Carrefour and more

I was not going to post today but I have to tell about our new experience yesterday.

Yesterday we went to the Carrefour… a.k.a. Walmart. It’s like Walmart in that it has everything you could possibly want and more… food, clothes, fresh seafood, an entire aisle of whole ham hocks, 2 aisles of wine, an aisle just for birds, a huge section of furniture and beds, freshly baked bread, pastries, a wall of chocolate :) … you get the idea. We definitely fit the stereotype of crazy Americans – taking pictures of everything, laughing uncontrollably at the amount of dead fish in front of us. People were staring and pointing… it was great.

You gotta break down and enjoy the differences every now and then instead of always trying to fit in and look like you’ve lived here all your life. There were fish heads bigger than my laptop! Life is good

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I’m sitting on a bench right now in a park in between my house and the CLM. The weather is beautiful, the sun is out, and I left the house without a coat for the first time since I’ve been here. In a little bit I am going get more minutes put on my phone. (I have been out for about a week) There is a little internet place on my street and I found out last night that it costs more to call a cell phone in Spain than it does for me to call home to the US. Explain that!

I am also going back to the hospital today, hopefully to play with more kids. Tonight we are going salsa dancing again. As for school, classes are almost over – our exam is Tuesday and then I am off to Munich for the break. I am going with Catherine, Marysa, and Cole. We are flying into Munich, have a hostel there for 2 nights and then who knows. We are all picking 2 things we want to do and that way we all get to see things we want and other things we wouldn’t have done on our own. I am so excited to finally do some traveling!

Hope all is well at home! Keep sending me updates – I don’t want to miss anything!! :)

church, salsa, and kids - does it get any better?

January 23, 2008

Let’s see… what have I been up to recently. I went to church Sunday night – one of the few evangelic in the city. My friend Chelsea put me in contact with a missionary couple at an evangelical church down the road from me. I went to that church Sunday night and met a lot of really nice people. We met the pastor’s wife, who preached that night, and she did not speak English but everyone else I met did… so I feel like I cheated a little bit but I was glad for it. Everyone made me feel really welcome and I can’t wait to go back for youth group this Saturday night. Once exams are over there will be a lot more Spanish people there. (Their exams go through the middle of February – and I thought 1 week of exams was bad… try three)

We went salsa dancing again last night! It is so so so much fun. It is definitely a lot different than swing dancing with regards to the steps, but I feel like a lot of the turns are the same so it’s really easy for me to pick it up. The club we go to is called Salsa Mayora, and they teach a lot of lessons there so hopefully I will be able to take some. We are friends with some of the teachers so I learned a lot last night. :) happy day

More Great News!! I started my internship yesterday! We are volunteering at a hospital, playing with kids in the cancer wing. I got to hang out with an 8-year old girl named Elizabeth (Eli for short… so cute!). She was really sweet and so much fun. Another volunteer, Nacho, came in and we all played hangman (in Spanish of course… that was different) and he showed us a new version of tic-tac-toe. When we left he helped me get find my way back to the plaza, and I met up with friends at Poë for some of our favorite tapas.

So, things are going well. I miss everyone from home, and miss a lot of things that are familiar to me. But I am loving this city more and more everyday I am here, and there is still so much to do and see!

PICTURES!!! This one at the top is a view of the Sierra Nevada mountains. :) Soo pretty!

Here are some more pictures for you!

http://clemson.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2152338&l=be423&id=12714857

Touring Granada

January 15, 2008

As promised I’m gonna tell about our tours. We have been on three so far: we saw the big Cathedral in the middle of the city, the Albyzin district, and the Alhambra.

We saw 2 churches. One was more of a museum with art and King Ferdinand’s sword and Queen Isabella’s crown. They are buried there under the church along with some other smaller coffins. I can’t remember who the little ones are – maybe their kids? They also had examples of clothing that the king and queen would have worn. That was pretty cool.

