Últimos Días en Granada

I cannot believe that I have been in Spain for 4 months now. It seems like only yesterday that I arrived here and was unpacking all of my suitcases, and now, as I write this (well actually I am taking a little break) I am repacking all of my stuff + a lot of more stuff into my suitcases. Yet as they say, it also seems like forever ago that I arrived in Spain and began my gap year.

This week was pretty much the most packed week of the entire semester. I had several finals, papers (Yes, I do applaud myself for now having written three 6 page papers in Spanish in the past two weeks. You are welcome to take a moment to applaud yourself ;) ), and also a presentation. But of course, since this was also the last week here for the majority of my friends, we were also all busy doing last minute touristy things, going to tapas, having goodbye/navidad parties, etc.

Yesterday (Thursday) was Liz's last day here in Granada. It's too bad that that was also the last day of finals, because that means we were all busy right up until the end. I would say that almost all of the CLM left for home today, but a there is also a group leaving tomorrow, then I am leaving Sunday, and anyone who hasn't left by then is staying the whole year. I got up this morning at 6:40ish to help take her stuff to the bus stop since it's an unbearably long walk if you have 4 pieces of luggage and only two hands. I will be taking that same bus Sunday, and after one of the most uncomfortable and terribly awkward lunches of my life, Rafael agreed to help me carry my luggage to the bus stop (though not because he has to/it's his obligation, but because he's a nice person...........). But that's a whole other story that I can tell all you readers personally haha.

Anyway, it was really sad to say goodbye to Liz because we have become really good friends over the past 4 months and I'm so glad that she was the one to move in here with me. I know that we will see each other again and keep in touch, but it's weird to not know or even have an idea of when that might be. Morgan and I had our last Smooy tonight because she leaves at 3 am on a bus to Madrid and then back home for Christmas break tomorrow morning. That goodbye was also weird. Last night a group of us went out for tapas and then back to one girls apartment just so that we could make the last night last a little longer. We were all talking about how we are all terrible with goodbyes, and the question came up, is anyone really "good" with goodbyes? No. That could go in the "stuff no one says" youtube video.

I have now pretty much finished packing my suitcases! Crazy. Tomorrow I'm going to the post office as soon as it opens to mail a package, then I have my last flute lesson, then I will get a few last minute gift items, and hopefully later make one last visit to part of the Alhambra. Though I am essentially done with the shopping having bought my friends, family, and myself pretty much an entire extra suitcase full of regalos. I figured since I won't be getting many christmas presents this year, I was allowed to buy myself some. In one store the salesperson asked if what I was buying was a gift and if I would like it wrapped. Naturally I said yes. Now I will have a few things to open on christmas day ;)

Luna will absolutely miss me when I'm gone, since our level of friendship has really risen in the last few weeks. Tortuga, on the other hand, probably won't notice that I am gone, because he is still in turtle hibernation. As promised:

The next time I post will probably be from Germany! As I might have said before, it's weird to be leaving Spain, but I'm not really sad to be getting out of this apartment and since most of my friends have gone/are leaving, it does feel a little bit more right. I'm also extremely excited to go to Germany and to see Anna and her family and later be joined by Abby! This year has already and I'm sure will continue to be a year of fond memories for a lifetime. Life as I have come to know it in this past semester has pretty much come to a close, which is a very surreal thing. It's hard for me to believe that I have about 30 hours before I get on a bus and make my way to the Airport. Time is such a strange thing.
Speaking of time, the world hasn't ended yet and here it's already technically the 22nd, so I think it's safe to assume that we can all rest assured tonight. Buenas noches!

Last week of classes?

This past weekend Liz went to Morocco. This past weekend I went and saw the new Twilight movie in Spanish. That's right, we can play the "my weekend was better than your weekend" game. Just kidding. I actually had a really awesome long weekend (there was a Spanish holiday last Thursday, so no work or school! and I never have classes Fridays).

Anyway, I kicked off by finally going to the Frederica Garcia Lorca park for the free wednesday tour of his house. I wouldn't go to Granada specifically to see his family's summer house, but it was still cool! The christmas lights throughout Granada also all turned on Wednesday evening, so the walk home from the park was beautiful. The Christmas markets also opened, so I browsed and bought some dulces de la navidad.

