Granada

Molly, Maggie and I outside of our hotel room

This weekend we went on everyone's favorite group excursion to Granada. Unfortunately, unlike the students who come in the fall or summer, we had to go when it was absolutely freezing. Whoever thought it was a good idea to advise us against bringing heavy coats is just mean. Even though I spent the majority of the time in Granada drowned in as many layers as I could muster, I still really enjoyed the city. Granada is about 3 to 4 hours from Sevilla and is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. It is a totally different feel from Sevilla because instead of seeing a river and palm trees, we were surrounded by snow capped mountains. The city itself is much smaller than Sevilla and felt to me as though it was the Chapel Hill of Spain. The town is mostly known for its university, and there are over 70,000 college students there. It certainly feels like a college town when you're walking around, and you even get a free tapa with every drink that you buy. This is definitely a custom that Sevilla needs to pick up because we ate some really interesting tapas. The last one we got was bread with goat cheese and honey on it. While this may sound disgusting, it was actually really great.

Miller, Marissa and I exploring the city

Since we were with the program, the hotel and dinner were paid for, and I FINALLY got salmon in Spain. I have been missing salmon since we got here, so when I heard that our options at dinner were chicken or salmon, I could not have been more excited. Even better than that, it was good salmon (not better than yours of course, Mom). The hotel was also nicer than expected and we got a third roommate so it was like a little sleepover! Even though Maggie and I technically have a sleepover every night.

The bus rides there and back were fun, because these are usually the only time when our entire program is together. It's fun to get to spend time with everyone in one place, and it definitely made the bus ride much more enjoyable. We had some free time when we first arrived in Granada to see the city and relax a little bit. We explored and found a cute market and some shops. After a few hours we met our tour guides at the hotel and went on our tour of the cathedral and the Castilla Real. The cathedral was a little unimpressive after the cathedral in Sevilla, but it was still pretty. The Castilla Real was much more interesting, and this is where Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand are buried. We were able to see their tombs and we learned a little bit about 1492 when Granada was conquered by Isabella and Ferdinand (the same year they sent Columbus to find the Americas).

Goat cheese and honey

After the excursion we had a little bit more free time where we walked around for a little bit more. We knew we were in for some miserable weather when the temperature dropped about 20 degrees in a hour. I thought my hands were going to fall off before I even got to savor my long awaited salmon. After dinner we met up with a friend of Jess who is studying abroad in Granada. She is going to be there for a full year, and has already been there since September, so she was a good resource to have. We were all tired and had to get up early, so we didn't stay out as late as we would have liked, but it was still fun to get to experience the nightlife in another city.

View from the top of the tower

Sunday we woke up early and visited the Alhambra. The Alhambra is a palace and fortress that were built by the Arabs and then conquered by the Catholic monarchs when they conquered Granada in 1492. 1492 was a big year for these people, just as it is for us. Even though it is supposed to be a palace, the Alhambra is more like a city. It is perfectly preserved and has all of the Arabic influence that the mosque in Cordoba and the Reales Alcazares in Sevilla have. There were Arabic baths, a court house, living quarters, gardens, etc. The Alhambra was surrounded by the Sierra Nevada mountains and it was beautiful to see, especially under a perfectly blue sky like yesterday.

On the way home most of us had to fight to stay awake. We put in a movie that one student had thought to bring, and it was refreshing to watch something in English for once and not have to think too hard. If you know me, it is probably needless to say that I feel asleep about 10 minutes into the movie, but I certainly enjoyed those first 10 minutes.

The Alhambra

When we got home we helped Maria study for her English test that she had today, and we have come to realize that her English teacher must not know too much English herself, because some of the phrases she teaches them are not even close to grammatically correct. Even so, she is still learning a ton of English and she seems to be doing well on her tests with our help, so I'm glad we can be of service!

Our favorite professor (and tour guide),
Fernando

Today is Luis' birthday and we finally got him the perfect present. Maria told us last week that the family was supposed to take a trip to Malaga this weekend, and she was so excited because they always buy "eh-skittles" when they're in Malaga. It took us about 10 minutes to realize that she was saying skittles, as in the candy, and we suddenly realized that skittles were one candy we hadn't seen here. She told us that Malaga is the only place they can find them, and that her and Luis both love them. On Saturday morning when we were getting ready to leave for Granada, Maria came into the kitchen with a sad face and told us that they weren't going to Malaga anymore, and thus, no eh-skittles. We've been struggling for weeks to figure out what to buy Luis, and this was practically a sign that the kid needed skittles. We began our search in Granada and looked in every candy store we could find for skittles. Nothing. Our friend Jake decided to help us and he said that an American candy store had just opened next to his house in Sevilla. Last night as we were studying with Maria I got a call from him saying that he had seen skittles in the window as he walked by. After class today we walked across the river and found the store, called "American Sweets." My, what a find this was. The store not only has skittles, but they have anything you could miss from America. Peanut butter, pancake mix, syrup, Betty Crocker cake mixes, Reese's cups, Hershey bars, Capri Suns, and even Poptarts. The man looked shocked when we bought 13 bags of skittles (it is his 13th birthday after all) and I'm sure he thinks that they are all for the two of us because he told us that he's getting a shipment in next week with all kinds of new foods. There is a possibility that we could become regulars, and lets just say its a good thing that it is very far from our house.

Tonight is Luis' birthday party, but I don't think birthdays are quite as big of a deal here. I'm not really sure what will happen, but I'm under the impression that we are doing a family dinner and cake afterwards. I probably don't know more details because the word cake was all I needed to hear. I hope that he enjoys his eh-skittles and we figured this would be a perfect time to take some family pictures!

Tomorrow I am meeting my intercambio, Fernando, to practice our Spanish/English. I am really excited to meet him and I feel like having a partner to talk to each week will really help my Spanish improve. We're all hoping to become good friends with our intercambio partners so we can meet their friends and all go out as a big group. Oh also, Happy almost Valentine's Day everyone!