You Spain My Head Right-Ronda

Alrighty so I have another weekend trip to outline for you guys! This past weekend, we went to Ronda and Sevilla. Ronda is a small town that used to be a stronghold when the Moors (Muslim rulers, in case anyone doesn't know) ruled Spain. The reason for this? Geography (of course). Ronda is literally built on top of a mountain. This made for some amazing AMAZING views, such as this one:



Furthermore, as the city grew, they had to build a bridge to connect the two halves (built on opposite sides of a 100m canyon with a river running through it. The bridge is an engineering marvel (especially since the first time they built it, it collapsed). See that door in the middle? It's a maximum security cell for the old prison here.

It was very unseasonably cold in Ronda, so I wasn't exactly the happiest camper (weather.com said it would be 80 degrees, I'm going to estimate that it was actually around 60 with wind and rain). However, that didn't stop us from going ALL OVER the super hilly cobblestoned city. We got to see old Arab Baths (which made you progress from baths in cold water to a sauna room...sadly out of use now), and a bullfighting ring. I have an issue with bullfights (why do they have to kill the bulls? In Mexico and other places, bullfights do not end with the death of said animal), and I got into a small argument with our guide who tried to tell me that it was "culture" and the bulls that are used are bred for bullfights and that's it. I just thought of Ferdinand from the children's story and let her go with it.

After that, we got back on the buses and went to Sevilla. Sevilla is an amazing city, as anyone who has been there will attest. I like Granada better, because it's smaller and less expensive, but Sevilla (aka Seville) has a lot of perks. For one, they have huge parks and a really big river (as opposed to our smaller one). For another, they have an H&M. Now I'm not completely obsessed with H&M or anything, but one of my goals in Europe was to visit one. And once I found out that Sevilla had one close to our hotel, I had to go immediately. So I did and it was awesome!!!

Speaking of the hotel, it was a really nice one. It's name was the Hotel Becquer (after the poet), and the rooms were great (even though we didn't spend that much time in them). The best part? Not having to take a "navy shower" (I don't know if I've told you guys this, but since Spain has a water shortage, we have to take really fast showers where we turn off the water in between rinses).

Anyways, after some free time (which I spent at H&M and getting tapas, of course), we all gathered in front of the cathedral and went to a flamenco show!! It was SO COOL...I can't even describe it, and the pictures I took don't do it justice. It was a little intimidating also, because I don't think I'll be able to pull off something even a quarter as awesome for our final recital in flamenco class. But we'll see how that goes. After that, IES took us to a nice restaurant and gave us champagne and chocolate to toast off the start of our classes. That was really cute. Afterwards, we had the night to ourselves. Now, I was looking forward to clubbing in Sevilla, but on Thursday (the night before) my friends and I went clubbing in Granada...and we were exhausted. So we just got some ice cream and went to bed.

The next day was full of sightseeing. Sevilla is the home of the Alcazar, a palace which belonged to the royal family of Seville back when Seville was an independent kingdom. At this time, however, Granada (also a separate kingdom) was still ruled by the Moors. So, the kings of Sevilla built the Alcazar in the Islamic style, to show their neighbors that they could build something as gorgeous as the Alhambra. Here's an example:

This is the cupola in the receiving room. It was even cooler than it looks in this picture.
The Alcazar also had AMAZING gardens. Fountains, hedge mazes, fake caves, summer siesta house, peacocks...this place had it all. I was completely blown away by how intricately everything was planned. GG Royal Family of Sevilla.

