Jaén

Vanessa and I took a random one day/one night trip to a province of Andalucia called Jaén. It's a small city that is basically known for the olive trees. (I guess Bob Dylan is going to play a concert there and promote the olives, haha.) We visited our friend Pete who teaches English there. Jaén is about an hour bus ride from Granada, and we had a coffee with a guy we met on the bus. The people there were nice! Pete gave us a short tour of the city, saw the castle on the hill (which was a Moorish strong hold) and the Cathedral. The weather was beautiful and the town was much more lush and greener than Granada! Then we went out to a cheap dinner and hit a couple bars and a discoteca called Heaven.

pictures of nerja

Nerja

Spanish is continuing to be half struggle and half triumph. Every day I go back and forth on being successful and happy to frustrated and distressed.
The other day my roommate Vanessa and I went to a friend's house with 8 or 10 Spaniards. I like many of them because they can be really nice and understanding. However, for the majority of the night I had no idea what was going on or what they were discussing. I picked out some things but it's so hard when people get into their conversations, using slang and talking really fast. I hate feeling so foreign and alienated. Depending on the context sometimes I can get the gist of what is going on but with certain people I can't understand them at all. Vanessa and I try and talk to each other each day in Spanish and she gets very annoyed that we can't talk as fluently as we could in English. I am much more laid back about the process. I have come to terms with my possibilities and what I can conquer and since realizing this I can do better and absorb more. Last night it was Saint Patrick's day and we met a guy from San Diego. Small world.
Last weekend Vanessa and I went to Nerja, a tourist beach town with a lot of beautiful places. It was a nice get away and I had a great time laying in the sun. The weather was perfect. Nerja is a common retirement place for many English and German. The hostel we stayed at was operated by a family from Holland. The woman was very warm and welcoming. Our room was really nice and very cheap. It was the best hostel I've stayed in yet. It had a back yard and a kitchen we could use. The family spoke Dutch, Spanish and English. I enjoy meeting people who know more than one language. It gives me hope that I can learn.

our trip to alpujarras

Last weekend my group and I headed to the Sierra Nevadas for a weekend away at a set of villages called Las Alpujarras. I was not anticipating a great adventure because the weekend was rumored to be all about hiking. This is not a favorite pastime of mine, to the chagrin of my mom. So we headed out on the bus at 8:30 am, early as usual. I received an email prior about how the roads are curvy and might cause some people to feel car sick. Me, being a sufferer of this, mistakenly didn't heed the warning. So when we got to the site, I rushed out of the bus in the middle of my director's hotel registration speech to throw up. Then I felt much better! We started hiking right away. The air was fresh but the scenery was not impressing me much. We had 4 hours ahead of us, but the time passed quickly because I was trying to speak a lot of Spanish with my directors and learn new words about the environment. We got about 3 hours into it and the scenery was quite charming. We walked along a little stream and through small farmlands where people live in the remote countryside. We eventually stopped to eat sandwiches that our families had made for us while enjoying the sun. I can't really describe the terrain because I don't know the specific biome or landscape's name. However, it wasn't much like anything I've seen before. There were natural lawns with trees and chaparral. The views from this part were awesome. What was cool about this hike was we came upon a natural spring with agua con gas (carbonated water). It is natural and safe to drink and we all filled our bottles. It was delish! We also saw an ancient tree that has been alive for almost a thousand years (I don't know how they approximate this stuff...) We finally got back to a little town where you could see posters and banners that had taken over the city advertising the Spanish election. All the towns in Alpujarras are made up of white wash houses and small businesses. They were all scarcely populated and tranquil. Finally we returned and I crashed asleep after a glorious shower. (The reason I take such pleasure in the showers at hotels is because mine back in Granada is the worst.) That night, I ate at the hotel's free buffet and then studied a little Spanish with friends.

The next morning it was another early day and we headed out for another 4 hour hike. This is so strange for me! Usually I DON'T like extensive hikes. My muscles were so sore and I had a little sunburn on the back of my neck. We took off and it was immediately more interesting and beautiful than the prior hike. Right on the road out of the hotel we noticed a phenomenon that clouds form in the mountain. They sit amidst mountains and look like cotton floating. It was so pretty. We did the tourist thing and took a million pictures and poked around another village in the Alpujarras. We kept walking and saw more meadows and a waterfall. We climbed, we descended. The terrain was quite rugged. We got to a plateau where we took a giant group picture. I think there are about 50 kids in our group. We walked through a man's backyard and he had a dog and a chicken. He also had a solar panel on the roof of his stone house. We got to another plateau where we saw a shepherd. He has 700 sheep! We saw part of the flock below us. He also had two donkeys and 10 dogs which delighted the entire group. Everyone took a long break to play and take pictures with the animals. This lifted everyone's spirits after many hours of walking. We finally descended for the last time and reached the end of our hike in another village. We had a lunch in the town and then took off back to Granada. The way back a girl in my group (who happens to be from ASU) gave me a Dramamine. Yes! I was much better. The rest of my Sunday was spent relaxing and a little studying. Back to school.

