¡Mi vida en Granada!

I suck at updating my blog.

2010-05-22T08:34:00.001-07:00

Oh my, where has all my time gone?? Well since I am just awful lately at updating my blog, I've decided just to make a few posts in rapid succession, hopefully haha.

Portugal!

Okay so like a month ago I took a trip to Lisbon with Emily, MacKenzie, Emma and Alyssa. It was such a fun, relaxing trip, definitely just what the doctor ordered haha. We took the supra (!) bus to Madrid from Granada, with free cola-cao included (ahh I will miss it, it's like nestle, but more delicious) and then hopped on our plane to go to Lisbon. It was a short flight, just an hour and I slept the entire way haha. So we got into Lisbon and tracked down our hostel. We were a little nervous when we first got there because the outside was entirely in construction but then once we stepped inside we found it very charming. We stayed at the black & white hostel, cheapest in Lisbon, with different portraits of Marilyn Monroe everywhere. It was pretty cool and there was free breakfast and wifi, so very satisfying. After checking in we dropped off all of our stuff and found a nice restaurant to grab a quick bite at. It seemed like everyone in Lisbon spoke English so that was very helpful, even though portuguese looks similar to Spanish in writing it sounds more like Russian so we couldn't understand anything. I think that there is a huge difference in the way portuguese is spoken in Portugal and Brasil. Anyways so then we just walked around Lisbon and went down to the waterfront and explored the city. I love Lisbon, it is such a different large European city, I think it gets often overlooked because it doesn't have as many tourist attractions as Paris, Rome or Madrid, but it is very livable and the people are so nice, definitely buena gente. We went to the wok in Lisbon, but it wasn't as good as the one in Sevilla, but cheaper so oh well. The next day we took a trip to Simtra, which is about an hour outside of lisbon by train, it was a bit chilly but very green and beautiful. There's a castle located there, but we decided not to go see it, since it was kind of expensive, and we've all seen our fair share of medieval castles haha. While Mac, Alyssa and Emma were off looking at something that I thought looked like a mini Alhambra, Emily and I went and explored this bicho park that was there. They had super cool animal statues set up all over it and beautiful gardens. They're public bathroom had a bidet in it, it was pretty funny to see. You would never see that in Spain, you're lucky to get a toilet seat haha. We went to pizza hut for lunch, mmm. Pizza is so different in Europe than it is in the US, it was nice to get some real crust and tomato sauce. When we got back into Lisbon we took a little trip to H&M, claro. I love this store, it's probably a good thing there isn't one in Granada. I got a really cute dress that I absolutely love. That night we decided to go on a pubcrawl. We had been told to look for some guy in a yellow shirt in the main plaza, but when we got there (twenty minutes late) he wasn't there, but someone else was doing a pub crawl so we went with him instead. Our leader, Miguel, spoke fluent English, because his mom was from Britain so that was good. The first bar we went to was serving Sangria, which Miguel claimed was the best in the world, but living in Spain, we are already in the know about great sangria, so weren't as impressed as he would've liked. We went to three clubs after that one, the second one we went to played reggaeton the entire time we were there, so I was very happy, as that's my favvv. We ended at this club called, the bedroom, which was playing, some interesting music, but didn't stay long. It was a great night. Botellón is allowed everywhere in Lisbon, there's no restriction so people were pretty crazy on the street, but it was a lot of fun. The next day we took a walk to a small town nearby Lisbon called Belém. The walk was very beautiful, but excruciating for my feet. My sandals I was wearing were definitely not made for walking. On the way we saw Portugal's mini version of the Cristo from Rio and a version of San Francisco bridge. It was an odd sight for sure. It took about an hour and a half to get there so I was hurting by the time we arrived. The town was really beautiful, lots of tourists, and of course we went to starbucks, because what else does one do?? They had a cool market going on and a beautiful park. We stayed there for a few hours and then on the way back decided to take the train, which was about five minutes haha. That night we went to the Hard Rock Café, which I'd never had the priviledge of dining at haha. It was pretty much the only restaurant open, there was a huge game between the soccer team from Lisbon and a rival team from Southern Portugal going on, so it was packed, because there was a huge tv projecting the game. Lisbon lost, q triste, the natives were not very happy. Our meal was so good, I got to have a boca burger substituted in, my first in Europe! And a real milkshake, no one in Spain knows what that is haha, more milk, less shake. The next day Emily and Alyssa left early, cause they had another plane, and Emma, Mac and I went to a park to read and just enjoy the beautiful weather. We had been planning on going to the beach the previous day, but when we arrived at the bus station we found that there were only two routes to go to the beach, and we had missed one already and the next one wasn't for another two hours, so we never made it to the beach, although I hear it's nice haha. All in all Lisbon was a great trip, it was really nice to just have a weekend getaway with the girls. Definitely going to miss opportunities like this once I am back in the states..

La Vidaaaaa!

2010-04-19T09:31:00.001-07:00

Okay so post-Barcelona! When I got back I was a bit of a recluse for about two days since my roommates and most of my friends were out of Granada. I worked on my relationship with the couch, but then my friend Emily got back from England Wednesday so we went to a few of the processions that were going on in Granada. I’m not going to lie, they are not the most exciting things in the world, lots of people doing penance in the street with Mary and Jesus floats going through the city. The people in penance are dressed KKK style with the long robes and pointed hats covering their entire face and bodies. The KKK actually stole this dress from Spain, as Spain has had it in practice far longer than the KKK has existed. So it was very odd for me to see, and someone who is not familiar with the dress might think that Spain is a neo-nazi skinhead outfit, but fear not; it’s actually a religious symbol. And they are not just white, the color of the outfit is connected to which church group is being represented; popular colors are white, black purple and red. Each color represents something, which I can’t really remember, but if you are interested than make sure to look it up (I’m looking at you pops). It was interesting trying to explain what exactly the KKK is to my roommates, and whether it was a good thing or bad thing in the US. So I went to three of these processions- one with Emily, Alyssa and her family; one at night (freezing!) and one on Easter. The one at night had pretty much all of the Stations of the Cross being shown, so it was very long since they walk at the pace of a snail. There were people under the floats actually holding it up so that was pretty cool, and then there were lots of girls dressed up in mourning portraying Mary, and then the Mary float, which was the same in all of the processions, she had a very sad face in all of them, even on Easter. The Easter procession went by much quicker since it was just one float of Jesus resurrected, and of course sad Mary. I went to that one with MacKenzie, Emily and King. My Semana Santa was very tranquil, it was a very nice break to just relax in Granada and go out for tapas a lot.

Once Semana Santa was finished I went back to regular school life, I took my history exam the next Thursday so I was studying a lot for that, and I think I did pretty well on the exam. Emily and I saw The Book of Eli with her roommate and one of his friends, which I enjoyed. We went to a movie theater I’d never been to a little outside Granada and it was huge. We drove there in her roommates’ friends’ car, which was so odd, it is so weird to be in a car in Spain. They blasted house music the entire way there haha. I also went to a Spanish movie with API; Sexual Tension: No Resuelta; which was soooo funny, but extremely graphic, but probably the best Spanish movie I’ve seen. On Thursday I was back at the school I’ve been volunteering at with Emily and we had a new group of 12 year olds, so that was lots of fun. I’m really glad that I took advantage of that opportunity, especially now since I can add it to my résumé! On the 13^th I registered for classes for fall, which is very weird to think that soon I’ll be back into regular life at wazzu. I got to register fairly early so I got into all of the class that I wanted. My favorite professor is teaching my POLS 424 US National Security class so I’m super pumped to have Dr. Preston again. I only need 12 more credits to graduate (3 global politics classes and one Spanish class), but I registered for 18 credits so I will probably end up dropping one of my classes (either the American Constitution or Special Topics in African History). It will be hard to choose between them!

This weekend went by super fast. I was sick on Friday, some 24-hour bug, so that was kind of a bummer, but whatever. I saw Quierdo John (Dear John) with Mac, Emily, Alyssa and Emma, which wasn’t very good. Emma and I have been working on our group project for our film class recently. We are covering El Orfanato (The Orphanage), which is a great suspense Spanish film that Guillermo Del Toro helped produce. Everyone should see it! On Saturday Mac and her roommate Jessica, Emily and Alyssa came over to my house for botellón before going out on the scene in Granada. It was a lot of fun. We went to a bar and then split up and Emily, Alyssa and I went to Kapital, where we talked our way in for free, claro. It was lots of fun, but some Spanish woman decided to use my foot as a step and I have a huge bruise from her stiletto on my foot now, ouch. We ended the night with some French fries and coke, mmm.

On Sunday I decided to forgo the API bullfight, but I did meet up with them later because a bunch of school study abroad reps were in Granada, and mine from WSU happened to be one of them that was visiting. API took us to a very Spanish restaurant; i.e. there was nothing vegetarian on the menu except some weird soup. But that was all fine because I had such a great conversation with my school rep! She had been all over the world it seemed, she studied in Italy for a sort of leap year between high school and college, and then taught English as a second language through the JET program in Japan for two years. She spent 6 months or so in Thailand and then went to Nepal for 2 ½ years after graduate school. Her husband is a Nepalese musician, and I just thought that was so cool. She gave me lots of ideas about internship opportunities abroad and general ideas about working and traveling abroad. I was really glad that I had the opportunity to sit down and talk with her, and we had really good desert truffles haha. And the cheery on top was that she is a vegetarian too, she said she gave up meat after Italy because they had eaten sooo much meat there. It was great conversation and definitely got me thinking more about life after WSU, which will soon be here. She also knows Ben, since she advised him before he left for Melbourne, and said he had emailed her about his foot cut, and I said he was sad about not being able to hoist girls on his shoulders anymore, and she said he left that part out haha. Ohh Benny Boo.

Okay so that is pretty much what’s been going on since Barcelona! I am going to the Alpujarras with my program for a day next weekend, and then the weekend after that I am off to Lisbon with MacKenzie, Emily, Alyssa and Emma! Hopefully the Icelandic cloud won’t get in our way! I also bought plane tickets to Marrakesh, Morocco for the 7^th- 11^th of May with MacKenzie, Emma and Alyssa and I’m really excited for that! I can’t wait to go to Africa! I’m also planning to go to my roommate Araceli’s pueblo, Lucena, outside of Córdoba after school ends. Araceli and I have been really bonding lately, I feel so lucky to have such awesome roommates! Hasta muy pronto!

Barcelona!

2010-04-17T07:42:00.000-07:00

Buenas!

