I must have done something to please the gods...

About half an hour ago I went to get chocolate con churros and I was mistaken for a non-American. Granted, the person who mistook me was another exchange student who I will probably end up having a class with or something, but it was kind of funny to be standing there sipping my chocolate and have someone approach me in Spanish and ask me a question...kinda cool, eh? I went to the "best" chocolate and churros cafe in Granada called Cafe Futbol but I was slightly disappointed. Perhaps it was because the churros I have had in Mexico (and the U.S. for that matter, not that it really counts but still) have always had some kind of sugar/cinnamon on them. The ones that they serve at this cafe are just the dough that is fried and nothing more. They don´t really taste much of anything but deep-fried dough. I was disappointed and will continue on my search to find a good churro. I was very pleased with the chocolate though. Wow, seriously. Spaniards have perfected the art of hot chocolate. I mean this stuff is rich. It´s almost like drinking warm chocolate pudding. It´s so rich, you almost can´t finish your cup. It´s good though.

Today was an eventful day in a variety of ways. So, update on the water/shower situation...it was getting bad. I mean not only do I stand the cold nights...wearing fleece pants, two pairs of socks, a t-shirt (I didn´t bring a long sleeved shirt, otherwise I´d wear that), my fleece, and my hat but to get up in the morning to a cold shower was not exactly sounding like a plan for the next couple months. I mean I was starting to count down the days not to get home (although I will be excited to go back when the time comes!) but to when I wouldn´t have to take a frigid shower. Anyway, I got up this morning and was completely dreading taking a shower...you know it´s bad when you would prefer to smell of yesterday rather than take a shower. I gathered up my stuff and made my way to the shower and turned it on in hopes of letting it run just enough so that maybe, just maybe it would warm up a bit. Just a couple seconds after I turned it on, it was lukewarm! I couldn´t believe it. I mean the situation had become so dire that I was rejoicing over the opportunity to take a lukewarm shower. Heh. I was afraid that the warm water would run out so I showered quickly but was even more pleased to find that instead of getting colder as it "ran out" it was getting slightly warmer. Oh you can´t imagine my joy. I was ready to do a little dance. I was so excited. It was so so nice to have warm water to wash with. Really, you take something like that so for granted when you have it available to you all the time. It´s amazing. You don´t think of it until you have to do without it. That saying is so true. So my day started off on a good foot. Today my group went to the Alhambra and I got to talk to more people and wasn´t feeling so...alone. I was feeling pretty good while we were there although it was absolutely freezing up there. We met in Plaza Nueva and took a bus up to the Alhambra. Most of the grounds are free to walk around. You only need to pay for the entrance to the palaces. We walked around a bit with our tour guide and he was quite informative. He told us all sorts of interesting things such as the Palace of Carlos V was without a roof until about 40 years ago and that the words "alberca" (which means swimming pool in Spanish) and "alfombra" (which means carpet) are Arab words. It was fantastic. When we went into the actual palaces...that was incredible. The architecture was so exquisit (spelling?) and you just had to wonder how on earth they were able to create all that. I think some pics will be posted on the other blog here soon. It was amazing. Really.

Lunch today was quite interesting. We always have the big meal of the day at about oh, 2 or 3 depending on what we are doing and when we get home. Today it was this pasta with saffron and vegetables (which was fine and reminded me of the paella of yesterday) and this fish. I believe it was called pescadilla. She served it fried but it was whole. I mean it was a little fish on a plate. You could see where the eyes had been and the tail was still there too. I was slightly shocked. I have never been a big fish person but I ate it anyway. It really had no taste which was good because if it had been a fishy fish Idon´t know how good I would have done with that. It was an interesting experience to say the least. A whole fish on a plate..who knew? I asked if you were to eat the skin too and Feliciana said yes. She also said that you could eat the head and that her daughter really loves it. I didn´t decide to try that. I thought that my trying the fish was good enough for one day and decided to quit while I was ahead.

I spent the afternoon watching Meet the Parents in Spanish with Feliciana while my roommate napped. I am always tempted to nap after we eat but then I am worried that I won´t sleep at night. That movie is so funny and I think that a lot of the humor is lost in the dubbing though. I mean the voices are sometimes what makes something funny. Ah. It was good though.

Tomorrow is the placement test at 8:45 am. We´ll see how that goes. It should be fine.


I thought of home a couple times today and wondered what people were doing. What the weather was like in PDX and what cool things are going on around the city. Oh well, I guess I´ll be back soon enough.