Granada

21 de mayo, 2012

cosas que voy a extrañar de España…

• relaxed/laid-back lifestyle.
• tapas!
• my host family & friends.
• free nights out.
• speaking English in order for no one to understand me.
• flamenco.
• la costa del sol.
• palm trees & snow covered mountains all at once.
• discotecas.
• the food. (especially paella, tortilla española, patatas a lo pobre, churros y chocolate, olive oil on everything)
• being able to walk everywhere I need to go.
• city streets are cleaned at least 2-3 times a day.
• siesta time!
• Moroccan/Spanish/gypsy mixed culture in Granada
• tinto de verano.
• straightforwardness.
• not having to calculate tips at restaurants.
• travelling cheaply & easily. (public transportation, etc.)

es probable que yo no extrañe estas cosas…

• second-hand smoke / cigarettes everywhere.
• the old men. (and how it’s acceptable to yell things at girls constantly… ‘guapa’; spitting on the ground; walking slowly; being all-around creepy.) 
• needing to go to a bar/cafe in order to hang out.
• constant language barrier.
• almost getting hit and killed by a moto every day.
• little to no customer service.
• la crisis.
• no heat in the wintertime/no fans or AC in the summertime.
• the euro. (exchange rates + ATM fees + being forced to use cash in most places).
• the coffee.
• meal times.
• abnormal amounts of PDA in the parks/streets.
• everything closing on Sundays + every day during siesta.
• watching the uncensored, bloody, extremely biased news channels on TV over lunch time.
• accidentally saying inappropriate things due to my lack of actually knowing the Spanish language (…might end up missing this one, though… always has ended up being more funny than embarrassing).
• the food. (never knowing exactly what I was eating, room temperature milk, fried food, lack of control over what I was eating…)
• feeling forced to dress up every time I leave the apartment.

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10 things I currently miss most about the US:

1. my family and friends.

2. the Sox.

3. zumba / access to a gym!

4. cooking and baking.

5. the English language: understanding what is going on around me at most times; being able to fully communicate with other people…

6. driving.

7. the mall.

8. Panera & Dunkins.

9. bathrooms. (with basic needs like toilet paper & water….)

10. Boston.

May 17, 2012.

Today has been a long, sad day… and it’s only 12.  Dioni and I woke up at 4:30 to walk Holly to the bus stop nearby and help with her luggage.  As fun as we tried to make these last few days, we all knew the “goodbyes” would come all too soon.  Holly was the first one to leave Granada and it was definitely not easy to say adiós.

Last night a bunch of our friends went to Café Fútbol one last time as a whole group.  We got drinks, desserts, tapas, whatever we wanted— Holly even got a bowl of ice cream on the house in honor of her last night in Granada (for now!).

If you had asked me 5 months ago about what I thought the end of this semester would be life, I don’t think I would’ve said anything remotely close to what I feel like right now.  The sad/excited ratio is definitely top-heavy.

With these first groups of students leaving come the most emotional goodbyes I’ve had to say in my life.  Saying goodbye to my friends before college was sad, but we all knew we’d see each other again within months.  Now, I’m saying bye to these people I have considered to be my friends and family since January knowing that realistically I may never see them again.  

As Dioni and I walked back to the apartment with Holly on her way to the aeropuerto, I asked him if saying goodbye to the students is always this sad.  He said, honestly, that his family has been doing this for so many years that he’s somewhat used to it— but it really depends on the students.  He sincerely told me that he would miss me and Holly after we are both gone.  At this point, the mood of the day was going from sad/emotional to even more emotional.  To switch up the sadness, Dioni quickly brings up a story about the girls from last semester.  He said he was so happy to see them go that he celebrated and said “see ya later bitches” as they walked out the door.  His knowledge of the English language is entertaining and hilarious to say the least.  I will definitely miss him and the ridiculous family dinners we have when I’m home in the US.

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It’s becoming too real that in a week or two I will have to pick up and leave my life here to return to the United States.  I’m planning on using the same tactic as I did before I moved here: try to not form expectations about anything.  I know assimilating back into my “home life” in Massachusetts is not going to be as ideal as I might picture it and it’s also not going to be as sad as I’m picturing it.  Life back home has changed over the past 5 months as well.  I’ve started talking to my friends who have studied abroad in the past to hear about their experiences going back home and I think it’s best for me to just take it one day at a time.  

