K pasa conmigo

Goodbye Granada

2007-12-16T12:21:00.000-05:00

So tonight I leave for Madrid on the bus. Wish me luck with my suitcases etc. Hopefully it won't be too horrific. I had a good last week, especially if you don't count the exams that I may or may not have studied much for haha. Last Saturday a few of us went up to Sacromonte and saw the caves museum so that was fun. It was Nicole, Yasmeen, Scott and I who went, and on the way down we ran into Javier and Jennifer and they told us we should try the dulces de navidad. So we went to the cloister and ordered (through a spinning door thingy that according to Amalia was for when people would drop off unwanted babies?) and got a variety to share. Too bad they wouldn't travel well at all is all I'll say. It was a lot of fun. And Sunday Yasmeen and I went to bid farewell to the Alhambra. It was a beautiful day, so it was perfect. We got in for free as "residents" of Granada and we got to the palacios nazaries and carlos quinto and the alcazaba that afternoon. Awesome times.

The week was pretty uneventful. I finished all my papers by Tuesday and then I just had four exams, none of which were too bad. OH! But I brought in my disk of pictures that I put together for work study and Eva asked me if I knew what Javier meant to pay me. I said I had no idea but I figured 10-20 euros was fine since I would have taken most of them anyway. So she marches me into Javier's office and asks him and he just says oh I think 100 sounds about right. I was floored. And excited because I haven't had to take out any more money! Yay magic money :-) By Friday I was pretty burned out even though friends and I were able to fit in some tapas and things. But that night we had a big IES partay at the Hotel Alhambra Palace (think very swank) and went out afterward in big groups to bars and things. Only downside being that my coat and my new dress smell terribly of smoke. Silly Spain allowing things like that. But I finally had a classic night out in Granada and got up to Camborio (an important? club) and hung out with some friends I didn't get to spend a whole lot of time with this semester, so it was good. It was so sad saying goodbye to the IES people though. Especially Eva and Miriam. I have to keep in touch with them - I promised.

So yesterday I found out my flight was a day later than I had been assuming. Ooops. I was talking to my mom online and was all like "see you tomorrow!" and she had to be all like "ummmmm no." I really don't know how I got that one confused. But I went out with Alexis to get a present for Amalia and then I went to the bus station so that they'd change my ticket. Luckily it was no problem and Amalia didn't care at all. Phew. Then I met Yasmeen in Plaza Nueva and we went up to the mirador to catch the sunset. There were other IESers there so we sat for a while and hung out. And made dinner plans. Yasmeen and I got tea (te alandalus con leche para la ultima vez - but I wrote down all the ingredients!) And wandered around. And went and found her some dulces to take home. Then I ran to meet Kate and go to dinner with Jessie, Tanya, Rebekah, Paul and Callie. It was fun and really good Italian food. And afterwards we met back up with Yasmeen and Jen for crepes. Which were also delicious. But goodbyes were not. We had such an amazingly fun time until then. And it got sad. But I made and kept a breakfast date with the leftovers here i.e. Rebekah, Callie and Tanya.

Today, Sunday, was a nice day. After tea with those ladies Callie, Rebekah and I went shopping. Well they went shopping and I tagged along. But it was fun just being out. I would have been sad to leave them but they have promised to come to Bowdoin to visit Tanya and me, so I couldn't get too sad. I had lunch at home for the last time and it was yummy of course. Amalia gave me turron to bring home (and I already bought some so yay turron haha) and I gave her the scarf and poinsettia Alexis and I had picked out. Oh yeah Alexis left at 3 in the morning, so I had to say goodbye to her, the lucky thing getting to come back next semester. We also took some pictures that I have to send her :-)

I spent the afternoon with Ana and her friend just resting and watching tv. I know it sounds like kind of a lame way to spend your last afternoon here, but it was really fun watching parts of dubbed American movies and talking to them and playing with Zooey, who has become a devil dog haha. And I'm about to go hang out with Lauren for a while. Thinking about actually starting the travel process is horrendous. But I know that soon I'll be happy and home. Wish me luck with my gargantuan bag and other possessions. And wish me luck sleeping on the bus. And I hope everyone is ready for the holidays and I hope to see you soon!

Last of the Granada blogs. Tear.

And here's a song that I've been thinking of because they played it when we were in Dublin. Thank you John Denver:

Country roads take me home
to a place where I belong.
*Sweet* Virginia (hey it's close enough)
Mountain mama
take me home, country roads.

Oh and some pics:

http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018862&l=f4fef&id=4602556
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018864&l=695c1&id=4602556
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018865&l=48a0f&id=4602556
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018867&l=37acc&id=4602556

Enjoy!

Morocco

2007-12-08T10:01:00.000-05:00

So I went to Morocco. It was an amazing trip and I feel like whatever I say here won't be enough to tell you about it. But this blog needs to be done - it's been almost a week since I was there and before you know it I'll be home, thousands of miles from Tangier and Rabat and the Rif Mountains and Chefchaouen. It won't be the same.

Our trip started off at the Granada train station, which is conveniently right down the street form my house. Everyone showed up on time, everyone brought their passports - it was great. We also had a little surprise which turned out to be fabulous: one of the guys that was supposed to come cancelled at the last minute to prepare for an interview? (LAME!) and so Jennifer, who is the wife of our program director Javier, came in his place. She's a lot of fun and great to travel with so I'm really glad she ended up coming. Also I was proud of myself for packing super light - I only brought Alexis's school backpack on loan and my purse. I won at packing!

The train ride was a little long but we kept ourselves entertained for the most part, and when it was still light out the scenery was gorgeous. When we first pulled out we could see the snow-capped Sierra Nevadas, and then we rolled through some countryside that I will really miss when I leave. The train took us to Algeciras, which is the port town, but when we got there it wouldn't let us off and started backing up. Hmmm we thought. Turns out they had to refill the water tanks or something so we were only delayed about 10 more minutes before we pulled back into the train station there. Miriam (our awesome IES group leader) found our hotel and we all dropped our stuff off before heading out to grab a quick bite to eat. Lauren and I split a giant sandwich concoction and then took long showers in our temperamental shower and got some shuteye.

Breakfast the next morning was the start of a long day. We could see THE ROCK of Gibraltar from the hotel window though, so it was a pretty way to start off. Then we walked over to the port and got our ferry. The ride was pretty smooth and the all natural ginger trips mom sent me worked great and I didn't get all woozy. Also most of us slept for most of the voyage, and there are some great pics floating around out there of some of my companions sleeping ;-) We also discovered that Allen, out tour guide which I'll tell you more about later, had a duffel bag full of snacks just for us. Hooray cookies!

We met our driver, Abdul, and our 14 passenger van that we occasionally called Mister Nature due to the Mister Nature air freshener that hung in the back and fell on us when he felt like it. Then we cashed in our Euros for Dirham, which was a rewarding experience since we're all used to changing dollars for Euros and definitely not coming out on top. It's about 11 Dirham to the Euro, so that was a morale boost right there.

Our first stop was in Tangier at a market. It was a very odd feeling to stand out so much. Allen bought us some fruit with his really badly accented French (how did he get this job?) and then we headed to a women's center for a meeting and lunch. We talked with two students there (they study translation) and the director. And they gave us sweet sweet Moroccan tea. The conversation was interesting since we learned a lot about attitudes on the hijab (head scarf) and the role of women, education, dating, getting a job. It was a lot to take in but it was a really great conversation. We also had lunch there and I had a delicious bowl of veggie couscous. Mmmmmmmm. My introduction to Moroccan cuisine was definitely a success. Although they did serve sour milk - that's what they called it - of which I was not a fan. It tasted like liquid cheese, but in a weird way. After lunch we started the trek to Rabat. It was a pretty long drive ... but ... surprise! We "found" some camels off the side of the road and took camel rides! It was pretty awesome. When you think about it camels are so weird looking. Their necks! How do they hold up their heads?! The camels eventually got a little grumpy - Sophia's tried to bite me on the ride while I was giving it a head scratch that it's supposed to like. Eeek! But I mean Strider trained me for anything so I wasn't too worried about it. Haha. So camel riding - check!

In Rabat we met up with our host families. Lauren and I pretty much lucked out. Our 17 year old host sister was basically the language qual. of our house, but the mom and dad and little 3 year old sister all spoke a little English too. Plus an American student, Aidan, was staying there for the semester so that was helpful (he speaks French). Plus we had a good old western toilet. And we did pretty well with our arabic phrase sheet. I can at least say thank you: shukran (phonetically at least).

We had pasta for dinner and then Zineb (my host sister) and Aidan took us out to the market. It was pretty late and starting to close down, but it was a cool time to see Rabat. Besides the fact that I love markets like that - they're so open and crowded and lively. The walk didn't last long since it probably isn't the best idea to stay out late when only one of you is a boy and only one of you speaks arabic, especially since those two people aren't one in the same. So Lauren and I watched a movie with Aidan and his other Amerian friend studying there. Then we got ready for bed - brushing our teeth with bottled water and curling up under our blankets on the sofas of their family / all-purpose room. It was actually really cold at night, but I was able to get comfy for sure.

The next morning I got up and eventually, after much persuasion, managed to rouse Lauren. We had breakfast with warm buns and tea and some kind of flat bread and jam. Met up with our group at 9 right outside my homestay, and then we went to talk to a professor. It was really interesting to hear his perspective on a lot of topics such as women's rights, but at times I thought he was taking himself a little too seriously. I did get his book though, one that talks about research he's done on perceptions in the Arab-Western conflict, something that should be helpful for my thesis. He also inscribed it to me in Arabic, so I know what Kathryn looks like in Arabic - sweeeeet!

Next we went to a park called Chellah. There were Roman ruins and the remains of a very old mosque. Mostly we went there just to have a nice break and wander in the garden. And eat some of Allen's snacks. It was really gorgeous and quite a nice stroll. We also went to the monument of king Muhammad V's mausoleum. The cavalry guards at the gate really like having their pictures taken, just so you know. It's also on the site of a giant but incomplete mosque - it was leveled by an earthquake at some point, but it is immense, and really cool to see because it is a forest of column-stubble and half of a minaret that is big enough to ride a horse to the top. Plus the view from there is gorgeous.

Then we had a long lunch break at our homestays. Lauren and I spent the time with Zineb and Ayah, our two host sisters. Ayah gave us French lessons with her colored balloons. She was never satisfied with our accent though haha. She also did our hair with her toy hairdryer and then put hijabs on us with our scarves...and wouldn't let us take them off. When we came back into the house later after having taken them off I think she was a little offended and kept asking us where they were. So cute!

After our lunch break we went to our cultural exchange with Moroccan students. Miriam and I got paired off with Badr, who was kind of a nice guy, but also kind of weird. Miriam and I got henna! from a little lady on the street. She promised to wait around for all the other girls to get it done after we went to the hammam (bath). We went shopping in the market for a little while, and then he wanted to take us to this bar. It was basically a pool hall, and neither Miriam or I wanted to spend time there. It was smoky and there were zero girls playing, but we got sodas, which Badr didn't think we'd be able to open for ourselves...hmmm. By the way Badr told us about all the drugs he's done, but quit apparently, and that he can't give up alcohol...super! It was really strange - I think he was trying to show us how super cool he is? But it just went wrong. Miriam and I finally got him back to the market to look around some more, and then we rushed to meet our group. I got myself some shoes (they're red with pointy toes) and a horse sculpture, but on the way home he broke a little bit and I'll have to give him a glue job back in the states.

We all met up and went to our homestays to get stuff for the hammam. It was a very different experience (says me who isn't even a fan of locker rooms). It was great though because it was the only time I really bathed for the weekend haha. We each got olive/date? soap and a bucket and went into 3 rooms full of naked Moroccan women haha. It was neat that it was set up just like the old Arab baths I've learned about - with the three rooms of different temperatures and all. Not exactly my scene, but it was good to do while we were there. Afterwards we went to the homestay upstairs from mine and the lady from earlier gave us all henna. I got both my hands done and a spot on my face next to my left eye, but that one wore of really fast. It was really fun and so amazingly pretty. All of our homestay families made us this traditional (and delicious) noodle dish for dinner - and it's made after a woman gets henna done so that she can eat with a spoon and not her hands! So clever! That night we watched a video of Zineb's cousin's wedding to an Englishman. It was gorgeous. Apparently a wedding takes aaaaaaaall night and the bride gets 6 or 7 dresses. Niiiiiice. It was really gorgeous and it was funny to watch the brits look a little awkward since they didn't know what was going on. The groom did surprisingly well though, so I guess that's what counts. Then it was definitely bed time.

Early morning the next morning. Breakfast was equally delicious and there was an addition of some kind of corn bread that I liked. And tea, oh glorious tea. Our host mom gave Lauren a hijab because she took to wearing her scarf as one, and a jalabi (spelling? no idea) which is like a really long (to your ankles) sweatshirt, and Zineb gave me a really pretty modern one that is black and doesn't have a hood, and looks really elegant. We were so touched! I'm going to have to send them a nice present from the states when I get back!

