Last few days...

It is here at last, my last few days in Spain. It has been a great four months out of the country but it will be nice to go back home and back to stuff I know. It will also be great to be able to say whatever I want because in Spanish I am limited by the vocabulary that I know. I have been spending the last week in hotels with my family which has been fun but I already miss Granada and Maribel. If you want to check out the pictures that have been taken this past week, you can go to Meg's web page, go to travels, pictures, and then Spain. They are not all there but there are many to look at. There is not too much else to say so I am off!

Last day of class

Well it has finally come and gone; the last day of classes in Granada. I still have exams to do which is next week but I have no more classes to go to. It is so strange that it is finally ending because it seems like just yesterday I was complaining about the grammar classes that I had to take in September. Meg flies into Madrid tomorrow or at least I am hoping so. Apparently there is a winter storm brewing back in the states and her flight might get delayed. That would really stink so I hope that doesn't happen. I am scheduled to be in Madrid a little after 12 noon and I expect Meg to have already landed. I guess we shall just have to wait and see. If her flight is delayed, I will just have to bum around Madrid while I wait. In addition to a probability of her flight being delayed, my parent's flight might be delayed too or maybe even canceled because there is another storm scheduled for Sunday. Jeez, of all days for storms to come to New England, it just had to be the two days that family is flying out to see me. I guess they will all eventually get here but it is not a fun situation for any one involved. Well onto other news, I have uploaded pictures from Morocco and made sure to include many of me. For the first half of the trip, Karen took pictures, and then for the second part, I did because we were afraid of our batteries dying on us mid-trip. They ended up surviving the whole way but it was just a precaution.

Tonight is the farewell tapas thing for AIFS. We are going to see a flamenco show some which should be awesome. We are all meeting at 8:15 and then going to where ever the place is. They said that we should get back around 12:30 so this means that I will not be getting much sleep. I can always sleep on the bus ride up to Madrid though so it won't be too awful. I need to remember to bring my camera for tonight to take some pictures but even though I will have it, I probably won't take many. Adios then!

Morocco

This past weekend, I went on a trip with AIFS to Morocco. That is correct, I am the first Bellows to go to Africa, how exciting. Well anyway, we went to Marrakech, Casablanca, Rabat, and Tetuan. It was an interesting experience, needless to say. It was the first time I have gone to a country where the primary religion was not christian. It was weird to see a few of the women covered completely and I felt like more of a foreigner than in Spain. In Spain, I at least know the language so I have never had a serious problem with communicating. In Morocco, on the other hand, I was extremely overjoyed when I encountered people that either spoke English or Spanish. This was just something that I have never had to deal with before. It was a nice experience though and it was nothing like what is at Epcot. The cities were fun and the hotels were all nice but to get to these nice cities and hotels was not so fantastic. We totaled up all the hours and it came to be around 30 hours on a bus for the weekend. Awful, I know, but I survived. I guess it is a good preparation for my 24 hour trip back to the states. Anyway, back to Morocco, the food was good but there was alot of couscous involved and also many pastries. All the cities had cool market places that were kind of daunting. Oh, and I got lost with Karen in the market in Marrakech. It was such a lovely 10 minutes or so of my life that I hope will never be repeated. I did not panic though and I knew that if we just stayed where we were, our tour guide would eventually find us. He did find us easily though, I suppose it is not too hard to find a white girl and a chinese girl that are both together in a country like Morocco. Aside from that and the fact that our tour guide that we were stuck with for 4 days was absolutely awful, the trip was fun and it would be cool to go back again.

I did not get to buy many souvenirs but I did get a henna tattoo. It is on my hand and it should last for a week or two. It is just a little flower design and there is also my name written in Arabic. I also got some dirham to show to everyone when I get back. Dirham is the currency that is used in Morocco and you are apparently not supposed to take it out of the country but no one checked our bags to make sure of this. So I have one 20 dirham bill and a few coins. They are pretty interesting so make sure you ask to see them when I am back which is in only 2 and a half weeks. Aren't you all just so thrilled to have me back in the states? If not, you should be.

Oh my, it is December

I can't believe that it is already December. Time has flown by and Meg will be here in under 2 weeks. Pretty crazy, huh? The picture above is the one that won the photo contest. Don't I just look so cute? Well onto other news, the AIFS group went up to the mountains today to a little ski town. There was snow on the mountain but not what I am used to back home when I think of skiing. It was slightly pathetic but not as depressing as the bunny slope of a mountain that we have in RI. Anyway, it was fun to be there but the ride to and from was miserable. Our driver went slightly faster than he should have and the road was just a bunch on twists and turns the whole way up. I think everyone felt sick and one girl actually threw-up. Oh well, at least it was not me and we made it back safely. After getting back, I walked around a while with Karen and we ended up going into this cool looking cafe and we split a waffle with hot chocolate syrup drizzled over it. It was yummy and the place was pretty relaxed so we are thinking about going there again tomorrow if it is open for something else. I will most definitely have to start a work-out regimen when I get back home after all this eating. I feel like I have not exercised in such a long time. Lots of work to do when I get home then!

Words of the day: Nieve - snow
Montaña - mountain

So relaxed...

Last night was simply a fabulous night. Karen, her friend Chessy, and I all went to los baños arabes arabes (arab baths) for a fun hour of sitting in hot water. There were two baths, one cold and one hot. We basically spent the whole time in the hot one but took a few trips to the cold one just to cool down a bit. To make the whole experience even better, we all got a 15 minute massage. There were two masseuses; one male and the other female. I was partnered with Chessy so I let her pick which one she wanted because she doesn´t speak Spanish. She obviously picked the women so I had the guy give me the massage. I hope Travis doesn´t get too jealous. It was awkward at first but then I got over it. All in all, it was just lovely and I don´t know how to describe it any more. I want to go back (hint to mom and dad). After the baths, we went out and got tapas which were good and filling. I had a good night sleep and I am ready to finish out the school year. For other news, two weekends ago, I participated in a photo contest along with Jenny, Maria, and Ashley for our program. Today we got the results and we found out that we won! Hooray for us! Now I think that the prize money is 75 euros to a restaraunt of our choice so that is pretty snazzy. I don´t know where we are going to go yet but it should be fun either way. Later on I will try to post the winning picture along with the other ones from the contest. I don´t know when I will be able to do it though because when I woke up this morning, there was no internet connection in my room. I hope that I haven´t lost it forever but it won´t be too awful because I only have 2 weeks left in the apartment. I should count how many days I have left living with Maribel. Yeah, definitely only 14 more days because on weekend I am going to Morocco and another weekend I will be in Madrid with Meg!

Word of the day: Relajarse - to relax

Blogged out

If you have not noticed already, I have been writing less and less and it is because I am simply tired of writing. I know you must be incredibly disappointed but I felt it my duty to let you know why I have not posted in over a week. There has not been much to write about either because Granada is finally just a normal city that I live in, not a crazy new environment like it was before. The only thing really worth noting is Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. Yes, we did have a dinner but it obviously was not like what we have in the states. For starters, there were plates of appetizers with an odd assortment of things. It had cold corn, beets, lettuce, bamboo shoots or at least that is what Karen thought they were, kiwi, and maybe something else but I don't remember. On other plates were just some little slices of ham...how typical. Spain is crazy about their ham and I never knew that there were so many types of it until I came here. Aside from the appetizers, we also got a roll of bread. I think I would have been shocked if bread was not already waiting for us when we got there. Bread is also a big thing here, they have it with every meal and I think everyone's señora is shocked when we turn it down. Surprisingly, I have even turned down bread. I know what you are thinking Meg so try not to die of a heart attack. You might see what I am talking about when you get here which is in less than 3 weeks! Anyway, our next dish was this tasty soup. I absolutely love soup now. I think it is my favorite thing here but it makes sense seeing as I get a different soup almost everyday for lunch. I am not sure what kind of soup it was but I think I heard people saying that it was calabazas which translates to pumpkin or squash but I am not sure if they got the correct information or really where they got it from. It was green and creamy and it had croûtons in it that I originally thought was going to be meat before I ate it so I was shocked when it turned out to be crunchy. Now on to the main dish: a heaping pile of stuffing with some turkey on the side, peas, mashed potatoes that were a little too much on the creamy side, and I think the last thing was a slice of sweet potato, either way I didn't eat it. Along with the sweet potato that I did not eat, I also did not eat the stuffing because I was deterred by the crunchyness of it. I think they put nuts in it. Is that how stuffing is usually made? I am not too sure. The turkey was good considering that the chef has probably never made it before and the mashed potatoes and peas were good as well. I wish I got more peas though. For dessert, they gave us some pumpkin flan which I was not fond of at all. I had a few nibbles and I was done. We did, however, get another dessert because it was this girls birthday that day and one of her friends had brought a cake. Yummy! It wasn't really a cake but it was chocolate and good. We all only got a little slice because there were so many people but it was better than nothing. I think that is all to report for now. I will try to write more so you guys will have something to do while you are procrastinating at work or whatever you all do. Hasta luego!

