Me voy...

I am done all my Christmas shopping!

In other news, I am leaving for the Granada airport in about eleven hours... We are flying out of Granada at 10am, and out of Madrid around1:00 (provided all goes according to plan). Should arrive at JFK around 3 something-or-another. Let´s hope the weather holds out! I am just about all packed - luckily my stuff all fits pretty easily into my luggage so I won´t have to buy another maleta. Now comes the fun chore of not freaking out on the 8-hour flight home...

Last night was my last real night out in Granada. On the way to get tapas, we met this kid from Vancouver who just arrived in Granada and didn´t know where the fun places were. So we hung out with him and showed him some of the fun bars and stuff. It was really chill and I felt a little bit like we were passing on the torch. I called him Granada: The New Class. Feel free to laugh uncontrollably at my wit...

I gave María Pepa and Alfonso the photo and the flowers and the card today at lunch. They loved them and I was really pleased. She kept pointing out Mike el guapo in the picture, it was really cute. Yesterday they gave me a doll to remember them by.

Well, tonight I plan on taking it easy. Finish packing, get some tea, go to bed early... By this time tomorrow I´ll be making my way back to Elkins Park. Can´t wait! :)

So yeah, this might be my last blog entry. Thanks to everyone who´s kept up with it - I´m really glad I chose to write and I think it turned out to be a really fun way to interact with everyone. I´m really touched that you all took time to stay updated on my travels, it´s really meant a lot to me. Hope to see everyone over break or in the coming months!

Love,
Liz

I´ll be home for Christmas!

Last night was our farewell dinner. It turned out to be really fun, even though I was kinda feeling awkward about it. We had a little snack-ish dinner at this restaurant in an old train car that I walk by every day and have never gone in.

María Pepa talked to just about everyone. She seriously couldn´t stop commenting on how guapo Mike, the only boy on our trip, is. So then she went over to him and asked if he has a twin. He said no and she said that´s a real shame because she wanted to keep one of him in Spain with her. Then she insisted on taking all our pictures with him. It was really hysterical. So now I don´t really have any pictures of just me and her...but it´s kind of more silly this way. I´m going to print one out and give it to her in a frame tomorrow with some flowers. (I tried to upload it on this page but, alas, this internet is too slow...I can´t wait to be back to my high-speed connection!)

Afterwards we saw a really great flamenco show. There was a flutist, a guitarist, a singer, one male dancer, and three female dancers. They were amazing - it was definitely the best one I´ve been to. Jorge really loved it, and afterwards we made sure to get a group picture with him. We´re going to frame that too and give it to him on Monday from the whole group. Everyone´s getting sick so we didn´t end up going to the club or anything (even though María Pepa said she would come, she decided she was too cold and went home).

So yeah, I´m just finishing up Christmas shopping and tying loose ends. I can´t wait to be back!

In other news, UD lost in the national championships to Appalachian State last night. Booo! :( I think Kaitlyn went down to Chattanooga to see the game so I´ll try and get a full report from her... Hope all is well in the homeland! See you soon!

Boooooyaaaaa!

I'M DONE EXAMS!

Just thought I'd brag. :)

Una foto

This is a photo I found on Google image of what the Alhambra looks like right now, framed by the snow-capped mountains. I would have posted a picture I took myself, but my computer is too slow...and let's be honest, I'm not nearly that good of a photographer. :)

Queda una semana...

There´s a week left and still so much to do!

First, my first solo travel experience went rather swimmingly. Jaén was okay. It kind of reminded me of Almería, but with a seriously adorable Moorish quarter like Granada. I kind of just wandered around there on Thursday cause it was an Andalusian holiday so nothing was really open. I did find a cute park where I read for about an hour. An man walking about one mile-an-hour on a cane stopped and told me how proud of me he was for reading and learning. I never saw him before, or again.

On Friday I took a bus to Baeza, which was SO beautiful! It´s a tiny little town and I wandered around until I found the Renaissance buildings. There were all these winding paths between old stone buildings and archways and cute light posts and such. It was really neat to see, and the weather was great! I went in a museum and they put a video on for me with images of the town throughout the years. I was the only person in the whole place! I really loved it, though come lunch time I realized the downfalls of travelling by one´s self - so lonely!

On Saturday, Kelly and Kelsey met me in Úbeda. It was a feast day, plus I have never seen fog so bad in my life, so the town was eerily still. Surprisingly, it was more lively than Jaén (a much larger city) had been on Thursday. We wandered around and found the cool stuff, just like I did in Baeza. Unfortunately the pictures didn´t come out great because you could hardly see five feet ahead of you, let alone up to the top of some ancient relic of a Renaissance church... I was pretty happy to be travelling with the girls too, I hadn´t hardly talked to anyone in two whole days! On a funny note, we walked to this place that was supposed to be a beautiful look-out point, but you could not see anything because of the fog. It was pretty silly...there could have been a highway or a Garden of Eden below and I´ll never know!

I´ve spent most of my time pretending to study but really just getting lost in all kinds of unimportant things. Went for a walk today through the Arab part of Granada and was sad to think this might be the last time! Today and tomorrow are my last class days, Wednesday and Thursday are exams, and then Friday is the farewell dinner! I guess I should be studying now instead of writing this - but I´ll pull through, I always (well, almost always) do. And besides, what are a few finals grades versus my last week in this beautiful little Andalusian town?

Naturally though, I´m getting psyched for the return to my homeland - the greatest township on earth. Things I´m looking forward to include: Coyne Family Home Videos, The Muppets´Christmas Album with John Denver, sushi on Christmas Eve (and maybe a movie), Santa´s visit, etc. Can´t wait to see everyone so soon!

Fuego

Today a fire alarm went off in the middle of history class. Our professor was like, "Is this real?" Then some professors stuck their heads out of their classrooms, frowned, and kept teaching. Downstairs, Monolo our grammar professor from last semester was running around in a neon vest. Everyone was laughing at him. I guess this is a Spanish fire drill...

Final travel plans...

Well, I just booked a hotel in Jaén for two nights next weekend. I have not done nearly enough Spain exploring as I wanted to on this trip, and it´s a four day holiday weekend, so I am glad I made the decision to get out of Granada. Unfortunately, my friends aren´t going to be able to join me. They might be able to take a day trip with me on Saturday, but I am thinking that it´s too far/expensive for just a day trip... I am a little apprehensive about this, but excited at the same time. I´ve never traveled on my own before - I´m hoping it will be a good way to see more of the country. Any suggestions?

I´m heading to Jaén on Thursday, then hopefully making a day trip to Baeza on Friday (and returning to my hotel in Jaén that night), and then heading to Úbeda for a visit on Saturday before taking the bus back to Granada on Saturday night. I haven´t bought any bus tickets yet, but that´s easy so I still have a little bit of time to do it. In the meantime I´m just researching the sites to find some economical touristy activities.

The end of this trip is coming fast and everyone is preparing for the return home. I´m really sad because this was a great three months and I love all the kids I´ve been here with and all of the experiences we´ve had. That being said, just knowing how close it is makes me really excited to finally come home. It´s a weird mix of feeling totally ready and totally not ready at the same time... I´m trying not to dwell on it and really working hard to make sure I don´t "check out early". So hopefully I´ll really be able to live up these last two weeks!

