I'm not really sure why I haven't written something in such a long time. I suppose I could say I've been super busy but that would basically be a lie.
Classes do definitely take a lot out of me here though! I have this weird schedule where everyday (Mon-Thurs) I finish class at 2:30pm walk--run--25 minutes home, start eating lunch at 3pm and then leave the house at 3:30 to make it in time for my 4pm class. It's exhausting! On Thursdays I usually have my host mom make me a sandwich--called a bocadillo that's literally made from half a baguette and some ham and olive oil (not my favorite thing)--so I can eat lunch in the school building and not rush. Sometimes I decide to pay for lunch and if I do I'll go to this vegan place that has great food and really nice staff.
Speaking of this vegan place....it's actually where I go have breakfast on Mondays and Wednesdays. My earliest class is at 12:30 but I'm a morning person and I'm usually wide awake and ready to go by 8:30 or earlier. So on those days I'm really bored and everyday for breakfast we get these muffins that I seriously hate--they look like lady fingers I'd say but they have this lemon taste. blech! We've been getting them basically everyday since I've gotten here. My roommate who like them in the beginning is now getting sick of them too. BUT anyways on the days where I have too much time I leave the house early and go have a real breakfast at the vegan place. They have my favorite tea--green tea with yerbabuena--and I'll get a tiny pot of the tea and some cereal with fruit. The staff already recognize me and usually finish my order as I'm saying it. I love it! Plus it's really nice on my lactose intolerant stomach! ...the food, I mean, not the staff....
So my weekdays feel super full with my classes and all the walking that I do...but hey my pants are loose! ...I'm still not sure if it's because I'm losing weight or if it's because they don't use dryers here so my jeans don't have the opportunity to shrink again after being stretched out from use...
Weekends lately have been really laid-back. I haven't done as much traveling as other people yet but soon all my weekends will be full. The weekends that I'm home I tend to hang out in bed a lot or go shopping at h&m--the one here has such better clothes than the one in Pittsburgh--( and don't worry daddy I really don't ever buy anything!).
I've recently discovered how cheap the movie theater is--5 euro a ticket even if you see something in 3D--and so I've been going to the movies if there's on out I want to see. I've seen Thor, Ender's Game and Catching Fire. It's all completely dubbed in Spanish which is interesting. I've found I actually liked Thor betting with dubbing--I can't stand Natalie Portman's acting and voice--because the woman who dubbed Natalie Portman was great! For Ender's Game I really liked the movie but I would definitely want to see it in English too! And for the Hunger Games I actually was super disappoint with the person who dubbed Jennifer Lawrence. I'm of the opinion that the dubber (?) was a terrible actor--my friends said the voice was different but that they got used to it as the movie went on. Either way I'm excited to see it in English with the real actors' voices. Side note: Small popcorn--which is the size of a US medium--and a medium drink is only 3.50 euro...so cheap! Plus for some reason in the Spanish movie theaters your seats are assigned on your movie ticket so you don't have to worry about picking your seat if the theater is full like it was for hunger games. And also the seats are huge and comfy! It's great!
Weather wise it's crazy here for me! It's gotten so so cold. I realize it's about the same temperature every day here as it is in Pittsburgh but for some reason it feels so much colder--probably because I walk longer distances and not everywhere I go has heating. But anyways it's so super cold and I am realizing I didn't bring enough cold weather clothes! Thank goodness my amazing dad is coming to visit in just a few days and bringing me winter clothes! And they couldn't come at better time because the weekend after he leaves I'm be traveling around the UK and Ireland it's definitely going to be cold there!
But yeah that's just some about my daily life. I hope it's not too much complaining! I'm actually having a great time but I am somebody who complains a lot and usually about nothing important....
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Doing some navigating...
So as I keep writing this post I'm realizing it's a little confusing to follow and may not make sense. I'm going to post it anyways because I wrote it but it's not that well written and for that I apologize!
With my roommate gone for the weekend I've taken to walking around and exploring on my own more. Last Thursday I had a placement exam to see if I could take an Arabic Language course while I'm here in Granada and no one else in my program was going so it was up to me to find the place. I had gotten tenative directions from one of the ISA staff but even she wasn't exactly sure where this building was. She explained that this was the first year that they weren't holding the exam in the Center of Modern Languages where I have class everyday. So it was my job to do a bit of exploring....
Granada is an amazing city to just wander through. For me it's been incredibly easy to navigate. Virginia, my language partner, likes to question me every now and then to see if I know where we are in the city after walking a while. She always seems super amazed when I get it right but for me for the most part it's really easy to find a quicker path than to backtrack through where we already walked.
The reason I think this city is so easy to navigate is because it has some pretty important land marks and characteristics that help you to navigate.
Basically if you feel yourself starting to walk up hill and there are lots of stairs in your site you are heading towards the hills and that means the Albaycin neighborhood. That's the easiest to figure out. If you want to head towards the center and you find yourself going uphill most likely you're going the wrong way.
To find the center is also pretty easy too. You walk downhill and find a main road. The center is like a major intersection of all the main roads in Granada so find one of them and head in the right direction and you'll get there. One of the bigger main roads is Gran Via Colon or something of the sort and it's a pretty distinct road. The street lamps are these weird cube like structures that almost look like ice cubes stuck together to make a really big ice cube if that makes sense. If you see those you basically know you're on Gran Via. It's also pretty simple to see straight down this road so if you're not sure at which end you're currently standing if you look down one way you can see the buildings that you wish to head towards and you'll be able to follow the road there.
Also for some reason it's pretty simple for me to tell which neighborhood or area I'm in by the buildings that I'm surrounded by and just the vibe in general of the people walking around me. For example where my class is it's very hipster and there's a lot of younger people walking around that aren't just speaking Spanish--my school building is like the center for international students. The center is more full of modern looking buildings and the granite you walk on is nicer. Plus it's where you'll find the most heladerías. Where I live is a lot of businesses but none that are super commercial and they're all basically businesses that a full time resident would need--like a paint store for example. It's really not touristy and you basically only see locals walking around.
Basically Granada isn't a very complex city EXCEPT for the backstreets. I can't tell you the amount of times that I've known I'm heading in the right direction but there's a street that ends and I can't continue to go straight and I have to sort of go on a round about street in order to get to the other side of the line of houses that are blocking my straight path. It's a little frustrating but sometimes it just adds to the walk and makes it a little more fun. But there are definitely sometimes when I wish the path was way more direct but I think it's because the streets are sometimes so windy that you can't see a road is about to end until you at that end point. It almost seems to come out of nowhere.
With my roommate gone for the weekend I've taken to walking around and exploring on my own more. Last Thursday I had a placement exam to see if I could take an Arabic Language course while I'm here in Granada and no one else in my program was going so it was up to me to find the place. I had gotten tenative directions from one of the ISA staff but even she wasn't exactly sure where this building was. She explained that this was the first year that they weren't holding the exam in the Center of Modern Languages where I have class everyday. So it was my job to do a bit of exploring....
Granada is an amazing city to just wander through. For me it's been incredibly easy to navigate. Virginia, my language partner, likes to question me every now and then to see if I know where we are in the city after walking a while. She always seems super amazed when I get it right but for me for the most part it's really easy to find a quicker path than to backtrack through where we already walked.
The reason I think this city is so easy to navigate is because it has some pretty important land marks and characteristics that help you to navigate.
Basically if you feel yourself starting to walk up hill and there are lots of stairs in your site you are heading towards the hills and that means the Albaycin neighborhood. That's the easiest to figure out. If you want to head towards the center and you find yourself going uphill most likely you're going the wrong way.
To find the center is also pretty easy too. You walk downhill and find a main road. The center is like a major intersection of all the main roads in Granada so find one of them and head in the right direction and you'll get there. One of the bigger main roads is Gran Via Colon or something of the sort and it's a pretty distinct road. The street lamps are these weird cube like structures that almost look like ice cubes stuck together to make a really big ice cube if that makes sense. If you see those you basically know you're on Gran Via. It's also pretty simple to see straight down this road so if you're not sure at which end you're currently standing if you look down one way you can see the buildings that you wish to head towards and you'll be able to follow the road there.
