Claro, the New “Duh"...Claro

It has been decently rough going communicating with my host family. I am getting along, but they speak pretty fast and have a Spanish dialect I’m not used to at all. To give you an idea, to all you Spanish speakers out there, they often drop s’s and z’s, or don’t pronounce them, or pronounce them as th’s. As you can see, it can get kind of confusing.

One funny occurrence, happened as I was unpacking my things in my new room. I had placed a stack of books on my dresser when my host Senora, Conchi, walked by. Knowing how to actually say, “I like to read,” I said it. Her response, “claro.” Thanks Conchi, haha. I am in high spirits about the language barrier though, it is a very motivating way to force me to want/need to learn Spanish. I do feel like the kid in my house who was never allowed to talk, so he became the silent, shy kid; except, that kid knows how to talk.

One last thing about the language barrier: they really like the Simpsons over here, which has only been around for seven years I believe. I was watching an episode at lunch yesterday, as the table is right in front of the T.V. with the couches and armchairs used as the tables chairs, and I actually laughed at part of the show, which means I understood it! Needless to say, I was pretty proud of myself…claro.

A big activity of the study abroad group was to visit el Alhambra. It is a giant fortress of sorts overlooking and protecting Granada. The above picture is near one of the famous Muslim pools. The engineering is actually quite genius, they have a trickling fountain that you can't see that makes it so the water travels across horizontally and not in circles; meaning, it reflects the architecture much like a mirror. Here is another picture of me with Monolo, our very knowledgeable tour guide. He showed 1/3 of the group around the grounds for 4-5 hours. It was a very tiring, but well worth it, day. The Alhambra has three sections: a military fortress, several palacios for past kings, and la medina, which was where the common folk lived and worked. Even in the winter there are many beautiful sites to be seen there, as you can see below. This is one of the three palaces at the grounds, I believe. As you can see, the grounds make use of lots of water, perhaps an inspiration for Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water? I can only imagine how it would look in full bloom in the spring. We got to see most of the fountains and gardens, los jardines, but unfortunately, la Plaza de Leones (the Court of Lions) was not all there. The lions in the center were being refurbished. Overall, our trip to el Alhambra was a success and I would love to go back at different times of the year.

Today is the second day of classes here at CEGRI. So far they aren’t too bad at all. I anticipate a much easier workload than any normal University of Illinois semester I have taken. Classes make up an entire days process though, which is very waring. This has to do with the culture of Spain, a culture very focused on lunch, a time they call la siesta; however, naps are not necessarily part of la siesta, but I have taken it upon myself to make them part of it. My schedule is roughly from 11am-2pm, then I go home for a wonderful meal cooked by Conchi, which is the biggest meal of the day. From there, I go back to CEGRÍ and have class from 4:30pm-8:00pm, Monday-Thursday.

Es todo para hoy.

Prayer Requests:

1) Fellowship: that I would make some really good friends here and be able to keep in contact with my really good friends back home :)

2) The obvious one of coping with the language and not getting overly frustrated. Also, that I would get to know my family; so far we haven’t said too much to each other.


Hasta Pronto!

- alé