Peanut Butter.

Considering I have made the title of my blog "peanut butter" you can only guess just HOW excited I was when I came across peanut butter at a near store. (Corte Ingles) I was told that they didn't have it because no one here eats it..how do you not? It was unfortunate that I found it the day after National Peanut Butter Day (in the U.S), which I didn't know there was a national day for peanut butter until this past Tuesday. I wish they had as much peanut butter as they do milk here because yes the picture below is a picture of a whole aisle of milk. The other side also was stocked with milk.

Besides that, our group when on a tour of this beautiful garden called Carmen de los Martires. When you first walk in there's this white building that you can rent out on weekends. Dani, our CEA leader/ my new bf, told us it was only 3 million a weekend to rent because that's like not a lot of money or anything.

The garden <3

There were peacocks everywhere which means there was also poo everywhere. ew. Which were all pretty used to skipping around on the streets because everyone in this city owns a dog and they have yet to learn how to clean up after their poochies. I really wanted to have the peacock open up its feathers, but they were still gorgeous with them closed. The peacocks were a little intimidating because when they were walking around on the ground they would stare you down and walk at an awkward distance from you that was kind of close.

Seriously obsessed with the ducks. I pretty much had a photo shoot with them because I had about 30 pictures of these ducks from different angles on my camera. Every time we always come across we wish we had bread to feed them. My friend improvised and gave them her gum so that they would come close to us.  I thought the duck was going to choke on it because it could not chew it. Kind of funny.

Club house.

Que romantico.  Dani  was going on and on how romantic it was and for the boys to take their girlfriends here. However, when we asked if he took his wife, Bego, here, he responded no and laughed. hahahaha.

 

The next day we had an exchange with Spanish students learning English at a cafe.Each American student from our program paired up with a Spain student from their program. Half the time we would talk in Spanish and they would help us with our Spanish and then in return we would help them with their English. It was a little intimidating at first because we didn't know what to talk about and I always get nervous speaking Spanish to people who speak it fluently. The conversation started out with just the boring awkward " where are you from?" "how old are you?" "how are you?". But then as time progressed we were actually talking about legitimate things and were able to hold a conversation in Spanish. It really boosted my confidence when Maria, my talking buddy, told me that my Spanish was really good. Because sometimes when I get overwhelmed I feel my Spanish isn't very good and that my goal to be fluent (which I HAVE to be fluent by May 25th) is impossible. But this exchange really gave me confidence and I was impressed with how well I have been understanding and speaking the language. I can't wait for the next exchange because it was so fun and these people are crazy and I couldn't stop laughing!
 We had our last week of class this week and I had my final yesterday. Since the class was only three weeks, there was a lot of information covered in that little time, and we had only one test, which was this final, it was a little stressful. Our last day of class is Monday and were watching the sequel to "The Other Side of The Bed". Should be interesting. Also, I think that movie is a very popular musical here because the other day my Senora was singing one of the songs and I was like I know that song because we watched that movie in class. That made her happy and we sang the song. She's always singing different songs and I was happy I actually knew one of the songs she was singing.
Last night we went out for one of my roommates birthday. We first went to this Tapas Bar called CruzaBlanco. We weren't planning on going to his bar because we had wanted to go to the first Tapas we went to on our first day here, but there wasn't anymore room. After walking around in the pouring rain, (I'm over-exaggerating it was a little sprinkle, but still, we finally decided to go to this one. Cute servers and bartenders but awful Tapas. At this one we didn't get to chose which Tapas we wanted, they chose, and they brought out this disgusting ham that Marieta had for us one night. None of us ate it. Also, the hams here are always just chilling out in the stores and it's disgusting and they smell bad. But, we each got three free shots from the bartenders, made friends with the workers, and they had my strongbow. Yummy. :) The discoteca that we went to that night was called "Capital" and they actually played Spanish music the whole night. Couldn't have been happier. I have also learned, after people giving me weird looks after I introduce myself and telling me that my name means something in Spanish, that the way my name is pronounced in Spanish means cow. (Baca is how they pronounce it and Vaca...the word for cow... the "v" sounds like a "b".... yeah so I'm changing my name to my middle name Lynn. Who's Becca?
Marieta also told me and my roommate Jen yesterday that she would be cleaning our rooms Saturday morning (this morning) which was just perfect because we would be going out that night and ya know sleeping in wouldn't be something we'd want to do after getting home at 5:30 a.m. So we had to get up at 10 and leave to go get breakfast so that our cleaning lady could clean our room and change our sheets since she didn't have time yesterday while we were in class. At least we got to come back to a nice clean room and take a nap in clean sheets. :)

Walking..walking..and more walking.

