Hola de Granada!

Hola a todos!

I am safely in Granada, Spain!

Let me tell you, it has been a long few days.  I did not expect to be incredibly jet lagged when I got to Spain, because when I went to Israel last May I was not jet lagged when I got there (only when I came back home).  However, this is completely different.  I'm not as busy as I was in Israel, so fighting through the jet lag is harder.  Last night I think I fell asleep around 4 AM and woke up at 8 AM.  Luckily, there is a siesta from 2-4 pm where the whole city pretty much shuts down for lunch.  So basically, I am a kindergardener again with planned nap times (not that I napped as a little kid-sorry, Mom!).

I live in a very nice apartment with my own bedroom and bathroom, which is great! I have a host mom and that's it-I was hoping I would have a family like other people in my program do, but my host mom is very nice and loving.  She is cooking lunch right now and it smells pretty good.  All of the food has been good, although I have a sensitive stomach and haven't been able to eat a lot of it yet.

My host mom's accent is, well, WEIRD. She has the lisp that apparently a lot of Spainards have, and it's extremely difficult to understand.  There was a very funny moment yesterday.  I was trying to tell her that the internet did not work in my bedroom, and at first I thought she understood.  Then, she pulled out her computer and showed me a picture of (ready for this?)......a train station in Russia.  For a few minutes, I thought she was trying to tell me that the train station in Granada had free Wifi and I should try going there for Internet.  Maybe, possibily, the train station in Granada was named after Russia? But when I asked where the station she was showing me was, she responded with, "Russia" and pulled out a map and showed me a picture of, well, Asia.  I gave up after that.  In case anyone was wondering though, apparently Russia is very beautiful and everyone should travel there...

Today we went to the Centro de Lenguas Modernas (my new school!) for the first time.  Luckily, 5 or 6 other UConn students live near me, and we've already gotten relatively close.  They are all cool and super nice, and we all walked to school together.  During the very pretty (think hills surrounding you, trees with oranges growing on them, with an Arab feel in the architecture) walk to school, I kept thinking about how big the world is.  Seriously, so many people walking around, driving to work, and I don't know any of them! Adali (our Resident Director from UConn) was waiting for us outside of the tiny narrow street we needed to walk down to get to the school's entrance.  We went inside the school and I think I even said out loud to someone, "Wow, there are so many different kinds of people here! People from all over the world!" I never in my right mind would think of seeing someone I know.

For those of you who know me well, you probably know where this story is going. Five minutes later, I saw a girl walking on the floor above us (the inside is a square, and the middle is open, so you can see the people walking around the second floor).  I thought, "Hmm, that girl looks familiar...She kind of looks like my friend Julia Fearrington from high school. But no way, that's not even possible. No way would I see someone from Simsbury here."  I think I repeated "Oh my god, no way!" about five times until my friend Gail urged me to yell out Julia's name (I still was in disbelief that it even might be her).  Surprisingly enough, Julia turned around at the sound of her name and studied the crowd for a second until she saw me.  She ran downstairs and....yep, it was her! Julia is studying here with a school from Iowa, even though she goes to school at Davidson.  I still cannot even believe she is in the same city as me!

On a similar note, I figured out I can text and call Lindsay and Allie at a low price since they are also in Spain! This is good news, because I am homesick (although it gets a tiny bit better every day) and like having connections to old friends.  I also like new friends though, too, and I think I am starting to find my niche within the large UConn group.

For now, adios! I need to eat lunch with my senora, nap, and then possibly go shopping and plan my travels with some of the girls who live near me! We might go to the beach Saturday with a group from UNH, and Lindsay might visit (I think Barcelona has turned her crazy, though. Just kidding Linds!) at some point.

Hasta Luego!

Lauren :)

P.S. I will post some pictures soon, but I'm kind of in a rush!