How we’ve already been in Granada for 2 weeks now blows my mind, it’s already going by so fast but there is still so much more to do. This week we all started our internships on Monday and had our first full week in the city. I’ve definitely become more settled in now, with the host family, the city itself and the people I’m working with for the internships. Myself and one other fine arts major from St. Joe's are doing a two part internship throughout this month. One part occurs on Mondays and Wednesdays, where Caleb and I are working with a local art business called El Color De La Granada. It’s a small shop run by two amazing people, Gohar and Hayk. Gohar runs the shop and now is trying to set up their online store and continue to restock the store with new products. While Hayk is the artist, who creates most of the artwork and other pieces that are being sold within the store. While we are here, we have been asked to help with setting up their online shop by taking professional photographs of their inventory. We are also providing input on ideas for ways they can grow as a business and help promote the store by going around the city passing out flyers. So far Gohar and Hayk have provided a lot of information about what it’s like to be a full time artists and the struggles that come along with it.
For our second internship that happens on Tuesdays and Thursdays, we travel up to the Sacromonte Abbey where we are working with two restoration artists, Lola and Lourdes. While we are not doing any official restoration work because we are inexperienced and would most likely mess something up, we are currently working on thoroughly dusting extremely old paintings that unfortunately were damaged from a fire. While this internship seems pretty easy, it’s dusting, it’s really such a fun time! It’s so intriguing just to be able to work with artwork that’s this old and important to Spanish history. When first starting this internships, I was quite terrified to even touch any of the pieces because they are so fragile and brittle. But over the week we got a total of 20 pieces cleaned off and got into a sort of a rhythm. I love seeing the paintings cleaned off from the immense amount of dust that gathered on them, it’s extremely satisfying. We spend about 4 hours there using our brushes and vacuums clean off the paintings in a room within the Sacromonte. I’ve been having an excellent time with that so far and I can’t wait to continue.
In addition to our internships during the week, we also are attending a beginner Spanish class. I think by taking this class it will help all of us get more comfortable in trying to speak the language and communicating better with our host families. We’ve only taken two classes so far and I’ve already found that it’s gotten a lot easier to follow what people are saying. Responding now is the hardest part. I get nervous to even try to say things because while I know a few words I don’t know where to start in creating full sentences to be able to have an actual conversation. I think it will keep getting easier though, it’s taking that step to just attempt to speak it in order to get better. So far the teacher we have had for the past two classes was great! His name is Miguel, he was slow paced for us and was easy to understand and follow. We only have class twice a week but I think it’s already been a big help.
Apart from working from 10-2 then Spanish class 2 days a week from 5:30-7:15, we have the majority of our afternoons off. During this time we will get lunch up at the school where we can catch up after work, then following that we very much enjoyed getting tapas. We would either get tapas for dinner or for pre dinner food. If there is one thing that I know for a fact I am going to miss dearly when we get back home, is going to be tapas. They are the absolute best, we pay for a drink and get free food, it can’t get any better than that. No matter where we go for food it has always been fantastic. My favorite so far has to be the Bar Duquesa 3, they have the best chicken curry I have ever eaten and I would honestly have it everyday. I love how people can go out on the town every night get some amazing food, explore the nightlife of Granada and enjoy others' company without feeling unsafe or uncomfortable.
A major highlight for this week was our trip to the Alhambra on Friday. It was definitely an amazing experience. It’s hard to explain everything that we saw in it because it was so elaborate and extravagant all the way through. The the walls and ceilings were covered in intricate patterned carvings. Everything from top to bottom was finely detailed, there was so much to look at because you were constantly surrounded by its beauty. In the beginning of our self guided tour, we went through gardens that had the most beautiful roses I have ever seen. There were fountains around every corner, with ponds covered in lily pads. There were incredible views of the city where you could see Granada in its entirety. The inside of the Alhambra was where the walls, ceilings and floors were each carefully crafted and designed. There’s nothing I can really say to express what it was like to witness such an amazing place.
On Saturday of that weekend, we had the entire day to ourselves. So we decided to sleep in and catch up on some rest, that felt extremely refreshing. To start off our day we all met up at one of the other host family’s places where Sarah made an amazing breakfast for all of us. We hung out for a while then went out into the city where we went onto the main street to do some shopping. We went out that night for drinks and tapas then hung out on the steps of the Cathedral. It was such a nice night to hangout and enjoy the evening. To top off the weekend, we woke up early on Sunday to go on a group hike. It was really nice to be able to enjoy some of nature that Spain had to offer. We drove outside the city, to get to the hiking spot. The path was right next to a river, and went through thick forest that led to three rickety bridges. The third bridge went across a big opening with flowing water and a waterfall. On our way back we went down to the base of the waterfall, we all went into the water that was extremely cold and hurt my feet. It felt really really refreshing to take a breather and enjoy the water and the sound of the waterfall. We made our way back on a different trail that ended up on a hill that had a crazy view of the mountains that surrounded us but also had a view of the town and city in the distance. After the hike, we made our way up a hill to a restaurant where we had a reservation for lunch. We ordered a bunch of things for the entire table to share, there was ham, eggplant fries with molasses, tomatoes with a sort of pesto, and blood sausage. It was a great way to the weekend with everyone. Now onto the next week!
