In Him, Hope Abounds

Well my friends! I haven´t updated in a long while, but now I finally have the time to do so. Firstly, I must say that I´m loving Spain. How can I not, when the weather is just so beautiful (imagine, hot hot sun but NO humidity and with cool nights to boot? I can live without a fan at home!), and the historical parts of Spain is awe-inspiring? The people are so friendly, too! Imagine, even the bus drivers say “hola!” to his passengers. And needless to say, the shopkeepers and shop assistants do the same. The food, once I got used to it, is delicious.

So far, I have travelled to Cordoba and Sevilla. I have seen the 3rd biggest cathedral in the world (Catedral de Sevilla), visited one of the candidates of the New Seven Wonders of the World (La Alhambra), and visited other mosques and cathedrals (Cordoba, Sevilla and Granada). Next Sunday I will be going to Barcelona, then to Madrid, Salamanca, and Segovia. On my way home, I will be stopping at Frankfurt for a few hours. I must say that I am enjoying my time travelling a lot! :) Going to many countries is fun, too. I stopped at Paris on my way to Madrid. Heh. :D

I have made good friends – Randa and Ryan (the two Rs), and met up with a good friend from back home (Janice! My fellow Malaysian!). My two housemates, Amanda and Ashley (the two As) are pretty nice girls, from Missouri. My señora cooks wonderfully. And one of my teachers is the best ever (she´s adorable in every sense of the word, haha).

I cannot believe that it´s already the last week of my one month in Spain. One more week of school, and one week of travelling, then I´m going home! Honestly, even though I´m really here in Spain, I still feel like I´m in Dreamland. Reality has not hit me yet. Reality (that I´m actually really HERE in Spain) has not hit me yet, even though I have done so many things and met so many people. I think it will only hit me when I´m home, and then I know I would miss Spain so bad. Sigh.

Hopefully you all are doing good! Can´t wait to see all of you when I´m back after August 5th. Ciao and lots of love from Addy in Spain.

Firstly, my classes. They are going very well now. I enjoy my Spanish class, coz it´s going at the perfect pace for me. Sometimes it´s a bit fast (the rate at which mi profesora speaks her Spanish), but I am able to catch up, thank you God. The other class is Civilizacion y cultura españa, and it´s really good coz even though my teacher speaks pretty fast, I can understand her 90% of the time, and I´m learning a lot about Spain and the culture (like duh, right? Haha!). For example, I learn that Spanish people think it´s really rude to not finish the food on their plates, because they remember their younger days during the wars (guerras) when food was hard to come by. So I bet they think it´s weird or bad that we foreign students just can´t finish our food most of the time, especially los americanos. Not because the food is bad, but we´re just not so used to it, ya know? Spanish food is quite good but most of the time we want to eat food that we´ve eaten already, but in time we´ll get used to it, me thinks. I know I wanna get used to it. Also, for them, water is a luxury. Mi profesora told us that they used to cut the water supply after 12pm, so it was impossible to cook or bathe, unless you have your own supply from keeping it in big buckets or tanks. For Spanish people, bathing means a 5-min bath, not a 20-minute soak. Water is expensive for Spaniards, and so is electricity. [My other class has not started yet, so I cannot say anything about it.]

Yesterday a bunch of us from the Spanish class went to one of our houses, an apartment, near Plaza Nueva, to celebrate 4th of July. I of course am not an American, but one of the girls, Randa, was so nice to invite me coz she knew that I was alone. She said, “You may not be American, but you can´t spend 4th of July alone!”, so I went with another guy named Eric to Gabriel´s house. (Randa, Gabriel, Eric and I are Spanish classmates.) Before we went to Gabe´s house though, Eric and I had tinto de verano, a special Spanish drink, which is half a glass of red wine mixed with Fanta. It´s really good, and no, I don´t get drunk on it, trust me. After we had our drinks, we went to have some chawarmas (some sort of kebab) for dinner, and it was SO GOOD. But I couldn´t finish my chawarma coz it was a huuuuuge portion! Haha.

Anyway, after that, we walked towards Gabe´s house, but we stopped for me to get a scoop of delicious helado (ice cream) called dulce de leche, but of course I couldn´t finish it coz I was full to bursting. I just bought it only to try it for the first time in my life, and also because it was near Gabe´s house, and far from mine. Eric was mean – he didn´t help me finish it! Haha. He also bought some more wine and Fanta so that we could make tinto de verano.

When we reached the house at 10pm (the sun had JUST set) we realised that they had cooked dinner, and it smelt so good, but I felt like puking coz I was so full. I had a great time there though, coz Randa is a really cool person to talk to, and I also met other people, mostly Americans. There was one Spanish guy there, his name is Santi, and he is the landlord of the apartment. We found out later that he had smoked marijuana right next to me and Randa, and I was a bit freaked out, but thank God nothing bad happened.

I also met people like Rio and Nico, two girls who are Randa´s friends, and they are very nice too. Randa is Filipino American, while Rio is a quarter Filipino, a quarter American (I think!), and half Italian. It was fun to know more about them.

After talking a lot and taking some pictures, Randa and I left with two other people to our houses at 2am, because Randa and the other people lived in Camino de Ronda too. (In fact, if I had known that I would have to walk back alone without a friend, I wouldn´t have gone. I know my safety precautions ). I was so tired, but I took a cold cold shower and fell asleep instantly. What a night!

This Saturday I might be going to Cordoba with the Chinese girl I met, Jia Wei. It should be fun! Next weekend I will be heading to Sevilla to meet Luis, yay . And the following weekend, Janice will be coming to Granada to visit me! We´re going to the La Alhambra together, wooohoooooooooo! And then, the last weekend, we´re going to Barcelona. Yeah, I am very psyched up about my weekends, haha. They are the best things to look forward to!

