Steps and Cobble Stone Streets

We told our host family, "no mas pan para desayuno por favor" in fear that we may soon turn into a piece of bread. So at 8 am we drank our cafe con leche and grabbed fruit before we left for class. I am really enjoying my spanish class, Span 107. I haven't taken one since my senior year of high school 3 years ago and I forgot how much I enjoy learning the language. The professor is very interactive with the class and is really helping my conversational skills. This is my weakness, so I am looking forward to see how well it develops over the month.

Today for our other class, Span 208, we explored the Albacin which mostly consists of steps and cobble stone streets. The tour guide taught us even more about the rich history of Granada. My favorite part was seeing the building where Arab baths used to take place. She told us the rooms and entrance were zig-zag because intimacy and privacy was important to their culture. Someone from the outside should not be able to freely see in. The floors were heated with boiling water sent through pipes underneath. When Catholics took over, they shut down the baths because they thought it symbolized perversion. It was interesting to see how two different cultures saw things so differently because this is still occurring today. The Muslims saw the baths as very religious and the feel of water was referred to as sensual and religious, while the Catholics saw it as homosexual and abnormal. Comparing this older bath to the one I went to last week, although much more modern, los Banos Arabes still represented the same sensuality as the ones years before it.

Although difficult (I should have brought my inhaler), the uphill trek was worth it for the view of the whole city including the Alhambra and the mountains from Mirador de San Nicolas. Again, I just can not believe that these sceneries are real and the pictures do not do it justice. There were two men sitting on the ledge playing a guitar and singing. The whole atmosphere was amazing and I would love to go see a sunset there one day. We ate lunch over looking the view and I enjoyed a glass of wine with a greek dish called moussaka AKA cheesy goodness. Seeing the Alhambra from this view made me very excited for Thursday when we will tour the inside.

                Mirador de San Nicolas (including me)                                          Mousakka

View of the whole city

After a week, my homesickness and culture shock is fading and I am truly beginning to appreciate everything I am seeing and looking forward to everything to come.