I don't have a MULLET!!!

I got a my first haircut in Spain yesterday and I was fearful of the mullet. Unfortunately the mullet is very popular in Spain, usually with the "punk" kids boys and girls alike, but I have seen fashion mullets on trendy women so I was scared. I am happy to say that I do not have a mullet and my haircut and color was 32 euros. The color is perfect and the haircut is almost like what I had. They love layers in Spain (which kind of goes hand-in-hand with the mullet) so I have some shorter layers than expected but I can live with it. Once I saw her cut the first short layer there was no turning back. I did get a little nervous because I thought what if she goes shorter? Do I stop her? Is it too late? Do I have a mullet?

I am going with my friend Kate to the same hair salon because she wants to die her hair. Adios rubia!

A Real Thanksgiving!!

It's somewhat in the past, but Thanksgiving last week in Granada exceeded any expectations I had of what it could be like here. I expected the food to be nothing like at home. I was thinking dried out turkey, bad mashed potatoes, no cranberries, no sweet potatoes but I was completely wrong. The food was just as good as any Thanksgiving I have ever had and all of the necessities were there including homemade cranberry sauce that was amazing and real turkey! I give a lot of credit to Miguel (my advisor) for finding a great restaurant to host our excuse to eat in excess. The hot dog salad turned out decent. It was not the best but it was edible. Probably the most unique thing about this Thanksgiving was staying out until 6 am after eating enough to feed the world. We went out with our teachers and it was a blast. Below it a picture of me with my literature teacher, Fran, and let's just say a Fran does not like to give bad grades. He is everyone's favorite teacher and most of the girls in my school have a crush on him or are in love with him. To bad for the ladies at CEGRI that he is married to a Japanese woman and has the cutest baby I have ever seen.

School is coming to an end on December 13. I only have two days of class next week, we don't have school on Thursday for a holiday and I am taking Wednesday off to go to Morocco. Some of my friends went last weekend, so I kind of know what to expect. It is going to be really interesting and I am sure I will have some stories to tell after.

I finally have all of my travels set for my break in December and January! First I am going to Italy to try to find my family. I am flying into Milan, I'll spend a day or two there and then head to the homeland and see what I can find. Then I go down to Rome, spend a day or two there and head back to Granada. Matt will be here on Christmas Eve and we are going to eat dinner with my family in Granada! HaHa! It is going to be really interesting because when everyone is talking a million miles a minute I have no idea what is going on so Matt is going to be totally baffled, but Paqui will throw down some good food so he can entertain himself with eating while I attempt to be "the translator". Matt and I are going to spend a few days in Granada and then head to Barcelona, Paris and back to Madrid. I was a little stressed this past week trying to find a hotel in Paris. We are going to be there for the new year and I was finding hotels for 100 plus euros a night so I was kind of freaking out. Patience paid off because I finally found something more than affordable and in a good location so our trip is now completely set. Matt will return home from Madrid and then I am going to EGYPT!!! I still can't believe it, but I really am going. Since I am going alone I decided to do an organized trip, so I will be on a trip with a bunch of Spaniards in Egypt. It's going to be amazing and I can't wait to do it. I have wanted to do this for a long time and I am here and the moment seemed right so it's on. I am know I am going to have a lot to say after.

I rode a moto last night!! I now have two rides under my belt. They are really popular here so I knew it would happen sooner or later and now I have two friends that own motos so it will probably happen more often.

I don't think I have mentioned this, but the prostitute pick-up/drop-off point is near my house. It's about 5 plus minutes away running. I just thought of this because I am about to go running and sometimes in the afternoons I am lucky enough to see these fine ladies. I have seen them hard at work at approx. 1:30 pm. on a few occasions. I think someone might have mistaken me for a prostitute as well. I was walking past the point of solicitation (this is also on my way to the church help kids with English) and some guy honked his horn and no one else was in sight and then he pulled into the point of solicitation. Perhaps I am flattering my self with this, but it was sketchy. Well I am off to run, hopefully I get lucky with a sighting of fishnet tights, boots and the shortest skirt man has made.

Adios

Hot Dog Salad

Hot Dog Salad?!

It's a little weird to be so far away from home on Thanksgiving. Although I have celebrated outside of Chicago, I have never been away from the family so it's a little sad. My school is hosting a Thanksgiving dinner for us today so I am really looking forward to tonight's events. We won't be eating dinner until 10:30 pm tonight and I really have no idea what to expect. We made a dessert last night and I don't know how it is going to turn out. We made cookies and cream salad, but we changed the name to hot dog salad because that is what it looks like. Details to come after the fiesta.