A Granada is a Pomegranate

Last night there was a free flamenco show at the Centro. It was a girl dancer and a male guitarrist and then the vocals were on a recording cause they didn´t have one. But it was really cool and I like seeing the dancing so much more than just the singing. At the end, they asked for volunteers and Mike, the only boy on our program, went up and danced with the girl. It was really hysterical and we got some good pictures from it all. Everyone told him he was really brave.

Today we took our last trip as a group to Malaga. It reminded me of a smaller Sevilla, and it was really clean and there was a beach there. Also, we rode in a double decker bus and I got the first seat on the top deck so i got a great view of Spain the whole way. We saw the Cathedral, the Picasso Museum, and the Alcazar. It was so warm - I couldn´t believe it! They hang insane Christmas lights all over the place, but they´re not lit yet. It was cool to see, none the less.

When we drove back into Granada, all the mountains surrounding the city where snow-peaked and I was listening to music and had that great front row seat and I started feeling really emotional about leaving. I´m not sure I´ve really described Granada too well. It´s so beautiful. The newer streets are kinda boring, but everything else is quaint and cobblestone. The streets are a winding confusing web of arab influence. Everyone is fashionable. The babies all ride around in these very serious strollers than look they would survive being run over by a tank. Everywhere you look are mountains, now snow-capped, with little arab houses scattered up their slopes. There are two rivers, and you can see the Alhambra high up in the mountains. Anyway, I live in a newer apartment building so it´s not all that impressive... But anyway, I just really love it and now am very sentimental about leaving.

That´s all. I´m still trying to plan something for next weekend but it´s a holiday weekend so things are expensive or booked... Miss you all! Two weeks!!!

Kevo y Yo

Here's a cute picture of Kevin and I from a little bar in Granada called Dolce Vida... As for the rest of my pictures, they take about 10 hours to upload on a legitimate photo sharing website, so ya'll are just gonna wait till I get home. :)

¿Por qué no te callas?

Yesterday I took a much needed, three-and-a-half hour long nap.

Kevo left for the airport bus at 5 in the morning after a weekend that can only be described as “excelente”. I hope his hours of trans-oceanic travels were worth the four and a half days he spent here with me in the south of Spain!

We got to do a lot in Granada even though we were only here a day a half. We went out for really good tapas and sangria (or, in Kevin’s case, Fanta). We did some euro shopping – I bought a green sweater, my favorite color. We went to Beers of the World, one of my favorite bars in Granada, and a new one called Dolce Vita where they make over one hundred different shots. We sang karaoke at Little Hannigans. We had chorros con chocolate, tostadas, and café con leche at the best café in town, Café Alhambra, and had fresh squeezed zumo de naranja at one of my new finds, a café called Kroxan. Best of all, Kevin got to meet all my friends here, including our Spanish friend Alberto.

Thursday was, of course, Thanksgiving. We all prettied ourselves up and then followed Jorge through the streets of Granada (Americans on Parade!) to this fancy restaurant where they were to serve us a turkey lunch. The entire study abroad group went, as did Kevo and Mike’s girlfriend Bridget who was also visiting from out of town, all of our teachers and the director of the Centro, Angel. We sat at one long table, spattered with jugs of water, beer, and wine. Pretty typical for Spain. My friends and I ended up down on the teachers’ end of the table, though it was probably for the best as it placed Kiersten and I directly across from our PoliSci professor… (Kevo did a surprisingly good job using his high-school Spanish skills, and insisted on ordering for himself the entire trip. Sometimes I caught him starting up conversations with Jorge’s daughter Olga. So I was impressed.) Lunch started with rolls and slices of Spanish ham and cheese. Then came the mixed salads. Then soup. Then turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing in a blueberry/raspberry sauce. Then an apple tart. Then champagne. Then one of my classmates made a speech. All told, it was a good way to celebrate such a family-oriented holiday while so far away from family.

Speaking of family, after lunch Kevo got to meet the infamous family Ruiz. María Pepa got all dolled up for his arrival and Alfonzo told him all kinds of stories he couldn’t understand. Meanwhile, a documentary special on elephant seals was playing on the flat screen TV. Every once and awhile they would get distracted by a baby seal caught in the surf or a duck sticking his bill into a big, undefined pile of blubber. It was pretty comical. I was really glad Kevo got to meet them, now he can tell you that I’m not making up how short they really are!

I have to say Sevilla and Cordoba was my favorite group-wide weekend excursion, and I’m sad it was our last. Cordoba is a tiny little town that I probably wouldn’t go back to again except that it has a seriously phenomenal Mezquita and is pretty rich in Arab culture. The arab influence in Cordoba is second only to Granada. Also, they do some nice work with silver. However, it all felt pretty touristy to me…although we only speant half a day there so who really knows?

We drove into Sevilla at dusk, and I could tell right away it was amazing. It looks a lot like Granada except cleaner, bigger, and more cosmopolitan. It was very quaint and felt much more European than heavily-Arab Granada. Our hotel was four stars (only the best, says Jorge) and it was in a very cute part of town. We took trips to the Cathedral and the Alcazar, which were both really amazing. Also, we stopped briefly at the Plaza de Espana, where they shot part of Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. We spent a lot of time wandering the streets and just admiring how quaint the city is, and it was nice to get back to an honest-to-goodness Starbucks. What's more, we speant a great night in one of the hotel rooms playing perhaps the best game of Picture Down the Lane in history.

Well, I am distracted by all kinds of things so this might be a rambling post... I'll come back to it soon and edit it with more info and such - but for now I thought I'd leave you with this summary of the weekend. Three weeks left and I'm living it up!!!

HelloGoodMorningHappyThanksgiving...

Happy Thanksgiving family and friends!!!

Kevo made it here safely and we are having fun. Today we had a great turkey lunch with the whole group, Jorge, and all our teachers. I miss home today though! I hope some waffles and ice cream were made and some turkey and green-bean casserole was eaten. Love you!

La lluvia en España...

Yesterday my European plug adapter literally broke off in the socket. Naturally, I did all I could to salvage it, but I just ended up getting electrocuted pretty bad and ruining one of the only two outlets in our classroom... Whoops!

Well, Granada got cold on Friday. Really cold. Like 4-degrees-Celsius cold. This morning I left the apartment all bundled up as usual, and it felt like it might be 90 degrees (Fahrenheit...) outside. I don´t know what´s going on, but I really wish I had Cecily Tynan here in Spain to explain these things to me! Also, I think it´s supposed to rain all weekend. Since it rains here about once a month, I am pretty bummed it has to be on the weekend Kevo is here. Hopefully we´ll be able to dodge most of it by going to Sevilla and Córdoba.

This weekend passed with relative ease. Went to the movies. Went out for tea. Wandered around. On Saturdays, it seems to be a Spanish custom for everyone to exit their homes and slowly amble throughout the streets with no real purpose or direction. Seriously, every Saturday it feels like some fiesta just ended and all the residents of Granada are spilling out onto the streets in all directions. It´s pretty wild, and somewhat unnerving. It takes twice as long to get anywhere, and I would never suggest shopping or going to any sort of cafe on a Saturday. On the other hand, Granada becomes a ghost town on Sunday. Absolutely nothing is open and there is not a soul to be seen on any corner of the city. Here we call this type of behavior a "montaña rusa de emociones".

