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!
Wednesday, October 31
Friday, October 26
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. :)
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. :)
Monday, October 22
"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.
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.
Thursday, October 11
"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.
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.
Saturday, October 6
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!
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!
Tuesday, October 2
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!
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!
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