Journal for aninnema

Hola a todos!

Let me start by saying that my thoughts are very mumble-jumbled and all over the place right now. Amidst the various letters, journals, documents, languages and experiences I have been immersed in these last few weeks, I am having a tad bit of difficulty keeping everything all together. This blog is an attempt to share all this AND put my thoughts together into something understandable, that makes a little more sense than the late night scribbles and poorly conceived spanish conversations I piece together on a regular basis. I hope you enjoy, and I apologize if you get lost. I get lost too, but thats most of the fun :) So lets begin.

“Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.”
- Vaclav Havel

It started as it has every time before: the southwest blue skies touching the desert soils and black tarmac, the white wings of jet planes lingering somewhere between the two. Albuquerque to Denver, Denver to Philadelphia, and finally, after months of paperwork and anticipation, excitement and anxiety, one plane after another, it was Philadelphia to Madrid.
7 hours of flight time between one country and another. 8 hours between my real mother and my Spanish one. 80 hours in a Spanish Intensive Course during the month of January, and 6 months between now and the time I will set foot onto any desert soils beneath southwest skies familiar to me, again.

Time. Its heavy on my mind lately. Two whole weeks have passed since I left but many more lie ahead. I don't know which scares me more. The first days were hard; arriving in Madrid alone, unsure and unbelievably tired, I couldn't help but wonder why the heck I thought this was a good idea. The people weren't the friendliest nor the most understanding and I felt VERY much ALONE, in the most uncomfortable of ways. So I slept. I unpacked and repacked. I floated in a myriad of restless thoughts while I tried to bathe away my discomfort. I woke up at 2:00 am and packed some more. Finally, at around 9:00, I checked out of my hotel, made my way to the bus station, and waited to meet the place I currently consider home.

Since, things have improved tremendously. My host mother is AMAZING. She cooks us delicious food, does our laundry, and is the sweetest, most loving señora ever. Taryn and I have very much been included as parts of the family and "Ana Mama" as we call her has made it very clear that it is our house too. School is difficult - my lovely gee (miss you!) asked me how 4 hours of spanish a day were treating me. I had to correct her that its actually 24 hours of Spanish, 5.5 of which are spent in class, lol. I can always tell what kind of a day it will be first thing when I wake up: if my thoughts are in spanish, vale, things will be fine. If not, well, lots of coffee and and a little more work are required. Its getting easier - even though the 5.5 hours of class are resulting in long days and the realization that I need to study A LOT, they have already made understanding and speaking unbelievably better.

Other great things: Tapas are free with drinks here in Granada, something I know I am going to love (and hate when my clothes don't fit anymore) very much and miss when I venture outside the city. Beer and vino is also readily available (Granada has one of the highest bars per capita of any city in Spain. Perfect!). People like to dance ( Taryn and I didn't return until 6:30 am - early in spanish time - from dancing in a discoteca). I get nutella for breakfast EVERYDAY. The list goes on... I would say this whole Spain thing was a GREAT idea after all.

Ok. I need to study copious amounts of spanish grammar/sleep/stop babbling about things I have lots of time to share with you at a later date. In case you care to know, my address is:

Ana López Ruiz
Alexandra Ninneman
Fermín Garrido, 8 - Edificio Brasilia - Portal 1-1°D
18012 Granada SPAIN

Love is always appreciated :)
Un beso, and thanks for your attention despite the rambles!