My Fake Birthday, Parque de las Ciencias, and Cold Weather

On Sunday, the same night that Brittany and I got back from Ireland and Sophie came back from Rome, Aloana decided that we needed to celebrate my fake birthday. Because Sophie and Brittany have October birthdays, we celebrated both of their birthdays here. They each got a cake with candles and we sang to them. Aloana is from Brazil and in Brazil they make a big deal about birthdays so she insisted that we celebrate mine too since she likes for all of the chicas (girls) to be treated equally. She baked some sort of cake with pineapple and coconut that was actually very tasty and made everyone sing to me. We were all exhausted from a long day of travelling, but it was very sweet of Aloana to make sure I got a day of celebration too. 

Last Friday was the first Friday I've spent in Granada in weeks. I went on an immersion activity with my program to La Parque de las Ciencias de Granada (Science Park of Granada). We went to an exhibit on the human body. Then, we played in the exhibit on the perils of daily life, which was mostly just comical, especially the dangers of slipping and tripping section. My personal favorite, however, was the one on puppeteering. The puppet exhibit is an homage to the Granada puppet company that's celebrating it's 30th anniversary this year. There were two puppet masters who gave a presentation about the different kinds of puppets that exist. The presentation was very informative and entertaining because they used all the puppets in the exhibit for demonstrations. We were watching it with a bunch of kids who were probably in fourth or fifth grade and knew all of the answers to the puppeteer's questions (none of us, the college students, knew any of the answers). We also walked around the outside are of the Science Park a little bit. There was some sort of bird exhibit which I wasn't a huge fan of because I hate birds, but a few of the owls were super cute. We also went up in this tower thing. It was alright, but it had already started raining so I was ready to go home. Compared to science museums  in the US, the Science Park wasn't that exciting, although I'm glad I went. I spent the rest of the day doing absolutely nothing because it was cold and rainy and I didn't feel well.

Speaking of being cold, it's absolutely FREEZING right now. It's been raining on and off for the past week so that's been fun (and by fun I mean horrible). The rain is annoying but usually manageable. What's really driving everyone crazy is that our apartments are cold, even colder than it is outside sometimes. Why is it so cold, you ask? Well, in my apartment anyway, the community (apartment complex) decides when everyone is allowed to start using the heaters because like the water, the heat is shared. We won't be able to use our heat until the second week in November (I think) so until then, we will continue wearing our coats in the house. Francisco wears his robe all the time, Sophie lives in her puffy coat, Brittany bought warmer pajamas, and Ana Clara walks around in a ski jacket, at least two shirts, and countless pairs of socks. Thank goodness Aloana gave us all a second comforter because I've taken to living under both of them when I'm home. I know everyone else in the city is in the same boat, which makes it a little better, but I appreciate my heater at home so much more now!

Ireland

Not this past weekend but the weekend before, I went to Ireland. We spent most of our time there in Dublin City. The most important thing to know about Dublin is where the River Liffey is because that's the easiest way to figure out your location (well for people who have a sense of direction, which I do not). The Liffey flows straight through the center of Dublin so you're bound to run into it at some point.  Here's a picture of the Liffey with Dublin in the background. 

We flew into Dublin on Thursday and arrived late in the afternoon because we went through Malaga instead of Granada. Our hostel was called Generator Hostel and it is by far the nicest place I've stayed in so far. The lobby was gigantic and looked like a lounge/bar area (aside from the front desk of course). Even though I went with five other girls, we booked the hostel at different times so I was in a mixed room with my friend Jen while the other four girls had a private room. My only complaints were that we had a community bathroom that was kind of far away and the lockers required an actual lock. Luckily one of the other girls brought one so Jen and I shared a locker. 

After checking into the hostel, we were all completely starving so we headed off in search of food. I keep forgetting that Spain is pretty much the only country in Europe that has a different eating schedule than the US so it was kind of refreshing for 8pm to be considered a very late dinner when in Spain that's considered early for dinner. We got a recommendation from some random Irish guy on the street who seemed reliable and ended up eating dinner at a gourmet burger restaurant. I don't remember ever eating a hamburger before in my entire life so it was very exciting. Sophie wasn't in Ireland with us, but she refused to talk to me for 10 minutes when she found out that I had never eaten a hamburger. This is me with my first (delicious) hamburger and Jen creeping in the background. 

After dinner we wandered around the city for a little bit and stumbled upon a famous bridge. It's called the Ha'penny Bridge. A lot of couples go to this bridge and put locks on it with their names on it. I'm not sure why they do it, but it's super cute to see all the locks. 

We woke up early Friday morning with big plans in mind because it was really our only day to explore Dublin. We ate breakfast at this adorable little cafe near our hostel called Cinnamon Cafe. I had my first bagel since I've been in Europe with a nice cup of hot chocolate. It was by far the best breakfast I've had in the past two months because breakfast isn't a big meal in Spain (I usually just eat toast).

The first stop on our list of things to do was the famous cathedral in Dublin. During our search for the cathedral, we stumbled upon another cathedral called Christ Church Cathedral. I didn't know this at the time, but I found out later that Christ Church is the diocean cathedral of the diocese of Dublin and Glendalough. 

