Granada

Hello from Spain!

So I got to Madrid two days ago and got to explore and settle in a bit. I've been spending a good amount of time with Almudena, my host mom, because she's on vacation from her job of being a high school music and history teacher. She is really enthusiastic and loves feeding us (I say us because Scott from my program is living with her parents who are out of town and is eating
with us until they return.) I also have yet to meet Dani, the family's five year old son because
he is on vacation as well. My only impression of Alumudena's husband, Juan, so far, is only
that he talks really fast and is difficult to understand.

But back to the vacation thing, Madrid halfway shuts down in August because so many people go on vacation. So many stores are closed until September and supposedly there are a lot less people on the streets than there will be once everyone returns. It will be interesting to see what the city will be like when it is full of people; even now the metro is pretty cramped at times.

Today we left Madrid for Granada, a five hour train ride. It's a nice, much smaller city. Tomorrow we are taking a walking tour and going to the Arab baths, which should be nice. Tonight we ended up walking around the city, trying to find nice bars and clubs. Apparently the bars don't start getting really lively until 1 and the clubs at 3. People here are crazy.

Anyway, that's all I have time for at the moment. There will surely be more to come.