I'm really excited to share this blog post because I have the opportunity to share my first experiences as a viajero española, or a Spanish traveler. But as always, I'm getting ahead of myself.
I'm starting to really get in the swing of teaching now, or at least I'm getting better at going with the flow. In the latter half of last week, I was with the infantil students, which are 3-6 year olds. Anyone who knows me well knows that this is not an age group that I would choose to work with, so things have been interesting, to say the least. I love babies and adolescents; when it comes to children, I'm really out of my element--and children this young are quite a handful.
On Wednesday, the teacher that I was supposed to be assisting for the majority of the day was out sick. I had one infantil lesson with a group of three-year-olds, and then because the other teacher wasn't there, I went to several lessons with the next age group, primaria, which is 7-12 years old. Those lessons were better for me than the really little ones. They understood enough English to ask me questions about the United States and for me to tell them things about where I live in Pennsylvania. I had one class that asked particularly interesting questions, including what animals live in Pennsylvania and what "statues" are in the United States, or "America," as they call it. They were absolutely delighted to hear that bears and deer--which they call "deers"--live in Pennsylvania, and squealed in delight when they saw a picture of a squirrel. They were also amazed to hear that I had seen both the Statue of Liberty and the Lincoln Memorial. Kids are funny.
My after-school lesson that day was a nightmare. My Wednesday lesson is a group of 18 six-year-olds, and I'm really struggling. I hesitate to complain about any aspect of this experience because I'm fully aware of how fortunate I am, but seriously, I almost started crying on my way home when that lesson was over. Let me stress the fact that there are eighteen of them and one of me, and I have no actual teaching experience or education. They are six, so they know almost no English, and frankly, they don't want to learn, not that I really blame them. Why would they want to learn a language that neither their friends, nor their families, nor (most of) their teachers speak? My Spanish is getting better, little by little, but I don't really have the vocabulary to adequately reprimand them, nor do I want to. Furthermore, there's a boy in this class who is an absolute hellion. He's twice the size of some of the other kids and one of the rudest bullies I've ever met. I'm kind of at a loss about what to do with him, because he riles up the other kids, and I was physically unable to control him last week. I'm going to try harder this week, but if it's as bad as last week, I think I'm going to have to say something to the PTA president, who organizes the lessons. I don't really think that it's worth the stress, nor is it worth the money that the kids' parents are paying for the lesson, because when I have to scream at one kid over and over, it's not like the other 17 are getting much out of the class.
On Thursday, I was with the infantiles all day. The day before, the teacher had given me a Little Red Riding Hood book to read to them. The story was, of course, in English, and most of the English went over their heads, I think. But they know the story, which in Spanish is La Caperucita Roja. (Side note: In Spanish, the Big Bad Wolf is el lobo feroz, which means "fierce wolf." Made me giggle.) They are learning parts of the body, which is where Little Red Riding Hood comes in ("Oh, Grandmother, what big eyes you have!"). After I read to them, I asked them questions about the story. They always knew what I was asking, which impressed me, but they were only able to answer in Spanish about half the time. For example, I asked, "What color is her cloak?" and they all shouted, "Red!" But then I said, "Who is this?" and they shouted, "Abuelita!" instead of grandmother. They also sing a lot, including a hello song and a goodbye song in every class, which is precious. But the songs get stuck in my head like you wouldn't believe.
My Thursday after-school lesson is my favorite one. I have ten- to twelve-year-olds in that lesson, and there are only seven of them. They actually understand quite a bit of English, and they have the best vocabulary, of course. We played Last Letter, First Letter and Hangman. For anyone who doesn't know how to play Last Letter, First Letter, you choose a category (I chose food), and then one person says a word, like "apple." "Apple" ends with "e," so then you say a food that starts with "e," like "eggs." Then you keep going for as long as you can (strawberry, yam, melon, etc.). They really enjoyed it and the hour flew by. As a reward for doing so well, we had a dance party to Taylor Swift at the end of the class.
Friday was the day that I was going to Granada! My two new friends who live in Toledo, Natalie and Kendra, invited me to go along with them. This past weekend was a holiday weekend in Spain, because Monday was the Spanish version of Columbus Day, El Día de la Hispanidad. So Granada is a relatively touristy city because of La Alhambra, the Moorish palace and the number one tourist attraction in Spain. Because of this and because this was a very last-minute trip, Kendra and Natalie managed to get a hostel, but I couldn't get one. So I went through Airbnb, a website that allows people to list their homes for tourists. I had never used it before, but I had a perfect hostess. Like with everything else, everyone has different experiences, but I will definitely use Airbnb again. So on Friday, I took the 11:00 bus from Quintanar to Madrid, and then a 3:00 bus from Madrid to Granada. It was a long day, to be honest, but I was so excited to be traveling that I didn't really mind. My bus got to Granada late because of all of the traffic going into the city for the long weekend (and the fact that we took a 45 minute rest stop might have had something to do with it, but what do I know?), so I didn't actually get off the bus until 8:40. My hostess, who was absolutely lovely, even met me at the bus station. She just moved back to Granada after living in Norway for eight years, so her English was perfect. She took me back to her house and then I went to Plaza Nueva to meet Natalie and Kendra for a Spanish dinner, which was around 10:00 pm.
Granada is a college town, really, so it's full of young people, including a ton of people who study abroad. I know several people who have studied there, including Kendra, who studied there last year. She has friends who live in Granada, both Spanish friends and friends who are studying abroad, including her friend Kaitlyn. Natalie, Kendra, Kaitlyn and I got dinner at a Mexican place (I ordered what appeared to be similar to a quesadilla, and it turned out to be a ham and cheese quesadilla. Even the Mexican food is infused with ham) and then we went to a bar called the Desert Saloon. It was decorated in an old Western theme, and I couldn't stop laughing when I realized we were in Granada, for heaven's sake, and we were at a Western bar. Too funny. We didn't last long, honestly, because we were all tired, and anyway, we had some big plans for the next day.
