Fruta del Telar

Yesterday was my first day in Granada, which is actually Spanish for pomegranate.  Though I have yet to see the fruit here, the symbol is all over the place.  The blockers on the sidewalks so cars won't hit pedestrians are in the shape of a pomegranate.  In almost every symbol that I have seen of Granada, there has been some rendition of the fruit.  I actually don't think I've ever had it before, but maybe I'll try some if it is offered.  Anyways, we woke up yesterday and got a general tour of the city from our Assistant Directors Lydia and Ingrid.  We walked to the two buildings that we will be having classes in as well as where the API Program Office is located. API is the program that I'm using to study abroad and most people here call it ah-pee.

After walking a lot yesterday, Nicho, my roommate, and I returned home for some lunch.  We had this fantastic paella and potatoes, called patatas, and salad.  She also enjoys fruit so I had clementines, which was very nostalgic of home even though at home they remind me of Spain where they are grown.

We had to eat a quick lunch because we needed to return to the school building and fill out paperwork.  Being 35 minutes away, we left 45 minutes early and still got their late.  We tried to find a shorter path, but there was construction and we ended up getting lost.  A second after we pulled out our map, a stranger offered to help.  She took us towards the center and then had to leave us, but we asked her questions on walk there.  She turned out to be from Mexico, but was studying at the University of Granada for international relations.  She knows Spanish and English and has spent a year in Germany, so she actually knows German as well.  She hopes to be part of the United Nations if not the European Union.
After her guidance to the school, we stayed for the meeting and then left to go shopping.  The converter that I bought in the US didn't fit well in to the wall, so I bought a new one of those.  Otherwise, I walked around with other people as they shopped to get my bearings in the city.  I didn't end up taking many pictures because I felt so overwhelmed.  We have to navigate through a larger portion of the city than we had in Madrid.
We got back around 7 and Carmen prepared dinner for us around 830 and then she went out with her novio, or boyfriend, Pepe.  They went out for un paseo, or stroll, around the city and came back around 1030 which was about the time that I was ready to go out.  I met up with some people and we went to an Irish cerveceria, or bar, called Black.  We had a beer there and then went on the lookout for another place that we had heard about.  On the way there, we got extremely lost and ended at the school building! Discouraged, we went in the first bar we saw called Realoje.  This was the first place in Spain that I had been to that played Spanish pop music instead of American music.  I really liked the atmosphere, but everyone was just standing on their own, so we left after half an hour.  Then we were trying to find our way back to their apartment and we accidentally came across the other building for our school.  It was a good surprise though, because we knew how to get back from there.
Once we got back to their place, we took a quick bathroom break and went down the street right next to theirs.  There were so many young people, so this seemed like the place to go.  We went into the first bar and it was crowded, but we saw some familiar faces from our program so we chatted with them for a few.  After an hour though, we decided to call it a night.

I walked so much yesterday that I woke up and my legs felt like they didn't want to be attached to me anymore, but it was my first successful night of bar hopping.  I've been 21 for how long?  The first night in Granada was a huge success :) Here's to many more nights like this one.