Semester abroad in Granada

Well folks, a semester just about has gone by. I've noticed that I indeed interject spanish words in my english sometimes, and i just had to go back and rewrite two words while typing here because i subconsciously wrote them in spanish. You think I'm fluent? By no means. Still got tons to learn. I've come to realize that it is tricky to conjugate so many verbs on the spot. In english you don't really have to change the verbs that much- I go, we go you go, its all go. But I continue to love spanish. Love hearing it on the street. In London, I heard a lady speaking spanish in the store and I immediately started talking to her because i recognized her Andalusian accent. Not really a fan of the way they talk in "the south" here, it's really difficult to understand and you don't realize how much more you actually do know of spanish until you leave this region and go north and woah are things clearer. But anyways enough of that here's an update. So last weekend was more a study weekend. Was probably my second full weekend that I stayed in Granada. Got up, ran everyday, ate lunch, did my deberes (Homework) worked on my scrapbook for my culture class that I can't wait to show everyone, the usual. It was pretty nice. Got lots of family time in: Lil Afri got a new High School Musical videogame where you sing the songs into microphones and get graded. Did that with her. She was impressed that I knew all the songs. In english of course. I struggled a bit with the spanish ones. She's a terrible singer in case you wanted to know. Terrible. Juan got a new play station game Xmen. (pronounced "equisman" in spanish english). We played lots of that. We came up with a handshake, have our own meow song we sing. Basically became bffers. (best friends forever). I'm afraid he might be a little too attached. I think one of my favorite nights was the weekend before finals I stayed in and watched the movie School of Rock (in spanish) with my family. I'd never seen it so it was good, and it was such great family bonding. Miguel even brought out the turrón (Typical spanish christmas candy) and Juan snuggled with me on the couch of course Later in the week on Wednesday we went to the movies, Becca, Lil Afri, Juan and I. We saw Megamind. Really cute movie. It was really fun, then afterwards Afri mom found us and we got into the car?!?! (ya I was like Miguel is this your car? and he's like ya, I said i've never seen it before I didn't know you had one, he says ya we don't take it out much). So that was a surprise in itself, then they take us to this very spanishy nice bar where we get three rounds of tapas. (small slice of bread with pork, then meet and ham). It was really cute, we talked about cats for a good hour. And then after that we got back in the car, and i realized we were definitely going in the wrong direction to go back home; turns out they were taking us to another favorite bar of theirs, well they were friends with the owner in the original place years ago. So we walk in and literally every single wall is covered, and i mean covered with religious things: pictures of Virgen Mary, Jesus, Relics, you name it. Although that was a little creepy I will admit it was really cool. So then we got three more rounds of drinks and tapas and they were playing flamenco music and Juan pretended to sing while i played the air guitar, it was just so much fun with the family (Loly, the grandma and Becca's señora were there too). Thursday was the last exam, art history. There's a big joke that the professor loves saying my name and calling on me. He does. He's quite the character. That night we had a huge group dinner with kids and señoras, and our professors were there too. Becca and I realized right then that we really liked our teachers. At the last second of course. The dinner was good, i thought, but it was "fatal" for Loly and the Afri's mostly because that's what mindset they had coming into it because theyve eaten there with the group dinners before and never liked it. Even though, no offense, there was more flavor than what Afri cooks. (that's why I love when Miguel cooks- which he did for my last day here!) That night we all went to our favorite club, this americanized one that over looks the Alhambra will you dance in a screened in porch type thing. It was so much fun, mostly because a lot of our group was there- even Sara and Kim came who aren't big fans of going out at 2 and coming back at 5. I ran into my Canadian friend that night too, which was such a coincidence. Friday, I think we slept in then did some gift buying, and ended up staying in and watching a movie with the plaza girls (sara, kim, and becca). Earlier a few of us girls went caroling to our señoras houses with santa hats, they LOVED it. It was super fun, they all gave us sweets and just thought it was so cute. Saturday was the Sierra