Half Hour of Moaning

The other day from 7:00 am until 7:30 am there was some craziness in the house of
Paqui. Paqui was at work and Maribel (the oldest sister) was in charge of the kids for the morning and I don't think she did a good job. Pablo was moaning the entire morning, out of control. I am not sure if he was eating his breakfast and stroking himself or just hanging out on the couch moaning. There was also lots of fighting going on with crazy, loud, fast, angry, Spanish being thrown around. I also think I might have heard a minor beat down, but I'm not sure. I heard what sounded like hitting but I don't know who was doing it or who the victim was. I think Maribel tried to scold Pablo for his noises but the end result was a continuation of loud moaning until he left. I really wanted to walk out of my room and create an awkward situation but I did not have the balls to do it because it would have been really awkward for me too.

I Love Friends, Who Have Friends, Who Have Friends With Cool Shit

Very true. I would like to live off of these friends of friends forever but unfortunately it's not possible so I'll take the weekends that I can get. The white house below is where I took my weekend.

Lauren came to visit Granada last weekend with Jesse and it was really good to see someone from home and speak English. I had Spanish overload in Egypt which is good, but sometimes I can only take so much of not knowing what was going on so it was nice to be able to fully understand a conversation. They spent a few days in Granada and then we went to La Herradura which is on the coast about an hour and a half from Granada. Jesse's friend was and still is house-sitting and invited us to stay for the weekend. I was actually almost reluctant to go since I had been away for so long. I guess I though it would be good to spend some time relaxing in Granada. Luckily I came to my senses and went with them. The house was absolutely amazing. It's one of those houses you think you will never be able to actually see. The view was perfect and it was hot out. I was sweating doing nothing and got a little tan. I now have a retirement goal, haha.

I have been in school about two weeks. Right now I only have one class a day until I start my classes at the university February 18th. I missed the orientation week so I have not had a chance to meet everyone. Unfortunately I can already tell there are many people I need to stay away from, a sorostitute nightmare if you will. I have met some people that I can potentially hang out with so I am happy not everyone is obnoxious. My friend Kelsy will be in Spain this weekend so I know I'll see her a lot. But I think this semester I am going to focus on the Spanish friends and hopefully I'll meet some more through the university.

So far everything has been back to normal at Paqui's, although Pablo has been out of control lately. He has been having at least three loud, crazy fits a day. Paqui needs to slap him upside the head and tell his ass to grow up. I actually find his fits humorous but I do bad for Paqui.

Hola Hola Pepsi Cola, Te Engaño Menos Aquí

You can barely see me but I'm to the left, and this is the smallest of the three Pyramids of Giza.

The Spinx at the Pyramids of Giza

Hello Pepsi Cola, I deceive you less here

The combination of the above phrases might be my favorite thing about Egypt, well not really but I think it's funny. I was never lucky enough to hear these two together but the Egyptians should really think about combining them for ultimate fun. I probably heard Hola Hola Pepsi Cola at least 100 plus times throughout the trip. The vendors knew the group I was with was Spanish and this was the greeting we received in the markets, hotels, cabs, and walking down the street. I really got a enjoyed it and probably said it 100 times myself. The "Te engaño menos aqui" I heard in a the Cairo market and thought it was very appropriate and a great way to lure people in your store. It shows that the Egyptians have retained some of the genius of their ancestors from 5,000 years ago.

Anyway I have a lot to say about Egypt so this post might be a little disorganized so bear with it. I thought I would by mapping out where I went. I flew from Spain into Luxor and took a four day cruise down the Nile from Luxor to Aswan. The first day was hardcore sightseeing (we started at 5:30 am and went until 4:00 pm) in and near Luxor including Karnak Temple, the largest but not best preserved, and the Valley of the Kings, where many of the tombs are including King Tut. I saw a lot of stone and hieroglyphics in one day, I am almost fluent. When we returned to the cruise ship we were greeted by locals in their rowboats ready to sell us chilabas (the long dress/shirts, of course I bought one but not off the boat) and other crap. This was highly entertaining and a bit of a shit-show. The vendors basically just start launching items onto the cruise ship and then from there you have to fight for your price like you do with everything in Egypt. The Spanish say "regatea hasta la muerte" which means barter to the death and it's true and actually a lot of fun.