Yesterday, I registered for my last semester of college. You might expect that after three and a half years and over a hundred credits, I wouldn´t have to worry about getting a seat in the classes I want. I was actually looking forward to my first incident-free registration. In fact, this was too much to hope for. After frantically trying to grab the only available seat left in one of my classes, a ten minute phone call with the UD Honors department, and some last minute re-arranging, I finally got things figured out. As it stands right now, I have class from 9-3 on Tuesday/Thursday and 3:30-5:30 on Wednesday. I am signed up for "Political Sociology", "Inequality, Crime, and Justice", "Intro to Law", and this scary-sounding capstone course for my honors degree called "The Individual in Society". As of now, I´m not signed up for any Spanish classes since I´m finishing the major here. I´d like to take one, but I´m just not motivated in my last semester of college to take yet another boring literature class (especially one called "Cervantes: Don Quixote" that all my friends seem so keen on taking). I might drop Law for an intro level language class, like Chinese or French. Sadly, Meteorology conflicts with one of my other classes. :( This is, of course, tentative. I usually try to avoid Tuesday/Thursday classes, so I´m not too thrilled. On the other hand, I have no class on Monday or Friday, which means I could a) get a somewhat legitimate job, b) travel the world every weekend, or c) get really cheap matinee tickets at the movies. Dad, which option would you pick?

Kevo comes tomorrow! :)

¡Felicidades Colleen!

I just wanted to brag that I am friends with the CAA Player of the Year. Congrats Coll!

http://www.udel.edu/sportsinfo/volleyball/vb07-caaawards.html

When will they stop playing this umbrella song?

Kevo told me I´m not updating this enough, so I promise I´ll try to be better.

Last night we went to the theater, out of the pocket of that far-away institution, the University of Delaware. Two of the literature teachers brought us to see a play called Bajarse en Moro. I think it was supposed to be a comedy, and the cover of the playbill had marijuana leaves all over it. Well, if it was funny or about any sort of drugs I will never know because it was completely unintelligible. I fell asleep for some of the second half, partly due to the unending stream of Spanish slang and partly due to the seriously comfortable plush red seats.

Apparently, Little Sissy comes home from Penn State tomorrow. She would have a full week off for Thanksgiving Break... I am very jealous. Thanksgiving Break is the best weekend of the year to be in the great Cheltenham Township. Family, what are the plans for Thanksgiving this year? Perhaps we can arrange a video chat...

Also, we had a test yesterday in literature that was entirely too long and all essay questions. Boo.

Well, Monday night was Dawn´s 21st birthday party at that infamous Irish Pub, Hannigans. She and Hannigans manager, Gary Hannigan, have been planning it basically since September. It was a classy affair, which means dress and shoes and all those things I love so dearly... We spent a very full day shopping in every shoe store in Granada. Then, I didn´t really get to sleep until 4:00 Tuesday morning, only to wake up at 7:15 for class. So the night was somewhat out of character for this early-to-bed, jeans lover. Nevertheless, it turned out to be a really great night (perhaps the most fun I´ve ever had at Hannigans). Just about everyone from the UD group showed up and got dressed up so that was really cool. Also, some of our friends from the Centro came, as well as Barry, the guy who calls out the questions for pub quiz (although we haven´t been to pub quiz since before the Ireland trip).

Otherwise, the week has been pretty typical... Colder than usual. Still running. Trying in vain to understand our adorable, nearly-forty PoliSci professor. I did teach my friends that "Picture Down the Lane" game that you play with paper, and it´s been a big hit. So, like nerds, we´ve spent some very silly hours playing it. Also, I´ve become a regular at this little cafe near school called Hicori that makes absolutely phenomenal tostadas. Mom and Dad (or should I say Zorra and Zorro?), I will take you there when you come.

Speaking of visitors, Kevo gets here Wednesday and I seriously cannot wait! I don´t have too many definitive plans, but I think churros con chocolate will definitely be in the arrangement... Kaitlyn, are you jealous?

Life of Pi

I just finished Life of Pi and am extremely disturbed...

Quedan cinco semanas

Life in Granada has been pretty routine as of late (in a good way, of course).

My classes are...less than stellar. My PoliSci professor has such a heavy Andalusian accent that I sometimes wonder if he is actually speaking a language other than Spanish. We were learning about Hitler for two days, then jumped to the March 11th terrorist attacks in Madrid. He may have somehow made a connection between the two, but if so I couldn´t understand it. Spanish literature is pretty dry as well. Surprisingly enough, History is my favorite class (though just because we have a great professor). The thing about history in Spain is that it dates back over a thousand years. 1776 is pretty modern as far as Europe is concerned. I never realized how young the U.S. is. The Alhambra alone dates back to the year 900, if not earlier.

Anyway, I don´t have class today so I spent the morning shopping for cold weather attire. I´ve learned is that it is absolutely NOT okay to walk out the house in a sweatshirt and sneakers anywhere in Europe. So I´m trying the sweater look. As for shoes...the jury´s still out. Finding a good pair of closed-toed shoes that won´t give me blisters is a feat worthy of several Olympic medals. Still, I won´t rest until I find some. If I wanted to be really "euro" I could buy some knee-high, heeled, brown swede boots with a fold over top and buckles/tassels all the way down to the ankles. But you know, then hell might freeze over, so I better not.

Otherwise, I spend most of my time wandering the city, reading (so close to finishing Life of Pi at Michael´s insistence), or catching up on The Office (though I´m apparently missing big things on SVU).

A lot of my friends are taking trips out of town next weekend, and so naturally I am investigating a way to do the same. I´d love to go up to the north of Spain, but I may only make it as far as Salamanca. I only have a few weekends left so I am trying to take advantage of them.

Also, I am officially signed up for Winter Session at UD, which means I´ll be back in Delaware on January 2nd. The thought of Newark in January is enough to make me never want to leave Granada...though I am pretty excited to be back at the house. What´s more, the impending end of this semester is like a ball of anxiety constantly in the pit of my stomach. Do I seriously only have until May before I am forced to become a real person? I´m not ready... This semester went way to fast.

Honestly, there´s still a lot to look forward to. Like Kevo´s visit over Thanksgiving, and then Mom and Dad in December. So I´m pretty excited for the coming weeks - I just hope they don´t end as fast as the past ten have.

I´m gonna cut right to the chase: do you like magic?

Brian Plunkett, this entry is for you (in the style of your other favorite blog...):

I keep wanting
to update
this blog for you all

but every time
i sit down to write
i cannot think
of any
words

María Pepa´s pueblo
Cacín
was so amazing
only 500 residents
all seemingly related to her
we went to an All Saints Day
party
in a big public garage
with every one else in the town
and ate toasted chestnuts
and danced

Madrid was the NYC
of Spain
dirty, overwhelming, cultural...
the art was its
redeaming quality
The Prado, Picasso´s Guernica, El Greco...
the nightlife could have been better
the hotel was four stars and amazing

Toledo is the Edinburgh of Spain
I would live there

Sooooo, that´s the best I can do for now folks. I´ll update with a real entry when my muse returns. Abrazos!

¡Feliz Halloween!

First and foremost, any society that does not annually celebrate pagan worship on October 31st is not worth my time. How Spaniards can simply gloss over Halloween, my favorite holiday, is beyond my comprehension. Where are the pumpkins? The candy corn? The ghoulish costumes of youth? Oh Spain! There’s so much you have yet to learn!

That being said, I’m getting out of town for the night. María Pepa invited me to visit her hometown with her, and when I say invite I mean insisted. Although I am pretty sure it’s going to be an awkward night of silence, it’s a welcome change of scene. I imagine Halloween night in Granada is a lot like Halloween night in Newark: throngs of inebriated Americans in some club dressed (or should I say undressed?) as sexy police officers, sexy nurses/doctors, sexy pirates, or some other variation on the theme. Meanwhile, I think Ma Pepa’s driving will be horror enough until next October…

Speaking of horror, tomorrow is La fiesta de todos los santos, otherwise known as Nick’s 21st birthday. If you are located in the Greater Cheltenham Area…well, look out.