I have already checked out from Hostal Penelope, and now am at my new home. It is in Camino de Ronda, of the major roads in Granada. I met mi señora, and she´s a very nice lady named Encarnacion who cooks well. In fact, she would not like it if we don´t eat her food! I say “we”, because I have two housemates from Kansas City, US, Amanda and Ashley. They´re both living in the same room while I have my own. Anyway, knowing them makes me realise that I am very different from them. For example, both of them brought two huge suitcases each with another smaller bag. My one lone suitcase is only half of one of their suitcases! It´s crazy. They brought so many clothes and so many other things (3 hairbrushes, anyone?). Amanda loves drinking and wants to get drunk, while Ashley´s not like that. I also realise that their world is just consisting of the US, and that they don´t know so many things. Oh well. That´s all I will say for now. I will like them!

My suitcase has arrived!!! It went straight to the hostel in Calle Navas, so the owner called me up and told me that I could go and pick it up. So I did, and everything´s intact, except that my Bible is a bit torn and squashed. OH well. I´m thankful it´s found! Praise God!

On Monday I went to my school for the test, and it was pretty hard, but I did quite okay. They put me in Intermediate class, which is what I wanted! Inicio would be humiliating, while Superior would be too hard. Yay . I also met other people from other countries, which was great. There´s this Chinese girl from China who speaks Español pretty well, and I managed to converse with her! Haha. I´m learning, and it´s going well. ¡Mi español será muy bien en un mes!

I think, after this trip, I will have adopted a really thick skin because of all the embarrassing moments I have to go through. Which is a good thing, isn´t it?

Also, I think that I am going through so many “realisations” when I´m here. For example, I have also realised that my two American housemates have got it so easy for them because their teacher from their university is here to help them, while I have to slug it out myself. I am not complaining about that, trust me, coz I think I learn so much more, but they are complaining about everything, which is so bizarre.

Tambien (which is the Spanish word for also), I have realised that the Spanish way of speaking is very loud and expressive, so even though it may seem like they´re mad or angry, they aren´t. Mi señora en mi casa, Encarnacion, made me and my two housemates think that she´s mad or angry with us, but she actually isn´t. Amanda and Ashley´s teacher told them that after they told her about their worries regarding making Encarna mad. Thank God she isn´t, though she may seem so!

One of my classes, Civilizacion y cultura hispanoamericana [12 to 1pm], will only start next Monday even though it is supposed to start this week. We don´t know why, but I´m not complaining. Haha.

My second class is Civilizacion y cultura españa [1:15pm to 2:15pm], and it´s great! My class has only 8 people, and mi profesora is very nice. She´s not condescending, and speaks slowly enough for us all to understand her. Out of the 8 people, 6 are Americans, and I´m the only Asian (as usual). The last person is a guy from Puerto Rico.

My last class is Español nivel Intermedio [5 to 7pm], and there are about 14 students in that class. Mi profesora is nice too, thank God. She is understanding, knowing that our Spanish is not all that great. But once again, I´m the only Asian (and, this need not be said again, the only Malaysian in the whole of Granada now) in the class. The rest of them are from the US! Ahhhhhhhhh. CLM is being flooded with Americans. Where are the people from other countries??? And of course, I am looked at like an alien who *surprises of surprises* speak English! I´m getting so sick of it.

Granada is not a big state in the province of Andalucia, and almost everyone here walks around the center of Granada. (To go to the outskirts, of course you need to drive or take a bus or taxi.) It´s so fun to see Spanish moms pushing prams with their children in them, and I like to peek inside and see the cute babies. I think babies are adorable haha. Also, many of them love walking their dogs around, which is very uncommon for me since not many Malaysians do that. The dogs are adorable too!

One question: Is it uncommon for Americans to brush their teeth in the morning before breakfast? Coz my two housemates have not done so for the past few days, and I´m finding that reaaaaaaaally weird. The toilet is very near my room, so I will know whenever someone uses it.

I love summer weather in España. The sun shines so brightly, but it is not humid, unlike Malaysia. And though the temperature is quite low in the mornings and nights, I am getting used to it. I just don´t think I´d like to be here during winter, though!

I miss eating rice. But I think I will get used to eating Spanish food soon coz it´s quite good.

Shopping here is soooooooooooooooooooooooooo expensive. I always think of the conversion rate, and I feel like dying. Ahhhhhh!

I have a placement test on Monday morning 9am. Ahhhhhhhh!

I have now checked out from Hostal Penelope, and am now in my new house with a lady named Encarnacion. It is in Camino de Ronda, one of the major roads in Granada.

I am having so much fun shopping Even though the conversion rate still scares me, I do need to get a lot of things since my suitcase is still not sent to me yet. The shops here, like Zara, MNG, Berschka, and United Colours of Benetton are huuuuuuuge. And surprisingly, quite cheap. For example, I bought a tank top from Benetton for only €9.90, and an underwear from Berschka for only €5.95! Those were pretty good deal, me thinks.

Something funny happened during lunch yesterday in a bar on Calle Navas – I ordered pollo frito, which is fried chicken, but it was the weirdest-looking fried chicken I have ever seen. Firstly, it wasn´t fried, and secondly, it was in CURRY sauce! Hahaha . And the portion was humongous, so I couldn´t finish it, to the chagrin of the cook and the barman who attended to me. OH well. My mom´s curry chicken is so much better – I miss it so!