Studying in Spain

And that's all she wrote...

2006-05-20T11:11:00.000-07:00

This will be my last entry from Granada.

I just have a few more hours here. Hard to believe.

Yesterday I walked around the city and took it all in, getting enough memories (and pictures!) to last me until I come back. It's a beautiful place for sure.

I am so glad that I took the risk that I did in coming here. I did one of the things that scared me the most...and it turned out awesome. I would recommend this to anyone (and I'm honestly, not just saying that, it's an amazing experience that people should have in their life, especially in college)

And so it is that 20 weeks(!) and two extremely overweight suitcases later, I'm leaving this city behind.

See you all in a little over 2 weeks when I get back. Thanks for reading!

Marisa

retrospect

2006-05-18T17:21:00.000-07:00

so it's over and done with. exams are done, papers are turned in, we have a farewell dinner tonight in the albaycin. i wasn't expecting this day to come.

it's weird...

and i find myself getting a bit blurry eyed, a little nostalgic.

it's funny. i look at the calendar and it says it's may 18.

may 18.

no. no. that's wrong. it's january 4th. i'm just stepping off a plane, scared and nervous and excited. fresh from celebrating new year's too hard.

-----
you do a lot of retrospect these last few days. you wonder where the time went and what happened these past few months. it's like that reaction you have when you get off a roller coaster-you step onto the ground and have to think for a minute about the ride you just took, to make sure it really happened because it went by so fast.

well, my feet just hit the ground and i'm thinking about the ride--it was amazing.

it took me to parts of the world i had only read and learned about in school. places that you see on tv but never really imagine that you are going to one day be there in person seeing it with your own eyes. i learned so much, ate so much, did so much.

but it's over.

that's the thing. you wish for this day to come but then when it does, you kinda wish it wasn't here.

the bus for barcelona leaves on saturday at 15:45 and i'll be on it. i'm excited to see my aunt. then i go to rome. then i go back to barcelona. then i go home. (hey, that rhymes :)

yep. i've been thinking about this day for a while now, but somehow i didn't expect it to come.

2006-05-17T18:57:00.000-07:00

Finals are done!

Yippee!

All I have left is a beastly paper to write but it should be cake compared to the exams that's for sure.

Rome isn't looking as questionable now. All signs are pointing to "go". :0)

Rock on.

Do I stay or do I go?

2006-05-16T13:29:00.000-07:00

I'm getting super excited about going home! I am almost ready to throw in the towel for Rome and just go back to the States sooner...

I know that you, my dear readers and fans, are thinking that I am nuts and that I should go and see Rome, but oh man, I can't wait to get back!

In the meantime, must...concentrate...on...finals. :0)

Feelin' hot, hot, hot!

2006-05-15T20:39:00.000-07:00

Heh.

And rightly so...it's been in the upper 80´s today and it doesn't look like it's going to cool down anytime soon. They say that it's going to get warmer, in the 90's by Wednesday...yikes. I just looked up Portland though and you guys seem to be getting some warm weather yourself..."Record high temperatures expected today"...wow. I'm impressed.

In other news, I am getting so excited to come home. It must sound so silly, but you try being away from home for 132 days (as of today) and then come talk to me about how you aren't feeling excited to come home. :)

To be honest, dear readers of mine, I am considering coming back early. I know, I know, super lame-o but again, try being away for this long and then suppress your excitement about going back to your homeland. I still haven't decided but we'll see. Some french toast is sounding mighty tasty at the moment. :0) Heh.

So that's about it from here. We are currently in the middle of finals. Took my Civ and Culture one today and think it went well. Tomorrow is European Union and then Wednesday is History of America. Throw in a paper for lit and you have a magnificently exciting and fun-filled week. Nah, it's going fine and I'm actually not minding the studying too much because for the most part it's pretty interesting stuff. That European Union, man, it's a crazy system and I can tell you about it. :)

Anywho, this has been a very train of thought entry but I figured I have to mix it up a bit now and then. You know, to make it interesting. After all, my entries are coming to an end here pretty soon and I have to have some fun with this while it lasts.

T-minus ?? days and counting...

AHHH! :0)

The latest pics from Granada...

2006-05-13T11:20:00.000-07:00

Día de la Cruz-the 3rd of May. A holiday typical of Granada where huge decorated crosses are displayed in public places (squares, plazas, etc) and people gather around them and socialize, of course with the ever present wine and beer. Nowadays it's turned into mostly a big botellon but it has roots in religion. Heh.

The first prize winner for the best cross in Granada. Check out the "mantons de manila" in the background. Very pretty.

Another cross, this time outdoors.

The crowd of people gathered around the cross pictured above. It was raining that day (reminded me of Portland!) but that didn't dampen people's spirits at all.

Another cross, a bit farther away from my house. Sadly, you can't see a lot of the decorations because of the plastic that was keeping out the rain.

The botellon forming near a cross

Last Friday, Chelsea, Diana and I went to Cafe Futbol for our last churros and chocolate of the semester.

Chelsea, ready to dive in to the plate of churros

The "after" pic :0)

After the churros, Diana and I went to see another Flamenco show at the CLM. I think I may like flamenco more now...

Then, last weekend we went on our last group trip to the little towns of Ronda and Grazalema in the western part of Andalucia...gorgeous. This is the Plaza de Toros de Ronda.

Views of Ronda

Artsy pic

Fountain at the Casa de Don Juan Bosco in Ronda

This is perhaps what Ronda is most known for, this massive bridge

While in Ronda I found Paco's long lost cousin, Pedro. :0)

Houses in Ronda...very "Andalucia"

Jeanette, Sarah, Diana, Rachel, and Chelsea

I love this pic

The view of Grazalema from our "casita". We didn't stay in a hotel this time...we stayed in little cabins that had great views of the town and of the countryside. It would be a great place to stay if you just wanted to relax for a weekend.

Diana, Katherine, Chelsea, and Colin on our impromptu hike up the side of a random mountain. Let me just say that we definitely blazed a trail...

Our goal was to make it up to this old, abandoned church on the side of this particular hill. It turned out to be quite pretty and we had some fun testing out the "self-timer" function of our cameras.

On Sunday we went on an 8k hike...check out this view

Hiking up the hill

Another great view

Who can resist swings? :)

2006-05-11T22:26:00.000-07:00

i miss home.

now that the day to go home is getting close, it seems very far away.

they say that there is such a thing as reverse culture shock...i'm starting to believe "them" already.

i'm just feeling very confused about going home to be honest. i am excited but nervous and then i wonder why am i nervous to go home??? i don't understand. it doesn't seem to make sense to me.

it's late though and tomorrow we have this big standardized test to take. hopefully all will turn out alright. i have pics to post from the last week...so much happened. i will try to put them up here soon.

ciao.

the clock is ticking

2006-05-09T20:24:00.000-07:00

i have 27 days until i go back to portland.

i wish that somehow i could explain how i'm feeling about this. the pros, the cons, the expectations, the worries, the excitement, the tension, the complete and total happy mess of feelings i have about going back.

but i can't.

i'm not sure even i understand it.

i was walking on the street today and i saw this one internet cafe. it was the first internet cafe that i went into in granada. i remember the emails that i wrote and who they were for, which computer i used, how i felt as i typed away...i can remember all the circumstances surrounding that evening that seems like yesterday but really was quite a long time ago. almost 5 months.

sometimes i think of home and all that is implied with that word and "going back" and i get super excited. thinking about my apartment and how i get to decorate it and all that good stuff. i think of french toast and pancakes, dried fruit that doesn't masquerade as nuts, driving, the radio, the dollar, my family, so many things to be excited about. in a few months, back to school and friends and everything will return to normal.

sometimes, i have a little regret about leaving too. i think back to the first few weeks where i was practically paralyzed with doubt, confusion, and everything in between. i wish that i had done things sooner or done more of this or that, but i can't beat myself up too much. i have seen and done so much and i am happy with that.

it is time to move on. this was an experience to have, but it has to end just like everything ends ineveitably. there are new experiences waiting in the future and it's just a matter of time before i find myself getting into something new and exciting that i will think is super cool and challenging.

in the meantime, i am left with my mixed feelings and my memories of all that has happened. i am left with 27 days in europe.

27.

27.

i can't believe it.

Sheep & chips

2006-05-04T12:38:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we had Monday off because of May Day, so I went on a quick jaunt to Northern Ireland. I think of all the places I have been to so far, it has to be one of my favorites. For one thing, it was gorgeous. Beautiful scenery everywhere. But the best part were the people. So so friendly and kind. I already want to go back!

The welcome sign in the HUGE Derry City airport. (Sense the sarcasm? heh. This place was about as big as my house...)

When I got off the plane it was about 9am and I was thinking of just going straight into town and checking out the hostel. When I inquired about busses going into town (vs. super expensive taxis) I discovered I had to wait until 10:30 to catch the next one. I waited around for a bit and then figured I would get some info on how to get to the Giant's Causeway from the information desk at the airport. The lady told me that I could take a bus and quite providentially, one was coming at 9:30...needless to say, I hopped on and went to the Causeway.

Let me just say that the north coast of Ireland is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. It was so green and fertile and although it was a bit windy, the sky was blue and it was gorgeous. From my various bus rides, I got the feeling that wool is one of the main industries of N. Ireland because everywhere you looked little fluffy, white lawnmowers dotted the countryside. Cute.

Looking east along the coastline

Irish countryside (looking south from the coast)

It's a long way down...

This was looking down from the upper cliff to the Causeway. You can't really see it that well, unfortunately.

Some sheep in the distance...baa :0)

If you look closely, you can see the path that winds through the middle of the cliff. There was a place where you could walk down some steep steps and get from the upper cliff to the shoreline within a few minutes.

A close up of "the Organ"

Looking west after walking a bit along the coast. Jeez, it was beautiful.

The Causeway

The ever-present "artistic pics" of the Causeway

More b&w artistry

Looking back at "the Organ"

Who's that explorer looking off into the distance?

A picturesque path along the upper cliff

A little viewpoint on the upper cliff where I sat listening to my iPod and just was...

The streets of Derry

It was very interesting to see the religious tension that still exists here. I wasn't expecting it to be as in-your-face as it was. This part of the city is obviously very Protestant (check out the painted curb and sign post) and although there hasn't been any violence here for years, it was still a reminder of the opposing feelings the country has towards the government.

The infamous "Free Derry" sign in the Bogside of the city (the Catholic part of Derry). This was where Bloody Sunday took place in 1972.

Some Irish flags, evidence of the Irish Nationalists. It was curious to see the Palestinian flag flying in the Bogside, though I think it may be as a sign of solidarity toward the Palestinians since, in some ways, the two situations are similar. The mural shows those who died on Bloody Sunday.

Murals in the Bogside depicting various scenes from Catholic struggle against the Protestants.

A really really bad pic from the Frames show on Saturday night (the lighting was horrible). But yes, that is Glen on the left! Man, it was awesome. I was in the front row on the side and I was in heaven. :)

On Sunday I took advantage of a special Sunday bus fare and went to Belfast for the day. This large imposing building greeted me when I got there: Belfast City Hall.

A mini Big Ben?

As a special treat and because I had read so many books about the Irish and their love of fish & chips, I splurged and went to a restaurant and had authentic Irish fish & chips. Yum. Just don't ask how much it cost...the exchange rate was out of control...

Some typical Irish pubs along a typical Irish street

As I was walking around, there was a small parade going through the center of town. I tried asking what it was for but never did get a straight answer...I'm figuring it had to do with May Day.

Since it was May Day weekend and because the following day the Belfast City Marathon was going to be run, there were tons of organized street performers around the city center. This comedian from Canada was trying to juggle the umbrella, baby carrier, and Subway lunch...he didn't quite make it, though it was fun to watch him try.

As I was walking back to the bus station in the afternoon, the parade came by again. We're talking a significant number of hours later and these guys were still marching...made me think of the Energizer bunny.

Derry is the only remaining completely walled city in Ireland (built back in the 1600's), so on Monday I took a walk around the walls. It was pretty cool and you got a great overview of the city that way.

One of the main streets of Derry

There was a neat exhibition in the Guildhall (building that houses the Mayor's office and other city offices) that featured various sculptures made entirely (or almost entirely) from Red Bull cans. This DeLorean was pretty snazzy.

This sax was also really impressive

Overall, it was a great trip. Had tons of fun and no snags at all...well, except for the one girl in the hostel who snored...grr. :0)

Live from Derry City, Northern Ireland...

2006-04-29T23:42:00.000-07:00

it's Saturday Night with your host Marisa! (and the crowd goes wild)

heh.

Bet you didn't expect an update on the road did ya?

Surprise surprise. :)

Just got back from the Frames show.

Oh man. I dare someone to find me a better live band. Really, I do. It was AMAZING. 2 straight hours of the best music, stories and craic. (I'm picking up the lingo here can you tell?)

Northern Ireland is grand. I would share more but I am absolutely wiped out so this will have to be all for now.

chow.

Luck o' the Irish

2006-04-27T12:16:00.000-07:00

Northern Ireland trip this weekend. I leave tonight and get back on Tuesday morning.

I´m going to see the Frames, on their home turf (well sort of because they are from Dublin and I´m going to be in Northern Ireland...close enough)

I am so excited!

They were amazing when I saw them in Portland in October at the Aladdin and I'm expecting a great show on Saturday. This is going to be their first show in 2 months because they have been recording a new album (yessss!) in France and haven't had time to tour.

I am so excited. :)

In other news, I am stressed out beyond belief but it´s okay, nothing some fish & chips can't cure. Heh.

A letter.

2006-04-24T20:04:00.000-07:00

Dear World,

Hey. You caught me on an off day to be honest. I´m okay, really. I mean classes are fine, the weekend was good, and nothing is wrong at home. I mean come on, tonight ¡Mira Quien Baila! is on-life can´t get much better than that! :)

Nah, it´s just that last night I got a little down and haven´t really recovered since. See, last night it hit me that I have only a few more weeks here, and I got kind of bummed about it.

I was talking to Feli about how time has just flown by and how, these next few weeks until I fly back are going to go by even faster because there is so much to do that will occupy my thoughts and time. I didn´t realize that it was coming up so quickly though. 6 weeks from today I will be on a plane somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean. That´s pretty hard to think about after living and adapting to a place for so long.

------
Let´s be honest for a minute, I came here almost reluctantly.

I was miserable the first few weeks. I practically lived at the internet cafe trying desperately to try to keep in contact with "home", with all that I knew and was familiar with. True, there were circumstances that made it even harder for me to leave home than it would have been had things been just normal. It´s fair to say that I was pretty low my first couple weeks. Feli remembered it too and she said that she was glad that I have adapted so well since then.

I thought about all that I have seen and done since I got here on January 4th. More than that, I thought of how different I am than when I got here. The person who stepped off the plane in Granada isn´t the same person that will land at PDX. No, if that were the case, I would be disappointed because it is precisely these types of experiences that are supposed to push you and make you that proverbial "better, stronger person". It will be very interesting for me to see how my family and friends see me now.

------
The other day I watched The Motorcycle Diaries. I had seen it before and loved it, it´s one of my favorite movies, but this time it seemed like it held more meaning for me.

In so many ways I am like the protagonist. Traveling, in a way, just to travel. Searching for insight on the world...meeting new people...and gaining perspective.

It seems to me more and more that life is a series of interactions with other people and places which consequently mold and shape us. What we see and experience influences our constant evolution in one direction or another, and the impact that my time in Europe has had on me is becoming more and more apparent to me. In so many ways I don´t recognize myself. I think differently, act differently, dress differently. Approach the world in a way that I didn´t before I came.

