A Fish out of water

I arrived a week ago now. I still feel like a fish out of water! I arrived after taking two trains; one from Montpelier, France and another overnight train from Barcelona to Granada. 17 hours later there I was, sleep deprived and disorientated to say the least. I got a taxi to the address of my host family and rang the bell. I immediately realize that she, Carmen, spoke no English and basically I speak little or no Spanish……….yikes! Luckily, the other two girls staying here do and Sophia, a cute young English girl, acted as my initial tour guide and interpreter. Talk about immersed! The whole idea is just that- in order to learn the language and the culture you need to speak Spanish as much as possible but when you can only say hello, goodbye, thank you and where is the bathroom, it’s a bit of a culture shock to say the least. Hardly anyone speak English, even in the shops.

I got settled into my hotbox of a room and had a wander around Granada with Sophia as my guide. Sundays are typically very quiet being that Saturday is a big fiesta night and often the partiers don’t come home until 6 or 7 am so Sunday is a big siesta day. We stopped and had a drink and it’s typical that you get free tapas with any beverage order. Nice!

Back to the casa for lunch which is usually about 2:00-anywhere from 12:30-2:00 in Spain. That was my second eye opener. Carmen seems to only cook with mucho grease; I watched her fry an egg in about an inch of oil and then deep-fry potatoes(papas fritas) The food is also very salty but luckily the water here in Granada is pure and fresh and believe me I’ve been going through a lot of it. I questioned whether I could survive the cooking after that first meal and for a month at that. I only signed up for two meals a day; so I’ve opted for breakfast and lunch and figured I could always go out for an evening drink enjoying sitting outside and people watching having tapas and maybe a salad.

Monday morning came and off I went to the Spanish language school. I was put into the afternoon classes which are from 3-7 which I was happy about so I could have the mornings to study, explore and workout. My third shocker was that EVERYTHING is taught in Spanish and I felt completely lost but what can you expect when they cater to all foreigners and not just English speaking ones. Also, Spain Spanish is quite different to Mexico Spanish and the accent very hard to understand. After a week of complete frustration I feel I can understand a bit more, comprehend the written word a bit more but speak.........well barely. I’m good at Spanglish but constructing a sentence still does not make sense to me and understanding congregating the verbs is mind boggling.

In spite of realizing that I am a SLOW learner when it comes to learning a foreign language, I am determined to stick with it and see what happens after three more weeks…..
Wish me luck!