So yesterday was one of the more humorous days here on Calle Angel Barrios, the street I call home. In an attempt to finally complete that 5K I’ve been talking about for the past four years, I’ve been running in the park after class three days a week. I usually head out around noon when Ma Pepa’s still at work and Alfonzo is in the back room, diligently watching the security camera feed from the first floor of our building.

When I got back, Alfonzo had many questions and comments on my run, thus revealing that he had actually watched the entire thing from his seventh-story window. After that, he sat me down and popped in a 40-minute educational video about Toledo that he has been telling me about for a week now. (He is pretty excited that my group is going to Toledo and Madrid this weekend.) It was seriously one of those middle-school movies that teach you basic information about a city/country of interest. We sat in silence, Alfonzo literally on the edge of his seat and me trying desperately to stay awake.

We didn´t eat lunch until 3:30 that day, which is pretty late even for Spain. When we did, I had an entire plate of French fries and cow tongue (also fried). I ate as much of it as I could, but knowing where it came from made the whole meal a lot harder to digest. Also, about two weeks ago I finally confronted María Pepa about the exorbitant amount of food she feeds me. Since then, she has been claiming that she and I are both on a “regimen” – which seems to be more talk that actual change. Meanwhile, Alfonzo loves teasing us about it. Whenever Ma Pepa offers him peppers, a pear, or bread with his meal he shoes her away, saying he can´t because of his "regimen". It´s pretty funny.

Twice in the afternoon, María Pepa came into my room with chocolates for me, which she had insisted I eat since I ran “so much” that morning. I said, "what about my regimen?" She said that only counts at dinnertime...

In the afternoon, I got my hairs cut. It was much needed. Not only did I get four inches cut off, but I finally got rid of all those unwanted dreadlocks I´ve acquired since arriving here. When I got home with it short and straightened, Ma Pepa nearly died and touched it for about five minutes straight. Then, since she couldn´t decide on an appropriate dinner, she made homemade churros con chocolate. For those of you who don´t know, churros con chocolate are the most delicious of Spanish snacks. The churros are warm, hot-dog shaped doughnuts and you dip them in chocolate, which is hot chocolate as thick as tar. I am absolutely positive that Ma Pepa has never made them before in her life. At first she said we were going to save some for breakfast, but later negated that, saying “mañana no existe”. I have never eaten so much sugar in my entire life, although I considered it a substantial breakthrough when I convinced her to eat the last one.

So yeah, things are pretty silly here in Granada. I´ll be writing again after I return from Toledo and Madrid on Sunday night. In the meantime, for those of you fortunate enough to be living in a nation that celebrates All Hallow´s Eve, enjoy the festivities!

Noticias aburridas

This morning we went to Federico García Lorca´s house - it was kinda boring.

In other news, classes this semester are less than stellar. Political science is kind of boring, and I´d be asleep if our professor, Santiago, wasn´t such a cutie. ;) Then literature...which is just okay. Surprisingly, I like the history class although it tends not to be my best subject.

Well, I am seriously agonizing over getting my pictures up online. It may take awhile, but I promise I will get them up soon. In the meantime, I´ll post some choice ones on the blog for you to enjoy and remember what I look like. :)

"This isn´t Germany..."

After ten, sleep-deprived, bus-ride filled, crazy amazing days, I´m back in Spain.

To quote the incomparable Julie Andrews, let´s start at the very beginning. I think I was born to be in Scotland. Edinburgh is outstanding beyond words. Literally. The city is so quiet, and I think it´s mostly because every person living there is in constant awe of how phenominal the place is. Did you know the entire downtown area is a UNESCO Heritage Site? Every building is stone and gothic and towering. Edinburgh Castle extends all along a fabulous cliff in the Old Quarter, and a pristine park lines a river that cuts in the city in half. One night, we had dinner at the Elephant House, a little cafe where J.K. Rowling first start writing Harry Potter. A big sign in the window advertised it as "The Birthplace of Harry Potter: Now Serving Draught Beers!"

We took a bus trip from Edinburgh one day to Glasgow, Sterling, and Loch Lomond. It´s banks are indeed quite bonny, and we came upon a castle in a big park that lines its shore. Castles pop up all over the place in the Scottish highlands...so it was pretty typical. ;) Our tour guide was named Ian, wore plaid pants and tie, and looked and sounded exactly like Sean Connery. I can imagine no better person to teach me about the country.

We flew to Galway on a plane with propellers instead of engines and less than 50 passengers. It was a tiny town, much smaller than I expected, but with a large student population. We all agreed that Galway is what Newark, Delaware aspires to be. We took a Ferry to Inishmore of the Aran Islands the morning after arriving. With a population of about 800 and Gaelic as the local dialect, this was pretty much the most immersed we could get in Irish culture. We rented bikes and spent five hours touring the little, farm-covered island. At the end, we visited a pre-historic fortress built in 1,000 B.C. on the edge of some completely amazing cliffs. Although the best Irish whool is found on the Islands, I was too cheap to buy anything. Despite our buying grocieries for most meals, the British pound killed me in Scotland and the euro doesn´t get you much up north either... Also, after a day of intense searching, I cannot say for sure whether or not we saw a Selkie (as made famous by that classically-weird foreign film, The Secret of Roan Inish).

That night, we had dinner at a little whole-in-the-wall Irish restaurant. I enjoyed Salmon and the others had Irish Stew. It was pretty much perfect, and our waitress was very cool. When we asked if we could have our tea before the meal instead of after, she replied "It´s really up to yourself. We´re not strict here. This isn´t Germany." Though a bit Xenophobic, we were pretty thrilled to have discovered a European joke and now use it often...but only with each other

From Galway, we headed for Cork via the Cliffs of Mohr and Limerick. I found these cliffs much less exciting than those on Inishmore, and more touristy. After three bus rides full of green hilly farm land, we arrived tired and carsick in Cork. There, we met up with our friend Dawn who spent the first half of the trip with her UD roommates in Rome, making us five. A much bigger city, Cork has a strong University population as well. It felt much more industrial, but had a great shopping district and the University was pretty amazing. Kind of made me wonder how I ended up in Newark for four years... We stopped in St. Finbarre´s Cathedral and got a free and impromptu tour by Eileen, the cashier in the gift shop. We also wasted a whole morning attempting to rent a car so we could see the Ring of Kerry, but you had to be at least 23-25 and in one place 30 years old! I was pretty bummed and still wish I could say I drove on the "wrong" side of the street.

Another four-and-a-half hours of beautiful countryside by bus later, we made it to the capital city of Dublin. The fun part of town is called Temple Bar, and it is a street like Bourbon Street - though much more classy. We had a pint in Temple Bar, which to my dismay was filled with raucous 30 and 40 something drunkards. Then we headed down the street to a less crowded pub with live music, and we stayed there till close (12:00 - early!). The next day, we took a tour of the Guiness factory and had complimentary pints at 11:00 am. Then, we walked all around Dublin and saw St. Patrick´s Cathedral, the park, and Trinity College. Then we saw the closing night production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat because it is Dawn´s favorite show and we were looking for something different to do. It was her 6th time seeing it live and she said it was her favorite so far.