Word of the day: Día de acción de gracias

No more deportivos

Last night we lost our soccer game. It is sad that there are no more organized sports games and it makes me want to join a team when I get back. The game was ridiculous though because the other team consisted only of chicos and they were such chauvinistic pigs. Before the game started, one of them asked one of the guys on the AIFS team if we wanted to borrow some players seeming to indicate that we would need help seeing as our team was mostly chicas. I could have lived with just that but throughout the game, they treated us like delicate flowers that would surely break. Every time someone fell down, they would go out of their way to help us up to the point where it was annoying. They made comments about how they are not used to playing with girls and that it was just plain weird for us to be playing. At one point towards the end, I was standing on the sidelines because I was subbed out and the ball came my way so I gently tapped it. As I did so, I slipped about 2 inches on the gravel and one of the guys came up to me and asked me if I was all right in an overly concerned manner. I mean really, was that necessary?! I barely did anything and he made such a big deal about it. Another thing that made me mad and everyone else on the AIFS team was that from 5 feet away from the goal, they would kick the ball as hard as they could. This was completely unnecessary and it never worked to their advantage. I feel like they were compensating for something. Well we lost to them so no more soccer :-(.

After the game was when the real fun began though. As we were walking back, we came across some monkey bars so I decided that it would be fun to hold on to one of the bars and swing myself back and forth. It was a good idea at the time, well not really because I was wearing my mittens and that doesn't really work out too well when you are trying to hold onto something. Needless to say, after I got enough momentum, I lost my grip and landed hard on my stomach. It hurt but I was laughing because it must have looked incredibly funny. My right wrist kind of hurts now and I somehow got a cut on my left elbow even though I was wearing my sweatshirt. I am so smart aren't I? That is all the news for now except that the elevator in my apartment is not working so it is difficult to navigate the dark stair case. I hope I don't walk into any walls after coming back from tapas tonight. I will keep you posted.

I've got mail

Indeed I have. I went to the AIFS office today an lo and behold, there was a package for me! Woot! I have been waiting for this package very anxiously for a whole week and it has finally come. It was pretty weighty and when I opened it, there was a box inside the box. I open the second box to find the Sunday comics from 2 weeks ago. Oh how I miss the Sunday paper. The next thing that I encountered was an envelope with a picture of my dad drinking a liter of beer at TKD testing. What?! I know. Apparently when my mom was packing the box, that picture was just lying on the table so she decided to just throw it in with the rest of the stuff. A little odd, but ok. The next object that I grabbed was wrapped in paper towels and when I unwrapped it, I was completely confused because it was a can opener. Who on earth mails someone a can opener? Oh that is right, someone who knows how much their daughter loves cranberry sauce and realizes that she is missing Thanksgiving so sends her a can on it along with the utensil needed to open it. Good thinking mom! Now I will not miss Thanksgiving because I have my own supply of cranberry sauce. It won't be the same as the homemade stuff but it is better than nothing. Also included in the box was 4 boxes of my favorite candy and 2 boxes of Junior Mints. If you don't know what my favorite candy is, looks like you will never know what those 4 boxes were. Too bad! Anyway, the last thing that I got was wrapped in a Wilber's General Store bag. My first thought went to cheese but then I immediately ruled that out because the cheese would have probably gone bad and that would just be gross. It turned out to be a navy blue long sleeve t-shirt that says Little Compton, Rhode Island on it and also has a sailboat on it. It smells like the store too. Good old LC! I am going to go munch on some candy now.

Word of the day: Arándano - cranberry
Salsa de arándanos - cranberry sauce

Feel the rhythm of the beat

I went salsa dancing again last night but it was at a different place than the first one. Unlike the other one, this was more like a lesson where we would stand in a line and just follow what the instructor did. It was really fun even though I can't really dance salsa. You see, for salsa, you need to be able to move your hips and also shimmy from time to time and seeing as I can't do either of these, my dancing is not up to par with everyone else. I suppose it doesn't really matter how well I can dance but as long as I am having fun. I love the music that we dance to though. I want to get a cd of it because it is that great. When I get back home, I want to find a place where I can continue dancing salsa. Does anyone want to go with me?

Mid-term exams are this next week. Out of my four classes, I only have two exams. One of them is this coming Tuesday. It is my political systems of the European Union class. He told us yesterday that it is a pass/fail exam so I sure hope that I pass. I am going to study all this weekend with Karen. My second exam is for my translation class and that is on Monday the 19th. I am nervous about this one because we only have an hour and a half to translate two articles and usually it take me that amount of time just to do one. I really hope I pass that one. We shall see though.

Word of the day: Examen - exam
Pasar - to pass
Suspender - to fail

Hello Muddah, hello Faddah

Hello Muddah, hello Faddah,
Here I am at Camp Granada.
Spain is very entertaining,
And we’ll all have more fun when we
can stop complaining.

“No hot water for our showers.”
“Dumb T.V. shows that last three
hours.”
“Our señoras all pinch the euros.”
And “You can’t fit more than three in
elevators.”

All the hams here still have feet on,
But the toilets have no seat on.
You remember Betsy Weibels?
She got sick from eating food with limbs and eyeballs.

Now I don’t want you to worry,
But the drivers always hurry,
Drive no handed, and chat on the mobile,
Once I nearly got myself run o-ber!

Fly me home! Oh Muddah, Faddah,
Fly me home! I hate Granada!
Don’t leave me in the Correos line,
Still waiting ‘til the end of time!
Fly me home! I promise I will study more,
And never ever slam the door!
Oh, please don’t make me stay!
I’ve been here ONE...WHOLE...DAY!

Dearest Faddah, Darling Muddah,
How’s my brilliant little bruddah?
Let me come home, grant my wishes.
I will gladly mow the lawn and wash the dishes.

Wait a minute...folks are joking,
Speaking clearly, and not smoking.
Keeping dogs leashed, gee that’s better.
Muddah, Faddah, please just throw away this letter.

Every week we get an AIFS newsletter and this was included in it this past week. It was written by and AIFS student many years ago and when I read it I knew immediately that I had to post it. It is so funny and so true at the same time. It also reminds me of when Meg went to camp and everyone was singing that. Ah, the memories. Well I hope you all enjoyed and got a good chuckle.

Dance the night away

Last night was an eventful night for me. AIFS team 2 had a volleyball game last night. It was the semi-final game so decided to go and watch but I brought my game cloths just in case there were not enough people. It is a good thing that I did because only 5 people from the actual team 2 were there. Jenny and I played with them even though we are on team 1 just so that they would not have to forfeit. It was sad because we ended up losing but oh well. It was fun while it lasted. Last night was the last night for volleyball anyway because right after the semi-final game was the final. After the game, I went with Maria to an internet cafe just to pass the time until salsa dancing! That is right, last night I went salsa dancing. It was me, Maria, Jenny, Karen, and Ashley. It was at this bar that does salsa on Monday and Wednesday nights for free and it was really cool. It is laid-back and informal where everyone just dances for about 15 minutes and then the instructor brings us all together for one song and he just teaches steps as everyone follows along. In my case, it was more like trying to follow along, but it was fun anyway. By the end of the night I had danced some salsa, merengue, and bachata. I can't wait to go back and lucky for me there is another place that we found where they have free salsa on Tuesday and Thursday nights so I think we are going there tonight. Fun, fun! I will be dancing every night of the week.

When I got home after dancing, I went into the apartment (I did not walk into anything if that is what you are thinking) and got to my room to find out that the lights were not working. I didn't know what to do and Maribel was already asleep so I couldn't tell her about it. I had to turn on my laptop so I could use the light from it to change. I couldn't go to the bathroom, brush my teeth, or wash my face because I couldn't see a thing. I just got into bed and went to sleep. In the morning, I told Maribel about it and she said that sometimes the circuit breaker randomly turns itself off so she showed me how to turn it back on in case it happens again. I hope it doesn't though because knowing me, it will happen at night when I can't see anything and I will break my glasses even more.

Word of the day: Bailar - to dance

By the way, I added another album where all the pictures have me in them because someone was complaining that there were not enough pictures of my smiling face. I won't mention who it was but I am pretty sure you can all guess. Enjoy!

A tribute to...

No, not Meg again. This tribute is for Travis because as many of you know, he goes to Iraq today. I am sure that he will be in constant communication with people in the U.S. and also Spain so it won't be terribly awful, but I felt it necessary to make a blog entry just for him. Like before with the other tribute, I am just going to list off a few things that always remind me of Travis and that I have encountered in Spain.

- Running (very infrequent for me but I did go for a quick run this morning)
- "Brown Eyed Girl"
- Waffles
- Chocolate chip cookies (when they can be found)
- My green shirt that I wore to the photo shoot
- Alcohol (we are obviously both drunkards)
- "Superman" (theme song from Scrubs)
- Pretty much all the music on my ipod
- Travy McTravums
- Anyone in a uniform
- Camouflage clothing
- Snickers
- Cold hands and feet

Well, that is all I can think of for now but I will add more as they come to me. I sure hate encountering these things day after day because they make me miss him more but I guess that is a good thing.

