Spain, Spain, Spain!

Nothing too terribly interesting has happened in the past couple of weeks, but I will still give an update. I am chugging along with my three days of class. It’s stressful, let me tell you! (I hope everyone knows that was a joke!) We only have two days of class this week on Monday and Tuesday because of Corpus Christi and the Feria of Granada. You have to love all of the parties in Spain! My Senora told me today that I will be the only American girl she has hosted to ever experience Corpus and the Feria. I am pretty excited though I am not quite sure what those events entail just yet. I guess I will find out soon enough.

I had the privilege of spending the day with my host family yesterday in the pueblo (town). It is called Iznalloz and is about 35 Km away from their apartment in Granada. Paco and Pilar have a house in the pueblo where they raised their kids. Paco is from Iznalloz (Pilar is not…she was born in Granada). I was able to meet one of Paco’s eight siblings – a brother named Luis and his wife. They live in a house right next to Paco and Pilar’s – as a matter of fact, they are connected! It was fun to meet family and to see the pueblo. Pilar and I went for a scenic drive through the town and made a stop for a walk and a tapa in the Sierra Arana (part of the Sierra Nevada Mountains). It was a nice change of pace to be able to get away from the city and to spend some quality time with my family. Last night, Pilar and I also went for a walk – she walks everyday and I tag along when I can.

In other news…..I have made some travel plans. I have booked a flight to Prague to visit my cousin and I also plan to go to London and meet up with a couple of friends from my program. I am very excited to venture outside of Spain.

That’s all for now….until next time.

Emily

I am officially done with classes at Cegri. I had my last class this morning at 9am! I know I have said it many times before but I am just shocked that time has passed so quickly. Tomorrow is MAY!!!
We have a farewell dinner for our group tonight. We had a welcome dinner one of the first nights we were here and so it is only appropriate to have a farewell dinner. From what I have heard the restaurant is kind of fancy and all of the girls are going to wear dresses and get fancy! It should be fun. Our director and his wife will be there for the entire dinner and then they have invited all of the Cegri teachers for dessert and coffee after so we can say goodbye to them in a setting outside of the classroom. It will be a bittersweet night as I am looking forward to having fun and talking to everyone but not looking forward to saying goodbye to people.
The rest of the week is holiday in Spain and hopefully there will be some fun things to do to keep me entertained. I think some my Michigan friends and I are going to have a picnic! Should be fun!
Until next time,
Em

No puede ser (it can't be)

The title of this album was my senora's response when I told her that I ran 10 kilometers. It was quite hilarious. Yesterday I ran 11.3 km = 7 miles! I can hardly walk today because my legs hurt so bad so I think I will take a break from running.

My host family is going on vacation next week and my senora is stocking up the kitchen. She has four meals for me in the freezer and has a mountain of other things. She has a supply of cookies, pizza, tortilla, chicken broth, fruit and diet coke! Oh she knows me too well! I told her she can stop buying things but she said she still needs more! At the rate she is buying things, I will definitely need those 6 and 7 mile runs!!

I think today is supposed to be 27 degrees Celsius! Finally....the weather we have all been waiting for!

Hump-day Hola from Granada!

The weather has finally cleared up in Spain after about 5 consecutive days of rain and slightly chilly temperatures. It is a little disheartening to keep hearing from my mother that the weather in Adrian is nicer than in Granada. I thought we were supposed to have these unbearably hot days?! Haha Oh well.

Since the weather improved, I thought I would make an attempt to make those pesky pastries disappear that have suddenly found their home on my thighs and backside! I ran 10 km yesterday around the city (an equivalent of 6 miles). It was a struggle at times but I made it. Two of my good friends here are training to run half marathons next week and so I thought I should get my butt in gear (literally!)

We only have 4 more days of class left at Cegrí and then most of the Illinois and Wisconsin students will be leaving to travel and then go home or just to go straight home. Once my classes are done at Cegrí, I will only have class on Monday from 6:30-8pm, Tuesday from 11-12:30pm and then Wednesday from 6:30-8pm. Needless to say, my Michigan friends and I are going to need to find something to do to fill our empty days. My girlfriends and I are thinking lots of day trips or weekends at the beach. I also hope to do some traveling outside of Spain. I need to explore Europe while I am on the continent! Who knows when I will be back!?!

