Spanish

So as I write this blog I am very excited about my prospects of learning Spanish. I do not think I will be exactly fluent by the time I leave Spain. But, I hope to have a lot better knowledge than I do now. I especially hope to improve my listening skills. It seems every time I talk to my senora, there are things she tries to say which I don't really get. In the end she uses some kind of easy word to identify what she's talking about, and I at least understand what she's talking about. Then I have to try to get what she's saying. I wear a lot of blank stares and confused looks during my interactions with Spanish speakers. I am improving at least my knowledge, so I am waiting for the day that everything suddenly clicks and I can understand more conversation.

Well, towards this goal, I have joined the Library of Andalucia (the province Granada is in) so that I can rent books and movies from it. Yesterday I rented Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring! Or, "Senor de los Anillos" in Spanish. I only got through the first hour and 15 minutes of the movie, but it was very good all the same. I figured I'd be much better off with a movie I'd seen before, and one in which there is a lot of action, so I wouldn't just be staring at people talking the whole time. It was really fun to watch a movie in Spanish, and I'm looking forward to watching more movies in Spanish. Another great thing is having Spanish subtitles. It is so easy to get so lost when listening just to words. But when I have the words in front of me, and can listen at the same time, I can try to hear how different words sound in the fastness of the sentances. It was really fun, and I'm looking forward to watching a ton of movies in Spanish.

I will end the blog now, and will have a lot more to say next time, as we are going to Seville this weekend as our first other-city excursion!

Another Granada weekend!!!!

Another fun weekend in Granada has passed! The past Thursday's dinner with me, Lyndsey, and my Spanish senora was awesome! It was probably the most we have been able to talk to my senora at one time, as Lyndsey knows so much more Spanish than me and Ryan. Lyndsey was very impressed with my senora's apartment, especially the terrace. The dinner was a lot of fun, and very good food as always. And Carmen, my senora, told Lyndsey she could come over whenever; it will be very fun to bring Lyndsey over to have more Spanish conversations with my senora. Next time I need to borrow Lyndsey' camera, and take pictures of my apartment to post here.
On Friday, me and Lyndsey had our Valentine's Day date. First, before our date, Lyndsey gave me a FC Barcelona soccer ball, a really nice ball and very Spanish. And, she surpised me with the idea of going to an FC Barcelona soccer game! In Barcelona. Which would be very fun if we are able to pull it off. So, the date. We decided to try one of the many restaurants off Paseo de los Tristes, which is basically in the shadow of the Alhambra, which I wrote about last time. The food was very good. I got swordfish, which I had never had before. It was a good experience, and a very fun Valentine's Day date. Afterwards, we visited Cafe Futbol, which has many desserts and coffees. There we shared Chocolate con Churros, an amazing fried thing (the Churro) that you dip in hot chocolate, except its more like a melted candy bar in thickness.
On Saturday, we went with the Baptist church here to the Sierra Nevada. The Sierra Nevada is a mountain range with lots of snow and ski slopes and hills for sledding. Sledding, and lots of walking and waiting for buses, was our activity in the Sierra Nevada. The sledding was very fun, and it was good to get to know some more of the students attending the church. I have included a picture of Lyndsey and I in front of a beautiful sunset in the Sierra Nevada.
It was a very fun weekend, and hopefully there are many more like it. I have heard that the youth group likes to take trips to the beach every once and a while, which I would definitely attend once it gets warmer. Miss everyone!

Granada Adventures and First Day of Class

Today was my first day of class. Luckily, I only had one class today, which was from 10-11:30. I have four tomorrow, which will be backtobacktobacktoback, from 8:30-2:30, a very long day. It was good to start classes, have to get up early, and feel like I have a purpose today. I am excited to arrive at more normalcy, to have a schedule to follow, and to make more friends who are studying through different programs and in my classes.

So, we have been through some very cool adventures so far in Granada. This past Thursday, we visited the Albaicin and Sacromonte. The Albaicin is the old Arabic corner of town, which really pretty white-washed houses and narrow streets. It is a pretty fun neighborhood in town. And it is filled with small teashops where you sit on rugs and drink tea from tiny tables. Sacromonte is up the mountain beyond the Albaicin. It is kind of known as the Gypsy corner. Gypsies live in caves in the mountain in Sacromonte. These are literal caves in the mountain. They also hold lots of flamenco shows. It was a cool area, especially cool to view the Alhambra from. On Monday, we visited the Alhambra, which is amazing. It is basically a city inside the city of Granada, built by the Moors (Islamic) long ago. And this city is amazing, filled with a palace, a beautiful garden, and many breathtaking views of the entire city. It is kind of hard to do justice to the Alhambra by me describing it, and also hard to do in pictures, because its hard to grasp the enormity of it with just a few pictures. Above is a picture of the Alhambra, taken from google search because: 1) I don't have a camera, and 2) it gives a better idea of the Alhambra than any of my friends' pictures could from inside the Alhambra.

So it has been great so far. I will also include a couple pictures of people we have met here in Spain. And some fun things coming up: Lyndsey has been invited to come over to eat with my senora at her apartment, which I am very excited about. That will be coming Thursday. And on Saturday, as long as the weather is ok, we are going up with the youth group of the Baptist church we are attending, a youth group mixed with Spanish and International students, to the Sierra Nevada to go sledding. It should be a fun and inexpensive trip.

Alright thats all, thanks for reading!

Life In Spain

Here I am, for the third blog! For anyone who happens to read this, here is some of the paticulars of everday life for me in Spain. I will try to include some of the things I was surprised about, or was different than America.

Well, the food is pretty good. At least, what Maria Carmen (who doesn´t speak much English, that was a typo on the first entry...?) cooks is really good. She has had many study abroad students before, and it seems that she has tailored her cooking to fit what we are used to. We have pasta a lot, rice a lot, some kind of meat mixed in somewhere for every dish, and lots and lots of omelettes. After eating, the one constant is that I am full beyond any description! Our first helping is a heaped platefull, and when we are about halfway finished with the first heaping platefull, on comes another platefull of seconds. I am so glad I brought my tums along for the journey. In restaurants, the food has been ok. I think the food in restaurants is a lot more Spanish and a lot less American-friendly. However, one amazing thing about Granada is...the TAPAS ARE FREE!!!!! Well, free when you buy a drink, which can be a refresco (coke), so tapas bars are a very fun, cheap, and easy way to try out some of the Spanish food.

Classes are also pretty awesome, as in we don´t have class ever on Friday! This is a development that I am extremely happy about. A 3 day weekend every weekend is a great blessing. We have not started real classes yet, only Spanish review courses, to prep the people who need to get to do well on placement tests to be allowed to take all their courses in Spanish. I, on the other hand, am completing a refreshment course on the computer, which is pretty boring and not extremely helpful, as I wish I was in a class with a teacher and other students. However, this will only last a few days and then I have real class!

Yesterday was the first Sunday we were in Granada, and we made good use by going to a well-recommended Baptist church very close to our apartment. I think there were 6 Clemson students representing in the church! And about 10 from my program! It was really cool to see a different people with a different language still worshipping and experiencing the same God! Every time I go overseas and visit a church it just reveals to me how big God is. He is over all the nations, and so often in the U.S. it is so easy for me to think of my church and my area and my country only when thinking about him. I am really excited to see what God is doing in Granada, and how I can get plugged into that significance!

I will end my blog now, and I promise to post a few pictures at some point!

Nick