Also for some reason it's pretty simple for me to tell which neighborhood or area I'm in by the buildings that I'm surrounded by and just the vibe in general of the people walking around me. For example where my class is it's very hipster and there's a lot of younger people walking around that aren't just speaking Spanish--my school building is like the center for international students. The center is more full of modern looking buildings and the granite you walk on is nicer. Plus it's where you'll find the most heladerías. Where I live is a lot of businesses but none that are super commercial and they're all basically businesses that a full time resident would need--like a paint store for example. It's really not touristy and you basically only see locals walking around.
Basically Granada isn't a very complex city EXCEPT for the backstreets. I can't tell you the amount of times that I've known I'm heading in the right direction but there's a street that ends and I can't continue to go straight and I have to sort of go on a round about street in order to get to the other side of the line of houses that are blocking my straight path. It's a little frustrating but sometimes it just adds to the walk and makes it a little more fun. But there are definitely sometimes when I wish the path was way more direct but I think it's because the streets are sometimes so windy that you can't see a road is about to end until you at that end point. It almost seems to come out of nowhere.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Randomness
So here's some just random pictures I've taken that I feel like deserve a little bit of background information.
I snapped some food pictures because I got asked what food is like here. It pretty great. So below you see beer and tapas. All I did was order the beer and they bring you the tapas for free! It's something that happens all over Granada. If you buy beer, a glass of wine, and even a soft drink they'll bring you some sort of tapas. This one consisted of Russian Salad (bottom right dish in both pictures) this is basically their potato salad that taste a little bit different because the mayo here taste different. It's got potatoes of course, peas, carrots and sometimes olives and eggs depending on who has made it. The most left plate in the bottom photo is basically ribs I think. I'm not sure and I didn't eat any of it because it wasn't that great. The middle plate is toast with kiwi and mayo plus like something similar to bacon but it looked uncooked so I passed on that. And then of course there's some bread. The tapas you get varies depending on which restaurant you go to. Also at some restaurants you get to pick the tapas you want.
Virginia and Pastries
So far the schedule I've had this month hasn't actually included a very strict routine. I think once my real classes start in October I'll be able to get a routine so my blog posts aren't so random and spread out. My goal had been to blog at least once a week if not twice a week and I haven't really been keeping up with it. Anyways things have been pretty good here.
I did get a cold because of the 30 degree temperature change from night and day but I've been told that's a very Spaniard thing to do so I feel better about it. Although it was terrible to run out of Kleenex brand tissues I found a pack of ten here for a euro and they're actually pretty soft and smell like Vicks! I'm finally able to breathe for real and I'm ready to do some exploring!
For the first time since I've been here I woke up at a decent time (8:15) and I feel like I'm going to do a lot today which is always the best feeling!
Oh let me tell you about Virginia--pronounced Beer-He-knee-ah (hopefully that makes sense....). But anyways she's the close to 60 year old women who started learning English in her late 50s!!! I mean amazing. I happened to be in ISA office with my roommate one afternoon and one of the staff asked us if we were interested in having a language exchange partner. This was one of the things I had planned to do during my time here in Spain so I jumped on this opportunity. The staff member proceeded to tell us that the woman was in here 50s in way that made me think this is a deterrent for most people but I just thought it was awesome that she wanted to practice her English. My roommate and I went together to meet with her two days later and let me just tell you this lady is amazing. She speaks English almost perfectly and only messes up with some sayings that are very much American English. And she is just beautiful. Think sophisticated European woman and that's her to a T. She dresses simply but with a lot of style and dies her hair a brilliant purplish red--She told me it's a powder that she gets from one the Arab shops you find as you walk up to the old moorish neighborhood. In all honesty I'm really jealous of the color and contemplating getting some of the powder she uses (Sorry Mom and Dad....) Anyways so that first evening we just sat and had a beer together--she wouldn't let us pay dang it! And she kept telling us how beautiful we were and how happy she was that we were there speaking with her.
She told us all about herself and walked us by where she lives and told us both that it's our home too now. She and her husband are both retired and her son and daughter both got married this past summer--in June and July. Her son lives in Madrid and her daughter lives in Granada. She's originally from Granada and was a teacher for most of her life. She is just amazing and has a view on life that I want to adopt. She told us she started to learn English and have a language exchange partner because, "Why not? I have time to do it and it's something I've always wanted so I'm just going to go for it. Life is short so enjoy it while you can." I love this! The entire time we were together she just kept telling us to enjoy everything. I made a comment about not wanting to eat a lot of sweets while I'm here and she goes 'Oh go ahead and do it! You're young and you can lose weight when you get back if you want to. Don't hold yourself back!" I've been letting myself do more of what I want and just enjoy this once in a lifetime trip. Below you can see the pastry I bought myself after class because I'd been eyeing them since I'd gotten to Granada.
It was amazing and perfect and the right thing to do. I'm really glad I did it.
But yeah so Virginia has been great and I ended up meeting up with her the next day on my own and she took me to see some absolutely beautiful churches here. We talked as we walked--her in English and me in Spanish. She's amazing about correcting my errors and I already feel like I'm improving ten fold just talking to her. She also told me that she's always here if I were to need help or anything which makes me feel great. I already love her and would want to just come back to visit her. She also told us that since emily and I both like shopping one day she'll take us shopping. She's really excited to show us her city and I can't wait to see all of it!
I did get a cold because of the 30 degree temperature change from night and day but I've been told that's a very Spaniard thing to do so I feel better about it. Although it was terrible to run out of Kleenex brand tissues I found a pack of ten here for a euro and they're actually pretty soft and smell like Vicks! I'm finally able to breathe for real and I'm ready to do some exploring!
For the first time since I've been here I woke up at a decent time (8:15) and I feel like I'm going to do a lot today which is always the best feeling!
Oh let me tell you about Virginia--pronounced Beer-He-knee-ah (hopefully that makes sense....). But anyways she's the close to 60 year old women who started learning English in her late 50s!!! I mean amazing. I happened to be in ISA office with my roommate one afternoon and one of the staff asked us if we were interested in having a language exchange partner. This was one of the things I had planned to do during my time here in Spain so I jumped on this opportunity. The staff member proceeded to tell us that the woman was in here 50s in way that made me think this is a deterrent for most people but I just thought it was awesome that she wanted to practice her English. My roommate and I went together to meet with her two days later and let me just tell you this lady is amazing. She speaks English almost perfectly and only messes up with some sayings that are very much American English. And she is just beautiful. Think sophisticated European woman and that's her to a T. She dresses simply but with a lot of style and dies her hair a brilliant purplish red--She told me it's a powder that she gets from one the Arab shops you find as you walk up to the old moorish neighborhood. In all honesty I'm really jealous of the color and contemplating getting some of the powder she uses (Sorry Mom and Dad....) Anyways so that first evening we just sat and had a beer together--she wouldn't let us pay dang it! And she kept telling us how beautiful we were and how happy she was that we were there speaking with her.
She told us all about herself and walked us by where she lives and told us both that it's our home too now. She and her husband are both retired and her son and daughter both got married this past summer--in June and July. Her son lives in Madrid and her daughter lives in Granada. She's originally from Granada and was a teacher for most of her life. She is just amazing and has a view on life that I want to adopt. She told us she started to learn English and have a language exchange partner because, "Why not? I have time to do it and it's something I've always wanted so I'm just going to go for it. Life is short so enjoy it while you can." I love this! The entire time we were together she just kept telling us to enjoy everything. I made a comment about not wanting to eat a lot of sweets while I'm here and she goes 'Oh go ahead and do it! You're young and you can lose weight when you get back if you want to. Don't hold yourself back!" I've been letting myself do more of what I want and just enjoy this once in a lifetime trip. Below you can see the pastry I bought myself after class because I'd been eyeing them since I'd gotten to Granada.
But yeah so Virginia has been great and I ended up meeting up with her the next day on my own and she took me to see some absolutely beautiful churches here. We talked as we walked--her in English and me in Spanish. She's amazing about correcting my errors and I already feel like I'm improving ten fold just talking to her. She also told me that she's always here if I were to need help or anything which makes me feel great. I already love her and would want to just come back to visit her. She also told us that since emily and I both like shopping one day she'll take us shopping. She's really excited to show us her city and I can't wait to see all of it!
