A few updates...

Firstly, let me apologize for the late entry!! This last week has been rather hectic. I had an adventure to a beautiful Carmen (a sort of private garden) on Tuesday, a seminar about the Alhambra on Thursday (This will have it's own blog entry. Look forward to that soon!), an adventure through the Alhambra on Friday, a full-day beach trip to Marbella on Saturday, and trekking and getting a few things together for school and the policía yesterday.

That's the short version anyway.

I also had to struggle with making a class list, which I will finalize tomorrow at 10:30 am. Even though I will likely end up with 4 classes, it is recommended we sign up for 6 and drop as we need to, just to make sure we don't end up in an unexpectedly difficult class. After picking my 6, I am already so excited to start up real classes. The Intensive Language Program has been a fun experience, but I'm ready to feel fully immersed in the Spanish world and be launched completely out of my comfort zone. Even now, when I go out and have to speak Spanish to someone, I usually have at least one other American with me and about 75% of the time we end up speaking in English anyway. It is nice and relaxing, but I really want to feel that same comfort in Spanish. Sadly, that doesn't just happen. So begins my adventure in languages.

I think I'm the only person in my program who hasn't gone to the policía yet. I was so set on going on a Monday morning, when class starts at 10, so as not to miss class or a Friday orientation session, but after I failed at filling out the form without help from the program coordinator over the weekend, I didn't have much of a choice but to fill it out today to go tomorrow morning. I'm a little sad I have to make the walk alone, but it will be relieving to have it over with.

Marbella was beautiful and the water was fantastic. Kirsten and I spent at least 4 hours just hanging out in the water and talking, making games out of swimming farther and farther out and trying to touch the bottom, which got surprisingly difficult. Kirsten was much better at it than I was. Lauren and I had a lunch of bread, nutella, peanut butter, and bananas. I also brought a can of tuna, an apple, and a peach. It was fun to have a sweet, beach-side picnic under the sun. There were palm trees on the beach, too, so there were plenty of sandy shady spots as well.

Yesterday, my monitor brought us up and around Sacramonte, which is on the outskirts of the town. Like he said, "La mayoridad de estudiantes extranjeros en Granada se quedan en el centro y viajan por todo el resto de Europa sin conocer el resto de Granada," which means, "Most foreign students that study in Granada see the center of town and the rest of Europe without seeing the rest of Granada." I could definitely see that happening. People get so caught up with their immediate lives in the centro that they never see the outskirts, which are totally different from the centro. It was quite a walk, but it was quite the experience as well.

In other news, during our 10-day break between the end of ILP and the start of real class, I will be traveling to Lyon, France for a much-needed reunion with one of my best friends at UCSD, then to Portugal to enjoy some time with my Americanas from Granada.

It has been quite an eventful week and there are still so many adventures to be had!