La Festival de la Patrona

Today after school Meg and I bought Maria Carmen flowers because it is the festival of the patron saint of Granada, Saint Angustias. After lunch I took a short siesta until 5 pm and then went out with Sophie while Meg kept sleeping. Sophie and I went to the library of the Centro de Lenguas Modernas and I got two books in Spanish that I will try to read in the next to weeks. There is also a multimedia room for you to listen to music or watch movies, so we might go and hang out there later in the week. They have movies in English and in Spanish.
After the library, Soph and I walked through the park where they were holding the festival. There were hundreds of people there in line with bouquets of flowers to hang up on the church. On the front of the church, on either side of the door, there were large green grids on which men were standing and placing flowers. The devotion and excitement was amazing, and it wasn't even an official holiday here!
We walked past the plaza and went to a nice restaurant by the river where we sat outside and met our friend named Amy. We all had a glass of wine and talked about our lives at home. We were about to leave when it started to thunderstorm, so the waiter just rolled out an umbrella for our table and we ordered another round and waited out the storm. It was one of the most enjoyable afternoons I've had so far. I am sad that a lot of the group is going to Seville this weekend, while I've chosen to stay in Granada. I've only been here a short time, and there are so many trips I want to take, it seems like a better choice to enjoy the city while it's still calm.
I walked home just before nine and had dinner with Meg and Maria Carmen. We watched part of a football game (Madrid vs. Zurich). I am pretty sure Madrid will win. Now I am going to read some more of my book before I go to meet some of the other girls for tapas around 11:30.

Love Always,
Em

King Kabob

Last night actually turned out to be a lot of fun. I thought we were all just going out to grab a quick ice cream, but we ended up going to get tea as well (I'm still feeling a little sick) and then a few of us went to King Kabob, which is this late night Turkish diner. We met two really nice guys who work there who sat with us for a long time and talked to us in Spanish. It's always a relief to find people who will give you time to form what you want to say but who aren't harsh or critical if you mess up. Carmen and Mohammad (the two guys) said that I was the best out of the group and that my speaking is very fluid and precise. I was so excited!
Today we had school again, it was really easy and we didn't have any homework. I feel as though I am really starting to understand the grammar and I hope that it will stick with me in conversation.
For lunch we had this yellow rice soup and for dinner we had a kind of potato brick thingie (very filling). Meg and I went to the Arcadia office for a little bit and did some research on the trips we want to take to Italy and Dublin. I am trying to figure out if I can swing them financially, but since it's a once in a lifetime opportunity, I'm sure I'll find a way. We are hopefully going to buy all the tickets on Wednesday so I can stop worrying and going back and forth. I won't decide on the trip to Morocco until later, when we hear about the cost and the details of the trip.


Love Always,
Em

La Alhambra

Today we woke up around 10:00 and had to completely rush to meet up with our group. Meg and I could have walked alone, but it was pretty far away and there was some confusion, so we decided to meet up early with some of our friends and take the bus. We rushed getting ready and having breakfast and Maria Carmen was nice enough to rush and make us lunches so that we wouldn't have to hurry back and we could eat at La Alhambra.
We took the bus and, after missing the stop, the bus driver was nice enough to drive us back to the plaza where we needed to meet up with our tour. La Alhambra is impossible to describe, the intricacy of the carvings and the variety of flowers is really overwhelming. I probably took over 200 pictures and I am dreading having to go through them and weeding out the ones that didn't capture the spirit of the palace. For all who don't know (I certainly didn't before doing my research to go here) Granada was the last Muslim stronghold when all the rest of Spain had turned over to the reign of Isabelle and Ferdinand and the official religion of Christianity. La Alhambra was the palace that overlooked the city of Granada and it is absolutely massive with a lot of history. Isabelle and Ferdinand were so focused on gaining control of Granada that, after they did invade and win, they demanded to be buried in Granada. I saw their casks at La Catedral de Ave Maria the other day.
After walking all around La Alhambra and seeing many beautiful rooms and views, we moved on to Generalife (which we all mispronounced and sounded VERY American). To do it injustice and simplify it would be to call it the royal gardens. It is an absolutely huge park with fantastic scenes of foliage and exotic flowers and fountains. My favorite part was Las Escaleras de Agua (The Stairs of Water). It was this long set of stairs flanked on each side by what looked like an intricate tiny water slide. If you stop the water some way up from the bottom and then let it go, it splashes whoever is standing below.
We all ate our lunches in Generalife and had a great time. We decided to walk back and stopped in our favorite Irish pub, Catedral, to have a Coke and paella. Then Meg and I returned home and slept until dinner, which is coming soon!
Overall, it was definitely one of the best days and most certainly the best tour we have had. It is also the last one that we will take with an official tour guide in Granada. Now all the rest of the exploring is left to us! I am feeling a lot better, although I still have a head cold, but I am sure that I will be back to normal this week.

Love Always,
Em

Addendum: Grossest dinner EVER! It was gray and squished. We're going for ice cream.

