Paris, Dublin, Cordoba

Guess I will update my blog again!  I don’t know why I dread writing in here sometimes- it’s like another homework assignment.  But I think I will appreciate it a little bit more someday when I can look back and distinctly remember my semester abroad.  SO here we go:

I went to Paris, France, 4 weekends ago now.  I went with just 2 other girlfriends, and the plan was just to relax and see some sights and enjoy a romantic getaway in the most romantic city in the world.  Well, no offense to Paris, it needs to stop calling itself the most romantic city in the world.  The sights were amazing and our hostel was very cool, but the city was big, the subways were dirty, and it was difficult to get around when we compared it to cities like Vienna, or even Madrid.  When talking to locals they always said “Paris isn’t real France”- because there are so many tourists, and so many foreigners who live in Paris.  I loved visiting, but my expectations were very different from what we experienced.  Some of my favorite moments from the trip were seeing the Eiffel Tower light show, going to the Louvre, walking into the Notre Dame (we just wanted to sing songs from the Disney movie!), exploring the designer stores down Champs Elysess, CREPES, and our walking tour with our hilarious and dorky tour guide.  What we saw:  Eiffel tower, Arc de Triumph, Egyptian Obelisks, Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, some beautiful parks, Notre Dame, the “love” bridge covered in locks, and heard some interesting stories about Napoleon and of course WW2. We also spent one day in Versailles, which was by far the best part of the trip.  Versailles was exactly the beautiful castle and grounds that we imagined, and we were very lucky with the weather and spent a long time walking through the expansive gardens of the palace.  As we walked farther and farther off, we stumbled upon some small summer homes of the extravagant Marie Antoinette, as well as her private “town” and animals among beautiful valleys and fields.  Tourists seemed to disappear as we walked farther and farther off, and it was just an amazing and relaxing experience.  The town of Versailles was exactly what you would think of when you think of a “French” town- the colors and the size of the stores and everything.  If I could give advice to travelers, it would be to stay in Versailles for the weekend and then do a day trip to Paris, rather than the other day around.  I think it would also be amazing to see the French Riviera some day.  Overall, it was a fun trip and more relaxing than our crazy 10 day adventure, but I’m not sure I would go back to Paris; something you have to see once, and that’s probably enough for me.

So then 3 weekends ago I went to Dublin, Ireland for a weekend.  I LOVED DUBLIN!  This was probably my favorite city next to Granada.  In general, I still think Granada is the coolest place we’ve been- lucky me that I get to live here!  But Ireland in general was so beautiful, so covered in beautiful green land, we all were saying we wanted to live here someday on a small hill with sheep roaming around (maybe we were being a little idealistic and assuming it would be like the movie “PS I Love You”…).  I understand now why Mr. O’Hara would tell Scarlett “If you got a drop of Irish blood in you, there’s nothing you love more than your land” (or something along those lines, yup I’m quoting Gone with the Wind, I’m seriously obsessed).  The first day that we were there was actually Unofficial, and for those of you that don’t know it’s a made-up holiday at U of I that everyone celebrates as an excuse to drink all day.  We showed up a little later on Friday, so most of our friends were just completely blacked out running around Dublin.  We started off with a couple of pubs, and of course tried Guinness beer, although I preferred the lighter Bulmers Irish cider- loved this!  However I thought the best part about Dublin were the pubs themselves.  Everywhere had live music, and they played everything from covers of popular songs right now, cheesy 80’s summer music, and even “In the Jungle” from The Lion King.  At one pub, the guitarist in the band held the World Record for the longest time playing the guitar without a break- I think it was something like 3 or 4 days.  I am such a sucker for live music like this- it just reminds me of Crystal Lake in the summer with the fests, and day drinking and dancing around.  So Ireland and I got along really well that night.    

The next day we did a day trip to the Cliffs of Mohr, which are these very dramatic cliffs off the coast of Ireland.  Along the way we were told some cool history about the Irish potato famine, as well as the changes that have occurred within the last 20 years to Ireland’s laws.  Apparently as recently as 1992, it was illegal to buy or sell condoms at any other location than a pharmacy- and there would be a “black market” for condoms through your hairdresser or other connections.  I think our tour guide was a bit of a dirty old man, and he enjoyed telling us some personal anecdotes about his troubles over the years with condom shortages…He also showed us the town where Obama’s great-great grandpa (or some connection of that sort) was from- and he was full of American jokes, blonde jokes, Irish jokes, and New Zealander jokes.  I never realized before going to Europe that everyone makes fun of “kiwis” and Australians, so many of them travel over here and I was asked several times if I was from Australia. 

