Hola from quite possibly the hottest place in the world right now!
For the past three days it has been 100 degrees or higher here. I am in a constant state of sweat and dirt from the city. I wish I could take about five showers a day, but alas, energy and water are very expensive here in Europe. My host mom said this is the hottest she’s ever experienced in September in Granada.
Besides the extreme heat, things are going well here! I’ve started my classes and met some really cool people. I go to an intensive Spanish class from 9am-1pm every day. It’s kind of boring and long, but I’m definitely learning a lot. On Mondays and Wednesdays, I also have class from 5pm-6:30pm with Professor Blanco and my group from Bucknell.
I’ve joined the gym here too! The weight section is super intimidating because there are just Spanish meatheads lifting, and they all just stare at me. Also, the weights are in kg (obviously), so I have to do a lot of converting. I’ve found that my comfort zone is on the erg (go figure). Even though the machine is in Spanish, watts are exactly the same as in the US.
One thing I’ve discovered here is that Netflix has SO MANY GOOD MOVIES. Seriously, study abroad just to watch Netflix here. I don’t have a ton of time to watch movies, but sometimes I do while doing easy grammar homework or before bed if I don’t go somewhere with my friends.
Finally, this week we went to the Alhambra (castle) and Generalife (gardens). I liked the castle a lot, but the gardens were breathtaking and definitely my favorite. I highly suggest visiting if you ever have a chance(or looking up pictures!!).
Feel free to follow me on instagram (bixby19) or friend me on Facebook for pictures! (@ the recruits).
That’s it for now from Spain! Hasta luego!!
These days are set aside for what we call “field days”. They are opportunities for all of my classes to give the students experiences in the field, regardless of the subject or content area. For example, this week, my Danish language and culture class took a trip to a local high school. Besides feeling completely out of place in my flannel shirt, jeans, and birks, it was my favorite classroom experience thus far. The students there have the age range of 16-19, and I swear they all look like they just stepped out of a Calvin Kline magazine photo shoot. Our time there was spent asking and answering questions about ourselves, our hobbies, our schooling, and our home country. The students (who speak flawless English) were genuinely interested if our cafeterias looked like the ones in Mean Girls, and if college was just like American Pie. It was a great experience, and a fun way to get to know the opinions of youth in the country.
On Friday, my host father Michael celebrated his birthday. We had a small party for him, where I was able to meet my host father’s parents and grandmother, as well as my host mother’s parents. None of them speak English well, so I spent most of the night listening to rapid Danish, without a clue of what they were saying (my host mom did act as a translator at some points). My favorite parts of the birthday were the cake, the decorations, and “cheers”. The cake was a traditional Danish cake, store bought layers of cake with filling and fruit between each layer, topped with a glaze and whipped cream. The decorations consist of Danish flags. Like a lot of flags. Basically picture a super ‘Murican, Fourth of July party, with everything as red, white, and blue, with American flags everywhere. Now change those flags to Denmark flags and that’s a birthday celebration. My host mom keeps telling me that she is going to decorate the apartment with American flags for my birthday, and I have politely told her “no thanks” several times. The best part of the night was the “cheers”, or “skål” in Danish. It’s not like in America, where you toast in the beginning and it’s done. Nope, this continues throughout the meal, creating a game of calling out people for drinking their wine, then forcing everyone to stop eating and take a drink. As the newcomer, every time I picked up my wine, I was told “skål”, forcing me to wait for everyone to get their glass and say “cheers” for the table. It was a very fun, and new, birthday celebration experience.
