This is going to be long: Ireland, Valencia & Spring Break

So I've been traveling a lot, which is why I haven't really had time to update this, but here goes.

Ireland: At the beginning of March I headed up to Ireland for the weekend to visit my friend Kerry, and to see my other two friends who were visiting, Court & Em.  I left Granada on Thursday afternoon, spent approximately 9 hours in Heathrow then finally met up with Court and Em.  Then we hopped on a plane to Shannon, Ireland where we met up with Kerry.  It was great to see all of them after so long.  We got on the bus and headed to Limerick where Kerry goes to the University of Limerick.  We met a few of her roommates, which was cool, but they were sooooo difficult to understand at first! They all have different accents depending on where they are from in Ireland too.  Pretty much our first night there we just hung out in Kerry's apartment, catching up and coloring some Disney coloring books.  I thoroughly enjoyed the food Kerry was cooking for us, since we actually got to choose what we ate (something I miss about being at UNH). Saturday we woke up early and went into the city part of Limerick.  We went to the milk market that is there every weekend.  It was definitely a typical, cute little old fashioned market (that's a lot of adjectives, sorry!).  They had a whole bunch of booths with homemade foods, deserts, spoons, bowls, jewelry, etc.  We bought some fudge which was delicious. (Real fudge does not exist in Spain, it is more like carmel).  Then we went to get some fish and chips, except that no one was actually willing to try the fish part of this combination, so really we just had chips.  Also delicious.  We walked by some old churches and stuff and saw a castle from afar, but didn't actually go in. We did however go shopping, got filled in on the styles in Ireland-the girls don't actually wear pants, but leggings that are imprinted to look like jeans. Afterwards we went back to Kerry's apartment for awhile and then met up with all her American API friends.  We also made some pancakes, mainly because I've been missing pancakes since I got to Spain.  Sunday we took a tour of the campus, which turned out to be a lot bigger than it looks at first.  It's set up right along the Shannon river, so we got to see a lot of little fishermen's houses. They're really cute and all decorated with pictures painted on the sides.  We also saw the courtyard that houses every type of tree native to Ireland (there weren't a lot..).  Then we went to the movie theater since we were all exhausted still to see Alice In Wonderland in 3D. It was really good, but not at all what I had been expecting, though either way, I was glad to see a movie in english instead of Spanish. Then back to Kerry's apartment, where we met some of her roommates coming home from their weekends and just hung out, playing card games and stuff, trying to understand them, you know. Then it was off to bed early since I had to leave at about 4am to get to the airport and they were planning to take a day trip.  

The trip home: This deserves it's own little bullet. So stressful. First of all, my plane leaving Ireland was delayed by 3 hours, due to faulty breaks that needed to be fixed.  This was NOT comforting to hear on the plane, even though they had just fixed them, the thought that less than 3 hours ago they weren't working was not comforting. So after sleeping in the airport because I was exhausted, we finally took off.  The actual plane ride was fine, and the view of Ireland from the sky is absolutely gorgeous; green fields, white fluffy clouds...Loved it! But we land in Heathrow where I had to get my flight changed, because of course I'd missed my connecting flight, but that cost me a lot more than it should've, so I was quite upset and got home about 6 hours later than I was supposed to. Then the lady at security took away my peanut butter because it's "dangerous". Of course, they let a sharp nail file by, but my peanut butter? Nooooo. So I finally arrived in Granada to spend 36 hours there and head back on a bus to Valencia. 

Valencia: Wednesday morning we got on a bus nice and early and headed to Gandia, a smaller city near Valencia where we were staying during Fallas.  We arrived in Gandia and spent about 3 hours in the city looking at their smaller Fallas.  A falla is basically a huge paper mache statue. It's actually really hard to explain. But the festival of Fallas is to show these off, which many people have been working on for most of the year.  They cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and at the end of the week, they burn them. So we spent 2 days in Valencia looking at these things (there are about 250 big ones and for each big one there is a smaller one, aka about 500 in total). We also got to go to the beach for a morning, although it wasn't quite warm, it was pretty much as nice as the Atlantic in June. That Friday morning we went to a Corrida del Toros (a bullfight).  Honestly, it was one of the most terrible things I have ever seen, and yet I kind of enjoyed it.  I couldn't watch for the most part when they were killing the bull, but it was fascinating to observe the tradition and rituals around the entire thing.  The Spaniards really get into it and there are a lot of procedures that are followed exactly and have been followed for years.  We saw six bulls, and luckily, the most terrifying was the last one.  There was blood everywhere and it was horrible to see. Friday was also the day that they burned the fallas.  We first watched  a little one burn, which was cool because we got to keep some flowers from it (we had to bribe our new friend, Xavi, to give them to us, but it worked out-we have a picture with him). Then we watched the big one burn.  It was very interesting, but honestly, if anything had gone wrong, we'd have died.  They burned it in an intersection between 4 buildings and in every direction, every side street leading up to it, the people are pacted in until the next falla, which is also burning.  The fire department in there in hundreds, spraying water everywhere (on us too), but still, so weird.  Basically it seemed as if the entire festival is a reason to burn things (there were fireworks and firecrackers in the streets all day as well, some of which were thrown by children about 2 1/2 years old). The next day we went to the Ciudad de Artes y Ciencias, which consists of a huge aquarium (the second largest in the world). Then it was back to Granada for a week full of midterms, fun fun. 

I will update about spring break sometime soon, I promise.  It's too much to write about now. 

Sorry it's been so long!

Well, I'm sorry I've been such a failure at updating this.  Lately it hasn't even been because I don't have anything to write about, I've just been so busy I forget to write when I have free time! Let's see, some things to tell:

El Barrio: A couple of weekends ago we went to a concert of a very popular spanish band, El Barrio.  Never heard of them before, but everyone had heard he was good.  And I guess he was, but I didn't enjoy the concert very much.  We were up high and couldn't make out a lot of the words, which of course was difficult since it was in spanish anyway, and we were literally the ONLY ones in the entire stadium not singing along to the songs.  It wasn't bad as music goes I guess, but he kind of seems like one of those artists who is totally more in it for the attention than the music.  Oh well, overall it was interesting to see. 

