(Mis) Adventures in Spain

Soul to soul- A kiss and a sigh. Sawed in half- by the passage of time

2009-12-08T16:02:00.000-08:00

So, I've fallen in love with Barcelona. I went two weekends ago with Chelsea and Heather. We only got to spend two days there. I loved it so much I went back the following weekend. Since it was a puente I was able to spend four glorious days there. On Eva's recommendation we stayed at a place called Hostel-Bar. It was a divey little place but sooooo cheap. Like seven euros a night cheap. The hostel has a bar below it that is a hub for tranny hookers, Romanian gypsies and young folk. It was spectacular and the drinks were half-price for hostel guests. The first weekend we did some touristy things and I neglected to take any pictures of people, so on my second visit I made up for that. Want to see? Estais listos? A ver...

First full day we went to the aquarium. Alex, a friend of Eva's and Hostel-Bar employee, graciously offered to lead us there. Funny thing about meeting Alex. When we first arrived at the hostel it was already midnight so we went straight up to put our things in the room before having a drink with Eva. Leon showed us the room we were sharing with three Australian girls who were already asleep. But when we got a good look we only counted two empty beds. Leon went in and woke someone up while we waited in the hall. A sleepy Spanish guy appeared in the doorway. We chatted a minute and I said "Well I'm Ann." And he immediately responded "Ah, Ann Garrigan" in his cute Spanish accent. Chelsea, Heather and I stared at each other. I hadn't made the reservation so there was no reason for him to know my name. Later we figured out that Eva had been talking me up. My name intrigued him because it sounded like "arrogant." So make of that what you will. I hung out with him and Eva that night and I decided he was good people. I was right because he went out of his way to make sure we enjoyed Barcelona. Along the way to the aquarium he pointed out interesting sites. Like this enormous statue of Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus). Not pictured: a swivel-style draw bridge, a mirrored mall and strange floating statues. Alex walked us all the way to the aquarium doors but refused to come with us. He could not understand why we would want to pay to look at fish.

I refrained from posting too many fish pictures. But there were a few that I had to share. Like these GIANT STING RAYS. Have we talked about how I feel about giant sting rays? The scare the LIVING HELL out of me. And up to this point in my life it was a theoretical fear. Thank you L'Aquarium Barcelona for making this fear real and tangible. I'll never go into the ocean again. Just looking at this picture makes me shiver. Notice there are normal-sized sting rays in the picture too for scale.

Then there were octopuses (by the way, I looked it up. Octopi is NOT the plural of octopus). All I could think of when I was looking at these was "I ate one of you guys." Made me feel creepy.

Second weird thing that happened to me: After we came back from the aquarium we were waiting for Anna to buy coffee in Las Ramblas. I was chatting with Eva, Chelsea and Heather when this guy walked up behind me and without warning BLEW RASPBERRIES on my neck. In my state of shock, I figured he was someone Eva knew. Not so. I was still reeling when she told him to fuck off. He wandered away with his rhinestone belt buckle that said "Rich" and his jeans that had a picture of Daffy Duck printed on the butt. Still not the craziest thing that happened to me. Stay tuned.

Later that night we went to see the fountain show at Montjuic. It was magical and epic. The water and lights were synced to wonderful music. This isn't the most illustrative picture of the what the fountain was capable of, but I thought the building in the background was worth including. Apparently behind that building is all the stuff from when the Olympics was in Barcelona. During the show Chelsea spotted A BARBIE MUSEUM. We checked it out the next day cause it was free. One bad thing happened at the fountain show: Eva got pickpocketed. It was tragic but Eva handled it well. We also went to this crazy flea market where I picked up four pewter pins shaped like a T-rex, triceratops, brontosaurus and another dinosaur. I forget. And a brass pencil sharpener shaped like a gramophone. The turn table really turns! We made a quick stop at La Sagrada Familia too.

I forget the order of events but third bizarre thing that happened to me: We walking back to the hostel when some drunk guys fighting forced us to slip by in a single file line. One of the men was pretending to be a dog or something and pushed Chelsea into the other guy. I was last in the line and when I passed he growled and then BIT MY LEG. It didn't hurt, just surprised me. And I did have a bruise later because I was wearing leggings and not jeans. Weird but it makes for a pretty cool story I think. If you want to see more pictures of my first trip to Barcelona here they are: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2172842&id=38709220&l=3a1fb8ba59

My second trip fue buenismo. Eva, Anna, Alex and I spent four days basically on Santa Monica. I bounced around from hostel room to hostel room because Alex promised me a sweet price and I didn't have a reservation. It was cool because I got to meet different people. I stayed in one room with two women that were from Madrid and in Barcelona for a conference on art and designing. They were very funny and nice. My first night there the gang took me to a couple of different bars. Of course we got started in Hostel-Bar.

This is Alex and Eva! Lovely, lovely people that spent basically their entire puentes entertaining me. Eva, for those who don't know (ah hell. Who am I kidding? I mean for Mom and Dad's benefit since I think y'all are the only ones reading this and probably don't remember who Eva is) is a friend of mine from Southwestern.

I was determined to make up for my lack of people photos from the last trip and insisted on taking my camera everywhere and snapping away constantly. The flash was complained about more than once. Totally worth it.

Barcelona buddies! Eva and Anna. Anna is an artist and you can see some of her work at her brand-spanking new blog here: annaruthyates.blogspot.com. She had just finished a cool project involving casting wax keys from a mold she made. Ironically, the next day she broke the key to her apartment in the lock. We had to resort to TAPING her door shut when she left it because her landlord was out of town. Also we made Alex climb up to her a second story balcony to unlock it from the inside when she first broke it. Thanks Alex!