This week, for the most part, we had class and didn't do anything very exciting. Monday and Tuesday my roommates and I went and explored some of the city. We went to parts of the Alhambra, which is in the Moorish part of town, and other historical places around it. We weren't exactly sure what the significance of some things were because we were giving ourselves our own tour.

We found a little place to hide. peek a boo!

We came across these four men who seriously spoke every language BUT Spanish asking us if we knew where the Alhambra hotel was. We felt bad because we didn't know where it was and then later stumbled upon it. Also, this is a funny story. Down one of the streets we were walking on there were these little shops where people sold nicknacks and native things of the country for very cheap. My roommate saw this really cute strapless "dress" that she was really excited about buying. It was only 10 euro. Well, when we got back to the apartment she wanted to see if it fit and how it looked. It had a place to put your legs. This was not a dress, but a pair of Aladdin pants. I laughed so hard. Spain:1 ..Jen: 0. We should have known though because they were selling "magic" carpets and the guy who sold her the "dress" told us that there wasn't a flag of just Granada so that we would buy a different flag when we only wanted the Granada flag.(and there is too just a flag of Granda) Shady. On Thursday we actually had a real tour. It was of the Albyzin. The Albyzin is one of the levels of Granada. Granada is made up of many levels due to it being built on hills. Various people leave on each level as well as certain places. The hike up the Albyzin was a struggle, but a good exercise. We went to this place where people were hanging out and it had the most beautiful view of the Alhambra and the Mountains.

The next place we visited was the Mosque. It is the only Mosque in Granada. And until 5 years ago, the Muslims had been fighting for 30 years for a  Mosque to be built. Our tour guide was saying that Granada has a lot of strong influence with Catholicism and the Muslim faith. I think I understood this coorrectly when she said that Granada was the first place the Muslims had lost power and the last place the Catholics conquered.

The Albyzin is more of an older area. I guess during the weekends its crowded with a lot of people because there are many Tapas bars bars all along the road. From where we were standing we could see a church way up high on the mountain located on the level called Sacrementon. That's the level where all the Gypsies live and behind the Iglesia is where people live in caves. And I mean real caves. They don't have running water, electricity, or any of our every day needs we take for granted. I really want to go there even though it might be a little scary. I'm curious as to how these people live and I want to see it with my own two eyes instead of just imagining it.

This is just a picture of one the streets we were walking down.

That night we went to Hannigans and the Camborio. I love Hannigans and we became friends with all the owners; Gary, Ross, and Jose. I also get the same drink every time we go; Strongbow Cider. I'm addicted. It was karaoke night. Yes, I participated.

Nothing really exciting happened at Camborio. It was fun except some of those spanish boys are really annoying. I can't even tell you how many times I've heard the phrase " I love you" or "You are the most beautiful girl in the world". Maybe those are the only two phrases they know in English because we all hear them over and over again and that's just annoying..like stop..please. Since we didn't go to bed til 4 in the morning that night, getting up for school was muy dificil... for many reasons. I'm not going to explain, it should be implied. Thank goodness we were watching a movie that day "El Otra lado de la cama" (The other side of the bed) It was a musical, I understood it. Go me! but only because it had Spanish subtitles. I can read Spanish no problem but when I have to listen and try and understand a foreign language at 9846785 miles per hour with a different accent, sorry no can do. At least not yet. Here in Spain they are very open about sex and express it A LOT. For example the title itself gives away a lot of what the movie is about. Let's just say if i were still in high school I would need one of those signed sheets by my parents giving me permission to watch this movie. After sleeping our lives away after school that day and only waking up to eat lunch and dinner, we went to a play at the most famous theatre in Granada; Teatro Municipal Isabel La Catolica. The play was called "La Casa De Bernarda Alba". No, I rarely had any clue what was going on the whole time and neither did anyone else. It was an experience and I don't think I will be attending another one any time soon . There was only one setting for each scene and the actresses changed on stage...yeah..? Also, when they changed they were wearing almost the exact same thing as they were wearing before. So really that was just unnecessary. Overall, I'm glad we went and got to experience it, even if we couldn't even write a synopsis about what the play was about.
Saturday morning we woke up bright and early to take a bus to Monachil to hike in the Sierra Nevada's. When we were on the bus we weren't too sure where to get off at. We saw these 13 year old girls that looked like they were going to the same place as us, so we got off at the stop that they got off at. Apparently that was the wrong stop because the bus driver knew where we were going and told us to get back on. It's part of the experience and those girls were probably laughing at us. We were laughing at ourselves. A nice lady on the bus took us to this hotel to have someone show us on a map how to get to our destination. We are so lucky that the people here are so nice and willing to help us. We weren't exactly too sure where we were going when we first started out, but we found the right paths! There was this long bridge we were excited about seeing and crossing but when we got to it we were disappointed because it was really short... and not as cool as it looked in the pictures. However, miles later, we found the real one. (Los Cahorros). Walking across it wasn't scary at all. It shook a lot and it bounced you a little bit when you walked across. I think because I was having so much fun walking across it, it took away my fears.

