Looking Back

It's been way too long since I've posted on this blog. I didn't intend to stop with the previous one but somehow I never found time to post more until now. I'm forcing myself to write this, if only because I want some visual closure on my blog that signifies the end of my trip. I love looking back and thinking about all the different experiences I had in Spain, but it's so hard to think about summing it all up in words. I've had over a month to think about it and I still don't know where to begin! It still blows my mind that all of this even happened.

I looked back at my Spain journal to try and figure out where to begin with this post. Honestly, I don't know if I could write any better about what it feels like coming home than I did in my journal. I still feel the same way as I did then about everything I experienced. Here's a bit of what I wrote:

"I've been home now for a few days and none of this seems real. That I was just in Spain for 4 months, that I've been away from Columbus for that amount of time, that I've changed so much while I've been gone and that life here has continued on as usual without me. Right now it's only a little bit hard. Reality has not yet sunk in, I think. I think back on my trip and I still can't believe all that just happened, how many places I got to see, things I got to do, people I got to meet. I feel this deep satisfaction about my time there...But I also feel this deep sadness now. There is a pain in my heart that knows that now that time is over and I must continue on with my "normal" life here in Columbus, not knowing how or when or for how long I will ever be able to go back to Spain..."

I still think back on Spain and I miss so much about it. My family was amazing and I grew so close to our little twin sisters and had so much good conversation with our host mom. And there's just so much to see in other parts of the world.

But not everything about the trip was good. I say it was the best time of my life but it was also the hardest. It's really hard to be out of community for that amount of time. I was with friends while I was there and there were plenty of other Americans I could (and did) hang out with if I ever needed a break from Spanish and some time to just relax. I even found a great Evangelical church close to my house where I met a lot of awesome Spaniards and Americans alike. I was lucky to be able to go there and be spiritually refreshed in a place that's so spiritually dry! Even with all of these different sources of support and encouragement around me it was a huge struggle. Obviously, there was a continuous language barrier. Although my Spanish has greatly improved I'm still not fluent and no matter how much time I spent with my family there were still communication gaps. I also wasn't around all my close friends all the time who know me and are a part of my daily life. It was hard knowing that my friends were continuing to live their lives and I was missing out on part of it, while at the same time I was living a completely different life in another country that no one who wasn't there would really understand. Also, like I said before, Spain is really spiritually dry. Religion is thought of a lot differently there, and in general, people don't like it. It's seen as a source of manipulation for the purpose of gaining power rather than a loving relationship with the living God. So, even though I know God and I know what He's really like, it's hard to live every day being reminded of the absurdity of faith and all the objections people have against God and Christianity in general.

The challenges were good, though, and because of them I grew in a way I never could have before. I grew in my relationship with God because I dared to face all the objections and doubts that came my way instead of ignoring them. I grew in my own knowledge and awareness of people, other cultures, and my own culture. I learned a lot more Spanish as well! Most of all I learned a lot about myself--things that I like and don't like. It was all a very revealing time.

Anyway, I'm glad to be back in Ohio and I'm finally feeling adjusted to "normal" life again! It's true when they say that it's harder to come back home than it is to leave. But now I'm so glad to be back and I don't plan on leaving for an extended period of time again soon!

I have some more general thoughts on traveling, and another excerpt from my journal that I like and want to share as well:

"...On the last day of my POE class my professor gave each of us copies of the poem 'Ithaca' in English and in Spanish, which he and another student read aloud in class. Reading it now I couldn't help but cry, remembering the journey I've gone on and knowing that there are many more journeys to come. I know that whatever journey I embark on in life I want to enjoy it to the fullest, to soak in everything, to learn all I can. One can't help but learn from traveling. Through it one develops a grater love of life and all it offers. I hope that this thirst to experience more and to learn more is always growing within me. I hope that every journey I make is satisfying, but that it also leaves me wanting more."

Here is a copy of the poem that we read in class that day:

When you start on your journey to Ithaca,
then pray that the road is long,
full of adventure, full of knowledge.
Do not fear the Lestrygonians
and the Cyclopes and the angry Poseidon.
You will never meet such as these on your path,
if your thoughts remain lofty, if a fine
emotion touches your body and your spirit.
You will never meet the Lestrygonians,
the Cyclopes and the fierce Poseidon,
if you do not carry them within your soul,
if your soul does not raise them up before you.

