Day in the Life

Since our time in beautiful Granada is winding down, I thought it might be nice to provide a little look into my everyday life here, from classes and homework to tapas and nightlife! Since Thursdays are my busiest (but often most fun!) days, I’m going to walk you through my Thursday, November 21st.

The morning began with my Spanish 352 class at 8:35 a.m. Not going to lie to you, this is sometimes a rough wake-up. But Mondays and Wednesdays my class starts at 9:45 a.m., so the versatility is much appreciated. And Fridays I have no classes, of course! 

So I walked the 10 minutes from my residence through Centro to the IES Abroad Center, and had my Spanish class. We’re working on the subjunctive right now, and I feel like I’m finally understanding the rules! All thanks to my awesome professor, Antonio. 

Next, I had a break before class, so a friend and I grabbed coffee around the corner in the Albaicín neighborhood. I love this neighborhood, especially the coffee shop BonneVie. I go there weekly, and my friend admits that she goes there almost daily!

After a lovely break, I head back to school to go to my Federico Garcia Lorca class. This class is always super fun and dynamic, with this week being no exception. For four sessions, the director of IES Abroad Granada, Javier, is taking over my class to work with us on Lorca’s plays. He has a lot of experience in theater, so he’s been leading us through some acting and directing exercises. My favorite has been when he made us act out abstract paintings! 

After that fun, I had my Mediterranean ecosystems class. I only have this class once a week, so I usually am really looking forward to it. This week, we debated how to present the issues of climate change to peers in the most effective manner, and also reflected on some of the awesome field trips we’ve taken.

Then it was back home for lunch with my friends, where my residence hall cooked up some yummy and saucy pasta. I took a brief rest before heading to my Alhambra visit with my Islamic art and architecture class, which was incredibly beautiful. I was a little tired at this point, I can’t lie, but I rallied, and it certainly was worth it. 

We walked around the grounds of the Alhambra, saw the beautiful gardens, and learned a lot about the history behind the Generalife section of the structure. It’s absolutely wild to me that this place still exists, and we are able to walk where kings once did. 

After this cultural experience, I went to a very different cultural experience: Fútbol!! Every Thursday, a lot of IES Abroad kids go to the soccer fields and play around for an hour or so. As someone with absolutely no soccer experience, I was definitely intimidated at first. But seeing how unserious it can be was really fun, and now I feel like I’m going to be leaving Granada having learned yet another thing. My friends and I finished off the day with burgers, the perfect reward after a long (but awesome) day. I went to sleep happy with my Thursday, excited for the weekend to come, and certainly glad to be getting some rest!

¡Hasta pronto!

Lily