(no subject)
Hey! It's been way too long since I've updated and there's no chance I'm going to remember everything that's happened, which is a bummer because this was a pretty up-and-down week. I'm all caught up in things that have gone on today, but I'll try to remember stuff from earlier... here goes...
La Alhambra was honestly one of the coolest places I've ever been in my life. The whole thing is a fortified city that's perched on the upper hills of Granada to serve as a defensive outpost and a home for the new Nazarí dynasty that hit the Iberian Peninsula in the 1200s. It was later added onto and refinished by the Catholic Kings who arrived in Granada in 1492 and took over shortly thereafter. Ferdinand & Isabella's peeps did a lot of work to it, and so did Carlos V, their grandson who wanted to establish Granada as the center of his empire. Whew!
The place is seriously extremely beautiful and awe-inspiring all around. There are intricate decorations and designs everywhere-apparently printed on a big stamp and then hammered into hundreds of pieces of marble, much like a printing press, it's incredible-and some of the original flooring still exists (and of course all the walls and such are original). I posted photos on Facebook but I'll come back here and add some to the LJ/Tumblr later.
After thoroughly exploring the Alhambra on a guided tour of sorts, I had a chance to walk back to the center of town and talk to Amalia, the program director, about how I've been feeling about the program and settling/growing accustomed to life in Spain. We had a micro-heart-to-heart about staying here for the year and some of the more emotional aspects of the abroad experience (including going home), how relationships play into the whole experience, and how I should pay attention (as I've been doing) to my personal growth while I'm here and be confident in my choices, opinions, and most importantly, feelings. This whole experience really rocks you to your core and I'm more than ready to be changed by it; I would rather approach the whole thing with an open mind than be at all hesitant to adapt and learn and grow from it, and I could sense Amalia's approval of my stance on the whole thing. All in all I feel like she's a great resource, and now that we've talked about something unrelated to grammar, I can go to her if I have issues I can't deal with myself or if I need another perspective. Sweet!
I'm not really sure what I did Wednesday afternoon, but I know I stayed up significantly late talking to James because we're both night owls (sort of) (it's cute regardless). I had to prep for a quiz and do a little homework, and as usual I left it until pretty much the last minute. No worries. Thursday's quiz was fairly easy, but class was obnoxious; grammar review is becoming quite repetitive and tedious. I had another "meeting" with Amalia-this one was supposed to be my official meeting where we talked about my skill level and whatnot-but it wasn't too in-depth because she figured she had heard a lot from me the day before. She said my skills are strong enough to put me in the more advanced classes that I had been planning on taking, which is seriously awesome! (I was worried, but I realized recently that she makes everything sound more difficult to attain than it really is.) We were supposed to pick up our cell phones in the afternoon, but that totally fell through because the company we're working with is the worst. Amalia sent a scathing email, and as of now, they should be at the school at 10am tomorrow... we'll see about that.
Thursday afternoon I took a monstrous siesta and slept for like 4 hours. I woke up around 8:30 and knew it would be hard to get back to sleep... so, of course, I met up with some kids for chocolate con churros again. Jayson and I walked around for a bit and I found some more streetlights (woo!) and took lots of photos. It did take a while for me to fall asleep, but I knew I'd be fine the next day. Oh, and before I went out, I called my dad's cell phone from gchat... FOR FREE... ridiculously cool.
Friday morning was interesting: Molly and I were up by 9 even though we didn't have to be across town until 10:30... but, unfortunately, our presumed 30min walk took almost an hour and we were WAY late for our trip to the Parque de las Ciencias (Granada's main science museum). No good, no good. The Parque was awesome, though: we saw a series of exhibits that show the "legada de Al-Andalus" (the legacy of Andalusia) through art, music, science, math, etc. The Parque also had a "Mariposario" (a butterfly room!), and it was seriously awesome. I took a bunch of close-up shots of different species of butterflies while we waited out the RAIN that was passing overhead. As a side note, the first time it rained in Granada I was amazed at all the different scents and the feel of the air. The dirt smells like wet clay which reminds me of the parks in Pacific Palisades, and there are so many different flowers (including jasmine, ahhh) that I couldn't even distinguish them all. Incredible.
Once Molly and I had trekked home after the Parque, we siesta'd for a bit and then went on a "paseo" (a walk) de Federico Garcia Lorca. We started across town (for the 2nd time) and the walk brought us right back to a plaza near our house. Later that night, we met up with our friends across town (yes, a THIRD time) and after hanging out at our favorite Spanish bar for a bit, I FINALLY got to experience a Granada discoteca! It was wild, the inside looked like a theater with steps leading down to a pit and stage, and there were lights everywhere. I know, duh, it's a nightclub... but still. We met some French kids and I got to hang out with Lynn Massengill, who's currently studying in Seville but was in Granada for the weekend. Sweet deal. Six hours later, I took off my heeled boots (SERIOUS pain) and Molly and I jumped in a cab to get us home (a good decision). I went to bed around 5am after a magical night dancing to pretty much the same music they played at the discoteca in Nerja.
