And so it begins...

¡Hola familia!

It's Jared here with your much anticipated first entry. I'm here safe and sound and having a wonderful time. I arrived in Madrid on Friday afternoon, and after lugging my suitcases up and down escalators, sets of stairs, onto metro trains, over old ladies' feet, I finally arrived at the bus station, only to find out that we missed the last bus to Granada. We being me and my friend Sam who is doing the same program. So naturally we went to the information stand to locate a hostel. Interesting that the only information he had was that not only were there no hostels por aquí, there wasn't anywhere we could access the internet either. So we took to the streets figuring a European city as well-travelled as Madrid would have cybercafes and hostels on every corner. We soon found out that this was not the case. Turns out it's pretty hard to reserve a room when you don't know the name of where you want to stay and no one can point anything out to you on a map because you just so happen to be in a part of Madrid that isn't featured on tourist maps. We ended up finding a little old lady (not one I had run over with my suitcase) who gave us a name of a hostel at la Puerta del Sol. So we jumped in a cab and arrived there with no further issues. In fact, we then had over 20 hostels to choose from, all with wireless access. Thank you Madrid for concentrating all your lodging in one square mile of city. The hostel was a little pricey as hostels go, but the guy at the desk fixed my bag that I had been rolling around by a strap I attached to the handle (not good for maneuvering) because the handle had taken upon itself to retract and never release, even after I had made a spectacle of myself, half-perched on top of my American Tourister, yanking on it sword-in-the-stone style.

Granada is beautiful. It kind of reminds me of a more urban Ascoli Piceno. The first night I was here it downpoured, hailed, and thundered and all that. Which was pretty funny considering my señora had told me that it never rains more than a drop. Otherwise it's been about 85 every single day with barely a cloud in the sky. Of course I'm kicking myself in the butt because everyone back at school told me no one wears shorts in Spain. So here I am wearing the same two pairs of shorts over and over while my six pairs of pants sit comfortably in my closet, mocking me.

My señora is a hoot, and so is her son Gabriel. She feeds me a LOT of food. And ever since my first day when I told her that yes, I like tomatoes, I've had an entire one with almost every meal. We eat lots of veggies and colder dishes because its so freakin' hot here. The other night I went out for my first tapas, which I had tried and failed in Madrid. They try to confuse you by having a section in the menu called tapas, which you have to pay for. But if you go to smaller places, not as much restaurants, especially ones where it says Tapas somewhere under their name, you simply buy a drink (only 2 euro for sangria!) and they bring you a plate of food. Then, for your second round, they bring you something different. It's basically the best thing ever because I didn't spend more than 11 euro the entire night and had enough food to be completely full.

I've explored quite a bit in the city. Let me rephrase. I've walked 500 freakin' miles in 3 days and drank enough water to sink an entire country. There are a lot of Arab influences here and the clothes and culture is amazing. Of course my señora keeps reminding me whenever I leave the house with my backpack, that I should wear it on my front so the arabs don't steal things out of it. Charming. The other day she told me I should wear a fannypack. I'm not sure this really needs to be commented but allow me to anyways. Either Granada has yet to emerge from the late 80s / early 90s or she hasn't. (Later realized that it was definitely the entire city itself when I encountered not one, but two brave individuals rollerblading).

In the distance, from almost anywhere in the city, you can see La Sierra Nevada, a huge mountain range, the tallest in the peninsula. My favorite spot in the city is this huge amazing park near my apartment. Filled with flowers, amazing smelling trees, fountains, grassy areas, benches, great views, and of course those endearing feral cats running amock.

Some oddities: It doesn't get completely dark here until at least 10 o'clock. The toilet in the apartment is apparently broken. Therefore paper, yes ALL paper, goes in a little trashbin. I didn't really understand what the señora had said about her son the first day I was here and seeing as he wasn't around, I didn't pursue it. Now he lives here and I just accept his three day absence. (Pretty cool though. A little older than I am, works as a cook and painter, and likes to give his mother a hard time :) ).

Classes started at the beginning of this week and have gone pretty well so far. They're not going to be too intense luckily, they're mostly just interactive sort of learning. I signed up for a bunch of trips with the school. I'll be going on a wine tour, to Sevilla, horseback riding, and kayaking throughout the month. Pretty exciting stuff.

Well, that's all for now folks. Hope you enjoyed it and check facebook later this week for pictures (too much of a pain to post them here). I'll post a link on my blog to see all the pictures once I've uploaded them.

Hasta luego,
Jared