This past week, our group visited Managua, Granada and Ometepe Island, Nicaragua. Here are sophomores Jennifer Carpenter and Jasmine Lopez taking a break after touring around the colonial and colorful city of Granada.
Valpo Voyager
Student Stories from Around the World
Tag: Granada
No I didn’t get taken, but I have been relatively missing from social media these past couple weeks and I wanted to apologize. I officially have a fully functioning computer, so from now on, I promise posts will be much more consistent.
I’ve done a lot within the last month: explored Madrid, sprained my ankle falling down some ancient steps, entered the famous mezquita of Cordoba, saw Big Ben with my own eyes, and received my official Spanish residency card for the year. Though I’ve had my usual share of fun and adventure, these last couple weeks in particular have been a giant wake-up call back to reality.
The week before last happened to be midterm week.
This wouldn’t be such a big deal if,
A. I was like every other student and had regular midterms every semester. In the history field, I usually have papers. Don’t get me wrong, papers themselves are a lot of work. They just require a different type of work than a multiple-choice test. I haven’t had a proper midterm since the days of living in the basement labs of Neils when I was a science major…
and
B. All of my grades this semester were based upon more than 2 things: my midterm and my final. In all actuality that is how all of my classes are being graded. Only 2 grades for a semester’s worth of work.
That’s a lot riding on just 2 tests.
If you know me well, you know that I am a perfectionist. Especially when it comes to school. I knew that this year of classes entirely in Spanish would be a huge risk for me. I’ve had my fair share of failed tests and bad papers throughout my time at Valpo. Usually, however, classes are weighted with enough papers, tests, participation, and the like to allow for one or two not so perfect assignments. Apparently, it doesn’t work that way in Spain.
So while it’s extremely nice to have 4 day weeks and not have boatloads of readings, 20 pg papers, and in general outside of class work, that also makes for ensured stess leading up to midterms and finals. Not to mention, everything is in Spanish.
It’s a whole new education system to get used to. One that I quite honestly wasn’t expecting.
There have been so many things that I’ve had to adjust to while living here that I never anticipated. It’s amazing how seemingly little things such as your host mom refusing to refrigerate milk, or classes being graded 10-1 vs A-F, all add up to create a huge feeling of being foreign.
Some days, that feeling unfortunately takes over. I’m at the point in the semester where the “honeymoon” is over. I’m still as deeply in love with the city of Granada and with Europe as ever, but now that I know the city like the back of my hand and am a lot more comfortable with it, homesickness has begun to set in a little bit.
On days when I need to buy something, but can’t at the exact moment I want to because the whole city is closed for siesta, or moments when I can’t seem to speak or think a word in Spanish, all I want to do is be back at Valpo where I’m much more comfortable.
Fortunately, I have days like today to remind me just how much I love being here.
This morning on my walk to school, I caught a glimpse of the freshly fallen snow on the Sierras. Suddenly not caring so much about getting to class on time, I took a few moments to soak in the beauty around me. Granada is perfectly nestled within the mountains and I will never get sick of the incredible view. Seeing them covered in snow for the first time was beyond words.
After such a good start, my day and attitude only continued to get better. Booking my flights to Portugal and Germany for winter break, I realized that I only have a month left here before Dec-January break. I won’t be back to Granada until classes begin again in February. Though I’m beyond excited to visit with friends and see more of Europe, suddenly it seems as if my time here is growing very short. I’m blessed to have another semester here and can’t wait to see what it holds. Until then, as I count down the days til break, I’ll be cherishing every moment I still have in this beautiful city.
Oh, and in case you were wondering about those exams I was so worried about? I got my results back. All were not perfect, but I did manage to far exceed the expectations I set for myself.
Maybe I can speak a little Spanish after all.
In order to give you guys a better look into my trip to Morocco, I put together a video of my host mom, the camel rides, and a ton of other fun stuff. Click the link below, check it out, and make sure to read my full blog post about my Moroccan expirience!
Well, it’s been a whole month since I found myself in Granada (very scared, but thankfully not alone) attempting to write a blog post that could effectively express how I was feeling about finally being in Spain. Since then I’ve managed to hold several Spanish conversations with complete strangers, had more than one awkward encounter with my host brother, taken 2 level tests, completed 2 weeks of orientation, explored La Alhambra, traveled all over Morocco, ridden a camel, flown up to Ireland, tasted Guinness, seen the Cliffs of Moher, visited Edinburgh, climbed Arthur’s Seat, saw my first castle, travelled to Seville on a whim, met many new friends, and completed a very successful first week and a half of classes. Whew. So if you we’re wondering about the long hiatus between blog posts, the reality is that my life has been crazy lately. Crazy wonderful, but crazy nonetheless.
