Adiós Granada

My friends and roommates starting from the right (roommate- Medi, Louise, roommate - Moha, Sarah, some random Moroccan, and in the front my roommate Rashid.

Tomorrow is my last full day in Granada. I feel kind of weird, happy, sad, excited to travel, and excited to come home. I feel like I have spent my time well here but I still feel like every day I find something new or meet a new person, learn a new Spanish word, or some crazy Moroccan thing and that makes me sad to leave. Like for example, I recently discovered an amazing curry kebab place that I love and had probably walked by a million times with out thinking about it until someone told me about it. And in the last few weeks I have met some new people and now it´s sad that I have to go with out really getting to know them more. But no complaints, Granada has been good to me and this last year has been amazing.

I finalized my travel plans this last week and I am really excited to get along and see some new places. I start in Italy in Cinque Terre and from there I am going to visit my family again. No worries, this time they know that I am coming and I think we might be going to their house that is on an island, at least that is what I got from attempting to understand an email in Italian. From Italy I am taking a ferry to Croatia and I will be spending about two weeks there which I have been looking forward to since I got here. Then I have a few days in Slovenia, then off to Hungary (Budapest), then I have about a week in the Czech Republic, and a week in Poland. I wanted to go to Greece but it was to expensive so I decided to go back to Poland because I loved it so much last time. I will be returning to Krakow, but this time I have some other cities on the agenda. Then from Poland I am flying to Frankfurt, Germany to go visit my friend Sarah who will be in Heidelberg and finally from there back to Spain where I will be visiting Santiago de Compostela and Salamanca before I come back to Granada and por fin CHICAGO! That is a mouth full but that is about the gist of my next two months.

I´ll be trying to keep updates while I am traveling so keep reading and expect some pictures.

I am going to try to get all of my things ready tonight so that I can just relax and walk around Granada a bit. I will be coming back here at the end of July before I come home but I still feel like tomorrow is my last day forever.

¿Where are the Reuben Sandwiches?

At the Temple Bar in Dublin

I am back in Spain and Kelly returned home this past Sunday. It was so great to have her here and show her how I have been living the past year and how awesome Granada is. Our trip to Ireland was amazing and we were lucky to have fantastic weather and some Irish folk buy us some Guinness. At 4 to 5 euros a pint I am not going to pass up any offers, haha. We did a lot of moving around, 4 places in 5 nights, but it did not seem rushed and we had sufficient time to see what we wanted. After we went to Inishmor, an island off of the coast of Galway, we went to Doolin to see the Cliffs of Moher which is probably something most of people have seen in pictures of Ireland. We walked along the cliffs for about 3 hours and it was so beautiful. We are really immature and renamed the Cliffs of Moher, the Cliffs of Mohair on my crotch. We told a few Irish people about it and some of them thought it was really funny and others thought we were idiots, haha.

Cliffs of Moher

Doolin is a tiny little town but I still loved it, very quaint and laid back. We went to one of the pubs to listen to some Irish music and met a group of people from West Port Ireland who work as a rescue team in the mountains where they live and were there for a retreat and to climb the cliffs. They were so nice, in fact most Irish people I did meet where really nice and friendly in the pubs, in the stores, just about everywhere. I really loved the west coast of Ireland and it is just so GREEN!

From Doolin we went to Dublin. Dublin is a nice city, but typical of any large European city. I am glad we went but seeing the west coast made the trip and gave me a feeling of what Ireland is like. I am so glad that I did not just go to Dublin and although it´s a fun place to go I would recommend that if you go to Ireland, you go beyond Dublin. In Dublin we of course went to the Guinness factory which was actually kind of interesting because Guinness is such a unique beer. We had intended to go back to our hostel but we went to a bar the buy some t-shirts that we liked and then landed up sitting there from about 7 pm until 1 am. We met some nice guy from Northern Ireland that lives in California. He gave us some valuable life lectures about how we should love our men and leave them before they screw us over. He repeated this a million times but also kept saying he wanted us to have a good time and kept on buying us beers so his lessons were tolerable.

The cliffs in Inishmor

Pictures from Inishmor

A few days into the trip I realized that I had not seen a reuben sandwich on any menu so I was curious as to if they even existed in Ireland so Kelly and I started asking people about it only to find out that the reuben sandwich is an American creation. Every Irish person we asked had never even heard of a reuben let alone had tried one. I guess I thought the sandwich was Irish because it is a standard in almost every Irish themed restaurant in the United States but I googled it and it was invented in New York City. If anyone thought the same as I, I am happy that I cleared up this mystery for you. We also learned that people in Ireland walk against traffic rather than with it. We had to walk on the side of the road a lot and we were always confused as to what direction we should walk, and the fact that they drive on the wrong side of the road did not help either. We also asked people if they liked U2 and most were indifferent.

Next week is my last week in Granada. I have a lot of mixed emotions about it. I love this city so much and am so happy I got to spend a lot of time here so I will be really sad to leave it for a few weeks. But on the other hand I am really excited to travel to some places I have not been to as well as return to Italy to see my family. I wish I did not have to do all of this traveling alone. Although it has advantages I do get lonely sometimes and I have not traveled this long alone so it will be interesting. One of my friends is thinking about meeting me some where for a week so hopefully he can get off work.

I am finally starting to feel like my Spanish has improved so much since I got here. I have felt it little by little but now I feel so comfortable speaking and like I can say almost anything that I want and understand almost anything, although it is still hard to understand people from Andalucia (the region where I live) They speak crazy fast and eat all of there words. But I know other native Spanish speakers that have trouble understanding them as well so it makes me feel a bit better. I have read quite a few novels this past semester, some up to 400 pages so that has really helped to improve my reading skills and I now realize that I don´t have to look up every word I don´t understand in order to understand the context. I had to read a lot of books that really sucked to I am actually looking forward to reading a Spanish novel that interests me. I am still nervous about loosing my Spanish when I travel this summer and even more so when I get home but I am hoping that I can meet people to practice with this summer and make some Mexican friends when I get home.

