Chupitos con Dave March 15, 2009

so.. Córdoba is by far one of the most picturesque places I’ve been so far… the white-washed city walls are gorgeous and the cathedral/mosque/old church was incredible! I’ll post pics asap, as soon as I stop being a slacker.

After too many hours to count, a hot sunny day in Córdoba finished up with a humid night in Granada. Went up to the Mirador de San Nicolas (the place where you can see all of the city, especially the Alhambra lit up at night) for about 2.5 seconds after sweating my butt off in heels… since we weren’t informed that we were hiking a freaking mountain when they said we were “taking a short walk through the Albaicin”.. ugh ISA.. they’re killing me.. then went back down with Evan and Ashley to meet up with Anna, one of the girls I met in Granada. We went and had some fab sangria and bocadillos w/ french fries, then headed to the next place.. overall had 2 great tapas, then went to another bar to reunite with the group that went to the flamenco show (I’m just not a fan.. why waste 2 hours watching something I don’t enjoy?).. sat around, walked around.. and don’t even know what else. I think I visited 6 bars that night? And ended up in the Chupitería (aka.. Shot Store) where they had a thousand varieties of shots for 1 Euro a piece… holy moly. Around 3 AM we headed back to the hotel.. I was planning on sleeping in but Elise decided not to stay with me.. and I was so tired and grumpy that I got up… ate the entire breakfast buffet, went to the Alhambra.. sat on a bench and read Harry Potter/slept in the sun (before getting yelled at by one of the workers to sit up if I was ‘feeling alright’.. highlight of my morning let me tell ya)… then got back on the bus to Sevilla..  so no seeing José or going to the campo.. but it all worked out cause I had a great weekend overall, and the bus ride back was an experience as always.. with a sketchy lunch stop at a truck stop (filled with Canis.. aka guidos/thugs with piercings, tats, and gross hair) that was overpriced and under-delicious… oh well

Last night I crashed around 11, I was wiped from the sun, driving, and walking.. then today got up and ran for an hour and walked through the centro.. trying to get my minute-less phone recharged, but no luck. Atleast I ended up at an art market where they have stunning pieces, both of Spain and just of other crazy stuff.. and I definitely want one for my room in my sweet apartment next year! I’m going to wait til the rents get here to help me decide =)  But my room will def be Spanish themed.. Then headed home for a shower and lunch, then went to botellon (sit and drink.. minus the drinking for me) by the river with the normal group.. Elise and I read Harry Potter in Spanish to each other and played cards and just sat around.. nice and relaxing like a Sunday should be.. (I’ll miss the busy Sundays when I get back to depressing Clemson..but I’m sure our apt will be bumping even on Sundays haha).. and now I’m back waiting for Jeanette to finish cooking TACOS!! OH yes, Mexican food made by a legit Mexican (well, she’s from AZ but has family in Mexico and that’s good enough for me!)… tomorrow starts another week… we’ll see what adventures I get up to this time…

Adios Granada! January 29, 2009

Sorry for slacking on the posts. It´s been a crazy last week!

Monday was pretty dull, I can´t really even remember what happened… must have been a lame day I guess..

Tuesday- A little confusion with Paige over meeting up for churros con chocolate,  but I found her and had a delicious piece of carrot cake in an internet café.. and talked to TIFFANY for like.. an hour =)   AAHH I miss my friends… It was so good seeing her face again after so long, and I´m so excited that everything at Clemson seems to be going well and everyone´s busy and happy and everything.. atleast that´s how it appears from across the sea haha… I wish I didn´t feel so left out of everything going on there, but I guess it´s necessary if I want to be here.. which I most definitely do… I´ll miss having Paige in my city, even though I didn´t see her much, but hopefully we´ll get together to travel to Italy together!! I have got to get myself there…pronto…

