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!