Anyways, after a long drive we made it to the Cliffs, where by the way a scene from a Harry Potter film was filmed (in the sixth movie, when Dumbledore and Harry go to the cave to defeat the Horcrux…those are the Cliffs of Mohr!!) so that made me VERY excited.  And I guess it had appeared in other movies over the years but obviously that’s the coolest.  We were with a group of our guy friends, so I think that made us a little bit more adventurous with getting very close to the edge of the cliffs.  We were climbing over “Do Not Enter” fences and exploring the areas that are supposedly strictly forbidden to tourists.  But it was worth it- we all felt like the luckiest people in the world to be in the presence of such breathtaking views.  And we had a blast walking around, and getting a little muddy in the process.  Actually- for anyone who knows Pat Williams we saw him completely wipe out, covering himself and his camera in mud…I don’t think it would have been as funny if it was anyone else but him, but he tried pulling it off as purposeful- nice try!

After several hours at the Cliffs, along with some other stops along the journey, we were ready to go home and get ready for another night out.  I was a little disappointed this night, because I was dying to get back into my live music pubs.  I will always be more of a happy hour, live-music, tapas bars, Kam’s nights out type of chica.  Of course, true to form all of the University of Illinois students wanted to do some discoteca and more clubby bars.  I had a lot of fun that night nonetheless, but that’s sometimes one of the downsides of traveling in a huge group- can’t please everyone and you usually just have to end up doing what the group wants to do.  But just getting that taste of live music already makes me feel like summer is here!  Especially because the weather right now in Granada has been gorgeous and in the 70’s- even though from what I hear recently it’s even nicer than that back in Illinois!

So after my crazy 4 weeks of traveling basically back to back, last weekend I finally got a break and was in Granada for the first time in forever.  However I was able to do a free day trip to Cordoba with my program here.  Cordoba is another city in southern Spain, and it was about a 2 hour bus ride away.  It is known for its Mezquita (Mosque) as well as flowers, and it was the capital of Spain when the Muslims first came over here.  We went on a tour of the city, enjoyed some delicious ice cream, and had some free time to explore.  It is a very small city, but so gorgeous- with small pots of colorful flowers lining every small alleyway and building, sharply contrasting the white stucco backdrop.  A group of us wandered around the city, throwing a random tennis ball we discovered around and playing games with little children- and at one point stumbling into a park that definitely had a prostitute.  We saw a woman chugging a 40 on a bench, in a trench coat, with only her bra and underwear underneath, and wearing knee high boots.  I mean, if that’s not a prostitute then I don’t know what is.  So we ran out of that park pretty quickly, especially when she started following Laura suspiciously…

The rest of my weekend in Granada was filled with exploring some new tapas bars, and going out with some of the new friends that I have made here through our program.  Since then, I have still been keeping up teaching English to a class once a week.  Last week, my friend Emily K. and I decided it might be good practice for the class to listen to a song, and then fill in some of the lyrics off of a handout we gave to them.  We chose “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey, not sure why, and I never would have thought that this song could be so complicated for a group of foreigners.  Question after question came at us, “What does ‘Streetlights people’ mean?” – “Why are they living to find emotion, what does that mean?”- “Does smokey room mean there is a fire in a room?”  Wow.  The best part was having them recite each line as a class to practice pronunciation; we were choking back laughter since it sounded like a very horrible karaoke rendition of the song. 

This past weekend I went to Barcelona, but right now I’m getting a little tired and have to go do some other work- so hopefully I can update again within a reasonable amount of time.  Love and miss everyone and I cannot believe I am already more than halfway through with my program!  Send me emails if you want to stay in touch- jessica.johnsey@gmail.com.

Czech us out in Prague, Vienna, and Buda

Ok, time to catch up.  I am sure everyone is dying to know how my trips to Prague, Vienna, and Budapest went, as well as my recent trip to Paris and Versailles.  I have been so busy between classes, volunteering, and traveling, I feel like I haven’t had a minute to sit down and write what has been going on.

First off, I’ll fill everyone in on my wonderful Spanish family.  While I was gone on my 10 day adventure to Prague/Vienna/Buda, my senora broke her hip.  She was at her daughter’s house and she slipped and fell, and even though she is only 63 she suffered some serious damage.  When I came home from my trip, I was greeted by her son and his wife and they told me she was in the hospital awaiting surgery.  I went to visit her as soon as I could, and I’m happy to report her surgery went well and she is currently living at home again with me.  Not gonna lie though, the Spanish hospital was a dump.  Even her kids said it is the most “feo” (ugly) hospital they have ever seen.  Literally we could walk in wherever we wanted, no security or anything, and doctors were wheeling patients past us basically mid-surgery.  She had 7 of us as visitors and 4 other patients in the same compact room. 

At least she’s home now, but she won’t be able to walk for at least 2 months, which is basically all the time that I have left in Spain now- time has flown by!  Her kids are taking turns living with her, so I’ve had a lot of company over the past 2 weeks.  I also just found out that over the next 2 months, she’s going to have 2 French students stay with us for a couple of days on at least 7 different occasions.  I am actually excited about this, because no one will be invading my personal space too much but it will be fun to switch things up a bit and make some international friends.