Saturday, September 14, 2013
From tourist to local...hopefully!
So I realize it´s been a while since I posted. It's not like I've been busy busy but rather just lazy. I have been taking pictures more often for those of you who feel I wasn't taking enough *cough mom cough* You can check them out on Facebook. Also this post is going to be a little scattered because it's been so long since my last post. I'm just writing things as I remember them so hopefully you'll be able to follow.
Most days I just can't believe I am living here in a completely different country. I mean as soon as I walk out of my room and hear rapid fire Spanish it kind of hits me in the face. But even though it's been only 2 weeks that I've been here it's still amazing to walk around and I tend to just be in awe of my walk.
So far the hardest part I think is the weather. In the morning it'll be around 55 degrees when I wake up at like 9:30 and then it almost seems to get hot with a snap of the fingers. When I walk to class around 3:30 I am sweating buckets even with the cool breeze. It's been pretty much stuck around 85 degrees and walking up hill the entire time with the sun beating down on me is pretty painful for me--especially since I feel like I have to sit through 4 hours of class in my own stink. Thankfully I know the temperature is supposed to go down soon so it won't be as suffocating.
That right there is my only complaint. Everything else is pretty amazing.
Most amazing thing that's happened was yesterday (Friday). I was walking to class and I got stopped by someone who was asking for directions. One thing on my wish list for this trip was to be confused for a local. Sadly I don't know Granada well enough to be able to help the family but they still thought I lived here so yay! It was a pretty amazing moment for me and basically I was smiling the whole rest of the time I walked to class. Now I've changed the goal to being: Getting asked for directions and being able to give proper directions--completely in Spanish. Here's hoping!
The good thing is I'm already feeling pretty confident making my way around the city. The main roads are way less complicated than Pittsburgh's so that's a plus. The problem is that there are so many tiny roads that just make random turns out of nowhere. It makes it a little harder to navigate through side streets. It really helps that it's a pretty easy city to roam around. There's like next to no chance you'll end up in a bad part of town because there really aren't bad bad parts of town. There can be some when it's night time but I don't make it a point to go exploring at night so I should be safe. There hasn't been a moment that I've felt scared because the city is just full of people walking around so I haven't ever been the only one walking down a street. There's also way less homeless people/beggars than Pittsburgh believe it or not.
Today was a good day for exploring. Instead of eating the muffins for breakfast like we usually get we both decided we wanted go out for breakfast. We ended up at this place near one of the main roads. It was farther than we'd walked before but we just walked through the park new our place and along the river and eventually ended up at this restaurant. I got a piece of fresh bread toasted and I dribbled olive oil over it and then drank a cafe con leche. The total for my breakfast was 2 euro and it was so good! My roommate had a coke and a tortilla española (think quiche without the crust and with potatoes and onions. It's seriously amazing!) for only 4 euro. She was stuffed too. The restaurant is located in a pretty busy part of town but mostly because it's right across of a grocery store and on one of the main street of Granada.
Everything about this city draws me in--well except for the massive amounts of dog poop on the sidewalks. It's a bit ridiculous how much dog poop there is left on the sidewalks. Somedays it's like walking through a minefield. When we first arrived in Granada I saw a sign reminding you to pick up your dog's poop but I just thought it was like a friendly reminder....now I see it was more of a necessary command....Despite the dog poop Granada is a pretty clean city. There are street cleaning and sidewalk cleaning vehicles out daily. Below is a picture that I attempted to take to show you the dog poop reminder and the street cleaning vehicle. Excuse the poor quality...I literally basically ran behind it to be able to take these pictures....
But yeah they're out there daily...but I mean the dog poop they can't really do anything about. There are just so many freaking dogs--I swear like every 5th person on the street is walking with their dog. It's great! I saw the most adorable big dog today. I have no idea what breed it was but I wanted it haha It had long hair-like fur and floppy ears but was huge. It was the coolest looking dog and I'm so made I didn't take a picture because It looked really well behaved.
Anyways. Granada is beautiful despite the dog poop and I am loving it here minus the seemingly drastic temperature changes....
Most days I just can't believe I am living here in a completely different country. I mean as soon as I walk out of my room and hear rapid fire Spanish it kind of hits me in the face. But even though it's been only 2 weeks that I've been here it's still amazing to walk around and I tend to just be in awe of my walk.
So far the hardest part I think is the weather. In the morning it'll be around 55 degrees when I wake up at like 9:30 and then it almost seems to get hot with a snap of the fingers. When I walk to class around 3:30 I am sweating buckets even with the cool breeze. It's been pretty much stuck around 85 degrees and walking up hill the entire time with the sun beating down on me is pretty painful for me--especially since I feel like I have to sit through 4 hours of class in my own stink. Thankfully I know the temperature is supposed to go down soon so it won't be as suffocating.
That right there is my only complaint. Everything else is pretty amazing.
Most amazing thing that's happened was yesterday (Friday). I was walking to class and I got stopped by someone who was asking for directions. One thing on my wish list for this trip was to be confused for a local. Sadly I don't know Granada well enough to be able to help the family but they still thought I lived here so yay! It was a pretty amazing moment for me and basically I was smiling the whole rest of the time I walked to class. Now I've changed the goal to being: Getting asked for directions and being able to give proper directions--completely in Spanish. Here's hoping!
The good thing is I'm already feeling pretty confident making my way around the city. The main roads are way less complicated than Pittsburgh's so that's a plus. The problem is that there are so many tiny roads that just make random turns out of nowhere. It makes it a little harder to navigate through side streets. It really helps that it's a pretty easy city to roam around. There's like next to no chance you'll end up in a bad part of town because there really aren't bad bad parts of town. There can be some when it's night time but I don't make it a point to go exploring at night so I should be safe. There hasn't been a moment that I've felt scared because the city is just full of people walking around so I haven't ever been the only one walking down a street. There's also way less homeless people/beggars than Pittsburgh believe it or not.
Today was a good day for exploring. Instead of eating the muffins for breakfast like we usually get we both decided we wanted go out for breakfast. We ended up at this place near one of the main roads. It was farther than we'd walked before but we just walked through the park new our place and along the river and eventually ended up at this restaurant. I got a piece of fresh bread toasted and I dribbled olive oil over it and then drank a cafe con leche. The total for my breakfast was 2 euro and it was so good! My roommate had a coke and a tortilla española (think quiche without the crust and with potatoes and onions. It's seriously amazing!) for only 4 euro. She was stuffed too. The restaurant is located in a pretty busy part of town but mostly because it's right across of a grocery store and on one of the main street of Granada.
Everything about this city draws me in--well except for the massive amounts of dog poop on the sidewalks. It's a bit ridiculous how much dog poop there is left on the sidewalks. Somedays it's like walking through a minefield. When we first arrived in Granada I saw a sign reminding you to pick up your dog's poop but I just thought it was like a friendly reminder....now I see it was more of a necessary command....Despite the dog poop Granada is a pretty clean city. There are street cleaning and sidewalk cleaning vehicles out daily. Below is a picture that I attempted to take to show you the dog poop reminder and the street cleaning vehicle. Excuse the poor quality...I literally basically ran behind it to be able to take these pictures....
Anyways. Granada is beautiful despite the dog poop and I am loving it here minus the seemingly drastic temperature changes....
Thursday, September 5, 2013
A pomegranate without tax and Bob the Builder
I know this is super late but this week ended up being one thing after the other so here's what my first couple of days in Granada were like.
You may be wondering about the title of this post. Well I'll explain. So pomegranate? The word granada in Spanish actually means pomegranate. If you check out the seal of Spain that they have on their flag you'll actually see a small pomegranate at the bottom. Remember Fernando and Isabel? This is actually their combined seal that was created after they joined their two kingdoms when they married. If you see their seal on a building that was finished before 1492--for example the cathedral where they were supposed to buried in Toledo--you won't be able to find a pomegranate. They added the pomegranate to their seal after they conquered the Arabs in the city of Granada. It's pretty cool. Although ironically I have yet to even see a pomegranate here in Granada....