We cruised through the night and then landed up in Edfu to go to another temple and check out some more stone and then we had a cruise during the day to reach another temple to view at night. The cruise down the Nile during the day was fantastic and beautiful. After the night visit to the temple we cruised again during the night and landed up in Aswan where I stayed up until 2:30 am to take a bus to go to Abu Simbel which is the best preserved temple in Egypt. It was quite impressive, even though they had to move the temple from it's original location because of the creation of a lake. I spent about two full days in Aswan and from there I flew to Cairo which is where the pyramids are located. I have been so lucky to see a lot while I have been traveling and living in Spain but The Pyramids of Giza are by far the most insane site I have seen. They are beyond impressive and it blows my mind that they are 5,000 years old. They are massive, even the smallest of the three is huge. I was able to go into the second largest one and that was kind of scary. There was a really narrow passage about 4 feet tall that went down and then back up and into the tomb. I got kind of a claustrophobic feeling but now it's worth it to say I have been inside a pyramid.

In Cairo we also saw the oldest pyramid in Egypt called Zoser. Also impressive but not as much as Giza. (pictured above)

My new Spanish Friends

On top of all of the sites being breathtaking I actually made some friends!! After I arrived in Luxor we took a bus to the boat and there happened to be a group of 8 Spanish people staying on my boat and we were the first and only ones there so they immediately told me I could hang out with them and from then on I had friends. The first night I felt awkward because when 8 Spanish people are speaking rapidly, telling jokes, and asking you questions and everyone is silent for the answer, it can be a little intimidating. But I adjusted, although I still had some trouble with the jokes. I think that is one of the hardest things, when everyone is laughing about something and you can't because you don't understand. It's frustrating but hopefully with time I'll get there. They were patient and attempted to explain things to me and I attempted to understand.

It's hard to say what I think of the Egyptian people because most people I encountered wanted my money. But for the most part, the sincere people I did meet, I really liked. Our guide who was from Cairo and spoke amazing Spanish was great and very intelligent. He was really helpful and spent some of his free time just hanging out with us. The bartenders on the boat where also very cool, the Spanish people I met could not say one of the bartender's name, Chezley, so we changed he name to Antonio and he took it well. I actually think by the end he liked his new name. In Cairo I met a cool guy named, well take a guess...Mohammad in the street selling bananas, which were probably the best bananas I have ever had. They were small, but I think I ate like 10. Anyway he was eating something that seemed to be hummus like and I wanted in so he took me to another street vendor to buy it. Thankfully I got it to go because it was not at all hummus like and it tasted like ass so at least I did not have to pretend to like it. Overall thought, I liked the food. They use a lot of eggplant and spices. I think I ate eggplant almost everyday.

Traffic. Cairo has the most insane traffic I have ever seen in my life. Nearly 20 million people live there, about 4 million cars, and there are no traffic lights. OK well there are some but they don't work and everyone ignores them if they do so there is horn honking at all hours of the day nonstop. Many times you can't make a left hand turn where you want so you have to drive all the to the end of the street (sometimes really far in traffic) and make a u-turn. I took a few cabs and I thought I was going to die because on top of horrible traffic they don't know how to drive and therefore drive CRAZY. The one positive regarding the taxis is that they are cheap but you have to work for it. One always needs to barter with the drivers, but you can always find a good deal. We had one cab driver for almost 3 hours because he drove us out of the city to another pyramid, waited for us, then took us across town to the market and the total cost was about 3 euros per person, not bad. Pedestrians also have not rights. There are no cross-walks or anywhere safe for people to cross the street. You just have to walk across and hope people stop. I was not a fan of this and therefore only crossed the street 2 when I was went to eat with this Egyptian from the travel agency and he had to drag me across. Not fun. I thought the Italians drove crazy but they don't even come close to the Egyptians.

Temple of Hatshepsut in Deir al Bahari (Near Luxor)

Cruising Down the Nile River

At Abu Simbel (South of Aswan) in front of King Ramses's Temple

As it should be no surprise to anyone Egypt is poor and the result is everyone wants your money and tries to sell you stuff. Any time we left our cruise ship we were chases by people selling all sorts of crap from cigarettes to jewelry and more. A few times I said hi or waved to some of the kids and they would respond the same and then look at me and rub there fingers together asking for money. I usually just laughed, in fact I laughed at a lot of people because some of their methods of persuasion.

