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...