Phrase of the day: Echar de menos a - to miss

Jumping

Here are three pictures that I just had to post because I find them very humorous. They are not in my album of pictures because they were not taken with my camera. My friends finally put the pictures on facebook so I was able to copy them and then display them for all to see. We tried three times to all jump together in Seville because we had tried in Segovia but failed miserably to all be in the air at the same time. As you can see, these weren't much better. Jumping is Jenny, Ashley, Maria, Charisse, and me.

Long weekend

I don't have any class tomorrow because it is All Saints day! Hooray for a day off!! At the same time of all this greatness there is a downside: nothing will be open tomorrow. So while I don't have class, I will be working on homework throughout the day. Aw :-( This will give me a day to sleep in which is good. Aside from doing homework, I have no idea what to fill my day with. I guess I will just wing it. In sports related news, my volleyball team lost on Monday. There is however another AIFS team that is still in the runnings so I hope they do well. Tonight there was a soccer game for AIFS team two and even though I am on team one, I went because many people are going away for the long weekend so they wouldn't have enough people to play. Because of that, the captain from team two asked people from team one who weren't going any where to fill in for them. Maria and I decided to go but when we got there no one from our team showed while the other team was 9 guys who looked pretty intense. Seeing as we did not have enough people, we forfeited but they asked us if we wanted to stay and scrimmage with them. We decided to stay and it was fun. I felt like such an awful soccer player though because I think half of them were Spanish or from so other Spanish speaking country so they had grown up playing soccer. I think that is all the news that I have to report. Hasta luego!

Phrase of the Day: Estar cerrado: to be closed (store)
Estar abierto: to be open

A video and pictures

So here is a video of drummers that we saw in Sevilla. It was pretty cool so I decided to share it with you all. My pictures are also up from this weekend. There aren't many of Córboba though because I was too lazy. I asked Karen if I could have some of her pictures so I should have some more to show you eventually. She is constantly taking pictures so I should be putting up a bunch more but you will have to wait because she is not done with them yet.

Granada again

I am back from my weekend trip to see Gibraltar, Seville, and Cordoba. It was a fun trip but it is good to be back in Granada. We left Friday morning and went straight into another country: Gibraltar. Yes, I went to another country because Gibraltar, if you did not know, is a territory of England so we had to bring our passports and everything. Customs was pretty lame though because they didn't even look at the passport. They just let us all walk by without even glancing at us. While we were there, it was the strangest feeling to be hearing English being spoken in the streets and in the stores. I think I went through a bit of a culture shock. Now I can only image what it will be like when I come home. Gibraltar wasn't too interesting but we got to see Africa in the distance and also some apes. I hope to have my pictures up tomorrow so you can all see the wild apes that I was too scared to stand next to for a picture so I stood a few feet away. Some other people were braver and were actually petting the apes. Crazy stuff! From there we went to Seville and checked into our rooms which had little kitchenettes in them. Conveniently, there was a supermarket across the street so we went over there and bought some stuff to make tacos! It was very exciting. They, however, didn't have the taco mix so we just bought the burrito mix and made do. They were delicious. The next day we toured Seville and that night for dinner we made some pasta which took about an hour to make because we couldn't figure out the dials on the stove. Then on Sunday, we left Seville and went to Cordoba which I found to be pretty boring but that could be because our tour guide was boring. At 5 we got back on the bus and headed to Granada.

In class this morning I had a presentation on an article in the newspaper. It was about a group of paralyzed people visiting the Alhambra. I think I did a decent job. It is not like the grades really matter here though because URI only cares if I pass or fail. That gives me some relief so I am not stressing out or anything. After that class was over, I went to the office to relax as I usually do and wait until my class at 12:30. After being there for 15 minutes, Maria comes in and tells me that class is canceled because he is sick. Hooray! I didn't really care that much but it kind of stinks now because we will have to make up the class on a Friday. Oh well. So once I found that out I decided to go shopping for some things that I needed. I first went to a shoe store and got a pair of slippers for only 3 euros because the floors a really cold here. Next, I went to a little convenience store where I bought some mouthwash and toothpaste. I was also going to buy some more shampoo and conditioner but they only had shampoo so I didn't feel like buying it.

So onto some exciting news, you are all now one hour closer to your's truly for one whole week. Why do you ask? It is because daylight savings time ended this past weekend while your's ends next weekend. How great is that!

Word of the day: Zapatillas - slippers

Oh boy, there is now even more exciting news!! Maribel just got back from the supermarket and she came to my room to show me that she bought a HUGE bag of clementines! This is turning out to be a great day.

Bonus WOD: Mandarina - clementine

Third night of intercambio week

I think this may have been my favorite night of the three. My friend Karen arrange it and it was with two girls that are our age and there names are Barbara and Rocio. They took us to this bar that we have never been to but it was nice and I think that I will go back. I got a sprite and as for tapas, we got two bowls; one with nuts and the other with gummy candy. It was a nice change from the usual. They only could stay for an hour because they were helping out a friend work a bar that night but it was loads of fun. It was easier talking to them because of their age and gender and they always had something to say. I think that we are going to try to get together with them again and they mentioned maybe going bowling. That would be so awesome. Who bowls in Spain with Spaniards? That's right, I do. Another great part about the intercambio was that they paid. It was just the two sprites for the both of us but I consider that to be pretty generous. I think it might be because Barbara is rich. She said that her dad owns a car dealership and that she has a car and a moto (moped). Pretty cool though. One thing that they told us was that Rocio goes out with Barbara's brother. Karen and I found that strange but they said that it wasn't because they have been friends for a while which I thought would be more strange but I didn't say anything. It is probably just a cultural thing. Another thing that was also good about tonight was that neither of them really spoke English, so the whole time we were speaking in Spanish. Hooray for improving Spanish skills!

Aside from the awesomeness of tonight, I had another cool experience this afternoon when I was walking up to the AIFS office. I was almost there when I saw Paco walking towards me. He noticed me as well and we stopped and talked to each other for a minute and then went on our ways. I know this doesn't seem like a great story but it was exciting for me because it made me feel like a true Granadian. I finally feel like I am part of Spain and that this is my culture and my way of life too. It was just an interesting feeling. Anyway, I go to Gibraltar, Seville, and Córdoba this weekend so I hope to have lots of fun. I will be sure to take many pictures too :-)

Intercambios galore!!

The intercambio with Paco was fun the other night. He is a 35 year old dentist and we went to a tapas bar. I brought Karen with me so I wouldn't be as nervous and I am glad I did because it was a little bit on the awkward side. He was really nice though and I think I will schedule another one with him. I felt bad because he said that usually people do not contact him for intercambios because of his age. Sadly to say, I used to be one of those people. I decided that anyone over 25 would be too old, not that it is really old. I just thought it would be better to talk to someone more my age. I now know differently and I won't care how old the person is any more. During our conversation he stopped to tell me that I need to talk more because that is what I am here for. Up to this point, Karen had headed up most of the conversations and I just nodded and said "vale." He is right though, I am not using this trip to my full advantage. I need to force myself to talk more especially in my classes. I think that is where I will start.

Yesterday while I was in the AIFS office, Pilar, one of the directors, asked me if I was going to the AIFS run intercambio night that night. I had thought it was Thursday so I had not planned to go out last night but I obviously told her yes that I would be going. They arrange it so that there are 7 people from AIFS and 7 Spaniards and they pay for two rounds of tapas. We were all meeting up at 9:30. At about 8:30, it started raining, switching between light rain and down-pours. Because of this, I really did not want to go because as you all might know, I hate the rain and being wet. It makes me "crunky." I grit my teeth though because I did not want to be rude and I am really glad that I did. It was so much fun and the time flew by. I talked in Spanish for pretty much the whole time and the tapas were delicious. I most definitely want to go to that place again and also go to another AIFS intercambio night. I am on the wait list now because they want to make sure that everyone gets a chance to go to one. I think that my name is early on the list so maybe I will be called for next week's or the week's after. I have another intercambio which Karen set up for tonight and I am really looking forward to it. I will be sure to let you know how it goes.

Word of the Day: Vale - ok, right (Only used in Spain)

Paco

Tonight I have my first intercambio. An intercambio is where you meet with a Spanish person and half the time you speak in Spanish and the other half of the time you speak in English. The other day one of my teachers told us that she was teaching a class with Spaniards and that if we wrote down our information she would give it to one of them so we could set up an intercambio. The person who got my information emailed me at the end of last week. His name is Fransisco but Paco is his nickname. He told me when he had class and then gave me his number. I finally got up the nerve and called him last night. He was driving when I called so he said that he would call me back in 10 minutes. After 15 had gone by, I started to get nervous and I thought that maybe I was supposed to call him back and I had just not heard him correctly. I was about to give up hope on him returning the call when he called me which was 25 after he said he would. We found out that we have I have class while he is free and that he has class while I am free. He thought of getting together this weekend but I told him that I was going away to Sevilla. We eventually decided upon meeting tonight. Thankfully, my friend Karen is coming with me so it isn't too weird and also that he does not kidnap me or something. I don't know where we are going to go but I am assuming that he will have some idea. I hope all goes well. Wish me luck!

