Lately

It's time for an update.

I've been living in Granada for a month now, and I actually believe that tonight is the very first night I haven't gone out. Still, it's 1.30 in the morning, but the blog is suffering.

So far:

My plan was to find an apartment within the first 2 weeks of my stay here. This, evidently, hasn't happened. For the first two weeks I lived in a massive, great apartment with Laurence from France and Lovely Laurel from Ireland, but after two weeks I had to move out because the school was uncapable of working out the house of cards, as we say in Norway, so that I could stay there. Ended therefore up with moving in with a spanish man of 39, who rents out the rooms in his apartment. The apartment is in Camino de Ronda, where they are BUILDING A METRO, and I'm sure you can imagine the NOISE and the DIRT. Still, the cocarachas (kakerlakker) make it cosier. The trafic signal that sounds like an ambulance and goes off every 3rd minute is just a bonus, makes attemts to have a siesta even more interesting. I should look for a place to live this week. Should. Could. Might. Want to go for tapas... =)

Justo, the guy who ownes the apartment, has gone for holidays to his little pueblo. His roommate, Manolo, arrived two days ago, after having spent one month in HIS pueblo, with his family. The first thing Manolo did when he arrived was cleaning up the kitchen, hanging up little pink and yellow towels with "monday, tuesday, wednesday" etc. and buying a new shower curtain. I feel guilty, but swear I'm not the one who's messed up the place! Manolo works as a pharmasist researcher, and I guess that's why he knows about cleanliness. He's worried about me getting sunburnt, too; "You're using SPF 30?? That's not enough! You're scandinavian, you need 50!" (Like my mama says...). So now I guess I have to go buy better suncream. Anyways, Manolo is lovely, and it's great for me to practise my spanish over lunch. Today we've been discussing the "eldrebølgen", religion and effects of the recession in Spain. In spanish. So my head is spinning a bit.

I finished 4 weeks of language school, 5 hours every day. It's been hard work, and it's been a delight. The school is ten times better that I could ever imagine it to be, and the teachers are amazing. Chech out http://www.proyecto-es.com/ if you're looking to spend a fantastic, yet educating time in one of Spains wonderful cities. I eventually decided to stay 2 more weeks in the school, and so I will, instead of traveling to Barcelona. It will cost me some money, and it will mean even more work, but I'm having the time of my life, and I'm realizing that picking up a language takes more time than one perhaps thinks. University doesn't start until end of September, so there might be time for some traveling as well, later on.

I drink a lot of wine. And water, litre after litre. And I loooove the spanish ham. And the cheese. And the oranges we buy in the fruit market.

Today I woke up and went straight to the bus station to say goodbye to Igor, my russian goofy journalist friend of nineteen, who finished his one month in the language school. It's like this EVERY week for me. Friday it was Laurel, who went back to Ireland. It's stressful, and I hate it, but I know that I have friends for life, and always someone to visit if I'll ever travel Europe again, and we all know I will.

So, this week it's a mission to make more spanish friends. The Granadians are still on holidays, I think, shops are still closed, and the city is sleeping, reboosting for eventful september. I'll try do some intercambio this week, which means the school puts me in contact with a local who wants to learn english, and we meet up to speak in spanish/english for a few hours. Should be good!

Pictures will follow. I've been terrible. I'm too busy. I'm having the best summer of my life, and I don't want to distance myself from it, so I take the photos in my head instead.

Oh, and if you didn't get it by now: Granada is paradise (but don't go telling everyone, it's a sacred secret). I might end up staying for life, I don't see how I could ever leave it.