Remember the biting incident? Well there's a part dos. While we were sitting in the downstairs part of the bar, Eva looked over at the slot machine were the Romanian gypsies were trying their luck and asked me "Isn't that the guy that bit you last time?" I checked it out and sure enough, it was my old friend the biter. I leaned over and whispered this information to Alex who, to my surprise, said "Ok, we'll fix it" and stood up. Startled, I stammered "What? No, that's not...wait." But before I could stop him, he had asked the guy to talk to him outside. I waited anxiously, sure that something terrible was going to happen to Alex, but miracle of miracles they walked back in and the guy embarrassedly and profusely apologized. He was very polite and respectful to me the rest of the time I was there.

If you are in a bar anywhere in Spain someone is going to try to sell you roses. These vendors are usually ignored or just told no, but Alex bought one for each of us. Very sweet, but I think the guy selling them was a friend of his too.

For a change of scenery, we hiked over to another bar. I have absolutely no context for where we were in the city, probably not that far from the hostel, but it was nice to see a different part of Barcelona. Eva and Anna were discussing reclaiming some junk in the street but didn't want to lug it around all night. It's the same conversation I have with myself every time I want to take my camera with me somewhere. Obviously I went for it this night. I encouraged other people to take photos too although I'm obsessively protective of it. If someone else isn't actively taking a picture, it's in my hands. And I'm constantly reminding everyone to replace the lens cap. In retrospect flashing bright lights in a dark bar and muttering about your lens cap isn't the best way to make friends.

Our walk to Alma, the other bar, probably took ten times longer than it should have because I have a habit of dawdling behind to take pictures. Luckily Anna sometimes joined me so I wasn't always slowing everyone down.

I love this picture. Doesn't it make you want to know what they're talking about? It does me.

Alma, or as I kept referring to it "that red bar" because I couldn't remember the name. The beer was expensive but I had a great time. Everywhere we go, we run into people Alex knows so there's always someone new to chat with. I swear I was participating not just taking pictures. We had such a good time, we stayed until they kicked us out for closing.

But not before Eva consented to sit really still so I could take a close-up sans flash. Alex said later "Eva has very expressive eyes." I couldn't agree more. Very pretty too.

We then strolled back to our barrio to a bar called Kentucky. When I first overheard Eva telling Alex that he should go to Kentucky, I assumed they were discussing a future visit to the States. So I said "No one should ever go to Kentucky" before she explained that it was a bar. Sorry for the bad publicity Kentucky.

I had gotten really used to one euro cañas at hostel bar so I balked at the idea of paying two fifty at a bar named after one of my least favorite states. We only stayed for one drink. I considered it worth it after I got this picture during a little descanso we took in the street.

One night I got to stay in 408. The infamous single room at Hostel-Bar. It's swank accommodations included a private bathroom and double bed. The orange juice and bowl of potatoes are totally VIP though. You have to know somebody.

Eva has an adorable bunny named Mateo. This night she had made dinner for Alex and me. Eva lives with a couple our age and a middle aged Bulgarian(?) man named Daya. Daya mostly seems to keep to himself but I spent a fair amount of time with her other two roommates. Celia is a pretty blonde Finnish girl. She seemed 100% normal. Her boyfriend however was...different. No matter how many times I saw him, he always began the conversation the same way, "Hello my name is Amien. I am sixteen years old. I'm from Marruecos." His name is Amien. He is from Morocco. But he's twenty-two. He is literally constantly smoking hookah. He even takes the hookah to the bar with him. One his other favorite pastimes is to put Eva's bunny in the cage with his bunny because he thinks it's hilarious to watch his (nameless by the way) rabbit hump Eva's. Or as he calls it "jiggy-jiggy."

El próximo día, in keeping with Eva's and mine plan to spend as little money as possible, the four of us decided to go to la boqueria to get ingredients for breakfast tacos and eat in before heading to the beach. The market is one of my favorite things about Barcelona. There are tons of stands selling your every grocery need. It's all fresh and delicious. Look at those peppers!

I'm the first to admit that my culinary skills are underdeveloped, but I am pretty good at snacks. We had these little bread-cheese-strawberry guys para picar while we whipped up the tacos. I was also allowed to make the guacamole. I do ok at that too.

By the time we got on the road to the beach it was already getting dark. I really love the cloud trails planes make. They seemed especially nice in Barcelona. I took several pictures of them while I was there.

This is the little harbor where the swivel drawbridge is. I think I'm going to add "learning to sail" to my list of things to do before I die.

I think this is my favorite non-people picture of Barcelona. Eva, Anna and Alex all live just a fifteen minute walk away from this. Can you imagine?

In keeping with our shared distaste for flash pictures, Eva took some artsy shots of me wearing Anna's scarf. It was pretty cold and I will forever remember the episode of the Magic School Bus that taught me that most of your body heat escapes from your head. So it seemed logical to wear the scarf Grace Kelly style. The only thing I'm sure I achieved with this strategy though was to prompt Alex to call me "caperucita roja" (little red riding hood) all night.

There are little markets all over the place. We passed this one on our way back from the beach. Eva and Anna were checking out a booth with jester-style masks. I liked the shadows they made.

