David en Espana, Ole

Hello Family---This is an email from David updating us on his travels in Espana!

Dear Fam,
I know that this email is long overdue, and for that I am sorry. I have never been very good at updating those around me about my activities, but this email should help catch everyone up one what life has been like over here in España. Well, to begin, it has been an amazing and eye opening experience, and one that I would highly recommend to any of the other cousins who are in a position to undertake a similar journey. I would do it again in a heartbeat, and I wish that I had the time in my life to do it all over in another country and learn another language. Now for some specific info. I go to a branch campus of the University of Granada, El Centro de Lenguas Modernas (Center of Modern Languages), which is a facility dedicated, almost exclusively, to the study of languages. Although there are a lot of Americans, it is open to people from any country and so I have classes with Japanese, Swedish, Australian, French, English, Bulgarian, Belgian, and students from various other nationalities as well. The classes range from intensive language courses in eleven different languages to Spanish economics; it is quite an eclectic mix. I am currently in Spanish Grammar, History of Modern Latin America, a Spanish conversation class at the Superior B (one below Perfecto) level , and an English-Spanish translation class. As expected, I am learning a helluva lot of Spanish, which I consider to be the most important thing that I am taking out of this experience. In addition to this however, the fun times have been something that I couldnt even imagine possible. Granada is a city of 200,000, with a student population of 65,000. Needless to say, the night life here is amazing. The Spanish dont even begin to go out until at the very least 11:00, and always finish the nights with dancing at some discoteca or salsa spot, so I have spent many a late night imitating my brother Pat on the dance floor, hoping to smooch on some Spanish girl. I usually fail in this respect. One of the interesting things about being here is that you hang out with your friends all day every day, more so even than in normal college, and so I have grown incredibly close to a number of people in my relatively short time here. This is great for the day to day life, from just having a coffee in a plaza to playing soccer on one of the many brick courts to going to a discoteca, the group of friends that I have here has made an incredible difference. They are also great to travel with. Within two hours by public bus, we can be at almost any of the beaches on the Costa del Sol, and thanks to the practice among Spanish women of sunbathing topless, being at any beach around here is quite an awesome time. In addition to the beaches, I have traveled with my program to Seville, Madrid, Toledo, Cordoba, Gibraltar (to see the monkeys, absolutely amazing), Segovia, Escorial, and Almeria. I have also traveled with friends to Edinburgh, Scotland, and Amsterdam, Holland (great architecture and museums, but since I dont smoke or engage in carnal relations the city had limited appeal). In two weeks I am going to Kassel, Germany to visit Miso and his family and from there I will head into Switzerland to visit the Landtwings. I also might make a trip to Dublin to visit Sue and Aimee Johnson in the beginning of May, bank account permitting. In addition, I have traveled to Barcelona with my football team. Yes, American Football. I was playing American football with the "semi-pro" Granada Lions as their starting tight end. It was a great time, but my professional football career came to an early end when I fell on a piece of broken glass in the streets of Cadiz during Carnaval (while dressed as a gay ninja) and had to get 11 stitches from a male nurse in a Cadiz street clinic. I know what you are thinking, being nervous about Spanish medical care, but dont worry, he only broke two needles in my hand and only allowed me one beer and one hot dog while he was stitching me up. The clinic doctor was having coffee in the other room. Being a tight end, blocking one handed probably would not have been especially effective so I gave up my position. My hand is almost fully healed now, but I am going to let the guy who has been playing finish out the season for me. To wrap it up, I have two and a half more months here and my departure will be, without a doubt, a bittersweet thing. There will be so much to miss here in Granada, but I havent seen most of my friends or family for almost nine months, so the homecoming will be a great thing. I believe the Lisa Potter wedding is the day after I get home, so I expect to see all of you there and to speak in Spanish will all of my bilingual brethren. Much love and cant wait to see you all.


Dos besos,

David