We packed up Mister Nature and headed for the Rif Mountains. It was a really gorgeous ride and I kept saying wow because we drove through tons of farmland where we saw people plowing their fields with an actual plow and donkey or horse team. There were open wells by the roadside and donkey carts and donkeys parked the towns we'd drive through. So yeah, wow. We ended up in a little town and we met a family there for lunch. As usual we had a discussion but it was really informal and I liked it. All the maternal people on the trip were easy to pick out because the family had a little baby boy and his older sister. And it was a really cute family. We all pitched in to make the lunch. We had sandwiches with veggies and cheese and then veggie couscous. Mmmmmm food always so good.

After eating and having tea again (yay) we went on a little hike through the village and up the hill to a lookout point. Where it was breathtaking. And some of the kids from the village followed us up. It was really fun. I think I could have stayed there for a long time with that gorgeous view in that clean, simple, and safe little village. I guess I never pictured Morocco as very mountainous, but I guess I was proven wrong.

We said our goodbyes and headed on to Chefchaouen. It was another considerable drive...I slept. We got there at night and checked into our hostel (Hotel Al-Andalus - we felt right at home) and then had some free time to go to the market. I am an awesome bargainer I've decided. But I can't say for what in case you're getting a Moroccan present. It was really fun though. And then we had a really nice dinner out at a restaurant. Yum yum yum. And we had a meeting up on the roof of our hostel to talk about our experience. Thaaaaaaanks Allen haha. My roommates (Lauren and Jennifer) and I went pretty much straight to bed afterward. It was really really cold though and I had trouble sleeping because I would feel really hot but my fingers and toeses would still be cold. It was quite a battle.

Got up early the next morning and went for a brief walk by myself. Then we went on a hike up the mountain a ways to get an awesome view of Chefchaouen (and wake us up). We sat around up there for a while and when we headed back down it was about time to pack up and go. I did manage to get some olives for someone who might appreciate them though, and I have it on good authority (Jennifer's) that they're quite yummy.

Over breakfast in the van Rick and I decided that we were getting married - him because I found more cheese for him to eat and me because in Morocco you get 7 dresses at your wedding. Awesome. It's a good joke. The only other excitement on the way to Ceuta was that at one gas station / rest stop Abdul couldn't get the van started so we all had to get out and push Little Miss Sunshine-style to get it going. It was amazing. I'm so happy to say I've done that. But also worried about what happened after Abdul dropped us off? Is he still stranded there on the seaside? :-(

Getting over the border to Ceuta (Spain's little chunk of Africa) was quite an experience. We got more stamps in our passports and while we were waiting for the rest of our group we saw this crowd of Moroccans start stampeding. It was because they saw the police - their police coming. And their police just flat out steal their belongings as they wait to cross the border. We saw a policeman harassing an old lady - it was so incredibly sad. At least other people tried to help her but we just couldn't believe our eyes. Once back in Spanish territory we could tell we were there. We took taxis to the port and got all aboard. It was a nice ferry, but I started feeling queasy almost as soon as I was on board. Luckily I had my magic ginger trips with me! That and a fanta worked wonders. Once back in Algeciras we took a bus to Granada, and we shared it with returning peace corps kids and a film crew - literally on the spur of the moment - they had called up their buddy Allen and we had a giant bus - who knew? I just rested on the way back, and thought about our trip and stuff. We had a snack break with delicious bocadillos waiting for us. And we got home safe and sound.

The next week passed pretty uneventfully. Kate and I did our Spanish class presentation and it actually went really well with an extremely minimal effort on our part. And Wednesday after the last group presented Rosana (our professor) popped open a couple bottles of sparkling red wine and we botelloned for the rest of class while she read tarot for us (odd?). That night she took us out for copas and it was pretty fun. And there were a bunch of IES kids at a club so we all hung out until the wee hours and had a good time. I think I'll save my last week(end) in Granada for another post since I should really be working on at least one of the two papers I have left. Finals for me are Wednesday, Thursday and Friday so wish me luck!

So many pictures:
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018706&l=f1870&id=4602556
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018707&l=25cd2&id=4602556
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018708&l=c4313&id=4602556
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018709&l=3c819&id=4602556
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018710&l=3571d&id=4602556
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018711&l=988ad&id=4602556

Dennis's Visit...mostly we just went to the alhambra and did silly walks

2007-12-06T05:06:00.000-05:00

Hola.

So this will be a short post about Dennis's visit (because I didn't really do my hostess duties to the max) to be followed by a long post about Morocco. Here it goes:

So on Sunday when I got into Granada from Barcelona I went home and dropped my stuff off and such. Then I went to find Dennis at his Oasis hostel. It was a little tricky to find in the twisty streets of the Albaicin, but I've gotten good at my Granada navigation and I made it alright. It was kind of late and I had a bit of work to get done so all we did was go out for tapas. We went to Dos Ojos (Double Eye) because it was close and they have goo Mediterranean tapas. I was annoyed though because I tried to introduce Dennis to tinto de verano and the bartender totally messed it up, and no, I don't know how that's possible. There was approximately a centimeter of brown sugar sitting in the bottom of mine. So that was triste. Oh well.

Monday we met up for tea and pastries between my classes. And walked around. And messily ate a chirimoya on the streets which was delicious (I want to smuggle some back to the states sooooo badly). And found a smelly used clothes store with giant alien sculptures in it? True fact. Aaaand of course we administered to the ministry of silly walks on the mean streets of Granada - someone had to do it. Unfortunately I had to get back to class, but on the way I found a cake for Alexis, since it was her birthday :-)

That afternoon I had tickets for us to see the Alhambra. Our timing was pretty much perfect and we had a really pretty tour of the old place :-) We got into the palacios right on schedule and saw the garden of the generalife before they kicked us out. Then we had pizza at la Donna and it was delicious. Mmmm hmm pizza.

Tuesday I had a lot of class so I'm not really sure what we did other than that Dennis went shopping and found himself a coat at Zara - sweeeeeet. We hung out that evening and wandered around the Albaicin which was cool. Checked out a teteria at some point and got tapas. Then I had to bid him adieu because his train left for Madrid the next morning at 6:50 - ewwwww. It was fun for me to have another guest and I hope Dennis enjoyed Granada. Despite the fact I had to be lame and get work done instead of taking him to see lots of cool things. And that's about the end of Dennis's European Adventure - he's back in the states now. It's also almost the end of mine :-( But I still have Morocco to tell you about and a little over a week plus two papers and four exams left before I head off for home. Wish me luck!

http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018696&l=348cb&id=4602556

Overdue Barça Update (aka avoiding writing my art and architecture paper)

2007-12-04T10:55:00.000-05:00

So I'm not entirely sure where I left you but I'm going to start with Barcelona which happened a couple weekends ago.

My flight was Friday evening so I was able to go on that field trip in the morning which was super cool. Even though I had to pack and catch the bus and things it was a pretty chill day so I liked that.

When I arrived in Girona (the airport about an hour from Barcelona) I encountered some funny italians. They were there to partay and all had matching hats and things. And they were really excited that I was american, that I speak English, that I speak Spanish, and that I kind of speak Italian. I didn't let them sit next to me on the bus.

When I got into the station in Barcelona Brian and Lauren were there to meet me, which was really awesome because Barcelona is huge and signs are in Catalan. And because they're Brian and Lauren and they're cool like that. So the plan was to go see some fountain/light/laser/music/awesomeness show, but we got there and the fountain was drained. I guess the lady at the hostel gave them faulty information. Oh well. We laid on the grass there by the empty fountain for a while, enjoying the fact that Barcelona is ever so slightly warmer than Granada, or was that day at least. We went and got some Bocadillos at Pan's (don't judge - it's native Barcelonan) and then I got checked into the hostel. It was a really giant, clean, great hostel called Centric Point Hostel. I would highly recommend it to anyone venturing there for a visit. Each of the three of us were in separate rooms on separate floors, but I felt really safe actually. At night there was a guard at the door and it takes multiple key swipes to get into the rooms, which each have their own bathrooms. I had some random people in my room but they were all nice, so no problem.

Brian, Lauren and I met up for an earlyish breakfast the next morning and got to Casa Batllo a little past 9 in the morning. For those of you who don't know, I basically took the Gaudi tour of Barcelona that weekend, and it was fabulous. Casa Batllo was one of my favorite places that we went, too. It was a private house that Gaudi designed for the Batllo family and I want to live there. Just check out the fotos. Mmm hmmmm.

We took the metro a lot, since Barcelona is huuuuuge. Plus I had a free pass that another IES girl hadn't used up all her rides on. The three of us went down close to the Gothic Quarter to the big market. It was really awesome. I got a fruit platter (small snack-sized one) and an avocado...but I wanted it all. Except the snails. And maybe the fish. But it was really cool. I wish I could do my grocery shopping somewhere like that.

Then we took the sky-tram thingy up Montjuic (Jew Mountain) and on the way up worked on our Catalan: i.e. word+TAT! = Catalan. We decided it is a decidedly more badass language. And actually I would really like to learn how to speak it. I mean reading it wasn't very hard for us since we had Spanish, French and Italian more or less covered. But it's really pretty. And just awesome.

There's a castle up on top of Montjuic. We explored the military museum, the view, and the cafe (Lauren needed to recharge her batteries) and I liked it. We could see pretty much all of the city from up there, and that's always neat. We didn't want to linger too long and make them miss their flight though, so we took a tram thingy down the hill and made our way back to the hostel for them to pick up their backpacks. We briefly explored the Gothic Quarter, and then it was time for my friends to desert me. They got on the bus to the airport and I went to see la Pedrera which was sweeeeeeeeeet.

La Pedrera is a Gaudi Apartment building. The facade is cool and so is the lobby, but mostly it's the roof that is fantastic. My pictures include a great many from there, especially since I was there just at and after sunset, and it was incredibly gorgeous. There was also a period room set up and an awesome gift shop for people with mucho dinero ;-)

Then I got myself a bocadillo and went back to the hostel. After a short break I took the metro out to Torre Agbar, which is just a weird modern building that looks like a gherkin (among other things). It was all lit up at night and there's a little park behind it that I sat in for a while. It was a cool view. Then back to the hostel where I finished the book for Arte de Asia Oriental and went to bed early.

The next morning I got myself some breakfast and got all ready to leave the hostel. Took my stuff with me and headed to the Sagrada Familia. Oh. My. God. It is unbelievable.

First of all it's a church, but you almost wouldn't believe it if you didn't see the crosses and Jesus guys. Inside, though it isn't finished, feels like a forest. Only made out of stone. But Wow. Wow wow wow. I took the elevator up in one of the towers and that was pretty amazing. I just can't describe that architecture that well. But the colors and the soaring feeling is almost enough on it's own to make you religious. Almost haha.

After I came out I went into the park across the way to check out the view and took a few pictures. This tiny Japanese lady mobbed me with gratitude. I was really confused at first as to why, but it was because she works for Nikon and saw my camera. Weird. But really really funny. Then I went to take the metro out to Park Guell.

Except that one of the lines stopped working - I think one of the trains broke down. So I walked. It was long. And uphill. But I made it fortunately. And Park Guell was totally worth it. I ate me a picnic there - avocado and bread and a soda. Sitting on the big long famous curvy bench :-) Yay. I explored a little and took in the crazy mosaics. On my way to the Gaudi casa-museo this vendor guy gave me a little metal flower he made. He was from Colombia and I don't think he likes Barcelona very much. But oh well I didn't take much time to talk to him, but I took my flower haha. And the casa-museo was cool. I wandered around a little more and then gave myself plenty of time to walk (yes, all the way) to the bus station. When I got there I ran into a bunch of other IES people heading back to Granada. So that was cool. And I got to hear about their crazy Barcelona weekend. I really enjoyed my quiet one, though. Even by myself. I decided I should travel by myself every once in a while. It's really refreshing.

Back in Granada I had to run off and find Dennis!! I would tell you about his visit now but it's about time for me to run off to my UGR class. Dennis news and MOROCCO news soon to come :-) In the meantime...pictures!

http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018454&l=899e5&id=4602556
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018455&l=7f94a&id=4602556
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018456&l=325ab&id=4602556
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018489&l=974f4&id=4602556

Happy Thanksgiving! ... Yesterday

2007-11-23T07:43:00.000-05:00

So I haven't done a whole ton of stuff this week - mainly because the work load is building up and would rather my last week here doesn't become a hellish stretch of papers and exams. But I did a lot of research this week and am almost done with the 'codebook' (research questions answered for every article we're going to use) for my 20 page Arab World and the West paper, so I feel good about that. It's progress anyway, and I can almost start writing the papers for my UGR class since I've nearly finished the Chinese Painting book...so on top of things. And I've put in some work study time so that's good.

On Tuesday Nicole and I went to my favorite teteria after class and then we met Kate for tapas which were rather excellent, plus we hadn't eaten there before and now we have a good new tapas place to frequent :-)

Wednesday was a rather rainy day, but it was mostly clear for our trek up into the Albaicin with my Islamic Art class. We went to Santa Clara de Asis (like St. Francis of Assisi - it was a Franciscan order) which is a cloister. It's still in operation - since like the 1200s I believe - so it's very unusual to get in and see it since all the nuns are all cloistered and don't like to have people intrude in their quiet. The Islamic Art part is that there are pretty cool Mudejar ceilings, but the visit in general was pretty neat, especially since our tour guide Rafael was really cool and knowledgeable and easy to understand. The creepy thing was they had one of the best collections on Jesus Ninos in the world? The Jesus ninos are baby Jesus dolls. The nuns dress them up and change their outfits every week...ummmmmmmmmmm. But it was interesting.