The next night, Eva's roommates had a little Christmas party.I was uneasy about it because I'm already kind of awkward with new people and because Amien can be a little off-putting. It was slightly awkward at first. It was the four of us and then Eva's roommates Amien and Celia and Celia's Finnish friend, whose name none of us could remember. But they were all very nice and they had decorated the little living room so cute, complete with a baby Christmas tree. It felt very fancy and grown-up because there were hors d'oeuvres and champagne that cost more than five euros in real glass flutes. We all just sat around and chatted and took turns choosing music on youtube. I made everyone watch the same Lady Gaga video I posted here last time. It was well-received.
I would like to say my second trip to Barcelona was bite-free but in order to provoke a candid shot here, Alex resorted to Romanian gypsy tactics.
Mateo even made an appearance. He was so sweet and let me pet him for a long time before trying to escape. I had caught a cold that was spreading through the hostel on Friday and not long after Mateo made his exit, I had to excuse myself too because I was feeling so shitty. I'm only now, a full week later, feeling better. I went to the Spanish doctor yesterday, armed with absolutely no medical Spanish vocabulary in hopes that the doctor spoke English. She didn't but was very patient while I pointed to various body parts and indicated discomfort.

My last full day in Barca Anna and I went back to the beach during the day while Alex sorted out legal dispute involving a Swedish girl, a scratched moped and insurance technicalities. We sat on the beach and waited for him. Anna explained that the sole naked man strutting his stuff was a perpetual figure at the beach and we marveled over his tolerance for the cold. At some point it was revealed that where we were was decent sea-glass hunting territory. I was like "WHAT? SEA GLASS?" And we were happily occupied for the next hour or so.

There were some pretty cool sand sculptures too. This was my favorite.

Alex more gently provoked this candid by asking me to look South and me realizing that I should be able to figure that out from the setting sun but not being able to think quickly enough.

Alex dubbed this "an orange day" because of the pretty sunset colors. Then we bought pizza with bbq sauce. And it was delicious.

And we've come full circle with the statue of Cristobal Colon. This weekend was really wonderful for me. So much so that I think I've decided that I want to move here. Soon. I met with a girl that did this IES program a few years back and is now teaching English in Barcelona. She told me everything I need to know to apply for a teaching assistant position and where to find an apartment. So I'm thinking I'll sell my car and maybe work for a little while to save some money. The program starts in September but I'll probably come back to Spain at the beginning of summer to get settled. There are still kinks and such to work out, but of all my post-grad options, this is the one that appeals to me most. I'm very excited. So, my lucky, devoted readers, (Mis) Adventures in Spain may march on. But before I leave Spain this time (in one week!) I have a couple more posts lined up. So if you're interested in the Alhambra or Spanish graffiti, check back. Hasta nos vemos luego!

One Thing Right

2009-11-22T13:16:00.000-08:00

I've gotten fed up with the slow, slow uploading process. So this will be a photo-free update.

Everything is pretty much status-quo. All of my school work is piling up though. We have final exams in addition to 10-12 page papers for each class. Which I know isn't so much compared to SU workload but come on. I'm in Spain. This is not supposed to be real school. I'm getting along very well with most of my professors. My language prof, Fabiola, and I have quite a report going now. I'm allowed to call her Fabs and she shares her clementines with me sometimes. I had to put on a play with a few other students for my Lorca class. We performed outside in the plaza by school. We drew quite a crowd. As humiliating as it was, at least it was short. And Barry came! Barry is the announcer for Pub Quiz, a trivia game that Chelsea and I play every Monday night at Hannigan's 2. I think we're Barry's favorites. He did come to my play despite how early it was.

We went to Cadiz a week or so ago. It was "eh." On the way we stopped at a natural park. I was expecting trees. Instead there were some awesome rocks. Really great for climbing. After scrambling around for a while, we had lunch. While we were eating a little fox crept up. He let me get pretty close and I took some pictures with Chelsea's camera. When we got to Cadiz we did get to see a fairly spectacular sunset over the water. The next day we saw a Cartujan horse show. It had a couple of jazzy numbers but horse-drawn carriages get old pretty quick. Then we went to Tio Pepe's bodega. Turns out "bodega" means sherry-making place. Also turns out I don't like sherry.

This upcoming weekend Chelsea, Heather and I are going to Barcelona. We are very excited. Me especially because I get to see EVA GRAHAM! I haven't seen her in so long. And how cool is it that I'll see her in SPAIN? Plus we get to see all the cool things Barcelona has to offer. Our hostel is really cheap and in not the best part of town. It's not sketch but the words "tranny hookers" were used. You know how much I love tranny hookers. (A LOT) So as long as school doesn't kill me first, I'm anticipating a wonderful time in Barcelona.

Thanksgiving is this Thursday and I am so bummed out that I can't be home for it. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. And usually we go over to Alabama and have the most wonderful feast with my mom's side of the family. I still haven't seen Krissy's baby Hadley. It's been a year now. Thanksgiving just reminds me so much of being with family that I'm worried I'm going to get homesick. But there's a Thanksgiving dinner at a fancy-pants restaurant that I'm going to. And this year's Thanksgiving can't possibly be worse than last year's. So I'm trying to be optimistic.

On a lighter note, I had somehow managed to remain completely ignorant of the wonder that is Lady Gaga until I came to Spain. After being mercilessly ridiculed when I honestly did not now who sang that "Dance" song, I looked into some of her work. I'll spare you everything else except that I am now a fan. And everyone should go watch the video for "Bad Romance." And "Video Phone." That's Beyonce but it might as well be Lady Gaga. Oh wait! Look what I can do.

It's hard to believe that I have less than a month now. As much as I love it here, I miss everyone back home and I can't wait to see everybody again. It's coming up fast. So if anybody needs anything from Spain, get your orders in quick, 'cause I'm coming home!

