Palma de Mallorca

Last weekend, my friends and I went on our first real trip since we've been in Granada. Our destination was Palma de Mallorca in the Balearic Islands off the eastern coast of Spain. The Balearic Islands are considered an autonomous province of Spain, and Palma de Mallorca is a very popular beach town. Pretty much the only thing I knew about Mallorca before going there was that they speak Catalan and have nice beaches. 

I haven't really mentioned how travelling works from Granada, but it's honestly a pain in the butt. Granada is relatively isolated because it's near the coast yet surrounded by mountains, so it's difficult to fly in and out of the city. In order to get cheap flights on discount airlines, there is pretty much no way fly directly from Granada and the closest airport to Granada is in Malaga, which is about a two hour bus ride away. With that in mind, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that it takes FOREVER to travel anywhere. 

In order to get to Mallorca, I walked to the post office, took a taxi to the Granada bus station, took a bus from Granada to Malaga, took a bus from the Malaga bus station to the Malaga airport, flew from Malaga to Mallorca, and took a bus from the Mallorca airport to the hostel, which we actually had to walk four blocks to find. Although the buses are seemingly never-ending, the hardest part turned out to be maneuvering the airport. So far I've flown into three different Spanish airports and I've noticed a few interesting things. They all look pretty much exactly the same; they're very contemporary, open, and clean. Also, no one seems to talk in the Spanish airports. Everyone looks like they're talking, but the airports are freakishly quiet, which goes against the stereotypical loud, passionate Spanish people I've become accustomed to. 

Anyway, we wandered around the airport for a while before we found the desk for RyanAir, the sketchy discount airline we used. After we checked in for our flight, we went on a hunt for security, which is the same for all gates and doesn't make you feel like a terrorist like airports in the US. To give some perspective, we were allowed to keep our shoes on and one of my friends accidentally snuck in an entire bottle of spray sunscreen. We had a ridiculously large amount of time in the airport on the way to Mallorca because we wanted to get there early since it was our first time doing everything so we got free samples at the duty free shop and kept ourselves entertained. Although the airplane didn't have assigned seating and sounded like a rocket was taking off, our flight to Mallorca went smoothly.

Unfortunately, I caused a bit of a commotion as we were boarding our bus to go from the Mallorca airport to our hostel. As I was waiting in line with my friends to get on the bus, a man came up behind me and pushed me into the people in front of me. Everyone trying to get on the bus had swarmed towards the door so even though something seemed off when I saw him dart away from the bus, I just brushed it off, paid my bus fare, and sat down. For some reason, I went down to grab something from my purse and saw that it was unsnapped. I immediately got a sick feeling in my stomach and opened it only to find that my wallet was gone. I ran outside the bus to make sure I hadn't dropped it, but of course it wasn't here. When the man had pushed me, he maneuvered his body so that my purse was trapped in front of him so all he had to do was open it, get the wallet, and go. I called my mom immediately to cancel my credit card. Even though it completely sucked because he got my driver's license, debit card, and 200 euros, I'm fine and I still have my passport which is all that really matters. My friends were all extremely nice about the whole thing and lent me money for the weekend so I didn't starve to death. Despite my horrible first impression of Mallorca, I tried not to think about what had happened and enjoy my weekend.

When we arrived at the hostel traumatized from the wallet-knapping, we took some time to relax, recuperate, and get ready to go out. Our hostel was called Sol de Mallorca, which means sun of Mallorca, and it wasn't too bad. We had a private room for the five of us with our own bathroom. The beds were so close that I could touch the girl in the bed next to me, but it didn't bother me because I knew all of them. We ended up wandering around the area near our hostel and soon discovered that all the people there were either old, German, or both old and German. We went into the only dance club that appeared to have a younger crowd and proceeded to get hit on by Germans. They didn't seem to understand that they were in Spain because they would talk to us in German and then act confused when we spoke to them in Spanish or English. Why they assume that everyone speaks German, I will never understand. We danced for a while (surrounded by Germans) and finally called it a night. 

The next day we woke up surprisingly early and headed to the beach. We had planned on taking a bus to a beach further away from the hostel, but we missed the bus by thirty minutes and discovered that it only came once a day. Feeling slightly defeated, we went back to the hostel to see if the man at the front desk could help us. He told us there was a beach really close by, which we already knew about but didn't want to go to because it was so crowded. He then gave us directions to a beach within walking distance that, as he put it, wouldn't be full of Germans. We walked and walked and finally stumbled upon a stairwell that led to the ocean. 

