Blog Post 6 Granada

---

Blog Post 6

"Granada"

The Individual Level (Beauty is in The Eye of The Beholder)

I was honestly taken back by the beauty of Granada. When touring the Alhambra I wasn’t very excited because I thought it was going to be just like all the other places we have toured. I was very wrong. The beauty of it was stunning. From the amazing architecture to the garden that contained numerous different kinds of flowers was amazing as seen in the two photos. In the Insight Guide, on page 210, it states that the Alhambra is an unofficial wonder of the world and that its leasing splendor does not only reside in the architecture, but in its masterful ornamentation. I also really enjoyed the presentation on the Spanish Family. I feel like it helped me to better understand what real Spanish families are like since we didn’t really get to interact with my homestay family.



The Relational Level (Do you speak English?)

On our free day we were able to make a trip to the mall. This is by far one of the biggest malls I have ever been to. The picture shows the view that we were able to see from the mall’s balcony. When we were shopping, we went into numerous different stores. When checking out I had to communicate with the cashiers. At first, they would speak to me in Spanish, but when I would go to respond in Spanish, they immediately began to speak to me in English. I think this is because they would rather try to speak to me in a language I know rather than listen to me mess up horribly in theirs. This is different from where we come from because I think that we just try to make people speak English rather than adapting to their language. This may be because this mall gets a lot more out of states tourist than we do in America.



The Social Level (How Rude)

When walking on the streets behind a couple of boys I watched them throw trash directly on the ground without a care. I went behind them and picked up the trash and threw it into a trash can that was two feet away. I didn’t understand why they wouldn’t go the extra two feet just to throw it away. In the Culture Smart Book, on page 55, it says that the Spanish have very little civic or public spirit as we can see from the litter. This can lead to a bigger issue because the more littering people do the more harm comes to the earth. Spain has many beautiful sites to offer, but if they don’t clean up after themselves no one will come to visit which will hurt their economy. They will also be destroying a very important part of history since there are a bunch of historical places all over Spain. I think that sometimes people may overlook the beauty in their own home because they see it all the time.

---