The path was really skinny and at times there were big boulders that you either had to awkwardly crawl under or hang on to the little handles and the rock as you walked on the side of it. There was literally no room on this path. The river next us had clear, blue water straight from the Sierras flowing down it. It was incredible. We each took a stone out of the river to bring back part of the Sierras with us. There were caves at certain parts of the paths and some of the rocks we were climbing on were really smooth which made it hard to get a good grasp on, making it a little unsafe. At some points I think we made the trip a little more dangerous  than it had to be due to where we decided to take pictures and going out of our way off the path to get to them so we could make it even more adventurous.

The hike was just amazing and just to think that we were in the Sierra Nevada's is..I don't even have a word for it because I'm speechless. We were really high up and to look out and see everything from such a high point and knowing that I walked all the way up there made it that much better. I had never done anything like this before and I plan on doing it many more times before I come back to the states. There were a lot of different paths you could take while hiking so there's sure to be more and more sights to see each time we go again. Thankfully we didn't see any Mountain Lions, but I think we saw their poop. We walked about 12 miles today, and it was the best and the only 12 miles I have ever walked at one time before. And even better, the whole day cost me 2,40. :)

El Fin de Semana.

1/14/2011
After spending two hours in a computer lab conjugating verbs, I came home to a clean room. Yes, we have a cleaning lady :) Her name is Rosario or something, but we call her Rosie because we think Rosario is a boys name. Each week we get out rooms cleaned and our laundry done. I need to have my mom put our money in to good use and get a cleaning lady when I get home because I'm loving this. She made us chocolate caliente one day, which is the same stuff they use here to eat Churros with. It's really hot and thick and after you take a sip you always have a nice little black mustache. Anyways, Marieta made us lunch again like always, except I felt really bad she was cooking for us that day. At lunch she told us how she slipped on oil in the street and the police had to take her to the hospital to get a cat scan earlier that day. She said that she thought it was just water when she took a step and after she fell she couldn't talk. Due to her falling on her ponytail, it caused a lot of pain in her head and neck. Throughout the day we had to keep an eye on her to make sure she was feeling alright and wasn't feeling dizzy or about to pass out. That night I suggested we just go out to eat and tell Marieta she doesn't have to worry about cooking for us that night. She was very appreciative and felt bad but we told her it wasn't a big deal at all. We went to this restaurant, well what we thought was a tapas bar, that was literally ten step walk from our apartment. It was really good but we were a little disappointed it wasn't a tapas, even though it said on the door "Tapas", because then it would have only cost us 2 euro for a drink and food instead of 11 euro. But we got a pitcher of sangria and were feeling pretty good after. A group of us went to this club called Camborio, it looks like a cave.

 I guess again it was another international night meaning there would be a lot of Americans again. Not good. It was quite a hike (and by hike I literally mean hike) and that walk could have been my work out for the week. The walk was enjoyable because unlike in America, you're allowed to drink in the streets. (you just can't be loud and with a huge group of people) Therefore we drank our boxes of Sangria and this gross Tinto Vino stuff I had the whole way there.