So that pretty much wraps up most of what went on. The hostels were great for the most part and all but one offered free toast for breakfast. We speant two nights, one at the beginning and one at the end, on the floor of the Dublin Airport so we could catch early morning flights. I promise it was much more hellish than I´m sure you´ve imagined it, though now I feel like a bone fide backpacker. AND, I ran into Casey Sharkey, Cheltenham High School class of ´05, at 4am in the Dublin airport. She was on my flight back to Madrid, and we chatted until it was time to board. Apparently we were both at the live music pub in Dublin on the same night and I thought I saw her, but then figured it was just a strong resemblance. Weird, huh?

I´m sure I forgot about half of the important stuff, but you hopefully get the idea. The weather was freezing and raining every day, but I´m not sure it´s proper to see Ireland any other way so I was pleased. Also, now I am very very poor.

"Superquickamente"

I finished my classes and I think I failed them both. (Just kidding...)

Actually, things ended really well. My presentation in culture class was supposed to be 15-20 minutes and it ended up being like a half hour, plus Dawn´s 20 minutes... I was kind of embarrassed about it, but I think we did really well so then I got over it. Then, when I turned in my incredibly horrible, uneditted 10-page paper, the profesora told me she had forgotten about it. So hopefully it´s not that important. Today, our grammar profesor, Manolo, took us out to a cafe for coffee. It was a fun way to end the class.

Also, Sunday night a boy who was on the Chile program happened to be in Granada. I met up with him and the three other girls here who were on that program. We had a lot of fun remembering what a silly time we´d all shared in South America.

Oh, some of my friends will appreciate this story. I had a pretty bad day on Monday. First, I was still feeling sick from my cold. Then, Dawn and I had to walk all over the place until we could find a working printer. On the way back to school, I tripped over a two-foot-high post that keeps cars off the sidewalk and landed flat on my face. These posts literally line all the sidewalks in the city and are about 4 feet apart from one another. Why I didn´t see it remains a mystery. Needless to say, the incident was very remniscent of my famous fall in seventh grade on the blacktop in front of our middle school. Though this time, it was witnessed by five homeless men instead of my twelve-year-old friends, and the homeless men actually showed a tiny bit of concern as opposed to uncontrollable amusement... After that, María Pepa made some soup with little baby octupus bodies in it for lunch and I had to keep my eyes closed as I ate it. Then, the WiFi stopped working at the €1.80/hr CiberCafe and I was up until 3 am finishing my project...

But yes, things are better now. I am leaving for Scottland and Ireland tomorrow and I´m very excited! Perhaps I will be able to update while I´m away...we´ll see. Also, as you might have guessed, my pictures have yet to be updated. I´ll see what I can do.

Faltan los leones...

I have a bad cold. :( Luckily, I discovered an entire box of Tylenol Cold medicine amongst my personal belongings. Thanks Mom! Hopefully I start to feel better before the big trip up north.

In other news, when I got home for lunch the other day the Ruiz's niece was visiting and she brought her ten-day-old baby to play! He was very funny and adorable, though he still seemed to be pretty confused about the world. Meanwhile, Maria Pepa and Alfonzo were really enjoying his company and Alfonzo kept taking pictures of him doing absolutely nothing. Meanwhile, he cried every time Maria Pepa held him. I would have cried too if somebody kept holding me up over her head calling me rey while I didn't have any pants on. Then she was all up in his face while he was nursing, which I found particularly weird...

Today we finally went to the Alhambra. It was very ornate with huge gardens called the Generalife. I was all excited to see its most famous room, El patio de los leones. When we got there, however, the lions were removed for restoration and there was this big Ikea-looking box in the middle of the courtyard where the lion fountain should have been. I was pretty upset about it. Also, we had the nuttiest tour guide ever - Maria Carmen. She looked a lot like my old orchestra director Mrs. Harvey, except Maria Carmen was about a foot shorter (as is everyone in Spain). She talked in incredibly slow Spanish, which actually kind of made me feel good at Spanish for once... Also, every five minutes she reminded us that the sun produces cancer and that we should stand in the shade. Whenever somebody stopped to take a picture, she gave us all a huge lecture about the dangers of being lost from the group as if we were in kindergarten... Anyway, she was very nervous about very many things which made the trip a bit less enjoyable than it otherwise could have been. Still, it was nice to see the Alhambra finally! Hopefully next time I go it will be more relaxed!

As for my paper, I have two pages done, which is more than I've ever finished this early on in the paper writing process so I am quite proud of myself. It's due Tuesday but I plan on finishing by tomorrow night/Monday afternoon so that we can dominate at the Monday Night Pub Quiz.

Here's to the end of my first term!

Todos los estudiantes españoles han vueltos

Lots of good news today!

First of all, we've made concrete plans for our fall break. We're flying to Dublin on the evening of the 12th, then spending the night in the airport (wahoo) so that we can leave at 6am the next morning for Edinburgh, Scottland. We got a hostel in a good part of town and a four person room with an in en suite shower. On the 15th we're flying to Galway, where we are staying in another hostel with the same type of amenities for 2 nights. From there, we head to Cork from the 17th-19th, where we're meeting up with our friend Dawn (she'll be in Rome for the first half). We also have reservations at a hostel there, a six-bed room. On the 19th we're heading back to Dublin and until we fly out the morning of the 21st. We haven't made an reservations in Dublin yet - but there are some prospects. Alfonzo told me that I should just find kin in Dublin and stay with them...

So that is very exciting. Today we had our first exam, and next week we have one more test, plus two papers and a presentation. So this break could not come soon enough!

Yesterday I convinced María Pepa to go for a walk with me in the park. It was 40% fun and 60% really awkward...

In other news, my trivia team won the pub quiz at Hannigans last night! This is a very big deal after four weeks of slow improvement. We got 62 out of a possible 86 points, and there were 12 teams (the most we've ever played against). Also, we were sitting next to a team of hilarious Danish boys. After meeting them and the Danish kids in Barcelona, I have come to the conclusion that there is not a single unfriendly person in all of Denmark. We won four pints of beer and four whole bottles of cheep Spanish wine! Also, our names were entered into the national lottery (over 100,000 euro).

Speaking of Denmark, did you know it's made up of nearly 500 individual islands? I learned that in last week's pub quiz...

In more cultural terms, the bullfight was pretty barbaric. I'll spare those of you who are especially squeamish the details, but suffice it to say I now understand why most Spaniards I've met disapprove of them. Although...I do have a favorite matador. His name is Jesús "Yiyo" Fernández, and he's the Chase Utley of public bull slaughtering. Also, did you know that it's tradition to eat a sandwich halfway through? Luckily, María Pepa packed me several.

Apparently, Sunday was a huge festival day honoring la Virgen de las Angustias (Our Lady of Sorrows?), the patroness of Granada. The streets were so packed that you could absolutely not move. From basically 9 in the morning until midnight, everyone was out attempting to walk around and eat pastries. When we got back from the bullfight, I had the incredible misfortune of getting stuck alongside what appeared to be a huge parade of somber-faced colonial soldiers. As the parade moved by (incredibly slowly), I suddenly spotted the main event. A huge, 20-foot statue of la Virgen slowly making her way up the middle of the street, carried by at least 30 men. Somehow, I managed to break free from the crowd and made it to a side street. Later, Kiersten told me that when all the women see the Virgen, they burst out sobbing as if on cue. I wish I could have seen that.

Well, that's about it for now. I'm planning on laying low this week until I get my paper done. Wish me luck!

