wanderings and wonderings.

Second blog in one week...I feel like a failure at this already. :)

Truth be told, I am tired here. A lot. Communication is proving to be hard--steep learning curve for the Espanol for me. I started teaching yesterday, and all I can say at this point is WOW. My school was not quite ready to receive me, and my language abilities were not quite ready to communicate in 100% Spanish, so it has been a rough start. With this said, I am supposed to have a schedule by the end of this week for what classes I will be teaching and at what levels. So tomorrow, I go to hang out with elementary school kids, who seem WAY more excited every morning to see me than the teens with which I am supposed to be working. I am still excited to be here though and know that I have so much learning to do through this experience. Vamos a ver que va a pasar....

I have not written since I took a three-day trip with a fellow IU teacher to Granada last week. It was an amazing time and much needed break between my student teaching experiences. We arrived in Granada in the morning of the 27th after an overnight bus ride from our northern city of Avila. On what little sleep Jackie and I were able to steal on the bus ride, we ate a wonderful breakfast at a local hotel and proceeded to wait in line for tickets to the Alhambra for close to 3 hours....

We felt like we had won the Grand Prize Game when we finally got our tickets and then realized that we had not even discussed the idea of walking the entire Alhambra and its surrounding gardens on no sleep. So with tickets in hand and bags under our eyes, we set out to see a true wonder of the world. I admit I was a bit delirious through the tour, but aware enough to marvel at the rich creation of Spain's Moorish empire. I can say with assurance that these people knew how to combine spiritual devotion with interior design. See my photos for details. The gardens surrounding the palace were lush and kept to perfection. All of this was set against a scenery of rolling hills, snow capped mountains and white stucco buildings nestled into the countryside. After the tour, we dragged our tired bodies to a local cafe for dinner...and went to sleep for the next 15 hours. It was possibly the best sleep of my life.

The next two days were a whirlwind of window shopping, garden walking, tapas eating, conversation having wonderfulness. We met some amazing people from all over Europe and had fantastic conversations about politics, global commerce and economics, the Colts and culture in both English and Spanish. I was proud of our friend-making and linguistic skills. My favorite encounter was with a couple that were in Granada to plan their coming wedding in August of 2008--she from Ireland and he from England. I told them that the salvation of the world could possibly be wrapped up in their ability to make a marriage work and blend their families. We had a nice cheers over that one.

Ok, much more to write but it is close to midnight here, and I must play with 9 year olds in Spanish tomorrow.
Love.