Nevada day, and that is a long story in itself. Got up saturday morning to pouring rain, but i trudged on anyways. A couple others said they were going to come, but turns out they just came up to Sierra Nevada to do nothing, they didn't want to ski so I was solo for he day. Which I expected would happen, and wouldn't have bothered me if it was a great day of skiing with the sun shinning. It was not, however. I'd say most definitely the worst weather I've ever skiied in. It was snowing/sleeting at the bottom of the mountain, I took the Gondola up and then was in this cloud of fog wind and snow. Took another chair lift from there, but literally couldn't even see the tips of my skiis in the fog. I tried skiing (turns on I was on more of a beginner trail), I could hear people, see no one really. Ended up just failing over twice from such vertigo and that made me slightly nauseous and I was thinking that this wasn't the best thing i've ever done. Then I found this awesome trail that followed the gondola down, and was outside of the cloud. I was all pumped actually having got a solid run when I got to the bottom of the cute little area so then i decided to just grab something to eat. It had stopped snowing at the bottom so I thought things were looking up. I was soaked head to toe but trying to be optimistic. Well after lunch I came back out to pouring rain, and all the gondolas closed due to severe wind. Sweet. So i got three runs, but basically only one. So then i try to figure out all in spanish if i can get redeemed for my ticket, no. (Earlier I had to figure out where the lost and found was to see if maybe i could pretend to have lost some goggles so i didn't have to buy some and i was redirected twice. so much chaos and spanish). So anyhow i had to wait 2 hours until the next bus so I meandered around, took this chair lift that brings u to another part of the little condos and then walked back down to kill time. Didn't want to sit in a restaurant by myself (because there are no lodges) and have to order something and the weather was horrible so I sat in the handicap bathroom and looked through every single one of my pictures on my camera. That killed time. But ya so then i came back. Wasn't the most successful day but shows that I am stubbornly determined sometimes to do things like ski in the sierra nevada and now i can say i did. Saturday night Becca and I ended up being the only 2 together and we went to a club where we were the only non spanish people. Supposedly this club used to have more americans but i think they all already left. It was just so appropriate that we went just to be like yup okay don't really like Spanish men and techno music, this is good we can go back home now. It was really fun though but so much work to go out especially so late. When we left at 4:30 the line was still out the door to get in. So we got back at 5am (which is "early") and Afri mom had just gotten home too because she was at a friends birthday party at a bar. And Miguel was up too, and so was Juan because he had just gotten him from where he was sleeping at Loly's so he could sleep in the next morning. So I come home at 5am, and everyone is up. Not up for the day, going to bed. That is Spain for you. Afri-mom was tipsy and it was so funny wow I was like I love my family. Sunday Becca and I went to this Church thing that loly and lilafri had, which was boring (they showed a 45 min vid of interviews of how their church and faith has changed them) but it was a good thing to do. Miguel cooked both lunch and dinner, had the last supper with the fam, played some videojuegos con Juan and he helped me pack. Actually more like he was in my suitcase while i was packing. Literally. And ya, did my favorite run loop one last time and now i'm out. See you all in America thanks for being interested enough in my life to read.
I would highly suggest going to Granada if you ever get the chance.
Besos

So Thursday we were off to Geneva, Switzerland. Also known as Ginebra in Spanish or Genevé in French. Yes FRENCH! A whole week of French. What a remarkable thing. Not understanding anything. Actually that's a lie, I surprisingly understood a fair amount of french when i had to buy things, mostly because I'm very good at reading body language and gestures and usually could guess what they would probably be saying to me. A few times I'd say Bonjour J'voudre un crêpe avec nutella y banane , which is like french-spanish, but then theyd start talking to me in french and id just stare at them blankly until they asked me if i spoke french. The french answer would me Je no parle pa frances or something like that. WOAH i'm soo fluenttt. Ya I had a little cheat sheet were i wrote down key french phrases but I basically know them all now which is cool. I love France! And Switzerland, which is basically France too because theyre so close!