A lot of Red and Guinness

I'm in Ireland right now! Kelly made it safely to Spain on Tuesday. I showed her a bit of the Spanish lifestyle with some tapas and then we went out with my roommates and had a great time. We left for Ireland on Wednesday. Well first we went to London, slept in the airport (because I love to do that) and then flew to Ireland the next morning. We were dead on Thursday but got through it. The weather has been amazingly nice out. I was prepared for a lot of rain and no sun but I actually got sun burned a bit which is something I would not expect from a trip to Ireland in May. But no complaints, it has been beautiful.

We spent a day in Galway and just walked around the city and to the coast. I must admit, it is nice walking down the street without people looking like you like you are a freak or alien which are the looks I get almost everyday in Spain. We were feeling cheap and made grilled cheeses at our hostel. I have stayed in quite a few hostels and most that have a kitchen usually have things like olive oil, salt, pepper, and spices for everyone to use. I saw that there was some olive oil so I used it and this asshole called me out in front of about 15 people. Apparently it was his, and if I had known that these items were not open season I would have asked around to use it. But there were no names on the items and it seemed similar to what I had seen in the past where everyone can use the basics. I guess I was just annoyed he did this in front of so many people and made me look like an dick.

We were really tired from our airport sleep but landed up going out and meeting some locals and Brits. Kelly got hit up hard-core by this guy from the UK while I was stuck with a creepy Irish man that might have married me on the spot if I had allowed it.

Sunburned in Ireland

The Guinness has been so good. Why is it so much better here??? The foam is the best part and after they poor a glass is sits for a few minutes until it turns all of the way dark. I love it! Expensive but worth it every time. Aside from Guinness being one of my favorite things, I am also loving all of the redheads I am seeing. I knew there would be redheads in Ireland, duh, but I did not realize there would be so many. So red and white. Chapman needs to come here.

Right now I am on an island off the coast of Galway. We biked the island yesterday and it was really pretty. It shows the simple way of life. Soon we are off to the Doolin to see the Cliffs of Moher and hear some authentic Irish music!

Galway

As far as things in Granada are going everything is great with my roommates. I'm getting a long really well there and having a lot of fun. I have not seen or heard from Paqui since I have left. I am feeling better about it since I have had some time to reflect and what not. I am still sad it happened but can move on, maybe learn from it.

Galway

The end...

I am not sure where to begin, but moving out last Sunday was probably one of the worst days I have had since I have left. That being said it really was not that bad so I can´t complain, I have been lucky. After thinking about it all week and playing what I was going to say over and over in my head I decided to tell Paqui that someone in the house had been stealing from me. Now my intention was to not mention that I had found items by searching because I knew that would not go over well, but through nerves and my instinct to defend my accusations it came out. When I first told her she looked at me like she could not believe it and that I was making this up. I told her about the test I set up with my bag and her come back was that she cleans my room. Well I said my bag was in my closet so there would be no need to touch it. I also left it half-zipped and it was all of the way zipped after the weekend so it was clear someone went in it. She continued to press and I eventually had to say that I had found some things outside of my room. I explained the position I was in and how I did not want to do it but I had to know because it was driving me crazy and in the end I was right.

She continued to ask my why I did not tell her before and I said I did not want to be in the house when she would discuss this issue. She could not understand this and clearly could not understand the least bit how I was feeling about being violated all year and that I did not want to live in a house for a week where I have accused people of stealing knowing that know one would admit to it. She asked who I thought it was and I just kept telling her I had know idea even though my thoughts were on Pablo. She then asked if I thought it was Maribel and I said I did not know. Then she asked what had happened with us and why we did not get along (I answered this knowing full well that Maribel had spilled some reason for not liking me to her). I told her I had no idea and that she had yelled at me a few times for no reason. Then she proceeded to tell me that Maribel does not like me because I talk about/to her boyfriend too much. At this point I just started laughing because I had never heard such a ridiculous thing in my life and laughing seemed to be the only thing I could do. Paqui did not like this very much, but I could not help it. I think I said hi and bye to him a handful of times because that is what I thought the polite thing to do was when you see someone and as far as talking about I asked where he worked and maybe if they were going to move in together some day. Basically she is more of a psycho than I had thought. Paqui seemed to be quite convinced that Maribel was behind this which is something I had honestly never thought of before, let´s be serious she is my age.

I then told her that I had found a thong in my suitcase that did not belong to me and that it had happened in the past but I did not think much of it until I started missing things. She told me that when the girls fight that is what they do. Ummmmm!??!?! That is weird and creepy. I have to suffer with someone thong among my things because that is how they fight. She asked to see it and I said I was mad at the time and threw it away. I could see this was going in a bad direction and wanted to get out of there soon. She then pressed me to see the things I had found and said she was going to ask the kids in front of me which is exactly what I told her I DID NOT want. I found a few things to show her (And looking back I don´t even know why I did this, I just should have said I´m done, to bad this happened, peace out.) I went to show the memory stick I had found and it was stolen again!!!! I told her that it was in my bag and not there anymore and she did not like that at all. She claimed that she was home and the boys went to the carnival and she was home when they got back. She was clearly mad I continued to accuse someone of taking my things in her presence (I had also told her about the tweezers which she again tried to defend saying she had seen them in the bathroom, but they were not mine. She also said that Maribel was out of town the night I said my tweezers were taken so that did not seem to make sense to her.)

