Cathedrals, class, and churros

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Another sunny day in Granada. If it gets cold again, I don’t think I’ll be able to deal with it. Especially since it’s still freezing in our apartment. My fingers, nose, and toes never get warm in this house. Except when we eat dinner. The living room is also the dining room, so there is a table in front of the couch and chairs. It has a blanket over it that goes to the ground with the tablecloth on top. When you sit down, you put the blanket over your legs and are basked in warmth because there is an electrical heater under the table, and the blanket holds the heat in. These are my favorite times at home. This is a very common thing for Spanish people to do. Now you may be thinking, fire hazard! And you’re right. Fires are started quite a lot from this, but I’m just hoping it doesn’t happen to us.

We had another meeting today at ten, then group 2 (my group) took the tour of the city center. One thing I noticed while walking today was the dogs. The majority of dogs here are not on leashes. And they aren’t strays. They are just so well trained that they walk calmly next to their masters, sometimes falling behind to sniff a building or running ahead a few meters to sniff another dog. They don’t even pay attention to the other people walking by. And the most amazing thing is when the owners go into stores and leave their dogs outside. They don’t tie them up, they just leave them out there, and the dog waits for its owner to come back out. We passed one store that a dog was waiting outside of and it was so funny! The dog had gone down the few steps in front but had stopped right at the doorway. (All the doors were propped open). But the dog knew not to go a step further and enter the store. He was following his master with his eyes the whole time. I noticed in China that the dogs were very well trained too, though not to this extent, and I’m just wondering—what does the rest of the world know that we don’t about training dogs. Most dogs in the States would run away if they were let off their leashes. Or they wouldn’t even pay attention to the owner with so many other interesting things and other people to see. Or they would run out into the street and get hit by a car. Not here. Even if the dog is several meters behind his owner, he stays on the sidewalk.

I did learn more about the city than just the amazing dogs. Our tour guide was Aurelio, one of the professors for our program. He doesn’t really speak English, so he explained everything in Spanish first, then Veronica’s assistant Cristina translated. I am so excited about this part of the excursions because it’s forcing me to hear more Spanish, and I can actually understand everything he says! Aurelio is great too because he’s so funny so that makes it more enjoyable for all of us. We met at our designated meeting point for all the excursions, at the fountain of Frederico el Catolico. Aurelio led us to a plaza which had the building for the city government of Granada. He showed us the coat of arms of the city that was set in the ground with small stones. It contains the lion to represent Leon, castle for Castillo, Ferdinand and Isabella, and the Alhambra and pomegranate fruit to represent Granada. Next we walked to the first hotel in Granada which was mainly used by merchants. The bottom floor was for keeping the animals and the merchants’ products, the second floor for sleeping, and the third floor supposedly housed prostitutes. Next we went to the Alcaiceria which was a market for luxury items like silk, perfumes, and jewelry from around the world. This was only for the wealthier citizens of Granada, but now it is just tourist shops. When we came out of the markets, we were at the Capilla Real (Royal Chapel) where Ferdinand and Isabella are buried and the Cathedral of Granada.

Walking through an alleyway led us to the front of the Cathedral. (I actually just made the connection that the Capilla Real and this Cathedral were the same building). On the front are various sculptures of the apostles, and the four archangels, including Lucifer (the devil). It’s interesting because this cathedral is the only one in the world to represent the devil. We also saw the church where they taught the missionaries that were sent to the New World to convert the natives. We walked along the main road into the city center. It’s one of the only roads that stays straight its whole length. At the end of the road, you can see the mountains between the two sides of the road. We finished our tour at one of the old gates into the Muslim Quarter of the city.

After the tour, Courtney, Malissa, Alissa, and I started heading back home. We stopped in the Plaze Bib-Rambla, and sat on a bench in the sun to eat our sack lunches. Maria Luz had made ham and cheese sandwiches for us. It was so nice to be able to sit and enjoy our surroundings on a warm day for the first time. One of the girl from the program ran into us and was having trouble finding her way home, so we walked her back, then started wandering around when we ran into another girl who was lost, so we used our map and walked her back too. We found the Parque Federico Garcia Lorca on the western edge of the city which will be perfect for running in. We had class at four so we headed back to the Centro. Today, we walked around the city for four and a half hours. My feet were killing me but it had been a great day.

Class was another story. I have not studied Spanish in eight months, so it was not good tonight. I was so lost when we went over subjunctive, and I could not understand one of our teachers. Aurelio teaches us for the first hour and a half, and I can understand him fine. But our second teacher, Inma, talks so fast, that I miss half of what she says. I do like her though; she’s very bubbly. I had a huge headache by the time we left class. I haven’t had to concentrate that hard in a long time. Hopefully all that stuff comes back to me soon so it won’t be such a struggle. Courtney and I were hungry, so we stopped by a churreria on the way home for some churros con chocolate. It was muy delicioso!

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