Sierra Nevadas and Picnic

This weekend I got to stick around Granada for the first time in a while. On Friday, I had a field trip to the Sierra Nevadas. We basically hiked for 5 hours stopping every once in a while to discuss a plant or type of soil. It was super hot, like mid-70s with really strong sunshine which was great. The strange part was that there were patches of snow everywhere. I have no idea how they don't melt. 

Saturday, I woke up early and went to the Mercadillo which is like a flea market with tons of nuts and fruit and vegetables but also hundreds of stands of underwear and jumpsuits with quotes like "dame un beso" on them. It was hilarious. Then IES had a picnic in Las Mimbres which is about 20 minutes outside of the city. We basically played soccer, volleyball, and steal the bacon all day which was really nice. The things Granada lacks most are parks so it was great to be out in the sun and on the grass. 

Pictures are below:

- Sierra Nevada Pictures 

- Mercadillo and Picnic Pictures

Quick Whirlwind Update

Wow. So it has been 2 months since I last updated. Sorry about that. It's been an extremely busy and incredible 2 months. This update won't be nearly as detailed as if I had been keeping up, but I'll give a quick overview of what I've done, and give you the links to my facebook albums. 

In Mid-February, I went to Madrid for basically a day and hit the three big museums: El Prado, La Reina Sofia, and the Thyssen. I went with a couple of friends from abroad (Kate, Johanna, Mary, and Lydia) and we met my friend who is studying in London there (Caroline). It was super fun, and I absolutely loved El Parque del Buen Retiro. It was super cool. 

- Madrid Album

Later in February, my program had a trip to Cordoba. It's a smallish city in Southern Spain with the only Mosque in Spain still standing from the era of the Muslim reign. Cordoba was the seat of the Omeyan Calipha in Spain. When the Catholics seized Cordoba, they built a Baroque style cathedral within the mosque, which makes for a pretty strange yet interesting building.

- Cordoba Album

I stayed in Granada pretty much for two weeks after that getting to know the area better. I took a trip to pick oranges in a nearby little town. It was absolutely beautiful. I also had my first Mediterranean Ecosystems field trip where we got to go to the Mediterranean Sea. 

- Granada III Album

- Orange Picking Album

- Mediterranean Field Trip Album

- Alhambra Visit Album

In mid-March, my friend Kate and I went to Dublin. It was an awesome trip. I was very surprised how international Dublin was; I felt as if I could have been in any American city for a good portion of the time. I tried Guinness for the first time. It was better than I thought it would be, but definitely pretty intense. I learned a lot about Irish history on my trip, it's extremely fascinating. My favorite part may have been our day trip to Howth which is a small fishing village around 40 minutes outside of the city. We climbed the Howth Cliff and had a wonderful view over the water.

- Dublin I Album

- Dublin II Album

The next big trip was a program trip to Morocco. This was probably one of the greatest trips of my life. First, we took a bus down to Gibraltar which is a UK territory at the Southern tip of Spain. It was a really bizarre city, it sort of felt like Disney Land. We then took a ferry across the Strait of Gibraltar (the 14 km of water separating Spain and Morocco) to Tangiers. We travelled next to Rabat where we spent two nights in a homestay of a Moroccan family. The language barrier was quite difficult (they spoke arabic and french while we spoke spanish and english) but it was a really great experience. There are many huge differences between our American culture or even the Spanish culture and the Moroccan culture. For that reason, it was a great learning experience. It was my first venture to an African country and it was also my first time in a Muslim country. While both these terms make Morocco seem like a different world, you can see tons of Western influence. For example, my homestay sister loved the Jonas Brothers. In Rabat, we spoke to many Moroccans including professors, students, and leaders of the feminist movement.

