ESPAÑA

pues, estoy aquí en la gran españa por fin, después de muchos años de soñar de esta experiencia...ok, inglés ahora. well, this is my first time with internet (in a lovely internet cafe...) since i got to spain on sunday...i wrote down what´s happpened in the past few days, so im going to recap it all right here, right now, to catch you up, all you faithful followers...:

SUNDAY:
The trip here was overwhelming and exhausting, but i finally arrived. After a stupid misshap on my part in the NY airport causing me to have to go through security twice in a row after stupidly leaving what happened to be the correct terminal to go to the wrong one, re-entering security with my nalgene full of water, and finally successfully passing through without another problem, i ended up at my gate (thank goodness for my 4 hr. layover...) where in a short 1-2 hrs about 50 or so other students would arrive to travel to spain, only setting me into a state of displeasing anxiety. Ever since leaving my house and austin that day, i had the mentality that i was just going on another fun, little (¿big?) adventure, and i had just placed my fears and worries aside. I mean, anxiety is only for first-timers, right?! wrong. These students were loud and obnoxious, didn´t understand the lady who spoke on the intercom thing in Spanish, and they just freaked me out. Luckily, i didnt sit anywhere near the group on the flight to madrid...Once landing and going through intl. customs, i went to buscar mi equipaje to check it onto my last flight to Granada. Well, after being one of the final people waiting at baggage claim and not seeing my luggage, i finally asked a lady and got a WONDERFUL first impression of the Spanish people when she responded to my inquiries with shouting at me to get out my "bag tags," and when i told her i had no idea what a bag tag is but handed over all my paperwork to her, she found these ´tags´ and was like, "well, what do you think THESE are?" woah. well, anyway, apparently my bags went all the way to granada...so next i go up to find the counter to get my boarding pass on the other airline, couldnt´find it because i was in the wrong terminal ( apparently i have a problem with airport terminals...?) and so i took a long shuttle ride to get there, almost stood in a mile-long line to get my ticket until i saw a kiosk to get it instantly,s o i cut in front of some people, printed it out, and ran to find my gate...my plane was leaving soon...so i get there as they´re boarding, and then we end up sitting in a barely half-filled plane on the runway for a good half hour before taking off. phew. then we land in granada, where the weather was fairly comparable to that of texas with clear, blue skies, and the snow-covered mountains of the Sierra Nevada inthe distance...But the adventure doesnt end there! Once again i´m the last one waiting for my bags that were never going to come, until i hear the fateful words, "no hay más" (no more!) PUCHA! So i found the program directors at teh airport, go to declare my baggage, find out theyre not even in the sistema, and well...whatev...but despite all the trouble in the airport, i got to re-polish my rusty spanish with Christina, the lady with me, who´s Spanish, and we had a nice, flowing conversation! i can say for a fact i wouldn´t have been able to do that at teh beginnign of last semester in chile, that´s for sure. I felt much more confident, and didn´t really think about what i was saying, it simply just happened! Now, i assure you i don´t mean for this to sound like i´m full of myself, as there is most definitely room for improvement, but i have improved, no doubt. And i only assume that that is expected of me anyway...so yah.
After napping and waiting for the other people to arrive, we all meet eachother and then take a quick stroll through Granada to see the exquisite Christmas lights and decorations, since it was the very last night they´d be up for the year. We then went to a restaurant for dinner, andthen finally i was able to sleeeeep.

MONDAY:
We woke up, had a group orientation meeting (yawn) for a couple fo hours, adn then ventured out as a group to see the major plazas (and there are tons!) and see the city in daylight por fin. Sunday was actually a holiday, but our director told us that since teh holiday fell on a Sunday, a day that people already have off from work, they just move the day off work to Monday...since i mean, what´s the point of a holiday if you dont get a day off work, right?! Today was also the day that everything, and i mean everything, goes on sale for a good 2 months...there are loads and loads of ´rebajas´ (discounts), and so the streets were just packed with people carrying their loads of bags. Granada is absolutely charming: the old, ancient architecture lines all the streets, and nearly everything down to the sidewalks and lamp poles are pretty with intricate details. Already from the get-go, i´m just amazed (not surprised, just amazed) at teh striking differences between granada, and valpo/vina where one can distinguish between the different social classes from teh sectors of the city that people live in, all the way down to how people carry themselves, talk, dress, etc. But here, i havent noticed--or asked anyone for that matter--anything pertaining to different classes...but perhaps because Chile is known to be--and any chilean will openly admit this without any shame--a very, very classist society, and i´m not yet sure about spain/granada.
Anway, so we went and saw several plazas, had a brief introduction to the old original Jewish neighborhood, the sección más arabe de la ciudad, which is the Albaicin i think, where it is not uncommon to hear lots of arabic beign spoken and see lots of people from northern africa. I´m still completely disoriented as far as directions and streets go, but whatev, i´ll figure it out eventually, right?

TUESDAY:
Today we took a placement test for our level of spanish, and then came back to the hotel to meet our host family!!! This semester the living conditions are a bit different: i live with a senora, Beatriz, adn her two daughters, Maria (20), and Gabriela (19). I also live with another girl from my program, which is kind of weird, but ok...her name is Lara, and she´s really nice, and it is actually nice to have her company. We only speak in spanish to eachother, which i´m really grateful for, because i was afraid that living with another gringa would hamper my spanish speaking time, but so far so good. We live ina small apartment, but i have my own room, as does Lara, and it´s just simple and easy living. The girls are both pretty shy and quiet, but as we continue asking them questions, i have no doubt they´ll open up to us...or maybe im being too hopeful? So tomorrow we begin our 3-wk intensive spanish class...it´s five days a week, four hours a day. GAG. oh well.
más luego. ciao, y keep in touch!