Arab Baths: On Friday a few of the girls took a trip to the arab baths because we had all gotten gift certificates as part of the program.  They were amazing! Soooo relaxing.  They're sort in a cave-ish sort of place.  I don't think it's actually caves, but everything is all dark and lit by candles with little alcoves and things like that.  There are a bunch of pools with different water temperatures that you move through, one of which is basically a giant hot tub. Then there are these hot stones to lay on, and while it sounds incredibly uncomfortable, they are in reality great! After we had gone through all of this stuff, we got to have massages, which of course were excellent. I was falling asleep on the table-so relaxing! Afterwards, we hit up the steam room and went back into the pools again.  You get an hour and a half to just chill, which was excellent! After the arab baths, we all decided to go out to dinner at our favorite little Italian place (I know, I know, but sometimes we crave things, like garlic bread) so we went out and had a nice little dinner together. 

Alhambra: FINALLY! Saturday we finally made it to the Alhambra to actually go inside! It was absolutely gorgeous.  Unfortunately, the weather decided not to cooperate and it was rainy (of course, since it never stops raining here-ask any of the granadinos though, and they'll tell you it never rains here).  I can't describe it though really..I'll eventually post pictures.  It's one of those things you should really just see for yourself in my opinion.  

Balóncesto: Saturday afternoon we went to see a basketball game of the Granada team.  Fun, not really much to tell..They lost in the last 10 minutes after being tied the entire game. Kind of anticlimactic. 

Así que pasen cinco años:  This weekend we went to see this play by Garcia Lorca, and I have to say, I did not understand a single thing about it! I'm slightly scared of clowns now and think that Garcia Lorca is insane. Yep, that's about it. I couldn't tell you about it because I do not get it. If you have an explanation for me, please, feel free! 

Pictures: #1. The famous reflecting pool at the Alhambra, #2. View of the Alhambra, from another part of the Alhambra-more pictures later, I've got to run to fútbol! 

Cadiz

So I haven't been good about updating this lately...Sorry! Not much new has really happened since I last updated though, other than Cadiz, which I will tell about at the end of this update.  Pretty much my weeks have been the same: classes, homework (very little in reality), meeting people for coffee, and soccer.  However, I do have some random occurrences of fun events to tell about. 

Intercambios: Last Wednesday we had intercambios, which in reality are supposed to be a time for us to learn spanish and meet some spanish people, but they didn't quite work out as Profe had planned.  In the end, we had about 5 spaniards, all of which we already know and hang out with on quite a regular basis (José, Gonzalo, Luis, Pablo, and... Dave's host brother..who's name I  am just now realizing I do not know! But you'll probably hear about these people a lot).  We ended up talking a lot of spanish, but we didn't teach them any english and we didn't get to do it on a person-to-person basis, which is what Profe wants. However, he doesn't want the girls to have intercambios with boys, which doesn't work out since we know more spanish boys than girls and have more girls than guys in our group.. Oh well, he's still working on it. Either way, it was a fun time and we got churros! :) 

Worker strikes: So today as I'm walking home, I'm trying to take a bus, because I live about 45 minutes from the centro, and that is a long walk to do more than once in a day (about 3 miles each way probably) but the buses don't seem to be running, so I decide to walk (because everyone else waiting at the bus stop left..).  So I turn the corner on to Gran Via, and I finally realize why there are no buses.  ALL of Gran Via (and Gran Via is a pretty long road) is filled with people marching with flags and signs and things like that.  So of course I'm wondering what on earth is going on! I finally figured out that it was a protest against the lack of jobs in Spain right now and against older people having to work in the factories and stuff like that because they can't afford to be out of work! It was honestly amongst the most interesting things I've seen here and I didn't have my camera! It was all so organized though, and honestly at first I thought it was a celebration parade of some sort (there's some random Andalucian holiday this weekend) because there was a marching band in casual uniforms leading the way.  Everyone was dressed alike and everything! I guess they're going on a hunger strike for 60 days to protest the way the government is doing things (as we all know, I know nothing about politics and government in the U.S. let alone in Spain).  Very interesting, but I was late, so I just kept on walking.  

And now, the main event ladies and gentlemen: Carnaval in Cadiz!

This weekend was the end of the world famous Carnaval in Cadiz-the spanish version of Mardi Gras.  So of course, not wanting to miss out on this opportunity, we decided to go.  Saturday morning at 12, 4 of us UNHers (okay, more but 4 of us went together) hop on a bus with a group of spaniards to Cadiz.  First of all, the bus ride.  Muy interesante.  Of course they can all tell we're American from about a mile and a half away, so the group of spaniards around us decided to make friends with us.  We tell them where we're from and start talking to them and then one of them decides to get into an argument with us over whether NH or RI is a better state (sorry Court, we argued for NH!) And then they tried to get Anna and I to get up on the microphone and sing along to the music because we knew all the words (I believe it was something by Rihanna..of course we know the words!) And the hilarious event of the bus ride was the raffle.  So we don't really know what's going on because we weren't paying attention/didn't entirely understand the spanish, but they start handing out numbers, so we finally get that it's a raffle and the prizes? Alcohol... So we're all sitting there praying we don't win, because we didn't want it! Pretty sure keeping that stuff in our houses would be frowned upon by Profe and our señoras! So we're in the midst of a group of spaniards who all just want to be drunk and we're all like, let's not win-the first two winners? Anna and Kayla! Turned out to be useful because we traded for donuts with the spanish boy next to us :) I'd say we got the better end! Delicioussss but it was quite entertaining to watch how upset they were when we won..plus we all just thought it was strange that they're raffling off alcohol-that would never happen in the U.S.! And that's it for the bus ride. 