The Alhambra is also right next to Camborio and we were taking pictures of it the whole way there because it's so big and beautiful.I can't even believe people used to live there. Amazing.

We arrived at the Camborio at about midnight. Again, we were the first ones there. We made friends with the bartender, Abel, and he was laughing at us and telling us how we were much too early and to not arrive until 2 am the next time because that's when everyone comes. People weren't kidding when they said people go out late...they mean LATE. We honestly thought midnight was late for going out. Shows how much we actually know and how American we are. Since the only music they play at these discotecas is American music, I like to translate the lyrics in to Spanish words and sing them. It may be a little bit too much Spanglish at times but at least I'm making the effort? My friends all make fun of me and laugh, yet they still sing along with my translation of Spanish words. Also, I would like to complain about how they only play American music. I hear maybe 3 or 4 Spanish songs a night. What is up with that? I'm in Spain, I don't want to hear American music I already know, and half of it is old and from last year, I want to feel like a foreigner and listen to Spanish music with words that are foreign that I can't understand. Two songs I was shocked they played were "Ain't no mountain high enough" and "the twist". Really? These people know those songs? Besides that we did make friends with this group of boys who play soccer and they were helping us with our Spanish and we in return were helping them with their English. Incorrect English + Spanish accents = the cutest thing <3

1/15/2011
Saturday we woke up again right in time for Siesta. We got our laundry back today...cold, a little damp,wrinkly, and a funky smell to it. I don't know how I feel about this yet. At least I have febreze. One of my roommates J Konops and our friend Allison went to this place called Yogurlandia, for yogurt obviously. This was the best yogurt I have ever tasted. It's probably really bad for you and plus I got chocolate and sprinkles on mine. We walked to this bar Hannigans (a cute little Irish pub) during the day to make plans for traveling. We are going to Ireland the first week of February for three days!! &^%#@%^!! I. CANT. EVEN. WAIT.

1/16/2011
Since we didn't go out the night before and we forgot to buy a ticket to on the tour of the cathedral that day, me and my two roommates were able to get up at a descent hour and walked around a park called Francisco Garcia Park. (There might be names in that?). I again, just like the view from our terrace, do not have words to describe how beautiful it is.

There's of course a playground for little children to play on, paths to walk or run on, benches to sit and enjoy the scenery, bridges and water for the ducks to play in. And oh my goodness. These ducks are huge! I do not know what these people feed them to make them so big but they would definitely win a battle against an American duck. We named this one duck Francisco. We then contemplated as to whether it was a girl or a boy. We decided because the duck was pretty it had to be a girl. So we changed the name to Frannie.

Now the difference between this park and any other park I've been too, besides this being the most beautiful, is that here they have ellipticals and other exercise machines you can use to work out with in the middle of the park. Definitely no need to have a membership at a workout place with these at our availability for free. Also, people don't use these machines in work out clothes. They work out in their everyday clothes like jeans and boots, nice sweaters, and coats.

This nice lady is doing just so.

 After a long day at the park, we went to Hannigans again that night to watch the Bears game. All the people there knew we were from Chicago because we asked them to turn the game and on and at first were the only ones wanting to watch it. We ordered Strongbow (Cider, Sidra) My new favorite beer. 1. It doesn't taste like beer and tastes like apple cider. 2. It has a higher percentage than regular beer.

We became friends with the bartenders, Ross and Jose. Apparently Ross is the owner, but were not so sure if we believe them because they were messing with us the whole night. Ross is from Ireland and has the cutest accent. Basically I will fall in love with you if you have an Irish accent. And Jose is from Granada. He doesn't look Spanish at all. That's another thing I wanted to point out. A lot of people here really don't stand out and look Spaniard.There are some that do, but for the most part, they look just like everyone else. If they were to go to America and not talk you would think they were from America. A group of guys came to the bar later on and sat with us, they were from Delaware. So many people study abroad now a days, it kind of takes the thrill out of doing it. However, I still love being here and am having the best time :) The Bears won, we were feeling pretty good, and I still had homework to do. I sometimes feel like I'm still in the high school in the idea that I still don't do my homework when I'm supposed to. Either I do it between classes or right before I walk in to class. Oh well.