I think the reason I enjoyed this weekend so much is because I got to practice Spanish, was removed from a city setting and got to know people as I passed the hours walking. I liked the hikes a lot and was happy to see the country of Andalucia.

pix

Barcelona

Barcelona:
Our trip to Barcelona was absolutely wonderful. It has to be one of my favorite cities thus far in my travels and in the US. My four friends and I flew out of Granada in the evening - our plane was an hour late. We got to walk out to the plane on the tarmac, always a favorite. We got to the airport, except the airport we booked was one of three in Barcelona and not the one in the city. So we had to take an hour or so bus ride to the city. We got to Barcelona itself and took a short cab ride to the hostel. We were in a hostel with 4 bunk beds in it and we were sharing the room with three German girls and two Americans. Our hostel was very centrally located and not bad for the price. The shower was amazing! We went out for some Chinese and started realizing already how much more expensive it was there than what we are used to in Granada. After dinner we met up with some other friends who were in Barcelona for a beer. Then my friend Krystle and I went to a club and met up with my friend Max who has been studying in Barcelona since August. I know him from ASU. He loves it so much that he is intending to come back to stay premaritally. He got us in free to the second club we went to, but the drinks were super expensive so we only got one. Krystle and I went back to the hostel. In the morning we woke up and went to breakfast with two of the German girls in our hostel. We had great pesto sandwiches and fresh OJ. Then we headed out to tour some of the city. We got Metro passes ( I love easy and fast city transportation!) and saw the Sagrada Familia Cathedral. This building was so impressive and has been under its initial construction for over 200 years. The architecture was intense!! There was a dog park and little food stands throughout. Mom- I got LEMON ice cream! We saw one of Barcelona's opera houses which was another beautiful building. Then we went to one of Barcelona's parks called Parque Gaudi. It's up on a huge hill so we had to climb a ton of stairs. It's such a huge hill that there are even outdoor escalators. We got to the top and could see a lot of the city. It was such a beautiful and sunny day! The park is enormous and is famous for the mosaic art. There were performers and all sorts of cool sculptures and buildings. We spent about two hours there. We headed back to one of the main roads, Las Ramblas and had a coffee and specialty pastries. Later that night we all headed out to a club called Catwalk. It had two floors, one playing house and techno music and the other playing American hip hop. Someone pick pocked my front pocket some Euros. I was so mad, but realized that there was nothing I could do about it and to make the most of the night. The club was so cool. At one point in the night they dropped bubbles on all the dancers. We took the Metro home at 5am and settled into bed. The next morning we woke up early, but Krystle and I were the only ones not hungover and ready to do more sight seeing. She and I went to an open air market where many fresh and specialty foods were sold. Giant eggs, artesianal chocolates (which we bought a few of...), meat, fish, smoothies, fruit, lettuce and veggies galore. Krys and I bought chocolate, bread, fuet (a type of meat similar to salami) and cheese and went heading to the beach. On the way we saw a protest against animal cruelty where people we walking down the middle sidewalk with their dogs. We went to a park by the beach and ate our food. Everything was amazing, but the chocolate was phenomenal. One was apple flavored and my favorite! Then we met up with the others to go ride the gondolas over Barcelona. It was on top of a mountain and had an amazing view. We ended up at the Olympic park where the 1992 games were held. On our way home we saw the History museum and a famous Catalan dance and music performed in a plaza. It was all very romantic and interesting! We topped off the night by waiting around for our bus to the airport at 3 am. We were so tired because we had been up since about 11am and had gotten less than 15 hours of sleep in the last four days. So what happens to me? On a full bus, I get stuck next to a guy who was throwing up the entire time. He not only was throwing up, but didn't have a bag, so it was going all over the window, the floor and himself. I felt like I might be the most unlucky person on the bus. However, there was someone else throwing up in the back. So we finally made it to the airport at about 5:30 am and had a snack from the cafe. We go through security and get to the line and they tell us we have to go pay some sort of fee because we were using American passports or something. (It's often so hard to understand because of the language barrier, and in Barcelona it's not Spanish, but Catalan...). So finally we are running to the plane at the "urgent last call" and my friend Bonnie's carry on luggage is too big! So we cram and stuff her's into each of ours and make it onto the plane.
Over all, the trip was awesome and I practically loved every minute of it. We met awesome international people, got to experience more Northern Spain as well as much of what the city had to offer! I loved it!