We finally arrive in Cadiz, which from afar pretty much just looks like Miami, and we get off the bus and are just roaming around in a group of people wearing costumes (we went as the seasons-I was summer) because we didn't exactly know where anything is in Cadiz.  However, it was pretty easy to find the main events, since everyone just started walking in that direction.  The main events were occurring on el Paseo del Disfraz (the road/pass of costumes basically) and in the square it leads to.  So we went there and hung out there for quite some time, watching magic shows, flamenco shows and just watching the people go by. There was some wicked awesome costumes: flys with fly swatters (literally, huge fly swatters), a jar of nutella with galletas (breakfast cookies), a bunch of Avatars, and a whole bunch of soccer players (I am in Spain afterall!) Amazing.  We passed quite a few hours just watching people actually.  We also took a trip up to the beach to see the ocean.  Gorgeous, but unfortunately by this time the weather was starting to get bad, so the waves were rough and we could only look over a wall at it.  So we head back to the square to people watch again, where we met up with some people we know from Granada (some UNHers and some people from Alabama).  Pretty much the point of Carnaval is to hang out and listen to music and watch shows while dressed up.  Every once and awhile a parade would go by randomly, just a group of people dressed up in the same costume marching to music.  Overall it was pretty fun. 

And then the rain started.

Downpours! At this point, they start taking down the stages and pretty much, everyone just went to wherever they could that was not in the rain.  First we went to a cafe, and then we got bored of sitting in there, so we took cover in a discoteca, which was fun for awhile, but eventually we decided to head back and find our bus (they were supposedly letting people on early) but we couldn't find it so we spent awhile wandering around.  Unfortunately, umbrellas were not much help and by the time we got back on the bus we were all just exhausted and cold and wet and went right to sleep.  I slept most of the way back to Granada and woke up with our bus broken down at a bus stop 45 minutes away from Granada.  Pleasant. We ended up being stuck there for quite some time and by the time we actually got back to Granada, we all were cranky and just needed to sleep.  Which I did ALLLLL day. And most of Monday as well! Overall, I'd say it was a good experience, but it was one of the most interesting 24 hour periods in my entire life and I would only repeat it if there was 100% no chance of rain! 

That's it for an update! Hasta luego!

Pictures (I have no control over size or where they go, I tried): #1: The four of us with the boy who thinks RI is better than NH (he jumped in our picture).  #2: Me and Anna with the Avatars #3. Amanda and I after walking in the rain. 

Yellow alert for snow?!

So back to the updates on our trip to Madrid! So much to write about!

Friday  night: So Friday night we went to see the musical, 40 el musical.  First of all, Profe had told us two things about this before we came: 1. We did not have good seats and 2. He did not know what it was about, only that it was popular in Spain, amongst people our age.  On number one.  We had HORRIBLE seats, as in, the last possible row in the theater, which you know, that's fine, except that the last possible row in the theater happened to be about 150 yards up in the air on a very, very slanted balcony.  It took awhile before I was able to sit calmly up there.  Secondly, I thoroughly enjoyed the play, but it was quite a bit more taboo than any of us were expecting, especially Profe.  I wasn't sitting near him, but I heard his reactions were priceless.  The play, from what I could gather, is basically about the lives of 6 college or fresh out of college aged kids, and their love lives, put to popular music from both Spain and the US.  While interesting, some of things that happened on stage just should not have happened on stage, but they're a lot more open about public displays of affection here than in the US and I guess that applies to theater as well.  Oh well, overall, it was good and hilarious! 

Saturday: Saturday Anna and I went back to Reina Sofia in the morning and looked at some more of Picasso's work and of course, Guernica again.  After the museum, we went to find Palacio Real, which was a difficult task, as it was not on any of the signs that point tourists places, and it was quite far away from where we started. But after quite some time walking, we found it.  Very pretty, but the line to go in was long, so we just hung out in the gardens for awhile, then headed back to the hotel.  We then left to get some ice cream, but when we came back, everyone else was sleeping, so we were eating it in the halls when Sam came along and we went to hang out with him for awhile, but ended up just falling asleep in their room.  After about 2 hours, we woke up and discovered that it was time to head to the Real Madrid game! We got there quite early, because Profe wanted us to have some time to look at the kiosks near the stadium and observe the mayhem that goes on before a soccer game there. We ended up going out for some appetizers at TGI Fridays.  After dinner, we headed to the stadium and discovered that once again, our seats were quite, quite high.  However, we had a good view of the field.  The game was amazing to watch! I wish I had understood the chants and things, but the energy in the stadium is amazing and there were so many people there too! Of course, Real Madrid won.  

Sunday: Bright and early in the morning (okay, 11am, but early after being at a soccer game that ended after midnight) we got on the bus and headed to Toledo.  I absolutely adored Toledo! It's a very small city, but it's extremely nice and old fashioned.  It's very quiet and there are a lot of tourist shops, but it's just so quaint.  And the cathedral was amazing too! We had to wait for mass to finish before we were allowed to go in, so we went to this nearby restaurant and got paella, which was delicious! I definitely like saffron a lot.  Overall, our time in Toledo was just relaxing and a lot of looking at the city.  Then we got on the bus and headed home to Granada.  It was so nice to be back after so long away, but I was exhausted! 

Monday: I slept most of the day after being gone for so long and sleeping so little while we were in Madrid.  We met up at Cafe Futbol that afternoon to work on planning our trip to Rome, but other than that, I didn't do much.

Tuesday: Our first day of classes! My first class was my history of music class, which I absolutely love so far! Our professor is extremely nice, but she's pregnant so we won't have the whole semester.  However, her replacement is her husband, so I don't think we have to worry to much about that! She was really funny though, and asked us if it was alright if she corrects our spanish when we talk or read, which of course we all want her to do! She also felt bad that we had to pay 5 euros for our books, and we all tried to explain that it would probably cost 20 back home, so really it was okay.  Second I had Maricarmen's class, which is just a UNH class.  She is extremely funny though, and absolutely hates it when we speak english near her, even though she understands it.  We didn't actually do anything in that class on Tuesday except a little get to know each other activity sort of deal, even though we all know each other quite well by now.  After lunch, we all met up again to go to Cafe Futbol and this time we officially planned our trip to Rome! May 6th through 9th I will be in Rome! I absolutely cannot wait, as it is one of 2 trips I have officially planned and bought plane tickets for.  

