I love long weekends!

Discoteca!!

It was quite a climb!! :) 

Yummy...the best, biggest plate of tapas I've had!

I am definitely going to be able to get used to these long 3-day weekends every week!  I had no idea what I was going to do with so much free time, but I'm finding that the days fill up and fly by with lots of fun activities. :)

Thursday night I just had a fun night chatting with friends as we went out for amazingly huge and delicious tapas.  I love how social the Spanish culture is!  Everyone goes out frequently to meet with friends and relax.  My señora always gets dressed up on Fridays and Saturdays to meet with her friends for tapas or to go dancing.  What a fun culture!

Friday I had a great afternoon hiking with some friends in the hills around the city.  It was a beautiful day and I had a lot of fun exploring things I hadn't seen yet in Granada.  We even climbed far enough to start seeing the caves where the gypsies live!  It was a great hike.

Friday night, a group of us went to a teteria nearby.  Teterias are tea houses that have a great atmosphere and a very arab vibe...it was a lot of fun, and I tried some great apple tea.  They also have great milkshakes, and a lot of my friends had those.

Saturday, my piso mate and I went to another teteria near our house that serves American brunch on the weekends.  I hadn't realized that I missed American food, but the pancakes that I had pretty much made my day...they were so delicious!

However, Saturday night we experienced something a little more Spanish.  A big group of my friends and I decided to brave the Discoteca!  Discotecas are another important part of the Spanish nightlife, and there are quite a few in Granada.  They are basically big dance clubs that get busy around 2 in the morning and stay open till 7 in the morning!  I was pretty nervous to go since I am usually not a big dancer, but I had an amazing time.  The place was completely packed, and it was so much fun being with all my friends.

I'm finding that I've already grown a lot since I've been here...I'm trying things that would normally scare me or that are out of my comfort zone.  Our theme for the semester has already become, "When in Spain...".  I'm finding that I can do things that I thought I couldn't, and having a great time doing them.  This has already been such a great experience for me, and I know I will continue to grow throughout the semester.

I was able to find a church to go to this morning that other students had recommended from past semesters, and really enjoyed the Spanish worship service.  It was great to sing again, and it was especially great to see the passion in the church.  I didn't understand the whole sermon, but this will be another place for me to learn to listen and grow.  I've heard there is also a great youth group that I am planning to join that meets on Saturday nights.  

And now, it's already Sunday night...my great weekend is over.  Hopefully the next one is just as fun as this one has been.  Hope you all have a great week...Miss you!