Hmmm, it´s been awhile.

We decided to have a cultural week.

Wednesday night we went to see a Flamenco lecture and show. It was only about the music, not the dancing. This 20-something guy gave a PowerPoint presentation for at least and hour about Flamenco music and it was pretty boring. I can't listen to someone talk in English for that long, let alone Spanish. Afterwards, this old gypsy woman and her musicians came out and did a performance. That was pretty cool, and the whole thing was held in a very cute cafe in the Arab quarter. So I ended up glad I went.

Friday we headed to Ronda as a group, but just for the day. It was really gorgeous. (Literally...there´s a big gorge that cuts right through the middle of the city!) It took us three hours to get there by bus, then we stayed for about three hours, and then rode three hours back to Granada. I thought about staying for the whole weekend, but in the end it was not worth the effort and euros. On the way home, I mentioned to Jorge (our trip director) that when we arrived in Spain we never went through any sort of customs or passport control, and then he seriously talked to me for 40 minutes about why Europe is different from the United States. As an example, he cited the first time he came to the States in 1980 and had to drive 20 minutes to get an ice cream. He´s quite the Chatty Cathy, and I still don´t understand why I never got a stamp in my passport.

As for my classes, they are pretty good. Right now I am taking a grammar class and a Spanish culture class, and the professors are both really funny and interesting. In the culture class we just finished learning about bullfights and now we're on Flamenco, so all the info is really useful for living in Spain. But these classes end on the 11th. I have some work to get done before then including a 10 page paper and 20 minute oral presentation on the Spanish education system. Speaking of which, yesterday Kiersten and I spent an hour trying to find the public library. We asked several people where it was, and no one seemed to know. Not surprisingly, it turned out to be the ugliest industrial-looking building amid an entire neighborhood of historic churches. All the people working there wore white lab coats and it was filled with row after row of what appeared to be the same encyclopedia. I felt like I was in some psychological horror film. I asked a librarian if they had WiFi, and she said no and directed me to the public internet computers. There were seriously 6 of them and you had to sign up in 5 minute intervals. It was pretty frustrating.

Last night I went to my first Spanish club. It was €10 just to get in and it didn´t get crowded until almost 3am. I don´t know how these Spanish kids do it...

There´s a bullfight today in Granada and some friends and I got tickets. Jorge told me to bring a towel instead of tissues because that´s how much I´m going to cry. He told me there are three things he doesn´t approve of and holds them in equal regard: Spanish bullfights, English fox hunting, and American boxing. (This was all during the 40 minute talk on the bus back from Ronda.) Then he said I will probably leave after the first half-hour screaming and crying. Sounds pretty dramatic... Actually, I have yet to meet a Spaniard who enjoys or even approves of the bullfights. We´ll see how it goes.

In other news, I saw The Office season premiere. I give it a B+.

La ley y el orden: UVE

Tonight is the first SVU of the season and I'm so sad I'm missing it. :(

Un poco más

While I'm still working on updating my Webshots, I thought you might appreciate this photo of Alfonzo and María Pepa that I took today for the German girls. Happy Monday! :)

Más largo que un día sin pan

After much planning, we decided to spend the weekend in Almería, a coastal town two hours southeast of Granada. It’s a pretty little town, and all the main roads are very quaint and personal. There’s a lot of Arab influence there, which is similar to Granada and most of Andalucía. Actually, Almería is somewhat of a desert, and they sometimes film American-style westerns there, and it is the city with the least amount of rain in all of Spain.

Knowing this, you can imagine our delight when it rained until 10:30 on Friday night.

It had been raining since 4 am in Granada, and the twenty-minute public bus ride to the big bus station took an hour. Luckily we bought our tickets on Thursday, because we ended up running for the tour bus and just making it on time. We arrived in Almería at 5:30 pm, and I think we brought the storm with us. The ensuing torrential downpour is best described as apocalyptic. Not wanting to spend the whole night in our two star hotel, humming highlights from our favorite Broadway musicals, we ventured out into the storm. The water was up to my shins on the street, with a heavy current, and it was flooding over the curbs onto all of the sidewalks. The umbrella I bought that same day was practically useless as the rain was coming in sideways (to borrow a phrase from Forrest Gump). All the townspeople just stood in their doorways and watched the weather and us nutty americanos making our way through it. Once we were adequately soaked to the bone, the weather started to clear up and we ended up getting tapas and sangria at a little bar off the main road.

Saturday we got up super early and took a one-hour bus ride to the resort town of San José. It was very pretty, with the usual whitewashed houses up and down the hills and the mountains framing the sea. We rented bikes for half the day in attempts to ride through some of the Cabo de Gata Nature Reserve next to the beach. We biked up the hilly paths along the coast, with the sea always in view. It was one of my favorite activities of the trip thus far. When the road ended at the side of a mountain, we hiked with our bikes around the side of it. It was actually pretty rugged and somewhat dangerous – just a typical day in my life, as I’m sure you know. Down below, we saw a secluded beach in part of the reserve and climbed down to it (we had come prepared with our bathing suits under our clothes). As we descended, it became increasingly obvious that bathing suits were entirely optional. So there we were, americanos with mountain bikes and exercise clothes and backpacks and camelbacks, on a Spanish nude beach. Awkward.

We actually stayed at the beach for awhile, though we kept our eyes towards the sea. Needless to say, it was pretty silly.

We took an 8 pm bus back to Almería and had a really good night’s sleep. On Sunday, we walked around to see some of the Arab ruins in the city and left Almería around 4:30. I seriously fell asleep in the middle of my homework at 10:00 last night – but the exhaustion was worth it. It was a very good weekend.

Question of the Day – should I spent 100 euro ($140) to join a gym for three months?

C-C-C-Cambios

Good news! We booked a flight for our Fall Break!

The plan changed many times. Our first goal was to do Prague, the Dalmatian Coast in Croatia, and Istanbul – but we quickly realized that was nearly impossible to do in 10 days on a budget. Then we thought we’d mix things up with a Glasgow and Prague vacation. Multiple search engines, three travel agents, and much heartache later, we conceded defeat and dropped Prague from the agenda.

As of now, we’re headed to Dublin (for about $100 round trip!). The plan is: countryside by day, Dublin by night. After 3-4 days, we’ll head off to some other location. (Currently on the list is Oslo, Norway… But we could be swayed towards another site by compelling information and cheap airfare.) When I got home I was pretty excited to tell María Pepa and Alfonzo – they seem to think that I have family there. Alfonzo said that if I share ancestors with people, then we’re family. It makes me think of when Kathy Griffin invited all the Griffins in Ireland to share a pint with her…

Also, three German girls came to stay with us. They’re students, but only here for a week. I was not at all warned, ran into them in the hallway, and was thoroughly confused. They don’t speak much Spanish, and I’m sure they’re questioning what kind of American I am because I won’t talk to them in English en casa. They ate dinner before me because there’s not room at the table for all of us, and then María Pepa was upset because all she had left for me was half a personal pizza. I was pretty much ecstatic with the news and told her how perfect that was because it’s really not necessary that she feed me so much at dinner. She shook her head. I told her I was still full because we eat so much for lunch. I wish you could have seen her face – it was like a combination of bewilderment and incomprehension. Alfonzo was pretty amused and told me I was going to have to start running in the park. I agreed, but I was definitely not laughing about it. In the end, she made me half the pizza, two slices of Italian bread with salt and olive oil (which she puts on seriously everything), tomato-ish sauce, and this lunchmeat with dates and nuts in it, and a flan. Meanwhile, she literally ate some of the pizza crusts and an entire tomato, cut in half, with salt and olive oil.

