Nightlife

And now, the post you´ve all been waiting for: What´s the party scene like in Granada? So far I have recognized two major differences.

1)Spaniards stay out MUCH later than Americans.
2)Spaniards are usually not as drunk as many Americans. The concept of drinking is very different than that in the States...but more on that later.

Our first weekend in Granada, I decided to try life as a typical Spaniard. Going out at midnight, my roommate Chris and I ventured to a bar near the CLM (Centro de Lenguas Modernas, it´s where I take classes) where most of the people in our program were hanging out. For those who know me well, you know that I start to get tired very "early" in the evening. I was contemplating going home after the first bar, but forced myself to stay out later in order to get an idea of what nightlife is really like here.
After the first bar, the big group split into to smaller ones and we walked through the city checking out a few different bars throughout the city. This is where I started to see a difference in the way people in Spain use alcohol as opposed to many Americans. My observation was this: most of the people in the bars were not drunk at all or were only slightly intoxicated. This is because the culture is Spain is a very social one. Rather than have people over to their homes, Spaniards prefer to meet in neutral sites such as bars. Many of them will even stay at one place for hours on end, and, even if they do become drunk, it´s usually due to the process of being social (staying in a bar and having drinks with friends) rather than the specific goal of getting wasted. For this reason Spaniards drink more often than most Americans but the idea of binge drinking is not as prevalent.
After going bar-hopping for a while, the group and I decided to go to one of the discotecas in the city...think of a club, but much, much bigger. We arrived betwenn 2 and 3 in the morning and the place was packed. This particular discoteca had several different rooms for dancing, one even had a live band. All of them were completely filled with people, making it very hard to dance, or even move for that matter. It surprised me that the dancing the discoteca was very similar to American "dancing," meaning that there was no specific type of dance such as salsa or merengue. Much of the music was very techno, and for this reason I utilized moves such as the shopping cart and the lawnmower...impressive, I know.
We stayed until about 5:30 or so when I finally decided it was time for me to crash. Even though the party at the discoteca was still going strong, I had finally had enough and honestly, I was surprised that I even survived. I´m such a wimp when it comes to going out, but that´s ok. I was content to return to my bed and catch some z´s. I woke up around noon the next morning and finally felt like I had recovered from the previous night´s shenanigans. It was cool to experience the nightlife in Granada, and perhaps I will return to the discoteca eventually, but for now I´m content to just spend my weekends chilling with friends in tapas bars and enjoying a more tranquil weekend evening.