"Oops! Oops!"

Hi Everyone.

I moved in with my Senora, Carmen, today.  She seems very nice.  She walked to the hostel to get me and we walked back to her house.  Carmen helped me with my luggage, but still by the time we got to her house my back was sore!  She lives about 10 minutes away from the Center of Granada. It was so lovely out today that on our walk back I actually started to sweat.   Normally not a good thing, but it meant it was warm!

I was very nervous to speak with my Senora.  I figured out a couple sentences that I wanted to say to her, such as “I have a small appetite,” (I want to come back to the US the same weight!) and “I study creative writing.”  I did well with those and she is extremely helpful and patient (I actually typed out paciente…I am in a phase where I am no longer thinking in English or Spanish…but a confused mix of both.)  For the most part I can understand her.  But I am still struggling, but I think that I will get better.  She corrects me when I say something wrong which I appreciate. 

She lives in an apartment building that is in a good location.  It is a nice apartment with I believe 4 bedrooms. As soon as you walk in there is a tiny foyer and it has very pretty statues and furniture.  It looks the way I image Grandma Foley would have decorated.  Lots of religious art.  They are Catholic.  The rest of the house is hardwood floor and tiny, but nice.  If I have learned anything in the past four days is that space is a luxury not a necessity and you don’t need much.  (Mom this doesn’t mean I’m going to be getting rid of any of my clothes, so don’t touch!)  The living room area is nice AND I do get my own bathroom and shower!  I really like that.  But I asked her when I should shower and I think she was telling me to shower at night mostly because of the temperature of the water.  I’ll have to switch around my schedule there. 

My room is small, but nice.  It is right at the front of the apartment which will be nice when I come home late.  I won’t have to make too much noise.  Hopefully I can just slip into my room!  There are two beds, an end table, a closet, and a little circular table with two folding chairs.  I was able to fit all of my belongings just fine.  But there really isn’t that much space for me to be doing P90X , which I had convinced myself I would do.  I’ll have to figure out my own workout program while I am here.  The floor is marble.  So I might be quite uncomfortable doing any crunches or yoga.  There are some gyms I could join, but I think I might just stick to running in the park and doing crunches.

My Bed

After I was settled in, I went to the supermarket with Carmen.  I walked around with her while she bought some food she needed.  The supermarket was nice.  It didn’t look any different than any supermarkets at home (except for all the Spanish food and Spanish people).   At the supermarket I told Carmen about my small appetite and my dislike of onions.  And mayonnaise but that doesn’t seem to be a main part of the Spanish cuisine.  I was able to buy shampoo and conditioner and body wash at the supermarket.  I just need to get a hairdryer and notebooks for my classes now. 

After the supermarket, Carmen showed me the walk from her apartment to CEGRI (the school.)  It isn’t too bad and I think I’ll be able to recognize everything.  She said that this area is very safe.  And she told me that she has WiFi (WeeFee) but has to plug it in?  I was a little confused and I don’t want her to plug anything in and not have her telephone line or something.  Hopefully I will understand later what she was talking about.  But if she did have WiFi that would be extremely nice.      

Last night we had our "Welcome Dinner."  We went to this really nice restaurant that fit all 69 of us on the program!  We were served this salad (lettuce, tomatoes, asparagus, and the biggest green olives EVER), a stew (really yummy rice, chicken, carrots, beans), and this meringue drizzled in chocolate (sooooo amazing.)   

Amy, Justine, Kelly, and MaryPat

Me and the lovely Katherine Seck

Yumm

Even more yum!

Afterwards we attempted to go to a local pub/party.  It was a bust.  Definitely a lost in translation moment.  I think from now on we might want to stick to the more Touristy places with people from our program.  Once interesting thing about this place was watching people dance.  Most of them (girls in this case) stood around and swayed their hips.  That was it.  Looked like 8th grade boys dancing.   There was one couple dancing, however.  And WOW. They would start out a foot apart, you know swaying, and then BAM basically run into each other for an aggressive kiss, then push each other away.  It was a lot of running into each other, pecking, and thrusting away.  It's what I image 2 pigeons fighting would look like.  The best part of their dancing, however, was when she slapped him with the beat of the song and all.  It was very interesting.  Needless to say I don't think my dancing style was made for Spain.  After we realized that we had been led astray, a song with the chorus "Oops! Oops!" appropriately came on (Spain seems to be in on the joke.)  

Then we left for the Irish pub.  This place was way to crowded.  So we stayed for a bit and then left.  On our way out we came across cat calling #2: Three guys walking in and looking at us and one says in this Borat like accent, "I lovvvveeeee it."  And then I proceeded to trip on my shoes and make a whooping sound which god only knows how he interpreted it.  

After all that MaryPat, Kelly, and I came home, packed, and stayed up late giggling, forcing Kelly to sing Chi Omega songs, and loving rooming together.   It was a really good first couple of days.  Lots of learning experiences, lots of fun adventures, and good laughs!

Lovin' on our blogs :) Nice Face Kel

Well, we just had lunch. We sat around a table in the living room in front of the TV.  (My kind of people!)  Carmen made a delicious soup with carrots, green beans, potatoes, cabbage, and chorizo (spicy sausage.)  And this salad that was olive oil, tomatoes, and corn.  It was muy bien.  In the apartments there is no central heating.  But under the table is an estufa and you put your feet on it.  It warms you while you eat.  Carmen’s father, Eduardo, is very nice.  I can understand his Spanish well and he seems to understand my broken Spanish mixed with English.  I am looking forward to learning Spanish better so that I can communicate more with them.  Now I am taking a siesta.  Carmen can tell that I am tired!  I’ll try to post this if I can get internet later.  It feels strange to be so cut off right now because my cellphone that I just bought is not working! It won’t activate so I can’t reach MaryPat or Kelly or anyone.  I wonder what I’ll do about tonight! Eek!

Hasta Luego.  Tomorrow we are going to tour La Alhambra! (Apparently the tour is about 4 to 5 hours...better charge up my camera battery!) Also, I had pictures for my post, but my computer is not recognizing my media card.  I am so close to cleansing myself of all PC's and getting a Mac!

P.S. I currently have WiFi! Yeah!