Bah! Okay, well since it's been almost a month since I last updated I figure now is the time to do it now! Hmm well I might as well break it up into two posts since it's been so long. I will start with my sister's trip here! Okay so she got in on a tuesday, and I went and picked her up from the granada bus station during the afternoon, thus skipping my class, but oh well! She managed to get down to Granada all by herself! I was so proud of her. We went to a flamenco show with my program that night, and it was a lot of fun. It was more fun than the last time, last semester. MacKenzie's mom was there, and one of the gitanos pulled her up on the dance floor with him, it was soo funny. She sure can shake those hips! Wednesday I went to classes and Jessica wandered around Granada taking pictures. I took Jessica to a few of the tapas places that I currently frequent, Feng Shui, Poë and this new moroccan place. She really liked Feng Shui, those noodles are just so delicious! I love going for tapas, I can't envision my life without them. It's going to be so weird to return to the US and have to pay for food with my drink! What is that! So Thursday morning we woke up at the crack of dawn to walk down to the bus stop to get the bus to the airport, and it got there right on time, it was about 30 minutes there. We got right through security and then waited for forever for the plane, ahh ryanair, I won't miss you. But the flight was fine, it was really quick, we got into the Girona airport and then had to take a bus from Girona to Barcelona. It was about an hour or so, but not terrible. Once we arrived in Barcelona we stopped at a restaurant and got some delicious kebabs. Then we went on a trek to find our hostel. We got turned around once or twice, but then found it and got to go up to our room right away. We had a private room, which was really nice, it was very relaxing to be in a room by ourselves and with no construction outside! We took a little siesta and then went off to explore Barcelona a little bit. We went to the picasso museum, which I really enjoyed. Picasso spent time in Barcelona during his early years before his exodus to France when Franco took power. I really enjoyed the blue room and pink room. It was a lot more interesting art than the Picasso museum in Málaga had. After the museum we went back to the hostel and awaited MacKenzie and her mom. They were staying in the same hostel as us before they went on their cruise the next day! They got a wee bit lost, I won't say I may have accidently lead them in the wrong direction.. but something was afoot. After they arrived we went to an Indian restaurant together, which was SOOOO good! My first Indian food experience was not a good one, but this definitely left me impressed, although it might have been that my lack of spices in Spain makes me love anything that has a little flavour. Regardless I am now ready to add Indian food back onto to list of food I will eat. The next day Jessica and I woke up and wandered down Las Ramblas, which is the most famous street in Barcelona, there are all sorts of venders and street performers there which was fun to see. A few scary performers as well who were not as fun to see. We walked down to the pier and laid out enjoying the sun for a bit and then went to the chocolate museum where our ticket to enter was a dark chocolate bar, mmm. They had lots of statues made of chocolate and some fun historical facts about chocolate. That night we went to an Italian place for dinner, and I got delicious pasta while Jessica got a very cheesy calzone, and then we split a bottle of wine from Cataluña. That night we went to a discoteca called Razzmatazz, which was about 25 minutes walking from our hostel. We waited for a bit for the discoteca to get busier at a bar nearby. There were lots of creepers hanging around, one wanted to put Jessica's legs in his lap, and then decided to hold my hand and whisper in my ear in Spanish about Jessica and how I was so nice, haha. Drinks are so much more expensive in Barcelona than in Granada, so we only had one drink each. Admission was 15 euro a person with one drink, and they were carding at the door. That was a sight I haven't seen since being in the states haha. But the club was three floors, with five different rooms of techno music that varied in tempo. It was a huge club, but I've got to say I wasn't so impressed. Too much temcho, and not enough dancing. I just love the discotecas in Granada so much! Saturday and Sunday we spent walking around the entire city and went to Parc Guell and Mont Juic, which were beautiful. Parc Guell was designed by Antonio Gaudi, who pretty much designed most of Barcelona, including the Sagrada Familia, which we didn't go into because it's still mostly in construction, I'll go when it's finished in 2026 haha. But the park was absolutely beautiful and huge, definitely one of my favorite parts of Barcelona. Parc Juic overlooks Barcelona and is really beautiful too. We took the metro there which was cool and got to see a bike race going on at the top. The olympic stadium built in 1992 for the olympics is on top and was super cool to see as well. I was definitely glad for all the practice I've had in Granada walking everywhere, because Barcelona was huge. We only bought a 10 ticket metro pass so we hardly used the metro while we were there for five days! Sunday night we went to a Thai restaurant, which turned out to be very expensive, so that was kind of a bummer for my bank account, but it was good, so that made it better. On Monday we went to Montserrat for the day. It is a monastery town built into a mountain which was absolutely gorgeous. We took a scary funicular ride up from the bottom to the top, and then went to the cathedral to see the boys choir that studies at the monastery, sing for ten minutes. They are definitely being taught very well there. We took a hike at the top and then rode down to the bottom where there is a cave in which supposedly they found a mary statue there around 800 years ago. The original is inside the cathedral and we went to go see her and her magic globe. I wasn't very impressed by it, but I wasn't impressed by the blood in Bruges either. You can look up the magic mary story if you really care. Okay so that was pretty much my Barcelona trip!

Oh wait! I forgot about the time I almost died on my ryanair trip to Granada. Okay so I left Bercelona around 3:30 am and took the bus to Girona. I sat next to a nice girl who was from Pennsylvania and studying in Barcelona. It seems to me like it would be hard to learn spanish there because everyone it seemed spoke english. While I was there, no one really would speak spanish to me, and it has definitely been easier in Granada, because there are so few people here that do speak English in comparison to big cities like Madrid and Barcelona. But anyways back to the story! So we arrived to Girona around 4:45, and I went up to my gate and waited forever to get on my place, that left at 6:30ish. So it was scary from the start, on the takeoff the plane was swaying back and forth on the runway and then once in the air, we had trouble gaining altitude and kept dropping, I really thought I was doomed, about to be stuck on the island with Jack, Kate and Sawyer. Everyone was screaming and the woman next to me kept muttering joder under her breath. It was very very scary. Absolutely the worst plane ride I have ever been on. I am never flying ryanair again. They are absolutely the worst, and it seems the pilots are all in training, not exactly the most safe environment. I was so thankful when we finally were skidding down the runway and I almost kissed the ground when we landed. I was so happy to be back in my apartment that I spent the next day sleeping in my bed as celebration ahha. Okay so that does it for my trip to Barça! I will update again soon on what has followed the rest of my time here! Hasta!

Oh! I forgot the story about the man who chased me around! Okay so Jessica and I were on Las Ramblas looking for this vegetarian restaurant that my good friend Rick Steves told me about, so I was looking for the street sign, not really paying attention to the people around me, when all of the sudden there was this short squat piggish man in front of me, and he was speaking in spanish gibberish to me and had his arms spread out trying to catch me. He chased me around in a circle while Jessica stood there and laughed. It was so scary! I thought he was going to get me! I had to run very far away from him as fast I could, okay that's my creepy barcelona story, ciao.

Sierra Nevada!

2010-03-20T12:18:00.001-07:00

What's the thing I look forward to the most in the US? Wireless internet everywhere. Alas the internet that my roommates and I had been stealing now has a key on it, so I'm back in the stone ages having to drag my laptop around everywhere if I ever want to refresh facebook. Haha, it's a broma, I also upload all my political shows too. Okay so what's been going on in my life lately? Well, in the last blog I wrote about the upcoming birthday of my roommate and MacKenzie's B-day party. So I went out with Araceli and her sister Susana that Tuesday, and we had a really good time. We of course stayed out until almost seven in true spanish style, and then somehow I didn't end up making it to my 10 o'clock class, funny how that happens. But it's a-okay because my friends took good notes for me! The next friday, Emily, Maria and I walked to the school, where we are volunteers, at the crack of dawn, aka 8:30. I'm really looking to changing my schedule around after semana santa so I don't have to give up my fridays anymore. Anyways, we each got a group of about 20 five year olds, and they were super precious! I mostly helped the teacher with different projects and talked to the little kids, but there wasn't any English spoken so I didn't feel like I was helping them learn English very well haha. It was a lot of fun to be with little kids though. That night MacKenzie had her party and it was a lot of fun. She and her roommates made Sangria and it was delicious as always. I spent all Saturday sleeping haha.

On Sunday MacKenzie, her roommate Jessica and I woke up super early to go snowboarding in the Sierra Nevada! We took the city bus to the bus station and then took another bus from there to the resort town. The bus was about 45 minutes long, and the town was so gorgeous. It seemed like a little ski resort in Switzerland! We met up with one of Jess' friends who works at the resort and he was able to get us a discount on the tickets, so it was only like 35 euro for the tickets, instead of 50 something. We rented our stuff, which took forever, we were at one store for almost an hour, just to have them run out snowboards when we finally got to the front of the line.. (not really sure how that happens..) But then we went to another store that ended up being better and they were really nice. This was Jess' second time snowboarding so she hung out on the bunny hill for a bit while Mac and I went on other runs. After we all met up and MacKenzie and I tried to help Jess with her turns. She was surprisingly good for it only being her second time! We ate lunch at a little cafe right next to the lifts, I had really good four cheese pizza, mmmm. After MacKenzie stayed with Jess and I went by myself a bit, until my strap broke on my board and I had ski down the mountain with one foot strapped in. But it was all fine because the ski shop fixed me up really fast and I was back in the action. It was so much fun! The snow was really good, and it was really sunny so a great day for skiing. The mountain didn't have any trees on it, super weird to see, so it was really really open. In the afternoon visibility got really low so we didn't get in very many runs in the afternoon, but it was a really great day. I couldn't believe I was still in southern Spain. After we ate dinner, Jess' friend, Alex, gave us a ride back to Granada in his car (my first time being in a car in Spain!) and we took a really scenic drive back. (It got a little too scenic for MacKenzie at times where the mountain had gone into the road from previous landslides, and she was gripping my leg haha). But I had a great experience snowboarding! The next day my face didn't seem to agree though, we got so burned! My face is still peeling a little, Mac and I had really sexy tan lines on our faces all week.

This week I have been really tapa-ing it up. Mac, Emily, Alyssa and I have been going out a ton this week. We went to the menu del día one day for lunch at a Chinese restaurant that was great. A starter, soup, meal, desert and drink all for 5.95! One night we tried a few new tapas places, one place we went to I had a potato salad and they had some gross fish thing with lots of bones and a spine (gag me now). We also tried sushi tapas for the first time at a Japanese place that was great! Mmm I love (vegetarian/non fish) sushi! Haha. On Thursday MacKenzie, Emma and I met up at café fútbol to study for civ and culture with a little churros and chocolate. And then after Mac and I went to a mexican place for lunch, and gelato for desert haha. I am really going to miss going out in Granada.

Last night was Fiesta de la Primavera, which is a huge botellón throughout the city. They started at Hipercor at 2 pm and there were a ton of people. We decided to not partake and went to Emily's instead and hung out with her roommate Pablo and all of his friends. We tried going to a discoteca later, but it was super crowded everywhere and didn't feel like standing in line, so Emma, Emily and I ended up the night with a delicious shwarma, haha. I spent this morning sleeping in, sans hammers. They're doing construction in the apartment next to mine, so I get woken up at 8:15 every morning (and then Nat King Cole sings me back to sleep haha), so it's nice not to hear it on the weekends. I spent today trying to study for my upcoming civ and culture exam on Monday. I have another test in the system of the EU on Wednesday. I had a history exam Thursday, but I got it postponed until after Semana Santa because I won't be here on Thursday. (I'll be in Barcelona, hopefully with my sister..) Anyways I will try to either blog right after my Barcelona trip! Hasta luego!