The Cathedral was really big. It reminded me of the cathedrals we saw in Austria. (Salzburg?) The building was huge and freezing. It must have been cold back in the day sitting in church during the winter. (Maybe that is why Catholics stand up and sit down so much… just kidding). The one thing that I thought was incredible was the pipe organ. The size of that thing is like nothing I’ve ever seen! I can’t explain it well but some of the pipes fan out and look really cool. I don’t know if it can still be played – it is probably out of tune. I don’t know if services are still held there.

I can’t decide if the Albyzin district was my favorite or the Alhambra. Both tours took us very high up in the city. For the tour of Albyzin we started in Granada and walked up and up and up through tiny, winding, one-way streets. The district is made up of a bunch of houses on the side of the mountain all squashed together with tiny little cobblestone streets. It was a pretty good hike up there, but the view is incredible. You can see the entire city and the Alhambra on the other side. I bet it would be amazing at sunset. There is a plaza at the top where people are always hanging out and playing music. There was a woman selling castanets and a guy playing a guitar and others clapping along with the beat and another singing. There are people all through the streets of Granada playing music for money: guitars and accordions mostly. It is really fun walking to class and hearing live music coming down an alley or the old man on my street who plays his accordion and sings and smiles at the people going by. (I’m pretty sure he is the only one smiling on my entire walk to class. Europeans are not as friendly as us South Carolinians… surprise) Anyway, I got off topic. The Albyzin district is amazing.

Next we went to the Alhambra which used to be an old military fort back in the day. (I’m not sure which day but the moors used to have control of it and then the Christians took over it and then let it go to ruin… until… Washington Irving came and lived there for a year, wrote a book or short stories about it, and made it famous again. Thanks Irv) I could go on and on about how incredible the architecture is and how long it must have taken to build everything because of the size of the entire fort and the intricate detail on every wall of all three palaces, but I won’t. You’re welcome.
Also, the gardens are pretty cool. All of the bushes/trees are carved into shapes, and one area reminds me of a big maze from a movie or a book and I’m pretty sure I might have gotten lost had I been on my own in there.
The view from the tower of the Alhambra is indescribable. It was breathtaking. I didn’t even want to take pictures of it because it could not be captured. It wouldn’t have done it justice. The view was so vast – seeing the entire city at your feet and the huge mountains covered in snow so close to the city… I can’t describe it.


As soon as I can figure out how to put pictures in here I will put up some of the better ones.

I miss you all! But I am having a wonderful time. Granada is a really neat city and I like it more every day I’m here.

Chocolate!

Jan 14, 2008

We have been here few days now and I think I’m getting the hang of things. I haven’t been lost in a while. J The walk to school is actually very straightforward now that I know it. haha It seems silly now that I got so lost! Funny how it works like that.

Classes have been good. We have been reviewing the past tenses and tomorrow will start subjunctive. sweet. The second teacher (whose name is also Inma) is very excited about it, so maybe it will be fun. :P

Today I had my first chocolate since I’ve been here!! Hooray!! We found a wonderful place that serves a lot of desserts so I think we will be good friends with the servers before the semester is over. J One really good thing that is common here is called “chocolate con churros.” You get a cup of warm melted chocolate and a plate of fried dough (kind of like at the fair), and you dip the churros in the hot chocolate. Muy deliciosa! And then when all the churros are gone you eat the rest of the chocolate with a spoon! YUM (fat kid)

I got a roommate yesterday! Her name is Cara, she is from Minnesota, and she is wonderful! It is so great to have another student here. Now I have someone to eat with and walk home with! Also, my señora has a señor visitor who has come by the flat a lot. They sit in the den and talk and talk and sit on the sofa together with their feet under the heater-table. So cute! Cara and I hung out with the two of them last night and had a lively discussion. He is really great. J

Love to you all!! Next time I will tell about a few tours we have been on.

I'm Here! (Estoy Aqui!)

Jan 9, 2008
Hello everyone!!