Anyways, the without tax part? There's no tax! If the sign says that a scarf costs 1.95 euro the store clerk gives you back .05 euro. It's a beautiful thing. I'd say it basically makes up for the euro to dollar difference for the most part so I guess in a way it's kind of like there is tax since I'm American. The cool thing though is that a lot of things are way cheaper than in the US. I don't know....just something to think about...
And Bob the Builder. This has to do with my homestay. So my piso--that's an apartment in Spain--is not really that close to the center of Granada. It's kind of like south east of the city center I'd say. It's anywhere from a 20 to 30 minute walk depending on where I'm going or how fast I'm walking. The nice thing though is that I'm mean it's Granada so it's a beautiful walk no matter what. About 5 mins away from my homestay there's the gorgeous park that goes for about a half mile or quarter mile--I'm terrible at distance--but it's just there right along the river that comes from the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Right now since there's no snow on the mountains the river is almost non existent but soon it'll start running like a real river. So as I'm walking to class I could just walk through this park full of orange trees, shrubs, and benches. At night parents bring their kids because there's a part that has a jungle gym. So as I walk home from class I see kids and dogs without leashes running around in the park and having fun. It's great. Oh but I forgot Bob. Okay so where I'm living a lot of the buildings look extremely similar and I've almost attempted to enter a couple of apartment buildings that aren't mine UNTIL I finally realized that where I turn to go into my building there's a sign for what I think is a welder that has this handyman cartoon on it that looks exactly like Bob the Builder....So now I know to look for Bob and I'll know I made it home.
My apartment building doesn't actually face the street where its address says it is but it's part of the building that does face the street. The actual apartment that I'm in is surprisingly modern. I'm here with my roommate from Michigan. We share a room with two twin beds and a bathroom. The family that is hosting us consists of a mom and dad in the early to mid fifties, a 18 or 19 year old daughter, and a 24 year old son. The parents are so nice! The dad was actually the one to pick us up from the bus stop and then show us around Granada so we knew where we were supposed to go the next morning since we had our placement exam the morning after we arrived in Granada. He's a pretty funny guy and made more than a few jokes as he walked us through the city.
So far so good here in Granada!
You may be wondering about the title of this post. Well I'll explain. So pomegranate? The word granada in Spanish actually means pomegranate. If you check out the seal of Spain that they have on their flag you'll actually see a small pomegranate at the bottom. Remember Fernando and Isabel? This is actually their combined seal that was created after they joined their two kingdoms when they married. If you see their seal on a building that was finished before 1492--for example the cathedral where they were supposed to buried in Toledo--you won't be able to find a pomegranate. They added the pomegranate to their seal after they conquered the Arabs in the city of Granada. It's pretty cool. Although ironically I have yet to even see a pomegranate here in Granada....
Anyways, the without tax part? There's no tax! If the sign says that a scarf costs 1.95 euro the store clerk gives you back .05 euro. It's a beautiful thing. I'd say it basically makes up for the euro to dollar difference for the most part so I guess in a way it's kind of like there is tax since I'm American. The cool thing though is that a lot of things are way cheaper than in the US. I don't know....just something to think about...
And Bob the Builder. This has to do with my homestay. So my piso--that's an apartment in Spain--is not really that close to the center of Granada. It's kind of like south east of the city center I'd say. It's anywhere from a 20 to 30 minute walk depending on where I'm going or how fast I'm walking. The nice thing though is that I'm mean it's Granada so it's a beautiful walk no matter what. About 5 mins away from my homestay there's the gorgeous park that goes for about a half mile or quarter mile--I'm terrible at distance--but it's just there right along the river that comes from the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Right now since there's no snow on the mountains the river is almost non existent but soon it'll start running like a real river. So as I'm walking to class I could just walk through this park full of orange trees, shrubs, and benches. At night parents bring their kids because there's a part that has a jungle gym. So as I walk home from class I see kids and dogs without leashes running around in the park and having fun. It's great. Oh but I forgot Bob. Okay so where I'm living a lot of the buildings look extremely similar and I've almost attempted to enter a couple of apartment buildings that aren't mine UNTIL I finally realized that where I turn to go into my building there's a sign for what I think is a welder that has this handyman cartoon on it that looks exactly like Bob the Builder....So now I know to look for Bob and I'll know I made it home.
My apartment building doesn't actually face the street where its address says it is but it's part of the building that does face the street. The actual apartment that I'm in is surprisingly modern. I'm here with my roommate from Michigan. We share a room with two twin beds and a bathroom. The family that is hosting us consists of a mom and dad in the early to mid fifties, a 18 or 19 year old daughter, and a 24 year old son. The parents are so nice! The dad was actually the one to pick us up from the bus stop and then show us around Granada so we knew where we were supposed to go the next morning since we had our placement exam the morning after we arrived in Granada. He's a pretty funny guy and made more than a few jokes as he walked us through the city.
So far so good here in Granada!
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Ta-li-do Toh-lei-do
First off I LOVED THIS CITY!!!! Toledo is absolutely gorgeous!
This post is going to be mostly a picture blog since you know I actually took pictures this time....
But here's just an intro while I wait for all my pictures to load so I can choose which ones I'll use.
Toledo is a super cool city. At one point it was the capital of Spain well the capital of wait there was of Spain. The Catholic King and Queen lived in this city as they worked to unite the different parts of Spain that were under the rule of many different people--at this point there were still Arabs in the Iberian Peninsula. Granada was still controlled by the Moors as some people say. So in Toledo there's a palace and a cathedral that was built especially for the Catholic King and Queen--Fernando and Isabella. What I believe is the most interesting thing about this city is that when the 'Nando and Isabel decided to move their residence to Madrid this city basically got abandoned and because of that it got stuck in the past. So walking around this city you really feel like if you were wearing different clothes you could be walking around in the 14th century or something like that--I don't remember the actual years there were there but it's old feeling. There is so much cobblestone and teeny tiny alleyways that it's absolutely gorgeous. There isn't a lot of commercialism either so if everyone dressed up like the proper time period it would totally trick your mind to thinking that you got transported back in time....
So to start out your picture tour I've got a picture from the bus of the view as we're driving around the outskirts of the city.
Yeah it's a little blurry....sorry....
But then our guide let us get off the bus and take some pictures....this was my attempt at a panorama but you know not actually put all together and stuff...
I hope the gorgeousness of this view translates well enough.... We got back on the bus only to get off again a less than a mile later. Below is the view from where the bus parked us....
We eventually walked over the bridge and I just thought the plants below looked strange so I snapped a picture....in the picture they don't look as strange I'd say...
It was a pretty short walk to get to the cathedral where the pictures below were taken. It was a pretty cool church and there were lots of details all around. It was built for the Catholic king and queen because they wanted to be buried there--they're actually buried in Granada--so there are a lot of symbols that pertain to them. You'll see the letter f and the letter y everywhere for their names--Isabel spelled her name Ysabel back when she lived.
The courtyard in the middle of the church is acutally a Moorish style. Many homes in the Arab world have this type of courtyard to show wealth or something like that. This one had orange trees which I thought was awesome.
The walls on the interior part had all different carvings like the two below. I personally thought the top one was cool so I took a picture. And then the bottom one our tour guide pointed out to us and explained it as a monkey, wearing a monkshood, taking a dump, reading a book. Those were his exact words since he said it in English. He though it was hilarious and I mean it does look pretty silly....
This is the royal seal of the catholic king and queen above.
My attempt below at being cool and artistic...fail...
Below is a picture of my group's tour guide. He was pretty cool and knew a lot of stuff. His voice though was like an announcer's voice but that could be because he spoke so so slowly. I think I have a video of him speaking I'll post...
These next few pictures are pictures of the royal palace. It's pretty cool looking in my opinion.
At lunch we had beer that is made in Toledo. It was actually pretty good and the bottle looks pretty cool.
At that ends my trip to Toledo. After the tour we got on the bus and went to the hotel. Since our hotel was so far from downtown we didn't end up leaving it and just ate dinner there before leaving for Granada in the morning.
This post is going to be mostly a picture blog since you know I actually took pictures this time....
But here's just an intro while I wait for all my pictures to load so I can choose which ones I'll use.