Plaza bib-rambla

Where I live!

But what I'm sure you really want to hear about is the new Twilight movie. It was pretty good, especially because my friend Morgan and I had mostly forgotten what happens in the book so the surprise at the end was actually a surprise. It was also kind of a nice test of how good our Spanish is because there weren't subtitles or anything. The movie was also without a doubt more enjoyable in Spanish. Even though I don't usually like watching dubbed movies (in any language) because it's kind of weird, the whole art of dubbing is pretty cool. I mean, they really have work hard to get a translation that also matches with the lips. So I applaud the producers on that. The twilight movie actors and actresses also kind of have a deserved reputation of not being very good. Let me tell you, Spanish Bella has quite a bit more emotion in her voice. There were also a lot of funny to us parts because Spanish is just kind of a funny language sometimes.

Then on Sunday I went to the Sierra Nevada with Morgan and some of our other Erasmus friends (the European study abroad program) and their friends. It was so much fun. We took the morning bus up and spent the first half hour just walking around the ski village (the tourist office was closed, sup spain sundays) but there were lots of skiers and we eventually found someone who could tell us where the hiking paths were and what else we could do besides ski. For those of you who don't have facebook, here's a little anecdote from the bus ride:

On the bus to the Sierra Nevada, making the obligatory i'm-sitting-next-to-you small talk:
Me: "Sí, voy a hacer senderismo."
German guy on the bus: "....uhh no entiendo."
Me: "hacer senderismo.... como caminar por las montañas"
German: "oh sí sí estoy aqui hasta miércoles."

Translation:
Me: "Yeah I'm going hiking"
German: "uhhh... i don't understand"Me: "going hiking... like walking along the mountains"German: "oh yes yes, I'm here until wednesday"


What?

We first went on this giant slide thing, kind of reminiscent of the Alpine slides in the west of the US, but elevated on a track several feet above ground. This was pretty cool because the first part is automatic, so the little cart thing takes you up the mountain (one part straight up) and then you get to the top and can control the speed going down. I held back a little this summer on the Colorado alpine slide, but this time I had a seatbelt so therefore no inhibitions. We then found a nice long trail and went on a hike. Unfortunately what looked like it should be snow was actually ice. So that was fun. Especially for the girl who wore boots with a heel. Fortunately, none of us took any great falls, and we found this giant rock on the edge with a great view and took a break and I got a group photo with the handy dandy self timer.

We kind of look like some reality tv show commercial "a lot of blondes + one brunette meet wild"

Now that's a view, folks.

It's also very weird to think that this is my last week of classes, then finals, and then I leave for Germany! One of my friends leaves this coming Wednesday, and then about 90% of the CLM, including Liz, leaves the 21st (friday) and I leave the 23rd! Tomorrow is my last day at my internship, but yesterday I had my last classes with 4 of groups I help in (and then I will have my last classes with two different groups tomorrow). I got a photo of one of my favorite group of 12 year olds yesterday, and again when I entered their class they all cheered and screamed "WE LOVE YOU" in their funny little heavy spanish accents.

This class was pretty much in complete chaos all the time, but also a fun and mostly sweet group to work with.

This morning I turned in a 6 page paper (1.5 spaced. Who assigns 1.5 space. To me, that's worse than single spaced.) about symbols Salvador Dalí used during his surrealist phase. Probably not the absolute best paper I have ever written, but hey, it's hard enough to write that much in English. I spent way too much time on it and went to bed way to late last night working on it (as you can see, my Uni High paper writing methods have stuck with me), but I got it done. This morning there were literally 40 of us trying to print at least 5 pages each on a broken printer. Note to world: for being so 'technologically advanced,' printers could use a lot of improvement. A lot of button pushing and messing with the paper trays and turning off and back on again finally got it going, so I was able to hand in a hard copy. Yippee. Another note to world: they say that in tough situations, people bond the most. Very true. All 40 of us were friends by the time we left the computer lab.

