1. MY WORK SCHEDULE - This week in Spain, Monday December 6 and Wednesday December 8 were national holidays and so we all had those days off. So, I normally work Mon-Thurs and this week I only had to work two days :-)
2. PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION - Spain’s public transportation is so efficient and convenient (now I must add a disclaimer because I am not knocking the public transportation of the US but it’s just that I haven’t really ever had a need for it). I can’t tell you how nice it is to decide to go to Granada to visit some friends and to be able to look online and find a bus that leaves every hour from Motril to Granada. It makes my life so simple.
3. GREAT FRIENDS – I know that you have heard me talk a lot about Juan Carlos and that is because he is a great friend to me.
Juan Carlos and I this weekend
This past weekend, Juan Carlos invited me to spend the weekend with him and his parents. I have been to Juan Carlos’ house before but I had never met his parents. There were so nice but very hard to understand. They are both from small villages in Spain and have very heavy Andalucian accents. His dad was a riot. He wanted to know all about the US (unfortunately, most of the time I end up feeling like a fool for being so ignorant about the history and sometimes even current issues of my country). I told him that he most definitely needs to meet my roommate Tad (who studied History and Social Studies to become a teacher at U of M). His face lit up and he told me to bring my roommate to meet him. His mom is a great host. She made certain I was never hungry. She always made coffee and toast/croissants for breakfast. On Saturday, she made Canelones – which are an Italian dish made with noodles stuffed with meat and topped with a cream sauce and cheese ( I feel myself getting fatter just writing about it). Later that night for dinner, she made us all kinds of fried delicacies…French fries, chicken nuggets, pork that was breaded and fried. Then, to top it off, she made a tortilla (like an omelette) with ham and cheese. Then on Sunday, she made paella with meat! Not to mention that at every meal she also put out tapas – chorizo, murcilla, olives, chicken, bread, mushrooms. I ate more than I needed to for a whole week in just two days. Juan Carlos and I went out with some of his German friends one night. They were fun and it just amazes me when we can all be in a bar and have three different conversations going on in three different languages (English, German, and Spanish).
If only I were in this picture, then we'd have Spaniards, a German and an American.
By request of Juan Carlos, we also did something cultural. He found an art exhibit at the Palace of Charles the 5th at the Alhambra. It was celebrating the 100th anniversary of Henri Mattise’s visit to the Alhambra.
Here is one of Matisse's paintings
Neither of us really cared for the art work too much but it was still fun to walk up to the Alhambra and do something different.
Here are pictures of Juan Carlos and me with a great view in the background from the Alhambra
We also walked around Granada a bit to do some shopping because he and his friends are doing a secret Santa gift exchange. He has to buy a gift for a girl and so he solicited my help. The lights around the town are amazing and in one of the plazas there is an ambulatory market for Christmas. It was so awesome.
Here are some traditional Spanish pastries for Christmas
This is the Corte Ingles all decorated with snowflake lights (Corte Ingles is the closest thing I can come to finding a store like Macy's in Spain!)
More lights in plaza Bib Rambla
I am so in love with Granada. I think I could go there every weekend and never tire of it.
4. REUNITING WITH SPANISH FRIENDS – So I was in Granada from Friday – Sunday and then came back to Motril. I had to work on Tuesday. On Monday night, I got back in touch with a good friend from Granada. After work on Tuesday, I asked him if he had plans for the night and he and his friends (most of whom I already know) were going to hang out and he invited me to come! So I hopped on a bus on Tuesday night (refer to #2 – why I love public transportation) and he picked me up from the bus station and off we went to have tapas. It was so strange to see them after 2 ½ years because it felt like I had never left (minus the fact that I had to fill them in on my life and it was a lot of work to tell them everything in Spanish!)
Here is the group while we were out for tapas
Me with Abelardo and Javi (the two from the group that I know the best. aren't they so handsome?)
The next day, Abe Jacob and I went out for some afternoon tapas and some tea afterwards.
Well, after two rough days of work (that's a joke) it's the weekend again for me. I don't really know what I will do. Tad is in London so it's just the girls here in the apartment.
Love from Spain <3
2 comments:
Can't wait to try the public transportation. I know we'll need to use it while there. I LIKE the Matisse of which you took a picture. ( I was trying not to end a sentence with a preposition:))
Hope you are having another great weekend in Granada, Em!!
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