This past week was so much fun. On Monday, after a long weekend, we started our internships around the city. On Sunday evening, as our first weekend in Spain came to a close, I lay awake in my bed, reflecting on the past year, and what a crazy, emotional but exciting roller coaster it was. In all honesty, this past year was without a doubt the hardest year of my life. School was a challenge, and my social life was a challenge - that being said, I really tried to take everything as it came to me, and really tried to make the best of every situation that came up - wasn't always easy, but in the end everything was ok. I also really tried to seize every opportunity that came my way - which is why I'm here in the first place. I remember walking back to my room after class one afternoon, and my roommate, Austin, texted me asking if I would be interested in going to Spain for a month over the summer. The moment I saw the text, my immediate answer was 'no' but after some thought, and insightful conversations with both friends and family, I came to the conclusion of 'why not, what do I have to lose' and I'm so glad I decided to do something new, and not sit on my butt at home all summer like I normally do. The last time I was in the city of Granada I was 17 years old, in the city with my family, and not even remotely ready to go off exploring by myself. Now, at 20, every inch of the city is calling me to come and explore them. As these thoughts ran through my head, I slowly faded into a heavy sleep.
In the morning, I woke up still kind of nervous for the day ahead, but excited at the same time. After a quick breakfast, Austin and I met Sarah and Maya in the plaza outside of the cathedral and in groups of two headed in separate directions to our internships. Maya and I headed into a plaza nearby and sat and conversed for about an hour before heading to the art shop (the shop doesn't open until 11 so we have an hour to sit and draw or paint wherever we choose). After an hour of sitting in the plaza and talking about life, we headed over to the art shop and got started. After a couple hours of standing around the shop, getting to know the couple who own the shop, Maya and I headed out to go meet up with the rest of the group at the local university. Over a lunch of sandwiches and Coke we shared stories of our first morning of our respective internships. (Spanish soda is so much better than American) After we got back from lunch, Sarah and I split from the group and headed out to explore the city on our own. One thing that we both had really wanted to try where Churros – I’d had them in the past, but I really wanted to be there for her first time trying them.
The Churros we had were amazing – so much better than I remember them being in the past and WAY better than any ‘Churro’ type thing offered in the US. After we sat down, we ordered a serving of churros and two cups of coffee. We ordered one serving of Churros for two people – or so we thought. When the churros came to the table, the plate was piled high with at least twelve, golden brown churros. As we sat and stared at the plate in front of us, we realized that we had accidentally ordered TWO servings instead of just one. The Churros came with REAL chocolate, that had been melted and poured into a little cup so that you can dunk the churros into the chocolate. After Churros, we walked around the city and eventually stopped at a water fountain in front of where we would normally meet to get the bus to go to get lunch.
On Tuesday, Maya and I met up with Mike in the morning and the three of us took the bus up to the Abby, where Maya and I will be helping out with the art restoration project. After we met the people in charge of the entire operation, we were given gloves and masks and began dusting off paintings that are extremely old and haven’t been seen by the public in who knows how long. In the beginning of the process, I was terrified. After a little bit, the nerves settled, and I slowly started to feel comfortable with the process. In order to properly clean the paintings, we had to hold the nozzle of a vacuum in one hand and a brush in the other. With the brush, we had to lightly brush off the surface of the painting and suck the dust up with the vacuum. It was extremely rewarding to see the image slowly appear from the dust after being covered for years on end.
After lunch and some down time, we all got ready for our first Spanish class. It went so well, but we all made complete fools of ourselves – which is alright because we’re in the same boat.
The guy who taught our class was a super nice guy named Miguel. He honestly has such a nice way about him, and the way he teaches his classes. He really tries (and succeeds) to make everyone in the class feel as comfortable as possible learning Spanish. Apparently, he speaks perfect English, which is something that NONE of us knew until the last few minutes of our first class. We figured out that he spoke English when he started to explain to us what our homework was for the next class. When he started speaking English we were all like ‘um, wait…what? After we got out of class, everyone started singing their praises for Miguel and we even sent Mike a request to have Miguel teach our class from now on.
(Side note: we were an hour late to our next class WITH Miguel…but that’s ok)
Next week: Hike, Cordoba, Nerja STAY TUNED!!!