 After we left Rabat, we went to a small village of 300 to speak to a family. We helped them cook some lunch and make tea, and got to speak to them about their lifestyle. To give you an idea about how remote the area is, when there is important national or local news the leaders of the town use the loud speakers in the minaret at the local mosque usually used for the call to prayer and broadcast the news. Town members are then expected to travel to the mosque to discuss the news and decide on a plan of action. Although we couldn't communicate that well with the people from the village, we had a translator for the adults and our smiles to use for the kids. When some little girls realized we were going for a hike to this view of the Rif Mountains, they grabbed my hand, took me down this steep slope (they moved with much more grace than I did) and started picking flowers for me. It was really sweet playing with the little girls. 

We then left the village for the town of Chefchaouen. It is a town of all blue and white buildings in the Rif Mountains. This area is known for their cultivation of marijuana. Its a very touristy town with tons of artisan shops which was perfect for our souvenir and gift shopping. We debriefed in Chefchaouen and the next day, we got up early, went for a hike and then left to return to Spain. 

- Gibraltar Album

- Tangiers and Asliah Album

- Rabat Album

- Village Album

- Chefchaouen Album

In late March, Mom, Dad and Andrew came to visit Granada. It was really great to have them all here and show them around the city I've been living in for a couple of months. Then we all went to Vienna which was also a super cool city. We spent 6 nights there, so we got to see everything in the city at a relaxing pace.

- Granada with Family Album

- Vienna I Album

- Vienna II Album

- Vienna III Album

- Vienna IV Album

On April 9, Mom, Dad, and Andrew went home to the States and I went on to Greece to meet up with my friends Christine, Sarah, and Chelsea. I arrived in Athens on Thursday night, and we almost immediately boarded a ferry to the island of Crete. The overnight ferry was a little crazy, but tons of fun. In Crete, we spent the first day on the beach and it was a beautiful day. That night we went out for a great seafood dinner at this place that our Cretan friend Dmitri told us about. The second day, we rented bikes and rode around the city. It was super cool. I was so happy to see my friends and we had a wonderful weekend. 

- Greece I Album 

- Greece II Album

This past week was all about recovering from Spring Break. Tons of traveling and walking really is quite exhausting after a while. On Friday, I had another Mediterranean Ecosystems Field Trip but this was one was to the Sierra Nevada to the site of a forest fire from 2005. Then, Chelsea, Brie and their friends Ellie and David from abroad came to visit. They were on a Southern Spain road trip and came through Granada. We went out on Friday night and then explored the city a bit on Saturday morning. They were leaving on Saturday afternoon for Alicante and I wasn't quite ready to say goodbye so I just came along for the ride. We stayed in Alicante last night, had some delicious paella and then today I took the bus back. It was super good to see Brie for the first time since January, and Chelsea too (it had only been a week, haha). I don't have those pictures uploaded yet but I'll update when I do.

Hope everyone and everything is well in the States! I'd love updates from all of you!

Quick update. Last weekend was tons of fun. My friends and I went to the disco every night which was exhausting but super fun. Thursday Friday and Saturday, we basically went out around 10 stayed out until 5:00 (which apparently is kind of early). Woke up the next morning, walked around the city during the day, and then started all over again. I had a ton of fun but I have to say I don't know how the Spaniards do it, I'm absolutely exhausted. 

I feel like I have a much better idea of the city than I did last week. I have classes in different parts of the city, and also we just go for paseos every day after siesta. People do that here. Just go out for paseos. No destination necessary. It's a totally different mentality. 

We've been exploring bars and discos around different parts of the city and found this really cool area near the facultad de ciencias where there is a really young college crowd which is fun. Last night, we went to see the Spanish seleccion play against England in an international friendly exhibition match that actually took place in Sevilla. The bar was packed to the brim and people were going crazy. I love being able to witness so much passion for soccer, it's great. 

My friend from home, Caroline, was supposed to come today from London but she missed her flight. I was pretty bummed, but I'm meeting her in Madrid for the weekend along with my friends from IES Kate, Johanna, Mary, and Lydia. It should be a lot of fun. I hope to do a whirlwind tour of El Prado, La Reina Sophia, and El Thyssen. Hope. 

Hope all is going great! I'd love emails/comments/to hear from you as well!

