“It’s like a Spanish class that never ends!”

I think I found the place on Earth where the weather is always perfect.  Not too hot and not too cold, with nice warm summer breezes.  Granada is beautiful and today was particularly sunny and pleasant.  Today, we visited the university and met some of the professors that will be teaching us for the whole semester.  The university looks like an old villa, painted white with a brown roof and a huge patio in the middle.  For a second I thought I was back in the US, since there are so many American students studying abroad of the university.  It was nice too see that other schools were also participating in a study abroad like mine.

Days in Spain are very long.  Sort of like two days in one.  I woke up, ate a light breakfast, then went to school and went over all the rules and expectations for this semester.  Afterwards, my roommates and I bought some supplies (Did you know that students here write on graph paper and not lined paper? Super distracting) and headed home for a huge meal.  After the meal was SEISTA! Probably the best time of the day; this ends the first section of a typical Spanish day.  After the stores reopen people usually walk around and hang out until 10, then go home and eat and then go out until the early morning. And that’s day two.  Living as a Spaniard with these two days in one is very difficult.  As an American I am used to getting up and doing things straight through the day, not taking a long nap break and staying out super late.  But I realized it’s more relaxed.  The siesta is a good time to spend with your family without interruption of work or other professional obligations.  (It’s also a great way to catch up on sleep!)

Money goes pretty fast in Granada (..sorry parents…) Things are just so expensive here.  Face wash cost 7,40 euros and the same brand in the US is about $5! Also there are no big stores that carry everything.  There’s even a store that carries JUST paper and pens for notebooks and a printer.  I’m really itching for a Target where I can just buy everything at once.  Going to a paper store, then a soap store, then an appliance store for a blow dryer was so inconvenient.  But I guess these places stay open because they are the ONLY ones who sell paper.  They have a monopoly on the paper business in Spain.  The only place I personally could find a note book was the paper store..

Later tonight the whole group is meeting up and we are going on a walking tour of the historical part of the city, and tonight, we are planning to sit outside of have some late night tapas like all the locals J

Tomorrow we FINALLY get our blackberries! I am so excited, although I am anti-blackberry and I have almost no idea how to use one.  So if anyone has bbm.. send those pins my way! Oh and classes start.  I guess that’s also exciting.

The Internet in the house works, but it cuts out from time to time, so if you message me something and I don’t get back to you, then sorry about that!

Until next time I have Internet,

Anais