Parte dos...mas sobre la ciudad (Granada barroca y la vida en general)

Okay! So here is Part 2 of what I have been up to:  Our second tour of the city with one of our soon to be professors.  Once again, the story is better if told through photos... so enjoy!

So this was the first hotel in Granada! Granada was built on a silk industry when the Arabs were the dominant power and merchants from all over the world would stay here while trading and doing business.  It housed people as well as animals and the center was a common gathering place.  Eventually, this type of housing became housing for the poor as Granada expanded, and at one point it was the location of the first plays witnessed in the city.

Just a fun fact:  Everywhere in the city orange and lemon trees line the streets.  It is amazing to see because I never expected to see these types of trees in an urban area!  Our host mom did tell us the fruit was no good however.  I guess they are kind of like crab apple trees in the U.S.

Lemon Tree!

We went to the Basilica de San Juan de Dios...decorated in the Baroque style, the entire place literally sparkled.  You can't really tell from this picture, but everything was covered in gold...it was actually somewhat overwhelming.

These are actual bones...there was also a mummy...soooooo strange but very interesting.  They were all relics of some kind and there were also random parts of bones or teeth mounted on the walls.  This is in the room above the alter that you see in the first picture.

Inside this urn are the remains of San Juan himself.  He dedicated his life to helping the poor and sick after spending some time as a soldier.  I have a little book on him and I think the history is cool, but I won't bore you all too much with the details...

This is La Puerta Elvira.  The last remaining door into Granada.  Granted, now it is in the center of the city, but is used to be that Granada was completely surrounded by a wall with only a certain number of doors in and out.  Parts of the wall still exist all around the city and this is the last of the doors that made it.  Pretty cool!

What day in Spain is complete with out cafe con leche and churros y chocolate?  Churros y chocolate are the best thing ever invented and they are exactly the reason I am going to be about 5 sizes bigger when I get back home!  They just give you so much!  Not to mention the fact that when we got pastries the other day the owner of the shop realized we were students and gave us free cakes!  He told us that we had to promise to speak in Spanish and come back to his shop.  Obviously we will :)  The cakes were piononos...apparently native to Granada and the best in the world!

El Albacin y el senderismo en las Sierra Nevadas

Hola todos!  So like I said I have been having technical difficulties with my blog, but you can consider this entry part 1 of 2.  Yesterday I went on my first run in Granada and it was AMAZING!  For once I actually didn't want to stop running.  We ran next to the river the entire way in a park called Paseo de Granada and toward the Sierra Nevadas with beautiful houses and villas on each side of us.  You won't believe it until you see it... I will take pictures next time!  There was also outdoor exercise equipment along the way.  Things for lifting, ellipticals, hurdles, etc... I used the monkey bars and had a random guy on the street told me how impressed he was that I was so strong!  Anyway I have been doing a lot the past week, so writing about everything would make this entry a novel.  Instead I will make it like a picture book!  Who doesn't like to look at pictures?  Alright, here we go:

So as you all know, I am a history major and I find a lot of stuff interesting that the rest of you may not, but I'm gong to tell you about it anyway. (After all, it is my blog)  So this is a picture of the bridge that used to connect the palace of the Islamic kings to the Alhambra.  The Alhambra, in times past, only was used for as a military defense during wars.  I took this picture as we began our walk through the Albacin.  The Albacin is a specific part of Granada, kind of like a neighborhood I guess.  It had extreme Arab influence and is where the Arab bathes are, which I cannot wait to go to.

This is a picture inside of a "Carmen".  Many street signs for address include the word carmen, but it isn't a representation of a name or anything like that.  It actually means a summer home.  Anyone who had money in Granada would have a second home where they could stay outside all day in the garden, grow flowers and veggies, etc. 

This is Victoria and I in the carmen with an awesome view of the Alhambra behind us.  The Albacin is pretty much a neighborhood built into the side of a hill, so you have the best view of Granada from the very top.  It was amazing to witness...and we got there just at sunset!

This is the inside of our school...how cool is that?? I think I am really going to like taking classes here!  Between classes the common area is full of students, usually taking a coffee break.

On Saturday we went hiking in the Sierra Nevadas near a little town called Monachil.  It was completely different from any hiking I have ever done.  Instead of being surround by trees the whole time and emerging to see an incredible view, it was wide open.  You could see for miles at every point on the hike.  We hiked up rock and through snow.  It was an experience I will never forget because we even saw wild horses!  Not to mention the goats, sheep, and cows that were everywhere too.  As you can see, the cliffs were HUGE and made me feel somewhat insignificant.

During our hike we also followed a river and went into caves!  There were rock climbing routes inside the cave as well as everywhere else on the hike.  Three other people in our group and I have already signed up for a rock climbing excursion through our school in February.  I cannot wait!

We also went over so many cool bridges.  This one was the longest and we were only allowed to have 5 people cross it at once for safety reasons.  A little bit scary, but so much fun.

Finally, how else to end a day of hiking but with hydrating?  Well not really... yes, that is us drinking beers, at noon, after hiking.  Our guide told us we were just in time for cervezas and tapas.  One of the stranger things I have experienced, but hey, who is to complain?  When in Spain, right?

