Ultimos dias en Granada

Well, I'm in the home stretch of my time here in Granada. Only 5 more days to go... it's very bittersweet. We decided that since we wont be able to see the Alhambra again up close and personal for a long time, we would make another trip there this week. Except this time, we went at night. The Alhambra is incredible in general, but at night it has a totally different feel to it. Also, getting to overlook all of Granada lit up was just wonderful. I am really going to miss it here.

Also, I posted some pictures of Parque Garcia Lorca. This is the park where I like to run/workout. It's a really big park, one lap around is about .6 of a mile. So some friends and I like to walk around there a couple times a week and call it a work out. And not only that, it is a great place to lay out as well. The last couple of weeks it has been between 80-90 degrees seriously all day long. I am glad I will not be here during the summer months, I can not even imagine.

Last Sunday was El Dia de la Cruz here in Granada. It is a holiday that is only celebrated in Granada. Basically, what happens is that people throughout the city each create their own crosses made out of flowers and different decorations and they are set up all over the city. I think it also becomes a competition, because my senora told me that the winning crosses are always up in this one neighborhood. A lot of them were really beautiful, but they were sort of hard to find. That's all for now... I must go study for my last final of Junior year. ha.

Las Alpujarras

One of the trips that our program organizes for us is a trip to Las Alpujarras mountains where we hike for two days. There have been three trips that have gone in the last month and I was on the last one. People had told us that it was pretty intense and that this hiking is not for the fat, lazy american types. Well, regardless of what we are, we were able to do it all and it was great. The first day they told us we hiked a total of about 6 miles up and down the mountains. We got to see great views, learn a lot about the villages and people that live there and enjoy some of the wildlife and natural beauty of the area. We stayed in the only hostel in this little town and we all ate a group dinner there together. The food was AWESOME. They started us off with this wonderful salad, and for the main course i had swordfish. It was very good. Other people decided to get rabbit - and it came in the shape of a rabbit - teeth, eyes everything still intact. It was a little much. However, i tried a piece of it, and actually it did taste a little bit like chicken. ha.

The second day they got us out of bed and onto the trails again by 10 am. This day we hiked a mile high to the top of one of the peaks. It took us about an hour and a half to get up there, and it was tough. For some reason our spanish guide who was in charge of us was not embracing her spanish culture. Spaniards tend to do everything slowly and very relaxed, but this woman was basically running up this mountain, telling us to "venga" (let's go) and would not let us rest or slow down at all. I dont know who she thought she was dealing with, but trying to keep up with her was just too much. Thankfully our program director was at the back of the line, so the majority of us just all crowded around him while she still venga-ed her way up the mountain. Sheesh. However, once we made it up there to the top it was all worth it. The views were beautiful, and at that point you just forgot about how badly you were sweating and how much your legs are going to hurt the next day. (we stretched a lot, but I fear for tomorrow) All in all, it was a great adventure. I would normally never choose to go hiking through mountains, nor would I have that option living in flat Illinois, so I'm glad I had the opportunity. I just wish someone would tell the tour guide lady that slow and steady wins the race.

Semana Santa

Happy Easter! Easter Sunday concludes Semana Santa in Spain with people celebrating and rejoicing all over the city. Semana Santa was really cool to see here. Each day, all day, there would be processions moving throughout the main streets of Granada with people dressed up in robes that seriously resembled the KKK, and carrying big floats with statues of different virgens and jesus cristos on them. I looked it up online, apparently the KKK based their outfits off of the Spanish semana santa robes...not too proud of that one. Anyway, my favorite procession this week was La Procesion de Silencio that happened Thursday night/Friday morning; so basically Good Friday. What happened was that they turned off all the lights in the city, no one spoke, and all you could hear was the sound of this one beating drum as the procession moved along. There were two floats that passed through, one of a vigen and another of Jesus on the cross. This procession was actually really powerful, because it was dark and quiet and it was the morning of Good Friday. It was actually pretty typical for people to be crying as the floats were passing by. Another procession that I saw during the day on Good Friday was also really intense. I noticed during this procession that the people who are underneath the float carrying it, a lot of them don't wear shoes. Also, some of the people walking in the procession would tie chains to their feet and carry those along with them. I asked my senora about this and she said that some people really like to put themselves in the shoes of Jesus during this time, and by carrying the float without shoes and walking all day with chains to their feet, they see this as a way of penance and sacrifice. Definitely a different way of celebrating holy week than in the States.

Easter morning I went to mass at one of the churches near my house and it was also a little different than masses at home. First, they don't do much singing at the masses here. My senora warned me before I went that Catholic masses in Spain are painfully boring and now I can understand why. Even the little bit of singing that they did do, it seemed like no one was really prepared for it because everyone was off and didn't really know what they were supposed to be singing. But that doesn't suprise me, because spaniards really go to the beat of their own drum, so I could see them being totally disorganized in this way. Also, when it was time to go up for communion, what I have always experienced is that you file out of the pew at one end and then after you receive communion you file down the other side of the aisle back into the pew. Well, spaniards do not believe in such order when it is time for them to receive communion. What happened was that it was basically a mad rush up to the altar to where the priest was standing. Everyone sort of ran up there into a big cluster and just waited until they pushed their way to the front. Oh, and then once they actually received communion they would push their way back through the crowd to get back to their seats. My goodness, someone needs to suggest to them a more orderly way of doing this, because it was a little intense. Other than that though, Easter Sunday in Granada has been a good day. A little cold and cloudy today but hopefully the sun will come out tomorrow :)

Portugal

Well, I am sad to report that I have been defeated by the well known spanish pick pocketers. On our way to Portugal this weekend, we were in one of the bus stations in Sevilla and my wallet was stolen. I have no idea how, when, or where, all I know is that one second I just put my wallet back in my purse after paying for our bus ticket, and 10 minutes later when we got on the bus, my purse was unzipped and my wallet was gone. Unfortunately, I had quite a bit of money in there, my liscense and my debit card, but in the long run, I suppose it's not that big of a deal. At least no one got hurt. I just have to give whoever did steal it props, because I have no idea it was happening AT ALL. They are skilled.

