Just Another Day in Paradise

Hello everyone! I really enjoyed my first weekend in Granada! On Friday evening, a bunch of students I am studying abroad with decided to truly embrace the European spirit and go clubbing at a disco! We chose (with the advice of an experienced student) a disco called El Camborio, which offers a great mix of American music along with an amazing view of the Alhambra. It was a very long walk to get there from our apartment, but it was absolutely worth it. We arrived after a few tapas (my favorite part about Spain...you go to a bar, order a drink, and they give you free food....seriously, what's not to love?) and stayed until....about 5:30 AM. I know....this does not happen in America! People in Europe stay out until 6 or 7 AM every weekend! Unbelievable.

Saturday morning (let's be honest, afternoon), I woke up and met up with some friends to roam around the city a little bit. We are all still trying to find our way around, and I think it is safe to say we are tired of getting lost whenever we try to go somewhere! Everyday the city seems to make a little more sense though! Saturday afternoon I had the exciting opportunity to meet up with a girl I knew from Alabama--even after less than a week, it was great to see somebody from my home state! After our delicious dinner (have I mentioned in this post what a wonderful cook Nati is??), we headed out to another tapas bar. We didn't stay very long because we were all still tired from the night before!! Sunday was spent studying for my placement exam that took place today and going on a small excursion to attempt to find the CLM, or Centro de Lenguas Modernas, which is the building at the Universidad de Granada where all of our classes will be held. Considering we all made it there this morning by 9 for our placement test, I'd say we were quite successful!

The placement test was....a marathon. We did not leave the CLM until after 2:00 this afternoon. Many students were comparing it to the SAT's of Spanish. It was long, difficult, and quite unorganized. Despite all the chaos, I'm pretty happy with my placement. Following the exam, we returned to the apartment to anxiously await Nati's delicious lunch. After lunch, our program directors took us on a tour of an area of Granada called the Albacin. This area is absolutely beautiful. One half houses very rich people with a breath-taking view, and the other half houses....gypsies. In caves. So fascinating and incredibly beautiful. I've posted some pictures below! On our way back from the nearly 3-hour tour, a bunch of us stopped at a cafe and bought churros, which might possibly be my new favorite thing. Imagine dipping fried dough/funnel cakes into liquid chocolate...I think I will be frequenting this cafe often, especially since it's right next to the CLM! I'm very excited about this discovery :)

Ok, so for today's cultural tidbit, I think I'll write a little bit about Spanish eating...not what, but when! The Spanish people eat very little for breakfast--usually just a piece of fruit or toast and coffee. Lunch is around 2 or 3 in the afternoon (VERY late for us Americans!) and this is the biggest meal of the day. Dinner is served anywhere between 8-10 (again, late for Americans!) and is smaller than lunch. After the massive lunches they serve, siesta just makes sense! And yes...siesta is a real thing. Literally everything in the city closes down from 2-5 so everyone can eat and take a nap. Many of my friends have remarked that their host parents are worried about them if they don't nap during siesta! Not very many of us are hating this particular change!

Well, I'll sum it up for this evening. Things are pretty good here! I am still excited to start classes next Monday so that I can get myself into a routine, but I'm enjoying my free time to explore the beautiful city of Granada. Miss and love you all so much! Besos!

CHURROS!!!

Overlooking our new home!

Albacin

Albacin

Stunning.

Such a pretty blue sky!

Anybody else thinks this looks like Rainbow Row??

Sweet Home....Granada!

Hello from my beautiful apartment in Granada! Yesterday (it seems like such a long time ago...) we left Madrid quite early to venture to our new homes. On the way, we stopped in Toledo, which is a beautiful city between Madrid and Granada. We had a great walking tour around the city and got to spend a lot of time in the cathedral, which was absolutely stunning. But also very cold because there was no heat! Yesterday was a pretty gross day actually, it was like 3 degrees and rainy! We still enjoyed Toledo though. We ate at an adorable cafe where I ate my first paella! Paella is a very Spanish dish that includes rice, vegetables, seafood....actually paella can have just about anything in it! Anyways, it was SO GOOD and I can't wait to have some more! We left Toledo and arrived to Granada at about 9:00, where everybody met their host families and such. Alejandra, Allison, and I met Natividad, our landlady. She is quite possibly the most precious woman I have ever seen! She showed us the apartment and cooked us our first meal, which was delicious. She and her daughter come by twice a day, at 3 and 9, to bring us lunch and dinner. She stocks the kitchen with food to eat for breakfast, which we fix on our own so that we don't have to wake up at a certain time. We ate dinner and unpacked everything....I'm already starting to feel a little less homesick since I have a real home now!