I think that’s it though as far as my home life…

Now time to talk about my 10 day backpacking adventure!  I traveled with 7 girls, including 2 of my sorority sisters Alexandra and Emily.  Our first stop was Prague, Czech Republic from 2/11-2/14.  One of the first days we went on a New Europe free walking tour, and we were so excited to see the city- however we were unprepared for the cold front from Russia that made our visit the coldest weekend in Prague since 1929.  I’m not sure the exact temperature, because I don’t understand this whole converting Celsius to Fahrenheit business- but it was freezing.  I am surprised my toes didn’t get frostbite through my horrible cheap Target boots that barely protected them from the snow and ice.  Despite the weather, we braved the cold and actually learned some pretty interesting facts about Prague.  For example- Prague has one of the most beautiful and well preserved Jewish districts in all of Europe, because Hitler didn’t destroy any of it in WWII.  His reasoning for this was because he one day wished to make Prague his permanent residence and he wanted to keep all of the Jewish quarters intact as a living museum of the “extinct” race of people he destroyed.  Some other interesting facts included that Hugo Boss was the man who made the Nazi uniforms, some information about kings and queens and the infamous astronomical clock tower, and some really interesting history about Wenceslas Square and revolutions against communism. 

We saw beautiful views from the Charles Bridge, and the hipster graffiti on the John Lennon wall. Every other store in Prague either sold Garnet jewelry or crystal- I really wanted to get a Garnet ring or bracelet because it is my birth stone, but everything was ridiculously overpriced or of poor quality.  But they are famous for these Bohemian mines where they harvest garnet, and Bohemian crystal is apparently famous as well. 

The first day, we went out to a traditional Czech restaurant recommended to us by our hostel.  Oh by the way our hostel was the best, Charles Bridge Economic Hostel- the people who worked at the desk were the sweetest and when we first arrived gave us hot spiced wine and always were friendly and helpful, even if they were a bit hipster with dreadlocks and piercings everywhere.  But back to the restaurant- I decided to order goose leg so I could say I tried real Czech food.  It was served with some type of cabbage and some weird potato bread thing.  And it was actually okay.  I don’t think I will ever eat that again, it was very fatty, but I’ll probably never be in Czech again so what the hell.

On the last day of our trip, we visited the Prague Castle as well, which is the largest Medieval Castle in Europe (pretty sure that’s the statistic...).  The castle was less of a castle and more like a small town.  It had a beautiful cathedral in the center, and it was surrounded by small homes, shops, army towers, and art galleries exhibiting famous art of that time.

Throughout the trip, we went out almost every night.  Our first night in Prague we went out to Karlazy Lazne which is the biggest nightclub in Eastern Europe, with 5 different levels.  Each level had a different theme, such as one only played oldies music, one was “hip hop”, and one I’m not sure what it was but all the shady Eastern European couples were making out in it.  Another night we went out to Café Pub Atmosphere, where we tried potato “rum” shots and some very sweet dark beer along with hand shaved potato fries.  After that we went to a pub called U Sudu, which was underground and had several different hidden rooms- some with foozball tables and one with a piano man and another that looked like it was in a cave.  Here I had the best drink- rum with brown sugar and lime. 

Overall Prague was very cool, and we had a blast exploring the city in spite of the below zero temperatures.  It just gave us more of an excuse to drink that hot wine anyways.  And although we would have loved to stay longer, our corny “Czech this out…” jokes were starting to get a little old, and it was time to move onto our next city. 

So after our 3 days in Prague, we hopped on a bus to go to Vienna, Austria.  Vienna has the best quality of living in the world (check it out- I don’t think the US is super high on the list), and you could definitely tell by the way the city operated and what the people were like.  The city had the best public transport out of any that I have yet seen, and it was just a classy place to be.  Our first day we went to St. Stephen’s Plaza, and climbed 343 stairs up to the top tower of the cathedral to get the best view of the city.  You can all safely assume that I was the straggler on the stairs, struggling to breathe as I reached the top, but it was worth seeing the city from the very center.  The first night we went out with a group of our guy friends who are studying abroad in Vienna for the semester.  We went to U-4, which is kind of a rocker pub but was very fun to dance in- especially when our favorite Spanish song would come on the speakers and we were the only people in the pub who knew all the words.

The next day we decided to walk around the city, where we explored the Hapsburg palace grounds, a plaza with beautiful outdoor ice-skating, the famous Vienna Opera House, and the pastry shop Demmel.  During our stay, one of the most famous Opera Balls was going on, so although we were not able to go into the Opera House we saw them setting up a red carpet for the high society men and women that would be attending the ball that evening- my invitation was obviously lost in the mail.  Demmel was probably my favorite part of Vienna, because I had a chocolate cake that was the best I have ever tasted (sorry Portillo's, this one even beats yours…).  It had orange liquor, hazelnut, dark chocolate, milk chocolate cream, and was so beautiful- I am getting hungry just thinking about it right now! 

Another place we went in Vienna was the Belvidere museum, which is the most interesting museum I have seen yet, even better than the Louvre.  It was a little smaller, and used to be a palace so each room was architecturally stimulating even without the amazing artwork everywhere.  It had a mix of more modern works as well as medieval works, and it specifically highlighted the work of the famous Austrian painter Gustav Klimt, who is known for his painting “The Kiss”. 

