You Take the Good You Take the Bad...

You take them both and there you have the facts of life!

   Well I only have 8 fun, busy, sad, fast, long days left in Spain!  It's crazy how fast it went by.  I am really excited to come home and there were some days where I wished I had the comforts of back home, but now that there are only 8 days left, I don't know if I'm ready to go.  I feel like I haven't been here that long.  It's definitely one of the best experiences I have had and I will never be able to forget all of the things I have done and seen and friends I have made.

   Those are my thoughts for the day.  I wasn't going to blog again, but I had a dream last night that is telling me I should blog to you all about it.  But before I do, if any of you get the chance to visit Nerja, Spain don't hesitate!!  I just spent three full days lying on the beach doing absolutely nothing and it was fantastic!  And it's SO pretty there!  I even managed to wake up early enough to watch the sunrise over the mountains on the beach!  What a life!

   Now I'm back in Granada and have tests, papers, doing everything that I will miss when I leave, and saying goodbye to some really cool people.  I had one final today and after the test my teacher was saying goodbye to me and I started tearing up.  There were some days when she would make me so angry, but now I realize it was worth it because she has taught me so much.

  Okay dream time along with my interpretations of the dream.

Part 1: I was going on a trip somewhere with my friends Nikki and Ashley.  On our way through security at the airport for some reason I had to show the police officer identification.  So I gave her my passport and she said that was not an acceptable form, so I then gave her my drivers license.  Again, she didn't like that and told me it had to be my Spanish Student I.D.  So I try looking for it everywhere and I couldn't find it.  She wouldn't let me get past through security until I had it.  So I keep looking and finally I find it in the front of my bookbag.  BUT when I get through security Nikki and Ashley are already gone and I am running trying to find our gate because the plan leaves in 10 minutes!  But of course it couldn't be easy...all of the signs were in GERMAN!   So I just run around for a long time, I think I find my gate, walk down the runway thing and I'm magically in a plane that is headed for China!  That was not where we were going!  I get off just before it takes off, however I end up missing my plane.

My interpretation of Part 1:  Plane rides stress me out.  I love traveling, but the actual getting on the plane part is always a hassle.  I'm done riding planes for awhile, and I hope everything goes alright for the way home.

Part 2:  Now I'm wandering around in the airport trying to figure out what to do with myself and who is there to pick me up, Dad.  So I go with Dad in his pick up truck and we stop at Taco Bell so I can go to the bathroom.  I can't find the bathroom, but who is also looking for the bathroom Suzi Young.  So we try to find it but can't so we start leaving, and then who do I run into, Rachel, Wendy Blair, Bill and Kelly Kupersmith, Matt Molitor and Matt's new baby daughter!  This is craziness!  So I'm talking with them on the way to Dad's truck.  Bill keeps asks me what the thing in my hair is called like the United States doesn't own such a thing...it was a headband.  Wendy is asking me all sorts of questions about Spain and to enjoy the next week.  Because apparently I'm going back to Spain without them.  Matt drives off on a motorcycle and Kelly asks me if I can babysit his new baby.  Then Rachel gave me some lottery tickets to scratch off.  We lost.

My interpretation of Part 2: I think this means I'm ready to come home see all of the people I love and miss, eat some processed American Food, and maybe win the lottery...

Feel free to add to the interpretations. :)  See you all soon!!!

Semana Santa Extravaganza

    So during Holy Week all of Spain has this big festival that basically consists of processions and pastries.  I felt like it should be something that I experience while I'm here, so I came home from Germany a few days early to experience some of the fiesta.  However, when the weather is not cooperating this really isn't the best thing to see.  All week long there are processions that correspond with what day of Holy Week it is.  The coolest part is that people carry on their shoulders these huge images that depict a scene that corresponds with the day.  These images are HUGE  and weigh a lot, so it's pretty impressive to see people carrying them for hours.  However, none of the processions can go on if it is raining because the images are not supposed to get wet. It rained everyday off and on.  For the three days I was home I was able to see one and a half of the seven processions there were supposed to be.  :(  But it was still pretty neat.  Also, in the procession are people who wear these hats that cover their faces.  At first it's a little intimidating, but once you get used to it, they weren't so bad.  They wear them to hide themselves from the public so they can remain mysterious and make promises with God.  It was neat to see, but I wish the weather would have been better.

Gallivanting around Germany

I finally had a ten day break from school and got to spend my time relaxing in Germany with my friend Lee! :)  Now, I know what some of you may say (I don't even have school on Fridays) but believe me it was a much needed break.  Germany was great!  It was a really nice trip, relaxing, full of site seeing, hanging out with Lee, and meeting some of the nicest people I have ever met.  I was greeted at the airport with flowers, and then driven to Lee's house where there were American Flags flying and a bottle of champaign waiting to welcome me to Germany.  It was so nice and I couldn't have imagined anything more welcoming.  

Lee and I in a HUGE PURPLE chair!