We are constantly changing, there is no doubt in my mind about that, but somehow this time away has sped up the metamorphosis of me.

It both scares and excites me.

I now know what I want and why I want it. I am not indecisive as I once was. I can pinpoint things that I like and don´t like, that are fun or boring, that I care about, that are a part of me.

It sounds so trivial, but when you take a step back and look at how many people are influenced primarily by outside sources and only very little by their inner self-knowledge, do you realize how much you want to keep what you know about yourself and let that guide your thoughts and decisions instead of letting others and society do it for you.

We´re always doing that proverbial "searching for ourselves" it seems, because we are always changing and therefore will never be able to "find ourselves". Because the very next second after we find it, part of us will have changed. Sort of like a theory a good friend of mine has that you can´t hold onto life. You can´t--he´s right--and it´s useless to try.

The movie...just makes sense to me. I have experienced so much and because of that, many views of mine have been challenged or formed in just a few months. In some ways I ask myself what I will think of Portland and my life back there now but am not too worried about my response. I haven´t been away that long I hope. :)

I don´t know. There was something there. Something that I had to share just to share. Perhaps no one understands.

But...perhaps someone does.

In the meantime, I don't want to think about Portland or my new apartment (yes, I have a new apartment!) or anything that has to do with not being here. I need to live this moment, this today.

I still have classes to attend, exams to take, certificates to obtain. I still have 42 glorious days in Spain and I intend to enjoy them and savor every moment. I won't have this again for a long time.

I am going to walk home now. Through the streets that for the past 4 months have watched me grow up. Past the old man with the bad eye that always stands on the corner of Matias and Santiago and watches people go by, rain or shine, and is always prepared with an umbrella. Past the cute dog that sleeps in front of the nearby bar. Past the panaderia where the owner, a cute little older woman, sits and chats with her friend amid the intoxicating smell of fresh bread. Past the people who are walking home, to the store, to the bars, to downtown. Past all those people who all have some story to tell, something to offer the world, to offer me, even if it´s not "that much" or "that obvious".

I´ll look at all of it and think to myself how different I would have been had I not come here and seen for myself.

Marisa

Do you know the way to Santa Fe?

2006-04-23T01:06:00.000-07:00

I do. :0)

Heh. Well at least to the Santa Fe that´s near Granada. One of Chelsea´s professors keeps on telling her class that they should go and check out this tiny town. So following his advice, she, Diana, and I hopped on a bus to see what we could see there.

To be honest, there wasn´t a whole lot. We had really good luck, however, because they happened to be having this once a year Medieval Market that was really cool. What are the odds that we randomly stumbled into town this particular weekend? Suerte was on our side. :)

The sign that explains a bit about the town. Main highlights:

1. It´s where the Reyes Católicos signed the stipulations about Columbus´ trip to the New World
2. It´s where the Reyes Católicos had their base when they were trying to capture the Alhambra during the Reconquista and
3. Piononos, a small pastry/candy are traditional of the town

A poster advertising the Medieval Market

There are 4 doors to the heart of the city. Each faces a different cardinal direction and takes the name of the city that is in that direction. This one faces Granada and thus is called La Puerta de Granada

The place where the Reyes Católicos signed the papers for that infamous trip that changed the world...

The town square decorated medieval style for the market

This is one interesting way to get around...

Perfumed flowers

Mmm...fresh bread

Mmm...look at all those cakes!

Herbs used to cure different ailments

More herbs. It was a mini-jungle.

Tea anyone?

Hand-made baskets

A pretty rose near where we sat and had lunch (I just can´t resist including a couple of my so-called "artistic shots"!)

View of the street and all the people out and about

Traveling minstrels or Spanish guys in costume? You be the judge.

Thankfully the snake stayed right where he was...

Candies

So, here´s where the dried fruit has been hiding out...where was it when I got the nuts?

The cafe we stopped at to try piononos

Chelsea about to devour her pionono

This sign assured me that we were getting the real deal as far as piononos go describing them as "legitimate" and "original". With a description like that I find it hard to believe that we were jipped. Heh.

Semana Santa in Granada

2006-04-21T16:02:00.000-07:00

Our plane from Stansted got in at about 11 in the morning on Saturday but despite that, Diana and I hit the streets at about 7pm to catch one of the last Semana Santa processions.

------
A brief description of Semana Santa in Granada:

In the city of Granada, there are various hermandades ("brotherhoods") that organize their own procession for Holy Week. The processions start on Palm Sunday (the Sunday before Easter) and continue through Easter Sunday. Each hermandad has their own figures (statues you could call them) of the Virgin and/or Jesus and they spend a lot of time working to make their floats that are dedicated to them as beautiful as possible. In a way, as I understand it, the processions are a sort of visual "reenactment" of the events of Holy Week...sort of but not quite. It´s hard to explain.

Anyway, the during the processions the floats are carried by costaleros (usually men and boys) and are accompanied by nazarenos (the people in the hooded robes) and women dressed in Spanish costumes that carry crosses and candles. There are various bands that play very melancholy music to set the tone and the pace of those walking in the procession.
-------

The play by play of our experience:

All around the city people placed purplish banners on their balconies. I didn´t find out why but there has to be a reason...

A view of Plaza Nueva from our front row spot on the street. I was surprised because the atmosphere wasn´t as somber as I had expected. I was later told by people who had gone to other processions that there were a few processions that were more contemplative but that it was "normal" to have vendors selling snacks and kids running around with balloons (Sponge Bob seemed to be a favorite). It reminded me a lot of a 4th of July parade...

The procession started out with a group of musicians...

They sure look enthused, eh? :)

Turns out the KKK stole the idea for their "costume" from the Spanish confraternities. Who knew?

Many of the participants walked in the procession with these huge candles. Some wore shoes but there were quite a few that only wore socks or went completely barefoot.

Women in typical Spanish costumes with the very Spanish peineta in their hair.

Each hermandad has different colors which are reflected in the color of the robes they wear.

A cloud of incense precedes the "float" that carries the statue of either the Virgin or Jesus.

The procession that we saw was Nuestra Señora de las Angustias...this was her float.

The costaleros carrying the float. These floats vary in weight, but be certain that they weight A LOT. There can be up to 40 men carrying one float (with nothing else supporting it). Just the look on their faces when they passed by was enough to convince me that it was heavy!

Another shot of the men carrying the float.

Destination: Salzburg, Oslo, and London

2006-04-21T11:10:00.000-07:00

Each armed with a backpack and a camera, Diana and I took off for a week long trip that had us frolicking around the European continent. It was fabulous.

Never in my life have I packed this light for a trip. I surprised even myself. I might add that the plastic bag had food that we took along with us, so technically I only had my backpack. Impressive huh?

We had to spend the night twice in the Stansted airport (a combo of being far away from downtown London, early flights, and just being plain cheap). This is Diana the first night before we found out about the huge waiting area (with chairs!) the next morning. Live and learn. It was pretty funny to see all the people that crashed each night in that airport. Some had air mattresses, sleeping bags, and pillows. We, on the other hand, had an alarm clock...

Transportation for this trip was provided by non other than Europe´s budget airline, RyanAir. I was quite impressed with their cartoonish bright yellow and blue cabins and stampede-like boarding system. It´s an experience that everyone should have at least once in their life. But hey, it was inexpensive and they got us where we needed to go. The funny thing was that one of their lesser known slogans is "The ontime airline". 5 of our 6 flights were late. Heh.

What an awesome welcome

We had some fun buying bus tickets from a machine that gave instructions only in German.

Our fantastic hostel in Salzburg. Not only was it clean, secure, and all that good stuff but they served a killer breakfast and played the Sound of Music each night at 8 pm. Life was good.

Our room at the hostel. Just an idea for those who have never stayed at one. This particular room that we were in we shared with 6 other women. 2 girls from Korea, 2 from Australia (who were super cool and were traveling throughout Europe for a year), and each night we were there the other 2 changed. By staying in a hostel you not only save money but you meet some pretty cool cats.

The ceiling of the Salzburg cathedral

Cool stained glass door in the Cathedral

View of the city from the Hohensalzburg Fortress

Doorway in the fortress compound

We didn´t know it until we got on the plane leaving Granada, but Ashley was headed to Salzburg for break too. She was meeting up with some friends to ski the Alps (how cool is that?) but she hung out with us before they got in that evening.

After a night in the airport and barely any sleep, even this 15th century bed inside the fortress was looking mighty comfy...

On the other hand, this torture chair was not looking that appealing.

Some mammoth sized pretzels

The graveyard that inspired the cemetery in the Sound of Music

2006-04-21T11:08:00.000-07:00

I think that these bread bunnies were one of the cutest things I saw on the trip

An "Easter egg tree"

Mirabell Gardens (again, think Sound of Music when the are singing the "Do a deer" song) with the Hohensalzburg Fortress in the background

The arches that they skip through in the Sound of Music (can you tell that this movie is big here?)

Mozart´s home/museum. Cool place to check out-way better than the museum that is at his birth home (see below).

A cool vegetarian restaurant we had lunch at one afternoon. Good food and inexpensive too!

A funny poster on the wall of the vegetarian restaurant. You´ve got to read the bottom part closely. It cracked me up.

A cool plaque in a graveyard

They had tons of take-away restaurants like this. Lots of seafood which really surprised me since there isn´t a whole lot of ocean nearby.

We had ice cream at this neat little shop and even though it was ice cream, it had a completely different texture. It was much creamier, like yogurt, but light, like sorbet. It was delish whatever it was. :)

This was Mozart´s birth home. The museum was slightly disappointing...it was a bit too "artistic" for me. But we did get to see a couple of his actual violins so that was cool.

How do you get up there?

Diana with traditional Austrian appelstrudel

Since it was Mozart´s 250th birthday anniversary at the beginning of this year, there were tons of these huge balls around the city decorated to celebrate music and the composer himself. This one was the coolest by far. :)

These bouquets, we found out, are typical for Palm Sunday. People buy them and take them with them to church to get them blessed and then they put them in their gardens and supposedly these bunches of at least 7 different plants bring good luck to the crops.

2006-04-21T11:06:00.000-07:00

Couldn´t resist taking a pic of a restaurant called Weinerwald-it was too tempting and besides, we had lunch there one day. Chicken wraps with the sounds of Elvis in the background.

Yep. Elvis lives.

This is the house that they used to shoot the garden scenes in the Sound of Music

After...some problems...with our hostel in Oslo, we were incredibly lucky and got a room at an actual hotel. Hot water, soft beds, it was almost a dream.

Funny door sign at the hotel

I was so excited about the room I just had to take pics

Because we were on a budget and since restaurants (along with everything else in Oslo) were super expensive, we went to the store and stocked up, taking advantage of the mini-fridge. We ate 3 meals a day for 2 and a half days for under 20 bucks each.

Thrifty.

Ship inside the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo. Very very cool and very very humongous.

Saddle from the era of the vikings. Ouch-it looks pretty uncomfortable to sit on...

Some Viking shoes. Although these were quite stylish, I´m going to stick with my Chuck Taylors. :)

Viking combs

Although the pic didn´t turn out at all (the lighting inside the museum wasn´t that great for taking pics), this is just to show the sheer size of these ships. Yep, that´s little old me in the bluish coat in the lower left hand corner.

Diana navigating (note the Austrian hat)

The main street in Oslo: Karl Johans Gate

Edvard Munch´s grave. (We visited his museum and it wasn´t incredibly impressive, especially since they´ve still not recovered The Scream)

Cool statue in the middle of the sidewalk

A definite highlight of Oslo-the Nobel Peace Museum. They had a great Robert Capa exhibit and tons of things to see and do.

I don´t think I´ll ever want to go back to Norway, I wasn´t a huge fan to be honest, but if you find yourself up in that part of the world you must check out the Viking Museum and the Nobel Peace Museum. Of the two nordic coutries that I have visited, I much preferred Sweden to Norway. When I was in Stockholm two years ago it was just a lot more welcoming than Oslo. Better vibe for sure and much more to see.

2006-04-21T11:05:00.000-07:00

Welcome to London!

The London Eye and the London skyline

Westminster Abbey. We didn´t get a chance to go in because they had already closed for the day and the next day was Good Friday and there were services. Bummer.

A garden we walked through on the way to visit the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

A British squirrel riding a bike. Talented little guy.

Big Ben. You can´t get much more "London" than this.

The Tower Bridge-We even walked across it...rock on.

St. Paul´s Cathedral-We went to see it on Good Friday after we spent the morning at the Tower of London (the Crown Jewels are AMAZING!). Fortunately, we did get to go inside even though they were having a prayer service.

-------
So yes, that´s the basic jist of the trip. Even though I know I posted what seems like a lot of photos, they aren´t even 1/4 of what I took. Lets just say that my memory card was full when we got back to Granada. We had such an awesome time. :0)

Awesome, awesome, awesome...

2006-04-17T19:33:00.000-07:00

That´s the only way to describe our trip.

We had a blast. It was so much fun and we saw and did so much. I will post pics when I get a chance, I promise. With only 5 weeks left though, things are kind of hectic, but I will post again soon so be excited. :)

I can´t believe that in exactly 7 weeks I´ll be flying home. So so crazy.

leavin´ on a jet plane...

2006-04-06T18:38:00.000-07:00

okay so i´m leaving here in a couple minutes to catch the bus to the airport...i don´t think that i have ever packed so lightly...it´s very unlike me.

i am so excited.

okay, got to go.

this is going to be so cool...

:0)

Spring Break

2006-04-05T10:36:00.000-07:00

It´s almost here!

Just two more exams and then tomorrow night at about 7 we´ll be on our way to the airport. Sweet. :0)

And what is our destination, you may ask? We´re going to risk coming back completely worn out and are headed to Austria (Salzburg), Norway (Oslo), and England (London, of course).

A brief overview of our trek across Europe:

Thursday PM: leave Granada for London to catch connecting flight to Salzburg Friday morning

Friday AM: flight to Salzburg

Friday PM, Saturday and Sunday: In Salzburg

Monday AM: fly to Oslo

Monday PM, Tuesday and Wednesday: In Oslo

Thursday AM: fly to London

Thursday PM and Friday: London

Saturday: at the crack of dawn, fly back to Granada for the last Semana Santa processions in the evening

Sunday: keel over from exhaustion, post pics from trip (in theory, I´m not promising anything though!), and go see a play (The Casa of Bernarda Alba)

Monday: return to reality and lament the fact that I´m no longer frolicking around Europe
------

I´ll let you know how it goes.

In the meantime, feel free to send me lots of fan mail telling me how much you miss my posts. Heh. Suuuure. :0)

Ole!

2006-04-03T13:48:00.000-07:00

So we went to a bullfight on Saturday and even though I´m anticipating getting some criticism by saying this I´m going to say it anyway:

I loved it.

The atmostphere, the colors, the fanfare, the whole thing was amazing.

Yes, it´s controversial and I can understand and respect people who think that it´s barbaric. I´m not going to try and convince anyone to like it or not-it´s not my place to do that. I also want to say that I´m not anti-animal rights or anything like that. I think that animals deserve respect and shouldn´t be tortured and so I´m hoping that after reading this people don´t think I´m some kind of sadistic, heartless animal hater. I´m not. My little disclaimer before I tell what I thought about it. :)

Before we went, I was thinking that I wasn´t going to like it, that it would be pretty gorey and just not my thing. It helped that in my culture class we learned about it and all the different aspects of it. The whys. Once you learn about something, it helps you not be afraid of it. For instance, they sell the meat after the bull is killed, so in a way, it´s just a glorified slaughter of an animal. And bull meat is very appreciated here-it´s quite expensive and the day after a fight people line up at the butcher shops that get the meat to buy some. Also, when the picador goes in to "weaken" the bull (the part that most people find to be the worst), he has been trained to hit a particular spot on the bulls´ neck that activates an adrenaline rush that helps counter the pain. He´s not just stabbing the bull randomly just to hurt it.

