My (temporary) Home!

Have I not shown you where I've been living?! Ooops... guess I'm a slacker!

My room!

Desk.. everyone loved my computer cover haha

Other view from my room.. not too spacious but definitely homey

LOOK HOW ORGANIZED I AM MOM!

The cute little kitchen..

My senora would kill me if she knew I put this up because it looks messy but our family room

My bathroom!

Long weekend in Granada.. what else is new!

This weekend Cegri decided to give us a 5 day weekend.  There's a celebration going on in Spain on Monday, so they gave us Tuesday off as well so we could have an even number of classes and not miss one more over the other.  My original plans were to go to Portugal with a big group of people but they decided to drive, cars weren't organized very well and the weather wasn't going to be nice aka I  thought it was a huge waste of money and I'd rather go shopping, I know, my mother's daughter.  I actually was looking into going to Morocco for the weekend with 2 other girls through a tour group. Our plans fell through and thank God they did - Marakesh, a major tourist city in Morocco, was bombed. So glad we decided not to go.

Thursday class ended and one of my friends from U of I, Mike (we call him Figs) was in town for the night on his way to Barcelona.  We met up with him and took him out for tapas, typical.  We tried a new place called 360 where you can choose your own tapa.  We got him in a cab for the train station and Madeline, Karrah, Kelly, Audrey and I continued to tapear since we didn't eat dinner at home. We went to a teteria (hookah and tea bar) to hang out since we didn't plan on going out at first... but of course we changed our mind since we realized we don't have much more time left.  Esteban's (a guy in our program) girlfriend Natalie was in for the weekend so we took her to Camborio.  I think I've told you about Camborio before, it overlooks the Alhambra and is beautiful at night!  It ended up being a lot of fun :)


Friday I woke up early to watch the royal wedding like probably every other girl in the world.  My senora thought I was crazy because I was literally glued to the TV from the moment people started arriving at Westminster until they did they're traditional kiss at Buckingham Palace.  I think the  coolest part of watching it was realizing I was there just a few months ago and I could visualize how everything was set up.  When I visited before I had ZERO clue how they were going to set it up, but it made much more sense seeing it on TV.  The altar they got married at is absolutely gorgeous in real life; TV didn't do it justice.  It was raining literally all day but Madeline and I decided to meet up for a little bit after lunch time.  Other than that I bummed around home, my senora made her own style of tapas for me for dinner and then I relaxed.


Saturday Kelly and I woke up early to meet Meagan at the Mercadillo, a big clothes/food/jewelery market. It was pretty rainy weather so not all the vendors set up and we couldn't find anything we really liked.  We did a little more shopping and then I came home for lunch.  After lunch we went back out to finish our souvenir shopping but of course I couldn't make decisions on anything that I wanted to buy, so frustrating.  At night we got tapas at our favorite place, La Bella y la Bestia.  It has the biggest and best tapas that we've found so far!  The girls' friend Catherine was also in town so I got to meet her there as well!  So many people visiting this weekend it seems like...


Sunday my senora took me to breakfast at our favorite place on the corner by our house.  We both  ordered toasted bread with tomato, oil and salt.  I'll have to make it for breakfast when i get home it's so good!  The sun finally came out so we took a long way home and walked along the river, much farther down than I had ever been.. I need to explore more in this last week I'm here!  Pollen is in high season here and I definitely think I'm allergic.  I couldn't stop sneezing the entire time.. hopefully I don't have the same problem when I get back to the states.  Encarnita also bought a new computer recently so I helped her set it up a little bit, much harder to do in Spanish AND explain to someone who has never touched a computer before.. I told her her best bet would be to read the manual haha.


