(no subject)
Hey hey hey! Time to post a long-overdue update. Did you miss me? I know you did, don’t lie.
It’s been a week of ups and downs. I was still feeling a little sick last Tuesday, but Molly and I went to trivia at Hannigan’s anyway, at least for a little while. I love it there, and it’s so much fun to be friends with the bartenders. They make it such a welcoming atmosphere and it makes us feel better that we’re not just a group of super obnoxious American students. Even though it’s an Irish bar and speaking English is totally the norm, we try really hard to get along with everyone instead of just crowding around a table and screaming obscenities like some of the other student groups do. I also found out yesterday that Hannigan’s is a pretty popular place to go in the afternoon for free WiFi. I don’t know if I’ll hang out there to do homework, since it’s pretty much constantly smoky, but we’ll see!
Wednesday was more of the same - we had our first GRIIS Seminar class (taught by Amalia, of course) and she told us she’s going to assign a lot of homework “to make sure we’re doing something while we’re here and not just messing around in Europe.” Thanks, biatch. Anyway, it’s a decently interesting class, and I’m glad I’ll be learning some Spanish history while I’m here. More of the group wanted to go out Wednesday night, so we went back to Hannigan’s (I wonder if I’ll ever get sick of it?) and discovered it was Open Mic Night! Needless to say, after a few Magner’s (or however you pluralize it), I ended up onstage, and I played a few Iron & Wine and State Radio songs but not really much else. Later on, Molly joined me and we sang/played a duet of “Such Great Heights” by The Postal Service. Definitely worth fighting the stage fright and ignoring my illness! I sang a few more songs with a Spanish guy who knew Coldplay (um, awesome) and called it a night shortly thereafter.
Molly and I almost went stir-crazy at home on Thursday night, so around midnight we decided to trek to Hannigan’s to see what was up. We completely forgot that Thursday is Karaoke Night, so needless to say we were surrounded by crazy Americans screaming slurred words and a handful of Spaniards who were too drunk by that point to care. Good times. Molly and I were accosted by a group of Swedes, but thankfully Sarah and Gary (our favorite bartenders) helped us out by engaging in conversation and, in Molly’s case, literally dragging us out of the room. They left eventually, and we ended up talking to a few Moroccan men for a short time, but we got sick of their blatantly obvious (but suave) gestures so we left shortly thereafter.
Friday was sweet - we continued our long weekend by sitting around inside some more (ha) but eventually Molly, Amy and I went on a bar crawl near the Plaza Nueva. After failing miserably, we ended up joining Jayson and his “intercambio” (exchange student/friend) and his friends at the “bodellon,” a big park(ing lot) where it’s legal to drink in public. Kids bring their own drinks/cups and stand around with friends, just hanging out. There are cops around the perimeter but otherwise everyone is free to mess around. The place was PACKED - it like the back half of a general admission concert. Outdoor public “bathrooms” were a little sketch, so I left the zone to find a real restroom at one point (they’re so difficult here in Spain!). I called it a fairly early night around 2 and took a €5 cab home. Ño big deal.
We all wanted to take advantage of the long weekend at least somehow, so we ended up planning another trip to Nerja, on the coast of Spain (the “Costa del Sol”). The weather there is still insanely nice and we figured it would be sweet to go back, so Molly, Amy, Jayson, Liz and I booked a hostel. Saturday morning was hilarious… Liz and I miraculously made the 10am bus, Amy & Molly slept in and took the 1pm, and poor Jayson was so hungover that he didn’t get to the bus station til 4:30. We hung out on the beach for the afternoon, met Jayson at the hostel, lounged around for a bit, then went to dinner at a restaurant near the water. Most of us shared a HUGE batch of paella (a delicious rice dish with various kinds of meat and seafood mixed in), and it was INDESCRIBABLY satisfying. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Liz, Jayson and I went out for drinks at Plaza Tutti Frutti (not kidding) but only lasted an hour or two before heading back to the hostel for the night. So much for our return to Discoteca Jimmy… oh well. We checked out around 11 the next morning and hit the beach for a few more hours before heading home. Overall, the hostel was a sweet setup, the owner was really nice, and we split two rooms for €13 each, and were all served free breakfast in the morning. (Yesss, Europe!) It was definitely good to be away from home for a bit, that’s for sure.