In addition to all of this, we saw the area where Mozart once lived, Sigmund Freud’s house, 2 delicious Viennese restaurants, and some more clubs.  Overall this was our party city, because we have several friends who are studying abroad there and it was fun to go out with a group of girls and guys.   The best club by far was Praterdome, just because we were all together and just ready to dance the night away-all 7 of us American girls may have hopped onto the stage that night….oh well, “you only live once” became our new saying this trip!

The morning after Praterdome, we took a train to Budapest that had compartments resembling those in Harry Potter- which was fine by me because we definitely need some space to spread out and sleep after a long night at the discotecas.  When we arrived in Budapest, Alexandra, Emily and I met up with our friend Libby who is studying there for the semester.  Libby was the best hostess, she let us sleep in her dorm and helped us figure out the public transport in the city- don’t know what we would have done without her!

The first night we went to the outdoor baths, which were basically like hot tub swimming pools.  They are naturally heated through hot springs in the earth, and after a day of travel they were heavenly.  We went at dusk, and you could see the steam swirling in the cold winter air.  Although the run from pool to pool was freezing and we had to avoid piles of snow, the minute you stepped into the water we were instantly relaxed.  After the baths, everyone had a craving for some Mexican food, so we went to some random restaurant we found that had burritos and fajitas and everything else that was probably less Mexican and more American.  I should probably also mention here that we visited good old McDonald’s several times throughout our entire 10 trip, and I have come to call this fast food place one of my new best friends.  McDonald’s may be horrible, but no matter what country you go to, you can count on this place to always have 1 euro ice cream and free WiFi. 

Anyways, the next day in Budapest we went to the marketplace which had literally everything you can imagine from fresh meat to touristy postcards.  Here we ate langos, which were fried dough with anything on top- I chose chocolate, almonds and powdered sugar, so good!  I am definitely going to become “large and in charge” aka obese from all this travel food.  After this we went on a really insightful communist walking tour of the city.  Budapest was just recently liberated from communism about 20 years ago, and the effects of this government are still very clearly visible in not only the architecture of the city but also their style of living.  Our tour guide lived through communism as a child, and she had some very sad anecdotes about how hard life was then.  Now in a post-communism democracy, Hungary has many problems including unemployment and homelessness, because during communism everyone had a job and a home. 

So after the walking tour, we went over the Buda side of the city (Buda and Pest are separated by the Danube River) and we went to Castle Hill, which had beautiful views of the grand Parliament building in Pest as well as cute little restaurants and a beautiful church.

Overall though traveling was catching up to us.  Between the few hours of sleep we were getting each night and our diet of Micky D’s and alcohol, we were starting to fall apart.  Especially because living out of a backpack for 10 days was no easy task- I think I want to burn all of my clothes from this trip because they are so disgusting now.  So unfortunately, we didn’t make it out to any crazy bars or nightclubs in Budapest.  Libby, Alexandra, Emily, and I went out together for an hour or 2 to catch up and have a glass of wine, which was exactly all we needed for the last night of our trip. 

The next morning we got up at 5 AM and started our second 17 hour trek back home.  It takes so long simply because we need to take a 5 hour bus from Madrid Airport into Granada almost every time we travel.  This trip we even had a transfer in Zurich, Switzerland, so I guess you can say I’ve been there as well!  I had a blast though and I am so fortunate that I was able to see these amazing cities.  I know I am probably leaving out a lot of random anecdotes from the trip, but all in all this was our experience.  If I had to pick a favorite city, I would say Vienna.  And my only regret of the trip is that we never made it out to Salzburg, Vienna, which is where the “Sound of Music” was filmed and is apparently very beautiful- but 4 cities would have been pushing it.  Other than that I seriously think we did everything perfectly- we saw everything we wanted to see, learned some really interesting history, and partied in some of the most beautiful cities in the world…life couldn’t be better.  And, believe it or not, we didn’t get lost once, and we were able to figure out every Metro system in every country- even though I don’t think I’ll ever get the hang of the Metra in Chicago.

But right now my hands are cramping up, and I think my host family thinks I am insane for sitting on my computer writing for so long.  So, I will write about Paris and Versailles another day.  This weekend I am traveling again (ahh why did I schedule all these trips in a row!?) and I am going to Dublin, Ireland.  A huge group of University of Illinois students are all going to Dublin together this weekend, so I cannot wait to pub crawl and see the Cliffs of Moher with all of my friends.  

1 month down, 3 more to go

I cannot believe I have been living in Spain for a month.  The time has just flown by, and I know that it is going to start going by even more quickly because of all the trips we have planned for the next upcoming weeks and weekends.  I am finally starting to feel comfortable here in Granada.  The first couple of weeks were a bit more difficult than I’ve been sharing in these posts.  The culture shock that they warned us about in orientation sort of hit me, and I was unprepared for it. 