We oohed and awed over that cathedral for a while and then returned to our search for the (more) famous one. We eventually found it and it's called Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. It was founded in 1191 and has been designated as the National Church of Ireland. To be honest, my favorite part of the cathedral was the random old man we met who works there. His name is Terry Ferry (Terry is short for Terrance and no I didn't make his name up). He's a retired attorney who has decided to spend his retirement informing tourists on the history of the cathedral. He literally knew everything about the cathedral - from the origin of each stained glass window to every statue in the whole place. 

Here are some tidbits of random information from Terry Ferry: The old tattered flags hanging in the cathedral were taken from other countries when Ireland was victorious in battle and haven't been touched since so they're all originals. The idea of copyright comes originally from Saint Columba, who was exiled from Ireland after causing a war because he was copying another saint's manuscripts and claiming them as his own (there's a statue of him in the church). There were actually three Saint Patricks, but two of them were deemed illegitimate at some point when the church reevaluated all of its saints. Also, Terry Ferry has a cousin named Joe Ferry who's a somewhat famous attorney in Boston. 

After we were able to tear ourselves away from the extremely chatty Terry Ferry, we wandered over to Dublin Castle. It was very disappointing on the outside so we didn't go inside. Our next monument, however, was even better than anticipated. 

Trinity College of Dublin was founded in 1592 and is Ireland's oldest university. The campus was pretty, but the real reason why it's so exciting to visit is the old library. Because of the college's historic standing, it's considered a legal deposit library for the United Kingdom and is therefore legally entitled to a copy of every book published in Great Britain and Ireland. The library receives over 100,000 new items every year and currently contains about five million books. You're not allowed to take pictures inside, but it was literally a huge room with two levels lined with beautiful, old books. Some of them were laid out on display for you to look at, but most of them were just sitting on the shelves (blocked off of course). Pretty much all of the books are accessible to students to use under heavy supervision, but I couldn't figure out how they got to the books on the second floor because each section of shelves went all the way to the wall with no walkway. I asked one of the guards about it and he pointed out a small archway close to the wall in the bottom left corner of each bookshelf so apparently they built the doorway into the bookshelf. It was the coolest room and I felt smarter just being there. 

Along with the old library of books at Trinity College, we were able to see the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript of the four gospels of the New Testament that was written in 800. It's widely considered as Ireland's greatest historical treasure. The book itself was pretty, although we could only see two pages of the inside - one page with an illustration and one with a text. I mostly enjoyed reading about how it was made. There were four scribes, each with a unique style of writing, and when they made mistakes, they would just draw decoration over them. There are a few pages that were accidentally written twice so they turned them into giant crosses or whatever they felt like drawing at the time. The Book of Kells is the main reason why people visit Trinity College because it's permanently displayed there, but I liked the library better. 

After our tour of the Book of Kells and the old library, we did a tour of the Old Jameson Distillery. I wasn't that excited about the tour because I don't particularly like whisky and didn't have much interest in learning about its history, but I was pleasantly surprised. Our guide was funny and the tour itself was very informative. I learned that Jameson whisky is different than Jack Daniels because Jameson is distilled three times while Jack Daniels is only distilled once, making Jameson smoother. Also, whatever Jameson uses in the kiln eliminates a smoky flavor that some whiskeys have. In order for a whisky to be considered and whisky it must be aged for three years, and to be considered Irish whisky, it must be produced and aged in Ireland. Scotch is basically the same thing as whisky but it has to be produced and aged in Scotland.

We grabbed dinner at a random restaurant after some down time in the hostel. We wandered around the pubs again in the Temple Bar area. The actual Temple Bar is basically just a famous pub, and the street it's on is very lively at night. I really liked the pub scene because you basically just sit or stand and listen to live music. We heard an array of American songs including Brown Eyed Girl, Galway Girl, Sweet Home Alabama, and Chasing Cars. I got hit on by some old Irish men which made me uncomfortable, but other than that it was really fun.

All day Saturday was dedicated to one of the Seven Wonders of Ireland - the Cliffs of Moher. When we booked our trip to Ireland, we also signed up for a tour with Extreme Ireland to take us to the Cliffs of Moher. It was an all day extravaganza that started very early in the morning, but it was totally worth it! The bus ride itself was really cool because we literally drove from Dublin on the eastern coast of Ireland, straight towards the Galway area on the western coast. Once we were outside of Dublin, the drive was pretty much all rural land. I have never seen so much green in one place and everything was the greenest green. The best description I can give is that it was very lush.

Even though the main attraction of the tour was the Cliffs of Moher, we made some stops along the way there and back. Our first stop was the River Shannon, which divides the west of Ireland from the east and south. It was pretty with the big bridge and random castle in the background.

This is everyone I went to Dublin with in front of the River Shannon - Nicki, Janel, Hannah, me, Brittany, and Jen (from left to right).