I had a fair amount of homework to do on Sunday, so the rest of the day was fairly boring. Yesterday, though, was an adventure. Sort of. I received my schedule (FINALLY) on Friday and discovered that I hadn’t been assigned to a literature class. I emailed Amalia to ask what was up, and on Sunday night I found out that the lit course I had requested was, in fact, still open… Mondays & Wednesdays at 8:30am. Ugh. That wouldn’t be so bad, except that my schedule already consisted of a political science course (The EU’s Political System) at 10:30am, Amalia’s seminar at 12:30pm, and an Oral & Written Production class from 4-6. Adding the lit class would make my day 8 hours long (ayyy dios). Fortunately I found out yesterday that I’m not required to take a grammar course, so I can drop my only Tues/Thurs class and keep all of my classes on Mon/Wed. Sounds tough but I think I can handle it! I sat in on the literature class yesterday and I absolutely love it. It’ll be an adventure sitting through class from 8:30am-2:30pm with NO break, but it’s worth it. The classes are amazing, and I told my mom and James that I can’t remember the last time I felt so happy to be learning. I can’t even describe it… endorphins were flying. I’m ridiculous, I know.
So my day was extremely long, and I was going stir-crazy by the end of the day from sitting so much, so I went to my first yoga class last night before dinner. It was decent, but I’m not a big fan of Hatha yoga, where you only hold poses for a few seconds and people move around and talk between each pose… it’s hard for me to get “in the zone” when I take a class like that; I much prefer Vinyasa, where you spend an hour and a half moving through poses fluidly and it becomes rhythmic after a while and I can totally space out and ditch my thoughts. I’ll probably end up walking 15 minutes away to another yoga studio instead of continuing at this one, which is on my street, but it’s all good. I’d rather get something out of a yoga class than waste time/money, and this other place has a combination yoga+pilates class on Mon/Wed and is half the cost. Go figure! I’ll work something out eventually.
As for today, I woke up fairly brain-dead from yesterday but sat in on my grammar class anyway. If I take it as a 5th class, I can take it pass/fail and add it to my GPA, but I really don’t think it’s worth the hassle. I’m okay having all my classes Mon/Wed, especially since Amalia’s is the only one that gives serious amounts of homework. It’ll help when I make travel plans, too, something that has proven to be extremely difficult lately because Amalia has scheduled Friday classes on 10 out of 12 weekends and we’re only allowed 2 absences in total. Whatever. Thanks a ton. Whine whine whine. Still working on putting together weekend trips and hating the fact that I can’t do everything I want to do, but it’ll all work out in the end.
Lots of homework tonight, one more long day of class, a conference on Thursday about media communications, then Paris!!! I’m overjoyed to be spending five days in an apartment with James - I can’t wait to indulge in French food every single day and hopefully have lunch in the Eiffel Tower (unless terrorism threats persist). We have no class Monday or Tuesday of next week, so I’m coming back to Granada on Tuesday afternoon. I can’t wait to get to know Paris a little and hopefully see friends from home. It’ll be heartbreaking and emotional yet again to leave my favorite boy, but he’ll be in Granada three weeks later and I’m working on a short weekend trip to Parma before then. To make things better, I have no class Thursday, Friday, or Monday of the weekend he’s here, which means my group might be traveling but I’ll have lots of time to hang out and show him the sights. Ahhh I can’t wait.