Thursday was Turkey Day of course and the people at IES think it's one of the most important holidays for Americans ever - probably just because it's unique to the U.S. - and so they threw us a big dinner that night at a restaurante Pilar de Toro which was really nice. We got all dressed up :-) And Nicole and I went to a teteria very Thanksgivingly beforehand to kill time between our class and dinner. It was a cheerful little feast and the restaurant tried to make it authentic for us. Haha. We had some soup which was good. And the appetizer which was like fancy tortilla espanola was pretty excellent. The turkey was, well, more like turkey-loaf than actually turkey meat ? We weren't really sure, but it was ok and we got "gravy" and a tiny bit of mashed potatoes with it. By far the best part of the meal was the pumpkin flan which basically was like pumpkin pie without the crust. I sat with Kate, Emily and Mary for the most part (the table was bigger but I was on the end so that's who I talked to) and we had fun being silly. After dinner we socialized for a while but it got over late so I went home. Now I can say I've done Thanksgiving in Spain and Ireland!

This morning we had an art class visit. It was to a taller (workshop) de ceramica and it was awesome. Unfortunately for them, most people skipped it since it was a Friday morning. I mean I understand the people who already had travel plans and things, but I know a lot of people were there since they were at dinner last night. Oh well their loss. We got to see a guy throw some pots and a vase for us, and to me the most amazing part was when we saw another guy painting a plate with an intricate pattern, that he knew by heart, just by sketching out some marker lines and going from there. And the different ones he worked on were almost indistinguishable - so cool! I may or may not have gotten myself / the Grant family something really cool there ;-)

So in a couple hours I catch the bus to the airport to head to Barcelona until Sunday. I hope yous Americans enjoyed your meals yesterday :-) It's a weird time right now because we're all starting to realize that we don't actually have very much time left. I'm not sure how I feel; on the one hand I can't wait to get home and see my family and have a nice Christmas with them and all, but on the other hand I don't want to leave Granada...ever hahaha. So we'll see. I think my last night here will be the worst of it, and then once I get going I'll just want to be home. Anyway - wish me luck on my travels this weekend! And think good thoughts for Marcus - he was supposed to go to Istanbul, but the train tracks flooded and he can't :-( Alright hasta luego!!

Dublin Town

2007-11-20T09:38:00.000-05:00

Well before getting started on the tales of Dublin I would like to take this opportunity to wish Casey a Happy Birthday! (Because I know she reads my blog hehehe) and inform you all that this is the anniversary or Franco's death. A lot of people are pretty angry that he died peacefully in bed, others that he died at all. There are right wing crazies protesting / vandalizing in Madrid and people took the old fascist dictator flowers. Hmmmm. Well that's your 'today in Spain' section for the day. And now you know.

So ... Dublin.

On Friday morning Kate and Staci met me with a taxi (since they live at the other side of town) at Parque del Triunfo and we went to the bus station. We took the 7 am bus to Malaga where we ran into a kid named Tim, also going to Dublin, that Kate knew slightly from Denison. He was nice and at a later date shared his pringles with us yay. There was also a kid from Tim's program there with a large gaping wound on his forehead that had me worried, but he was going to Amsterdam so I figured it just wasn't my problem. We took the bus to the airport, checked ourselves in, went through security, ate the hummus that Staci had brought for us, and pretty much had perfect timing for getting on the plane. I like Aer Lingus since it's all green and everything. And we had an easy flight - I slept a little and got a bunch of reading done for my Arte de Asia Oriental class.

My first glance down at the emerald isle was pretty awesome. I had a window seat so when we dipped below the clouds I saw this great shock of green fields and little clustered cottages (well most of them probably weren't cottages in the strictest sense of the word but it's Ireland, so it counts). It actually reminded me a little of flying into Portland, Maine since you come in over the water.

So I Dublin airport we fetched our bags and went to the bus stop. Only this older gentleman there informed us that there were problems with the buses of late because some of them are on strike. But he was really nice and helped us find where we needed to go, and we got to ride on the upper story of a double decker bus into town, so it was all good. It took us a bit to find our hostel just since it's tucked away with only a little door-width sign, but we got there. And our hostel, the Shining Emerald B&B if you go by their sign, was pretty nice. I mean it was bunk beds and dorm style but it was clean and seemed really safe and gave us decent breakfasts. After successfully checking in (which required me going down the street and into the basement of a men's clothing store to get to an atm) first thing on my agenda was calling Jake. From a payphone since my cell didn't like Ireland as much as I did. So it took a little coordinating but he found us. And since Kate was about to faint from hunger we had to find us a pub :-)

Now, Jake is awesome, just so that everybody knows. He spent the majority of his weekend showing us around and getting us to all the sights and keeping me from doing things like the viking splash tour which really does exist, to the chagrin of dubliners who are less than fond of being roared at. So yes, Jake is the best Dublin tourguide ever, and, like with Cati's visit, he reminded me that I really will be happy to be back at Bowdoin even if a part of me misses Spain next semester.

So we went to a pub which had some excellent veggie soup and honey-glazed ham and cheese sandwiches. It was a hit all around. And after we had satisfied our hunger we could go out and wander. We went into the Temple Bar area which is where most of the night life is. We enjoyed the real irish pubness of the irish pub we went to :-) Lingered over drinks for a while. I treated myself to a baby guinness which is so much better than the real guinness. And we listened to Irish accents, and strolled along the river and it was pretty great. We were tired though. And we still had a fiesta to go to! Staci's homestay mom's boyfriend's sister is working in Dublin right now, and it was her birthday on Friday, so Staci brought her presents from her brother. We took a taxi to her house. At first it was awkward since there weren't many people there. But people came - Spaniards, French, German, Italian people. Most are studying there. We spoke espanol that night, drank their soda, ate their sandwiches. And it was good. We were so ready for bed though once we got a taxi back to the hostel.

We made it up for an earlyish start the next morning though. Breakfasted on tea and toast and things. And Jake picked us up to begin the tour haha. We walked past the spire on O'Connell street, right by ours. The spire stands where a column that the IRA blew up used to stand. But the spire doesn't really claim to be a monument or anything. I guess they just thought it was a good idea (see my pictures to fins out about the spire.) Jake took us to Trinity's campus. It's pretty wicked old, as in 1592 old. And we wandered around the grounds quite happily for a while. Kate and I were ready too move in, but Staci thought it was too cold. She thought the whole trip was too cold though, so I guess that's what you get for coming to Dublin when you don't have a smidgen of Irish blood in you. By the way, Kate and I are coming back, renting a car, driving on the wrong side of the road in a stick shift, and losing ourselves in the Irish countryside one day. It is a plan set in stone.

Also at Trinity College they have an amazing library with an exhibit on the Book of Kells - lot's of illuminated manuscripts. It was very cool. I was so happy I got to see it since it was really the one thing on my to-do list for the trip. Unfortunately they don't let you take pictures in the library, but it was gorgeous all the same - dark wood all around, busts (of famous guys, guys) and books books books. I was thrilled with it anyway. And Jake's student card got us all in for free so that was a sweet deal. Jake says his Trinity classes aren't anything spectacular, but I would go there just for the library. Haha.

After Trinity campus we walked down Grafton Street which is mainly for shopping and stuff. We went down to St. Stephen's Green, which is a really pretty little park with ponds and ducks and pigeons and green. And you aren't allowed to walk on the grass, but we dealt with it. We had a snack there on a bench, a snack that we stole from our hostel - shhhhh. We got a little cold just sitting though, so we warmed ourselves up with the Christmas cheer making itself known back in the area of Grafton. We also warmed ourselves up with hot chocolates at Bewleys - a cafe place very famous for its very famous writers who probably drank stronger stuff than we. And we felt literary, and warm.

Then we decided to go for the Guinness! Took the tram out to near where the Guinness Factory is. We had to wait in line for a little while to get in, and it had started raining a bit at that point, but we bore up valiantly. We figured it muct be worth it if Jake was willing to come and pay to get in for what I think was his 3rd time. I actually found it pretty interesting, but I still say beer is gross. The displays are fun and creative too, so that was good. We got to learn about how Guinness is good for you. I think my favorite part of the giant pint glass (the inside is shaped like a giant pint glass) was the advertising section. They had such funny ad campaigns back in the day. They were so un-p.c. but pretty awesome at the same time. You get a drink at the end of the tour at the Gravity bar - Kate and I got sodas and Staci got to pull her own pint. It was good times, and a good view of a drizzly Dublin afternoon.

We made our way via tram back to the city center. We were a bit hungered. And Jake us to this great pub that was quiet inside, Irish looking, with really good food. they made me my own vegetarian sandwich (one of the things that if I asked for in Spain I would get a crazy face) and we shared some onion rings and chips. I really could have chilled at that pub for a while. But at least we lingered over our food. We made our way to a souvenir shop and had great success and great fun taking pictures there. Partly I needed to get back to a guinness store because I got myself a mug there and then the paper bag got rained on and tore and tragically my mug got completely obliterated. But I got an all new one so whatever. Kate and Staci got claddagh rings, and I got a ring with a green stone in it, and a hat. And so that was another mission accomplished. I guess Jake didn't really need to come souvenir shopping with us, but he did anyway. Guess he was having that much fun.

We three girls took a rest back at the hostel for about an hour and a half. It was just too early to go out, and a bit rainy and stuff. But Jake picked us back up and we were ready to go. We went to a pub that wasn't bad, but it helped me decided once and for all that there will never ever be a beer that I like. Strawberry flavored or otherwise. Blah. We tried some pubs, but to be honest Staci was getting on my nerves because she really wanted to party, which is not how I wanted to waste my two days in Dublin, and I didn't want to feel like I was keeping her from having fun, but for that and a few other reasons there was a bit of tension between us that night. Oh well now she knows to only travel with fellow partiers and I learned not to travel with her. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but that's just how it worked out, and we still had a lot of fun, it was just a bit of a personality clash. We ended up on the roof section of a bar just hanging out, so my only regret is that it wasn't in a good old Irish pub for the whole night, but oh well. Got to visit with Jake and that was good.

Sunday morning we got a bright and early start too. We got breakfast and checked out and stored our bags and Jake was waiting for us downstairs. We got a lot done in a morning and our timing was pretty much perfect. We went to Christ Church Cathedral and were there when it opened, and since it was a Sunday entrance was free, although I did put in a euro for the donation box since it was such a pretty church and I lit a candle for peace - I liked that that was there a lot. The floors of the cathedral were actually really neat, and the architecture and the crypt. It was a nice little visit. We stopped by the outside of St. Patrick's but didn't go in since Jake told us Christ Church was better anyway and we think they might have been starting the service.

Then we caught the tram out in the same direction of the Guinness Factory, but we walked out to Kilmainham Gaol (a jail) and on the way we walked past the Royal Hospital (which is now a modern art museum) and checked out its garden which was really pretty. There was lots of green :-) Kilmainham was really depressing, but also really interesting because the tour told us a lot about the Irish Independence movement and general history that I thought was cool / depressing / stuff I should know since I got a lot of Irish in me. We rushed a bit after our tour was over to get to the tram, get to the hostel, get our stuff, etc. I was sad to say goodbye to Dublin and Jake, but Jake at least I'll see in a couple of months. And Kate and I will make it back to Dublin / Ireland in the nearish future. We've decided. Anyway hugs all 'round. We got on another double decker bus back to the airport. Our timing was perfect and, even though they thought I was a terrorist at the security checkpoint we had just enough time for a snack before boarding and heading back for Malaga. Where Tim shared his pringles with us, to bring the whole story full circle. Staci was on a different bus heading back to Granada than Kate and I, so our adventure was mostly at an end. I curled up at home for the night and dreamt of green and shamrocks and foxhunting in the rolling hills. Ahhh. Twas a good trip. And now I need to get crackin on my Arab World and the West paper so wish me luck!

http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018301&l=a5c49&id=4602556
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018302&l=4f6de&id=4602556
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018303&l=956b0&id=4602556

Check out the fotos :-)

From Cati to Cadiz and Beyond! (well not too much beyond...but it sounded so good)

2007-11-19T10:04:00.000-05:00

So...to catch y'all up.

Cati visited me. And it was awesome.