Estoy Enferma

Thursday night I started to feel a little under the weather. When I woke up on Friday, it was as if I had been hit by a bus. My whole head felt three times its normal size and, while I tried to go to classes, I had trouble making it through the first half. I left at noon and missed the second class to go home and sleep from 1 pm on Friday to 2 pm today (Saturday). I woke up for dinner and Maria Carmen took my temperature which was a little over 100 degrees. She gave it to me in Celsius though, so I had to look it up online.
Thankfully, when I woke up this morning I felt much better. I ate a little more and spent most of the day reading and cleaning up a little. I am going out tonight, but it will probably be an early night because I'm still not 100% and tomorrow we are going to visit La Alhambra, which is a huge Moorish palace that marked the last stronghold before Granada became Christian when Isabella and Fernando invaded. It should be beautiful.

Miss you all!
Love Always,
Em

Overload

Yesterday was a really nice day. We had a fun time in class and then took a few hours for siesta. Before dinner, Meg and Sophie and I explored the western end of the city a little bit and found a pretty nice mall as well as the prettiest park I've seen here so far. It's name is Frederico García Lorca park, he's a famous Spanish writer. There were a million rose bushes and different shaped trees. It was much different from parks back home, but very beautiful.
We stayed in last night and just hung out. Today we had class again and we had our first exam: we had to tell a story in front of the class! I talked about how my key didn't work the first night I was at my homestay and how embarrassing it was.
After class we had lunch and then went to a meeting about safety in the Arcadia office. Afterwards we all got helado (ice cream) and talked about what kind of trips we want to take while we're here. The Arcadia program is taking us around Spain on various trips and they are also hooking us up with a Morocco program, although that isn't paid for and is supposed to be pretty expensive. But Morocco is a place I know I would never go on my own and because of that I am seriously considering it. I am also going to stay in Madrid with some friends for a few nights as well as try to travel to Italy and possibly Dublin to visit some other friends from home. Overall, the whole traveling thing is exciting but very stressful. I wish someone would just plan it for me.
I miss you all!
Love Always,
Em

La Plaza del Toro

Albacin was very pretty once you got to the top, a breathtaking view of Granada, but it was very hard to walk up to. All of the streets are cobblestone and almost vertical they are so steep. Needless to say, my legs are going to hurt for a few days.
Yesterday I had class again. It was really easy and at the end of the day the second professor pulled me aside and asked if I wanted to move up a level because she didn't want me to be bored. I said no because the first class is actually at my level in terms of grammar and because, if I move up, I might jeopardize my credit transfer at Denison. Right now everything is perfect and I think that I will be challenged enough without moving to advanced.
Meg and I had pasta for lunch and then took a quick siesta before meeting Sophie (another girl from Denison) to explore some more of the city. We took about a 30 minute walk to Plaza del Toro, a bullfighting ring on the northern outskirts of Granada. After paying 3 euro, we got a nice succint tour of the facilities, including the creepy medical rooms in the back for when people get hurt. It was interesting though, there was a bar/restaurant set up in the middle of the ring because it isn't bull fighting season yet, and they were playing Hanson's "Mmmbop", so it was hard to take some of the danger seriously with 90s music in the background. Afterwards, Sophie Meg and I went to a nice air conditioned bar and had tapas, which are basically free appetizers that come if you order a drink.
I came home for dinner and then left again in order to meet Amy, Morgan, Sophie and some people from another program. We went to the Moroccan part of the city and found a really cute and authentic hookah/tea bar. We hung out there for almost 3 hours before heading home to get some sleep.
I am getting used to being here and I am definitely getting a handle on the city. I do miss home and American food a lot, but I'll be back there soon enough wishing I were here, so I'm trying to enjoy the moment without feeling too homesick. I miss Denison too, but I'm staying in touch with a lot of friends from there, so it makes it a little easier.

Miss you all,
Love Always,
Em

Botellón

So last night turned out to be really fun. We met at La Plaza Isabelle, which is our usual meeting spot in the center of the city. It has a huge statue in the middle of the fountain of Columbus asking Isabelle to go look for the New World. One of the girls in the group, Monica, brought her sister from the homestay. Her name was Beatriz and she is 23. She was so nice and taught us a lot about the city. We went to what is called a botellón, which is a huge gathering of people in a park. It is the only place in Granada where you can drink outside and it's much cheaper than the bars, as well as more authentic. We talked spanish the whole night and met a lot of new people. Around 3 am we went to a discoteca (basically a club) that is called Mae West. They were only letting in natives from Granada, but since we had Beatriz, we were able to get in anyway. It was a huge building with a lot of different levels and rooms. Most played American music, but there were rooms you could go to if you wanted to listen to Spanish music. There were TVs all along the walls and they played a tribute to Michael Jackson (everyone here gets really excited about his music). It was a lot of fun and we didn't get home until about 5:30.
Unfortunately, that means we overslept the next day and weren't able to make it to the beach. Luckily a couple other people overslept too, so after dinner we went out for tapas. Today is Megan's birthday, she is turning 21 which isn't as big of a deal here as it is in the US. We still went out to another discoteca called Granada 10. Unlike Mae West, Granada 10 had a lot of people from America, so we didn't get to speak Spanish as much as we did the other night. We met a nice group of guys from Texas who are here on vacation and then we called it a night.
Today we had lunch, the usual bowl of soup and some ice cream (I think a treat for Meg's birthday). They usually have soup at lunch, which I am trying to get used to. I don't know how they can eat something that hot when it's 95 degrees out. I just finished my homework for tomorrow and now I am getting ready to go on a tour of Albacin, an old Arab neighborhood.

Love Always,
Em