All I can say is..WOW!

Hey guys!! Yesterday was a long day, so I didn't get a chance to write.  But let me tell you, these past two days have been beyond marvelous!! Yesterday was our first day of orientation.  Meera and I managed to walk to our school without getting lost, which in my mind was a win! When I was walking to school I noticed a lot of adults just meandering around.  It seemed like everybody was in no hurry to get anywhere or do anything.  It was nice to not have to rush around and to not have everybody rushing around you.  We started our orientation with a meeting that didn't start till 10:30a.m., which was nice.  After the meeting we went on a walking tour of part of the city.  It was beautiful!! Even though this is my second time to Europe, all of the architecture still amazes me!

This is city hall.

This is an old hotel.

I just thought these were cool looking. :)

At this cathedral they used to execute people and you can still see some of the bullet holes in the cathedrals outside walls.  Now people get married there.

La Catedral de Granada.

This was on the cathedral above.

This was also on the above cathedral.

This is a fountain I walk by on my way to school.  It is located in a plaza that is very popular.  A lot of families will bring their young children, or children just come and play on their own, but either way it is always filled with animation!

After our walking tour we had lunch.  We had a packed lunch called a "bocadilla" from our host family.  A bunch of students in the program just sat outside on some benches and ate our bocadillas.  This was my view for lunch:

After lunch, we went back to the school to take our level test for orientation.  This test told us at what level of Spanish we were at.  The test was over an hour and a half long...my brain hurt...I was exhausted...it was rough.  So, to treat ourselves on getting through the level test, a few of my friends went to get tapas after dinner. 

 

Today, September 10, was a long, but good day.  I may have possibly stayed out a little late last night.  Sooooo...I was a bit tired this morning.  We had another meeting at 10:30a.m. The entire walk there I was wondering about my level test.  I was nervous because I didn't want to get a level 1, and I just had no clue what to expect.  I was hoping we would walk into our meeting and instantly find out our level....pero no.  We talked about some stuff, then finally we found out our levels.  I got into...level 4. Which is were I should be, so I was happy for that!  After our meeting we went on another walking tour of the city.  This walk was rough!! It was uphill (steep uphill) and rocky and rough! For a few seconds, I thought I was going down.  However, this trek up the evil hill was worth it because at the top we saw Alhambra.  It was gorgeous!!! Definitely worth the hike!

 We also saw a place where people used to go before they went to the mosque to take baths and get clean.

After our tour we had our bocadillas and then classes started!  We had 3 hours of class.  For an hour and a half we had a grammar class, and the other hour and a half we had a speaking class.  My professors are great!! I was nervous about both classes, but my professors are very relaxed and made the class fun! At one point we were all laughing so much I started crying! (Shocking, I know!)  I also appreciate the fact that I understand them like 95% of the time!  It could be because they are not talking as fast as they usually do, but I'll take what I can get!! :)