Until next time,

Emily

This past weekend, I went on a hiking trip with 27 other students from my language school (Cegrí) to the Alpujarras. The Alpujarras (for those of you who don’t know) is part of the Sierra Nevada mountain range of southern Spain. There are several different areas of the mountain. We left on Friday morning (4/18) and returned Saturday evening. Of course, the only weekend we get rain is the one for which we are scheduled to go hiking in the mountains! Some of my friends and I were walking to the plaza where we were to catch the bus and it started down pouring on us. We quickly caught the first bus that we could and rode it the rest of the way to the plaza. We thought our trip was doomed but actually it turned out to be a wonderful first day. We made it to the mountains (after a long and winding bus ride – I certainly took Dramamine!) We left our stuff in a big room and headed off to hike. We decided to cut the root short so that we were near a small town if the weather were to break loose on us again. It was soooo beautiful and breathtaking. We were able to see very clearly the top of the highest peak of the Sierra Neveadas (Mulhacen). I can’t do it justice by simply using fancy adjectives but needless to say there is nothing like this ANYWHERE in Michigan!! There were definitely some scary moments (near edges of cliffs, hiking downhill on loose dirt and rock, etc…)

We had a nice picnic lunch and then headed back to the hostal to relax and hang out. We had a really nice dinner at the hostal. Some people ate conejo (bunny) and it was not pleasing to look over and see an entire little peter cottontail sitting on peoples plates. Our director, Miguel, would request the head of anybody’s bunny who did not want to eat it! Ewwwww

Saturday was one continuous day of rain but we persevered and hiked anyway. A lot of people had either ponchos or rain coats. The hike on the second day was supposed to be longer but since it was raining and cold, it too got cut short. We hiked for about 3 hours and had a break for a snack then we made it to the next town where the bus picked us up and took us back to camp where we attempted to dig out as many dry and warm clothes out of our backpacks as we could. We all bonded sitting for a few hours in that room and we ate a nice lunch and then took off for Granada. The ride home was interesting as we had to stop at one point while 4 girls got off the bus thinking they were going to get sick. Luckily, no one got sick and we made it home just fine. It was an amazing trip and I had so much fun!

Get excited - it took me less than a week to make another post!!! yay!

Mom and Dad in Spain = )

So I am mad at myself for having to apologize before every post and I really thought I would be better about updating my blog while my parents were here (since we had WIFI in our apartment). However, we just had so many fun things to do everyday and I could not justify spending any of the precious time I had with my parents updating my blog. Therefore, here comes another exhaustive summary of the events from April 1st – April 9^th ……….

Tuesday April 1^st – The arrival: I have never had a day pass so slowly in my entire life! My parents were supposed to arrive in Granada at 1pm but instead arrived at 5:10pm because of changes in their flight schedule. I was worried the entire day that they were playing the worst April Fool’s Day joke on me of my entire life (however, I knew better!) Their plane finally arrived and I was there waiting in the luggage area as they walked off the plane. The reunion was all I could have hoped for. I ran to my parents arms and just hugged them for minutes (complete with tears and all). I had never before felt such joy and excitement! Unfortunately, they arrived without luggage but we checked in with the airline and made sure they had our contact information for when the suitcases arrived. We took the bus from the airport to Granada. It was so hard to believe that my parents were actually with me in Spain! It seemed too good to be true – but it was! We got settled into our apartment – it was very spacious and modern (two words that are quite uncommon to Granada). We met two of my friends (Bill and Patrick) for tapas later that night and we had a good time. It was an early night as Mom and Dad were very tired from a day-and-a-half of traveling.

