And they say Californians know how to party...

Spain’s night life consists of tapas bars, normal bars and then discotecas. Discotecas are dance clubs. The cool thing about Spain is that drinking is encouraged, but getting drunk is not. That’s why tapas bars give you food with your alcohol and shots aren’t very strong (so I’m told). Even though people don’t even start going to discotecas until 2, the people aren’t sloppy drunk. In fact if you see a belligerent drunk person…chances are they’re American.  Spaniards really pace their alcohol and their nights. Getting home at 8 AM is not uncommon. I’ve traveled the world and let me tell you…nobody knows how to party like Spain.

Tapas Bar

Blues Bar

Bar in Nerja, Spain

Karaoke Bar

Discoteca

Spain Never Sleeps

8:00 AM –wake up for class/work

9:00 AM –classes/work begin

11:00 AM –coffee break

11:30 AM –back to classes/work

3:00 PM –big lunch at home with family

4:00 PM –nap

6:00 PM –back to classes/work

8:00 PM –go home

10:00 PM –go out for tapas with friends

12:00 AM –go to a bar

2:00 AM –go to a discoteca (dance club)

6:00 AM –go get churros con chocolate

7:30 AM –go to bed

This is more similar to a Thursday schedule since there aren't classes on Fridays, but a normal schedule would look like this without the discoteca or a shorter stay at the discoteca.

Racism in Spain

Racism in Spain exists. Call me naïve, but that surprised me. Racism exists in the United States too, but there are laws to protect people from companies acting on their racism. Maybe Spain has those laws too, but they’re not enforced. If a restaurant refused service to someone in the United States because of their race, that would make headlines, but in Spain that happens all the time. Moroccans are refused entrance into certain clubs and there’s just a general distaste for Moroccans living in Spain. There’s not much tolerance for the Islamic faith here which surprises me because religion isn’t widely practiced in Spain. People will claim to be Catholic, but the percentage of practicing Catholics is very low. My interactions have showed me that the mindset is “if a Moroccan comes knockin’…don’t answer the door”.

Soccer Mania

I had heard that soccer was huge in Spain so I had high expectations...perhaps too high. In my head I pictured an OU game on steroids, but that’s not the case. Although it’s definitely a huge part of the culture and unavoidable, it’s not unlike anything I’ve ever seen. OU’s stadium holds about 82,000 people and Granada’s soccer stadium holds less than half of that. However, Granada just became part of the top league this year so their following isn’t as large as Real Madrid’s or Barcelona’s. The tickets are more expensive than on OU ticket so that might be a deterring factor to the amount of fans. Maybe part of the reason I’m not seeing so many crazed fans is because Granada is such a split city between Real Madrid fans and Barcelona fans. This Saturday is the big game between the two teams and I’m excited to watch it and root for Real Madrid!

Las Vistas

I have yet to get bored with the beauty of Granada, but I can’t quite capture the essence of the city with my subpar photography skills. Enjoy these professional pictures of Granada!

The Alhambra with Sierra Nevada behind it at night.

Arabic influence is evident everywhere!

This is actually a picture my friend took of our daily walk to and from class.

The Univeristy of Granada doesn't have one giant campus for all 70,000 students. Instead the business school, law schoool, etc. are spaced out all over the city. This is the courtyard for one of the schools. They're all beautiful.

Lover's lane. The building on the right is my school.

The street I walk down to visit my friend.

A typical street.

Another one of my daily routes.

My halfway point on the way to school. Such beautiful buildings, but that's just a Burger King, post office and bank.

Plaza Nueva where my school is.

Street vendors with arabic treasures are everywhere.

View of Granada from the Alhambra

The Alhambra

Weathering the changes

The rain in Spain falls mainly in the plains. That may be so, but fortunately for me, Granada isn’t the plains. Granada, or pomegranate, is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada. These mountains cause for some chilly nights once the sun goes down, but when the sun’s out, it can be quite hot. Layering is key. During the summer, nights require a jacket. However, during the winter, nights require something a little more substantial. In Spanish, they even have a word from a jacket coat hybrid…chaquetón. It doesn’t ever snow here and there aren’t any thunderstorms. However, lately there have been a lot of drizzles which is apparently not very common. The strangest thing to get used to about the weather here is the sun. The sun rises much later in Granada. At 9:00 it’s still pretty dark and the sun won’t really make an appearance until after 10:30. Overall, the climate is pretty mild, but Granada is an hour from the beach and 30 minutes from snow skiing so the climate doesn’t hinder your ability to choose a fun activity.

Hiking the Sierra Nevada.

The view of Granada from the Sierra Nevada.

Cabo de Gata

Cabo de Gata was an 18 km hike along volcanic rock lining the Mediterranean coast. Needless to say, a camera couldn’t possible capture this beauty. Along the hike our group stopped at several beaches to swim and eat sandwiches. My first real introduction to Spanish nude beaches was hiking over a cliff and looking out along the beautiful Mediterranean lightly scattered with white splotches. Upon closer observation it became clear that those white splotches were the bare butts of 60 year old snorkelers.

We heart the view <3

18 km later and we're ready for dinner!