Hola,
Long time, not talk. I have so many things to share. Thursday was a pretty calm day. I did find out that the activities director at my school hooked me up with the University of Granada's Women's Club basketball team, our first practice scheduled for Friday. That was exciting. Also, my friends and I went to an intercambio night at one of the tapas bars by our house. Pretty fun. We met a lady from the U.S. that had lived in Spain for 6 years and only goes back to the states about once a year. That is crazy to me but I think it is awesome as well. Her life is completely and totally rooted in Spain and she is fully immersed in the culture. I can't really conceive that because I always have in the back of my mind that I will eventually be going back, that my home is in the states. Very cool, nonetheless.
Friday I had basketball practice at 2 o'clock way across town so I took a bus to get there. Boy was my mind blown by this experience. First off, all the girls and coaches speak only Spanish. I was scared out of my mind when I first got there. I was completely and totally on my toes for about 2 and a half hours. They all came up and gave me dos besos, two kisses, on the cheek when they first got there and introduced themselves. Then they taught me their plays and a bunch of drills, entirely in Spanish. It as great. I am definitely on their level, in terms of my basketball skills, and I think it will be a great opportunity to stay in basketball shape and practice my Spanish. It was really interesting, however, how different their play was from the way we play basketball back in the states. For one, they do not shoot the outside shot much which means there offense consists mainly of driving to the basket. That then effects how they play defense and other parts of the game. Moreover, the lane is a trapezoid rather than a rectangle and the European ball is different from the ball we use in the states. It was very much a learning experience for me. When I first walked in I had a flashback to the first time my friend Tolu, a girl on the Grinnell basketball team from Nigeria, played basketball with us. I'm sure she experienced the differences in play and the adjustment to a fairly foreign situation. I think I somewhat know how she must have felt. I think scared is probably the best way to sum it up but great at the same time.
On Saturday, a couple of my friends and I decided to take a bus to this little village, Pampiniera, in the Sierra Nevada. It was beautiful! It had cute little shops and restaurants, windy old streets with whitewash carmens and beautiful Spanish doors. I was in heaven. We also hiked maybe a mile or two to the next little village, Bublion. It was a beautiful hike. We were very high in the mountains and the view was just breathtaking. We also stumbled by a fig tree and picked fresh figs, which thrilled my friend and I who are OBSESSED with figs! They are amazing. Fig Newtons most certainly do not do them justice, to say the very least. Once we finally got back to Granada we met up with some friends and later went to a cave discoteca, or club, up in the Sacromonte, which is the old, windy part of town where the gypsies live and there are a bunch of cave restaurants, bars, and clubs that are tucked away into the caves. This particular club consisted of caves on the main floor and a terrace on the second floor. It was really cool.
On Sunday, I did homework and hung out with my roommate and her mom who is visiting from the states. My Senora made us all paella (so delicious!) and we had the longest lunch I have ever had in my life, consisting of tortilla de patatas (basically an egg and potato bake), cheese and peppers, salad, paella, fruit and sweets with champagne and desert liquor (basically shots, not my cup of tea). It was great. Then later in the evening I went over to my roommate's mom's apartment she is renting and had a lovely dinner before grabbing ice cream (word on the streets is that the ice cream parlors will be closing soon because it will start getting cold, my solution: get as much ice cream right now as possible!) and headed home.
Today was a fairly typical and busy Monday. I had one class canceled which was nice. Also, my friends and I decided we are going to go to Madrid and Barcelona this weekend since we have next Tuesday off from school and intend on missing our classes on Monday to make it a five day tour of Northern Spain. We are really excited! We leave Thursday night. Happy Monday!
Hasta luego!
Ashley
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