Hello, hello!  I’m writing to you on Monday afternoon during a 2 hour break between morning classes and afternoon activities for this job with CIEE.  I’m actually incredibly tired, but I like getting a post up on Mondays, so here is your Monday post- a quick glimpse into my weekend in Granada with CIEE.  We left on Friday afternoon, took a 5 hour bus, and then came back Sunday (and got back around 10 last night).  I was up early this morning to bake some cookies for a customer, and have been trying to catch up on laundry and other things that people do after they’re away, so needless to say, I’m sleepy, but pushing through…

Friday

Like I said, our bus left around 1 on Friday after a short, unexpected delay and then we rode for 5 ish hours to Granada.  Luckily, we made a 45 minute stop for bathroom, etc, and I may or may not have used the bathroom 4 times in 45 minutes because I get this weird anxiety about not being able to use the bathroom.  Anywhooooo once we arrived, we headed out for some short sight-seeing and then I went to dinner with my lovely co-workers, while the students explored a bit and used their 10€ dinner stipend on Burger King #cultured

Saturday

Saturday we were up nice and early for breakfast and then a quick tour through the albayzin and up to mirador San Nicolás for some awesome views of Granada and the Alhambra.  

From there, we hopped on the bus and headed to the beach for the day!  I haven’t been to the beach since I was in Florida a couple months back so this was wonderful!  And the best part….

This amazing little pup walked up and let me hold him for a good 10 minutes.  If we didn’t have to go, I probably would have held him for hours and then possibly taken him home (his owner was there) but honestly it was the best moment of the weekend.

The water was freezing (to me) but everyone else was brave enough to get in.  Around 6, we headed back to Granada where I quickly dropped off my things and then took advantage of the students having some free time and went to look in the shops.

I practiced great self control, in case you are wondering.

That night it was dinner, time with co-workers, bed.

Sunday

Despite feeling like an absolute zombie (something about sleeping in hotel beds makes me feel so sleepy and drowsy in the morning!), I got out of bed when my alarm went off at 7:30 and went for a run.

It was nice once I got out, but ooooooooooooooooooofffffff, that was no easy feat.  It was actually strange to see Granada so quiet and empty on a Sunday morning.  I ran down the main drag and through the main plazas, taking care to avoid small or empty streets since it’s a foreign place for me.

^Seen on my run.

 I think I only ran for about 30 minutes, but it felt good to get out and move…until about 9 when I was ex.haus.TED.  Too bad for me though, since we had a full day planned to see the Alhambra, but that was after we had free time to go shopping and I practiced less self control than the day before.

With two new dresses in tow, we headed for the Alhambra and got to see this beautiful place that I visited with my parents a couple years ago. 

This time, it was warm and sunny and we had a tour guide with us, which made for an interesting visit (although we did have to corral the ovejas a little bit).

Around 4, we headed for Madrid and due to traffic and bathroom breaks, we arrived 1.5 hours later than we thought, hence the exhaustion right now.  It was a really great weekend that flew by for me, but also felt like a week-long excusion.  Time is a funny thing, huh?

^Rest stops in Spain.

The rest of the week should be a good one!  I have work everday with some fun activities in the afternoons (heading to the Reina Sofia museum today) and the kids leave on SATURDAY!  Where has this month gone?!