Morocco here I come!

Hola! Today is my last day of orientation, which means that I have to take my level test to see what classes I will be taking here. The test begins at 11 today and lasts for about 3.5 hours! Yikes! I will find out the results around 6 pm tonight. After the test I have to go back ton the apartment I am staying at, eat lunch and finish packing because my group and I are headed off to Morocco for 4 days! I am soooo excited to go! I have heard nothing but good things from this trip. I will fill you all in on the details when I get back (probably Wednesday). Hasta luego!

My time in Spain...

Hello! Here is a re-cap of my last few days in Granada. January 17 (Tuesday) Half of the Granada group took a tour around the City Center. We started the excursion at City Hall where we learned about the flags hanging outside government buildings. Normally there are 4 flags, one for the city, one for the state/region, another for the country, and a final one for the European Union. The day we went past the EU flag was absent. In front of the City Hall was a gorgeous decoration set into the sidewalk. It depicted King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.  Next on our excursion we visited the Hotel of Granada, the oldest hotel in the city, even though it no longer functions as a hotel. It is 3 stories high. The first floor was used to house the animals, the second for the guests, and the third for promiscuous activities.  The hotel was used by merchants to sell their goods (mainly wheat).  Over time the hotel was used to house soldiers during wars, as an apartment complex, and is now a tourist site in Granada.  January 18 (Wednesday) For lunch today we (my roommate Amy and I) headed back to the apartment we live in. Our host mom watches her grandson Juan Antonio during the day and today when we went back he was eating with his aunt (one of Carmen's daughters). She was asking him what mine and Amy's names are and he would say mine when asked, but when asked what Amy's name is he would say, "Ni idea", which means "no idea" in Spanish. It was adorable. :) January 19 (Thursday) Today we visited the Albaycin, which is a neighborhood built on a mountain in Granada. It is home to many gorgeous views of the city and the Alhambra (a moorish castle). We started the excursion out by passing the River Darro (golden river in Spanish). When people settled in Granada they found the river glittering with gold that had come from the Sierra Nevada mountains, hence the name Darro.  Next we visited an Arab bath turned tourist spot. We entered the bathhouse and in the patio area was a pool of water. This was used for people to wash up before entering the bath house. The next room was used for people to undress. That room led to the cold water room where people would take water flowing from a pipe in the wall and cleanse their selves. They would then cross the bath house the the warm water room to do the same thing. In the middle of the cold and hot water rooms was a relaxation room. The Arab baths were a great place for people to socialize. Finally we began our trek up the mountain through the Albaycin neighborhood. The Albaycin is where most of the rich people in the city live. Many of the homes have their own private gardens. Our professor, Arriello, leading the tour described the Albaycin as having 3 levels of views. The first level was only "sexy", in other words the view was good, but not great. The second level was "sexy sexy", it was better than the first, but not quite the best. The third he described as "sexy sexy BOOM!", because this view was AMAZING! We had a panoramic view of the city, the Alhambra, and the Sierra Nevada mountains at the third level. Our trek down the mountain included a view of the Palace of Fatima, the castle for the mother of the last Arab king to occupy Spain. January 20 (Friday) Today our group had a meeting with Veronica and class with our professors like usual. Over lunch I had an Intercambio, which is a time where a Spanish student meets a small group of 5 students from our group from Central to talk in Spanish and hang out. The Spanish student leading our group is Trini. Our group went to tapas over the lunch hour. It was fun. That night Tesla (a girl who lives near me), Amy (my roommate), and Shannon (she goes to BV with me) went out for tapas, which are basically drinks and appetizers. Tapas starts after lunch time and lasts till midnight. Almost every cafe, restaurant, and bar serve tapas. Basically you buy a drink and are served the food with it for free. It is a very cheap way to eat. The 4 of us ended up hitting 3 cafes for tapas.  January 21 (Saturday) The same three girls from Friday night and I spent the afternoon roaming the city trying to learn more about it and how to navigate it. That night we went over to Tesla's apartment to play cards. January 22 (Sunday) On Sunday the four of us girls headed out again to the streets of the city. We went to the Parque de Ciencias, which is a science museum in Granada. We stayed there till lunch and Amy and I spent the rest of the afternoon/night hanging out in our apartment. January 23 (Monday) Today we had a meeting with our professor and class this afternoon, not a very eventful day... For some reason the website I am using for my blog takes a long time to upload pictures that I want to put on my blog, so I will probably refrain from posting pictures on my blog. If you would like to see pictures from my semester you can go to www.facebook.com, type in Roseanna Storbakken in the search box at the top. Once you are on my profile you can click on " pictures" underneath my picture and look at my Granada 2012 photo album. People who do not have Facebook can look at these pictures even though you don't have an account. Thanks so much for reading my blog. If you have questions you can comment on the blog. Hasta luego! Roseanna

