One week down ...

So I've been in Granada for about a week now, and it seems like both more and less time. I can't believe it's already been a week, but I've done so much stuff it seems like it has to be longer.

On Monday night we explored the Albaicin, the Moroccan district, and then we went to a real flamenco show in a little hole-in-the-wall sort of place with a tiny stage at one end. I expected it to be awesome, and it far surpassed my expectations. The dancing was so passionate and so powerful-- it was utterly captivating. The women all had such intense looks on their faces, and every part of their bodies were dancing, not just their feet, although their feet were breathtaking. I can't even begin to describe how alluring and entrancing the dances were, how powerfully sensual the dancers were, and how they carried themselves with such confidence and self-sufficiency-- they were completely independent and completely gorgeous. There was one male dancer, and his hands were fascinating to watch. They were so graceful and fluid, I couldn't take my eyes off them. There was something so subtly powerful and caressing about the way he moved them in soft but definite patterns ... I'm planning to sign up for flamenco classes while I'm here, and I can only hope that I'll be one quarter as good as they were by the time I'm done.

Much of the rest of the week has been pretty nondescript, getting started with classes (which go from 9am to 1pm M-F) and starting to settle into a routine of sorts. There are heladerias, ice cream shops, everywhere! I've bought helado almost every day since coming to Granada-- it doesn't help that there's a particularly delicious heladeria right down the street from my house. Even if I don't particularly crave helado, I can count on my roommate Julianne wanting some, and of course I'll go with her to get some and probably end up getting some for myself too.

On Thursday Julianne and this guy Damon and I went out to some bars and had a good time, although it wasn't particularly Spanish in atmosphere-- the bars were most definitely pitched towards American college students. Last night, though, we did go out and do some quintessentially Spanish things. There were about seven or eight of us, and we went to a tapas bar and then got falafel from a Moroccan shop, then we went and got helado (of course) and we ended up at an Arabic tea shop, where we had some hookah and some tea-- my Pakistani friend Amen got Pakistani tea and was very excited to discover that the barista or whatever he was was also Muslim, and I don't think he realized how much she plans to talk to and visit him. She also made friends with a Pakistani storeowner who offered to give her Pakistani food whenever she wants it, which may be more often than he bargained for. Damon is not so lucky in finding friends of his religion-- he's probably one of about six Jews in all of Granada.

That's about all that's been going on here so far. I'm going to the beach tomorrow, and I'll be sure to tell you all about Spanish pebble beaches ... I wonder if we'll see any nude sunbathers?