A summary of the week...
Trip Start
Jun 17, 2007
1
5
26
Trip End
Aug 01, 2007
Granada,
Spain
Saturday, June 23, 2007
This week, as you must know by now, I have had my Spanish lessons in the mornings from 9am to 1pm. Each class is split into two sessions of 1 and 3/4 hours with a half-hour break. (For those of you doing the maths, yes, that means that technically I´ve only done 17 and a half hours of class this week, rather than the advertised 20 hours.). Each session is taught by a different teacher, this week Ramon has taught the first class and Inma has taught the second class. Ramon has tended to focus on conversational Spanish, while Inma has attempted to get our grammar up to speed.
The very first class on Monday was actually a short walking tour of the city conducted entirely in Spanish by Ramon. Was actually quite surprised at how much I understood. Since that tour, I´ve seen quite a bit of Granada (I think). On Tuesday afternoon, I went to the Alhambra Palace with Mary, Elizabeth, Kristin and Ina (more on that below). On Wednesday night, Mary, Elizabeth, Kristina and I went to a flamenco show in one of the gypsy caves in Sacramonte. On Thursday night, I was invited on a night out by some of my fellow residents, but couldn´t hack the pace and was home by 1am (while they ended up being out all night!). On Friday evening, I went to the Cathedral, which wasn´t as impressive on the inside as it is on the outside. And today, I visited La Cartuja, which is an old monastery and which has a much better ambience than the Cathedral. I also went to the Parque de las Ciencias today, which is effectively a Science Museum but much much better than the one in London - lots of focus on interactive stuff and set out really well - both inside and outside.
The Alhambra is definitely the most impressive sight in Granada. It´s not quite as prominent from town as I was expecting - think I was expecting something like the Acropolis in Athens, which you can see from the city. You can see the Alhambra from a lot of places, just not obviously from the centre of town. But the grounds are massive - admittedly I was there with 'old' people so we were going slower than I would probably normally walk, but it still took us about 3 and a half hours and we didn´t get to see all of it (we were all tired, me and the 'old' people!!!). But it's a really amazing place to visit. As I've got access to a student card while I´m here, entry to the Alhambra is only €10, so I´m planning to go back before I leave Granada.
As for the social side of things, it´s not going as well as I´d envisaged. It´s harder to meet people in the residence than I had expected, partly because there´s not really a comfortable common area to sit in (except for the TV room, which doubles as a smoking room, thereby making it somewhat less than comfortable). Perhaps if I had my meals provided, it might be different as I´d be eating with other residents every night. After Thursday night, I´ve met a few people so things should be better. As for meeting classmates, my classmates this week (all 3 of them), while being perfectly lovely and nice people, are not people I´ve necessarily ´clicked´with and would ordinarily choose to go out with / hang out with.
I´ve signed myself up for a day trip to Cordoba tomorrow, which, as well as giving me a chance to see Cordoba, will hopefully, also get me meeting some more people. Better be worth it as I´m going to have to be up at about 6.45am on a Sunday morning!!!