January 18th Update

Hello to everyone from Granada! I hope everyone is doing well. I am doing fine. I cannot remember what I told you about my life in the last post (I am currently writing this from my home where I don't have internet), so here is another general update. I live with a widowed woman named Carmen. She is incredibly nice. She has 2 daughters, a son-in-law, and 2 grandchildren. She watches her grandson, Juan Antonio, who is 2 years old, during the day. She is a good cook. The past couple days we have had soup for supper because it is "cold" here by their standards, but it is really in the 50s. We have bread ( pan) and fruit (frutas) with each meal minus breakfast. For breakfast we have coffee and a large cracker type of food called tostado. Today during lunch Carmen and her daughter were asking Juan Antonio what mine and Amy's names are. He would say my name when asked, but whenever he was asked Amy's name he would say "Ni idea.", which means "no idea" in Spanish. It was adorable. I also live with another girl from my program, Amy. Amy goes to Central College in Pella, Iowa. She is very nice and she and I are becoming fast friends. We walk to school each day with another girl from our program, Tesla, who is also very nice and we are becoming fast friends as well.  Each morning we have about a 30 minute walk to school, we walk back home for lunch, take a siesta, then walk back to school for more classes, then walk home for the night. It's a lot of walking! :) Right now our group is in orientation for 2 weeks. Orientation is a period of time that allows us to adjust to the home life, the language, the country/culture, etc. Each morning we have a meeting with our program director, Veronica, where we go over things we need to know. After that there is an excursion, the whole group is divided into 2 groups so one day group 1 goes on an excursion and the next day group 2 goes. My group does not have an excursion today. Yesterday my group went on an excursion around the City Center. Basically Granada is built in rings. The inner-most ring is the Cathedral, which is part Islamic and part Catholic.  The next ring is the business center or mercado, this is the heart of business in Granada. Next is where most of the people in Granada live. This is what I learned about Granada on my excursion yesterday. Tomorrow my group takes an excursion to El Albaycin, which I am not really sure what it is, but I will tell you what I learn after my excursion. :) After the excursion and lunch our group has class. Our classes are divided into sections depending on how we tested in our pre-placement test. I tested into level 4 , but hopefully  I can jump up to level 5 on the official test because that is where I need to be. We have about 3 hours of class and then we are done for the day. If you didn't know, the meal times are very different in Spain than in the US. Breakfast is around 8 am, lunch around 2 pm (most businesses close during this time), siesta or "nap-time" is after lunch, and supper is around 9 pm. It has been a challenge to adjust to the new eating times. Wow! I wrote a lot! :) Ok, that is probably enough for now. Everyone will have to wait for pictures because I need to take my computer to school to put them up and my computer is kind of heavy, so I will probably upload a bunch at a time. Feel free to comment on my posts...I have no idea how you have to do it, but I have received 2 so far from Mom and Cindy. I love hearing from you all! Roseanna

Here is an update of my time here. My host mom is a widower. Her name is Carmen. She is nice, but she doesn't talk a lot. She has 2 daughters, a son-in-law, and 2 grandchildren. I have met them all. They are all nice. The city is kind of confusing. The roads twist and turn a lot and most of the streets aren't marked with signs. I have gotten lost once so far, but the more I walk the streets the more I begin to understand them.  I live with a girl named Amy, she is from Central. She is very nice and I get along with her well. She, I and another girl named Tesla live near each other and we walked to school together this morning. I like Tesla a lot too. Today for class we had a meeting where we went over more ground rules and helpful information. After that Amy, Tesla, and I headed home for lunch (we have a 35 minute walk). After lunch we had to go back to school to take a level test to help place us into groups to better help us to learn the language. I don't know the results yet. Tomorrow we have another meeting, class, and an excursion to the City Center.

January 14, 2012

Ok, I made it to Granada all in one piece. I had no problems with my luggage. The only problem I currently have is I am pretty jet-lagged and all I want to do is curl up and sleep, but I know that if I would do that that I would probably wake up at 4 am and not be able to go back to sleep, so here is to staying up till 9 pm or so tonight in order to get a full nights rest.

            I was only able to sleep for 3 hours on the plane, which is fine, I’m glad that I was able to get some rest. After the international flight landed in Madrid we went through customs where I received my first international travel stamp in my passport!! Yay! I cannot wait to fill my passport up with stamps from different countries. After customs and the new stamp (yay again!) we (my group and I) sat around waiting for our next flight to Granada. The flight was about 45 minutes long and finally we landed in Granada. Myself, Becca, and 2 other girls took a shuttle straight to our hotel (Hotel Melia) where we checked in, took a small amount of time to check email/Facebook/etc and freshen up and then we were out on the streets exploring again. Three of us has supper in a restaurant called “Telepizza”. It was interesting to say the least…Currently I am in my hotel room writing the blog and I hope to go do a bit more exploring before the night ends.

            Oh! I almost forgot to mention the room Becca and I are staying in! Shame on me! It is a nice room, but an interesting feature is you have to use your room key to turn on the lights. It is different and it took us a minute to figure out. Also we have a fantastic (total sarcasm) view out our window…See the picture below…

            Tomorrow the fun begins, at noon our orientation begins. This is where I will meet my host family for the first time!! It is bound to be exciting!

  

Becca and I at the Madrid airport after we landed.

  Our hotel room…

 The fancy lights in our room. The top one is for the key and the bottom is the light switch.

 

  

 The view outside our room…I am not joking about the view.

 Hotel Melia

  A panoramic view of the street in from of the hotel.

January 13, 2012

Today I am finally embarking on the most exciting journey of my life to date—studying abroad in Granada, Spain.

I reached the Des Moines International Airport from where I flew with a girl from school, Rebecca Vierkandt. On that flight were four other girls that are in our program. They all go to Central College in Pella, Iowa. Our flight was like any normal flight. When we got off the plane I was waiting for Becca in the terminal and also waiting in the terminal was a man who was waiting for his daughter. The daughter happened to be one of the girls in our program and the man was between flights and thought he would surprise her…Oh, did I mention that this man is also the President of Central College? Well he is. So, continuing on…the President of Central College ended up buying lunch for the six of us girls that were together. It was incredibly nice of him. Over lunch he told us more about the program we were in and showed us a few pictures of Granada.

Currently I am on my international flight to Madrid. We should arrive around 10 am tomorrow morning and then Becca and I will take one more short flight from Madrid to Granada.

Adios para ahora! (In other words, good-bye for now!)

Granada

For all those who have been asking me where Granada is located in Spain here you go! Only 48 hours to go till I will be on a plane bound for Spain!