SOO the Eric and Mrs. Brandolini picked us up at the airport Thursday night. There was so much snow on the ground! I guess that is really rare because normally it just rains and snows in the mountains 1/4 mile away. We followed lake Geneva to this little "village" (not town, they say that they were corrected, that a town is bigger than a village) where their house was at. The roads weren't that good because apparently the Swiss don't believe in paving all the way to the pavement because that will ruin the roads. What? Ya. The swiss also have all these rules like about cutting your bushes and no noise after 5 pm and no yardwork/noise on sundays and everything is closed. And they use the swiss franc. Lame switzerland. But it was SOO beautiful; the Brandolinis live right next to grape vineyards and then you can see mountains on all sides, some of which are in France. That night we had lasagna, thank you mrs. brandolin! The next day Mrs. Brandolini took us into France we went to the quaint town of Annecy which might have the future winter olympics there, that'd be cool. They had a Christmas market and it was snowing and man it was so great to get into the Christmas spirit that is seriously laking in Granada (as i write this it 60 degrees, so nice, but so not xmassy). We walked around, and grabbed some croque monsiers to eat (the French version of open faced grilled cheese) and then headed back to meet up with Eric when he was done with school then Eric, Becca and I took the 10 minute train into Geneva to see that city. It was FREEZING. We saw the United Nations and the worlds longest bench and the city of Geneva, that was cool. So freakin cold though, it was a cold shock to my body and once again I remembered how my hands have no circulation in them. When we came back we had authentic Swiss dinner with sausage and then baby potatoes that u put a slice of cheese under this special broiler contraption to sizzle it and slide it over the potatoes. Pretty tasty. On Saturday we got up early and headed for Chamonix, France. Mr. Brandolini, Eric and I went skiing on one of the Mount Blanc peaks for the morning and we were going to go to another peak about half day, but when we got there it wasn't open so we decided to head into the town of Chamonix to find Mrs. Brandolini and Becca. The view of the mountains were breath taking. First of all we had to take like 2 chair lifts and a gondola to get to the top of this peak we were skiing at, which just says it all. It wasnt that big though, the difference skiing here was that each peak has a handful of trails off of it and then you can go down and drive over to the next peak a few minutes away and ski there too but most of them aren't connected. And theres no lodges, which is so nice when your freezing cold and want to eat your lunch you packed, they have restaurants though that you can get something in and sit down. It seemed as if they had groomed some and then it snowed more so there was a few inches of powder on top of that which by mid day was starting to get pushed around into little moguls so the conditions weren't that great as Mr. Brandolini was saying. But it was still amazing. I would look across and see this beautiful huge mountains and everywhere i looked was white because we were above the tree line. So different. I was dying a little bit to keep up though. Mrs. Brandolini's boots that i was using, I don't kno if she has any calves because they were so tight around my calves and were angled so i constantly felt like i was squatting, and sometimes we would take a gondola that u had to stand in so there was no relief to sit down between runs. My god it was intense, and my legs were shaking, and it was freezing but my back was sweating from the burn in my legs. The runs were really long too. I just couldn't get over how I was skiing though. It went by really fast, feels like a dream now. Such a great experience. The town of Chamonix is precious. So quaint and the sun was glistening on the snow. Perfect freakin day. My life is great. We went back and had PULLED PORK sandwiches!!!! LOVE it so much, best four days of food, especially compared to Spain. Then on Sunday was a Switzerland day. We went to Gruyere where Gruyere cheese comes from, saw that factory and the cheese, got a little bit. Decadent cheese. Went up to the castle thats on the hillside. So beautiful but I definitely want to go back in the summer when everything is green! THEN comes the best part in the world. We went to the Cailler chocolate factory. Picture Willy Wonka not on drugs. We took the tour which was super cool and talked about the history of chocolate, then we got to this room with HUGE bags of cocoa beans from around the world and then huge bags of roasted almonds and hazelnuts that you could just eat! I was LOVING IT. Mr. Brandolini and i kept going back for handfuls. My kind of guy right there. Then we watched the making of this little chocolate nugget thingys that Cailler is famous for and at the end we got to take as many as we wanted. But wait it gets better. Then we went to this room where u did a little square around counters that had all their types of chocolate presented so neatly and you could try as many as you wanted. Unlimited chocolate. I was not even a huge candy chocolate eater before I came to Spain, but now.... I tried just about everything. We were dying a little bit at the end, i needed milk so bad and the back of my throat burned from the sugar. so awesome though. After that we went to another city that is between two mountains and somehow has this weather bubble so that it has palm trees, but they were covered in snow because it was snowing. It was right on lake Geneva and had this huge Christmas market and it was really nice. We went home after that and had the classic swiss fondue with bread and meats. Delicious. We watched a lot of ski racing on t.v. too. Ask Becca, she knows so much about ski racing now. Eric was telling me about his FIS races and how he races against Olympians. He says he comes in last but still. To freakin amazing. What a great time.