Judging by the lack of blog posts, it is clearly evident that I’ve had no problem of adjusting to the “No pasa nada. Mañana…” aspect of the Spanish lifestyle. If you don’t speak Spanish or have never been to Spain, you are now probably staring blankly at your computer screen wondering what the heck you just read and muttering the following phrases to yourself: “Mañana aspect? What in the world are you talking about Marissa?!” Mañana in Spanish means tomorrow. From the moment I set my feet on Spanish soil, I have been bombarded by Spaniards uttering that particular word. Ok, you caught me; that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but the Spanish are quite famous for having the mentality of, “Eh. It doesn’t matter. I’ll just do it tomorrow.” While not one to usually play up stereotypes, this particular one has proven itself to be more than accurate. The people here really are on a totally different timetable than those in the US and the procrastinator in me has been enjoying every single second of it. Need to withdraw Euros from the ATM? Eh, I’ll do it mañana. Need to buy stamps so that postcards can finally be sent? Maybe mañana. Need to update this blog? Mañana.
Mañana. Mañana. Mañana. The unfortunate thing about the “mañana lifestyle” is that mañanas never stop coming. Before you know it a whole month can pass and that thing you meant to do mañana is still written in the “To Do:” section of your planner waiting to be done. With the end of orientation and the beginning of a 19 credit semester has come the reality of a schedule. Even though I am in Spain for this school year, I still have many responsibilities. If I am actually going to get done half of what I want to accomplish while I’m here, I have to stop putting things off until mañana and start doing them hoy (today), beginning with this blog. It might mean sacrificing some of my siesta time, but the upside is that I will start to get done everything I need to.
In the meantime, since I now have almost 4 weeks of things to share, I thought that instead of writing a novel, it would be fun to give you all snapshots of some of the highlights from each day over here so far, beginning with my first week in Granada. Hopefully it will give you a good idea of how much fun I’ve had finding my place in this beautiful city!
After checking out of our hostel and successfully finding our way to Hotel Melia, Amanda, Diana, and I met the rest of the group and our program advisor, Veronica. Veronica gifted us with maps and orientation schedules, our roommates and host moms were assigned, and off we went into Granada! I live with another girl from the program, Amelia, a wonderful casera (host mom) named Paqi, and her 20-something son, Dioni, in an apartment on Ribera de Genil. So far so great!
To begin the day, Veronica and another professor, Aurelio, gave us a walking tour of the center part of the city. It turned out to be a great way to get to know others in the group, as well as begin to learn our way around Granada. Afterwards, we had a quick break for lunch, and then found ourselves back at school for our level test to place us into our orientation groups. The night ended up being a late (but great) one as one of the other girls, Katie, and I braved a pub to stay up and watch Nadal win the US Open.
Today began with another Veronica/Aurelio tour. This time, we climbed all the way up the hills of La Albayzín which are opposite those of La Alhambra. Though we were all huffing and puffing, the area is rich in Moorish architecture/history and offers beautiful views of the city, the mountains, and of course, La Alhambra. After our morning hike, we were officially divided into our orientation groups and began our 3 hour temporary classes.
Wednesday was our first morning without a scheduled tour or activity, so I took the opportunity to sleep in. After a full afternoon of classes, Amelia, Amanda, and I decided it was a good night to go out for churros con chocolate. We walked all along the river, but finally found a place that was still serving them despite the late hour. Apparently churros and chocolate are supposed to be eaten for breakfast here. Who knew?
Before our morning meeting, 2 other girls from the program (who are also staying for the year) and I were faced with the task of hailing our own cab and getting safely to the Office of Extranjeros on the outskirts of the city. We all made it in one piece and with a lot of help from Veronica’s assistant, were able to successfully complete step one of extending our Visas and attaining our Spainish residency cards. Impressively, we even made it back in time for the meeting. After classes, we met our intercambios for the semester (University of Granada students who volunteer to hang out with us and help us practice our Spanish) and went out with them for tinto (red wine) and tapas.
I honestly don’t remember much about this day other than that it was the first time I really took time to walk around the city myself. I let myself wander the streets and get slightly lost, discovering tons of new stores, tapas bars, and ice cream places as I went. Even now, I still have yet to go a day without discovering a new part of the city that I’ve never seen before.
To round off my first week in Granada, the whole group went on a tour of La Alhambra. With Aurelio as our guide, we had an endless stream of historical knowledge at our disposal. Though the inside was beautiful beyond words, my favorite part of the day came when several of us stayed behind to walk in the gardens and Generalife. The gardens were gorgeous and the six of us had so much fun exploring and holding mini-photoshoots anywhere and everywhere. All the new discoveries and new friends made for the best possible end to a fantastic first week in sunny Spain!
I have tried to start this post in so many different ways, but there’s only one way to say it- I’m here in Granada! I still can’t believe it and I’ve been here over a day and a half already. So far the city has been beautiful. The adventure it took to get here, however, was much more of an “I’m going into the African bush with nothing but the clothes on my back” kind-of adventure rather than the “I’m going for a nice camping trip in my RV” kind. What do I mean by that? Well, to be honest, despite all of the emails, google searches, and Spanish grammar review, none of us really knew what we were in for when we got off the plane. I was able to capture most of it in a (hopefully) entertaining video for you all, but to fill in the details before I post it, I’ve written the whole saga down below.