My first full day we took the train into Hamburg with Lee's Parents.  We walked around, took some boat rides, and explored the harbor.  Lee's Dad works in Hamburg so he knew a lot about the city and was really excited to share what he knew with me.  Lee and I climbed over 400 steps to look out on the city of Hamburg from St. Michael's Bell Tower.  That was my workout for the day, but definitely worth it!  We came back to Bargteheide (Lee's home town) and had a barbecue and then Lee and I went back into Hamburg with her friends later that night to explore the German night life.  It was a really long, but very fun day.

Lee and I in a beach chair

On day two we went to Lubeck which I think was my favorite town in Germany.  It was all so old and really pretty.  The whole town looked like a Medival Fortress.  It was all so different from any other city I have seen in Europe. In Lubeck we had marzipan which is a sugary dough like candy.  It was good, but kind of had a different taste.  After Lubeck we went to the coast and had ice cream by the Baltic Sea.  Then we finished the day by having supper with Lee's Grandparents, Parents, and Aunt and Uncle.  They were all so nice!!  It was really fun to just hang out with a whole family again and chat.  That's something I haven't had a chance to do in awhile.

The next two days we spent in Berlin.  They were a blast!  We took a boat ride and got to see some of the main attractions.  Then we went to a Jewish Memorial, the Berlin Gate, and the Dom (Dome).  The Dome is supposed to be similar to St. Anthony's church in Rome.  It was so big and gorgeous.  I could have spent hours in there and not have been bored, because there was so much to look at!  That afternoon we headed to the 1936 Olympic Stadium.  At this stadium we actually got to go inside and look at the field and the swimming pool.  It was really nice, I'm glad that we got to go in.  We finished the night by having amazing Turkish food for dinner. :)  

Me and the Berlin Bear

Our second day in Berlin was pretty relaxing because we did so much the first day. We started the day by going to where pieces of the Berlin Wall are.  That was really neat and really informational.  We even got to watch a movie (in English not German) which was really interesting.  I think the wall was my favorite part about Berlin.  Then we went to find this church that was bombed during WWII and only the tower was left and so they built a really modern church onto the tower.  However, when we got there the whole building was covered in construction tarp! :(  We weren't able to see any of it.  That was sad, but we did get to try currywurst there.  It's a type of sausage that is well known in Berlin.  It was really good.

We made our way back to Bargteheide for my last day there.  Lee and I went to a concentration camp that is outside of Hamburg.  I really enjoyed that, because I am not really into history very much, but WWII was one of the things that I did like learning about.  So it was kind of neat to be somewhere where that history actually occurred.  It was pretty sad but really informational.  We came back and had asparagus dinner.  I've never had asparagus before, but I now know that I love it!  :)  

And maybe my favorite part of the whole trip was that in between all the sight seeing, traveling, and meeting new people, Lee and I would watch Gilmore Girls!!  Oh how I have missed that show! :)

I can back with three days left of my break to experience the joys of Semanta Santa in Granada. I was really excited to see all of the extravaganzas of Semana Santa but then...to be continued.

I was welcomed with American Flags

A Weekend of Spanish Fun in the Sun

           This weekend I didn't have any trips planned, so you may think that I had a nice relaxing weekend at “home”.  Well, I guess that’s kind of true, but it was so busy!  First, let me just say that Spanish Sun is HOT!  Really hot!!  I can now say that walking to school for thirty minutes is not fun at all!  I think I would have to leave an hour early so I could walk leisurely so I could avoid sweating, but that probably still wouldn't help!

            The weekend started out kind of rough because we had class on Friday. J Yes my new idea of a rough weekend is one when I have class.  What a life!  Saturday we had activities planned with my program to do in Granada.  We walked up to The Sacramonte Caves in the morning.  Can I say again how hot it is here and it was an hour walk from my house up a very large mountain?  When we got there we got to see houses that are built into the mountain.  They look like a little hut from the outside, but then they’re basically caves inside.  We learned about what they used to use them for and how they made, baskets, cloth, and lots of other things. 

Bullfight Arena

            Then that night we went to a bullfight.  If you are like my Mom, no I did not participate. J  It was a bullfight in a stadium, not like a bullfight when you run down the street with bulls running after you.   A bullfight normally consists of six bulls and three bullfighters.  However, this bullfight was a benefit for kids with Down Syndrome, so there were the six best bullfighters from Spain and seven bulls.  If you don’t know about bullfights, I’ll tell you that they kill the bulls at the end, and it takes about a half an hour for each bull.  I sat for 3 ½ hours to watch a bullfight! Crazy!  I didn’t really find it really gross or too sad.  It was sad, but I know that it’s a big custom here so I just kind of thought about it like that.  There first two bulls were new and interesting to me, so it was fun to watch and observe everything that was going on.  The first bull they did the whole thing on horses which was really neat.  That one was probably my favorite to watch and the most frightening as well.  The other six they all did by starting out on horses but then doing the rest on the ground.  But after watching the first two I just got kind of bored.  I think it was because I didn’t know much about it or what makes the bullfighter “good”.  It was interesting to see the entire crowd react and yell.  It was kind of just like a football game.  There was even a bad playing.  It was quite an experience!