Wednesday: Second day of classes; not quite as good as the first, but not bad.  I had Spanish Civilization and Culture, which I'm thinking about dropping because the professor is really boring and hard to understand, and the class did not sound very interesting at all.  I'm going to give it a try for the next week though, and then make my decision.  Then we had Profe's class, which wasn't really class this week, just an informational meeting and then Flamenco! I had really been looking forward to my flamenco class because I thought we were going to be dancing and everything, but it doesn't seem that way.  I was a little upset, but it doesn't seem like it will be a bad class at all, except that we have one of those students who thinks they are the teacher in the class with us, and we are all already annoyed with his trying to outsmart the teacher.  Oh well, can't be helped.  

Thursday: Same as Tuesday pretty much, except that I now like my history of music class more now that we've actually started learning some stuff.  After class, I played soccer yesterday since it had been one of the first nice days in quite some time.  All the spaniards were asking where I'd been and didn't accept cold weather as an excuse not to play soccer.  They're quite in love with the sport! 

Today: I slept nice and late and then met up with Anna and Kayla to go shopping, but it was snowing (yes, snowing!) so we went back to Cafe Futbol, where we accidentally met up with Jess.  So we all had some chocolate y churros and then decided to head out shopping because the rain had let up.  However, Granada is still on a yellow alert for snow, which is ridiculous.  Apparently if we hit orange/red alert, people can't leave their houses or something like that.  I find it hilarious though, because we probably wouldn't have even considered today a snowfall in New Hampshire, just a pre-winter rain fall, with a bit of snow mixed in and yet, everyone was freaking out about how their kids needed to be inside and how no one should go anywhere.  I cannot wait to see how it goes over if we really get the snow they're expecting tonight!

That is it for my news update.  Hasta luego. 

You can believe me now Padre

Hello everybody! I'm finally updating, I know it has been long awaited! I've been awfully busy lately though.  I'll start with my trip from Madrid- I don't remember what I haven't updated about from before then, but it probably wasn't much interesting.  

So, our trip.  Wednesday morning we left bright and early- I was awake at 5:45am, walking to meet the girls at 6:40 and getting on the bus at 7.  Needless to say, I slept most of the way to El Escorial.  However, El Escorial was really interesting! It's kind of in the middle of nowhere, and it's this monastery place.  We weren't allowed to take pictures, which was kind of a bummer, but it was interesting to look at.  It had some art in it, some weapons, but my favorite part was the crypts.  Pretty much every famous and not so famous monarchy of Spain is buried there, and their tombs are FANCY.  It was really interesting to see, but also a creepy feeling to know that you're in the same room as some dead people who are incredibly famous (the Hapsburgs anyone?).  Weird feeling.  We didn't spend all that much time there-Profe told us that you could spend days in the library, but I honestly didn't think it was that impressive, since you couldn't really see the books, and of course, you can't touch them. Afterwards, we headed back to the bus and on towards Madrid.  Our first night in Madrid we didn't really do much, since we got there around 7ish.  We headed to Corte Ingles to get some food (we tried to feed ourselves cheaply this entire week).  The Corte Ingles here is MUCH larger than the one in Granada, and we ended up spending about 30 minutes trying to find the escalators downstairs! We finally found them, and scavenged for something good to eat.  It was difficult considering everything has to be cooked, and we later found out that pre-prepared food doesn't actually come cooked, but we got some stuff and we were all so exhausted that we didn't really care.  So we headed back and just hung out in the hotel for the night. 

Thursday morning we woke up and headed down to breakfast, because we had to check in with Profe between 8:30 and 9.  After breakfast we had a few hours, so we explored the city a bit looking for Parque Retiro, which we found unfortunately just in time to head back to the hotel and catch the bus to Segovia.  Segovia was nice, although we didn't spend much time there.  We saw the famous aqueduct, which I did not happen to realize at the time.  After we had viewed it and taken pictures with it I commented about how we should go see it.  I was mocked. But I have never taken a spanish history class that discussed said aqueduct, so I don't think it was that bad, but it's become one of the quotes of the trip.  After that we wandered Segovia, and went to the castle there.  That was also interesting to see, and we climbed up the tower from which you could see absolutely everything! It was an amazing view! While we were up there, someone spotted Profe, so we all waved to him, it was quite a funny coincidence! Thursday night we went out to eat at this nice little Italian restaurant.  I got spaghetti with some sort of garlic butter sauce-delicious! 

Friday was a long day, but incredibly fun.  We woke up and headed to the Prado to see some paintings! It's a huge museum, but a lot of it is Renaissance art, so Anna and I looked for about 2 hours but then decided to leave and head over to Reina Sofia, the other art museum in Madrid.  On our interesting walk over there we encountered several things: the Botanical gardens, a boat in the middle of the street, Dunkin Coffee, a churros place that refused to serve us churros and finally, the museum! We didn't spend much time there either, but we looked at the Dali paintings, and the Picassos, and our goal: Guernica.  I cannot describe how amazing it was to see this painting.  I have learned about and studied this painting in so many different classes, that it was just amazing to see it, but also, it is massive! It has a room to itself and takes up and entire wall.  Anna and I spent about 45 minutes looking and analyzing it, and then decided to tour the rest of the floor.  We returned, looked at it again and then decided to come back the next day.  We then headed back to the hotel to get ready for the musical.  

I am now exhausted and need to get to bed.  The end of my Madrid trip will come tomorrow! I promise! Buenas noches

FYI

Just a quick post to left everyone know that I will be updating with everything new tomorrow night before we leave for Madrid Wednesday morning!

I've already been here 2 weeks?