Amanda M.(another girl from Valpo) and I were fortunate enough to run into 3 other girls studying with Central in Granada who were taking the same flight. That was about where our luck ended, however. After getting our luggage and making it through customs in Madrid, one of the girls, Amanda K., and I decided that the next logical step was to hit up the ATMs and get some Euro. There was just one problem. Neither of our cards worked. After a brief moment of panic, we realized we were using the ATM for European cards and not the one for MasterCard/Visa/etc. After switching ATMs Amanda was successfully able to withdraw the amount she needed. My card, however, was still being repeatedly rejected. Thank God (literally) for the other girls. They were successfully able to stop me from bursting into tears and booking the next flight home and reassured me that all would be well. After my panic moment was over, I realized that right before leaving O’Hare I had downloaded an app to my touch that allowed me to make international calls to the US. After purchasing wifi and call time, I was successfully able to call my Waukesha bank. Turns out that even though I notified them of my upcoming travels, they were never put on my record. The bank had thought that someone stole my card to use in Spain and had therefore shut down my account. Luckily, they were able to confirm that it was indeed my trying to use my own card in Spain. All was well and I was able to withdraw my money. *Insert large thank you to dad for convincing me to purchase said iPod here*
Unfortunately, that was only the beginning of many struggles to come. Our program director had sent those of us flying into Madrid a very detailed email documenting all the ways to get from the airport all the way down to Granada. We decided to go the cheap route, which, unfortunately for us was also by far the most complicated. From the airport we bought train tickets. We almost bought the wrong ones, potentially broke one of the ticket gates, and definitely thought we were waiting at the wrong platform for a moment, but in the end, we ended up on the right train. We also ended up blocking off an entire train car because of the amount of luggage we had between the six of us. We managed to get off at the right station, but struggled getting out, because, fun fact, in Spain you MUST save your train tickets and reuse them to open the doors to exit the station. It’s a great way to ensure that everyone pays their fare, but it’s not so great when you’re an ignorant American student who has no idea about said system. Thankfully we all made it out.
Finally out of the train station, we were ready to conquer the world that is the Madrid bus station. We were able to find the right bus company fairly quickly, but found out that we had just missed the early bus and were going to have to wait for 2 hours to catch the next one. Excellent. We were able to successfully talk with several Spaniards while we waited and even learned the meaning of the mysterious “tío/tía bueno” expression we had been hearing (for those of you that don’t speak Spanish the expression literally translates to good uncle/aunt. Apparently in Spain that’s what they use to describe good-looking people. So confusing, but hilariously and graciously explained to us by an older Spanish woman). The 2 hours actually flew by and before we knew it we were boarding the bus.
Right before we got on, I spotted another college-age girl also sporting a huge suitcase and a Vera Bradley duffel (usually a pretty dead give away that one’s American). She came up and asked if I was also going to Granada, and turns out she’s a Central Abroad student too! After that crazy chance encounter, I settled in for the 5+ hour bus ride to the south of Spain. I missed the entire first 2ish hours of the ride catching up on sleep, but from what I saw of the last 3, the Spanish countryside is beautiful! I’ve never actually seen mountains before in my life, so being able to drive straight through the Sierras was incredible. The foliage here is so interesting. I can’t wait to take advantage of all the hiking around Granada and climb some of these mountains myself!
Anyways, we arrived to the bus station on the outskirts of Granada safely and without much event. Once again though, we had a little trouble figuring out which form of public transportation we should try next. When given the option between a city bus and taxis, we decided to take the “easy” way out and grab a cab. Diana, Amanda M., and I were staying in a hostel vs. The Hotel Melia Granada like the rest of our group, so we took a separate cab. Though the hostel was right behind the famous store Zara, only a few blocks away from Hotel Melia and should’ve been relatively easy to find, our cab driver mistakenly left us off 2 blocks early. Luckily, the owner of another hostel was able to point us in the right direction and we made our way safely there- heavy luggage and all. Even better, the woman and her husband who own the hostel are AMAZING. They took such great care of us! If any of you are thinking of coming to Granada (You all should!) and need a cheap place to stay, Old Town Hostel is literally the best money can buy. €12 for a night’s stay, a hot shower, breakfast, and a rooftop terrace. You can’t beat it.
To say the trip was long is an understatement. I definitely had more than one moment of, “What in the world am I doing here?! I can’t function here for one day, let alone an entire year!” but being in Granada and meeting the other girls made it all worth it. Amelia, the girl we ended up meeting on the 2:00 bus, because we missed the first one? Turns out she’s my roommate for fall semester! She’s also a huge answer to prayer, but that’s a story for another blog post. For now, I need to head to bed. Tomorrow we see more of the city and take our first level test. *Gulp* ¡Hasta lluego!
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