Because of the last-minute nature of this trip, we were not able to buy our tickets for the Alhambra in advance. The tickets sell out months beforehand, so our only hope was to get up at the crack of dawn and get in line at the ticket window. They keep a certain amount of tickets to sell the day of, and the window opens at 8am. So I set my alarm for 5:45 and I got in line at 6:20. Kendra and Natalie joined me by 6:30, but there were at least 125 people in front of us. Apparently some people got in line at 4am, and others were wearing club clothes or even still drunk because they never went home from the night before. It was a pretty crazy experience. We decided to split up; Natalie and I waited in the cash only line, and Kendra got in line at the credit/debit machines, because we weren't sure which line was going to move faster. The wait seemed to take forever, but when the ticket windows finally opened, it turned out that for the holiday weekend, they had reserved less than usual, so I'm pretty sure there were less than 150 general admission tickets available. General admission at the Alhambra is the ideal choice, because you can see everything all at once. However, we did not despair, because we ended up buying two different tickets. We bought a morning pass for the gardens and the Generalife, which is where the gorgeous fountains and reflecting pools are, and then we got tickets to see the palace at night. Kendra has been to the Alhambra "probably ten times," she told me, but she had never been there at night. So it wasn't necessarily ideal, but we were so happy that we got to see everything that we really didn't care. So when we finally got all the way through the line (at 9:30. Have I mentioned that nothing in Spain is fast?), we immediately went to the gardens. I totally understand why the Alhambra is such a popular destination; it really is truly breathtaking. The landscaping and the flowers alone are unreal.
At the Generalife
After we were done wandering around the Alhambra, we grabbed some brunch and went back to our respective places to get a much-needed nap. We met up again later and after we ate again (Honestly, I feel like I did almost nothing in Granada other than eat, as you will see as I continue), we did some shopping, because we were going out to a big club that night after we did our palace tour. We went back to Natalie and Kendra's hostel to drop off our purchases, and then we headed back to the Alhambra to go to the Nazrid palace.
I'm sure that seeing the palace during the day is better, because the details are absolutely astonishing, but I really, really enjoyed seeing it at night. It was a truly awesome experience. And I think that most people probably see it during the day, so I was pretty happy to be doing something unique.
Palacio Nazaries
The detail on the walls and ceiling was literally awesome
The Court of the Lions
View of Granada from palace
When we were finished being awestruck by the Alhambra, we headed back to the hostel to get ready for the evening. We started out at a 1€ shot bar, or a chupiteria, with 150 different shots available (Natalie and Kendra taught me that the Spanish for "shot" is chupito, so knowing that will surely come in handy). We actually left the bar to eat again, because Natalie and I wanted to try shawarma. Shawarma is basically the Middle Eastern version of a gyro, and it is everywhere in Granada. I had a chicken one with cheese and a bunch of veggies, and it was seriously to die for. After we got our shawarma fix, we went back to the chupiteria, and then we went on to Mae West, which is a huge club in Granada. They have a bunch of different rooms that play different music, so we started in the room that played American music before moving into one that played Latin American music and then we were outside for awhile, where they played a little of both. But the club was really crowded, so I was ready to call it a night around 4:30 in the morning. I'm pretty sure Spaniards never sleep.
We decided to let ourselves sleep in the next day, so we didn't start the day until the afternoon. And of course, food was our first priority, so we had pizza at one place and then we went to another place to have churros con chocolate. Spanish churros don't have cinnamon and sugar on them; it's just plain fried dough, so Spaniards dip them in coffee or in molten chocolate. Yes, it's just as sinfully delicious as it sounds.
We decided to work off our heavy lunch by going to the Mirador San Nicolás, which is a gorgeous overlook on a hilltop across from the Alhambra. The Alhambra is on a hilltop of its own, but the mirador is on different hilltop. To get to the mirador, we walked through the older part of Granada, and it was breathtaking.
Iglesia de San Gil y Santa Ana
Río Darro
But then the uphill walk started. I'm not the fittest person, as everyone knows, so basically I almost died on my way to the mirador. It was hill after hill after steps after hill. But boy, when we got to the top, was it worth it.
Beet red from the walk, but the view was incredible!
After we left the mirador, we went to a gorgeous park called Carmen de los Mártires. We enjoyed wandering around outside and feeding the ducks some bread Kendra had bought (she's really loves animals). I was so fortunate to go to Granada with Kendra; Natalie and I didn't need a tour guide because she knew all the best places. It was so much fun.
In Carmen de los Mártires
After we left the park, we stopped to get the most famous ice cream in Granada (although I accidentally ordered the wrong thing, but it was still delicious!), and then we split up for awhile. Kendra wanted to see some of her friends who live in the area, so Natalie and I both went back to rest for awhile. I met up with them again that night to have drinks and tapas, and they were going out again that night, but I didn't feel up to it. It had been a long weekend! So when they went out, I decided to go back to my Airbnb place. But we met up on Monday morning for breakfast (I couldn't resist having churros con chocolate a second time) before we went to the bus station to head back to Madrid, and then to Quintanar for me and Toledo for Kendra and Natalie. I got back to my apartment at 11:00 that night. It was a great weekend, and an excellent first trip in Spain! I can't wait to take another trip, hopefully sometime soon.
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