So once again, sorry about no updates, but there will probably be less from now on, as we aren't quite doing as much interesting stuff, mostly classes.  On Monday we take our placement test for the CLM (centro de lenguas modernas, my branch of the Universidad de Granada) so we've been studying like crazy.  But here's how my week has been:

Tuesday: We had class in the morning, nothing interesting there, just quite a bit of Spanish grammar.  After lunch, we went to Cafe Futbol to study.  We've been there quite a few times, and the waiter definitely recognizes us.  He's really funny though and jokes around a lot.  We're also pretty sure he's tight with Profe, because he yelled at us for speaking English and told us that we need to practice our spanish more! However, we ended up getting  a lot of good studying done, and shared our resources (My Bible sheets from Spanish 3 are going to save quite a few people!).  Afterwards nothing too interesting, just returned to my house and went to bed early, because I was exhausted. 

Wednesday: We had class in the morning and it was cool because at the end we watched parts of the Lion King, to show how many uses of the subjunctive there are in our everyday lives, because we have to do this project which includes searching for uses of the subjunctive throughout the semester.  After class, we were supposed to go to La Alhambra, to see it for real this time, but I guess they didn't call Profe back (they're really bad about that here-tomorrow means in three weeks).  Instead, we went to the movies, because one of the things the program pays for is a trip to the movie theater.  Alyssa, Danielle and I went to see Sherlock Holmes.  Great movie! I would recommend it to anyone.  It was a lot easier to understand than we all thought it would be, which was an excellent surprise.  I can't wait to see it in english though, because I feel as if there were a lot of jokes that just were not funny when translated into spanish. But overall, all of us liked the movie.  However, after the movie we ended up going on an unexpected little adventure.  We always take the bus to go places that are far away, which the movie theater is, so we hop on the number 4 bus, which is the one we take there and supposed we should probably take back.  We knew that it had to go to the other side of town first, but what we did not know, was that it did not go all the way around to La Chana.  So we're on the bus, not really paying attention to where we're going, just knowing that we'll recognize La Chana when we get there, when all of the sudden, the bus driver is telling us to get off the bus.  We didn't quite know what he was saying, and at first didn't even realize that he was talking to us.  But after several times hearing "es el ultimo para!" we finally realized that we had to get off.  So we're in the middle of some random street, and have absolutely know idea where we are.  It looked like the area surrounding Dave's house, so we assumed we weren't that far away from La Chana.  However, we began walking to the main street, and looking at our map and soon realized that we in fact were on the opposite side of the city from La Chana, on the other side of the river.  Luckily, we found a nice woman who pointed us in the direction of the bus stop (we found one, but apparently the bus doesn't stop there) and got on a bus back.  It ended up not going where we thought it was going to go, but we recognized a gas station and got off there.  However, we did not know in which direction we were traveling, so once again we had to ask for help.  We asked this woman who eventually told us that she has lived in the Chana for 40 years! All of us thought she was pretty young, but it turns out that she was 75 I think! All I could understand was 70 something.  However, she thought it was pretty funny that we couldn't tell she was that old, and started to tell us about her kids who go to school in Jaén.  People are very nice here in general.  So that was my Wednesday.  

Thursday: We had class this morning, in which we accomplished absolutely nothing having to do with Spanish grammar, but we practiced talking, which is part of our exam.  I was glad for that, because that is the thing I am the most nervous about.  Also, we have 2 girls who were here last semester and could tell us what the exam will be like, which I believe is going to be a bit of an advantage for us.  

...This post had more, but I couldn't post it for some reason, but I'm off to bed now..Hasta luego!

El fin de semana

So I'm sorry I haven't updated much in the last few days, but really, not all that much interesting has been happening each day, so I decided to wait until I had a few good things to put in here and to make it longer instead of several short posts.  Also, I finally, finally have internet in my room, so I can video chat with people, meaning I have spent a lot of time doing that (I just spent almost an hour talking to Emily).  

Friday: Friday night we went to see La Casa de Bernarda Alba...I did not understand any of it! Well, some, but if it had not been explained to us, I would not have been able to get the general concept, just pick up a few words here and there.  However, that seemed to be the norm in the group, and there were a lot of questions being asked around, as well as awkward giggles after the rest of the theater laughed at some jokes we didn't get.  Even Profe said that he didn't understand everything, so I guess he didn't really expect us to.  Oh well, in general, my comprehension of spanish is getting a little bit better, as is my speaking, but it would be nice to understand people completely when they talk to me.  After the play, we went to this little Mexican restaurant that some of the girls knew about and got some food, since we had to miss dinner for the play (since dinner is anywhere from 8:30-11 here). We had a good time, since it was a group that hadn't really hung out together all that much, so it was nice to get to know some of the girls, especially the two that were here last semester, as they of course, know everything! Then we headed home early and all went to bed because we were so exhausted (12:30am is very early here; kids our age are generally at the discotecas until 6:30-7 am-it's insane!)

Saturday was a day to relax. We all slept late, then the girls met up for some shopping in the afternoon.  I didn't buy anything, but some of the group had a successful trip and got some needed things.  It was fun to actually shop, as we haven't really done much.  We also found an area that had quite a few shops we'd never seen before.  However, we had forgotten that most stores don't open back up after siesta until 5-6ish, so we didn't get to go into all of the stores that we saw.  Luckily, a lot of the bigger ones just stay open.  After shopping we headed home for dinner, then back out later that night for tapas (kind of an accident) and the discoteca.  We discovered the tapas because we went to meet a few of the group's host parents, who all happened to be out at the bar together that night, and we were walking by, so they wanted us to meet them.  It turns out that they had tapas there, so we decided to stay and get some tapas.  Apparently Granada is one of the few places in Spain that upholds the tradition of giving free tapas with a drink, so we all ordered some wine, and the tapas were free! And quite delicious too.  We had tortilla españa (egg omelet with potatoes) and Sam got this cous-cous and vegetable dish because he's vegetarian (there was bacon wrapped around the tortilla, which I just took off) and that was delicious as well, since he let us all taste (sorry to all the nurses out there!).  After we finished, we said goodbye to their host parents and headed to the discoteca.  Well, as I said before, they stay out late on weekends here-we got there quite early! (aka 12:30am) There weren't a lot of people when we got there, so we just had some fun dancing, which was cool.  However, after awhile it got busy and we left at a time considered early (3:30ish am) and went home.  Of course, we all slept late on Sunday! 