Today we woke up and met the rest of our group to do a tour of Granada and see where we will be going to class and such. I have honestly never seen a more beautiful, perfect city in my life. I'm totally obsessed. The shops look amazing and everything is so cute. Being settled in one place is helping me finally get into a routine. However, we don't start class until February 7th....woah. We're free for the weekend until Monday morning when we have to take our placement tests, which sound absolutely terrifying from the descriptions. But hey, as my mom always says, just try your best!

I feel like there are so many cultural things about Spain that I need to share with all of you...so here's a random one. Spanish, and Europeans in general, have absolutely no concept of personal space. They start rubbing all over you the instant they meet you and will stand very very close to you, even on the street! Its crazy! They are just so loving all the time, but sometimes it freaks me out because I'm so paranoid about being pick-pocketed! Anyways, it is neither good nor bad, it is just different...and I'm going to try to start sharing more things like this!

Love and miss you all! Besos!!

 More El Escorial pics, as promised

 Rainy and cold Toledo

 Toledo

 Cathedral in Toledo

 Oh hey there little guy...

Seafood paella, obsessed

All We Ever Do Is Say Goodbye

It is about 11:40 here and we are winding down a long and tiring last day in Madrid. Last night, we tried to go to a club but ended up getting a little lost so we stopped in at a little bar. It was actually amazing--we met the two bartenders, a very nice man and a Russian girl who could speak Spanish, English, Russian, and Greek! They were so nice to us and let us practice our Spanish, which made me feel great! We had a wonderful night overall.

This morning we woke up early again and ate breakfast at the hotel. We left around 10 AM to go to El Escorial, which is a gorgeous and massive monestary. It was breath-taking. We had a really good tour given in SPANISH, which was kind of scary but made us all pay attention. Thankfully she talked really slow so it was easier to keep up. I've included some pictures below, they cannot capture the beauty at all!

After the trip to El Escorial (it was about a 45 minute trip by bus, oh and it's considered the 8th wonder of the world by the way...) we grabbed lunch at a pizza place (see the picture below) and it was SO DELICIOUS. We were going to go to another museum for the afternoon, but we were all absolutely exhausted. I came back to the hotel and talked to my mommy finally for more than 3 minutes and took a little nap. We had a meeting tonight about the city of Granada, and they gave us a map with a bunch of stuff labeled on it, and my apartment is pretty close to a lot of my friends' places! So that is exciting. After our meeting we went back to the irish pub for dinner and had some amazing fish and chips...they are starting to love us there! Tomorrow we are finally headed to Granada, with a stop in Toledo along the way. I am so excited to get to my apartment in Granada, meet my landlady/mom/maid, and move in! I'm sick of living out of a suitcase and feeling like a tourist!

Fish and Chips!

Gardens at El Escorial....beautiful!

I have more pictures but they are refusing to upload, so I'll include them in my next post! It is after midnight here so I need to pack up my stuff for our big trip in the morning! Miss and love all of you so so so much!

It's a new life, It's a new day

Hola from Madrid! I arrived here on Monday morning at about 11:00 AM, which is 4:00 AM in Alabama...needless to say I was very tired! I won't bore you with the details of my flights and travel, but I will just say that sleeping on planes is hard and getting here was a little insane! I arrived at Hotel Moderno in the Puerta del Sol district in Madrid. The hotel is beautiful and has a wonderful view of the city. Madrid is a very historical city, so there is a lot to do around here! Monday evening, after meeting all of my fellow Granada students, our program treated us to a delicious dinner. It was a bunch of tapas, which are Spanish appetizers. I completely failed to take pictures (blame it on the jet lag...) but just trust me when I say it was amazing! A wonderful introduction to Spanish food. After dinner, a bunch of us invaded an Irish pub in Madrid and had a fun first night. I came back to the hotel and crashed for about an hour...but then I woke up at 1 AM and couldn't go back to sleep! Blame it on the jet lag...