One last thing. In an attempt to shake things up a bit, there's going to be a contest. Whoever can decipher this message and email me first, will get a very special Granada souvenir. The only person I can think of that would have an unfair advantage most certainly doesn't read this blog. The slashes mark words. It's actually two completely unrelated statements.

53/ 71,23/ 56,6,8,7
56,5,39/ 4,18,16/ 5,33,19/ 5,88,74,7,39

Good luck!
Besos

Ok, one picture. This is me and Chels from Halloween.

Nada se compara a ti

2009-11-01T17:04:00.000-08:00

So everyone went out of country a few weekends ago and Heather and I were the only ones here. So we decided to have a romantic weekend for two. The first night we met up to get dessert and drink wine on a bench in a plaza like real Spaniards. We picked Plaza de los Lobos because it was close to Bib'Rambla where we got dessert. Perhaps we should have taken the name as a warning and steered clear but this was a lesson we had to learn by experience. Our second clue that this was not the place to be appeared right after we made ourselves comfortable with a slab of cake and 1.5 liter bottle of tinto de verano. A person approached us and asked for money so they could buy a beer. I say "person" because Heather did not agree with me that it was a woman until I pointed out the breasts. Even after we told her "no tenemos mas dinero, lo siento," she insisted on standing awkwardly a foot and a half in front of our bench with an unlit cigarette in her mouth. In case we changed our minds? It didn't really matter why, because right then our attention was redirected to a group lucky enough to already have forties of Alhambra (yes the delicious, delicious beer comes in forties and yes that is awesome). One man was very drunk and vocal. Heather and I assessed the situation and decided that if he even looks like he's thinking about talking to us, plan A, B and C were all titled "Get the Fuck out of the Plaza." Luckily(?) he chose instead to pick a fight with another drunk man. When things escalated into one chasing the other with an empty forty bottle, we put our plan into action and changed location. The next day we went to el parque de las ciencias. My host sister described it as "science for children" so I figured it was on my level. I was totally right.

There is a temporary taxidermy exhibit at the museum. This was just a teaser in another room. We got the museum only a couple of hours before they closed and so we were informed that our tickets would be good through tomorrow too. This was great because you definitely can't see everything in a couple of hours.

Optical illusion mirrors. I understood how this one functioned. Look at all the Heathers!

I must be an idiot because I couldn't figure out how to be looking at the camera in this picture. Oh well. Grace said I look like her in this picture so apparently it's a very flattering angle.

This one completely baffled us. Why is she upside down?!

This guy was on his way to the "Birds of Prey in Flight" exhibition. We didn't make it to that one, but his handler was nice enough to let us snap a picture.

This was our second day here. The taxidermy exhibit! Look closely, there is practically no support system for the animals. How did the get the to stay like that?

No strings, no rods, nothing! Maybe taxidermied animals are really light?

{Insert your own Lion King reference here}

Is this a natural pose for rams? Are they frequently seen leaping from rock to rock in large herds? We don't know because we don't speak Spanish.

Tigers and warthogs and bad lighting, oh my!

A nautilus in his tank. Ever since Blue Planet, I've wanted to see one of these up close. Now I can cross this off my list.

Thermal imaging. Apparently my arms are really hot! I like this because it made my camera blue.

I've never been to the Bodies exhibit but I've always wanted to go. This was the Journey through the Human Body and they had a couple of things on loan from Bodies.

There was a butterfly garden too! And some very friendly fish and turtles. I think they were hoping I would feed them.

Mariposa!

Blue. Duh.

Darwin and I had a chat. (I never understand anything he's talking about.)

Heather and the magic floating ball.

Then on Sunday we went to Salobreña. It's a beach about an hour away. We took the bus and it was slightly confusing but we figured it out in the end. While I napped, Heather got to see legendary Spanish PDA meets Spanish beach nudity in a spectacular display of inpropriety and awkwardness. There was mouth to nipple action.

The water was freezing! But it was so hot on the beach. We kept getting in the water for ten minutes at a time because that was as long as we could stand it.

There was no sand which was awesome because that is one of my least favorite things about the beach. That and salt water and how hot it is...

We had open ended return tickets so we headed about to the bus station around seven to secure our seats eight. We had an hour to kill so we ate tapas at a cafe across the street. The waiter was so nice. He asked us if we liked something, but we didn't know what word he was saying. So he told us that we could try it. Turns out it was whole shrimp, complete with eyeballs. He saw our uneasy looks and my face after I tried one, so he took it away saying "No pasa nada." In its place he brought...octopus. Which was actually pretty good.

Proof that we both ate it.

Pues, that concludes our marvelous weekend together. I was a little sunburned but not as bad as I usually get. We were both exhausted and went to bed very early. Mira, now I'm almost caught up to the present. Tune in next time for Tales of the Alhambra (by Ann Garrigan, not Washington Irving.)

Besos.

This is where I got my Kaká jersey...

2009-10-26T18:25:00.000-07:00

Mira jovenes, we went to Córdoba a few weeks ago. The divine gods of the internet have determined that I have committed a great wrong and must be punished. Therefore it takes weeks for me to be able to upload as many photos as I want to post. So this is long overdue but there's nothing I can do about it. In Córdoba we visited an Arab mosque and the ruins of the Califa's city, Medinat Azahara. The mosque was gorgeous, but as of late it's been turned into a Christian cathedral. So among all the ancient Islamic architecture, there are random references to Jesus and other Christian artifacts. I'm taking the Islamic Art and Architecture class so the whole trip was like an educational field trip. Luckily for y'all, I've already taken this test and thus forgotten most of what we learned about. So I hopefully wont be boring you with a lot of useless information.