Even though this blog may be a little more depressing than typical, I am still happy to be here.  I will enjoy the next week and a half left here with my host family and friends.  I will continue to explore Granada and meet new people.  I will keep struggling with my Spanish, while improving and understanding more each day.  I’m looking forward to being home, don’t get me wrong.  I think I am finally getting ready and coming to terms with the fact that this semester has to end.  Here’s to being back en los EEUU and 01803 soon!  Hasta luego, mis amigos.

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Holly—-

Acabo de leer la carta.  Estoy feliz que la carta no sea tan triste como yo pensaba jaja… ya te echo mucho de menos.  Gracias por todo este semestre, has sido la mejor compañera de cuarto.  Los viajes y las conversaciones que hemos tenido son las cosas que nunca olvidaré.  Que tengas un verano maravilloso.  Nos vemos pronto :)

— Esperanza

Holly and I in Granada on her last full day in the city! 

March 23-25, 2012

This weekend trip was the last program-planned trip of the semester.  Crazy that time has flown by so fast.  On our way to Madrid, we stopped in Toledo for a couple hours.  We ate our packed lunches and took a walking tour of the old city.  Something I noticed was that there were a lot more Islamic and Jewish religious symbols left in the city, especially mosques and synagogues.  I obviously didn’t get to see much of the city in such a short time, but it seemed beautiful and was definitely a nice surprise stop on the way to Madrid.

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My first impression of Madrid has to do with just how huge it is.  When you look at a map of Granada, you might think it looks big, but as you begin to walk you realize you can walk from one side to the other in a day… easily.  However, this was not the case with Madrid.  It felt a lot more like the American cities I’ve been to; tall buildings, businesses, different districts, a subway system, etc.  

We all got to stay in a hotel.  An actual hotel, not a hostel.  Felt like I was living the high life having my own bathroom and a TV… it’s little things like that where I remember just how different my life really is living in Granada than it is back home.  Another luxury Madrid offered was the fact that way more people spoke English.  In all of the stores and restaurants, most people spoke both languages.  It was helpful and frustrating all at the same time.  We would try to communicate in Spanish in order to practice, and everyone would just respond in English.  It was nice to know people actually understood what I was saying for once, but also annoying that we were always being cutoff with “so you speak English…”.  Granada definitely one-ups Madrid on the Spanish aspect.  No one here speaks English so it forces me to struggle through my second langauge… not always easiest, but more rewarding.

It was nice to have a lot of free time in Madrid in comparison to the other program trips (Sevilla, for example).  We went to a theatre production all together on Saturday night, El Manual de la Buena Esposa.  It was a comedy series of short skits about life as a woman in Spain under Franco.  There were only three actresses in the entire production, and surprisingly, I understood almost all of it.  The show was sold out and the rest of the audience definitely understood more of the references to specific people and events in Spain’s history, but other than that I was happy to at least get the majority of the humor.

The other group events were tours— Palacio Real and El Prado.  Palacio Real was impressive in its size and glamour, but unfortunately I had an awful tour guide who seemed like she’d rather be dead than showing us around.  So that put a damper on the tour, but I tried to just tune her out and take in the various royal rooms we were touring.  We toured El Prado on our last day in Madrid.  Although I’m not typically a fan of art history, it was cool to see the works of Goya, Velazquez, El Greco, etc.  I probably have to shout-out to AP Spanish for me even knowing who these people were and their major works of art.  Might have seen torturous at the time to match names to paintings, but four years later I still remember something, so it must have been worth it!

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Here’s what I did with all of our free time:

1.  Watch street performers.  Whether it be the creepy old men walking around in Mickey Mouse costumes without the heads on, or the grown men pretending to be babies, or the musicians with actual talent… it was all entertaining nonetheless.

2. Go to Starbucks every day and tell them my name was Esperanza.

3. Go out for Italian food in Chueca— the “gay district”.  Although I think Granada may have some gay clubs, homosexuality is definitely not as embraced in Granada as it is in Madrid… probably thanks to the size of the city, but either way it made for a fun night!  People watching was great.

4. Dance all night at Kapital, a 7-story discoteca.  Get recognized as an American for my ability to rap an entire Drake song.  Meet people from around the world and have conversations in Spanish and English.  Get back to the hotel past 7am.