Sevilla: Mejor el segundo vez

2010-03-08T10:34:00.000-08:00

Valeeeeee! So I had a busy busy weekend! My Friday was extremely busy. I woke up about 8:45 because I am now a volunteer! I volunteer at a private catholic school every Friday, teaching English to students! I wasn't sure what to expect on my first day, but it was a ton of fun! I volunteered with Maria, who is actually living in my host home from last semester, she's from North Carolina and a very sweet girl. We met at the school about 10 o clock, it's quite a walk from my apartment, about thirty minutes, and right next to the Parque de las Ciencias. We worked with one teacher in two of her classes. The first class was a group of 16 year olds and the second class was a class of 14 year olds. We basically just spoke in front of the class, trying to speak slowly and clearly, about our lives and different customs in the United States. It was a lot of fun, and they asked us tons of questions. When I told them I lived in Washington, one of the students asked if I had been to Forks (Twilight reference), it was pretty funny. But it was a ton of fun, and I am really looking forward to going back. Next Friday I will be working with younger students, the school is kindergarten through high school, so it's very big.

The classes went much longer than I expected so I was in a really big rush when I got home at 2:15, because we were leaving for Sevilla at 4. I had to clean the hallway and sala of my apartment (my roommates and I split chores every week; hallway & sala, bathroom, and kitchen) and then pack quickly before I met Alyssa and MacKenzie to walk to the bus stop. The drive to Sevilla was much less painful than last time, as this time we actually had a bus driver who knew the way and didn't stop at the mountain, with the scary one lane road. It was very nice. We got into Sevilla about 9 or so, Mac and I were rooming together. We went out to eat with Emily at an Italian restaurant nearby our hotel, I got some yummy mushroom pizza. Emily got ravioli, which consisted of like ten pieces of ravioli spread decoratively around her plate haha. We finished off the night with a delicious gelato. The next day we woke up early to get some of the breakfast we were so impressed with last semester. However, we have been spoiled by the Paris and Rome breakfasts so it was as good as we remembered. After breakfast we decided to forgo the API tours and take our own shopping tour. It was quite fabulous, with stops at all our favorite stores and a few new ones. I bought a new dress from Blanco and a shirt and skirt from a store that I had never been to, but apparently it exists in Granada, so they will be seeing me soon. It was a pretty glorious day and the weather was behaving for once. After our five hour long extravaganza we came back to the hotel for a quick break and then headed off to a wok restaurant for some dinner. It was a buffet and we made our own woks, I picked out lots of veggies, told the cook a sauce and then he whipped it up in front of me. Delicious! I had one with a wok sauce, and one with a sauce called Tokio, which was very garlic-y, aka delicious. I really enjoyed it. Later while MacKenzie, Emily, Alyssa and Tina stayed in, I went out with lots of the new people in API to the club Catedral, it was lots of fun and I didn't get lost for an hour coming back this time! Wooooo! It was a good ending to a good day. The next day we woke up early again for breakfast, and after Mac and I had a good after breakfast siesta, and then checked out of the hotel and headed off to Starbucks for a bit of coffee with our crew. We people watched from the upstairs while listening to some great music from the musician outside. He was singing and playing a harmonica and the music was very bluesy, I felt like I was sitting on a porch outside in New Orleans watching the fire flies at dusk. It was pretty fab. We stayed there for like four hours and then walked back to the hotel at 5 to leave to go back to Granada. We had been praying for rain on the way back and it worked, so we didn't have to stop for a hike on the mountain, yay! We got back to Granada around nine, which was a bit late, but not too bad. This week it is my roommate Araceli's birthday, so I'm going out with them to Mae West on Tuesday, it should be a lot of fun. MacKenzie and her roomie Ana are having a party on Friday to celebrate their birthdays, and then Mac and I are going to try to go snowboarding in the Sierra on Sunday! It will be a busy week, but very fun!! Bueno, hasta luego

Carnaval es una tonta polla

2010-03-02T09:03:00.000-08:00

Oh gosh, I have been awful at updating my blog, I blame the lack of secure internet at my house. Anyways, the last time I updated was two wednesdays ago, so I will start from there! Well that Thursday I went out with my roommates and it was so much fun! I originally hadn't planned on going out, but when I got home and went to my room, my roomies pulled me out and we all botellon'd in our living room with a bunch of their friends. We didn't end up leaving for Kapital until around 2 in the morning (typical spaniards!), but it was so much fun. Mati taught me lots of Spanish drinking songs and all the boys with us were teaching me a ton of slang. Kapital is definitely the best club I've been to, as it's huge with part of the club dedicated to house/popular music, another room was salsa and the upstairs (sala suite) playing great club music. I had so much fun dancing with my roommates and we got to really bond, I called it a early night at 6 haha.

On Saturday, I left for Cádiz with MacKenzie, Tina, Emily, Sam and basically the entire api spring group. We took a chartered bus from Granada to there, which was about a five hour bus ride. The ride there was gorgeous and it was so cool seeing the rolling spanish hillside with the perfect white houses that everyone imagines when they think about Spain. We got into Cádiz about six. I was dressed as a flapper, with my new dress from H&M and lots of makeup, courtesy of MacKenzie and a flower in my hair and beads around my neck. MacKenzie was a greek goddess, Emily was a cowgirl and Tina had painted her face in stripes and was wearing different striped clothing. We were quite the posse. Most of the Spanish there were dressed up in groups, they all had the same costumes. Carnaval is pretty much halloween mixed together with botellón. It was a lot of fun at the beginning of the night, but then the clouds kept rolling in, and it was getting windier as the night wore on. We had a lot of fun walking around the city in the beginning, but then it started to rain about 1 o'clock. That's when it just went from bad to awful. Everyone was huddled together under big plastic sheets for hours. I left for a bit to go find a bar to sit in, but around 3 all the bars and restaurants were closed so we were all stuck outside in the torrential rain. I made friends with some Spanish girls who had umbrellas haha, and by the time five o'clock rolled around everyone in our group was hiding from the rain next to the bus. It was a very happy day when the bus driver came back and opened the doors. The ride back was pretty miserable as everyone was soaked to the bone. It was kind of a disappointing carnaval experience, and I think it would have been a ton of fun had it not rained. I hope that my next carnaval experience will be much more fun, and much dryer.

Anyways, leaving behind that awful experience I have had a really great week in Granada! I am really enjoying all of my classes (except for History of Spain, but it's getting better!). I really really love my EU class and my spanish civ and culture class, I am learning a ton! On Tuesday it was MacKenzie's 20th birthday, so we (me, mac, emily, tina, alyssa and sam) went out to mexican food for dinner and then got some gelato to top that off (how will I ever go on through life without my gelato?!?). After we all went back to our own houses to get changed we met up at the chup for a few celebratory birthday shots (in other news I almost have enough chup tickets to get a sweatshirt! haha) and then trucked over to La Marisma for some tinto de verano. We ended the birthday night at Mae West, which I had never been to before. It was a lot of fun, but was PACKED, because on tuesday nights, it's free, so everyone and their mother was there. It was a ton of fun though and MacKenzie had a very good birthday.

This weekend has been very low-key and fabulous. Monday was a holiday (Día de Andalucía) so all of my roommates went back to their pueblos and I had the apartment all to myself. On Friday, Mac, Sam and I all hung out, we watched 3 Kings in Spanish (some war movie with George Clooney, Marc Whalberg and Ice Cube that I had never seen before) and just had a good time just all of us hanging out. On Saturday, it was a really sunny day so mackenzie and I walked around a bit and tried to do a little shopping. After we checked out some new tapa places and got some crepes and "milkshakes" (more milk than shake) at this place we had always passed by call Naranja Burger (orange burger), our waiter was funny/ a little creepy haha. I tried to do a little homework on Sunday (haha, that didn't happen) and hung out with sam at my apartment. On Monday, Alyssa, Mac and I went on a hike, we walked to a neighboring pueblo and then hiked up some trails by the pueblo. It was such a gorgeous day, and so nice to get out of Granada for a little bit. It was a very relaxing weekend. This next weekend we're going back to Sevilla (I'm excited for the hotel, and that's it haha), so I am going to try and find things to actually enjoy while I'm there haha. I'd like to say that I will be prompt with my next post, but who am I kidding haha. Until next time!

Roma!

2010-02-17T09:35:00.000-08:00

Okay sorry it has been so long since my last post! We left for Rome last Thursday at five in the morning from Granada, bussed it to Málaga and then flew to Rome and got in around two to the hotel. Thursday afternoon was very relaxing. Mac and I walked to the Vatican and saw mass going on outside, lots of little Italian nuns. That night we all went out in a big group on a pub crawl. It was a ton of fun. Sam, Mac, this new guy King and I all kind of stuck together. It was 15 euro for the crawl, and we got an hour of open bar, a t-shirt and some pizza for the prize. We started out in the bottom floor of a pizzeria for the hour of open bar, and then took the Rome bus to a different bar in another part of town. The pub crawl leader was a really funny German who spoke perfect English with a perfect American accent. Everyone thought he was American, it was pretty funny. Sam, King, Mac and I only stuck around for another bar and then we turned in kind of early, about one, quite strange compared to life in Spain. The next day Mac and I woke up really early so that we could have a delicious breakfast provided by the hotel, mmmm! The hotel we stayed in was super nice, but you had to pay for wifi, 6 euro an hour! Que rídiculo! Api had arranged for us to take a bus tour that day and as we were starting out the weather was not looking very good. Then about a half hour into the tour it started to snow! In Rome! It was so weird, our tour guide said that it hadn’t snowed in 24 years in Rome! The Coliseum was so weird to see covered in white. The tour lasted about three hours and Mac and I cut out a little early at the Pantheon to go back to the hotel and warm our toes up. We were freezing, we did not come to Italy prepared for the cold. We took a little siesta after and then went out for a nice Italian stroll down a really popular shopping street. We had delicious pasta and then went up to the Spanish steps, where we had a really pretty view of Rome. (I still don’t know why they’re called the Spanish steps). The next day we woke up fairly early again and were pleasantly surprised to find it was sunny out. Mac and I took a romantic stroll together along the river and then walked up see some of the Roman ruins. It was amazing to see these structures that have been around since the Roman Empire! There was an Italian wedding going on close by and the groom was very dressed up, he even had a sword. After seeing the ruins, Mac and I went shopping at H&M because we don’t have one in Granada. I bought a really cute shirt and a new dress and MacKenzie got a cute jacket. We went to lunch at another pasta place and I got penne pasta in a spicy tomato sauce, mmmm. After we got a little gelato, what’s a trip to Italy, without at least a stop a day at a gelateria? After gelato, we had another siesta (what's life without siesta?) and got to watch a little of the olympics, go big blue! We went to dinner at a family owned restaurant near our hotel that was really cute with great food. I had some gnocchi, (after being told how to say it correctly haha) and it was delicious. Rome has some of the best food I have ever eaten and I definitely gained about five pounds in pasta and gelato. Later Mac and I went out for another nighttime stroll with Emily, Alyssa and Tina back to the Spanish steps and walked around a bit more. We ate breakfast really early and then left the hotel about nine to go back to reality, aka Granada.