Food Disasters

I ate blood, unknowingly, for lunch yesterday. Marieta made us this soup with navy beans and Morcilla. Morcilla is made from a pig's blood and blood vessels that are heated up until the blood is solid and looks like a black sausage. We of course didn't know what Morcilla was because were American and still not very familiar with all these different Spanish foods that I can never remember the names of. However, I will remember the name of this food, forever, because I never want to mistakenly eat it again. This was just a one time thing and at least I can say i tried it I told Marieta I liked it, because again I had no idea what it was and I was starving like always. I don't know how to kindly tell her that I never want to eat that again now that I know what it is.Around 9 o'clock ate night, past the normal time we normally eat dinner, Marieta was still not home. Jen, Jen, and I were curious as to whether or not she would be feeding us tonight. (That makes us sound like were animals at the zoo haha) We contemplated taking a trip to the near by Burger King, but decided against it. Earlier that day I asked for bread and almost ate the whole thing. I had one piece left and I was saving it for later, but it got thrown away while we were straightening up our room. Welllll I became desperate for food, so I went in to my little garbage I had and ate my piece of bread. Gross I know, but in my defense my little bag of garbage only had some paper in it and I needed food. Anyways, this does have a happy ending. Marieta came home and made us Albondigas, which are like meatballs only made with eggs, meat, bread, and potato. Oh and we also had a plate of tomatoes for all of us to share.This plate of tomatoes gets me every time because we have it with every meal.

Ladies Nightttt

1/12/2011
I listened to my professor this morning about drinking coffee to keep me awake. However, I got it after her part of the class, but I still listened. The vending machine for the coffee is the coolest thing ever. It prepares the whole thing inside the vending machine, cup and all. And there's a little thing that tells you when it's all ready and you just open up the door thingy and take it. Granted it's really small but it was worth it because it was so cool. During the first part of my class my professor made fun of me for the way I say "Perro" because I can't roll my R's. She kept thinking I was saying "pelo" and what I said didn't make sense to her. Also, at dinner that night Marieta was making fun of my accent and how I sound so American. I kept trying to roll my R's and I think they kept telling me to keep practicing so that they could keep laughing at how ridiculous I sounded and even I couldn't stop laughing. Basically every night Marieta is laughing at me about something, whether it being me eating all my food so fast and not having a crumb left but that's because I am starving all day because Marieta and her daughter barely eat, so she thinks we don't eat a lot too. I don't even know if I actually like the food or if I'm just so excited to just eat something. My Dad wasn't kidding when he used to tell me you'll eat anything if you're hungry. She also makes fun of me for not being able to eat pasta using a fork and spoon and not being able to spin it correctly on the spoon, and my lisp (seta) and how she thinks that's why some words I can't say correctly which I thought was weird because Spanish people speak with lisps. Maybe I just have an American lisp? During Siesta we had eggs, french fries, and bread for lunch. Weirdest combination of food ever but it was good and was the most American kind of food we've had yet. The night before we had hamburgers, with out ketchup, and the hamburgers were actually made from ham. "ham"burger. So funny. I was nervous about eating it because it was sooooooo pink until she told us the meat was ham. J Konops and I went shopping and to go get coffee at a cute little cafe. We sat outside because it was beautiful out. Except there were so many birds or pigeons or whatever kind of bird they were and they are NOT afraid of you. They're just like the squirrels at ISU. Evil little things and I bet a bird poops on my head sometime before I come home in May. I found my new favorite store here, "Paul and Bear". Cheap and cute.

That night we went to Granada Diez for Ladies Night. We were told that they started serving the free drinks at 11. So of course we got there at 5 to eleven andddd we ended up being the first ones there and it wasn't even open yet. Typical. Seriously everyone there was American, because I guess it was also international student welcome night. Literally 85% American, 10 % people from across seas, and 5% Spanish. That was a let down. However, I did meet people from Australia, France, Italy, and Poland. I told the French girls that I met in the bathroom that my last name was French, they didn't really seem to care that much. But in order for us to communicate we had to talk in Spanish because I didn't know French and they don't know English. Even though people from Australia speak English it was still hard understanding what they were saying because of how heavy their accents are. I asked this boy Alex (who told me everyone called him x man) who I met how long he was staying here for and he replied, well what I thought I heard " a wake". I was really confused until he asked me what do I call Saturday to Saturday then I realized it was because of his accent that I wasn't understanding certain words he said. There were male GoGo dancers at this place. Basically all I'm going to say about that is almost naked man GoGo dancer and my roommate. The end!