The fight we went to was actually for charity, so there were some slight differences from a regular fight. The main one was that there were 6 bullfighters. In a normal fight, there are 3 matadors and 6 bulls, but this time it was 6 matadors and 6 bulls. The second main difference was that since it was a festival, the matadors didn´t wear the traditional "traje de luces" and instead wore plainer outfits. I was kind of bummed about that but it was still cool though.

Granada´s Plaza de Toros (and the immense traffic jam in front as everyone was arriving)

A poster advertising the corrida we saw

My ticket

The bullring

The procession at the beginning when all the matadors and their "teams" present themselves to the officiator of the fight (the presidente)

We had the opportunity to see a rejoneador-you don´t get to see these at every fight. It´s a special type of bullfighting on horseback. Pretty impressive.

Preliminary phase of the fight when the strength of the bull is assesed.

The picador (he weakens the bull so that he doesn´t charge the fighter with as much strength)

A banderillero getting ready to put a banderilla (a hook with ribbon on it) in the bull. The banderillas make the bull charge straight and slow him down

Ole!

This matador was on his knees in front of a pretty sassy bull...gutsy.

When a bull isn´t up for the fight, they replace him, but first they have to get him out of the ring with the help of some cows

My new fave bullfighter, El Fandi. He´s from Granada and is one of the best fighters in Spain today. It doesn´t hurt that he´s pretty good looking too :)

You can barely see him but behind the yellow and red banner is the "Master of Ceremonies"-el presidente. He decides when to move to the next phase of the fight by signaling with white hankerchiefs.

At the end of the fight, the crowd shows how much they liked the fight by waving white handkerchiefs. (Since we didn´t have a handkerchief, we used paper towels. Heh.) This is also the way the audience "votes" for what trophies the matador gets. A good fight gets an ear, a really good fight gets both ears, and an utterly amazing fight gets the two ears and the tail. Only Fandi got the 2 ears and the tail. Then, as the matador is walking around the ring (taking his victory lap, if you will) he throws his prizes into the crowd. Slightly odd...what do you do with a bull´s ear?

Hike in the Sierra

2006-04-02T16:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Diana, Chelsea and I went on a hike in the Sierras with a final goal of studying up there. We took a picnic lunch and it turned out to be a great day for a hike. We did the math and figured that it was about 80 degrees. Perfect.

Before we headed up into the hills, we went and saw this little park called "Campo de los Martires" which was sort of near the Alhambra. This was one of the little patios.

Cool peacock in the same park

Saw this as we were heading up the hill-spring is here!

View of the city

Rolling hills and the snow covered mtns in the background...so picturesque :)

Apparently this is Granada´s cemetery. The thing is that the graves are not in the ground but more mausoleum style...

Finally! We made it to the top!

View from where we sat and studied

Springtime in Granada...

2006-04-02T15:58:00.000-07:00

Okay, so maybe these pics don´t really show the spring side of things, but it´s just a little better idea of where I live.

Calle Molinos-I live right off this street (but in the other direction!) I walk this street every day to get to and from school. It´s my fave part of the day because along the way I pass by the bakeries and fruit shops and of course, the bar where Paco el perro hangs out. :)

Plaza Isabel la Católica-a city landmark

This is one of the streets that you can take to get to the center of the city from my house. I usually take it if I need to mail something because the post office is at the end.

If you´ve gotten something in the mail from me, chances are I walked up these steps to mail it!

The mailbox to the U.S. :0)

The estanco where I go to buy my stamps and phone cards. The owner and his fam are super nice and completely know who I am since I go in there often.

"Los Italianos" Ice Cream shop. It just recently opened for summer, so Chelsea and Diana and I had to go and check it out.

the infamous dog

2006-03-30T21:03:00.000-08:00

I thought that it was time that I posted a pic of the dog I see every morning on my way to school. Seriously, he´s so cute and makes me smile whenever I pass by that bar. I have no idea what his name is, so I´ve taken the liberty of naming him Paco.

Paco el perro :0)

In other news, a week from tonight Diana and I take off on our Spring Break adventure. So excited!

Also, this Saturday we´re all going to a bull fight. Pure Spain right there.

Awesome.

I´M GOING TO ROME!!!

2006-03-29T22:50:00.000-08:00

I would write more but I´m too excited.

:0)

Imagine little old me in Italy. Heh.

Europe is fab. I don´t want to leave-I´m having a blast now!

the mother of all updates (and yes, there are pics at the end)

2006-03-25T23:40:00.000-08:00

I would be sleeping right now because I have just had one of the most relaxing days of my life, but alas, some genius has decided to practice (thankfully for the first time since January) their skills on some instrument that is part of the horn family. If I had to guess, I would say the tuba. Not a fan of whatever it is though.

So yes, because of my neighbor’s desire to hone their music skills and because of my extreme guilt for not having updated in a long time, that I find myself sitting here typing away while listening to Radiohead in an attempt to drown out the horn playing. I’m sorry to say that so far, it’s not working.

******
So yes, in the two weeks since we were there, I have yet to write anything about Seville-my favorite city of Spain. The day we visited (way back on the 11th and 12th of this month)it was an amazing, warm and sunny weekend. Perfect for a group of student tourists to descend on the city and see all the main sights.

Right after we got off the bus, we went directly to the Cathedral for a tour with a fantastic guide (where does Mark find these people!?!?) and got to tour the Giralda Tower (a Moorish tower right next to the Cathedral) as well. It used to be a minaret that the Arabs used to call the faithful to pray. I would dare to say that this tower is one of the most common symbols of the city.

Theoretically, because the access to the Giralda was a series of ramps instead of steps, it should have been no problem to get to the top.

Ha.

Ha ha ha.

The ramps were deceiving and it ended up being quite the walk (35 uphill ramps) to get to the top but the view was worth the climb. You had a bird’s eye view over all the city which was amazing.

The Cathedral was quite impressive itself. It’s the largest Gothic Cathedral in the world and it’s the 3rd largest church in Europe after St. Peter’s and St. Paul’s. Who knew?

Behind the main altar there is this amazing retablo (that’s how it’s called in Spanish. I don’t know the word for it in English...I am hoping that it’s one of those words like “fresco” that has a universal meaning and doesn’t need translation) that is completely covered in gold. It is apparently the largest retablo in the world and it was beautiful. It depicts various scenes of the life of Christ and wow-to think that someone made that...impressive.

Inside there is also a monument to Columbus. It was built in Cuba to go in the Cathedral in Havana, but after Cuba declared its independence from Spain, the Spaniards didn’t want Columbus’ remains to stay in Cuba, so they shipped the whole monument over to Seville. It is completely life size and has to weigh a ton. They say that Columbus’ remains were in the monument and recently they took them out to do DNA tests to see if it really was him, but so far they haven’t been able to confirm anything.

In the afternoon, Diana and I went to the Museo de Bellas Artes which was small but we figured it could be cool. Not too many big names there but still, a lot of great works that were worth checking out.

Of course we had to walk through the Barrio de Santa Cruz, which is the old Jewish quarter of Seville. I loved it. The white buildings and the bright colors used to accent them made it seem like we were in the heart of Europe. This is what I imagined Europe to be like before I really knew what it was like firsthand. Gorgeous.

We then trekked to this wall that was at the edge of the city and on the way saw a group of men practicing for Semana Santa. A preview of coming attractions if you will. Seville is supposed to have the best Semana Santa in Andalucia and it was neat to see how people practice for it. (If you’re wondering what they were doing, they were just walking around tracing the route that they were going to take when they carry the Jesus/Mary statue for their procession. I will admit, nothing too difficult to practice, but interesting anyway.)

As we were figuring out how we were going to get back to the restaurant for dinner, we saw that there were “Roman Monoliths” marked on the map. Thinking that they would be worth checking out, we headed that way and kept our eyes open for the right streets and of course, something that resembled monoliths.

We walked…and walked…and walked.

Down one street and up another trying to find these monoliths. We stopped and asked some locals for directions and they sort of knew how to get there (they were very friendly and eager to help though!) So we went the basic direction they told us and finally found the right streets. But where were these Roman Monoliths the map said were supposed to be on the corner?

By this time I was getting a little irritated at the cartographer because he/she didn’t mark this “landmark” on the map right at all. It was dark out and we were exactly where the map said we should be and we didn’t see anything but houses. We finally asked a family that looked like they might have knowledge of some monoliths in the area and they ended up actually knowing what we were talking about and even walked us there.

I can’t even express how disappointed I was with these “Roman Monoliths”.

There, sandwiched in-between an apartment building and some houses, were three columns half covered by ivy and other shrubbery, that looked like they had seen better days.

After walking all over the northern part of Seville to find these really great sounding Roman ruins and to end up finding out that these three columns in someone’s overgrown backyard were it, was pretty disheartening. Oh well, now you know that when you go to Seville, don’t bother looking for the Roman Monoliths because they’re nothing exciting and they’re incredibly hard to find.

Sunday we visited the Alcazar which reminded me a lot of the Alhambra. The architecture and Moorish influences-wow. I feel like a broken record when I say this, but it was beautiful.

We had a bit of time before we had to meet at the Torre de Oro (another monument of Seville), so we wandered around and walked through El Parque de María Luisa which was absolutely amazing. (I really need to get some new adjectives...)

I think that was one of the things that impressed me about Seville the most, the fact that there were so many parks and green spaces. You don’t realized how precious grass and trees are until you are in a city that doesn’t really have many parks (like Granada). María Luisa Park was huge-it reminded me kind of Central Park but with more flowers and streams/fountains. It was neat to see families out riding bikes, taking a walk, having a picnic, or playing with their kids. It’s funny that you don’t see that much in the States much. I mean you do, but here it seemed like half of Seville was in that park. There were ice cream vendors and stands that were selling little toys for kids. It was a great place and I wish that it wasn’t all the way in Seville because I would have loved to go back.

The Provincial Archeological Museum was right on the edge of the park and so we took advantage of being right there, went in and got to see all sorts of artifacts from way back when. We’re talking prehistoric times. Pretty cool.

At around 4:00 the whole group met up at the Torre de Oro which back in the 1200’s was part of the “security system” for the Alcazar. Since it was right on the water, it was used to alert the city of intruders and its name came from the fact that it stored the gold that came from the Americas.

We boarded a boat and took a boat ride on the Guadalquivir. (How cool is it to be able to say something like that?) Since it was such a nice day, you could see for miles and it was a great way to see the parts of the city that were a little farther out that we could walk.

After a quick stop at the Plaza de España (another characteristic monument of the city) we headed back to Granada and sadly, that was the end of the Sevilla trip. But wow, was it great.

The main reason I think I loved the city was because of the parks and open spaces and just the all around feel of it. It’s hard to explain but there is something about the atmosphere of a city that can help you to like it or not. Seville was very welcoming-the people were all so friendly and helpful and the colors of the buildings and meticulous upkeep helped give off a good vibe. I don’t know if that makes sense to anyone but for instance, when we went to Córdoba today I got a completely different vibe from the city. It was slightly dull and tired as Chelsea put it. Very distinct from Seville.

******
These past couple weeks have been busy! I get up in the morning and before I know it we’re having dinner. Time is going by so quickly now and I want so so badly to stop it! I don’t want to think about the fact that there are only 8 weeks left of the program...noooo!

But don’t get me wrong, I have been out and about doing things other than homework. Some highlights:

This past Thursday, a few of us from the CLM went to see the new Pedro Almodóvar movie that just opened a week ago called “Volver”. Before the movie at 9:30, we went to dinner at this Chinese restaurant that the two girls from France knew about. It cracked me up that we were going to a Chinese restaurant in Spain and at 8 pm no less. No one is at dinner/tapas that early and we ended up being the only ones in the restaurant. Heh.

This Chinese place was great though. Wow. If you want Chinese in Granada, you’ve got to go to this restaurant which, of course I don’t remember the name of, but I do know how to get there! For 5.50 euros you got the full 3 course meal-in my case it was a spring roll, fried rice, and chicken with vegetables-plus dessert (ice cream, pineapple, flan, etc) and your drink. There was so much food on the table but somehow we managed to finish almost all of it and wow, was it delicious.

The movie wasn’t so bad itself. Heh. Actually, it was really good. I haven’t seen much of Almodóvar before, but I have heard that he has a distinct style (“Bad Education” etc.) and was interested to see this movie. It didn’t have really big name actors (other than Penelope Cruz) but it turned out to have a really good story line that confused you just enough but kept you very intrigued. It was also really neat to see a Spanish film in Spanish without subtitles because so much is lost in the translation of foreign films. I really liked it and recommend going and seeing it when it comes out in the States.

Then yesterday I went to see a performace that was part of the Tango Festival. I had been looking forward to this for weeks now-ever since I bought the ticket in February-and was really excited that is was finally here. For 18 years now Granada has hosted this International Tango Festival and dancers and musicians from all over, but especially South America (obviously), come and perform during the 6 day festival. Each night there is a different show at the theatre and throughout the week there are milongas, classes, and presentations at various hotels.

On my particular night, I got to see three different couples plus two musical groups. The first was called La Llamada and was from Montevideo. They had a Caribbean beat that although catchy, wasn’t quite was I was expecting for tango music.

The second group was AMAZING! They were called Sexteto Mendoza Tango and wow-fabulous. You couldn’t help but want to dance, even if you didn´t know tango. The whole theatre loved them so much that there was a mad rush at the end when everyone was leaving to buy their cds.

The dancers were incredible. I had no idea that there was so much lifting and jumping in tango but regardless, it was really cool to watch tango being danced so quickly and with such precision. Anyone want to take a trip to Argentina with me? : )

******
Of course today we went to Córdoba. As I said earlier, I wasn’t that impressed with the city. It seemed, not run down, but just kind of washed out. I’m not sure how to explain it but it wasn’t as welcoming as Seville at all. The weather was on our side though and it was another beautiful day to take a trip-it got up to about 30ºC in the middle of the day.

When we got there we had some free time so a group of us went to the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos which had some beautiful gardens and an impressive collection of mosaics. After a huge lunch, we went on a tour of the famous Mezquita of Córdoba and it was gorgeous. To think that something like that was built by hand that many years ago and is still standing just blows my mind. Also all the mathematical reasoning behind certain aspects of it-how were they that advanced? Incredible. It was slightly odd to see a Cathedral and a mosque in one but maybe that was part of the charm. Our guide told us that most likely, if the Cathedral hadn’t been built within the Mezquita, the Mezquita would have been destroyed along with all the rest of the mosques when the city was conquered by the Christians.

Then it was the best part of the day. We got to go to Arab Baths. Talk about relaxing...

You go in and there is a changing room (one for men and one for women) with lockers where you change and then take a shower before you go into the baths. You go in and right away you are in the cold bath room where there are two “tubs” with freezing cold water. But no, you start in the lukewarm pool. It was the biggest “tub”-about the size of a small swimming pool, but very shallow. You could sit and your head was still above water. You sit there for a while and then you go to the hot water baths. There were three of them and you stay there for no more than 5 minutes before you go to the cold bath and try to stay there for more than 2 seconds. Heh. The cold one was so cold. I think the longest I stayed in that one (you could stay in there for up to 5 minutes) was a minute. It reminded me too much of my January showers...heh. Just kidding. : )

You continued in that pattern over and over again until they called you for your massage. Oh man, that felt so good. They had different oils to choose from (lavender for me) and you lied there and just forgot that the world existed. Fabulous.