Monday was more rain, surprise surprise.  Tuesday was a holiday in Granada, Dia de las Cruces, a day to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus (I thought that was Easter.. still don't understand Spaniards!) so everyone in Spain decided to take Monday off of work too.  Kelly and I attempted to go shopping and stuff but clearly that was an epic fail because everything was shut down!  I did buy some of my needed souvenirs though.  In the afternoon we went to our favorite spot once again, Cafe Futbol and got coffee with a bunch of girls and their friend Catherine again.  It didn't just rain that night, it absolutely POURED therefore I stayed in once again.  What a horrible way to finish off my last week in Granada huh?


Tuesday morning Kelly, Meagan and I headed to the famous Catedral.  You'd think after 4 months I would have visited it already.  It's absolutely breath taking inside.. much different than any of the other churches I've seen.  I'll post pictures when I upload them to my computer!  It was also Dia de las Cruces, so we walked around to a bunch of different plazas to see all the displays.  After siesta and my normal nap (I'll miss those being normal..) we decided to go to a new discoteca called Mae West.  WHY haven't we gone there sooner?!  It was an actual Spanish club, they played almost all Spanish music.. SO much fun instead of hearing typical American music everywhere.  We're lucky we got in though, usually they don't let in too many Americasn at one time and we were in a HUGE group.  Guess they were feeling generous.

As for the rest of my week.. I have class Wednesday and Thursday then the weekend and home bright and early on MOnday morning.  It's SO strange to think about going home, but I can' wait to see everyone :) More to come.. :)

Since our experience is coming to an end, the people in my program have been talking about all the memories we've had in Granada and traveling and the things in America we can't wait to get back to (like Mexican food!)  I decided to make my own little list of my top 10 things I'll miss and definitely won't miss upon returning to the states, which may I add is only 10 days away.

The top 10 things I'll miss about Granada and Spain in general:
1. Fresh food.  Between the meat markets, fruit stands, and fresh fish I don't know how I'm going to be able to eat our processed food again.  Everything here just tastes healthier, and it probably actually is.

2. My senora.  Aka my third grandmother for the past 4 months.  I don't think I could have gotten a better host assignment, we just get each other.  And it helped a lot that she reminded me of my Nonny when I was growing up.  Plus her food is legit.

3. Kinder Buenos.  Only the best chocolate candy bar ever.  I gave them up for lent, it was a long 40 days.  I'm trying to bring an entire suitcase of them home so I'll let you try one if I don't eat them all myself first.

4. The "no pasa nada" lifestyle.  Everything is more relaxed here.. "no pasa nada" translates to our "don't worry about it" but its heard much more often here.  Although sometimes this can be frustrating with deadlines and things its a much better way to live than the always-on-the-go American lifestyle.

5. The view.  I'd never seen mountains before I got here, let alone climb one.  Granada has one of the best landscapes with the Sierra Nevadas, Mediterranean Sea and of course the Alhambra looming over everything.  I'll miss waking up and seeing all of this on my way to school, cornfields just aren't the same.

6. Using Spanish everyday.  It's pretty sweet that I can say I'm bilingual and my Spanish has for sure improved since I've been here.  I've caught myself a few times speaking "Spanglish" or forgetting words for certain things in English.. should be an adjustment!

7.  Tapas. Who doesn't love free food?  The idea of tapas is the best thing in the world.  Buy a  drink and we'll give you food.  Plus it's in such a relaxed setting and everywhere you go is good!

8.  Small bakeries.  I know we have these in America too but they're not as prevalent.  Here you can walk down the street and grab a little snack from whichever bakery and no matter what you get it will be delicious.  They're always fresh too!

9. New friends.  We've just become such a family, even with the staff and teachers at Cegri that it will be weird to not be around them everyday.  I'm lucky to have them back in Champaign when I go back to school but it just won't be the same :(

10. New experiences.  There's not one day here that I haven't tried something new or exciting, no matter how big or small.


Although this list was hard to make since I'm going to miss MANY more things than just those, there are some things I will not have trouble leaving behind whatsoever...

1. MY HOST NEPHEW.  I haven't even told you guys half the stories of the things he's done.  Let's just say he hasn't gotten any better since I've been here.  If I'm feeling bored one day maybe I'll enlighten you with all the great things he does each day.. lets keep in mind here that he is 30 yrs old.