Today we woke up pretty early and went to visit the Prado Museum, which is the second best collection of art (first would be...the Louvre.) We had a really good tour guide who told us great things about a bunch of amazing paintings by famous artists like Goya! It was awesome...and my mom would have loved it! We grabbed lunch at a Turkish restaraunt after the tour and had DELICIOUS food (as seen below)!

After lunch, we went back to the hotel to sleep for a few minutes before heading to the Royal Palce, which was quite possibly the most beautiful palace I have ever seen. I would NOT be mad about living there someday! We all really enjoyed seeing the palace. We had meetings at the hotel after the visit to the palace, and after that we had a delicious dinner at Cafe & Te (that's coffee and tea for all you non-Spanish speakers) and we are headed out for a night on the town very soon!

I am really loving Spain so far...everything is absolutely gorgeous and the people are unbelievably nice! We will be in Madrid until Thursday, when we go to our new homes in Granada. I'm struggling a little bit right now, because I am very tired and feeling unsettled and a little homesick! I am slowly adjusting though. I hope to update again soon....love and miss you all so much! Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers as I embark on this journey :)

Besos y abrazos!

Yummy Turkish food!

Prado Museum

Royal Palace...future home??

New friends at the Royal Palace!



Close your eyes, I'll be on my way

Well, here we are...the night before the big trip! I can't believe the time has come--it seems like I have been counting down for so long. I spent most of today packing, which wasn't nearly as hard as I had anticipated. I managed to get everything into one suitcase (that weighs 47.4 pounds, thank you very much). I was really surprised that I was able to get everything in one bag...maybe I'm not as much of an over-packer as I thought (Let's be real, I totally am...). I've loaded up my Nook with tons of books, and I even have the most delicious cookies ever, thanks to my dad. I predict that they're gone before the wheels hit the ground in Miami. Emotional eating, anyone?

I had really thought I was going to be a huge mess today, but I have surprised myself for the most part. I'm currently sitting on the floor of my room, amidst all my luggage, and it is hitting me that I will soon be going to sleep in America for the last time until the end of May. I can't quite wrap my head around it. It still doesn't seem completely real. Right now it's a little scary, to be perfectly honest. These feelings will evolve into excitement and fun--I just know it!

Alright, I'm off to throw some last-minute stuff in my suitcase, eat something chocolate, listen to Leavin' on a Jet Plane (Peter Paul and Mary are still awesome at 21), and try to get some sleep (yeah, right...). Next stop, Spain!!

Searching for My Something Beautiful

Here it is....the much-anticipated and highly exciting blog of my travels abroad this semester! I'm excited about sharing my adventures and thoughts with the internet world, but I'm still not convinced that I'm "cool" enough for anybody to care about what I'm doing! That's part of the reason why this blog will include lots about food...who doesn't care about that??

I will be leaving on Sunday from the Birmingham airport at 1:05 pm. I honestly cannot believe that it is almost here...I have been planning and talking about Spain for what seems like a lifetime. Since I made the decision (and it was not an easy one, let me tell you) to spend my semester in Granada, I have been faced with an unbelievable amount of questions. Where are you going? What are you going to be doing? How long will you be there? Are you excited? Are you going to miss your friends and family (DUH)? The list could go on for days. I've loved every minute of these conversations, but I definitely have a favorite question to answer.

That question is....Why?

Why study abroad? Why leave everything you know, your comfort zone, and all of your friends and family?Why go to a country where you aren't fluent in the language? I honestly struggled to formulate an answer at first. But now I've got it...or part of it at least. I'm searching. Searching for knowledge about other countries, cultures, languages (and food...). Searching for more of myself. Searching for something beautiful. One of my favorite authors, Donald Miller (Blue Like Jazz...if you haven't read it, stop reading this and go read it now...I can guarantee his writing far surpasses mine!) sums up a lot with this: "Everybody has to leave. Everybody has to leave their home and come back so they can love it again for all new reasons." I fully expect to fall in love with Spain, but I am also hoping to find the beauty in America and in my own life. I'm searching to find something beautiful...MY something beautiful, whatever it may be.

So, read along and I'll share the stories, the food, the pictures, and all the beauty as I travel to Spain and beyond. It is bound to be the journey of a lifetime.