UIM

During my time here in Spain I have an internship at La Unión Iberoamericana de Municipalistas. Honestly it seems like the organization does everything under the sun. Mostly though, it is promoting better communities. They have departments that range from schools with English classes to urbanism and sustainable development research. Mostly I've been doing office work (understandable since it was my first week), but the director recently asked if I wanted to help with the English Immersion courses. Of course I said yes! ONe of the more interesting things about Spain is the amount of breaks they take during the day. This is not to say that Spaniards are lazy. On the contrary, they work just as many hours as we do per day, but they get breaks where they can shake the stress off during the day. For instance, second breakfast does exist. It tends to occur between 10:45 and 11:45 (sometimes noon). I normally just have a coffee or bring a piece of fruit from home, but many people go out, get a coffee and toast and relax for about 10 - 15 minutes. Then there's the best descanso (break) of them all: the lunch hour. This term is misleading since it lasts between 2 and 3 hours and also includes a 10 - 40 minute siesta (doctors say that 30 minutes is best). However, work goes on here until 8 in the evening. Oh, my life is just so hard right now.

Fight Songs and Social Gaffes

Last Sunday I was given the chance to attend the local soccer team's game. Los Cármenes are ranked fourth in the Second Division. Translation: they're not that great, but they're also not the worst. I had heard that they did not have many fans, but there were about 15,000 people at the stadium and about 12,000 of them knew some pretty awesome fight songs. I wound up telling my host sister and her boyfriend that sometimes the fans were more exciting than the game itself. I could even spot the "student" cheering section thanks to the flags and rude chants.

I'm going to start this next section by saying that in Spain it is customary to greet someone with two air kisses to the cheek, starting on the left. Now I'm going to tell you that it is not typically my first reaction to air kiss my sister's boyfriend. Having said this, I met him today and was on the way to extend my hand when he leaned forward slightly to his left and after a long-enough pause for the two of them to realize that I had forgotten social niceties we exchanged greetings. Then we all had a good laugh at my expense... luckily, I thought it was kind of funny, too.

Carolina Meets España

So, this little nugget of writing is to inform everyone that I am in Granada, Spain studying Spanish and oddly enough, Arabic. Who'd have thought, right? Orientation here has been just as harrying and hectic as freshman orientation was at Wofford. So, to all of you freshies who might be reading this... it isn't over by a long shot.

After a 20 km - yes, that is 12ish miles - (many portions of which I tried to remember if I had signed a release form) we arrived and passed through many beautiful coastal views in Cabo de Gata, a national park in Almería.

Interesting fact: many of the films that you believed were filmed in the American desert... not. They were filmed in Cabo de Gata: Laurence of Arabia, Clint Eastwood films, and the Indiana Jones movie that had his father in it. Sorry, I can't remember the name, but luckily I'm too far away to hunt down with an angry mob.

The views were beautiful and very close thanks to our part mountain goat guide. Luckily, I haven't been living as on the edge since we got home... luckily. And did I mention that it's fantastically beautiful here?