A Weekend with the Spaniards

I finally feel like I have an understanding of Granada so I made sure I was spending as much time as I could outside of my apartment with my American friends, and with the Spanish locals!

 On Friday night some of the Spanish guys we met here took us (Taylor and me) out to their favorite local bars. We met up around 1130 and didn’t make it back home until 5am. The bars we went to were full of natives; these were a lot more fun than any of the American bars I had been to the past weekend. They played a mixture of Spanish and American music and the guys showed us how to salsa, it was lots of spinning and stepping and twirling and they were all fantastic dancers and great teachers J When I woke up in the morning my host mom was finally proud of me for having a true Spanish Friday night!

Saturday night I was still feeling exhausted from the busy week and staying out so late Friday so Jose invited us over to his apartment to watch some movies. Honestly this night reminded me so much of being at home and spending time with my roommates. We ate popcorn, talked, and I got to play with his adorable dog. Since my host family only has birds it has been so long since I’ve been able to pet and baby talk a cute perrito (puppy) J It was fantastic and he let us practice our mediocre Spanish on him even though he is very good at English!

Sunday morning Taylor and I woke up early and explored some trails around the Alhambra, we weren’t too satisfied with what we found so we decided to take a different route and found some amazing views closer to the Albayzín neighborhood that we walked around last week. We are getting so much better with directions and navigating the city, but it helps that we’re both understanding and listen to each other’s opinions when we are lost. I’m glad we get along so well, I know that Semana Santa is going to be a blast when we travel together!

Around 5 I met up with my friends (who also go to Winona!) Ashley and Sharina. We walked out into the country and wandered and talked for 2 hours. It was a nice break from the constant shadow of buildings all around the city. We also had a new view of the mountains which we all agreed couldn’t be captured no matter how many times we attempted to take a photo.

After dinner I met up with Taylor, Peter, and Chris to smoke hookah and drink tea at our favorite tetería. I was slightly alarmed AND thrilled when the waiter remembered my order. I’m so excited that the first place I’ve ever been a “regular” at is an Arabic tetería en España! Much better than Starbucks in my opinion J

 

PC: Peter!

Monday night is trivia at Hannigans, Tuesday we're going out for tapas with the guys to practice more Spanish/English and this Friday I leave for Morocco! Hopefully this week of class speeds by.

 Hasta pronto J