Bienvenidos a Granada

Back on the road again. Heading to Granada after spending a day in Toledo. It's a 4 hour trip, so most people are sleeping. I was pretty excited/nervous (in Spanish, this mix emotion is called 'hacer ilusion'), so I didn't sleep much at all. For a while, the trip was pretty flat, just the usual olive tree farm.

 And then, mountains.

 Huge mountains.

The further south you go out from Madrid, the more mountainous it gets. Being from Illinois, I don't see mountains of this size....ever. So I was quite in awe when these mountains popped up. The highway also became substantially more difficult to traverse. However, as I mentioned in the Toledo segment, drivers here are fearless, and our bus driver matched this description. We were flying around bends at speeds which no one should be driving a multi-ton bus.


Let's pause right here and explain the nervous part of the trip; the part everyone on the bus was eager for yet scared. At the end of the bus ride, we would be meeting our Senoras (homestay mothers). Our director Christian told us to stay on the bus when we arrived, and he would call our names 2 by 2 to get off the bus and meet our senora. This, to me, was almost like the sorting hat in Harry Potter. On the bus, we could see all these little Spanish ladies standing, waiting eagerly to see who would get off the bus. We were all giddy/nervous/excited and wondering which one we'd get. Kyle (my roommate) and I were almost certain we had picked ours out of the crowd.

One thing Christian mentioned was how you are supposed to greet females in this country. The custom is two kisses, one on each cheek. You're supposed to lean to your left, place your cheek there (make a kissing sound I guess) and then do the same thing on the right. No one on the bus had done this, so this was making us even more nervous.

The first names were called. It was 2 girls. Everyone stood up to watch them do the kissing maneuver. It seemed to go without a hitch. A minute later, two more female names were called. This continued on until the bus was nearly empty. It was Kyle and myself, and a two other groups of girls. By this time, the Senora we thought was ours had left with some other students. Christian came on the bus - our Senora hadn't arrived yet. We already had something in common (I'm never punctual)!

He tells us to get off the bus. About 5 minutes later, our Senora, Maria, appears. She's short, a little round, and just the most warm person you may meet. Great side story here: I do the kiss thing, then Kyle walks up to her. He does the two kisses, but then freezes in awe of the situation. Maria asks "Como estas?" (How are you?). You learn that in your first day of Spanish classes. Kyle, can't conjure up the words to respond (although he definitely knows how). She asks again. Still nothing. I go "She's asking how are you." "I know, I'm speechless right now!" Those may not  be exact words, but it was pretty funny none-the-less. I tried to let Maria know he was really excited to be there and a little nervous. Heck, I was really nervous too.

We begin walking, luggage behind us, down the streets of Granada. We weren't sure if maybe she had a car we were walking to, or a taxi or something. We make a turn. In my broken Spanish, Maria, Kyle and I talk about the bus ride, where we're from. Somehow, we talk about the Franco era of Spain. First day in the city and we're talking history in Spanish. Yikes. One more turn, we cross the street, and we stop walking. We were at our destination.

 The view, looking right, out my window. This park is called El Parque Federico Garcia Lorca. Really big, lots of runners, not much open space, but very pretty.

 Looking left out our apartment window. Note the hatchbacks. There's construction at the end of this street, so there has been a lot of double parking lately. I think this has led to a lot of random honking, which is annoying when you're trying to sleep. Especially with our paper thin walls.

I will do another update eventually on the inside of my apartment, and on basic everyday living. At this point in the story, the son of our Senora, Pablo, knocked on our door. He lives in the room 2 to our left (Kyle and I share a room). He asks if we want to join him as he and his friends "make pregraming." Being scared out of our shells, we both decline. At this point, I sit down on my bed, listen to a group of Spaniards in the other room prepare for a night of partying, in a country I hardly know, with a language that is not my first, and wonder what the hell I am doing. It was a weird feeling, to say the least.

 The next day. We take a short walking tour of part of Granada. This is on the biggest intersection of the whole city - Gran Via and Calle Recogidas. This is a bank (banco).

A sign right below a large statue. The sign reads "fountain filled with water from recycling system, not drinkable water" 

 This is the backside of monumento de Isabel La Catolica (monumento = statue/monument). I have better pictures of this I'll post another time. This is on that same intersection. It depicts Columbus signing the contract/whatever from Queen Isabel, when he was funded for his journey to the new world. Our group (ISA) meets here for most events. It's about a 20 minute walk from my apartment.

 Fuente de Granadas (fuente = fountain). Directly translated, grenada means grenade, but I think it also stands for pomegranate, of which this fountain has many versions of (notice near the middle top). This was around the end of our walking tour, down the Paseo de las bombas, a long stretch where many people run/stroll. Pretty, no?

 Ayunatmiento de Granada. City hall, I believe. Julio (a director of ours and the guide of this tour) said that legend has it that the statue on top magically appeared one day, without any prior knowledge to it being constructed. Strange.

 The largest cathedral in Granada. It's huge, but somewhat hidden (if that's possible). You round a corner, and then boom! It punches you in the face. It's spectacular.

 The next day: Flamenco. In Granada, flamenco is huge. As a large group, we walked up to this cave (yes cave. Cave = cueva).

 I was sitting literally next to the performers. Tight quarters, as you can see. Flamenco music consists of a unique 8 count beat, and just a whole bunch of clapping. These girls clap the whole time.The dude with the long hair sings and claps. Theres a guitarist at the end.

 The dancing involves stomping, and in some varieties, castanets. The performers wear special shoes and stomp to the beat. For the lack of a better descriptor, it's bursty. They will begin slowly, then burst into a lot of movement, then slow down again. When they stop, you're supposed to say "Ole!" No one in my group really knew this, so in its place was dead silence. Yikes.

 Day 3 I believe. This day, we're taking a tour of the old muslim quarter of the town, called the Albaicin. It's really hilly, and very tight. This right here is the courthouse of Granada. It is also part of what is known as Plaza Nueva.

 Waiting for the tour to begin. A stray dog (lots of those here, sadly). To the right, a worker on his lunch break.

To the Albaicin (in the direction shown). Stay tuned for the next update...

Vocab words (because you should learn stuff when you read this!):
cueva (kwe-va)- cave
monumento - monument/statue
fuente (fwen-tay) - fountain
banco (bahn-ko) - bank