And now for a brief Luna and Tortuga update. Luna has met her match. Q-tips. I swear she is more fascinated by these little cotton swabs than she would be by a live animal. And tortuga is in fact still hibernating behind the couch. Here's some photographic evidence of Luna, and for my next post I will get a picture of Tortuga.

Finally, life in the telenovela has been renewed for another season, but I'm happy to say that two of the main characters will not be coming back. Okay, so I'm not actually happy to be leaving Spain. In fact it's weird to me and I'm not quite ready to go (but I'm very excited to be going to Germany!), so basically this weekend will be jam packed with doing everything we still want to do and also some studying (though probably more of the former than the latter). I am not, however, sad in the slightest to be leaving my 'host family.' I feel bad for Silvia because her sickness really is awful, but she's also crazy. And Rafael has more moments of niceness than we give him credit for, but he also does some weird and inconsiderate things and is definitely just in it for the money. Basically I've come to the conclusion that they may both be good and nice people deep down, but I personally don't really enjoy either of their company and therefore will not be sad to leave the set of nuestra telenovela. Doing the host family was definitely a good experience, and had I not, I would never have met Liz but I think that if I had known what it would be like when I got here, I would have opted for living in an apartment with Spanish flatmates. 

Anyway, I'm off to get tapas at an internet cafe whilst working on some final presentations and enjoying the 11 remaining days that I have here in Granada. But fear not, I will surely be returning to this giant pomegranate (for those who don't know, granada is the spanish word for pomegranate).

Time flies by

Wow, it has been nearly a month since I last blogged. Qué horrible! I apologize to all of my loyal blog readers that I have left in the dark. I will now try to summarize/recap the past month starting with Córdoba, where I left off.

Córdoba was very fun. A beautiful city, and the famous salmorejo was as good as everyone promised (so therefore very good). We had a very successful day, and got to see the Mezquita as well as a palace of the reyes catolicos (Isabel and Ferdinand). It was especially nice because there weren't many tourists, so basically we got to have that feeling of being a little kid exploring a castle and discovering secret passageways and such (because no one was around to remind us that it is actually a present day tourist attraction). I believe we had intended to go to Córdoba on a Friday, but went on a Saturday instead, and it worked out in our favor because the weather was beautiful. Then that following Tuesday, Gloria moved out. She told us Sunday (or maybe it was Monday...) during lunch that she would be moving, and then basically packed up all of her stuff and left. It was definitely hard for her to tell us about it, and she had to work hard not to cry, so we made her chocolate chip cookies that night as a final "farewell."
Liz and I haven't seen her since then, but will probably stop by her shop before we leave to say goodbye and feliz navidad.

Then the next week, 90% of my blog readers came and visited me! It was great to see some of my family and share part of Granada with everyone (my grandparents, mom, and two younger sisters). The first full day they were here, my mom's wallet was stolen which was quite the fiasco. However, there just so happened to be an undercover cop in the alley outside of the shoe store where they were shopping, so after several hours (of canceling credit cards, trying to talk to police officers, and going back to the stores they had been to that day) I arrived from class and saved the day. Just kidding, the police contacted the hotel, and we were able to get the wallet back with nothing missing! Liz and I were pleasantly surprised to find out that the Granada police actually do something other than stand around.

We also rented a car and went to Málaga and Gibraltar while they were here. Málaga was fun because it is a big and nice Andaluz city (similar to Granada but bigger and on the costa del sol). I personally enjoyed seeing the Picasso museum, and maybe my grandparents perception of Picasso was changed a little in going there ;)

Gibraltar was also pretty cool and interesting, but a very weird place. So weird in fact, that I was inspired to do my final presentation for my oral and writing class about Gibraltar the following week. Now I feel like I understand the strangeness quite a bit more (after researching to talk for 20 minutes in spanish about it, I would hope that I have a better understanding...). For those of you who know nothing about Gibraltar, it is an English territory located on the southernmost tip of Spain. From the Rock of Gibraltar, you can see Morocco! This is also the only place in all of Europe that has monkeys in the wild.
The political situation is odd though because basically, Spain wants Gibraltar for Spain, England wants to keep Gibraltar, and the Gibraltarians (who do not consider themselves Spanish nor English) are happy staying an english territory and do not want to join Spain. There is much more to its history, so maybe at some point if I'm feeling like it I will translate my presentation for you all to read here.
Here are several pictures from our Thanksgiving week!