Then pray that the road is long.
That the summer mornings are many,
that you will enter ports seen for the first time
with such pleasure, with such joy!
Stop at Phoenician markets,
and purchase fine merchandise,
mother-of-pearl and corals, amber and ebony,
and pleasurable perfumes of all kinds,
buy as many pleasurable perfumes as you can;
visit hosts of Egyptian cities,
to learn and learn from those who have knowledge.

Always keep Ithaca fixed in your mind.
To arrive there is your ultimate goal.
But do not hurry the voyage at all.
It is better to let it last for long years;
and even to anchor at the isle when you are old,
rich with all that you have gained on the way,
not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches.
Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.
Without her you would never have taken the road.
But she has nothing more to give you.

And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not defrauded you.
With the great wisdom you have gained, with so much experience,
you must surely have understood by then what Ithacas mean.

I love this poem because it has meaning to me now that it never did before. I know the value of traveling as a form of gaining new knowledge, insight and wisdom. But I read this poem with more than just a specific traveling experience in mind. I read it and reflect on all of life as a journey. A journey that is full of pleasure and without fear. I love that this poem reminds me of the importance of enjoying the life I'm living. Also, that it reminds me that I need not fear what's ahead because I will only encounter the Cyclopes and Lestrygonians if I allow myself to raise them up before me. How true this is! I will always have troubles in life, but my problems will always only be as big as I make them. Life is an exciting journey and it has so much to offer if we will only take advantage of it.

Now I continue on with life in Columbus, on the next stage of my journey that never ends!

¡Adiós España! Te quiero.

The best and worst of Spain

My friend from the U.S. who is also studying in Granada came up with the idea of making a list of likes/dislikes of Spain to remember small things she might otherwise forget. I decided it was a great idea and set out to make my own. Over the past few days I’ve been accumulating lists in my notebook and I wanted to share. So in no particular order, here they are…

I will miss…

1. my host family!
2. churros con chocolate
3. tons of dogs with sweaters (even some with hoods!)
4. outward display of affection (touchiness, closeness)
5. 3 words: guapa, tía, hombre
6. pastelarías (pastry shops)
7. siestas!
8. narrow streets (easy to get lost in)
9. hippies everywhere, especially Plaza Nueva
10. expressiveness in speech
11. flamenco music
12. public transportation (bus, metro, train)
13. free tapas (only in Granada)
14. Morrocon shops (Granada)
15. teterias (tea shops in Granada)
16. los italianos (the best ice cream and gelato shop)
17. boots (everyone owns boots)
18. fresh-squeezed orange juice (they don’t serve it any other way)
19. plazas and fountains
20. live street music
21. architecture with character
22. long daily walks to class
23. lively night atmosphere
24. old people out walking everywhere, even at night
25. dos besos (greeting with 2 kisses)
26. friends/family members walking arm-in-arm
27. King Kebab (the best shawarma)
28. hanging ham legs
29. sharing opinions openly (saying it how it is)
30. table heat lamps (very warm red light under the table in the family room in our house)
31. roasted chestnuts on every street corner
32. scarves
33. stealing internet
34. watching “el duque” with the kids
35. cheap movie tickets
36. salsa dancing
37. green man walking, crosswalk sign
38. hippies making huge bubbles
39. dogs waiting for their owners outside mercadona
40. spending hours in a restaurant
41. tinto de verano (wine with fanta)
42. Zara
43. shoe stores
44. the history behind everything
45. the family’s hairdryer on for hours in our house (to warm up the bathroom!)
46. Maria and Elena riding around the house with their rollerblades
47. Maria’s impersonations
48. conversations with Manolo senior (our Spanish padre)
49. helping the twins with English homework
50. making home movies
51. church with the youth
52. lunch at the campus cafeteria with Spanish friends
53. relaxed way of life, openness of schedule
54. nativity scenes of all sizes
55. mullets (because they’re funny!)
56. Christmas lights everywhere
57. botiques
58. mountains
59. the lady painted silver who moved
60. no personal space
61. Christmas sweets (from the convents)
62. European fashion
63. markets/fairs (Christmas, artisan, food, books…)
64. toasted bread with tomato and olive oil
65. olive oil on everything!
66. coffee shops without coffee to go
67. being surrounded by Spanish
68. sangria
69. drinking age=18
70. clothes hanging out to dry
71. dried peppers hanging on the side of houses
72. balconies with flower pots
73. papa noel hanging from balconies