Sports

This past week sports started for the people at the CLM. On Monday I had a volleyball game and then on Wednesday I had a soccer game. As you might already assume, my team won both days. It was great except for the wound that I acquired while playing soccer because it still stings. It is great that we won because this competition is elimination so once you lose, you are done. I am so glad that we did not get out in the first round. My volleyball team does not have a game this Monday but the other AIFS team does so I am thinking about going to it. I am not sure about soccer though. I think I have a game on Wednesday but it might be the same deal as volleyball. I guess I will have to find out from someone. One thing that I forgot to mention is that the AIFS teams look super swank because we all have matching t-shirts that were given to us by the AIFS director, Paula. We looked so awesome. All the other teams just wear whatever shirt they have lying around and they look so un-team like. There is an exception though. The team that we played against in soccer wore actual jerseys. Oh my! Yes, we were intimidated at first but then we crushed them 4-1. Ah, the sweet taste of victory. They won't be playing again now so it is such a waste about their uniforms :-) That is all for now. Wish me luck for next week's games.

Words of the day: Voleibol
Fútbol
Deportes
Camisetas - t-shirts

I think that you can figure out what the other words are and if you can't, well that stinks for you.

A tribute to...

Meghan!!! So Meg is apparently upset about me not posting as often as I did in the beginning so I hope to appease her by presenting everyone with an onslaught of blog entries. Well at least I am going to try to remember to write more. Seeing as this blog is especially for Meg, I figured that I would write things that remind me of her.

- Bread. "I'm rough and tough, arrr."
- Bocadillos
- My nalgene bottle
- The escape pod
- My wallet
- Melocotones
- Police sirens
- German euros
- Tunafish pizzas
- Towers with many stairs

That is all I can think of off the top of my head but I know there are more so I will be sure to add them as I think of them.

Melocotón

So if you have been studying the WODs avidly, you will know what the title says. If you have not been a good little student, you can probably figure it out by the context of the story. And the story goes like this: Tonight after eating my bocadillo, Maribel asked if I wanted a fruit. I said yes and that I would have one of the melocotones seeing as she just bought them yesterday for me to have. It was a new kind that was yellow instead of the usual melocotón color. I thought it would still taste the same but as soon as my lips touched it, I noticed a big difference. It felt like I was eating hair. I don't mind the usual fuzz but this was almost a new species of fruit. The taste wasn't bad but I can't get over the feeling that I was eating really short hair. It was like Travis' hair or something. Now Travis' hair is considered to be very short but when it is on a melocotón, that is gosh darn long. Now Maribel is going to think I like that variety of peach and I will be stuck eating it for the next 2 months. Well maybe I exaggerate a bit on the whole eating it for 2 months straight, but it could happen. I certainly don't want it to but anything is possible in Spain.

On to other news, another problem occurred in regards to vision/eyesight. It isn't as traumatic as the other day when I smashed into the cabinet and bent my glasses but it is something worth noting. I think it was two mornings ago, I was sitting at my desk and I suddenly noticed that my right eye was not seeing as well as my left. I assumed that my contact had simply shifted but when I looked in the mirror, the contact was no where to be found. I have no idea what happened to it and I am thinking that at some point it decided to pop out of my eye. I looked around for it but couldn't find it. Thankfully I brought extras but now I only have one left in case anything else happens. I don't think in all my years of wearing glasses and contacts that I have ever had this much trouble.

Words of the day: Pelo - hair
Lentilla - contact lens

Glasses

Yesterday evening when I came back to the apartment, I was surprised to find 4 people sitting in the living room. Of course Maribel was there along with her mother but there were 2 new people. I quickly realized that is was Maribel's daughter, Natalie, with her husband, Jean-Francoise or some name that is very French. It was fun to meet them finally after seeing their wedding pictures. I sat in the living room for a bit but I eventually had to leave to go out for tapas and meet Maria's boyfriend who flew into Spain yesterday. Before I left, Maribel explained that she was not sleeping at the apartment and that she was going to her sister's because there would not be enough room for everyone here. Natalie and Jean-Francoise were going to sleep in her room so she and her mother went to her sister's for the night. Because of this she had to tell me what to do with locking the doors seeing as I would be the last one back. She told me not to dead bolt it because she was coming back in the morning but to lock the regular lock with my keys and then leave my keys in the door. So she could get in using her keys in the morning, I had to have my keys sticking half-way out of the lock. I did all this when I came back from tapas and then got ready for bed. Before I got into bed, I wanted to double check the keys to make sure they were half=way out of the lock. I walked in the dark towards the door and when I turned the corner, I realized a half a second too late that I had turned too soon and that I was going to collide with a huge cabinet. Ow, it really hurt and I had my glasses on which made it hurt more. The keys were fine and when I got back to my room, I noticed that my glasses felt a little loose. I took them off and found out that one of the long piece that goes to the ear had been bent out somehow. The glasses are still wearable but they are extremely loose and and prone to fall off at any moment. I tried to bend it back but I did not want to break the glasses so I will just wait until I get home. It is no big deal because I only wear my glasses at night and even then, it is not for that long. They are pretty old too so maybe once I get back to the states, I will get a new pair with a higher prescription too. I think that the prescription is from 7th grade. It would be fun to get new glasses that are more in style and look better on me.

Word of the day: Gafas - eyeglasses

Pasta!

Guess what I had for lunch yesterday! That is right, you guessed it, pasta!!! I came home after class for lunch and I sat down at the table to eat my salad. Maribel then said that the spaghetti would be ready in a few minutes. I was shocked and thrilled at the same time. I didn't even know if I heard her correctly or if it was just my imagination. In a few minutes, I found out that I had heard everything clearly because she came over to the table with a heaping pile of pasta with sauce. Hooray again for comfort food! It was so good even though it was not angel hair and it was broken up so I could not twirl it around with my fork. The homemade sauce was probably the best part. Even though it was great to have pasta again, I could not finish it. I can never finish my food here because she always gives me so much. Do I look like I eat alot or something? Oh well, it was fantastic but I guess I will have to wait another 6 weeks to get that again. That is right, I have already been here for 6 weeks. Crazy, I know. I think I am here for another 11 or 12 weeks. I am not entirely sure. I know it will fly by though especially since sports are starting next week and I have a volleyball game on Monday. I hope it is tons of fun and that we kick butt! How they organize it is that each program here sets up their own team and then we all compete against each other in an eight week tournament. I hope to last all 8 weeks until we become the champions :-) That is all for now!

Pictures!!

All of the pictures are up now so go and take a gander. I started classes today and my first class was Political Systems of the European Union at 10:30 and I think I am going to like it. The only part that I don't like is that our grade is 10% participation, 20% homework, 35% mid-term, and 35% final. So if you can't do the math my grade is basically contingent upon 2 exams. I hope that won't be too stressful. Then my next class at 12:30 was canceled for some reason so I have had the rest of the day off. How lovely! Not looking forward to tomorrow though. My first class is at 8:30 and it is a Spanish oral and grammar class. This means that I need to leave my apartment at 8 just to get to class in time. Then at 12:30 I have a translation class which ends at 2:30. I have to rush back for lunch, eat, and then run back for my Hispanic literature class at 4. It will be a busy day tomorrow.

Things to remember

I was thinking this morning of all the things that I hope not to forget about this past week so I decided to write them down and share.

-Staying up to 2 in the morning with my friends in the hotel talking about each of our boyfriends (There were definitely some funny stories for this one)
-Having Principe cookies for the first time (mmmm, delicioso)
-Buying more postcards than I know what to do with
-Trying to steal flan from another table and saying that I would do a dance to distract everyone
-Being able to make pasta in the hostel in Barcelona (hooray for comfort food)
-Finding chocolate chip cookies
-Eating a cinnamon raisin bagel at The Bagel Shop in Barcelona (they don't have bagels in Spain so it was quite the delicacy)
-Seeing the only complete set of Stradivarius instruments (string quintet) in the Palacio Real in Madrid and not realizing it until a few days later after buying clothes from a store called Stradivarius and then proceeding to find out more information of Stradivari.
-Pulling an all nighter just so that we wouldn't have to pay for an extra night at the hostel (our plane was leaving early enough that we only would have used the hostel for 2 hours any way)
-Buying dried fruit almost every day in Barcelona at the open market because it was that good (kiwis and pineapple)
-Maria haggling with all the shop keepers in Barcelona and getting discounts on magnets and postcards

Back in Granada

My week of traveling is over and it was a blast. I saw Madrid, Segovia, Toledo, and Barcelona. I was all over Spain. I flew back this morning. It was rough because my flight was at 6:25 in the morning so Maria and I decided not to stay at the hostel for the last night. We were able to stay in the basement of the hostel with free computers and internet access until 1AM and then we left. We took the metro to where the night bus to the airport was. We finally got to the airport at about 3:30 and we just sat down because we could not check in yet. I tried sleeping so I was sitting at an angle which made my head be partly on the chair next to me. While I am resting, I suddenly feel the chair shake a bit and I open my eyes to see that a guy has sat down next to me. He disturbed my sleep and forced me to move because if he sat back, he would have squashed my head. There wasn't even a lack of seats around so I don't know what possessed him to sit next to me. Maria could not stop laughing. He ended up leaving 5 minutes later so I was even angrier at him. It was just really rude for him to have done that because I was obviously sleeping. The nerve of some people. So after that incident, we checked in, had a bagel and chocolate milk, and then waited at our gate. It did not take too long to get on the plane after that. It was cool because we had to take a bus out to our plane and then use one of those movable stairs to board the plane. I passed out as soon as I sat down and then woke up when the plane started to descend into Granada. I got at least a good hour of sleep. Once we landed, we had to take a bus to Granada which I slept on and then we got off and had to walk back to our apartments. It was cold this morning so as soon as I got back, I put my pjs on and climbing into bed. I slept for about 4 hours, took a shower, unpacked, and then had lunch. After lunch, my hand nearly fell off writing so many postcards. I will have to get stamps tomorrow for all of them because nothing is open today. Pictures should also be up tomorrow as long as I go to the CLM for a faster internet connection. Then classes start on Tuesday, how thrilling. Well that is all for now. Be on the lookout for pictures from around Spain!