Monday morning we packed up and headed towards PARIS. I figured out how to get to our hostel which I was proud of and how to navigate all of Paris. Becca and i went to the Louvre which is HUGEEE. Just that museum is practically the size of Granada. We went to the Eiffel tower too and then walked to Notre Dame which is a 50 min or so walk and half of that is just walking the length of the Louvre. We were cracking ourselves up saying that our new favorite phrase was instead of saying have you been working out to say "have you been walking the Louvre?!" Notre Dame was pretty cool with its Christmas tree in front, wish we could've gone inside though. We walked around the Latin quarter after that which has food from all over, lots of Greek and Italian places. That night Sara and Kimberly got there, and it was great because the 4 of us had our own room at probably the cheapest rate in Paris. On tuesday we did the New Europe free walking tour. It was snowing. and i mean snowing. Very much, but our tour group trudged on. We ate at a restaurant with part of our tour after that and Becca and I got french soup with cheese and croutons, really good. There was also a Christmas market in Paris which we got many crêpes from. Had 2 crêpes a day. Not enough. On wednesday morning we went to sacre cour, which is this big church on the hillside and is surrounded by the older Paris. Loved the quaint smaller streets. Thats more what i pictured Paris like. Can't wait to go back to France again. Ya and after that it was time to leave to come back to warm Granada.
Now we have a paper or project for every class thats due next week when we have our finals. Ew. So much work to do this weekend. Today we went to García Lorca's house who is a famous Spanish poet that lived in Granada. He wrote Blood Weddings (Bodas de Sangre) which we had to read for one of our classes. That was pretty interesting. And tomorrow we're going to Sacremonte again to see something else. Yup so even though Granada is the size of the Louvre there is still stuff to see before we leave.
Wow I'm shocked I just wrote all that, have fun reading it all. I'm also shocked its been a solid 20 minutes since i've seen my bestie Juan. He normally pops in every 5 minutes or so. Haha what a keeper.

oh p.s. mom just wait till i bring home all my clothes to be washed. Thats everything. because my clothes wreak of smoke. Ya i never mentioned that but my spanish parents smoke. Fun times.

Okay so wow haven't written in a really long time, just have been really busy. So last I left off was- distracted by Juan this is so typical he comes in my room all the time now to ask me when I'm free to play. The answer to the question of have a found a spanish boy is yes. he is 8 years old and think he can fit into my suitcase and come home with me practically. Anyways so lets see Annie Megson and Becca's brother Greg were here two weeks ago, unfortunately it was really rainy when they were here. Of course the only time it decides to rain is the one time we're trying to show off our city. We went to the caves of sacremonte were indigenous granadians used to live in caves in the mountains which is always at a moderate temperature. It was interesting. We also went to the Alhambra again and showed them around and on that thursday was thanksgiving. We went to this restaurant up on the Albaicín hillside and had squash soup then they brought out this huge roasted turkey to show us because the restaurant was so proud of themselves beccause NO ONE eats turkey here. yum turkey. No pumpkin pie but hey i'm in Spain i had to deal. It was definitely an interesting Thanksgiving because it was dinner with a Flamenco show. How many times do you watch Flamenco on thanksgiving? Then on friday they had a flight to Madrid, Becca and I took a bus to meet them there. We got really our first glimpse of Christmas spirit with the lights in all the streets. We went to the Prado and Reina Sofia Museum again (my 4th time, how many people can say that?!) and I navigated Madrid without a single map that's how well I know it now. Our hostel we were staying at was a room with 10 beds so we had some guests who went to bed really early so we had to get ready in the hall/bathroom to go to the club Kapital (7 floor club). Take notice Sarah lipes that i actually made it to all the floors this time. Annie and Greg had a good time I think and it was sad to say bye to them the next morning. But that Saturday Becca and I parted ways, she went with her high school exchange family while I went with our spanish family friends the Gutierez Family. It was great to see them, but man did I speak a lot of spanish! Julia and her mom and I rode bikes around this huge park it was cute then we went back for lunch that they maid had prepared with apple crisp for dessert! So yummy, except it couldve used some ice cream which i haven't had in over a month!!! unbelievable. I tried to explain to them that i make my apple crisp with oats but oats don't even exist in Spain so it was difficult so explain something that has basically no spanish word. That night I went with Laura who is my age to her friends house for dinner. The apartment was very classy, and there was about 15 spanish guys and gals my age and