January 16 - La Alhambra

I woke up pretty early to get ready to travel to the Alhambra, one of the most visited places in all of Spain.  Miguel Angel arranged a trip for all of us in the program to spend almost 6 hours there.  My senora woke up with me to prepare me breakfast.  It was waiting on the table for me when I got out of the shower… she made me toast, and left cereal with milk on the table.  I was excited to have cereal, but here they leave their milk sitting out on the counter so it was actually room temperature, I almost vommed.  Needless to say I took a few bites and claimed I was full… hope that isn’t a daily thing. 

I met up with a bunch of people that live close to my house.  I live right across the river, so we planned on meeting right over the bridge whenever we go places so we don’t have to walk alone, at least while we’re still trying to figure out the city.  After meeting up with the entire program, we headed to the Alhambra, only a short walk from the center of the city where we all met.  When we got to the Alhambra EVERYTHING was uphill… we hadn’t even reached the top yet and we were all so tired.

Miguel Angel and another lady led the small group that I was in.  We visited the majority of the grounds and palaces to see how they lived in the past.  There were fountains everywhere around the Alhambra where they used to pray.  Since they didn’t have furniture, all the fountains were pretty close to the ground because that is where they sat.  We also toured the ruins there to see what their “houses” looked like inside the Alhambra.  Every ruler that lived there built his own little “town” within the Alhambra which makes it as big as it is today.  It was amazing to see the details on all of the buildings and architecture.  I can’t imagine how they constructed all of it without the modern technology that we have today.

We stopped in the middle of the day (which their time is like 2:00) to eat our lunches.  Each of our senoras packed us “un bocadillo” or a sandwich.  Since lunch is the heaviest meal of the day, my senora packed me enough food for 2 lunches.  I had two bocadillos – one with eggs and the other with jamon serrano (basically prosciutto), cheese and olive oil to soften the bread.  She even packed me an apple and orange in case I got hungry after.  I think this woman is trying to make me gain 38947 pounds… but both were delicious!

After touring more of the Alhambra, a small group of us decided we needed more energy so we went to have “un merienda” or midday snack.  This is typically eaten around 5/6 and is usually just a pastry and coffee.  We went to a famous place called café futbol which is famous for their churros con chocolate.  It’s basically a funnel cake that you dip in a cup of hot chocolate syrup.  I liked it, but it was so sweet that it’s not something I can eat all the time.

When I got home my senora knew I was so tired so she basically made me take a nap (in a good way haha).  I woke up around 9 pm to eat dinner.  She made me soup with pasta, ham, and angel hair pasta.  It pretty much tasted like chicken noodle soup.  She also made me these cheesy fish things which didn’t taste like fish or cheese that were SICK haha.  I am glad I’m experiencing all this food though.

My senora loves to talk about anything and everything.  My Spanish will definitely improve on this mere fact alone.  A lot of other students are signing up for “un companero” for the semester.  (Basically you’re paired with a  University of Granada student and one week they help you learn Spanish and the next you teach them English).  I said no gracias, my senora talks enough already!