This is everyone I was with on the trip (from left to right): Kayla, Erin, Monika, Gabby, and me.

It was the coolest beach I've ever seen. I don't even know if it qualifies as a beach because there wasn't actually any sand. It was just all these rocks that led into the ocean. We climbed over the rocks above and found an area with giant rocks we could lay down on. The water was beautiful and not nearly as cold as the water in Almuñecar. Below is the view from where we were sitting on the rocks. 

We spent most of the day there until we got hungry and went searching for food. Finding a restaurant was an adventure of its own because there was nothing close to us. We ended up walking for about an hour (even after we asked for directions) and stumbled upon a group of restaurants. We all ordered pizzas and inhaled them so quickly that the waiter was probably making fun of us in the kitchen. After lunch, Monika, Gabby, and I spent about an hour at the crowded beach while Erin and Kayla went back to hostel. When the rest of us got back, we cleaned up in the pitiful excuse for a shower and got ready for dinner.

We decided to take a bus to what is considered the downtown area of Mallorca. After wandering around for a while, we found this bizarre tapas place with a cross-dresser on staff. I was still so full from lunch that I couldn't eat dinner, but everyone else ordered pa'amb oli, a traditional Mallorcan dish of Mallorcan bread with garlic, tomato, olive oil, ham, and cheese. I had a bite of Erin's and it was delicious! After dinner, we explored downtown a little bit, but there wasn't really anything to do so we sat down on this ledge for a while to chat. These two guys walked by and one of the girls in my group grabbed their attention to ask for a good place to go. They told us that they managed a tour of some of the best bars in Mallorca so we ended up joining the tour because at the end of the night it would take us back to the area near our hostel, which had begun fondly referring to as Germany. I was ready to go home after about two bars, but it was a very unique experience to say the least.

We woke up on Sunday morning, got breakfast, and headed to the bus stop so we could take a bus to the airport to take a plane to take a bus and then get on another bus.

Some things I learned from my first trip:
1. Do research before you go, but also don't be afraid to ask the people there for advice. Erin had done a ton of research beforehand, but the man at the front desk of the hostel ended up giving us the most helpful information.
2. ALWAYS keep your hands on your purse. I thought I was being careful, but now I'm going to be even more careful. I'm hoping everyone else on my program will learn from my incident as well.
3. Separate your money, credit cards, and passport. I'm so glad my passport wasn't in my wallet and that I had another credit card at home, but I wish all of my cash hadn't been in my wallet either.
4. Mallorca is such a strange place, and apparently Germany is too because all the Germans seem to flock to Mallorca.

As a side note, my host parents were very worried and upset when I told them about my wallet. There's some sort of saying in Spanish involving beards that tells you to be careful when something bad happens to someone because it may happen to you too. It proved to be a valid concern because the day after I got back from Mallorca, my host mother's purse was stolen while she was in a store in a nearby city. It's kind of a long story that's actually really funny when my host parents tell it together, but they had a horrible day. Now my host mother keeps saying we can be sad about our wallets together.

El Museo de Las Cuevas de Sacromonte

Two Sundays ago, the day after La Ofrenda Floral, my friends and I decided to go see the famous Gypsy caves of Granada. The longer I'm here, the more I hear about Gypsies (Los Gitanos in Spanish). I've been told that you have to be really careful, especially in the Albaycin (Arab neighborhood), because the Gypsies will try to hand you things and then grab your hand to read your palm. If you don't give them money afterwards, they get very angry so basically don't accept things from Gypies. We, nevertheless, decided to go to El Museo de Las Cuevas de Sacromonte, which translates to The Museum of the Caves of the Sacred Mountain. 

Because it was Sunday and everything closes on Sunday, we had to wait until 17:00 for the museum to open. You'd think that at that point, the hottest part of the day would have passed, but it was swelteringly hot outside and in order to get to the museum we basically had to climb a mountain. Oddly enough, we ended up walking past a discoteca (dance club) called El Camborio where all the erasmus (exchange) students like to go out on the weekends. None of us knew exactly where the museum was so we were all cracking up throughout the walk when we realized we were taking the exact route we take to get to El Camborio. As if the walk to El Camborio wasn't bad enough, the museum ended up being way farther up the mountain and has a cobblestone path with hand railings because it's so steep. To be honest, by the time we got there I was more interested in finding a glass of water and some air conditioning (which of course they don't have here) than Gypsy caves.  