Wednesday- After the last real day of class, I got a phone call at 1:55 from Kaeli saying the family was eating.. at that exact moment. God forbid they wait the 15 minutes for me to walk my butt home, since we don´t EVER eat before 2:30, and normally at 3. THEN the witch of a woman had the nerve to say that she made paella ¨especially for us, since we like it so much¨..  well I REALLY enjoyed eating alone…. ugh. One more day of them, I´m so happy. I´ve grown so much as a person from this experience, but it´s still one I could have done without… I just can´t understand how they can be so insensitive and selfish and ridiculous, but whatever.. I´m going to do my best to make sure they never get ISA students again… BUT, after lunch my day improved greatly… I love naps, and tea and ice cream with friends (we met up with our friend José, one of the random guys from the street two weekends ago, and sat for over an hour talking about everything under the sun…), and then he invited us to watch his padel match.. The game is exactly the same as tennis but more like racquetball with the court size, the fact that you can use the walls, and the small, foam-filled paddles. The guys let Kaeli and I try it out, and we played for a while, and it was SO good to use a racquet again, I´ve missed tennis more than I thought. I was terrible of course, because I´m used to a racquet twice as large and a foot longer than the one I was using, but I managed to laugh it off instead of my usual frustration at being over-competitive and under-talented athletically. I want to do more sports like that in Spain, it´s so much more fun than running or even doing my Billy Blanks Tae-bo Amped dvds (yes.. that´s what Santa brought me for Christmas.. don´t judge me…).  We got to experience Spanish competition live, and it was great being able to understand the interactions between the guys as they cursed and complained and cheered and everything… We didn´t get home til 10:30 so our cold leftover paella (even she doesn´t usually sink to having the same thing for 2 meals, the situation is definitely deteriorating and I´m SO relieved to be leaving in the morning!!) was sitting on the table and we re-heated it before heading to bed. Not studying is such a habit for me here, I hope I can change into my old ways once I start onto my ´real´classes in Sevilla.

Today- We took our exam today, and it was easier than expected, 37/40 isn´t so bad for not studying at all I figure… I´m really going to have to try to concentrate harder in my upcoming classes… And now we´re about to have a pizza party in the ISA office for the students who are leaving for other cities/countries for new programs in new places… and then Kaeli and I are going for tapas with the guys (José, Carlos….?) later on tonight. Hopefully it´ll be a great last day in Granada, like all the days before!!

I´ll do my best to update from Madrid, since my sweet hostel (MuchoMadrid.. in case you want to look it up and know where I am..) has free internet…     Hasta luego!

¡Qué locura! January 26, 2009

What a weekend. Saturday night Kaeli, Maria and I went to Mae West, the incredibly popular discoteca here. Leaving the house at midnight is a new experience for me, as well as coming home at 4:30 AM. But, it was definitely an experience. The place is huge, and it´s attached to a mall, so it´s sort of weird walking through a mall in the middle of the night. There are 5 different rooms, with different themes, dancing, and music.. but all absolutely packed with people and each with multiple bars. For 10 €, you get two copas (rum and coke.. gin and tonic…) with tons of alcohol, and you can stay as long as you want.. most people stay until all hours of the morning. It´s certainly different here than in Mexico, where the men wouldn´t leave me alone, because the men here barely even notice me, or the other American girls. They dance in circles with each other, the girls dance together, and then couples mesh the two… but the guys don´t ask the girls to dance, which disappointed me. Anyway, it was really fun and I finally got to dance for the first time in months, to really really good music… a mix between American and Spanish and reggaeton and others… I definitely burned a few calories that night..

Sunday we slept practically all day, had lunch with the 10 members of the family that came this weekend, then decided to go to Monachil, a neighboring town. However, on our way to the bus station it was so cold and the rain was blowing with such force that we immediately abandoned that idea and headed to a pastelería for coffee and dessert. I had a delicious oreo concoction with white chocolate mousse, soft chocolate wafers, and crumbled oreos….¡qué rico!   mmm I love the fact that there are so many cafés here dedicated to pastries, tea, and coffee.. it´s a great place to hang out on a rainy day, or a sunny day, or any time really…  Sunday night we watched Viaje a Darjeeling (Darjeeling Unlimited in English I think.. with Owen Wilson, Adrian Brody, and one other guy I don´t remember..) which was really funny, and we just hung out with the fam and read and slept… I love relaxing Sundays!  Even though this has been the ¨rainiest winter in over 30 years¨ in Spain, I´m trying to take advantage of the outdoors nonetheless..

