
Anyways, this is dragging along, sorry.
I love and miss you all, but I really just wish you could be here, not sure I'm missing home so much, just all of you. Dad I think you were right, I may not be coming back, I just need to find a Spanish national to marry so I can get citizenship. ;)
Jason and April, miss you guys, and tell Katie, "Katie, Uncle Alex dice que eres el amor de su vida" She probably won't understand, but maybe her teacher can help. ;)
Hasta Luego Todos, Alex