To give you a little background info on caves, the they're referred to as underground architecture because they're literally built into the mountains.They can look very different depending on the environment. Underground architecture still exists today as a form of housing and can be found all over the world (including Colorado). A lot of the caves that are still in use today have been modernized to include electricity, cable, etc. I don't know whether people still live in caves in Granada, but they were originally used by people who were exiled from Granada or in hiding for various reasons, which is why they were so popular amongst the Gypsies. 

The museum definitely wasn't what I expected. First of all, it was all outside, which in retrospect makes sense because you can't shove caves that are carved into the mountain into a museum. Second, the caves were significantly more normal than I thought they would be. They also felt really cool inside (as in the temperature), which surprised me because it was so hot outside. The signs in front of each cave weren't very descriptive, but it was pretty clear what the purpose of each cave was based on the objects inside. 

Above is an example of a living cave. You can see the bed when you look straight back. If you turn left from where I took the picture, there's a little nook that serves as a kitchen, which you can see below.

There were all kinds of different caves to wander around at the museum. For example, there was one filled with yarn and tools for weaving and there was another one that served as a stable. It was unclear whether or not the non-bedroom caves were communal or belonged to only one family. 

This is the view from the museum. I've seen a lot of breathtaking scenery of Granada since I've been here, but this one by far has the most foliage. Also, I climbed all the way up from the bottom of that. I'm just saying...

La Ofrenda Floral a la Virgen de las Angustias

Last Saturday was a very exciting day for Granada due to the annual Ofrenda Floral a la Virgen de las Angustias (Flower Offering to the Virgin of Sorrows). The flower offering serves as a kickoff for an annual festival in Granada that celebrates the city's patron saint, la Virgen de las Angustias. Starting on Thursday, I saw them setting up metal grids in front of the church near my house, but I didn't quite understand what the flower offering is so I was interested to see how everything would pan out. I wasn't sure what time the festivities began so I walked around the center of the city in the morning and saw that about 10 different booths had been set up to sell flowers for the offering.

There were people walking through the streets, but it wasn't that much busier than normal so I didn't really understand what all the fuss was about. Everything was closed for the offering other than restaurants which meant there wasn't much to do other than wander around. The grids at the church were still empty, although a stage and sign made of flowers had been added to the area around the church. 

After a while I went home for siesta feeling unimpressed. Once siesta was over, Brittany convinced me to go back to the flower offering where she was meeting some friends. I wasn't all that excited to go back since I had been a little disappointed, but I figured it was better than just sitting in my room at home. It turned out to be worth it! I'm so used to festivals and parades in the US that start mid-morning and are done by the afternoon so Brittany and I hadn't even considered that the real events would occur later in the day. I'm assuming there was some sort of speech on the stage and there was definitely a small parade that we missed. At the end of the parade, all the participants stayed in order so we at least got to walk by them and see the various participants. It was a bizarre mix of traditional flamenco costumes, policeman, and horses. 

Above is a picture of volunteers (I think they're volunteers) whose job is to put the flowers on the metal grids. The way it works is that everyone goes to the nearby square where all the flower booths are, buys flowers, gets in line, and then hands their flowers one by one to the men on the ladders. The men are all wearing harnesses that are hooked onto the grid and they set up metal floors and railings for them to stand on as well. The floors and railings are removed level by level as more flowers are put onto the grid. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but there are literally mobs of people surrounding the church to watch as they slowly fill up the grid. 

Of course after watching them add more and more flowers, I had to come back the next day and see the final product. This is what the flower offering looks like in the end. There must be thousands of flowers and it's really beautiful. I kept seeing people sit and stare at the flowers for 2 or 3 days after the offering. The festival that follows the flower offering isn't until the last Sunday of September and it's supposed to be much more exciting than the flower offering so it'll be fun to see what happens next!