Feeling the Mediterranean

Tasting the Mediterranean

Enjoying the Mediterranean

Sun setting over the Mediterranean (in Málaga)

La Alhambra!

what a beautiful vista

Gibraltar monos

Group photo on the Rock of Gibraltar!

So odd.

The rock!

It was weird saying goodbye to my family again because although I don't have much time left in Spain, I won't actually be back in the states until mid February. Anyway, the following week was good but busy with makeup work from the classes that I didn't go to the previous week. And thennnnn that leads me to my trip to Barcelona!!!

First of all, Barcelona is a fantastic city. I didn't get to spend an enormous amount of time in either Madrid or Barcelona, but if I had to choose, I think I might choose Barcelona. There is so much to see and do in Barcelona, and for only being there for two nights and two days, we did a lot! Everything worked out perfectly because I got to stay with Emma in her flat which was really fun and it was great to be with someone who lives there and knows their way around. I had wanted to go to the Dalí museum, but as it turns out, this museum is quite a ways away outside of Barcelona, so we didn't end up going. We did get to go to the Sagrada Familia though (Gaudí's most impressive and well known work) and we went in it and up in one of the towers. This cathedral was spectacular and well worth the pricey price. We also went to Parque Güell and saw two of Gaudís famous houses. The next day, we met up with my cousin Cara and one of Cara's friends and went to a giant flea market, the gothic area of the city, a giant fruit market (with some amazing juices), a giant plaza with an old palace that is now an art museum, and more. I also met one of Emma's friends who plays on the FCBarcelona woman's soccer team. Cool or cool? So basically, I had a really great time in Barcelona, and here are some pictures to illustrate it. :)

Also, a brief Barcelona background in the context of the rest of Spain. Barcelona is part of the Catalunya region of spain (these regions are kind of like states, I am in the region of Andalucía, but each very much has their own feel) where they speak Catalan. Pretty much everyone in Catalunya speaks both Catalan and Spanish, but the Catalunyan pride is very strong, and has a slightly snobbish reputation in the rest of spain. There is also quite a bit of tension because Catalunya wants to separate from Spain (will this actually happen? probably not, but still). The culture is also quite strong because during the Spanish dictatorship of Franco, it was illegal to speak Catalan and many traditions were forced to be repressed. So basically this is all still a very sensitive matter and only contributes to the poor state that Spain is in right now. Catalunya is one of the regions that is doing the best in this economic crisis, but that means that they pay the most taxes and get back the least, so many of the people there are also mad about that. Sorry if that explanation was not a very good one.

And now for a final home update: Since Gloria is gone, Luna has been missing her and is settling to hang out with me. She even lets me pick her up with some frequency now. Tortuga is currently hibernating behind the couch. Who knew that turtles hibernate... they do though, I promise we will not have another dead turtle while I'm here.

Next week will be pretty busy because I have a few papers and such due and it is the last week of my internship. Bittersweet. It has been really interesting working in the school here, and fun too! Tuesday was the first time I was late, but my alarm clock didn't go off... or if it did I turned it off in my sleep... Anyway, I was a half an hour late, but walked in hurriedly apologizing and I bet you can guess what the teacher said. "No pasa nada!" The class cheered as I entered, I was asked out by a twelve year old boy, later another little boy made me a paper dragon plane, one drew me a picture, and in one of the classes we just sang english Christmas songs for most of the class.
Then the following week we have finals and it is our last weekend and then basically everyone leaves the 21st and I leave the 23rd!
So weird. I know I will return at some point, but it's odd not knowing when. It's also odd knowing that I won't be returning to the same people. Regardless, I will miss Granada and I think it will always be my second home.