Words of the day: Dormir - to sleep
Aeropuerto - airport
Aeroplano - airplane
Viaje - trip

Barcelona

Right now I am on a computer in the basement of a hostel in Barcelona. Maria is with me so it is not too sketchy. I flew into Barcelona yesterday and I fly back to Granada on Sunday. It has been a great week so far because on Saturday I went to Madrid with AIFS. Then on Sunday we took a day trip to el Escorial (burial place for kings and queens) and also Segovia (a city where Walt Disney supposedly modeled the castle in Snow White after the one that is there). Monday we spent the day in Madrid and went to the Palace and also a museum. Then we left Madrid on Tuesday and spent the day in Toledo which used to be the capital before Madrid. It was fun and exciting. Then I got back to Granada around 8 on Tuesday night. I woke up the next day at 5:15 and left the apartment at 6:15. Maria and I finally got to our hostel in Barcelona at around noon. We spent yesterday walking around and we also walked around today. For brunch this morning we went to a bagel place. It was so lovely and the bagel was wicked good. I had a cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese. Delicious! I have taken so many pictures already and I should be able to put them online by Monday. We shall see though. I have so many it might take forever. Oh yeah so it is really annoying being in Barcelona because even though it is in Spain, everyone speaks Catalan. It is a mixture between French and Spanish. I can´t understand them. It is so frustrating. Conveniently, many things are written in Spanish and English in addition to Catalan. Well I should get going because I am hungry and Maria and I are making some yummy pasta tonight. I have not had pasta in forever, I can´t wait!

Money

So people here are really weird about their money. Unlike the U.S., everyone uses cash to pay. Most places I don't even think you can use a credit card and at the places you can use one, they probably would look at you oddly and kind of be annoyed. When you pay with cash though, they are very picky about it. If what you are buying only costs one euro and you pay with a 5, they will ask you if you have anything smaller. I am pretty sure that a 5 is pretty small so I don't know why they keep asking. I mean if I had the one euro, I would pay with the one euro and not break out the 5. It seems like every time I pay for something, this happens. Like I bought floss yesterday and they asked me for a smaller denomination. Does everyone here just always have the exact change? I don't know, this is ridiculous though. I almost feel like I should just be carrying around one euro coins. That would be weighty.

Word of the day: Hilo - floss

Phrase of the day: ¿Tiene suelto? - Do you have change/lower denomination.

Hiking

So I went hiking in the mountains this weekend. It was an excursion run through my program and it was lovely. We walked about 10km and half of it was uphill so it was pretty tiring. There were some spectacular views though as you can see if you click on the link to my photos. I get a free shirt for going too which is exciting but they won't be ready until Friday. I will be sure to post a picture of the shirt for all to see. So that was pretty much the only thing that I did this weekend worth noting. I have a funny story from this morning though. I was putting toast in the toaster (not bandaids) and when I was done, I turned around quickly to put the bread away and my eye landed right on the corner of the vent that is over the stove. It wasn't my eye dead on, but it was right beneath it and it really hurt. Thank goodness I did not get a black eye from it. I only have a little bruise. Oh well, this stuff happens.

Miserable walk home

Ah!!!! The rain won't let up! This makes me cranky. The half hour walk from the school to my apartment was absolutely awful. My pants got so soaked as did the back of my jacket and my shoes. I think the shoes being wet was the worst part. The streets have the water flowing rapidly down them because Granada is a big hill so when you step out onto the street, the water flows right through your shoes. It is an interesting feeling that I hope I never have to experience again. My cloths are out on the terrace now drying. I think it might take a week for them to dry. This rain might ruin any plans for tonight because no one wants to go out in the rain, especially me. This stinks. Well on the bright side, if I don't go out, I save money! Woot. I would rather go out. :-(

Word of the day: Triste - sad

Lluvia, lluvia, lluvia

So it is supposed to rain all day today, or at least that is what weather.com is saying. I hate the rain and it is usually extremely rare here but this is the 2nd time in about 3 and a half weeks. How lucky! When the sidewalks get wet here, it becomes real slippery and you have to make sure you are careful. I am supposed to be watching a movie in one of my classes today so that should be fun. I hope it is a good movies. I also hope that this rain does not ruin the chances of going out tonight. Obviously I can still go out even though it is raining but I might not want to deal with getting wet. We shall see how things shape up. Weather.com has been known to lie quite frequently.

Making progress

So today was a normal day unlike any other. We had an optional culture shock meeting today at the office where we talked about how we were liking Spain so far and such and we also got some free pizza. It wasn't as good as the pizza in the States but it was decent. At the meeting I found out from Paula, the resident director, that my host mom, Maribel, has a daughter. I was also told that her daughter got married this past summer. So this evening while getting ready for dinner, I asked Maribel about her daughter and the wedding. She was so excited so she showed me a bunch of pictures from the wedding. First of all, her daughter's name is Natale (not entirely sure on the spelling). She lives in Brussels right now but in November, she is moving to London. Her husband is from Paris and his name is something like Jean-Francoise. She is a lawyer and he is a sociologist or something of the sort. Maybe he teaches sociology. Oh well that doesn't really matter. The wedding was in July and it was in Granada. The pictures were gorgeous and her daughter is really pretty. I also found out that because Maribel was hosting a student during the summer, she got to be in the wedding. How lucky is that?! I want to be in a Spanish wedding. Apparently for the first dance, they newlyweds did not do a waltz but an Argentine tango. I want to learn how to dance the Argentine tango! My goodness, it looked and sounded like so much fun and I am so glad that I had a somewhat long conversation in Spanish. Not to sound too corny, but I think this strengthened my relationship with Maribel because now she knows that I am interested in her life. I hope this leads to many more conversations with her and eventually maybe it won't be such broken Spanish on my part. :-)

Words of the day: Galleta - cookie
Sello - stamp

Why they are the WsOD:
Maria got sent some cookies from home and she let me have some. They are really good.
I bought 3 stamps today. Do you think you are one of the lucky ones that will be receiving mail from me soon?

Eventful weekend

I stayed in Granada this weekend and ended up doing many things. Friday and Saturday night I went out for tapas which is always lots of fun. Saturday morning I went to Sacromonte with Maria, Karen, and Jenny. Essentially what we did was walk around for 2 hours on a big hill. We walked to the top of one hill to see a church and there just happened to be a wedding going on. Anyone can just go into the church so I took a picture but it is kind of fuzzy. Sacromonte is also where the gypsies live and they mostly live in caves. After walking around and lunch, there was a festival thing for the patron saint of Granada. It seemed like everyone in the city was there and the ceremony was in front of this one church. Everyone buys flowers and lines up to present them and they put them all on the outside of the church. I have pictures of that too. As I said before, that night we went out for tapas and we dressed up a bit too. On Sunday, we went back to the church with the flowers to see it all completed. The smell of it was so powerful and it was really beautiful. Later after lunch, we got together and saw the end of La Vuelta. This is a 23 day bike race throughout Spain and this weekend it happened to end in Granada. I have pictures of this as well as a tribute to Travis but they are blurry. Once that was done, we went down to el parque de Garcia Lorca. It is somewhat near my house but it is nothing like Slater Park back at home. It is smaller and it is mostly dirt. There is grass but you can tell that they have to put much work into it so it is actually green. I guess it is good to have a least a little green some where. That was the end of my weekend so everyone should look at the pictures that I posted.