After sleeping in, I woke up, and took it slow, just reading and watching tv with my host family.  Nobody really does anything on Sundays here, because everything is closed.  However, us crazy Americans don't like to stay in our houses all day, so we (the girls-you'll see this theme soon!) decide to go to Cafe Futbol for some talking time and a snack.  It was nice to spend time with everyone, once again there were some people I don't talk to a lot there, so I'm slowly getting to know everyone in the group.  After that, I just went home to talk to my family online, for the first time video chatting.  It was great to finally talk to them! Sort of anyway, it didn't really work, but at least I got to for a bit.  

Then today we had class, and then after lunch the girls went out for coffee (here's the theme of the girls going for food-no boys allowed!) But after one pastry shop, we decided we wanted another pastry, and ended up stopping to get another, in our version of a pub crawl, but with pastry shops! Best. Idea. Ever! After that Alyssa and I just went shopping for a bit, and I got a hair straightener and a sweatshirt (to keep me warm in my house!) I was glad to have both of those tonight! I'm kind of huddled around my heater right now.  But now I am off to bed, because after skyping and video chatting for almost 4 hours, I am exhausted! Hasta luego!

More pictures

#1. La Alhambra at night from La mirador de San Nicolas in the Albaicín. If you're ever in Granada, you must visit this place during the day & night-the view is AMAZING! I'll be putting up pictures of the view during the day at some point in the near future, but you can see the entire city from up here, and even out to where all of the windmills and farms are. 

#2. The elementary school right outside my window. I get to wake up to children screaming at recess every morning! 

#3. The graffiti in the Albaicín- we were warned never to walk down this alley alone at night-common sense I'd say! It was sketchy enough during the day with the whole group-some of the graffiti is really creepy, but in general, it's done really well, even though you can't tell that from this picture.  

And now, I'm having trouble making my blog work, so I guess that's it for pictures today! Sorry!

Soccer star? Yes

Sorry that I didn't update my blog yesterday, I know some of you quite enjoy my posts (Dad..), but I was very busy yesterday so I didn't get a chance.  In the morning, class, which yesterday, I have to say, was killer.  We did all stuff I have known forever (preterite v. imperfect) and he went on for the entire three hours without stopping for more than our 5 minute break.  Also, we got moved from our usual room, so we were all shoved into this tiny, tiny little room with really uncomfortable chairs.  Luckily, class today was much better! 

After class, we all headed home for lunch, and then at five to the fields to play soccer.  We were playing and per usual, I was scared of the ball and the spanish boys (they kick SO hard!) and just kind of minding my own business.  Then suddenly, I became a soccer star and scored three goals in a row! Against a spanish goalie! Very proud of that fact! Now Profe says I can play with the professionals next week! (I told him that I probably won't be that good of a player next week, since I never was a good soccer player). However, the rest of the game was very fun and we got to play for the entire hour this time.  Unfortunately, at the end one of Kevin's host brother's, Luis, fell and twisted his knee, so we had to stop about 2 minutes early.  It was pretty bad too, but he's okay I guess.  

Then after soccer last night, about half of the group went out for tapas.  Unfortunately, it didn't quite turn out to be so good.  We went with Kevin's host brothers (I guess there are 5, we know 3 of them because they do stuff with us often) because they would know where the good tapas are (my neighborhood-Barrio Chana), but because there were about 15 of us, we couldn't go to any of the nice places and ended up at this place where we had to sit outside (remember, it's warm here, none of that snow stuff) and the tapas (we didn't get to choose) were like ham sandwiches or something.  After that place we decided to try another tapas bar, where we could sit inside and choose.  Unfortunately, all the choices had meat in them this time too, so I didn't end up eating.  After that Danielle, Alyssa and I headed home for the night.  I haven't done anything today except go to class (which was shorter-I wish we had a few hours in the morning and a few at night, that would make it so much easier to sit through)  but tonight we are headed to see La Casa de Bernarda Alba, which I'm excited about! Hasta luego

Left to right: La Sierra Navada; the view of some important hill from el Albaicín; the view of the windmills from La Mirador de San Nicolas; Mi perro, Luna; Graffiti

That's it for now, but I promise more at some point soon-it just takes forever to get even a few up! 

La Albaicín

Today was also a long day! The days seem to go on forever here because we do so much in one day, by the night, it seems as if my morning was days ago, not hours.  But it was a pretty fun day either way.  Por la manaña (in the morning) we had class.  Once again, kind of boring.  Apparently I should have had such great grammar instruction in high school.  Oh well, the review is good, since I want to do well on my placement test and Professor Chaston is a fun teacher-I want to take one of his classes back at UNH too.  However, I found out that I got into all of the classes that I wanted! I'm quite looking forward to flamenco! (Our dog is snoring like crazy right now!) During class today, we got to meet our other professor, Maricarmen, who will be teaching our literature class starting in a few weeks.  She's a very interesting women, and also seems to be a good teacher.  She gave us an introduction to the play that we're going to see on Friday-La Casa de Bernarda Alba by Frederico Garcia Lorca.  Lorca is one of the well known playwrights here in Spain, for anyone who doesn't know.  I don't really know any of his works, but I was glad to get an introduction, since I think that I will understand the play much better with a synopsis.  

After class, I went home for lunch and finally, FINALLY, something I really liked! We had chicken baked with salt and black pepper.  Delicious.  I ate three pieces, which may have been a mistake, as my señora has started handing me food now.  Hopefully she won't start force feeding me a ton.  However, I was happy because I didn't like the yogurt I had for breakfast today-some weird brand that was kind of chunky.  I had to eat it in class though, which my señora wasn't quite happy about (my alarm didn't go off, and she woke me up when I needed to leave for class, which I don't understand because she told me she'd been waiting for me to wake up, but oh well, at least she did eventually!) , and she kept reminding me to not forget to bring my spoon home.  It was good though, because I got to class on time (earlier than most!) and got to eat a bit later, which meant I wasn't quite as hungry come lunch time. 