Toledo is a super cool city. At one point it was the capital of Spain well the capital of wait there was of Spain. The Catholic King and Queen lived in this city as they worked to unite the different parts of Spain that were under the rule of many different people--at this point there were still Arabs in the Iberian Peninsula. Granada was still controlled by the Moors as some people say. So in Toledo there's a palace and a cathedral that was built especially for the Catholic King and Queen--Fernando and Isabella. What I believe is the most interesting thing about this city is that when the 'Nando and Isabel decided to move their residence to Madrid this city basically got abandoned and because of that it got stuck in the past. So walking around this city you really feel like if you were wearing different clothes you could be walking around in the 14th century or something like that--I don't remember the actual years there were there but it's old feeling. There is so much cobblestone and teeny tiny alleyways that it's absolutely gorgeous. There isn't a lot of commercialism either so if everyone dressed up like the proper time period it would totally trick your mind to thinking that you got transported back in time....
So to start out your picture tour I've got a picture from the bus of the view as we're driving around the outskirts of the city.
But then our guide let us get off the bus and take some pictures....this was my attempt at a panorama but you know not actually put all together and stuff...
After the cathedral we went to a building that was built as a synagogue using Arab style architecture but then was forced to become a church in medieval times and then became a museum and is referred to as a synagogue. Did I lose you? Yeah I had trouble typing it out too so don't feel bad. I didn't end up getting any clear pictures so unfortunately you don't get to see this building but it wasn't super super cool so don't feel like you're missing out or anything.
After this synagogue thing we walked on...
Friday, August 30, 2013
My feet hurt and it's 2 am...
It is almost 2am here in Madrid and I am so exhausted. Today was packed full of sight-seeing, walking, eating, more walking, and having lots of fun with cool people. Our morning started with a visit to el Museo del Prado. It's this famous museum in Spain where they have the collected the collections of previous Spanish kings and put them all in one place. I got to see paintings by Francisco de Goya, Diego Velasquez, and El Greco in this museum. Our tour guide was amazing! The whole tour was completely in Spanish and I surprised myself by understanding even minus a few art words. It was a great self-confidence boost. Another plus was that I got to see painting by El Greco who is one of my favorites and most important of all I got to se Las Meninas de Velasquez. This is a painting that I learned about in high school Spanish and have always wanted to see. It was just a great experience and the tour guide taught us a lot about the painting that I had never heard before.
After el Prado--which is basically on the same street as my hotel here in Madrid--we headed to la Reina Sofia which is another art museum but it's contemporary art only. I'm not going to lie I am a big fan of realism and not much else so this wasn't my favorite place but I can now say I've seen works of Picasso more importantly I've seen Guernica. I learned the history behind the painting but I still couldn't see how it depicted this bombing of women and children on market day during the civil war here in Spain until she started to explain the weird figures and things I was seeing. I more so enjoyed hearing the history than seeing the painting. Although it was pretty funny to see the two attendants on either side of the paint jump up and run at people who were attempting to take a picture of it. I also think another reason I wasn't very impressed by this museum was that by the time we got there it had been 2 hours walking around and standing and then we spent another 2 hours walking and standing around at Reina Sofia too and that was only the beginning of my day of walking around....
After the museums it was around 2pm--which is lunch time here in Spain--so we were pretty hungry since we had eaten breakfast around 9am. And by we I mean my hotel roommate Maggie, her friend from college Morgan and five other girls all from different places around the US. We were all ready for lunch but wanted to go somewhere not on the streets near our hotel so we ended up somewhere near the Gran Via which is a major street in Spain.
Getting to Gran Via was an adventure. One girl had told us she was a metro guru so we decided to take the metro from our hotel to the street where we wanted to eat. After figuring out the ticket machines we were heading to the metro station at Gran Via or so we thought....it turns out that today they had shut down part of the metro between two stops and Gran via was the next stop between the two. However we didn't realize this until one of us noticed the train had started to go the opposite way that it had just been going. We ended up and the station that we had just come from so we thought 'okay it's just weird Spanish trains and we just stepped onto the wrong one and so we got off and got on a train that was heading back the way we wanted to be going. I'm not sure how but someone realized that we maybe weren't going to go to the Gran via station but once again back to where we had started so we all jumped off and just decided we'd walk. It actually wasn't a super long walk to Gran Via from where we got off the metro which was nice. From there we just walked around looking for a place to eat it took us a while but most of the restaurants have people outside that will hand you a menu and try to get you to come eat at their restaurant. We finally settled on one that had an very very attractive guy trying to get people to try his restaurant--I mean we were a group of 8 girls so of course we picked that restaurant....
The food was great! I had a beer and some of the other girls had sangria and we just each ordered what we wanted to eat and than passed it around so we could all try everything that we want. I've discovered my new favorite food--croquetas. They are basically similar to hush puppies but they can be stuffed with all different kind of pureed combinations. I had ordered curried chicken and apples and it was amazing. You get like 4-6 depending on the restaurant and they are like thumb-size only wider. Some other girls ordered croquetas as well and I got to try a vegetable and a seafood one.
After lunch we sort of split up a bit and narrowed the group down to six of us. From lunch we decided to find the Plaza Mayor. It's this huge square where they do lots of important things in Spain--yeah I know such a great explanation. I mean it was pretty cool but there were lots of people dressed as different characters like Puss in Boot and Spiderman and they would walk up to you and ask if you wanted to take a picture with them and if you did they expected euros. I ended up attempting to take a picture on my "new" phone that I received the night before. Below you'll see the sign of Plaza Mayor and maybe not much else. On the building where this sign was there was a mural of lots of naked people. The group of us got our picture taken in front of it by some other tourist. It wasn't my camera because like an idiot I didn't think to bring mine....but yeah so below is the bad picture from my phone and the only picture I took today unfortunately...
Plaza mayor was just okay for me. Mostly I was having a great time getting to know all the girls I was walking around with.
MORE LATER....MUST SLEEP....
Madrid...continued...
So after visiting the Plaza Mayor we had to decide where to go next. Most of the group wanted to go see the Palacio Real or Royal Palace...and I mean a group full girls?? Of course we want to see the Royal palace!! This place is very reminisceint of Buckingham Palace. The gates really reminded me of the gates at Buckingham Palace. I wish I had taken a picture because it was really cool to see. They have tours of the inside because the king and queen of Spain don’t actually live there. It’s got about 100—I think—rooms and that’s just too much up-keep but they do hold a lot of important events at this palace. It shares a square or plaza with what the Spaniards call the ugliest cathedral in Spain. I'm not going to lie to you it's not the prettiest I've ever seen but the ugliest? I'm not so sure. Despite it's ugliness the Prince of Spain got married there so it can be too bad of a place....
In the plaza there were a lot of people sitting on the stairs on the cathedral because it's a gorgeous view of the palace and also there was a guy playing a violin so looking at the palace and being serenaded was pretty great....
There was one place the we wanted to go before it got dark. Right across from our hotel there were botanical gardens that were way way bigger than Phipps (shout out to my Pittsburgh people). BUT in order to get back to the gardens and essentially our hotel it was necessary to find a metro station to catch it back to our hotel--no way were we walking back to the hotel...it would have taken us at least an hour actually probably more than an hour. Thankfully one of the girls in our group had brought map of Madrid and that made it easy to get around and find everything we wanted to find. It also conveniently had the metro stations marked on it. So after heading in the wrong direction once--that was all my fault--we were heading towards the metro station. It just conveniently took us through the gorgeous park with a beautiful fountain. The best part was there were shrub mazes and there was a little kid chasing a wiener dog through one of them. It was adorable and they were both having so much fun.... We stopped for a little just to enjoy and then made it to the metro and after 2 trains were back near our hotel and the gardens.
It only cost us 1,50 euro to go in because one of us had a student ID. The gardens were great and beautiful but at that point it had been about 7 to 8 walking at standing so my feet were just screaming at me... Thankfully there were fountains all over that I could just sit down on as you'll see in the picture below courtesy of Maggie. We were listening to one of the girls talk about her college.