On Saturday morning, I attempted an exodus back to the beach, but the weather was shitty and cloudy and COLD so my groupmate Pam and I gave up and decided to postpone. This was after we took a city bus to the bus station, bought tickets, and then canceled them. No biggie; we'll go next time. I went back to bed for a bit, then headed over to a "tetería" (tea shop, remember?) in the early afternoon to get some homework done. Isabel made a small dinner for Molly and me, and we went out again with the group afterward. We spent a significant amount of time at another bar/club close to my house, and at 1:30 we decided not to go to the discoteca after all. Jayson and I went on a quest for falafel, and we ended up back at our favorite place, speaking "Sparabic" with the guys behind the counter and tossing around opinions/thoughts on all sorts of political/ethnic issues including discrimination. It was fun to have a conversation like that in another language! I heard some Jewish jokes in Spanish which made me laugh, except that I was identified as Jewish by my nose (haha). It's funny, no big deal. Or "no pasa nada," as they say here. (It means no worries, for the rest of your daaays...)
Today has been great too. Very relaxing; weekends here definitely feel more empty and free than weekends in the USA. I slept til noon and lazed around until lunch at 2:30, where we were joined by four of Isabel's friends. We had a seriously fancy lunch with several different courses, and we ate at the dining room table which says something... I tried a lot of new food and had fun with it all - will have to get the names of everything later. Raw bacon was kind of gross but I get why it's considered a delicacy. As usual, I ate more bread than anything else, and I don't understand how I'm losing weight despite practically shoveling loaves of bread into my mouth at every single meal, but whatever! I don't ask questions. This afternoon has been chill, I tried to do work but failed (typical), had a heart-to-heart with Molly, had a 2.5hr Skype conversation with an old friend, then finished the rest of my homework which has basically taken until now.
BLAH BLAH BLAH.
These updates are boring.
I'll be sticking to bullet lists and photos from now on...
The issue is that I like recapping things, and I'm typing this in my Livejournal right now and am planning on copying/pasting it into a Tumblr entry. I'm used to recapping in my LJ, so when I see this window and type in this font, it just happens naturally.
I'm a big nerd.
Bedtime for Bonzo - trying desperately not to get sick despite the TWO packs of cigarettes that Isabel's friends burned through at the lunch table this afternoon! Throat still hurts... yuck.
Goodnight, mis amores :)
-Courtney
La Alhambra was honestly one of the coolest places I've ever been in my life. The whole thing is a fortified city that's perched on the upper hills of Granada to serve as a defensive outpost and a home for the new Nazarí dynasty that hit the Iberian Peninsula in the 1200s. It was later added onto and refinished by the Catholic Kings who arrived in Granada in 1492 and took over shortly thereafter. Ferdinand & Isabella's peeps did a lot of work to it, and so did Carlos V, their grandson who wanted to establish Granada as the center of his empire. Whew!
The place is seriously extremely beautiful and awe-inspiring all around. There are intricate decorations and designs everywhere-apparently printed on a big stamp and then hammered into hundreds of pieces of marble, much like a printing press, it's incredible-and some of the original flooring still exists (and of course all the walls and such are original). I posted photos on Facebook but I'll come back here and add some to the LJ/Tumblr later.
After thoroughly exploring the Alhambra on a guided tour of sorts, I had a chance to walk back to the center of town and talk to Amalia, the program director, about how I've been feeling about the program and settling/growing accustomed to life in Spain. We had a micro-heart-to-heart about staying here for the year and some of the more emotional aspects of the abroad experience (including going home), how relationships play into the whole experience, and how I should pay attention (as I've been doing) to my personal growth while I'm here and be confident in my choices, opinions, and most importantly, feelings. This whole experience really rocks you to your core and I'm more than ready to be changed by it; I would rather approach the whole thing with an open mind than be at all hesitant to adapt and learn and grow from it, and I could sense Amalia's approval of my stance on the whole thing. All in all I feel like she's a great resource, and now that we've talked about something unrelated to grammar, I can go to her if I have issues I can't deal with myself or if I need another perspective. Sweet!
I'm not really sure what I did Wednesday afternoon, but I know I stayed up significantly late talking to James because we're both night owls (sort of) (it's cute regardless). I had to prep for a quiz and do a little homework, and as usual I left it until pretty much the last minute. No worries. Thursday's quiz was fairly easy, but class was obnoxious; grammar review is becoming quite repetitive and tedious. I had another "meeting" with Amalia-this one was supposed to be my official meeting where we talked about my skill level and whatnot-but it wasn't too in-depth because she figured she had heard a lot from me the day before. She said my skills are strong enough to put me in the more advanced classes that I had been planning on taking, which is seriously awesome! (I was worried, but I realized recently that she makes everything sound more difficult to attain than it really is.) We were supposed to pick up our cell phones in the afternoon, but that totally fell through because the company we're working with is the worst. Amalia sent a scathing email, and as of now, they should be at the school at 10am tomorrow... we'll see about that.