For example, at school back home I am very involved in activities such as sexual assault prevention courses, my sorority alumnae relations position, sorority social events, keeping track of my internship, my job at the cookie jar and my job at home,a more strenuous schedule of classes, and then Ryan and I would try to find a little time to hang out.  My schedule is pretty booked with things to do.  Here, I am taking 12 credit hours (the minimum you can take to be considered a student!) and that was about it until this last week.  People here take life so slow and easy, and just veg by the couch all day and eat and take 3 hour siesta naps in the middle of the workday and close their stores whenever they feel like it- seriously what do these people do here?!?  I have a new respect for people in the US who work 12 hour workdays with barely a 30 minute lunch break, which reminds me I may have to go back and work at Express this summer, ugh.  So at first, I felt restless yet lethargic in Granada- I wanted to get something done everyday during our 3 hour siesta, or go shopping or go to a café- but everything is closed.  Or I wanted to hang out with my friends at night and watch a movie instead of going to bars, but unfortunately we cannot have guests over at any host families house.  I am starting to get adjusted to vegging out, reading a book, watching reruns of Friends in Spanish, and getting to know Mari Lou.  Sometimes, I am greatful that my internet connection is horrible at my house because I get the opportunity to get to know Mari Lou and practice my Spanish more, instead of sitting on facebook and skyping all night.

Last week, I started getting involved in a program where I teach English to Spaniards once a week for the whole semester.  My friend and I walked into the class armed with lists of basic vocabulary, including colors and body parts, to practice with our students.  As we started the class introductions, we realized that everyone already spoke English, much better than we know Spanish, and they wanted to practice intense grammar and pronounciation.  They started asking us what meaning is behind the irregular English verbs “bring brang brung” and “sing sang sung”.  I think my jaw dropped open- like when the hell do people use the word “sung”? --“I sung last night?  We sang last night?” Huh?  I don’t know.  Is that a real word?  Looks like I’m going to need to brush up on my own English grammar as well.

But I am glad I am getting involved (even if it might be a requirement for my conversation class, I still would have done it anyway).  Also, last night I attended a Spanish Amnesty International meeting with 2 of my friends.  It sounded like something really cool to get involved in, although unfortunately many of the activities are on weekends so we will be traveling a lot then.  But I am going to a woman’s rights event on Friday afternoon in one of the plazas in Granada.  It is an event to support women, and we are supposed to wear black clothing and a purple scarf, which is a color that represents a womens cause here (just like how pink is a color for breast cancer awareness back home). 

Mari Lou has been great, and is still teaching me how to cook a little.  Yesterday she showed me how to make a salad I like called “La Ensalada Rusia” (Russia).  It’s sort of like a potatoe salad with tuna and crab and egg and lot’s of mayonnaise- when I asked her why it’s called a Russian Salad she said she had no clue.  Also, she has been singing a lot around the house and teaching me some songs, because she is in a group for seniors that performs some type of song for the Carnival celebration.  The other day, she started to get all serious and asking if I liked living with her and when I said yes, she just grabbed my hands and said “Verdad?” (which means like “Really, truthfully?”) and of course I said yes.  I just thought it was so precious that she really does care, and she’s not one of the host families who are only in it for the money or barely pay attention to their student.

Next week I am leaving for Prague, Vienna and Budapest.  I don’t know why we scheduled this trip now, it is going to be like negative 100 degrees or something.  But a lot of people are going, and for us this is the best time because it is our longest break.  I will be layering up all my socks, shirts, and coats for this trip, but I cannot wait!  We have friends staying in both Vienna and Budapest as well so they can show us around the city.  Hopefully I come back with some good stories!

Churros con Chocolate

It was almost 7 AM in Madrid, and we were starving.  We hadn’t gone to sleep yet, and had just spent the night at a local discoteca with some of Marlee’s local friends.  As we were wandering around the city, we stumble upon the ONLY place open in Madrid, a café specializing in churros with chocolate.  This store is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and is famous in Madrid for this reason.  The place was packed with young people who had just gotten back from the discos, older people who probably had just woken up, and a mixture of tourists and locals.  We immediately devoured our churros, and were so slap happy we ended up stealing a few from the people next to us and running out of the restaurant (whoops), while people were yelling about the “Barrachas Americanas” (Drunk Americans).  Sorry not sorry, it was so worth it.

Although the chocolate churros only made up a small part of our Saturday night/Sunday morning, the entire weekend was a whirlwind.  I traveled with 5 other girls who I had never met before coming to Granada: Jessica, Jessie, Marlee, Taylor, and Emily.  Needless to say we got made fun of a lot for having 3 Jessica’s in a group, two of which were blondes.  We took a bus at 1:30 AM on Friday out of Granada, to arrive in Madrid around 7.  Of course this wasn’t the brightest idea, because nothing opens in Spain before 10 or 11, so we people watched in the train station for several hours before taking a taxi to our hostel, “Fabrizzio’s Guesthouse”.  This Guesthouse was not what we expected out of a hostel- we basically lived in someone’s apartment for the weekend, right in the center of the city.  Outside in the Plaza right below our hostel, there were people dressed up as Micky Mouse, Spongebob, the Smurfs, Puss in Boots, etc.  We later figured out that many of these people are street gypsies, who try to make a living having tourists take pictures with them- and if they catch you taking a picture of them without paying, they follow you around til you do (that’s why all of mine are far away and kinda sneaky, haha). 