Patty's, Yoga, Mexican Food, and Cristina

Even though I've only been in Spain for a little over two weeks, it didn't take long to figure out that there is literally nothing to do on Sundays. Most of the restaurants are open, but everything else is closed so basically all you can do is go out to eat or go to church. Because I don't like to do either of those things, Sundays are usually pretty dull. This past Sunday, however, some of the people on my program discovered a bar called Patty's that's located near the CLM (Centro de Lenguas Modernas). Patty's is an Irish pub owned and bar-tended by Patty himself, who is actually from Ireland and has the accent to prove it. Patty has learned that if he plays American football games (an important distinction from European football aka soccer) on Sunday nights he can attract a lot of business from the American exchange students. I saw this first hand when I strolled into Patty's last Sunday to hang out and pretend like I watch and/or know anything about American football. It was actually really fun (the hanging out part, not the watching football part) and I have a feeling it wasn't the last time I'll go there.

On Monday, I had class in the morning as usual and cut my siesta short to try out a yoga class at one of the gyms the CEA staff showed us on the nightmare they called a sports tour. For some reason it didn't occur to me that the class would be in Spanish. I certainly haven't forgotten that I'm in Spain, but I guess I go to yoga so often at home that I forgot there was talking involved so you can imagine how shocking it was when the teacher walked in and started speaking. All I could think about was how glad I was that we had just reviewed body parts in my class at the CLM. I was able to keep up pretty well which was exciting, but the class was terrible and I didn't even break a sweat. The gym is also expensive and a 20 or 30 minute walk from my house so there is no way I would get a membership there. I'm glad I tried out the class though because it was certainly a good mental workout!

Tuesday night I met up with some friends for tapas at...wait for it...a Mexican restaurant. It is literally in the most random location. You walk down this alleyway off one of the main streets in the center of the city and all of sudden there it is. It's set up pretty much the same as the rest of the tapas bars except that every single decoration is Mexican themed. I don't think I have ever seen so many stereotypes crammed into such a small area. There were piñatas hanging from the ceiling, ponchos and sombreros tacked to the walls, and a bulletin board filled with head shots of famous Mexicans. They served us free tapas just like every other restaurant in Granada, but rather than traditional Spanish tapas, we were given mini tacos. The food wasn't half bad and probably would have been better if I had been able to get past the irony of being in a Mexican restaurant in Spain.

On Wednesday, Francisco's daughter, Cristina, and her fiance, whose name may or may not be Fran, came over for dinner. Cristina is from Francisco's first marriage (Aloana is his third wife). She's really, really nice, and her mother is Scottish so she's fluent in English and has a Scottish accent, making me like her even more. She recently got a job teaching English at an elementary school in Granada, which Francisco is ecstatic about because it's VERY difficult to find jobs in Spain right now. About 6 months ago Cristina found out that she has Chron's Disease and is allergic to about 16 different foods. Of course I was interrogating her about it because I think it's interesting and she didn't mind at all. We all love it when she comes over because she and her fiance are great with Ana Clara, nice to us, and it makes Francisco happy. I think Alicia, Francisco's other daughter, is coming over in the next few weeks so hopefully she'll be just as pleasant!

Almuñecar

On Friday in class, Ana (my professor) told us that this was the last good weekend to go to the beach before it starts getting a little colder. On Thursday night, a bunch of us had already talked about possibly going to the beach on Saturday so after Ana said that, I was sold. Everyone from CEA ended up deciding to go to Almuñecar, which is directly south of Granada and only about an hour away by bus. We tried to buy our bus tickets ahead of time, but in order to buy them online you have to use a Spanish credit card and it was too late to buy them at a travel agency. On Saturday morning, Sophie and I took a taxi to the bus station, got there around 9:30am, and from what I can tell were two of the last people to get tickets on the 10:15am bus. It cost us about 15 Euros ($20) for a trip there and back. The bus was really nice and the scenery on the way there was gorgeous. We literally had to drive through the mountains to get to the beach, which I still can't get over. There was a McDonald's close to the bus station in Almuñecar and about half of the Tulane kids rushed over there so quickly you would think they hadn't seen one in years. The rest of us went to a grocery store and bought gigantic bottles of water (seriously I've never seen water bottles this big in the U.S.) for 52 Euro cents which is about 67 U.S. cents. It only took 5 or 10 minutes to walk from the bus station area to the beach. We found a good spot and spread out.

This is the view from our spot on the beach.

