Classes, Carnaval, Migas, and San Valentin

Wow. So much to write about!!! Lets see...where to start? :)


Well, I've successfully finished the second week of classes here in Spain and I've got to say, I really enjoy all of them. I have three classes on Monday and Wednesday: Spanish Grammar at 11:30am-1pm, POE (which is my Spanish conversation class) at 1pm-2:30pm, and then I have Geography of Spain at 4pm-5:30pm. I really like them, especially my geography class! I've never realized how interesting I find geography and it's really cool to learn about Spain and what the landscape consists of and just how much it varies! Tuesday and Thursday I have two classes: Traditional Song and Spanish Folklore (which focuses mainly on Flamenco) at 10am-11:30am, and Spanish Civilization and Culture at 4pm-5:30pm. The Flamenco class is a bit challenging because it's all in Spanish, so I really have to concentrate, but it really is fascinating. I've learned so much about flamenco and the gitanos, or gypsies in English, than I could ever imagine and its only the second week. Did you know Flamenco isn't just a dance, but it's a way of life? It's also really cool to be learning all of this in Granada, where Flamenco is very prominent. Civ and culture is probably my favorite class this semester! It's so interesting and my professor makes it a lot of fun. Right now we are learning about the different languages in Spain: Catalan, Castillian, Galacian, and Basque.
I really like my schedule because it's not too much to handle. The classes go a lot longer than I expected them to, so 1.5 hours seems like nothing. And the breaks in between for lunch are really nice because it spaces my day out and gives me time for a little siesta! :)

This Saturday/Sunday was my trip to Cadiz for Carnaval! We left at 9am on Saturday morning. The drive wasn't too bad - only about 4 hours. When we got there, it was 20C with a nice little breeze. It was quite lovely! Callie, Ashely, Mary Virginia, Victoria, Devon, Blair, Gabe, Giulia, Kat, Kathleen, Rachel, Vida, Sabrina, and I all started off roaming the streets together.

group photo!

About 30 minutes in, we lost Callie and Ashley, who went off to a cafe on some street. The rest of us trekked our way to the beach!

 Gabe and I

It was so beautiful. By far my favorite part of Cadiz. A bunch of us walked along the beach (it was low tide) and collected beach glass, shells and other cool things. I found a BEAUTIFUL piece of a tile that had washed up on shore. By far my favorite find. :) After chilling at the beach for a while, Victoria, Mary and I went to go find gelato....which we never found...and then met back up with what was left of the group. We then headed for the main plaza AKA crazytown. 

Sooooo many [drunk] people!! This is where, for me at least, it started to get....un-fun. I'm not a huge fan of gigantic crowds of drunk people where you can't move and are stepping all over bottles and stuff like that. It was also really freaking cold. I had a jacket on, but it really didn't help much.  

Oh well! That's part of the experience, right? :) haha At one point, we just really wanted to sit down somewhere warm, but unfortunately there weren't many options... so we found an underground parking garage that we just chilled in until we got kicked out. Lemme tell you, that was the closest I've ever felt to being homeless and it sucks. 

Anyways, after waiting for what seemed like FOREVER, we were finally able to get back on the bus around 3ish-am. After a little hiccup or two, we were finally off to go back to Granada. I tried to sleep but I think I was just at that point where I was so tired, I couldn't. When we get back to the apartment, I pretty much pass out. We get...meh, roughly about three hours of sleep and they we are up and off to  the Alpujarras for lunch with our Spanish friends! 

Lemme tell you, it was rough waking up to leave for that. We left the apartment around 11:45...and the bus was leaving at 12:00....with the station being at least a 30 min walk away. Taxi time! We make it literally JUST in time. The bus was just about to pull out. Thankfully we made it on. 

The ride up to their little town was beautiful, but the roads were absolutely terrifying in a bus. 

source

As you can see, the roads barely look big enough for a normal car, NOT two tour buses passing side by side...ON A TURN. OVER A CLIFF. Scary stuff. 