Nuevo Capítulo de Nuestra Telenovela

It's been too long since I last blogged, but I have had a busy couple of weeks! You may be wondering about the title of this post. Basically, with all of the drama that goes on, Liz and I feel like we are living in a telenovela (spanish soap opera). We often contemplate the possibility of the apartment being lined with hidden cameras with an audience of people who speak both spanish and english sitting there and laughing at our moments of misery, extreme awkwardness, and also jubilation.

Todays episode would begin with a thunderstorm outside (it's been raining and icky outside all week, but today and last night we had thunder and lightening for the first time!) and sheets of pouring rain accompanied by shrieks of "JESUS!" from the cleaning lady whenever there were claps of thunder. And then the episode would go into a flashback of what has been happening in the past weeks. Basically, our "host parents" (I put that in quotes because it's more like renting a room with food made for us occasionally) are getting a divorce and Silvia (the lady renting a room recovering from being sick) is like the child playing the good girl on both sides. Rafael also told us that Gloria would be moving out in December, and he would be moving in. However, she may be moving out earlier (as in sometime next week) but we heard that from Silvia (and we've realized that she has a tendency to exaggerate/stir up drama). Anyway, although Gloria hasn't been home that much, we still like her a lot and will miss her presence.

Silvia also told us the other day that she has Addison's disease (as well as Diabetes), so that explains a lot, including the massive amount of salt that she puts on everything. That doesn't explain the morphine lolly pops, so there must be something else also. Although she has a very extreme personality (that can be good or bad at times), it's really sad to see her still so sick and especially when she is drugged up because she becomes very out of it. For visual representation of her healthy and famous newscasting days, here is a video clip of what she used to do for work (also, she has interviewed Shakira, Ozzy Osbourne, Van Halen, and several other big names): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcZTWaZ9VK4

So although we have a very atypical host family living situation, we also have the absolute best location and hey, at least we are allowed to go in the kitchen and fridge (even if there isn't much there). Speaking of which, last weekend was a decently quiet one for me but I did make myself a giant cookie-cake sized cookie which I proceeded to eat pretty much all of. Then monday made a pumpkin pie that didn't really look, taste, or have the texture of a pumpkin pie, but was still good!


Last week was also Halloween which was fun (because who doesn't like dressing up??) and then I hiked up to the graveyard (quite a hike, I should emphasize) because on All Saints Day everyone visits the graveyard and adorn the graves of their family members with flowers. It was quite a sight to see and a nice walk up there past the Alhambra too! This week was midterms week, somehow I only had a history of flamenco midterm, but had a paper for my spanish class and then also have my art history midterm next week. I'm also very much under the impression that midterms are not a big deal here in Spain, not really surprising but definitely another "no pasa nada." Of course, I'm sure this depends on the class, but still.

I would say my favorite classes are definitely still German and my Spanish class because both are more interactive and fun. I also really like being with spanish people in my German class and without that class, I probably wouldn't have any spanish friends. It's also fun/funny because I probably learn about as much Spanish as I do German in this class. My internship has also been going well but now it looks like I will be helping in english and social studies classes and not the science and math classes.

For a final update, Liz and I were going to go to Córdoba for the day today and take the 8:30 am bus (which would have required leaving our house at 7:30 to catch the bust to the bus station and then buy our tickets) but somehow, not really surprisingly, both of us slept through our alarms. Neither Liz nor I are part of the small group of morning people that exist in the world. Anyway, as luck would have it, today has rained all day (here and in Córdoba) but it's supposed to be nicer tomorrow so we will turn our alarms up full volume and go tomorrow.

The tortuga has been MIA for several days now and Liza and I are the only ones who seem to care at all, no pasa nada. And Luna is also warming up to me.... or most likely, my bed. As you may have seen on facebook: Luna's way of saying, "no I don't like you, but yes I do like your bed....and I guess your company is better than no company"

Práctica begins!

Something I meant to mention in my last post, but forgot to, is that I flew with ryanair airlines to Paris. And basically, during the flight I had to ask myself, why would anyone pay to go to an amusement park and ride roller coasters when they could just fly ryanair?

