My travels and the first day of class

Hi!


Well I have made it to Granada! The flights were fine mostly. On the flight from Dallas to Madrid I sat next to a man who was stationed at a Navy base near Cadiz. He helped me get to the terminal where my boarding pass said my flight to Granada would be. However, after a very long walk, going through immigration and security we discovered that my gate was changed to the terminal we had arrived in... Luckily I didn´t have to go through immigration and security again. Despite the error, I´m glad he was willing to help because the Madrid airport was quite confusing! When I arrived in Granada my suitcase did not! The taxi driver who was sent by the school to pick me up took me to the lost baggage window and helped me file a report. By this time everyone is speaking Spanish only. I was able to understand that the airline had my host mother´s address and phone number and when the suticase was found it would be delivered to me at her house.


When I arrived at Mercedes´ (my host mother) house she was nice although she doesn´t speak a word of English. Her son was there, he´s grown and has his own place, but he spoke a little English. I was able to explain that my suitcase was lost and the airline had her phone number. She went to her daughter´s house and got me some pajamas and insisted on washing my clothes because the next day was Sunday and the stores would be closed. Thankfully, my suitcase was found and delivered Sunday evening.





My host mother has seven students living at her house; 2 girls from Georgia, 1 boy from Illinois and me from the United States. 1 girl, Daniella, from Korea. 1 other asian girl named Mow ?? And a boy from Russia, his name is Grishka ??, we also call him "el Ruso" the Russian. Daniella, Mow, Grishka and I all attend the same language school. The others go to different schools. Oh, there is another guy Mike from England who used to live at the house, but know just comes around at mealtime. Mercedes asked Griska to show me the way to the school on Sunday. We walked to the school and then we kept walking, we probably saw more than half the city in about an hour. He speaks very little English and his Spanish is not quite as good as mine, but it was fun to communicate with him.





Monday morning I had to be at the school by 8 am for a level test, so the school can place me in the corect level of classes. The rest of the students arrive at 9 am. So I ventured out on my own this morning. I got lost. I walked and walked and walked. Finally, after asking a couple of people I got to the school. I was about 30 minutes late. Luckily, the test was pretty quick and I was done a little before 9am. I was placed in the Intermediate B-2 class. The levels are beginner 1, 2 and 3 (I think, maybe just 1 & 2), then intermediate B-1, B-2 and then alto (advanced). So I was very happy to be in B-2. I have 2 classes that are about 1 3/4 hours long. I was a little overwhelmed in the first one, but hopefully that is just first day jitters. The second went better - it is a conversation class.





This is a good week to be in Granada because it is their festival week. Starting today and going all week is "feria". Mercedes tells me there will be lots of booths (casitas) with tapas and dancing. But there will also be bullfighting. I am kind of excited to watch! Mercedes is going to see which days there are tickets available. Thursday is the most popular day to go. Thursday is Corpus Christi, but I don´t know what that is. But on Thursday a famous torredor (bullfighter) will be in Granada - so the locals are excited to watch him and it is sold out.





I think that is all I have to tell you for now. Talk to you again soon!





Courtney