Words of the day: Pasear - to walk, to go for a walk
Iglesia - church
La boda - wedding
Las flores - flowers
Bicicleta - bicycle
Hierba - grass

The case of the two Marias

It all started my first week here. I don't remember which day it was but I was talking to Maribel during dinner and she was asking me about my friends. I told her that I had a friend named Maria and she immediately knew who I was talking about because she lives with her friend who is also named Maria. I don't exactly know how to explain the rest of the conversation but it resulted in Maribel thinking that I have two friends that are both named Maria. I didn't really want to say anything to correct it because I was so confused about the conversation so I let it slide. I figured that I would never have to talk about it again. Oh how wrong I was. It was the afternoon after the placement exam when she asked me how I did and also how my friends did especially the two Marias. I had no idea what to say so I just told her how the real Maria did and then talked about a different friends. She did not press for information about the second Maria, thank goodness. After this close encounter of her finding out the truth, I thought that she probably would not say anything more. Wrong again! Today while sitting down for lunch, Maribel suddenly brought up the two Maria situation. She said that she was talking to one of her friends and that she was confused because her friends said that the girl living with her was Marisa so she asked me if this was a mistake. I told her that I do have two friends named Maria. She then thought that maybe her friends had gotten Marisa's name wrong and that it actually was Maria. She said that her friend lives on San Anton and I said that that is where Maria lives. She started laughing because she now thinks that her friend has been saying the girl's name wrong this whole time. I then realized that I was mistaken. San Anton is not the street that Maria lives on, it is Pedro Antonio. How I mixed that up is beyond me. After realizing this, Maribel says that she is going to tell her friend that she has been using the wrong name. I quickly say that there is a girl in the program named Marisa so perhaps we are thinking of two different people. For the purpose of clarification, she asks me where my two friends named Maria live. I said that one lives on Pedro Antonio, which is true, and that the other lives on Camino de Ronda, which is a lie because I only have one friend named Maria. She realizes the mix up and laughs it off thinking it was her own fault for getting confused. She leaves to clear her plate and I had to try so hard not to burst out laughing. I wonder if this situation will get any worse because I obviously can't tell her now after all of this that I only have one friend named Maria.

Word of the day: Mentira - a lie

Rain, rain go away...

Yesterday was the first rain here that I have experienced. It rained a few nights ago but I was not awake for it. It all started sometime during my siesta yesterday afternoon. I woke up and I was extremely confused to see that it was not sunny. At first I thought I had overslept until 8 but upon closer inspection, it turned out to be clouds and the ground was soaked. I had a discussion with my host mom about the rain and she says that this is really weird because it never rains in Andalucía. The rain stopped after a little while and I went out with some friends. On our way back home, however, it started to rain again. My pants got a little wet on the bottom but other than that I was fine because I was smart enough to bring an umbrella with me. This umbrella, by the way, is an international traveler because I originally found it in Germany and it also spent some time in the Czech Republic. It is obviously now in Spain with me. This umbrella sure is lucky. So when I got back to the apartment I had dinner and I also had some fruit for dessert. Maribel asked me if I wanted some melon and I said yes assuming that it was going to be watermelon. When she came back, it was not what I expected. It was white with the same texture as a cantaloupe. The taste was kind of a cross between watermelon and cantaloupe. Needless to say, I really like it and I hope I get some more today. I don't think I have ever had that fruit before. Is it even sold in the U.S.? Have I just never seen it before? Who knows? It was good and that is all that matters.

Word of the day: Llover - to rain

Still sick :-(

Pobrecita Marta! I think tomorrow it will be better especially with my strict regimen of Los Italianos. I met my señora's mom today. She is about two feet shorter than me and I guess that she is not all with it or at least that is what I was told. She is one of those cute old ladies that you just want to take home and keep under your bed like in Volver. I didn't really like that movie but it suddenly popped into my head when I was thinking about that last sentence. Anyway, my sheets were changed today. It was a startling surprise when I came back to the apartment today. I like the other sheets better though. Oh well, I suppose these will do until they are changed again. I finished uploading all the photos that I have taken while I have been here so you should have a looksy. I was thinking today that I should take some pictures of my room and apartment so you all can see where I live. I bought some more tissues today just in case anyone was wondering. I brought 3 packs of pocket tissues with me and the third one is almost gone because with my cold, I have to blow my nose frequently. It was pretty cheap too. I got 15 packs of 10 tissues for 80 cents. I consider that to be the deal of the century. Maybe I should start exporting tissues and selling them en los Estados Unidos. I could make a fortune!

Word of the day: Sábanas - sheets for a bed

Monday blues

So I got homework today. I guess it is not that bad. I have to make up a story and write it using the different past tenses. It took my a while to figure out what to write but I think I have something good. If you would like to read it, I can send it to you so just let me know. Keep in mind, however, it is in Spanish. I uploaded more pictures. I didn't get to finish the Albaicin photos yet so don't look at them. I only had time to upload half of them. Either tomorrow or Wednesday I will finish the rest. I am still sick and I am coughing more than I was yesterday. I also did not have time today to take a siesta. Sad, I know. Because of that, I hope I will be able to fall asleep quickly and not be disturbed by my coughing. My mom called today which was cool and I got to talk to her for about 10 minutes before I realized that she was calling directly from the house phone without using a phone card. How expensive! Oh well, my dad should have gotten phone cards sooner. :-) I went to the mall that is down the street from me for the first time today with some friends. It was all right but they do have a cinema and it only costs 3.50 euros on Wednesdays so I think we might all go see a movie then. I hope it is a good one! I will let you know how it turns out and if I can actually understand it. For some reason, though, there are two identical candy stores in this mall. Only one is a little smaller. A little bit weird if you ask me. I got some candy, obviously, but there was no sign of hot tamales any where. There wasn't even anything like it. How dreadful. I guess someone will have to send me some ;-)

Word of the day: Dulce - candy

Carnival

Last night there was a carnival thing that me and my friends all went to. Guess what I bought! Cotton candy!!! It was so good with its delicious sugary self. I have not had cotton candy in the longest time and my dad, mom, and sister can attest to the fact that I absolutely love it. We also saw a free flamenco show last night that also had some singers. The dancing was cool but I don't really like the singing. So some music just started playing from I don't know where and it sounds like there should be some people dueling. I don't know. In regards to strange noises, my host mom, Maribel, sounded like she was weed whacking in her room this morning. I don't thing this is possible because last time I checked, she did not have a lawn in her room. She was probably doing some crazy cleaning because that is what she does all the time. She does not work because I assume that hosting people brings in enough money so she simply cleans, cooks, watches TV, and goes to the pool. A boring life to lead if you ask me. She cleans like crazy though. She has the same routine of cleaning every day and as soon as I am done with a dish, she rushes it off to the kitchen to wash it. She also cooks alot. She will start making lunch at 8:30 or 9 in the morning. Is this necessary? You also have to consider the fact that we have lunch here around 2:30. This means that it takes her around 6 hours to prepare what we are eating. Crazy, crazy. So I am still sick and now I am also coughing. I am, however, going on a run today with Maria. I hope I won't die!

Word of the day: Toser - to cough

CLM

CLM stands for el Centro de las lenguas modernas and that is where I have class every day. It is away from the actual university but it is not too far away. I am at the CLM right now because I am uploading some long awaited pictures. I tried to do it with my in an out internet connection in my apartment but it would not work. That is why I had to come here. They have free wireless for all the students and it is pretty good. It is so much better than what I have in my apartment. Right now I am uploading the London stopover photos and that might be all I have time for. I am sorry for the delay but what can I do. The CLM is closed over the weekend so I will make every effort to come here Monday to try and finish.

I have starte to get sick which is crap. I have a sore throat and a headache. It started yesterday and I didn't really think anything of it until last night when I woke up at 2am because of it. I am hoping that is goes away quickly without having to get medication or something. I cough from time to time but it doesn't really bother me that much. My headache got worse during class but when I got home I was treated with pizza! All the food has been great here so far but it was a nice reminder of home. After lunch I went into my room and ended up taking a two and a half hour nap. I know, crazy, but I was really tired and a little bit sick. After my pictures have been uploaded I am going out to get some ice cream. Now I am only doing this in the hopes of making my throat feel better. I think ice cream is a much better cure than medication. I am going to Los Italianos which is by far the best ice cream in town. I was planning on taking my parents and Meg there when they come in December but unfortunately I found out that it is only open in the summer. So by October it will be closed. How sad! I guess I better stock up now. :-)

Words of the day: La garganta - throat
La cabeza - head
El cuello - neck
La axila - armpit

Phrase of the day for me: Me duele la garganta y la cabeza. - My throat and head hurts me.

Everyone will be fluent in no time!

Good food

I think I am going to be two Marthas when I finally come home. The food here is great. Yesterday I had the best ice cream ever at a place called Los Italianos. I got half chocolate and half café. Then last night I went out for some tapas. Today I went with my friends to get churros that you dip in hot chocolate syrupy stuff. It was so good but some random guy walked by and said "Aproveche." Then tonight for my bocadillo I had some chorizo. Good thing all you do here is walk because if not, I would seriously need someone to roll me around by now.

Words of the day: Chorizo - pork sausage
Churro - fried dough pastry
Aproveche - bon appétit

Same old, same old

So I am already getting into the swing of things and nothing really exciting happened today but I decided that I still had to have a word of the day.

