Granada!

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We finally arrived in Granada today. My roommate, Julia and I, were a little nervous because when we got our map of Granada with the X on where our house would be it was way out in the middle of nowhere. We were also surprised when our host mom was not the person who picked us up, but rather her son, Johnny (pronounced yonny) picked us up. He is a student at the pharmacy school and lives a few minutes away with hs wife. We arrived at the home around 5 and were greeted by our host mom Maria. She asked my name and I said Annemarie, and she goes “Its too long. Anna it is” so… from here on out I will be Anna!

When you look at a map of Granada, we live on Callejón and Real de Cartuja. It is a gated community with a pool and tennis courts. The pool is immediately behind the house, and then the center of the neighbor, which is organized in a circle, is a huge garden with tons of roses. Johnny said that the street that runs across the mountain is safe to run on and then you end up on the river and then run there. The only down side of where we live……. Its on a hill. And by hill I really mean mountain. Much steeper than the walk I had up folsom, it is quite literally a mini Hike. When we got here there was a girl who studied abroad and lived with Maria 5 years ago and the first things she said were, you will love the food, and don’t worry about eating it because theres that fabulous hill to climb every day.

We also heard a story last night about a host mom who was all proud the day her girls left because they were fat, so it means she cooks well and the food is good. We all joked about how it was probably each of our host moms, and it’s actually my host mom.. Awesome.

Johnny took us on a tour of Granada and we walked all over the city for about 3 hours. He gave us all the ins and outs of the Taperías to visit and who gives free drinks to girls, which clubs are the best etc., etc. He also gave us a sheet of paper with all the slang and cuss words hahaha. He said at the end of the trip he has a book for us to take back with all of his moms recipes too! Turns out the slang word we learned for cool, which is guey, is “childish” and the hip word is chulo (which is also mexican slang for gangster. Haha

Afterwards we had dinner. She made sopa de patata (potatoe soup) with these amazing croutons in it, and Albóndogas (meatballs- my favorite spanish word) for the main course with some green pestoy type sauce. For dessert she made homeade dark chocolate truffles and kept trying to make us eat more but we stopped after two. She loved the candy that I gave her, and daughter Omayra, who is 24 couldn’t stop eating the little lemon drop things.

Spaniards love EVOO. Rachel Ray would be in heaven. They have spray bottles, bottles with brushes, jars, ink drop type things. They literally use it on EVERYTHING. Butter does not exist. Breakfast is going to be juego (juice) and toast with evoo. They also have marmalade, however, its tomato, not fruit so I don’t know how I feel about that.

We have 5 hours of review tomorrow and Tuesday for the placement exam, Wednesday we take the placement exam, and then start class Thursday, so for those of you looking to have a weekly skype time with me, I probably won’t know my schedule until like Thursday night. 😞 They speak different spanish hear, they cut off the end of their words so it has been a little hard to understand at times but I am adjusting well!

Also. My host mom told me I am the most morena (brown) rubia (blonde) girl she has ever met- I had quite a bit of time in the sun yesterday so I am rocking a super sexy V neck, t shirt tan. She does not speak a lick of English so this will definitely be immersion at it’s finest.

PS. I do not have wifi at home, and the hours I do are when ya'll are still sleeping. so I will try to figure out a time in my schedule once I get it on thursday to Skype or call through viber more often than I have been able to

XO

~Annemarie

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