I picked her up from the bus station on Wednesday (poor thing flew into Madrid and had to take the bus to Granada blah) after a nice class at the Generalife with art and architecture. Took the traveller home where Zooey instantly glued herself to my one unnatural friend who doesn't really care for dogs (just kidding, Cati, I love you anyway). We got good tapas with Kate and stayed up late that night catching up on gossip and trading study abroad stories. It was so nice to have a friend around. Not that I don't have friends here but in a way I guess most of them are friends out of necessity more than anything else. Definitely needed my Bowdoin fix ;-)

So on Thursday I have early class so I didn't force Cati to leave with me at 8 in the morning. But she met me when I had a break between classes and we got tostada at a cafe in Plaza Nueva and scaled the Albaicin for to go to the Mirador San Nicolas to get a look at the Alhambra. Weirdly it was kind of a hazy day, but the view was pretty darn good anyway if I do say so myself. I went back to class and Cati went and saw the Cathedral and it was good. And we had lunch and it was good. And we siestaed and it was good. And I took her up to see the view from Cartuja when I had class. While I was being all studious she went shopping. And then I met her there and we went shopping. And did tapas with Kate and Nicole down at Plaza Einstein at the best tapas place ever called Madronera (I think - I know for sure that it starts with an M and has an N with a tilde in it). We saw some other friends there but didn't eat together since we had such a head start on them. We did meet up later to go out though. Apparently Hillary and Scott have mad connections and we all got into Granada 10 for free. It was fun. I wasn't a huge fan of the music for the first while we were there so I interpretive danced to it. Like 'Umbrella' which I now know because the Spanish are OBsessed with it. My friends were very impressed by my dancing, I can tell you. Oh geez. Plus at Granada 10 they paused everything twice to put on a fashion show. Which was weird. But funny. And then we got tired and went home.

The next morning we slept in. Climbed the Alhambra hill and tried to get into the Generalife for Cati to see it but they had no tickets :-( So we hung out. And then we went shopping and damn you Zara for your appealing but evil ways! After Zara we went home and went out again to climb the Alhambra hill ... again. Met up with my art history class to take a night tour of the palacios Nazaries. It was pretty freakin sweet. Harder to take pictures though in the low light, and the guards kept having hissy fits to try and hurry us out of there which obviously didn't work. Ha! But it was beautiful and I'm really glad Cati could get in with us (mostly because Eva at IES loves me - she's my favorite). After getting through the palaces it was cold. And dark. And we scampered down the hill to my favorite teteria. We got tea and a crepe for dinner. Mmmmmmm tropical crepe. It had chocolate, banana, pineapple, maybe something else AND AVOCADO. I know it sounds odd but it was delicious. Cati got to show Steve she'd eaten avocado and I got to eat the avocado and we were both happy.

Unfortunately all good things come to an end. The next morning I had to get on the IES bus at about 7:30 and left Cati with directions for how to retreat to Madrid and make her way home to Stockholm. (It was snowing there at the time - MUAHAHAHA) So it was sad that we had to have a groggy goodbye. But I ensured that she had skittles to take with her and so that's all that counts. We had a good visit and it definitely reminded me to get on top of things and register for Bowdoin Spring Semester classes that following Monday. So yay Cati, yay motivation, yay Bowdoin, yay.

http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018100&l=15ed6&id=4602556

So I hope Cati enjoyed herself as much as I enjoyed having her here. She must've at least like the rays of sunshine in contact with her person. I feel like she may miss that a bit. But not as much as she misses me.

So once again on an IES trip we arrived at my favorite place ever. Yeguada de la Cartuja. It was a horse farm obviously. The monks of the cartuja had been breeding andalusians for forever. And they were beautiful. And I got to pet them. And get horse kisses. And one mare named Ultima even chewed on my hair so that made my day. And the show was amazing. There were some carts pulled around the ring. Free lunging of a gorgeous stallion. Loose mares and babies. Mares on a line directed by just one rider. Dressage. Oh pretty pretty pretty. I think I may have annoyed the people around me with my enthusiasm but I don't really care because some of them were annoying me too. I got all riled up when I heard that riding shouldn't be called a sport and that horses are stupid, for example. Honestly the ignorance of some people haha.

After the show we got a tour but I mostly just visited with the horsies and wandered around taking pictures. It was a beautiful day. And I secretly wanted the bus to leave me behind, but it refused. :-( Next stop Jerez!

http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018102&l=d1550&id=4602556

So we got to Jerez and had to get lunch. Staci and I found a really authentic, crowded little bar to get tapas at. I had delicious croquettas, so all was well with the world. And we went into a couple of shops just to kill time and I found a little blazer for just 6 euros. And I got it. So there.

The next activity was a bodega. And not just any bodega...the Tio Pepe bodega. Yes. We saw lots of barrels, the largest weather vane in the world, brandy distillers, more barrels, big huge barrels, barrels with famous peoples' signatures, and a glass of sherry for mice. It was a good afternoon. We also got to taste sherry and brandy, some of which was foul, others which were good. It was a popular gift shop among my friends.

We left there for Cadiz, and arrived right about at sunset. Our hotel was amazingly nice - yes I did take a nice long bath that night - and I roomed with Lauren which was a fun change. I wandered around with her for a while (we went out and saw the Atlantic) and then we met up with Brian and Hillary and Nicole to find some dinner. We were just sort of searching in vain when we ran into Eva and Miriam from IES and they pointed us in the direction of a really yummy seafood place. I got prawns. They were whole and delicious. And my friends shared a seafood platter. We hung out for a quite a while and Javier (IES director) came by and joined us. He told us about Galicia, where he was born, and lots of interesting Spanishy things and we really enjoyed our meal that way. But we were getting cold sitting outside even though the weather in Cadiz was soooo nice and warm, so eventually we went back to the hotel where I watched CNN while Lauren got ready for bed and then took my long bath. Ahhhhhhh.

The next morning we made an effort to get up, eat breakfast and explore. Lauren met a friend she knew from when he TAed at Amherst so it was Hillary, Nicole and I for the morning. We went over to the Cathedral and got ourselves some postcards, walked along the shore. Went out to the lighthouse / castle which was a really pretty walk and also into the castle Santa Catalina (another one - not really as chulo as the one in Jaen though). And we sat on the ramparts over the water for a awhile. But had to head back for our noonish departure. I had a few minutes in the room to drink a cup of tea and I was ready for the wild ride of the afternoon.

IES took us to Parque Donana. The park itself wasn't super excited but the fact that we went in all terrain vehicles was. What's more we took a boat out to the island, and my truck had the best driver. We passed everybody else multiple times and bounced around like crazay. The guys that had had a rough last night in Cadiz may not have appreciated it so much, but I sure did. There was a lot of sand and water and wetlands. It was cool. By the end I think we were all tired but it was a fun day for sure. The ride back to Granada was long - about 4 hrs, but we got a rest stop and it was fine with me to get home and go to bed. So that's really it for the adventure.

http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018104&l=a7768&id=4602556
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018106&l=c3532&id=4602556

The week that followed wasn't particularly interesting. I wrote a paper. Did other work. Went out to tapas a couple of times. Discovered the best Spanish dish ever - Migas. It's bread crumbs fried in olive oil and eaten with basically whatever you want - meat, sauteed veggies, grapes. Oh deliciousness, I love Amalia. Had classes. My roommate got her keys stolen. Ya know lots of good stuff haha. Well hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to catch up and talk about last weekend's DUBLIN trip :-) fabulousness. For now I should think about dinner and perhaps homework. We'll see.

Bruges is Beautiful

2007-11-09T04:37:00.000-05:00

So Marcus and I flew out of Malaga on Thursday morning (to continue from my last post) and had a good flight on Vueling to Brussels. The Vueling magazine even had an article about the best places to get shawarma in Granada so I took that with me for future reference. In the Brussels airport we got out bags no problem but sadly they didn't stamp out passports - silly EU. We got our train tickets for Bruges right at the airport, and it was a little confusing because the departing trains weren't labelled very well and we don't exactly share any languages with people there, but the conductor spoke a little English and I got him to tell me we were supposed to change trains at the Zuid (pronounces 'zoot' more or less) station so that is where we went. The Zuid station is also called the Midi station though, so we didn't think we were supposed to get out, but luckily it was the end of the line and the cleaning man told us we absolutely had to get out, so we did. And caught the train to Bruges - success!

When we got to the station in Bruges Marcus called Maria, our B&B lady, to come pick us up. We were a little later than we had put on the reservation so her son had just left the train station, but she zoomed over with her Italian driving skills (she's Belgian but her husband was Italian so she lived there for a while...also our only real shared language -though she did speak a little English - was Italian so that's how we spoke, except when she forgot and talked to us in French or Dutch. We got some multilingual practice :-) Anyway she picked us up and brought us home to our adorable little room upstairs. It was a little library with books in many languages, with a desk and a couple of chairs and a tv, and the window looked out into her sweet little backyard. The room was a loft so we had to climb up a little staircase to get to bed - I thought it was all just too adorable.

We decided to go right out and maybe get some real food since we'd lived off of juice boxes, a couple of mandarin oranges, and goodies from my care packages since we left Granada. We wandered and came to a cute little square and went into the Half Moon Brewery that Maria had recommended for their panini, which I don't think they actually made, but the kitchen was closed so we just got hot chocolate mmmmmmm. Apparently they siesta in Belgium too, but there was a waffle stand open that was fabulous. I got a waffle with strawberry jam and Marcus got one with hot chocolate on it. We loved them. I looked for the rest of the trip to see if they sold waffle mix anywhere but apparently they must all make it from scratch. But it's doughy and sweet and delicious. We walked with our waffles and came to St. John's Hospital, and right next door there was a boat tour operator so we finished our waffles and got 'cruise' tickets to see the canals. Waiting for the boat to embark and student interviewed us about the impact of other tourists on our tourism. It was kind of random and we'd only been there for about an hour so I don't think we were particularly helpful, but oh well. The boat tour was fun and it helped us to get oriented in the city I think. That day there were lots of swans on the canals but we didn't ever see them again so we don't know where they went :-(

After the boat tour we did a little more wandering and went to a tea room. The tea was good but we didn't realize we'd gotten one another's until we were almost done, so we were both a bit sad that we'd each had the tea the other had liked better. Oh well, I guess Marcus is just a tea stealer! Most things had closed down and it was getting dark by the time we were done with tea, so we went to go find dinner, and basically we could only really afford fast food, but the place we found was pretty good so we didn't complain. We did go to the tourist office to buy a 1 euro map with all of our 5, 2 and 1 eurocent pieces. Ha! But we called it an early night because we were tired from traveling and we had a breakfast date with Maria the next morning at 9. At our B&B I was only confused by the shower since it didn't have a curtain around it, nor did it have low water pressure, so I wasn't really sure how to shower without engulfing the whole room in ricocheting flood waters...did my best though.

The next morning we got up for breakfast at 9. It was really good. She made me tea and Marcus coffee, and we had lots of bread and jam and stuff like that. We met another couple staying there and they knew English so that was kind of nice. Then we set out to explore. That was our art day. We went to a church with cool tombs and a Michelangelo statue - the only one to leave Italy while he was still alive...and it came to Bruges of all places. We saw the Groeninge (no, I don't know how in the world to say that) Museum which was filled with Dutch masters and just lots of cool works in general. Van Eyck, Hans Memling, lots of other Bruges artists. It was pretty awesome. There were also some more modern things that I really liked - so I got the guidebook and Marcus got a Brugge Primitives poster. Yay. Most of the museums in Bruges include one of those talking guide machine things in the price of your ticket so it was a pretty interesting visit. Afterwards we went to the museum right next door that had an exhibit of Frank Brangwyn who I'd never heard of before but his work was incredible. We both really liked it - there were a lot of engravings and some of the scenes were drawn from industrial scenes in the states - really interesting. I always get really frustrated when they don't have any postcards of the works I like and just really expensive books, so I'm going to see if I can research his works a little bit. They were pretty awesome.

That day got kind of misty, but luckily it didn't rain, it just got close. We stopped in for lunch at a little almost hole in the wall but they made a really good panini there so I was happy. And we could afford it. Yay. I needed an atm so we found one of the only ones in the city and waited in line for it. At least we had a good view though because it was at the post office in the Markt (big plaza-y place). After I got money we climbed the belfry. It was pretty cool, but not at all well organized since there was only one tiny staircase that people had to use for going up and down. They actually still employ a bellringer there so I think once a day the bells are actually rung by hand. The view was pretty good but it was misty and cloudy so we couldn't see too far. It was more about the fact that Marcus and I always find something to climb on our trips. It's just what we do. Haha.

Downstairs they had a Salvador Dali exhibit which I mostly liked. I guess I can't get away from Spanishness haha. A lot of the works were really different from work of his I've seen before so that was cool. They were for sale but we didn't inquire.

We wandered around by the canals and just soaked up the atmosphere. I also had to have my H&M fix since there isn't one in Granada... and I got a coat because I was cold haha. It's nice though I promise. We got waffles again :-) this time I discovered Belgian waffle with fresh strawberry. Delicious, in a word. Marcus stuck to chocolate. We enjoyed the city even when all the shops were closed down at night and we just wandered and wandered...and got chinese food - yay! I've had a craving for it that, though not completely satisfied now, at least felt like I listened to it. Oh and that night back at the B&B Eurotrip was on tv. While not exactly a classy movie we felt it was appropriate.

The next morning we got omelettes and tea and coffee and bread and all. The omelettes, to be honest, were a little bland, but everything else was excellent again. We met more other guests and then set out. It was a nice day that day - we even got about 20 minutes of sun! We started off at the St. John's Hospitaal museum. Which was interesting since we had our little audio guides - plus it had some amazing works of art by Hans Memling too. He was pretty good.