After River Shannon, we went straight to the Cliffs. The Cliffs of Moher are one of the most popular tourist attractions in Ireland. They actually appeared in the movie The Princess Bride as well as Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The Cliffs don't really have any historical significance, but they're breathtaking to look at. The visitor center is also really cool (it's won a lot of awards) because it's built into the side of one of the mountains. 

As you can see they're extremely high up. The highest point is about 700 feet tall and is near O'Brien's Tower, which is just a stone tower built by Sir Cornelius O'Brien to impress female visitors. In the picture above, there's a wooden fence, but most of the fence surrounding the edge of the cliffs is actually giant stones. There's even a large part of the cliffs that's blocked off with a sign in front of it as a memorial to the people who have fallen/jumped off the cliffs. The reason it's blocked off is because they haven't built a fence there yet, but there's already a path so people just climb over the flimsy fence (someone even built a stone staircase there to make it easier) and wander around in the fenceless area. I went over there for a while and it was really cool to see the cliffs without the manmade fence, but after a while it made me nervous because people were getting way too close to the edge and it was extremely windy.

Right after we finished up at the Cliffs of Moher, we went to a different set of cliffs. I don't know the name of them is or if they even have a name, but they were so cool! It was a similar idea to the Cliffs of Moher except it was really rocky on top so we were jumping all over the stones to get to the edge. You could literally just walk over to the edge and look down, which is exactly what we did.

We made a quick stop at Corcomroe Abbey on our way back to Dublin. Corcomroe Abbey is a Cistercian monastary in Burren region of County Clare, Ireland and it's known for its detailed carving and decorations, which were rare for an early 13th century structure. The first thing you see when you walk into the abbey is the cemetery. Normally I don't like cemeteries but this one was quite beautiful, and I enjoyed wandering through the inside of the abbey too.

After we left Corcomroe Abbey, we went straight back to Dublin. We were all exhausted so we got dinner and went back to the hostel. On Sunday morning, we took the bus to the airport and our flight went smoothly. We were all ready to be home by the time we got to Malaga so the bus ride from Malaga to Granada was kind of painful.

Other than the fact that Ireland is in fact the greenest place on earth (from what I've seen anyway), I also learned that other Irish stereotypes are pretty accurate. The weather was dreary the whole time were there. It rained a little bit and was cold and windy. So far, the Irish are the friendliest people I have ever met. They're also very superstitious, historically and even still today in the rural areas. Our tour guide kept telling us stories involving ferry castles and various things people do to ward off bad luck.

I noticed that the Irish have a great sense of humor too. The first time I realized it was when we were walking over a random bridge across the Liffey and there was a painted stamp on the bridge that said "Troll Below?". Then, when we were wandering around Dublin City on Friday, we kept seeing these giant tour buses shaped like Viking boats, which was funny in and of itself, but everyone in the boat buses had to wear Viking hats to participate in the tour.

My favorite Irish joke though was the signs we kept seeing that pointed tourists towards a leprechaun museum that doesn't exist. I thought Ireland was a fantastic place and I would love to go there again some day!

Barcelona

Two weekends ago I went to Barcelona, located in the province of Catalunya, Spain. It was probably the most excited I've been for any of my trips so far because most of the work of the famous architect Antoni Gaudí is located in Barcelona. Gaudí was from Catalunya and he is considered the figurehead of modernism in Catalunya. Only three of us went to Barcelona - Brittany (my roommate), a girl named Hannah, and me, which turned out to be a great number of people for travelling.

In order to get to Barcelona, we took a Vueling flight from the Granada airport (not Malaga thank goodness), which is basically a fake airport compared to the rest of the airports in Spain and the US. It literally took us two minutes to walk from the front door through security, and to our gate (which there are only four of in the entire airport). We got to Barcelona fine and took a cab to our hostel. After we checked in and put our stuff in the lockers in our room, we got a recommendation for a restaurant for lunch. I ordered paella, which wasn't nearly as good as Aloana's or Francisco's. It started pouring down rain a few minutes after we sat down so we were all getting worried that our weekend was going to be a wet one. Luckily, it stopped after a while so we sprinted back to the hostel to grab our umbrellas and regroup.

We had already decided before we got to Barcelona that we wanted to do a two day bus tour of the city. The way it works is that you can either buy a one day pass or a two day pass, and the bus can either serve as a guided tour of the city or a means of transportation. We ended up getting a two day pass and using it for both purposes. Barcelona is big compared to Granada so it was really nice to be able to buy our Barcelona City Tour passes and get on and off at whatever attractions we wanted. On Friday, we pretty much just rode around to get a feel for the city and what we wanted to do in it. I could barely contain myself and was ready to jump off the bus at the first stop.

We ended up making Casa Batlló our first attraction. Casa Batlló is a building that was renovated by Gaudí to serve as the home of a middle-class family. Gaudí created the building in such a way that he avoided using straight lines. The whole house is said to be inspired by an old Spanish myth involving a dragon so the inside and outside are both very dragon-like. Because of my obsession with Gaudí, I insisted that we do a tour of the inside of Casa Batlló and it was totally worth it! We had a tour headset thing so all we had to was type the number room we were in and hold it up to our ears like a telephone to listen. I don't even know how to describe the inside but it is the coolest building I have ever seen. The entire the building (and really all of Gaudí's work) is inspired by nature so it's full of swirls and vibrant colors.