My classes are going pretty well, I have the political system of the EU and Spanish civ and culture from 10-1 on Mon and Wed (I got my EU class approved for POLS 314, yay!) and then POE (spanish lang), History of Spain from Franco to modern age, and History of Spanish film from 3:30-8 on Tue and Thurs. However I'm thinking about dropping my history class because I found out from my advisor that I am done with my history minor! Apparently two of my poli sci classes cross counted, so there's no real need, and I can't understand the teacher haha. He has a veryyyy thick andalusian accent, and it is hard to learn about history when trying to decipher what he is saying. I'm going to stick it out the rest of the week and then make my decision.

In other news on Planet Allison, MacKenzie and I joined a gym on Thursday, and have been going every day this week. We have the student special so can go from 7-4 Mon-Fri. It's a really nice gym and it's about 100 feet from my apartment, so it's very convenient. It has a really nice pool and jacuzzi, which I am really looking forward to, considering it's rained here every day for the past two weeks! It's so weird, we got a total of like three days of rain last semester, and now it is gloomy and doomy outside. I have been getting to know my roommates a little more, although it's still kind of difficult to understand them sometimes, they talk so fast! But they invited me to go out with them tomorrow, so I am going to take that opportunity to get to know them even better! Tonight we have a movie with api and then I am going to Granada 10 to go dancing with my friends. People should try to set up skype dates with me! However I don't have internet at my apartment so keep that in mind!

Besos!

España una otra vez!

2010-02-09T03:30:00.001-08:00

Well I arrived in Madrid early Thursday morning and found my way from Terminal 1 to Terminal 4 in the Barajas Airport to take an ALSA bus from the airport to Granada. It was a pretty sweet deal and one that didn’t involve me dragging all of my luggage from the airport to the metro and then to the bus stop. It was about a six hour bus ride and I watched a movie on the way and slept a little bit. I got into Granada around 4:30 and then took a taxi to the API office. When I got there everyone was about to leave to go to a meeting in the CLM, so I dropped off all my stuff and then went along too. It was pretty much a review for all of the year students so I put out feelers and told all my friends I was homeless and got a few offers to sleep on floors for the night. I ended up staying at my friend Tina’s because she has an extra bed in her room so it was very convenient. On Friday we stopped by API in the morning so I could collect a few more belongings and then headed back to Tina’s and I started looking for a piso. There’s a really great Spanish website similar to Craig’s list called Loquo, so I used that mostly to check out where I could start looking for apartments. I called one woman, who said I could come over the next day and another man who said I could look at the free room that night. I went to the first apartment that night and it was really close to where I had lived last semester, so a little farther away from where I had wanted to live. The apartment was really nice, and the room was really big at 220 euro a month, but I couldn’t move into the room until late Feb (after exams are over for the Spanish), so I told them I would think about it. The next morning Tina, Alyssa, Emily and I walked to the Zaidín market and they all got fresh produce, but I just browsed. They have everything you would every need there, and it’s really cool. After the market I headed over to look at the second apartment with Alyssa. The apartment is on Camino de Ronda, which is exactly where I wanted to live. The woman whose room I was looking at was really nice, and so was the other girl who lived there. It wasn’t as big as the first apartment, but rent is only 150/month, so I told her I would think about it and call her back after she showed it to another person. I decided that I wanted the apartment and called her back immediately after and asked if it was still open and said I wanted to live there. She had already left Granada so I gave her all my information over the phone and was able to move in the next day. I have three Spanish roommates, Areceli, Mati and Monica. They’re all students at the University of Granada. In the morning Tina, Alyssa, Emily and I went to this festival that was going on in the Sacremonte, which is a neighborhood of Granada near the Alhambra. Later I moved the few things I had at Tina’s into my new apartment. Areceli was there and we sat down and talked a bit and she showed me more of the apartment. After Tina, Alyssa and I went for tapas at Grifos y Tapas, which I’d never been to before. I got queso frito and it was delicious and drizzled with cranberry sauce, yummy. MacKenzie got into Granada that night and I went to go visit with her at her apartment with Jess and Ana. It was really good to see her. Then I had my first night by myself. It’s so weird to be here without Shannon sleeping next to me!

In the morning I met up with Alyssa and Mac (because we all live close to each other!) and we walked down to API to use internet and change our schedules around a little bit. Mac and I both completed level seven in November and half of eight in Dec, but we were placed into level seven of POE (which is a class somewhat similar to what I did last semester, but less intense), so we had to switch into level eight. I really didn’t want to take POE, because it doesn’t count for anything for me and I have heard it’s a waste of time, but the CLM requires you take it unless you test into level nine, which I wasn’t going to. Ethan, who I had class with last semester, took the test and did awful, so I just decided to suck it up and take POE. After API Mac and I went to a chino and bought a bunch of apartment stuff until we were kicked out because it was time for siesta (ah Spain, how I missed thee). Then I went back to my piso and showered and started unpacking my suitcases I had finally retrieved from API. It was quite a chore. After siesta had ended, Mac and I continued our shopping adventure at the chino and then went to Super Sol to get groceries. I didn’t buy too much because we’re going to Rome on Thursday! After the store I brought all my goods back and made myself dinner; pasta with tomato sauce and mushrooms, mmmm. I talked with my roommates for a bit and then finished unpacking. I have class today from 3:30-8. First POE (with Mac and Alyssa), then History of Spain (from Franco to modern time) and finally history of Spanish film. I can’t wait to start my classes, I’m really excited to finally have a structured schedule and get back into the swing of things. We’re going to Rome early Thursday morning, I can’t believe it! Hasta!

Puedo hablar español??

2010-02-03T12:44:00.001-08:00

Well I'm off on my way again to España. I am currently hanging out in JFK for a few hours (there's a pigeon poking around my feet in terminal B), waiting for my flight that doesn't leave for another five hours, wooo! I'm excited to get back and see what this semester will bring, although I will be homeless until I find an apartment, so not really looking forward to that. Hopefully I'll just be able to crash on the floor on some of my friends apartments, or else I'll be in Granada at four tomorrow looking for a nice hostel to sleep in.

My break was very nice though. Flying back from Madrid was a disaster, my flight got cancelled, I ended up flying into London at midnight (didn't have a hotel to sleep in) and thankfully got out of London the next day, and didn't even mind sitting next to pig man on the way to Minneapolis. After I recovered from that hijinks, Ben and I went to the Bengals playoff game against the Jets in Cincinnati (who deyyyyy???), where they lost, but it was still a lot of fun, we'll get number one next year. Then it was off for a Hawaiian vacation! Mom, pops, Ben and I stayed in Waikiki for three nights and then stayed at a Marine base for the rest of the week. It was so nice and relaxing (despite the sand rash that engulfed ben and me) and very nice to have a tan for a while haha. I got to go up to Pullman for a weekend and stayed with Kate, it was a lot of fun and I got to see a lot of friends, and snuggle with Kate in front of her fire haha. I also saw my new political science advisor, who is really nice, but didn't really have the information I was looking for, oh well. But all in all it was a great six weeks home, and I got to do a lot of reading. Perfecto!

Right now I'm still unsure what my schedule is going to be when I'm back in Granada, no one is returning any of my emails and I found out one of the main workers quit over break, so I'm kind of in a lurch until I actually get into Granada. Hopefully I have some good classes with people I know though! I'll post up my schedule as soon as I get it. Hasta luego!

Adios Granada

2009-12-18T07:48:00.000-08:00

So my bags are all packed, it is so weird to think that I will never be on this bed again haha. I am going to miss all my friends so much, and I really do not want to say goodbye to them tonight, but this too shall pass. I am excited to be coming back to the US, but it really is bittersweet because I won't be coming back with all the people that I have come to love this semester. I know that I am coming back to Granada in February, but it is really not going to be the same without Courtney, Shannon, Cory, Kelsey and everybody else. I'm really nervous for there to be a bunch of new people, and it's just not going to be the same.. Well I'm leaving at 1:30 am to go from granada to madrid and then off to jfk at 11 tomorrow morning. Alright see y'all soon.

Paris: Third Times the Charm

2009-12-14T09:31:00.000-08:00

Holaaaaa! Okay, so I still haven't blogged about Paris! Which seems like sooooo long ago but en realidad was like two weeks ago or something, but then I was in Belgium, and now my final week is upon me of this semester! How crazy is that! Okay entonces!

We left super super early on Friday morning after Courtney and I had a night on the town haha, and I slept for like thirty minutes, but no pasa nada, I can sleep when I'm dead! We had a two hour bus ride to Málaga, and then a short fly to the Paris De Gaulle airport. Our hotel was about forty minutes away by bus, we were staying right by the Bastille. For lunch Shannon, Courtney, Mac and I went to an Italian restaurant and I had a huge mushroom pizza to myself, mmmmmm! After we got our hotel rooms, which was a huge pain, and the hotel staff was awful! They didn't have enough keys.. But whatever! So after that debacle, a bunch of us decided to hitch the metro to the Eiffel Tour to see it at night! It was absolutely gorgeous, except for the freezing part, and there were no Bosnian gypsies to follow me around! (Remember our good times with them Seester?) It was super cool, and relatively cheap. After that Courtney and Shannon and I went to a "Thai" restaurant, which was not very good, they didn't have anything on the menu really that I could eat, so I ordered fried rice, expect it ended up having tiny pieces of ham in it, so not a success for Allison, but Shannon had Henry the duck and rather enjoyed him!

In the morning we had a panoramic tour of the city in our bus, which was really cool. Our tour guide spoke fluent French and Spanish and alright English, so we had the tour in a bit of Spanglish. We stopped at the Eiffel Tour and Shannon, Court and I bought Paris hats! They were definitely helpful the whole weekend, because it is so much colder there than it is in Southern Spain haha (But today it snowed for like ten minutes!! And was three degrees celsius!). We also stopped outside of Les Invalides, which is a military hospital and also where Napoleon is buried. We ended the tour at the Notre Dame, and they were having service when we went in, so it was pretty cool. I tricked Courtney and Shannon into believing me that the crown of thorns was in the Notre Dame (which it IS, but not the day we were there haha) and so we paid three euro to go into the relic room, but alas it was not. No pasa nada. After Shannon, Courtney, Jacobo and I walked to Subway and Mickey D's and got us some good American grub! And then we starbucks! Mmmmm! We spent the rest of the day on Champs-Élysées, which is a really famous street, with extremely expensive shops, comparable to Rodeo Drive in Cali. Shannon, Court and I went to Louis Vuitton, where we saw a man buy a 30,000 dollar watch! It was like being in a museum, and made me want to vomit a bit. After that, Shannon left and Courtney and I decided to go find Musée d'Orsay, however when we finally found it after quite the time in the metro station, it had already been closed for two hours, haha. So we just went back to the hotel after getting a little more lost and a musroom crepe, and had some yummy mimosas!