Unos viajes y la primera semana de clases

It's been about two weeks since I've updated. It's hard to believe I've even been here long enough to say that, but at the same time I feel like I've been here forever. Everything has been going really well. Two weeks ago, we had another week of orientation but it involved a lot of exams. We had a written exam, a grammatical exam, and an oral exam. During spanish class each morning, we mostly just walked around the city to become oriented with different neighborhoods. I still feel like I have a lot of the city to explore. It's easy to stick to the parts you know after a few weeks but I want to make sure to get to know all of the city. 

One day, we went on a paseo to the Sacremonte which is a very different part of the city. It's only about a 20 minute walk from the center, but its completely distinct from the center. It's all white little houses up on a hill (a very steep large hill). There are a lot of gypsies up there, and therefore a lot of places to watch flamenco or hear Spanish guitar. You can see a beautiful view of the Alhambra from there, it's incredible. Many of the houses up there are actually caves. The living spaces are practically carved in the mountain which is really neat. 

Last Friday morning, we left at 9:00 am (after a night out a the disco... rough) to go to a small town called Ronda. Although its tiny, it was one of the capitals of Andalucia. It's a well known city despite its size because it's perched up on the side of a canyon. It was completely defended from attack because it is literally impossible to get to unless you take the one bridge that connected it to the mainland. Orson Welles and Ernest Hemingway spent summers in Ronda writing about Spanish culture and corrida (bull-fighting). Because it's not currently toro season, we got to go into the plaza del toros and walk around inside and learn about the whole process. It was super interesting, but also kind of rough to hear about the details of how the infuriate the bull, make him aggressive, and then methodically kill him. We also saw turkish baths in Ronda that were meant as a place for the whole town to bathe before entering the nearby mosque (which is now destroyed like pretty much every mosque in spain). We learned about how they varied the temperature and everything, it was very cool. 

After hanging out for a while, we left Ronda and drove to Sevilla. Sevilla was beautiful, I loved it. The first night, IES threw us a formal cocktail party which was a lot of fun. The next day, we went to the Sevilla Cathedral and the Alcazar. The Alcazar was the palace built by the kings of Sevilla. It was added onto during each successive reign, just like the Alhambra. The Cathedral of Sevilla was beautiful; it was originally a mosque that the Catholics tore down. They planted a cathedral directly on top of the ruins of the mosque, but they kept one of the minarets and used it instead as a bell tower. Saturday night, we went to a Flamenco show which was SO cool. It was one of the most intense things I've ever seen. The guitarist, singer, and dancers were all extremely passionate. I really enjoyed Sevilla except for the outrageous amounts of rain that came on Sunday.

Last Monday was our first day of real classes. I'm taking Spanish grammar (8:45 every morning), Islamic Art and Architecture, Mediterranean Ecosystems (the only class I'm taking in English), Islamic Civilization in Spain and North Africa until 1492, and Women in Mediterranean Film. I was dying to get into Flamenco but it was full. I'm on the waitlist, but my hopes are not high because everyone really wants to take that class. Other than that, I'm happy with my classes, they all seem really interesting. I really like that the subjects are such that there would be no better place to study them than Granada. It makes everything really relevant. 

A lot of my classes have non-conventional class time which makes it fun. I have visits in Art and Architecture for half of class every week, movies in the film class, and field trips in Med. Ecosystems. I think this will keep everything fun.

This is our first completely free weekend which should be really fun. I'll write again soon! I put up pictures on facebook but for those of you without access you can check them out via these urls:

 - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2037347&l=f6286&id=3904198

 - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2037349&l=5c606&id=3904198

La Primera Semana

The first week here in Granada was great. During the day, we have intensive Spanish classes from 9-2. It's kind of a long class, but we also get to walk around the city a bit which is nice. Then, we walk home for lunch with our homestay families. The walk is about 30 minutes but its a nice walk down one of the main shopping streets. Lunch is always great. It's a good meal with the whole family, and we sit and talk and eat. Directly after lunch, my homestay family all sit down to watch Fama! a bailar which is this absurd dance competition on TV. I have never seen anything like it. 