Before we went to the mosque we got to wander around a little bit. (and eat the most delicious mint chocolate chip ice cream I've ever had.) We saw this sort of shrine. The sign says "If you want your pain converted into happiness, you will not pass here with speaking (confessing?) to Maria." This was before we had split up into smaller, more manageable groups. We were still traipsing around as a group of eighty Americans. We tend to draw a lot of attention to ourselves. Especially since the roads are hardly big enough for a volkswagen to pass through.

This is the juderia. The Jewish neighborhood. They have...lots of plants. If you look close you can see some of the eighty students' heads at the bottom of the picture. It's very difficult to get picture with no one in it when we're this many. I've spent this whole trip trying very hard to keep people out of my pictures just to find out that there is a category in the photo contest for a picture of your fellow students...oh well.

This is the patio of the mosque. I was too busy trying extricate myself from our collective hugeness to notice this at first. The little box up top has a bell in it and the water coming through makes the bell jingle. I was just wandering around thinking "What is that obnoxious dinging?" When I finally figured it out, it sort of grew on me.

When I took this picture I though this pool was the ablutions fountain. Where everyone would cleanse themselves before entering the mosque. Turns out that's a different pool, but I still thought this was pretty.

Ooh. Aah. Isn't it pretty? All the arches are red and white to imitate a Greek aqueduct. The place is enormous. Even though they have erected a huge chapel in the middle, it's easy to ignore that and pretend like this is an undefiled historical monument.

See how big it is? We were trying to estimate how many football fields big it is, but we gave up when we realized that none of us really has a grasp of how big a football field is and none of us are good at that sort of thing anyway. This section of the mosque was made in less than a year and from recycled materials. So none of the columns match up in appearance or height. Cleverly, the Muslims made bases for the columns that evened out their height.

Ok, I tried not to take too many pictures of the Christian sacrilege. But, damnit, I love doves. This ceiling was very pretty with quite a few cherubs and such. But still, wrong and destroying the Islamic integrity of the building.

These people were annoyingly in my shot but in retrospect I think I like it. This might be a celosia. A window for women to look through without being seen. But I don't think it is.

The stained glass that made this is probably a Christian addition.

But it's so pretty and shiny! And there were several variations.

This one was the prettiest of all and I took my time getting a decent shot.

I wasn't the only one that noticed. This little girl came tearing up, making a beeline for the colorful spot on the floor. She was so cute. She was dancing in the light and squawking delightedly. I wanted to steal her but I figured that was grounds for my program to send me home, so I just creepily took her picture instead.

Yay for dusty conditions! They make divine shooting conditions. I wish I could post these bigger. I'm sure there's a way and I just don't know. But then I guess it would just take even longer to upload them. See those arches? They are called "loblados and entercruzados" I think. They distribute the weight better.

And then the heavens parted and God shined his divine light upon me. And everyone got out of my way so that I could get this photo. There were so many people at the mosque that it really was a miracle that I got this shot.

Chandelier thing. When we're supposed to be listening to our guide, I find it difficult to concentrate. Instead, I take pictures like this.

More star-shaped things. Yes, I know. I'm very predictable. We were very hungry at this point and our guide kept saying we were almost done. But she seemed reluctant to exit the mosque because we were the first ones finished.

So we wandered into the chapel in the middle of the mosque. This appears to be an eagle perched on top of an agonized cow. Catholics are so weird.

Pretty sure this is not an original Islamic artwork. But I like pretty things. This was the very last thing right before we left the mosque.

After the mosque we were given free time to eat lunch and wander about. We wanted to go to the zoo but we didn't really have time. So we ate amongst many, many flies and I took pictures of birds. I've mercifully left them off from here. After lunch we wanted ice cream (again) and so we set off in a random direction. On the way we found some sort of open air bazaar and I found my Real Madrid jersey. Frank didn't come with us because he was too busy talking to Jenny (shiver) and so he was very jealous when I showed up with it later. After we found some (more) ice cream, we all piled back onto the bus to drive outside of town a bit to see Medina Azahara.

You can see it's mostly ruins now. Lupe, our profe, kept telling us we had to use our imaginations to picture what it must have looked like in the 10th century. It was hard.

Bits of it that are still standing. I could tell you about how these arches are herradura califal and why, but you don't care do you? No, I didn't think so.

The sky was lovely though. A more able photographer could have really had a field day here. But they would probably have had a tripod and a polarizing filter. Besides, by the end of this all, I was very hot and very tired. We had plans to go to Camborio, I think, so I slept on the way home. Camborio is the discoteca in the caves. It's cool at first, the novelty of it, but it's too expensive and gets waaaaaaaay too crowded. I'm not really a fan. We went for Halloween too. I'll try to get some pictures up of that soon. The only reason I finally got these up is because the internet was working exceptionally well last night and so I stayed up later than I wanted to post these and I got a head start on my next post too. No promises, but it shouldn't be more than a week before they'll be up. I hope y'all like butterflies...