In the meantime, I’m off to finish up siesta (taking a half-hour nap - we’ll see how this goes) and do all my Amalia homework… more later for sure. I’ll post photos once I move them from my Blackberry to my laptop. Picture-taking has been dwindling since I haven’t seen anything new recently, but I know photos were taken at Open Mic Night so I’ll post those eventually… ha…
Un saludo,
Courtney
It’s been a week of ups and downs. I was still feeling a little sick last Tuesday, but Molly and I went to trivia at Hannigan’s anyway, at least for a little while. I love it there, and it’s so much fun to be friends with the bartenders. They make it such a welcoming atmosphere and it makes us feel better that we’re not just a group of super obnoxious American students. Even though it’s an Irish bar and speaking English is totally the norm, we try really hard to get along with everyone instead of just crowding around a table and screaming obscenities like some of the other student groups do. I also found out yesterday that Hannigan’s is a pretty popular place to go in the afternoon for free WiFi. I don’t know if I’ll hang out there to do homework, since it’s pretty much constantly smoky, but we’ll see!
Wednesday was more of the same - we had our first GRIIS Seminar class (taught by Amalia, of course) and she told us she’s going to assign a lot of homework “to make sure we’re doing something while we’re here and not just messing around in Europe.” Thanks, biatch. Anyway, it’s a decently interesting class, and I’m glad I’ll be learning some Spanish history while I’m here. More of the group wanted to go out Wednesday night, so we went back to Hannigan’s (I wonder if I’ll ever get sick of it?) and discovered it was Open Mic Night! Needless to say, after a few Magner’s (or however you pluralize it), I ended up onstage, and I played a few Iron & Wine and State Radio songs but not really much else. Later on, Molly joined me and we sang/played a duet of “Such Great Heights” by The Postal Service. Definitely worth fighting the stage fright and ignoring my illness! I sang a few more songs with a Spanish guy who knew Coldplay (um, awesome) and called it a night shortly thereafter.
Molly and I almost went stir-crazy at home on Thursday night, so around midnight we decided to trek to Hannigan’s to see what was up. We completely forgot that Thursday is Karaoke Night, so needless to say we were surrounded by crazy Americans screaming slurred words and a handful of Spaniards who were too drunk by that point to care. Good times. Molly and I were accosted by a group of Swedes, but thankfully Sarah and Gary (our favorite bartenders) helped us out by engaging in conversation and, in Molly’s case, literally dragging us out of the room. They left eventually, and we ended up talking to a few Moroccan men for a short time, but we got sick of their blatantly obvious (but suave) gestures so we left shortly thereafter.
Friday was sweet - we continued our long weekend by sitting around inside some more (ha) but eventually Molly, Amy and I went on a bar crawl near the Plaza Nueva. After failing miserably, we ended up joining Jayson and his “intercambio” (exchange student/friend) and his friends at the “bodellon,” a big park(ing lot) where it’s legal to drink in public. Kids bring their own drinks/cups and stand around with friends, just hanging out. There are cops around the perimeter but otherwise everyone is free to mess around. The place was PACKED - it like the back half of a general admission concert. Outdoor public “bathrooms” were a little sketch, so I left the zone to find a real restroom at one point (they’re so difficult here in Spain!). I called it a fairly early night around 2 and took a €5 cab home. Ño big deal.
We all wanted to take advantage of the long weekend at least somehow, so we ended up planning another trip to Nerja, on the coast of Spain (the “Costa del Sol”). The weather there is still insanely nice and we figured it would be sweet to go back, so Molly, Amy, Jayson, Liz and I booked a hostel. Saturday morning was hilarious… Liz and I miraculously made the 10am bus, Amy & Molly slept in and took the 1pm, and poor Jayson was so hungover that he didn’t get to the bus station til 4:30. We hung out on the beach for the afternoon, met Jayson at the hostel, lounged around for a bit, then went to dinner at a restaurant near the water. Most of us shared a HUGE batch of paella (a delicious rice dish with various kinds of meat and seafood mixed in), and it was INDESCRIBABLY satisfying. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Liz, Jayson and I went out for drinks at Plaza Tutti Frutti (not kidding) but only lasted an hour or two before heading back to the hostel for the night. So much for our return to Discoteca Jimmy… oh well. We checked out around 11 the next morning and hit the beach for a few more hours before heading home. Overall, the hostel was a sweet setup, the owner was really nice, and we split two rooms for €13 each, and were all served free breakfast in the morning. (Yesss, Europe!) It was definitely good to be away from home for a bit, that’s for sure.