When we walked in to the hostel, a Spaniard introduced himself and showed us to our room, and we asked “Oh so you’re Fabrizzio?”.  He surprised us by saying no, and pointing to a stuffed animal/puppet crocodile and saying “That’s Fabrizzio”.  As we explored the apartment, there were pictures EVERYWHERE of this crocodile all around the world.  It was very similar to that travelocity commercial where that traveling gnome is seen all over the world.  And of course, everyone who has ever stayed at the hostel takes pictures with the crocodile, or takes him out on a night on the town.  We later found out Ernesto and Esteban were the owners of the very small hostel, which probably could host aroun 20-25 people at a time.  They provided us with towels, hair products, breakfast every morning- we got very spoiled with our first hostel experience (I’m scared how bad the rest will seem in comparison!). 

Before going out Friday night, we visited El Museo del Prado, as well as the museum Reino Sofia.  Both were amazing and contained famous works by Velazquez, Picasso (Guernica), and Dali.  We met some girls from the walking tour earlier that day who were from Puerto Rico, and told them to meet up with us there- and for the rest of the weekend we continued to go out with them or get lunch or whatever.  After the museums, we saw a McDonalds and we just couldn’t resist- I don’t think a McChicken will ever taste better than it did after a long day in Madrid! 

Because we stayed at such a small hostel, we got to know the people who were staying there really well- we met people from Australia, England, Germany, Texas, and Ohio.  After a day tour of the city Friday, Ernesto and Esteban took us and the guys from Texas out to a local bar their cousin owned.  They had the BEST tapas and some really good drinks, and the ambiance was so great- we played drinking games all night and became besties with the guys from Texas, who were there for a food convention that was going on in Madrid (they were in grad school and one was a nutritionist or something like that).

The next day, Saturday, our plan was to travel to Toledo for a couple of hours and then come back for the night in Madrid.  However, we really didn’t research or think through how we were supposed to travel to Toledo.  A bunch of girls from the suburbs don’t really know how to work the Metro system, let alone read the signs in Spanish when we struggle to speak it already.  We slept in, and then got lost in the underground subways for a good 10 minutes until someone spoke to us in English saying “You have to get to the other side of the tunnel”, and we look at the clock and we had 1 minute for the train to arrive, which we needed to take to make another train at a different station.  We started sprinting towards the stairs, and we were running at full speed toward the train and we all jumped on, and literally after the last girl pushed her way on- the door closes on us.  Well, that part of the traveling was done, but we still had to make our next train at another unknown train station, and buy our tickets.  Once we arrived at the next station, we figured out where to buy our tickets and the woman behind the counter just says “Corriendo”.  We started sprinting again, this time with a larger crowd who were screaming in Spanish at us “Run Run! Chicas!”.  We didn’t care, we were so determined to make this damn train to Toledo.  The guards barely checked our tickets and bags and we hopped on the train with less than 30 seconds to spare before we are rushed off to Toledo.  I have never been so pumped with adrenaline and so excited that we actually figured out what to do in 2 Spanish train stations.  I think we learned our lesson though that we should probably google how to do something a little bit ahead of time. 

So we finally arrived in Toledo, breathless and exhausted from mutliple sprints, but nonetheless we were there!  The city was very small, but the architecture was extremely different than what we had seen already in Granada and Madrid.  It was like walking into Medieval Times.  Toledo is known for this type of Medieval architecture, as well as it’s swords (many of the swords from Lord of the Rings were created in Toledo).  It was a beautiful sunny day, and we spent it mainly exploring the city, walking around, viewing a lot of the architecture, and going into a torture museum that contained all of the gruesome ways they would torture people back in the day for public entertainment. 

By 8 that night we were back in Madrid, where we explored a street with bars and tapas, and then met up with some locals from Madrid and went to a discoteca called “Green”.  We were the only Americans there, and you could tell it was a place for the local Madrid students and young people to go on the weekends.  We had a blast dancing the whole night, and I thought it was really entertaining that when they did play American music, it was Madonna or like that song “I’m blue da bu di da bu di” (Sound familiar?  Not sure what it was called haha).  Most of the songs were Spanish, and the Spaniards dance so much more chill compared to us.  You could tell that we were Americans simply because if a techo song came on, we would fist pump in the air.  This same night was when we went to the churros place, so all in all it was very successful.

On Sunday, we explored the street markets in the morning, where hundreds of people come to sell either their own belongings (like a garage sale) or specialty items. We also went inside the Palacio de Madrid, and walked around some of the beautiful parks that Madrid has (similar to Millenium Park in Chicago).  Actually, in general Madrid reminded me a lot of Chicago.  A lot of it’s architecture, the clean streets, some of the shopping districts, and the beautiful parks all made me feel like I was spending a day in Chicago with the girls.  After a long weekend, we decided to go back to the hostel and say goodbye to all of our new friends- and take some corny pictures all together with “Fabrizzio”.