            And to finish off the weekend, I spent the day at the park in the sun.  This seemed like a good idea at first because it was so hot and all I would have to do is lay there and do homework. If I didn’t move a lot maybe it wouldn’t feel as hot.  This was a very bad decision.  Spanish sun is a lot stronger than Stockton sun.  I am really burnt.  But I have learned my lesson and hopefully I’ll come back tan. J

Dublin' Around

Another successful trip!  I was able to spend three lovely days in Dublin, Ireland!  Well, they were great but the weather could have been nicer.  This is coming from me who is used to Granada's 70+ degree weather, so I guess that's not saying much.  It was a little chilly and windy with a little hail thrown in there, but the trip was great.

  We got there early evening Friday, so we didn't really do much that night except go out to eat and settle in to our hostel.  We made friends with the person at the front desk and got advice to go on a day trip to Wicklow.  So Saturday we got up and had breakfast (Yes real breakfast!  Eggs, ham, sausage, hashbrowns...in Spain we get two pieces of toast every morning, so this was a gold mine!)  Then we took a bus tour to Wicklow.  Our bus driver was a cute little old man with an Irish accent, who made the trip ten times better.  And he sang to us to keep us entertained.  We got to drive by a place where they filmed some of Braveheart and we stopped to take pictures on a bridge where P.S. I Love You was filmed!!  That was pretty cool!  Then we stopped and had lunch in a town called Avoca, where they filmed the tv show Bally Kiss Angel.  I have never seen it before, but now I can say I have ate at the restaurant of that show.

  

 Sunday, we went to The National Leprechaun Museum!  Yes, I'm sure you are jealous...I would be.  We were really excited for this, but then once we got there is was most definitely not worth 8 euros.  I may have been cool for 4 year olds, but not so much for us.  We did get some fun pictures though, and learned about Leprechauns(real ones, not the Lucky Charm version) and other Irish fairies.  Our tour guide told us a story of how the government paid 12 million dollars to make a road way out of the way, so they wouldn't have to chop down a fairy tree.  These people take their fairies seriously!  Then we went and saw St. Patrick's cathedral.  We didn't go inside, just looked at it.  Then we finished the day at The Guinness Museum.  It was pretty interesting and fun to see.  Some of my friends became certified Guinness Pourers.  They even got a certificate.

 It was a very good trip, but unfortunately I didn't have any luck finding a four leaf clover. :)

The Magical Land of Barcelona

Last weekend I went to Barcelona with a few of my friends.  It was so much fun and very pretty!!  If you ever have a chance to go you definitely should!  I had a blast!  However, if the trip would have turned out like our trip started, I may be saying something different.

    We left Thursday after class to take a bus to Malaga to catch our flight.  We were kind of cutting it close on time so we (okay maybe just me) were worried a little bit. We ended up getting to the airport and through security in plenty of time for our flight.  Heck, we were basically the first people at the gate.  But of course, when the guy came around to check tickets, he looked at us, asked us if we spoke spanish (we said yes) and then said we need to go get a stamp on our ticket, but we needed to hurry, like run, because they were boarding!  Oh my goodness!  We have never had to get a stamp before for any of the other flights I have taken, so we didn't get one this time either.  We ended up running all the way across the airport, we had to go outside of security, and then to the other side of terminal 2 just to get a stamp on our ticket!  Then we ran all the way back, through security for the second time, and when we got back to the gate...it hadn't moved at all!  There was no point in even running!  But at least we made the plane.
 

Who's America's Next Top Model

    Once we got to Barcelona though things calmed down.  Well kind of, but the rest of the running around that we did we decided to do ourselves.  On Friday, we got to see La Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, the 1992 Olympic Stadium, and el Fuente Magica, and we went on a bus tour.  La Sagrada Familia is a HUGE chapel that started being built by Gaudi but he never had a chance to finish it.  So people have been and still are building it to how he wanted.  It has never not been under construction!  I don't think it's supposed to be done until around 2020.  Then we took a bus tour of the city, just so we could get a chance to see everything that Barca has to offer.  After the bus tour, we had a picnic in Park Guell, which also has some beautiful architecture of Gaudi, complete with houses that reminded me of Hansel and Gretal/gingerbread houses.  In Park Guell, there is also an area where America's Next Top Model was shot!  That's right, I got to be a model for a day! :)

 After Park Guell we went to visit the 1992 Olympic Stadium.  It was so cool!  We couldn't go inside the stadium, but we got to look in.  It was pretty neat, it's the first Olympic Stadium I've seen.  There was also a cat inside the stadium!  I named him Oly short for Olympics. haha  After the stadium we visited el Fuente Magica, the Magic Fountain.  Every Friday and Saturday, there is this gigantic water fountain that lights up and has a water show with music.  It was so pretty and lots of fun.  We stayed for two of the shows.  The first one was to 80's music!  My favorite! And the second was with Classical Music.  It was really cool.  Then we took some cheesy touristy photos in front of it.