The next day I woke up super early and Shannon, MacKenzie, Cory, Halee, Lexi and her bf and I all went to Paris Disneyland!!! It was soooo much fun! First we went to the Walt Disney Studios, and did the Tower of Terror and saw a cool car special effects show. Then we went to the happiest place on earth and had a blast. Shannon and I got some delicious Mushroom pizzas (I thought I might turn into a mushroom after Paris haha) and we toured the entire park. The lines were all pretty short, Space Mountain was by far the best, it had like six loops and is nothing like California's Space Mountain! It was sooo much fun! The Haunted Mansion wasn't as good though and neither was Indiana Jones, it was just a roller coaster and we waited in line forever because Shannon had never been to it, and it's def one of the best rides in Anaheim. Halee goes to UCLA and she has like a season pass every year, which I am so jealous of! We did it's a small world, and peter pan, and pirates of the Caribbean. We pretty much did the whole park, there was a lot of speed walking. We had dinner in this theatre that played old Disney cartoons, which we were memorized by, and then we wrapped up the night by going on Space Mountain like five times in a row, we were racing some dad and his kid, but I have the longest legs, so I blocked them out haha. Then we did a little Christmas shopping down Main Street, which was all decked out in Christmas lights, it was so gorgeous! The day was so good and we were so exhausted by the time we got on the metro.

The next day we went to the Louvre, which was good, but we didn't stay long, cause Mac and I have both already been, so we spent the rest of the time in Paris getting crepes and going to a really yummy restaurant and exploring the cities. We went to a really cool bookstore, and went to lots of tourist shops, and I got a few shotglasses to add to my collection (I got a few in Belgium too yay!) We left the hotel at five and got to the airport about six to catch our eight o clock flight. We didn't get into Málaga until around 11, and then got back into Granada a little before two, I was so exhausted by the end, and ot excited to have class the next day ( I know, I know, what a rough life!). The trip was so much fun, and so great to be with all my friends there! I didn't take too many pictures, but I posted what I do have on facebook and you can just look at the rest of my tagged pictures!

I cannot believe I only have four days left here! I am going to miss these people so much when I leave! Which should be 11:15 am out of Madrid on Saturday, so expect to see my beautiful face about a week from now! It is so weird to say that!!! Ciao!

In Bruges! And Brussels, Amsterdam and Aachen!

2009-12-07T12:06:00.000-08:00

Okay sorry I haven't posted in a long time! I went to Paris for four days, came back to Granada for a day and a half and then took off for Brussels! I'm going to write two posts, one for Belgium and one for Paris, because they were both so different! Onto Brussels because it is freshly in my mind!

Shannon, Mac and I left Granada at 5 pm on Wednesday for Málaga, we got in a little later than we expected and the bus from the station to the airport was late, so we ended up taking a taxi to the airport because we didn't want to miss our flight at 8, and we got into Málaga at 7:15, but no pasa nada because security was a breeze and the plane hadn't even started loading when we got to the like at like 7:40. The flight was a little bumpy, and the landing was awful, it seemed like we landed on one wheel and then proceeded to swerve from side to side down the runway. Welcoe to ryanair. It was raining when we got into the Charleroi airport, but we found Laura as soon as we got out of customs, which consisted of us just walking off the plane haha. We stayed with Pat and Laura Johnson, whose daughter went to the same highschool as Shannon when they lived in Texas. Pat is the lead diplomat in Russian affairs and works at NATO, how cool is that?!? I was freaking out a little when I found that out, because that is just too cool for me to handle! Anyways, they live right outside of Brussels and were absolutely great to stay with, we had so much fun! The first night Laura made pizza, it was delicious and American, and we had lots of Dr. Pepper because they buy a lot of their food from the American base in Belgium, because you pay with the dollar, and it is a lot cheaper than the euro. Shannon, Mac and I took definite advantage of Rock Band, even though I am awful haha. The next morning we had Peanut Butter Crunch cereal, mmmmm and were off to Bruges at nine. Pat is a huge history buff so he had lots of historical facts about the city for us. We went to the bell tower and were up there when it rang, it was super cool. And we went to the Basilica of the Precious Blood, which is where a relic of what is supposed to be the blood of Jesus, which was discovered during the Crusades. It was pretty cool to see, even if I don't necessarily believe that it's real, it's cool to think that thousands of people have seen it since it was brought there hundreds of years ago. We walked around the whole city after and had hot chocolate and a chocolate Belgium waffle. Christmas markets are super popular in Europe so we checked out the Belgium goods in Bruges. We saw a music video being filmed which was really funny, the singer was getting really into and singing in Dutch hah. We went to a typical Belgium restaurant for lunch and I had some Belgium beer, which was pretty good. Afterwards we went to an ice sculpture exhibit, which was so cool. Most of the sculptures were from Ice Age and they also had a slide that we all went down a couple times. It was so awesome! Bruges is about an hour and a half drive from where Pat and Laura live. On the drive back we stopped at an abbey where they have a really nice restaurant and the Johnsons treated us to dinner, they are so nice! I had a wok, and it was soooooo good! Shannon had Prancer the reindeer which she really enjoyed haha.

The next morning Shannon, Mackenzie, Laura and I went into the city of Brussels. Pat didn't go because he was working, with whom? Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, no big deal or anything. Ahhh SO COOL! Anyways, Laura works at the embassy doing accounting so we got to drive by and see where that was and where the EU headquarters are, and where the royal family of Belgium lives. Then we found parking and toured around the city for a bit which was super fun. We had Greek food for lunch, it was shwarma classy style, and I had a beer called Tango, which had grenadine in it and was delicious. We got another waffle, and this time I had raspberry sorbet on top smothered in chocolate and it was pretty good. I'm not a huge fan though, there are big chunks of sugar inside the waffle, and it was too much sugar for me, I prefer it sans sugar. We walked around the whole city and saw mannekin pis, which is the savior of the city haha. Supposedly there was a huge fire and this child put it out by peeing on it haha. It's a statue that the usually dress up, and that day he was dressed as a fireman. It was pretty funny. Afterwards we walked through their Christmas market and then Shannon, MacKenzie and I rode the ferris wheel and got to see the entire city, it was super pretty at the top, even though it was un poco scary at the top, I sat safely in the middle and Shannon and MacKenzie made fun of me haha. We went home kind of early because Laura and Pat had a going away party, so I made mac and cheese for us, it was very delicious haha. We had another round of rock band and attempted to watch In Bruges, but Shannon and I fell asleep about halfway through. It is a very odd movie, I've seen it before, but it was really cool to watch the movie and know where everything was.

On Saturday we went to Amsterdam. It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive which wasn't that bad, it rained a lot on our way there, but it kind of cleared up once we got there. We got some frites when we first got in, I had ketchup and mustard on mine, and Mac and Shannon just stuck with ketchup, but Laura got mayo and Pat got garlic. There were lots of other sauces to choose from, like curry, but I just kept it safe. We walked around the whole city, and went into one section of town that was really old, and one of the houses predated 1500, it was really cool and so pretty! We went to the Albert Cuyp market, which my mom and I had gone to when we were there, but this time it was all decked out for winter. I bought a few scarves, 3 for ten euro! After the market, Laura, Pat and Shannon went to the Anne Frank house, but MacKenzie and I decided to just walk around since we had already been. We got hot chocolate and had a nice romantic stroll around the canals haha. After they finished the Frank house tour, we went through the red light district for a little bit and then we went back home, it was a really nice day.

On Sunday we drove out to Aachen, Germany. It's about an hour away from the Johnson's house and is known for their Christmas markets. It's also where Charlemagne lived for several years. We went and visited his church which was pretty cool because it had some of his bones in a gold casket over the alter. The city was where major fighting happened between the allies and nazi's and much of the city was destroyed, and so has since been rebuilt. Afterwards we wandered through the HUGE christmas market and I had a typical german style pizza, which was thin thin bread, topped with cheese, tomatoes and spices. Everybody else had bratwursts or something similar, they eat a lot of meat in Germany, I'm not sure I would be able to live there haha. There was even a stand for wild boar meat, which the sellers had hunted and killed themselves (of course). It was a very good taste of Germany though, and it is definitely somewhere where I would like to visit again. For dinner Laura made fajitas, yummmmm. Real tortillas! It was delicious. In the morning we left for the airport a little before eleven and arrived there about 11:45 for our one o clock flight. The Ryanair airport security is much different than it was in Málaga and we had to take out a few articles of clothing and wear them instead to get our luggage to fit in their "luggage" space. However it didn't even matter because by the time we got on the plane there wasn't enough overhead space anyways so they just put our bags under the plane. It was another bumpy ride and we got in a little late to Málaga. We almost missed our bus back to Granada, but made it just in time, I had to bang on the door as they were pulling away haha. The bus ride took a little less than two hours and Shannon and I got home right in time for dinner. It was a great trip!

el fin de noviembre ya????

2009-11-26T14:48:00.000-08:00

I'm going to Paris tomorrow! I just got back from our thanksgiving dinner. We went to a mexican restaurant and they cooked us lots of yummy american food! It was pretty surreal. I had my november month exam today, I thought it was easier than last month's, but I guess we will see! I am pulling an all nighter tonight because we are leaving at five in the morning. I guess I can sleep when I'm dead as my grandma always says. I am so excited to go to disneyland on Sunday! I can't wait to see all the holiday decorations! All the streets are decorated in Granada right now, although they haven't lit them up yet, it will be so beautiful when they are though! I will try to post more once I am back from Paris, but as of now I am off to the chup with Courtney haha

Tu eres más feo que el faire comiendo límones

2009-11-20T12:27:00.000-08:00

I had another intercambio Thursday night, and I picked up a phrase that I can insult the crazies who touch me on the street with. Shannon and I did it together, and it got a bit awkward when they asked me what I thought of Spanish men, Shannon and I kind of looked at each other, and I was like welll... They like to touch me and yell at me in the street. And they were very fascinated by that for a long time, and asked me when it's alright for people to touch each other in the US, and I said well, you certainly don't grab strangers who are walking in the road. But other than that bit of awkwardness, it was a great intercambio! We did Spanish first and then English for about twenty minutes each, and then switched back and forth for the rest of the time, one of them had an english joke for me, "How do you make a dog drink? Put it in a blender." Haha, it was very funny, once I realized that when they said liquadator, it means blender in British speak.

On Wednesday I saw Luna Nueva with my friends, and I actually enjoyed it, Taylor Lautner was shirtless the entire movie, and Kristen Stewart was dubbed over in Spanish! And it was super easy to understand what was going on, probably because I've read the book, but I thought the dialogue was easy to comprehend too. My friend MacKenzie and I were talking about how much we miss the greenness of Washington! (She's from Arlington)

I am going to Paris in a week! I am soooo excited! Even though I've already been there twice, it will be so much fun with all of my friends!! We're leaving Granada at 5:30 in the morning, and then busing it to Málaga and then flying AirFrance there, and should arrive at 2, we're staying at Hôtel Campanile Paris Bastille, which is a super nice hotel! Yay! On Saturday we're taking a bus tour of the city for three hours and ending at the Notre Dame, annnnd on Sunday my friends and I are going to Disneyland Paris! We got a super sweet deal for the two parks for 45 Euro! My roomie is taking French so we were able to use our hotel address and got the deal for the French! Haha it was originally supposed to be about 80 euro if we had used our Spanish address, but we know how to work the system! On Sunday we are to the Louvre and then flying back to Granada at 8 and getting in around 2 am. I'm missing school Friday and Monday and then I have school Tuesday, and then I'm going to Brussels! It will be a very busy week!