Next, we went to Sevilla's cathedral. Now, as I mentioned, much of Spain used to be ruled by the Moors. When the Christian kings took over, they were broke from their military campaigns, and often had to make do with the preexisting structures. This included mosques. Sevilla's cathedral was built on the site of a mosque, but they kept one important feature: the tower. There's a weathervane on top now, so it's called La Giralda (which means weathervane), and it has bells at the top, but architecturally, it's still a minaret. And so pretty! There are no steps inside the tower, only ramps, so we climbed the 33 ramps to get to the top. I'm kind of bored with uploading pictures at this point, so you can see all the pictures I took on Facebook. Maybe I'll put more up with a later entry. The cathedral itself was pretty neat...but like most cathedrals. My favorite part was the "Tomb of Christopher Columbus". I put quotations around that because no one is actually sure if it's him that's buried there. You see, when he died, he requested that he be buried in the New World, so they shipped him to the Dominican Republic. Later on, Spain decided that he was their ultimate hero, so they wanted him back. The DR said they would, but they still say that he's buried over there, so who knows? The cool thing about this tomb is that it has his casket being carried by the kings of the four original Spanish kingdoms: Aragon, Leon, Castille and Navarre. OK I'll put up one more picture because this was too cool:



After that, we had some time to get lunch, then there were some optional activities. I chose to go to the Museo de Bellas Artes, and I was kind of disappointed by it. I don't have anything against Christian-themed art, in fact, some of it is quite lovely. But, most of the paintings we saw were from before artists learned how to draw babies. So, there were lots of really repulsive Baby Jesus paintings. And why couldn't anyone decide on his childhood hair color? All the adult Jesus paintings show him as a brunette, but as a baby he's anything from blonde to black hair. A little disappointed, we returned to the hotel, then the bus, and then we came back to Granada.

Other things going on in my life right now: I'm in my second week of classes and liking them all very much. Some are a little hard to follow (they're all in Spanish), but I'm pretty proud of my level of comprehension so far. My internship has been pretty nice also--right now I'm translating parts of their webpage into English. English is a tough language. It kind of sucks. It's getting kind of cold here, and as a result, I have a cold. But I found the Spanish version of NyQuil so I'll get better soon. What else...um...the food here is good, and I'm also really loving the ice cream. They say the ice cream stores close in the winter, but I'm really hoping that isn't true. Also the chocolate is great.

Granada is a university town, and UGr opens next week. Already there are more foreign students around, which is nice in some ways, but in others kind of detracts from the experience. Anyways, I'm going to go eat dinner/skulk around the house, and I'll post again soon. Besos!

So Listen...Can I Have Yo Number?

Right so I'm not exactly sure what day my last update was, but some good things have happened that I want to fill y'all in on!
As some of you may recall, I was pretty upset when Dr. Stoll rejected 2 out of 3 poli sci related classes that my program offered, due to the fact that one was more history and the other was more economics. The third one, however, was sort of marked as "pending" because he didn't have enough information. Well, after accidentally registering for the class that had already been rejected, then changing it, then translating the syllabus, I am happy to report that I will, in fact, be getting major credit for one class here! That's super exciting for me, since I was so sure that this approval wasn't going to happen. So, as of now, I'm taking one economics class, one poli sci class, one flamenco class (!!!!), a spanish language class, and the internship seminar. Speaking of internships...

As most of you may not know (since this whole process was done after I went home for the summer), I chose this program because it gave me an option to do an internship while I'm here in Granada. I thought that this was a great idea because it will give me a chance to actually interact with Spanish adults who aren't my host mother, my professors, or waiters at restaurants. And also, it's basically a once in a lifetime opportunity. So, I filled out the rather lengthy application, reformatted my resume into Spanish and the European style, and sent it in. On Thursday morning, I was informed that I had received one! I'm working for an organization called UIM or Union Iberoamericano Municipal. What they do is coordinate strategies between municipalities here in Spain and over in Latin America. I think they mostly deal with development issues, but I'm not exactly sure. On Friday, with my availability in hand, I was escorted over to their office, and promptly drowned in the Spanish language. Everyone talks REALLY fast, and all I could do was offer a weak "si" or "esta bien" or "no, es que..." occasionally. My schedule is pretty tight (because I won't give up flamenco for anything), so it turns out that I'm going to be working on Fridays for the first half of the day (we don't have class on Fridays, so if I had a normal schedule, I would have the day off. But again, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity so I don't really mind). I have to work on Tuesdays as well, in order to make it up to the 8 hour a week mark required by my program. But it should be really fun, so I'm super pumped--and also, maybe I can get credit for this as well when I go back to school.

