Arabic Bath House ✓

Relaxing in Los baños árabes (Arabic Bath house) was an incredible experience. As I learned the Arabic bath house we went to was the first bath to reopen in Europe after their closure in the Sixteenth Century. The location was close to the Alhambra on the ruins of an ancient hammam; Hamman is another name for steam room.

We walked in through a series of curtains into an incredibly dimly lit changing room.  It is a rule of the bathhouse that a swimsuit must be worn; they don’t allow shorts or t-shirts. The only other rule is that you must remain quiet (which some of the boys were struggling with...). Once you leave the changing room you enter into a series of halls with 5 different “baths”. It’s essentially a circuit and the baths have a range of temperatures, hot (104 degrees Fahrenheit), medium warm/room temperature (94 degrees fahrenheit), and ice cold (64 degrees Fahrenheit). The idea is that if you go through them in order: medium, hot, cold , your body will experience relaxation. The baths are all different sizes and depths, some i was able to swim across, and others were no more than knee deep.

This was the medium temperature bath, the hallway on the left side lead to the steam room.

Sharina, Anna, and I chose to go in the medium pool first to try and ease ourselves in. The rooms are breath taking, the ceilings had shapes cut out that formed vault skylights, candles are lit along the sides of the walls, and hot mint tea is served on the path between the baths. We were only in the baths for about 10 minutes before we got called to get our massage. Here we got to choose our oil, I didn’t feel like it would make a difference to me so I asked the masseuse to choose her favorite and I loved the smell. I know the base was vanilla, but it had a few other scents mixed in that I couldn't quite pin. After the massage we laid on a warm stone block in the center of an adjacent room. We were essentially turtles lying on a log, basking under the light. The feeling of the warm stone on my oily stress-free body was wonderful after a rough start to the week. I’m sure I could have spent my entire time lounging on the stone, imagining summer.

 

the warm stone!

Once we were content we returned to the medium bath followed by the hot, and then the freezing water. I honestly didn’t realize it was going to be so cold…I figured it would be kind of like the showers I’ve been taking in the mornings ( L ) , but the water was actually icy. Sharina and I had to count to 3 and force our bodies under the frigid, glacial temperature water. I was amazed but how quickly I adjusted…now that I’m reflecting on it I’m not sure if I adjusted or if my body just started to go numb. Any who, we continued changing from bath to bath while drinking mint tea between every transfer. I think the circuit of temperatures, the hot tea, the oils, and the steam room confused my body, because once we left the bathhouse I didn’t wear a jacket the entire way home and I’m sure it was in the mid 40s.  Regardless, it was the most relaxing 2 hours of my life.

After I got home I continued by Arabic influenced day by going to the tetería with Taylor. We talked to the waiter for awhile and I’m always amazed by how my fluency changes depending on the person I’m talking to and my confidence around them. With the waiter I am incredibly confident, he has a kind demeanor and always compliments me on my ability, which encourages me to speak more. I compare this to when I talk to my director ..in our conversations I get nervous and stumble over words and usually return to English as a crutch. Overall I feel most confident when speaking with my host family, as the weeks have been going on I’ve found it easier to bring up the questions/stories/topics that I struggled to bring up before.

I’m proud of myself for becoming more confident in this new language J