The whole thing lasted 1.5 hours and by the time it was over you were so relaxed that you just wanted to find a bed and sleep for hours. A lot of people ended up asleep on the bus because we left right after we got out of the Baths. It was a neat experience and I would totally do it again.

******
So yes, that is the update. Señor Tuba has stopped practicing so I think that I will take advantage of this and get some sleep. Tomorrow I have to start studying for my midterms that are coming up in a week...yikes. I am so worried about them because I don’t know what to expect but I think it will turn out okay.

2006-03-25T23:39:00.000-08:00

Seville´s Cathedral

The Giralda

Inside the Cathedral. It´s not a very good picture but it´s more to get an idea of how huge it was.

The gold retablo behind the altar.

You can barely see it (the lighting inside was horrible and flash was´t allowed) but you sort of make out the monument to Columbus.

You can´t get much more European than this...

One of the many views from the Giralda. You can see the Plaza de Toros in the distance.

The Juderia-I love the white buildings.

2006-03-25T23:38:00.000-08:00

The Torre de Oro and a boat similar to the one we took to sail down the Guadalquivir

There were tons of these horse drawn carriages all around the city

The Plaza de Toros in Seville

You can barely make them out, but yes, these are the infamous "Roman Monoliths"... (notice the windows of the apartment building)

Since we made such an effort to see them, I had to include another really bad pic of these unsatisfying Roman ruins.

Inside the Alcazar

Doesn´t it look like the Alhambra?

Some ducks hanging out in the gardens of the Alcazar. Unfortunately, I didn´t get a pic of the guys imitating them. Poor ducks-they´re going to be forever scarred by our visit.

2006-03-25T23:37:00.000-08:00

Parque de María Luisa

Plaza de España

A cool "car"

View from the side

The gardens of the Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos in Córdoba

View from the tower

There´s a hotel in Córdoba called Hotel Marisa? Sweet. (4th sign down on the right)

The Custodia of Córdoba. It´s completely made out of silver and gold and probably worth more than I´ll ever make in my lifetime...

2006-03-25T23:34:00.000-08:00

Inside the Mezquita

The mihrab

The altar of the Cathedral that´s inside the Mezquita (it´s complicated, I know)

Cool shot of the minaret

A horse is a horse of course, of course...

2006-03-19T13:19:00.000-08:00

I can now say that I have been horseback riding in the Sierra Nevada, because well, I have. Jim (the visiting professor this semester from PLU) organized a group together to go on Friday and it was pretty fun. It actually turned out to be a pretty good day to go riding-not too sunny and the rain decided to hold off until the evening-always a plus.

To get to the stables, we had to take the bus (first time on the public bus in Granada!) to this little town called Dilar that is about half an hour outside of the city. En route, we passed some pretty massive houses that could easily rival houses in the US in size. I never did find out how much they cost, but I assume quite a bit...

Eventually, when we all managed to get up on our horses, the 6 of us set off on this neat and very picturesque trail that took us into forests, orchards, and everywhere in-between. There were some great views of the mountains and the flowering cherry trees and I tried to take some pictures but they all came out pretty blurry because well, taking pictures on top of a moving horse is quite difficult.

So yes, good times with the local equine population.

Annnd...I promise to stop being such a slacker and post about Seville soon! Let me just say that it is my favorite city I have been to so far. :)

The stable from the road

Kareen getting ready to ride

Looks just like Eastern Oregon!

Elizabeth and Eugenia taking a break

The “honorary horse” (he followed us the entire way and the horses didn’t mind him running right underneath their legs. Another example of the super cute dogs of Spain)

2006-03-14T11:28:00.001-08:00

"Find out what you’re afraid of and go live there."
-Chuck Palahniuk Invisible Monsters

Yesterday we were exactly halfway through the semester/program.

I´ve made it here for 68 days.

I´m feeling good.

Things are alright.

I promise to write more when I get the time. Things at school are picking up and I have to keep on top of hw and all that good stuff. :0)

Thanks to modern technology I know that it snowed in Portland today...

2006-03-09T20:28:00.000-08:00

Meanwhile, here it was beautiful and sunny. I´m glad that the weather is starting to get better and most of all-WARMER!

In other news, it´s the weekend for me! Tomorrow we are meeting for a presentation on Seville and then Saturday we leave. I´m excited to go on another trip-always nice to have a change of scenery.

We found out our "midterms" schedule. Looks like that first week in April is it. I´m slightly nervous (okay, okay, you got me-really nervous) about how they are going to go. I just wish I had some way to gauge how my Spanish has improved and if it´s at a good enough level to take exams that count for a large part of your grade. Hmm. We´ll see I suppose.

Went shopping and got my fill of modern European fashion this evening. It seems like the "pirate" look is in this year...um, okay. It´s interesting to see the fashion here, but most of all to see how dressed up people get to go places. It sometimes seems excessive but who am I to say anything? Clothes aren´t as expensive as I thought they were going to be. Pretty similar to clothes in the US (well, depending on where you shop of course). Since the weather is getting nicer I may have to break into the fashion world and become a clotheshorse like the rest of the world here. Heh. That word is so random. Who comes up with those sayings? Clothes & horse? Nothing to do with each other. Okay, I´m going to wrap this up before it gets any goofier and I lose all respectability...

this has nothing to do with Spain but...

2006-03-06T10:38:00.000-08:00

Crash won best picture!!!

Sweeeeet.

Flamenco and the Sacromonte

2006-03-05T19:40:00.000-08:00

It´s been really cold here the past couple days. Today in particular. It was snowing slightly this morning when I was walking to Plaza Nueva. Brr. And I thought spring was on its way because it was March. I guess I´ll have to wait a couple more weeks.

This weekend has been low key but interesting. On Friday, a group of us went to see a Flamenco presentation at the CLM. There were 3 dancers, a guitarrist, and a singer. (I have no idea if they each have special names, if they do I don´t know what they are...) I am really upset with myself because I forgot my camera and don´t have any photos to post from that show. So, sorry about that. But it was awesome. I had never seen Flamenco before and it was a good first time show. The guitar was my favorite part-more than the dancing or the singing, (which you´ve got to have a certain voice for and this man certainly did!) I loved the flamenco music. Pretty cool.

Saturday, of course, was tango. I love Saturdays. I´m going to be disappointed when the classes end. I´m pretty impressed with how much I´ve picked up these past few weeks. This past Saturday one of the instructors had us practice some steps while following the line of dance. Though we didn´t all really go in the counterclockwise direction we were supposed to, it was pretty cool because we know enough now to actually dance. Ah! It´s so much fun!

Today was a visit to the Sacromonte: the "neighborhood" where Granada´s gypsies have traditionally lived. I have to say that I was really surprised by what it turned out to be. It´s amazing how much influence movies and the media has on our perceptions of other cultures/countries/groups of people etc. I will admit that I was expecting something other than what I saw, and what I was expecting was based on what I have seen and heard throughout my life. It just goes to show that you´ve got to see things for yourself before you really believe something. I mean when people talked about the "caves" of the Sacromonte, I was expecting just that-a cave that was built into the side of the hill, dirt, very primitive-you know, what you think of when you hear the word "cave". Well, as far as I could see this morning, there were no such "caves". It turns out that the "caves" are buildings, similar but yet different, from the ones in the Alpujarras.

As you can see, they aren´t what you would expect..or at least what I expected. We went up to the Abadía del Sacromonte, which is the church that´s at the top of the monte (mountain). It was quite pretty and again, I wish I had pics but photos weren´t allowed. Lame, I know.

There were a couple of funny stories that our guide told us about as we were wandering around in the caves (and these were true caves-underground and built into the earth). There are two large rocks on display in those underground tunnels. One is black and legend has it (or perhaps superstition has it) that if you touch it, you´ll meet and marry your true love within the next year. The other is a white rock that supposedly, if you touch it and you are in a bad relationship, your significant other will either disappear or die within the next year. She told us that this superstition was fueled by the fact that the only time that divorce has been legal in Spain was during the Second Republic (1931-1936) and since 1981. So, apparently during all those years that divorce was illegal a lot of people were touching that white rock. Heh.

Those were the highlights of the weekend. Can´t believe I´m starting on my 9th week here. Wow. Time flies.

Some more pics from today:

An interesting looking building that I´m pretty sure was part of the Abadía

A cool looking house we saw on the way to the top of the monte

Granada and the Alhambra from the monte. If you look hard, you can see the Cathedral.

Things I love about Spain...

2006-03-03T18:11:00.000-08:00

(not a complete list by any means)

-that the mullet is considered a "hip" hairstyle

-paella

-that "getting up early" means waking up at 8:30

-the dogs you see everywhere, especially the cute brown and white spotted one that I see sitting outside of this one bar I pass on my way to school in the mornings

-the fact that the owners/workers of places I go often (the estanco, the papeleria, Kebab King) recognize me (the guy at Kebab King even knows my order!)

-how you have to walk everywhere

-schwarma

-the weird yet cool idea that I´m living in the future because I´m 9 hours ahead of Portland time (in case you were wondering, the future looks good) :0)

-the slow pace of life

-the siesta

-3 day weekends

-being able to wake up in the morning and think to myself "I just woke up in Spain"

Supermarket Sweep

2006-02-23T18:33:00.000-08:00

Heh. Does anyone remember that program? I think it was on when I was about 11. I remember watching it sometimes and seeing the people run all around the perpetually stocked “store” with its aisles upon aisles of products. So many things for the contestants to choose from. If a Spaniard watched that program or came to the US and went to a grocery store, I think they would wonder why in the world our stores are so huge.

I’ve been here for over a month and a half now. It’s starting to be that time when you need to “restock”. The toothpaste you brought from home is getting low and you’ve noticed that your deodorant is going to need a replacement in the very near future, unless you really don’t want anyone to sit next to you in class.

This is when a trip to the supermarket comes in to the picture.

I have been into a variety of them since I’ve been here, not because I ever really needed anything, but more out of curiosity. Super Sol, Spar, Super Coviran, Mercadona (see, they don’t all start with ‘s’!), the list goes on. And they’re all different, just as Safeway isn’t the same as Albertson’s or New Seasons.

First off, they are much much MUCH smaller than any standard sized market in the U.S. You could probably fit the entire Spar into the produce and bakery sections of your average Safeway. There are not aisles upon aisles of different brands of the same product. No, there are just one or two brands of each product, possibly three if you’re really pushing your luck. And, obviously, the brands are different here than they would be in the U.S., although you can for sure find Coca-Cola and Cheetos here. (Side note: Cheetos are really big here-you see kids walking around with a bag or two all the time.)

In the U.S., you go in for a tube of toothpaste and you encounter an entire half an aisle of possible toothpastes to choose from. Here, you don’t have that problem. I went in and got to choose from three. It made life so much easier to just have to look at three toothpastes and not have to decide if for the next couple months I wanted “cavity protection” or “whitening power plus bleach” and in mint or winterfresh. I chose the one I bought because it was the only brand I recognized. (Colgate) Go figure. The power of marketing in action.

They keep eggs on the shelf, not in the refrigerated section, and all the produce is right in the front of the store and if you want something, you ask for help in getting it because, as I have mentioned earlier, you can’t touch the produce here. If you want a cut of meat, you need to ask the butcher directly, who will gladly cut you something from the various pieces of meat that are kept in the meat section. And do they have meat. Wow. Every kind and actually, it’s slightly disturbing to see that much in one place. I have never asked for anything from there but it’s just different not to see the pre-packaged ground beef and chicken that you would find at home.

The candy section is severely lacking in my opinion, seeing as they don’t have gummy bears or Rolos. Instead, they stock chocolate bars from all over Europe, which though that may satisfy some, doesn’t quite cut it for a gummy bear aficionada like myself.

There are barely any cereals. I think I’ve mentioned before that cereal as a breakfast food isn’t very well received here, which is fine with me considering that Napolitanos (a rectangular croissant-like bread with cacao in the middle) or even fresh bread with apricot jam is much tastier. They do stock a lot of breakfast cookies and packaged breakfast pastries that, although they sound decadent, aren’t anywhere as rich as most of the pastries we have in the U.S. For the most part they are quite bland and aren’t very sweet. If you go into the bakeries, you will of course find pastries with chocolate, cream, and sugar, but still they aren’t as rich as the ones you would find in a store at home.

Speaking of bread, they don’t have a whole lot of whole grains here. Most of the bread you find here (in stores or in bakeries) is white bread, although you are sometimes able to find a loaf of wheat if you really really try. The grocery stores here sell what they call “pan de molde” which is the equivalent of a packaged loaf of bread from the store in the U.S. but it’s not very popular since most people buy fresh bread every day from the bakery. The funny thing I have noticed about the packaged bread here is that most of it comes with the crust cut off. I think that phenomenon just started catching on in the U.S.-bread without the crust-but here it’s the norm. Hmm...

I have also discovered that peanut butter is not widely known in Spain.

Um, okay...

This again, is something that I would have never thought I would discover about this country. I always thought (like I did with pancakes) that most of the world knew about peanut butter, but no, it’s quite unknown here. You can buy it at the Corte Ingles, but the thing is, (and I asked Feli about this) many Spaniards don’t know what peanut butter is. Since I found this out, I have been quite happy that Feli does know about peanut butter and that she keeps a Costco sized jar of Skippy (extra crunchy!) in her pantry.

Anywho, that’s pretty much the lowdown on grocery stores here. My thoughts on the differences between here and there? I like the fact that you don’t have to feel overwhelmed by all the different brands of the same product but seriously, someone from the Rolo company needs to start some hardcore marketing in Spain...

Alpujarras

2006-02-21T18:58:00.000-08:00

On Sunday we went to the Alpujarras, a region of the Sierra Nevada located just outside Granada. It's kind of hard to explain what it is, it's not a city or town, it's just a remote (but very beautiful) region in the mountains that contains many little towns that have retained many of their historic influences. The white buildings are a typical of the region as are many hand crafts, hams, olives, and honey.

Jarapas (large woven rugs) for sale in Pampaneira, a small town in the Alpujarras

A woman weaving a jarapa on a loom

Small town feeling in Pampaneira

The typical roofing style of the Alpujarras

View of the mountains and some houses

Houses in Pampaneira

2006-02-21T18:47:00.000-08:00

Back in the day, these were the community laundry facilities

An interesting door covering. They were all over the place and were made of wood, plastic, or metal like this one. We never did find out what its purpose is, but we guessed it served as a sort of screen door in summer time

Looking up from Pampaneira (foreground) to Capileira (you can barely see it up in the top part of the picture), another town higher up in the mountains

Looking down at Pampaneira after hiking up to Capileira...(it was a beautiful but definitely uphill hike :0)

*-*-*The artistic pics*-*-*

Happiness in a pita

2006-02-15T20:41:00.000-08:00

Wednesdays are the "turning point" in the week. You´ve already lived through half of the week and there is only one more day of classes until the 3 day weekend.

Wednesdays are a good day.

They are made even better by the fact that Wednesday is my (s)chawarma day. See, every Wednesday our AHA group has a meeting so that we can go over any upcoming events, excursions, etc. The only time that is convenient for everyone´s schedule is 2:30pm on Weds. This presents a slight problem. The meeting falls right at the time when we would be heading home for lunch so instead, our madres pack us bocadillos (sandwiches) to take with us since we won´t make it back in time to eat. I have adopted this "free" lunch day, (the bocadillo usually disappears mid morning) as a time to go to my friendly neighborhood Kebab King (which happens to be right near the CLM) and indulge myself in one of the most delicious foods I have had while in Spain.