First day of clase.

 1/11/11
I didn't really know what to expect of this 4 hour Spanish class. Honestly, I didn't even know if I would be able to make it through the first day because of how long this class was. We have two professors, one for the first two hours and then one for the second two hours. My first professor is a little out there, but she's really fun and I can understand what she teaches us. She makes us stand up and get in circles when we do activities because she thinks it's important we all get to know each other well. I kinda like that and it makes the class go by faster. She gives a five minute break in the middle and tells us to go get coffee because we all look tired and to give us the opportunity to go "pepe". I laugh every time. Also, we get a twenty minute break in between these two time periods. On the other hand, my professor for my second class scares me. I don't know if part of it has to do with her smokers voice tied in with her Spanish accent that makes her intimidating or the simple fact that she barely ever smiles. I feel bad because I doze off and space out a lot, but then at the same time I don't because she makes it so easy to do so. We needed to buy a book for this class. However, it's not like in America where you spend close to $200 on each book and open it once or twice throughout the semester and have wasted all that money. Here the book only costs 16 euro. Even better, I was able to check it out at the library for free :) Also, this has nothing to do with anything Spanish at all, but as we were leaving school there were these two boys handing out papers to advertise karaoke night at this bar. It was for a Spanish Pub called Hannigans and these Irish boys had the cutest accents. I was so excited and because I was looking back at them, I accidentally walked right into the Arab lady in front of me. She laughed and told me it was okay (in english). Clearly she knew I was American and I hated that. I had my bangs pinned back that day because it was only my first day with them and I didn't like them yet, which was probably the only reason why I didn't look European. Haha totally kidding! But back to my story about the Irish boys, it made me really want to go to Ireland and I can't wait to go :))

Placement Exam

1/10/2011
      Bright and early Monday morning we took a test that would place us in to the level of classes we would be taking in Spanish this semester. I didn't even want to take this test because I knew I would be placed in the Intermediate/Beginner level and had already picked classes in that level to take. After taking the two hour exam, I anxiously waited to meet with one of the professors to discuss my Spanish level in fear of being put in one of the lowest levels where you don't receive any credit for the classes you take because something like this would happen to me. To my surprise after talking to him, he told me he was going to place me in the Advanced Hispanic Studies. I seriously looked at him like he had five heads when he told me that and he probably thought I didn't understand what he said and second guessed his decision, but it was too late for him to go back now. I really didn't want to be in this level of studies so I wouldn't be overwhelmed and actually understand what my professors were teaching since all my classes are in Spanish. On the plus side I get to choose from more classes to take now. We went a bus tour of the city right after the test. It was a Double Decker bus ..I think that's what it's called?...where there's seats inside the bus and then on top also. Well we decided to all sit on top so we could see more and take better pictures. Bad idea. The first 5 minutes of what seemed like the never ending bus tour was fun. But then because of the wind and it still being chilly out, my whole body was frozen and I could barely move my hands to take pictures. I would never advise anyone  to take this tour during the "winter" season. However! despite my negativity and complaining, we really did get a beautiful view of the city and I was able to capture lots of photos :)

During lunch that day we went to this restaurant called ...I don't remember the name....and there were literally like 60 of us in this restaurant. I was surprised it was open and we were able to go there because it was during Siesta time. They started us out with sopa de calabassa. (spelling?) Delish! It's pumpkin soup with croutons in the middle. It may sound disgusting, except it does kind of look like baby food.. but what it looks like doesn't matter, but it's really good. Probably the best soup I've ever had. The chicken they gave us was served with french fries (that weren't salty like American fries, but very oily) and then fruit for desert. I don't know if I'd actually call that a desert but the fruit was so fresh and delish that I wanted more. The piece of chicken they gave us was a leg connected to the thigh. So it made this weird shape.
That night my friend Allison and I decided to give ourselves bangs...via skype...since were not allowed to have friends over at our apartments. We wanted to do this for the obvious reason; look more European. It took me two days to finally get used to them because the last time I saw myself with bangs I think I was 4 years old. But i really like them now and I do feel more European whether the people here think so or not. haha <3