I was really surprised by how different the beaches are in Spain. I guess I hadn't really thought about it much until we got there, but it was a Mediterranean beach so of course it's different. First of all, the beaches in Spain specifically are topless. Obviously going topless is optional, and it's mostly children and old women who participate. The other two big variances between Mediterranean and Atlantic beaches are the sand and the water. The part of the sand farthest away from the water is literally just rocks. Then there's a sort of middle area where it's rough sand mixed with rocks. The part closest to the water is basically all rocks again and it continues like that into the water. During the day while were all lounging on the beach, I kept seeing people in my group lift up their towels and pull out big rocks from the sand. It was a little annoying but also pretty comical. The water itself was freezing. I got in the water in the afternoon (the hottest part of the day) and was shivering because it was so cold. I even put my head under, thinking it would help me adjust to the temperature, but it actually just made me colder. 

The beach was really, really busy in the morning when we got there but people started leaving around 13:00 or 14:00 for siesta. It got a little busier by the time we left around 17:00, although it still wasn't nearly as crowded as it was in the morning. The CEA group alone included about 30 people spread out in a few different spots on the beach. Sophie and I were together with the Tulane kids and other CEA people from various schools. Brittany goes to Illinois State University so she was hanging out with the rest of the ISU kids at a spot close to ours. I basically just sat around all day and chatted with everyone. We got lunch at a quant little restaurant near the beach. It took forever, just like every other restaurant in Andalucia, but none of us minded because it was so beautiful outside. Sophie and I had originally bought our return tickets for 20:00 but we were tired from being in the sun all day so we changed our tickets to 18:00 for only 62 Euro cents. I managed to get a small tan, not get a sunburn, and get home using the Granada bus system. All in all, it was a fantastic day at the beach!

My New Housemate

Last Wednesday was a big day at my house. In the afternoon, Sophie and I were taking our daily siesta when Francisco knocked on our door. He came in and said that Begonia, the director of our program, had just called him to ask if he and Aloana would be willing to take in another CEA student. He explained that she was in a home stay by herself and was very lonely. Sophie and I were really surprised, but he told us that the decision was up to us. He said they could make room but that this is our experience and if we didn't want another person in our family they would tell Begonia no. Of course Sophie and I said it was fine even though we were a bit hesitant. Francisco called Begonia who then said our new housemate would be moving in the next day. I had a few theories on who it might be based on some conversations I had with people and what I'd seen on facebook. Out of the two girls I thought were strong contenders, I liked one of them and wasn't sure what to think about the other.

Aloana had already planned to take Sophie and me to a movie and dinner that night so they cleaned the house all day in preparation for our new "sister." I really didn't know what to expect from the whole movie situation and it turned about to be quite an adventure. Apparently, Francisco and Aloana have a car which explains a lot about where they go when they're not here. We walked to the car, with Ana Clara in tow, only to discover that Francisco had forgotten his car keys. As he ran back to the house to get them, Aloana explained that he forgets his keys every time they leave the house and that she usually has hers, but of course hers weren't in her purse today. He came back to the car, we loaded up, and off we went. As we drove through the city and towards the highway (which I didn't know existed), Aloana  pointed out various buildings. When we arrived at the movie theater, Aloana rushed us inside to buy our tickets. Sophie and I were so confused about what was going on because we were late and no one had explained exactly what the plan was. Eventually we figured out that Aloana, Francisco, and Ana Clara were going to go grocery shopping while we went to the movie. Sophie and I could not get over how the theater was set up because it is literally inside a mall except the mall only has restaurants. It was gigantic and unlike any other mall/theater I've ever seen. We bought our tickets to Brave, but there was a miscommunication with the ticket man so he gave us tickets to the wrong movie time. Long story short, Sophie and I ended up watching Brave 3D in Spanish without 3D glasses. After we finally stopped laughing at how ridiculous the whole situation was, the movie was really good. I understood pretty much everything because it's a children's movie so they speak slowly. We met up with Aloana, Francisco, and Ana Clara to get dinner once the movie ended. The restaurant is called Euromania and they have 100 different kinds of sandwiches to choose from plus salads and appetizers. It was very overwhelming! The sandwiches turned out to be small (the perfect size actually) and for dessert we had chocolate sandwiches which are literally chocolate bread with Nutella and M&Ms. Needless to say I'm a big fan. At one point during dinner Francisco told us that Sophie and I were part of their family now and that if we didn't like our new "sister" we could basically veto her out. It was very sweet and reassuring.