I won’t miss…

1. dog poop everywhere! (seriously)
2. cat-calls from guys on the street
3. paper-thin walls in the apartments (hearing everything next door…)
4. cigarette smoke (everyone smokes)
5. witnessing people making out in public (on street benches…)
6. small stores with excessive pushing and no “excuse me”
7. slow costumer service
8. not having separate checks
9. payment—stores not having change or credit card services
10. getting attacked by gypsies with pine leaves
11. not having a reliable study place open
12. ham in every type of food
13. lack of lines (to order or buy something)
14. sharing opinions openly
15. limited internet availability
16. crazy driving (mopeds on sidewalks!)
17. cold, marble floors in the house
18. no/limited heat in the house
19. small shower=lake in the bathroom the floods into the hallway
20. bad Spanish TV (telanovelas)
21. the smell of the river (that only exists half the year)
22. small, dysfunctional elevators (and the awkward silence…)
23. slippery sidewalks
24. lack of street signs
25. construction everywhere (Granada)
26. endless amounts of tours (with our program—although many were interesting)
27. unpredictable weather (Granada)
28. David talking for 5 hours over the bus speaker
29. evil looks from Spaniards for speaking English
30. looks for wearing gym/house clothes outside
31. pressure to always look guapa (pretty).
32. mullets (because they’re ugly!)
33. girls with baggy pants and underwear showing (Granada)
34. lights going out at home because of too much electrical use
35. no grass (Granada)
36. stepping in a wet spot and not knowing what it is (water, dog pee…)
37. water from buildings dripping on your head
38. beggars/homeless people everywhere
39. no personal space
40. almost getting run over by scooters
41. no free bread in restaurants
42. solicitors in restaurants
43. no dryers (for clothes)

And I will be adding to both of these lists as more come to mind. Most of it is more cultural or Spain-specific things, but some have to do with our family too, since they’re such a big part of my time here!

Blogs still to come…
Untold (entertaining) stories.
Reflections at the end of my trip.
differences and similarities between europeans and americans.

A Spanish Thanksgiving.

It’s been almost a week now since Thanksgiving day. All the families got together in the U.S. to celebrate together, giving thanks for each other and all the delicious food they were able to stuff themselves with that day. Here in Granada it was just another day. Apparently they haven’t heard of Thanksgiving in Spain, I can’t imagine why not. Last Thursday morning my friend turned to me in class and said, “Well this is the first time in our lives we’ve been in class on Thanksgiving,” and it made me sad to realize again that I was so far away from my family on the best American holiday invented. We found our own way to celebrate here in Granada, though.


My program put on a Thanksgiving dinner, but I opted out of that to share dinner with some American missionaries who live right outside of Granada. They lived in Costa Rica 15 years and now they’ve been here for 6 years. I had never met them before, but we have a mutual fried, so they invited me and my roommates over for dinner! Angela and I went, as well as some other people from the church, one girl our age and two other married couples. The dinner was not one bit disappointing and the company made the night the most enjoyable Thanksgiving I think I could have here in Spain. There was an interesting mix of personalities gathered around the table, including a middle-aged Spaniard named Paco, our wine expert and jokester of the night. We passed the time well and enjoyed feasting on authentic American Thanksgiving food, even better than I had hoped for! There were even 4 different types of pies to finish off our dinner: pumpkin (hallelujah!), maple pumpkin, cherry and one other that I can’t remember now. Let’s just say I ate enough food to last me the entire week.


Once we finally got to the point that we couldn’t stuff anymore food down our throats we all moved to the couches in the living room to enjoy each other’s company around a very realistic-looking, crackling fire on the TV screen. A very nice homey touch to a house without a fireplace! It made us warmer just to sit around it, imagining that there was a real fire heating the house up.

I was very sad to leave that night and I realized it had been one of the best nights I had had in Granada. It was a little piece of home in a Spanish setting with some of the most interesting people I’ve met since I’ve been here. It could never be the same as being with my family for Thanksgiving, but I don’t think my Spanish Thanksgiving could have been any better.

me with Peter and Debbie.