Anyway, once we arrived in Portugal, everything was great. The name of the hostal that we stayed at was... wait for it.... The Rising Cock Hostal. Okay, I know you all laughed a little bit inside at the name of the hostal, and so did we. But to justify the name a little bit, the rooster is a very popular bird in Portugal which influenced the name of this hostal. This hostal was great, everyone morning "momma" the woman who owned the hostal got up and made crepes for all the people staying there. She layed out different nutellas, jellys, honey, cinnamon, sugar etc, anything you could possibly want to put on a crepe, she had. What happened was that she had a long table set up in the kitchen, and you would just go sit at the table and wait for her to put a crepe on your plate. It was actually sort of funny, but the crepes for breakfast each morning were amazing!

After filling our bellies each morning we went and layed on the beach and soaked up the sun. We could not have asked for better weather. The water was veryy cold, but it was quite refreshing after roasting for a couple of hours. After laying out all day, we would just return back to the hostal, rest, and then go out. Basically your typical spring break. We had a lot of fun, and we purposefully came back mid-week because this week and in Spain is Semana Santa. The week leading up to Easter all throughout Spain, but specifically in Andalucia, is very important. There are processions and parades that go on all day long where people create massive floats, crosses, statues, and wear religious robes. We will be going out tonight to witness our first semana santa procession.. so pictures on that are soon to come.

Family Visit

I just got to spend a week with the family, and it was great to see them! Even though there was some complaining coming from the boys, they wanted pancakes the whole time, I think we all had a great time together. I picked them, and their 8 pieces of luggage up, last friday and they left early this morning. We spent the week seeing the sites in Granada, eating tapas, and putting our feet into the Mediterrean. Unfortunately, I was sick for the majority of their trip here so I was not as much fun as I could have been, but all that really mattered was that we got to spend time together as a fam. We went to the Alhambra on Sunday and it was a rainy, frozen tundra. The past couple of weeks leading up to their trip here it had been 80's and sunny almost everyday, so I told them to pack for warm weather. Well, to make a liar out of me it was cold and not that sunny at all this week so I think everyone was a little underdressed. But being from Chicago, we can handle 50's. I think my favorite part of the whole week together was just getting to hang out and to play cards as a family. Our current favorite family game is Pinochle, so whenever we had some free time we would play that together. Those are the kinds of things I miss most when I'm not at home with them. But I had a great time with the fam this week, I miss them already, and I am getting excited to be home in 6 weeks :). Thanks for coming and love you guys!!

Barcelona

My 21st Birthday

I am proud to say that I survived my 21st. Last night we started the celebration around 11:30 at one of the Chupiteria's in Granada. Chupito = shot, and a chupiteria is a bar that specializes in all different kinds of shots. They had a big board on the wall that listed shots that they considered soft, medium, and hard. They all had fun names, one of them was even called Chicago which we obviously did. We were at this place for a while - long enough for almost everyone to buy me a different shot. AND while we were there, Lindsay suprised me a brownie cake and chocolate nutella to put on the brownie. Ohhhh it was sooo good! Once it officially became my birthday our little group sang to me and because of that a bunch of other people just in the bar came over to wish me happy birthday as well. It was very nice. Also, every time you buy a shot at this place you get a ticket, and when you are ready to leave you can cash in your tickets for a prize. We had been there for a while, and there was a bunch of us so we had a bunch of tickets to turn in at the end. We were able to get a sombrero and a fan by the time we left!

After that we headed to Hannigans, one of the Irish pubs in Granada. We didn't spend too much time here, but we spent enough time to get free shots from the bartenders, and to make a new friend named Carlos who bought me a rose from a man who was selling them outside the bar. After hannigans we finally went to Camborio - the discoteca in the cave. When we got there, Rosie suprised me with a chocolate moose cake! AND the people at the bar knew it was my birthday so they brought me two more chocolate cakes and free champagne to celebrate. Never have I eaten so much cake in one night in my life, but I am definitely not complaining. It was wonderful. We spent the rest of the night dancing and hanging out at this discoteca and it was a lot of fun. At one point Rosie came over to me and asked me if I wanted to leave. I asked her what time is was and she said 5:44 am. I suppose I had no concept of the time at all last night because I don't know how it got to be so late. So, I decided after 6 hours of celebrating it was time to go home. We took cabs home and I was safe and sound in bed at 6:30am this morning. haha

I slept until about 2 today, ate some lunch, and then a bunch of us walked around Granada. Today in Granada, like the US, is the first day of spring. But in Granada every year on the first day of spring it is like a big party here. People from all over Spain, and my senora said actually from all over Europe come just to Granada to drink and celebrate the first day of spring; craziness. After walking around for a while and enjoying the wonderful weather and just taking it easy, I came back to my room to pack because tomorrow I am off to Barcelona until Monday night. A week from today my family comes... I can wait to see them!