First Day With My New Family

The first couple days have been insane and non-stop! We had an overnight flight to London, which, of course, was delayed for an hour and a half so we arrived late. And since there was a screaming baby on board the whole time none of the people in my area (aka the aifs kids on my flight) did not get a wink of sleep.

The first day in London we sought out a pub one of the boy's friends had informed him of then we went to Borough's and Camden Market, both of which are totally awesome in terms of people and food (tattoos piercings hippies and goths are just the start of camden market). Along the way we saw Southwark Cathedral, which was built in the 1200s. It is yellow and black rock brick stuff but overall I would say it is pretty cool.

After these markets was a drink and mingle at the hotel with all of Team Spain then off to bed at 8:00 because the only thing that separated us from being zombies was the craving for brains and other bits of human flesh and/or blood (but this last part about the cravings may not be true for everyone...)

Second day in London we awoke bright eyed and bushy tailed, almost over our jet lag, to embark upon a tour of London with a Scottish tour guide....yeah, that was my reaction too. The tour was cool and he told jokes that were not completely corny. There were a couple of hop-on-hop-off places for photo ops, including pictures of the millenium bridge (which gets blown up in the most recent Harry Potter movie) and St. Paul's Cathedral built by Sir Christopher Wren (as were most churches) after the great fire of 1666. I convinced one of the girls the last time we were here that the scaffolding that is on the church (in order to make restorations) is the original scaffolding used during the time of Sir Christopher Wren and when he died the left it there to honor him since the church remained unfinished. I know, the devil has just upgraded me to a jacuzzi sweet and a California King bed in hell...

We ended the day with a Jack the Ripper Tour and some Curry with free non-alcoholic beer....we were not so happy about that last part, but at least it was free. The Jack the Ripper tour was really intersting but there were no real visuals to make it scary. All of the sights had been torn down or built over. So if you have a vivid imagination, this tour would be great because the tour guide described in detail what had happened to all of the women. In detail.

The next morning we woke up super duper early but not quite so bright-eyed and bushy tailed, seeing as it was 3:00 AM....yes AM. We then set off for our Final Destination, and no this is not going to end in everyone dying in the order we sat on the plane. We arrived in Malaga then took a 2 hour bus ride to Granada to meet our Señoras.

My Señora is a petite lady we call Pepi who could kick the energizer bunny's ass in an energy competition. She hasn't stopped talking since we met her and she is fantastico. She picked us up from the bus stop, gave us a big hug and kisses on each cheek then led us back to her apartment near el Parque Federica Garcia Lorca, after the Spanish poet. Her apartment is small but awesome you can totally see her personality in her decorations of bright orange and pink. The table cloth is covered with smiling cat cartoons, my pillows have teddy bears on them and my roommate has the Simpson's sheets. for lunch we had some kind of meet with a hard boiled egg in the middle (it tasted a lot better than it sounded and looked) and salad with fresh tomatoes and sweet corn...que fantastico! we also had strawberries in milk...those had to have been the best strawberries I have ever eaten. And after a run down of the rules and stuff, we are having our siesta!

Oh, and did I mention we have a hermano whose name is Alejandro, he is 8, and a senor, whose name is Jose. We also have a dog and a parrot whose names I have yet to get correct...I think the dogs name is Chila.

The Spanish is overwhelming but I am understanding more than I thought I would! I tested into the fifth nivel (level) of Spanish out of eight and my classes begin tomorrow en la mañana. But seeing as there is a huge festival called Corpus in Granada which celebrates corpus christi, all afternoon classes and Thursday and Friday classes are called off. And that is how we do it in Spain. The siesta is fantástico. People think the Spanish are just lazy but it sucks to go out in the afternoon because it is around 90-100 degrees with no aire condicionado and so to avoid dying of heat stroke we sit out the hot hours and then go back to work. The sun does not set here until around 1030 so it is not like we are missing out on any sunlight either. I have yet to be burned by the scorching sun but I am betting that will change in the coming weeks....

!Eso es todo¡

Hasta la proxima vez