Well against my wishes she asked everyone about robbing me, except Maribel because she was not home. Everyone denied it but Cristi did admit to putting the underwear in my suitcase. Weird. Anyway I had to stand there well everyone looked at me like I was an asshole and Pablo curiously walked away and left the room well Paqui was displaying some of the things that were taken. This was not fun.

In the end when no one admitted to it and she wanted to see the memory stick that I had found and could not find again she was angry, but not with her family, with me. She told me that what I had done was very wrong, and kept repeating it. At this point all I could do was block her out and continue to get my stuff ready to go. She told me she wanted me to leave the house immediately and thankfully my roommate was on his way to meet me.

So although I had been robbed and messed with all year I some how left the house as if I had done something very wrong. Unfortunately I can´t change what happened and I of course spent a lot of this week replaying Sunday and thinking of what I should have done to make things go over smoother. It may not have been right that I went to look for my things but at the moment and with a lot of anger and frustration I did not care if it was right or wrong and had to know if I was getting old and crazy or if someone was taking my stuff. I should not have told her I found things but I did and I think that gave her a reason to be angry with me and ignore the real issue at hand. I guess for any mother the fact that one of your children is stealing is not fun so I understand her need to be in denial but regardless of how I handled the situation I made a choice and should not have been reprimand for it like a child, especially since this choice was based on the wrong doings of someone else.

Needless to say there was no happy/loving goodbyes. Unfortunately I don´t think I´ll ever see or talk to any of them again which makes me a bit sad. I spent a lot of time in that house and with Paqui and it does hurt a bit to know that I´ll have to look back on the experience and remember how it ended.

On a much happier note all is going well in Moroccan Nation. I love my roommates and it feels good to not have to worry about telling someone where I was, where I am going, and if I will be home to eat, if I don´t feel like eating, etc. Kelly will also be in Granada on Tuesday and we are going to Ireland Wednesday night!! I can´t wait to see her and show her around.

Moving out

I'm in the middle of packing my things to move into Moroccan Nation tomorrow (I am living with three Moroccan guys). Packing is a pain in the ass but I think that I have enough room between my two suitcases. Thankfully Matt brought an extra suitcase when he came and I sent a whole bunch of stuff home with him. I'm a bit sad to be leaving Paqui's house for good. She has been really great to me and I have spent so much time here that it's weird to be leaving. Despite the fact that Pablo is taking my stuff and Maribel is the biggest bitch alive I will miss living here.

I have not seen Maribel in days. She has not been in the house at all and I am not sure why, but no complaints. I saw here for a few minutes yesterday and it seemed that she was crying when she left. I am sure she was crying because I am leaving and she is sad to see me go. In fact that is probably why she has not been home, she can't stand to see me knowing that I'll be moving out because she'll miss me so much. Poor thing.

As far as my things going missing, I have yet to tell Paqui. After thinking about it a while and I decided that I am going to tell her before I leave tomorrow. I think she needs to know and has to fix this issue before someone else moves into this house. I also realized yesterday that my tweezers were missing and that really made me angry considering I used them yesterday morning and when I returned last night I could not find them. I guess I did not think tweezers were something I had to hide but I guess I was wrong. Anyway it's ridiculous and needs to stop. I am not looking forward to telling her because I know she will believe me but she'll be so upset about it and I don't want to see that because it will make me sad.

It's weird but tomorrow around this time I'll be in my new home. Sad and happy.

Pablo is a Thief

I had been speculating for quite some time that Pablo has been taking some of my things. I knew for sure that he was going in my room and going through my stuff since I got here because I would find random pair's of Cristi's or Maribel's underwear in hiding places. Then little things started to disappear and I just thought I had missplaced them or lost them. The first time I really thought about it was back in January when I went away for the weekend and when I got back I could not find one of my camera memory cards. I was positive where I had left it and it was no where to be found so again I thought that I must of have lost it. Regardless I had some suspicions and snooped around Pablo's room a bit only to find nothing. I felt bad about snooping but I had to be sure. I decided to start locking important things in my suitcase when I would leave for a trip, anything electrical, jewerly, and anything I did not want to worry about being in the open and that was small.

Sometimes when I would come back for a trip I would see things out of place so I knew he had been in my room, he also folded in half a picture of Matt and I and then basically told me he did it, weird. A few weeks ago I had to turn in a paper and went to my school bag to get my memory stick and it was not there. I looked around like crazy and could not find it. I realized I had another one and found it. Again I was suspicious but did not look around Pablo's room because last time I did not find anything. My teacher returned the paper last week and we had to make corrections so I went to get the memory stick and again it was gone and I knew I had seen it in my bag earlier that week but had not taken it out or used it. So at this point with two memory sticks gone I was sure that he has been taking them.

I went to the beach this past weekend and before I left I stratigically placed my school bag and closed the zipper half-way. When I came back it was moved and the zipper was closed all the way so it confirmed that someone, Pablo, was going through that bag. Last night I was going through some things and in the front pocket of my suitcase I found a thong that did not belong to me. Usually I would laugh but since I knew that little shit had been taking my things I was annoyed. Gracias to the thong an idea popped in my head, he is hiding my things in the girls' room. Luckily no one was home this morning so I first took a quick look in Pablo's room and then went to Crisit and Maribel's room and I found: one memory stick, dental floss that I remember losing, Crystal light packets that my sister had sent me, a lighter that I got from the Carnival I went to in Carmona, and an adapter for Austrailia. He basically had put my stuff in their drawers which are a mess so they would probably not notice. Now I guess it could be anyone in the house who is doing this but I think that the clear answer is Pablo because he has been obsessed with going in my room since I got here.

