Time for a long-overdue entry (now that I've finally figured out my internet situation *hopefully*).

Long time no see! Sorry about that. I've been having some technical difficulties. But now, to catch you up on everything that has happened in the two weeks between the Sevilla/Ronda trip and today...

Where to start? I've forgotten completely about when/ in what order these things occurred, so my attempts at organizing chronologically are going out the window. You may remember that I was going out one night to watch the Super Bowl with some friends at an Irish pub. Well, let me tell you just how much of the Super Bowl we ended up watching. The first kick. And that was it. Just the kick, not even how that play turned out. Turns out I am not all that interested in football (of the American sort). Who knew?

It may have been earlier that day, or it may have been the next weekend, but at some point, I ended up going back up to Sacromonte for a festival which involved free food and flamenco dancing. It was a beautiful day, sunny and ridiculously warm (I keep forgetting it is February), but easily the most memorable part of the festival was the free food... which was not quite what I had been expecting. We waited in line for a good half hour to receive a bag which contained no more or less than a piece of salted fish, a chunk of bread, and a bunch of giant beans. It was easily the strangest goody bag that I have ever seen....

Above: my festival companions with their bags of large beans...

Below, another shot of Sacromonte, because it is pretty.

Somewhere in there I discovered that Truffle gelato (from Rey Fernando) is the best food in the world, and that somehow, dark chocolate and banana crepes are too. As are Spanish oranges. Soooooooo juicy and sweet! I literally can't get enough of those; I've never had such delicious fruit. I've gotten into a habit of buying one basically every single day. They're giant too, and very very messy but, as they say in Spain, vale la pena (it's worth it). 

There is a pet store on the corner of my street that I pass many times every day, and always has puppies in the window. It is the best thing ever. I stop and watch them every time I pass... So adorable. And while I'm on the topic of random things I see in Granada (gosh darn it, I did it again. Wrote "Grinnell" instead of "Granada"... the words are too similar. I accidentally told someone I went to Granada when they asked what school I attended the other day...) there are these outdoor gym sort of things here that are the strangest thing ever... Picture below. 

So basically there are treadmills and weight machines and such that are made out of playground-style material and are in parks... Kind of like playgrounds for adults? Very odd. 

I've been taking a lot of walks these last two weeks, as the weather has been really nice, and I took my camera on a couple of them. Pictures from the first:

 Happy tree!

Granada has many many many fountains, which are lit up at night, and very beautiful.

And a long time ago, I promised to take pictures from the balcony of the IES building... Unfortunately, I could not figure out how to open the door (doors have been such a problem for me in Spain...), so a picture through the window is all I can deliver for the time being.

The Albaicin is one of my favorite areas of Granada, and one of the most beautiful, in my opinion. Rather than try to describe it, I'll let the pictures do the work. These are from my walk there on Friday.

(The Alhambra and mountains behind it--framed by palm tree leaves...)

With the combination of beautiful houses, really narrow streets, and spectacular views, the Albaicin has become my favorite place to walk when I have an hour to spare. My other favorite activity is window shopping, because there are a ridiculous number of clothes, shoes, and every other thing imaginable stores in the city. It is like being in a perpetual shopping mall, which I could see becoming a bit of a problem.

I started my classes two weeks ago. Flamenco is easily my favorite. It feels a bit like yoga at times, but when we have to combine twirling hands with footwork, I become a lost cause. Hopefully my coordination improves a little, because I the woman we met at an intercambio bar (where you can go to speak English, Spanish, whatever, with people of different nationalities) suggested that I make a living dancing flamenco in Japan (apparently its very popular there?). So that's my new life plan. 

Last weekend, I went to my host family's apartment sort of thing on the beach, which was fun though I was basically a babysitter that weekend. I ended up with Alba, Cristina, and two other random kids, supervising as they all rollerbladed and running back and forth as they held on to my arms. Also, I climbed on rocks with Alba (I was feeling a little nostalgic for the north shore sort of climbing and running about on rocks), but she was absolutely ridiculous, and would not jump even the smallest little distances from rock to rock. Instead, she would put her foot like half way off the rock to take a small step, which was infinitely more dangerous, and resulted once in her sandal falling through the rocks, and I had to squeeze down between them to try to get it out with my foot. Apart from that and the seafood, it was really fun, however. My host family asked me what kind of food I liked, and I responded, not thinking anything would come of it, that I liked Chinese food. The next day, they made a reservation at a Chinese restaurant for lunch. They have been very sweet in general to me. Enrique told me today that if I ever felt sick or anything when I was out at night with my friends, that I should just call him and he would come get me. And when I said I didn't know what some melon fruit was, he bought one so I could try it. I'm going to try to be more talkative around them. It's hard to small-talk in Spanish. 