Same as always with Pablo. Last week I was leaving and he was in the bathroom and ran out with his pants at his ankles to say goodbye to me, that was really nice of him, so today I am saying I am thankful that his shirt was long enough and nothing popped out. I went out with mi hermana española, Cristi, last weekend. We did some club'n at her favorite discoteca, Mae West. It's a huge disco that brings in an interesting crowd ranging in age from 16 to 60. Good people watching, but not my favorite place because it is always really crowded and loud. But I decided to go and spend some time with the sister and her cousin. The way they acted kind of reminded me of freshman year at Vito's with lots of moving around all over the place, and of course dancing.


I went to my first football game last weekend. I am not going to lie, it was not that exciting, but I think the reason is because Granada is not good and it kind of reminded me like a high school game. I'll have to make my way to a real football game before I leave.


I am in Granada the next two weekends then I am off to Marruecos (Morocco) for a long weekend with some girlfriends. I am really excited because we got a nice deal and although we will be staying in Tanger we can take a take some day trips to check out some other cities. My first step in Africa is near!

School is not far from finished which is exciting because I have a lot of traveling ahead and Matt will be here on December 24th! Also exciting new, one of my friends (second from the right above) got offered a job to stay in Granada with the current family she is living with and be their nanny. She is seriously considering the job which is exciting for me since I have to attempt to make new friends again come January. It's kind of funny that her family got paid to let her stay at their home and now they are going to pay her to watch their child and live with them.

Happy Thanksgiving!

One last trip to the Beach

Yes the weather has cooled down in Spain, but I could not resist one last trip to the beach until spring. A friend and I went to Marbella which is about two and a half ours from Granada for the day and night. Let's just say we were the only ones on the beach as you can see above. The first day was sunny and really windy, but we were determined and laid out in our bathing suits anyway, which in the end resulted in me wrapping myself in my towel and sleeping. It was not really cold, but more uncomfortable to be more or less naked outside. The weather at night was really nice, like no coat necessary nice and I wore flip flops which I have not done in Granada for over a month. The second day on the beach was warmer.

I think I had some of the best paella yet in Marbella. It was cheap and amazing, I was a little drunk before I ate it, but it did not affect my taste buds. Although it did affect the fact that I ate much more than necessary. As you can see below I am really disgusted with the amount of food I just late. I later regretted this when some Spanish men invited us out with them and paid for our drinks, well I only had one because I was so full that if I made a wrong move I would puke because I had no room in my body for anything more.

I also went to the Arab Baths last weekend too, which were amazing. In the simplest terms you sit in a bath and relax. This particular bath had 6 hot baths and 1 cold bath and they suggest you go back and forth between the hot and cold. I also got a message and the served the most amazing tea called murano. A very relaxing experience and I will recommend it to anyone that visits.

Two weeks ago had sushi for the first time in over two months. I actually realized that for the past two months the only food I have really eaten has been Spanish food and I forgot about how much I love soy sauce. There are two sushi tapas bars that I have tried. Now the sushi is nothing to get excited about, think about the sushi at the IMU if you went to Iowa, and it is a few steps above that. The bottom line is that although it was not great it filled the void of something Asian in my life, hahahaha.

I don't really have much planned for this weekend, I might go to a football game in Granada. Their football team is on a lower level than the ever popular Real Madrid but it will probably still be fun.

Pablo Takes the Relationship to the Next Level

by peeing in front of me. Yes, in a mere two months we have reached that level of intimacy. Last weekend I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth and I left the door open because I live with a million people and someone always needs something from the bathroom. Pablo walks in, says hi, and stands in front of the toilet and then I hear the stream hit the water. At that moment I was done brushing me teeth so I ran out of the bathroom and into my room where I started laughing because I did not know what else to do. He followed this gesture up by barging into my room while I was changing. This is nothing new, it has happened before, so I am almost not surprised by it anymore. Today we had another romantic moment as we ate some chestnuts together. I helped him peel his and he told me which ones were bad. (Concerning chestnuts, I realized although I have heard the song a million times during Christmas, I had never tried them and I must say they are fantastic.) It probably seems like I don't like Pablo considering his actions, but I actually really like him, he is entertaining and always willing to talk.

Paqui, Pablo, and I

I had a four day weekend last week, starting with the day after Halloween, for the holiday, Todos los Santos. It's a day to honor the dead. Anyway, with no work the day after Halloween one would think that it's a big holiday here, well it is not. It's actually a new holiday for Spain, there is no trick-or-treating, but there were some people dressed up in the basics like witches and devils. Everyone goes out because because there is not work but there are no hardcore costumes like in the US. I did not dress up because I knew this, but I was lucky enough to obtain a mustache from a friend so I wore that for a while. I was out late and slept until 2pm and I think Paqui thought I was dead or something was wrong with me. At least that is what I thought I understood. HaHa.