el Fuente Magica

 Saturday, we went to Camp Nou, the FCBarcelona Futbol Stadium, and got to have the Camp Nou Experience.  It was lots of fun!  We got to see the field from the press boxes, from the sidelines, we saw the locker rooms, press conference area, the team's church, and I even learned the Barcelona Fight Song.  It was so much fun, and I'm not even a big fan of soccer.  But it was really cool to see how into the sport the people of Spain are.  It reminded me a lot of being back home in my house. :)  After the Camp Nou Experience we spent the day at Las Ramblas, which is like a tourist shopping street with lots of street performers.  And, I got to stick my foot in the Mediterranean Sea!  Really cool, but really cold!  It was such a great trip!  I would go back again when I ever get a chance.  Tomorrow I'm headed to Dublin,!  May the luck of the Irish be with me!

Whirlwind

 Last week…I don’t really even remember what happened last week.  I think mostly just school.  On Friday my program had a trip to Madrid.  I was really excited to go because everything was paid for and planned out already, so I was thinking it was going to be like a mini vacation.  The truth is, it was my least favorite trip so far.  The weather was really bad, so that didn’t help at all.  Madrid is really big, which I don’t like, and all of the Spanish cities are kind of starting to look the same.  I also didn’t really get a chance to do a whole lot.  I wanted to see the Guernica while I was there but that didn’t end up working out.  But I did get to see inside the palace, which was really pretty, old, and interesting to see, but the tour was a little boring.  I also got to go to The Prado and see some of the paintings I learned about from Ms. Huso.  It was pretty cool to see in person, things that I read about in a Spanish IV book.  It made it all seem a little more real.  My favorites were El 3 de Mayo by Goya and Las Meninas by Velazquez.  While in Madrid I also got to experience my first Spanish play, La Fuga.  It was pretty interesting and funny because of the actions of the characters, but they talked so fast!!  I was able to understand the plot of the play, but it was kind of frustrating because when something funny happened, everyone would be laughing in the audience and we were sitting there wondering what was going on.  It was a great experience though, and the play seemed like it would be pretty good!

 On the way to Madrid we made a pit stop in Toledo.  I enjoyed Toledo more than Madrid.  We had a tour guide take us around the city and tell us a little about the history.  When we say “Holey Toledo!” it comes from Toledo, Spain, because it has 80 churches!!  And trust me, we saw at least 15 on our hour long tour.  In Toledo we also got to ride an 8 million dollar escalator that is in the side of the mountain, so people can get from the bottom of the city to the top!  It was amazing!!  Very cool!  We ended our trip in Toledo, with a trip to a sword factory!  Toledo is known for its stainless steel swords and knives.  That was pretty cool, and I got to whole a sword, so what’s not to like about that! J 

So I think at the beginning of this trip, I kind of started to hit the “this isn’t as fun as it used to be stage”.  It’s not that I don’t like it anymore or am not having fun anymore, but I’m just starting to miss the luxuries of home.  I miss being able to take a hot shower for as long as I want.  I miss knowing exactly what to do when I walk into a restaurant.  I miss being able to understand everything that people say to me, instead of trying to use context clues.  I’m just getting a little frustrated, but this week helped because I had visitors!  Kyle and his family came over for the week to experience a little Spanish Culture. They came at the right time because I think now that I had a little taste of home that I have a second wind to keep exploring and learning new things. I have midterms the next two weeks. :/  The only one I’m really nervous for is my Literature one.  That’s Monday so I should get studying. The next two weekends I have trips planned already and then it will be Spring Break.  These next two months are going to fly by!  

Fun Facts from across the world

     Nothing really new or exciting happened this week, but I did forget a few things about my recent trip to Gibraltar/Malaga.  Did you know that Gibraltar is the home of Miss World 2009??  Me either!!  When we crossed the border the first thing we saw was a big poster of Miss World 2009.  Also, in Malaga we also went to a Picasso Museum.  Malaga is where Picasso was born, so of course we had to stop and see some art.  It was pretty neat.  We got to see some original Picasso artwork and make our own (pretty funny) interpretations. Plus side to this visit, I can use some of the things I saw for a paper for my history of art class.  

