Spanish Nights

The Highlights:

What: Traveling to Sevilla and Granada, Spain
Who: Me, Lauren and my new ISA friends

-Airplanes and jet lag and Spanish speakers and converting currency

The Longer Version:

I've made it (obviously) to Spain and more specifically Granada to meet my group, even though there were a couple of points which I didn't think I would make it through.

Let's back to up the last post. I was sitting in sketch-ball Shuttlesworth airport in Birmingham. Flew to Miami, had a couple hour layover where everybody in my terminal spoke Spanish. I thought this was bad until I got to Madrid and the ONLY thing that people spoke was Spanish! The 8 hour flight was pretty nice considering I had a whole row to myself, made friends with the flight attendants and got extra brownies and drink services. I was also warned repeatedly about the boys in Morocco and they all fretted over my safety because I have the "typical" American girl look. I don't know what that means, but Roll Tide.

I had an hour or so in Madrid, paid 6 Euros for 30 minutes of Internet access which is close to $8! After riding a very bumpy hour in close quarters on an Iberian flight, I made it to Sevilla! Now, I hadn't exchanged money in Madrid because I assumed that I could exchange all of my American cash, and this was a bad idea. So I get to Sevilla, pick up my luggage and proceed to walk around the airport lugging my huge duffle bag and carry-on with around 30 lbs of Doc Justice equipment, ugh.

I found an ATM after directions in broken English and proceeded to guess which buttons to press. Now, I'm not sure if any of you heard about Taiwan-ATM catastrophe, but let's just say, my track record with foreign ATMs is not so hot. I figured out that a warning sign popped up and grabbed a nearby policeman to help me out. I assumed he spoke some English and once again, I was very wrong. I instead got a very large man frustrated while he spoke to me in LOUDER Spanish what I already didn't understand in regular Spanish. He walked away and I almost cried. I was stuck in the airport with no cash to catch the bus or call Lauren to explain the situation. Luckily, I wondered upon another ATM with a clearly labeled, "English" button. Crisis averted.

So, cash in hand, I caught the bus and rode it to the University at met Lauren.

Lauren is a friend from my church in Birmingham and is serving as a journeyman with the International Mission Board in Sevilla, Spain. I had the opportunity to stay with her for the night and go grocery shopping with her and her room-mate (also named Lauren, also a journeyman!) They had a group of students over last night for a party and bible study. I had interesting conversations with students who had very little English experience. Getting to sit in on their (completely in) Spanish bible study was super cool though.

So after a very very long night, Lauren and I went to bed around 2am Spain time. At this point, I had been up for about 24 hours straight and was hurting. I'm still really sore from the car accident and have taken to coughing pretty harshly. We had the intention on waking up early, walking the city some then catching a ride to the train station, but let's be honest, that didn't happen.

We woke up late, called a cab, and headed toward the train station. I purchased a ticket and exchanged my cash (finally!) then bought the best cafe con leche in my life. Spain can do coffee, man, and I love it!

Now onto the subject of my new favorite form of transportation: TRAINS! Ah, so wonderful.

The train ride from Sevilla to Granada was ridiculous. I had downloaded an album by Andrew Belle for the ride down and it was absolutely perfect for the trip! In addition to being really smooth and modern and clean, the view from the train was the highlight. Mountains and groves of orange trees and rivers and gorges.... ahh it was awesome!

In Granada I caught a taxi to the hotel, and moved into my room for the next 4 days. Since then it's been a whirlwind of meeting people and going on a short excursion of the city and eating the most delicious fried dough balls covered in chocolate. Seriously, Spain is treating me well so far.

Tomorrow we are going on a walking tour of a historic part of the city and have the afternoon on our own to explore!

Sending much love your way from Granada!