This week, each day was only a new adventure. For me, I started that adventure with two friends, Meg and Alexi, as we made our way to Granada, Spain. It was my first regular and international flight ever, so my experience with that was good, other than I couldn’t get any sleep. Before we could get to Granada, we had a layover of 15 hours in Madrid, Spain. We ventured into the city whether it was walking the streets, riding the Metro, or even taking a taxi.
Then it was time to make our way to Granada, as we arrived late at night and we were all very tired. We met up with Mike and Rut, where they would take us to our homes for the next 5 weeks. One by one everyone was dropped off except for me because Rut was one of the members of my host family. As we got home, I was ready to snooze since I had been up 40 hours straight.
On day one, Rut and I were headed to meet the other interns and Mike to meet the Archbishop. She would show me the route by bus, as walking there would be about 45 minutes downhill. After meeting the Archbishop and everyone, we made our way into the Catedral de Granada to begin exploring. As we walked in, you had no words at first because of how massive the structure was and just how magnificent the architecture was.
The second day, Rut and I decided to walk to the cathedral since the weather was beautiful for a nice walk. Even though it was a long walk, it never felt like it one bit; now walking back up, that’s a different story. Today we had two places to visit: the Caritas and the Inmaculada. The first stop was the Caritas, an organization dedicated to helping the lives of the people of Granada. There we would meet Ricardo and he would talk about the history of the organization and how it all began. We were then off to the Inmaculada, a small university in Granada of about 1000 students. There we met Fr. Ildelfonso to get a tour of the university, but first it was lunch.
Day three consisted of visiting three areas: the San Rafael, the Oasis, and the La Paz Parish. Of those areas, the one I looked forward to seeing was the La Paz Parish because that will be my internship site. At this site, kids from ages 6-20 can come after school to just play organized soccer led by Miguelo. These kids live in a rough area and go through a lot, so this program gets the kids away and just have fun. Meg and I will be helping Miguelo, where we may potentially teach them sports they aren’t used to such as baseball.
Now we’ve made it to day four, which was a very big day for me because it was my birthday. I feel it was a great opportunity to spend my birthday in another country with my host family and all the other interns. I was never expecting much, but Rut invited everyone over to have a little party and it was amazing of her and the family to do that. Later that night, we visited the Community Gardens, where Ellie will be interning and designing the gardens to make it be an amazing place to grow fruit and vegetables.
As it got to Friday, day 5, I was very tired from all the walking we had done. We had walked so much, I had unfortunately sustained an injury where I may have strained a muscle in my hamstring, but I pushed through it. On this night, we would visit the most famous place of Granada, the Alhambra. We got to see the Generalife, all these garden areas, and the inside of the Alhambra. Everywhere you’d walk in the building, each section of it was just breath taking. You could not keep your phone in your pocket because the structure and architecture was just amazing.
Throughout the week, we would all sit down and grab a drink, but with it you get tapas. Tapas is basically a little snack and they’re free. It’s one of best ways to try different food here in Granada because no one place is the same tapas.
As for my host family, it’s certainly great that Rut knows some English because I know very little Spanish as I haven’t studied it since high school. The three kids, they know little English so maybe I’ll learn from them one day. Raul, Rut’s husband, he is getting better at his English, but I should have him teach me Spanish as well. Overall, the family is great to be with.
To grade this week, out of 10, I’d have to give it a 10, even though the walking is a struggle, because there was so much to just take in and I can’t wait to begin my internship at the La Paz Parish and the San Rafael Hospital.