Although María Pepa seems to be the worst, all of the kids are having trouble with how much food they’re served. My friend Dawn decided to tell her mom that she wanted to lose weight. Her mom told her that was perfect because the food she makes has little to no fat in it, and then proceeded to give her a third helping of chicken.

In celebration of our Ireland plans, the five of us decided to go to Hannigans (where else?) and say “slancha” over pints of Guinness. (Actually, we went to “Big” Hannigans this time, which is the by the same owners, but in a more ritzy part of town.) I was in a good mood and decided to invite the German girls along. Either they didn’t understand me, or they didn’t know why I was inviting them to an Irish Pub in Spain, so they just giggled a little and declined. They’re loss I figured. This morning I was talking to them over breakfast and learned they are sixteen. I was horrified. I wonder what they think of me inviting children to a bar? Maybe I should tell them I used to be an RA...

Well, I better go - Dawn and I have launched a full on project to start volunteering at an elementary school down the street and we have to go meet some professoras.

Abrazos!

Nunca me acuerdo de ningún título...

The winding roads that ascend through the Sierra Nevadas are enough to make anyone car sick. Still, it’s worth the ride for both the scenery and the quaint pueblos set deep into the mountains. Our first stop on Friday morning was the tiny white-washed village of Alpujarras. There, townspeople pick “higo” fruits right off the trees and wash their clothes in a communal basin for lack of electricity in many homes. On one side street, we found a drinking fountain that guarantees marriage within a year of drinking from it. Thankfully, I brought bottled water.

From Alpujarras, we scaled deeper into the mountains and arrived at Trevelez – the town of the highest altitude on the Iberian Peninsula. After a quick picnic (María Pepa packed me two hoagie-length sandwiches, two apples, and an entire package of crackers – enough to feed the entire group) we hit up the shops in the town center. It was very small and every store, from bakeries to ceramics shops, offered a variety of dried pork legs, which hung morbidly from the ceilings. Around 1:30, we stopped into a restaurant to have a Coca Cola Light and the use the baño. Besides us five americanos, the only table was occupied by two old men and an ugly little dog that could walk on its hind legs at command. An hour and two complimentary beers later, we were all fast friends. Carlos and Alberto were pretty excited to show off the rat-creatures best tricks, and the restaurant owner and his wife seemed to think we were all hillarious. The real fun came after we told them about the marriage fountain we had drank from in Alpujarras. Everyone jokingly encouraged us to consider Carlos, who despite being about 70, is apparently quite a catch because of his dog, house, and lack of children. Apparently, Alberto is the town major, and he was full of stories. Very seriously, he admitted to me that he likes Americans better than Russians (though he prefers Castro to George Bush), then said something about the FBI that I couldn’t understand, and then told me about the time he met Robert Kennedy on a train going to Madrid. Before we left, he gave us his e-mail address in case we ever need anything.

Finally, we made it to Almuñecar by Friday evening. It was a little beach town with a substantial elderly population and very little noise. Actually, it was very similar to Torrenuevas, the beach I went to with María Pepa, and I am starting to get the idea that many Mediterranean villages are this way. Our hotel was pretty amazing, and I lucked out by getting one of only three rooms that directly look out over the sea. We spent a lot of time out on the balcony there, especially because the water was full of red jellyfish on the day we arrived and so we couldn’t swim. I spent the whole next day at the beach, which was made of stones instead of sand, and I learned how to search for sea glass.

On the way home Sunday morning, we stopped in Nerja to see its famous cave. It was actually pretty gi-huge-enous. I had a hard time believing it wasn’t some fake exhibit that you run into at Disney World… Sadly, we left right afterwards to make it home for lunch, although I would’ve stayed to see what I’m told is one of Spain’s best beaches.

As for me, I just finished the John Grisham book I was reading and I’m still working out plans for Fall Break, so I’m kind of up-in-the-air about things. Tonight is trivia night at Hannigans, and we plan on arriving early enough to win this time. Hopefully, we won’t have to do sports this time.

Abrazos

Fotos, Bicis, y Viajes

After many frustrating days, I've finally managed to get some photos online. Here's the link:

Liz's Spain Pics

So enjoy.

Yesterday I went on a bike ride organized through the Universidad. The bikes (or "bicis" as they're called) were made of crap. Maybe I'm just spoiled by my own multi-geared, comfortable bici waiting patiently for me back in Delaware. Our leader was this guy named Ulises, and when I saw him dressed all in spandex I started wondering what I'd gotten myself into. Actually, it was a very nice ride through the southern barrios in Granada - we even got to see the Campo de Futbol. Then at the end we had to go up this huge hill, and I started feeling like I was back in a Cheltenham gym class...

We are going on an excursion this weekend to Alpujarras and Nerja, so hopefully I'll have some cool pictures on my return.

¡Tengo WiFi!

So, María Pepa broke her foot…

Well, she didn’t break it necessarily. She and Alfonzo (shall I call him Alfy?...no) went out to visit a friend after we got back from the beach with promises to be home by the evening. They left me enough food for a week. Then they come putzing in at 10 pm. Very dramatically, María Pepa’s hands slap against the walls in the hallway for balance as she turns the corner with Alfonzo saying “poco, poco, poco.” There she is in her little wedge heals, with her right foot wrapped in an ace bandage up to her knee. Alfonzo’s behind her carrying these arm-brace crutches, and making fun of her. From what I understood, she banged it on a drawer while cutting the plastic wrapper off the pizza she left me for dinner. Hours later, she was immobile. As she tells me this, Alfonzo is (mockingly) hobbling around and hitting her in the behind with one of the crutches. Needless to say, it was pretty silly.

So while the padres were at the hospital, I was out exploring the Albacín. Also known as the Arab Quarter, the Albacín is a hilly neighborhood at the top (not north, I think east) of the city. It’s the location of Sacramonte, a series of caves set into the hillside occupied by gypsies that try to read your palms and steal your money. [Wasn’t that informative? I should write for Wikipedia…] There’s a great view of the Alhambra from there – we got some money shots which I hope to post later today. I’ve met some kids who like to go exploring like me so we’ve been having fun together seeing different parts of the city.

Last night was trivia night at our favorite Irish Pub, Hannigans. We showed up late and missed the first two rounds, but we only finished 5 points behind the fifth place team. The sports questions killed us…

Today it’s raining. I’m finally connected to the wireless internet at school so I am pretty psyched (how’s that Dad?) not to have to pay exorbitant prices at the Ciber-Café. Also, I am finally writing this on my own computer!

In other news, I’m starting to plan out my trips for free weekends and Fall Break. Any suggestions? I'm thinking Eastern Europe...

¡Qué rica, la vida mediterránea!

You don´t know beaches until you´ve been to the Mediterranean. I´m serious. In Spain, the sea is incredibly calm and that perfect cool-but-not-tropical temperature. The Sierra Nevadas surround you from every direction (in fact, the drive through them to get to the beach is reason enough for going). There´s no trash anywere, or obnoxious people under the umbrella next to you. Just 40 feet out, people kayack and ride peddle-operated rafts. All the babies speak in Spanish.