Now the question is what do I do. I only have a week left here so soon I won't have to worry about it. My concern is for the next person that is going to live here rather than myself at this point. I want to tell Paqui for that reason but I feel like this is delicate, I am accusing someone of stealing and it might be hard to proves espicially since I took the things I found back. I know that the other memory stick and my camera card are floating around somewhere but I have not found them yet. I am thinking about asking Palbo, without really asking him. I think I might try it and see how it goes.

I thought I was going crazy for a bit losing all of this stuff but I guess my old age is not affecting my memory as much as I though.

Baila el chiki chiki

I have been meaning to add this link for a while. This has been the latest Spanish craze that started in the middle of March. It has died down a bit. It's ridiculous.

http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku34NOwoij0

Slamming Doors

It's so hard to not highlight my moments with Maribel, so if anyone is sick of it, I apologize. The other day I was eating dinner with my man and she came home and was in the kitchen. The weight of the awkward silence was almost unbearable. I had finished eating and taken some fruit in my room because I could not stand to be in her presence, it is painful. I finished eating in my room and went back to the kitchen to put my plate in the dish washer. She had the kitchen door closed for some reason and to be honest I knew she wanted it closed because I heard her yell at Pablo to close it. Now why she has to eat alone with the door closed is beyond me. I did my thing and then left without closing the door, and yes I did it on purpose because I knew it would piss her off. I thought she would keep her anger to herself but I was wrong. A minute after I left she slammed the door really hard. I just sat in my room laughing to myself because she is so extreme. She apparently enjoyed this slamming door exercise because she did it the next day while fighting with her family. It seemed that someone had misplaced something of hers, and after yelling at her mother for no reason she did the classic out by slamming the door. It amazes me to see someone who is almost 25 act like this, I feel bad for her boyfriend.

The weather is finally getting better. Since Tuesday it has been hot and sunny! I think that the weeks of rain our beyond and that good weather will be here to stay. I might go to the beach this weekend to celebrate the weather and the addition of another year to my life.

I am not sure if I ever mentioned this, but the Spanish girls love to wear nude nylons and for those who know me well, I don't even need to state my feelings on this fashion. They especially like to wear them with sorts and I have even seen it done with capris. I have never understand or accepted this style but now that the weather is nice I find it beyond unacceptable. So as I was sweating and walking home today and I saw a girl with wearing shorts and nudies, I was naturally disgusted and decided I am going to raid every store that sells nude nylons and burn them not only as a protest, but to save these poor women from being victimized by nude nylons.

Is there soup in the United States?

Inside La Alhambra

It's been about a week since Matt has left. He came to Spain the last weekend in March, as did Emily. Matt was here for two weeks and Emily was in Granada with us for the first of Matt's stay and we had a blast. It was so good to see the both of them! My Moroccan friends that have a baked potato and tapas restaurant made us chicken tagine for dinner one night at the restaurant and it was really good. They were so great to Matt and Emily and everyone got along well. The Moraccans especially took a liking to Emily, I am sure a few of them were in love for a few days so it was king of funny. I think I will be asked how she is doing until I leave. One of my friends wants her to come back in May and stay here until August, and he said I can stay with him too, haha. Nice offer but he is dreaming. Matt's second week in Granada my friends let him cook Mexican food in their restaurant and it was amazing. He made braised beef and shrimp enchiladas and they were so full of spice I was in heaven. I do love the food here in Spain but there is a serious lack of spices and hot food so it was a real treat for me. I am sure I have mentioned it before but Spanish people are the biggest babies in the world when it comes to spicy food, they freak out at the smallest amount of spice so needless to say spicy food does not really exist here. Paqui was also nice enough to cook some meals for Matt so he got a little taste of what I eat and my Spanish family.

In front of the La Alhambra

Emily & I in my favorite park in Granada

With my Moroccan amigos

We spend part of our time in Granada and also took a trip to Northern Spain Matt's first weekend here. We had originally planned to go to Amsterdam which I had set up in January, flight and hostel. I got an email at the end of February stating that our flight had been canceled. I had found a great deal and when I had to look again everything was so expensive it was not worth it to go so I found a cheap flight to Bilbao and we went up north to wine country which landed up being a lot of fun. We got to Bilbao late and went to Haro the next day, then to Logroño for two days, and then back to Bilbao to spend the day there and leave the next day. All the places we saw were nice and we visited a few bodegas (where they made the wine) but Logroño with out a doubt was our favorite, which Matt likes to refer to as "The Grone". I feel like it is a hidden gem of Spain that not that many people think to visit but it was awesome. The city is beautiful, surrounded by mountains and a river, the food is great, and the wine comes as cheap as 60 - 70 cents a class, so really what could be better. All of the tapas bars have specialties that although they are not free, come at a cheap price. At night the downtown gets really crowded and everyone just pours in the streets drinking their wine and eating so the atmosphere is really great. I would recommend Logroño to anyone planning a trip so Spain so keep it in mind :)

Vino!

Haro

Logroño

This is kind of a side-note about two crazy men that Matt and I encountered in Logroño. The first crazy we were blessed with was on our way to find our hostel. This random old man starts talking to me and asking me where I am from. I told him, and he basically said that he does not like Chicago and more or less hates the United States so I thought he would not want to talk with me anymore but he still had some more things to say. He asked my why they give you paper bags at the grocery store in the US and I explained that one can choose what they want. He ignored me and continued to bitch saying that you can't carry a paper bag like a plastic bag and they he as well does not like this concept. Eventually we lost him. Out of all of the complaints I have heard about the US, this is certainly a first so props to him for being creative. The other oldie we had an encounter with was in a bar. Matt was swooshing his wine around in his glass and this old man did not like it and yelled at him. We basically laughed in his face. Then he dropped some money and thought Matt was going to take it and made a point to tell Matt that it was his money. It was entertaining. Matt had mentioned to me that he thought the old people in Spain are "crotchety" so we later shortened this term and starting referring to old crabby people as crotches. We even invented a game where you say crotch and the other person has to find the crotch. Good times.

