La Alhambra

WOW my legs are tired!

Today we all went to La Alhambra, which I thought was just a castle, but it turned out to be an a really old city with multiple castles in it. It's at the top of the biggest hill I've ever climbed in my life. Holy cow it was tiring --but great exercise-- but the hill allows the Alhambra to have amazing views of the city. The city was really interesting, especially when you consider that it was built in the 14th Century. I did feel bad because I'm a little bit dense when it comes to art, architecture, etc. (my favorite part of going to the Art Institute on The Lane School field trips was getting to eat McDonalds for lunch...) but I was still able to appreciate the Alhambra. 

We got there around 11:00 and toured the grounds for four hours before having lunch (our host moms packed us bocadillos, or sandwiches). We were all starving after our intense hike and the amount of walking we did around the grounds, so all of us inhaled our bocadillos. An interesting thing about Spain (this will only be interesting to people who like food as much as I do) is that they have french bread for their everyday bread. Wonderbread is considered a HUGE luxury and very gourmet here. Who would have thought? 

We got done with our Alhambra visit around 5:00 and decided to go somewhere to sit and have something to drink, but we had the hardest time finding somewhere. Everything in Spain is closed on Sundays! The atmosphere is very interesting over here. We managed to find a café called (appropriately) La Alhambra and sat around and had coca cola light.

I'm back at the piso now and really thanking God for putting me in this great environment. Everyone generally likes their host family, but I'm definitely having one of the smoothest transitions into homestay so far. Internet, central heat, and a very patient and interactive family are enormous blessings.