I speant most of the day by myself on the beach reading. María Pepa stayed at the apartment replacing the pipes to the stove, watching a guy fix the railing on the veranda, and cleaning every inch. (She´s very handy. She´s also a hysterical driver...and by hysterical, I mean horrifying. It´s a small miracle we made it back alive.) I only went in the water twice and could have stayed in all day if I wasn´t trying to keep a close eye on the backpack with all my worldly belonging back on shore. At the end of the day, I was dark enough to maybe pass as a Spaniard (if you ignore the freckles, blue eyes, and incredibly burnt back...).

María is still feeding me incredibly too much food. Also, my comprehension is still poor. Last night she told me something about "mesa" (which is table) at 8:30, so I thought that´s when we were eating. As it turns out, she was actually saying "misa" (which is mass) and I was seriously in my pajamas when we were supposed to leave... I´ve decided that it´s the accent I´m having a hard time with, plus the fact that she speaks really fast and under her breath half the time. But I´ll catch up soon I´m sure.

*Scoop and Labradoodie Corner*
Every other person here has a white toy poodle. Yesterday I saw two meet on the street and greet each other in Spanish - very cute.

Well, classes start tomorrow! Wish me luck!

Abrazos

Noches en los Jardines de España

Apparently my dad is having fun translating these spanish headings so I´ll keep using them for awhile.

Well, after a morning visit to the Barcelona aquarium, and some drama at the airport regarding everyone´s luggage exceeding the domestic flight weight limits, I was off to Granada on the fifth. We arrived at 10:30 pm, but didn´t meet our families until 12 because some kids´suitcases didn´t make it onto the plane (luckily not me).

I live at the bottom of the city, right across the street from a big park and Federico García Lorca´s house. My family consists of Alfonzo and María Pepa Ruiz, each of whom stands (at most) about five feet tall. They´re older and walk around the house humming and singing under their breath - kind of reminds me of Pop-Pop. Granada is a small city of about 250,000 (plus 70,000 spanish and foreign students). The main streets look like any other modern city, but every back road is historic and quaint and cobblestoned. There are little cafes and plazas hidden everywhere, and you can see the Sierra Nevada mountains on the outskirts of town.

My first interactions with the family were pretty awkward. I thought they were pretty quiet and uninterested in conversing with me. I kept asking them questions at lunch just so that it wasn´t so quiet. But by my first dinner, the situation was a lot better. I told María Pepa that I liked the park and she said that she and I could go walking there some afternoons. (In the mornings she works in a dry-cleaners. Alfonzo is retired.) They are both very curious as to why I don´t have a boyfriend and seem somewhat convinced that I will find one in the next few days... Lunch is the biggest meal here, and my chicken and potatoes could have fed three people. Then, at dinner, María Pepa made me two ham and cheese sandwiches, a salad, and flan. I told her it was really good, but too much. She responded by asking what my mom would say if I didn´t eat enough. Feeling guilty, I ate both sandwiches. This afternoon she and I are going to the beach and staying at one of her friend´s house until tomorrow afternoon (but Alfonzo can´t come because another student is coming to stay with us later today). All the other UD kids are jealous. She also told me she hopes well be good friends.

The apartment is on the seventh floor and is somewhat small. My room is seriously 6´x6´. I have a bed, a small table and chair, some shelves, and a closet. When I want to get in the closet I have to move the chair and table. I have a window which looks out onto a tiny courtyard at the center of the building, and there´s a huge print of bleeding Jesus after he was taken off the cross above my bed... Also, María Pepa takes her job very seriously and is constantly rearranging my room, but it doesn´t really bother me except that I lied and told her I didn´t have a towel (because I brought my own only for when I travel), and I´m pretty sure she´s found mine in my room. Our University of Granada building (the Centro de Lengua Modernas) is a good 20 minute walk away, and all the students there are foreign - mostly from the states.

Last night I met up with a bunch of kids and went to "Little Hannigans", an Irish pub near our school. It was karaoke night, and filled with americanos and really hysterical Spanish kids trying to sing american songs. I met a girl there who went to Abington High School and we scowled at each other.

Meanwhile, my spanish speaking abilities are hit or miss and I´m incredibly awkward about it... This morning I was explaining to Alfonzo (who was very intently watching a TV program) that I was going to the school to set up my wireless internet, and he said "mira, ven". That means "look, come here". And even though I totally knew that, I got confused and thought he was telling me to go ahead. So I was walking out of the apartment and he was following me saying "ven". I finally realized what he was saying and decided I am the biggest tool in Granada. Then he showed me this great view of the park we have from our apartment (which I will share with you once I master the art of online pictures). Then he pointed out what he was watching on TV, a televised view of the front door courtesy of the security cameras. So much for a TV program...

Well, I think that´s about it... I´ll probably be less detailed in the future, but I thought I´d give you the total picture of things here. The weather´s nice, the city´s safe, and I have a cell phone and service at long last!

Goal of the day: ride on a moped. :)

Abrazos

Adios Barcelona

Things have chilled out a bit since our first few days here.

Sunday night we ended up going out with some kids from Denmark that were studying in Barcelona. They all spoke Danish, English, and some Spanish and they all looked like Ken and Barbie. It was pretty bizarre. Then we ran into some other kids from our group and these British kids on "gap year" so we all hung out. Did you know bars and clubs stay open until 7 am here? Would you believe it if I told you I stayed out that late? (sike!)

Yesterday we went to a beach called Sitges, just south of the city. They streets were all winding cobblestone, with white-washed buildings and a castle-looking church that jutted out on a cliff over the sea. The beach was just what you´d expect of Europe - all kinds of topless women, naked children, and men in speedos. The water was cold but nice once you were hot enough. Then a local pointed some of us in the direction of a good cafe for lunch. We didn´t really know what the food was so we ordered random things. I ended up with bruschetta...

After that, Jorge surprised us with a tour of the Torres winery. It was a lot cooler than Concha y Toro, which we saw in Chile. Those people are RICH! Now I´m trying my best to marry into the Torres family.

Today we saw a Cathedral in the historic or "gothic" quarter and later we´re heading to the Picasso Museum. The days are full, but we also have free time to bum around at internet cafes such as the one I´m now.

I love reading everyone´s comments! I´m pretty oblivious to what´s going on back in the states... I can´t wait to get a phone and get settled!

Tomorrow I fly to Granada!

Abrazos

(Happy Birthday, 21 Year Old!)

He Llegado

Well, I made it.

We arrived in Barcelona yesterday morning, and are flying to Granada on the fifth. After losing six hours of sleep in the time change everyone was pretty grumpy for first day of sight seeing. (Not me, of course!) Then we had to get up early this morning to go see a bunch of museums and take a bus tour of the city. Needless to say, I´m pretty happy there´s unofficial siesta time here in Spain.

Barcelona is pretty amazing. The locals speak Catalán and there are so many foreigners here that everyone speaks different languages. The city is really beautiful and historic, later today we are going to see some of Gaudí´s works, including his big cathedral. Tonight I expect we´ll hit up some of the nightlife... :)

The group seems pretty cool so far. All the girls are friendly and excited to be here so that´s really good.

Anyway, I have to run because we are heading out to more museums soon. I´ll update soon with (hopefully) more exciting news!

Abrazos!

Me Voy

This post is basically just a test to see if I'm tech-savvy enough to figure out this "blogging" situation. On a more newsworthy point, I'm heading out tomorrow! Look out Europe, here I come! (That is, if I get everything packed in time...)

[apparently I'm not that tech-savvy, considering the fact that I can't figure out how to insert an image onto this page. oh well, give it time...]