     This week's Granada Seminar was over olive oil.  We learned how they make olive oil and how to tell how "good" the oil is by reading the labels.  While in class this was fairly interesting.  Then over the weekend we went to an olive oil museum.  The way it seemed to me, was that at the museum we would actually see them making olive oil and have them go through parts of the process for us.  I even thought we were going to be able to have a olive oil tasting. (When you taste olive oil you put it in your mouth, swish it around, and then spit is out. Yuck.) However, once we got to the museum, I quickly realized that it was no longer a working olive oil factory.  It was really a museum.  So we got to walk around and here how they make it, but nothing really very exciting at all.  It was kind of disappointing, but there is always room for fun.  My friend and I ended up taking some good pictures there, and it was really pretty, because it was in a town up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

  Now for my favorite story of the week.  I bought some playing cards last week because they would come in handy on trips, and I wanted to see what a Spanish deck of cards would look like.  I got them out this week to play solitaire and I realize that there are not enough cards.  I thought that maybe I just dealt out the cards wrong, so I tried again (3 more times).  Each time with the same result, not enough cards.  So I end up counting them and there are only 48 cards!!  I didn't know if I bought a bad deck or a special deck or if all Spanish decks are like this so I decided to do some research.  Turns out my deck was perfectly fine.  Here's the history of a Spanish Deck of Cards (Baraja):

  ~Usually made up of 40 cards (1-7,10-12) 10-12 are picture cards kind of like our Jack, Queen, and King

  ~ Sometimes the 8 and 9's are added to make 48 cards 

  ~Jokers (Comodines) are rarely used which makes a 50 card deck. ( I have this kind)

  ~There are four suites: Clubs (bastos- they look like chicken legs), Gold coins (oros), Cups (copas), and Swords (espadas)

  ~The suites represent the social classes of the Middle Ages

  ~Coins: Merchants

    Clubs: Peasants

    Cups: Church

    Swords: Military

  ~10 is called a sota and represents a prince. 11 is called caballo and represents a knight. 12 is called rey which is the king.

I then tried to see if there was a special Solitaire game, but I didn't really see anything that looked too promising or that I wanted to try to learn right then.  So now I have this very nice deck of Spanish Cards that I don't really know how to use.  I learned a lot though! :)

Carnaval en Malaga

After Gibraltar we went to Malaga before going back home.  We didn't really have any plan once we got to Malaga except to see some of the city and relax.  We were thinking about even going to the beach to just chill for the day.  However our "plans" changed because when we got to Malaga we found out that it was Carnaval.  Carnaval is like a party/celebration that a lot of cities in Spain have.  While we were in Malaga it just turned out to be their week of Carnaval.  So there were a lot of music groups just hanging out in the streets.  Everyone was dressed up in costumes, like it was Halloween!  There was a parade Sunday night, so we went to that.  It was a lot of fun!!  All of the floats and people in the parade threw out confetti and there was music!  It was great!  I decided that confetti is a lot more fun than candy.  I'm really glad that it was Carnaval when we went, because it was a lot of fun!

Malaga Carnaval

Spongebob cast in the Parade!

  The next day, we just hung out in some parks and plazas and people watched.  It was our relaxing day.  We listened to a few more music groups that were playing, and we went to an interactive music museum.  That was pretty cool.  We got to play on the drums and keyboards, and learned about some music history.  It seemed like our whole trip had a music theme, starting with the karaoke bar and ending with the music museum.  It was a really nice and relaxing weekend trip! :)

The Rock and Los Monos (Monkeys)

  This past weekend we had a four day weekend because of Dia de Adalusia.  So some friends of mine and I decided to take a trip to Gibraltar and then on the way home stop in Malaga, Spain for a few days.  I didn't really know much about Gibraltar before I went except that there were monkeys there so I decided to check it out.
  Apparently there must have been some sort of force attracting me to birds this past week.  (Update on our bird...it died...three days after we got it.  It was very sad and our Senora seemed heartbroken.  Unfortunately, it never got to sing.)  On the five our bus ride to La Linea (the town in Spain right next to the Gibraltar border, where we were staying at) there was a guy sitting in front of me, who was traveling with his pet bird.  A bird on a bus is not a good combination.  First of all, it smelled like bird.  Secondly, there may be a 18-20ish year old man who likes to provoke the bird.  The bird would whistle and then the man would whistle.  For three hours!! At first it was very entertaining, but after awhile it got a little old.

The Rock of Gibralter

  We got to the bus station in La Linea around 9pm on Friday.  We have the address of our hotel, but we don't have directions so we ask a girl near us if she knew where it was.  Her response:  Andando o en coche? (Walking or by car?)  We say walking and she says: "Ay, muy lejos!" (Very far!)  She then just tells us to take the cab by us.  We don't want to pay for a cab so we just started walking.  We then decide we have no idea where we are going to we go back to ask the cab driver for directions and to see if it really is that far.  His response: Andando o en coche?  We say walking.  So he gives us directions ( turn right at the next street, walk till the end of the street, turn left and then turn left at the second street)  and says that it should take like 2-3 minutes.  So we walk...to the end of the street (it's been like 8 minutes by now) and turn left.  We're in like the residential area of town.  Probably no right.  So we ask an older lady who was taking out her trash, but she didn't have her glasses on so she couldn't see, so she asks a man working on his car.  His response: Andando o en coche?  Really?!  We have large backpacks on and are carrying other bags.  Of course we're walking....we say walking and he goes: muy lejos!  And gives us directions back to almost where we started.  So we walk.  We end up walking by a police station so we as the lady sitting in there, she says: "Andando o en coche?  Again, walking, but this time the directions seemed like we were close.  Now we're by a take out pizza place and a man is leaving so we ask him just to make sure.  He tells us to go down two more streets and turn right.  So we walk, but about a minute later a women is getting out of her car, coming towards us like she wants directions.  We don't even know where we're going!  It turns out she was the wife of the guy at the pizza place and he gave us wrong directions.  So we end up getting to our hotel finally after about an 1 1/2 of walking, when really...our hotel is literally 2 minutes away from the bus station!  It was an eventful night.