It's hard to tell just from a picture, but the front of the building is supposed to look like it has scales. All of the brown parts towards the side and the bottom are supposed to be like a skeleton, which is why the local name for the building is Casa dels Ossos, or House of Bones.

This is me on the roof of the building. As you can see, it was designed to look like the top of a dragon with the mosaic tiles as scales. That marble tower has a cross on the top that didn't make it into the picture. Gaudí was very religious so Christianity factors into a lot of his work. According to my headset, something on the roof of Casa Battló points in the direction of La Sagrada Familia, connecting two of Gaudí's major works, but we were never able to find it.

After Casa Battló, we got back on the bus and rode over to the Catedral de la Santa Cruz y Santa Eulalia, also known more simply as Barcelona Cathedral. None of us were very interested in going inside the cathedral, but the outside is beautiful so it was definitely fun to see. The area around the cathedral is also really cool to wander around so we did that for a while.

We got back on our tour bus just in time because the rain came back in full force. It started drizzling as we were looking for the bust stop, but once we were on the bus it only got worse. For those of you who have never done a city bus tour before, the best part of the whole thing is sitting on the top half of the bus so you can see everything more clearly as you drive through the city. Unfortunately, the top half of the bus is significantly more susceptible to rain because even though most of them can pull out makeshift roofs when necessary, the rain still comes through the sides of the bus. Hannah had the brilliant idea to open her umbrella and use it as a shield against the rain and wind coming from the windows. Below is a picture of me with my umbrella and headphones, still trying to listen (unsuccessfully) to the guided tour.

Once we were back in our hostel, wet but amused by the whole bus situation, we were ready for dinner. My friend Lily, who is from Memphis and went to Lausanne with me, happens to be studying abroad in London this semester and decided to spend part of her fall break in Barcelona, knowing that I would be there too. We had been calling each other throughout the day trying to get together so she ended up meeting up with us for dinner. We ate eggs, bacon, and french fries (a very typical Spanish dish) and drank sangria at a Galician restaurant before heading back to the hostel for the night. It was cold and still raining so no one wanted to wander around the city. Here's Lily and me in my room in the hostel:

Lily wasn't staying in the same room as Brittany, Hannah, and me, but she was in the same hostel so she hung out in our room for a while after dinner. Brittany, Hannah, and I stayed in an eight bed mixed room which means that there were five other people in our room who we didn't know. We had already met two of the people when we checked in - a girl from France and a guy from Chile. They both seemed nice so I wasn't concerned. After dinner, the other three roommates came back as well. Two of them were from Mexico and one of them was Irish (Brittany was super excited about the Irish guy because she's obsessed with Ireland). They were all really drunk so they were extremely entertaining. They spoke English, but like us, they understand better than they can speak so they talked to us in Spanish and we responded in English. I spoke Spanish with them for a little bit, but I felt bad because Lily couldn't understand anything and I kept having to translate for her. The boys finally left to go clubbing, Lily went to her room, and the rest of us went to bed.

We woke up bright and early on Saturday in order to fit in as much of Barcelona as possible. We decided to organize our day by the bus tour route so our first stop was La Sagrada Familia. I could be making this up, but I'm pretty sure that Sagrada Familia is the most visited site in Barcelona. 

Here's a little history on La Sagrada Familia: Construction started on the GIANT cathedral in 1882 but Gaudí (my favorite architect) didn't become involved with the project until 1883, when he basically took over and transformed the designs to combine the Gothic and Art Nouveau styles. When Gaudí died in 1926 after being hit by a tram on the way to his daily prayer and confession, less than a quarter of La Sagrada Familia was actually completed. The construction continued very slowly because the funding is all private donations and the Spanish Civil War served as a major disruption. There's always a constant cloud of controversy over Sagrada Familia for many reasons - people are worried it will overshadow the Barcelona Cathedral (which in my opinion it already does), the design itself caused issues (I can't imagine why), and of course the concern that it's not being built exactly the way Gaudi wanted it (totally understandable). It's estimated that construction will end in 2028, but since the Spanish economy is currently a mess, I don't really see that happening. 

There's not much else to say about La Sagrada Familia except that it is absolutely magnificent and the pictures don't do it justice. I could have spent hours and hours just staring at it. I'm sure you would notice something new every time you go because the design is so intricate and the structure is just massive. I didn't want to leave. 

I don't think there's necessarily a front and back to Sagrada Familia, but above is the western side. 

This is the eastern side, the oldest side of the building. You can see the cranes in the picture. They weren't working on it while I was there, but it was clear that construction is still happening.