5. Have margaritas and Mexican food while listening to a Mariachi band.

6.  Wonder if/how prostitution is legal in the way I witnessed these women on the streets mid-day.  

7. Rent row boats in the park and go for an hour-long relaxing cruise around a pond.  Only 4 Euro total for 3 people… best deal of the trip!  The weather was awesome, too, so we got our tan on while having a great time rowing around.

8.  Stumble upon a natural juice/smoothie restaurant and order the best & most tropical tasting coconut/pineapple/mango smoothie I’ve ever had.  The place was packed and they serve the smoothies in margarita glasses… really cool place. 

9. Hit up McDonald’s as all Americans are expected to do.  Wonder why and how a vanilla cone is over 2 Euros (3+ USD) when it’s under $1 in the States.  

10.  Feel thankful I live in Granada.

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I feel like I’m always travelling other places and finding out how much I appreciate Granada.  My life was probably more similar in Madrid to what it would be like living in a city in the States, but somehow I still missed Granada. It’s not that I don’t like the places I’ve been visiting— I’ve been having the time of my life and not taking anything for granted.  

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March 21, 2012

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The first few weeks of March have flown by.  Here’s a run-down of what I’ve been up to…

Finally got to visit La Alhambra with my study abroad group.  It was impressive in the sheer size and beauty of the old city/palace.  One of my professors acted as our tour guide and showed us around the major attractions that tourists are able to see.  Just like in Albaycin, views of Granada from La Alhambra were breathtaking.  I have about 100 pictures just from our brief 2-hour tour… if you don’t know what I’m talking about, you should find out —> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhambra :)

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The weather has been absolutely perfect (at least in my opinion).  The lack of any rainfall whatsoever may not be good news for Spain overall, but it’s been great news for my day-to-day life walking throughout the city.  It’s been sunny and around 70F almost every day— the best!

With the warmer weather coming in, a group of six of us decided to take a day trip to Nerja.  It’s a beach town on the Southern coast (Costa del Sol) of Spain known for the natural caves, tourism, and beaches.  It’s only around an hour away in a car, but it took around 2 because we had to take the public bus that stopped in a variety of other beach towns on the way.  We spent the day relaxing on the beach, taking in the Mediterranean, and eventually grabbing some gelato.  Although it was 75 and sunny, the water was just a little too cold to tempt me to go in.  Next time!

We didn’t go to the caves either.  I actually have a weekend long trip planned when Julianne visits Spain at the end of April to go back to Nerja and spend some more time exploring the city, beaches, and caves.  Can’t wait— it was definitely one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen.

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On the 16th, Granada was home to one of the largest gatherings of jóvenes in all of Spain.  Basically, Fiesta de la Primavera is a huge outdoor party in the streets and parking lots of one area of Granada.  Since most of you reading this are probably from the US, the explanation of the party as the year’s biggest botellón (botellódromo) probably doesn’t clear anything up.  To sum it up— around 25,000 university-aged students from all over Spain flock to Granada and party, drink, and dance all day and night: “to celebrate Spring”.  Yes, it would be 100% illegal in America and would never, ever occur.  The police are aware of it and staff the area accordingly, even on horseback.  I’m pretty sure there were 13 year-olds drinking and smoking, but with the quantity of “young people,” people’s biggest concern just seemed to be keeping everyone safe.  Surprisingly, for the short times we stopped by throughout the day, none of us saw any fights or injuries.  People were having a great time and it was definitely one of the best people-watching days in history.  Fiesta de la Primavera happens every year and it seems to be accepted by the majority of Granadinos.  Even my professors had told us to go and check it out.  Nighttime at the fiesta was a different story… just a lot of trash and bottles everywhere and a lot less people… that’s all I have to say about that.

Here are a couple news articles about it: 

http://www.ideal.es/granada/20120317/local/granada/fiesta-primavera-granada-deja-201203171048.html

http://zoom.ideal.es/galeria/2012-03-16-fiesta-primavera.html

http://www.ideal.es/granada/20120315/local/granada/puedes-granada-fiesta-primavera-201203160206.html

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The day after Fiesta de la Primavera just happened to be St. Patrick’s Day.  It was pretty clear that no one here really cares about St. Patrick’s day except for the students studying abroad and the few Irish pubs.  A bunch of us went out for sangria at Cafe Futbol before getting our one and only obligatory Guinness from Hannigan’s.  Even though this weekend was full of people partying in Granada, everyone in my program had midterms the upcoming week, so we all headed home early.  