I have my November test on Thursday and I need to start cramming this weekend! This month has been so much harder, and I will be very happy to have it finished, and then I just have until Dec. 18th and I am done with Intensive Language forever!! Wooooooo! Haha, and hopefully I will be coming home soon after that, but I never know with standby..

I think I am going to the Botellón maybe tomorrow or tonight, but other than that just studying like crazy! Hasta!

Películas!

2009-11-16T09:10:00.000-08:00

Hola, sorry it's been a little while! Hmmm, let's see what's going on in the life of Allison? It's been movie week for me! Haha I went to a movie called "Celda 211" last Wednesday with my program, and I loved it! It was about prison uprising in Madrid and a new young guard who is trapped inside the prison accidently. Lots of action and a big body count, it was in a lot of slang, so it was kind of difficult to understand at some points, but I understood the overall message. Everyone should see it! On Friday I saw 2012 with Courtney and MacKenzie, and I'm not going to lie, it was fabulous. I think I enjoyed it much more in Spanish than I would have in English, and the dialogue was super easy to understand. Spain got a mention in the movie, and the whole theatre was in a tizzy. And this wednesday I am going to Nueva Luna, I figure I will like it more in Spanish than in English, because who are we kidding, twilight sucked. And I want to see Dakota Fanning all dressed up in goth. On Saturday I went to Café Fútbol, which is a café/restaurante that doesn't actually play futbol.. But the servers really like us, and they have good sangria.

Besides all my movie going, I have just been focusing on school, this month has gone by a lot faster than October did, I can't believe I am already half way through the month! I am going to Paris in less than two weeks! I am so excited, even though I have already been twice, it will be so much fun to be there with my friends! And then we are coming back for a day and a half to Granada and then Shannon, MacKenzie are going to Brussels! I can't wait for Brussels, so I can buy cute boots! All the Spanish women are super short and have tiny tiny feet, so of course no one has anything cute in my size, and everyone and their mother wears boots in Spain.

I am ready to come home for a bit though, as much as I love the experience I am getting here, I do get a little nostalgic from time to time. I think a month home will definitely do me some good. Next semester I am going to be living on my own, hopefully with Spanish girls, but who knows. I won't know until I am back in Spain in February! Anyways, I need to do a little more studying, hasta luego!

Noviembre!

2009-11-06T11:05:00.000-08:00

Holaaaa, another weekend is upon me in Granada! I decided to skip school today and slept in till 2, ahh Spain. I started my new month of intensive language on Wednesday, still only have five other people in the class with me, we lost one, (Hasta Luego Alan) and we got another guy, someone Polish! It is a little odd hearing Spanish in a Polish accent, but whatever works! Yesterday I went to school and then after I hung out with Khadim and helped him cook dinner haha. It was pretty funny, he made a rice dish with chicken, potatoes, onions and some spicy sauce, and then him, his roommates and I all sat around the one huge plate of food, and we all had a spoon. I wish I could have taken a picture, it was so funny. Afterwards I went out with Kelsey and Jessica, and we went to the Chup like the good ol' times, and afterwards we went to go check out a discoteca called, Sala Suite, but it wasn't open yet. We ran into Courtney and another girl Sydney, so we went to a Shwarma place to get french fries and waited for it to open. It finally opened a little before 1, and they had free tinto de verano and alhambra cerveza, so it was worth it. It's connected to another discoteca that I really like, Kapital, so it was a good time, but we didn't stay for very long cause we were all pretty tired.

I'm staying in Granada this weekend so I'm pretty pumped to just hang out and chill. My roommate is talking about maybe going to a small pueblo that's about an hour away from here with a waterfall, so I might go to that, but I'm not sure yet. I might be going to the Botellón again tonight, Kelsey hasn't ever been there and I'm wondering if she actually lives here because it's so popular and cheap!

It's officially fall here! Summer was here last week and now it is COLD! I need to buy a few more sweaters, because I mostly have only short sleeves and tank tops, haha. Anyways, it is getting late and I am getting hungry so hasta luego!

Estoy enferma!

2009-11-03T09:10:00.000-08:00

Hola que tal? Another week going by, and no posts from Allison, I know I know, shame on me. Well I have been really sick lately so I have had nothing to post about! Haha, it seems like I am just damaged goods these days, but hopefully on the way to a full recovery. I had my big test on Thursday, and I think I did pretty well, grammar and vocab seemed pretty good, although I couldn't remember the word for door bell (TIMBRE?!) haha, and my oral section was short and sweet, so no long winded sentences for me. I skipped out on class on Friday, cause I didn't really have to go, and they were making fudge at my program office AND watching Hocus Pocus, so who could say no to that? I did look online though and the internet tells me I have moved up to the next level, so I assume the test went through with flying colors. On Friday I went to a Flamenco show, it was in the Albaicín and super fun! It's definitely something of Spanish culture that I love, and I really want to take lessons. After that I went out with a few people, all the Spanish people had been dressing up for like the four days, although they look nothing like Americans haha. Half of the people were dressed in scary scary costumes, and then the other half were really into their costumes, they actually look like they are trying to be, instead of half dressed imitations haha. First we went to the Botellón and then we went to another bar, that was super packed, but I ended the night at Kulengweli hanging out with Khadim.

On Saturday Courtney and I went to Parque de Las Ciencias, which is a really cool science museum, a bit like OMSI. It took Courtney and I almost two hours to get there, because we decided to get on the bus going the wrong direction, so we enjoyed a nice tour of Granada instead haha. We met up with Shannon and Sean at Parque de Las Ciencias and had fun exploring everything. There was lots of fun children's toys in the garden of the museum, so of course Court and I took full advantage of that, let's just say I can dig a big pile of dirt with my crane. Anyways, afterwards Shannon and I went back home, and we had a pasta concoction with pumpkin, and it was SOO good, it was so Halloween. (Which by the way my host mom does not understand). Court and I went out for the night, but I didn't dress up, cause I didn't really feel like putting effort into a costume, but one of my friends went as Peter Pan. Courtney and I ended the night getting french fries at a Shwarma place, what will my life be like when I can't get Shwarma anymore?? I don't want to picture it. Anyways, yesterday and today I spent the whole day lying in bed, but now I am ready to start the next intensive lang. month! Show me some love!

Granada > Sevilla

2009-10-27T08:37:00.000-07:00

Hola sorry for the delay! I have been super busy lately and last week I didn't have any internet at all! Ahhh! Anyways, what did I do last week?? I went to Granada 10 on Wednesday with my friend Courtney because it's free on Wed. for las chicas, and we got free tinto de verano and champagne (which was muy mal) and then at one-ish a Michael Jackson impersonator came out and entertained the crowd with a little moonwalk. After Granada 10, Court and I went to Kulengali, which is a discoteca run by a few Senegalese, which I love because it's good dance music, good cheap drinks and not overrun with Americans. On Thursday Courtney and I prefunked there a bit and then we went to El Camborio, because it was free for girls, did I mention that I love when things are free for me? It seemed like our whole program was there. Most people don't have class on friday, but since I do I turned in about 3:30 in the morning, haha, early for Spain.

On Friday we took a six hour bus ride to Sevilla. Our bus driver got really lost on the way, and we got in to Sevilla about an hour and a half late. On the way to Sevilla we stopped for a nice bumpy ride up the side of the mountain. We took a hike once we got to the top, and it was actually pretty fun. Lots of nice big rocks to climb and caverns to look down into. It was a mas pequeño version of the grand canyon. We arrived into Sevilla about 10 at night, and after checking into our hotel we wandered around the neighborhood, but most of the bars and restaurants were closed at 12:30, which was very odd coming from Granada, where things stay open until at least 3. In the morning there was the best surprise of the trip awaiting us: An open buffet!! Mmm the food was sooooo good and there was a coffee stand full of choices!! Hands down the food was the best part of the trip haha. We went to the cathedral, which is the third largest in the world, which was pretty cool. We walked the 35 flights up to the top of tower and got to look over all of Sevilla, it was very beautiful. The Spanish are obsessed with Christopher Columbus, and some of his bones reside in the cathedral, as well as the body of his illegitimate son. Courtney and I went back to the hotel to take siesta and then we met up with the program for a bike ride around Sevilla. They have a really big water park there and it was looking very tempting, since it was in the eighties and a bit muggy. MacKenzie, Courtney, two girls from Bryant, Megan and Alicia and I went to dinner at a nice Italian restaurant and since we hadn't eaten since three and it was 10:30, we each inhaled our own huge pizza. It was very good. One of Alicia's and Megan's friends met up with us at the restaurant, and I knew him cause we stayed in the same hostel in Málaga together. It was very odd, and a very small world. After dinner we went to the main street in Sevilla and met up with some of Courtney's friends from her school who are studying in Sevilla. We went to this bar called Big Ben, and they had pretty cheap drinks, although food and drinks and much cheaper in Granada, so I was missing our prices. After the bar we walked to this club called El Catédral, which was close to our hotel, and it was free for girls and we managed to get in Courtney's friend in for free, so that was nice. I did not like the club at all though, all they played was house music, which is what we're calling techno music these days, ughhh. It was really crowded too and they had these weird couch beds everywhere. We were all sitting on one of them and this guy came over and stroked MacKenzie's foot. It was very, very odd. After that we all decided that we had enough and Mac, Megan and I decided to walk back. Instead of the 15 minute walk it should have been though, it was almost an hour, because we got very lost on one of the big roads. In the morning we had a nice breakfast, although we all woke up an hour earlier than planned because we had day light savings time on Sunday and nobody reset their clocks (It's very weird that the US doesn't do day light savings until this weekend..) so we had an extra hour to eat whatever we wanted haha. Then we got all packed up and went on a tour of the Alcazares, which is a bit of a knock-off of the Alhambra, which I can see any day I want to, so none of us really liked that tour. It was very good to get back on the bus to Granada. Did I mention that our bus driver's belt said Dolce & Gabanna on it, and I think he bejeweled it himself. We had another six hour bumpy bus ride back to Granada, and then we finally arrived around eight, just in time for dinner, woo! (Even though it was a green asparagus soup, that had no asparagus in it.. hmmm)

Now I am beginning to stress out a bit because I have a huge exam on Thursday and I need to study a TON for it, cause it's over the last eighty contact hours of Spanish class I've had this month, oh joy. I can't wait for this weekend so I can just relax and sleep and I'm a bit curious to find out how halloween is in Spain. Wish me luck on my test! Ciao!

Los padres y las culturas diferencias

2009-10-19T10:07:00.000-07:00

So today when I was complaining to one of my friends about how I hate how sloooooow everyone walks here, she smacked me and said "Uh hello culture shock!". So yes I have realized that I have been dealt a large dose of culture shock. It really surprised me because I figure Spain is not so different from the US, but honestly it is. As an American I am used the fast pace, and here in Spain everything is sooo sloow.. Especially the construction that happens outside my house from 8 in the morning to 10 at night, once I looked in the morning and then later at night an they had only done half a block.. They're putting in a high speed rail system, but at the rate they're going I doubt it will be up ad running until another ten years.. Ughh. Anyways, despite a little longing for fast walkers and wifi anywhere I go, I still am really enjoying Spain.