After Sagrada Familia, we rode around on the bus for a while and got off at Park Güell, another one of Gaudí's most famous works (he was clearly the common theme of the weekend). From what I understand, the original purpose for Park Güell was to serve as a housing site. It was inspired by the English garden city movement, which is why Count Eusebi Güell, the inventor and namesake of the park, insisted that the name be in English. Only two houses were ever built at Park Güell and neither one was designed by Gaudí, although he ended up living in one of them because Güell suggested he buy it when no one else wanted to purchase them (it's now a Gaudí museum).

The most iconic part of Park Güell is definitely the lizard. It is literally impossible to take a picture of it without accidentally including a bunch of random people. I'm not sure why it became the symbol for Gaudí and Barcelona in general, but it was cool to see it in person. Another very popular spot in Park Güell is the mosaic bench on the main terrace of the park. It goes along the whole outside rim of the terrace and it's just beautiful. The whole park, of course, is amazing and very typical Gaudí. It's absolutely massive so I had a great time just wandering around. 

We ate lunch in the area near Park Güell and then headed off to Las Ramblas, near the city center. Las Ramblas is basically a giant walking strip where people set up booths and stuff to sell different things (mostly magnets, postcards, flowers, and food). Lily met up with Hannah, Brittany, and me at the front of Las Ramblas to wander around for a few hours before she had to go to the airport. Here we are at the entrance to Las Ramblas. 

Aside from the cute little tents set up on Las Ramblas, the best part of the street is definitely El Mercado de San José, also known as La Boqueria. It's basically a huge market where you can buy all kinds of fresh fish, meat, fruit, etc. My personal favorite was the chocolate booth. 

After La Boqueria, we all walked Lily to her bus stop so she could catch her flight to London, where she's studying abroad this semester. It was sad to see her leave but I was mostly just glad we got to see each other at all. Near the bus stop is the famous Passeig de Colom (Walk of Christopher Columbus). It's really just a statue of Columbus but it's actually pretty famous and I like it because he's pointing towards the New World. 

By this point on Saturday, it was getting close to dinner time and we were all exhausted. We decided to go on the other route of the bus tour where we drove by Anella Olímpica (Olympic Stadium), the old bullring, Parc Joan Miró (Juan Miró Park), and Camp Nou (the home of Barcelona's football (soccer) team, FC Barcelona). The old bullring is actually very interesting because it's been turned into a shopping center. Bullfighing is a common stereotype of Spanish culture, but it's actually mostly present in southern Spain. Bullfights still continue in different parts of the country, but with the rise of animal rights activism, the topic of bullfighting has become quite controversial and was banned in Catalunya (and therefore Barcelona) in 2011.

Below is a picture of Olympic Stadium, where the 1992 Summer Olympics were held. These Olympic Games were quite significant for Barcelona because it brought in a lot of tourism and showed the world that Spain had finally recovered from the oppressive dictatorship established by Francisco Franco from 1936 to 1975 (although frankly Spain still hasn't recovered from Franco if you ask me). The 1992 Games were also very significant in terms of international relations because the Cold War was finally over and these were the first Olympic Games without boycotts since 1972.

As our final farewell to our time in Barcelona, we ate dinner in Placa Catalunya, which is in the center of the city. I was super excited when we got off the bus because there were protests going on in the center of the square. I'm not sure exactly what they were about, but it probably involved funding for education. There are student and teacher protests every Wednesday and Thursday in Granada so the whole concept is nothing new to me, but I have yet to see one in action. Don't worry, it was very tame. It mostly consisted of people passing out flyers and holding up signs. The protestors were gone once we finished eating dinner so we got to actually walk into the square. Brittany insisted that we stand in the star in the center of the square because it's also the center of Barcelona, so here I am in the center of Barcelona.

We walked back to the hotel on Saturday night, wandered around the hostel a little bit, and then went to bed. We had to switch to a different room in the hostel for some reason and ended up with only one male roommate who didn't show up until we were fast asleep. We actually scared the poor guy because he thought no one was in the room and flashed his phone light in Brittany's face. Our flight wasn't super early in the morning so we were able to sleep in a little bit on Sunday. We took the metro to the airport (it was surprisingly easy to use) and flew home. All in all, my weekend was absolutely perfect and I'm officially in love with Barcelona! I would go back in a heartbeat. 

School, Blancanieves, and Protests

This week was pretty relaxed. I did a lot of little things to make sure I’m all settled in with my classes and I actually had legitimate homework for the first time since I’ve been here. I bought a book for one of my classes and bought the syllabus for another. It's so strange to me that I had to pay for the syllabus and a set of notes/texts for one of my classes. I had to go to the photocopy room on campus, find my class on a list, and tell the people at the desk the designated number for what I needed photocopies of, which I then had to pay for. It only cost about 2.50 euros for the whole thing but it made me realize how spoiled I am at Tulane where our professors provide everything for us. 

On Wednesday I went to see a movie (with CEA but at an actual movie theater) called Blancanieves. Wednesday night is movie night in Granada because all of the theaters have discounted tickets on Wednesdays. I don’t know why Wednesday, but I’m going with it. I was really excited about seeing Blancanieves because it's Spain's entry for the foreign-language film Oscar this year. It was directed by Pablo Berger and is basically a retelling of the Snow White story but set in Seville (the capital of Andalucia, which is the province where Granada is located) in the 1920s. It's actually a silent film (other than music of course) and the whole thing is in black and white. I didn't realize it was a silent film beforehand even though I'd seen the trailer, but I was pleasantly surprised. The movie was absolutely fantastic and I would highly recommend it to anyone who can see it.

