Arrived!

     So my travels were quiet for the most part.  I am savoring the time I have in slight anonymity, silently reading and watching.  The students are far from comfortable with each other, with long silences and unsure conversation. We arrived in Madrid from Dallas and then hopped a quick plane into Granada.  The movie I bothered to tune into was a twee Chloe Morretz teen romance.  I'll never get that two hours back but hey, the empty seat beside me made things easier.  A poor chicken lost its life to have me chew a single piece and decide otherwise.  Microwaves are the new airplane ovens sadly.  The drive to Lanjaron was absolutely breathtaking.  It's spring in the mountains with orange blossoms, almonds, lemons and olives scattered across a treacherous terrain.  It's arid here, with seemingly unhospitable soil filled with rocks producing a surprising bounty.  It resembles the Rockies.  The mountainsides are covered in quaint ancient villages with terraced farms cutting into the hillsides.  This you notice as you move away from the graffiti blasted, car dealership littered, modernized Granada.  Although spectacular, the look down from a cliff side was enough to make me lean in the opposite direction. 

     The hotel is a hotel that De Lorca vacationed in.  It's very charming, filled with old details with its heyday probably during Franco's height of power.  Every door and lock is probably a hundred years old.  The heat is NOT on.  I type this while under two woolen blankets, wearing all my clothes, a hoodie (Arkansas State of course) and a scarf.  We had a three course lunch in the hotel restaurant at 3 o'clock!  Lunch, at 3.  I had beef stew, calamari (which blew my mind) and a pot of mouse chocolate.  And wine.  There was wine.  Red wine.  I am going to have to get used to that.  They expect me to eat dinner at 10pm.  Being the old woman that I am, that will take some adjustment.  I'm usually up at 5:30.  I plan on lovely walks in town and on the mountainside,followed by a daily market shop.  I hope to purchase a coffee maker for my room, which I will covet secretly not sharing a drop while I toil on my dirty little paintings.  Did I mention that it's freezing?  Hopefully the time change will allow me to adapt to late nights.  My exchanges in Spanish have been mixed, mostly I have a confused idiotic stare to my face and the Spaniards just repeat, repeat, repeat.  Then they just go ahead and do whatever it is they are asking me to do.  My hotel room is somewhat spacious, marble floors with a bidet to make crude jokes about.  The food network is on but EVERYTHING is dubbed over in Espanol.  I hear a dog barking and birds chirping in the courtyard that my veranda opens up to, it's beautiful but the staff smoke and gossip there.   Better get on the whole language thing.  Spanish women are very dramatic.  I like it.