My roomskies J Konops decided to get her bangs too a couple days later :)

Lazy Day :)

 1/9/2011
         Since we didn't go to bed until the sun came up in the morning, we didn't wake up until siesta time, about 2 o'clock pm. It was perfect, we woke up, had food ready for us, and then had the opportunity to take another nap. However, we didn't go back to sleep. Sunday is a time for everyone to relax and spend time with their family. It's a day of rest in Granada and majority of the stores are closed. Jen Konops and I were planning on going shopping again, but we couldn't because Marieta laughed at us when we told her our plans and said everything was closed. We watched Coyote Ugly in Spanish with Marieta, Claudia, and our Grandma. Our Grandma is blind, which I guess is not uncommon here because every time I leave my apartment I see a blind person. Later in the day me, one of my roommates and two other girls went to get chocolate and churros. They were SO good. The chocolate is served hot, is really thick, it kinda tastes like pudding. People can buy just the chocolate and drink it.

 Besides that, we lounged around all day and Jen and I FINALLY unpacked. Marieta kept asking us throughout the couple days we'd been there to see if we were ever going to. It was then official and became more clear that we were going to be here for a long while.
   

The First Three Days

1/6/2011

When I first arrived in Spain and walked off that plane, it still didn’t feel like I was in another country. Immigration was easy to go through and thankfully they didn’t lose my luggage. There was a group of us taking the bus from Madrid to Granada, but since a lot of us were on different flights and none of us had phone yet, it was hard for us to find each other at first. We for sure looked like tourists. Also, it took us about twenty minutes to find the bus and we kept walking around the same spots over and over again in the airport because we had no idea where we were going. Three bus trips, 17 euros, and 7 hours later, we finally arrived in Granada. The taxi man (in his tiny European taxi that almost wasn’t able to fit mine and my roommate’s luggage) dropped us off at the entrance to our apartment and we were so excited to finally be “home”. We took the elevator, about the size of a bathroom stall, up to the 8^th floor. It had a wooden door you had to open before getting inside and it smelled like burnt rubber. Marieta (our host mom) greeted us with besos (kisses), one on each cheek. I never knew they did that in Spain and thought it was only in France, but I was corrected and told that in Spain they do two kisses every time you greet or leave someone and in France they do three. When Marieta took me and roommates outside on the terrace, we were speechless. It was so beautiful words couldn't even explain how amazing the view was.

















Our apartment is in the center of the city of Granada so we could see everything! her father also built the apartment building we were in and we were living in the biggest apartment. We were told that  our family had a pet hamster that I was really excited about, but when we asked where it was, Marieta told us it died. :( We have a bidet in our bathroom and I have yet to use it but I really want to, except I feel awkward asking how to use it because of what purpose it serves.

 That night we explored the city and of course because it was our first night, we got lost. Typical tourists. We asked this man to take a picture of us in front of this fountain and it was a bad idea for two reasons: 1. He didn’t know how to work it. 2. and as we were walking I didn’t notice this little lift in the road and tripped. When we were walking around and everything looked like it was taken straight out of a movie because it looked too perfect. We didn’t really know what anything was, but if something looked pretty or cute we took a picture of it, regardless of its’ significance. The City is built on a hill and there are different levels (which means there’s a lot of walking up hill) of streets, and locations of places and houses. When you drive up to the levels you go in a circle until you reach the top and then back down again. The streets are made of cobblestone and are tiny. The sidewalk is separated by these little poles on each side of the street that I kept running in to the first night and didn’t understand why these random things were there until someone explained it to me. You can fit about one person, maybe two but that’s pushing it, when you walk on the sidewalk. The streets confuse me very much and have yet to figure out how people understand which way to go to get to their destination.

 Our first meal that night was tortilla Espanol. It’s a tortilla combined with eggs and potatoes. I really liked it and there wasn’t a crumb left on my plate. We went to bed fairly early because we hadn’t had much sleep except for a little on the five hour bus ride that day. It still hadn’t hit me yet that I was in another country and would be living here for the next five months.

