8 September 2007

Everyone should consider moving to Spain. Here are three good reasons:

1. Granada’s sense of time and, say, Boston’s are entirely different. The day here starts at 9am (at the earliest) and ends at 2,3,4am. This means that breakfast is at 11am, siesta from 2-5pm, and dinner beginning at 9 or 10pm (and lasting until the bars close). It also means that the day revolves around food and conversation: gossip over cafe con leche, banter and bocadillos, life stories with churros con chocolate, and flirting between sips of vino de verano.

2. Weather and environment. Since we've arrived, it's been 80-90 degrees F every day. The air is dry: I literally have not seen a cloud. Today we took a bus to the Costa Tropical, rock-jumped into the Mediterranean, basked in the sun, and communally decided that study abroad was a very good choice. Should you be more of a mountain than beach person (like me!), there is also Europe's second-highest mountain range and southernmost ski resort within a 10 minute bus ride away.

3. History and stuff. Way back in the day, there was an Ibero-Celtic settlement here (or so says Wikipedia), and the Phoenicians, Carthagenians and Greeks all dropped by to say hi. A succession of people lived here--and then from 1228 to 1492 it was the capital for the Muslim Nasrid Dynasty. In 1492, the Catholic rulers Isabella and Ferdinand took over. All this adds up to a heck of a lot of interesting art and architecture.

So, yeah. Come!