I am now entering week five of this study abroad journey and I feel as if instead of marching my way through life, these past few weeks I have been the ping pong ball in a giant game of ping pong. The first few days we were dead and extremely exhausted after traveling to London… Our flight to Spain had a three-day layover in London which was absolutely amazing but also crazy tiring. Once we got to Spain we took an hour bus ride from Malaga to Granada where I got my first taste of the landscape— we rolled over hills full of olive trees (the main export in Spain our director told us), and it was stunning. Definitely very different than flat New Jersey.
When we got to Granada we met our host moms which felt like being part of an adoption process. They called our names one by one and we left the bus excitedly to meet the lady who would take care of us for the next 4 months.
My senora’s name is Luisa– my roommate and I live in her apartment and she cooks us three meals a day, all very healthy. After 5 weeks, I am still not really accustomed to their eating habits here. We just have a slice of bread and coffee for breakfast, and then lunch is not served again until 2 or 3 pm so from 11-2 I am STARVING. Then for lunch– which is their biggest meal of the day–, we eat soup, a Spanish dish, tomato salad, bread, cheese, and oranges. I am stuffed until about an hour before dinner (9 pm-ish) and then I scarf down whatever food I am given. Having dinner at 9 pm seems very strange to me when I am so used to eating with my parents by 5 or 6 pm at the latest. The food here is good but I am so used to Taco Bell and McDonald’s that once a week my friends and I sneak away to GoodBurger to try to keep weight on.
The city that I am staying in, Granada, is absolutely gorgeous, and we have to walk around everywhere to get around. It takes about 30 minutes from my senora’s house for me to arrive at the school, so every day I get to pass all of the beautiful sights Granada has to offer. The architecture here is so much more intricate than that of the US, and especially in this part of Spain, where all of the building styles were heavily influenced by Arabic culture. Everything looks like a little palace.
The people here are also beautiful and very kind. Some are certainly not as patient as others with my subpar Spanish skills, but most of them are willing to teach me the right way to say things and all of their colloquialisms. I love it here and I feel like after weeks of running around and trying to put my life together that I have learned to love all of the beautiful things Spain has to offer!