Today is my last Monday in Granada… ¡madre mia! no puedo creerlo… eek.. but I´m getting super excited for Sevilla! I´m about to book my hostel for Madrid this weekend, so pray that I don´t get mugged, robbed, or raped please =)  gracias… hasta luego!

Viva la vida January 24, 2009

So, I finally went out last night, and it was certainly interesting. At 4, ISA took a group of us to the Capilla Real and the Catedral, two absolutely huge, stunning buildings. Both are churches, obviously, and still hold mass to this day, open to the public. It´s hard to believe that Isabel and Ferdinand (yes, Christopher Columbus´sponsors in his discovery of the ¨Indies¨that ended up being America…) not only attended church in the Capilla Real, but are buried there with 5 other relatives, I saw their caskets… insanity. Carlos V (guess he´s the one who made the dollar sign? and a bunch of other random factoids) didn´t like the gothic style of the Capilla Real, so he built the Catedral adjoining it, and it´s about four times the size of the biggest church I´ve ever seen. The altar is in the center of a Roman, renaissance-era building, white arcs and all, with a gorgeous sky-blue dome painted with yellow stars. I´ll post pics asap so you can see for yourself…

After the tour I went home for a little siesta, then got ready for the night. Kaeli and I met up with Anna, Matt, Maria, and Jeff, and went to 3 different tapas bars, working our way through the city one drink and plate of food at a time. I enjoyed the first place the most, and by the time we were done at the 3rd I was ready for a nother siesta, with snippy waiters and high prices ticking me off due to lack of signage. Whatever. Then Kaeli and I headed off to meet our Spanish guy friends at a party at the Plaza de Toros where Carlos has his bar Contraste. It was semi-cool to be treated as a VIP and go upstairs to the private floor, but we left soon after due to feeling fairly ignored by all the pretty boys there. It was like being inside Laguna Beach, in Spain, with everyone dressed to the 9s and too cool for school and all that… guess I´ll never get that life…

So after a rather large disappointment at the bar, Kaeli and I went walking in search of a cup of coffee (well.. tea for me).. but since it was 2 AM by then, we were forced to head home hungry and thirsty, and fairly grumpy… After another good night´s sleep though, I really don´t mind. I love how little pressure I feel to go out here. I don´t feel bad staying in at night after walking miles through the city during the day and meeting so many new people. I´ve got 3 months and a whole city left.. not to mention any other traveling I do, and I´m not about to run myself ragged going out every night…

Anywho.. today was fun with a great lunch with our family.. we sat around discussing plastic surgery and how women should still try to look nice once they´re married because it´s important to be put together for yourself, and for your husband… and the conversation was the most animated I´ve seen my family yet.. and now I´m just having a relaxing afternoon (studying a bit for my exam Thursday.. ugh) until we figure out what we want to do tonight…

Hasta luego <3

¡No estoy embarazada! January 23, 2009

So I´m definitely turning into a loser… I´ve been asleep by 11 the last 3 nights, without leaving the house much… BUT atleast I´m back at 95% as far as not feeling sick.. so that´s a plus.