Some amigos we made in Logroño

Matt and I went to Toledo and Madrid his last weekend in Spain. Toledo is outside of Madrid and I had been wanting to go so we headed there for a night then spent our last night in Madrid. When we got to Toledo it was raining, and after little luck with the taxis and buses we decided to walk, up and down hills in the rain. Not fun. My new camera also broke so I was not able to take pictures there which was frustrating because as you all know I take a million pictures everywhere I go. Toledo is an old medieval city surrounded by a wall and a river on three sides so it is really cool but unfortunately you won't see any pics from me. In Madrid we saw a The Savages IN ENGLISH and counted 26 hookers in a less than 10 minute walk. The Madrid hookers really amaze me because they are just out there on the busiest streets and even in front of the police station without a care. I don't understand how it works, but it does. They are really out in the open in Granada as well, but at least they stay away from the city center and instead line the street that enters into Granada, kind of like a welcome, isn't that nice?

I can't say enough how good it was to see Matt. I was so happy to have him here again and show him more of Granada and introduce him to some of my friends. The time between January when I last saw him and this past visit went by so fast so I know my last few months here are just going to fly by and I'll be home before I know it.

Another side-note. I had planned to lie to Matt and tell him that I would be coming home on August 5 when I am really going to be home earlier and in time for his birthday to surprise him. Well I told him my fake return date and he was such an asshole to me that I could not take it and had to tell the little jerk I would be home in time for his birthday. So now he knows I will be home for his birthday but he still does not know the date so it will be a partial surprise. I am still kind of irritated I had to ruin the surprise.

Today I returned from another hiking trip which was not as fun as the one I took in the fall because we hiked for a few hours in the rain today. We were lucky to have a nice day yesterday but after 10 minutes of hiking today it started to rain. At first it was not so bad but when we made it about a mile up and it got windy and we were all soaked. It was not very fun at this point and no one could see anything because there were so many clouds so we stopped early which was too bad because I really liked this trip last semester.

Family Update:

You might be wondering why I called this post "Is there soup in the United States?". It's a dedication to my Spanish host sister who asked me this question a few weeks ago. I almost fell of my chair when she asked me this considering she was referring to broth with noodles as if it might only exist in Spain. She did follow this up with the United States is famous for eating garbage which is true, but why the would point to the notion that there is not soup in the United States is beyond me. I really like Cristi but I felt like she needed a post dedicated in her honor after asking me one of the dumbest questions I have ever heard, maybe in my life. They say no question is stupid and I disagree. Bless her heart.

My other boyfriend (Pablo) did meet Matt and I think he was a bit jealous. The weekend before Matt and I went to Madrid he asked me multiple times if I would be returning back to the house alone and the night I did return the first thing he asked was if Matt was with me.

My favorite puta (Maribel) has not changed. Matt was also lucky enough to meet her and in an interesting way. Matt and I had returned home from Bilbao and I needed to go to the house to get some fresh clothes. We got to the house around 11 pm and guess who was in my room? The angel herself, Maribel. She obviously did not know that I would be coming home and decided to use my room to study. Interesting choice considering she has a desk in her room and the living room was empty. She was clearly startled and said the fakest hola I have ever heard in my life and quickly defended her position stating that she was studying. I gave the one of the dirtiest looks of my life and then contemplated for a few seconds whether I should introduce her to Matt. I decided that I would and after she scampered out of the room, hopefully feeling stupid. Normally this would not bother me but considering she treats my like shit, I had a problem with it. The other times Matt and I were in the house she ignored him, which is no surprise because she is an ignorant bitch. Now from my posts and those who I have talked to it probably seems like I exaggerate what she is like, I know Matt thought this. But after meeting her and seeing her puta ways he fully understands and sees that I am not amping this situation. I guess I am saying this because it makes me feel a bit better.

I only have two more weeks left at CEGRI (my language school) and the same amount of time left at Paqui's house which although I live with someone I do not like I will be sad to go because Paqui is a really nice lady and has treated me very well. I'll be living with some friends in May while I finish up at the University before I begin my travels after the first week of June. I think I have said enough for today, haha.

Semana Santa

I have been bad about leaving posts. A lot has happened in the last few weeks and I did not even finish talking about my spring break in March so I think I'll start there and move forward.

I wanted to write a bit one of Spain's most famous events, Semana Santa starring the Jesús, everyones favorite virgin, María and the KKK. I had heard and seen pictures of what exactly goes on during Semana Santa so I had an idea of what it would be like so there was no surprise when I saw swarms of people dressed up as something that most Americans would deem tabu. I am not exactly sure why the dress up like this but I do know they have been doing it forever so it was actually the KKK that stole the idea from the Spaniards, or at least that is what I think. How unoriginal of them. At least in Spain you can fin a variety of colors as you'll see below.

During Semana Santa every day there are processions during the day and during the night. Some of them last hours depending on the city and the route of the procession. The basics of the procession are the KKK dressed people march along and I believe they wear colors according to their brotherhood but I could just be making that up. There are different types of instruments/bands throughout out the procession. After being bored watching the same type of people pass by, the crowd is elated by the appearance of Jesús who is on a float being carried by people who care about him more than the lazy people watching the processions. They have to stop quite a bit because the floats are heavy and elaborate. Sometimes the people carrying the float are completely under it and all you can see is there feet and sometimes they are on the outside of it (pictures above). After Jesús passes it's only a matter of time before María will pass and everyone will get excited and push to get a look at the vigin. So really in a nut shell that is Semana Santa. I saw processions in Cartagena, Sevilla, Carmona ,and Granada and I have to give an A + to Cartagena. Sevilla is supposed to be famous for Semana Santa but I was much more impressed by what I saw in Cartagena. It was really organized and I like how everyone marched in sequence where as in the cities people just kind of wandered.