Now I am back safe and sound in Granada!  Not too much new going on here, although my senora Mari Lou is determined that I learn how to cook, so during lunches she pulls me aside and shows me a couple of things.  Also, I am getting really into the soap opera (that she is convinced is not a soap opera) that she watches.  Every night at 10 it comes on, and Mari Lou makes sure she gets me in the living room in time to watch it.  Right now, one woman is pregnant with her possible brother, because her mother never disclosed to her that it was her son, or something like that.  One girl is in prison and has a lover on the outside, and one couple just got married at a bar.  And some bad lady likes some guy who likes some girl.  I don’t know.  The music and the overexaggerated expressions help a lot with my understanding.

This weekend I am staying in Granada, but the next is our trip to Prague, Vienna, and Budapest, and I can’t wait!  

Hopping around Europe

So these first 2 weeks have been very busy with booking flights, buses, and trains, to get to everywhere my friends and I want to see in Europe.  I'm starting to realize that it will be impossible to go everywhere with less that 14 weekends in the semester, and I have decided I'd rather travel throughout Spain a lot because I can always visit other countries again but I will probably never live here again.


So far I am going to Madrid and Toledo this weekend, January 27th-29th.  Then February 10th-19th I am traveling through Prague, Vienna, and Budapest!  This is our big trip, and I know it will be unforgettable.  The weekend after that is a 4 day weekend for us, and we are trying to find cheap flights to go to Paris and Versailles for the 24th-27th of February.  THEN March 2-4  I am going to Dublin, Ireland, and staying with a mutual friend to save money on hostels!  March 9th our school plans a paid day trip to Cordoba, Spain for us.  March 16-18 is a possible Barcelona trip, or to Valencia to see their Las Vayas festival (apparently very cool).  Wow I have a lot going on.  March 30th-April 8th we have another weeklong break, but to save a little bit of money and enjoy Spain the plan is to go to Segovia, and then Ibiza (Island off of Spain) and then come back to Granada area to celebrate Semana Santa- one of Spain's biggest celebrations around Easter time!  April 13th the school plans a paid hiking trip to Alpujarras- not sure what this entails but I'm pretty sure I can tackle anything after climbing my little mountain.  And then April 20-22 is a Lagos-Portugal trip.  April 27-30th is another long weekend, and I hope to make it to Sevilla to see a bullfight!  Then May 7th they are shipping me back to the US.  


The areas that I wish I could see but unfortunately probably won't make it to are Amsterdam, Germany, England, and Italy.  I just know as a college student, I don't think I could see ALL of Italy and do it justice in 5-7 days and on a budget.  Italy is somewhere where I would want to go to the best restaurants, taste the best wine, and stay at a nice hotel (not a hostel crawling with cockroaches).  I would love to try to find a weekend to squeeze in Germany and visit my good friend Carmen, who was an exchange student in the states while I was in high school.  And I'll just watch a lot of Harry Potter to feel as though I am in England.  And Amsterdam, well, I don't smoke soo it's not the end of the world if I don't go there!  


I think I am making the most out of living in Spain by visiting several Spanish cities!  And I know that after these 4 months that I would want to come back to Europe again someday.  


That's all for now!  Actually, I do have to say that the one thing I miss the most about the US is that our meat and fish does not come with the heads already attached.  If I have to peel the head, legs, and scales off of one more thing, one more time, I'm gonna puke.  

Climbing a mountain and some other things..

Mari Lou has had guests over for the past 2 nights, her sister and her husband as well as her daughter and her husband.  It has been so nice, because they speak in a different accent than her so they are much easier to understand, and they enjoy getting to know me because Mari Lou’s sister has a 21 year old daughter who is studying abroad in Brussels for the whole year (must be the thing to do when you turn 21!).  I was helping prepare some dinner when Ma. (my senoras 30 year old daughter), broke an entire saltshaker on the ground.  Before even wiping up the shattered glass, she grabs a handful of salt and runs out to the balcony to throw it over her left shoulder- then proceeds to grab a glass of water and throw that over her shoulder without even hesitating to look down and see if anyone was below.  I guess she is very superstitious, and now she is concerned she is going to have seven years of bad luck- I’m just glad it wasn’t me who broke it.