Yesterday I went walking through the city, in spite of the light drizzle all afternoon, and got myself lost, in a good way. This city is so much bigger than I could have ever guessed, as it´s easy to fall into the daily routine of walking to and from school without many sidetrips. But, I´ve done a fairly decent job of exploring, and I´ve loved every minute of it. The architecture here is just so stunning, and even in rainy, cloudy weather, the city can´t help but glow. Each building has such a rich history, and I wish I could have seen Granada back in the day of princes and dukes… because it´s everything I´ve ever dreamed of, in all my Harry-Potter loving ways…

I can´t even believe that I will be leaving Granada a week from today!! EEEK… I´m going to miss everyone I´ve met here, and of course part of me wishes I was staying since I´m just getting to know this place and these people, but I´m so excited to see what Sevilla brings! Having a younger family, 2 roommates, and a larger group of students will be fun.. and I´m actually sort of excited about my classes since they seem like they´ll be interesting. Also, Sevilla offers even more days and weeks of discovery, walking around and finding new cafés and tiendas.. and I just can´t wait to see how it compares to Granada!! (the reviews have certainly been conflicting.. Sevilla= 3 times the size of Granada.. which is good and bad I suppose)…  I´m most nervous right now about not having enough time anywhere.. I´ve only seen one city in 3 weeks, and I want to see every single city not only in Spain but in Europe. I´m really hoping to make it to France and Italy, so we´ll see how that goes once I have 3-day weekends and 2 week-long vacations.  It´s also sort of strange flying to Madrid next Friday without plans for a place to stay, anything to do, or anyone to see… I´m not a big fan of traveling alone, as much as I like to walk alone here, and I´m a bit freaked out by staying in a hostel with all strangers… not like I´ve had any problem meeting people thus far.. it´s just different. I´d rather go to another city, but I´ve heard Madrid has tons to explore, so I guess I should give it a go… since I´ve got a flight there and everything. We´ll see! If you´ve got any ideas let me know =) haha   love you

Lo que no matas, te engordas January 22, 2009

Yesterday was fantastic. After a good night´s sleep my cold had dissipated a bit, and I was ready to explore again. School went as smoothly as ever, and afterward I watched some of my tv shows online =) which was great.. since I´ve been super deprived of all things American. Gossip Girl is as dramatic as ever.. and I missed watching it with all my girls.. but cest la vie I suppose.. Lunch was delicious, and afterward I came back to school to finish up the season of G.G.  Kaeli and I went to our favorite tapas bar for some delicious sandwiches and sangria, which set us up for the beginning to a fabulous night… At 8 we headed over to the Hammam Arabic Baths,  which are ancient caves decorated in absolute beauty. We got to enjoy the hot, warm, and cold baths, plus the steam room, for an hour and a half and a massage for 15 minutes, and I can´t even describe how relaxing and wonderful the experience was. It was so great to just truly relax for 2 hours and do something to pamper myself. Look up the website if you get a chance to see my latest hot spot…

Who knows what today will bring, but I can´t wait to find out!!

No sabemos nada.. January 20, 2009

So.. sorry about yesterday. I was nearly dead with my silly cold so I slept, ate, went to school, ate, slept, ate, then slept again. SO exciting, I know.

Today was a little better, other than the frigid, wet weather. I got a decent night´s sleep and only feel slightly exhausted right now. After seeing Obama become the president of the United States, I feel uplifted and excited about my home nation for the first time in a while. I was really starting to think how easy it would be to emmigrate and get dual-citizenship. His speech moved me, and the other 150 people crammed into a local bar seemed to feel the same. I can´t even describe how exciting it is to have a president who can speak his mind, without ear buds or speeches written for him to read word for word. His mindset is refreshing and his perspective optimistic, and I hope that he can even put a small dent in the load that he has on his plate. I´m sure he´ll do his best, like those before him, and I´m sure he´ll receive his fair share of criticism, since our country and our world are never truly pleased with anyone or anything. As my Spanish señora would say ¨the only thing we know is that we know nothing at all,¨ and the ignorant people who can´t see the hope in the next four years truly live this statement. Every day, I learn more about myself here, and I´m coming to like myself alot more as a person. I´ve grown up alot in just a few weeks, learning to let things come and go as they please, and not sweat the small stuff, or even the rather large stuff. When Kaeli and I got lost and nearly missed the entire inauguration, I couldn´t help but laugh, as freezing sleet poured down on us, splashing up my legs and into my suede tennis shoes, soaking my pants from the calves down. What can I do but laugh? I´ve finally learned that complaining and being upset about things that are out of my control is not only a waste of effort and time, but a waste of a growth opportunity. What doesn´t kill you most certainly makes you stronger… and I´m living proof of that here in España…