Really fun and super pumped...that's a decent segway into describing my night last night, which was so awesome that I have to talk about it. So, since dinner isn't provided in our program, I usually go out and get some tapas with a small group, then go back home. Actually, I'm pretty lame in this respect-there are some people in my program who go out at least 3 nights a week, and sometimes, when I go home, there are still kids on the street with their parents. Then again, Spanish people stay up really late--and so 1 AM isn't late at all to them. Anyways, last night was Friday, and everyone wanted to hit up a discoteca. I've never been to a club before, so I was more excited than most about this. At 11, my housemate and I left and went to an Irish pub in the city center. We found people from IES there, and soon were joined by the majority of our program (50 people? That sounds about right) At about 1, the Spanish college students who work for IES, and hang out with us a lot, told us it was time to go to the club. Earlier that day, we had learned that there was a club called "Mae West" that was kind of exclusive, didn't like Americans and only let in "beautiful people". Taking this as a challenge (not really), we decided to go there. So, everyone was pretty dressed up, and we paraded across town talking and joking. But then, we all had to divide into small groups and shut up--that way, they wouldn't know that we were Americans and they would let us in. Luckily, I think everyone except 3 people cleared the selection, so we were allowed to proceed.

The club was crowded but SO MUCH FUN. I'm not really a fan of techno, but this was pretty cool and since we were all together, we probably would have had a good time even if they were playing folk or something. The only non-remixed English songs that they played were "Hot N Cold" and "I Kissed a Girl". So I guess Katy Perry is ubiquitous in dance clubs. I suddenly looked at my watch and realized that it was almost 4 AM, and about that time, we all started getting sort of tired. Apparently, it's quite common to stay out that late (or later) if you go to a discoteca, but I don't think I've ever stayed out that late in my life. Some people from the program remained, and those who left at 4 split cabs and went home. I'm surprised that I'm awake and able to function this morning, but that's probably because I intend to take a good long siesta later. Anyways, that was my first clubbing experience, and it's definitely one I intend to repeat...just maybe not every week because I think I might become a zombie.

That's all for now! Classes start on Monday so my schedule will become more normalized. I'm excited!

Oh and P.S. the title (which, though amusing on its own, does have a special significance)--now that everyone in my program has a cell phone, we all trade numbers constantly. This can get awkward, especially if you have forgotten the name of the person that you are getting the number of (which is usually what happens to me). I've devised a way to do it: ask them how to spell their name when you're putting it into your phone. But that sometimes is stupid because you realize you just asked someone to spell the name "Alex" and they look at you like you're kind of ridiculous. But then again, everyone is doing it, so it's cool.

Hasta pronto!

Mi vida diaria y Cabo de Gata

I've been very very busy since my last post. I ended when I was about to go on the tour with my language group--that was really fun! We began at the IES Center, which is really close to the Alhambra (if you don't know what the Alhambra is, you should look it up on Wikipedia. I don't want to mess up the history). Our goal: to walk through a neighborhood/part of the city known as the Albaycin. The name is Arabic, because it was a predominantly Arab neighborhood. It was hot and hilly, but the views were gorgeous. I've uploaded some pictures now, so I can show you!

This is the Alhambra as taken from the "Paseo de Tristes"
From this picture, I'm sure you understand that the Alhambra is a HUGE palace. The Moors used to live here in Granada and rule over Spain, until Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand defeated them at this, their last stronghold, in 1492. I haven't gotten to visit the Alhambra yet, but don't be too angry with me: this weekend I don't have anything going on, so that's what I'm going to do (I think). I have other pictures, but uploading takes a long time, so look for them on Facebook in the next couple of weeks.

After that, I've just had orientation and class. Our regular classes STILL haven't started yet (next week...) but right now we're doing intensive language prep. I placed into one of the higher groups, which means that we spend most of the day working on our conversational skills and filling in gaps in our vocab. My group's professor is SO cool. We spend a portion of every day "en el calle" (on the street) in different parts of the neighborhood around the IES center, learning about things like markets and shopping and how to navigate the neighborhood here. I registered for my real classes yesterday, and am still waiting to hear whether or not I'll have an internship here in Granada. Here's hoping!