The next day, Thursday, our family expanded as Francisco keeps saying. He told us to wait at school when we were done with class because he wanted to pick us up after he got our new "sister" so she didn't feel uncomfortable walking with just him (her Spanish isn't very good). Begonia had already emailed Sophie and me to tell us that Brittany was moving into our home stay, and Brittany had messaged me on facebook so there weren't really any surprises at that point. Brittany was one of the girls I thought might be moving in and I thought she was really nice when I talked to her so I was excited. The first day involved a lot of adjusting for everyone! I really like having another person to hang out with at home.

CLM Class

On Tuesday morning, my classes for the week began. I'm only taking one class right now and it's considered an intensive prep class to basically give us a refresher on all of the grammar rules and vocabulary we've learned but somewhat forgotten over the years. It's at the Kenia campus which actually used to be a hotel (Hotel Kenia) in the old Jewish neighborhood so it's a beautiful building with a huge courtyard and lots of trees. The front entrance is elevated so you walk up a flight of stairs and then walk straight into the courtyard. From the street you can't even tell how pretty it is.

Here's a picture I took from the courtyard. It looks way better in person. 

It only takes about 15 minutes to walk from my house to school, but on the first day Sophie and I had no idea where we were going and took a roundabout route that took a little over 30 minutes. I looked at a map when we got home and realized how completely unnecessarily long it took us to get there. We made fun of ourselves for a while and then used Google Maps to find a quicker route, which we then practiced so we wouldn't get lost in the morning. Most of the streets here don't have street signs and the ones that do are basically hidden because they're on the buildings themselves. If you can find a street sign at all, it's a big accomplishment so finding the correct street is often quite an adventure. Luckily, Google Maps knows what it's doing so even though our walk is all uphill with a whole bunch of stairs, we can now get that extra 15 minutes of sleep back.

I have two professors, Fermín and Ana. Those are their first names and they insist that we call them by that. Fermín didn't even tell us his last name, and Ana's name is stereotypical Spanish in that it has so many different parts you can't remember it anyway. The way our schedule works is that Fermín teaches my class from 9-11am while Ana teaches a different group of Level 6 kids. We have a break from about 10:50am to 11:10am and then they switch classes so my class has Ana for the last two hours. Fermín always starts 5 minutes late and gives us a 10 minute break in the middle of class. At first we thought he was just extra nice but it didn't take long to realize that our 10 minute "get yourself together" break is actually his smoke break. On top of that, he convinced Ana to let him illegally photocopy the textbook (apparently the people who wrote it also teach at the CLM and will be very annoyed if they find out) so we don't have to pay 30 Euros to buy the book. Needless to say, we all love him. Both professors are really good in different ways. Fermín has a dry sense of humor so he's extremely funny, which is perfect because he tends to teach more of the grammar lessons, while Ana, who's very bubbly and loud, teaches the lessons that are more focused on vocabulary. Ana's also very stylish, and Sophie and I are obsessed with her cool pants. So far, we've talked about the four forms of past tense, body vocabulary, different ways to translate the word become (it doesn't exist in Spanish), characteristic vocabulary (like personality traits), and a few other things I can't remember off the top of my head. The class is actually really helpful for me and not overwhelming like I expected. We do have a little bit of homework but it's nothing compared to what I'm used to.

Because Sophie and I are done with class at 1pm every day, we have all afternoon and night to just kind of do whatever. We've gone out for tapas and drinks a few nights this week. Tapas are basically appetizers that are usually meat and sometimes vegetables. Granada is famous for being one of the few cities in Spain that gives you free tapas when you order a drink. They give you enough tapas to feed the whole table even if everyone doesn't order drinks. The only downside is that if you want water, they charge you for it, and they automatically give you bread which you have to pay for even if you don't eat it. Also, if you don't call the server over, a lot of times you could wait up to 30 minutes before anyone acknowledges you. It makes no sense because you'd think they would want the business, but tipping isn't really a thing in Europe so the waiters have a fixed salary and therefore don't really care if every table is being served promptly and efficiently. Paying is often an even bigger ordeal because you have to ask for the check, which always includes the entire table, and then wait forever to pay. You can't just put your money on the table and leave or someone will likely walk by and just take it.