Not the KKK

Las Fallas & More

I arrived back to Granada from yet another trip this past week. I know it seems like I don't do anything but travel, haha. But no worries I am in school and I have been keeping up with my work even though I still don't really know what is going on in my university classes. One thing I do know is that the lectures could not be more boring so that being said I find it really easy to pay attention, haha.

Where to begin. The Sevilla airport. Back a few months ago when my friend Sarah and I were planning this trip we were looking at flight to Valencia and trying to avoid a long bus ride. I had the bright I idea to fly out of Sevilla and just sleep in the airport, so when I saw really cheap tickets, I bought them. This was stupid. Number one being that we had to take a bus from Granada to Sevilla, which is about three hours away. We could have just taken an over night bus to Valencia and avoided changes in modes of transportation. So we were stuck with this. The number two reason why this was poorly planned was that the airport closes. I guess with all of the success and fun I have had with my airport sleeping, I did not think to check to see if it it would close. Luckily the weather was tolerable, there were some other people in the same boat as us, and we found a nice comfortable cardboard box to sleep on.

After a long night with little sleep we made it to Valencia to find our couchsurfing host. Couchsurfing.com is a website for people who travel and want to find people to stay with for free. We thought that it would be interesting to test out so we found Ignacio (Nacho) of Valencia and went for it. He was working in his tool shop so we went there to meet him, drop off our things, and check out if he was a creep. After meeting him we felt comfortable so we left our things and explored a bit. He wanted to eat lunch with us so we came back to his shop, met his friend Rodrigo from Brazil, and went back to his place to eat. His apartment was really nice, big, and had a rooftop patio so we were quite happy with this arrangement. He had to work after lunch so Rodrigo went around town with Sarah and I. I could tell he was cool so I invited him to continue travels with us since he was on break from school as well. He said he had a friend that lived in Benidorm which is also on the coast and that we could possibly stay with him, score. More to come on this...

So we passed the next day in Valencia checking out the festivities and Las Fallas (pictured above). There are more than 700 throughout the city and they all have different themes. They are all made of paper mache so they can burn the shit out of them at the end of the festival. Apparently the really big ones take all year to design and build, which is crazy since they destroy them. Sadly we did not get to see hundreds of hours of work and euros go up in flames because we were there for the start of the festival, but I am sure it's fun.

Sarah and I in Valencia

All seemed to be going well with our buddy Nacho. We decided to make some food and drink some beer at his place before going out to watch the fireworks. Then things started to get a little silly. My friend Sarah was having one of those never ending bad luck moments. I can attest that these are not fun but really not controlable. She spilled her drink, then spilled some beer, and then when she was putting the seasoning on some toast with tomato the top came off and all of it fell out. I, of course found this hiliarious just because her luck was so bad. Nacho did not think it was funny and rather than salvage the spice he could and save some of the food, he threw it all away. He left the kitchen and Sarah, Rodrigo, and I gave each other frightened looks ans started laughing. After some time all was well again and we were enjoying our drinks when Nacho decided it was time to talk about politics and about everyone's favorite president. This is never a fun discussion for me, espcially in another language. He finally stopped only to continue again when we were out at a bar later. After the bar back at the house all seemed to be well again. Everyone went to bed I stayed up with Rodrigo to figure out our plans for the next day and listen to him sing the alphabet in English which was priceless because took him about 15 minutes since he was intoxicated. So the morning rolls around and Sarah and I are getting ready to go. Nacho asks what we are going to do and I say that we are going to the beach with Rodrigo. Well he though that we were staying in Valencia to go to the beach and upon realizing that we were leaving and going some where else he seemed angry. He drove us to Rodrigo's and we had a really awkwardly silent car ride and angry goodbyes, well from his end. He was sooo pissed at us but we had no idea why. We had done anything disrespectful. After talking with Rodrigo we decided he was jealous that we did not invite him to go and that we liked his friend a lot more than him, haha. Really though, overall it was a good experience and FREE. Valencia is a cool city, it's really different than Granada. There is a lot of modern archeture and some really great parks which is probably one thing I wish Granada had more of.

Rodrigo, Me, Nacho, and Sarah

Nacho seems to be happy here, less than 8 hours later, not so much.

From Valencia we went to Benidorm and stayed with Adriano, Rodrigo's friend from Brazil for two nights. It was really relaxing and we cooked which was a lot of fun. I realized how much I missed cooking this past week. It's been so long that I have been able to decide what I want to cook and eat. From Benidorm we went to Albacete to stay with some of Adriano's friends. We really did not do much anything there as well besides laze around and eat. The only sights I saw where the two clubs I went to and the hamburger place outside one of the club's we ate our 7 in the morning snack at. We slept for about a half hour and then got up to catch our bus to Cartegena for couchsurfing experience part two.

Benidorm

Sarah and I with our Brazilian amigos Adriano and Rodrigo

We were more or less dead and disgusting from lack of showering due to slothness. We went to our new buddy's apartment, Pako, to meet him, drop off our things, and go to the beach to sleep. We had intended to catch a bus back to the center at 6 pm (it was on the schedule we got) but one did not come for over 2 hours so that was really cool. Our friend Pako was working and we ate some fantastic taps as his place for half the price and finally went to bed (after night number 2 with out sleep). The next day it was raining all day so we walked around for a bit before we decided to go back to Pako's place and lay around, without him there, haha. He was working and gave us the keys so we could get our things when we needed them. So we watched Godzilla in Spanish before we dropped the keys off at his work and this time at a meal for free. So needless to say this was a really good couchsurfing experience. Pako was great to us. After Cartegena we caught a bus to Sevilla for our 3rd sleepless night on our trip.