When we got to the town, Carlos and Rafa were at the bus stop waiting for us. They lead us up the road, up a hill and across a plaza to Carlos' little cafe. It was so cute!!

They were so sweet! They had a lot of their friends over to meet us and they closed the cafe down and pretty much had a small party. We had unlimited drinks and food. It was seriously one of the best experiences I've had so far in Spain. I also took a little video of the happenings. It's not letting me upload it, but you can view it here. As you can see, it was a lot of fun!

They made us this delicious dish, called Migas. It's a traditional Spanish dish and you first put oil in a pan and cook the garlic, then you remove the garlic and cook the bell peppers in the same oil, removing and cooking the meat, removing and then finally adding the wet bread mixture (bread with water added to it to get it to a mushy consistancy). Then they kept stirring and cutting the bread mixture for a while until it looked like crumbs (the meaning of migas in Spanish.) When it was done, we all ate migas with the meat and peppers. So good!

A couple of days later was Dia de San Valentin!  I didn't have a Valentine and neither did my roomies, so we all kinda decided to be each others valentine. I got them some flowers!

Later on, we went to our favorite teteria and had tea while talking to Angel, the waiter. Last time I was in, he somehow found out that I had done bellydancing. So this time when I came back, he had a gift for me: a bellydancing skirt! It was the sweetest thing! And it was red - perfect for valentine's day! :) 

That's about all for this post. Next one will be relatively soon about this weekend in Cordoba, Sevilla and the roman ruins of Italica! :)

-Christy

First Week in Granada!

So the first week has gone by in a blur - I'm pretty sure this is the first day I've been free to do what I want! Also, sorry its taken me a little to update. I come home from a day out on a tour, or exploring the city, or shopping, or whatever, and its really all I can do to keep my eyes open long enough to change before I pass out. But, I'm updating now! No harm, no foul, right? :)

Day One:
We went to the CLM building (Centro de Lenguas Modernas) where most of us will have our classes. We had an orientation that gave us some historical background of Spain, the political happenings, the regions, and some other facts. We then took a little walk around the city, where our CEA managers, Jorge, Begonia, and Dani showed us where we could go grocery shopping, and where to get other household appliances.

At first, I was a bit intimidated by the size of the city, but after a couple of days of walking around, its definitely gotten a lot easier and its certainly not as difficult as  I was thinking. Granada has a "big city feel" with out the big city walking. Not to say we don't do a lot of walking! My feet have been so sore and I definitely have a couple of blisters. But its really not that bad. I've been so enthralled with the city, that I hardly notice my feet until I'm home.

Day Two:
Our trip to Ronda!! Oh wow, it was soooo beautiful! we left early in the morning and arrived there about 2 hours later. The drive in itself was awesome. The Spanish countryside is soo gorgeous.

On the way, we stopped at a little cafe that I guess is the Spanish equivalent to a rest stop. I got some hot chocolate that is more often than not, called Colacao (a brand name, but its what everyone refers to when they want hot chocolate). It was seriously one of the best hot chocolates I've had in my life.

They gave me sugar with it (??) but I didn't use it. It was sweet enough without!
When we got to the city we went into two different tour groups - one in Spanish and one in English. I was too busy taking pictures, so I got the groups confused and ended up in the English group when I was going to try the Spanish group. To be honest, I'm kind of glad I was in the English group because the history was extremely interesting and I think I would've missed a lot in the Spanish group. We saw the "symbol" of Ronda - the New Bridge.

Isn't it amazing? It's called the New Bridge because, even though it was built in the 1600's, there are two other older bridges built connecting old Ronda to the newer part of Ronda across the gorge. 

We also went to the old Arab Baths, which were soooooo cool! I love history and old ruins/buildings. the baths were a big thing in the older days because it was more of a religious thing and also a social thing, kinda like going to a Spa in a way.

Isn't it beautiful??
Ronda was just such a lovely city to visit.

