My last post I ended by mentioning that I had a test in the morning. Some of us were a little worried, a few people even studied some grammatical things the night before, but it ended up being far from what we expected. We were ushered into an auditorium type lecture hall, where one of the program directors read us a text about the magia de la joventud (magic of youth) and the responsibilities that come with it. Then we had to summarize, using similar language. Not too bad.
After the test we had a free hour, so I went to a nearby plaza where one of my classmates had found a nice fruit stand and I bought some nectarines. One of which I ate and was AMAZING. We also wandered a bit, looked at pastries and came upon this lovely picturesque little spot where people were selling tea in bulk with funny names like fantasías de Granada.
Afterward we returned to the lecture hall where we were given a few little guidebooks and a shit ton of information. It was a bit overwhelming, especially in the heat. After the directores spoke to us for a while, they introduced us to student monitores; locals that we are assigned to in small groups, the idea being that they can help us with things like buying phones, finding housing and integrating in general. Our group went out for tapas and tinto de verano. Three of us were vegetarians and we got veggie pizza tapas which had carrots, olives, cheese and mushrooms (which I removed) and were actually not that bad despite their unusual ingredients. Or should I say ingredient: the carrots.
When we finished she showed us where gym and sports facilities are and then took us to a grocery store where they had hilarious little mini carts the size of our normal shopping baskets but equipped with wheels. I purchased Nutella and croissants. What else do you need in this world? (Hint: the answer is nothing. Or maybe water. I also got a big jug of water.)
Once we got back to the resedencias, I took a long, long siesta and then woke up to read and write a bit. Later, a huge group of us along with two of the monitores gathered to go watch a fútbol game in a bar. As we were waiting, a van pulled up and a few men unloaded (drum roll please) my SUITCASE! Words cannot express how much I appreciate all my clothes, etc. Anyway, our crowd was enormously conspicuous and I imagine hard to fit into any bar, so some of us stayed behind and went to a few places on our own. We got sandwiches in a little cafe/restaurant/bar where we watched the game (kind of) and then met up with a few more people and went to a bar. Our numbers were still pretty massive, so it was kind of hard to fit anywhere all together.
The residencia at dusk.
After a drink and some tapas we decided to go to another bar and perhaps later a club, but we split up for some people to change into more club-appropriate attire. My little subdivision forgot the name of the club and ended up wandered around for quite some time. It was an all-female group and a few men approached us or made comments, but at one point an older man literally ran at us and jumped a little railing yelling, chicas, chicas! It was creepy but vaguely hilarious. Eventually we ran into another group and found La Marisma, a scummy little bar where you get sunflower seeds with your drinks and everyone spits the shells on the ground.
Right when we got there, I managed to bump into a guy standing behind me that happened to be carrying three beers, one of which spilled on both of us. I apologized, but he looked a little pissed, and shined a flashlight on me to show the group of people whose beer I'd spilled that I was the culprit. It was hard to tell if he was actually angry or fucking with me, because he ended up giving me the beer... So I guess despite the awkward, I win.
The bar was playing metal when we arrived but ended up playing Zepplin and some other awesome tunes. We stayed until about 3:30 around which time we were planning on going to a club, but for the most part we were tired and no one felt like spending more money, so we walked back to the resedencia.
Strangely, though, this morning I awoke at 8am. I tried and tried to fall back asleep, but to no avail. Showering with my newly acquired toiletries and getting dressed was pretty divine though, and this morning my little group is scheduled to get churros and chocolate for breakfast. Hasta luego!
[PS. Sorry for the lack of photos; nightlife stuff is hard to capture with an iPhone that's all I have here!]
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