After el Prado--which is basically on the same street as my hotel here in Madrid--we headed to la Reina Sofia which is another art museum but it's contemporary art only. I'm not going to lie I am a big fan of realism and not much else so this wasn't my favorite place but I can now say I've seen works of Picasso more importantly I've seen Guernica. I learned the history behind the painting but I still couldn't see how it depicted this bombing of women and children on market day during the civil war here in Spain until she started to explain the weird figures and things I was seeing. I more so enjoyed hearing the history than seeing the painting. Although it was pretty funny to see the two attendants on either side of the paint jump up and run at people who were attempting to take a picture of it. I also think another reason I wasn't very impressed by this museum was that by the time we got there it had been 2 hours walking around and standing and then we spent another 2 hours walking and standing around at Reina Sofia too and that was only the beginning of my day of walking around....
After the museums it was around 2pm--which is lunch time here in Spain--so we were pretty hungry since we had eaten breakfast around 9am. And by we I mean my hotel roommate Maggie, her friend from college Morgan and five other girls all from different places around the US. We were all ready for lunch but wanted to go somewhere not on the streets near our hotel so we ended up somewhere near the Gran Via which is a major street in Spain.
Getting to Gran Via was an adventure. One girl had told us she was a metro guru so we decided to take the metro from our hotel to the street where we wanted to eat. After figuring out the ticket machines we were heading to the metro station at Gran Via or so we thought....it turns out that today they had shut down part of the metro between two stops and Gran via was the next stop between the two. However we didn't realize this until one of us noticed the train had started to go the opposite way that it had just been going. We ended up and the station that we had just come from so we thought 'okay it's just weird Spanish trains and we just stepped onto the wrong one and so we got off and got on a train that was heading back the way we wanted to be going. I'm not sure how but someone realized that we maybe weren't going to go to the Gran via station but once again back to where we had started so we all jumped off and just decided we'd walk. It actually wasn't a super long walk to Gran Via from where we got off the metro which was nice. From there we just walked around looking for a place to eat it took us a while but most of the restaurants have people outside that will hand you a menu and try to get you to come eat at their restaurant. We finally settled on one that had an very very attractive guy trying to get people to try his restaurant--I mean we were a group of 8 girls so of course we picked that restaurant....
The food was great! I had a beer and some of the other girls had sangria and we just each ordered what we wanted to eat and than passed it around so we could all try everything that we want. I've discovered my new favorite food--croquetas. They are basically similar to hush puppies but they can be stuffed with all different kind of pureed combinations. I had ordered curried chicken and apples and it was amazing. You get like 4-6 depending on the restaurant and they are like thumb-size only wider. Some other girls ordered croquetas as well and I got to try a vegetable and a seafood one.
After lunch we sort of split up a bit and narrowed the group down to six of us. From lunch we decided to find the Plaza Mayor. It's this huge square where they do lots of important things in Spain--yeah I know such a great explanation. I mean it was pretty cool but there were lots of people dressed as different characters like Puss in Boot and Spiderman and they would walk up to you and ask if you wanted to take a picture with them and if you did they expected euros. I ended up attempting to take a picture on my "new" phone that I received the night before. Below you'll see the sign of Plaza Mayor and maybe not much else. On the building where this sign was there was a mural of lots of naked people. The group of us got our picture taken in front of it by some other tourist. It wasn't my camera because like an idiot I didn't think to bring mine....but yeah so below is the bad picture from my phone and the only picture I took today unfortunately...
MORE LATER....MUST SLEEP....
Madrid...continued...
So after visiting the Plaza Mayor we had to decide where to go next. Most of the group wanted to go see the Palacio Real or Royal Palace...and I mean a group full girls?? Of course we want to see the Royal palace!! This place is very reminisceint of Buckingham Palace. The gates really reminded me of the gates at Buckingham Palace. I wish I had taken a picture because it was really cool to see. They have tours of the inside because the king and queen of Spain don’t actually live there. It’s got about 100—I think—rooms and that’s just too much up-keep but they do hold a lot of important events at this palace. It shares a square or plaza with what the Spaniards call the ugliest cathedral in Spain. I'm not going to lie to you it's not the prettiest I've ever seen but the ugliest? I'm not so sure. Despite it's ugliness the Prince of Spain got married there so it can be too bad of a place....
In the plaza there were a lot of people sitting on the stairs on the cathedral because it's a gorgeous view of the palace and also there was a guy playing a violin so looking at the palace and being serenaded was pretty great....
There was one place the we wanted to go before it got dark. Right across from our hotel there were botanical gardens that were way way bigger than Phipps (shout out to my Pittsburgh people). BUT in order to get back to the gardens and essentially our hotel it was necessary to find a metro station to catch it back to our hotel--no way were we walking back to the hotel...it would have taken us at least an hour actually probably more than an hour. Thankfully one of the girls in our group had brought map of Madrid and that made it easy to get around and find everything we wanted to find. It also conveniently had the metro stations marked on it. So after heading in the wrong direction once--that was all my fault--we were heading towards the metro station. It just conveniently took us through the gorgeous park with a beautiful fountain. The best part was there were shrub mazes and there was a little kid chasing a wiener dog through one of them. It was adorable and they were both having so much fun.... We stopped for a little just to enjoy and then made it to the metro and after 2 trains were back near our hotel and the gardens.
It only cost us 1,50 euro to go in because one of us had a student ID. The gardens were great and beautiful but at that point it had been about 7 to 8 walking at standing so my feet were just screaming at me... Thankfully there were fountains all over that I could just sit down on as you'll see in the picture below courtesy of Maggie. We were listening to one of the girls talk about her college.
I'm not sure but I feel like you can just see my exhaustion. But anyways I'm sitting next Morgan--Maggie's friend from college--and Natalie--the one who brought the map. Obviously the girl talking was telling us a shocking story but I just wanted to show the fountain....
After a while even one was ready to head back to the hotel and hopefully a little bit of rest before going to dinner and maybe going out in Madrid so we left and headed back to our hotel across the street.
We decided to meet in the lobby to head out for dinner. About six of us went together and there was another group of six that we had decided to split from. We ended up just walking around for a bit and eventually found a place that had outdoor seating. The food was just okay...nothing special but seriously expensive for what little we got. Dinner ended up getting ruined by a group of guys--American from California. They had decided they wanted to hang out with us and we were just interested in getting to know the girls in our group and turned them down. They took it personally and ended up shouting at us and calling a names and insulting all of us. It was an experience I hope never to repeat and by the end we were more than ready to just leave. Most of us wanted to head back to the hotel because not only was it mean it was a little scary because they were huge guys that were very angry and they didn't seem interested in leaving us alone....
So after that disappointing end to the night we headed back to the hotel and just shared a bottle or two of wine. Maggie, Morgan and I all headed to bed while the rest decided to venture outside again. I didn't end up falling asleep until 4 though and our wake up call was at 7:30 so we could head to Toledo....
Thursday, August 29, 2013
The First 48....
.....although I think this will just cover about the first 24--hours I mean--but there's a TV show that's called the title so I wanted to use it. Anyways I've finally made it Madrid, España! It was quite the ordeal. Right now I'm just hanging in my hotel room by myself--my roommate hasn't arrived in Madrid yet. I have time to kill and I'm at that point of being so tired I'm basically hyper and there's no way I could nap. Besides I'm pretty sure to avoid jetlag you're supposed to stay awake anyways.
So since I have the time I'd love to fill you all in on what's happened so far. I'll warn you this may go into detail but most likely my other posts won't be so much like a timeline.
Anyways! I had this idea to do a tally of bad and good of today simply because it was just a roller coaster kind of day with no brakes. So here goes!
Not so good: My Thursday morning started out early (5am). I'm the person who doesn't sleep when they're excited so I didn't end up staying asleep for very long.
Good: I was able to download one of my favorite Meg Cabot books in Spanish onto my Kindle for the flight--which I didn't really end up using because I mean the plane had awesome movies.
Good: My mom really helped me reduce the size of my pieces of luggage--something I had been fretting over for the last couple of days.
Bad to good: We left later than I had planned on but it actually worked out perfectly and I had more than enough time to get to my flight.