My program has about 80 people in it, and I'm having a tough time learning names (because I'm just bad at that sort of thing). There are only 16 guys, which is pretty funny. I go out every night because dinner isn't provided, so that's been a really good way to meet people. I wish they had a Newcomer's Guide here...

I really want to go shopping and just buy all new clothes. It's not like anything is wrong with my clothes, but they're just so...American. It's hard to describe, but everyone here dresses really well, and fashion-forward. No one wears tshirts and jeans unless they're a tourist. And no one wears flip flops either. I want to wear my gladiator sandals, but they're new and they keep cutting my feet. And there are SO MANY amazing stores here. I've been browsing a lot thanks to the "on the street" parts of class that I mentioned earlier. But the exchange rate is so bad that I'm almost afraid to spend money. Stupid economy.

The other exciting thing that I've done since I arrived here was go on a trip to a place called Cabo de Gatas. Now, I'm a little bitter about this trip, so before I start a complaining sarcastic narrative, let me first say that this place was GORGEOUS. Mountains, beaches and desert all together. It's the southernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula, and something like 90 miles away from Africa. So it was a total trip getting to hike there and see everything. Here's a picture:




Why am I bitter, you ask? Well, the description we were given of the hike was as follows (sort of): "the hike is 10 miles, but not difficult. You should be able to do it in sandals, but not flip flops. It will be very hot, so bring lots of water". All of the above is the biggest understatement I've every heard in my entire life. First of all, this was the toughest hike I have ever done. Now, I don't go hiking a lot, but I do go running a lot and I would consider myself in pretty good shape (the hikes in Hawaii this summer seemed to be proof of this). I think my guide was crazy or grossly overestimated our hiking talent because he took us ALL OVER the place--down steep rock faces, up steeper rock faces, and across several beaches (none of which we got to stop at, I might add). Going down one of the steep rocky hills, I slipped, and now have ginormous scrapes up my legs. Then, we had to climb the mountain. This was not bad (paved road), just steep, and therefore difficult, especially since I was in a lot of pain. Going down the mountain was gorgeous, but then we rounded a corner and the wind started. I'm talking like 30 miles an hour here--we were pretty high, but it was almost blowing us backwards. But then we finally made it to the beach, ate lunch, and went to go swimming. EXCEPT the wind hadn't stopped. So, we got buffeted by gusts of sand the WHOLE time. It hurt, especially when one is wearing a swimsuit and most of one's back is exposed to forced microderm abrasion. The wind also meant that the waves basically beat us up the whole time as well. But, even though we were exhausted and sunburned and now covered in sand, we weren't finished! Because the desert portion of the trip was up next. This part wasn't difficult (it was hot, but whatever), it was just long. We were all tired from the first half of the hike, so this was just like a massive endurance test. People started running out of water, the wind was still blowing at 30 miles an hour, and we kept stopping at random places for no reason. Result: everyone was covered in sand and dirt and was now sort of dehydrated. My scrapes stopped hurting, but that was probably because my muscles started.
We finally ended the hike from hell in a small town called San Jose. I was so tired that I couldn't eat much of the delicious food that the restaurant provided. I slept on most of the bus ride back to Granada, then came home and had to empty sand out of my shoes, bag, and everything that was in the bag. And then had to get up and go to class by 9 the next morning. So here's a warning to anyone who wants to do this program: they are lying when they say Cabo de Gata is easy. Go shopping in the town instead.

And after that...everything is fine. The food here is great, the only thing that's been messing me up is the meal times. Breakfast is normal, but lunch is at 3 and dinner is at 10. So I am always hungry. I've been having a really good time eating at different tapas bars, and my host's apartment isn't that far from the city center. Keely and I also went to see "Up" in Spanish at a very nearby movie theater. It was just as adorable--but I didn't cry this time! So that made it better.

