Long time no blog eh?
I had planned to post while I was away, because I naively thought that I wouldn't be that busy, and that posting twice a week would be a piece of cake.
Oh, how wrong I was.
Over the last three weeks, I was unbelievably busy, because I went to the amazing country of Spain in order to improve my Spanish.
view from our house
I was completely immersed in the Spanish language as I stayed with a Spanish family in Malaga for all of the time I was there. It was fabulous! The family were so so kind and the food they cooked was amazing.
Everyday, I would have classes from 9am to 1:30pm. After, we would have lunch and go for other activities. On the first Monday, we went to Sealife which now, looking back, was fun! But at the time, it was probably about 30 degrees and I was walking about on five hours sleep. Needless to say, I slept pretty well that night!
The Wednesday, we took a day trip to Alhambra and Granada. Alhambra is a UNESCO world heritage site not too far from Granada, which is like a palace and a fortress built by the Muslims. It was absolutely spectacular. The details of the palace from the ceiling to the walls itself was completely breathtaking and made me feel very lucky to have been able to visit it. It's gardens were beautiful with fantastic views of Granada itself.
After, we went into Granada city for a bit of shopping (of course I had to pop into Sephora) and it was 36°c! Granada itself, although I didn't see a lot of it, is a beautiful city and I really enjoyed being there.
Now we are going to take a second to appreciate the fruit in Spain. Wow.
Because Spain has such a warm climate, it is totally suited for growing tropical fruits such as watermelons, peaches, cherries etc. I took advantage of it wholeheartedly! I think I more than likely ate my body weight in watermelon and cherries because they taste a million times better than what we have here.
On the Friday, we took a cable car to the top of a mountain and were greeted by the sunshine when we walked further to the top. The views (like basically everywhere I was in Spain) were breathtaking, and we could actually see Morocco.
Of course, we had our fair share of beach days. The beach was pretty far away from us, so I didn't go as much as I probably should have but when I did go it was lovely. I loved being able to relax and read my book while sipping on Aquarius which is SUCH a beautiful Spanish soft drink.
One night I also went to the beach along with my friend and host mom and she bought us ice cream (our host mom was the cutest). I also went to the beach at night with my other friends too and always had a lot of fun.
We also took a half day trip after classes to the small hillside town of Mijas. We had very little time here, but we did see things such as the ayuntamiento (town hall) and also bought ice cream from a gelateria featured on the BBC! They also included a big hunk of chocolate in their icecream, which was fabulous.
We took another half day excursion to Nerja, where we ate ice cream (a lot of ice cream was consumed on this trip) and saw caves, which had the largest column in the world! My brother was well jel.
On our final night, there was the first night of a fair! It was an ok night, but I honestly would have preferred spending time with my friends instead of being made go to the fair. It was fine though, and the lights were pretty!
Now I am at home, with post Spain blues. Even though I was in class and up early everyday, I would go back in a heartbeat as I feel my Spanish has improved so much and I've made so many new friends. Until next time España!
Kate
