To be honest, in the days leading up to this trip I was a complete mess. And though I use this term frequently, I mean it here in its truest sense. There are a few things you should know about me. First thing you should know is that, I don’t speak Spanish… like any Spanish. In fact, the last time I took a Spanish class was in sixth grade (aka 9 years ago). I took French until my senior year, so I am used to studying a new language... just not one that will help me in Spain. Secondly, I am the least spontaneous person you have probably every met. I am very type A so I like to know my schedule (when I’m going to something, where I am going to eat). Trips are pretty much the opposite of that, I know! Thirdly, I’m a huge procrastination, especially when it comes to big events, such as this due date or packing for, say a month long internship abroad. Overall, it sounds like a disaster of a person, but somehow I found myself headed for the airport on Wednesday night. I was anxious the entire trip, so much so that I didn’t sleep. Yet, I arrived at Granada filled with energy. After grabbing our bags and meeting Mike, we headed into the city to meet our host, Herika.
Once we got an official tour of our new home from Herika and Daniel (Caleb and Austin’s host), we began to settle in. As excited as we were to venture out, Jillian and I had a few things we needed to do. We first needed to let our parents know we were alive (they might just fly to Spain if we didn’t). Secondly, we needed to finish moving in. Lastly, we had to figure out how to get to the Cathedral to meet our group by 5pm. We agreed that only after these three things would we be allowed to go wandering around. In theory, it sounded perfect, but a minute after laying down on the bed, I was out cold. Apparently my body had finally realized that it was 4 am back home. Nearly three hours later, I woke up to Herika inviting us to lunch. Yup, you did that math right, 2 pm! In Spain, everything is pushed back in the day. Most people follow the same schedule: work days start around 10 am and pause around 2 or 3 for lunch. And after lunch, we have my personal favorite part of the day, siesta. During these few hours, workers close their businesses and return home to relax. I’m still not quite sure how a city can just shut down until 5:30, but I’ve certainly been enjoying the time to nap. After siesta workers return to their jobs for another couple of hours. Then, dinner is served late around 9 or 10pm. Once lunch was finished, Jillian and I got ready for the day and then headed to meet up with the rest of the group. The first day was fairly relaxed. We toured the Cathedral and the Royal Chapel which were both amazing. I still can’t believe such historical sites are so close to where I am living. At the end of the night everyone came over to eat some pizza and get to know each other a little more.
Friday was a busy day! First, we all met up to tour our internship locations, for me (Sarah, Austin and Jillian) this is the San Rafael School (Colegio de Educación Especial San Rafael). This school is just one of the incredible services operated by Hospital San Juan de Dios and helps to educate children with various disabilities and levels of functioning. Currently, there are 55 students enrolled here with ages range from 3 to 23 years old. While we were there, we were able to tour the building and hear from several staff members. Personally, I was blown away by all of them and how passionate they all were about the children. I am so excited to work with them as well as the students, but I am definitely worried as well. So far I have managed with the little Spanish I know, but I fear that when working with children, especially those with special needs, that I will not be able to help them due to the language barrier. If worst comes to worst, I can always turn to google translate until I have a few Spanish classes under my belt. After our time at San Rafael, we got on the bus and headed to Sacromonte Abbey (Abadia de Sacromonte). Here, the other two interns (Maya and Caleb) will help with an ongoing restoration project with two artists. So far, this is the most beautiful place that we have been, and we haven’t even been on a tour yet. While the buildings themselves house intricate design, their beauty is no match for its view of the city. Because the abbey sits atop a huge hill, you can see all of Granada from its property, including the Alhambra. I took dozens of pictures, but they don’t even show half of what it was like. It is a must see for sure. We got to see where they store all of the paintings, statues, and artifacts they will work on as well as hear about the whole process of restoration from research to completion. For me, it was super interesting, so I cannot even imagine what Maya and Caleb were thinking about it all. After we discussed their internship, they showed us some of the projects that weren’t open to the public including a chapel filled with beautiful stained glass and the monument used to store the Eucharist during Holy Week. After we finished walking around, we hopped on the bus to get lunch at the Inmaculada, where we will be eating lunch Monday-Thursday. After a short siesta we met back up to visit the second part of Maya and Caleb’s internship, a small art shop run by a local artist and his wife. We also got to visit his workshop where he discussed his art and showed us many of his impressive pieces. After that we had the opportunity to meet and talk with the Archbishop. I wouldn’t call myself a devout catholic by any means but this moment was incredibly important for me. It was amazing to me that, not only did he take the time to meet us, but he seemed to genuinely care about us and what we had to say. He used our names when he spoke to us and even added personal touches about what we intended to do in the future. Something that I found to be very special was that he wrapped up our meeting by saying a prayer with us. Who else can say that this happened to them?
Saturday and Sunday were both relaxing days as we only had one evening event. On Saturday morning I woke up exhausted and used my time to sleep off the jet lag before a flamenco show. If I hadn’t I’m not sure I would have made it to the show, and it would have been the worst to miss. We got to sit in the first row so we could see every strum of the guitar and every step the dancer took. We were so close I felt like I had to lean back in order to not be in her way. The singer sang with such passion and the dancer seemed to match every note. I would definitely go back again. After the show the six of us ate at one of Mike and Cassie’s favorite restaurants and then walked around the streets chatting until it was time to head home. It was honestly one of my favorite nights so far. On Sunday we decided to try out the bus route before our first day of work and ended up riding back up to Sacromonte Abbey to take more pictures and further investigate the grounds. I am not sure when we will go on the tour, but I definitely see myself going back to visit. After lunch, and a little work on this blog post, we met back up at the Cathedral for a hike to see the Carmen of the Martyrs. This is somewhere I would love to go back to when we have more time. When we stopped to take pictures at the bottom level, I was stunned, and it only got better from there! The grounds of the mansion housed levels of fountains, plants and beautiful ponds which I took hundreds of pictures of. At this point, I can’t begin to imagine what the Alhambra is like if it is more beautiful than there (or the abbey).
Even with all of the fun activities we had this week, my favorite was just bonding with the rest of the group. Whether it be on excursions, at dinner, or over tapas, it feels like we are all truly getting to know each other. Many of us didn’t know the others existed only a few weeks ago, so with every conversation, we learn something new. The stories we may have shared back at school a thousand times are hilarious anecdotes and each opinion starts a new debate (we are all very passionate about our movie choices). Overall, this week has been so fun and I can’t wait to continue learning more about our surroundings, and each other, over the next few weeks! Wish us luck on our first day of work!