The only other thing I can think of is that today, I went to a cooking class at one of my favorite restaurants here (El Piano--all vegan and ethnic food), and learned how to make really delicious Indian food. Spain seems like a strange place to learn that, but it is too late to ponder such things.

Now, to power through the Ronda trip...

If I were to sum up Ronda in one word, it would be beautiful. Or perhaps "awe-inspiring"? Awesome, mind-blowing, really really cool (chulo! I have been learning to use that word this week. Been using it a lot with my host sisters. They'll show me something, like some heart necklace or whatever, and my consistent response has been: "¡Que chulo!" Unfortunately, I got a little mixed up with that and "cholo," due to the song "Lean Like a Cholo"... still don't quite understand what that means). Anyway, the point is that it was really incredible, though I doubt that, as always, my slanted pictures will do it justice. At least there won't be any ceiling pictures in this bunch. That's got to count for something. 


I've come up with 12 pictures of just Ronda landscape alone that I wanted to put up, so I'll try to narrow it down a little. That would take forever to load. I'll weed out some of the most slanted ones...

 It was so beautiful that, in my feeble attempt to make my pictures look just as beautiful, I am going to make them GIANT. Ronda! I think I could live there.

 I am attempting to add more pictures with people in it. Anna, Lily, and Paloma for you. Standing on the bridge that is right below. Ronda is divided in two parts, that are situated on these cliffs, and are connected by this giant bridge. It's really really huge... And yes, it was actually necessary this time to slant the picture to get the angle I wanted. Below, there's a river. And apparently they used to keep criminals in the bridge, where the door is... It was basically impossible to escape for obvious reasons.

And another picture with people! With me in it... but please don't look too closely. It's an awful picture of me. It was really sunny...

 And now, for the landscape photos! It was truly breathtakingly beautiful. I wonder if the people who live there ever get used to the view. I don't think I ever could. It would be a shock to the senses every time you looked outside.

And I know this is a strange thing to throw in, but it reminded me of Grinnell in the spring. It's already spring here, in a way.

In Ronda, we also visited a Bull Fighting ring. No actual bull fighting going on, for which I was very grateful. I'm not sure I could handle watching a bull fight... Actually, I'm pretty sure I could not. But the ring was cool.

Next stop was the Arab baths, which were, quite frankly, freezing, because they were underground, but otherwise very cool. Hearing about them made me want to go to one... particularly the room with hot water. Still craving long, relaxing, hot showers.

 And a ceiling picture! Just for good measure. And because there are flower windows on the ceiling...

That's all for the Ronda trip. I've got a list of other things to write about, as I am already more than a week behind, but I'll write about that tomorrow.

Cathedral visit and a quick summary of the rest of the Sevilla day

So next, we toured the cathedral, which was massive and extremely intricate. And cold. Since pictures are worth a thousand words, and I only have a couple minutes, I'll let them speak for themselves for the most part.

Basically just really huge and beautiful. The ceilings particularly, in my opinion. Evidence of my ceiling bias is piling up. Another ceiling below...

We climbed up the tower of the cathedral (not as hard as I was expecting), which had a very rewarding view of Sevilla (and of the rest of the cathedral).

 As for the rest of the day, we walked around a little bit (which left me wanting to return to explore the city more thoroughly), went out to dinner (actual dinner, not tapas, which was nice for a change...), and went to a flamenco performance. The flamenco performance was quite interesting (and intimidating... I am in a Flamenco class this semester, and there is no way my feet can move anywhere near as fast as theirs were moving). Oh yes, and somewhere in there, I ate the most delicious (and quite easily, the messiest) pastry ever... Chocolate everywhere. After having a small amount of difficulty finding our hotel again, we finally settled in for the night and took reaaaaaallllllyyyyyyy long showers. It's something I've been missing.

The next day we headed off to Ronda, and pictures/brief descriptions of that will come next time! Today, I am off to my host family's house on the beach? We'll see how that goes down.

Rest (maybe) of the day in Sevilla

It's been a while... Let's see if I can remember anything at all. After touring the palace, we ate our picnics (which was very large in my case... Another example of Enrique thinking I don't eat enough or something. He packed two full sandwiches (together, a full loaf of bread), two bananas, about 10 cookies, 2 orange juices, and a Coke. Enough to feed several people for several days, basically). It was one of those very surreal moments, eating my ham (what else?) sandwich next to the giant cathedral and soaking in the sunshine. This place has completely screwed up my concept of seasons. Once in a while, I stop and remind myself: this is February. Why am I taking off my coat? Where did this sun come from? Where's the snow? Very befuddling questions. 

This was more or less the view from where I was sitting.

This one includes a little more of the cathedral. It's pretty darn massive.

Somewhere in there, I tried, and failed, to outsmart the ATM into giving me smaller bills. They've been giving me 20 and 50 euro bills, which are very inconvenient when you are trying to pay for 2 or 3 euro drinks, pastries, etc. 