We went to the town hall musuem. That was gorgeous. It was all gilt and frescoed (well some wax thing like fresco that isn't) and there was one scene with horses in it that I loved since the horses were so well done. So we hung out there to admire it for a while. We got lunch (yessss fast food) and went to the Renaissance Museum next door to the town hall and it was pretty cool, but it was just one really really ornate room where people were judged. There were lots of carvings and tapestries and paintings and a giant chimney and stuff like that. So we listened all about those things on our audio guides like good little tourists. Hahaha. Then we did some errands ... i.e. bought Belgian chocolates. And got waffles again (strawberries - yay!). And I insisted that I had to see a windmill so we walked across town to accomplish that particular life goal :-) One of the old city gates was also out that direction, and it was cool and castle-y looking, but people would have run us over if we'd really tried to examine it. We were both a little tired so we decided to go sit down somewhere and get pizza. We went to a restaurant in the Markt where the pizza wasn't very good but the view was, so we survived. (That's where the belfry tower is and some state building, and they're all lit up at night and horse drawn carriages pick up their clients there and it's just sooooo picturesque).

I was brave and bought a stamp from the stamp machine to mail a postcard. We think it was a real stamp. We're pretty sure anyway. So hopefully it will get to its destination without too much trouble. Still waiting to hear on my postcard from Greece so I dunno. That night we went to a play called Anton's Shorts - it was a series of Chekov short dramatizations. There was hardly anyone there - probably because it's the English language theater, but they did a really good job. I'd actually seen a couple of the shorts before at Bowdoin, so that was kind of random. We were sad that our last full day came to a close.

On Sunday we had tea / coffee and brie with frenchbread. Well Marcus didn't particularly love the cheeses she offered, but I did. There was a French couple there who were really nice - she spoke Spanish and he spoke a little English so we could talk. After paying Maria we took a last walk. I said goodbye to the clip-clopping horsies and my clip-clopping heels on the cobblestone straats. Maria took us to the train station and gave us some really good gingerbread cookies for the ride, and we made it just fine to the airport. And had a while there - plenty of time to check in and get a snack. Our flights left at exactly the same time so I had to leave Marcus at gate 42 and make my way down to 50. It was sad. But we'll see each other briefly before Christmas so it'll be ok for another month and a half, less now actually. My trip back to Malaga and then on to Granada was fine. The guy next to me on the bus was super well prepared and when I was trying to sleep he got out his inflatable travel pillow for me so that was good. I had a midterm on Monday but it was easy so it wasn't really a problem that I hardly studied, having better things to do ;-) Also on Monday I went out to a jazz concert with my friend Scott which was fun, even though I should probably have stayed in and worked on papers. Oh well. It was worth it. So next post I'll have to tell you all about Cati's visit and the Cadiz trip too! Here are the links to pictures from Bruges:

http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017940&l=24f90&id=4602556
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017942&l=405cb&id=4602556
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017943&l=a153c&id=4602556
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017944&l=4e27f&id=4602556
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017945&l=5dc0d&id=4602556

Marcus's Visit

2007-11-06T09:49:00.000-05:00

So after Devon left on the bus to the airport I still had a visitor! We didn't really do a whole heck of a lot, which I felt bad about, because I had two midterms and part of a paper to write while he was here :-( But there were some highlights to his visit I believe. Well first of all, I know it was kind of rough of us to shuttle him straight from bus and plane straight to the Alhambra, but it's, you know, pretty good. So that visit was fun even though the pobrecito was tired.

We didn't really do much that weekend. EXCEPT for another highlight of his visit which was going to the Arab Baths (I economized this time, ok. I didn't get myself a massage haha) But it was a really really nice Sunday night. This time we went at 8 so it was a little busier. We had mostly just wandered around all day and we went up to the mirador San Nicolas that looks out over the city and is across from the Alhambra. And we saw a gorgeous sunset. And so besides studying and stuff it was a wonderfully relaxing day to end up in nice soothing baths. We had to get him a cool new swimsuit, but that's ok, it's our Spanish habit (when we came to Marbella for spring break last year his suitcase got rather delayed and we had to get him a swimsuit then, too). So yes, arab baths good.

On Monday unfortunately I had class. He had to entertain himself all morning. That day I got a GIANT care package from Mom and Dad :-) full of laffy taffy and jolly rogers and doritos (the doritos are different here) and skittles, oh and some nasal spray and virus blockade so that I don't ever get sick ever again haha. It was amazing and I felt so loved. And then I made Marcus carry it back to my apartment for me...where Amalia surprised me by giving me new brightly colored and cute bedding. Also she was really sweet and had Marcus to lunch every day! Which went far above and beyond what I expected. When I was thanking her she said it was because that's what she would do if I were her daughter so I was kind of touched. And Marcus did well with his Spanish / lack thereof because I think he mostly understood what was going on though I did get to do a little translating. Oh and Marcus got me a sweater at Zara while he wandered around during my class because I told him how cold I was getting :-) So now I'll be staying a little warmer in this tragically colder than I expected weather.

That afternoon I had free so after the siesta during which I did some work we wandered around. We had some fun browsing in the Albaicin and we met Lauren at the awesome tapas place down by her house near Plaza Einstein. By the way, there's a picture on the wall there of Pinochet with a thought bubble saying how much he wants tapas from that bar...? Haha. There are also pictures of tons of other celebrities - Bill Clinton...Shakira...ya know. But Lauren goes there often so all the waiters know her and therefore the service is excelente. It was fun, but I had to do a little more studying that night so we had to cut it a little short.

On Tuesday I again had class and a midterm in the Arab World and the West. It wasn't very hard so I kind of wished I hadn't spent time studying, though with my luck I know he just would have made it insanely hard if I hadn't. And I got another CARE PACKAGE :-) with caramel popcorn from Jim and Dana - my godparents. It was quite a wonderful taste of fall and I shared some of the popcorn with my host family and they really liked it. In Spanish popcorn is 'palomitas' and apparently they don't really mix it with nuts or anything so they were surprised and thought it was superguay (cool). After lunch during our siesta Marcus GOT HIS HAIRS CUT! It's crazy. For one thing what with the language barrier and me not really knowing any hairstyling vocabulary we surprisingly got exactly what he wanted I think. The lady did a really nice job and was really patient with us and let me convince her not to give him a mullet haha. And it was all just 9 euros, so economical too. He's had longish hair ever since I've known him so it took me some getting used to but he looks rather dashing with his new do. After the transformation we went shopping (I've been accumulating warmer clothes) and he got some shoes ... so Marcus is just getting all European on us. Then we went up to my university class and he got to ... watch the sunset? My class watched a chinese movie which was weird to see because they spoke chinese but it had spanish subtitles and it took a while for my brain not to have problems processing it. And afterward I talked to my two Spanish friends in that class about Spanish University for my grammar class project and the we decided we might do some intercambios of our own since Jose especially wants to work on his english pronunciation and my spanish can always do with practice. So that'll be good. Marcus and I stuffed ourselves with delicious pizza at La Donna that night (they have one with corn and jamon and avocado and pineapple on it - mmmmmmmm). And then I studied and worked on my project.

Wednesday is my busy day and that Wednesday was no exception. At least Marcus got to come on a couple of visits with me. My Islamic Civilization class went to a mosque and talked to an imam so that was interesting. Halfway through we realized that he spoke english and that us speaking spanish to a translator who translated it into arabic for the imam who responded in arabic that had to be translated back to spanish was all rather pointless, but I guess they didn't want the translator to be out of work so we kept on in spanish and arabic anyway. It was nice because they brought us water and tea and cookies and it was really interesting, but it was also not so nice because it ran an hour late and we had to rush to lunch and my other class. Marcus got Amalia some chocolate and decorative flowers from Corte Ingles so she didn't mind so much us being so late. Then we had to run up to the Alhambra for my Art History visit. It was to the Alcazaba which isn't the prettiest part, but there are torres with really wonderful views and we even got special passes to go into some parts that tourists aren't allowed into, like some of the walls and a tunnel/passage that runs between the palaces. It was also really nice and sunny that day so we were lucky with the weather. After class we had to run down so I could pack and we took the bus to Malaga to start our amazing Belgian adventure! We had to sleep in the airport but it was fine - we pulled a couple of benches together and curled up quite nicely.

http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017896&l=5e47f&id=4602556

Long time no post - sorry!

2007-11-05T09:53:00.000-05:00

So ... I've been rather busy of late so I'll try to break this up into manageable segments. To begin with :

The Rest of Greece!

So after I blogged before Marcus got out of class and we went to go tutor Orestes...who greeted us by bringing out an assortment from what must be his dress-up box. He greeted Marcus I believe as Mr. Teacher Man ? But I found out that 's just because he can't remember Marcus's name (I had to give him a hint). It wasn't the most productive tutoring session I've ever seen but they were talking in English (except when Orestes decided to read to us in French which, uh, made me feel kind of bad about myself since he's only 9). He showed me some penguin game on the computer and when it was time to pick out his penguin's outfit he said I would know how to dress him because I'm a woman! I guess they start 'em young. But that was a pretty entertaining hour or so, although I wish I'd gotten to play with his puppy, but it had to be tied up because it chewed through the strap of Marcus's bag when he was there one time.

And we had a pretty chill night that night, mostly because I was still a little sick and sleepy and had to catch the plane back to Madrid early in the morning. We had to take a cab to the airport but it was fine. And it got Marcus up in time to go get his visa form taken care of and mail a postcard for me (not saying who it was to, although I kind of would have thought they would have gotten it by now and no one's said anything hmm). My flight back with Alitalia was nice. And it was tempting to miss my connecting flight to Madrid in Rome, but I restrained myself. And I got red orange juice, so all in all it was good.

Pictures:
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017607&l=d866a&id=4602556
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017609&l=dc071&id=4602556
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017613&l=abc46&id=4602556
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017626&l=23d62&id=4602556
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017627&l=66482&id=4602556
Yes, there are a lot of them.

So then...

Devon's Visit!

I got the metro to the bus to Granada, but there was kind of a longish wait in the Mendez Alvaro bus station in Madrid because the bus I wanted to get on was sold out. Oh well I did a little reading. And slept on the bus. And hurried home in Granada and unpacked a little bit while chatting with Amalia - I brought her a a little scarf back from Plaka that she says she loves, though I haven't yet seen her wear it. Then I met up with COUSIN DEVON :-) who'd been hanging out with my roommate Alexis that day. They went shopping and stuff and I met up with them at an awesome little Italian pizza place near my school. Where the pizza was good. Afterward we went back to my apartment - I was tiiiiiiiiiired. (That simulates a yawn, you know) and we caught up for a little bit and computered and slept.

I had class on Wednesday, but my afternoon class didn't meet so we got to hang out. And we had an art and architecture visit in the morning to arab baths and a reconstructed palace in the Albaicin and Devon was allowed to tag along so that was good. That's the night it rained and we went shopping and got tea (and a crepe) in one of my favorite little tea places in the Albaicin with Lauren. Devon got the most adorable coat at Zara and I got a little jacket that is completely inappropriate for the way the weather is going but oh well I can wear it under something else. And Lauren had just gotten back from her dream trip to London and we got to catch up about that.

To treat ourselves in the cousinly tradition (thanks to Jenny and Karin ;-) we went to the Arab Baths where Amalia works that night. It was loverly. Especially on such a damp coldish night. And since we went for the late session at 10 at night it was only the two of us and two other guys. It was so nice and quiet and we wandered from bath to bath. They were a range of temperatures and there were 7 or 8 different pools / tubs / vats of water. And the massage was pretty glorious as well. The lady worked a knot right out of my shoulder. At the end they brought out a yummy minty tea for us. We were so relaxed, but also energized I felt. And it had stopped raining so we got to stroll home and have a quiet night.

Thursday I had class early but during my break Devon met me to explore the catedral. For some reason I hadn't imagined it being as large inside as it turned out to be. It was a pretty simple cathedral so I liked it a lot. There were some pretty cool (and giant) illuminated manuscripts inside that I feel like should be better displayed and cared for but oh well. So that was a nice little visit to break up my day. That afternoon after siesta time we went up to Campus Cartuja together and Devon got to watch the sunset while I had class. It is actually a pretty stunning view, though I felt bad about having to go to class for an hour and a half when everything in the city is open and fun. We got tapas with my friend Kate that night and then we got all duded up and went out. Mostly we just wandered from bar to bar in the cold because if we stayed too long we got smoked out. And collected a lot of vouchers for drinks from promoters, which I still have. I did have a proud Spanish moment though; we were in a bar called la flautista that plays fun dancing music and there was a birthday party going on and I offered to take a picture for them since they couldn't get everybody in and they invited us to come join them and it took the guy whose camera it was a ways into the conversation before he realized I wasn't Spanish myself. Yay. Plus we got to dance and hang out in the general vicinity of a Spanish birthday party which was kind of the highlight of my night out. Eventually we got tired so we called it a night but I had a good time at least. The thing about going out here is that you come home smelling of smoke and having to wash your hair immediately. So it can be a bit much. We slept well that night.