Sevilla, 3 cups of Starbucks

Thanksgiving weekend I went on another trip with my program, this time to Sevilla. It was a longer trip; we stayed 2 nights instead of only one like usual, and it was completely worth it! Sevilla is a very charming city, very authentically “Spanish”. Upon arrival I felt like I had entered into a different Spain than the one I was living in in Granada—one more modern but more traditional at the same time. How do I explain that? Well, one day I walked by a group of people carrying around a float practicing for the Christmas parade and the next day I counted a total of 4 Starbucks on a short bike-ride through the city.

Sevilla is the capital of Andalucía (southern Spain) and a city of great historical importance. The great, wide river Guadalquivir balanced out the narrowness of the winding streets which the city was built around. It was a nice change from Granada’s river, which is dried up most of the year! The architecture of all different decades, with styles from the Renaissance to Mudejar (English?), gives the city a romantic, dream-like atmosphere. It was like a dream just to be there, completely magical and beautiful full of history and life. (I would have to say, it has a better night-life than Granada!)

The first night we were there we didn't have time to do much but walk around the city and explore for a bit. However, once we found out there was a Starbucks in Sevilla, we couldn't resist the lure of that familiar smell even one night. I went there with a few friends as soon as we could manage to make it there, and we were satisfied with a fulfilling cup of our favorite American coffee drinks. :-)

excited about Starbucks!

Our first full day was filled with tours until mid-afternoon. What’s a weekend trip with ISA without at least 3 tours, right? They were really enjoyable, although very long. We toured the Cathedral (the 3rd largest in the world, and where Christopher Columbus is buried), the Alcázar (palace-fortress) and the Jewish quarter. We learned so much, but I probably don’t remember even half of it!

After the tours I went to an authentic Cuban restaurant with Angela and Jenna from my program. We were so excited since there are no ethnic restaurants of this type in Granada. And we were not disappointed one bit. The restaurant was full with people waiting to get in the whole time we were there, and we were the only Americans probably in the entire area around the restaurant. All of us ordered several different dishes for us all to share…bread with goat’s cheese and marmalade, fried yucca, fried plantains, and chicken masala (with cous cous). All of it was amazing and we left very full.

After lunch we took a stroll around the city, walked through the market full of hand-made nativity scenes (huge in Spain), did some shopping (H&M!) and then stopped at Starbucks! I know we’re in Spain and we should try to stay away from American things, take advantage of what Spain has to offer while we can…but nothing hits the spot in quite the same way as a good cup of Starbucks coffee. This one was, unfortunately, not as charming as the one I found in Barcelona. It seemed almost like it was out of place there, even though it was full of people. It was good, anyway.

That night we went to a free flamenco show in a hidden but packed bar in the heart of Sevilla. The bar was crowded with Spaniards and tourists alike; but in spite of the tourists, it felt authentically Spanish, which made the show more enjoyable.

We were at the show pretty late, but the next morning Jenna and I got up early to take a bike ride around the city on Sevilla's wonderful rent-a-bikes. We rented bikes from a kiosk stand and then were able to unlock one of our choice from the posts nearby. It took us about a half an hour just to find a ride-able bike! But after trying out several with the chain hanging half-way off, or with a flat tire, or with a broken tire, we were finally successful! We rode along the river until we got to the edge of town, turned around and went the other way up the river and then around through the city. This was one of my favorite things we did while in Sevilla--a nice way to relax while exploring the city at the same time. I wished I could have had more time there!

Jenna and I stopped at the skate park to take some pictures

on our bike ride.

Throughout the rest of the day we went on some more tours which aren't worth mentioning, until we made our final stop at a very unique Spanish restaurant, 100 motaditos. Motaditos are small sandwhiches with a variety of practially any type of Spanish food you could ever want (chorizo, ham, cheese, tortilla, tuna...). They even serve desert motaditos, small bread rolls with pieces of chocolate! We called it the "Spanish s'more" and it was almost just as good as an American s'more (but a baguette just isn't the same as a graham cracker!). It was a typical Spanish place, first of all, because there are no lines to order. Everyone crowds around the counter and kind of buts their way up to the front to put their order in in no particular order. (I've mastered the art of this Spanish system without lines.) Secondly, there are few tables in the restaurant, so most people are standing around eating, with their plates on a small counter on the wall. This seemed so very strange at first, but it's become something I'm used to now, and rather like.