Here's the trailer if you're curious:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_m6jALTPh4

Blancanieves was definitely the highlight of the week, but there was some excitement at the University of Granada campus today. Because of Spain's struggling economy, a lot of budget cuts have been made, including education. I'm not sure exactly what the protest today was about, but I do know a little bit about some of the various groups who have been protesting. The professors at the Centro de Lenguas Modernas, the part of UGR for international students, have been protesting because they've received the same salary cuts as the rest of the UGR professors, but they don't have the same benefits. They're working more hours a week, receiving less money, and still not being treated equal to the professors at the main part of the university. I think the protest today was mainly students who are upset because the price of education is going up but they're not seeing any results after they finish their studies. The students in Spain basically feel like they have no present because they can't get jobs right now and they have no future because the economy doesn't seem to be improving. Of course, as an International Relations major, I'm dying to see some of the protests and am secretly enjoying all the unrest. Don't get me wrong, I wish Spain's economy was doing better and that the people weren't so upset, but it's totally cool to be experiencing it firsthand. 

Portugal

Last weekend I went on a trip with CEA to Portugal, my first time outside of Spain! We left on Friday morning at 7am because we took a bus all the way there. I think it's so cool that we could just hop on a bus and drive to Portugal in about 6 hours. We went to three different towns - Faro, Portimão, and Lagos - on the southern coast of Portugal in the southernmost province of Algarve. 

On the way there, we didn't drive straight through to Portimão where our hotel is located because we stopped in Faro to do a city tour and eat lunch. It's a small little town so there wasn't that much to see, but we went inside this really cool church. Here's the inside of the main chapel of the church. 

As you can see, there are all these big cutout areas on the sides and in the front that are filled with carvings and statues. Even though everything looks like real gold, it's mostly just wood that's been painted gold. The main reason we went to this church in particular is because it has another chapel in the back that's made of bones. The tour guide kept telling us that we were going to the bone chapel, but I thought I misunderstood her. Unfortunately, I did not, and there really was a chapel made of bones.

This chapel is bigger than most of the other bone chapels in the area. We saw another much smaller one in Faro, and the skulls on the walls seem to be a common theme. When I asked the tour guide why in the world anyone would create a chapel out of bones, she told me that it was strange but they were being resourceful. Apparently there was a really bad tsunami that hit Portugal in 1755, and a lot of the damage involved unearthing bodies in the cemeteries. Rather than trying to rebury all of the bodies, a lot of the towns used the bones to create chapels like this one. I'm all about recycling, but the bones chapels kind of freaked me out.

The rest of our day Friday was very relaxing. We arrived at Portimão, checked into our hotel (Hotel Jupiter), and then had some free time to get settled before dinner. Sophie and I were roommates in the hotel which I was excited about because we already know how to live together. We had a whole room to ourselves and they were actually really nice (much nicer than what I would have stayed in if I had gone on my own). There were two twin beds that were pushed together which was kind of funny and we had a cute little balcony that looked over the beach. At first Sophie and I thought the electricity wasn't working because the lights wouldn't turn on; however, when I went downstairs to get another room key and tell the front desk about the electricity, I ran into one of my friends who told me that you have to put your room key in a little slot thing to get the electricity to work. The hotels do that so you can't leave the lights on or have the air conditioning running when you're not in the room. It's very European (or so I've been told). 

I ended up spending my free time at the beach, which was about a five minute walk from our hotel. 

We ate a group dinner at the hotel and had the rest of the night to do whatever we wanted. Two of my friends had a giant patio balcony that could have held maybe 70 people so I ended up hanging out over there and then went dancing in one of the discotecas on the main street near the hotel. Most people stayed out ridiculously late, but I was tired and went to bed early(ish) so that I would be able to enjoy the next day of our trip. 

On Saturday, we had breakfast at the hotel and then drove to the port for a boat cruise and grotto tour. I was a little nervous about the boat because I didn't know how small it was going to be, but it ended up being a normal size so I didn't mind it. 

The boat cruise took us from Portimão to Lagos, where they stopped the boat to do the grotto tours. There were all these cliffs along the coast that were really cool. It was hard to take pictures on the boat because we were swaying so most of my pictures turned out kind of crooked!

In order to go on the grotto tour, we got off the big boat and took turns going in smaller boats that could go closer to the cliffs. The water and the cliffs were absolutely beautiful! The captain of our tiny boat kept pointing out different objects in the cliffs. The one below is supposed to look like an elephant so of course I had to take a picture with it because I love elephants. The face is on the left and its trunk is in the middle.

Here's me with some friends on the tiny boat.

Once we got back on the big boat, we were allowed to go swimming in the water. It was a little chilly at first, but after a while it wasn't too bad. We were all wearing bathing suits under our clothes so we were prepared to jump off the side. I'm the one on the far right in the picture. 