Anyway, as mentioned in the title, my práctica (internship) began this week. I thought that I would be helping to teach english classes, but no. I got there and was informed that I will actually be helping teach social studies, math, and natural sciences, but in english since it's a partially bilingual school. It should be interesting, but also not exactly what I was expecting. All of the schools here follow a block schedule, so I will be helping with different classes Tuesdays and Thursdays. So basically both days that I was there this week were like "first days." In two of the classes I just basically sat there because they didn't have anything for me to do yet, but in the other two I helped give the lesson. It was a little awkward when I corrected the science teacher about whether or not whales are mammals. I'm hoping he just didn't realize what "whale" translates to. Other than that, my experience last week was good but it looks my Tuesdays and Thursdays I will be busy from when I get up in the morning to when I end class at 8pm and with only an hour break for lunch (hmm sounds like my Uni days).

Something else of note that happened this week: Liz comes running into my room saying "ven ven ven" (come come come) so I went and her and Silvia were returning to the apartment when they noticed that the cleaning lady had left the door to the roof unlocked (not part of our apartment) so we got to go up on the official top of the building from which we had an awesome view of the mountains, the alhambra, and the fancy cathedral in Granada (which our apartment doesn't face). Here is a picture of the cathedral from what felt like the top of Granada:

Not much else really happened this week...but I did decide that I am going to be a cheetah for halloween. Liz is going to be a peacock, and our friend Morgan is going to be Cleopatra. Ironically enough, Cleopatra had a pet cheetah (and who knows, maybe she had a pet peacock too). The word for peacock is also kind of funny because it literally translates to "real turkey" (pavo real). So while I am normally of the opinion that animal print clothing is slightly trashy, I bought a cheetah print scarf and dress that looked better than I expected, so I will probably wear it again. I still want to find cheetah print leggings, which shouldn't be hard, but we shall see how much they cost. So, you may be wondering, is Halloween a big deal here in Spain? The answer is yes and no. Some areas celebrate it and some don't. However, the following day, All Saint's Day, is huge and celebrated everywhere here usually by going and bringing flowers to the graves of loved ones. But anyway, back to Halloween, I'm getting the vibe that because Granada has so many study abroad students from the U.S., Halloween has been made a bigger deal.

This weekend has not been and probably will not be superbly eventful because most of my friends are gone on excursions with their programs or otherwise, but I plan to go for a frigid run (and by frigid I mean upper 50s Fahrenheit) and explore a part of Granada I haven't really been to yet (which there are still plenty of). The disadvantage to the rain we got this week is that it also got colder, and heating and insulation are not a thing here. Two VERY eventful things did happen this morning/today though.
Firstly, I had a dream mostly in Spanish last night. Granted, it was on the oh so interesting topic of how disgusting porta potties are (why was my subconscious thinking about that...), but still, definitely a good sign.

Secondly, I was petting Luna this morning and heard her purring (quite similar to her growling) and she let me pick her up! I don't think she realized what was happening... because when she did the claws came out and she latched herself to the couch, but it was a beautiful short moment. As for tortuga, he has spent the last few days hiding from the cold in his shell. If only he knew that moving is what makes you warm.

Paris!

It has been a long time since I last posted, so I apologize to anyone who has been eagerly checking for new posts ;). Several notable thing have happened in the last two weeks, so I will break this into two posts.
Last weekend, I went to Paris! I had been to Paris before when we did the Bosch/Lilly family tour a couple summers ago, but we were only in Paris for a few days so did not do/see everything. Of course, I was only in Paris for a weekend this time, but I had my own personal French tour guide. I've decided that I like the city of Paris a lot, and will probably return at some point, but before then, I will have to learn some French. Since I was with Francois, there was obviously no problem, but I still noted a few snobbish looks while we were speaking English.

