Spain and Beyond

Daily Drena: You can tell a tourist by the smell of his/her shoes.

We’ve had many experiences in Granada, but one we’ve left out continues to be daily amusement for us. Many people have dogs, and all these dogs leave presents on the cobblestone. Each day we leave our apartment, there is a new present to be found on our 5 minute walk to school. The first time we pass, it’s whole. The 2nd time it might be scuffed a bit. The 3rd time it has a good chunk out of it, and by the 4th it is usually completely squished. By the next day, it’s nowhere to be found. Other than this, the streets are actually quite clean.

We both have succumbed to the locals’ gifts early in our trip, but learned quickly that if you want to look up and around, you’d better be extra careful.

Daily Drena: Special Spanish

Drew had to work mucho today, but I went on the tour with the Escuela back to the Alhambra, this time to see the free art museum of Spanish-Moorish art and the ancient Hammam. Jose, our former conversation professor guided us, and almost got thrown in jail for his duties. The school has been taking students through the Hammam for 10 years (I think), but for some reason today the officials decided that he wasn’t allowed to do this without a badge. First one official came, then another, then three, then one left and yet another one came. They “discussed” for about 15 minutes until they finally released Jose to continue our now non-tour tour. I was worried he wasn’t going to make it out at all. After the museum, he sent us on our way and he had to go back and get it situated. I’m not sure what exactly he had to do, but he did show up for class the next day so that’s good.

In our world, there are basically two types of Spanish. Special Spanish and regular Spanish. Special Spanish is how we speak and how the professors speak to us. We can understand almost all of the Special Spanish. But once we get outside the school, it’s an entirely different ballgame. When the officials came after Jose, he converted to regular Spanish and I had to rely on hand gestures and the more advanced students for interpretation.