My First Week

We started “Curso de Lengua” on Wednesday and the class is 5 hours long from 9am-2pm! They separated us into groups based off our grade from the online Spanish exam and I was placed into “Generales”. The class is pretty much a course on Spanish customs, finding where you are in Granada, and other introductory knowledge we should know in Granada. I experienced my first “siesta” on Wednesday. A siesta is pretty much lunch/nap that occurs late in the afternoon around 2ish/3ish and last until around 5 or 6. In Spain, lunch is the most important time to eat food. So people leave work and come home to eat as a family. My american stomach could not handle the late lunch especially cause they eat such a small breakfast. My stomach was growling loudly and I was getting very grumpy and upset. I kept complaining to everyone how hungry I was. And finally at 3:30 we had lunch. I literally ate the lasagna in a matter of minutes and I was so hungry I got seconds. That night my roommate and I decided to go out and explore the town. We went to a tapas bar and I was still very hungry so I order a dish which cost me 30 euros! We drank Sangria and went club/bar hoping. We started off at Granada Dias because it was ladies night and we got in free. It was fun but there was a lot of girls. Next, we went to a local bar and I meet some natives. They were extremely nice. They spoke Spanish and English but when they spoke English they had a British accent because they studied a few years in London.

Las Chicas in front of the club

Thursday, we had another 5 hour curse on customs and life in Granada. -__-. Afterwards, I learned that I was assigned an internship with at the University in the architect office. I am International Relations major... I guess when I was writing my cover letter and I asked for an internship that was fun, creative, allows me to speak Spanish, and explore the city they assumed being in architect firm was the perfect fit. I am going to see if I can change it to find something I can use for my senior thesis. Once again, we had lunch at 3:30 during the siesta. But this time I could not wait. So I brought a Kabob and ate it while walking home. I can not explain how many weird looks I got especially because it was almost siesta time. I felt like a starving kid who found a leftover chicken bone in the trash can. That night I didn't go out because I fell asleep at 11. I am having issues adjusting to the time zone. I wake up around 4am or 5am every morning and can't go back to sleep. I think it's because of my room. My roommate does not sleeping with the window open because of the noise from outside and we sleep with the door closed. So our room gets pretty toasty. Sometimes I wake up sweating at night.