After hiking we all went back to our houses for lunch and siesta, then round two started.  That night we went to see a play by Federico Garcia Lorca called "Bodas de Sangre" (Blood Wedding).  It was really well done, extremely dramatic, and I think I understood 10% of it! I guess it is a start!  After that it was only about 11pm, which obviously means it was early.  So a bunch of us headed out to the bars, but guess what... no one was at them!  We were still too early.  People didn't really start showing up until 12:30 or 1am.  Lesson learned about Spanish night life.

Part 2 of what I have been up to is soon to follow... I will try to update you before I leave for Madrid.  I suppose I will have time since the entire city shuts down from 2pm to 5pm for siesta!

No me gusta los ordenadores

Sorry everyone but I have been having extreme technical difficulty updating my blog.  I am very frustrated so I give up for now!  I will try again tomorrow because I have had such a jam packed week and want to tell you all about it!  Adios for now

La ciudad hermosa

Everyone in our group from UNH had finally made it to Granada, so we had our orientation today.  We met in the morning at Cafe Futbol for churros y chocolate then walked around the city so that we knew a little bit more about where we will be living for the next five months! 

I guess I haven't really said much about my living situation, but all I can say is that it is fantastic!  Last night we talked with Maria for hours about our families, our home towns, and most of all about boys!  She is so funny... almost everyday she brings up boys (I think it is one of her favorite subjects.  That, or she is just trying to relate to us.)  She keeps telling us that the best way to learn Spanish is to get a Spanish boyfriend.  She tells us all about her son's and daughters' girlfriends and boyfriends, and asks us every question imaginable about boys in the U.S.  We also learned a lot about her family when she was growing up and now.  We have a lot of time to talk with her.  Although she lives across the street from us and we live in an apartment with her daughter Sonia who is 24, she comes over twice a day to cook us lunch and dinner.  Sonia also leaves every weekend to go to their house on the beach to visit her boyfriend (they also have a house in the country) so Maria stays with us then.  I do wish Sonia was around more so that we could get to know her, but that isn't the case.  Anyway, here are a few photos of where I live and what the city looks like.  It is extremely beautiful almost everywhere that we have been.

This is my room with the awesome view of the Alhambra :)

This is the dinning room/living room, but we don't eat at the table.  We eat at the mini table by the sofas because there is a heater under it with a blanket attached to the table for warmth...further explanation to follow

Here is the kitchen.  We usually eat breakfast here because it isn't a big meal and we make it ourselves.  It usually is toast or cereal.

This is part of the Alhambra and the AMAZING view that I have from my window!  Side note: the most popular beer in Granada is called Alhambra.

This river that runs through part of Granada is our signal that we are almost home.  We have to cross the bridge to get to school and the center of the city, but it is a beautiful walk.

Our school is very small, but the inside is incredible.  It has a gathering space in the middle of it almost like a courtyard and the classrooms surround that.

La ciudad mas bella del mundo

This is the table I was talking about where we actually eat.  The blanket keeps in all the heat and you put it over your legs for warmth and that makes it very easy to fall asleep on the couch after lunch when everyone is relaxing.  In this case Victoria decided to go completely under the table! (This typically isn't practiced and we have no idea what our host mom would think if she ever saw us doing this!)

La ciudad y las tapas

Yesterday was our first full day in Granada. (We finally got to see it in daylight)  I woke up to a beautiful view of the Alhambra right outside of my window!  It doesn't get much better than that.  Maria took Victoria and I into the center of the city to show us our school and a few popular plazas.  The walk is about 15 minutes for us and it is really easy to remember the way, so later we went out on our own to meet our professor for a bit.  The city is amazing and we can't wait to explore more of it today.

Last night we also tried our first tapas at a tiny little tapas bar about 2 minutes from our apartment.  We went to the store with Maria and her husband Antonio, and when we were walking back Maria told us that Antonio wanted to get a drink so they treated us to tapas.  (If you order a drink, the tapas are free.  Maria told us it is a custom practiced almost solely in Granada.)The food was delicious as was Maria's cooking.  We were able to try her paella.  If one thing is true, it is that I will not be going hungry in Spain.  All Maria tell us is "come mas! come mas!".  I haven't even been hungry once when I'm told to eat!  Hopefully I will eat enough to please Maria because she said I can't go to the discoteca when my friends call if I haven't eaten enough!

Primer Dia en Granada

Hola de Granada!  Victoria and I made it to Granada around 9pm (4pm US time).  We met a few other students studying in Granada on our flight and shared a taxi with them to our apartments.  The only confusing part of our trip was taking the taxi... the driver had no idea where the address was that we gave him.  He eventually found it, but dropped us off at the wrong block... ooops!   We made it however thanks to the help of some locals, who at first told us that the address we were looking for didn't exist, but then realized the mistake the driver made.

Overall, it was a relatively easy trip and we were greeted at the door by our host mom, Maria.  She made us feel at home and kept insisting that we could do whatever we wanted because it was our house for five months!  We ate dinner with her and her daughter Sonia.  Maria is a fantastic cook! She made us artichoke soup, ham and cheese, and Spanish tortilla for dinner.  Tomorrow we will go into the city with her so she can show us around!

(For Mom: This is proof that I survived the trip!)

In 24 hrs I will be on my way to Spain!  Obviously I will need to do some last minute packing.  (Once a procrastinator, always a procrastinator.) Victoria and I will be arriving in Madrid then taking a quick flight to Granada where we will be living.  I can't wait to meet my host family and start exploring the city!