After the show, I usually nap and then head out around 9 or 10 for tapas and drinks. The whole tapas bar for dinner thing is really great. Drinks are usually a little under 2 euros and the bar then gives you tapas for free. It's usually a really fun atmosphere.

I'm still adjusting to the Spanish schedule. I really like that everyone is out and about late at night, including children, but I'm tired all the time because class is still quite early. 

Yesterday, we went to las Alpujarras which is a group of villages on a mountain about an hour and a half from Granada. The white houses are all built quite close to each other in each village due to the steepness of the mountain. Anyway, the villages were built on one mountain and then the farms for the villagers were built on the adjacent mountains. The two areas are separated by a ravine and a river. We hiked from one village, down into the ravine, and back up the mountain to the next village and then repeated the procedure to get to the final village. It was absolutely gorgeous but all exhausting. While the Alpujarras were once populated by grain farmers,  that industry has since left the area. Now, the old farms on the non-village side of the mountain are being bought up by people looking for country homes while the villages are entirely populated by hippies and artists. It's pretty sweet. I tried to attach pictures below, but it's proving difficult. I think the file may be large to upload it to the blog.

Last night was the first night we went to a discoteca. We went to one called Granada 10. It was sort of empty because we got there at around 2:30 which is a bit early for them. The discotecas usually close at 7 and are most populated around 5ish I think. We still had a ton of fun though. 

This week we're continuing orientation with Spanish classes and enrollment stuff. Also, we're taking tours of certain parts of the city. I'm going to the Sacremonte tomorrow which is a hillside full of caves in which many gypsies live. I can't wait, it should be pretty cool. I'll write again soon!

Arrival

Hola!

Just wanted to write to let everyone know that I made it to Granada to my homestay seamlessly. I met a couple of kids from my program in Newark Airport before we boarded, so we all hung out during the layover and they all seem really cool. We were in Malaga overnight last night and just got into Granada this afternoon. Malaga is a sort of vacation spot in the south of Spain where Picasso was born. We went out last night and walked around the decidedly Spanish Malaga streets and found a place for dinner; they were beautiful. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera. The dinner was delicious and I had the first of the many kebabs I will eat during my semester abroad. 

We took a bus to Granada this afternoon after some orientation-type activities. The trip was beautiful as we went from the coast to the mountains. All the coastal cities appeared to have all white little houses built on a hillside. As we neared Granada, we could see the Sierra Nevada mountains covered in snow. They were beautiful. In a lot of ways, Granada reminded me of Bogota, but I just saw it briefly. It had some similar architecture and a constant backdrop of the mountains. 

As soon as we arrived in Granada, I met my host mother and she is the sweetest. Her apartment is really great. I don't have a roommate like many of the students, but there are about six other students living in my building and I think not having a roommate will only be better for my spanish. The senora, Maria Rosa, is an artist along with everyone else in her family. The entire apartment is covered in her paintings, and they're really good. I'm impressed. Fittingly, there was a copy of a Klimt hanging in my room when I arrived, similar to the one I had in my room last fall. I met Maria Rosa's mother, who is very old, but very sweet. I also met my homestay brother, Oscar, and he is great. He seems incredibly nice and fun. Dinner was naturally awkward for about 10 minutes, and then conversation flowed really easily. You can tell they love to talk about everything they can think of. We had about a ten minute talk about the Basque country and their exclusivity, another one about Obama, and a final one about Agatha Christie. I think I'm really going to enjoy their company. 

Tomorrow, we have intensive language classes from 9-2 and our senoras are walking us over to the IES building so we'll get to see more of the city. I'll try to remember to bring my camera so I can start documenting the trip. 

Alright, well I'll update again when I get to see the city more. Hopefully I can find a way to post some of my pictures up on this blog. Oh! and please skype me. My skype name is lsinnenberg. Hopefully I'll talk to you soon!