Farewell my friends, this is where my story begins...

As the plane took off to Madrid "First Farewell" randomly started playing by Cary Judd on my iPod, I found it a very fitting beginning to my study abroad. Granted, it was the third song played randomly, but the first two I skipped, so technically...

It has been a wonderful start so far. I have been busy with my group of 71 students getting acclimated to the city of Granada. We have been having orientation meetings and touring the narrow, stone streets, both on our own and with Miguel Angel, our abroad director. Granada is a very good Spanish city to get very familiar with the culture and language of Spain. People here do know English, but not all of them, and the ones that don't are very patient.

 
We have had a little time to wander on our own, which is so good. I have taken a couple opportunities to lose myself in las calles. Here is a picture I took of the cityscape our first day, Wednesday, January 9.

Thursday, after going to bed at 6:30pm and getting up at 7:00am Granada time, the best way to get over jet lag in my opinion, we had a full day, first of orientation, and then of free time. The best was experiencing some of the nightlife. A group of girls and I, as the ratio is roughly 4:1, went to a local restaurant/bar for dinner, which starts at about 9pm. We couldn't have asked for better "luck" in terms of the cultural experience we were about to be treated to.

We were at Oñaca o algo, I can't quite remember. As we sat and ate a very good looking señor came over. I think I am allowed to say that about a Spaniard. His name was Davíd, turns out, and he invited us to a "fiesta" in the other room. I was a little tentative, but I took your advice Hunter, and we all went for it. Come to find out, it was a group of eight or so Spanish guys practicing for their band, called "la tuna." They were a group from the University of Granada, but they were saying that there are "tunas" in many of Spains cities. We listened to them practice for about two hours and then got our picture with them.

  Hopefully if you click on this picture, the bigger size will be visible. The back room we were in had dim lighting, haha. Davíd, the cute one that the girls were going crazy over, is front and center. After they were done practicing, we all went out to their favorite club/bar, Realijos. We were at the bar from 1am - 3am, which means the night life here goes much, much later than America. What's even funnier is that the discotecas don't even open until 2:30am - 3am. I will have to wait to experience them though, because I needed to get back to get my five hours of sleep before more orientation today, Friday. Here is a video of "la tunas;" hopefully that is actually their name: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1k_RwGFnDg.

I tell you what, being serenaded for two hours is the way to go!

ae