Wednesday April 2^nd – Mom and Dad slept in – I think jetlag got the best of them that first night. We went to the SuperSol to pick up some food for our apartment. Dad quickly realized that Coca Cola Light is nothing like Diet Coke in the US! Then I took them on their first of many walks around Spain. We went to the Albaycin and Sacramonte (the caves and neighborhood of the gypsies). It was a hike and I was proud of them for not complaining TOO much. We made it up to a lookout point called the “Mirador de San Nicolas” and they were in awe of the views of the entire city and of the Alhambra. They agreed that it was definitely worth the hike.

Wednesday night we had tapas again with my friend Liz. Then we took my parents to a salsa dancing bar so that they could experience a bit of the Spanish nightlife!

Thursday April 3^rd – Alhambra day – Once again, Mom and Dad flashed their mighty super strengths and hiked all the way up a very large hill to get to the Alhambra. I was very proud of them as it is a struggle for even the most young and in-shape of people (and that was not supposed to be a reference that they are old and out-of-shape). We made it just in time for our 11:30am visit. We spent about 3 hours touring the three parts of the Alhambra. I tried to tell them as much as I knew about it but for some parts we hopped on the end of a tour group who had an English-speaking leader (we know how to be resourceful, when needed!) We were tuckered out by the end of our visit and we all were ready for a siesta by the time we reached our apartment.

Thursday night – my parents had the privilege of meeting my host parents (Paco and Pilar). Pilar made tapas and we all sat around the table and had cervezas (beers). It was a wonderful visit. Paco and Pilar kept talking in Spanish just like my parents understood everything they said. Naturally, I had to be the translator and found it to be an entertaining job for the night. I gave my parents a tour of the apartment and they were very impressed with how nicely it was decorated and kept clean. Mom and Dad did the best that they could to speak as much Spanish as they could quickly gather from their high school memory bank. I couldn’t have imagined a better meeting of my two sets of parents!

After tapas with Paco and Pilar, we met up with some of my friends and we took my parents to see the botellon in Spain. It was fun but a little uncomfortable as they were easily the oldest people there. Oh well – they will probably only be in Spain once and my friends and I wanted them to experience all there is to see and do in Granada!

Friday April 4^th – We did the most “touristy” thing we could possibly do….we took a ride on the Granada Tourist Bus! Most of my friends in the program say they wouldn’t be caught dead riding on it but while my parentals were here, it was completely acceptable for me to be a full-blown tourist! It was a lot of fun and we got to see most of the city. We even had a very informative narration (in English too!) We had to return to the apartment mid-afternoon to pack for our weekend get-away to Barcelona. We had a flight out of Granada at 8pm on Ryanair to Girona (a small town about an hour outside of Barcelona). Once in Girona, we had an hour bus ride into Barcelona. We had rented a flat in Barcelona in Barri Gotic for the two nights we were there and we met someone from the rental company to let us in and got all situated. It was off to bed as we had a long day ahead of us.

Saturday April 5^th – Barcelona! We decided to do a weekend trip to break up the time that my parents were here. My Mom has always wanted to visit Barcelona and so that’s where we headed. Saturday was a busy day and we did a lot. We walked down Paseig de Gracia to see both of Gaudi’s houses, went to the Sagrada Familia (though we passed up going inside to conserve time), visited Parc Guell (one of my favorite parts of Barcelona – and there we had a picnic lunch), walked down Las Ramblas and visited a big open-air market where we bought fresh fruit, bread and cheese to snack on that afternoon. We returned to the flat for a short siesta and snack time! Then it was off again to do some more exploring. We went to Barceloneta (known as little Barcelona and is near the water), we all put our fingertips into the Mediterranean Ocean, and then we hit up a couple of bars for some drinks to end the day. I had been to Barcelona before and so I knew where I wanted to take them and how to navigate the city/metro (which was very helpful since we had so little time in Barcelona).

Sunday April 6^th – We visited the Cathedral (which dates back to the 1200’s) and saw more of Barri Gotic. We took a walk to Parc de la Ciutadella and it was a beautiful day for a nice stroll in the park. We also visited the Chocolate Museum. It was a random/spur of the moment decision but it was fun and entertaining. We had lunch on Las Ramblas and did some postcard shopping. Our flight was at 6:40pm and so we had to catch the bus to the Girona airport around 4pm. It was a short visit in Barcelona but very fun. Once back in Granada, we had dinner at a nice little restaurant that I had eaten at my second day in Granada. It was a hit!

