Aquí no se dice "Qué onda," y aunqué yo no suelo decirlo cuando estoy en California, me encuentro queriendo decirlo aquí. Me tendré que acostumbrar a decir "Qué tal?" :p
After a week in Granada, I feel confident that I can get to and from IES without getting lost! This is a big deal for me, because I don't know how to get anywhere at home. I must have a better sense of direction than I thought. I also now know how to open the lock to my apartment building and apartment door, que es muy importante. All week, I waited for someone to walk in or out of the building to let me in. This is good timing, because now I can go out without having to worry about having to call my host mom to let me in at 1 in the morning!
The host fam is very nice and welcoming, and has been helping me to learn Spanish words that aren't used in Mexico. For example, elevador is "ascensor" and calentón is "brasero", gancho is "percha" and cobija is "manta". Salad spinner is centrifuge, but I don't remember how to spell that in Spanish. Refrigerador is "frigorífico"! I'm going nuts. Even with the vocab differences, nothing has been super hard. There are about 15 of us in the advanced level, and while many of them have a much better vocabulary than I do because of having taken Spanish for so long, I can at least speak more quickly and confidently. Surprisingly, my accent is considered very normal and I have been mistaken for an IES employee/University of Granada student a couple of times.
I have not done very much sightseeing, except for the Alhambra and the Albyzín (neighborhood under the Alhambra) and the Alpujarra. The Alhambra is a Moorish fortress and is very beautiful and has great views (miradores) of the city. It is very touristy and there are lots of hippies with their dogs all over the place. The Alpujarra is a neighborhood/area up in the mountains, about an hour drive from Granada. We did a hiking tour of the towns, which was the first hike I've ever been on. We took about 4 hours to go 8 miles and it was exhausting and totally worth it (minus crawling over some logs to get through a river, because I cracked my head on a tree branch). When we got to the highest mirador, I felt less inspired than I did nauseous and about to pass out. Seeing all the snow on the Sierra Nevadas was pretty nice though. I think hiking is not for me.
I have no deep thoughts yet, but I'm sure they will come to me.