Inside cien motaditos, the people crowded around the counter.

We ended our trip to Sevilla the same way we started it--with a trip to Starbucks! That made it our 3rd trip, and it was just as satisfying as the others. We're proud to be Americans...

Barcelona and a train ride.

This past weekend was one of the most adventurous and fun weekends I’ve had since I’ve been in Spain. I left for a long-awaited trip to Barcelona Thursday afternoon after a long week of exams. I considered it a sort of celebration after having completed my first week of exams in Spain!

Andrea and I went without agenda, our only purpose to meet up with some of her friends there and enjoy the city together. I did have a few things in mind that I wanted to see, but mostly I wanted to relax and soak everything in. I expected a lot since I had heard so many great things about Barcelona, but my expectations were fully met, even exceeded!

The first thing we did when we arrived Thursday night was meet up with Andrea’s friends, a young married couple from her church back home. We shared a hostel with them while we there, the best place I’ve stayed in throughout all my travels, nice and cozy, set up just like a small apartment. That night we walked around the city a bit before getting dinner and then going to bed to wake up early the next day to explore.

We set out Friday morning without any plans, just walking around to see what Barcelona had to offer. It made me happy just to walk around, experiencing the grandiosity of the city which reminded me of walking around Paris or Madrid—so big that it would be impossible to explore the entire city even in a week. We went to the center of the city where the streets were lined with the most fashionable clothing stores and small, expensive boutiques. It was fun to see it walk around, only window shopping, of course, because I couldn’t afford any of it! As we continued walking we stumbled upon a Dalí museum in the middle of all the shops and I was more than pleased! We looked around there for a while, and then continued shopping throughout the city.

Another exciting discovery, almost at the same level as the Dalí museum, was Starbucks! That day I finally was able to satisfy my craving for a good cup of Starbuck’s chai latte, which I hadn’t had since I came to Spain. It was my first cup of Starbucks in over 3 months, and I was so excited I couldn’t leave without getting a picture! It felt like home just to walk in and smell the familiar smell of bitter coffee grinds and sweet pastries—that smell that sticks to your clothes after leaving the store, the lingering reminder of time well-spent in good conversation with close friends. It made me a bit homesick and really excited to catch up with all my friends when I come home. I noticed in this Starbucks that they served most of the coffee drinks in mugs instead of only paper cups. I think the culture allows for this here more than in America. Spaniards go to a coffee shop expecting to spend a lot of time there without any other agenda. In fact, it’s almost impossible to find a place that serves coffee or other food to go in Spain. I’ve found one, a more Americanized place coffee shop in Granada, that does. But it’s the only one. At first I found this rather inconvenient, but I’ve grown fond of the relaxed way of life here. I think Americans could learn a lot from it.


Starbucks! mi amor.

Anyway, as we continued walking around we encountered bands of almost every style of music in almost every plaza throughout the city. We would stop and listen for a while, watching the old men who danced to the songs that really set their feet a tappin’. The guy in this picture was having lots of fun with the music!

We eventually found our way to La Rambla, the most famous street in Barcelona, which led us to the port at the edge of the city. It was nice to see water, and I wished we could have spent some time on the beach! We walked along the water for a while before making our way back to the center of the city, where we made our final stop at the Cathedral of Barcelona. We walked through and admired one of the prettiest cathedrals I’ve seen in since I’ve been in Spain. (And I’ve been in far too many!)


The port at Barcelona me, Brandon, Regina, Andrea outside of a cathedral

That night we went to a Spanish guitar show in a cathedral and watched an apartently well-known Spanish guitarist play a set of his own version of songs written by others. We went back and forth between staring with our mouths gaping in awe and trying to keep our heads from nodding backward in sleep. It was amazing music, but a little too relaxing!