This afternoon, Maricarmen took us on a tour of the oldest neighborhood in Granda called the Albaicín.  It was very interesting to learn all of the history and to see the stuff we'd been reading about. Also, we'd seen some of it, but not known the history behind it.  It was quite the walk though-I'm going to have the world's most sculpted legs after being here! After the tour ended, Profe took us all to this pasteleria and bought each one of us a pastry! I'm really glad I'm here with him, as he is one of the nicest people I've met, along with his wife.  I got one of those pastries filled with chocolate-they're my favorite, and this was by far the best one I've found in this city so far! (Pan y Chocolate for anyone who visits Granada-great pasteleria).  

I am very exhausted now.  Walking around the city is tiring, but I know I will at least be VERY healthy when I get home.  Danielle and I decided we're going to start running at least every Sunday afternoon (I believe we have the same schedule during the week, so maybe then too) and we've been playing soccer with everyone too.  I think I posted about that, but if not, oh well, I'll mention it again I'm sure.  We're playing tomorrow afternoon too, and hopefully there will be more people there.  Profe said that we should be a bit more organized and that those of us who don't know how to play will get to practice a bit more, which will be nice! Well, I'm off to bed-hasta manaña!

Fútbol

Today was a very long day for me! I didn't sleep much, because I was trying to stay up in order to talk to some people online, as I haven't been able to at all since I got here.  Then I had to wake up early in order to shower before class.  Showering here is quite a difficult thing for me.  First of all, I've only taken three showers since I got here (not enough for me!), but the other day my señora went on and on about how her daughter uses too much water and leaves lights on and doesn't understand how much it costs.  I kind of took that as a hint to use less water.  However, when i shower, I have to hold the faucet, which causes quite a bit of difficulty in actually showering.  No me gusta.  Also, although I have hot water, the bathroom is cold because if you don't open the window, it's like walking inside of a cloud afterwards and everything gets really wet. Also, no me gusta.  So showering is kind of a pain.  Afterwards, we had class for three hours.  I'm beginning to realize that three hours of spanish grammar each days is going to be a lot for me, but I cannot wait to start my other classes.  I'm just a bit bored, because, today at least, we reviewed things that I've been learning since 8th grade, if not 7th (ser o estar para alguien que sabe algo de español).  Después, we wandered around the city because we have this scavenger hunt to do.  There's a list (and it is quite the list!) of places in which we have to take pictures of ourselves.  It's quite interesting, as we have to discover where all of the places on the list are.  Also, we have to take pictures with people at their apartments.  However, the walk home was a little longer than we had planned and I was late for lunch (oops).  It's always hard to tell though, because them seem to eat lunch earlier every day, even though I get home later every day.  Today, I would have been okay if I wasn't home for lunch.  Okay, that's a lie, because there was ice cream cake for dessert! I made sure that they know I like ice cream, no worries.  But the meal was gazapacho I think, which is this cold tomato soup sort of thing.  I don't know for sure, because it was hot, so it couldn't have quite been gazapacho, but I wasn't a fan. So after lunch I went in search of something delicious to satisfy my appetite for something I actually wanted (I'm not starving or anything, I just haven't quite had anything I loved-like white pasta-in my house, only when I eat elsewhere) and ended up going to this lovely little pasteleria where the lady was extremely understanding that I didn't understand anything she was asking me. Then I headed out in search of Andrew and Danielle so we could head over to pick up Dave (one of the guys who lives the absolute farthest away from anything, but getting a picture at his house is one of our requirements for the scavenger hunt).  It was quite the long walk, and along the way we picked up this nice, but kind of spacey seeming spanish lady.  She was scared of a dog, and walking towards us, so she joined us to get away from it, and ended up just walking with us for about 5 minutes (and never went back in the direction she was originally going).  But it was interesting to talk to her.  After checking picture at Dave's off the scavenger hunt checklist, we went to the soccer fields where we will be playing soccer twice a week. It was extremely fun, even though I am entirely scared of going anywhere near the spanish boys who play with us- they're just way too good! So is Profe though! And a few of the other boys. And they were all quite understanding that I can't handle actually kicking the ball (I'm pretty sure I was the worst player there), but it's okay, because I played field hockey for six years, not soccer. It was fun and a good workout, but by the time I got home at 7 it seemed as if I had been awake for days, not just 12 hours.  I ended up falling asleep while doing some reading, but I woke up for dinner (pizza!).  Now I just have to finish some homework and then I can go to sleep again! Hasta manaña!

French fries for dinner?!

Well, today I started clases! Well, one of the five I will be taking when I'm here.  It wasn't really class either, more a of orientation, but at the end we had a bit of a grammar lesson as well.  We did get to choose our classes though, and if all goes well, I will be taking Civilization and Culture of Spain, History of Spanish Music, and Flamenco and Traditional Musics, along with my grammar class and literature class.  I may end up changing the civilization one, IF Profe can convince COLSA (College of...Sciences... at UNH) that one of the classes offered here should be considered a science gen ed.  I hope so.  It would help me quite a bit, as in I could finish both my majors, but he said that he has asked before with many classes, and generally, the answer is not so pleasant.  Because of that, I didn't sign up for it because I do NOT want to take it if it won't actually count (it's like, health and the environment in Spain-might sound interesting to some of you, but not me). However, I am definitely looking forward to the two music classes! Everything I take here counts towards the seven 600 level classes I have to take to get a spanish major, so it doesn't really matter.  Also, there will be a lot of people in the classes with me, so that's good.  

After class today, I went back home for lunch (pasta, finally!!) and did some homework, nothing too interesting.  After lunch (which is about a 2 hour span for all of us to eat, since no one eats at the same time it seems), a big group, about six of us, met up to wander around the city some more.  We headed over to the Arabic part of the city, where there are a lot of small shops with scarfs, jewelry and stuff like that.  Then we decided that since some of us still haven't tried tapas that we would go in search of somewhere that we could get free tapas with some sangria.  This was much more difficult than you would think! We ended up going somewhere that we thought we got free tapas with a drink, but it turns out, we didn't get tapas and we didn't get sangria, so it was all around a failure.  