La Alhambra, Albaycin, and Placement Exams

Saturday morning we finally did the typical tourist thing to do in Granada - visit La Alhambra. In a nutshell, the Alhambra is an old palace and fortress that's big enough to be a city in and of itself. It was built in the 10th century by the Arabs and used by the Arab royalty. We were all under the impression that we would be taking a bus, but after about ten or fifteen minutes of walking, it became pretty obvious there was no bus. The walk wasn't too bad but the entire route was uphill there so it felt like a mini workout. It was definitely worth it though! Once we got to the top, we waited around for a little while until our tour guides showed up. They split us into two groups - people who wanted an English tour and people who wanted a Spanish tour. I chose the Spanish tour. Our guide spoke into a microphone that was connected to our headsets. Although we looked about as American as we possibly could, the headsets were extremely helpful because we could wander around without being next to our guide and still hear everything he said. Our tour went through both the gardens and the palace so we pretty much saw everything there was to see. The gardens were gorgeous, but my favorite part was just looking at all the carvings. The arches were stunning and so intricate. Some it was rebuilt and some it was restored, but you could just tell that the whole place was shockingly extravagant in its hayday.

This is one of the many arches at the Alhambra.

This is one of the smaller but still pretty gardens. 

After our tour of the Alhambra ended, Sophie and I took a cab back home. We went shopping once siesta was over. It was good to get a better feel for where everything is in the city. My favorite out of the stores we went into was Zara, one of the most famous shops in Spain. It's known for it's relatively low costs and extremely fast turn over of inventory. From what I understand, Zara gets new clothes about every two weeks. Also, the people working the cash register at Zara were freakishly efficient. They definitely had their system down! 

Sunday was the first day I was able to sleep in so Sophie and I woke up late and then hung out at home all afternoon during siesta time. Afterwards, we took a public bus as a CEA event to visit Mirador San Nicolas, the highest point of the Albaycin (the Arab neighborhood that still exists from when the Moors ruled Granada). Mirador San Nicolas is a relatively famous spot in Granada. It has an absolutely fantastic view of the city so it's a very popular for people to just go there to sit and admire the view. According to my host father, Bill Clinton went there when he was in Granada. 

This is me at Mirador San Nicolas. The background is kind of hard to see but all those big buildings clustered together are parts of the Alhambra. 

From Mirador San Nicolas we walked deeper into the Arab neighborhood and got tea at an Albaycin tea house called Teteria Casablanca. We had two choices - hot tea or cold lemonade tea. I chose the lemonade tea and I really liked it. I tried my friend's hot tea too and they were both extremely sweet. Mine kind of tasted like a mojito. After they served us tea, the waiters brought out plates with pastries on them. I have no idea what was inside them but the outside was sticky and sweet, and they were pretty tasty. 

Albaycin neighborhood 

This is La Teteria Casablanca. Our group filled up the entire tea house. I was shoved in the corner with one of my friends and a girl I didn't know before (but do now). My seat was right next to the door so this is pretty much the entire tea house. 

Today was the first day we've had to wake up extremely early because this morning we took our placement exams for our preliminary oral and writing class. The test had three parts: written (30 minutes), grammar (60 minutes), and oral (5 minutes). The written and grammar parts went by pretty quickly but I had to wait a little over an hour before it was my turn to do my oral exam. Afterwards, the woman told me that I speak very well but my grammar section was a little rough. I really should be in Level 5 but she put me in Level 6 and told me that if it's too hard I can always switch into a lower level (I think she felt bad for me). There are only 8 or 9 levels, but in order to take take integrated classes at the university, you have to test into Level 7 by the time the class is over. I was starting to panic a little bit, but most people are in Level 6 and there are a few people in Levels 5 and 7 so that made me feel much better. This will be the only class I take in September so I have to go for four hours every day Monday through Friday from 9am to 1pm. Sophie and I ended up in the same section which will be extra nice since we're in the farther of the two buildings so we can walk over together. I'm excited to start class and get into more of a routine, although I am nervous about being able to keep up with my level. Hopefully it won't be too bad!

Because my exam took all morning, I went straight home from the CLM (Centro de Lenguas Modernas) where we took the exam for siesta time. Towards the end of siesta, the CEA people took us on a tour to show us the various buildings of the University of Granada. We'll only need to go to those buildings for our integrated classes which won't start until October. The whole tour was kind of pointless because none of us ever remember how to get where they take us but we honestly didn't have anything better to do because everything was still closed for siesta. Once the tour was over, Sophie and I wandered around the city center for a while and got gelato of course (we're both kind of obsessed).