Pintor-Zuluaga, My Neighborhood in Spain

This is a view from the balcony of my family's apartment, looking down at the the street below, in the direction of the river. Lots of little cars.

The apartment I live in with my Spanish family is located near the river "Gentil." The roads are thin and tiny, and yet the streets are lined with numerous shops and businesses, everything from the hairdresser underneath my apartment to the local "Panaderias," bars, restaurants, supermarkets, language centers, everything. You could live in my block and never need to walk more than five minutes to reach whatever you needed. Life beyond Granada would be optional, if only finding work was that easy.

I was a little stunned at first by how many people walk in the streets, before realizing that the sidewalks were extremely narrow and that these streets were not originally designed for cars and scooters. Life in Spain, or Granada at least, seems much more relaxed, and at the same time communally engaged, than the semi-suburban loneliness that comes to mind when I imagine life for most in the states. Its like the difference between an oasis and the desert.