everyone brought a little something so it was this spanish feast. I met everyone with two kisses, they were all really nice, very chatty. I'm pretty sure one girl was the fastest talker in the world. Surprisingly i understood most everything that was going on and it was really fun. I was really exhausted though due to my little sleep so around 1 am (which is early for them) we went back. That night however I woke up numerous times feeling like i was going to vomit. I swear its the spanish mystery meats (their sausages). Ya so when I woke up in the morning I was feverish and stuff, Heleana was concerned, I'm really glad it was there actually because I feel like if i was back in granada somebody would have been in the bathroom when i thought i was going to throw up. Anyways i was feeling a little better so I packed up and headed on the 5 hour bus ride back to granada. That night Becca and I went to lil Afri and Loly (grandma)'s church concert. It was actually pretty good. They were in the choir, which was pretty bad (well just not that impressive) but the orchestra and this one german woman sang but she sang all these songs in english so becca and i were like sweet, thanks.
So ya then the next week was our last week of classes, so strange! Wednesday night, however Becca and I were back on the road, or shall i say plane heading for Madrid again. We spent that night at Lucia's house (my high school spanish exchange student). Lots more spanish talking there. The next morning we had breakfast with Quemille, my friend that I met in Granada that lives in California, she now is in Madrid so we met up as a last time thing, then met up with Lucia again before we headed to the airport to go to SWITZERLAND!
I'll end this blog there and start another one just for kicks.

Hello again, lets see where to begin. Last wednesday sara and i did this bike tour (that was ranked medium) it was pretty hard on the way up, cause we were climbing the mountain behind the Alhambra, but it was so cool becasue we were in the heart of the hustle and bustle then next think I know we're biking through olive tree orchards and its peaceful and quiet but we can see the whole city. It was rainy slightly but i was sweating so much, really good work out, then the three boys and one girl (all from germany or finland or someplace way cooler) came with sara and i to get crepes. One guy was cute, shouldve gotten his number...but i was distracted about getting back because we have so much freakin homework and essays and crap now a days. I actually had to finish a essay in london. It was pretty funny cause we came back to the friends room and i had ten minutes to finish it and submit it before we went to harry potter. yes so that brings me to london. AWESOME. Sara and i stayed with one of her friends who, shocker, lives in glastonbury, or at least just moved there last year. She was super sweet, really hospitable, and we got the extra room in the apartment dorm that nobody moved into. Sara's friend from Italy also came and was staying with us too, and then sara's old roommate from uconn lives in London now so she was basically our tourguide for the weekend. Friday we did a free walking tour in the morning of buckingham palace, and lots of places in westminster it was sooo awesome. Every building has the prettiest architecture, everything is so old. I loved every moment of it. We saw the big ben, which is actually the nick name of the bell, not the clock tower because it resembled a fat man incharge of the construction of it named ben. And ya then we went to Borough market, and went to harry potter that night. Best day ever. It was sunny too! Saturday we went to a diner i actually got some eggs and pancakes and maple syrup it was super exciting! We went to all the rest of the main attractions, picidilly circle, and chinatown and another market, there were cool vintage stores and ahh it was awesome, so lively, so big. Granada is a baby town compared to London. And every spoke in english, we would forget that, sara and i would think we could talk about people on the bus because they didn't understand, and would say sorry and little things like that in spanish when we bumped into people. LOVE the british accents. LOVE. I'm upset i didn't find a husband. Sunday we got tea and scones with jam and curdled cream or something i forget what they call it. So good. We went to Hyde park, HUGE. I wish granada had some grass. That's okay though because its awesome- Annie Megson and Greg Parkhurst are visiting Becca now and they love it, and its really fun having them here it just sucks that we have a lot of work. Yes so at Hyde park they had this winter wonderland carnival and my goodness it was so exciting! It started to fell christmasy because it was so cold, but then i came back to granada and was like nope, nothing. Although they'll be turning on the decorative street lights next week or so. So tomorrow i have my first test in art history, its practically the end november, he kept pushing it back, but theres a lot to know. I can tell you all the parts of a mosque in spanish, don't know what you call them in english though. Right now i'm about to leave to go to my cooking class I'm taking here. Super funnnnn

os echo de menos.