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So with that being said— midterms! Monday morning at 8:30am I took my grammar exam… it was easier than I was expecting which was a nice surprise.  Although technically the exam was on topics I had learned at some point previously in my life, I am actually understanding Spanish grammar better now than I ever have before (it was basically a fill-in-the-blank exam of distinguishing past tenses + subjunctive + a variety of other stuff).  My other two in-class midterms were in Flamenco and POE (oral/written work).  Both of those exams were on Wednesday and were actually a lot harder than I had prepared for.  I’m hoping I do well in all, although I’m not sure if my grades from the Centro de Lenguas Modernas even transfer into my GPA back at RWU or if they just transfer as credits.  Need to look into that!

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More extranjeros! Although Francisca’s apartment is a tight fit for four, we have two more American students living in a room here for the next two weeks.  They are 14 year-old boys (8th grade) from North Carolina— Daniel and Manuel.  They both speak Spanish pretty well and are on a two week school trip where they quickly learn all the basics of Spanish culture and get immediately thrown in to host families.  I can’t even imagine living all the way over here at age 14, but their program seems really cool. One of the boys is a lot more talkative than the other and has already deemed me in the “older sister” role.  He’s asked me for advice about this girl he likes and has already expressed how he wishes there was no drinking age whatsoever.  It’s crazy to talk to them because I so clearly remember being in 8th grade and knowing people just like Daniel and Manuel.  They seem so young, but it seems like they are having a good time in Granada so far.  

Also, I never blogged about it before, but we also had a girl from Ireland living here for a week earlier in the semester.  She was older than us— maybe mid 30s according to Francisca— and was taking some classes in Spanish and staying with different host families for an extended period of time.  It was neat to talk to her because 1. she spoke English, and at the time I wasn’t understanding much of what was going on in this house… and 2. she had travelled a lot of places and was able to tell us a bunch of stories and tips.

Francisca showed us a paper of students, so it looks like more extranjeros will be staying with us throughout the semester!

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Here’s what I’m up to for the rest of March….

Friday: going to Madrid with my program for the weekend!

March 29: La Huelga!

March 30: Dublin, Ireland!!!

February 25-27, 2012

GOT TO VISIT JULIANNE IN LONDON! WOOO!  Since she is studying abroad there, I got to spend a couple nights in an extra bed in her apartment rather than pay for another hostel. Elizabeth, Gonzo, and Holly stayed in a hostel in the city and I just met up with them every day to do all of the touristy stuff that you’re obligated to do when in London :)

Before I start talking about everything we saw and did, I think the best part about London was just the “familiarity” of little things.  First of all, it was awesome getting to hangout with one of my best friends in a foreign country… I came to Spain knowing absolutely no one in my program, so I was definitely ready for a couple days of being able to relate to someone about home-away-from-home life.  We got to catch up a lot which was great.  Also, another comforting part of my London trip was that everyone could speak English.  The first day I was there, it was really weird for me to easily understand everyone talking in the streets… I’m used to concentrating so hard on one voice to even understand what’s going on in Spain that hearing all the English was almost overwhelming at first.  

And since Julianne lives in an apartment-style setup, she has a kitchen and makes most of her meals there.  She made me a grilled cheese. A GRILLED CHEESE. I don’t know how else to convey how happy I was at that moment in time… my favorite sandwich without excessive amounts of ham or other unidentifiable meat stuffed inside?  What could be better?!  

Anyway, everyone had told me ahead of time that the food in London was sub-par… we didn’t go to many restaurants, but it seemed fine to me.  Wasn’t anything impressive, but it didn’t seem too bad.

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Because the free NewEurope Paris tour was so great, we decided to go on the same 3-hour walking tour in London.  Our tour guide was not as good as the one in Paris, but it was by far the easiest (and cheapest) way to see and understand the major sites in the city.  Here’s a quick run-down of what we saw: Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, Wellington Arch, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, and lots more.  There happened to be a Russian festival in Trafalgar Square that day, so the place was absolutely packed.  After the tour, Julianne and I checked out the fiesta while everyone else went back to the hostel to rest.  

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British Pounds. $$$$$$$$$. Awful US dollar exchange rate.  Everything in London was ridiculously expensive.  If Paris and London left me with one feeling, it would be thankfulness that I chose Spain as my home abroad.  Both cities were beautiful and have aspects of life that I wish Spain had at times, but the cost of living (especially in London) has to be at least double.  And even though Paris and Spain both use Euros, everything in Paris was significantly more expensive than in Granada.