1/7/2011

After a long day of orientation and a tour of the city with our CEA leaders, we went shopping. The two most important things I needed to buy were a straightener and a phone.  The place where we bought our phones was called Movistar and they had a two for one deal.  However, it took forever and when I would ask the young man questions, he respond while laughing. I’m pretty sure he knew I was American due to my incorrect spanish. The stores where people shopped were right outside on the streets. People were everywhere and every store was crowded. This day was the first day of the cities sales, or in Spanish, rebajas, so everything was fairly cheap, except for my straightener. When the lady told me it was 40 euro I decided not to go with it because I thought that was too expensive. When she told me she’d give it to me for 35 euro, I bargained for 30. When I told my senora this later at dinner she said that was very uncommon in the stores. This made sense to me later because when I went to plug the straightener in that night to use it. I came to find that the plug didn’t fit in the electrical thing because it was made for China. But anyways I took my first shower there that day. If you’ve seen the episode of “Everybody Loves Raymond” where they’re in Italy and Raymond takes a shower, that is the exact shower that we have. You have to hold the shower head in your hand to spray on yourself, there’s a tub that you stand in, and no curtain. I’m used to my long hot steamy showers where I don’t have to keep turning the shower on and off every time I need to rinse, so this was an experience. We get to shower once a day either in the morning or during the day, but not at night. We also, had our first siesta this day. A siesta is when the city shuts down and almost every store is closed. Everyone has a big lunch with their family and then takes a nap. This is between the hours of 2 and 5. Everything opens back up after. We all met up at the Correo and went to our first tapas bar. (When you say it, it sounds like topless but I promise it’s not). A tapas bar is where you order a drink and then get a free tapa which is like a mini appetizer. The drink only costs 2 euro which is about almost three dollars in American money. Best deal in the entire world! Our first beer we tried here was Cruzacampo. It didn’t really taste like anything special, beer is beer to me. We then ordered a fruity drink called tinto de verano.

 We went to our first club that night, Mae West. The cover charge was only 10 euro, but you get two free drinks with it (which are normally 7 euro each) so I don’t really know how these clubs make money off of that because were saving money. We met a lot of Granaians, and surprisingly a lot of them knew English pretty well. They were able to help us a lot with our Spanish and I really enjoyed talking with them. The night life is so different than it is in Chicago, these clubs are open until 7 in the morning and they are packed. They played a lot of American music like Kesha and Lady Gaga. People were definitely able to pick us Americans out of the crowd when we were the only ones singing every word correctly to these songs.

 1/8/2011
We weren’t sure if in Spain they liked to do nothing and sleep in the next day after going out like we do in America. We learned they did, which was great because we were completely fine with that. However, we did make time to go shopping again that day. We found a store that had cute boots for only 10 euro. I think I was the most excited for this because I was wearing my flats that day and they were cutting up the back of my feet and I could barely walk. Completely forgetting how much more we walk here than in American, I was very uncomfortable the whole time until I bought my new brown ankle boots. I pulled an American move by sitting on the side of the street and changing my shoes. My friends surrounded and tried to block me so we didn’t draw too much attention to ourselves because I’m pretty sure that’s considered inappropriate to do in public, along with yawning, and stretching, and taking your shoes off in restaurants and cafes. Except I don’t think we take our shoes off in public places back in America, at least I don’t and people that I know don’t, but the people here think we do. We needed to buy towels to shower with and my towel cost the same as my new shoes. I was really glad about that, except not really because that’s almost thirteen dollars in America. Way too expensive for a towel, but it’s been put to good use. It’s really big, bright, and yellow. Me gusta. We went to another tapas bar that night, but this time we also brought our own wine. It’s not allowed, but we did it anyway and filled up our glasses. However, we had to make sure we all drank our drinks at the same time so our server didn’t notice the difference in the color of the drinks. The wine isn’t in a bottle, but in a box. It looks like a big grown up juice box. And the best part, a box of that is only1,75 euro. Muy borrato. We went to a different club that night, Granada Diez. Again they played a lot of American music. Maybe even more at this place. I liked this club better because 1. it was closer and 2. it was more fun and we didn’t leave until 7 in the morning. We again met a lot of people and we also learned that it’s not as intimidating to talk in Spanish when you have a few drinks in your system. Me and my roommates saw our little sister there and we were able to meet her friends and hang out with her for a little. When we finally went to bed, the sun was coming up. Best weekend of my life so far.