Hola, Granada!

Hi Everyone!

As I mentioned, this is going to be my blog during my semester abroad in Granada, Spain. I've just arrived, so unfortunately I don't have a lot to tell y'all. But let's start at the beginning:

The day before I left, my parents left me a message on the neighborhood's announcement board:


It was such a nice surprise and I really wasn't expecting it. Which is why I drove past the sign twice before I noticed it.

I left on Wednesday morning. Of course, my suitcase was overweight, but my Dad and I did some shuffling with another bag that I was taking along with me for extra stuff, and it all worked out. I made it to Newark fine, then had a really long (4 hours!) layover there. I was really lonely. Having never really traveled by myself (I don't count Houston to Austin and vice versa), I was kind of baffled as to what I was supposed to do without someone to talk to/bother. I must have looked like a total idiot, because I would sit down at the gate, read something, get restless, and get up and walk around again. I did make some phone calls to people (I got so busy the day before that I didn't have time to say goodbye to everyone! If I missed you, I am sorry) Making me more lonely was the other study abroad group who sat behind me at the gate and happily got acquainted with each other, while I sat by myself and tried not to look like a dork. Got on the plane, but didn't watch the many movies Continental had to offer because I needed to get some sleep. Naturally, I didn't sleep enough, and arrived in Madrid looking thoroughly bedraggled.

This is when the fun started. Continental doesn't have a partner airline in Spain, so I had to clear customs, retrieve my baggage, switch terminals, recheck my bags with Air Iberia, get through security, and then go to my gate. And I only had 2 hours to do it. Which seems like a lot, but the Madrid airport is ENORMOUS and it took at least 15 minutes to walk to customs. Luckily, my Dad had booked the ticket with his OnePass Elite membership, so my bags were the first off the plane. I dragged my 50 pound suitcase and my 15 pound bag over to the bus to switch terminals, then stood in the Iberia line for 30 minutes. My backpack (which probably weighed 20 pounds or more) was like cutting into my arms. After getting everything I was carrying on the plane thoroughly inspected at security, I made it to the gate. There, I met several other people from my program, so I wasn't lonely and lost anymore and felt better.

After another hour of flying, we arrived in Malaga for orientation. Malaga is a beach town and it is awesome! After getting to the hotel the program had reserved for us, I found out a group was leaving for the beach and for lunch. I was starving, so I went along. The beach was great, even though I forgot sunscreen. Later on, we were basically turned loose in the Malaga city center. I went with 4 other girls to a tapas bar where I FINALLY tried tortilla espanola (it is awesome, by the way). Tapas are amazing. Seriously. They're super cheap and delicious and make for an excellent dinner. And apparently, here in Granada, if you buy drinks, the tapas are free!

Anyways, the next day we had really long orientation sessions, but they were pretty interesting, so no complaints. The only problem is that lunch in Spain is served at 3 pm (and dinner at 9 or 10), so I was beyond starving for the latter half of the orientation. After a large lunch, we got on the bus to Granada, which is about an hour and a half away from Malaga. We arrived and I met Keely, my housemate, and Enriqueta, our house mom. Both of them are really nice, and so far I haven't had too much trouble only speaking Spanish in the house. A couple more weeks and I think everyone in the program will be speaking Spanish to each other too--right now we start in Spanish, but end up in English because it's easier.

Today, we went to the IES Center at 9 am and began our intensive Spanish classes. I really like mine--the professor is good about filling in the blanks in our vocabulary. The best part of today was when we got turned loose in small groups to find "cultural differences" between Spain and the US. What this turned into for my group was exploring the various small streets around the IES Center. We ended up at one of the back gates of the Alhambra, so it was pretty awesome. Granada is steeped in history--I can't wait to really get out and explore everything!

That's about all for now. I'm about to go back to the IES Center to take a "paseo" (walk) with my language group. I think it's supposed to be a tour of some sort. I am very excited!! I hope everyone is doing well, and I'll try and post again soon, with more pictures :)

xoxo,
Meera