Ma. (pronounced Mary) and I get along really well, we even became friends on facebook!  I literally think she’s the only person in the family who can interpret the mix of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs that I try to combine to make a sentence.  She thinks it’s hilarious that I am in a sorority and my boyfriend plays sports, she calls us the “estereotipico” Americans.  It doesn’t help that I’m a blonde either.  I’ve decided that I’d almost rather have them think I am a ditzy blonde American because then they talk to me like they think I’m dumb- which helps me because they will speak very slowly and use a LOT of hand gestures.  We just laugh a lot together about the communication barrier between us.  When I want to take a shower, it’s like I’m acting out a scene from charades where I pretend I am washing my hair first, turning on and off the hot water, etc, until finally she’s like “oh you want to take a shower??”.   I could be in a way worse situation, we have already had students in our program want to switch families because of their strange accommodations (having 40 year old men tenants, living in unsafe neighborhoods, the kids of a family having all their play things in the room and having no privacy).  I live in such a central part of the city that there is always someone to walk home with and I feel really safe here.  And I am right by a TON of shopping, which is a good and a bad thing- I’ve already bought a very European looking pair of boots and a really really really cute brown leather jacket, I mean both of which I needed to have right? 

Today Elyssa, Monica, Emily, and I wanted to explore some hiking trails on the mountain where the Alhambra is.  We threw on our gym shoes and decided to just wing it- we had no idea where we were going and just decided to start climbing as soon as we saw a path that looked decent.  Our first attempt resulted in me being stuck at a point about 10 feet above the ground, stranded because it was too steep to go up further, and the drop down was dangerous.  And of course I’m about the least athletic person in the world so that probably didn’t help my case.  I just sat and scooted my way down- so the joke of the day was my very muddy ass.  Whoops. 

After that failed attempt we found a decent but small path that led us up through the mountain, and it was the most fun thing I have done all trip.  The views were beautiful, and it was so interesting because we think that these paths were created by the gypsies that live in the caves we would walk by in the mountain.  I wouldn’t want to come out here alone or at night, but during the middle of the day we felt completely safe, minus the fact that one missed step on a rock and we probably would have fallen a longgg way down.  I had such an adrenaline rush at the fact that we were exploring all of these paths ourselves, and getting muddy and hoisting ourselves up and grabbing onto trees to avoid pummeling to the ground.  There was one point where we had to scale a small building to get to another hidden path- and I volunteered to be the first one to attempt it.  The three other girls start pushing me up, and I was laughing so hard my body couldn’t support itself.  They ended up having to push me by my ankles while I was inch-crawling to stand up on this structure.  The rest of the group lifted their own body weight with grace and ease onto the building.  Hey, either way I still felt pretty badass, despite being a little bit out of shape.  Once we reached the top I felt like we were on top of the world.  We could see the Sierra Nevada Mountains, beautiful olive tree groves, and the entire city.  


I am so proud of us for stepping out of our comfort zone and having the most amazing day.  We ended up finding some main pathways, but the most fun was going off the main track and basically climbing random parts of the mountain.  We hiked for about 3 hours, and it is something I would love to do again in the Sierra Nevadas or there are some school organized trips to hiking in Alpujarras. 

This is me in between olive trees at the very top of our little mountain, with the Sierra Nevadas behind me!

We also have been going out to the discotecas (clubs) the past couple of nights.  These clubs don’t open even until 2 am and will stay open til around 7 am.  We have been going out to tapas bars before or getting free drinks at local pubs with specials, and then heading out to the discotecas.  The clubs are crazy here, but it’s definitely not something I could pull off every night.  Tapas seem to be more of my thing- 2 Euros for wine and food, sounds good to me!

I guess that’s all that is new for now.  I already have my first speech in my Islam class on Tuesday so wish me luck!  Hasta luego.

Flamenco

I have officially completed a week of classes at CEGRI!  I am taking 4 classes- Art History of Spain, Culture of Spain, Oral Spanish, and Culture of Islam.  They are all taught in Spanish, but I am only in classes with American students in my program so we are all in the same boat as far as experience with the language.  Art History seems as though it will be the most interesting- each week we go on a field trip to a church or a museum or a building in Granada that has to do with the lesson.  This week we were learning about Gothic style, so we visited Capilla Real, where Isabelle and Ferdinand are buried.  The history is so amazing to learn about!  And it's even more surprising that I can understand it all in Spanish.

Tonight we went to a Flamenco show with our group- and basically it was a show where some old men sing some very unusual songs, and a woman comes out in a Flamenco dress and angrily tap dances around the stage. She was very passionate about what she was doing, but it was definitely a show for tourists- there are some more Flamenco shows in the gypsy part of the city that we all want to go to on our own!

Things are better with Mari Lou- except she keeps on telling me that I need to get over my idea that there are different kinds of ham.  She repeats whenever I won't eat something "todos los jamones son iguales!!".  Um, no they are not.  When a thick slice of meat is literally sliced off of the leg of a pig in the kitchen, it looks and tastes a LOT different than our American lunch meat.  Oh well!  At least I haven't been hiding as much food in my shirt because she has been making some great meals.

I am also planning a week long trip to Prague, Vienna, and Budapest!  So far there are for sure 6 of us girls, but another group is now excited about these cities and is going to book the same flight.  I cannot wait because these cities will be so much more different than the Greek and Roman influences you typically see in Mediterranean cities.

I can't think properly right now because I am so tired, but I figured I'd try to update my family a little about what is going on here.  Granada is great, and I am getting over a lot of the culture shock that many of us students were experiencing.  Should be a really exciting 4 months!!