The first week has already come and gone so quickly. It was easy adjusting back into the ways of Spanish life. I feel at home being back with the same host family as last year. I was welcomed back by so many familiar faces that it made me feel even better about being able to call Granada my second home. This first week we spent our time adjusting, relaxing, and site seeing.
We took an audio guided tour of the Cathedral of Granada. It is just as breath taking to see the second time as the first. My favorite part of it is the pipe organs in the center of the cathedral. They are unlike anything else I have seen before. Everything inside is covered in gold accents. Another thing about the cathedral that I really like is in the alter itself. There are twelve pillars and each one stands for one of the twelve apostles. In the center of all the pillars are paintings depicting the last supper. The cathedral is one of my favorite places in Granada because of how much detail and history it contains. After viewing this historical church, we had the honor of sitting down with the arch bishop of Granada. He was extremely kind and welcoming. He blessed items for some of us students and then took a photograph with us. I am not very religious, but it still felt empowering to be standing next to someone with such religious authority. He was also so humble that he treated us all as equals, making sure to tell us that we are all friends.
We also went to a flamenco show this past week. I liked this show a lot more than the one I attended last year. It was a group of three people, a singer, a guitarist, and a dancer. They all had amazing abilities. The guitarist played very detailed and difficult songs while the singer enhanced the music even more. The flamenco dancer was very good as well. Her footwork was very fast and intricate. However, the face she made while dancing was slightly scary. It was a lot more fun to watch than last years show. There wasn’t much dancing at the last show, and there were too many people dancing to actually see and understand what flamenco dancing is about.
Yesterday we went to Carmen De Los Martires. It was almost a mile hike to get to the botanical garden. The spectacular view of the city makes it more than worth it though. From the top of the hill you can see the entirety of Granada. I could see my apartment of my host family, the cathedral, the Albaicin, and a multitude of other churches among the plethora of houses. Carmen De Los Martires is on top of what used to be a large underground prison. There is still a watch tower that is standing that all of the group got to climb. Looking at the garden you would never know it used to be a part of a prison. It is covered in flowers, trees, and statues. It is elegant and beautiful. It is no wonder why they were preparing for a wedding to take place at the main building. Amongst the wedding decorations there were four peacocks. They appeared to be wild as they were free range. The male peacock was so beautiful. He spread his feathers and was shaking them at a female in front of him. Of course, just like a human would do, she ignored him and continued to eat seeds from the ground. Before the trip is over I hope to go back to Carmen De Los Martires. I want to go see the garden beds of roses in full bloom, and maybe see another peacock or two.
The most exciting part of this week was getting to watch Harry’s host brother preform a concert for the first time. He is a musician of body percussion. In other words, he uses his body as an instrument to make music. He had another friend that preformed body percussion with him, and one that played the drums. I had seen this type of music once before in the states, but everyone does it differently. It was so much fun to watch as a whole group. Harry’s brother is very talented. Hopefully we will get to watch him preform again before we leave. This first week back in Spain has been a great one. It has been so relaxing but full of new experiences. I am looking forward to starting internship on Monday and meeting all the children in the school at San Rafael Hospital.