Thursday afternoon I took a monstrous siesta and slept for like 4 hours. I woke up around 8:30 and knew it would be hard to get back to sleep... so, of course, I met up with some kids for chocolate con churros again. Jayson and I walked around for a bit and I found some more streetlights (woo!) and took lots of photos. It did take a while for me to fall asleep, but I knew I'd be fine the next day. Oh, and before I went out, I called my dad's cell phone from gchat... FOR FREE... ridiculously cool.
Friday morning was interesting: Molly and I were up by 9 even though we didn't have to be across town until 10:30... but, unfortunately, our presumed 30min walk took almost an hour and we were WAY late for our trip to the Parque de las Ciencias (Granada's main science museum). No good, no good. The Parque was awesome, though: we saw a series of exhibits that show the "legada de Al-Andalus" (the legacy of Andalusia) through art, music, science, math, etc. The Parque also had a "Mariposario" (a butterfly room!), and it was seriously awesome. I took a bunch of close-up shots of different species of butterflies while we waited out the RAIN that was passing overhead. As a side note, the first time it rained in Granada I was amazed at all the different scents and the feel of the air. The dirt smells like wet clay which reminds me of the parks in Pacific Palisades, and there are so many different flowers (including jasmine, ahhh) that I couldn't even distinguish them all. Incredible.
Once Molly and I had trekked home after the Parque, we siesta'd for a bit and then went on a "paseo" (a walk) de Federico Garcia Lorca. We started across town (for the 2nd time) and the walk brought us right back to a plaza near our house. Later that night, we met up with our friends across town (yes, a THIRD time) and after hanging out at our favorite Spanish bar for a bit, I FINALLY got to experience a Granada discoteca! It was wild, the inside looked like a theater with steps leading down to a pit and stage, and there were lights everywhere. I know, duh, it's a nightclub... but still. We met some French kids and I got to hang out with Lynn Massengill, who's currently studying in Seville but was in Granada for the weekend. Sweet deal. Six hours later, I took off my heeled boots (SERIOUS pain) and Molly and I jumped in a cab to get us home (a good decision). I went to bed around 5am after a magical night dancing to pretty much the same music they played at the discoteca in Nerja.
On Saturday morning, I attempted an exodus back to the beach, but the weather was shitty and cloudy and COLD so my groupmate Pam and I gave up and decided to postpone. This was after we took a city bus to the bus station, bought tickets, and then canceled them. No biggie; we'll go next time. I went back to bed for a bit, then headed over to a "tetería" (tea shop, remember?) in the early afternoon to get some homework done. Isabel made a small dinner for Molly and me, and we went out again with the group afterward. We spent a significant amount of time at another bar/club close to my house, and at 1:30 we decided not to go to the discoteca after all. Jayson and I went on a quest for falafel, and we ended up back at our favorite place, speaking "Sparabic" with the guys behind the counter and tossing around opinions/thoughts on all sorts of political/ethnic issues including discrimination. It was fun to have a conversation like that in another language! I heard some Jewish jokes in Spanish which made me laugh, except that I was identified as Jewish by my nose (haha). It's funny, no big deal. Or "no pasa nada," as they say here. (It means no worries, for the rest of your daaays...)
Today has been great too. Very relaxing; weekends here definitely feel more empty and free than weekends in the USA. I slept til noon and lazed around until lunch at 2:30, where we were joined by four of Isabel's friends. We had a seriously fancy lunch with several different courses, and we ate at the dining room table which says something... I tried a lot of new food and had fun with it all - will have to get the names of everything later. Raw bacon was kind of gross but I get why it's considered a delicacy. As usual, I ate more bread than anything else, and I don't understand how I'm losing weight despite practically shoveling loaves of bread into my mouth at every single meal, but whatever! I don't ask questions. This afternoon has been chill, I tried to do work but failed (typical), had a heart-to-heart with Molly, had a 2.5hr Skype conversation with an old friend, then finished the rest of my homework which has basically taken until now.
BLAH BLAH BLAH.
These updates are boring.
I'll be sticking to bullet lists and photos from now on...
The issue is that I like recapping things, and I'm typing this in my Livejournal right now and am planning on copying/pasting it into a Tumblr entry. I'm used to recapping in my LJ, so when I see this window and type in this font, it just happens naturally.
I'm a big nerd.
Bedtime for Bonzo - trying desperately not to get sick despite the TWO packs of cigarettes that Isabel's friends burned through at the lunch table this afternoon! Throat still hurts... yuck.
Goodnight, mis amores :)
-Courtney