Monday April 7^th – We paid a visit to the infamous “bread lady” of Granada. There is a kiosk in a small plaza in Granada (very close to my school – Cegrí) and every morning a woman sells bread and pastries there. She is a hit with all of the people in my program and also with a lot of people in Granada. She always has a line of people waiting. We bought some goodies and ate them near the river in a park. Then we took a bus tour of the University of Granada (really we just stayed on the city bus all the way around campus and I narrated!) We had some tapas with Liz during the afternoon and I had class. That night we had a group outing for tapas with some of my friends and Patrick’s parents were here too so we met up with them. We filled a whole bar with all English – speaking people. I am sure the people working just loved us! It was so much fun. I didn’t want to leave.

Tuesday April 8^th – We had a lazy day because we had done most of what we wanted to do in Granada. We did some more shopping for souvenirs and then we took a walk to a big park in Granada called Parque de Garcia Lorca. Mom had brought a couple of movies from home (at my request) and so we all sat around and watched The Holiday together and it was just perfect. We had dinner at an Italian Restaurant called La Piccola Italia. It was very good and we all had a great time. We had tapas once again (though we were not hungry in the least) with Alan and Mike.

Wednesday April 9^th - The Goodbye – The day we had all been dreading had finally arrived. We all were up early as Mom and Dad’s flight left Granada at 9:55 am. I walked them to the bus stop on Gran Vía and that is where we had our tearful goodbye. We hugged for a long time – no one wanting to let go! It was so hard to see them drive away on the bus.

It was an amazing time and we made some memories that none of us will ever forget. I still can’t believe that I was able to have my parents with me in Spain for nine days. I am so grateful that they were willing to spend the money to come visit and to experience life with me in another country. Love you guys!!!

Now it’s back to normal life around here. We only have two more weeks of class at Cegrí and it seems hard to believe that most of the group (Wisconsin and Illinois students) will be going home at the beginning of May. It will be weird without them here.

Until next time (at the rate I am going, who knows when that will be?!?! Haha)

Em

A real post......finally = )

Since I am so behind on updating my Blog, this is going to be one giant recap of the past couple of weeks. So here goes….

As I am sure most of you know, last Sunday was Easter. However, in Spain and especially in Andalucía, the celebration starts a week before Easter and this week is called Semana Santa (Holy Week). Because of Semana Santa, I had another 10-day break. I decided not to travel anywhere outside of Andalucía because I wanted to experience all of the festivities of Holy Week in Spain.

Saturday 3/15-Sunday 3/16 - The first part of the break, I went to the beach with two of my friends from the program. We went to a small town in the Costa Del Sol called Nerja. The first day there (Saturday) it was kind of chilly and a little windy so we didn’t get to fully enjoy the beach and sunshine. We had beautiful weather on Sunday and were able to go out and enjoy the beach, warmth, and sunshine. The town is beautiful. There is a famous spot there called the “Balcón de Europa” and there is a great view of the mountains and coastline of the beaches. It is definitely a place I would visit again – for the beaches and I also want to see the famous caves of Nerja.