  Saturday we walk across the border to Gib, it's like five minutes away from our hotel.  There is barely any security, and you literally just walk right across.  You even after to walk across the Gibralter runway to get into town.  Pretty cool!  We ended up taking a taxi tour of the rock.  We got to go into a cave that was used for a emergency hospital during WWII and we went into a tunnel.  We also got to see monkeys!!!  Not only did we see them, but they sat on our shoulders and heads!  Our cab driver has names for them all and know which was a nice or not, so he just picked them up and put them on us.  I had one on my shoulder and all of a sudden a not as nice monkey(Richard) jumps off the roof of our cab and onto my head!!  It was terrifying!  I was done with monkeys on me after that. :)

Me and the Monkeys

Phone booth fun!

 Then we had good ole fish n chips in little England at Roy's.  It was pretty good.  After lunch we went to a glass blowing exhibit.  It was really neat! And it looked difficult to do. Then we hung out in the botanical gardens and took pictures in telephone booths.  We went back into town around 6 and everything was closed there where no people around at all!  It was a ghost town!!  We managed to find a place open for supper, Made in Mexico...in Irishtown (the name of the street)...in Gibraltar...five minutes away from Spain. We got done eating and when we back outside, still no one to be found.  The square was even deserted.  I don't understand where all the people went to.  Again we found a pub that was open and we had ice cream sundaes and watched the futbol game.  When the game got over...the pub turned into a karaoke bar!  It was pretty fun to watch people go sing, but the best part was the glass blower from earlier in the day came in!!  Very weird!  He came over and talked to us and then he gave us his and his son's YouTube links because they are in a band!  It was all just very strange!  I haven't checked out the links yet, but I'll put them up here soon too so you all can see who we met.  Maybe they'll be good too.

 We walked back across the landing strip and the border and made it safely back into Spain.  Sunday we were off to Malaga!

Relaxation and Getting to Know My Senora

  So second week of classes went well, and I finally have a routine so that was wonderful!  My busiest days are Mondays.  I'm at the school from 8:30am to 9pm.  I have a few hour long break in between classes, but not enough time to go home. We also found out this week that intramurals don't start until the first week of March, so still a few more weeks to wait.  Other than Mondays, I go to school in the morning and then have the afternoons/nights free and no class on Friday. So this week with my free time, I have done a lot of relaxing and have gotten to know my Senora a little better. 

Facts about Senora Perez Pirez
  1) She has 3 children.  Two girls and a boy.  Apparently my roommate Kelsi looks like one of them, because when the oldest daughter comes to visit that's what she always tells us.
  2) We had a conversation about what I study in school.  I told her math and that I want to be a math teacher.  She then went on a rant about how she doesn't like math and that it's hard, so that must mean I have a big hard head. 
 3) She asked us at lunch the other day which of us spoke more Spanish, Kelsi or I.  I said Kelsi probably does.  Then she went on about how we don't understand anything or talk much.  This is not true.  I really understand a lot, it just takes me awhile to think of how to respond in Spanish, and the lady does not like to stop talking so there is very little time to respond.  She thinks I don't know, but I do. :)
4)  Two days ago at supper I heard a noise and so I started to look around the kitchen.  Above the sink I spotted a bird in a cage!! A bird!  This is a new addtiton to our house!  So the next day we were going to ask her about it, because she wasn't in the house at the moment.  So the next day at lunch I'm looking to see where the bird is, and it's not there!  Who gets a bird for just one day!  So we asked her where it went.  First off, she was really excited that we knew the word for bird.  Why?  I don't know, because it's a simple word, but that's okay.  So she told us, that she put it the extra bedroom we have (that no one uses) so it could see people on the street and then maybe it would start singing.  Because she's had it for one day and it hasn't sang yet.  She said that it was expensive and that if it didn't start singing soon, she was going to take it back. This made me laugh because it sounded so familiar to me :)  So yes, now we have a bird that is locked up in a room no one goes into. 
5) She is diabetic.
6) She asked me again what I studied, again I replied math, and we had the exact same conversation.  She doesn't listen very well.  But that's alright because then we have things to talk about all the time.

