Let the Tourism Begin

Today is Saturday, my first full day here in Granada. This morning Nicole and I went to el centro commercial (the shopping center) with our mama, papa, and Ana. We took the car through the narrow streets, and parked in a very congested underground parking garage. The cars seriously get as close to each other as possible without hitting one another, it's kinda scary. The store was huge! We went grocery shopping which was very difficult considering all the foods were labelled in Spanish. I did recognize some things, there were teddy grams in spanish, and we bought frosted flakes, yumm!! The aisles in the grocery store were really wide, I felt like a little kid in a candy store. The family also bought Nicole and I shampoo, I am so excited to get to shower!

Before lunch Javier and Ana took Nicole and I on a walk through the streets of Granada. The city is beautiful and I cannot wait to explore even more! There are tons of shops and restaurants, and there are tapas and wine for less than 2 euros. Javier pointed out multiple places that he recommended, I'm very excited to find a place with good tapas. I have a mission to find great Nachos for Paul, hopefully I can succeed before he visits!

Street View

Nicole and I with our sister, Ana

The Hotel Villa Oniria near our apartment

Statue of Christopher Columbus, I don't know how to rotate the photo

Cathedral

We then came back to the house for lunch, we had a pasta dish with calamari and clams, and a salad. It was very good. After lunch we made plans to meet up with a couple other people from our group, so Javier, Ana, and Beatriz drove us to the apartment where we were meeting, and we went exploring with all the students. We pretty much walked aimlessly around the city, running into more students from our group as we walked. We ventured to the Centro de Lenguas, the college we will be studying at while in Granada. It's in a very quiet part of the city which is nice. It was closed so we couldn't go in, but I'll be there on Monday!

Centro de Lenguas, our school

Across the street from our school

Nicole and I went back to our friend Amy's apartment to meet her host family, who are really good friends with our host parents. Amy's host mom took us to Supercor, a department store with really good sales. She then took us to Correo del Torros, a colosseum in Granada where there is bullfighting in the spring. It was closed but I want to go inside at some point. Our host family picked us up at Amy's apartment at 8:30 and we all went across the street to a cafe/ bar for drinks and tapas. Nicole and I just got water, but most people got cervezas (beers). The waitress kept bringing us tapas because the more drinks you buy, the more food you get. We just kept getting fed! More students and their families joined us at the cafe as the night continued, which meant more food came to the table once again. My favorite tapa was patatas con huevo, which was fried eggs and ham on top of potato strings (like french fries). It was delicious and tasted like breakfast. Javier said he would cook that for us some day soon!

Juevos con Patatas

While at the cafe, Nicole got the business card of a 70 yr old man who was clearly very drunk. That man later got into a fight with another man in the bar after the waitress asked him to leave.

Around 11:30 Amy's parents offered to take Nicole and I to a discoteca at the correo del torros (the colosseum). Our host parents took our sisters home to go to bed, but told us we were in good hands and could take a taxi home without a problem. We went to a bar called D'Cuadro. Amy's host parents bought us a round of drinks and we danced (even though no one else was dancing). It was Nicole's first drink ever! I found it interesting that all the music they played was American, however as the night continued, the music started changing to Spanish. Amy's host mom helped Nicole and I call a taxi, and we headed home. The taxi costed us 8.5 euros, quite the ripoff, but we didn't care because that was the only thing we had to pay for the entire night.

The Colosseum and D'Cuadro

Nicole's first drink, vodka and orange fanta

Amy, Nicole, and I at D'Cuadro

When we got back to our apartment around 2:30, we had quite a hard time using the key to open the door to our apartment. Apparently you have to turn the key around several times before the lock will unlock completely, but it took us at least 10 minutes to figure this out. Not only that, but the hallway lights don't stay on for long, so it would get pitch black and we would have to find the light switch inconveniently located next to the stairs. Thankfully we were able to get into the apartment!

I skyped my family for a while, it was really nice to talk to everyone! I headed to bed around 4:30, exhausted of course. Hopefully I can sleep a lot on Sunday.