On Friday night, some of the kids from my program and I decided to go check out a spanish music festival that has been going on in Granada. We started out the evening at a tapas bar and proceeded to begin our walk over to the festival. What we didn't know was that this festival was really. far. away. We started walking in the direction that we were told it was in but because of how far away it was, it wasn't on any of our maps of Granada. Things were more complicated by the fact that there is a ton of construction happening here right now so it can be hard to figure out which streets are what and how to get to the one you want especially at night. We got a little discouraged at one point and considered going back but then we saw a group of spanish guys who said that they were also trying to get to the music festival. So we decided to walk with them, and its a good thing we did because i don't think we would have found it on our own.
Eventually we started seeing all of these super bright lights and heard upbeat american pop music blaring. As we walked closer I realized that in addition to there being a music festival going on there was also a carnival happening right next door. The differences in the lifestyle here in comparison to the US is crazy. It was probably about 12:30 by the time we walked by the carnival and there were kids running around like it was 4:00 in the afternoon. Everyone here just stays out way later than anyone I know back home. After going past the carnival, we started hearing spanish rock music and followed it over to the entrance. It was free to get it and there were so many people there. It was so clearly not a touristy event of any kind and that was a nice change. All the people there were super into the music and the place was packed. We stayed for awhile but then decided to cab home due to the fact that it was kind of late (at least by our standards) and the music was really intense and hard to get super into when you cant understand what they are saying and don't know the songs.
Last night I went and started the evening with some different ISA kids. We got tapas again and then walked over to this park that we heard was a very popular hang out for spanish people in Granada. After being there for awhile we decided to go check out this club called Mae West that we had heard was the club to go to in Granada. We knew it had a fancier dress code than most places but we all looked pretty good so we thought it would be fine. We walked over and were all getting pretty excited about this club and when we finally got to the door, we were asked to leave. None of us were dressed casually. The only real fashion difference was that none of us girls were wearing heels. However the other difference was that one of the girls who had been the one to talk to the guy at the door was asian. Now I'm not sure exactly what happened but all of the other people in my group were convinced it was a racial thing. I didn't know this going in, but I guess this club also has some racist tendencies and doesn't let any people of asian descent in. I was completely shocked. I really hope that that was not what was going on and it was heels that made the difference as to whether or not you got in not the color of your skin.
After getting turned down at Mae West we decided to walk over to a different club called the Granada Diez. I had heard mixed things so i wanted to check it out. Unfortunately it wasnt as fun as i was hoping for. It was kind of expensive to get in and the music wasnt that great, It was super loud with alot of strobe lights and it definitely was not as fun as my last club experience. The only bright side is that now I know that thats not a place i want to go again and will find other places to go instead. I had heard from my host older sisters that the Granada Diez was the tourist club anyway. All in all, the night was a mixed bag but everything is a learning experience here. I'm sure my evenings will improve alot as soon as i have been here a little longer and know more of where the good spots to go are.
Today will be a pretty relaxed for me. Pretty much everything shuts down on Sundays here so I will be doing a lot of walking around and journal writing and hopefully spend some time with some different people in my program. I have my second full week of classes starting tomorrow and Jules and Sarah get here bright and early Tuesday morning! I can't wait to see them. This weekend I also officially booked my plane and bus tickets to go visit my other sarah who is studying abroad in Amsterdam at the end of September. I am really excited about that as well! More posts to come soon!
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