Day 4

Day 4: I have decided to write about my days the next day, because with class I don’t have time to do it the same day. So, it is siesta and I am writing  Yesterday, day 4, I went to my first class which was a good start. I have two teachers for one course, both have 2 hour long segments so in all my school day is only 4 hours. From 9-1. Or 9-13 here, haha. After class I walked around a bit in the general vicinity of la Universidad de Lenguas Modernas (University of Modern Languages) where my school is, but I didn’t want to get lost so I didn’t wander too far. The area around my school is very heavily influenced by Arabic culture because it is right at the base of the old neighborhood Albaicín—which is where the Alhambra is, basically—the last palace of the Arabic kingdom in Granada. I had to by one text book—which is more like a workbook—and then I waited a few minutes for my friends to get out of class in the nice cool school which I have posted pictures of… it resembles an old courtyard with cobblestone floors. After they got out of class we headed home for lunch, which was very yummy! We had a tortilla de papas—so a tortilla made out of potato and I think cheese. I’m not sure, but it was really good! And then little mini corndog sized thing which was full of chicken that my host mom and made homemade… everything we have is homemade, it’s awesome. But it was in a batter and then fried so that’s why it resembled corn dogs. Also, there was quinoa with tomatoes which was super good, and a small salad. We also had some watermelon, which is called “sandía” here. After lunch I enjoyed a siesta, where I worked on my blog, read a little bit, and then fell asleep… I love siestas… ;) Then, my roommate and I went back to the school at 6 pm (or 18:00 here—what a kick!) to meet our group for our daily activity. We walked around the Arabic neighborhood and towards the Albaicín—but not quite up to it, because that’s what we’re doing today. But the neighborhood was really cool. My director said that the way they make the cobblestone ground here is exclusive to Granada—I took lots of pictures of examples, and also I learned that Granada means “pomegranate” so there are tons of symbols of a pomegranate everywhere around the neighborhood. Also, on the walk my director, Gérman, told us about a graffiti artist that’s really famous here who always makes beautiful murals and puts enlightening phrases on them. My favorite one yesterday was “Cansado de no encontrar la respuesta, decidí cambiar mi pregunta.” Which means, “Tired of not finding the answer, I decided to change my question.” I took lots of pictures of his work—and I also found out that many shops here have pictures on their doors (which aren’t doors that you or I think of, but more like a big metal sheet that you pull from the top of the doorway… It reminds me of a garage door that you manually pull down, but much smaller.) Anyway, many of these types of doors have paintings on them, which my other director, Noelia, said was because that way the store owners can work with the graffiti artists to find something they like instead of having pointless, ugly graffiti. We ended up at an old broken down building which I think Gérman said was a place that they used to keep prisoners, and it had a really beautiful view of another building that I am not sure what it is, but it looked straight out of Camelot or something. There was also a really beautiful view of the city because we were fairly high up above everything and there aren’t any skyscrapers here to obscure views. ;) The roads in this neighborhood were SO bumpy because there were literally just rocks pieced together, which is really pretty but not very comfortable when you shoes have thin soles. Also, the roads are very sloped and get SUPER thin—like the width of my shoulder span. Like in town scooters (and cars, whenever they can fit) come booking it around blind corners, but I’m kind of used to that now. After our little tour we went to an Arabic tea house which was really neat, right in the middle of an area full of Arabic shops. The tea house had a room where all of the seating area was layered with pillows, and every table had a candle with lots of melted wax, which looked super awesome. There were two tea options, one with milk and one without. I got the one “con leche” and they said it was Pakistani. It was really good (with a little bit of sugar) and reminded me a lot of chai tea. They also give you free dessert treats—kind of like with tapas, which are always served free here if you order an alcoholic beverage. They brought us two foods, one was the texture of pie crust and tasted like it had honey—it was really good. It also had sesame seeds. And the other was a triangular shape and reminded me a lot of baklava, but Gérman called it a date cake, because it had date filling. Both were really yummy, and the place overall had a cool atmosphere. It was also a hookah bar—in fact none of the windows have screens, so I saw women just leaning against a window smoking a hookah that was inside, as I was walking up to the place. Pretty funny. Then my roomies and I walked around the shops, and eventually headed back to the apartment, during which time we came across a very lively protest. I don’t know what it was about, but it was loud, people were rhythmically blowing horns and waving giant posters in a circle and the police were waiting nearby in case it got out of hand. I wanted to know what it was about, but my roommates and I decided that we should probably just keep walking, because sometimes protests can get dangerous. For dinner we had homemade asparagus soup, salad, and little sandwiches on a baguette of cheese and jamón (ham). I liked it.  Also, I have to add that there are TONS of orange trees here. They are everywhere. And also, there is dog poop everywhere! And it’s all tiny dog poop because the dogs here are generally small due to the fact that many people live in apartments. That was about it for the day. Hasta mañana!