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Navigating the Underground (the tube/the subway/the train & bus system) was a little difficult at first, but was actually pretty straight forward.  I preferred to take the double-decker buses anywhere so that I could see everything on the way by.  Sitting on the top level in the very front of the bus was great and terrifying at the same time.  The whole driving on the left side of the street was not easy to get used to!

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Being as touristy as ever, we all decided to buy overpriced tickets to the London Eye… it’s basically a very slow-moving ferris wheel with views of the entire city.  After the London Eye, we walked across London Bridge and then took the Tube to Abbey Road.  We walked across the road just like the Beatles famous album cover.  There were a lot of tourists doing the same thing and the street was surprisingly busy.  I would notttt want to live around there because people are constantly stopping traffic to snap the best picture possible.  The city tried to help this problem by positioning a 24-hour camera that captures everyone’s walks.  You can go online and watch yourself cross the road and save pictures and videos from there… pretty cool.

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One of the last things we did was eat dinner and hang out in the Convent Garden Market.  It reminded me SO much of Faneuil Hall and we even got to eat some cheap American food.  After dinner, we watched some street performers and called it a night. Very relaxing and much needed after a long weekend of travelling.  

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Paris and London were both amazing… I could write pages and pages about my experiences in each city, but I decided it’d be better to just keep it short and sweet!

February 23-25, 2012

I will never forget this short trip to Paris or the rest of my life. 

After struggling to find our hostel, we (Holly, Elizabeth, and Gonzo) quickly realized that travelling as a group of 4 American students who knew no more than three words of French may be a little difficult.  By the time we got settled in, we were exhausted and grabbed food from a nearby supermarket for dinner.  It was weird to be in another foreign country where I couldn’t even use my broken second language to get by.  It was up to hand motions and Spanglish to get us by in French.  (Side note: our hostel was great! free wi-fi, free breakfast, and our own shower! Couldn’t have asked for anything more out of a hostel.)

The first full day in Paris was one of the most spontaneous, fun, and crazy days of my life.  We took a 3.5 hour free walking tour of the city.  Our tour guide, Alex, was from New Zealand, but had lived in Paris for years.  We saw almost all of the major sites on foot— some of the major stops: St. Michael’s Fountain, Arc de Triomphe, Tuileries Gardens, Notre Dame de Paris, Place de la Concorde, Napoléon’s Tomb, y porsupuesto, the Eiffel Tower.

Even after a 20 minute break to the “American Embassy” (McDonald’s) we were tired from all the walking, but more excited than ever to keep exploring the city.  Our tour guide always goes to the same French restaurant after each tour and invites all the tourists to come with him.  Since we really had no set plans, off we went with Alex and some 15-odd other tourists from around the world.  Everyone ordered different meals of a menu that had one side translated into English (woo!)… here are the names of some of the meals we sampled: Frogs’ legs, Duck Cooked in its Own Fat, Turkey Schnitzel, Cheese Plate, Snails x 10, etc… very interesting!  The food was great and much needed.  

While we were there, Alex told us all about another activity the NewEurope Tour company organizes - a pub crawl! Since we really only had that one night in Paris, we said sure! ¿Por qué no? So that left us with only a couple of hours to rest between planned activities.  But did we decide to take a break? Noope.  We decided it was the perfect time to climb 43 flights of stairs of the Eiffel Tower!

Climbing the Eiffel Tower was tiring, but we were all still so excited that it was just fine climbing all those flights of stairs.  Plus, from then on we can brag about climbing 43 flights of the Eiffel Tower.  We stayed around that area to watch the beautiful sunset and take lots of pictures.  It felt surreal to actually be standing next to the Eiffel Tower at night.  I’ve seen millions of photos of this exact place where I was standing… pretty cool.  We got cotton candy and walked around a little before dinner.

The pub crawl ended up being around 15 people from our tour from earlier in the day.  There were two tour guides from NewEurope who lead us through different bars, pubs, and clubs in Paris’s red light district of sorts which was right near Moulin Rouge.  It was cool to meet other tourists from all over the world.  Sometimes our common language would be Spanish, and other times English.  We ended up going to three bars and a club— the crawl continued on to another club after the one we were at, but we opted out thanks to pure exhaustion.  The pub crawl was really fun, but drinks were also really expensive.  The “discount” we received for being a part of the crawl had us paying 6euro instead of 8 or 9… still expensive (~8 US$/beer)!  We didn’t end up even ordering a drink at all at one or two of the bars in order to save money.  

