I had asked the Spring 2007 students to send in some reflections of their experiences now that their programs are ending. Kate, who is studying in Granada, took a look back at her personal blog during the semester and sent in some postings about her experiences during the semester. Here's the first one:
This is from our first weekend in Granada
Hola Amigos!! I am in Granada! I have been here since Sunday and I LOVE it. It’s the best place in the world! Everyone here is really nice! I absolutely adore mi familia. I have a madre, a padre and two super adorable little brothers named Jose and Curro.
On Sunday we arrived in Granada. We went to our family’s house and me and Allie were a little nervous. Allie unpacked her things while I watched (I STILL HAVE NO LUGGAGE!). After that our madre made us some nice salami sandwiches and we watched TV. (There is a room in the house and we do everything in it. There is a circular table with a blanket on it and a space heater underneath it. When you sit to eat or watch TV you put the blanket on your lap to keep warm because they have no central heat.) We met up with some of the other girls and went shopping in the streets after lunch. Spain only has sales twice a year and that’s it. The first once started on Sunday. and WOW.. I love it. We went back to our house and our mom made us cheeseburgers with French fries. They were different but SO GOOD!
On Monday we had a very long day. We went to the university and took our placement test. We had a small tour of the university and then a huge lunch! They just kept bringing more and more tapas! it was great! After that we had orientation for about 2 hours. We went home for dinner where we met our aunt, uncle and cousins. They are crazy and are always over. i love them! WE talked to them for about 2 hours!
On Tuesday was the first day of classes. Our family owns a restaurant so for lunch me, Allie (my roommate) and Lindsay (our across the hall neighbor and daughter of our grandma) went there. The food was fantastic. The first thing we had was some kind of soup with macaroni, calamari, clams and some other fish. It was really good and then we had some fish stuff. It was crazy. We had another tour of the city and then had dinner with our family. Our aunt, uncle and cousins came over again.
Then we talked to our family about everything that’s cool in Spain. I asked them about botellon (three days of nonstop drinking. about 40,000 people did it last year. You wake up and drink from bottles in the streets all day. It’s illegal but since so many people do it the police don’t do anything about it! It’s crazy and in March and we can’t wait!) Normally our dad is really quiet and probably thinks Allie and I are crazy but yesterday he opened up and I love him. We found out that he is a bull fighter! How cool is that?!