A (s)chawarma (there are a variety of spellings, some with "s" and some without) is basically a very thin pita filled with shredded cabbage, onions, grated carrots, corn, chopped bell pepper, tomato, lettuce, green olives, and a sour cream like sauce. That´s the basic idea but then there are (s)chawarmas with different added things-mushrooms, chicken, hummus, etc. My faves are falafel (yum!), amazing roasted chicken (double yum!) or, for the indesicive, falafel and chicken (the epitomy of delicious!). As I said, happiness in a pita. I can´t think of anything I would rather eat. I´m going to miss them when I get back to the States. By the way, I believe that this delicacy is of Turkish/Greek origin (yes, yes, I realize it´s not Spanish but I go easy on myself because I am eating it in Spain. It´s fabulous!

So yes, I look forward to Wednesdays as "(S)chawarma Day". A highlight of my week, if you will.

In other news, classes are now wrapping up their second week. I´m quite a fan of my schedule. Mondays and Wednesdays I don´t have class until 11:30 am and I end at 6:30 (I don´t go all the way through of course!) I just have 3 classes those days-Spanish civilization and culture, my grammar class, and History of America.

Tuesdays and Thursdays I don´t start until 1:15 pm (so late!) get back in time for lunch at 2:45 and then don´t have my other class until 5-6:30. My first class is Hispanic Literature and the second is Political System of the European Union, which has become my favorite class!

We only have class Monday-Thursday since our classes are 1.5 hours long. Fridays are free for us but if for some reason during the week, the professor has to cancel class, s/he reserves the right to convene a make-up class on Friday. They say that it doesn´t happen often, so for the most part we have 3 day weekends every weekend. How cool is that? I´m going to be spoiled when I come back to the American University system!

So yes, I now have a routine down and it´s quite nice. I´m finally feeling like I own my surroundings and am just constantly amazed at how quickly the time goes by. I am really loving it here.

This weekend the AHA group is going to the Alpujarras (a region in the mountains) on Sunday. That should be a neat day trip.

Today I went and bought a ticket to see a show in March during the 18th Annual International Tango Festival. I need to see how I´m going to be able to dance after my tango classes!

Oh yes! I am taking tango classes. How cool is that? Yes, the tango is really Argentinian and yes, I am in Spain, but that´s a minor detail... :0) I went for the first time on Saturday and it was amazing! I now know how to do the basic step and how to turn!

So yes, life is good. Each day just flies by and is filled with such interesting things to do and people to talk to. I am constantly amazed at how diverse this city is. So many students from different countries and all these different languages. I love it!

I went to a teteria (like a coffee shop, but for tea) in the Albycin today with a friend and tried mango tea. It was quite delicious. The decor was typical middle eastern and when we left, the waiter even gave us a card that had our names written in Arabic! Mine is pretty neat-much more artistic than "M-a-r-i-s-a".

:0)

time is going by so fast...

2006-02-11T19:03:00.000-08:00

"No matter how careful you are, there's going to be the sense you missed something, the collapsed feeling under your skin that you didn't experience it all. There's that fallen heart feeling that you rushed right through the moments where you should've been paying attention.

Well, get used to that feeling. That's how your whole life will feel some day."

-Chuck Palahniuk Invisible Monsters

New pics!

2006-02-10T12:15:00.000-08:00

Velazquez´s Las Meninas

El Greco´s The Knight with a Hand on His Chest

El Greco again

At the Prado there were a lot of artists painting their own versions of various works in the museum...this one was pretty exceptional, though the photo doesn´t really show it that well.

Me in front of the Prado.

2006-02-10T12:12:00.000-08:00

Plaza de España with statues of Don Quijote and Sancho Panza (this was right down the street from our hotel)

Palacio Real

Madrid´s Plaza Mayor

Building in Madrid

Another building in Madrid

2006-02-10T12:10:00.000-08:00

A neat ceiling in El Escorial

The tombs in El Escorial where most of the kings (and queen!) of Spain have been buried for a long time

Valle de Los Caidos (the monument built by Franco after the Spanish Civil War)

Segovia

2006-02-10T12:09:00.000-08:00

The famous Aqueduct of Segovia (it´s a lot longer than I thought it would be...but amazing-wow!)

Diana, the author (!), and Chelsea in front of El Pescador

Toledo (It was kinda foggy when we got there in the morning. Needless to say, it was cold but the sun kinda came out later...kinda.)

The Alcazar where Ferdinand and Isabella lived

A partial (yet artistic :0) ) view of Toledo´s Cathedral

2006-02-10T12:06:00.000-08:00

The ballet we went to see

The Templo de Debod (apparently its twin is in NYC)

The Plaza de Toros (the tilework was amazing)

A neat soap store in downtown Madrid (you would for sure be clean after using a bar that size!)

I want a Smart Car! Think customs will let me through if I bring one back? :0)

FUNNY SIGNS

This was found in our hotel bathroom...can you tell what it is?

I´m unauthorized so I guess that means I can go in...heh.

MADRID!!!

2006-02-07T17:15:00.000-08:00

After being MIA for the past week while in Madrid, I have returned to Granada in one piece to recount my adventures and tell the world what an AMAZING place Madrid is and how much fun we had on our trip there. Wow it was great!

*****

On Tuesday (31 Jan) we had to get up super early in order to walk over to where the bus was going to pick us up. We were on the road by 10 and made it to Madrid in about 5.5 hours. It was a pretty good trip for a bus ride. We were in one of those really nice buses with the plush seats that recline and all that so it wasn’t too hard to endure the long trip.

The scenery was definitely different from what I’d been used to seeing in downtown Granada. There were great views of the mountains and the countryside and for a while there we saw nothing but olive trees for miles and miles (or should I say kilometers? heh) There was even some snow on the ground left over from the weekend before when it snowed. I think I may have forgotten to mention that last weekend. Oops! Well, I guess I’ll say it now even though it’s a little late-it snowed here the last weekend in January. It was kinda cool, but as it is in Hillsboro/Portland it didn’t really stick and if it did it didn’t last that long before it melted. It was neat to see it snow here though. :)

So as soon as we got to Madrid we drove straight to the Prado. It was incredible to drive through the city and see all the huge buildings and monuments that are totally characteristic of European cities. All I could think was that there I was, little old me in this huge, historic city...I was quite impressed.

When we arrived at the Prado we went right in and spent 3 glorious hours looking at the works of Goya, Velazquez, and El Greco among others. Not a bad way to spend the afternoon, eh?

What caught my eye most about the paintings of Goya were the eyes. He had a knack for painting extremely expressive eyes and when you looked at his works you felt like you could figure out, fairly accurately, the personality of his subject and their mood at the time of being painted. I was pretty struck by many of his portraits. It’s so remarkable how some people have so much talent and are able to paint such striking and lifelike work.

El Greco was one of my faves. His paintings have always interested me and after having studied them in high school, I was looking forward to seeing the famous works that I had only read about in books. What was most stunning about his paintings was the height of the canvases. They were huge and extremely elongated (vertically, of course). The room his work was in had a very high ceiling but still it seemed like the frames of the paintings almost touched it! I had never noticed it before but if you look closely at his paintings, he has a very characteristic and peculiar way of painting people’s fingers. In many of his paintings the two middle fingers of one hand are close together while the outer two are spread in the opposite directions. (Think the Star Trek hand sign but put the two middle fingers together). I have no idea why he did that but now I really want to find out!

The man of the hour though, was for sure Velazquez. There was an entire room dedicated to his most famous paintings which of course, included Las Meninas I had also studied Velazquez in high school and was excited to see them up close. I will admit that I was quite impressed overall, but Las Meninas wasn’t what I had expected it to be. Of course I had seen it in books and for the most part, had a good idea of what it looked like, but when you’re actually standing there in front of the painting you can see all the details that the pictures in books don’t capture. For example, Las Meninas was blurrier than I had expected it to be. It wasn’t a very sharp painting and if I hadn’t seen it in person, I would never have known how it actually looked. It was beautiful though, blurry or not.

There was also this great temporary exhibit by Fortuny and others that was so incredibly lifelike that you would think that he was a photographer instead of a painter. They were mostly landscapes and many of them were on very very small canvases (i.e. 4X4 inches). As I said before the precision involved in painting them was extraordinary and it made you wonder if he had used a toothpick or a needle to get that much detail in such a small painting.

After taking pictures of every angle of the museum, we headed to our hotel to finally unpack and rest a bit before dinner.

The hotel was fabulous. It was called the Hotel Alexandra and it was located right off of the Gran Vía, which is basically the main street of the city. All the theatres and restaurants and shops of the big city were located along that street and it was great to be so close to all the action.

I shared a triple room with two other girls, Chelsea and Diana, and we had a great time the entire week. After unpacking a bit we decided to walk down the Gran Vía to explore in the time we had before dinner.

We had a group dinner at this great restaurant called El Pajar. It was nice to finally be together with the entire group of AHA students and thankfully we all fit in that little restaurant. We ate there a few times over the course of the week and each time they fed us extremely well. On the first night we had vegetable soup followed by veal and fries and pears for dessert. The thing is that I had never had veal before and it wasn’t until after we had left the restaurant that I was informed that that was what we had been served. At our table we at first thought it was chicken, then some kind of pork, but we would have never guessed veal. After keeping an eye out on the restaurant menus for veal, I came to the conclusion that it’s quite a popular meat, at least in the Madrid area. It was interesting I suppose, but I’m not sure if I would have it again. A group of us went walking after dinner and explored a little more of the city while looking for a café. By the time we made it back to the hotel, we were all exhausted from the long day. It was fun though.

Madrid totally reminded me of NYC. It had all the hustle and bustle of a big city like that and all the stores and even all the restaurants (Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, McDonald’s etc.) that you would be able to find in an American city made it seem like another big, globally influenced city. All the people too-they made it seem so big and alive. It was really cool to see all that first hand and be one of the people that were walking around downtown Madrid.

*****

Day 2 (1 Feb) started out with a lovely little hotel breakfast. It was so funny because I hadn’t had cereal for breakfast (or any other meal!) since before I came to Spain, so to see two containers with cereals that could be compared to Corn Flakes and Raisin Bran was slightly odd, but it was nice to be able to try something slightly different from the usual Spanish breakfast of toast and jam. They say that cereal is starting to catch on here as more varieties become available in the stores, but I would dare to say that cereal, as a food for breakfast, is still very much an American tradition. Along the same lines, I was quite horrified to find out that they do not have pancakes (or syrup) here. Here´s the rather alarming story...

We were sitting at dinner one night and I was at a table with the director of the AHA Granada program, Mark Bennett, who is a fantastic coordinator and did a great job of organizing this trip (as well as everything else that has to do with our stay here!) and we were talking about how we (the students) were getting accustomed to the food here. Long story short, somehow we got to talking about breakfast foods and I was talking about pancakes and Mark told me that there isn’t such a thing here.

I couldn’t believe it. Honestly, the closest thing they have is crepes and they don’t have syrup either. I was in utter shock because I guess I just assumed that somehow the entire world (or at least countries in Europe for some reason) would know about pancakes and other similar foods (waffles, etc.) and even if they had other things that they ate more consistently, they would at least have the knowledge of what it was and if one day they had the craving, they could make themselves a short stack. Maybe I’m biased because I grew up having pancakes every Sunday for breakfast (a wonderful tradition of my dad’s), but I was very disappointed that there are no pancakes in Spain. So sad. I feel like I should remedy this great travesty by asking Feli if I can make breakfast one day. Introduce the pancake to Spain. Put my name in the history books...Okay, okay, I’m being melodramatic now and for sure there are people who know about and probably eat pancakes in this country, but I’m just saying that it’s weird that as a whole, the country is not aware of pancakes as a possible breakfast option. Bummer for them!

Back to day 2. though…

It was also nice to be able to get up and be able to take a warm shower. One thing I’ve noticed and in talking to other people in the program I’ve come to the conclusion that Spaniards are quite fond of those water wand things that you can detach and use in the shower. At least the one at the hotel was mounted on the wall, but still, quite an interesting detail, eh?

We made our way over to the Reina Sofia and spent the morning looking at more great works of art.

I must say that I don’t think I have ever really been touched by a work of art. I mean I find most art beautiful and captivating in its own respect and I commend the artist for using their talents to create such a work, but I’ve never really gotten moved by a work of art before.

Picasso’s Guernica changed all that.

It was an amazing, truly magnificent painting. Standing in front of it was more powerful than it could ever be from seeing it in a book. Just the expressions of the women, the chaos, the simplicity, the incredible emotion that Picasso captured in it was incredible. I also didn’t have any idea of how many sketches Picasso did before he actually painted it. There was a whole room of the sketches and drawings he did in preparation. It was incredible.

There were also some amazing Dalí and Miró paintings. The Reina Sofia reminded me of the MoMA in NY and of the two, the Prado and the Reina Sofia, I would have to say that I preferred the Prado, though the Reina Sofia was impressive in its own right.

We all met back up at El Pajar (our “official” restaurant) for lunch and again were stuffed to the brim with good food. We had this great dessert called Torta Helada which reminded me of an ice cream cake only without the cake. It was ice cream with layers of thick chocolate flakes. Quite good I must say. :)

That afternoon we all went on a group tour of Madrid and hit up all the main sights. It was a really nice afternoon and we made our way all around the city. Little did I know that this walk was preparing us for the massive amounts of walking that we were going to do over the next couple of days!

We had free time for the rest for the night after we got back from the tour, so we went to dinner at this place called Marzano. It was strange to get to order what we wanted for the first time in a month. We all got pizza and it was delicious!

While walking around afterward, the three of us saw that there was a ballet playing in one of the theatres and so we investigated to see if we could get tickets. We found that we could get some pretty good seats for Thursday so we bought those and that night we went to see a movie in downtown Madrid at the Cine Rex (don’t you just love the name?) It was called La Vida Secreta de las Palabras (The Secret Life of Words) and it had won 4 Goyas the week before. The Goyas, by the way, are the Spanish equivalent of the Academy Awards, so we figured it had to be good. It was pretty interesting and now I want to see it in English because I think because it was such a symbolic and profound movie, I missed a lot in the translation and would need to see it again to make sure I had the story straight. A Spanish director directed it but it was filmed in English with English actors and then dubbed for the Spanish audience. I have heard that the director (Isabel Coixet) gets a lot of criticism for filming in English and not Spanish.

*****

Day 3 started out with the group going to a place just outside of Madrid called El Escorial. Phillip II had it built during his prosperous reign and for the most part it was to serve as a monastery. The royal families’ living quarters were fairly austere and simple. Nothing too pretentious which seemed odd in the palace of the Spanish king who ruled over half the world...

It was an enormous building. If I remember correctly, something like 6 football fields could fit in it. Pretty huge. As I mentioned before, it was fairly modest, but there were a few luxuries afforded such as the doors that, since they were a gift from Austria and hadn’t cost the King anything, were allowed to be put in the palace. They were made from 16 different kinds (thus shades) of wood and were beautiful. They used the pieces (and we’re talking small pieces) to make designs and patterns in the wood. Again, I couldn’t believe that someone had the patience to put one of those, let alone all of them, together. Some other highlights included some more El Greco paintings and the fact that Phillip’s bedchamber was built adjacent to the chapel so that he could hear Mass from bed.

We then drove over to the Valle de Los Caidos. Franco built this monument after the Spanish Civil War to commemorate his victory, although when he received criticism from abroad, he said that it was supposed to honor all those who had fallen in the war.

I must say that it was one of the most horrible places that I have been. I mean it was beautiful but it just gave off such a weird vibe and you just couldn’t help but think of what Franco stood for and what his victory cost the Spanish people. Such conflicting feelings.

