More of what I meant to say in the last entry

I have been consistently promising more than I deliver with the titles, so I kept this one purposefully vague. Last night, my friends and I were determined to stay out past 1 as to not concern our host families with our lack of social lives and so, despite the fact that we were all exhausted from our trip to the mountains, we hung out at a bar and had tapas for a few hours. Strange thing about Spanish culture is that, at about 11:30, several families with babies entered the bar and I'm pretty sure that we were the only ones looking at them strangely. At around midnight, we transfered to a cafe (which, strangely enough, was not only open at midnight, but also filled with people, very few of which were under 60), and had churros with chocolate, which were literally steaming hot churros with 2 full mugs of melted chocolate. Kind of like churro fondu? Delicious.

Today, I slept in for the first time since arriving, but my host mother slept in later (until 11:30). I guess that is how they can stay out all night. I accompanied my two catholic friends to a catholic mass at the cathedral I always walk past (not the one in the photo I posted before... I was mistaken. That is a different church I often pass), just to see what it looked like on the inside. It is quite stunning, in the manner that many European churches are stunning. Sometime I'll return and take pictures there as well. The most interesting thing that happened this morning, however, was not the church service, but rather the walk there. One block away from my house, the guy who was walking several feet in front of me fell back and introduced himself to me, and then proceeded to walk with me all the way to the cathedral. He was very friendly... perhaps a little too much so. Within that 10 minute walk, he told me I was beautiful, asked if I was single, invited me out to coffee, invited me on a tour of Granada, and invited himself to accompany me to Italy. Though he was quite guapo, I was a little relieved when my friends were on time and met me at the cathedral, giving me an excuse to slip away.

Later this afternoon, I went on another walk around Granada and made my first non-food-or-drink-related purchase--a scarf, of course. Not to bombard you with too many pictures, but here are some (most) of the ones I took on that walk.

Above: a random church. There are quite a few of those. Below: pretty building with reflective windows?

And this (below) is a photo I took from near the IES building (which has the best view ever from the balcony that I'll have to capture at some point). There is a "river" along side this street, but at the moment it is definitely a stream, if that.

 Chimneys... and mountains.

 Pretty houses...

This is the steepest street ever... Those are stairs, but they are slanted, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

 And we're still climbing. We've done so much of that the last two days...

 And the street we just climbed up from the top... Or near the top. No, actually, it went on for quite a while longer, now that I think about that. Scrap that. Street we just climbed from half way up.

 And basically the same picture from slightly higher up...

 Just some random shots of Granada (whoa, I just wrote "Grinnell" there and had to go back and change that. This is so far from Grinnell it's ridiculous to think my brain could have even jumped there).

So there we are. I am all caught up on my pictures/ stories about what has happened so far. Everything else is relatively boring, so I'll skip those details. Miss you all.

La Alpujarra and maybe (if I get to it) what has happened since...

As a warning, this blog may be slightly (*under-exaggeration*) disorganized, in part because I am a disorganized person, and also because I am constantly forgetting and remembering things. But I'll try to go generally in a chronological order. Yesterday, we visited La Alpujarra, part of the Sierra Nevada, which was about an hour and a half of a beautiful drive from Granada. Unfortunately, I slept for the majority of it, both ways, so I missed out on some gorgeous scenery. We stopped in two little towns in the mountains, the names of which I have forgotten/never really knew. The two pictures below were taken in the first.

 From the second town, we began our hike, which was considerably more intense than I had expected with such a large group. We had a picnic at the top, which was the first time I felt I had earned my gigantic lunch. Lunches here are always huge... My host family won't believe or listen to me when I insist that I am full. 

Above is a picture taken during out hike. Below is a town we passed through during it. 

 And this is Anna and I (I figured I should include a picture with actual people in it somewhere in here) at the top of our hike up.

Picture of the towns from above:

I have no more pictures for the time being... I must take more now that it is actually sunny out.

Arrival in Spain and a hike in La Alpujarra

After long plane rides and mild luggage and ticket complications, I arrived in Malaga, where we spent the first night and a good part of the second day. Not having slept in many many many hours, I was exhausted, but Malaga was beautiful and, particularly compared with the -20 degree weather we'd been having in Minnesota the week before, quite warm. In the 60s, I believe. 

We went on a tour the first night, after buying cheap, bulky, pay-as-you-go phones that are impossible to text on (I've sent one message, and it took me a good 5 minutes. I miss my other phone). Both of these pictures were taken on that tour. Below is a cathedral in Malaga. 

After our tour, we went out for my first legal drink (a week and a half before my birthday, which seemed like cheating). It also happened to be my first Sangria, which I am starting to like. 

I met my host family in Granada. Enrique, Cristina, Cristina, (yes, a little confusing) and Alba. They are very nice and welcoming, and keep telling me to treat this house like my own and let them know if I need anything, etc... It will be some time, I suspect, before I feel anywhere near comfortable enough to actually treat this house as my own. It would help if I could understand Spanish better. Half the time I have no idea what anyone is saying, which makes it difficult for me to attempt to participate in any conversation, but I'm hoping that that will get better. Truth be told, I'll probably never understand Alba, though. She speaks at about a million miles per hour, and I just smile and nod. She's 6. Cristina, who is 12 (or perhaps 13?), understands a little better that she needs to speak slowly to me. The girls like to hang out with me, and are constantly dragging me off to play Mario with them (and then they make fun of how bad I am at it), play games, or watch tv shows. I have watched more Disney Channel in the past 2 days than I have ever before. At least it is in Spanish. 

And this is the church/cathedral I walk past every day on my way to the IES center. It is enormous. And yes, there are orange trees along side it. Very tempting to pick. 

Yesterday, we went on a tour of Granada. Two tours, actually. The first one, I forgot my camera, unfortunately, because we went to the Carmen of Martires, which was absolutely beautiful. I'll return there some day when it is sunny and take pictures. It's been really rainy this week, but apparently that is not normal... and at least it is warm enough to rain. That's a plus.

This is a shot of the Alhambra from a distance. Haven't been there yet, but apparently I'll go something like 5 times with my Art and Architecture class, so I'm not too worried about that. And below, there's another...

And below, a random selection of pictures from the tour... 

In the couple days I have been here, I have learned to tapear (go out for tapas), which happens at around 9. That is dinner for us. I am still adjusting to the eating schedule. Breakfast early. Second breakfast if you are hungry. Lunch at around 3, and dinner at 9. I came back the first night at 10:30, thinking that was pretty darn late for a school night, and my family asked me why I was back so early. I'll try to be less lame in the future. Tonight, I believe we will be taking it easy, though. I am exhausted from hiking up (and down, but that was not the exhausting part) a mountain. 

Today, we took an trip to La Alpujarra, where we hiked. Pictures for that will come later. It's almost time to tapear.