Our couchsurfing host in Cartegena, Pako

Sevilla is only about 3 hours from Granada but I somehow had not been there yet and now I am very happy that I have seen it. It is a really pretty city but packed with touristis. It is famous for Semana Santa so this past weekend was especially busy. I stayed the night in Carmona with my friends that I met in Egypt. Not all of them were around, but it was good to see some of them. I really hope they come to Chicago next summer, it will be really funny.

Sarah and I in front of Guadaliquiver River in Sevilla

The Cathedral in Sevilla

This time it's BUTTER

So I knew it was only a matter of time before Maribel would accuse me of something that I did not do and I was lucky enough to have that experience this morning. Since the jam incident I have been really nice, always saying hi and bye and kind of giving her a creepy smile, which I assume she does not like.

This morning I ate my breakfast and got ready to go to class, as I was leaving I said goodbye and instead of hearing bye back I was accused, this time of leaving the butter out. I almost could not believe it, I had thought she would at least pick a completely new thing to get angry with me for, but she stuck to the leaving things out of the refrigerator theme. Unlike the last time this happened, I did not back down and run out of the door because this time I was not the least bit surprised. I immediately came at her and said it was not from me and I did not use it and then asked her why she always has a problem with me. She ignored that and continued to accuse me saying that the butter was still cold and the sandwich maker was still hot, and that her family had left a long time ago so it had to be from me. She refused to believe me. AHHHH! I was so angry because like last time I did not even use the butter or the sandwich machine, nor did I pay attention to the fact that they were left out. I took care of my breakfast and cleaned up after my self and left. To top it off her mom and brother left 45 minutes before so it is completely possible that they used it. Anyway I continued to ask her what her problem with me was and what I had done to her all of which she ignored and refused to speak to me. I also told her that I knew she did not like me from the day I got here and accused her of always looking for something that I have done wrong. I think she was really surprised by my reaction this time and that is why she did not have much to say because she knew she was wrong.

So this of course bothered me all day today. I thought about weather I should tell Paqui and I decided not to because I did not want to worry her. It's not her fault her daughter is a huge bitch and I am an adult and take care of it on my own. Well that did not work out because Maribel had told her about it by the time I got home. Luckily her reaction could not have been better. I am sure Maribel had the intention of making me look like a bitch but it blew up in her face. Paqui apologized to me, told me that she was very mad with Maribel, and that she is not a nice person (anitpatica). HaHa. So overall I feel better about it.

I am leaving for a trip today and I know I won't see Maribel until I get back so it will be interesting to see where this goes.

I'm off to Valencia and then working my way down the coast and to Sevilla. Semana Santa (Holy Week) starts this Saturday so I am sure I will have a lot of interesting pictures.

It's getting really hot out!

I Heart Lisbon

My last minute trip to Lisbon last week was a success. The overnight bus from Sevilla to Lisbon was probably the worst part. We arrived in Lisbon at 5:30 am and I could not catch my train to Sintra (about an hour outside of Lisbon) until after 7:00, and then I could not drop my bag off at the hostel until Noon and there was no where to store bags at the train station so I was a zombie for a few hours. I spent one day and night in Sintra and went to see the Moorish Castle and the palace. Both were really pretty sites and there were great views of the city. I went to Lisbon the following morning, but first went to the coast, called Azenahs do Mar. From the picture I saw, I thought it would be a nice, lively coastal town and although it was nice the town was absolutely dead so I got off the bus, took pictures, then caught the next bus back and went to Lisbon.

Azenhas do Mar

I LOVE LISBON!! I think out of all of the big European cities I have seen it is my favorite. It is really colorful, lots of hills (kind of like San Francisco), not full of tourists like Paris, Rome, etc., there is a castle which adds to the already beautiful scenery, free wine tasting, cheap, decent food, and they have their own version of The Redeemer. Who wouldn't love a city with Jesus watching down on them?

In the Castle of São Jorge


Here is a view of Lisbon with São Jorge in the background


I was lucky enough to meet some great people as well, more importantly great Brazilians which meant I did not have to speak Spanish and pretend to understand Portuguese when they were around. The Portuguese accent is so different from the Spanish accent it is crazy. I could get by reading some basic things and a few times I did understand my Brazilian amigos but overall the accent is really hard, I can't even impersonate it. But like Italian, the similarities between Spanish and Portuguese do interest me, perhaps enough to study it in the future, I guess that is if I ever get my Spanish down, haha.

Amigos

On the Granada front, it's snowing in the Sierra Nevadas right now and therefore much cooler than it has been in the two weeks. I am still lost as to what I need to do for my university classes, and my lectures this past Tuesday were extremely boring which kind of disappoints me and makes it hard to pay attention. I now know that we need to do "trabajos" for both classes so although I mentioned my teacher said I could write a paper if I want (Perhaps I misunderstood the if you want part) I think I will have to, which is fine, but I still am not sure exactly what to do. Pablo is the same as usual and Maribel and I are best friends (JK).

My housing with Paqui ends in the first week of May and it is really expensive to stay here another month, about the same it would have cost me to leave my bags here except I would actually be here, consuming. So the 600 euros it would cost did not seem worth it to me and I have already found a place to stay for May. My friend Sarah is dating this guy from Morocco and she is going to stay with him for May and I am as well. I'll be staying in the living room, but I'll have a mattress so that's all I really need.