This monument is built into a rock on top of a mountain. There is a huge cross on top of the hill and then below is the monument built underneath in the mountain. When you look at it from the outside it’s incredibly impressive and picturesque, especially since there are evergreen trees everywhere and there are excellent views from all angles. It is very peaceful since it’s so far away from a city it seems like a beautiful tranquil spot.

When you enter the monument however, it is completely not like that at all. You lose all the peace that you gained outside and it gets replaced with this weird feeling of almost disgust. See this monument is a church but it almost seems to be sacrilegious. The lighting is very dim and the decorations have not only a religious meaning but a political one too. The symbols seem to represent darkness more than life and for a church, it just seems strange. The guide told us that Franco had used prisoners from the losing side to help construct it and that still today when Spaniards visit it there is a mix of emotions and feelings toward this monument.

Anyway, to get an idea of how big this place is, the Pope at the time refused to consecrate it because it was bigger than St. Peter’s. After Franco added a divider to separate the huge front hall from the actual church, the Pope agreed to consecrate it. It was interesting too, to learn that Franco fashioned the cross that was by the altar and to see his grave. There are also 50,000 men buried here as well, symbolic of all that died during the war. Though I was glad that we went and saw it, I didn’t really like it and don’t think I would go back to see it again.

After we returned to Madrid, a couple of us went on a walk to the Parque del Retiro which is basically Madrid’s "Central Park". It was kind of far away but it was worth it. It’s a pretty big park and it was neat to just explore a bit and check out a typical non-tourist attraction of the city.

Since we had to be at the ballet that night, we went and got an early (think normal time in the States!) dinner at this place called Istanbul. I had a falafel kabap and it was delicious. I just can’t get over how much I love the food here (although this for sure wasn’t Spanish, it was still something that I hadn’t tried at home)

Anyway, the ballet was amazing! It was called El Sur and was put on by Víctor Ullate Ballet. They danced to flamenco music and the story was about a woman living with domestic violence which, unfortunately, is a really big problem here in Spain. When we watch the news it’s not uncommon at all to hear stories about women who are killed by their husbands. You hear it at least once a week. It’s pretty sad. The costumes were beautiful and the dancing incredible. We had pretty good seats and were able to see and hear very well. I can’t believe I went to the ballet in Madrid!

We went to Starbucks afterward because Chelsea had a craving and because you can’t get Starbucks in Granada (a sad but true reality for coffee lovers). Since I’m not a huge coffee fan, I got a hot cocoa and was really surprised to see the difference between prices and sizes here compared to prices and sizes in the US. I paid $2.80 Euro for a “tall” hot cocoa and ended up with a cup that was smaller than the tall in the US. The next size up was in-between tall and grande in the states...hmm. I was slightly upset that I was paying more for less, but I got over it quickly enough. :)

*****

3 Feb was our trip to Toledo. I’m not sure how long it took to get there, but it wasn’t very long, maybe an hour or so. We got there and made a trip around the city in the bus. There is a river that surrounds the entire city providing natural protection from enemies in centuries past. We took a tour of the city with a guide and saw all of the Jewish, Islamic, and Christian influence. In the Iglesia de Santo Tomé we saw the great Greco painting El Entierro del señor de Orgaz which was pretty neat. I have become quite a fan of El Greco on this trip. We also went to this incredibly old museum that housed artifacts from the Visigoths that inhabited the area centuries ago. So much history!

We had a few hours of free time so we were able to have lunch at one of the little restaurants that dotted the city. The place we ended up going to was called El Pescador and was your classic Spanish restaurant, serving the 3 course meal at midday. I had paella (of course!) and salmon. It was delicious. I don’t think I’ve had bad food while in this country, seriously, everything is so good! Plus, it was super reasonable. I was impressed.

When we got back to Madrid, a couple of us decided to take the Metro to the Plaza de los Toros. That was fun. :) I love riding Metros in big cities for some reason. Mexico City where you have to fight to get a seat because there are so many people, NYC where it’s only slightly confusing to find the right line you want, Stockholm with its really comfortable seats, and now Madrid. It was pretty cool to just get on and ride and of course people watch (one of my fave things to do) You could see all sorts of people going various places. I loved it!

The Plaza de Toros was really neat but unfortunately it was getting dark when we got there so the pictures I took didn’t really come out that well and weren’t able to show the very artistic and detailed tilework. There was a circus going on there that week but I was told that starting in the spring they have bullfights every day for a while and then periodically during the summer.

We made it back to the hotel just in time for our group’s meeting with the Argentinean poet and writer Noni Benegas. She was exiled to Spain during the years of unrest in Argentina and has stayed ever since. She spoke about living in exile and read some of her work. It was funny how some of what she said about her home country paralleled to me. She said that memories of what you left behind get stronger because that is all you have of that time. It’s true. I find myself holding on to memories so detailed and real, just because I don’t have it here with me. She also said that in your new place you can afford to take risks because you have nothing to lose-no one knows you and you can risk everything without worrying that you will lose anything. Furthermore, she mentioned that while you are feeling alone and solitary you use that to create new ways of “surviving” and that becomes your creative outlet. You take your feelings and transform them into something artistic and creative and use it as a way of coping with your loneliness and anxiety. Good lessons for someone who had to start over to a point.

*****

4 February was our final day trip to Segovia. To me, Segovia appeared bigger than Toledo but when I asked about the populations of the two cities, I was told that actually Toledo is bigger. Go figure.

We went on another city tour and of course we stopped and saw the Aqueduct. It was amazing. To think that almost 2000 years ago people were able to construct something so magnificent without cement or anything similar is incredible to me. Such ingenuity. Wow.

In our free time, quite a few of us went to the Alcazar, where Ferdinand and Isabella lived. We also went and saw the Cathedral which was beautiful. I just couldn’t get over that I was there that’s for sure!

We finally made it back to Madrid after a long and exhausting day (we walked so so so much!) After resting a bit, we ventured out for our last night in the capital city. We stumbled upon this random Italian restaurant called La Bambola and I ended up trying black spaghetti with prawns. I’m not a big seafood fan but the menus were Italian dishes described in Spanish and we were trying to figure out what everything meant in English. Waaaay too much translation that’s for sure. So somehow, even though I’m not a big fan, I got pasta and prawns but hey, it was pretty good and even though I probably would not order it again, I can now say that I have eaten black spaghetti. Heh. We even splurged and got Tiramisu for dessert. Yum.

*****

On Sunday (5 Feb) we weren’t going to leave until 10:30 so that gave us time to get up early and go to the big open air market called El Rastro that is in downtown every Sunday. Think PDX Saturday Market with a bit of garage sale and flea market type stuff thrown in there and you have El Rastro. Lots of pashminas and oddly enough batteries, and there were clothes everywhere! Kind of a cool way to end the trip.

So now we’re back here in Granada. I’m feeling pretty ready for this semester which started yesterday. I have 3 classes on Monday/Wednesday and 2 on Tuesday/Thursday and we get Fridays off completely. So every weekend is a 3 day weekend. Sweeeeet.

More on classes and all that stuff later, I just wanted to get a couple comments about Madrid posted before too much time went by.

I´m done! (well, kind of...)

2006-01-27T19:59:00.000-08:00

Well the intensivo is over and done with. Yay! Glad to have that finished. It was pretty hard core that´s for sure, but I do think that I improved...even if it was just a little bit! :)

Anywho, the weekend is here! We leave for Madrid on Tuesday and I´m not quite sure what´s the plan for the next couple days...we´ll see.

I´m so excited for Madrid. :0)

Phrases of the day: Caperucita Rojo=Little Red Riding Hood
Poner verde a alguien=to criticize someone

the end is in sight!

2006-01-26T20:45:00.000-08:00

I´m almost done with the Intensivo. I just got done with my last classes and tomorrow we have exams. It went by so quickly! I´m going to miss the Media class that we´ve had for the past two weeks, mostly because the professor was so enthusiastic about what she was teaching. Come to think of it, all 3 of my professors have been great. I´m excited to see what the "real" semester brings.

I gave my presentation in my morning class yesterday on Portland and it went well. My professor told me that I should be an ambassador for the city. Heh. I don´t know about that but it sure made me think of home. Especially the restaurants. It´s kind of funny. I love the food here but I´m starting to get food cravings. Heh. Yesterday morning I was wishing for either oatmeal or French toast...ahh. But then again, for lunch today we had paella which is hard to come by in the States, so I wasn´t complaining too much...!

I got a package today from my parents. That completely made my day. Seriously, you have no idea how great it is to get mail/email when you are across a continent and an ocean. It makes you feel a lot closer! :) Plus, they sent me this awesome peruvian hat that I love! So now I´m an American in a Peruvian hat, still listening to that Irish band and strolling around on Spanish soil. Good times.

Not a whole lot of other really exciting things going on...just trying to stay on top of things before the Inetensivo ends and we head to Madrid. Sooooo excited!

one letter can make a difference...

2006-01-23T16:09:00.000-08:00

It´s been a while, so I figured I´d post some pics as an apologetic gesture... :)

I can´t believe that it´s already the 23rd. In another week we´ll be leaving for Madrid and by the time we get back we will already be a week into February-as if isn´t a short enough month! I´m getting super excited about the trip next week. It should be amazing-so much to see! We got a rough itinerary and we´re totally going to hit all the major spots and get to see all the main museums (Reina Sofia and the Prado) along with all the churches etc. Should be fantastic!

Last Friday I went on a short trip sponsored by the CLM to Fuentevaqueros where the house of Garcia Lorca is located. See, the CLM has a whole list of different trips to different parts/neighborhoods of the city (the Albaycin, old Granada, the Sacromonte where the gypsies are etc.) and as long as you are a student in the CLM (which as students of the AHA/ILACA program, we are) you can sign up for as many of these trips as you wish. There are a couple you have to pay for and even then it´s not that much, but the majority are free. It´s a very cool feature I must say. So I signed up to go on this trip to Fuentevaqueros to see Lorca´s house. The guide was a professor from the Univ. of Granada and she was amazing. She actually lead our tour of the Albaycin when we first got here and she knows so much about the city and its history. It was about a 40 min drive to get to the town and it was neat to be able to see the outskirts of the city and places that I haven´t seen yet because they are too far for me to walk to. I couldn´t believe that I hadn´t been in a motorized vehicle since I got here. You really do use your feet a whole lot more for transportation than in the states, that´s for sure!

So we got there and she showed us around his modest childhood home. It was small but very interesting. There were a lot of original artifacts and keepsakes. We even got to see the only surviving (and known) footage of him while he was alive-all 3 min of it!

When I got back, I went for a walk around the city. Just for kicks. I love the city in the evening. Everyone is out and about. Couples, friends, families. The city is alive with people! I had my iPod and in my opinion that´s all I really need-with it, I can walk around until my feet give out!

So there I was in downtown. I was slightly hungry and it wasn´t time for dinner yet, so when I saw a sign that said "frutos secos" I didn´t even think twice abont what it really meant and just immediately thought "Cool! Dried fruit! I love dried fruit."

Um, oops.

No. "Frutos secos" though it may seem to translate to "dried fruit" does not mean that at all. I walked in to the little shop and asked the man where the "frutos secos" were. He pointed to a stack of plastic bins filled with nuts...

Heh.

The "o" and the "a" really do make a difference.

So, not wanting to look silly and because I was still hungry, I looked at the bins and decided to get a small bag of a mixed nut assortment. I started munching and discovered that there was a nut in there that I really liked a lot...so I ducked into another shop that sold nuts and looked at the names on the bins and found out that the nut I like was "maiz grande".

Now, it´s been a while since I´ve had a bag of cornnuts in the States, but as far as I can remember that is what this nut most resembles. It is delicious and I plan on bringing a ton back. It would be just my luck that it turned out to indeed be cornnuts...oh well. Either way, I´m glad that I confused the "a" and the "o".(By the way fruit like oranges, pears, etc has the "a" ending-"fruta". That´s why I got the two mixed up)

On Saturday we had our visit to the Capilla Real and the Cathedral. The Capilla Real was beautiful and ornate while the Cathedral, which I assumed would be the more lavish of the two, turned out to be pretty plain. The walls were white with the exception of a few paintings.

In the Capilla Real we got to see the coffins of Isabel and Ferdinand as well as the chest that Isabel gave Columbus when he sailed to the New World. So much history and I got to see it. It´s so cool to be here and get to see all of this firsthand, you have no idea!

That afternoon I wandered around and found F. Garcia Lorca park. It was pretty nice, but was pretty barren considering that we´re in the middle of winter. I´ll have to check it out again in springtime.

I also went and saw another movie that night, "Memoirs of a Geisha". I missed it when it came out in the States and I really wanted to check it out. I´m not sure if I´m getting better at understanding the language or if they just were speaking slower but this time I understood practically the whole movie! Go me!

On Sunday, I took advantage of the fact that I got up early and ended up going to the Parque de las Sciencias, which is a combination of OMSI and a museum like the Museum of Natural History or something like that. It was very interactive but there were also more informative exhibits on the Arabs of the Iberian Peninsula and the Origins of Life. They also had a room that had all of these interactive exhibits on perception. Super cool. I was such a little kid! It was awesome though. I really want to go back because I didn´t have the chance to see it all and there is a cartography exhibit that I want to see that leaves in March.

At the Parque, they also had a bunch of "exhibits" outdoors. There was a "Mental Gymnasium" and a huge chess board that you could actually play chess on. There was a butterfly sanctuary...that was really neat (plus it was warm in there to simulate the tropical habitat they are used to...I stayed in there for a while! :)

There was also this huge, tall tower. You took an escalator to get to the top (think Empire State Building type of tower but obviously not nearly as tall!) and then you walked down stairs to get back on tierra firma. On the way down, there were signs that marked the height of a particular animal. For example, at XX meters there was a sign saying that this was how long a blue whale is, the longest tapeworm ever found in a human, a giraffe, etc. It was neat and geez, the longest tapeworm was really long-yuck!

Okay, over and out.

2006-01-23T15:55:00.000-08:00

The second building of the Centro de Lenguas Modernas. This is the building that is super close to where I live and where I have been attending my grammar and culture classes in the morning the past month. It´s awesome...I can leave my house at 10:20 and get there at 10:24. It actually used to be a hotel until they renovated it about 5 years ago.

El Rio Genil (The Genil River); in all honesty, this picture actually makes it seem a lot more picturesque than it actually is...it´s more like a glorified stream than a river! :)

I took this picture wearing gloves and a scarf...it was about 5 degrees C...the irony is amazing...

The house that F. Garcia Lorca was born in located in the small town of Fuentevaqueros. He lived here until he was approx. 10 years old and moved to Granada.

2006-01-23T15:54:00.000-08:00

The Corral de Carbon. This is where the traveling merchants would stay and keep their animals while they were in Granada.

One of the two organs inside the Cathedral. (The other is just like it)

Inside the Cathedral of Granada. Although it may appear to be decorated, I was really surprised at its austerity, especially since for a church of that size.

The city of Granada from the tower at the Parque de las Sciencias. (If you look hard, you can see the Alhambra in the distance!)

making friends with those verb conjugations...

2006-01-18T16:36:00.000-08:00

Things are going well. Not a whole lot to report except that the grammar classes continue and luckily I am not feeling quite as lost I was in the beginning! It´s starting to make more sense the more practice I get with all those silly verbs.

We started our evening class so we´re up to 6 hours of class a day. It´s so unusual to have so much class in one day-you get so used to the college class schedule and all of a sudden you have tons of class hours to attend. I really like the new class though. It´s called Español en los Medios de Comunicacion and it´s basically teaching us all about Spanish media. We´re currently looking at newspapers and print media. Very interesting.

Anywho, yep. Not a whole lot super exciting going on with me...not until the end of the month when our AHA group embarks upon our Madrid/Segovia/Toledo adventure. Very excited for that. Woohoo.