La Corrida de Toros

2009-10-16T05:04:00.000-07:00

Hola chicos. I'm just going to touch briefly on the bullfight because people are bound to be offended. This is how the spectacle was explained to me (in Spanish, mind you, so I'm sure I've gotten some of it wrong.) Every city in Spain has their own bullfight season. Granada's is in June or something like that, but they were having one more at the end of September and Javier strongly recommended that we go. He didn't say we would like it, just that it's a good thing to have experienced. In every bullfight, there are six bulls and three toreros. So math will tell us that each torero(bullfighter) faces two bulls. Actually there are eight bulls. They include two alternates in case one of the starters is a "dud." Or too docile. People in favor of bullfights will stress that these bulls spend five-six years in the lap of luxury, grazing in open fields, eating only the best oats and hardly ever seeing a human before they participate in the event. The general structure of the fight is like so: a bull is released into the ring. Several toreros with pink capes work to make it run around a bit. Then a man with a lance on a heavily armored horse stabs the bull between the shoulder blades. I believe this is to make it more difficult for the bull to keep his horns up and therefor less dangerous for the toreros. Then the toreros take turns running up to the bull and sticking it with these colorful stake-like things. I have no idea why. After this, the main torero, the one whose turn it is, comes out with a red cape and engages the bull in a type of terrifying dance. It's all very showy. The cape is red not because the color excites or riles up the bull. Bulls are color-blind. It's red to disguise the blood. When the torero is ready to perform his coup de grâce, he exchanges his sword for another and lures the bull in closer until he positioned perfectly. The killing blow is supposed to be swift, painless and singular. If done properly, the bull sways for moments and then drops. We found out, however, that is not always the progression of events. Let me apologize here for the sub-par quality of these pictures. We were in the cheap seats.

The Standoff: the torero is pandering to the crowd with fancy dance moves. This was the second bullfighter. The first was pretty awful. He did not achieve a clean kill. We were horrified because we didn't know what to expect and he fucked up quite a bit. It was very hard to watch.

The second torero was a huge improvement on the first. We just called him Muttonchops. I'll let you imagine why. He was daring, suave and beautiful to watch. However, his performance was far from flawless. He slipped and found himself facing the bull from the flat of his back. Other toreros rushed in to lure the bull away but not before the bull managed injure him in fairly serious-looking way. Muttonchops persevered though. With a tourniquet tied around his upper thigh, he finished his fight.

For his bravery and determination to see his fight through to the end, Muttonchops was awarded. The crowd expressed its approval by waving handkerchiefs or anything else white. The president of the bullfight (whom Alex kept insisting upon calling the King) agreed with the crowd and entered the ring after the bull's death and cut off one the bull's ears to give to the torero. Apparently a very high honor.

All in all, it was a pretty grisly affair. Not really something I want to see again, but I think Javier was right. I am glad I've gotten to see what all the fuss is about. Perhaps if I ever get a chance to go to Portugal, I'll see one there. I hear they don't kill the bulls. But if I go to Portugal I'll probably devote most of my time to camping outside of Cristiano Ronaldo's house, so I think this is my first and last bullfight.

And if you want to see more here's the link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2164154&id=38709220&l=2cb4e4d08d

Ronda y Sevilla

2009-09-21T05:54:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, we went on a trip to Ronda and Sevilla. Both were very beautiful cities but very different from Granada. Ronda, in my opinion, was by far the better of the two cities. It was small and quaint, whereas Sevilla was huge and expensive. Unfortunately we were only able to spend a few hours in Ronda and we spent the night in Sevilla. No matter, I was able about to get over 500 pictures in just that weekend. These are the best of the best. If you want to see more, I'll include a link at the end of this post and you should be able to see them all. Listos? Vamos a ver.

We were told it would be hot and sunny all day in Ronda. So of course it was cold and drizzling, but I couldn't have asked for better lighting conditions for picture taking. Every half hour or so the clouds would dissipate long enough to get some gorgeous blue sky shots. This pony was right outside of the Corrida de Toros in Ronda. We started here on our walkabout and more or less made a big circle to end up here too.

The bus ride to Ronda was overwhelmingly beautiful. I watched a storm gather over the mountains, saw amazing rock formations and really steep hills that were lined with the paths that herds of goats make while they graze. I wanted to stop every few minutes to take pictures, but of course we couldn't stop at all. I was heartbroken, thinking I had missed capturing all that scenery but then we walked out to the edge of the city and I saw this.

And this.

There was this big bridge and through it you could these flocks and flocks of white birds swirling around. It was magical, but I couldn't get a good picture.

View of the bridge from the other side. This balcony we were standing on was in a restaurant. I don't know what Javier said to get the stuffy maître d' to let us in but it worked. All twenty of us crowded onto the teeny tiny balcony to snap some pictures while all the posh diners inside looked on disapprovingly.

Ronda is just so pretty. Everything was white walls and flowers.

You know how I love fountains. There was a statue behind this one that everyone seemed pretty keen on getting a picture of, but I don't like statues as much.

Heather doesn't like this but I think she looks gorgeous. I was trying to take a picture of her taking a picture and she caught me just as I snapped it.

I just couldn't get over the sky. It went from overcast and grey to dazzling blue every half hour or so. Andrew (Webb) pointed that this picture is kind of misleading. It looks like a street to nowhere but really it just veers to the right.

There were all sorts of random little goodies tucked up around every corner. I'm not sure what this is but I like it.

We were supposed to listening to Javier tell us about the history of different buildings around Ronda, but I'm easily distracted so I'm glad he doesn't seem to mind when I wander away a bit and take pictures of the things that he is definitely not talking about.

Kitty kitty just sat and let us take her picture over and over again, scowling like a model.

The mountains are so gorgeous. I see them everyday but they still take my breath away sometimes. We walked down a winding path and through this door way to get the Arab bathhouse.

The bathhouse had star-shaped holes cut in the ceiling to mimic the sky. It was cool and damp inside. It's no longer functioning but they had running water soundtracks playing to help us imagine how it used to be.