On Fridays I don't have class so we got up relatively leisurely and then headed up to the Alhambra to see if there were any tickets for that day. We got some for the afternoon and went walking around. After lunch we had to hurry to the bus station to get MARCUS! Run him to his hostel, and run up to the Alhambra. We just barely made it in time for our visit to the Palacios Nazaries, but we did it. It's weird that Devon and Marcus met for the first time in Spain but hey it works. I'm not sure how much they got to know each other but at least we all got to go see the Alhambra which is obviously great. We had pretty weather, though a bit cool, but so sunny :-) After the palaces we got to go out and walk through the garden of the Generalife which is so pretty around sunset. I think that and a good pot of tea at the teteria was a good way to end Devon's visit. We also procured an extra bag for her to check and carry some purchases and some of my things home. Mom and Dad had better invite her out for a nice dinner sometime soon - there are olives in that bag that I think have their names on them ;-) So we had to get up early Saturday morning to get Devon on the airport bus. It was such a good visit for me and I hope she had fun too.

Pictures:
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017686&l=6ee1e&id=4602556
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017701&l=30df5&id=4602556

So I'm going to pause here on my blog and hopefully tomorrow I can tell you all about Marcus's visit here and our trip to Bruges which was marvellous :-) Tonight I'm going out with a friend to a jazz concert here in Granada so I should get some homework done before I head out for that :-( I'll update again soon I promise. <3>

Now blogging to you from Athens, Greece

2007-10-22T05:37:00.000-04:00

Hi all!

I just thought I should get a bit of blogging in while I'm in an all new country. My travels here went very smoothly, thank goodness, so I made it to Athens on Friday at around 2. I had way too much fun being on Alitalia and going through Milan - the French guy next to me thought I was Italian since I spoke to the crew in it so that pretty much made my day. So multilingual haha.

So once I arrived in Athens Marcus picked me up at the airport and we took the Metpo (metro - oh silly greek letters) to a stop at the bottom of the hill where he lives. And dropped my stuff off. And since the weather was really nice out we went to the Acropolis but only got to see the bottom section of the hill where the theaters are and cool ruiny things like that. And Marcus splained me stuff. We would have gone up to the top but they were closing really soon and we wouldn't have had time. But we wandered around and saw some things from the outside like the temple of Olympian Zeus and lots of Hadrian's stuff (he was pretty big here) and eventually made it back to Marcus's apartment. Before dinner we climbed to the top of the hill and caught the view of the Acropolis at night which is pretty breathtaking. They have it all lit up and the city stretches forever in every direction.

Dinner was really fun since all the roommates and Jess and her roommates made a stirfry that was actually rather yummy - who knew the boys could cook? - and then we stopped over at their neighbor's for a few minutes. That was less fun since the one girl made me a drink that was evil in a glass and I had to dispose of it down the sink and make a run for it, but it was all better since we went out for crepes before calling it a night. Luckily Marcus has a cool bunch of roommates and they mostly get along and all.

Saturday we decided to do the sights since it wasn't raining as such when we got going. So up to the Acropolis we went! It was really amazing. I mean, you know, it was ok. I can't believe that the Venetians blew up the Parthenon back in the day. Silly Italians - what can you do with them? I'm really glad that I'm not injured or disabled and in a wheelchair because the handicap access is a pulley type system that they hook your chair to and pulls you up the sheer face of the hill. It seems like it would be terrifying. So don't do Athens if you're in that situation.

We went down and saw the Agora, at which point it started raining in earnest and we took shelter in the Stoa. I really enjoy that in these incredible monuments they allow stray dogs too shelter and live. There were several dogs just coming in out of the rain, watching tourists examining the sculptures and waiting for a break in the storm. It didn't actually rain that long so afterwards we were able to see Zeus's sweet temple and Hadrian's Library and things. It rained on the walk home and we stopped for pizza. Yay pizza! I've been missing pizza. And from that point on it rained all night - we got drenched during the few minutes from the pizza place to Marcus's apartment, and we had to walk up through a raging torrent so my poor little shoesies are still drying. When we got home we just hung out with his roommates and watched a movie because it just didn't appeal to us to go out in the rain and the cold.

Yesterday we went to the Archaelogical Museum. It was spectacular. I have a bajillion photos and probably at least half of them have little bronze horse figures in them haha. But I learned a lot to - like how to tell the difference between Zeus and Poseidon, and that the pottery with black figures is older than the pottery with red figures. It's just surprising that so many pieces have survived as long as they have. Really beautiful stuff, too. So it took us a while to get through there. Then we went to Plaka to get me some souvenirs. :-) It's really cute but really touristy there. One of the Greek men in the shop told us that basically every language ever came from the Greek. It was pretty hilarious. Marcus the linguist was of course like "No." So clearly we made a good friend. For dinner we went to a little restaurant that had good Greek food. Mmmmm Tsatziki.

Last night I started feeling a little sick so this morning my big adventure was going to the Phamacy and getting some antibiotics and pain relievers for my fever / achy muscles. It was a bit of an ordeal since the pharmacist didn't realy speak English, but she called her friend who helped translate. It was so much easier than waiting to get back to Spain and going to a doctor and all, though. And right now I feel much better. Marcus is in class right now, it's a pretty but windy day out, and I'm chilling in the student union waiting for him to get out. Later he tutors Orestes, a nine year old Greek boy, and I get to come and play with his puppy dog. (Yes, the puppy dog that chewed through the strap on Marcus's bag, I'm sure it'll be a good time :-) So I'll let you know how that goes. Talk to everybody soon and wish me luck on my travel 'home.' When I get there Devon will be there to visit! So I always have something to look forward to. And I'll get some pictures up when I get back to Granada. Chao!

Salamancanating

2007-10-15T10:34:00.000-04:00

Last week was nice.

I had success on the University class front. They decided on a professor and he is really nice and seems like he'll be pretty accommodating regarding us silly americans and our semester schedules being different. A friend of mine who is in my grammar class picked up Arte de Asia Oriental too so we're going to go see him during his office hours and get clarification on what we'll be expected to do for the semester. But he seems like he'll be very helpful and our lectures were pretty interesting. Also and probably more excitingly I made Spanish friends! I hung out with them before class on Thursday and it was really fun just to talk. Their names are Jose and Mariana. And Jose decided it was important for me to understand how cool Mariana's name is and told me the whole story of a revolutionary woman from Granada who has a folk song written about her. She fell in love with a soldier who turned her in for her republican ideas and they killed her. But she could have turned in all her friends. But she didn't. That was my story time, and I just can't think of anything more Spanish than that; it's a song, and a love story, and a tragedy, and it involves execution, and politics. Yup, very Spanish.

So then at kind of the last minute I decided to go visit Casey in Salamanca. And it was wonderful. I took the bus to Madrid and then the train to Salamanca. It was a long day of travel to get up there but definitely worth it. I got to meet Julio and her other buddies up there. And I got to stay in a Universidad de Salamanca residencia. They apparently rent out extra rooms as a hostel, which was really confusing when we arrived, but it worked out really well. So Julio and Casey picked me up in automobile (yay! I walk everywhere) at the train station and took me to check in and then we went to the historical center and saw beautimousness. There was a very cool cave thing under the site of an ancient church and a place to climb up out of it and get a view of the city.

Casey and I were generally silly. Which encouraged Julio to call Casey a Furby, and speak in English, which Casey cannot handle. It was very fun, and Julio had just bought a digital SLR like mine except a Canon and so we had dueling cameras. We walked around the two cathedrals there that stand right next to one another. One is the old cathedral from the 1200s and the other is the new cathedral ... from the 1500s. As you can imagine it is incredibly modern and high-tech. Haha. Actually, joking aside, there is an astronaut carved in the stone next to door of the new cathedral. You can check out my pictures if you don't believe me. Maybe aliens did it (sidenote: Today in Spanish class our vocabulary exercise was reading these unsolved mystery stories, and one of the possibly explanations for the Nazca Lines in Peru is aliens. Like it was one of the proposed ideas treated in a serious manner by the article. Like our teacher actually wanted to know if that's what we thought. Where am I?)

Back to Salamanca. So we cruised around town. Had some tortilla and later a little cena at el Yunque. In the Plaza Mayor which is gorgeous at night I was looking a dog being all doggy-homesick and it's mom offered for us to get our picture taken with her dog. It was fun and adorable and completely random. We went to an Irish Pub to hang out for a little bit but Casey and I called it a relatively early night. She called me the next morning from outside my dorm and I wasn't awake because my alarum decided to get itself all switched up in my bag on the way. Oh well still got a pretty quick start to the day. We had churros mmmmmmmm and fresh squeezed orange juice for breakfast. Then we were naughty. Casey forced me :-P to go shopping. It was bad ... but so good. We hit up H&M ,which I don't have in Granada, and Zara and other places of temptation. I'm obviously so hip and with it now.

After shopping we went to Casey's homestay, minus her family who were out picking mushrooms. We got lunch at the supermarket and took it to the Plaza Mayor to eat. It was a delicious and beautiful lunch. And we sunned ourselves a bit. And digested. And then we walked down to the old Roman bridge (1st century) and I came face to face with Lazarillo de Tormes. He's a fictional character from a book I had to read for Spanish class in highschool, and he's from the banks of the Rio Tormes which goes through Salamanca. Stupid kid.

We wandered around a bit and went into the new cathedral (and kept finding weddings in which we could awkwardly be in the back of pictures) and then we went back to my place so that I could change into my evening attire and we could get off our pies for a few minutes. Then we met up with Mario, Antonio, Julio and Jose (de siempre) and meandered but they had a botellon to be getting to so we went out for Sangria and Mexican with Ashley, one of Casey's cool Salamanca friends. It was a fun time, until the next morning when I had to get up wicked early to make my train. Happily Julio drove us to the station. My trip home went smoothly except that the train coaches were out of order and repeated so that half of everyone's seat numbers didn't exist and people here apparently have moral qualms about sitting in a seat other than the one to which they're assigned so it was impossible for me to stick with one seat for the whole ride. I had to switch about four times because people were still trying to figure out where they were supposed to sit.

In Madrid I had perfect timing. I got off the metro and went into the bus station and got on the next bus that left in 5 minutes. The video selection on that bus trip was amazing. Not necessarily in a good way. They played The Punisher? (El castigador) which was uh violent. Then we got our kids film with Ice Cube and two obnoxious kids and they're beautiful mother. Then we got Cast Away with Tom Hanks. We saw the first ten minutes or so about 500 times because they couldn't figure out how to get the Spanish dubbing to work. When they did everyone cheered but me, and we got to the station in Granada maybe half an hour later so it still seemed a little fruitless.

At home Amalia had me to dinner so it was nice that I didn't have to go out in the thunder storm that arrived shortly after me.

Today I had class and then I talked to my grammar professor and we worked out some things to do so that I'm not bored. She's going to bring me some short stories to read and comment on which I think I'll like. And stuff like that. Then I put in an hour of work study with Eva, who liked my 5 euro skirt :-)

Tonight I'm going to study for my art midterm and do studious stuff like that,

although I will go out for a paseo in a little while.

Oh and pictures!

http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017298&l=efde0&id=4602556

http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017302&l=9fd78&id=4602556

Because on the Spanish bus website you get to 'Select your destiny'

2007-10-09T07:50:00.000-04:00

I have had rather a lovely weekend.

On Friday I went to Jaen with Lauren and Scott. Well actually I went with Lauren and then Scott came on the next bus. But it worked out - while the two of us waited we found maps and cased the joint. And found a park with swings. Jaen is the olive producing capital of the world, a fact that has made dad rather happy (guess what I picked up there ;-) And our big excursion was up to Castillo Santa Catalina which we decided is the chulo castle. There were really gorgeous views and of course cool dungeons with a Napoleonic prisoner - what else? The weather was beautiful and we wandered around the city pretty nonchalantly until nightfall when we ran into an army (?) band in the park. Then we went home. It was really the perfect mostly relaxing Friday and we only got the idea the night before. Yay spontaneity!

The next day was Cordoba. Great city. We had to meet the bus at 7:30 in the park and there were a good few of my fellows who never went home from discotecas the night before. Oh silly college children. However ungodly an hour it was I thought it was really pretty watching the early morning sun from the bus window. I think everyone else was asleep though.

Our first stop was Madinat al-Zahra which is an old ruined city jut outside of Cordoba where the caliphs lived. It was a shame that a lot of it has been carted off to build other palaces mostly in the north of Africa - apparently people thought it was a really powerful dynasty so they wanted pieces of it. There were some really awesome arches and things, though. And lots of pretty palm trees.

Then we got bused to Cordoba itself and had time for lunch. Staci, Nichole and I found a restaurant near the mezquita that was really amazing. Mmmmmm. So we took our time and eventually got back together with out giant IES group of overwhelmingness to tour the mezquita, which was just as cool as I remembered it, although this time the big cathedral stuck in the middle of it was closed for refurbishment. The original section of the mosque was built in just a year because they just brought all the materials from other sites - all the columns are different and some have to be driven into the ground or have headers and footers added to them to get them to all be the same height. I think it's one of the coolest buildings ever the way it reflects the Spanish experience. I also can't really believe it survived all the religious turmoil. I guess it's just too beautiful.