Over and out.

Friday the 13th has no meaning here...here, you better watch out on Tuesday the 13th!

2006-01-13T20:22:00.000-08:00

Another week come and gone...where are the days going?

Have a lot to say but the "aula multimedia" is closing down here pretty soon. To make up for it, I promise to post some pics soon. :0)

Estoy hasta las narices...

2006-01-12T19:29:00.000-08:00

con los tiempos de los verbos!!! For those of you not familiar with Spanish sayings, or who perhaps literally translated the preceding as "I am up to the noses with the times of the verbs", the lovely (and unfortunately true) heading of this post translates to the English equivalent of "I am fed up with verb tenses!". Although, I will admit that being "up to your noses" with something is a slightly amusing though and can elicit a chuckle or two. Heh. :)

Anywho, third day of classes and I was frustrated! My comprehension of the grammar was like a roller coaster ride. First I was totally confused, then I got the next concept, then it was a free fall toward perplexity until class was over. See, the thing is that in the U.S. we don´t have grammar classes. Well, maybe some people did, but I for one, didn´t. I mean yes, I learned and know what verbs, and adjectives, and nouns are, and occationally I can identify what is modifying what and so on, but when was the last time you identified the conditional perfect for and English word? Yeah, it´s been a while if ever, eh? (An example of the conditional perfect in English, by the way, would be "I would have spoken")

Honestly, I have heard so many people say that Spanish is such an easy language to learn, which, I suppose, if you consider learning a couple words here and there and the basic present tense of how to say things as learning/knowing Spanish, then that could be a true statement. But when you get into the later levels where you discover tenses that you don´t even know the equivalent of in English, you get a little nervous. See, I have always just been taught English in that the way you say something is how you say it just because that´s the way it is. Now, I am having to learn the why of how you say things in Spanish. Itís not good enough just to know the answer anymore, you have to know why that is the correct answer. Ugh.

So yeah, it was a slightly frustrating 4 hours of class today. We are going over the indicative and subjunctive past tenses...14 different verb conjugations. Plus, we go so quickly that at times I felt overwhelmed. It should be alright though. I have already started thinking more before I speak, so that there is a better chance that when I say something it will come out correct and at the very least, I can say that I made a valiant attempt to construct a proper sentence! This is for sure not just a vacation in Spain-it´s hard work!

Along the same language tangent, it´s funny how the Spanish I know and have been taught differs slightly from the Spanish here. I mean the first and most obvious difference is the use of the "vosotros" form, which slowly but surely I am getting accustomed to. It´s kind of strange but it makes sense and actually sounds kinda cool. Feli sometimes comments to me that I also use a lot of words that are common in Mexico but not common here. For example, in Mexico I would use the word "platicar" (to chat) but here that is disctinctly Mexican. Here they would say "hablar" (to talk). It´s funny how it is the same basic language but with very slight differences.

In other not so academic news, I went and bought a banana today. True, it isn´t that earth-shattering of news, but it was kind of an interesting experience. There are tons of little fruterias along the street by where I live. It´s neat to be walking to school and pass by all the fresh fruit (though my favorite places to pass by in the morning are the bakeries because you can smell all the fresh bread!). I hadn´t gone into one until today when I finally broke down and bought a banana.

I should explain that I havenít had a banana since I left Oregon and even though we´ve had all sorts of good mandarins, oranges, apples, and pears at Feli´s, I have missed my fave fruit, the banana. I mean, how can you go wrong with the world´s most perfect food? Heh. So, I thought I would feed the craving.

Well, first off you don´t touch the fruit. There are signs (at all fruterias and in the markets as well, I learned) saying that you can´t touch the fruit. To a point, I can see why. I mean it is slightly unsanitary to walk into a store and pick out fruit that may have been touched by other shoppers, but then again, I am used to doing that so I thought it kind of odd that there was someone there specifically to help you get your fruit.

I wasn´t sure I´d be able to buy just one banana, but apparently it´s not that uncommon to just buy a small quantity since a lot of the people here go to the fruit store every day. What really surprised me though, was the price: .35 euro cents for one small, greenish, and slightly bruised banana. If we do the conversion, that comes out to be more than 35 U.S. cents for sure. You can buy a pound of bananas for what, oh 39 cents, 49 cents at the store at home? And this one small banana, which for sure didn´t weigh a pound, cost the equivalent of a pound back home? I was slightly disappointed and think I will stick to oranges and mandarins which are in season and consequently more reasonable. :)

Anywho, it´s still cold here. I am just glad that I´m not in Japan though. We´ve been watching the news and seeing how much snow they have been getting over there. Crazy. Apparently, we are entering the second year of drought here in southern Spain. It practically doesn´t rain here (very unlike Oregon!) and so that is part of the reason why people are so big on conserving water.

Along those lines, it´s interesting to see what they cover in the news here. You don´t hear a whole lot from the states, that´s for sure. I haven´t seen President Bush since I left. You do hear a lot of local Spanish news (obviously) from all over the country. There are also a lot of reports from other European countries and of course, lots of futbol news! There is a segment of the latest soccer news that lasts at least 10 minutes every newscast. Yesterday, we were watching the news and we saw that there was a big movie opening in Paris for Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek´s new movie. I asked Feli if Penelope was Spanish only to find out that Penelope Cruz is Felis cousin´s daughter. So that was kinda cool to find out-an indirect claim to fame. Nice.

I´m really looking forward to seeing a movie here soon. Memoirs of a Geisha opens tomorrow and since I didn´t get to see it in the states, I may have to take a field trip to the movies to check it out.

------------
Palabras del dia: ojos saltones=bug eyes
cursi=cheesy (as in "That´s so cheesy")
enanitos=dwarves

homework?!? what homework!?!?

2006-01-11T22:51:00.000-08:00

Word o´ the Day: albaricoque=apricot
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To be honest, today was rather uneventful. We had classes again today and again, it was fantastic. We started working in that textbook that I ran all over the city for and yes, I will admit it was worth it. Already we have completed an entire chapter and are starting a new one tomorrow. I can´t comprehend the pace we are going, but it´s good though. I came home and after an interesting lunch I did my homework. My roommate, luckily didn´t have any but I, regrettable did. Heh. It wasn´t that bad at all, and I actually was excited to sit down and review and practice what I had learned that day. Especially when I had a native Spaniard sitting right next to me. As I did my homework, Feli watched her daily tv shows. Thankfully, she doesn´t watch those horrible soaps that feature low-quality acting and even lower-quality storylines. No, she prefers shows like "Corazon a Corazon" which are the equivalent of EXTRA or Access Hollywood in the U.S. I must say, that in watching today, I found out that Angelina may be pregnant with Brad´s baby and that Jessica Simpson and Britney Spears made Mr. Blackwell´s Worst Dressed list this year. Man, I´m glad I can stay up to date on my Hollywood gossip, even while overseas! :) Heh.

After I finished my homework, I got ready to go to a little get together the visiting professor from PLU (Jim Predmore) was having for us at his piso. Nothing fancy, just an opportunity for half of our AHA group of 42 to get together and chat for a while. It was a good time and I´m starting to feel more comfortable with the other students.

Today for lunch we had fish again... I´m not a big fish aficionado as they would say here. But as always, I tried it and ended up eating most of it even though it wasn´t my fave. Feli also made a tortilla española for us which was really good. I´m still not a huge fan of eggs, but the way she mixed in some potatoes and cheese and I think mushrooms, it ended up being alright.

She surprised us with dinner tonight though. Pizza. It was so cute. It was one of those refrigerator pizzas "jamon y queso". Heh. It was so cute, especially since she knows that pizza is LaDonna´s fave food. She tries so hard to please us, I only wish that I could do more to help around the house.

Man, I need to get some new walking shoes and another warm hat...if I had only known!

ice cream in the middle of winter

2006-01-10T22:39:00.000-08:00

Today was the first day of classes. It was pretty cool, actually. I really like my professor and although most of the work we are going to be doing involves working in groups, I think that it will be a fun, if not really intense 2 weeks and a half. We have our final (and only) exam on the 27th.

I have class from 10:30 to 14:30 each day and next week the AHA program students will start another class in the evenings that will go from 18:00-20:00. So not too much class, but enough to keep busy.

After class today, I went with some girls from my group(!) to register for different extra-curricular classes. I signed up for a tango class. Two others are doing salsa and another is doing guitar classes. I am *ehem* very excited about this. It won´t start until February but still, it´s something awesome to look forward to. YAY!

I was a little late getting back for lunch but I think Feli forgave me. Again, it was another fantastic meal. I am quite happy that we are staying with such a good cook! I decided to go and buy my book that I need for my class at one of the librerias. See the thing is that I thought that I would be able to find it at any of the small bookstores nearby. I was mistaken. I was told to go to these more specialized bookstores which no one had any idea where they were located. Long story short, I spent my afternoon wandering the city. I didn´t mind though, the only thing that was worrying me was that I wasn´t going to find the book in time for class tomorrow but I ended up getting it at this international bookstore that is waaaay at the other end of the city. Well, actually I have no idea where it is really, but it was very far away and it seemed like it must have been on the other side of the city, I think it was near the river. I was pleased to get it but come to find out that my madre has the textbook already and so I just needed to buy the workbook. Um, so yes, I now need to trek all the way back to this place to return the text. Oh well, another adventure. It was nice to get outside and just be a little lost. Plus, it wasn´t quite as cold as it has been. All the clothing stores are having their after Christmas sales where clothes are marked down...way way down. Up to 50% off some top names too. It´s neat to see all the shoppers trying to get the bargains. Heh.

I was kinda wishing for some ice cream so I stopped at this little ice cream shop and got a cone. Strawberry. I´m a traditionalist I know, especially when there are other flavors that are "local" that I should have tried! But oh well. Interesting to note that here, like in many other foreign countries I´ve been to, the portion sizes are much smaller than in the U.S. I mean my cone was no bigger than oh, say a 1/4 of a cup of ice cream. But see the thing is that it satisfied my craving and I wonder why they don´t do that in the U.S. Give smaller servings...oh well, I was just happy with what I got.

I must have appeared slightly silly with an ice cream cone in the middle of January but oh well, it was good!

LaDonna (my roommate) and I are talking about going to Malaga this weekend. We can get there by bus for only about 7€ so that would be awesome to go and see where Picasso was born. So much history in this country, really.

Anywho, tomorrow is another busy day. So much to do and so very little time!

an American on Spanish soil listening to an Irish band...

2006-01-09T22:30:00.000-08:00

Word of the day: desafio=challenge
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We took the placement test and I am in the group Advanced B (3B). I was pleased but slightly disappointed. I was surprised to find out that I did best with the grammar section which I wasn´t expecting at all. So we start the Intensivo tomorrow. I will have class from 10:30 to 12:30 each day for the rest of the month at the other "campus" which just happens to be right next door to my house. It´s so convenient! We (the AHA people) start another class on Wednesday that will be from 6-8pm. It should be interesting to see how it all goes. I know some of the other students in my group so that will be nice to see some familiar faces each day.

We also chose our classes for the semester that starts in February. I am quite excited with the classes I am going to take, which of course, I can´t remember at the moment.

I finally learned yesterday how to heat the water. See, I was so happy about the warm shower yesterday that I was curious to find out why it had been warm. Turns out that when I had taken my "ice cold" showers, I hadn´t turned on the gas to heat the water. Hahaha (not really-just so you know, that is very very sarcastic laughter). So, moral of the story is that if I want warm water, I need to go and turn on the gas, light the pilot and then that heats the water. If I had only known sooner! So, today was day 2 of warm water in the shower and what a difference a few degrees make. It´s amazing. I´m living the good life now. Heh. :)

After the test and after el almuerzo, I went for a walk around the city. I just wandered for about 2 hours. I needed some time to just be.

I put on my iPod and walked. It was great. I went up to the Alhambra again and then walked all around downtown. It was a beautiful day and the sun made everything seem cheerier and dulled some of the dreariness that the cold weather brings. I went to the Corte Ingles (departement store) which is currently having their "big sale of the year" (think after Christmas sales in the U.S.) to browse. I was quite impressed with the Corte. It´s a complete all-in-one store for sure. I mean in one part of the store you have Pantene shampoo and in the other you have $750€ fur coats. You also have a cafe, electronics, books of all sorts, cosmetics, everything. It´s quite impressive-there´s even a travel agency inside the store. It reminds me of Nordstrom with a bit of Meier and Frank and a hint of Fred Meyer. Kinda cool.

I am enjoying the pace of life here. It´s quite relaxing. I never feel like I´m in a hurry or need to be somewhere always. I don´t know-it´s funny how the atmosphere is different. People walk slower, listen more, and just look like they are more at ease than in the U.S. Strange I think.

I can´t believe that tomorrow I will have been here a week. It has gone by so quickly and I can already tell that May will be here before I know it.

One day at a time I think, one day at a time.

PICTURES!

2006-01-08T21:30:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pictures from the Granada, a couple are from the Alhambra. It was amazing! Click on any picture to see a larger version. Enjoy!

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

2006-01-08T20:19:00.000-08:00

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.

A little homesick...

2006-01-07T22:13:00.000-08:00

Earlier this evening I was feeling a little down...

It finally hit me that here I am.

Here I am.

Here I am 9 time zones away from all that I know and understand. On my own in a very big world. I am not as invincible as I once was.

You get all wrapped up in the novelty of it all but somewhere along the way you find yourself crying over a Sudoku puzzle as you think of all that you left behind. You then end up reprimanding yourself for feeling down; this is the opportunity of a lifetime and you´re crying over it? WTF?

Yes, you cry over it when you make a phone call home that makes you act all tough when inside all you want to do is say how much you miss home. You cry when you think about that couple you saw walking in the street holding hands and how cute they were and how happy they must be. You cry because you feel so alone, slightly forgotten, and incapable of meeting new people.

To be honest, that is the biggest problem right now. I am having a hard time making friends. I know that it´s the beginning, that it´s not just me who feels this way, and that it is bound to be awkward. It just feels like the whole world has something in common that I lack. Why not me too? Why am I the odd one out?

It´s not that I´m not trying. I am trying hard. Really, I am. I push myself more than I want to because I want the end result: to make friends.

I know that it´s only been a few days, but somehow I already am starting to feel defeated.

I don´t know. I, for some reason, have never been good at this. At meeting people and taking it from there. Why is it so hard?

And see, the thing is that it hurts.

It hurts to walk by yourself in a group. To stand by yourself or try and join some conversation, however mundane or stupid it may be. It hurts to be ostracized. We learned about this in social psych. When you are ignored, there are some basic needs that are trampled on and disregarded and thus that is what makes you feel bad. It hurts a lot.

I know I don´t need anyone here to approve of me. I know that I have people back home who know me already and who I don´t have to prove anything to. Who love me and think that I am cool and interesting even if I am slightly goofy at times. But that only dulls the pain.

I am here now with this group of people who, to a point, define my world. Some part of me says to just go for it. To say f*** it and just sign up for that dance class by myself, to go to a cafe I want to see by myself, to face this city head on and not worry if anyone´s with me...it is easier said than done.

Already this trip has me asking myself, "Who am I?", "What do I stand for?" and "How will I present myself to others?". Will I compromise myself just to fit in? I hope not. I need to take a stand. Who I am should be clear from my actions and what I choose to do here. It´s my chance to be me all the way.

I will admit it. I am homesick. I don´t necessarily want to come home but I somehow wish that more of home was here with me. That I didn´t feel so far away.