We came out of the baths to be greeted by blue sky once again. And to have to climb back up to where we came down. Javier took us to a park where we could eat our lunches.

But on the way, I met this guy.

After lunch we regrouped at the Corrida de Toros. We were able to tour it and were told about how bullfights usually go. At that time I hadn't been to a bullfight, but I have since and promise pictures as soon as the internet allows.

I obviously didn't take this picture. Jose asked if he could play with the camera and I liked what he did. I always look better out of focus.

This marks the end of our Ronda trip. The rest are of Sevilla. We piled back onto buses and drove for a few hours to get there around six or seven. After we check into our hotel, we had tiempo libre until the flamenco show.

A very pink building. In this plaza there were people dressed up like aliens and little kids with face paint.

Chelsea has pretty much the same camera as I do and she helped me figure out the settings for taking decent night shots. I love when people come out all blurry in the back or foreground.

This is the front of the cathedral in Sevilla. It has a big tower on the other side called the Hidalga.

More of the cathedral. My pictures of the Hidalga were better the next day, so I didn't include my night ones here.

This was the only picture I took at the flamenco show that was worth posting. It was dark and I don't like how the flash looks. The show was surprising. I didn't really know what to expect but this wasn't really it. There was a girl dance, a boy dancer, a singer and a guitarist. They each took turns on stage to showcase their role in the production. When the dancers weren't on stage they clapped to the music. Or really they clapped against it. It was odd and difficult to detect a consistent rhythm but all together it made for a really unique sound. Then both the man and woman danced together. The whole thing is improvised. There are no choreographed steps and the people of the group that are not onstage watch and follow what the person on stage is doing.

We had a bit of difficulty finding our way back to the hotel, and I wore slippery shoes and was very annoyed with having to tiptoe around and focus on my every step. But then I found this little heart-shaped dry patch of sidewalk that I might not have seen otherwise.

The next day, we trooped over to the palace and gardens in our loud group of 80 Americans. I cannot express enough how much I hate when they make us do that.

There was a maze of hedges. Just like in Harry Potter. At least that's what I told myself while we walked through it. I kept thinking "like Harry Potter, not the Shining."

There was a little building and the floor had hundreds and hundreds of these little tiles laid in it. There were bunnies and windmills and foxes. Of course, I liked the bird one.

I don't know what this building is but after I took this picture we walked up there.

Whatever the building was meant to be, it offered a perfect vantage point for taking pictures of this waterfall. See that water down there?

It was full of these. Which I can only imagine are Spanish Koi.

Have I mentioned that Granada's national fruit is the pomegranate? The word pomegranate is actually from the word Granada. This is where they originated. There is one on this bench somewhere.

These may or may not be pomegranates. I'm not an expert.

My camera makes me brave. I snap pictures of brides, locals and other people's children. No one seems to mind, but I am always half-afraid that someone will start yelling at me in Spanish.

These are from the inside of the palace.

I had to sit down on the floor to take this picture and I still couldn't get all of it in the frame.

Vicky looked so pretty with that flower in her hair, I couldn't resist taking a shot while she wasn't looking

Something about the way the plant was taking over the water source struck me as perfectly appropriate.

My first helado since I came to Spain. Everyone else has been raving about it for weeks. It is orgasmically delicious.

More of the cathedral. After this we got to go inside.

There were very tall ceilings. One part was more ornately decorated than the other and we found it was because the ceiling had collapsed and been rebuilt.

I really liked this painting. Even the guy with the arrows sticking out of him looks just tickled about that lamb.

I didn't particularly like this gold thing but I did like what the light was doing behind it.

It was all very Catholic with lots of realistic renderings of Jesus.

Then we climbed the thirty-six flights of stairs to the top of the Hidalga. My camera also enables me to neglect my fear of heights in hopes of excellent pictures. I did a little bit of vertigo when I looked down though.

After the cathedral we had free time again until we left Sevilla. What we wanted more than anything was a nap, but we didn't have our hotel rooms anymore and so Chelsea and I went to find some grass to lie down on. We found grass but we also found five hundred thousand flies.

There was a pretty cool tree in the park as well.

We probably would have been better off if we had just sat here and leaned on each other and tried to nap.

So that's Ronda and Sevilla. We took a trip to Cordoba this weekend and I'll try to talk about that soon. At least more quickly than I did this.
If you want to see more pictures here are the links:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2162608&id=38709220&l=356e9127eb

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2162748&id=38709220&l=f4d2e6aeb0

Unas pocas fotos

2009-09-16T07:35:00.000-07:00

You wanted pictures so here they are. Well some. Actually just the ones I took today while I was looking for school supplies. I haven't really talked about the living situation much, so let me paint you a picture. Later I'll take actual pictures. So there's Manuela. She spends most of the time in front of the television. At least that's what I assume since that's where I always find her. She smokes Pall Malls and the only exception to her being in front of the television is when she's fixin' lunch. Usually smoking and stirring something that smells delicious. She's very sweet and the only occasion on which we have disagreements is when she insists that I have an eating disorder because I can't seem to finish the nine pounds of pasta she serves up at 2:30pm. Her daughter, who's name I misspelled before, is Mary Luz. She said once that she's looking for a job but for right now she's just hanging out here. She speaks English because she lived in England for five years. We rarely speak English but we're quickly finding out that a lot of her words are not the same. I had no idea what vegetable she was describing even after she told me in English that it's called aubergine. We looked it up. In American, it's known as an eggplant.

Oh, and they have a cat. Her name is Dara and she hates me.