The City of the Dead is where people live in Egypt for free among graves and mausoleums. It's a huge part of the city, about 8 km. We took a ride through some parts in a taxi which was interesting but sad. I kind of wanted to walk through it but we were advised not to.

City of the Dead

Below is a good example of what a lot of the buildings look like in Cairo. Again this is where a lot of the poor people live but these are not free. The reason the top of the building looks unfinished is so that they can add on when they have kids, their kids have kids, and so on. So once more space is needed they add on to the top. The construction is not of very good quality It blows my mind that the Ancient Egyptians built the pyramids but the Modern Egyptians can's seem to figure it out.

So that was a rambling mess. I'm sorry!

¡Reyes Felices! (Happy Kings, it´s a Spanish Holiday)

Granada

Barcelona

¡Feliz año nuevo! Matt has already come and gone. He did finally make it to Granada on Christmas day. We had a fantastic time together. It was almost like we had not been apart for four months, so I am happy to say that I know we can make it another 6 or 7 months. I was not really worried but it´s good to have the reassurance. We spent a few days in Granada and really did not do much besides wander around and eat (big surprise). Then we went to Barcelona and we stayed at a B&B. It was a really nice place but it was kind of up a hill, maybe more than a little hill, haha. Matt was not to happy about that situation and had some super dramatic moments walking up, I am sure some of you can imagine. This time in Barcelona I went in the Sagrada Familia and I must say the inside is not very exciting considering it is almost completely filled with Europe´s favorite addition to it´s landmarks, scaffolding. I can´t believe they charge people to go in and see the inside, but on the one hand I know the money goes to the completion, with will not be for another 50 years. So I guess I am saying if you go to the Barcelona you don´t need to go in. We also went to the Picasso Museum and although I liked it more than Matt we both agreed the highlighted feature was a drawing of a man, holding a turkey, masturbating, and a turd hanging out of his ass. Quite interesting, I´d love to have a copy. We also meet up with Rooney in Barcelona, we are friends again, yeah!

From Barcelona we went to Paris. I forgot how crazy expensive Paris can be, like in most restaurants it´s 4-5 euros for a Coke. Maybe there is actually cocaine in the Coke in Paris and I don´t know about it, that would at least make the cost reasonable. My new year´s eve countdown was spent in a metro car. At least Matt and I had our own car so it was semi-romantic. We were on our way to the Eiffel Tower and were running a little late. We mad it and hung out and watched the lights go off. It was crazy crowded, but we found a bench to chill on that was away from the crowd. We actually got quite drunk, drunk enough where I lost my gloves and I was hungover as hell the next day. My first hangover in Europe, I guess the 11.6 % Amsterdam beer was not a good idea. We also went to the Lourve, Matt did not seem to like it so much and two trips have been enough for me. I did achieve my goal of finding a reasonably priced, good meal so I was happy about that (Thank you Rick Steves). Of course we had to go through a really bad over priced meal before we could find a good one.

We ended our trip in Madrid and I am still here. I actually like Madrid much more than I expected, although I did not get to go to the Prado (a museum) that I wanted to see because today is a holiday in Spain, The day of the Kings. Today is the day the Spanish exchange gifts and I am an ass and did not think about it when planning my time here. Yesterday I went to Segovia which is about an hour north of Madrid. It was really cool, but it rained all day so I walked around in the rain for 4 hours. I´m irritated with my poor planning, but I know I´ll be back here before I leave since I fly out of Madrid so I´ll make it to the museum eventually.

Segovia

It´s been a little lonely since Matt has left, but tomorrow I am leaving with Egypt and will be thrown into a group of Spanish people that will have to be my friend whether they like it or not.

I met an American tool in my hostel yesterday. I went out with some hostel people and he was getting drunk American style, yelling, arms in the air, sad attempts at trying to pick up Spanish chicks, haha.

I am so behind on pictures. Expect loads when I return in a little over a week.

Highs and Lows, Ups and Downs

At the moment I am at a slight down, haha. It´s Christmas Eve and Matt is supposed to be here in Granada with me and instead he is stuck in Madrid. The flight he was booked for between Granada and Madrid was yesterday and he was not even in Europe yet, so now he is stuck in Madrid until tomorrow. Frustrating, but at least he can get a flight tomorrow and the airline is paying for his hotel. I had a brief moment of freaking out but I got over it and now I am anxious all over again, so from a very low to a medium.