I hope all of you enjoyed your day as much as I did, and I can´t wait to talk to you soon =)

¡No me tomes el pelo! January 18, 2009

Hola everyone,

    I´m sure you´ve been missing me in the few hours since I posted last. Nothing monumental has happened in my life, but this weekend certainly was filled with things to do. Friday night we relaxed after a night of little sleep, and woke up well rested Saturday and ready to rock and roll. We walked around the city, looking through shops and buying little gifts for Kaeli´s family (her luggage finally arrived, thanks for the crossed fingers and prayers), and just being the tshat we are deep down inside. I got my haircut (eek, I know, in Spanish) and I think I look British… but I´ll have to post a picture soon to show you all my new Spanish look =)

After the thrill of a new look, we decided to go to a bar called The Upsetter, where we watched a few hours of flamenco dancing and singing, and talked with a few Americans from our school from NYC and Philly.. It was an interesting experience for sure, but sort of like paying 12 euros to be in an ashtray. I´m not sure I´ll ever become accustomed to the smoke here, it´s everywhere. Ugh.

Today was the Alhambra day, and how amazing it was. I can´t imagine living in a palace of such grandeur and beauty, and I can just picture the beautiful Spanish women and men strolling through the gardens in the summer with their granite fountains spouting in every room of the huge house. It´s hard to believe that this city is so well connected with American history, as Isabella and Ferdinand assisted Christopher Columbus in discovering the ¨new world.¨I still feel as though I should have been born in that era, with the petticoats and fans and tightly-tied corsets, but here I am, in 2009, with the ability to view a piece of history that outdates my own nation´s birth. The U.S. pales in comparison to the depth and wonder of Spain, and I´m starting to feel like I never want to go back. I can´t even imagine the beauty of this place in the summer, with flowers blooming, cloudless skies, and heat radiating from the pavement. To have such a modern city with so much history seems paradoxical, yet it´s a perfect blend for me. You better home I´m less enchanted with Sevilla, or it may be much longer until you see me again! (jk, sort of) 

Anyway, this afternoon we went for churros con chocolate and tea-coffee with Roberto, a friend we met in a club last weekend, and we exchanged English for Spanish (mostly Spanish since I´m such a poor teacher), for a few hours… and now I´m on my way home for my late dinner (9 o´clock nightly) and to get a good night´s rest before class tomorrow… I hope you´re enjoying the freezing temperatures and staying warm!   Lots of love from España <3

Dios mio January 16, 2009

  Ok. so…  last night may have been the craziest night of my life thus far. After the walk to the Albaicin, Kaeli, Maria, Pari, Zeke and Matt went to my favorite tetería and drank tea from the most beautiful silver teapots.  I love the  Arab influence on Granada, there are streets lined with stores filled with beautiful fabrics and jewelry in the most brilliant colors. On our walk home, we walked straight into a huge protest of about 500 people walking the streets with signs, yelling about the conflict between Israel and Palestine, saying Israel needs to stop ruthlessly murdering Palestinians, but in a much more blunt and Spanish manner. It was slightly intimidating, being a group of 5  Americans in a street filled with activists loathing the U.S. for supporting  Israel in the long-standing conflict that has resulted in more deaths and turmoil than I can even imagine. My  ¨dad¨ here swears the conflict will be resolved before Obama even gains office, but I´m not sure where he gained that idea since the rest of his countrymen seem to feel exactly the opposite. We´ll see…