mind the gap. mind your step. mind everything is all you here in london.

Well well well lets see where I have left off. I believe it was last wednesday. We had class, the usual, then got lunch at this vegetarian place that i really like called el-piano where i want to take cooking classes from, thennnn we went to the Arab baths! Awesome. Basically they have a tea room, then a cold bath, a warm bath, then a hot bath and steam room (and by bath i mean pool). And you also get 15 minute oil massages. Awww living the life my friends. Not only was it relaxing but thanks to my art history class I was able to identify all the arabic structure so therefore it was highly educational. Yes. Then we went to a tetería (arabic tea place), dined on some tea. It was a super da duper day. Then thursday afternoon we headed off to Barcelona! Yay baby. We took the plane, then got to our hotel that was right next to the Sagrada Famila. (If you don't kno what that is google it, so hard to describe, really unique cathedral designed by Gaudí and is still being built). Friday during morning we went to what becca calls the "epcot of spain" (ya kno epcot where's theres every country represented) ya well this had every style of houses from every region of spain, it was cool to walk through. We obviously loved the andalucia part (the region where Granada is) cause it just felt homey. (yes we refer to Granada as home now its pretty great). We had lunch at a restaurant there, and had tradition Catalan toast (Barcelona is in the north east region of Cataluña, which actually has a different language called Catalan, similar, yet different enough from spanish), which is basically toast, garlic, tomatoes, and (surprise surprise) oil. The second half of the day we went to this not so interesting museum. We then did a gondola ride (i felt like it was ski season) and wen to this castle that overlooked the city and the ocean it was a really pretty view with the sun setting. The next day was Becca's birthday, and we really got to see Barcelona with a walking tourguide. We got to walk down this street called Ramblas which has lots of shop booths and then has this market- it was pure mayhem, a market super colorful lined with fruits and veggies (i tried cactus fruit, similar to a kiwi but hot pink) and meats being cut in front of you with the blood splattering everywhere (no exaggeration). It was super crowded and you have to be careful of pick-picketers but i loved it! If i lived in that city thats where id do my grocery shopping. We then walked to the beach and walked a little on the board walk. With no jackets, mind you, in november. Jealous? We then went to a Gaudí inspired house that looked like it should be in the little mermaids underwater world. Such cool architecture. Then the girls went out to becca's birthday dinner, then everyone was doing something or was tired so it ended up being just becca and i going out to the club for her birthday. We got in for free because it was girls free before 2 am and we got there at 1:55 (yea really late for uconn, really early in the morning still for spain). Of course some Jamaican man finds me and i have to pull the boyfriend card. So many Jamaicans. I don't know where they came from. Also mom you would love spain theres so much smoke it smells so good! (sarcasm). But ya that was fun. The next day (after 4 hours of sleep, and still managing to get up to go running) we went to the sagrada familia, the gaudí cathedral. Gaudí died by getting hit by a tram. That just sucks man. And so theyre trying to finish the cathedral how they thought he wouldve wanted it. Never seen anything like it. The pillars inside of it are designed to look like branches. So freakin cool. Then we ate lunch in the park cause we're cute like that, I got a cookie from starbucks because i'm fat like that (literally i don't understand how these people don't crave sweets), then we went to the Gaudí park the Guell. It has famous colorful architecture. Pretty nifty. Then we caught our flight back to Granada which we basically crash landed after a super bumpy ride. But i'm alive. Home again home again jiggity jig.

I wish whoever reads this a marvelous day.

3 days until london for my man harry potter