We had a nice lunch on the boat and headed back to the port. The boat cruise lasted about four hours so once we got back to the port we had to rush back to the hotel to shower and go on a tour of Lagos. The first part of our tour was Prince Henry's School of Navigation, where Christopher Columbus studied navigation. This is the front entrance of the school. It's super rocky and right near the ocean.

This is what's considered the inside part of the school. If you look at the side of the picture, you can see that the school is on a cliff right near the water.

After spending some time wandering around the School of Navigation, we went to the end of the world. I don't know what it's actually called because our guides kept referring to it as the end of the world, but it's basically the most southwest point in Europe and used to be considered the end of the world before Columbus discovered the New World. Needless to say, the view was breathtaking. 

At this point, there wasn't much we could do in Portugal that would top going to the end of the world, but we did do a tour of Lagos that included the slave market and walls of the old city. We had group dinner at a local restaurant and went back to the hotel. Because we had been outside all day, I was exhausted and spent the night hanging out with some girls in the hotel. At one point, we turned on the TV, and out of all shows that could have been playing, the Savage U episode of Tulane happened to be on MTV. We couldn't get over how weird it was that we were in Portugal and Tulane was on TV, even if it wasn't exactly the best representation of our school. 

I woke up early on Sunday morning so I would have plenty of time at the beach before we left. Brittany and I ate a quick breakfast and settled in near the water. Brittany refused to wear a bathing suit and I didn't go in because the water was so cold, but it was really beautiful to just lay on the sand and listen to the ocean.

After about two hours, I had to go back to my hotel room, shower, and check out. We ate lunch at the hotel, had a little time to wander around Portimão, and then boarded the bus for Granada. There's a law in Spain that requires large buses to stop every two hours (or something like that) so the bus rides there and back took longer than they needed to, although I didn't think it was bad at all. I was sad to leave Portugal, but I missed Granada at the same time. 

On the bus ride back, the CEA Director of Extracurricular Activities, Daniel (Dani for short), put in a movie for us to watch. He is literally the funniest person, not because he makes jokes or anything but because he's just so nerdy and doesn't know it that you can't help but laugh at him. As a general rule, he looks significantly more touristy than anyone else on our trips, even though he's not actually a tourist. He carries around his CEA shoulder bag (which the rest of refuse to use) and has his camera attached to his hand. It's very comical. So of course when Dani put the movie on, he commented on how it was a romantic movie and that the boys should be careful. Well, the movie ended up being Revolutionary Road, which is horribly depressing and not romantic at all. Dani realized this about halfway through (apparently he had only watched the first ten minutes) so when the movie finally ended, Dani announced over the microphone on the bus, "Well chicos, life is not always he he ha ha." We could barely keep ourselves together. Even Juan, the other CEA staff chaperone, was crying because he was laughing so hard.

They speak Portuguese in Portugal so I wasn't able to use my Spanish at all while I was there. The people actually get kind of offended if you try to talk to them in Spanish so I stuck with English. I think Portuguese is a beautiful language (I hear Aloana speak it all the time so I have a pretty good reference). She explained some of the differences between the Portuguese in Portugal and the Portuguese in Brazil. According to her, the Portuguese in Portugal is more closed whereas in Brazil they pronounce things more openly and clearly. Aloana also said that Brazilian Portuguese is more elegant, but she's completely biased on that because she's from Brazil. Apparently people love her accent whenever she goes to Portugal so in my mind it's kind of like when the British come to the US. 

First Real Week of UGR Classes

So this past week was my first real week of classes at the University of Granada (UGR). I take two classes at the university and two classes at the Centro de Lenguas Modernas (CLM), where my intensive language prep class was during September. Here’s my schedule:

Monday:
8:30-10:30 Oral and Written Production (CLM)
13:00-14:00 Hispanoamerican Literature (UGR)
18:00-20:00 Political System of Spain (UGR)

Tuesday:
13:00-14:00 Hispanoamerican Literature (UGR)
18:00-20:00 Islamic Culture in Spain (CLM)

Wednesday:
8:30-10:30 Oral and Written Production (CLM)
18:00-20:00 Political System of Spain (UGR)

Thursday:
13:00-15:00 Hispanoamerican Literature (UGR)
18:00-20:00 Islamic Culture in Spain (CLM)

Friday:
No classes! :)

For the most part, I like the way my schedule is set up. The 8:30 class in the morning is a little too early for my taste, but my professor seems really great (and freakishly perky) which makes it much more bearable. My Islamic culture class looks like it's going to be really interesting. I'm still not quite sure what to think of my two integrated classes at UGR. My Hispanoamerican Literature class is at the main campus called Cartuja so it actually takes me longer to get to and from class than I spend in class. It wouldn't take so long to get there if I rode the bus, but for now I'm still determined to walk. I have to take the bus on Thursdays after class though so I'm home in time for lunch. 