My classes are going really well, I am really glad I decided to do Intensive Language, I learn so much, a lot of my friends in the Hispanic Studies program say that they feel like they are not really learning the language, meanwhile I am beginning to really get down every part of grammar and my vocabulary is increasing everyday.

It was really nice to have my parents here for a few days, they came to Granada on Thursday, I picked them up at the bus station, since they were coming in from Málaga, and then we had lunch with my host family, and then had a failed attempt at going to the Alhambra, but they managed to get up there later on that day, and then at night we went out for churros at my favorite restaurant, Café Fútbol, and Shannon came with us, yay! On Friday I met them at their hotel and then we went on a walk though the Albaicín and Sacromonte, which are two neighborhoods outside Granada. We had lunch with my host family again and my host mom's two daughters, Ana and Isabel. Isabel has two daughters, Alivera and Adriana, they are 3 & 1 and super cute. They come over about three times a week, they were sooo funny today.. Adri stuck her face in the glass cup and stared at me and Shannon and Ali was licking the couch, Shannon asked, "¿Te gusta? and Ali gave a big lick and then ran away hahahha. Oh children. Anyways after lunch we went back to the hotel and went to the Cathedral where all the romas (gypsies) hang outside and try to get you to take their rosemary so they can read you a fortune, they are very odd, but I haven't really had problems with them, so no problema. After that they had to go to catch their bus, but my mom brought me a suitcase full of goodies, ie razors, shaving cream, books, contact solution, things that are super expensive here and that I don't feel like spending my precious euros on haha.

On Friday I had a night full of shenanigans. We started off by going to the Chup, and had a few chupitos, and then we went to the Botellón where Shannon and I split a gin and tonic which Shannon has become obsessed with since having it in England haha. And then we went to Ana's house, who is Cory's Spanish friend, and super nice. Then Courtney and I split off and went to Club Africa for a little bit, but didn't stay long, we caught a taxi to El Camborio, which is a discoteca in the Albaycín, and it overlooks the Alhambra, very beautiful. We stayed there until about 6:30 which Court and I didn't realize because we both dropped our phones, and the time reset haha. So after we walked back into Granada, Courtney and I spent a good hour trying to find a Shwarma place, which ended successfully and I got back to the apartment about 8ish, haha. Then I slept until 2, it was a successful night, I saw all Granada had to offer, woo. I spent all Sat and Sun doing the homework I had missed since I didn't go to school on Thursday or Friday because my parents were in town. But now I am back to my regular schedule, and excited to go to Sevilla this weekend! Hasta!

Weekend in Málaga

2009-10-12T09:10:00.000-07:00

On Thursday night Shannon, MacKenzie, Courtney, Corey and I all hung out, first at Corey's and then later at Feng Shui haha, it's definitely my favorite tapas bar, I love that fried rice and tinto de verano. After Courtney and I had a night on the town, we ended up at this club, that we just call the K Club, because we can't pronounce the name. All the Africans from Senegal go there haha, it's free and really good to dance in, so I had a really good time. From now on I am only going to clubs that are free because it is getting pretty expensive to do otherwise.

I went to Málaga this weekend with a bunch of my friends. It was 10 euro each way for the trip down there, it took over two hours going down there, but only a little over an hour on the way back. We stayed in The Melting Pot, it's run by a French man, his son and some other people from France and other places in Europe. It was only 10 euro a night. We arrived into Málaga pretty late, I had class until 2:30 and we didn't get to the bus station until 3:30 and then all the buses were booked until six o clock, so we sat at the station for a while until we could leave, the bus left about twenty minutes after it was supposed to and got in to Málaga 45 minutes after it should have, we had a bit of trouble finding the hostel, but eventually got in a little after nine. Friday night Kelsey and I did a pub crawl for 3.50 euro with a bunch of other people from the hostel, it was fun, not as good as it was in Madrid, but it also was a lot cheaper.. There was one guy there who got stabbed while he was in Barcelona! It was super scary, and really gross looking, it makes me glad to be living in a place like Granada, where that is bound not to happen. Kelsey and I didn't stay out for very long and ended up catching a taxi with another girl from the hostel. We were in a room with about 12 beds, there were mostly American students who were studying in Spain staying with us, although one night we had a German girl and another night two Japanese men there. The beds were comfortable, although in another room one of the beds was infested with bed bugs and the girl who had slept in it had a screaming match with the owner during the middle of the night and ended up leaving. Pretty gross, but it was only 10 euro a night, so I wasn't expecting much. In the morning they had toast and coffee for breakfast, which was pretty good. On Saturday, we all went to the beach and laid out for about six hours and swam in the ocean, Málaga is a beach town. On Saturday night, Kelsey, Alex, Alyssa and I went and met up with my friend, Aric, from wazzu, at a local restaurant that Antonio Banderas owns. We stayed there for a little bit with Aric and his friends, and then went to a discoteca to dance. It was free for girls, which most of Málaga's clubs are, unlike Granada.. It was a lot of fun, but Kelsey and I only stayed for about an hour because we were really exhausted from the beach. On Sunday we all went to the Picasso museum, which was pretty cool, it had 155 paintings, and 12 galleries. Picasso was born in Málaga. Then Kelsey and I walked to a small grocery store about forty minutes from the hostel, everything else was closed because it was Sunday, and we bought ingredients for spaghetti and made it at the hostel, it was delicious. After lunch we went back to the beach for about three hours and I got a lot of color, now abuela will call me chica morena. We went back to the hostel to eat dinner and then Aric came down to hang out a bit, and we smoked hooka with mostly everyone who was staying at the hostel, including this Irish guy named Seamus haha. Today we walked to the bus station, about 45 minutes from the hostel and were back in Granada at 2:45. It was a very nice weekend trip, but I am definitely happy that I chose Granada, rather than Málaga, because Granada is a much nicer city to live in. We didn't have school today because it is Día del Virgen de Pilar, Spain's patron saint I believe. There is a big parade going on in Granada tonight, but I probably won't go because I am beginning to get sick :( Mom and Pops are headed to Málaga tomorrow morning, they'll get in Wednesday, spend the day there and then come to Granada on Thursday. I'm excited to see them, they are bringing lots of goodies haha. I'm getting ready for another week of class, and then this weekend should be a pretty low-key time in Granada. ¡Adios!

Getting accustomed to daily life

2009-10-08T11:13:00.000-07:00

Que tal? I ran for the first time since getting to Spain today! It was wonderful, but rough haha. Since we walk so much (and I mean SO MUCH) in Granada, I've been getting muscle spasms a lot, which is very odd since I haven't gotten them since I was 15, so I have been very reluctant to run. But I am really sick of getting lost, so I decided running will help me overcome that.. On Tuesday I went out with my friend Jessica, and got absolutely lost on my back to my home. I think I may have walked past the street I live on about five times haha. Anyways I ran to Garcia Lorca today, which is a really beautiful park a few blocks from my house. It is so hot out lately in Granada, I don't really believe that it will ever get cold, but I do live next to the Sierra Nevada, so I know that it will happen.

Class is going really well, we have had a sub for my first class for the past week, and today our actual teacher was there, and I really like her. We just have conversational spanish for the last thirty minutes of class every day so it is really helpful in improving my speaking abilities. I'm running into a lot of concepts that my teachers in the states never covered, so that is a bit difficult, but I'm improving every day. We do have a bit of homework every night, but it's getting easier to do. I bought the books I need for class- 14 Euro for my exercise book and 22 Euro for my textbook, super expensive, but we use the same books next month, so it's not too bad I guess. Since I am in the Intensive Language program my schedule is much better than some of my friends, I just have a four block of classes every day, while some of them have it spread out throughout the day, which means walking twenty minutes to school, walking back home and then coming back for evening classes! Although they do get friday off, which I am kind of jealous of. My roomie, MacKenzie and Courtney are going to Barcelona this weekend, while I am going to Málaga, they bought the tickets a long time ago, and I was invited, but didn't want to pay a lot for a plane ticket now. A few friends of ours went to Barce last weekend, and they said it was VERY expensive, 10 Euro for a rum and coke! And 15-20 Euro to get into the discotecas! It makes me happy that I chose to study in Granada, rather than there, because there is no way I would have made it a year in such an expensive city! At the end of the month we are going to Sevilla, which I am very excited about, my host mom told Shannon and I that the hotel we are staying at has a pool! Yay!

I've been feeling a little homesick lately, it is very odd being disconnected from everything in the States. I really miss my political science and history classes at wazzu, is that weird to miss school? Since I don't have internet at home I don't have constant access to the news and I definitely miss that. And I miss my kitties and my puppy haha. There are so many dogs in Granada, they are all tiny though. Most people don't walk their dogs on a leash and it's socially acceptable to not clean up after your dog, eww!

Today I went out for gelato with Shannon and MacKenzie, after my siesta of course, it is so good here! I had mora (blackberry) and mango, mmm. After dinner we are going for tapas, and then probably the Botellón, which is an area that young people gather to mingle and drink for free haha. Here it's next to El Corte Ingles (something like a mix of Macy's and a supermarket) and young people bring their own drinks there, because bars and discotecas are so expensive. Anyways adios!

San José weekend

2009-10-05T10:38:00.000-07:00

Hl, q tl?

Today in my class I learned a bit about how Spaniards text each other, here you have to pay per word in a text message, so the Spaniards have a sort of short hand, it is really hard to understand when you aren't fluent in the language! Haha but anyways class is going well, four hours is a lot of Spanish to take in in one sitting, but hopefully I will improve so much each month from it.

This weekend we went to San José to go to the beach, it was about a three hour bus ride there because we drove along the coast, very beautiful. We got in around 12 and headed straight to the beach, my host mom packed me a nice bocadillo, two sandwiches with tortilla española on them and lots of fruit, mmm. At the beach I laid out for a few hours and then five of my friends and I decided to climb the mountain that was on the left of the beach haha, it was very hard to do in flip flops and a bikini, but we made it to the top, about a thirty minute hike, and then stayed up at the top to take lots of pictures, well my friends did- I didn't- because sadly my camera has passed on, so I will post them up as soon as they are available to me. The beaches in Spain are nude/semi nude beaches so there were lots of naked old men and women walking around haha. Some of us had a naked party in the mediterranean, and it was very liberating. On Saturday night we all went out for pizza and then icecream after, what a perfect night! Kelsey, Alex and I were sharing a room so after we went to bed at like 11, we got so much sleep that night! It was fabulous. On Sunday we went to another beach closer to the hotel and I got a little more burned, but now it has turned into a good tan, and then about five we headed back to Granada and it took a little less than two hours. It was a very relaxing weekend.

Some of my friends and I are going to Málaga this next weekend, because Monday is a national holiday, for 10 euro a night to stay in a hostel! Woo I love cheap things, haha. Tomorrow I go back to the police station to renew my visa. I'm trying to figure out travel plans for the rest of the year, I may wait until Spring to travel around because it's cheaper, but I'm not sure yet. Any recommendations?