We also saw the alcazar of the city which was less than awesome inside just because it was turned into a prison during the inquisition and remained one for quite a while. However, the gardens were stunning and a very nice way to end the day in Cordoba.

That night in Granada I went out with Lauren to a salsa club called Mi Habana and that was very fun. We met up with some other people from IES there and just had a great time dancing. And I wore my new shoes and they didn't hurt my feet at all!

So Sunday I slept in which was lovely. I did basically nothing but a little homework. And went for a stroll and tapas with Kate, Katica and Jen. (Jen and/or Staci and I might go riding together sometime at that place I found out about before! Gotta get that organized I guess)

Monday I had school. And my Spanish teacher noticed I was bored in class (I wonder what gave it away?) So we talked about it today and I'm going to write out ideas about what I need and she'll give me some extra stuff to do. And I also got a lot further with my Islamic art paper, so hopefully I can finish it up sometime soon (it's due next Wednesday but I'd rather not have to worry about it). And last night I had so much fun going out to a teteria with Lauren and Brian. I got hot peach tea :) which may have to become a habit here, perhaps even an addiction. And we talked late into the night, none of us wanting to venture out into the cold (just kidding - we didn't want to go home and do homework).

So generally speaking a good time was had by all this weekend.

I'm too lazy to put in a bunch of pictures but here are links to my facebook albums so that you can see just how pretty this Spain place really is!

http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017135&l=0c590&id=4602556
http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017136&l=21430&id=4602556

Unas Cosas

2007-10-02T10:19:00.000-04:00

It's October now, and I think it's going to rain this afternoon / evening. Just in time for my first clase at the Universidad. I was adventurous yesterday and bought a bus pass so that I don't have to climb the giant hill up to Campus Cartuja where the Facultad de Filosofia y Letras is. Found my classroom and stuff. The campus is really stunning, the building I'm in is neat because it houses the Philosophy Department and languages so it has a bunch of cool, relevant art in the halls. So I'm excited to give it a try today. It's a little nervewracking though. Have to go talk to the professor after class and all that stuff. So wish me luck!

Yesterday I also bought a pair of shoes - it was exciting.

And I found a place to study when it's nice out - it's a beautiful courtyard that actually belongs to a hospital but it's really quiet and warm-colored and there are palmtrees in it.

And I found a tack shop downtown...where I may or may not have to get myself a present. The guy there gave me the name of a riding center that you can get to by bus so we'll see, I may be able to get my horse fix some afternoon.

And I talked to cousin Devon and she might be able to come visit in a couple of weeks!

And that's about all I did on the 1st of October other than stroll around and get a fanta. It was a gorgeous day yesterday whereas today is gray gray gray. Not cold or anything but I know the clouds are just out there waiting for me to be walking home from the University this evening (yes, downhill it's not so bad haha).

Lastly I would like to cordially invite you to send me mail ;-) My address is:

IES Granada
Kathryn Grant
C/ Pisas, 2-2^0
18010 Granada

That's all the cosas I got right now so hasta la vista!

A View for You!

2007-09-30T07:46:00.000-04:00

Hola. Yesterday Kate and I climbed up to the mirador across from the Alhambra. It was gorgeous. Look:

Yeah.

'What does Washington Irving have to say about this?' you wonder...

How difficult to reconcile the ancient tale of violence and blood with the gentle and peaceful scene around! Everything here appears calculated to inspire kind and happy feelings, for everything is delicate and beautiful . . . My delight would be to lean over the parapet of the tocador and gaze down upon Granada, spread out like a map below me, all buried in deep repose and its white palaces and convents sleeping.

Well that's what he would say.

It really is quite the view and since it was Saturday there were lots of people out and about. The mirador was full of people hanging out and some guys were playing guitar and singing flamenco songs. Nice ambiance. Then we got some smoothies which were so good I may be forced to make that trek frequently, at least until the stand closes down for colder weather. And on the way back down we passes about 5 million weddings. Apparently its the perfect time of year for Spanish weddings - they have all summer to plan and they clearly do it right. So it was a very festive meander down the hill.

Last night I went out for tapas with a little group of IES kids. I got my first really really good shawarma (which I also now know how to spell). It kind of reminds me of a fajita but with different seasoning. Mmmmmmm. We hung out for a while talking and stuff. Eventually ended up at churros but I just got some tea because I was stuffed with shawarma. (Isn't it a great word?) Then I headed home because it was late and cold out.

This morning I got up and headed downtown. I wanted to go see the modern art museo, but when I got there it was closed until they finish putting up their new exhibit on the 4th. Bummer. But it's not like I won't be there so I guess it'll be ok. Because it's Sunday there isn't really anything open except the touristy stores so I wandered around in the maze of the Albaicin for a while. You should be really proud of me though because I fended of gypsy women like it was my job. Seriously I've gotten really good at it - I could give lessons.

Now it's almost lunch time. There's a bullfight in Granada today but I sure ain't going. So it's been a nice relaxing weekend. All ready for the school week and still making travel plans. I think I'll make another album on facebook so when I do I'll post the link on here. Let me know if it works :-)

http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016919&l=d8dbc&id=4602556

¿Donde puedo comprar un bigote falso para mi perro?

2007-09-29T07:09:00.000-04:00

Fortunately the title doesn't have anything to do with mi vida espanola...at least not yet. I just thought I would give my English speakers a taste of some obviously key Spanish frases and liven up my quiet weekend.

So far today I've just been hanging out at home, although later I'm going to meet up with Kate to go for a walk up to a mirador (apparently sweet views of the Alhambra and the city), write out our propuesto for grammar class, and eventually end up doing tapas somewhere.

(Plaza Nueva right by IES. Good place for a paseo and tourist watching. Also it's where a lot of the hippies hang out.)

I'm pretty excited because I think I've finally figured out which class to take at UGR. It's called Arte de Asia Oriental. I know, right? So Spanish. But really I think it will be a very interesting perspective. Plus that combined with my Arte Islamico class will finish up my distribution requirements back at Bowdoin. Always a plus. So that class would be on Tuesday and Thursday from 6:30 to 8 in the evenings and it fits with my schedule well that way. I'm excited to meet Spanish students and also Erasmus students - they're from all over the world, mostly Europe, and I want to meet some Italians so that I don't lose l'Italiano (not that I have to worry about that apparently, as Casey can attest I ordered dinner in Italian when we were in Madrid, o dios mio).

The other thing on my mind right now is where to go. I want to take advantage of being here, ya know, closer to all of Europe than at most any other point in my life, but really my number of weekends in dwindling. Next weekend there's a class trip to Cordoba which I'm excited for since I know how beautiful it is there and we won't just visit the mesquita/catedral like I did last time. That's on Saturday all day, so I'm trying to figure out a day trip for that Friday. I have a few ideas but I think I'll ask around at IES for ideas + a couple of people that might like to come. The weekend after that (12-14 October) is free right now so I'm thinking I'll go to Barthelona or maybe al norte. Then the 19th through the 23rd I'm going to Grecia. Yay! Marcus and I have breaks about a week apart so he'll come visit me a few days after I get back from Athens and then we'll go *somewhere* the 1st through 4th of November. That's the one that's stressing me out because I've had a hard time finding good fares to anywhere. After that the only other plans I have are Morocco with IES from the 29th of November to the 3rd of December. Guess I need to get plans together for those other weekends! Any ideas?

Some things I'm loving about Granada:

The Alhambra, tapas, playing name that tourist, dogs everywhere and their hippies, the paseo, my walk to school, no pasa nada, that it's a small enough city that I run into people I know, Plaza de Bib Rambla with its florists and street performers, Zooey welcoming me home, the lisp + not pronouncing the end of words, waiters that either don't care at all or care too much, most of Amalia's lunches, helado everywhere!

(Parque del Triunfo - It's on my walk to school)

Having said that I do have my moments of homesickness and Bowdoinsickness. I mean you only want to walk around by yourself for so long, and I've made friends here of course, but there are a lot of people that I guess I don't really connect with or haven't gotten to know yet. That's just part of studying abroad though and it doesn't really bother me. All in all I think the city is great and that classes are interesting and that I'll have fun.

Yeah so not much else to tell. Last night I ran into Katica on my paseo and we found a modern art museo downtown by the catedral so I may go visit it tomorrow. I'll toss in a few pictures from around Granada. Hope you enjoy!

(I like this fountain - it's down near Corte Ingles i.e. close to school)

Siento como un pulpo en el garaje

2007-09-25T09:59:00.000-04:00

Hello, hello!

I thought I would put up a quick update during my siesta today so that K pasa doesn't start feeling neglected. Things in general are going really well here. Last week I had an adventure hiking up to Cartuja - one of the University of Granada campuses - just to find that I'd been sent on a wild goose chase. My IES errand was to pick up student guias from various facultades. They aren't however available until the 1st of October so that was a little silly. I didn't mind though because I got to explore Granada and I have now made a total of 14 euros which isn't too shabby (I also spent an hour decoration the student lounge at the IES center).

School is still in its easy startup phase. Things should get rolling and then I'll feel more like myself - all this free siesta time may be lulling me into a false sense of security. So far I can't really imagine what it will be like to have papers and tests to deal with here although I know that it's coming. Right now I'm more worried about traveling. Yay study abroad!

Speaking of traveling, over the weekend I went to Madrid. It was quite a nice trip - I met Casey there! so we had some Bowdoin time other than what I get from the 5 other Bowdoin kids here in Granada who, bizarrely, I have barely met before even though our school is teensy. So Early on Friday morning I walked to the bus station and got caught in a storm. I made it, a little worse for wear though, and took a 5ish hour ride up to the land of madrilenos. It was surprisingly easy to get to the hostel via the metro. And oh what a hostel it was. But it was cleanish and seemed pretty safe so I guess I can't really complain. Casey met me there and we adventured to the Parque del Retiro that afternoon and lazed in a rowboat for a while and walked around and had dinner. Saturday was our busy day - we did the Palacio Real, the Museo Reina Sofia and the Prado - all excellent choices. That night was la noche en blanco, a festival, but after we ate dinner it started raining so we pretty much called it a night in hopes of not getting sicker. It was a brief trip but we fit a lot into it. Casey got to scoff at the Plaza Mayor because she's a Salamanca snob. I got to revisit great Goya moments of my youth. All in all very good. There were a few other kids from IES Granada in the city that weekend and it was nice since I was on the same bus home with a few of them. My good pictures are pretty much all in an album on facebook so you should be able to check them out by clicking this link:

http://bowdoin.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016789&l=d4f37&id=4602556

(I hope...)

And that's about it for my adventures. Sunday night I got shwarma for the first time - it's a Turkish kebab type dish served in pita...I may be addicted. And last night I went to tapas with Alexis and Wick at Plaza de Einstein which we agreed was tragically lacking in a large bronze bust replete with crazy hair. Classes are no problemo as of now so I'm kind of excited to get into the thick of courses... and figure out my U of Granada class. So at least I can still stay busy. I guess that's all folks. Enjoy the beginning of fall!

Empieza la vida granadina

2007-09-18T09:14:00.000-04:00

Hola a todos! It's taken me a few days to get back on here - let's just say I've been busy. We had a nice field trip to Ronda, Sevilla, and El Torcal this weekend so I have some pretty pictures to share. Right now it's siesta time - one of the best things about Spain - and I'm in my room getting organized with my books and everything. Later I have to go on an errand, but we'll get to that.

So...field trip. We all got bused to Ronda on Friday and swarmed out en masse which kind of overwhelmed the little town. It was a cool place because a river has eaten a huge ravine right throught the middle of it and it's up on a hill so the views were really pretty. We saw some banos arabes (by the way I don't know how to get accents and tildes on here so you'll have to suffer on without them) and the town's bullfighting ring which was built by the same architect as the bridge that crosses the ravine. Apparently Ronda is where modern bullfighting began. Woo? I dunno the thought kind of grosses me out, that and the blood stained sand of the arena. I know it's a tradition that isn't entirely bad, but it's not my favorite.

Ronda:

(1: View of the ciudad, 2: banos arabes, 3: huge bridge over the huge ravine)

From Ronda we were further bused to Sevilla. I really like Sevilla. It's bigger and greener and just a pretty city. But it's also more touristy and expensive to eat and stuff like that. We went out to a fancy dinner that night so it was fun to get a little dressed up:
Me with some of my new friends :-)
The next morning we all got tours of the alcazar there and the catedral. The alcazar is probably one of my favorite places ever. It's just so pretty and I love the mudeja style and the gardens and the fact that the Spanish royal family still uses it:

(P.S. I was the first one to make it out of the labyrinth in the jardin! Haha)

Then we took a little walk and a little snack break and I was happy because I was finally able to really meet a few people and hang out with them. It was also weird because I'd been there with the Foxcroft trip I went on before my senior year of high school so I kept seeing familiarish streets and remembering things we'd learned about it then.

