I knew the flight to Malaga, Spain where I was to meet the rest of the IES students on my program would be long, but I didn't realize just HOW long—partly because I didn't want to know and partly because it was too difficult to try and calculate the many different time zones I would be passing through. All in all, the trip took around 24 hours. I left my house at 3:00 in the morning and flew to JFK airport in New York, then to Paris, then to Malaga, finally arriving in Spain around 1 in the afternoon. It was slightly surreal to see the sun rise, set, and then rise again from an airplane...and to experience three different time zones in the span of 24 hours. By the time I got to Malaga my body was so confused and exhausted I could have fallen asleep at any time.
Arriving in the Malaga airport I quickly met a handful of other IES students who I was planning to share a cab with to the hotel where we were supposed to meet, but I had a "slight" hiccup when I discovered that my bag did not arrive and was not going to. Luckily, the man at the AirEuropa desk spoke English and was able to explain to me that it had been held up in customs in Paris because of a flaw in Delta's bag tagging system. The lost bag situation turned out to be much more of a nightmare than it should have been. First, they told me it would arrive at our hotel the next morning, but it got stuck in Paris AGAIN. Then, it was supposed to arrive at my homestay the next evening. It did not. FINALLY, last night (Thursday), it arrived at my house and I was able to take a real shower and change my clothes and actually feel settled. I was one of at least a dozen other students who had their bags lost, but it was still a nightmare. I was so happy to see it last night that I bent down and gave it a hug out of pure joy.
Other than the bag situation, Malaga was fun—as fun as a city can be when you have barely slept in two days. Upon arriving, we went to the beach where we met up with some of our orientation leaders (students from the University of Granada) and filled our starving stomachs with salad, paella, and Spanish beer. That afternoon, they took us to get Spanish cell phones before taking us on a short tour of the city. Parts of Malaga were beautiful but some parts felt quite touristy, not that I can remember much after my day as a walking zombie.
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| On the beach in Malaga after my many flights...in one of the two dresses I wore for the last four days. |
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| One of the plazas we walked through in Malaga. |
The next day, we had a crash course in Spanish culture at the hotel before leaving for Granada, where we met up with our host families. My host mom's name is Fabiola and she is wonderful! She's super sweet and treats us like her daughters (who are 26 and 24). The younger one (whose name is also Fabiola) lives with us here. Their family has been hosting girls from IES for like 8 years! Fabiola (the mom) doesn't speak any English, but it hasn't been to difficult to communicate with her. My spanish is slowly coming back to me. We live in an apartment building a ways away from the city center. There isn't much around our building as far as shops or restaurants. It's mostly a residential area. We are on the fifth floor of our building and the apartment is quite nice! I have a "roommate" in my homestay whose name is Clara and is from Brazil, but goes to school at Lake Forest. I like her a lot but luckily we both have our own rooms here in our apartment. While my room is small, it's quite nice and has a great big window to let in air when it gets hot at night.
One of the things that has taken the most getting used to has been the food and eating schedule. We wake up and eat a light breakfast of toast or cereal before leaving for IES at 8:30. This morning Fabiola made us toast with mashed tomatoes and salt and olive oil on top for breakfast and it was AMAZING! Then, at around 10:30 we have a break from our orientation to go get "desayuno" or a second breakfast/snack/coffee. There's a little croissant place near IES that I've stopped by the last two days during this time. Later, at around 2:30 or 3:00 we return to our homestays (mine is 25 minutes walking from IES) for la comida, which is the biggest meal of the day. Yesterday, we started off la comida with a lentil cream soup which I was not a fan of, but today I LOVED everything Fabiola made for la comida. We had tomatoes in olive oil with fresh garlic as a salad, a cheesy mushroom risotto, and stuffed peppers with chicken that tasted slightly Mexican. We usually have watermelon for desert. La comida is the main family event of the day and we all sit down and eat together. Then, we have time to rest or "siesta" until around 5:00 when classes resume and stores open and life goes on. For dinner, most people go out to tapas in the city with friends around 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. In Granada, if you order a drink at a tapas bar, you get a free tapa. Last night, some friends and I went to three different tapas bars and ordered a drink at each bar and received a free tapa and at the end of the night had only spend 6.50 euros!
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| My first view of La Alhambra, the famous Islamic palace in Granada, which is about a two minute walk from the IES center. |
I'm slowly getting used to living on Spanish time. My body adjusted to the time change pretty quickly, I think because I got a bit sick right after arriving, with a sore throat and running nose and cough. I think my body is rebelling from the 24 hours of traveling I put it through. Anyway, I've been pretty tired from being sick and have slept every chance I get. This afternoon my orientation class is meeting to take a tour of the city then I'll probably go out for tapas again. Hopefully next time I write I'll have more interesting stories for you! Also, just so you know, you're welcome to imessage me here in Granada if you have an iphone. I can receive them when I have wifi (at my homestay and at the IES center) and I'll try and respond when I can! You can also facebook me if you don't have an iPhone and need to get a hold of me. Until next time....
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