Monday 3/17 - My friends and I spent Monday in Granada. We were able to see our first Semana Santa processions. In order for any of what I am going to say to make sense, I think I must bore you with a little history lesson. Semana Santa has been a tradition in Andalucía for hundreds of years and with the declining number of “practicing catholics” it is becoming just that – more of a tradition and a thing that must be done every year than a display of faith and Christianity. Nonetheless, each of the larger churches in Granada (and most of the other cities in Andalucía as well) has a brotherhood that organizes their procession for Semana Santa. Each procession usually contains two pasos (statues) – one representing Jesus and the other representing the Virgin Mary. There are people that walk in the processions – los penitentes (people that wear outfits similar to the KKK for purposes of anonymity and some even spend the duration of the procession walking the streets without shoes), las manolas – women that dress all in black with veils of black lace and carry candles and finally there are los costaleros – these are the people that carry the statues. They all walk underneath and it takes a lot of practice and following the strict cadence of the drums to make it work. I am amazed at the people who are part of these processions. Some of them would last as long as five or six hours each. Each procession also has a band and a drum line. There is no way to accurately describe the sound of the band except to use the word squeaky. I think they find people for these bands that only play their instruments once a year for Semana Santa and do not practice otherwise. However, by the end of the week, it had almost become a comforting sound. I will describe a few of them in more detail but I must stick to my chronology of the week!

Tuesday 3/18 – Wednesday 3/19 – I had the privilege of going to Almuñecar (another small town in the Costa del Sol) with my señora and señor (Paco and Pilar). Their daughter and her husband and their two-and-a-half-year-old daughter were also there. It was a lot of fun to hang out with my family here and to bond a little. We spent some time at the beach and even watched a procession pass through the streets of Almuñecar. We went out for tapas and drinks on Tuesday night and I ate dried octopus! It was not too bad and I would definitely eat it again. The rest of the family stayed until Thursday night but I took a bus back from Almuñecar to Granada on Wednesday afternoon so that I could be home for dinner with my friend’s parents. My friend Liz (who I knew before coming to Granada) invited my other friend Emilee and I to dinner and a Flamenco show with she and her parents. It was so much fun. We went to Venta El Gallo which is the same place we all saw a Flamenco show at the beginning of our stay in Granada. We had a great 4-course dinner and watched the show while we ate. After we ate, we waited around for a while to see the Procession of the Gypsies (one of the most famous of Granada). It was raining during the procession and it didn’t help that they were climbing a huge hill with the floats to get to Sacramonte (the neighborhood that is highly populated with gypsies and is located in the caves of the mountains very close to the Alhambra). The teamwork of the costaleros and encouragement of the thousands of people who came out to watch the procession was just amazing.

Thursday 3/20 – Saturday 3/23 – I did not do much for the rest of the week. I stayed in Granada and watched processions and relaxed. Thursday night, a big group of us watched the Procession of Silence at 1:00am! It was a very cool procession but one that I might only want to see once. They turned off all of the lights in the city wherever the procession went and everyone is silent as it passes. The men are all dressed in black, along with the women and the only sound comes from one drum (just to keep the cadence). There was only one statue and it was of Jesus. There was a person near the end of the procession who was wearing chains around his feet and they were dragging on the ground and making a very grim sound (to represent the death of Jesus). It was a very powerful image. The last procession that I really liked was on Saturday and it was the only one that occurred that day. It was the procession from the Alhambra and the float contained the famous statue of Mary holding Jesus. The base of the float was very cool and had details similar to the Alhambra.

Sunday 3/24 – Easter Sunday. It was weird to be away from my family for Easter but I made it through. I did not wake up to an Easter basket full of candy but my friends did give me a little basket the next day and I was very happy. I went to church with Liz and Emilee and it was nice. I took communion for the first time in Spain. I had been trying to respect the catholic tradition of communion (since I am not catholic) but I could not imagine abstaining from communion on Easter. What they don’t know won’t hurt them!

Monday was back to the daily grind of class and homework. It was hard to get used to being back in class but we all adjusted well. I have one more class today and then it’s another one of those great 3-day weekends that we have every week! I am going to Cordoba tomorrow with a group from our Spanish school (Cegrí). I am excited and have heard that it is beautiful. The thing that I am most excited about, though, is the arrival of my parents in 5 days! They get in at 1pm on Tuesday (4/1) and I can’t wait. I am so excited to take them around Spain. We are going to spend the weekend that they are here in Barcelona. I will try and do my best to keep everyone updated of our adventures while they are here.

It is hard to believe that half of my time here is gone. It is going to be a bittersweet day when I leave at the end of June. But I will deal with that when the time comes.

Hasta Luego,

Em