Spainards who brought us to our second discoteca!

My roommate and I at the bar Mohitoo

      Wow! I can't believe how much I love this city already! Every night: tapas, exploring the city, meeting locals, making new friends, attempting to hold conversations with Spaniards and of course ending the night at the discoteca! Since our classes don't start until Tuesday we have a free weekend. We started orientation on Thursday at the University of Granada where we reviewed what was expected of us in this first month. This first month is an Intensive month of learning the language. We will have four hours of classes a day in which we will learn grammar, writing and speaking skills.

      Besides the orientation, during the day we have been exploring the city through tours led by the leaders at the university. It's so amazing walking through the streets and seeing the architecture, people and shops. It's still so surreal that I'm here... in Spain! Is this real life?! Being in Spain, I've jumped at any chance to embrace the culture already... and what better way than enjoying the night life here in Granada. Each night so far has been filled with spontaneous events that have made the night memorable! Since it's basically old school here with no one having the best cell phone service, contact between students has been difficult. So for the second night, my roommate and I just decided to grab tapas on our own since we had no way of contacting others. We went to the street known for its tapas- calle navas, except we arrived too late as all of the tapas bars were beginning to close. Disappointed we instead grabbed drinks at a corner bar called Mohitoo. The picture above is of my roommate and I... little did we know what the night had in store for us.
       While grabbing drinks, two guys came in and began to speak english to us, they ended up being from Wisconsin and Chicago- the exact same cities as my roommate and I... what a small world! Since they knew the city more we went with them to the street of bars known more for a younger crowd. While walking on that street we all of a sudden see other students from our program! A whole group of study abroad students were there grabbing drinks so we joined them. From here, we were talked into going to a discoteca... Mae West (the name of the discoteca). My roommate and I were definitely not planning on going out that long since we were still pretty tired with the jetlag but somehow we were talked into joining. When we got to the club, we were able to just walk in without paying... except when we were inside we thought the place was disserted since there was no one there. The Spainards we were with said "no,no, no... allí (there)"... we follow them through two doors into a two-story club with strobe lights, a d.j. and people everywhere dancing. It was amazing and so unexpected! What was also surprisingly was the amount of american pop music they play... it's almost all American club music with a mix of spanish music, some tango, salsa. The expression "time flies when you're having fun" can not be more true than when you're at a discoteca. We ended up not leaving until 6:15 AM! Locals just kept talking to us and we just kept on dancing. It was the most fun I've had in a long time! But of course not arriving home and going to sleep 'til 6:30 plus having to wake up for Orientation II by 9:45a the next morning takes a toll on your body. But we did it and were ready the next night for round II.
      After Orientation and tours around the city, we headed back to the house for lunch and then of course siestas- though our siesta (nap) lasted for three hours. Waking up, we were, though not fully rested, ready to repeat the night life! We suited up and met up with other students for tapas at La Bella y la bestia (apparently one of the best tapas bar in Granada). From here, we wanted to just grab drinks so while walking around we just decided to head back to Mohitoo since they have amazing mohitos there. They make it with brown sugar so the drink is brown not green but so delicious! Plus, for some reason, with these mohitos the bartender kept giving us free shots... not sure why but we took them! When we were about the leave, a bunch of spanish men began to talk to us... they knew of a club where we could get in for free! So of course, we didn't want to miss out on an opportunity so we ended up going to the discoteca, which was amazing once again! As I said before, the concept of time when you're having fun and dancing doesn't exist so we ended up arriving back to su casa at 7:30 AM! We definitely slept then until later in the day, which was much needed with the nights out plus jetlag.
      Since it was Los Tres Reyes Magos, thousands of people crowded the streets in the night to watch the parade and celebrate. It was so packed we couldn't even move 3 feet without getting stuck. We watched the parade from a small corner on the side of street and ended up walking back to the plaza for some shopping and churros con chocolate. Churros con chocolate is a popular food item here which is consumed between lunch and dinner. The chocolate is like hot chocolate but it's thicker and you use it to dip the churros in. So tasty! From here, we headed back to su casa to get ready. From here we ended up meeting with other girls from the school for tapas and drinks. We of course, headed back to Mohitoo for the third night in a row. Their mohitoos (and bartenders) are just so good! When there we ended up running into the three wise men/kings. They were hilarious, buying the girls, especially my roommate, drinks. I've found, the people in Spain are so friendly and of course, just plain beautiful! I mean Spanish men, you hear how good looking they are but oh my goodness, muy guapo!
      Today, we just explored the city a little more before lunch. We walked all over: el paseo de los tristes, Plaza Isabel La Católica, the Cathedral, Royal Chapel Square Plaza de Bib-Rambla, Alcaicería and more! It was amazing seeing all of these sites. The architecture here is astounding, each building has something creative and majestic to it. I couldn't stop taking pictures! We came upon the Cathedral just in time for mass so we decided to give it a try and we attended mass. Inside the cathedral was beautiful, the gold designs on the wall were so detailed. It was definitely an experience! Now, we're planning on studying a bit for our placement exam on tuesday... It's going to feel like school again but I'm not too worried since I'll be studying in a café in Spain... what?! So unbelievable to me still! Hasta más tarde!