I got there thursday evening, and walked around Paris at night (really an enchanting city in the dark). My Spain accustomed self was surprised to see people going to sleep before 12, but as Francois reminded me several times, the French actually work, unlike the Spaniards (hehe). Then Friday morning he went to class and I went to the Eiffel Tower because I wanted to go up to the top. I would have to say, it was very much worth it. And because I got there early and before it opened, I was in the first group up. Even though it was cloudy, and not peak tourist season, there were still quite a few tourists there. Next to the Eiffel Tower, there was a huge exhibit of the "United Buddy Bears" honoring the anniversary of some sort of friendship between Berlin and Paris. The bears were all pretty big (between 6 and 7 feet tall) and painted in cool ways each representing a different color. I posted pictures on Facebook, but here is one for you to visualize the bears better:


Anyway, I also wanted to see Moulin Rouge because I love the movie and it is a pretty famous place. So I went there/walked by and took pictures which was pretty cool. Then Saturday, we got up really early to go to Versailles and see the Louis the Sun Kings palace. That was pretty fun because the palace is gorgeous, huge, and very impressive. Also cool because I had been to Ludwig's "copy" of Versailles, so it was interesting to see some of the differences and also striking similarities. We did a lot of other stuff to, but these were the key things.

Getting to Versailles was also an adventure. I used one of the standard Paris metro tickets to enter the train, and Francois used his student metro pass (because the train ticket is a little more expensive). But then once we were on the train, they checked our tickets so we both played innocent and pretended to be American tourists. This was particularly funny because they were speaking French to each other about what to do with us, and apparently noted but did nothing about the fact that an "American tourist" would not be likely to have a student metro pass... Never a boring moment. Before going to the palace, we looked up how much everything cost, and EU citizens get in free, which of course I am not, but I did have my jank University of Granada student ID card (which doesn't actually say that I'm from the U.S.), so Francois did all the talking and I pretended to be a European student and got in for free. Wooo! We didn't end up really going in the gardens because there was special event going on so everyone had to pay a lot, and it started raining so wouldn't have been worth it, but we did get to see them from inside and, wow, our friend Louis lived pretty well!

My flight back home left Saturday night and got to Malaga late that night, so I then had to wait in the airport for a while to take the morning bus home, which was a while, but I made a friend who was on the same flight there and back as me, so she stayed with me until the last train into the city of Malaga and we got burger king. I asked them if they could make me a burger without the burger and fries. The guy was like "Okay, okay, I will make you a very good sandwich." And it was indeed a very good sandwich with lettuce, tomato, cheese, pickles, onions, and some sauce. The best part was, he didn't charge me for it! So my meal was like 3 euros and my friends was 9... (yes fast food is much more expensive here). To add to my luck, a flight was delayed, so they were given a 30 euro credit to some of the restaurants in the airport, but most of them were closed so someone gave me his which was really great because then in the wee morning I "treated myself" to 30 euros of Starbucks, including a travel cup that says Spain! It was also kind of fun travelling by myself and I've decided that I kind of like waiting in airports (when they are clean).

Anyway, my weekend was really awesome and I was so glad that I was able to go. Also, I almost forgot, the Apartment that Francois lives in is really nice and big (especially for Paris) AND the person who owns the apartment and lives there part time has a cat. I spent most of the weekend wishing I could trade Luna for Bill. This cat was fluffy and adorable and so much nicer than Luna. He enjoyed being picked up and playing and didn't even mind being chucked across the room (not that either of us would ever do that...). So basically, Luna is lucky I even like her at all.

Feliz cumpleaños, to me!

A few updates on my last post to help you sleep soundly. Tortuga is alive and well! We weren't sure how he got lost in the house, but then Silvia (the new woman living here) witnessed him making the foot long jump into the house another time. So now we have come to the conclusion that he might be suicidal. No wonder this species of turtle is endangered. And also illegal to have as a pet.... No pasa nada ;) Also, thanks to Abby's comment on one of my previous blogs, we figured out that Dona Flor (the tortuga) is indeed a male!

We also didn't end up going to the mountains last weekend, due to reasons I will explain in a moment, so Liz and I ended up making the trek up to and exploring the gratis (free) part of the Alhambra! We also discovered that some security guards will enforce the no-backpacks-allowed-in-the-free-museum rule whilst others will not. The guards that do not allow backpacks also like to speak condescendingly in English to foreigners. So two lessons learned there; 1. we need to carefully pick which entrance to go in, 2. we need to work on not looking foreign.