(Cathedral at night)
We toured the catedral, third largest in the world actually, and it was very impressive and all but, ya know, churchy. Kinda cool that Cristobal Colon is "buried" there though:

In the afternoon I went to a museum which was pretty good - had some really amazing art, some evn by Velasquez and some other famous guys, but it got to be way too much Jesus for tired feet to take, so a couple other girls and I went out and got an early dinner of pasta and pizza which really hit the spot (mmmm carbs) and was inexpensive...so we got ice cream too haha.

And our whole group got to see a flamenco show which was quite impressive. It was in a patio with a little stage built in the middle and there was a guitarist, a singer, and two dancers. It was so loud and exuberant and everything! I wish they'd let me take pictures the whole time but we were only allowed to at the end after the costume change into all black, which was elegant but not nearly as pretty.

That was about all we had time for in Sevilla. I went out to a club with a bunch of people that night but I was tired and the music wasn't that fun so a friend and I walked back to the Hotel Becquer and I took advantage of the plentiful hot water and took a nice long shower and got some sleep. The next morning after I got some breakfast I went for a quick walk in the direction of the catedral to get some postcards. Yay souvenirs! When I got back to the hotel it was about time to get on the bus, at least for about 10 of us. The other 50-something stayed to watch a futbol game which I heard was fun, but I didn't want to get back to Granada so late. My bus got to stop at El Torcal which is a mountain / really big hill with amazing limestone formations at the tope where we hiked around and picnicked. It was really gorgeous there but cold - I had to get out my sweater!

It was good to get back to Granada and get collected for the first day of classes and go out for cheap tapas :-) Classes yesterday and today have been good. I'm planning on dropping the Lorca class just because I know I'll be taking a University class so I don't feel the need to do course work for it for a week or two and then stop taking it. I do kind of wish I could keep it since it will be interesting but I'd rather take a class at UGranada so oh well, that's the way it goes.

Last night I went out to a fun dinner at a cafe with three friends. They'd been there before and the waiter was really sweet so we got free dessert and it was just a fun time even though I got home later than I'd meant to since I have 8:40 class on Tuesdays. Some older American women were there and they got directions from us to a really hip club - I've never been there but I hope they didn't find it I think they would have been appalled ... although they were rather fond of their vino. Oh silly tourists.

My only other news right now is that I get to help out at the office at IES and like get paid. Woo! 7 Euros an hour! Woo! Haha. But it should be good Espanol practice and I get to run errands. Like this afternoon I get to go to the University and get the student guide from diffent facultades. So that's where I'm headed when I sign off.

Oh and I got a phone so you can call me at (+34) 664 518 047 but it'll cost you ;-)

Well that should tide you over on news about me... Leave a comment cuz I want to hear about home and and everyone else's travels too. Hasta la proxima!

Mission Accomplished!

2007-09-13T13:10:00.000-04:00

(Don't worry I'm not wearing my flightsuit under those words.)

So I have a long story to tell and I probably won't get through it all in this post, but we'll see. So on Tuesday morning the Spanish consulate actually called ME to tell me my visa approval had come in and that I could come pick it up at the Embajada in D.C.. So whoa. Mom and I went down and picked it up and Dad set up my flights and I came home and rushedly ate Chinese take-out and threw all my stuff together (fortunately I had packed almost everything already). Dad took me to the airport and I had a minor crisis with my bag because I was flying standby and they wouldn't check it through to Granada just to Madrid so things got complicated yada yada yada. But the flight to Madrid was fine. They didn't want to turn the lights out for any prolinged period of time, though, and the pilots' P.A. system screeched horribly, so I didn't manage to get a whole ton of sleep. I did manage to start Washington Irving's Tales of the Alhambra, which I thought was appropriate:

"There is something, too, in the sternly simple features of the Spanish landscape that impresses on the soul a feeling of sublimity. The inmense plains of the Castiles and of La Mancha, extending as far as the eye can reach, derive an interest from their nakedness and immensity, and have something of the solemn grandeur of the ocean."

So I like the book so far and when I have time I will get further into it. In Madrid I had to go out through customs and collect my bag and then go check it back in and I thought they would give me a hard time because it's heavier than their domestic allowance but the lady was quite nice and didn't give me any grief over it so yay. I called IES from a pay phone because my supposed international cell didn't get any coverage at the airport that has wifi everywhere and everyone else I saw was talking on their phones, lording it over me. Haha.

I had to wait awhile for my flight but It was only an hour long so I got to the Federico Garcia Lorca Aeropuerto en Granada at about noon-thirty and trudged inside and waited with a bajillion other people to get our bags which had to overcome a few power outages to get inside and then came in on the wrong belt. Silly Spaniards. I'm glad now for my bright red case so that I saw it. Then I had to get a taxi. The taxista had to look up the IES neighborhood and then he took me there and I think when I was paying him I sat my barless phone down and neglected it. So I am without phone and even more without a working phone, but one way or another I plan to remedy that situation soon. One of the ladies at the IES center called the taxi people for me so if they find it I'll get it back. Obviously I was off to a smooth start.

Next I got introduced to a bunch of people and had to dig out my Espanol immediately. Luckily my roommate Alexis is pretty much one of the most helpful people ever and she showed me home and I met my host sister Ana Rocio and her puppy Zooey (or Thoey if you want the appropriate lisp). I didn't meet my host mother Amalia until today since she works a lot but all of them are really sweet - Zooey comes and visits me in my room and eats at the table by the way. After we ate some yummy soup and salad and fruta I took a nap and then I went to Spanish class (not an official one - it was set up for orientation and practice) and felt like I was going to die even though it was pretty cool since Fabiola, the profesora, got a friend of hers to give a bit of a tour of the University of Granada's library for all their historic literature (I believe it's all books printed before 1800) and it was in a really cool old palace / temorary insane asylum. Excellent.

Alexis walked me home from the Parque del Triunfo (triumph of the immaculada concepcion, by the way, not just any triumph, duh) and I got online for a little while and talked to Marcus for a bit and Casey - who is obviously saving my life because she's all settled in (even though she's in stupid Salamanca, gosh) and it's so good to know that one day I will also feel at home and like know where I am - and my parents and I chatted and got the puppies Bonnie and Scarlett up to the screen to say hello, but they just mostly looked confused. Then I slept. I was tired enough that I didn't really have time to notice the new night noises.

Woke up not feeling too great - kind of feverish and runny nosy. But I feel a whole lot better after today. We walked to the IES center which is a little bit of a hike - about 20 minutes - but I think at the bare minimum I'll be able to get to school and back. Had Spanish class for a little while then a random oral exam with people I hadn't yet met. It was only 10 minutes though so I can't have done too miserably. Then I sat down with Javier, the program director, and worked out my schedule. For some reason they had me in 3 out of 4 classes in English (besides my other course; Spanish obviously) even though I had definitely tried to register for classes in Spanish so I was like no, no, no, no, no. So now my tentative schedule includes whatever clase de Espanol I place into, Civilizacion Islamica en Espana (a history course), Lorca (the poet, literature), The Arab World and the West (IR), and Arte Islamico (which is cool because we have field trips every Wednesday afternoon all around Granada). I'll probably have to drop one of them in order to take a class or two at the Universidad de Granada, but I'm not sure how it works because conferences for that are next week. And finally I took my written placement test which I think went decently.

This afternoon was free so we came home and ate paella (yay!) and I met Amalia and gave her and Ana Rocio their little token Virginia gifts which I feel like they were pleased with. Amalia gave me her tour of their apartment, which is really nice and explained a few things (locks, etc.) and just generally welcomed me and told me to treat them like friends, that they're here to help, and that she wants me to feel at home in her home. It was a nice welcome for sure.

Siesta time was nice. I turned on my computer and tried to do email and stuff but since I was on my bed I decided to sleep. So that was restful. Alexis and I were going to go out and wander around and go in some shops and stuff but it rained and is raining so we decided to do that next week. I do really need to get my bearings in the city so I think that will help. We're also planning on doing a little bit of grocery shopping so that when we have homework we don't always have to out and so that we have snacks and stuff. But that will have to wait until we get back from Sevilla. We have a field trip there and we leave tomorrow at 9 and get back Sunday evening. I'm excited because I think it will help me get to know other kids in the program. Plus sevilla is pretty and I can start my photographic adventure there. Sorry I don't have any pretty pictures to enliven my post yet, I'll get on that. It's just been so hectic and unpredictable that I haven't even taken my Nikon out for a walk yet.

Well I suppose that's all my news for now. I'm proud of myself for getting it all out in one post so I hope you haven't been bored by it. I know it was a lot of ''then I''s and travel complaints and such but now you know all about my first day and a half in Granada. I hope to hear from everybody and I'll try to keep this up and running. In a little while I'm going out to eat tapas or dinner or something so that'll be good. And I have to pack for Sevilla. Wish me luck!

Still no visa...

2007-09-07T11:41:00.001-04:00

...so I'm going crazy:

Mom and Dad are suing the consulate for emotional damages.

Just kidding?

Visa Grumble-wumbles

2007-09-04T23:20:00.000-04:00

So...
I think the nice lady who works at the consulate is tired of my ugly mug by now. Maybe that will encourage her to do all she can to get me out of the country? I can hope.
I wonder if perhaps I look like a scary terrorist or criminal or something and am just blissfully unaware of it, but that seems unlikely somehow.
At least I know exactly how to get into and out of downtown DC now.
People from my program got to Spain today - I'm missing out on time in Malaga and the Picasso Museum which I've already seen so I guess I'll survive...especially if I can head out tomorrow or Thursday.
I'm nervous.

Wish me luck so that my visa grumble-wumbles don't take over.

Summer Stuff as promised

2007-09-03T20:15:00.001-04:00

So I figure I should bring people up to date on my summer before I go traipsing around the world...again. So I started off my summer in Italy for a month taking a digital photography course. It was pretty amazing. I stayed in a little town called Tuscania about an hour and a half north of Rome, met some amazing people -maybe this will help me keep in touch with them a little more - and saw far too many beautiful things. Oh and took thousands of pictures, so I'll try and get a few of them up here. I spent weekends in Venice, Rome, and Florence, so I hit a lot of the big stuff.

I saw Venice with four awesome amici. We squeezed into il camper and took the bus in to a rainy Venezia but it was so worth it. We got a gondola ride in and saw San Marco's and took a water taxi out to Murano where they do the glass blowing. Had an amazing time and someday I'll get back to keep exploring; think the best reunion ever LDM ragazzi!

My weekend in Rome was probably one of the best ever. Marcus was taking classes in Greece and he came to visit during a long weekend he had so we got to do Rome together. We were lucky with the weather and really lucky in that Mom and Dad took care of the hotel so that we could be right in the center of things. We walked everywhere. We saw the Forum and the Colosseum, the Pantheon and the Ara Pacis (two of our favorites), the Trevi Fountain, the cat park obviously, the Vatican (and climbed to the top of St. Peter's), Castel Sant'Angelo and it was just fabulous.

I also went to Florence with one of my new LDM friends and we had a great time, and we did it quickly. We saw the David and went to the Uffizi Gallery. Saw the sunset from the Piazzale Michelangelo, had a yummy dinner overlooking Ponte Vecchio, climbed the Duomo after being plagued by early morning "French" guys and doing some shopping. Oh beautiful Firenze:

So my month in Italy was an absolutely wonderful experience - even though the trip home involved sleeping in three airports. And I headed to Greece afterward for a few days. It was gorgeous...and amazingly hot (as in 120* F). So it was totally beach time for me when Marcus had class. We were on the island of Paros in the town of Alyki which has a really pretty little harbor.

Then vacation time was over. At home I was fortunate to get a job - working at the Samsonite Company Store at the outlet mall. I actually liked it a lot and now I have a job to come back to on my breaks from school. Plus I think having some retail experience is a good thing...and I got a great discount on luggage for my adventures (luggage that's about 10 lbs lighter than the set I have - yay more weight to pack!). So it worked out well. I didn't do as much riding as I wanted this summer - my back's been bugging me a lot and Harry, who I have here for the summer, is just so strong and pulls a lot, making it a little hard on me. Oh well I guess that's just the way it goes.

So that's my summer in a nutshell. Still waiting on my visa to get started on my Spanish adventure. And I'll let you know how it goes! Also I think I'll try to put up some more of my favorite pictures if anyone's interested.

2007-09-03T00:55:00.000-04:00

No big news yet - the most important thing is that I'm still waiting for my visa from the Spanish consulate in DC. I know it sounds like fun. Today I packed. It was kind of exciting mostly because I think everything fits and I won't look like a crazy American kid with a bajillion things in tow. Nervous about getting there late and about my rusty grammar and about my host mom and sister but I know it will all work out. Well this post is really just a test since I don't have much to report - nothing's "pasa"-ing, if you will. But I am poised on the verge of travel:

Well...those aren't my new lightweight Samsonite bags, but you get the idea - I'm ready to roll! Let's hope Madrid agrees.

Oh and if anyone wants to see pictures or anything from my trip to Italy believe me, I have plenty and am more than willing to share. And I'll put an update up about summer when it isn't so close to my bed time. Ok ciao for now then!