Tuesday was probably my favorite Granada Seminar to date. Jose told us all about tapas and where to find some good tapas bars. If you don’t know, one of the most important things to know about Spain is tapas. It’s not just about people staying at bars and eating all the time. (Tapas are portions of food you get with a drink, like an appetizer, but smaller). Knowing about tapas means you know about Spanish culture. It’s centered on being social. The reason tapas are so important here is that is their time to socialize. In the US, we host parties or gatherings at our houses, but here, people meet up for tapas. And it’s not just about drinking either. Sure, they may drink just as much as we do, but whereas we down six cups ... read more

We didn’t have class on Friday, Monday, or Tuesday, so a lot of people took advantage of this long weekend to travel. I went to Paris with Emma, Amber, Becca, and Alex. I had been spending a lot of time before this trying to plan for the trip, buying the plane tickets, booking the hostel, and figuring out our itinerary. It was a huge relief to finally leave. Amber has a host brother who lives and works in Madrid, but he was here this week on vacation. He offered to drive us to the airport in Madrid so we didn’t have to take the bus. Alex was taking the train to meet us in Madrid, so it was just the four of us girls with Cristobal. He is actually a bodyguard in Madrid for a judge, ... read more

Wow, I’ve been too busy to notice, but I’m already past my third week of classes. Sorry about the long absence of blogs, but I really am losing track of time. I am enjoying my classes, but I really do hate my schedule. Tuesday was a bit hellish: I woke up at 7:30, had class at 8:30 and 10:00, then I had an hour and a half to finish up my homework before my next class at 1:00. When that got over, we had a meeting with Veronica at 2:30 for about an hour at the second CCA office, about a 5 minute walk from the Centro. Maria made me a bocadillos for lunch so I ate that while Veronica talked. I had a half hour to do some more homework before my Tutorías class at ... read more

I’m back from a delightful little weekend away. Ronda was beautiful, and anyone who comes to Spain should take at least a day to go and see it. We planned on taking the 1:45 train on Thursday afternoon. The whole trip was not very well planned out though, which was difficult for me to deal with. I just remember when I was planning our trip to Xi’an in China, I spent several hours planning out where we were staying, what restaurants we would eat at, and what sites to see. I found out when we were leaving Ronda on Wednesday night at nine. This was just a bit more stressful because I had been planning on meeting some others at one on Thursday to buy plane tickets for our Paris trip. I had to buy mine ... read more

The last two days have been extremely uneventful. I didn’t have anything going on until four both nights. Courtney was out doing her service learning, so I took to relaxing and sleeping in. Then we had class at four, meetings, home for dinner, homework, reading, and bed. We have our placement test tomorrow. Three hours of Spanish grammar, writing, reading, and listening comprehension to place us in our courses. It’s going to be a long morning. Something exciting though, we are leaving for Morocco tomorrow night. We’ll be spending the night in Algeciras, and then taking a boat across the Strait of Gibraltar to Tangier. We’re spending a night with families in Rabat, the capital. We get to meet Moroccan students and will be shown around the city. In total, we’ll have four days in Morocco, ... read more