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Published: June 21st 2018
Sunday at 7:00, I arrived in Granada. Unfortunately, my luggage did not. Therefore, my program director Alejandro, and I spent several hours trying to retrieve it from British Airways, which had accidentally sent everybody's checked luggage to Barcelona. Fortunately, they delivered it late the following day, and it was a relief to change out of the long-sleeved shirt I'd been wearing for the previous 48 hours. That aside, I had a phenomenal introduction to the wonderful city of Granada.
Granada is a compact city of about a half-million people, situated at the end of a valley in the far south of Spain. It is surrounded by some of Europe's highest peaks, and is about 30 miles north of the Mediterranean. The climate is dry, and the average day ranges from 60 degrees at night to 90 in the mid-afternoon. As one of the oldest cities in Europe, Granada has many buildings over 1000 years dating from when it was the capital of the Moorish Empire. Since then, it remained prominent, as the burial place and preferred capital of Ferdinand and Isabella, but since then, it has been eclipsed by far larger cities like Madrid, Barcelona, and even nearby Sevilla and
Malaga within the same province of Spain. Therefore, Granada has a very local feel, and a genuine Spanish atmosphere of long siestas, late schedules, and fairly little English spoken. Like most Spanish cities, it expanded a lot in the 60s and 70s with Spain's modernization, and blocks and blocks of eight story concrete apartment buildings fill the flatlands to the west and south of the city center. My host family, like most of Granada's middle-class residents, lives in one of these apartments, about 15 minutes walk from the historic center. Their sixth-floor apartment is modest, but comfortable, and like most apartments, faces both the street and the block's interior courtyard. My host family is great. The one permanent member is Carmen, the mother, who is fun to talk to. She is retired, but is often out and about doing things. Her two college aged sons--Nico and Pablo--still live with her (as is the norm in Spain), but they are often away, either at school, work, or staying with their father, who lives elsewhere in Granada. However, my interactions with them are always pleasant and fun. I have another exchange student roommate (though we each have our own room.) He (Richard)
is two years younger than me and comes from North Carolina. We were initially a bit distant, but he is likeable and we've taken to wandering the town together in our free time, along with several other exchange students.
Each day, I wake up around 8:15. We have a very light breakfast (usually just bread and jam), then walk down to a local Spanish language school at around 9:10. There are two sessions of class, one from 9:30-11:00, and one from 11:30-1:00. Each day, in and out of class, I learn about as much Spanish as I might in one to two weeks back in the United States. In total, there are eleven of us American high schoolers participating in this program, ranging from being a rising sophomore to rising senior, living with one of five different host families. During the half hour break between classes, we like to go to a local café and have something a little more substantial--like a Spanish ham, cheese, and tomato sandwich--to eat, as is often done in Spain. We then like to wander the town for an hour or so, going to a park or heladeria or new neighborhood until Spanish lunch,
which is generally eaten around 2:30. This is by far the biggest meal of the day, and people come home from school or work to enjoy it for a few hours. We often have a salad, fruit, bread, main dish (often potato and meat heavy), and vegetable-heavy side dish. We then have some down time our temporary homes for a few hours through the hottest hours of the day, then head back out around 5:00 or 5:30, when most people return to work or school. We spend these next few hours doing guided activities with the group until 8:00 or 9:00, before returning to have a light dinner with our host families. Bedtime is usually around midnight.
Each day, we have done something new. Monday, we explored the cathedral (which is among the best I've ever seen) and ancient streets of the bustline downtown, looking inside lots of important monuments and buildings and so on, including the crypt where Ferdinand and Isabella are buried. We then wandered the stores of an old Islamic souk, before returning home. Tuesday, we explored the hillside of the Realejo, which is an old Jewish barrio, now occupied by affluent Spanish urbanites. It was
very photogenic and pristine, and very interesting to see the ancient history which seemed to line every street corner. Wednesday, we had a cooking class where we cooked two types of paella and tortilla de patatas (a potato and egg dish.) It was delicious, and we promptly burned the calories walking up the hundreds of stairs to the famous Alhambra fortress, which we will actually go to tomorrow.) Today, we toured the Albaicin, an ancient Islamic neighborhood on a hillside opposite the Alhambra. It is now occupied by a more hippie-esque populace than the Realejo, but had the same fascinating mix of buildings and history, plus phenomenal views stretching for miles towards the Mediterranean, snowcapped mountains, Alhambra, and city center. Later, we stopped by a Moroccan teahouse and sampled mint tea and pastries (Morocco, after all, is under 100 miles away), before returning to our homes. After the Alhambra tomorrow, we go to the Mediterranean beach town of Nerja Saturday, hike in the mountain villages of the Alpujarras Sunday, and do a variety of activities I haven't yet memorized the following week.
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Jan M Reeves
non-member comment
Greetings from Aunt Jannie
Thanks for the updates! Your trip sounds amazing thus far. I look forward to your continued posts. I love you always, Aunt Jannie xoxo