Visitors!

And then last week finally came what I'd been counting down to since I arrived in Granada: Visitors! And I had ALOT!! My parents, my boyfriend, and four of his friends! Fiesta!

It was really great to have people from home, to see my parents, and finally get to hang out with Nick again! I thought it might be weird to see him again, but everything was just as we left it.

It was a great week! I wish they could have stayed for three more! Seeing everyone did kind of make me want to come home, but seeing Granada from their eyes in a way made me more excited about this city and realize how great it really is.

Sunday Nick and I took an EARLY (1 am) bus to Madrid (five hours!) to go to the Real Madrid soccer (fútbol) game. It was cool to see Madrid since the only time I´d ever seen it was from the airport windows back in January, but it probably would have been alot cooler if we´d slept at least a few hours! We did get to eat at Burger King though! The game was really fun, even for me, someone who doesn´t especially appreciate sports... The stadium was just HUGE and I was scared from our seats, which were three rows from the top. We finally got back to Granada after a long day in Madrid to find Nicks friends still awake after taking Stan out for a few (many) drinks!

Highlights of the week include visiting the Alhambra once again and visiting Nerja, a little town on Costa del Sol so everyone could experience the Mediterranean Sea, and of course many tapas. Everyone also got to meet up with my Spanish family where we drank muchas cervezas. Considering hardly anyone could understand each other, we had a pretty good time!

The week went by toooo fast! Speaking of fast... I have just over 1 month left in Spain! Crazy! And this weekend we are going to Portugal for half of our second break, and then back to Granada for the last half to experience SEMANA SANTA.

Weekend in Paris

One week after returning from Italy, we had a weekend in Paris. Haha feels weird saying that! Paris was great, but it was a little big for my taste (which I think is why I loved Florence so much). I think we did a fairly decent job sightseeing in Paris. We arrived around 2 pm so we had time to go see the Eiffel Tower, which we decided to save some euros and NOT go to the top...something I am regretting a little bit, but at the same time I think I would have pooped my pants at the top because I'm still scared of heights lol. We also went on a boat tour down the Seine which was beautiful but would have been better if we werent FREEZING!! We could tell we'd traveled north haha. The second day we started at the Arc de Triomphe and walked down Champs Elysees and got to see alot of things on the way, including Musee d'Orsay where we saw alot of the big impressionist works. We saw the home of Quasimodo (Notre dame) and climbed to the top... SCARY!! We ended the day at the Louvre...and we were exhausted so we basically saw the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, Napoleon's Apartments and PEACED! We did get to meet up with Tood Peterson, who just happened to be in Paris at THE SAME EXACT TIME!! Crazy! It was nice to see a familiar face and get some news from home. I know Toddy's not family yet but it was close enough haha. The next day we all took the train to Versailles to see the palace. We had to walk a bit from the train station to the palace and we stopped to get some chocolate crepes. We asked the vendor directions to the Palace and he told us it burnt down. Hilarious...I loved him. That actually was one of my favorite parts of the trip. And Todd actually believed him! J/k. We returned to Paris mid afternoon and had time to take a little stroll through Montmarte, an old artist's quarter. This was another one of my favorite parts...we saw an old studio where picasso painted, garden's where renoir painted, and van goghs old home. It was cool to imagine that we were walking around where these artists worked and got their inspiration. Then we saw Moulin Rouge and all applied for jobs!

Oops...

I've realized, as I'm sure you have as well, that I REALLY am not good at this blogging thing!! As you can imagine, alot of things have happened since the last time I got on here and posted. We had our first week long break awhile ago which I spent in Italy, and it was wonderful!! I looooved Italy (especially the food... and gelato mmm lol). We stayed a night in Milan, four in Florence, and one in Venice. Nooo we didn't make it to Rome, but that just means I'll have to go back to Italy sometime...I can handle that. It was awesome to see so many OLD and famous pieces of art, and we saw at least one from each of the ninja turtles (donatello, michelangelo, leonardo, rafeal... :-P) aaand of course the David...very impressive. I thought florence was a beautiful city--one of my favorites for sure. I didn't realize it was so small and it was really pretty easy to get around, so we spent alot of time just walking around and enjoying the Italian atmosphere. Milan was so-so...we didn't get to see the Last Supper which is the only reason I would want to visit Milan! But our flight flew into Milan and I got to see a friend from school studying there AND i had the most delicious pizza there. Venice was also wonderful. We really spent the whole day just walking around...got a little lost a few times but it was fun. Also we somehow ordered ourselves an anchovie pizza which was really disgusting...but if that was the worst part of the trip, I think it went pretty well. I definitely would love to go back to Italy some day (soon!).

PS I forgot... we also went to Pisa and saw the Leaning Tower... I actually really enjoyed seeing it...kinda comical lol.

aaaand morocco

so last weekend we went to africa, making it the third continent I have been to in less than a month! Speaking of months, it was exactly one month ago that I was getting ready to get on an airplane and fly to spain!

