Fun weekend

I had a blast this weekend. A couple friends (Krystle in the pic) came in to Granada from Sevilla and we went out shopping, walking, had lunch, coffee and went clubbing in the evening. The lunch we had was Mexican food! It was so amazing to have rolled tacos and guacamole. It started raining which was a bummer. We took our friends to what's called the Botellon. It's a huge park where everyone brings drinks and socializes outside until the clubs open at 2am. Later in the evening we went with our Spanish friends to this club called Cambodio. It was so awesome! It was high in the hills of the Albycin neighborhood with a gorgeous and unblockable view of the Alhambra and all the lights of the city. The lower part of the club was in caves then you could walk upstairs outside and there were tables to sit at with the view and inside was a bar then a huge dance floor with all windows and the view. I had a blast! The music was great and tons of students from around Europe were there. I met a guy from Granada who studied a year in New Castle, England. I think we are going to go out sometime soon. I've started reading a book that I really like called Lovely Bones. The only thing is it's in English...

comida - feb. 21

I finally want to go in depth about the food here. There are things I feel are prized here more than I've seen in the U.S.
1) Jamon - ham (and all things ham flavored. ie: ham chips)
2) café con leche - half coffee half steamed milk
3) chocolate con churros (not like Mexican churros; less sugar)
4) Tinto de Veranos - red wine with lemon soda *can't wait to make these back home
Beer and wine are cheaper and many times come with free tapas. Granada is known for this, because it's really the only big city in Spain that gives them free. Tapas are varied. A tapa can be anything from bread with ham to a piece of cheese to rice.
Things I miss:
1) Mac and cheese
2) tortilla chips
3) Mexican food in general (What they call a tortilla here is like an omelet with potatoes)
4) Dr. Pepper
5) Mom's salad dressing (even though all dressing here is made with oil)
6) Ranch dressing

For all you peanut butter fans, there isn't any here. Not a problem for me.

Things I have started to eat that I have never liked before:
1) Potatoes (still not mashed)
2) Runny eggs-are they called sunny side up?
3) Hot drinks: tea, coffee and cocoa.
4) Jam and marmalade

My señora is always trying to get me to eat vegetables, but I can't like everything !!

Breakfast is always very small and limited. Every morning I have two pieces of toast with jam, a glass of cocoa and juice. This is the only meal of the day where we are allowed anything other than water.

Lunch is served around 2:30 and is always huge. I feel like my stomach has stretched while I've been here! I receive at least two plates worth of food, plus salad and bread. Fruit is served for dessert. In the house, we don't eat sweets.

Dinner is almost as big as lunch and similar food is served. Around 9-10pm is when we sit down.

We have the son living with us and he constantly makes fun of my roommate and I how we eat and what we eat as Americans. Everyone here thinks all Americans eat is BBQ, pizza and fast food. My señora thinks that I am going to have diseases early because I don't eat veggies. My brother says that I am going to have a huge butt before I'm 30.

Meals outside the house are different than the states. People here don't have the same mentality when it comes to service as we do in the states. When you go out to eat, be prepared to allot at least and hour and a half for your meal if not more. Waiters aren't tipped so they are not always fast or attentive. But it is also the European mentality of socializing and taking your time. And it's rare to see people eating or drinking things on the go. Spaniards also don't get things in doggie bags when they don't finish their meal. No one really eats alone.

Breakthrough

Things are coming together more and more for me and Spanish. Of course, my capability varies day by day but I have a couple cool eureka moments I have never experienced until now. For example, the other day when we were on the bus home from Córdoba, my roommate and I were talking to one of the directors using a mix of both Spanish and English. She asked me to repeat what he said and I told her and she explained she didn't understand what he meant because the sentence was in Spanish. But I could have sworn he said it in English. So, that seems like my mind is starting to incorporate Spanish seamlessly. Very exciting! Another thing that happens to me a lot is Spanish words will just pop into my head while I'm talking and I say them before I even check in my head if it translates. And the word is indeed what I intended to say. These are mostly words that I couldn't necessarily think of if someone asked me what it meant in English, but they come out naturally. But I don't want to get too cocky with my progress because by no means am I anywhere near fluent!

The picture is of Vanessa (my roommate) and me!

Córdoba

This weekend our group went to Córdoba, Spain. It is another city in Andalucia, the southern region where Granada is as well. We left early Saturday morning and first went to the ruins where the old Arab king tried to build early Córdoba. When the city was being conquered by Christians, they ruined everything they could of the ancient and rich city. We saw ancient Arabic baths, old marble flooring, where they used to bring food into the city and views of the hills of Córdoba. Then a couple girl friends and I went to our hotel and got a great lunch of tapas and sangria. Then we had a tour of the Mezquita, which is the Córdoba Cathedral (Catedral). This is a famous mosque gone cathedral in the city. It is grand and made up of over 800 arches inside. It was very colorful and grand. They also had a round room with paintings on each wall that reminded me of the Haunted Hotel in Disneyland! Our tour guide was hilarious. We then toured the Jewish quarter and saw the old temple that is the only original one still standing in Spain. We walked around the city and saw the Avenue of Flowers and learned about a famous bullfighter who died in Códoba. Adrian Brody is now starring in a movie about him (Manolete). We got some wine and snacks at this weird grocery store like was as big as Wal Mart and was inside a mall. It was so weird. But you could get wine for as cheap as .50 Euro cents! Then we all went back to the hotel and partied a bit. We went out but the city was pretty boring at night. Then we woke up today and saw the main puente (bridge) of the city and toured Alcázar de Los Reyes Cristianos. This place was SO beautiful. There were gorgeous pools of water with catfish swimming in them, ponds, fountains, many manicured gardens and bushes, orange trees and moss covered rock. This was my favorite place on the trip. It is a palace where Isabel and Ferdinand lived for about 8 years. On the way back, we made a pit stop to use the bathroom at an olive oil store. We learned that Spain in the biggest olive exporter. Many times though, it is distributed by Italy because they have the stronger commercial market set up. So when you buy Italian bottles in the states, the olives have most likely come from Spain! The drive home to Granada was so beautiful. So many green rolling hills with cherry blossom and olive trees. Then the snow capped Sierra Nevadas! It was a great view.

