Homestay!

Hey guys! Day 2 meant homestay day!  When I woke up this morning, I wasn't very nervous.  However, after breakfast, my stomach was in knots!! All I kept wondering was: will they like me?  will they think I'm some crazy American? and why does my Spanish suck?!  Luckily, I had an hour long meeting to sit through that took my mind off of meeting my host family.  During our meeting, Veronica, our Granada advisor, told us all about what we would be doing for orientation, what excursions we would be going on in the next to weeks, and who are homestay families were.  I was nervous I'd be alone and have to figure out what my family was saying and struggle like none other and I'd have to walk alone and I'd get lost and then tears and sadness.  If you can't tell, I have a tendency to over think and over react.  It's a true skill.  Anyway, I found I was put with a girl named Meera.  So when our name was called we got up and walked to meet our host family.  My host mom is a precious little gem of an older lady named Maria.  Thank heavens that she is very patient and does not mind repeating things once or twice until we understand.  Sometimes I have been struggling to understand what Maria is saying, so I look to Meera who usually gets it (thank heavens, again!).  We ate lunch here with Maria and her husband.  It was a simple lunch, just pasta and an apple, but yummy!  We just finished dinner.  It was.....interesting.  We had a cold soup.  It was...interesting.  I didn't hate it, but I also didn't love it.  But I did stomach it! We also had a potato cake like thing and a san jacobo.  The san jacobo was really good!! It was a fried ham and cheese.  Sooo good!!  Eating here is very different.  Their kitchen table is in the living room in front of the television.  So while eating, we watch t.v. and talk.  It's great! Here's pictures of my room.

My bed

My desk



 After we had lunch today, my roommate, Meera, and I walked to a park nearby.  Some other students said that they were going to meet there so we figured we'd see if we could find anybody.  Well...we couldn't.  We walked around the park anyway.  It was beautiful!!

As we were heading back to our apartment, we saw a few girls from our program.  So we stopped to say hi and decided to get something to drink at a tapas place across the street.  I had a delicious cappuccino! Before dinner, our host mom walked us to our school so we knew how to get there tomorrow.  It's only a 20 minute walk or so and the walk there is lined with wonderful shopping!!!!  Once we got to the school, we found some other students in the program.  Our host mom walked back home with one of her friends, and we stayed and decided to check out the stores.  The stores we went into were awesome!! One store we saw had a cow sitting in the door.  So naturally, I had to take a picture with it!

We finally made our way back to our apartment in time for dinner.  Now it's just relaxing.  Tomorrow we have a meeting, a tour of Granada, and a level test.  Should be a good day!! Buenas noches!

 

First day!!

Alrighty, everybody.  Well I made it.  And it was definitely an adventure.  The plane ride was long, and terrible, especially since I was stuck in the last row.  However, I sat next to a precious couple who told me all about the travels they have done and want to do.  It definitely helped to pass time on the flight.  After we got off the flight, we went and got our bags.  During this time, we found 3 other girls who were going to Granada as well with the same program.  So we all grabbed our luggage and decided to stick together.  And that, my friends, is when the struggle became very real.

After our luggage we knew we needed to get some Euro.  So we go to an ATM....and the ATM said it couldn't take our cards.  The people who this affected, me and another girl, started panicking.  Because, ya know.  We're in a foreign country...no money...oh crap.  But don't worry!! It was just that ATM being sassy!! We got it all figured out and were on our way to Granada.

Now how did we get there exactly?  Well instead of taking the easy route: taking a taxi to the bus station, then the bus to Granada, we decided to take a train to the bus station and then take a taxi to our hotel.  Sounds simple.....well it wasn't.  It took us awhile to figure out the right train line to get on, but we found it!!! This is us waiting for the train:

 

So after we got off at our stop for the train, we figured out how to find the bus station and bought our tickets.  Then came the 2 hour wait for the 5 hour bus ride. How did we pass the time?  Well some of us talked to strangers, some whipped out a workbook and brushed up on our Spanish.  Finally, it was 2pm and time to load onto the bus.  The bus was the first time I had slept.  I just cannot sleep on planes, so I was struggling all day.  But finally, I got to sleep!! :) And it was a beautiful 3 hour siesta.  After the bus ride into Granada, we had to figure out how to get to our hotel.  We could have taken a bus, but we were all like "TAXI!!" 

 

Finally, after a plane, a train, a bus, and a taxi ride, we had gotten to our hotel in Granada!!! :)  We all dropped our stuff off, told our parents we were okay, and off we went to dinner!! We decided we wanted to do a tapas bar for dinner.  And we decided to walk there.  So naturally...we got lost.  But it's all okay, cause we got there eventually, and it was delicious!!! I even ate octopus!! Believe it folks!!

 

After dinner, we all decided to walk around Granada.  During our walk we saw a concert happening in a square.  So we decided to stop and watch for a bit.  It was amazing!! Everybody, young and old, boys and girls, were just dancing up a storm!! Eventually we decided to jump in and dance with them! It was a blast!!!

 

Overall, I think today was an AMAZING first day!! I still can't believe I'm actually in Spain!! Tomorrow I get to meet my home stay family and then orientation starts.  I am so excited for this journey!! To finish this wonderful post, here's a picture of the square near our hotel.