Getting the Hang of Things

Day 4 – Getting the hang of things

7:30am: Alarm goes off. I turn it on snooze. I wake up 15 minutes later. I changed then go to the table to eat my breakfast. Ma. Luz did knock on my door and I opened it and told her that I was already up and getting ready.

8:28am: I leave the building for school. I planned last night to take a shortcut and try to cut through streets to try to take a straight line from school to CLM2. So I went. Lesson learned today: back roads are shitty. Literally. So, tomorrow, I will stick to the major streets. Seriously. I constantly referred to my map but there definitely was a street that came to a dead end and it took me like 8 piles of sh*t to get to the end of the street, only to find out it was a dead end. So, lesson learned.

9:00am – 1:00pm: Classes. In Adolfo’s conversation class, we had this exercise about having internet profiles. We discussed reflexive, non-reflexive, and regular verbs. In Ma.Luisa’s class, we corrected our writings from yesterday.

1:10pm: Shannon and I went back to CLM 1.

1:15pm: I got on wifi at CLM 1. I was pretty excited. I emailed people and uploaded pictures.

2:00pm: I had to leave to go to the meeting point by Isabel La Loca este La Catolica (I was veryy sleepy when I typed this last night).

2:03pm: I had to go somewhere to eat my bocadillo (snack) prepared by my host mom because I told her that I wouldn’t be home for lunch and that I could just take a snack. Anyway, I was going to just catch up with Shannon ( she’s using crutches by now coz of her foot). When I went to the café that I thought they were gonna go to, they were not there. So I crashed into a tapa, (my first ever!) The lady asked me if I wanted something to eat but I already had my sandwich. She asked me if I wanted anything to drink, so I said, sure I’ll have a beer, why not. So I had my first (legal?) glass of beer (Alhambra) in Granada. It was good. Nice and cold in a warm day.

2:15pm: I make my way to the meeting point by the fountain of Isabel La Catolica.

2:30pm: We start trekking to Albaicin. Aurelio was explaining – locals like to think (or legend goes or something like that) that Albaicin, un barrio, is the novio and Alhambra is the novia. They are situated right in front of each other. Albaicin is a barrio all over a side of a mountain and the Alhambra is on top of a mountain across Albaicin. He further explained that the more we go up the mountain/hill (whatever it was, it was steep), the more the novio gets a better glimpse of the novia. Everywhere in Albaicin, the novio can keep a good watch of the novia. There was crap all over the streets which was not that fun. I guess you just had to watch out for it. There were a few stray dogs and cats. These streets were really narrow and you’d think it’s not possible for people to drive here. Well, we thought wrong. Anyway. Also, back in the day, some king guy – Felipe or Carlos something - (maybe? I really should pay better attention to the tour guide. I guess I was busy skipping over you-know-what or taking pictures :P ) wanted the people in Albaicin to surround their homes with high walls. So as you can see if you go to my pictures in Flickr, you can’t see any homes from the streets of Albaicin. But, within these walls there are some big houses with patios and gardens, etc called a Carmen.

4:00pm: I’m getting used to all this walking. I walk some more with Veronica to her office at CLM1 to get my things. Then, I got back on the wifi at CLM1 and uploaded some more pictures.

6:00pm: I left CLM1 to go to Vodafone (the store that was closed for siesta the other day, the one way out of my way). I bought a new SIM card for 24 euros with 30 euros in credit. I think. I get free incoming calls and it only costs .01 euro to call another Vodafone phone.

7:30pm: I get back to the house. I told my host mom not to worry about feeding me dinner because I was gonna go out with the girls. I had to meet them at the patio at CLM1 at 8:30.

8:10pm: After hurriedly getting ready, I left to meet the people at the patio.

9:10pm: After trying out Hannigan & Sons, an Irish pub, near school, we all had to evacuate and go to the other one near Plaza La Catolica because it was some girl’s birthday. There were about 20+ people in our little walking group – most were from LSU. We had a few drinks at the bar while watching the soccer game between USA and Spain (which I think Spain won). I had my first legit San Miguel beer. I took a picture of it but it’s on Amanda’s camera. I tried to bring it with me but the pseudo-bouncer guy stopped me. I guess it could be dangerous carrying a bottle in the streets of Granada.

12:45am: We left Hannigan to go home. We stopped by the internet café very quickly . Breanna and I were walking back together on a major street – so not too much to worry.

1:15am: I get back to the house, typed some of this, set my alarm, and slept!