2. My Spanish cell phone.  Yes I'm a brat, I want my 3G network and iPhone back.  It will be glued to my hand for probably the next month.

3. Slow moving people.  If you're gonna move like you're walking backwards stay to one side of the street, it's not that hard.

4. Being misunderstood.  Although I can communicate just fine, theres still that small percentage of the time when people have no idea what I'm trying to say or I can't find the right word to describe something important.

5. Being so dependent on my senora.  I'm not complaining whatsoever about her cooking, cleaning and doing my laundry, but there are sometimes when I wish I could do these things for myself.  Ok, well maybe not cleaning.. but if I want something washed, I have to wait until she does laundry I can't just throw in a load.  Or if I want to eat at 1:00 instead of 2:30, I can't because she's the one cooking.

6. Mixture of food.  I will never take for granted all the different types of food that you can get in the US and have it be good.  Let's just say pizza and pasta here aren't the greatest..

7. Taking the bus/walking.  I miss my car and driving from point A to B instead of leaving an extra 30 minutes to walk there.

8. Pigeons. End of story.

9. Not having a Target or super store.  Here in Granada (and in most of Europe) there's no one-stop shop.  If you want meat you go to the carniceria.  If you want a pastry you go to the pasteleria.  There's stores for lights, for electronics, for toiletries, for paper.. never just in one store!

10. The Euro.  WHY is it so strong?!  Things have gotten pretty expensive lately.. when we got here the exchange rate was 1.29, now it's close to 1.5!  I want my US dollars back!

Kari Visits!!

Remember my friend from Norway that I went to visit 2 summers ago?  Well of course we've kept in touch so she decided to come and visit me in Granada for a few days!  She has been studying in Vietnam this past semester (crazy right?) so she decided to stop by Spain on her way home.  It was so nice to see her and catch up but unfortunately I had finals all this week and end of the year stuff to do so I wasn't able to spend as much time with her as we would have hoped :( but she toured a little on her own and was able to enjoy the city.  our other friend Timmy (who is studying in Barcelona that I met up with in Prague) was also visiting for the weekend with his friend Ian so Kari was able to spend time with them as well.


The week was really low key like I said.  I had school and stuff most days and the weather wasn't nice enough for us to do a lot of stuff outside.  Regardless, we hadn't seen each other in almost 2 years so most of the time we enjoyed just sitting in a cafe and talking about everything we needed to catch up on.  She arrived all by herself (without a cell phone!) on Saturday morning bright and early!   People must have thought we were slightly insane when we saw each other, but we made our way back to my house ... my senora offered to let her stay in our spare room which was really nice.  After she unpacked and got settled I took her around the city for a little bit.  We went back home for lunch and my senora made us lentejas (lentil soup) which is a classic dish in Spain so Kari could try it. After lunch we got ready and decided to head to the processions (for semana santa) but since it rained they were canceled.  Instead we went and got tapas and talked a bit.  Later that night we met up with more people in my program and went to Hannigans, typical.


Sunday we both needed a day of studying.  Kari is studying psychology and has final exams when she gets back to Norway in 10 days.  We pretty much spent all morning at a cafe close to my house called Noche y Dia.. the staff there are starting to recognize me I'm pretty sure.  For lunch I took her to Bib Rambla (the famous plaza) and we got a menu del dia so she could try paella.  Of course we went through the moorish markets and did souvenir shopping.  Since it was rainy out we went back to my house and just watched a movie.  Kari bought English movies while she was in Vietnam.  That's the first movie I had seen in 4 months, crazy right.  Timmy arrived that night so we decided to meet him at his hostel. His phone had died, so he gave us the address and we mapped it out.  The walk to his hostel was  supposed to take about 10 minutes from my house, perfect righy?  Wrong.  Kari and I got SO turned  around for some reason since I didn't know the area we were going into very well.  We kept asking people on the streets if they knew of the hostel but since it was so small they had barely heard of it.  Just about to give up hope, a nice couple asked if we needed help and when we told them the hostel name they actually knew where it was!! Thank goodness.  We got Timmy FINALLY and went to Calle Navas to get some tapas.


