Fin de Semana 1 (weekend)

What a weekend. To be honest, it was a tough weekend for me. I miss the US. I think it was most difficult because the house I am staying at does not have phone or internet, which made contacting John or my family difficult. I did my best, and was able to get a phone card and find a few pay phones. Hopefully, next weekend I will have a key to the office and can come use the internet. I also find it is difficult for me to be around so much Spanish, sometimes I just need to be alone and think in English! When I am around a large group, I have to concentrate so hard to try and understand what people are talking about, its exhausting.

I did do some exploring of the city and experienced the nightlife a little bit. Here's a recap of the weekend:

Friday Night
On Friday night, I moved from the hostel to the house I am staying at. Then, Andrea and Jessica (my housemates) made dinner and some friends came over. The dinner guests did not even arrive until 10pm! Crazy. We had couscous with vegetables and cheesecake for dessert. Oh, and wine, of course. It is funny to listen to a conversation in Spanish and suddenly somebody says "couscous" because the word is the same. Anyway, it was difficult for me because at the dinner table, the conversation was in Spanish. And people from Spain talk so fast. But, it was fun to watch them, they are so expressive. Every once and a while, a small conversation was had in English, but for the most part, I just observed. The dinner guests left at 2am, so it was straight to bed.
Saturday
I started the day with breakfast (cereal! yeah!) then did work for a few hours. Then, it was time to break for lunch. Argh, one of the traditions I just don't like. We made lunch and sat around and ate lunch, then had tea. I would much rather have had more cereal or leftovers for lunch. After lunch, I took a walk in the neighborhood. It is a new neighborhood, and I took some pics:











From left to right, the photos are the sign for the neighborhood I live in, a smart car and a view of the many houses on the hill.

After the walk, I returned to the house and did a little more work, then I went with my housemates for a walk in the Albaicin. The Albaicin is the old Arab quarter of Granada. It is a maze of narrow cobblestone streets and offers many fantastic views of the city and the Alhambra. Also, close to the Albaicin is the Sacramonte, a neighborhood where people live in caves, sort of. The caves have house fronts, but they jet into the caves in the back. Lots of gypsies and hippies live in this area. I got a few good pics, but will return many more times and take more ( I was with people, sometimes I like to linger and take lots of pics at one spot. I learned this from my BIL!). Here are a few pictures of the neighborhood:

one of the many churches in the 'hood:

a view towards the Sierra Nevada foothills (i think!?) a cave in the Sacramonte:

me and Andrea: (see, I am actually in Spain!)
This post is getting long, so I'll start a new one with the rest of the weekend.