Weird Things About Spain

Here are some things I've noticed in Spain that are different than America, or just straight up odd.

1. No dog leashes. People just dont really use them. The dog population as a whole is that much classier than dogs in America. Figures.
2. Old people! They are everywhere. Its one of my favorite things, that older people are more public and out and about. They also smoke cigarettes... which i never really see in the states.
3. Theres this sub culture of hippies/gypsies/grungy people in granada. They all have dreads, wear skater shoes, have a dog and a guitar and smell bad.
4. The traffic lights here give you 80 SECONDS to cross the street! 80 seconds!
5. Customer service. Kinda non-existant. The whole "the customer is always right" things for sure doesnt translate. People are just slower in general, no rush. 
6. Lateness. People dgaf about being late. My professors come to class at least 10 minutes late every class. its awesome!
7. Siestas. The mid-day nap is a real thing. Stores, banks, restaurants close from 2-5 and then start back up from 5-8
8. Restaurants wont bring you the check until you ask for it. Which i really like. Its like they dont want you to leave. Its a small example of their priority of people over work, i think :)
9. Granada is kind of like mission viejo squished in to 1/4th the size. Theres endless shops and tapas bars and tiny food places. Tons of them!
10. People. Walk. Everywhere.
11. Door handles are in the center of the door... not the side. They also dont really twist, you just push them. Doors are just tricky in general.
12. Girls look the same whether they are going out for a night on the town or going to class. Basically, they look classy all the damn time. They also NEVER wear backpacks.
13. To say "shh!" you say "tss tss"
14. No minivans.
15. People stare a lot longer here.
16. You can buy alcohol alcohol when youre 15 or 16, as long as you look old enough. Legally, 18. My teacher 
said when he was a kid, his parents would send him to go buy alcohol for then when he was 5!
17. Weekends begin on thursdays here, it seems like.
18. Babies are always wrapped up in these sleeping bag things, and their strollers are super weird.
19. To say "dude" you say "tío", which means "aunt/uncle"
20. To say something is really cool you say "es la leche" which means "its the milk" hahaha

Yea! Spaniards are definitely different. I'm still lovin being here! Learning a lot about myself, growing a lot spiritually, becoming a better cook! Theres moments of sadness and homesickness and just moments of totally messing things up, looking so stupid and totally failing, but thats all apart of the experience! Some days I feel really stoked on my spanish skills (like today), other days are super discouraging. Regardless, I have great friends to lean on, really helpful roommates, 2 families that i can go to for a home environment, and a network of new spanish friends!

Its starting to get cold and rain! Crazy. Halloween is this week which should be awesome, and Nov. 7th I'm going to Dublin! Crazy crazy crazy. Heres some pics of granada and stuff....

This is what i see everytime i leave class. i love it! so beautiful on top of that hill.

We all went to the movies! so cheap. turns out its all in spanish..

we've been having a lot of dinner parties! theyre fun and we make a lot of delicious food. on the left is lauren, sydney, and callia on the right. friends from the states!

roasted chestnuts! first time i tried them. not a fan.

normal granada street!

main street

the road to the people i babysit's house

the 2nd main street right behind my house

house party! thats tim, lauren again, and alberto!

more dinner parties

a strike! spaniards strike all the time. its awesome. their economy is royally screwed. the students strike a lot about budget cuts and such.

good times with tim :)

a flamenco show! the typical type of music here. its growin on me!

Okayyyyy, im gonna go to bed. Love you guys! Have a good dayyyyy :)

Hi friends!

Here comes a ton of pictures! Love you guys and miss you. Really really do :)

This is my school! UGR is split up into a bunch of Faculties and they each have their own building... mine is the faculty of psychology. Its on the very top of this huge hill, takes 40 minutes to walk there from my house.  Its a nice walk tho and I only have to do it twice a week. Half of my classes are here, the other 2 spanish ones are in a faculty by my house.

This was the first day of school! We're sitting in the outside cafeteria area in between classes. They serve beer! Figures. Everythings pretty cheap, which is nice. Such a pretty view from up there!

This is where I have my 2 psyc classes. They are hardddddd. The psychology part isnt hard, the understanding-what-the-heck-the-teacher-is-saying part is hard. But it makes me laugh more than anything else.  What can you do, ya know?

My roommates Laura and Jessica. Laura's kind of a tight-ass. She got mad at me for having people over too much, being too loud, using her olive oil, and taking too long showers. But she's chill, spaniards are just more straight-forward and direct. Jessica is sooo nice, thrift shop queen, and can speak english. 

Other roommate, Isa! She likes to drink and smoke a lot. Shes crazy! But super funny and we've clicked pretty well pretty fast. All 3 of the roomies are from a small town about an hour away and im gonna go visit it with them sometime! 

MY MOM CAME! it was theeeee best having her here, showing her around, introducing her to my friends, and catching up. This was the day we went shopping for gifts for the fam in the muslim marketplace.

On her birthday, we went to a granada soccer game! It was soooo fun. Fans are NUTS here... like, nuts. They dont even sell alcohol inside the stadium because people are already crazy. All of their cheers involve some dirty configuration of cuss words. Oh, and we won!

I got a spanish boyfriend! Dont know how that happened butttt it did! He's great, his names Alberto. Twenty-two, civil engineer, super sportsy, studied at UC Davis last year. He took everyone to the game and then had us all over to his house for lunch. 

This is lunch after the game... literally, a feast. His family cooked us like a 5 course meal. We ate out on the terrace for like 4 hours, and my mom got to meet almost everyone in my program. It was theee best.

This is Paella... what they cooked for us. HUGE. Its a rice and seafood dish. Famous in southern spain.

Look at the little kid to the left behind us... he was yelling curse words at the team, too!

This was one of the funnest nights, Alberto's best friends birthday. We threw him an american party because he studied in florida last year. The american version of drinking is really different than how spaniards normally drink, so we taught them our ways! It was perfect because a bunch of spanish friends came, and almost all of the california kids (from my program) came too and we got to meet people and speak spanish and teach them drinking games! Thats like unheard of here.

I taught a table of girls how to play beer pong which was probably my favorite part of the night because A, they had never played before, B, my spanish is terrible, and C, they loved it! 

Thats the update for now! Really love you guys! Adiooooooooos for now :)