My thought process went something like this:

"If I ask for 40 euros, then I will end up with two 20 euro bills, but what I really want is a 10 euro bill, so if I ask for 50, then I'll get one of those too! There's no way they can give me only 20 euro bills."

Ah, so smart. A genius.

Of course, I WAS right about one thing: there was no way I could only get 20 euro bills. Unfortunately, I had completely forgotten about the 50 euro ones. 

There are few times in my life I have felt so stupid.

Oh, and I am out of time once again. How does this keep happening? Look forward to touring the cathedral next time. I don't think I can promise more than that. 

PS. Guess who has THREE 10 euro bills in her wallet at this very moment? Yeah, that's right. Take that, stupid ATM machine.

Sevilla and Ronda (if I am lucky/efficient)

On Friday, I woke up at 6:30 (an ungodly hour in Spain) and speed-walked to catch my bus at 7:45 (though it didn't come until at least a half hour later... I could have taken a much more leisurely stroll), which took us to Sevilla. Sevilla was warm. Wonderfully, beautifully, amazingly warm. And sunny. I spent a good amount of time basking in the gloriousness of warm, sunny weather in early February. Our first stop upon arriving there was a palace which, according to Google, was called the Alcázar Palace. I learned a great deal about the palace from our tour guide professor, but the main point was that it was a blend of Muslim and Christian traditions and architecture and leaders that made the palace what it was. 

And now, to bombard you with pictures! (I noticed in retrospect that the majority of my pictures are taken at some sort of slant. Apparently I have issues with that. Sorry in advance.)

It was really beautiful... I don't have a whole lot to say about it besides that. This whole two day trip was sort of a beautiful-sights overload.

The interior... Very elaborate designs. A little overwhelming to the senses, though the pictures don't really capture that aspect of the experience.

 

The next two were taken in a courtyard garden sort of area... 

It could be that I've developed some sort of ceiling obsession that I was previously unaware of, or that the ceilings in Europe are just beautiful, because I find myself taking quite a few pictures of them... 

The best part of this palace? They have peacocks in the garden.

And fountains... The garden was absolutely beautiful. I decided at that moment that I wanted to live there, and I stand by that decision.

In terms of living up to, or not, the titles of my blog, this was an epic fail. The most epic of fails yet. I have made it up to about 3:00 on Friday afternoon, and it is now Sunday night. Lo siento. 

Now, it is time to go out to an Irish pub and watch some futbol (of the Spanish sort) and then some football (aka the Superbowl). Does it matter that it is a school night and the game doesn't start until 1 in the morning? Not at all. 

It has been roughly a week since I last wrote...

Therefore I have not the slightest idea where to start. For the most part, this week was fairly uneventful--as in, it followed roughly the pattern of the week before: wake up, eat giant breakfast, go to class, not understand anything the professor says, go back to house for even more giant lunch, insist over and over that I am very very full but lose that battle anyway, hang out with younger Cristina and Alba or wander around town, meet up with friends for dinner/tapas/some sort of food, return to house and sometimes watch soap operas with older Cristina (during which very few words are exchanged... she is usually working on something, and I concentrate on understanding what is going on... There's some crazy plots there. Monday night is "El barco" ("The Ship/Boat"), which is, as the title suggests, about some people on a boat. Something happens and the whole world ends up underwater, except them (and maybe other people on other ships?). They try to deal).

Anyway, besides that, there have been a few noteworthy occurrences... Enrique tries to speak English sometimes, which is exciting. He taught his daughters the expression: "Oh my God," which he learned from Friends. Later, he had younger Cristina tell me, "See you later, Alligator," and then waited for the reply. I had to to rack my brain, but I finally came up with: "In a while, Crocodile," which may or may not have been the correct answer. It's been a while.

Wednesday night, we went on a tour of Sacromonte (part of Granada, in which are located the caves in which the gypsies (an now many hippies) live/lived). I'll put up some of the pictures of that, and then I am off to bed. It's been a long day.

First, some very cool place we visited on the way... I have no idea where/what it is, though. I should pay more attention during the tours. Below is another picture from the same garden.

After visiting this garden, or whatever it was, we climbed up to Sacromonte (it's on a hill). This picture was taken on the way up, and was more or less representative of what it looked like.

 And then there was this house. I've seen this several times, but never to that extent. It was covered with decorative bowls and plates, something I could never imagine seeing in the US.

On the way down, the sun was beginning to set, which was very beautiful.

 Yet another picture of a setting sun behind Granada... There's a little bit of the Alhambra in the left edge.

 

Here's a more comprehensive picture of the Alhambra. I should be visiting it about 5 times with my Art and Architecture class, so pictures of the inside will come then.

That's all for tonight... Pictures and tales from Sevilla and Ronda (where I've been the last two days) will come later, perhaps tomorrow. I have roughly 200 pictures from that trip, so be prepared to be bombarded. Buenas noches.