Life as a Spaniard

Ok so before I go into my normal blogging rant about my ridiculous life here in Spain, I'd like to start off on a more serious note and say that after being here for a month now I know without a doubt that studying abroad is definitely one of the best decisions I have ever made. 

Now the  juicy details on my Spanish life here in Granada. 

First off:

CLASSES! Believe it or not, Iactually have a semi-real life here, where I attend 20 hours of class a week.Yes 20. And once I start my internship teaching English, it will be 26 hours. That's like a full time job! Except it's really easy and requires very little work. For my Produción Oral y Escrita (or POE po-a) class, my semester project is to go to 4 different tapas bars, then present a power point to the class talking about each bar and recommending different dishes, granted in Spanish, but seriously? I do have other real work and will have a couple papers but overall it's kind of ridiculously easy. Something tells me my exams will be a different story but we'll get to that when it comes.. The weirdest part about classes here, besides the fact that they all are almost all in Spanish, is that they're two hours long. At home I absolutely dreaded my 1 hr 20 min classes, but somehow I'm adjusting to this whole two hour thing. 50 minute classes are going to seem like nothing when I get back to Wooster next semester. My one English speaking class is called Sustainability in the Mediterranean, it's pretty interesting but I would probably be able to understand the poor teachers better if they just spoke in Spanish.. My very very least favorite class (aka I really hate it) is called Geografía de España, and it is absolutely horrific. The professor (Paco) talks forever about absolutely nothing, is completely disorganized, and cannot write on a white board to save his life. He seems pretty intelligent and knowledgable, but teaching is just really not his speciality. Which is unfortunate for us. 

Exhibit A of whiteboard skills by Paco:

Besides Paco and his Geography class, my academic part of Spanish life is going pretty well. The most difficult part is getting myself to focus on what my professors are actually saying because trust me it is super easy to tune out another language. Spanishdict.com and GoogleTranslate are becoming some of my best friends these days. 

Besides class I have also been doing some Traveling! Two weekends ago, my friends and I decided to sign up for a daytrip to Sevilla! Sevilla is actually the capital of the region that I live in (Andalusia) and is the third largest city after Madrid and Barcelona. It was definitely a lot bigger and more touristy than Granada, but the Cathedral was quite beautiful and later we sat along side the Guadalqivir River and enjoyed our day in one of the more 'traditional' Spanish cities. The best way I can describe the city is if Los Angeles and Paris got together, Sevilla would be their very cultural little child; lots of palm trees and european architecture. Here are some pictures:

The very next day, we decided to take a spontaneous trip to the beach. We didn't do a whole lot of research but had heard some good things about Nerja, and decided to book the 18 Euro roundtrip bus the night before! Nerja was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. It had a very mediterranean/Greece-ish vibe; lots of white houses with blue doors, cliffs, rocks, and views to die for. We basically just laid on the beach all day which was quite nice. We had had a very stressful first week of classes and the break was well deserved... (ha). I also ate the most delicious ice cream I have ever had there, and now will forever associate Nerja with deliciousness and beauty. For anyone looking to go to Spain, I highly recommend any of the little beach towns along the Costa del Sol! Watch out though, all the old women love being topless. 

Tomorrow (Friday October 19th) we will take our first group 'field-trip' as a program to Madrid and Toledo for the weekend. I'm excited to see both cities because I really know nothing about either of them besides that Madrid is huge. Pilar, my host mom, says she absolutely loves Madrid, but she also says she loves a lot of things. Including these fish things: 

So, her word is a bit compromised. Speaking of Pilar, she is still fantastic and makes me laugh all the time. She's just always making jokes and playing with Violeta (who is desperate need of a bath) and gasping/yelling at the TV. We have had some good times together. Sometimes she calls me 'hija' which means daughter, which is very cute. (Don't worry Mom, she could never replace you- although she does do my laundry for me once a week..) Last night when I was walking home, some skateboarding kids hit me in the ankle with their skateboard - which was extremely painful - and when I told her I seriously thought she was going to go down there and try to find them and hit them with their own skateboards. Overall I couldn't have asked for a better host mom. Whenever I get dressed up to go out she says "Que guapisima!!" or "Ayy que bonita!" which basically just means how pretty/beautiful! Which is a great confidence boost so thanks Pilar. Here is the dynamic duo in person:

I have also officially booked my first two international trips, one to Copenhagen November 1-4 (yay Molly Recka! I'm coming for ya!!) and one to London the last weekend of November. I'm SUPER excited for both trips, and feel like it will actually be pretty interesting to compare Mediterranean European life with Scandinavian European life and Western European life. 

There are ton of other things I want to say so I think I'm just going to combine them into a little section I'd like to call -

Molly's Important Observations about Spain:

1. Babies. Everyone has a baby. If you are between the ages of 20-50, and are not single, you have a baby or are pregnant. There are so many babies everywhere. Walking around Granada is a constant struggle to dodge the strollers. Luckily, all of these little Spanish babies are adorable. I have never seen such cute attractive babies wearing such beautiful clothing. I am extremely jealous. I am also jealous of their strollers. My life quality would improve drastically if I got to be pushed around Granada while simultaneously sitting and eating. 

2. Shoe stores. They are EVERYWHERE. I'd say on any given block in Spain there is a least 2 shoe stores. I don't really get it but I hate it because it's so tempting to just walk in there all the time.. Have to fight the urge.

3. Dreadlocks. I was warned of the hippiness of Granada but didn't fully grasp how true it was until living here for awhile. I have never EVER seen so many dreadlocks. Yesterday I saw a guy who was completely bald but the little hair that he did have was dreaded. WHAT. I don't know exactly what it is about Granada that attracts all the hippies, besides it maybe being a very student-populous city, but they are everywhere and because of that there are a ton of vegetarian cafes and bars which is pretty cool. I live in a pretty cool city.

4. Smoking. Everyone smokes. They do not care about their lungs. Smoking is just what you do. I've gotten used to smoke being blown in my face all the time. I don't even get mad anymore.

5. Dogs. Everyone has a dog. This is not a blanket statement. There are dogs everywhere. Currently there is a little dog wandering around the cafe I'm in just hanging out. I don't think it is even with someone it's just hanging out. This also means that there is dog poop everywhere. You have to watch your every step. It only took one unfortunate misstep to make me EXTREMELY cautious of where I walk. I don't know what these dogs are eating but they need some digestive help. Also baths. They could all use baths. ESPECIALLY VIOLETA. She is very cute but she smells like she just hangs out in a sewer all day. Which is unfortunate for me mostly because she sits next to me while I eat so I sort of have to only breath through my mouth which is really difficult when you're trying to put food in your mouth. Rough times. 

Okay that's all I got for now, more extremely important/accurate observations to be added next blog post.

So far what I've learned most about blogging is that I'm very bad at blogging. I have all these ideas to write about but I never know where to start! Word vomit is usually the result (aka currently). 

Thanks for reading! Adios! 

Me hiking around Granada. Although I look calm and happy I really wanted to lay down and die because to get to that point you literally have to hike up at a 70 degree angle. Needless to say I was sore for days after that.