Friday, May 13, 2016

Austin Swanson

Today marks my 5th day of being out of the country. Before this trip I had only been on a plan once (to Las Vegas), so I felt like I was taking a pretty far leap with my lack of experience. I know Spanish enough to understand and speak the common phrases but that is mostly it. I have not taken Spanish course in two years so you could say I’m a bit rusty. However, with my two days in Madrid, one in Toledo, and 2 so far in Granada I believe I have made it farther than I give myself credit for. It also helps that every can translate for me.

It has now been over 24 hours since meeting our host mother. She has us call her Naniand she seems very grateful to have us in her home. There is definitely a language barrier with her because she speaks as much English as I know Spanish, so not much. Luckily my roommate Colin has better comprehension skills than I do and can make out what Nani says to us and relay it back to me. I love that we can stay in and get home cooked meals from our host families because it makes it easier for us by not spending 10-15 euros at a restaurant. The two meals we have had with her are bread, salad, tortilla de patatas, and sausages for dinner and for breakfast in the morning we had toast with olive oil and warm milk which I was not used to in the states. It was different but I liked it. 

In the morning today we set out to have our walking tour of Granada (Colin and I went out day before the scope out where we would be going). A fun fact for our trip, Granada for the past four months was sunny and hot almost every day and when we got there it was hit with the most rain it has seen in years. So the rain was not fun but we managed. After about an hour and a half of touring we went to our first lecture for this study abroad class over Global Leadership. We learned some new things and I’m excited to continue with our lectures. For lunch our host families packed us sandwiches, fruit, and drinks. Much love to Nani because it was all delicious. 

After lunch we finished our tour of Granada seeing views such as the church of San Nicolas, the walk for the sad people, and the many different views of the Alhambra. We get to go inside the Alhambra next week. I’m looking forward to the next ten days and I cannot wait to see what Granada has in store for us!

  
 Me with the city of Granada and the Alhambra in the background

A building with many flowers hanging down from it and I thought it was pretty neat

Group picture in front of the Alhambra

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