These are some of the apartments I walk by on my way to school. Nobody seems to have much of a balcony, but little space they have they cram as many plants as possible into.

I don't know about you but next I need to buy some pork in bulk, I'm going to this guy.

There is some pretty impressive graffiti here. This is just one example. More to come I promise.

There is a lovely cafe across the plaza from school called Pilar del Toro that everyone goes to in between classes. I'm not a big coffee drinker so Chelsea let me take a picture of hers.

Besides being adorable and close, this cafe has excellent lighting in the morning. It's kind of odd. It's like a courtyard in the middle of the building.

And a fuente. There are fuentes everywhere. There's even one in our plaza that runs "agua potable." Most of them are not for drinking but that doesn't stop the hippies from Albaycin from having their fill. They just have to jockey for position with the pigeons.

This is the view from the terrace on the roof of our school building. Jealous? I can see the Alhambra too.

Ok, so there's supposed to be one more picture but I'm not missing the beginning of the Inter Milan and FC Barcelona game while I wait for it to upload. You'll just have to wonder what it was until I get around to posting again.

I'll give you a hint: Fuente.

Besitos

El fin de semana pasado

2009-09-14T01:10:00.000-07:00

So this weekend a lot of people went to the discoteca. I opted out of it but we did go to this Irish bar where we watched the Brazil vs. Argentina game last week. We met these really funny Irish girls that told me I was "so tan." Weird right? I was in strange homesick mood so I went home kind of early. But on Saturday night I went out for tapas with Carolyn and another girl from our program, Vicki. All I wanted to do was watch Real Madrid play at 8 but they were so not into that. So I went to Hanningan's, another Irish bar, to wait for Frank, the only other person who is remotely interested in fútbol. While I was there waiting I ran into a "despedida de soltero," a bachelor party. There were very nice, although kind of drunk. One guy Carlos, kept pestering me for my number, so I showed him the ring I wear for just such an occassion. This may not have been the best course of action because I was then forced to recount many ficticious details about my engagement and wedding. It went fine though and I still got a beer out of it.

After the game (Real Madrid ganó, por su puesto. Hala Madrid, ja ja ja!) we walked to the fiesta en el Zaidín. It was a combination carnival and concert. Apparently we missed a really popular band the night before, so there weren´t many people there at all. They had tents where you could buy beer, but you had to exchange your money for a ticket that said how much drink you were allowed to have. Then you took your ticket three feet to right and traded that for beer or tinto de verano (which is like wine and Fanta). The guys working there weren't so great at remembering to take my ticket, so I got some free beverages and was even able to talk one guy into giving me two for one. And I got to see Inma! She was my teacher for just the first week and me encanta ella! She's so adorable. We danced and talked about how I blame her for introducing me to Campers. Campers are these amazing shoes that are supposedly the most comfortable thing you'll ever wear on your feet. And they should be since they cost €125. I'm obbessed with them now and I can't have them.

Today is the first day of class and I have had my language class. All I can say is, I miss Inma. I can't understand half of what Fabiola says, which does not bode well for the rest of my classes.

Sorry about the lack of pictures, but I'm posting from a school computer during my two hour break inbetween classes. From now on I'm going to bring my camera so I can wander around and take pictures instead of sitting in the lounge. So anticipate new Granada sights.

Besitos.

One down, seventeen to go.

2009-09-12T04:18:00.000-07:00

Well, I've survived this first week without any major calamities. I'm living in an apartment with a woman named Manuela, her 36 year-old daughter Mariluz and Carolyn, a girl from my program. I have my own room. It's small but it has a window, which can be a major advantage in this heat if there's a breeze.

Carolyn and I walk to school everyday. It's at the IES building in the center of town. For us it's about a thirty minute walk. We have yet to get lost, but Granada is pretty small and I like to think I have a pretty good sense of direction. We have the option of taking classes at the University of Granada, but for the most part our classes are taught at the program center in Plaza Nueva.
The plaza looks totally different at night. Restaurants and bars put out chairs and tables. Tons of people sit for hours, eating, drinking and smoking.
There's also a church. I haven't been inside, but Carolyn went in during service yesterday and seemed to like it. It's apparently a very popular place to get married. Manuela was married there and last Saturday we saw at least three weddings from our school building.

Last Monday (Tuesday?) we went on a ten mile hike at Cabo de Gata. I was told that although ten miles sounds far, it would actually be a leisurely stroll during which we would stop and play on beaches and picnic blah blah blah. Javier failed to mention that by hike he meant climb these:
I was at first fooled by the gorgeous place they took us first. White beach, clear blue water. Enough salt to burn my legs but also to keep me buoyant. It was lovely, really amazing. If only we could have stayed there...

What I had considered to be my sensible, comfortable tennis shoes proved to be otherwise. My poor feet were covered in blisters and I eventually went barefoot, which was a blessed relief compared to the agony my shoes caused. Javier made it up to me later though. At the IES payed-for dinner, he ordered our table a pitcher of beer (which only the other Ann and I were interested in) and a bottle of limoncello.

Cabo de Gata was really pretty though. Mostly desert, it's where a lot of spaghetti westerns were filmed. Movies such as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Fistful of Dollars. There was even a mini Hollywood set of a little western town.

This is where I'll leave you. Something smells delicious and I'm worried they're eating without me. I don't really know what to do with a blog so feel free to make suggestions or ask questions. If anybody even reads this. I'm making no promises about this blog or my intentions to update it. But hopefully it will be something I can do fairly regularly. I miss everyone very much. Besos.