Hasta luego!

dos semanas en españa??

2009-10-01T11:57:00.000-07:00

Hola guapos,

I’ve already been in Spain for almost two weeks! Can you believe it? Me neither. Today I took a Spanish placement test and I got into advanced Spanish, which is what I needed in order to not lose credit while I’m here, woo! I’m sitting in my favorite café, where I always get a café con leche and my favorite old man Julian sits there and hits on me, ahh Spain. I start school tomorrow, at 10:30 which is very nice because I thought I might have it at 8:30, which would be an awful time to have to wake up! I ordered a ticket to Brussels on Tuesday, I’m going on the second of December and returning on the seventh. I’m going to be staying with family friends of Shannon and another girl in our program, MacKenzie. This weekend we are going to San Jose, which is a beach town on the coast of Spain, I can’t wait to lay out! Yesterday we had our first thunderstorm, and lost power starting at around five, and it stayed off till the morning so for dinner we had sandwiches around candlelight. I love the food my host mom makes though, even when she makes meat she always makes another vegetarian dish for me, I promise paella is good without the chicken and shrimp! And they even have soy in Spain so sometimes she fries that up to put into the food, yum yum. Today we went to the Albaicín and Sacromonte, which are two small towns outside of Granada, my host mom told me hippies lived there and sure enough there were many people who were sportin’ mullets, my friend from Alabama said they looked just as country as some Alabamians she knows, haha. Tonight I think I am going to go out with some friends from my program and we might hit up El Camborio, because it’s free and gratis es mi palabra favorita! But it is quite a walk so we may end up just going to a few tapas bars and see where the wind takes us! Hasta luego!

Spanish experiences

2009-09-27T11:57:00.000-07:00

Today I had my first bad experience in Spain, I went to a bullfight. I probably should've known that it was going to be as bad as it was, but since it was free, I figured I might as well go to get the experience. It was too sad and upsetting for me though and I had to leave about three minutes after they brought the first bull out. The bull was already bleeding because they stabbed him prior to make him agitated, and then there were about ten matadors (which means killers in spanish) standing in the ring around the bull waving pink flags at him, he was really dazed and confused and even though we were seated high up we could still see him bleeding pretty profusely. I left as soon as they started stabbing him, seeing an animal suffer needlessly like that was something that I just couldn't handle. I'm not the only one who feels that way though, a large majority of the population no longer supports the industry and it will probably eventually end, there were protestors outside the stadium with posters that said things like they didn't want their tax dollars going to a needless thing like bullfighting, I felt like joining them.. My host mom also doesn't support bullfights and she thinks that they should be discontinued.

Anyways besides that sad incident today, I have had a good last few days. Today is my roommates 21st birthday so last night we went out to celebrate. First we went to her favorite tapas bar, Feng Shui, with a bunch of our friends and got tapas and tinto verano. Then we went to the chupiteria, where there are one euro shots and we each had a few of those, we bought Shannon surprise shots and then she would try to guess what was in them. Kelsey and I had one shot that looked exactly like listerine, although it didn't taste exactly like it, thankfully. After the chup, we went to a salsa bar down the street and met up with a few more API people there and I had a Caiprinha, which I had the first time when I was in Brasil and I have been looking for one ever since haha. It is made with limes, sugar, crushed ice and vodka and stirred and it is very delicious, I think I may have to have one of those each time I go out haha. The salsa place was fun, but intimidating because many of the people there are very good dancers. I think that I am going to try and take lessons there because I would really like to learn how to salsa by the time I leave Spain. We went club hopping to a few more places after that and met some interesting people on the street, this one guy I met was pretending that he spoke Russian, but thanks to hanging out with Kristin I was able to out-russian him, it was very funny. Shannon and I got back to the apartment after six in the morning! It was a very good night, but my feet hurt so much when I woke up (at 12:30) this morning because I had been wearing heels and a dress the whole night. We walk soooo much in Spain, it's crazy! I really understand why there are so few overweight people here, everyone is skinny and very fashionable.

Tomorrow I will register for classes and go to the police station to get my visa extended, right now it is only good for 30 days. On Tuesday the regular start API kids are going to the Alhambra, which if it is anything like the beer, it will be very good ;) haha. And on thursday I take my placement exam which will determine what level of Spanish my classes will be in, my program Intensive Language consists of monthlong intensive language courses and you are supposed to move up a level each month. I want to be placed in either high intermediate or low advanced classes in order to maximize the credit that I can receive for my Spanish major. I am excited to start classes on Friday! Hasta luego!

Arrival in Granada

2009-09-25T06:13:00.001-07:00

Hola, I arrived in Granada last night, my roommate, Shannon, came to pick me up because our host mom hurt her big toe and couldn’t walk that far. Before arriving we left Madrid early in the morning and went to Toledo, which used to be the capital of Madrid for many many years. It was a really beautiful town and some friends and I managed to find a nice kebab restaurant that was cheap and delicious. We were there for about five hours and walked around through the city, but then we had to pile back on the bus for a five hour bus ride, wooo! It actually wasn’t that bad, I tried to study for a lot of it because we have to take a placement test in week which will tell us what classes we’re going to take and I was to do well.
I really like Granada, we had a family dinner with Shannon, Mom and Abuela last night, tortilla española, bread and vegetables, I was really nervous, but everybody is pretty easy to understand and really nice. After dinner I unpacked my suitcases, which felt great after living out of a suitcase for what has seemed like weeks. Then Shannon and I went to a tapas bar called feng shui with three of her friends from early start. I had tinto verano, a really sweet wine and fried rice for my tapa, it was really cheap, much cheaper than it was in my Madrid, it’s nice to live with someone who already knows their way around the city. After we met up with some people from early start and my program and went to a bar that served “chupitos” which are shots. It was fun, but we didn’t stay long because Shannon and I were waking up at eight so she could show me where our meeting place for API is before she went to school.
Today we are going to have a tour of Granada with my program so I’ll be able to see where I’ll be going to school and everything else! I’m excited to get into a routine here and know where everything is. I don’t have internet at my apartment so I probably won’t be getting online as much as I am accustomed to, add me on skype if you want to see my beautiful face ☺ ahaugen107.
Hasta Luego!

Orientation Week in Madrid!

2009-09-23T09:52:00.000-07:00

Hola, estoy aquí! I arrived in Madrid my dad on Friday, the flight was really nice and seemed very short, we got to Madrid early in the morning and then took a taxi to the hostal that we were staying in which was very nice. We went to the Palacio Real (Royal Palace) on Friday which was cool, and then the Museo del Prado on Saturday. They have a lot of paintings from the Italian Renaissance which are of course beautiful and some from Spanish artists as well. On Sunday we went to the Reina Sofía, which is a modern art museum and houses the Guernica, which is Pablo Picasso's famous painting depicting the Spanish civil war under Franco. I enjoyed the museum, but pops did not. The food is very good, although not a lot of vegetarian options and many "vegetarian" dishes have fish with them too. One day we found a good vegetarian only restaurant, yummy.

Pops left early monday morning and we came down to the hotel I am staying at now before he left at eight, I was the first person here from my orientation group here, so I hung out before my roommate, Kelsey, for orientation came a little after 11. She goes to University of Alabama and we get along really well. We went out with some other people from the program for lunch at the little place that served monditos, which are little sandwiches for 1 euro each, ¡qué barato! Then we all walked around the plaza mayor for a but looking for pay phones that they could use to call their families, but had no success. For the rest of the day we are just hanging out until a meeting and dinner, not till 8:30 at night! It will take a while to get used to eating so late.

Yesterday we went to the Prado and the Palacio Real and both times we had tour guides for both of them. Last night Kelsey, Alex and I ate dinner at a restaurant near the bars we wanted to go to, we all got a jarra cerveza, which is a half liter of beer, it was very good and then after we ate our server brought us three very strong shots of yellow tequila. After dinner we met up with a bunch of people from our program and found a pub crawl to do, it was 10 euro for the pub crawl and we went to three bars, it seemed like we brought the party to every bar we went to, most of the spaniards don't dance very much, which is so odd! We kind of got gypped with the pub crawl, our tour guide "jon" promised us a beer/sangria at the first bar, coke and rum at the second bar, and sex on the beach at the third bar, but he ditched us halfway through the first bar without telling us and we had to find other people who were part of the program to guide us the rest of the way and at the second bar we only got shots of like schnapp-like drinks that didn't half much alcohol in them, (although we did manage to score some free mojitos after complaining angrily in spanish at our new tour buy pablo) and then at the third bar it was like a fruity liquor, however I did manage to find a nice gentleman who provided me with free drinks at the last bar, mmmm. We got back to the hotel around three in the morning, it was a very nice evening.

Today we woke up early to go to El Escorial, which is about an hour by bus from Madrid, it's where the royal family used to go for summer, and monks live there now as well as school children who pay 1,000 euro a month to attend school! The tour was very informative and our spanish tourguide was really nice and really funny, he kept winking at us haha. We came back to Madrid around 2 o'clock and had lunch at the cheap sandwich place, one for one euro is my kind of deal! Then later Kelsey, Jessica, Emily and I decided to go to the Reina Sofia, but I forgot my student ID and didn't want to pay 6 euro to go in (since I've already been there anyways) so I just took the metro back to the hotel. We had another info meeting and got maps of Granada with our homes marked on the map at the meeting so it's really nice to finally have an idea of where I'll live. After the meeting a group of us went looking for a place to eat for dinner and we found like nice little café to eat at, I had to wrangle with the servers in Spanish to figure out something vegetarian because the option I wanted wasn't available, I ended up with a grilled cheese and it was very good.

Tomorrow we have an early bus that will take us to Toledo for a day trip and then later on t Granada, our host families will meet us around 9 tomorrow night and then I'll be there! I'm really nervous and excited!

Ciao!

Leaving tomorrow

2009-09-16T20:07:00.000-07:00

Well I am on my way to JFK tomorrow and then arriving in Madrid on friday, it's a little earlier than I had originally planned to leave, but it's all good. My dad will be with me the first few days and then I join my orientation group on Monday the 21st. It's really weird that I am going to be there so soon, this past month has been so hectic! I was in Pullman for a week, which was really nice to see all my friends there, I'll miss them so much! And then I was in Minnesota saying goodbye to family, and then my dad and I took a trip to Washington D.C. to visit and I checked out GW Law School, in a year I'll be taking the LSAT! It seems so far away. And then my mom and I went to the Netherlands for four days, which was super cool, so now I just got home and am already off to Spain!! I'll be in Madrid until Wednesday, and then we'll go to Toledo for half a day and then finally Granada! I'm staying with a host family, an older woman with two grown children out of the house and I have a roommate from Texas who is already there! I'm super excited to meet everyone, but there are definitely people that I am going to miss here! I have Skype, so if you want to chat with me, just let me know and we can set a "Skype date" haha. I won't have my US cell phone so please don't call that number, I will have a spanish cell phone, but I don't think I'll use it much. Anyways, I'll post more when I am in Spain! Adios!

Allison