Anyway, I was all set and ready to go to the mountains last Saturday. Gloria was 2 hours later than she had originally predicted, but this is Spain, so that wasn't unusual. Then Silvia comes into my room, and very nonchalantly says something along the lines of "I just got off the phone with Gloria, and we probably won't be going today because Gloria and her friend just drove off a cliff." at this I'm like "WHAT???" freaking out wondering if they're okay, and she's like "oh no no, they're both fine, just waiting for a tow truck to get the car." Now maybe here in the mountains, driving off of a cliff isn't a big deal, but to me, that seems like something I would be making a big deal out of. We finally came to the conclusion that the word she used for cliff, doesn't exactly translate to "cliff," but still.

So then came my birthday, I went to class as I normally would at 8:30 in the morning, officially voted for the 2012 election (hopefully it gets there on time...) and came home to Silvia banning me from the kitchen and slapping me on the butt saying that she was in Canada when she turned 18, and she doesn't really remember 19, 20, and so on, but 18 she remembers and she wants me to remember my 18th birthday too. For lunch she made my favorite foods: Spanish tortilla (this particular one was the best you'll ever have), home-made HUMMUS (a rarity in Spain), and a salad. Then came desert of this absolutely amazing mango torte/cake/pie. It was delicious. I barely made it to German my stomach was so full. For la cena (late dinner), Liz and a few of our friends went first to tapas at this cool hip vegetarian place, and then to a Mexican restaurant where we ate food and they gave me fried ice-cream with a candle and sang feliz cumpleaños to me. All around it was a good day. I also met another girl who is taking a gap year who turned 18 the day before me!

Friday was an adventure of its own. We didn't really do much all day, but a friend came over and we were all hanging out sitting in Liz's room. You may have seen from facebook what happens next, but if not, here I will repeat myself.
Morgan: wow it kind of smells like somethings burning...
Liz: yeah all kinds of scents come in this window from other apartments.Me: yeah, someone's cooking...[a few minutes later]Me:...Wait guys, why is there so much smoke? [run to kitchen]Me: uhhhh we have a fire...Liz: FUUUUEEEEEEGGOOOOOOOOO

I turn off the stove, but the fire persists so Silvia runs in with a towel and beats out the flame. After spraying febreze everywhere in the house, no pasa nada.

And now we get to the weekend. Since we didn't get to go to the mountains last weekend, we went this weekend! Leaving yesterday and got back this evening. Gloria has a friend who owns a house in el campo (a farm house in the country) outside of Guadix. His house is one of the cave houses, so tucked into a hill. I felt like a hobbit, it was great. To get there, we had to drive through a river. No, I have not forgotten how to speak English, and do in fact mean, through (not over, not under) a river. It wasn't a raging river or anything, but still an experience. We finally got there and the place was beautiful and with a gorgeous view. To be perfectly honest, although the place was awesome, it was a little bit weird being there since it seemed like Gloria and her friend were sort of together and we didn't know anyone there. However, as soon as the puppies came out, Liz and I were set. So yesterday ended up being pretty fun.

Unfortunately, today was not the greatest because I slept on my neck wrong, and weirdly enough, the smallest silliest seeming injuries that occur whilst sleeping can also be the most debilitating. So I was in pain most of the day unable to move my neck, but I was happy to sit in front of the fire and read El Hobbit, so no pasa nada. After getting home, Liz and I felt a little weird about our home situation/lack of being in the know so decided to ask Silvia her thoughts on the matter (Gloria is staying an extra night). So we asked her if she knows anything about the marital issues/possible boyfriend in the mountains. And as it turns out, Gloria and Rafael split up about a month ago (this was the first thing Gloria told Silvia back when she came to look at the room). Knowing that all explains while Rafael is never home anymore and why it's okay for her to go hang out with her friends in the mountains so much. Thank goodness we have Silvia here!

Speaking of Silvia, you should all know that she is in fact a pretty famous Hispanoamerican news reporter! She has worked in Spain, Mexico, and Chile so knows all different varieties of Spanish and also speaks English because she lived in Canada for 3 years. Basically she has been an excellent addition to the household.