First Journal Entry
The first week here has been fantastic.Being able to experience a host family and see their way of life is amazing. It’s fun communicating back and forth me only knowing a little spanish it can be tricky at times but overall i feel it will improve my spanish. I have been to Spain before, but during that time I went to Madrid. I love how different Granda is compared to Madrid. It is a small enough city where you can find your way back home if your lost, and not so big that you feel overwhelmed.
I’m was so happy that on the first day we got take some time to relax and catch up on some sleep. Especially considering the six hour time difference. I am absolutely in love with the way of life here. In Spain, they have a break during the day called a “Siesta”. This is where they take a few hours to relax and take a break. They recharge for the late night ahead. I have always taken naps throughout my day, and I am grateful that it is so widely appreciated here.
The following days were neat, and exploring with our host family and on our own was a fun experience. It was cool stumbling into places and finding out which were good and which weren't. One thing I have noticed here is how cheap everything is. Also, free tapas. What is better than that? Tapas are little appetizers that come along with any type of drink. I love them since I am hungry but low on cash. I can survive off of them. I wish it was something the United States had. I know we have regular appetizers, but those can be very expensive. Also, here I find it cool that waiters and waitresses get paid a salary. It is really cool that it works like that, compared to at home where they make less than minimum wage. Another thing I found out, is everyone is paid monthly. This is pretty cool, and you’re paid the amount of days in the month that you worked.
One day Alexi took us to the Albaicin. This is like little Morocco. I have always wanted to go to Morocco, and to get a little taste was great. One night we all went to a Flamenco show in a cave. I have been to a flamenco show before, and have taken a few classes while I was in Madrid. It was awesome to see it again. It was cool to hear about the faces the women make to show power. It was a great experience.
Being near the Cathedral is nice because it is basically the center of town. I love how I can walk anywhere to get food or clothes. I don't feel like i’m going to be run over or that there's so many people I lose track of where I am. I also love how almost everyone in the group is nearby, so it is very easy to meet up and explore. I love my host family, they are great. There are three woman and they are very sweet. The meals are very good. It has been great hearing about all the different sorts of host families that each of us got. They are all very different from one another, and it has been interesting to see what challenges each of us have with being with a new family. Manny is with Ricardo and he speaks little to no english, so that has been interesting to see. Emma’s host family is an older couple who speak no english. But, Emma knows a lot more spanish and she says it is getting better day by day. Marshall’s situation is very interesting. He's with a young married couple with four kids under the age of five. So he has them, and there is a babysitter who is often there. Apparently the house is very small so it is tight. For me I love kids, so I think it would be so cute to play with the little kids. But, having to take two buses home is rough. I don’t know how I would do with that. So, I thankful I am in the city. Harry’s family seems fantastic, the family is very relaxed and cool. The parents have three kids, all around are age, and they all speak English pretty well. They talk back and forth, teaching him along the way. They have invited us to multiple fun activities throughout the city. The other night, we even went to Harry’s host brother’s body percussion performance. It was so neat and interesting. I had never seen anything like it before, it was cool and I would definitely go and see another performance.
After the show, Marshall, Manny and I went back towards the Cathedral and went to Leo’s, the restaurant we had gone to on the first day here. There we met a young guy our age from the Netherlands. He came and sat with us and we filled him in on the United States and what it is like. Then, as we were leaving I heard someone speaking english, so naturally I sparked a conversation and we ended up hanging out with four girls from Wisconsin, Wyoming, New Jersey, and New York. They have been here for four months studying, and leave next week. It was cool that Marshall knew where she lived in New York… like what a small world.
I am excited for the weeks to come. We have so much planned. Things to see and do. At the same time it feels like it's going by fast, yet we still have four weeks left. I love how long we are here for, since we are able to do and see everything we want to without being rushed. We can take are time