Anyway, on to a more fun topic. After surviving the walk home, the grandkids (Maria-6, Adrian-4, Julia-2) were at the apartment with their mom, causing a ruckus as always. They´re really starting to grow on me, as each day they scream and cry less and become more tolerable and interesting. It´s certainly a different upbringing in my Spanish household than my American one, and I don´t necessarily agree with their methods of handling situations. I think kids are only as bad as their parents permit them to be, and these kids are all like little tornadoes, ready to spin out of control at any given moment. But, deep down, they´re sweet and cute, and Yolanda (their mom, my ¨sister¨)  cooked us delicious Chinese food (who would think.. Chinese in Spain, huh?) so that was a nice surprise.  After dinner, Kaeli and I, finally with some makeup and clothes in our possession (her carry-on arrived yesterday, but still no sign of her big bag), got ready to  go out on the town.

Walking down Calle Navas, a young Spaniard ventured to ask me ¨Tienes la hora?¨ in a tone that indicated that he didn´t know whether I would understand his Spanish. I dug out my phone and told him ¨Son las diez y trece.¨ We talked for a few minutes and they (the 5 of them) invited us to Diamantes II, a bar on the corner of the street. We went along to see how it was, and 3 more guys joined us at the table. 3 plates of fried food and mussels, 3 rounds of drinks (for them of course, I still don´t like beer nor wine), and a few hours of  conversation later, we left for our next destination, the bar El Brasito. This one was more like a restaurant, and we got to sit down rather than hover around a tall table covered in food, and the waiter continued to bring this group of 8 guys atleast 5 more plates of food and 3 rounds of drinks, including french fries coated in eggs and ham,  pork with potatoes, little sandwiches, bread, queso curado (sort of  like a parmesan.. delicious) in continuous bouts of sustenance. I was amazed at how quickly the guys managed to consume the food while firing away in rapid Spanish. It´s still frustrating that I have a hard time following conversations between Spaniards, but I´m working on it, and I have hope that some day I´ll be able to contribute in group conversations and understand all the idioms of the language.  After El Brasito, we went to another  bar where the guys had coupons for free ¨copas¨, meaning large glasses of alcohol with a bottle of Fanta or 7up to pour in. I accidentally asked for  ´agua con gas´instead of  tonic water, and was unpleasantly surprised to find that my vodka tonic was vodka and soda water, which is NOT a pleasant combination. Ugh. After another hour or so there, we continued to a bar owned by the  father of one of the guys Carlos, in the Plaza de Toros where  the bullfights take place all summer. The bar was filled with salsa dancers, yet none of the 8 guys I was with could even carry a beat to the salsa. Disappointing, but I´m sure I´ll get my fill before I leave Spain. After all, salsa is from NYC, and is much more common in Mexico and South America than here on the ´peninsula,´as the locals call it. This is REAL Spain, with all the history that the United States could never hope to have. Finally, at 3:30 in the morning, Kaeli and I dragged ourselves away to our small yet cozy room to sleep off the craziness of the night.

I woke up this morning feeling like death, but slept through my first class until 10 then made it to the 2nd half between 11 and 1. Tonight I´m hoping to have my first discoteca experience and meet even more locals. I´ve had great luck so far.. so we´ll see what happens =)

Ugh.. la caca.. January 15, 2009

Today was AMAZING. After a busy day of classes and eating, I walked with ISA to Albaicin, a gorgeous town by the Alhambra that has a view of all of Granada. Dios mio, it was amazing. You can see the snow-covered Sierra Nevada mountains, the entire city, the huge fortaleza of the Alhambra.. pretty much heaven. Although it´s known as a ¨pìckpocket¨ area, filled with hookah-smoking, artistic hippies, I love the clash of cultures in the city. All of the old mosques have now been converted into Catholic churches, with the main bell towers still in tact, and we saw a monastery at the top of the hill that was SO much like the Sound of Music I was amazed. I just love discovering everything about this city, and I can´t believe I have less than 3 weeks to figure it all out! But now I´m off to an Arabic ¨tetería¨ for some tea before tapas… so I will update more later =)