I took a day trip last week to Ronda on Friday. It's a city that is in gorge. It was really pretty and a nice small city to wonder around in and explore. It is a typical southern Spanish city with a combination of Muslim and Catholic influences. I also went to a mass on Sunday, yes a mass. But don't worry I did not move to Spain and get all religious I just wanted to see the inside of the cathedral in the city center. I felt that since I have been here for two months it is something I should do. I still have to go back to see another part of it, but I'll have to pay for that portion and it's closed on Sunday. I didn't understand anything because I was zoned out and looking around not only at the church but at the fact that everyone in the church was 70 and older but me and my friends.

I need a haircut but I fear the mullet. It's so popular here and it scares me.

In Ronda in front of the New Bridge

The Final Countdown: Scandinavia or Australia?

It's been a while since an update so here it is. Now that I have the Internet at my house I can get on the ball with my pictures and the blog.

Two weeks ago I went on my Scandinavian Adventure with Kate and Rooney. We started in Oslo, Norway then went to Stockholm, Sweden and ended the trip in Copenhagen, Denmark where we kind of lost Rooney and met up with my other friend from School, Katie. Yes, the weather was cold ranging from 40 to 50 degrees, but it was a nice fall experience.

I think the first thing to lay out is that if you plan on visiting Scandinavia you should have a lot of money, and I don't so that was interesting. I survived but it was an expensive trip and I did not really go out to dinner. Oh yes and the American dollar is worth about the same as toilet paper so that did not help much either. All three countries use a difference currency (kroners) so we had to change money in every city.

Oslo, to date, is the most expensive city I have ever been to and the food is nothing to wet your pants about. Even the hostel was the most expensive I have stayed in while traveling in Europe, but it also had the best hostel bed I have ever experienced so that kind of made up for the price. Overall the city is laid back. We went out one night to watch some football and drink a 63 kroner beer which equals about $12. Awesome! We did actually go out to dinner one night and it was expensive, I had some trout and it was good, but again nothing super exciting. Paqui makes better fish in la casa. Two important things started in Oslo for me, one, Introduction to Australia and two, The Final Countdown (yes the song, and if you watch Arrested Development, Jobe's theme song). We basically spent sometime with an Aussie in Oslo and learned some of the crazy Aussie ways as far as lingo and more important drinking game rules. Everybody does booze and cards different and it is always interesting to see the tricks people have up their sleeve. The Final Countdown stems from a quaint train ride up the mountain to the Olympic Ski Jump that turned into a music fest with students from the university. Basically 25 plus kids got on the train, some dressed up in formal-wear while others went a different direction with long underwear. They had a full band with them, tuba and trumpet included, and before we knew what was going on, the band was playing The Final Countdown, which will be stuck in my mind forever. I later found out that this event is a tradition and they go to to a restaurant where the goal is to be so annoying that they kick you out. I must say I have a lot of respect for that, I really would have loved to followed them in and watch the scene go down.

A nice addition to my time is Oslo is that Kate fell in the water, for real. We were sitting on some rocks by the shore and she decided to play a solo game of double dare and walk down on slimy rocks to put her and in the water and check out the temperature. Well she really got to feel the temperature when she was thigh deep in the water. I was so shocked that I just stared in amazement at what happened and did not help her or more important take a picture. She had a nice 20 plus minute walk home in her wet pants and shoes. HaHa!

Although I like Oslo, I don't think it is someplace I would visit again because the expense is ridiculous.

The Final Countdown is reborn

Kate & I in Oslo

Brodie (from where?), Rooney, Kate, and I in Oslo

Our next stop was Stockholm, where yes it was expensive but much cheaper than Oslo. Stockholm is my favorite city in Scandinavia. We had great weather and of course Australians to hang out with. We did a lot of walking and wondering around. Stockholm is much bigger than Oslo but it is easy to see most of city in a few days. We took a two hour boat ride through the canals, and that is where we ran into an old friend, The Final Countdown. The boat provided headphones so that we knew what we were looking at and in the middle of explanations they played music and the first song they played was a slow version of The Final Countdown, which repeated 5 or 6 times throughout the ride. Score!