Interesting: My mom and I had planned to hit an Urban Outfitters before heading to the airport because I needed to replace a pair TOMS and take them to Spain with me. I attempted to navigate us to a UO that was on Broadway somewhere in what I think was supposed to be SOHO (is that even a place?) but I ended up taking us to Brooklyn. We drove through some pretty unique looking neighborhoods and some bad traffic before realizing the store wasn't at the address the GPS was taking us to. Thankfully GPS is something you can change and I eventually got us to the proper Brooklyn UO! I got my TOMS and we picked up and picnic type lunch from Trader Joe's just down the block before heading to the airport.
Bad: As I was unloading my suitcases from the car to head into the airport I was looking for my credit/debit cards because we thought we might need one for flight check-in. Lo and behold--not sure if that's used correctly--they were nowhere to be found. It seems when I was being responsible and making photocopies of them I forgot to take them out of the printer and put them in my purse so they stayed in Danville while I headed to Spain. :/
Not so great: So we parked at gate/terminal/lot 8 to check in for American Airlines because my flight info said American Airlines but I didn't think about the fact that in smaller print it said operated by Iberia. So that meant we had to jump on the tram thing to head back to a different terminal.
GOOD: The guy who weighed my checked bag let me put lots of more stuff in after he weighed it the first time. I'm pretty sure it was way more than 50 lbs but he didn't seem to care nor did he charge me. It really made my carry-ons more manageable. I'm so very thankful for that.
Good: The girl I sat next to on the plane was SO nice. She was helpful and friendly but not too friendly. She's from New York but her family live in Sevilla and some in Granada so she does now too. She was impressed that I had chosen Granada because so many students go to Madrid or Barcelona. She also told me that Granada has become very much of a young persons' city and that it's a great place. I'm glad that I sat next to her because it calmed me a lot.
Good: The movies that had on the plane included two that I missed seeing this summer but had really wanted to see so I watched The Hobbit in Spanish and then Iron Man 3 but that one I changed to English because I feel like only Robert Downey Jr. can be Tony Stark and that some weird Spanaird's voice over just wasn't going to cut it for the movie. Watching the Hobbit in Spanish was a pretty cool experience and I understood a lot more than I thought I would based on the vocabulary used in the movie.
Good: I managed to not hyperventilate during takeoff and even used the scary on plane bathrooms--something that I usually avoid at all cost because they really freak me out.
Good and bad: My plane landed at just before 6 and I got through customs and baggage claim by about 7am with no issues but nobody was going to even meet me at the airport until 10am. Waiting 3 hours was driving me a little stir crazy. Finally after 2+ hours of waiting in the lobby outside of baggage claim I happened to look at the doors where you come out of baggage claim and I saw it said Sala 11 y Sala 12. My info packet said that someone would meet me at Sala 1 so I was obviously in the wrong spot. I started to walk around and finally worked up enough courage to ask an airport employee for directions. I asked him in completely broken Spanish because I was so nervous and he responded in rapid fire Spanish. It was so fast and jumbled together that I was really only able to catch Terminal 1, free bus, across the street outside, and his gesture that showed me I wasn't anywhere near where I needed to be. At this point it's probably about 10am and the bus has a definite leaving time of 11am and I still wasn't exactly sure what I was supposed to do to get to terminal 1 and sala 1. I started walking outside crossed a street and looked to see a bus drive by that had T1, T2, T3 on a screen as well as gratis--the Spanish word for free. There were about at least 6 or 7 buses already parked but I had feeling I wanted the one I had just seen drive past but it had gone to the very end of the terminal and I was near the middle. I started booking it and saw it parked with its doors open. I still wasn't positive that this was the bus I wanted so I asked the driver in my broken Spanish and he shook his head yes. I lugged my suitcases onto the bus and got a standing spot so that I could hold onto my luggage. That bus ride, let me tell you. At one point in what I swear was a 3 mi bus drive--this place is even more spread out than JFK if that's a reference for anyone--the driver basically makes a complete circle and I flew to the other side of the bus because my luggage is basically heavier than me. I got some bruises on my arm trying to keep my luggage all together and not letting it run into anyone.
I'm not sure how to rate this: After the scary bus ride he lets us off at the end of terminal 1 so I start back tracking and I'm starting to see signs for Sala 1...it's at the complete other end of the Terminal...so I'm booking it because it's got to be getting close to 10:30am. I finally make it and I stand next to a girl who looks like she might be a student right outside of the doors coming from baggage claim. She looks at my luggage tag--with its ISA logo on it--and says she thinks she heard ISA people over there--pointing to a group of kids near the exit doors. I'm like 'success! I've done it!' so I walk over and ask a girl are you with ISA and she says yes so I join the rest of the group on the ground. Nobody is talking to anybody. It's like complete silence until once girl says quietly, "where's that other group going?" and someone answers her, "I think someone said Granada." I'm immediately beginning to question if I where I'm supposed to be. It takes me a good 5 minutes to work up the courage to ask the girl again if this is ISA Granada. She tells me no and points to the other group. So I walk over slowly and one girl says 'hi you going to Granada?' and I know I've finally accomplished it and made it to where I'm supposed to be. I breathe a sigh of relief as the girl asks me where I'm from and starts a conversation. I'm here. I made it and I'm going to be able to at least somewhat find my way.
Overall today was a GOOD day with just a few not so greats and bads tucked in there to keep it interesting! So far so good on the being/studying/living in Spain thing....
So since I have the time I'd love to fill you all in on what's happened so far. I'll warn you this may go into detail but most likely my other posts won't be so much like a timeline.
Anyways! I had this idea to do a tally of bad and good of today simply because it was just a roller coaster kind of day with no brakes. So here goes!
Not so good: My Thursday morning started out early (5am). I'm the person who doesn't sleep when they're excited so I didn't end up staying asleep for very long.
Good: I was able to download one of my favorite Meg Cabot books in Spanish onto my Kindle for the flight--which I didn't really end up using because I mean the plane had awesome movies.
Good: My mom really helped me reduce the size of my pieces of luggage--something I had been fretting over for the last couple of days.
Bad to good: We left later than I had planned on but it actually worked out perfectly and I had more than enough time to get to my flight.
Interesting: My mom and I had planned to hit an Urban Outfitters before heading to the airport because I needed to replace a pair TOMS and take them to Spain with me. I attempted to navigate us to a UO that was on Broadway somewhere in what I think was supposed to be SOHO (is that even a place?) but I ended up taking us to Brooklyn. We drove through some pretty unique looking neighborhoods and some bad traffic before realizing the store wasn't at the address the GPS was taking us to. Thankfully GPS is something you can change and I eventually got us to the proper Brooklyn UO! I got my TOMS and we picked up and picnic type lunch from Trader Joe's just down the block before heading to the airport.
Bad: As I was unloading my suitcases from the car to head into the airport I was looking for my credit/debit cards because we thought we might need one for flight check-in. Lo and behold--not sure if that's used correctly--they were nowhere to be found. It seems when I was being responsible and making photocopies of them I forgot to take them out of the printer and put them in my purse so they stayed in Danville while I headed to Spain. :/
Not so great: So we parked at gate/terminal/lot 8 to check in for American Airlines because my flight info said American Airlines but I didn't think about the fact that in smaller print it said operated by Iberia. So that meant we had to jump on the tram thing to head back to a different terminal.
GOOD: The guy who weighed my checked bag let me put lots of more stuff in after he weighed it the first time. I'm pretty sure it was way more than 50 lbs but he didn't seem to care nor did he charge me. It really made my carry-ons more manageable. I'm so very thankful for that.
Good: The girl I sat next to on the plane was SO nice. She was helpful and friendly but not too friendly. She's from New York but her family live in Sevilla and some in Granada so she does now too. She was impressed that I had chosen Granada because so many students go to Madrid or Barcelona. She also told me that Granada has become very much of a young persons' city and that it's a great place. I'm glad that I sat next to her because it calmed me a lot.
Good: The movies that had on the plane included two that I missed seeing this summer but had really wanted to see so I watched The Hobbit in Spanish and then Iron Man 3 but that one I changed to English because I feel like only Robert Downey Jr. can be Tony Stark and that some weird Spanaird's voice over just wasn't going to cut it for the movie. Watching the Hobbit in Spanish was a pretty cool experience and I understood a lot more than I thought I would based on the vocabulary used in the movie.