Then we met up with some of the boys who had also been getting tapas (they succeeded) to walk home and to visit one of the girls who had been sick for the past 2 days and was finally feeling better.  We met her family, which was interesting. They have such a different dynamic than in my apartment, as we often just all sit around the tv watching it at night (I go on my computer) and my señora doesn't really talk much during the night time, just watches tv.  I guess this is the same for a lot of people, but it was different to see a family with kids.  They invited us to stay for dinner, but we had told our señoras that we'd be home so we left. However, dinner at my house was french fries.  Very different.  Generally, it's soup or something with eggs (she's found out that I like eggs, and has started feeding them to me constantly, as it's the only thing I've really liked so far).  But yeah, it wasn't what I was expecting her to put on the table when she came out.  

Also, I've discovered that I lack any sense of direction.  I thought I was good at getting places, but as it turns out, when you quadruple the size of the city I live in, not so much.  It's a good thing I have people to help me out when I get lost, or who I can follow home. I'm working on it though.  I also found a bread shop on my way to the bus stop that looks delicious! I'll be stopping there a lot. Well, time to watch some spanish television. Hasta luego!

Some interesting experiences

Well, today I had quite an interesting experience with food.  Today Danielle, Alyssa and I (you will hear about them a lot- they live in the same neighborhood as I do-se llama La Chana- and therefore, we tend to go everywhere together) decided to walk around the city a bit more to get to know where things are a bit more, since I have been getting lost like it's my job.  Since we have to be at school early tomorrow morning, we decided to make sure we absolutely knew how to get there.  On our way, we decided to stop at this cafe where we met on our first day to get some sugar (they don't often feed us sugary things at our homes, and as we all know, I love sugar & chocolate).  This is where our interesting experience occurred.  We went in, sat down and ordered.  Danielle and I both ordered types of ice cream that we didn't quite know what they were, but seemed good.  However, when they arrived, we quickly found out that, at least at this restaurant, they put alcohol in the bottom of your ice cream.  Yuck. I don't like my ice cream marred by whatever it was in there.  Also, I ordered something with toasted cream, which I found out is basically just hardened whipped cream.  I can't describe this taste at all, but it was very different from what I was expecting. Very interesting, but at least I wasn't fed rabbit for lunch, which happened to one of my friends.  Other than that, we just walked around, exploring the streets near our school until it was time to head back.  Class are starting tomorrow (we think, it may just be more orientation) and alas, I already have homework to do!

Hasta luego! -Kristen

Pictures

Pictures will come later-I can't figure it out..Lo siento

Orientation Days

So these last few days have been excellent! Last night the entire UNH group met up for churros y chocolate, which of course was delicious! I liked the churros a lot more than I did last time I had them.  Afterwards, we headed over to el centro de lenguas modernas (I think that's its name) where we'll be taking our classes.  We had a bit of an orientation to the program, mostly about the culture shock.  Afterwards, we walked for a bit, so that they could show us where we'd be meeting today and then we took a hike to see La Alhambra at night.  It was gorgeous and we could also see the entire city (you'll see in the pictures).  After that we all tried to head home for dinner.  However, we got a bit lost, and ended up walking a bit longer than we thought it would take (there are four of us that live on my side of the city-it's about a 45-50 minute walk from el centro-generally, we'll take the bus).  Luckily, we all found our way home, it just took quite a lot longer than we expected.  

Today we all met up and went up to the Alhambra, but we didn't see much of it, because we can't get into the parts we have to pay for until Monday, when we can get the student discounts.  However, it's very interesting, but quite a hike uphill.  I'm not looking forward to walking up there another time, but oh well, it's worth it.  We didn't spend much time up there today since you have to pay for most stuff, so we had the majority of the afternoon free to do whatever.  A couple of the girls went shopping.  I haven't bought anything yet but I definitely will. Rebajas are the greatest thing invented! Everything is about 50% off it's normal price until the end of March! Now we're just hanging out until later tonight.  Everything closes on Sunday so I think tomorrow we're just going to be wandering around trying to get to know the city a bit better. 

Granada-My Arrival/First day

Hello everyone! I have arrived safely in Granada, after about 19 hours of travel.  Our flight out of Boston went well, nothing wrong, except that the person next to me with the window seat kept her shade down until we landed, so I didn't get to see London as we arrived.  Other than that, no problems.  In London, all of us experienced our first bit of culture shock, as we were driving down the road and a car came towards on the right.  All of a sudden there was a collective "ohhh yeahhh" from the bus! It's a strange feeling, but they drive on the right here in Granada, thank goodness.  After this, our group separated (we started with 5 of us) and only Sam and I went on to Granada together, but it was still nice to have at least one person with me the entire time.  However, London was experiencing "large amounts of snow" (we'd call it a dusting in New England), so our flight out of London ended up being delayed about 2 hours, after we were all on the plane.  Luckily, I was exhausted and slept the entire time, as I did not sleep so well on the flight over.  However, this meant that we missed our connection from Madrid to Granada and were stuck in the airport in Madrid for about 2 hours.  Finally, around 6pm we arrived in Granada, exhausted, but here.  It took quite some time to find our baggage and we had a few moments when we were worried that it hadn't arrived with us, but luckily, everything did, although my suitcase was a bit dirty.  

My host family is very nice.  I have a senora and her daughter, Anita.  Her daughter is 24, so she's close enough to my age.  And they have a dog, Luna, who is very cute, and nice and small too! The apartment is nice, but some of the rooms, the kitchen especially, are very small.  The hardest part so far as been understanding my senora because she doesn't speak any english.  I'm also learning quite how useless many of the words we often use in spanish class are, and it would be very nice to know my foods better! However, I'm getting by and learning a lot of new vocabulary in the process.  So far, I haven't done much, only watched tv with my family ( a lot of news, but they like House!) and slept quite a bit. I slept the majority of today, as I was so exhausted from the flights and I did not sleep well last night, as it's strange to go to bed when you feel like it's 3 in the afternoon.  But I'm slowly adjusting, and tomorrow will be meeting up with the entire UNH group around 5pm.  

Hasta luego! Kristen