Granada Beginnings

Today we arrived in Granada! I am now in my homestay and settled in at last. It feels so nice to be unpacked and in a home instead of a hotel. Granada is a gorgeous place. After unpacking, my roommate and I made our way over to the university where we will be taking classes while we are here. It is a 30 minute walk from our apartment that we will be walking about 4 times everyday. How it works here is that everyone goes to class/work in the morning and then comes home for lunch at 2 which is the big family meal of the day. After lunch everyone goes back to work again. The walk is very pretty and it will be a good way to get to know the city!

My senora here is very very nice. She only speaks spanish so it is a little bit challenging to communicate but my spanish is actually a bit better than i thought it was! They have a very sweet siamese cat named Bambi, having a kitty around reminds me of home. We had dinner just the three of us because her two daughters are studying late at the university for an exam tomorrow. Hopefully I will get to meet them tomorrow. Bright and early tomorrow morning I have my spanish placement test and then tomorrow night our group is going to a flamenco show.

I am really excited for classes to start and for my spanish to get better, so far my time in Granada is off to a good start!

Toledo!

Today was our one and only day in Toledo, we left Madrid at about 9:00am this morning for the one hour bus ride. Once we arrived in Toledo, we had a mini bus tour and then a tour on foot. I feel like I learned so much today, the most obvious is that Toledo is absolutely beautiful! I was in awe all day. After our tour we grabbed lunch and got to explore on our own for a bit before heading back to our hotel. Tomorrow morning we finally begin our trip down to Granada and i am so excited! I can’t wait to meet my host family and see the city where I will be living for the next few months.

Tonight we have a three hour meeting to tell us all about what will be going on in Granada and to answer all of our academic questions. Which I imagine will be kind of tedious but then we can do whatever we want until we head out for Granada. Tomorrow should be an exciting day!

Day One

I have officially arrived in Madrid! It is about 8:30 pm here and it is nice to finally be on the ground. So far everything has been good. My roommate and I accidently slept through our alarm for our bus tour of madrid so we just did a little exploring on our own which turned out fine. Other than that here isnt very much to report. I dont have a sim card yet and i am still searching for a phone card and pay phone so that i can call home. More later!

2 days until lift off...

During my stay I will be in Granada, Spain. When I first arrive I will fly into Madrid to meet up with the rest of the students in my program. After a few nights in a hotel, we will all begin our trek down to Granada together with stops in Sevilla and Toledo on the way. Once we get to Granada, I will meet my host family and my intensive month of spanish classes will begin shortly after. Hopefully between my homestay and my spanish classes, my spanish speaking skills will be much improved by the time I get home!

I cannot believe that in less than 48 hours I will be on the plane on my way to Spain. To live there. For 4 months. It is impossible to comprehend that this time in my life has finally arrived. I have spent months and months planning and organizing and preparing for this trip and yet I feel totally and completely at a loss as to what to expect and how to deal with the fear that I am feeling. This will be a trip full of firsts. For starters this will be the first time I will have ever flown on a plane by myself, not to mention that this is my first time going to Spain or that I have never traveled somewhere not knowing a single person in my program or in the country that I am headed to. Hopefully some of these scared feelings will subside soon so that more of the excited ones can take their place. This is sure to be a crazy adventure and I have no clue what to expect!