Good: I managed to not hyperventilate during takeoff and even used the scary on plane bathrooms--something that I usually avoid at all cost because they really freak me out.
Good and bad: My plane landed at just before 6 and I got through customs and baggage claim by about 7am with no issues but nobody was going to even meet me at the airport until 10am. Waiting 3 hours was driving me a little stir crazy. Finally after 2+ hours of waiting in the lobby outside of baggage claim I happened to look at the doors where you come out of baggage claim and I saw it said Sala 11 y Sala 12. My info packet said that someone would meet me at Sala 1 so I was obviously in the wrong spot. I started to walk around and finally worked up enough courage to ask an airport employee for directions. I asked him in completely broken Spanish because I was so nervous and he responded in rapid fire Spanish. It was so fast and jumbled together that I was really only able to catch Terminal 1, free bus, across the street outside, and his gesture that showed me I wasn't anywhere near where I needed to be. At this point it's probably about 10am and the bus has a definite leaving time of 11am and I still wasn't exactly sure what I was supposed to do to get to terminal 1 and sala 1. I started walking outside crossed a street and looked to see a bus drive by that had T1, T2, T3 on a screen as well as gratis--the Spanish word for free. There were about at least 6 or 7 buses already parked but I had feeling I wanted the one I had just seen drive past but it had gone to the very end of the terminal and I was near the middle. I started booking it and saw it parked with its doors open. I still wasn't positive that this was the bus I wanted so I asked the driver in my broken Spanish and he shook his head yes. I lugged my suitcases onto the bus and got a standing spot so that I could hold onto my luggage. That bus ride, let me tell you. At one point in what I swear was a 3 mi bus drive--this place is even more spread out than JFK if that's a reference for anyone--the driver basically makes a complete circle and I flew to the other side of the bus because my luggage is basically heavier than me. I got some bruises on my arm trying to keep my luggage all together and not letting it run into anyone.
I'm not sure how to rate this: After the scary bus ride he lets us off at the end of terminal 1 so I start back tracking and I'm starting to see signs for Sala 1...it's at the complete other end of the Terminal...so I'm booking it because it's got to be getting close to 10:30am. I finally make it and I stand next to a girl who looks like she might be a student right outside of the doors coming from baggage claim. She looks at my luggage tag--with its ISA logo on it--and says she thinks she heard ISA people over there--pointing to a group of kids near the exit doors. I'm like 'success! I've done it!' so I walk over and ask a girl are you with ISA and she says yes so I join the rest of the group on the ground. Nobody is talking to anybody. It's like complete silence until once girl says quietly, "where's that other group going?" and someone answers her, "I think someone said Granada." I'm immediately beginning to question if I where I'm supposed to be. It takes me a good 5 minutes to work up the courage to ask the girl again if this is ISA Granada. She tells me no and points to the other group. So I walk over slowly and one girl says 'hi you going to Granada?' and I know I've finally accomplished it and made it to where I'm supposed to be. I breathe a sigh of relief as the girl asks me where I'm from and starts a conversation. I'm here. I made it and I'm going to be able to at least somewhat find my way.
Overall today was a GOOD day with just a few not so greats and bads tucked in there to keep it interesting! So far so good on the being/studying/living in Spain thing....
Monday, August 26, 2013
Can I just be there already?
Two more days until I leave and it still doesn't seem real. Packing has been terrible. I mean I understand why luggage has weight limits--definitely don't want my plane to go down--but seriously 50 lbs is so hard to stay under. I've had to pack and unpack my suitcase at least once so far just to make sure I don't have to pay money to check my bag. Eventually though I know I'm just going to say the heck with it and hope it's close enough and the person checking me is having a good day.
On top of me packing for Spain my younger sister is packing for her first year at college--she leaves the day before I do. Needless to say our floor space is almost completely covered...
The reason I wanted to post this is because I saw this cool video on ISA Granada's Facebook page and thought it would show you all where I am going to be spending my time for the next four months. I'm not going to lie Granada is absolutely gorgeous. I feel so very lucky that I am able to have this opportunity. Even if I'm more than just nervous....
It's pretty cool. I can't wait to call this home for awhile. I think it'll be something that will be amazing beyond words--at least I hope so....
On top of me packing for Spain my younger sister is packing for her first year at college--she leaves the day before I do. Needless to say our floor space is almost completely covered...
The reason I wanted to post this is because I saw this cool video on ISA Granada's Facebook page and thought it would show you all where I am going to be spending my time for the next four months. I'm not going to lie Granada is absolutely gorgeous. I feel so very lucky that I am able to have this opportunity. Even if I'm more than just nervous....
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
A little bit--okay maybe a lot--of an intro
When I started college I knew sometime during my four years at Pitt I was going to go abroad. I'm a language major and I love to travel and see new places so it just made sense. As a freshman I really wanted to go somewhere where they speak Arabic (the other language I study) but alas sophomore year came and so did the Arab Spring. It just looked like studying in the Middle East wasn't in my future....
At the end of sophomore year things changed. It was like I knew what I wanted from my college experience. Already a declared Linguistics major I added an Arabic Language certificate, a minor in Administration of Justice, and--much to my surprise--a Spanish major. I loved Spanish in high school but mostly because I had such an amazing teacher (shout-out to Señor Keller). Studying the Spanish language in college wasn't as awesome. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the language--it's my heritage (yes I know you couldn't tell but I'm half Puerto Rican). Not only that though it's a beautiful language and quickly becoming a very, very important one living in today's world. I just didn't feel myself connecting with the college professors I had. Classes were easy but I just couldn't see myself working towards a 38-credit major along with another 30-credit one--no way was I giving up Linguistics. Eventually though after some tears, talking with my parents and friends, and some major planning I decided I could do it. My dad was even okay with me staying in college for an extra semester so I could finish studying everything I wanted to.
So with my new Spanish major declared I knew I had to get down to work crossing off the classes I needed to take in order to graduate--let me tell you that's been a process. I still had study abroad in the back of my mind but now I knew I needed to go somewhere that I could take Spanish courses that would count towards my major. I also really wanted to go somewhere I could maybe take an Arabic course as well. So logically I chose Spain...
Where in Spain though? I knew Barcelona, Madrid, and Sevilla but besides those I barely remembered the geography from high school Spanish. Thankfully an older girl in one of my Arabic classes--who also happened to be a Spanish major--was about to head to Granada, Spain for a semester. She was talking about how the University of Granada had Arabic classes that international students could take.
That cinched it for me. I was going to go to Granada.
At the end of sophomore year things changed. It was like I knew what I wanted from my college experience. Already a declared Linguistics major I added an Arabic Language certificate, a minor in Administration of Justice, and--much to my surprise--a Spanish major. I loved Spanish in high school but mostly because I had such an amazing teacher (shout-out to Señor Keller). Studying the Spanish language in college wasn't as awesome. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the language--it's my heritage (yes I know you couldn't tell but I'm half Puerto Rican). Not only that though it's a beautiful language and quickly becoming a very, very important one living in today's world. I just didn't feel myself connecting with the college professors I had. Classes were easy but I just couldn't see myself working towards a 38-credit major along with another 30-credit one--no way was I giving up Linguistics. Eventually though after some tears, talking with my parents and friends, and some major planning I decided I could do it. My dad was even okay with me staying in college for an extra semester so I could finish studying everything I wanted to.
So with my new Spanish major declared I knew I had to get down to work crossing off the classes I needed to take in order to graduate--let me tell you that's been a process. I still had study abroad in the back of my mind but now I knew I needed to go somewhere that I could take Spanish courses that would count towards my major. I also really wanted to go somewhere I could maybe take an Arabic course as well. So logically I chose Spain...
Where in Spain though? I knew Barcelona, Madrid, and Sevilla but besides those I barely remembered the geography from high school Spanish. Thankfully an older girl in one of my Arabic classes--who also happened to be a Spanish major--was about to head to Granada, Spain for a semester. She was talking about how the University of Granada had Arabic classes that international students could take.
That cinched it for me. I was going to go to Granada.
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