Meeting Vanessa- the new roommate

Vanessa and I met last night. We went out to a trendy bar and met up with Jose and his friends. She seems very nice and I think we are going to get along great. She is from San Antonio, Texas and has never left the US before. She and I are both social and like to travel so I think she will be the perfect roommate. I felt that we could have talked for hours, and we did. This morning she went to Carnaval, but I wasn't feeling up for it because I just came from a long bus trip. I am kind of sad I didn't go because it's importatn fiesta in España, but sometimes you can't travel travel travel. She gets back tomorrow morning I am going to watch the Superbowl on Sunday at 1am our time here!

Malaga

After Morocco, Jessica and I went to Málaga. It is Picasso's birthplace and has a famous bull ring. We took a bus from Gibraltar which isn't really worth mentioning. (Gibraltar was strange, an English owned region of Spain that felt like a tourist twilight zone. Málaga is very beautiful. The beaches are plentiful and near the beach are gardens. The people in Málaga seem more laid back than the people in Granada. We went shopping, walked around the garden, collected shells at the beach and snuck into the bull ring for photos. We also had sangria in a beautiful typical Europe alley with a man playing accordion and people walking slow. We went to the Picasso museum. Then we ran to the bus station and got back to Granada in the evening.

Morocco adventures

My friends Kelly, Jessica and I took a train to Algeciras, Spain to go to Tangier, Morocco the next day. The ride was very comfortable and the landscape outside was pretty with rolling hills, rocks, some sheep and olive trees. After four hours we got to Algeciras, a port city that links ferries to Morocco. We got there after dark, found a hostel and noticed there were no women anywhere. It was strange. We woke up early the next day and rushed to the ferry but still missed it. We made the 10 am ferry and got to Tangier at about 11am with the time change. We met our private tour guide that Kelly found online. He was polite, professional and spoke English. First we rode around the outskirts of Tangier, saw the beach and rode camels. It was all so beautiful! There were green rolling hills leading to the beach. We also went to the most north west tip of Africa to a lighthouse. Our camels were cool too! It was weird riding them. From the street, we saw the king's palace. There were guards at the door. The king is the first king in Moroccan history to show his wife's face to the public. We also stopped to take pictures of the Saudi Arabian king's summer palace. Then we went to Hercules' cave which is a natural cave carved by the ocean where the light cast inside the cave comes through a shape of rock that looks like Africa. There was wishing water there as well for those who are superstitious. Then we left the cave and went to the city of Tangier. It was bustling and so different than anything I have ever seen. Our guide said there are four main religions and languages in Tangier. The two main religions are Sunni and Shiite and the languages most people speak are Arabic, French, Spanish and English. I was impressed because everybody I spoke to whether it was a rug salesman or peddlers on the street, they could all speak four or more languages. I asked our guide why four and he said that as a country they couldn't survive without knowing the others. He said that the city lives in "perfect" harmony with the different religions. Many people wore traditional dress but many were Westernized. He said however that some days people may choose to look western and wear jeans but other days will cover their head and wear the shawls. Tangier was established as a city owned by many other countries and has various styles of architecture everywhere. That is also another reason for the four languages. There was a French area, and Italian district and even a California section where there were tons of Eucalyptus trees and the houses were huge and stucco. When we went in a bazaar we were shuffled into a room with hundreds of Moroccan rugs and given the biggest sales pitch of my life. We were told to sit down, they gave us mint tea, and they told us all about their handmade rugs. I felt like they were car salesmen. Since our guide told us that Morocco's national sport is negotiating prices they figured they could go low enough to catch our interest. They were wrong. However, if I ever need a rug from Morocco I know where to go to get a good deal. So I wanted to give this whole negotiating thing a try so when we went into a jewelry store, I saw a beautiful ring I had to have. I told the guy I would give him five euros for it and he laughed and said he would give it to me for 260 euros. Oops! My expensive taste... Then I got a Henna tattoo of a flower and we went to the fresh markets. All sorts of food was there, meats, fish, fruit, beans, everything. We went for a three course meal at a local restaurant that served typical Moroccan food. I LOVED it! We had kabobs, salad, fruit, coos coos and a chicken pastry with powdered sugar and cinnamon on top. It was all so delicious. I must find a Moroccan place when I get back to the states. The whole trip ended up being amazing, but I can see why people think Morocco can be dangerous. We stood out emmensly and our tour guide had to shoo away many overly persistent men following us. We had an awesome time and I am glad we could go!