Wednesday was Sophie's birthday and Thursday was Francisco's saint day. Aloana told us in hushed tones that they don't like to make a big fuss about birthdays in Spain, although birthdays in Brazil are similar to the US. She is obviously super weirded out by how little they care about birthdays here which was cracking me up. Apparently people here celebrate their saint day instead of their birthdays. From what I understand, someone's saint day is basically just the day that honors the saint they're named after. In honor of Sophie's birthday, Aloana and Francisco bought a chocolate torta de la virgen (virgin cake) at the festival over the weekend. It was much better than the other torta de la virgen we had tried the day before because it was filled with chocolate rather cream. We lit candles and sang happy birthday for Sophie but it was a small celebration. 

Aloana accidentally forgot Francisco's saint day on Thursday. He told us over lunch and we all felt awful, especially Aloana, so after dinner she put a candle in a muffin and we sang an altered version of happy birthday to him (we made it happy saint day instead). Aloana clearly had no idea how you're supposed to celebrate a saint day so the whole thing was pretty hilarious. Because Aloana was so guilty about forgetting his saint day, Francisco managed to finally talk her into singing for us. They ended up performing during and after our dinner because they had already eaten and Anna Clara was napping so we had to stay in the kitchen anyway. Francisco and Aloana both sing and play the guitar. Francisco prefers to play the guitar and Aloana prefers to sing, but they're both very talented at both. They sang in Portuguese, Spanish, and English. Aloana said that they're wedding was very musical because music is such an important part of their lives, so they sang us a few of the songs from their wedding. I was completely enchanted by it and never wanted them to stop. One of the highlights of the song session was when Francisco stopped playing to answer the phone and handed the guitar to Aloana, who proceeded to play and sing Twist and Shout for us. Sophie, Brittany, and I were all laughing so hard. Unfortunately, they had to stop after about 30 minutes because Aloana was exhausted and we all needed to pack for our trip to Portugal.

Here are links to a few of the videos we took of them singing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-tb9Ft-170&feature=youtu.be
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Pn0i84PzsM&feature=youtu.be

Nerja and Frigiliana

Last Sunday I went on a day trip with my program to Nerja and Frigiliana. Nerja is a small beach town on the Costa del Sol. It’s in the province of Malaga, where the city of Malaga is also located. It’s about a two hour bus ride from Granada and you have to drive through Almuñecar, where I went to the beach during my first few weeks here, to get to Nerja. 

The first thing we did in Nerja was go to El Balcón de Europa (The Balcony of Europe). It was pretty much exactly what the name implies - a giant balcony that looks over the Mediterranean Sea. The view was stunning! According to Daniel, one of the men on the CEA staff who also happens to live near me, you can see Africa from the balcony on days when the sky is very clear.

After we finished ogling at the view from the balcony, we went to lunch at an outdoors restaurant called Restaurante AYO, where they served us seafood paella, a traditional Spanish dish of rice, vegetables, and seafood. Paella can also be made with meat, which I actually prefer. The paella at the restaurant was ok, but Aloana’s paella is ten times better. Here’s the GIANT pan of paella we saw as we were walking into the restaurant:

Once lunch was over, we walked to Burriana Beach, which we had been able to see from El Balcón de Europa. It was much sandier (and less rocky) than the other beaches we’ve been to so far. I didn’t bring my bathing suit because it had been so cold the days before that I figured I would freeze if I wore it. The weather ended up being gorgeous, but most people had the same mentality I did so I wasn’t the only one on the beach wearing inappropriate beach clothes. 

My friend and I left the beach a little early because we were hot and wanted gelato. We found this really cute ice cream shop and got that instead. I, of course, got chocolate ice cream, which I managed to spill all over the bottom of my cream colored shirt. I finished eating the ice cream (I have my priorities straight) and then addressed my shirt. I was worried it would stain so I basically climbed into the bathroom sink (which you could see from the seating area of the ice cream shop) to get the chocolate stain out. Surprisingly enough, it worked, but later on in the day, I looked at my shirt and noticed that my jeans had rubbed blue onto the part where it was wet. I washed it by hand when I got home and the stain came out, but the whole thing was pretty hilarious. I should probably take it as a sign that I need to stop eating gelato, although if I’m being honest, I won’t. 

The ice cream incident happened right before we got back onto the bus to go to Frigiliana, a beach town even smaller than Nerja. Frigiliana is called a “white town” because all of the buildings are white. The town is also known for the blue doors on a lot of the houses and the hanging flower pots on the outside walls of the buildings. 

Frigiliana was absolutely beautiful. We did a tour of the city that ended with some sort of archeology museum. We were also able to climb up to some open terraces to get a panoramic view of the town. Our tour guide was a really cute old man who looked even more touristy than we did, even though he’s from Frigiliana. He spoke to us in English which was frustrating because it would have been easier to follow if he had spoken in Spanish. 

We only spent a few hours in Frigiliana before we packed into the bus again and went home to Granada. When we returned, Granada was hopping because it was La Festividad de Nuestra Señora la Virgen de las Angustias (The Festival of Our Lady the Virgin of Sorrows). We were actually back in time to see the parade, but none of us went because were so tired from the rest of our adventures.