   On Thursday night we went wine tasting for school. We have Granada Seminars like three times a week, and this week's was on wine tasting.  It was a lot of fun and really interesting.  A lady taught us how to properly hold a wine glass.  We learned about the different types of wines and how to tell how old or how much alcohol is in it just by looking at it.  We got to do the whole, twirling, smelling, tasting thing too which was fun.  However, I learned that I do not like wine.  It was not good.  But it was a really fun experience!

  Not much happened this week, but it was really nice to just hangout and get to know Senora Perez Pirez a little better. 

First Week of Classes

  Classes started this week and they seem to be going pretty well. All of my classes are in Spainsh, so I am learning about other things, but the teachers lecture in Spanish.  It's pretty easy to understand them, because they know that we are hear learning the language as well.  They slow down a lot and try to use words we are more familiar with, or at least lots of hand gestures.  It's much easier than understanding my Senora.  However, it is easy to stop paying attention because you have to constantly translate what they are saying.  It's kind of a good and bad thing.  It forces me to concentrate so I know what they are saying, but sometimes I have no idea so I start to daydream.  I should work on not doing that.  But so far, they're all going well!

   I am taking a Spanish Literature class, Islamic Culture, History of Art in Spain, a Grammer class, and an oral and writing class.  Plus, through our program we have to take phonetics, tutorials, and Granada Seminar.  We only have those one day a week though. I think Islamic Culture is going to be my favorite class.  It's really interesting and the teacher is funny so it makes the time go by faster.  My least favorite class already is Literature.  No me gusta!  It's very boring, hard, and it's at 8am.  Not a good combination.  I found out on Thursday that I didn't go to my Tutorials class which is on Mondays.  Oops!  I didn't even know I was taking that class!  Apparently, there were a lot of people that didn't go to theirs either.

  The best news about classes here, is I don't have any on Friday!  It's fantastic!  And today we registered the classes we are taking here so we can get credit at Central.  My class load here is equivalent to 19 credits there!  It's crazy because it doesn't seem like that many.  I guess that's a good thing.

    Well I don't know much more, expect we are trying to plan a trip for next weekend.  We don't really know where we want to go though.  Suggestions are welcome! :)

When in Rome…

             So I got back from Morocco on Tuesday night and less than 12 hours later I was headed on a plane to Rome, Italy!  All we had were our plane tickets too so we weren’t quite sure where we were staying or what we were really planning on doing.  When we got to the airport there were like 5 bus drivers flocking towards us to take us to our hotel.  The problem with this was we didn’t have a hotel.  So we went to find some internet at the airport and found a hostel.  We ended up going with 5 other people in a van to get there.  This ride was a lot of fun and very interesting because there were 8 of us and only 7 seats so we were all jammed in.  There was a couple with us from Australia and they kept making jokes about the whole thing.  It was entertaining.  We were the first to be dropped off, and we get to the hostel and they say that they don’t have any rooms for tonight.  So now we are walking around Rome at about 9pm trying to find internet again so we can find a hostel.  We ended up finding a place with internet, which was much cheaper than the internet in the airport, and booked a hostel but just for one night because it was pretty expensive.  We find the hostel and get a room, but it’s actually not a hostel it’s a hotel so it was pretty expensive.  It’s all right though we got it all figured out and ended up booking a different place for the next two nights. 

We went out and experience our first Italian food, pizza.  It was delicious!  We asked the waiter if they were personal sized and he said yes.  Definitely not personal sized, so we all had a medium pizza to ourselves.  It was very good though, the best meal we had their except for the gelato of course.  The food was one of the best parts about the trip.  Pizza, pasta, gelato, my three favorite things! 

Our first day there we pretty much backpacked across all of Rome.  Our new hostel was on the other side of town, so we took our bags and walked there sightseeing along the way.  We saw to the Castle Sant’ Angelo, the Pantheon, and the Trevi Fountain.  They were all very cool!  The second day we went to The Vatican and saw the Spanish Steps.  We also walked through Heart Park.  This isn’t what the park is actually called, but it’s shaped like a heart so we just called it that.  The third day we went to the Coliseum and the Roman Forum.  The Coliseum was my favorite, it’s so big! Then we had a lot of time to kill because we had to catch a 9pm bus so we could get to the airport. Our flight was for 6am the next day, but the last bus left at 9.  So before we left we went back to the Trevi Fountain and hung out for awhile.  Also, experiencing a night at the airport was pretty interesting too.

 In Rome, we also met a lot of people at our hostel.  The first night we met a guy from California who is friends with a girl from Central!  It’s such a small world!  So we talked to him for awhile and he told us about some famous Gelatarias, which were very good.  We also met a Canadian, a few Australians, and a Brazilian.  It was fun to meet and hang out with people from all over, and here about all the places everyone had been.  It was a great trip and I really want to go back to Italy some day!

