Monday September 19 – Meeting Irish

                At class today my first teacher could tell I was tired, but she is really nice so she understands that people get tired sometimes. My second teacher is the tougher of the two but is still really nice. Although she makes me nervous that I am not going to pass her class, therefore I will not get into level seven or Hispanic studies, which I need in order to get credits for college.

                For lunch we had paia, I love that food. Our mom did not eat with us because she had to go to the police station because someone stole her wallet.

                At night Kevin and I went to Hannigan and Son’s Pub to hang out with the Italians. While there, I saw a kid from my class and he was with some of his roommates that were from Ireland so I got to know them. It is true, the stereotype, about how Irish love to drink, they drank a lot and we all decided that we would meet there tomorrow night, Italians, Americans, and Irish.

Sunday September 18 – Day at the Beach Again

                We all slept in and checked out and then went to the beach where we had gone the night before, the one in town. This water was more clear and warm than the other beach with less nudity. We could see fish and our feet when the water was to our shoulders. We played Frisbee and paddle ball and I ate some pizza for lunch. Around 6:30 we went back to the hostel because some of the people left their things there for the day and we swam in the pool they had and used rinse off showers that were next to the pool to get rid of the salt on us. The bus ride back to Granada was quite for most of it, so I just listened to country music which made me miss wide open grass fields. Kevin and I got back in time for dinner and I was going to go to bed right after that but it was a good time to Skype my family. It was good to see them and learn what was going on in their lives, but I did not get to bed until about 2:00.

Saturday September 17 – San Jose/ Cabo de gato

                We left Granada on a charter bus at 9:30 and got to San Jose, a small town, at about 12:00. From there we checked into our hostel and started walking to Cabo de gato, a small beach. It was a twenty minute hike that had cacti and trees up until about 50 feet from the beach. The water was clear and warmer than I thought and there were a lot of nude people, more than I wanted to see. A select few from our group thought they would join in that as well, I was not one of them. In the water I could see my feet when I was up to my chest, I have never seen that clear of water in a natural setting. Adam and I went on a hike on a mountain that was right next to the ocean to see if there were any places that we could jump in but everything was way too shallow so we just climbed up and down some rocks. There were some very beautiful places to walk around next to the ocean where we hiked. On our way back to the group on the beach I grabbed some cactus fruit to try, I picked it and opened it without problems, but when I went to eat it I accidentally got too close to the skin and so I had some tiny prickles in my lip. The fruit tasted great though, but it had a lot of seeds. We stayed for about six hours then went to the hostel to shower and go eat.

Adam, Trevor, and I ate at a restaurant right next to the ocean; we had croquetas, bread and paia. Afterwards, Kevin and my room was randomly selected as the party room, there were about 15 in the room. Later we decided we would walk to the beach that was in the town and just hang out there; it was very cool to see the ocean at night.

Friday September 16 – Tennis/Class Tapas

                After class I played tennis with Trevor, he is pretty darn good. We had to hop some fences to get to the courts because everything was locked up for siesta time (nap time).  I brought a racquet that I normally do not play with and is not top heavy like I like and I forgot a dampner for the strings, so I used his extra racquet which was like mine until I broke the strings. I am always surprised how much of a difference a racquet makes in your game because I was playing horribly with the racquet I brought and only slightly better with his racquet. We played for over an hour and a half until Trevor got a blister on his hand.

                At 9:00 I met up with classmates to go eat tapas at different bars. There were two Australian girls and one Australian guy, a girl from another small country, a guy from Holland and a guy from Canada, and five or six Americans. I love being around people from different countries because I find their cultures very interesting. We went to three places to eat tapas, it was a good time. I hope to do that again soon.

Thursday September 15 – Mountain Climb 3

                A big group of us, about 14, went on a hike today; we took a bus to the starting point because two girls wanted to find a waterfall that they had heard about. It was a long trail, but it had figs, almonds, grapes, blackberries, and pomegranates. There were very nice trails and even suspension bridges. The paths had more people on them than I thought there would be. We arrived at the waterfalls, they were manmade waterfalls but still very fun and cool. A long suspension bridge went over them and on the other side was a place for rock climbing, there were a lot of rock climbers. We played in the water for a bit then headed back because we had to make one of the last buses back to Granada.

Wednesday September 14 – Frisbee

Trevor, Adam, Parker, Tarah, Kathleen, Katheryn, Rita, Katie, Jannes (my Dutch classmate), and me all went to a big soccer/rugby field to play ultimate Frisbee. My team was Adam, Tarah, Jannes, Katie, and me; we won eight to seven.

                After dinner a group of us went to Ladies’ Night at Granada10, which has an open bar until 1:00 of sangria and beer and guys can get in free if they sign up on Facebook beforehand. Kevin and I got home around 6:00.