Morocco was really cool to see, and not at all what I was expecting. I didn´t realize it was more of a Middle Eastern country than an African country. I was actually expecting alot more black people, I am kinda embarrassed to say. Fortunately the whole trip in morroco was organized by a tourist company, because I don´t know what I would have done there if I was on my own! It was cool because they didn´t take us to the most touristy areas-- instead they showed us what the life of a moroccan is like. We saw alot of markets on the streets where they sold lots of very fresh ingredients. VERY fresh, as in there were little stands with live chickens which were either popping out eggs to be sold OR waiting to be selected and killed ughhhh.

They took us to three cities, Tetouhan, Tanger, and Chef- Chouan (chances are, I spelt those all wrong). Tetouhan and Tanger were pretty similar, I thought. Chef-chouan was my favorite by far (and i think everyone on the trip agreed). Its a small town up on a mountain and almost all the buildings are painted blue. There are alot of streams coming from the mountains and running through the streets and in between house. It was very beautiful.

All the food was included, which was great. The food, however, not exactly my favorite. It was alriiight but after three days of it I was ready to return to my madre for some Spanish food (although i would have preferred a cheeseburger and french fries...).

They told us not to drink the water, which I don´t think I did, but somehow I still managed to get sick if you know what I mean!!!!!

OH i forgot to mention-- I also rode a camel!

Excursións a Sevilla y Marueccos

I suppose its about time I update this blog! I spent the last two weekends in Sevilla and Morocco, and they both deserve a post of their own so here is one about Sevilla, and expect one about Morocco soon!

We took a bus from Granada to Sevilla (about 3 hours)--it probably was a beautiful bus ride but unfortunately I was sleeping most of the way! (oops) Sevilla is an awesome city (also in Andalucía), and it does resemble Granada in many ways, but the road system is even more confusing (I didn't think it was possible), and it is alot bigger. Friday we spent the whole day being tourists. When we set out for our adventures for the day, we obviously didn´t know where we were going...but we accidentally stumbled upon the Catedral and La Giralda, quite the view when you aren´t expecting it!

La Catedral was built from 1403-1506 (I know this from memory, jk), but La Giralda is left from 1198, and is a muslim building, left from the mosque the christians destroyed to build La Catedral. It was used by the muezzin (a muslim crier whose job is to call to prayer...again from memory), and has 35 flights (in ramps) which we climbed up to see a beautiful view of Sevilla. Oh, I almost forgot-- we saw the tomb of Christopher Columbos (Cristobal Colon), which is inside La Catedral, and we were way too excited about it, ha... Also we saw the river he sailed out from to discover ¨The NEW WORLD.¨

Also important- I ate McDonald´s while in Sevilla. Another interesting piece of information about our trip to Sevilla- we bought boxes of wine for .69 euros each. Needless to say, it was really good wine...

P.S. Sorry I don´t know why the pictures are like that.

Mi Familia

The thing that made me most nervous about coming to Spain was the fact that I was going to live with a family. It would have been much easier to live in an apartment or a dorm with my English-speaking friends, but living with a Spanish family will be a much better cultural and educational experience. As it turns out, I don't think I could have asked for a better family! My family has two kids; an eleven year old daughter and a 15 year old son, and now, an American college student :-P. The mother and daughter came to pick me up from the hostal. I knew immediately I could be comfortable with them. There is quite a language barrier which can get kind of overwhelming but they are very patient with me. The kids know a little English (VERY little), and, the daughter especially, slows things down and tries to think of words I might know (there's not very many). The father told me if I don't understand Spanish by the time I am suppsoed to go home that I have to stay in Spain lol. They seem to be a very close knit family and are happy to have me here. They told me I am their first foreign-exchange student, so this is as new for them as it is for me. Also, many buildings in Spain don't have central heating, but my family's apartment building does! Everyone is really jealous, haha. AND what's more, they just got internet, I think just because I am here... I tried to tell them it wasn't necessary but I don't think they understood what I was trying to say. They've also been really helpful as far as showing me around the city goes. The first night I was here mi madre walked me to my school and showed me important places in Granada, and therefore I have yet to get lost! Almost everynight after dinner the whole family watches TV together. I usually join them, even though I obviously don't understand the shows. I really do feel at home here in their apartment. I added some pictures of my room which is a little messy, but I'm sure no ones surprised. I do make my bed though!

Alhambra Photos

pictures from the Alhambra... upper right is a sideways view of the Alcabaza, a really old fortress (I felt like I was in Lord of the Rings... heh), upper left is Generalife, which is basicially a large garden with alot of pavilions, and it was beautiful even in January! The lower left is a picture from the Palacio de Charles V, and lower right is a view of Granada from the Alhambra.