After the tour, we had some free time to do a little exploring. Cat and I decided to go get some lunch at this cute restaurant in the town square. It was sooo delicious!! I got a pizza that was like a gyro with its toppings. mmmmmm. I couldn't believe I at the whole thing myself!

(On a side note, can I just say how much I LOVE my camera??! Thanks, mom and dad!!!)
During my two hours of free time, I ran into my roommates, Callie and Ashley, who had been in the Spanish group. We were sitting under a gazebo looking out at the view when we see these older people dancing around in a circle, clapping and drinking something out of a bag. The sight is just so funny and they look so happy that we start laughing. Well, the "gypsies" as we called them, saw us watching and come over and offered for us to do the same. I was a bit hesitant, but Ashley got up and did it, which started a chain reaction from Callie to me. It was a sweet wine in the bag and it was actually very good.

My Roommate, Ashley drinking from the bag.

When we were finished, the sweet old man gave us a mint and then they left. We laughed over our "cultural experience" and went back to the plaza where we were to meet the rest of the group. On the way back, we ran into Dani and Jorge, who had apparently seen the whole thing. Oops! haha but they actually laughed about the whole thing and told us the name of the bag...which I think is bota. 

Day three:

We visited the Sacromonte in Granada, which is pretty much the gypsy quarters in the city. Most people there live in cave houses, which is super cool.

we took a tour of the Sacromonte Museum which was really interesting, but the tour was all in Spanish, so it was quite hard to pull out the information. 

Day four:

The placement exam......GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I seriously wanted to jump off a cliff during this exam. I know it was simply to see what level you are at in Spanish, but it was stressful because I had to get into level 5 or above for my credits to transfer. While taking the exam, I seriously was sure I wasn't going to make it into level 5. It was so difficult!! We had 5 parts: listening, writing, reading, oral, and grammar. The reading and writing were pretty simple... but the rest...urgh. I'm so glad it's over and done with! I BARELY made it into level 5! So glad I did.

Honestly, that's really all I did that day. That night though, a bunch of us went out to a discoteca! It was a lot of fun and we met some cool Spainards! 

Day five: 

We had the rest of our orientation! We learned about where our classes would be, and we found out where the other building was where we would have our classes that were in English (if we had any). 

Let me just tell you, in Granada, there are a lot of orange trees. Apparently though, you can't eat the oranges because they are really bitter and taste bad. Well, my friend Blair and I decided we were going to try anyway. It was disgusting! Haha, it tasted like a warhead! So sour. It was a learning experience for us both hahaha. 

After, Blair and I decided to get some food for a late lunch and had a nice conversation. She is also for Pennsylvania!

Day six:

We visited the Alhambra!!! I was SOO annoyed, because about half-way through the Generalife, my camera died. So, I'm sorry, but I didn't get any pictures really of the Alhambra. 

Shortly after my camera died, Ashley and I got lost from the rest of the tour group. So we spent the next hour looking for our group and trying to find them. Finally, we ask a worker there and he finds our group for us. Thank you, kind sir!! We learned to not be extreme tourists and take a picture every two steps. ;) hehe. Still - an amazing experience and such a beautiful place!!

Day seven:

We had our language exchange and a trip to the Albaycin! For the language exchange, we went to a high school and were paired with about 10 students each. This was a little intimidating at first, because with a lot of people, there tends to be talking over one another, and in another language..well, I think you can understand what I mean. It really wasn't that bad though! It was a lot of fun. I learned a lot about the students and I really think it helps my Spanish. We talked for about 6 minutes in Spanish and then talked in English for about the same. 

After the language exchange, we had a couple of hours to ourselves and then we went to tour the Albaycin. It's one of the oldest parts of the city and all the houses are white-washed like they would've been when they were first built. It was so lovely. Unfortunately, I forgot to recharge my camera, so I wasn't able to take any photos. I'll try to get back there so I can though! :)

And that was my first week! I'll try to update again soon! 

-Christy