The next day I got up by myself to see a few more sights while the others slept in. I went to the Sagrada Familia (a cathedral designed by Dahlí which is still being built) and then the Picasso Museum. These were my favorite things to see while we stayed in Barcelona and well worth the lost sleep. :-)

the Sagrada Familia


I met up with the others a little bit later for lunch at a restaurant that took way longer than we expected, and made us anxious with fear of missing our plane back to Granada! We got out of there as soon as we could, ran to our hostel to grab our things, then to the metro, and transfered to the train which finally took us to the airport. We arrived only to find out that our terminal was on the farthest end of the airport and took off running as fast as we could, dragging our luggage and dogging the crowds the entire way. We finally arrived, huffing and puffing like we had just ran a 6-minute mile, only to find out we were 10 minutes too late to recieve our boarding passes (even though our plane was still there), and no amount of convincing would get them into our hands! After we stood around frustrated for a while, contemplating all of our options (maybe we could take off for Paris for a day...?) we finally decided on an overnight, 12-hour train ride back to Granada. Ironically, this turned out to be one of the most fun experiences of the trip!

Since the train was overnight, we decided to get our own room with four beds so we would be able to sleep. We saw this as a new and exciting experience for all of us, taking an optomistic view on our misfortune with the plane. It turned out to be even more fun than we expected! We bought snacks to take with us to make it through the night, watched a movie on Brandon's iMac and finally decided to make a movie of our own! We made it a horror movie and turned Brandon into a creepy conductor and us 3 girls into the ditzes of the typical horror film. I adopted a British accent to add something a little different to the video. It turned out to be a pretty profesional-looking film after Brandon edited it on his computer and we all enjoyed it (even though I tragically died in the end of the film). We finally decided to go to bed at about 5 a.m. before arriving in Granada at 8! If you have facebook, you can view the video online, but I'll try and figure out how I can get it on here too...

on the train!
The entire trip was certainly an adventure we will never forget! I know for sure that whenever I come back to Spain I will definitely take another trip up to Barcelona. It now ranks as one of the top favorite cities I've ever visited. :-)

look at more pictures: www.picasaweb.google.com/kyla.snow

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I'm starting to catch some of the Christmas spirit in Granada. The weather is finally cold (relatively speaking--Ohio is much colder right now). Christmas candies are beginning to be displayed in grocery stores, snowflakes are hanging from the ceiling in El Corte Ingés, Christmas lights are slowly going up around every tree in Granada, and roasted chestnuts are for sale on almost every street corner. It reminds me of home and makes me very, very happy. :-) I'm excited to see what Christmas really looks like here and the day slowly approaches. Apparently Papa Noel (Santa Claus) isn't very famous in Spain, although he's becoming somewhat popular...I haven't seen one house with a chimney, so I'm not sure how the tradition would work here. Instead, they decorate with nativity scenes and images of the Three Kings. Our family said there would be both of these in our house around Christmas time. In fact, instead of dressing up like Papa Noel people dress up like the Three Kings! I'm really interested to see that. I've heard rumors of a Christmas festival beginning in a couple weeks in a famous plaza in Granada, where they will sell everything Christmas--food, ornatments, nativity scenes--for the whole month of December. I'm so excited for everything going on here as Christmas slowly approaches! I haven't heard any Christmas music yet, but I'm really curious to know what that sounds like in Spanish.


It was nice to come back to Granada and feel a little bit of the Christmas season after a nice Fall weekend in the mountains. I spent this weekend with the ISA group in a region of the Sierra Nevada mountains called Las Alpujarras. The Alpujarras is made up of several small towns high up in the Sierra Nevadas, and many tourists visit all the time to hike through the mountain terrain surrounding the towns. The bulidings in the towns were all white, so walking through them felt a bit like walking through Greece, or what I think walking through Greece would feel like since I haven't actually been there. We stayed in one of the towns for 2 days and walked through two others which are close by, and the trip consisted mainly of a couple 3-4 hour guided hikes through the mountains with ample time to relax and enjoy the scenery. The mountains were absolutely beautiful and I felt satisfied finally getting to experience a little bit of the fall season, which I'm so sad to be missing in Ohio. All the leaves were turning and glowed orange, red and yellow against the bright green grass of the mountainside, and the little towns were like globs of white paint splattered in the middle of the grenery. The mornings were cold but the afternoons were warm, and we all were unexpectedly hot during our hikes. The weather was even warmer than Granada, which is strange for how close we were to the snow-capped mountains! It was a trip filled with good conversation, beautiful scenery and lots of relaxation--definitely on of my favorite trips with the group (although now my legs are feeling those hikes)!


