Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary! Today, October 6th, I have officially been in Spain for one month! Holy shit! In the first couple of weeks it seemed like the semester was gonna go by really slowly... lots of orientations, grammar lectures, etc... but now I think that we're starting trips my time here is gonna fly by! This means that I gotta remember to take in each experience, enjoy myself, and BLOG MORE! The past couple of nights I said to myself, oh I'll blog in an hour, or I'll do this first... but NO MORE. It's time to write. Actually, once I finish writing each post its like a relief...and hey! I get to write in English so I'm not complaining!

When I last posted I talked about going to the cooking school with my interest group which, while it didn't turn out to be what I expected, was a lot of fun. We met up at the CIEE study center and walked to one of the bus stations in the city. It's 1.20 Euro for the bus fare and I sat down in one of the seats. As the bus got more crowded we got up and gave up our seats for older passengers so they could sit. This one woman was very grateful and started speaking to me in Spanish at 50875267101 words per minute and mumbling most of them. I just nodded smiled, said "vale, vale, vale" and hoped that I wasn't saying anything I shouldn't have or saying vale to some sad story she was telling me. I think she was just happy to have someone listen to her talk. I was happy to oblige... so long as she didn't care that I had no idea what she was saying! BUT, despite this encounter, my Spanish has gotten much much better. I've managed to fool a couple of people into thinking that I'm actually a Sevillano which is very exciting! I mean, cmon how could they think I'm a Spaniard :)

That night Carolina, one of the guides, came over for a late dinner adventure. I told her how much I detested the Residencia food and so she and I made a date for her to come over and we could cook dinner together. Turns out I had none of the things that we needed... I shattered one of the only plates we had, we asked my neighbor downstairs for a pan, and Carolina and I crammed into my tiny kitchen and we cooked some amazing linguine with this fresh tomato, pepper, onion, pica (spicy), cream sauce. Que delicioso. It was so much better than the residencia food and I really enjoyed her company. As we ate, and after dinner, she spoke in English and I spoke in Spanish and we shared some of our favorite songs, and talked about life in the US versus life here. She's incredibly down to earth and is always willing to lend a hand to any of our friends. Despite how long it took us to make the dinner it turned out out be a great night and I went to bed early in order to get up at the butt crack of dawn to go to Granada the next morning.

Since college, I've gotten so much better at sleeping while traveling. When I was younger, meaning middle and high school, I would never sleep in the car or on the plane...maybe I did a couple of times, but for the most part I had a hard time falling asleep. Thank god for reclining bus seats or I would have been miserably tired the entire weekend in Granada. I think that it was one of the coolest places, if not the coolest, place I've ever been. It's about a 3 hour bus ride from Seville and it is the capital of Andalusia. The city has a huge Moorish influence and was under Muslim rule up until the reconquest of Spain in the 16th century. You can see this with the architecture and many of the shops. At one point I felt like I was in the movie Casbah (a 1948 film I had to watch for a class at Elon) walking through all of these little streets and shops. Oh! One of my favorite fruits is Pomegranate. Guess how you say pomegranate in Granada! Granada! All over Granada there are Granada trees! I wanted to pick one every time I saw one but used my better judgement and decided not to...

By far the coolest part of the weekend was our visit to the Alhambra. The Alhambra is is a palace/fortress complex that was constructed during the mid 14th century by the Moorish rulers of Granada. The building is unbelievable and the gardens are gorgeous and incredibly extensive. To me it was like an Arab version of Versailles. The ceilings, walls, floors, reflecting pools are so incredibly ornate and beautiful. Not to mention the view from the Alhambra looking over the city of Granada is breathtaking and was so peaceful and serene. I think I had about 50 "holy shit, I'm in Europe" moments on this trip. Here's a link to the pictures from Granada. There are a ton from the inside of the building and then a lot of the gardens. The next day we walked around the older residential area where we got a great view of the Alhambra and the mountains in the background. Sierra Nevada, which is a ski resort, is right there! I wanna go back at the end of November because I've heard that if it's a nice day you can ski overlooking the Mediterranean. How frickin cool would that be?!

Yesterday after classes I went back to the hotel BecquerResidencia dining hall I met a girl who lived next door to Allison and Sarah. She's about our age, maybe a little younger. When I told her I was a music theatre major she told me she loved to play guitar and asked if I would come over and sing a bit with her. So last night I went over to her room with Allison and Sarah and we had a "jam session" for about an hour. She spat out her favorite American songs and I did my best to sing along. Despite the fact that I probably woke up all of her neighbors I had so much fun singing along and just getting my fill of performing for the day. She skyped in one of her friends during the middle and made me sing backstreet boys... Something I never thought I would be asked to sing. But hey! Why not?!

Hasta que volvamos a ver!