We went on a slight binge in Stockholm after how expensive Oslo was. The process of buying beer from the "convenient store" or System Bolaget is interesting. All of the alcohol is behind a case and you browse around, find what you need, and give the clerk the number that corresponds to your alcohol of choice, and go from there. They also check ID's which I never had so I could never actually purchase the goods. Spain does not believe in ID checking so I never carry my state ID. Anyway we found beer with 7.5% alcohol and went to town on it. Considering they were the big cans, 4 was a great way to start the night out. Here is where we kind of lost Rooney and now I am not sure if we are friends. The story starts with our last night in Stockholm. We consumed some alcohol at the hostel and engaged in a life threatening game of chase the aces (I'm too lazy to explain but it involves a lot of shots, in this case vodka, which I scammed out of by taking Jameson out of a bottle and not really drinking a shots worth.) Anyway, Rooney landed up with a few to many double-straight-up vodka shots which resulted in a high level of intoxication before we even left to go out. We somehow stay out until 5 am including a stop for a kebab where Rooney was literally doing circles with is upper body as he attempted to speak to me. This was all a great idea since we had to get up at 6 am in order to catch our 9 am flight. Morning rolls around and I go to wake Rooney up in his 11 person dorm room. He barely responds to my punches, slaps, pulling of the covers and whisper yelling. I leave to finish getting ready and come back to find that Rooney has ignored me and gone back to sleep. I wake him up again with the same antics and this time sit him up in his bed and tell him that we are going to miss our flight. He told me I need to get out of there because he could not get ready with me in the room and he threw out some other unpleasant things so I told him was I was going upstairs and leaving in 5 minutes. So we waited and then left. OK so I know that I should have tried again, but at this point I was frustrated with his lack attention to the situation, I was slightly hungover, and I did not want to miss our flight. Kate and I got to the airport and barely made our flight. We checked in and got on the plane 10 minutes later. Rooney did arrive in Copenhagen much later, I'm not sure how, but I assume he had to pay to switch his flight. Needless to say he was very angry with us for leaving him and to be honest I don't blame him but on the same note if we had waited and continued to try to wake him up I am 100% sure we would have missed our flight and then we all would have had to pay for Rooney's hangover. I really am sorry about the situation and have learned from the experience. If I find myself in this situation again I am going to throw water on the person, I think that it is a good last resort. The end result of the situation was that we did not hangout together in Copenhagen and like I said I am not sure the status of our friendship.

On last thing I would like to note about Stockholm is the sausage I ate wrapped in a tortilla with mashed potatoes and crumbled fried onions. Interesting take on the ever so versatile sausage.

Kate & I in Stockholm

Stockholm

Rooney, Kate & I in Stockholm

Rooney put on a nice show for the shwarma crowd.

Our final stop was in Copenhagen and although it started a little rattled with a day of zombie travel it turned out to be a lot of fun. We obviously made friends with Australians and I think I am borderline fluent in their slang, haha. I now know that if one says "I'm minging" it means that "I'm drunk" but if one says "She's a minger" it signifies that "She is ugly". So I guess that means I want to be minging but not a minger. We went "clubb'n" with them one night which turned out to be quite interesting and to long of a story to tell considering this post is practically a novel.

I really like Copenhagen, it is similar to Stockholm but has it's own charm. We went and saw the statue of the Little Mermaid which is a popular monument by the shore. We also hit up the Museum Erotica. I saw many renditions of the penis and the vagina and of course learned a new thing or too. An interesting and educational visit. My favorite experience of Copenhagen was Cristiana. Cristiana is a small part of Copenhagen that does not have any laws, or something along those lines. The area is all dirt roads, there are a lot of garbage cans with fires, oh yeah and people selling pot out in the open, how could I forget. I am not sure of the legality of the situation but there were people that had little stands set up to do business, while others would hang out by the garbage cans and wait to be solicited. I'll just say we chilled out for while and enjoyed some crepes. This does not sound to exciting but we experienced a nice finale. As we were walking out this man yelled something in Danish and started running through the central part of the neighborhood, then all of these people were running all over the place and I of course stood there like an ass because I wanted to see what was going on while Kate and Katie had already made a move to completely exit the area. It was like everyone was chilled out and in one second there was pandemonium everywhere. I don't know what happened but we assumed with might have been something with the police.

We really wanted to hear The Final Countdown in Copenhagen, and it was a huge let down when it was no where to be found. But have no fear our trip did not end dry. I was lucky enough to hear it as someone's cell phone ringer on our bus ride home from Madrid to Granada. I think that counts for something.

In Copenhagen I have found the best pizza in Europe so far. Not someplace I would expect to have good pizza, but it was so good that I went there twice.

Copenhagen

Everyone rides bikes in Scandinavia and after some drinks in Copenhagen I wanted to as well.

Hmm, I wonder if those two are from Australia?

Kate, Katie, and I in Copenhagen.