Now I'm back in Granada and finally starting midterm exams for my classes. They kind of caught me off gaurd and reminded me that I'm actually taking classes here...I thought this was just vacation! I've been kind of stressed out about them, not knowing what to expect on an exam in another country and just really nervous about trying to remember all that I'm learning. I've said before that my classes are pretty easy here, which is true as far as work-load goes, but at the same time I'm learning a ton of information! I realized that this weekend when I had to start studying for my exams...

Well I need to get ready for my next class. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of Las Alpujarras because I forgot my camera! But hopefully I'll get some from other people and be able to post them for everyone to see what it looked like. I do have other pictures up of other places in Spain, though. They're all on www.picasaweb.google.com/kyla.snow.

Hasta Luego.

Loving Spain and Missing Ohio

I'm writing this blog now without knowing what I really want to write about. I don't know why I'm still up when I have class tomorrow, but I just don't feel like going to bed. I'm really sad for some reason, really missing everyone and everything back home. I'm loving my time here, but I still get random "waves" of homesickness, like right now, when all I want is to be at home with a really close friend talking and sipping a cup of coffee (in Starbucks!). I just want to be with someone who knows me well in a familiar place where I can feel completely comfortable.

In spite of homesickness, the past week has been really awesome and I've made some good connections with a lot of people here. The past weekend I want on a retreat in the mountains of Malaga with some of the youth from the church I've been going to here. There were probably about 50 of us there, so I got to know a lot of people I didn't before. The weekend was filled with less teachings and more time to relax and hang out, to get to know each other--typical Spanish style, right? They really know how to have fun with each other just hanging out, doing nothing in particular. It's nice not to have a strict schedule all the time like I'm used to back home. Time seems to go slower here because of that, and it reminds me that the most important thing is not what I'm doing, but the relationships I'm forming. The theme for the weekend was "Atrevete" which means "dare yourself" or "challenge yourself," and the teachings were focused on living your life to the fullest, being who Christ made you to be. It was good, and I think fitting for me, considering all the ways I've changed just since I've been in Granada. I guess that's what this whole trip has been about--changing to be more like the person God made me to be. Of course this is always hard but worth it! Overall, the weekend was really fun and refreshing, and like any retreat, complete with a talent show! A 3-hour long talent show at that. After that we had a dance party till about 4 in the morning. I don't know how they always stay up so late here. It was definitely a fun night though! I'm in the mountains there in the picture to the left.

So, what else have I been doing....Hanging out in Granada a lot, getting to know the city better, exploring places I haven't seen before and revisiting favorite spots. My favorite thing is just to walk around because there are so many hidden, interesting places in Granada. I always find something new! A few days ago as I was walking around shopping I walked by a store filled with Christmas decorations and it made me really happy but really sad I wasn't in Ohio experiencing the holidays there! Last weekend I was on the retreat over Halloween--not that they really celebrate it much here anyway--and I won't be traveling with my family to Missouri like usual for Thanksgiving. Our program is hosting a Thanksgiving dinner for us since we'll all be missing our families and the plates full of food so much! I think Angela, Andrea and I are going to attempt to cook some good American Thanksgiving food for our family, which I'm really excited about! We'll see how our cooking turns out...haha.

Speaking of cooking, we're planning on making homemade American brownies this weekend with our Senora, which I'm stoked about. :-) I really can't believe how close I'm becoming with this family, especially our madre and hermanita Elena. She calls herself my shadow or "mini-kyla" and she makes my heart melt! I'm not as close with her twin sister Maria, but she cracks me up! She loves imitating people, especially her teachers, which is always great entertainment for us. Earlier tonight she put on an "espectacular" for us, imitating a famous singer here and her music teacher from school. It makes me smile just to think of her with her mom's glasses on the end of her nose, her arms spread wide as if conducting a choir, singing out of key "Mariiiiiia es...la madre de Jesus y mía también...." We couldn't get enough of it, and our laughter only spurred her on more. I love our family! haha. There's a picture of her to the right, doing her imitations.

I should get going since I have class tomorrow morning! Noooo! I guess tomorrow morning I'll also know the results of the election...some friends are going to a place in Granada to watch the results live until the morning, but I don't think I would be able to take it. I'm really nervous just thinking about it! This reminds me of another topic I need to post a blog about later--the difference between Americans and Europeans and how they view America and so on. That will be a really long blog, so I'll do that in a few days.

Hasta luego. Os quiero todos! Os echo de menos mucho.