So, an overview of last week, with a highlight of the most important events and/or things to remember and/or embarrassing Kaitlyn stories.
Monday, September 7th
Group field trip to Cabo de Gata! Although we were supposed to meet at 7:45am, myself Mariesa and our madre's daughter's American student Madeline spent over an hour wandering lost around Granada, a decision of mine which left us a 15 minute walk off the map. By the end of this trek, in which I am calling our IES staff bus member Jose every 2 minutes trying to tell him what streets are around me while looking at the wrong section of the map and never considering looking in another section of the map, we had to be picked up at a restaurant literally 5 minutes from our house. The Palacios del Congresos, our meeting point, was another 5 minutes from there. We walked in the wrong direction for 30 minutes. To this day, we still do not know where the Palacios del Congresos is, and are indeed supposed to meet there for another group trip to Ronda and Sevilla this Friday. Wish us luck!
Cabo de Gata
We spent the rest of the day hiking 14 km in the desert with 20mph (kph?) winds on the beach blowing sand all over you so hard that it hurt, currents so strong that a different Jose (Jose joven) had to drag me away from the rocks (the whole swimming area was less that 100feet long), and a sunburn on the back of my neck and t-shirt. Although I passed the entire day speaking (or trying to speak) Spanish with Cristina, which was great and really really fun, as not having seen her in nearly 48 hours I was coming down with Spanish fever in her absence. So much so that two Tulaney's who are Kappa's as well were shocked when I spoke to them in English about the city nearby and exclaimed "Oh my god! I totally thought you were Spanish this whole time! Are you American?" The curly hair I'm sure didn't help but wooh me!!! Soy espanola!!!!
Tuesday, September 8th
IES Orientation commences again at 9am, this time with two lectures from the staff and 3 hours of language class. After the siesta we had another language class from 5-8, when they say intensive they mean it. Anyway though, we still have the same teacher who keeps the class interesting, to say the least and she lets us play games and explore la Plaza Nueva (where shcool is) and take coffee breaks and so it's all good. We had a quick meeting about internships as well, called pra'cticas, which I am very much looking forward to and excited about. Other than this, I don't think anything of consequence happened that day. Probably just a lot of talking to Paul. :)
Wednesday, September 9th
Again two-a-days classes! This is killing me! We meet for more orientation lectures for an hour before comencing with the usual torture. We finished our language class at 2:15 and headed home for lunch and the siesta, which we avidly took advantage of. As I recall we walked past a beautiful panderia (bread bakery), which smells delicious every time we walk past it that makes me crave lunch anymore than I already do from going from 8-3 without eating. I am a 3 year old, and need to eat every 2 hours. After class, I had a brief "culture shock" meeting, which felt a little too uncomfortable for sharing since we still don't know each other, and then Mariesa and I skipped a group walking tour to buy a straightener, groceries, clothes at Zara and return home for tapas. Wednesday night we began our four night extravaganza for our first weekend in Granada. Wednesday night (i can hardly remember its been so long) i went out with my roommate Mariesa and a bunch of people in our program to a discoteca called granada10 thats pretty close to our house. It was ladies night AND Cuban night, and so we had a great night. Nothing of consequence happened besides our attempt to feign complete sobriety on the walk home. 1 Euro chupitos you know? Cristina couldnt come because she had to do things in the morning, but we had a lot of fun. Of course I danced the night away but they do it a lot calmer here, no body grinds and if you are dancing dirty, they know you are probably American. Anyway we stayed at the discoteca til around 230 and then came home around 3, we had class the next day and a part of our placement exam. Thursday, September 10
Cristina, Abby, Smiley and Yo at Paddy's
Again orientation from 9-10am. Again language class from 10-2pm. Again lunch from 2-5, including a very long siesta, and a shopping outing with a new friend Ann at a shopping center near the Burger King (the most popular meeting point I've heard so far) before our written placement exam for the language classes. Then thursday night, i went out with Cristina to a pub down the street from my house called Paddy's (notably, I had become so confused by the Spanish accent that by this point I had confused the name of this pub with the Spanish interpretation of Paris) and after that we went to another pub across from there called hannigans dos (you will hear me talk about this pub again, there are two, one next to granada10 -- uno -- and the other near my house -- dos). Later we went to hannigans for kareoke night and one of the guys, Jake, who is a Beta and hilarious (along with every other American 40 seconds into the song) sang "I want it that way" by the backstreet boys. It was great, but my voice was gone all the next day from screaming it with cristina. Anyway after that cristina and i left to go to granada 10, which was pretty empty because it was early (like 2am, which is exceptionally early by Spanish standards) and most of the students had exams for summer courses the next day. After a while we went to get food and then called it a night, and by called it a night I mean I stayed up skyping with Paul and facebooking until 430am.
Friday, September 11
A sad day by any American standards, but as we are not celebrating any other traditional American holidays or events (no Labor Day, no September 11, no Thanksgiving), there was little if any recognition of the day. And by little I mean, Mariesa and I commented that it was September 11th, awed by the fact it had been 8 years, and then hurried to class, late as usual. More orientation stuff, but only class until noon! And then everyone had the oral part of their placement exams. Mine was at 1:15 so I just got coffee and waited on the rooftop terrace with Smiley, Clare, and Rogo. My oral exam went horribly, I was sick from my migraines as well as the lack of sleep and my interviewer had a horrible granadino accent (comparitively the South Carolina accent of Spain). But it ended up working out, I am in the second highest level despite the malentendimiento (misunderstanding) and all is well. BUT friday night was Ahhhh-mazing, although it didn't start out that way. I was so tired and mariesa and I were just going to go out for tapas and then come home, but of course, we walked by hannigans dos on our way back, where all of our friends were and they convinced us (after two shots and a mixed drink) to go out to another discoteca called Mae (my) West, which is about 25 minutes from my house. So, of course! we went and grabbed our heels and went with everyone to mae west around 2. Still early, but this club was very spanish -- like granada10 is more touristy ya na? -- anyway it was so fun!! I danced my little booty off, mostly solo or with smiley and a little bit with our Spanish friend Jose (I swear they are all named jose) So anyway we didnt end up leaving until 530am and then walked home with Michi so i didnt get home until 6. It was a crazy fun incredible night! And there are tons of pictures so check out my facebook. Anyway the fourth night we went out was Saturday, but right now I'm looking at getting 7 hours of sleep and have another full day of IES classes tomorrow!
Yo, Abby, Michi, Jon, Clare, Smiley and Jake; at Hannigan's Dos
So until very very soon,
Yours
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