Sorry it has taken me so long to get this going but things have been a little crazy as you can guess. I feel like I have been here a month already and it is only the end of my second day in the city!

To catch you up: my flights were good and I met some interesting people as you should when you are in an airport. My parents drove me to Charlotte Sunday morning and from there I flew to Cincinnati to New York to Madrid. I arrived in Madrid around 10am Spain-time (4am at home). From the airport I had directions to take the metro to the bus station. Well if you know me at all you know that directions and I don’t get along well. Luckily (not luck – blessing from God) I met 2 guys on the plane and they took me all the way to the station and made sure I was on the right bus. I cannot thank them enough (and now I have 2 new friends to visit in Salamanca and Madrid!) So, then I rode the 5 hour bus to Granada. 5 hours is a looooooooong time when you have been traveling for almost 2 days with not much sleep – But there was a beautiful part when we drove through the mountains. Mila (my program contact) met me at the station with my host-mom, Maria Luisa, and her daughter, Inma. Inma dropped us off at home; I ate dinner, unpacked and went to bed. End day 1 (or does that count as 2?). I think it added up to about 35 hours!

Tuesday we met the other girls with ILYC, took our placement exams, walked around the city, got cell phones (yes, I already have a phone – do you really think I can survive without one??) It turned out to be a good idea because I got mucho mucho lost trying to find my way home for lunch – a 20 min walk turned into a 2 hour meander through town. (For y’all at Clemson I figure it was like walking to Lehotsky from let’s say University Place because Daniel Square seems too close. Then you realize you forgot your something and have to go all the way home to get it, but you get so turned around you end up somewhere in Anderson before you finally make it there.) But let’s look at the bright side, now I know a lot more of the city than I would have! J haha After 2 days of my wandering around in circles Agustin finally walked with me from ILYC to my home to show me the way. I have only gotten confused once since then. (again that whole thing with me a directions) In my defense, the street signs are not on every street and sometimes you have to look really hard to find them. I’ll put pictures up next time to show you.

Today, Wednesday, we started our Spanish-intensive classes at the Centro. Two 2-hr classes from 9-1. Monday – Friday until Feb 29. I am in the classes with Catherine (a girl here with ILYC, like me, who went to Clemson her freshman year – Go Tigers!) We are in intermediate level B which means our class of 8 can understand the two teachers for the most part and can answer most of their questions. We played some games to help us start talking with each other and learning new vocabulary. Both teachers are very animated in their speaking and it helps us understand more quickly. I would definitely pick the second teacher to be on my team for charades!

Okay I know this is a long one, but it is hard to leave anything out! Spain is wonderful. There are so many tiny little shops everywhere. I am afraid I will find one I like and then never find it again! The streets of the city are more like alleys and I cannot believe cars and buses can fit on them. (It reminds me a lot of the streets in Venice – except in Venice there are no cars, only mopeds.) Tomorrow we will take a tour of the Old Arab quarter of Albayzin. I don’t know what that is but I’m sure I will find out tomorrow.

It’s been good hearing from you on facebook! J I will send my address when I can make sure I have it right. haha


Good night to all! Much love,
Sally



Okay since that last one was just full of what I’ve been doing, I wanted to post again with funny things I’ve seen and noticed, and that remind me of people from home.

Sims: You need to come visit. The dread mullet is in fashion over here. I think the chicks dig it. So just shave the top of your head, leave the rest in dreads and come on!

Lolly: When they put prices on things if something costs 20 euros, they write 20,00 € … so my quote would sound silly over here.

Frank: All the men wear scarves here. All of them. So you should too. Bring the fashion to America. Also, I have not seen any soccer socks yet. I will keep looking – it’s only been 2 days.

Casey: The purse is awesome. It is the only thing I use and feel a lot better about having a lock on the zipper. Nobody’s pick-pocketing this little American! The backpack was heavy but much better than anything else I could have used of my own. Muchas gracias chica!