My first two days here have flown by! After 30 hours of traveling from Salt Lake City, my program director picked me up from the airport and dropped me off at my host mother’s house. Although I’m not fluent, I have been studying Spanish on Duolingo (frankly not as much as I should’ve) for a few months, I took 3 years of Spanish in high school, and I studied in Guatemala for 2 weeks when I was a sophomore in college…. but nothing prepares you like the present!

My host mother greeted me with two kisses and helped me carry my oversize carry on into the house even though it was almost as tall as her. She began explaining everything to me in Spanish and didn’t break into speaking English when I couldn’t understand some words. She explained my living situation, my roommate, the in and outs of the kitchen, how to make tea, about her sons and grandchildren, and asked me what kind of food I like to eat so she can cook accordingly. I’m thankful for my memory from high school Spanish and mostly for context clues, otherwise I would have no clue what my host mother was saying!

Rise and shine on Monday morning for orientation with my fellow students from los estados unidos. My house is only a fifteen minute walk from my school, and about ten minutes to the city center. There is an unbelievable amount of shopping, churches, restaurants, castles, tapas bars and beautiful courtyards within thirty minutes walking of my house. I am so grateful for this because I feel like I spent half of my time in London on public transportation – and the other half waiting for public transportation. LOL

Para cenar la primero noche, my host mother made vegetable soup, and then rice with carrots and green beans! For dessert we had grapes and a persimmon – my new favorite fruit! It’s tropical and kind of like a mix between dragon fruit and a cantelope- juicy and flavorful! It’s typical for families to eat in front of the television for dinner at a table with a heater under it and watch game shows or the nightly news. I quite like this tradition because most houses in Spain don’t have central heating and the houses are always very cold. Tonight we ate another type of vegetable soup with cheese, and then spaghetti noodles with tomato paste and tuna, then some fish sticks on the side. Dessert was my favorite… leche con chocolate! My host mother even stirred my roommate and I’s hot chocolate to be sure we experienced it right, and of course with a sweet bread to complement.

In other great news- I tested into Level 3 (of 8) in Spanish today! I am astounded since I haven’t taken a Spanish class in 6 years. My fellow classmates are all either Spanish minors or majors, and they tested into levels 4, 5, or 6, with the 2 fluent Spanish speaking natives into level 7. I’m already able to understand everyone more, and I am not afraid to practice my Spanish with people in stores, restaurants, etc. Figuring out a phone plan in Spanish was tricky but I managed! The tricky part about Granada is the accent! People here don’t pronounce the “s” at ends of words such as in “gracias,” native speakers pronounce it as “gracia.” The dialect is a little different as well but I’m sure I’ll pick it up in another week since I have one on one lessons for 3 hours every day!

Well it’s almost midnight here and the heaters turn off at midnight so hopefully I can fall asleep before my room becomes Antarctica. Buena suerte y Buenas noches!