Besides this there has been a lot going on for me. I finished school a little over a week ago and my last week I got a nice slap in the face. My last day of class was Thursday and on Tuesday my school presented me with a bill for 520€ to sleep at my señora´s place for TWO nights in December and to leave my things there. This did not settle well with me seeing that they wanted me to pay more than $700 for essentially two nights of sleep and food. They told me that since my things will be there it is like I am there and the room is not usable, oh please. If she wanted to use the room with my things there, it would not have been a big deal to me. I thought that Paqui would also find this silly, haha, wrong. I told her about it and I did not get the reaction I had predicted. Since only days before she was telling me how I am like her daughter, and that she was worried about what Matt and I would be doing for Christmas Eve so she wanted to have us over, blah, blah, I thought she would say well let´s you and I make some sort of deal. Well that did not happen. I immediately called my friend, Sergio, to see if I could bring my things to his place for the month and he kindly said yes. So I told me the school, lo siento, but that money is not going to you and Paqui and I had to pack ALL of my shit of and bring it to Sergio´s. Luckily I have not bought to many clothes so I was able to fit just about everything. I left some books at Paqui´s that she said she would store in the basement of the apartment. Anyway I guess I was disappointed to see the affect that money had on Paqui. I understand that she needs the money and in a way I understand that having my things there while I am not could be a nuisance and if I had my own apartment I would have to pay the rent. We have never had a problem but the last few days were not the same. I guess for me, I was the most upset when she said something along the lines that the school says that if I have the money to travel, I should have the money to pay to leave me things. I took this as she is a little mad about not getting the money and I was irritated because it´s not her place to discuss my bank account. A low point. Anyway I hope when I return things will be smoothed over.

Protest in front of the church in Milan

So now on to some happier news. Last Saturday I flew into Milan to start my Italy excursion. I had a full day there so I went to the duomo which was very cool and then I just wandered around. I got to see two manifestaciones. One was political and I think the basis is that Northern Italy wants to separate from Southern Italy, a little extreme if you ask me. But apparently the people from Milan and Rome do not get a long. The second one was a bunch of kids celebrating a football victory. Both were really entertaining.

Not the best picture, but I was alone so I could not ask for another from a stranger

From Milan, I took the train to Pisa. I wandered around there for a few hours, saw the tower and then caught the bus to Calcinia to find my relatives. I was nervous as hell the whole bus ride. I told the bus driver three times where I wanted to get off so he got the point. But I still had some crazy thoughts, like checking out places off the side of the road I could sleep if necessary. I made it to Calcinia, which is not very big, and went into a store to ask someone directions. He told me in Italian, but I got the point and headed in the correct direction. From there I realized that Ottavio´s (my relative) house number was not marked on the address my sister gave me so I went to a random house and asked. The woman that answered the door looked terrified of me, like I had fangs or something. But some other chick came down and attempted to point me to the correct house. I did not understand, so I went to another random house and rang the bell. The girl at this house was not very helpful, we talked through the speaker and I kept asking her if she knew Ottavio and she kept saying no thank you. Then she asked my age and where I was from, I was desperate so I answered hoping she would help me. We played this little game for a while because I decided to move on. I went back to another meat store and asked a very nice old woman to help me. She got the phone book out, called Ottavio´s wife (Loredana) and told her that she had an American visitor. About five minutes later another guy was in the store and he was taking me to their house. Of couse he was asking me all of these questions in Italian that I had really no answers to. It turns out he was Loredana´s brother. I got to the house and Loredana looked at me like I was crazy and could not believe that I was alone. I was a little nervous, but Ottavio came home about 5 minutes later and was excited to know that Cara Mia´s sister was at his home. So this was a very big high, goal achieved!