All around great day in Paris.  I’m pretty sure we did all that was humanly possible to do in a city in one day.  

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The next day was a lot less jam-packed because we were all still tired from the day before.  We had to check out of our hostel after breakfast, so whatever we decided to do that day would involve lugging our backpacks and duffle bags around with us as well.  Since European Union residents (including foreign students with visas) get into most of the museums and tourist draws for free, we headed over to the Musée du Louvre.  After seeing it from the outside the day before, it was obvious that seeing everything inside the museum in one day would be impossible.  Instead, we headed straight for the Mona Lisa (of course), mostly just to say we had seen it.  For some reason the famous portrait was significantly smaller than I pictured it.  Probably only twice the size of my laptop screen.  Nevertheless, we had to push our way through a crowd of eager tourists just to get remotely close to the da Vinci painting.  It was great to see, but we were about ready to leave the Louvre after only 45 minutes inside.  

After strolling through the touristy shops and hitting up another McDonalds in Paris, we headed to the airport— offff to London!

Here’s a short video I threw together with clips from my amazing trip to Paris and London.

I promise blog posts will be posted within the next few days!

<3

22 febrero 2012

Although I’ve enjoyed Granada from the first minute I arrived, the language barrier, freezing homes, and “strange” foods have at times made me miss the familiar culture of home.  

With that being said, yesterday was the first time that I really found myself calling my host family’s apartment “home”.  Although Granada will never replace my hometown, I absolutely love living here.  The exact moment yesterday I realized that I am actually living the dream was while I went for a run.  One thing I still really miss from home is the gym.  Going to zumba, kickboxing, etc. is a huge part of my life and routine back home… I love classes at the gym and not exercising here has definitely taken it’s toll.  SO, connecting all of this - I think finally getting outside in the beautiful weather by myself to exercise allowed me to think about how amazing Granada truly is.  I live right next to a river, surrounded by palm trees and orange trees, with the Sierra Nevada snow-covered mountains in the background.  It’s 65 degrees and sunny and almost never rains - and it’s February.  My roommate and host family are great, and I’m finally getting into a set schedule with classes.  Everything is falling into place.  Things that may have seemed strange at first are a part of everyday life now.  Lunch at 2:30pm, dinner sometime after 9pm.  The ‘th’ sound instead of the clean-sounding South American Spanish “c” (example: gracias = grathias).  Meat and fish everywhere.  Fried eggs as an appetizer at dinner… the list goes on.

It’s crazy and nearly impossible to put into words, but regardless of the constant language barrier, Granada feels like my second home.  I really do love living here and love the people I’ve met so far.  I understand more Spanish now than ever in the past.  There is no hiding the fact that at times I still can’t seem to spit out exactly what I need to say, but I’ve started to accept that and work around what I can’t do rather than getting mad about failing to communicate.

Anyway, I love it here and I wish all of you could come experience living in Granada with me!

Hasta luego!

19 febrero 2012

My study abroad program got to go to this weekend’s fútbol game between Granada C.F. and Real Sociedad.  The game was amazing for so many reasons.

- I have never been to a soccer game… anywhere. 

- Granada won! (which doesn’t happen very often).

- It was absolutely beautiful outside— around 70 and sunny.

- I went to a soccer game in SPAIN.

This is the first year Granada C.F. is in the league they’re in now.  My host mom here says that they now get to play against “the big guys” which is why their record is poor, but they are a pretty good team.  The game seemed completely sold out.  Fans were screaming, singing, and chanting the entire 90 minutes of playing time… without a break.  Every single person in the stands (besides us being a group of Americans) seemed like a die-hard fan.  It was amazing to be a part of even if I couldn’t sing along with everyone else.

My host brother was also at the game, but we never ended up running into him there.  He had a great time though and had completely lost his voice by the time we were all back in the apartment for lunch.  

Also, you rarely find peanuts in Spain.  I’m used to heading to Fenway or any sports game back home and dodging peanut shells from all angles being tossed away.  At the futbol game here, they sell sunflower seeds and chips alongside the typical beer and soda… pretty convenient for me to say the least :)

vamos granada!