Word of the day: Bolso - bag

Why it is the WOD:
I bought a handbag today for only 3 euros. It is a small canvas bag and it seems to be of good quality. I love it how things like bags can be so inexpensive here. Other things that are actually necessary though like toothpaste are more expensive than in the states. Them's the breaks.

Primer día

Today was the first day of class. I have two teachers within the 4 hours. From 10 to 11:50 my teacher's name is Rosa. She is nice but seems a little dry in her teaching. I will update you if things change with her. The second professor from 11:10 to 2 is fantastic. Her name is Encarna and she is so energetic. We spent the whole time in her class asking her questions about herself and then we would chime in if we had something to say that related to what she had said. After class I went home for lunch, had a quick siesta, and then went out. I went to the AIFS office to see if they had the book that I needed for my classes. They didn't so my next stop was the university bookstore. Before I left the office though, I checked the mail box and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had received my first letter. Who was it from you ask? No other than my favorite boyfriend (because we all know that I have more than one), Travis. It felt cool to get a letter and it reminded me of waiting for letters to come while Travis was at bootcamp. After I read the letter, I met up with my friends and we all traversed to the bookstore. I bought the book and then we went walking around the calles and window shopped.

Word of the day: Abanico - fan (paper)

Why it is the WOD:
It is always really hot in Granada and people are always using the cool hand fans that you can flip out quickly and it reminds me of Spain for some reason. Since the day I arrived to see all the señoras standing around at the bus stop and quickly fanning themselves, I have wanted one. Today was the day because after much searching I found a fan that was inexpensive and that seemed to me to be of good quality. Now whenever I start feeling a bit hot, I can easily flip out my fan and pretend that I am Spanish. And also, abanico is the name of the book I had to buy. I just realized that last night and I kind of laughed to my self. I think my host mom is starting to think I am crazy with random bouts of laughter coming from my room.

Horario

We signed up for classes today. Classes start October 9th or something like that. I signed up for a translation class which I hope will help me with my vocabulary. I am also taking a grammar class that is mandatory, a class on the political system of the European Union, another class on Spanish history from Franco to present, and then the last one is Hispanic literature. We have to take at least four classes so I have the option of dropping one within the first week if I don't like it. While I wait for October to arrive, September is filled with a 4 hour a day class of intensive advanced Spanish. I love it how I got my level changed. So that starts tomorrow morning at 10 and goes until 2. I got a good time for the class. Some people have to start at 9 which doesn't seem to be that bad but you need to remember that it takes about 30 minutes to walk to the building that it is in. I just had my bocadillo which is the same thing as a sandwich but it uses a loaf of bread instead of prepackaged slices. I am going out at 10 for tapas with some friends so that should be fun. Tapas for anyone who does not know are appetizers but they are free with the drink that you buy. It might only be free in Granada though. I am not entirely positive. I hope it will be a fun night!

Word of the day: Melocotón - peach

Why it is the WOD:
Every night after my bocadillo, my señora gives me a piece of fruit. So far it has just been un melocotón. I did not know the word for it so tonight I asked her. Every time I eat it though, it reminds me of Meg because she is allergic to it.

Costa del sol

I just got back from a weekend along the coast. I saw the Mediterranean for the first time which was cool and I also got my feet wet. The waves were crazy there and it was really windy the first day. There was a pool at the hotel so after craziness at the beach, my friends and I went back to the hotel. We went out for tapas and it was my first time since being here. It was fun but the ice cream that we had after was better. The next day we did pretty much the same thing but left at 5 to come back to Granada. I just got back and I wish that I had pictures to post so everyone could see the beautiful pictures of the sea. Hopefully by the end of the week I will get my camera card reader and I can finally post all the pictures that I have been taking.

Word of the day: Rebajas - rebates

Why it is the WOD:
Twice a year in Spain, or maybe just in the south, all the shops have to get rid of all their old clothing to make way for the new stuff. Because of this, they have crazy sales for a whole month. While in Costa del sol, I bought a lovely dress for only 12 euros. I just love sales and now I will be able to look like I belong here because the women are always wearing dresses and skirts instead of jeans and shorts.

La Alhambra

The visit to the Alhambra was today. We had to walk up a long and steep hill that took a good 20 minutes and then we were there. We had the option of taking the tour in Spanish or in English so I opted for the one in Spanish. The tour guide for the Spanish section was really nice and told us many interesting things that I have already forgotten. It was weird because he had a really good Spanish accent so we thought he was from the area but when he started to speak English, he had a British accent. Everyone was thrown off by that. So that gives me some hope that one day my accent could be mistaken for a Spaniards. So the whole tour lasted about 2 hours and I got home at 3 for lunch. At 5 I went shopping again and bought Meg one part of her birthday present. I hope she likes it. I also bought some postcards to send but I need to go somewhere to buy stamps. It is 78 cents to send a postcard or something crazy like that so I probably won't be sending too many. Sorry in advance if you don't get one. You can always email me. :-) Tomorrow morning the AIFS group is going to Costa del sol to the beach. I should be fun!

Word of the day: Derramar - to spill liquid

Why it is the WOD:
I bought some ice cream today and I was sitting down eating it when Meg yelled to me that the bottom of the cone was dripping onto my clothes. I got drops of ice cream on my shirt and on my pants. How lovely! I had to ask Maria how to say that I spilled ice cream so I could say it to my host mom because I wanted her to know before she did the laundry.

Fiesta

Last night we had a welcoming party at pub Babel. It was fun and we got free pizza and drinks. I was really tired throughout the whole thing though because I was unable to take a siesta yesterday. I left at around 10:30 and thankfully Meg, Maria, and Sam offered to walk me home and then they were all going back to party some more. Another reason why I left early is so I could be nice and refreshed this morning because I had a meeting with the resident director Paula and the Centro de las lenguas modernas. If you know me, you must be thinking how did she already get herself into trouble? To ease your mind, I am not in trouble and I have not done anything wrong. I had a meeting with her to talk about my placement test yesterday. See, when she gave us the paper at club Babel saying what level we were in, she could tell I was somewhat disappointed. She asked if I was all right with this and I said yes but then asked her if I could take some advanced classes when school officially starts. She said in order to do that I would have had to place into the advanced level or I would have to take another test at the end of this month to see if I could move up. I could also meet with her and the head professor tomorrow to discuss it and maybe change it but that seemed unnecessary. Another solution would have been to go to the first 3 days of classes and see if it was too easy and then I might have been able to move to the advanced class. I said that I would do that and I went off about my way to socialize. A little later on, I was talking to Maria about it and I decided to go back to Paula and say that I would go in the morning to talk about it. So I did and it is already over with and now I am sitting in the computer room typing this on a funky keyboard. On this keyboard I can type things like ç ´¡ º € ñ and other cool things. Well back to my story after I kept you in such suspense. The lady said that my written part was really good and at the advanced level but that my grammar in the multiple choice section was intermediate. She also went on to say that my oral interview was intermediate and I said that it was because I was very nervous and that I never really practiced speaking much at home. I also mentioned that I have friends in the higher level that would help me. She said that was good and that I would have to try very hard. I said this was ok and that I always tried my best with school work. So now thanks to the help of Paula and a little persuasion of the head professor, I am now in advanced level A.

Word of the day: Intermedio - intermediate, the level that I used to be
Bonus word: Avanzado - advanced, the level that I am now

Hooray for Martha!

Placement test

The placement test was today. We started off with 6 short responses and then when we were done with that we had to do a multiple choice test. Once that was done, we all had to wait outside the classroom and stand in line to go in for an interview. Mine was good and I got placed into the intermediate level B based on the interview and the exam. Each level is subdivided into 2: A and B. B is the higher of the two so maybe by the end of orientation I can take advanced classes. Lets hope for the best. On a side note, guess what appeared on the written exam. The word ficha came up two or three times. Isn't that crazy!? Good thing that was the word of the day yesterday.

Shopping

So today I met with the AIFS group and we toured some kep spots of the city like the post office and the university. Those are possibly the two most important things in the city for me right now. I suppose my apartment is pretty important too so add that to the list. We had a meeting after that where we got our ID cards for the university and other information. All of the girls probably left that meeting scared to death because of all the warnings they gave us such as to always walk with someone at night, don't go in the park during the siesta, always take a taxi after midnight, etc. The horrors! I guess if you think about it though, it would be the same kind of cautions that one would get if visiting the US. It is like this every where. After the meeting, we all went back to our homes and had some lunch. At 4:30 I met up with some friends and we went shopping. I bought some shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, a notebook, and some pens so pretty much all of the essentials.

Word of the day: Ficha - counter, chip

Why it is the WOD:
We went into a bunch of clothing stores too. I tried some things on in one store and when I walked out of the changing room, an employee stopped me and asked, "Donde está tu ficha?" I had no idea what she was talking about and I must have looked pretty dumb. Eventually she realized that I didn't understand and held up one of those number things that they give you before you go into the dressing room. I didn't have one so I told her and apologized. She looked annoyed and I think she might have rolled her eyes. I don't really remember. She let me go on my way but I still feel a little silly about the whole incident. It was not my fault though because when I went in, no one was there to give me a ficha.