I had a fair amount of homework to do on Sunday, so the rest of the day was fairly boring. Yesterday, though, was an adventure. Sort of. I received my schedule (FINALLY) on Friday and discovered that I hadn’t been assigned to a literature class. I emailed Amalia to ask what was up, and on Sunday night I found out that the lit course I had requested was, in fact, still open… Mondays & Wednesdays at 8:30am. Ugh. That wouldn’t be so bad, except that my schedule already consisted of a political science course (The EU’s Political System) at 10:30am, Amalia’s seminar at 12:30pm, and an Oral & Written Production class from 4-6. Adding the lit class would make my day 8 hours long (ayyy dios). Fortunately I found out yesterday that I’m not required to take a grammar course, so I can drop my only Tues/Thurs class and keep all of my classes on Mon/Wed. Sounds tough but I think I can handle it! I sat in on the literature class yesterday and I absolutely love it. It’ll be an adventure sitting through class from 8:30am-2:30pm with NO break, but it’s worth it. The classes are amazing, and I told my mom and James that I can’t remember the last time I felt so happy to be learning. I can’t even describe it… endorphins were flying. I’m ridiculous, I know.
So my day was extremely long, and I was going stir-crazy by the end of the day from sitting so much, so I went to my first yoga class last night before dinner. It was decent, but I’m not a big fan of Hatha yoga, where you only hold poses for a few seconds and people move around and talk between each pose… it’s hard for me to get “in the zone” when I take a class like that; I much prefer Vinyasa, where you spend an hour and a half moving through poses fluidly and it becomes rhythmic after a while and I can totally space out and ditch my thoughts. I’ll probably end up walking 15 minutes away to another yoga studio instead of continuing at this one, which is on my street, but it’s all good. I’d rather get something out of a yoga class than waste time/money, and this other place has a combination yoga+pilates class on Mon/Wed and is half the cost. Go figure! I’ll work something out eventually.
As for today, I woke up fairly brain-dead from yesterday but sat in on my grammar class anyway. If I take it as a 5th class, I can take it pass/fail and add it to my GPA, but I really don’t think it’s worth the hassle. I’m okay having all my classes Mon/Wed, especially since Amalia’s is the only one that gives serious amounts of homework. It’ll help when I make travel plans, too, something that has proven to be extremely difficult lately because Amalia has scheduled Friday classes on 10 out of 12 weekends and we’re only allowed 2 absences in total. Whatever. Thanks a ton. Whine whine whine. Still working on putting together weekend trips and hating the fact that I can’t do everything I want to do, but it’ll all work out in the end.
Lots of homework tonight, one more long day of class, a conference on Thursday about media communications, then Paris!!! I’m overjoyed to be spending five days in an apartment with James - I can’t wait to indulge in French food every single day and hopefully have lunch in the Eiffel Tower (unless terrorism threats persist). We have no class Monday or Tuesday of next week, so I’m coming back to Granada on Tuesday afternoon. I can’t wait to get to know Paris a little and hopefully see friends from home. It’ll be heartbreaking and emotional yet again to leave my favorite boy, but he’ll be in Granada three weeks later and I’m working on a short weekend trip to Parma before then. To make things better, I have no class Thursday, Friday, or Monday of the weekend he’s here, which means my group might be traveling but I’ll have lots of time to hang out and show him the sights. Ahhh I can’t wait.
In the meantime, I’m off to finish up siesta (taking a half-hour nap - we’ll see how this goes) and do all my Amalia homework… more later for sure. I’ll post photos once I move them from my Blackberry to my laptop. Picture-taking has been dwindling since I haven’t seen anything new recently, but I know photos were taken at Open Mic Night so I’ll post those eventually… ha…
Un saludo,
Courtney