            

Morocco’s Modern Life

Within our abroad program we went on a group trip to Morocco.  We went through the Morocco Exchange Program, so we were able to stay with host families there and had a chance to talk to lots of different people.  We talked with a few college students at Darna a women’s center in Tanger.  Then we made our way to Rabat, but on the way we got to stop on a beach and ride camels!!  Yes, I got to ride a camel in Africa!  It was very cool, but I don’t think I could ride a camel for very long, it was not comfortable.

 Then we got to Rabat and met our host families.  They were so nice.  They didn’t know a lot of English, but enough so we could communicate.  Every time we would say simple words like yes or thank you they would say what it was in Arabic, so I learned a few new words.  The houses were very nice and felt very fancy.  They lived in the Medina, or older part of town, but also one of the wealthier areas.  The food was delicious, very flavorful and kind of spicey.  The best and most interesting part about eating though was the technique.  They use their fingers and pull apart bread and use that as the utensil.  But you are only supposed to use your right hand, because they use their left hand for hygienic purposes.  It was interesting but a lot of fun.  After supper the first night our host mom dressed us up in traditional cloths and took our pictures.  It was really neat and I felt very welcome in her home.  The whole family was so nice.

In Rabat we were able to see both the wealthier families and a few shanty towns, so we could see how much difference there is between people.  We also were able to talk to a few people from an organization that helps out children who can’t afford school or don’t have a place to live.  We also talked to them about stereotypes that the US has about Muslims and stereotypes that Arabs have about us.  It was really interesting and really nice to hear what people think, rather than only hear what media tells us.  We got to talk with a few other people too: a family who lives in a small village in the mountains and a couple of students who are studying English at the University.  That was my favorite part of the trip.  It was really fun to just hang out with people our age and talk and laugh.  I can now say that I have some Moroccan friends.  They were all so nice.

We finished the trip in Chefchaouen, a village in the mountains.  It was so pretty.  It’s called the blue and white city because all of the buildings are painted blue and white.  It was really neat.  I am so glad that I was able to go to Morocco and get to experience lots of things that tourists wouldn’t be able to experience.  I never would have gone to Morocco on my own, so I am very thankful that we were able to go through the program.  On this trip I learned that people are all people wherever you go.  We may look a little different or speak a different language but we all are humans and have families and stories to share with the world.  

Week Two

  This week has been pretty calm, but has still went by really fast.  We went to the Alhombra which was breathtaking.  It was amazing how someone could have built it, and that people actually lived there.  The view was amazing too!!  It has been my favorite place so far.

  I woke up on Sunday and it was snowing!!!  I didn't think I would have to worry about snow here.  Our Senora came into our room to open up the shades so she could so us that it was snowing.  She was so excited!  It was cute!  We also found out that our Senora has a beach house, and that when it gets nicer out, she might take there!  I'm pretty excited about that.

  Other than that this week I have slept a lot and went to our orientation classes.  We have our level test on Friday to see what classes we will be taking.  As soon as we get done with that we are leaving for Morocco for four days!  I'm excited, but a little nervous too.  I don't really know what to expect, so it should be fun and exciting.  On our packing list it says that we need to bring our own toilet paper and we might not be able to take a shower!  This is be a very new experience for me.  We get to stay with a host family in Morocco too, so that is nice.  I don't know a whole lot more.  I'll have lots of stories to share from Morocco I'm sure.

Hasta Luego
 

My Bedroom!

CLM- My School

In Front of the Alhombra from the Albycin

Week One

Hi everybody!  I'm going to try to update this once a week or every other week.  I'll send you an email when I update it, but feel free to stop in whenever you would like. 
I've been in Granada for 5 days now!  They have been keeping me busy so it seems like I've been here for a lot longer.  I live with my Señora Maria Luisa Peréz Pirez and another girl from Central, Kelsi.  Our Señora is very nice, but she talks pretty fast and we don't understand her a lot.  Each day has been getting easier though.  We live in an apartment, and Kelsi and I share a room that is purple!! I know, I couldn't believe it either! 
I am attending the Center of Modern Languages (Center de Lenguas Modernas) in Granada.  We haven't started our real classes yet, but we have orientation classes for two weeks.  So far we have talked about our class schedules, what to expect from our host families, service learning projects, and a little Spanish grammer and vocabulary.  We also are going on a few excursions with the program this first two weeks.  One day we took a tour of the Center of Granada, which was very helpful to find our way around the city.  Today we went to the Albycin, which is one of the oldest parts of Granada and is at the highest spot in Granada.  It was so beautiful!  Later this week we are going to see the Alhombra, and next week we spend 4 days in Morocco.
My real classes start either February 1st or the 7th.  It depends on what level I test into.  Right now I am right on the border, so I'll have to wait and see.  I am hopefully going to be doing a service learning project at a school starting in a couple of weeks.  My school also offers intramural sports, so I am going to be able to play volleyball and basketball once a week!  I'm very excited about that!
Well that's all for now, but feel free to ask questions about anything I may have missed.  I'm going to try to put up pictures on facebook soon.  ¡Adios!