I had a long day of shopping and tomorrow is the placement exam so I better get some rest. Wish me luck!

Finally in Granada

I finally made it to my destination and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I can connect to a wireless network from my room. It is a bit in and out but it is better than nothing. The London stopover was all right. The first day we were on our own which was kind of annoying seeing as we had no idea what we were doing and how to get places. The second day was better because we had a tour in the morning to key spots in London. I am going to put pictures up as soon as possible but I have to wait for my card reader for the camera. I left it at home and now I have to figure out where my parents should send it. When it arrives I will most definitely post pictures for all to see. This morning we had to wake up and be in the lobby for 4:30 so I got about 2 and a half hours of sleep. I slept a little on the plane and then I also had a snooze on the bus ride from Malaga to Granada. When we got off the bus in Granada, our host families were waiting for us. I live with a woman in her 40s and her name is Maribel. She is really nice and the apartment that she lives in is cute. She said that she has been hosting people for 15 years now. It has been difficult communicating because my Spanish is less than to be desired. I am now sitting in my room waiting for dinner at 8:30 and then after that I will probably go to bed because I am wiped out. Tomorrow is a tour of the city so we know where the university is and other things like the post office and hospital. I hope to update this frequently because there are going to be many interesting stories to tell. Hasta luego!

Word of the day: Jamón - ham

Airline Trouble

So yesterday I had to fly home from BWI and there was bad weather every where. My flight was originally supposed to leave at 5:20 but when I arrived at the airport, it was listed as leaving at 6:10. A little later it was listed for 7:10. I was all right with this because I would still get home by 9 and be able to get a good night sleep. Soon after the second time change, it was changed to 9:10 but they said that it was not definite. I called my mom and Meg to tell them about my woes and they were sad for me. Meg called me back later to tell me that if my flight gets canceled, Laura and Charlie would pick me up and I would be able to sleep at their house. She also informed me that the Colemans were flying out of BWI too and that I should try to find them. I never found them but Chris, Meg's former boyfriend, saw them because he was there too. He also told Meg that he saw me but that I was briskly walking away somewhere so he couldn't catch me. Later on, I saw Jill Mulcahey's mom walking around but I did not talk to her because I did not want to lose my seat. Every one's flights were delayed and I finally left at around 10:30. I got into PVD at 11:45. It took forever to get my luggage because there were 4 flights that came in at the same time. My dad picked me up and I arrived home at 12:30am. What fun! I had work in the morning too...or so I thought.

It was raining and thundering and lightning this morning around 5:30 and it continued to rain until 7:30 and then was cloudy. I got the call that work was canceled at 7:45 and while I was on the phone, the sun came out. It was sunny for the rest of the day but I was so happy that there wasn't any camp because I was so tired. On my day off, I went up to Boston with my mom to get my passport back with my visa from the Spanish consulate. If I had not been able to go today, I would have had to take a day out of work which I did not want to do seeing as last Friday I did not go to work. Oh how things work out sometimes.

Travis' Last Supper

Travis had his wisdom teeth out this past Friday. I flew down to help him on Thursday night. Originally, I was booked for a flight leaving at 7 and then arriving at 8:15 at BWI. I had booked a late flight because Travis did not know when he would get out of work. Seeing as my parents were in LC, I had asked Molly to give me a ride to the airport around 5. I figured that I would have enough time after work and before I had to leave to get everything in order. I had to clean the house, water the plants, make sure the cats were outside with plenty of food and water, pack, and take a shower. I was taking my time until I got a call from Travis around 2:45 saying that he was out of work and also that I should try to get an earlier flight if possible. I checked online and the only flight before mine that I might be able to catch was the 5. Once I realized this, I had to kick my pre-flight schedule into overdrive. I called Molly and she was able to pick me up at 3:30. Getting ready was very stressful and I only kept Molly waiting outside for a few minutes. I got to the airport around 4 and I had to go and check a bag. I was able to get my flight changed to the 5 but I was in a panic because I still needed to get through the dreaded security system. I went through in time and I arrived at my gate as they were starting to pre-board. I made it to BWI with no problem but there was no listing as to where the flight's luggage would be. When I finally got my luggage, I still had to wait for Travis because he was sitting in traffic. I ended up waiting another hour for him.

He came with a friend and we were all hungry by the time I got in the car so we went out to dinner at Smokey Bones. For those of you who have never been to one, you simply must try the cornbread there, it is fabulous. (On a side note, it is yellow outside right now and it reminds me of Cuba. Not that I have ever been to Cuba before but all of the times I have seen it depicted in movies and shows, it always has a yellow film over it. Weird, I know.) Travis got his usual of a steak well done, a loaded baked potato, and some fresh steamed broccoli as his last solid meal for a few days. Ah, how he loves food. After dinner we took his friend back to base and then checked into a hotel a little ways down the road. We set the alarm for 6:15 and went to bed.

Travis' appointment was at 8 in the morning and we got there with plenty of time to spare. We waited in the parking lot until 7:45 and then went inside. While Travis was filling out some more paperwork, the receptionist asked for his dental records that he was supposed to bring. He obviously had forgotten them seeing as I am writing all of this down for you to read. I offered to go back and get them at the hotel so that he could finish with paper work and get hooked up for surgery. I made it to the hotel just fine but the way back was another story. I got off the right exit but to get back to the office, someone was telling Travis where to tell me to turn. They were giving directions as if I were on one street when I was actually on a street parallel to it. I passed where I was supposed to turn and continued driving west down Prince William Parkway looking for where they were telling me to turn. I went west for about 10 minutes until Travis told me to turn around. I did that and headed back east for 10 minutes. Travis started to explain to someone where he thought that I was and they said that I was heading the wrong way and that I should turn around again. I did that and while this was happening, Travis was getting x-rays taken and prepping for surgery. I traveled another 15 minutes west and then Travis had to start surgery so someone else got on the phone. They asked me where I was and I told them that I just entered the town of Manassas. He told me that I was heading in the wrong direction and also that he was participating in the surgery so he passed me off to someone else. This new person gave me directions and said that I should be there in 20 minutes. I eventually got there and waited for Travis to finish. He was completely out of it and it took him 45 minutes or so to be able to walk out to the car. The rest of the weekend was spent in the hotel room and me driving around and getting things for Travis.

Recap

So this is a summary of what I have been up to over the past week or so...

• Travis came home.
• I got my new snazzy laptop which is called cloudtop.
  
• I also got an ipod nano, case for the ipod, running arm band for the ipod, printer, sleeve for the laptop, and a mighty mouse.
• Went to Purgatory Chasms with Travis to go on the merry-go-round that you run around and jump on only to find out that they got rid of it. The rock climbing was fun and as a consolation they had some swings which was also pretty awesome.
• Went to a party and walked straight on into a bench without realizing it was there. To make the situation even better, I was one of the only sober people there so I felt even more dumb than usual.
• Drove down to Virginia with Travis on Thursday.
• Got the Diablo 2 expansion for half off because the cashier thought he could get me to buy another game. (I had to buy the game again because Travis stole mine after losing his copy).
• Went to Boston with my mom to apply for a Spanish visa. I leave in 7 weeks.
• Saw Live Free or Die Hard. It obviously was not as good as the originals but it is good as a separate movie.
• Confirmed that Meg is very bad at giving directions seeing as she gave me directions to a nonexistent place.
• I finally start work tomorrow.
  

Well that is all I can think of for now and they are a little out of order. If I think of anything else that I did that is worth noting, I will add it.

The drug test

So last Tuesday I got a phone call from Maria who works in the Pawtucket Personnel office. She called to inform me that I had to go to the Pawtucket Health Care clinic before 8pm Tuesday night to get a drug test. Apparently it is a new rule for the city where all city workers need to get this done. Seeing as I am working at the Pawtucket camp this year, I had to get it done. I have already peed in a cup before so I did not take this to be a big deal, I was wrong to think that. After waiting in the waiting room for a good 45 minutes, they called me to the back. I had to wash my hands, pick a cup out of the bin and then go into the bathroom to do what needed to be done. Before I could go into the bathroom though, I had to leave my bag outside and then they made sure that nothing was in my pockets. Once in the bathroom, I only had five minutes. The toilet bowl water was blue so that you would not be able to dilute your urine and you were not able to flush the toilet. You had to fill the cup up to a certain line which I thought we be no problem but I was wrong. I apparently had not had enough water so it took me forever. It ended up being a little below the line but I didn't have to go any more. I came out of the bathroom and I told the lady who was standing outside the door the whole time that I did not make the line. She said that it might not matter because the urine had to be transferred to a test tube and that was the one that really mattered. It ended up reaching the test tube line so I was all set. I washed my hands and then I had to initial a piece of tape that was used to seal the test tube. I also had to sign a form saying that it was my urine and I did not alter it in any way. The sample was then sent overnight to some random lab somewhere and the lady said that the results would be give to the city in 48 hours. Needless to say, this whole experience was crazy and the whole time I felt like I was in trouble. A word of advice though for any one who has to take a drug test, make sure you drink lots of water.