Monday I had school all morning so Kari and Timmy made plans to do touristy things all day like the Alhambra and Catedral.  I went to class and did my final day of volunteering (wahoo!) with Kelly at the school.  I met back up with them when I got back from the school and we hung out at home until dinner.  My senora made us tortilla espanola so Kari could try it also and surprised us with beers since she knew we were going out.  A bunch of people studying in Vienna, Austria from U of I were in town for the night so we met up with the group (Timmy and Ian came too!) at la chupeteria, the shot bar.  We decided to take them to another bar so we followed Ben, a guy on our program.  There was a guy on the street promoting his bar so Ben decided it would be a good idea to check it out. We got dirty looks as we walked in, everyone in the bar was wearing black and the music sounded like someone was dying a horrible death and screaming.  We turned around immediately and left haha.  The night was overall really fun and I'm glad I got to know the people from Vienna better! :)


Tuesday I again had school.  I left Kari at cafe futbol right by my school and went back to get her after I got done with class.  In that short time she made so many friends at the cafe - they loved her and she doesn't even know how to speak Spanish!  We decided to stay there and get a coffee and were treated like gold haha.  Leave it to Kari!  My senora made us fajitas for lunch (Kari's request) and we went out to shop for a little bit.  We met up with Timmy and Ian for some tapas again and  they hung out while I went to school for my night class.  I had 2 tests on Wednesday, so Kari stayed out with them while I went home and studied (yuck).  I'm definitely glad they were here this weekend because I would have felt so bad having her cooped up in the house with me while I studied!

Wednesday we said our goodbyes.. I had to go to class early and her flight wasn't until the afternoon so she hung out with my senora for a little bit and my senora saw her off to the bus stop to head to Italy to see Kelsey!  I'm glad I got to catch up with Kari, its crazy how much happens in 2 years when you haven't seen someone.  I think she enjoyed my city and Spain in general :)

As far as my plans, I was going to go to Portugal this weekend to head to the beach but the weather isn't supposed to be very nice so I didn't think it was worth spending the money.  A small group of us are gonna hang out in Granada and do everything on our bucket lists before we have to leave.  We're at the 11 day countdown - INSANE.  Dad if you're reading this, we're heading to Portillo's the first thing when I step off that plane...

Semana Santa

Easter in Spain is a TAD different than Easter in the states.  Exhibit A:

Penitentes

Let me explain.  Easter or "Holy Week" lasts a week and is full of parades (processiones) that begin at various churches around the city and make their way through the streets of Granada.  Everyone and their mother line up on the streets and watch the processions go by.. they're actually very pretty!  The people you see dressed up above (I know what you're thinking...) are called Penitentes.  They are asking for penance for their sins, hence why their faces are covered - to give them privacy.  I thought these people would only be older but I definitely saw some kids dressed up like this also.

Above is the "float" .. clearly not called a float but I don't know exactly what to call them.  Each parade has a different statue and they're beautiful.  This one you see is of Mary and usually she is followed by a statue of Jesus.  The interesting thing is these "floats" are NOT motorized.  They're built on platforms and CARRIED by people.  Do you know how much those things weigh?  There has to be close to 20-30 guys below these floats walking with them.  They usually walk short distances and then take a break so everyone can look at the floats, then start up again.  These processions can last up to 7 hours each so they switch out a lot of the time also.

Unfortunately we were only able to go to 1 procession because when it rains they cancel them (since they don't want to damage the statues).  It rained LITERALLY everyday when we got home :( and it still isn't the greatest weather...  The week ended on Sunday with actual Easter Sunday when nothing happens - it's like a normal day for everyone, how ironic.