Downtown Calcinaia

The Rowing Team is named after my great grandfather Pete and this is the boat house

I spent three nights at Ottavio´s house in Calcinia and although communication was not 100% I still loved ever minute of it. They were so great to let me stay with them, and of course feed me some great Italian food. After my first night I wandered around the town then drove around with their son, Luca while he kind of worked. He runs a construction company that was started by Ottavio´s father and has been passed down. He knows a little bit of English so we communicated pretty good. We drove around to various places for his work and had a drink in every town we went to so that was fun. Although I don´t know any Italian, my Spanish was amazing helpful. I don´t know how I would have survived without it. I am not going to lie, I am kind of interested in learning Italian now and I have to take a class for my Spanish major anyway so we´ll see what happens. My second full day Ottavio took me to some of the Tuscan Hill Towns (Volterra and San Gimigano). I love the Tuscan Hills, they were amazing, tranquil and beautiful. It was nice to spend time with Ottavio. Although we don´t have the same language I feel like we developed a nice relationship, nice enough for him to invite me back with my Babo (Dad) and Mama. He showed me a lot of old pictures that were awesome and my great grandfather Pete´s journal which started in 1912. There is so much more to say but I have already wrote to much, bottom like an great high.

Ottavio & I in Volterra

From Calcinia I went back to Pisa and took the Train to Rome. Although I have been to Rome before I did not go in St. Peter´s cathedral and I really wanted to so that was kind of my purpose. I went and it was amazing, I have seen a lot of churches and this one is really something. Besides that I just wondered around Rome and took a bunch of pictures. I like Rome much better than my first time. Although it is still loud, dirty, and crowded, I guess I found a little peace there I did not before.

Morocco

My trip to Morocco was last weekend. It was really interesting, definitely a different world. Of course we had trouble getting there. The boats from southern Spain to Morocco are notorious for being cancelled or having "problems" and we of course encountered one of those problems. We missed the first boat then the next one got canceled. I booked the trip through a travel agent and I was very happy I did because she totally saved us. She was able to get us onto a bus to another port city near by and we were able to catch the boat from there. It was a long day with many annoyances but it's all apart of traveling. Upon getting off of our bus and going into the hotel we were met by a creeper so we had a proper welcome into the city. Our first day we took a tour of Tangier and of course one of the high lights was riding a camel. It was really funny, we just laughed like little girls the whole time. I have a video I will put up later, but I don't have my card reader at the moment.

Walking around Tangier is like going through an obstacle course of annoying men. There are men everywhere and we stuck out like sore thumbs so we were solicited at any and every moment. There are women, but most of them have there heads covered and wear big robes so the men are not so instead in that. We go called a bunch of different names and even had some very generous offers. Some highlighted comments: To many sweeties, Spice Girls, Sexy Ladies, There is a party on top of my bed (in Spanish), Do you like my jiggley wigglely?. One of my favorite things was getting chased by the guys trying to sell these annoying drums that no one seemed to want but they were determined to sell. Pretty much everyone in that city will do anything to make a buck and there are a lot of sketchy people, any favor is for money. Our tour guide even had deals with certain stores she took us too. She receives a piece of everything that we buy. There are also people wandering around at all times willing to help you at any moment, but of course if they take you to a store they expect a cut of what you buy from the owner. It's all very interesting.

The food in Morocco was great! It was probably some of the best food I have had since I have been here. First there was this amazing woman that made these crepe like things at our hotel and they were so good. The cous cous was great, not dry and gross. And I think I ate my favorite thing thus far called pastila (pictured above) It was a pastry like puff filled with chicken, almonds, curry, veggies, greatness, and powdered sugar on top. So unique and delicious!

We did take a day trip from Tangier to Chechaouene. It's about two hours into the country from Tangier. It was a lot more laid back there, still some harassment but not nearly as bad as Tangier. The city is really pretty, it is half white for the sun, and the bottom of the buildings are painted blue to keep out bad luck. (See picture above). I have to say overall I really enjoyed the trip to Morocco, it was different than anything I have done yet although I know my most unique trip is just around the corner.

Priceless Pablo

I think this is my favorite incident with Pablo thus far. Yesterday he was in my room annoying me and asking redundant questions about my computer. I have some pictures of Matt and I on my desk and on the desktop of my computer and he was noting the pictures and then asked me if Matt was embarrassed because his eyes are always closed. I almost died and could not stop laughing. I was very pleased above all that I was able to understand his priceless comment because it would have been such a waste if I did not understand what he said. I cannot wait until Matt and Pablo meet and I hope I understand whatever ridiculous things Pablo has to say to him, that is after he is done staring at him for a really long time. Anyway I explained why Matt's eyes are always closed but I am not sure if he understood even though they had an Asian live with them this past summer. I think Pablo is my favorite thing about Spain, haha.