This weekend was super awesome! Friday we got some business out of the way by waking up early and bringing our visa extension requests to the Granada police station. I found it positively hilarious that governmental institutions hold the same stigma here in Granada as they do in the U.S. The native Granadinos standing in line with us were there with as much annoyance and impatience as is found on the faces of people waiting at the dmv. Luckily, however, we got there early enough (2 hrs before opening!) that once the doors opened it only took a half an hour for all of us to make it through the line. After that we took a siesta since we were all so tired from waking up so early. Then we went shopping! This was my first time shopping in Spain so I was very excited. We went to two stores, Blanco and Zara, which both seemed like more organized versions of H&M. I was expecting there to be really interesting Spanish fashion styles but really everything wasn’t too far off of what we wear in America. I ended up getting two really comfortable shirts that I not only love, but that enabled me to postpone doing laundry for another 2 days!
Saturday we got up really early (again!) to go to the beach. We went to Salobreña, a 45 min bus ride from where we are living right now. The beach was amazing! At first we were all a little disappointed in the sand because it was made up of little pebbles rather than the fine white sand of the imaginary ideal beach, but later I realized that the pebbles were actually a positive attribute because it was way easier to brush them off than it is to brush sand off! The weather was glorious: bright blue sky without a single cloud, and a light breeze. It got really hot lying in the sun since it was probably about 90 degrees out but the Mediterranean was literally the perfect temperature. When I tried to walk in slowly it was cold enough that I lost my nerve and went back to the sun for a while, but when I just ran in without letting myself think about it the water was cold enough to refresh and cool me, but warm enough that I could stay and float without getting chilled. We arrived at the beach at about 10am and from then until 5pm we enjoyed a lovely day of warming up in the sun then cooling off in the water then doing it all over again. At we decided that we’d been at the beach long enough and the sun was a little too hot and the water a little too cold, so we decided to head home. Our bus tickets were for 7pm though and since there were so many of us only half of us managed to make it on the 5pm bus. As you’ve probably guessed my friends and I were the ones who ended up stuck in Salobreña for another 2 hours. While at first we were a bit bummed that we weren’t on our way back with the others we ended up enjoying a really nice Spanish style meal instead. And by Spanish style I mean eating just a small tapas snack but making it last the full two hours by talking about anything and everything.
After a long, fun, and exhausting Saturday we basically just hung out and relaxed in our Colegio for all of Sunday. After going to the beach a day at home might sound kinda lame but it was actually a really nice compliment to the weekend. I ended up doing some homework, listening to music, taking a nice long siesta, and singing along while a couple of friends played guitar. Now I want to learn guitar even more than ever though! I am going to borrow my friend’s guitar a lot in the next few weeks and if my love does not diminish I might even buy a cheap guitar to teach myself!
Well that's all I have to say today but I will write more as more exciting things happen! Miss you all!
Hasta Luego,
Hanna
P.S. Happy Birthday Heather! Sorry I couldn't be there to celebrate with you!