In other potentially happier and less weighty news, I have taken to wearing my hat in the house. It´s so so cold here-I can´t get over it. I think tomorrow I´ll try wearing double layered socks to try and warm up my feet. Honestly, it´s brutal. I know that I can exaggerate at times, but I am not exaggerating when I say that the house I am living in is like an igloo. Honestly, I am so envious of all those who are enjoying the comforts of some sort of heating system this month. Be so grateful that you have it.

This morning my shower was like bathing with ice water. It was unbelievable. I want to ask Feliciana if it is normally this cold but I don´t want to seem rude, as if I am saying "Wow, you don´t have hot water, what kind of house is this?" Í´m not sure...I was also considering asking if I could heat up some water in the microwave before I shower and just use that in combination with the tap water so it´s not so chilling but that could get kind of complicated. We´ll see. I just keep on hoping that I don´t get sick because that´s the last thing I need to happen.

We went on a tour of the city today to the Albaicin and had an excellent view of the Alhambra, even though there was a bit of fog. I definitely want to return to the little shops that were around that area-there were some neat looking bags and little things like that that could be neat to buy. I finally am starting to really piece this city together and know the names of streets and how they connect to each other. It´s cool. In case you are wondering, I live near Plaza Isabel la Catolica on Somosierra street. :) Not that it really matters but just FYI.

Tomorrow is the Alhambra and I think that should be pretty cool. It´s also Sunday which means that the next day is our placement test. I hope I can remember all the verb tense conjugations! I had my first paella today and it was quite delicious. :) I´m excited to have it again.

I miss Portland.

Cultural Differences

2006-01-07T16:22:00.000-08:00

Despite only having been here a few days, I have already noted quite a few interesting differences between Spanish and American culture.

-People dress up when they go out.
You would never see someone wearing sweats wandering around a store or on the street even. Women tend to dress very nicely-many wear fur coats to go out and though they do not wear excessive jewelry, they do wear pins and earrings that show their affluence-whether or not it is "real" or just for show. Scarves and pashminas are very popular here, perhaps due to the extreme cold that we are currently experiencing! It´s very cold here and most homes are not heated. Consequently, people tend to dress in layers. It´s quite interesting to note that most people wear very neutral colors. Dark colors are most prevalent and children are the ones who wear brighter colors but even they aren´t that eye-catching. I don´t think people here would approve of those bright oranges, yellows, and lime greens that were in the stores last spring. :0)

-Here, people go shopping every day.
Unlike the U.S. where you go to Safeway or New Seasons oh, say once a week and stock up on food for a while, people here go to the store every day. I asked my madre if she buys bread fresh every day and she said yes. Needless to say, I am not eating Wonder bread but fresh baguettes each day! Also, in Granada there are specialized stores for different types of food. Granted there are a couple "supermakets" (but even those aren´t that big at all) but for the most part people make their purchases at smaller stores. The panaderia for the bread, the fruteria for the fruit and so on. It´s neat to pass by the different shops and see different kinds of just one product. The meat market is really interesting. So many different cuts of meat from various animals. I tried jamon serrano the other day and it was good .I had tasted it in the states before but this was for sure direct from Spain. It was good, but slightly...bitter is the wrong word, but so is salty. It was an interesting flavor, but good all the same. Speaking of which, today I tried my first Spanish paella and it was delicious!! I loved it. My madre made it with chicken and it was FANTASTIC. I can hardly wait until she makes it again.

-People don´t eat in the street
In the U.S., it wouldn´t be uncommon to see someone walking down the street eating an ice cream cone or a pastry. Here, it is considered rude to do such a thing. It is also considered rude for me, as a young person, to say "please" and "thank you" to someone my age. The tone in which I ask for something indicates my intentions and takes the place of those sayings. Going back to the not eating in the street observation, there are very few overweight people here. It´s kind of a shock to go from the U.S. where every other person has a weight problem, to here where everyone seems so small in comparison.

Granada reminds me of a typical small European town where many people know each other by name and they have a considerably slower pace of life here. It´s interesting to want to mail a letter and have to go to two different shops to buy the necessary items in order to do so. The papeleria for an envelope and an estanco (like a tabacco shop or quick mart-they also sell magazines etc.) to buy a stamp. Then as if it isn´t complicated enough, you need to go to the post office and mail the letter there. Luckily, you don´t have to go inside-there are mailboxes outside that you can access 24 hours a day-but I have noticed that there aren´t any mailboxes on the sidewalks where you can mail a letter.

Many people here have motos-a moped-to navigate the narrow streets of the city. There are many compact cars here and not many SUVs at all! Such a contrast from the U.S.!

Things are going really well. Tomorrow we go to the Alhambra! How cool is that? :)

It´s Friday?!?!

2006-01-06T20:21:00.000-08:00

Word of the Day: enchufe=wall socket (a plug in the wall); can also mean something along the lines of brown-noser
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Um, yeah.

So I am quite mixed up with the days. I keep on thinking that today is Thursday for some reason and I also keep on wanting to write in Spanish...heh. I´m already picking up the language.

I must say that I seem to be adjusting to this Euro keyboard and am very proud of myself for not making as may errors as yesterday (well, at least so far...!)

It´s so weird to think that back in OR everyone is probably sleeping and I have been up since 8:30 my time (approx 11:30 PST). Crazy I tell you.

Today has been neat so far. Very low key that´s for sure. Since it´s a national holiday not very many shops are open (but the internet cafe is-woohoo!) and we didn´t have anything planned as a group but we had to do this walking tour of the city on our own in small groups. So a few of us went on our excursion through the city to become more familiar with our surroundings. It was kinda neat. I am starting to recognize and piece together different parts of the city. Everything is very close to where I live which is AWESOME and the city really isn´t that big. You walk everywhere. I think I´ll come home about 10 pounds lighter, that´s for sure! Heh.

It rained on us as we were doing our tour so we ducked into one of Granada´s many cafe bars and I had my first Spanish cafe experience. I had chocolate a la taza (hot chocolate basically) but this was not your Swiss Miss hot cocoa. No way. This was like pure melted chocolate. It was so rich and creamy and warm (which was nice after getting wet and cold from the rain!) Wow. Delicious. I must say that I was quite impressed with it and well, maybe I won´t come back 10 pounds lighter if I keep on going to cafes and ordering that! :)

In other news, I had another very refreshing shower this morning. I am constantly amazed at how cold it is here. Really, there is no central heating at all and the little space heater that Feliciana has in my room does well, not a whole lot to warm things up. Plus, we can´t keep them on at night because there are a lot of power surges and it is a fire hazard. Not cool. Anyway, I am getting used to the cold (I think!) and I am trying to keep a positive attitude by thinking that I remember reading somewhere that cold water is good for making pores smaller or something. Yeah, this is all for beauty folks. I will have non-existant pores when I return that´s for sure! It´s just really cold. Like today when we went on our excursion I wore jeans, a long sleeved shirt, my fleece, my heavy grey jacket, a scarf, super warm socks and gloves and I was still cold. Even sitting here now I am slightly chilly. I just hope that I don´t catch pnumonia. That would not be cool. Think happy thoughts and don´t think about the cold. Easier said than done! Heh.

What else? Um, not a whole lot. I found a neat little internet cafe near the house that has a great schedule and am sooo happy that I will be able to stay in touch with the world for a fairly reasonable price. Way cool.

I think that we are going to go out tonight to check out some of the bars. I am going to take things cautiously because well, it´s the beginning and I don´t quite feel comfortable with everything. But it should be a good time whether or not I drink. My roommate and I are to meet up with a group this evening and it should be a good time.

I made it!!!

2006-01-05T21:23:00.000-08:00

Word of the day: yerno=son-in-law
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Oh man, (and this time it´s in a good way!)

I have so much to say and so very little time to say it all. I am sitting here, in GRANADA SPAIN (!) at an internet cafe/pool hall where it seems to be the local youngsters hangout (18 and under about) Anyway, that is not important at all.

I made it here by way of 3 lovely flights where I had two great seatmates. PDX to ATL was a doctor who works in MA and was telling me about this new kind of acupuncture with a laser that he is doing. Pretty cutting edge. My second seatmate was an awesome woman who was going to Palma de Mallorca and reminded me very much of Dr. Julka.

Anyway, flying in to Madrid I was amazed to see how orderly everything was. I mean the streets and houses were in ROWS and it just looked like an incredibly planned city. It was kind of eerie. There weren´t many trees, that is to say there wasn´t much green on the ground-mostly kind of dead looking trees. Hmm-def. not like the NW.

Had a mixup with my luggage in the Madrid airport. I thought I was going to need to collect it before going through customs...so I waited...and waited...and waited (over 45 minutes) and was able to get one bag but not my suitcase. Hmm. Not cool. So I went to the counter where of course, there was a HUGE line, and asked what I needed to do. Where was my other bag? Turns out that the bag I got wasn´t actually su`pposed to have come off the plane it was supposed to have been checked straight through and I was to have gone through customs without baggage at all. Go figure. So the guy said he would get it on the plane and all was cool except that my plane took off in oh, 40 min and I wasn´t even in the right terminal. So I sprint thgrough the Madrid airport and make it jsut in time for the 45 min flight. Get to the tiny Granada airport and find that lo and behold my suitcase was there but my duffle was not. Um, okay. Apparently, after telling my story later on and meeting some of the other students, I foudn that this isn´t uncommon for them to lose luggage. I was freaked out. ALL my clothes were in that bag. THe suitcse I had only had shoes and toiletries so I could brush my teeth, yes, but chenge my underwear I could not. I finled a complaint and crossed my fingers (and toes!) that somehow that bag made it´s way to my home ASAP.

I actually met another student at the airport (she lost her bag too!) and so we headed to the meeting spot and got picked up by our families. I have a FANTASTIC AMAZING WONDERFUL host mother. She is more of a grandmother to be precise. She is probably about 70-75 and lives alone but her daughter and son-in-law and her two granddaughters live right around the corner. I actually met the younger one last night and the older one, Ana, today. They are really sweet and I think that it´s going to work out well. She has a rather large apartment and I have my own room for which I was SOOOOOOO grateful. (Did I mention that I was grateful???) Some of us have to share rooms and I just feel lucky that I got my own. So happy about that. Anyway, she has a lovely home and I am feeling pretty good about it. My roommate is nice. No huge roommate friends forever sparks flying yet, but we get along and for that I am grateful as well. I think she is more of a partier that I (she said that she is going ot drink as much as she wants while she´s here...) but hey, whatever floats your boat, eh? I have my own room! Ha!

So yes, things are good on the home front with the exception of the temperature. Um, yeah. I am definately regretting not bringing more heavy clothes. It gets below 0 at night here and well, she doesn´t heat her house, which, well, isn´t uncommon. So yeah, that was quite a shock. Wandering around the house in a coat and trying to keep warm. Especially last night when I didn´t have anything to wear to bed (Luggage update: I was super worried that they weren´t going to get it for me but they brought it by in the middle of the night-was Ihappy to see that bag!) So yes, it´s quite cold and I feel like an eskimo. During the day it´s pleasant but at night it really really cools down. Brr. Anyway, I can bundle up tonight under my 5 blankets and hopefulyl be warm. The other slight difference between here and the US is the water situation. Here the water is very scarce since it doesn´t rain. So people conserve...a lot. I mean we´re talking hardcore water conservation. My shower this morning was, shall we say, quite refreshing, and I know that I will be happy to return to showers that you stand up in. This one is more like a sqaure and you sit (at least I do, I suppose you could stand but water would get all over because there is no curtain...strange) and you have one of those shower heads that you can wave around in all directions and you do it like that. So basically you turn off the water when you aren´t rinsing which makes it quite chilly. I miss my long standing up showers already and envy those of you who can take warm ones...lucky!

Anywho, the food is going okay too. Cena last night was a vey interesting slice of turkey that seemed very "put together" and well, it was okay but I wouldnt´hope for it again. We had mashed potatoes and bread and yogurt. Okay, not too bad I think. Breakfast was very light. I mean we´re talking 2 pieces of bread and marmalade and cacao (which is like hot cocoa). Yeah, I was slightly hungry while we were in orientation this morning. We ate lunch which was rice soup, salmon and potatoes and tomatoes in a casserole thing, bread, and oranges for dessert. I can see that potatoes are biug here already.

So yeah, things are going well. THis afternoon (well this evening actually) there was a parade for the Dia de los Reyes Magos which is tomorrow. It was called the Calagata I think. SOmething close to that at least. It was super cool. Think 4th of July combined with Halloween kind of and throw in some kings and you ahve how it was. There was so SO much candy being thrown all over the place but the people on the floats. IT was so neat but I was slightly concerned that I would get hit in the eye. A guy next to me actually got one stuck in between his glasses and his face. I felt bad but turned and laughed for which I am slightly ashamed... :) The national holiday tomorrow means everything is closed because people are celebrating the coming of the 3 kings to Jesus in Bethlehem after his birth. So we don´t have anything to do and have a day off to explore. Niiiiice!I am excited.

I´m headed home now. I am still pretty exhausted from the trip and want to finish unpacking. We have out big placement test on MOnday and I´m kind of nervous but I htink it should be okay. I have been getting compliments on my SPanish and already feel ver ycomfotable speaking. We have talked in SPanish all the time we have been here with the exception of mauybe 30 sentences. Pretty good, eh_?

Please please mail me...I love having something neato to read when i make it out to one of these internet cafes that have the strange european keyboards that I don´t like one bit because in order for me to write this fairly mistake free post it took my quite a long time. Yes, be grateful that I made it fariyl easy to understyand at least in the beginning.

Hope all is well across the Atlantic. :)

2006-01-02T23:02:00.000-08:00

maybe i don't really want to go...

i'm so so nervous and scared.

oh, man. I just want it to happen...or not happen...so i can stop anticipating what's going to happen.

oh man, oh man, oh man...

T-minus 17 hours and counting...

2006-01-02T16:07:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that I'm leaving tomorrow. Here I am surrounded by suitcases and travel info and it hasn't really hit me yet that I'm actually "moving" tomorrow.

I have so many mixed feelings about this.

I'm excited. This is an AMAZING opportunity that not many people get and there will be so much to see and do and try. I mean there are people out there that I have yet to meet but will become really good friends. I'm going to be staying with a typical Spanish family. I will get to travel all around Spain and Europe. I will be on the same continent for the Winter Olympics and the World Cup. So much to look forward to!

At the same time, I'm so nervous and scared.

All the changes and things that I will have to get used to seem so overwhelming. I'm leaving so many things behind. My family, friends, Portland...so much to want to stay here for. So much I haven't seen here, right in my own city. I haven't been sleeping well the past few nights because I've been having these dreams about all that could go wrong. Lost luggage, no friends (multiple times), failing grades, missing passports, and just being lonely and missing home. I realize this is very pessimistic of me and I should try and not focus too much on my anxiety, but it's there and no matter how many people tell me it's going to be okay and I'll have a blast once I get there and get settled in, it won't dissipate. I don't know. I suppose it's normal to be nervous before any big life changing event in your life, but this seems a bit excessive.

It's just such a mix of feelings.

I guess I'll just take it one day at a time...starting with tomorrow...when I get on that plane and fly away from all that I know, am comfortable with, and love so so much.

Here goes nothing...

Leaving tomorrow!

2006-01-02T15:40:00.000-08:00

I leave tomorrow and although I am incredibly excited, I am also quite
nervous and anxious about the whole experience. It's slightly daunting
to embark on something like this. Flying halfway around the world,
meeting my host family, and getting oriented to the city and my "new"
life in Spain-so much to take in! It's going to be a big change that's
for sure. But then again, change is good and I am looking forward to
taking full advantage of this amazing opportunity. I mean how many
times in your life do you get to have an adventure like this? Not very
many, that's for sure. It should be an awesome time! Spain here I
come!