March 7-13 and Cordoba

Halfway mark.  These past two months have absolutely FLOWN by.  A bunch of us had a little panic attack how quickly it has gone by, we're seriously going to be back in the states before we know it!


Finally a nice relaxing full week (well almost!) in Granada.  I had some new experiences this week that are definitely worth blogging about.  It started on Tuesday for my Cultures of Islam class... we had a test on Thursday so our teacher, Elsa, decided to do a review and told us to meet her in this plaza.  Instead of studying in the plaza, she took us to a teteria, or a Arabic-style bar - how fitting for what we were studying.  We ordered tea and she bought us some pastries to try (I swear, I don't know how everyone here isn't 38947 pounds).  She even said we could smoke hookah if we wanted to - all of us passed, we felt a little awkward.  Only in Granada.  The test ended up going well, sometimes I forget I'm actually going to school over here.


Our program offers 2 free trips (well I mean they're not free, just included in the cost of the program) and a bunch of us signed up for the Friday trip to Cordoba, another town in Andalucia, about 2.5 hours away.  Our program directors Miguel Angel and Nerea, along with another lady from Cordoba who met us there, were our tour guides of the city.  We saw the Alcazar (I'm pretty sure every Spanish town has these) and the Arab baths which were cool.  My favorite part by far was visiting "el Catedral" which is actually a Mosque AND a Catholic church in the same building.  Crazy right?  Back in the day they actually shared these places of worship and the differences in the styles of each part of the church were very clear.  One minute you were
standing in the Mosque and literally you turn the corner and you're in the Cathedral.   I think I appreciated it that much more because we've been learning so much about Islam in my class so I could actually make connections to what I was seeing.  I think I've learned more in the classes I'm taking here than I have in my other 5 semesters at U of I - sad, but true.  We got home that night, took a little nap, and decided to FINALLY get a taste of the real night life here.  A big group of us met up in a plaza close to Kelly and I's house.  Sounds weird but that's what everyone does here and then they all decide where to go.  Our choice was Kapital - a popular discoteca here, but we made a stop at la Chupeteria (shot bar I've talked about before) before heading there.  Do not ask me how I managed this, but I ended up getting 15 of us "VIP"
passes to Kapital for that night - WIN.  We got to Kapital, cut the loooong line and didn't have to pay to get in.  We all had a blast.  The best is dancing to American music here (which is all they play) because everyone knows the words but I don't think they actually know what the words mean which is hilarious...


Saturday I woke up and my senora was making one of my favorite dishes for lunch.  It's not paella but very similar - basically rice with chicken that they cook all day.  After lunch I went over to Hannigan's to use the internet and got to skype my parents.  I thought going to an Irish pub at 4:30 would be empty - was I wrong.  There was a huge rugby game going on so the place was packed.  And then there was me in the corner with my laptop - nerd alert, I felt really cool. That night a bunch of us met up again in a plaza and got some wine.  There's a discoteca up in the Albaycin (its the "barrio" in Granada which translates to ghetto but it's not what you would picture an American ghetto to be whatsoever) that we all wanted to go to called Camborio.  It's
normal to GET to the discoteca around 2 or 2:30 IN THE MORNING.  I'm gonna have to get used to this I guess haha.  Before heading up there we met up with some girls traveling from Barcelona that were a friends of Kelly's friend to show them around.  Turns out they are Kappa Delta's from Indiana University (small world)... this whole sorority thing never gets old haha.  Camborio was absolute madness and even more fun than Kapital.  Not to mention it's half outdoors and half indoors so while you're dancing you get a gorgeous view of the Alhambra lit up at night looking down on the city of Granada.  So sweet.  We got our typical late night food - schwarmas - and headed home, at 5 am.  Shannon, you would be proud.


Today was another relaxing day.  I met up with Karrah, Kelly and Madeline for a little bit at Cafe Futbol to use the internet and I finally got to skype with my best friend from home, AJ! When I got home my senora was digging through old photos and she showed me her whole family and past students that she has hosted.  We sat and talked for a while about our families although she did most of the talking, like always haha.  Tonight I'm hopefully going out for tapas to meet Caroline's boyfriend Bret who is visiting from West Point this week. :)


Shout out to my Uncle Nick - I know you're reading this!