I Need a Syllabus

What can I say, after being fed a syllabus my whole life I am dying with out one right now. I started the University of Granada last week and I am not exactly clear on what I need to do for class so the go-to for confirmation would be my syllabus, but I don't have one!!! Rather than handing out a nice outline as to what needs to be done I have nothing. My teacher rambled off 5 books that we can choose to read from (I have the same teacher for both classes and the same 5 books are options in both classes). I have attempted to confirm a few times how we obtain our grade and here is what I have so far. There are no exams in either class (the Spaniards have to take an exam and the foreigners do not). Papers, not sure. I asked my teacher today and she told me I had to choose 2 of the 5 books to read and write a paper IF I WANT?!?! What does that mean? So I keep telling myself this is great, you don't have to torture yourself with papers but at the same time I am tortured by the fact that I really have no idea what my responsibilities are. More to come on this topic I am sure.

This Thursday is a holiday in Southern Spain so I decided last minute to use my day off and go to Portugal. I am taking an over-night bus to Lisbon and doing the same for my return. Yes, I love buses.

I also had another successful haircut last week. NO MULLET!!

Pablo Update:

I wanted to smack him last Saturday. I went to bed at 6 am on Friday and got up fairly early to meet with my friends Jessica and Tim (Actually I met them through Lauren and Jesse) at Noon. I spent all day with them and came home to rest. I found Half-Baked online (a nice resting movie), turned my lights off, and laid in bed only to have Pablo repeatedly come in my room, stare at me in the dark, unplug my computer cord, and continually attempt to shut my computer. I got annoyed with him and told him I was going to tell his mom, he begged me not to, but yet did not leave my room until he actually left the house. Although I often want to give him the slap he deserves, I actually kind of like him and usually after he annoys me I find it kind of funny. There has not been to much moaning lately and fits have been on a low.

On a more serious note I had a super awkward dinner on Sunday. Paqui called me to the kitchen to eat and Jesús was in there looking all angry. Paqui proceeds to tell me that Antonio and him where fighting about clothes, and he was eating and choked on something. This was proceeded by a nod from me and an uncomfortable silence in which I ate knowing that it would get worse because for some reason fighting about clothes makes Paqui upset. She cried about this a few months back when the girls had a fight regarding clothing. Jesús is not saying a word and I hear Paqui begin to sniffle while she is cleaning the dishes and I am thinking please tell me that is a runny nose. No, it was not a runny nose, she was starting to cry. Jesús made a poor attempt to console her and then left the kitchen so it was just the two of us. Well as some might know crying (and PDA) makes me uncomfortable because I don't know what to say, and that's in my own language. Now this is the sad part. She starts crying a lot and saying that no one thinks about her and she thinks about everyone and how the kids don't understand anything. Then she went on about all their father only picks them up to see them for an hour or so and then drops them off and how he never has to think about feeding the family, school, relations, and everything else that she worries about everyday. I really felt heartbroken at hearing this. She has mentioned the father before, but only to say that he more-or-less is useless as far as raising the kids go. I just felt so sad knowing that she puts so much effort into everything she does for her family and she feels like it means nothing to them. I attempted some Spanish comforting but I am sure that is was awful and felt even worse that what ever I said was no help at all.

Back to Warm Weather

The rebuilt Warsaw city center

It's great to be back in some nice weather. I returned back to Spain this past Sunday and I am enjoying that I do not need to wear two pairs of pants. After I left Krakow, I went to Warsaw and spent two nights there. Warsaw is completely different than Krakow for obvious reasons. Almost the entire city was destroyed after WWII and although they have rebuilt this city and I know people are living there, it kind of has a dead vibe. There were times where I would be walking and not see people, restaurants, or stores for 20 minutes. It was freezing, but even on the coldest day in a city people will be out and about. They rebuilt the town square and one of the main streets with the intentions to replicate what was once there before the war and it looks nice but I almost felt like I was on the set of a movie because it just did not seem real. It's hard to explain, but I guess that after more than 60 years Warsaw is still working on becoming the city it probably was in the past. I spent a lot of my day there looking for buildings that were from before the war, and although they exist, there are not many. Overall Warsaw is an OK city, but I kind of feel bad for it.

After being in freezing cold weather and remembering Chicago winters I was frightened to imagine what my next year will be like in the cold Midwest. I really don't know if I will be able to handle it after my body has nicely adjusted to mild winters. My body is basically rejecting the cold so we'll see what happens next year, maybe I can convince someone (?) to move somewhere warm with me, haha.

I had an interesting incident on my way back to Spain. I arrived to Madrid on Sunday and went to the bus station to buy my ticket to Granada and the woman working told me that all of the buses are full and the next one would be Monday at 7 am., so bought it. I was not ready for an unprepared bus station sleep so I went to go talk to the bus driver for the 11 pm bus. I was hoping that someone would not show up and I could get on. He told me he had to make another stop in Madrid and he could not guarantee that a seat would be open. There was another woman waiting who wanted to do the same, but she had a 1 am bus ticket. So we sat together and chatted and then she left to go catch her bus and I was left alone to contemplate the next 6 hours. Well she new how badly I wanted to leave and talked to the bus driver who came to get me from the station to tell me there was in fact space on his bus. So thanks to this nice Spanish woman I was able to take the 1am bus. Now why the woman working told me otherwise I am not sure, but I know to basically not listen when people tell me buses are full, or I could always buy my ticket in advance.

I started at the University of Granada this past week. I am taking two literature classes and some how I have the same teacher for both classes which I think is going to be good, well I hope . I am kind of lost as to what is going on but I know that we are using the same books for both classes so I guess that is a positive. My teacher goes on some intense rants and it is really easy to flake out and not pay attention. When I try to re-enter into thought it's hard because he speaks fast. Overall I don't think it is going to be to bad, but of course I say that now, we'll see what happens in a few weeks.