Day 2 and 3, or Why You Shouldn't Ever Forget an Umbrella.

Hola Mis Amigos!


Good news all, the suitcase came!  I am very, very relieved to have all of my belongings.  Though to be honest, I did enjoy depending on MaryPat and Kelly to provide for me.  Turns out we are very similar and use all the same items.  Cetaphil facewash is a staple in Hostal Atenas Room 508.  


So I will start where I left off yesterday: The "Touristy Tour."  This tour was led by our Spanish Art History teacher, Monica.  Monica is a beautiful young Spanish woman with a heavy accent and a habit of dropping her voice.  This means I struggled a bit more to understand her.  Some people had no problems though, so I think that I will get used to it.  They say "vale" here all the time to signify "okay?" or "comprende?"  And there were times when, no, I did not vale.  BUT the tour was so beautiful.  I have always loved European history.  AP Euro was my favorite. So all the history of Granada is so wonderful.  All of these mosques (mezquitas) and palaces were changed into Catholic churches and monasteries during the Spanish Inquisition.  The walls and bell towers were clearly torn down at the top and rebuilt by the Catholics.  Everything has a heavy influence in both Islamic and Catholic traditions.  It has rained so much! It was difficult to take pictures after a while because...I forgot my umbrella! 


All of the buildings are very close together and the roads are steep.  Monica told us that Spaniards protected themselves from attacks by making the roads so narrow that a horse and carriage could not fit through and the horses would also be unable to climb the roads.  Even more interesting: the roads are all twisty and turny to confuse strangers!  They would follow one path and end up led to the outside of the city.  Only people who lived there would know how to maneuver in the city.  It's the ultimate maze!  We also learned about the influence of Arabic on the Spanish language.  Many words begin with "al."  For example, algebra. 

"Patatas!!!"

Look at how pretty MP is?

cathedral

Cool Story: This was a palace turned monastery.  It had Isabel and Ferdinand's symbols on it and the symbol of Granada.... POMEGRANATE.  Granada means Pomegranate.  Yay Chi Omega. I love how my life links up. :)

I'm a little fuzzy on what happened after the Inquisition and the Islamic culture.  There is a heavy Moorish influence (which reminds me of Othello!), and I am excited to learn more about this influence.  I am hoping to take the Culture of Spain and Culture of Islam so hopefully I will get to know more and more!  I am very pumped for those classes.


We continued on the tour and saw La Alhambra.  La Alhambra was under Ismail I, Yusuf I, and Muhammad V, caliphs when the Nasrid dynasty ruled Granada (Dorling Kindersley Travel Guide SPAIN).  La Alhambra was supposed to be their idea of paradise.  Napoleon's troops attempted to blow La Alhambra up! I cannot believe that I am living in a place so full of history.  I remember sitting in all my history classes visualizing these events.  I love this! 

La Alhambra is way behind us...it's too dark to see it well.

There is a garden that every "king" or whoever was living in the castle would add something onto.  It was extremely beautiful.  I cannot even image how this must have been when it was up and running.  I was thinking yesterday that I would probably have been in a constant state of terror if every aspect of  my city was designed to prevent being attacked.  I have a great appreciation for suburbia now!  My pictures of La Alhambra did not turn out so great as we went as the sun went down.  However, we are touring La Alhambra this Sunday.  (I wonder how it will compare to Biltmore...for those who do not know, that is a Vanderbilt estate and the largest in America.) 

The rest of the tour consisted of beautiful mezquitas and neighborhoods.  I am excited to get to know the area better and take advantage of what each place has to offer.  (Like Markets on the weekends!!!)  Then we went back home, I showered and we headed out for our lovely new friend Justine's 21st birthday!  (Side note, I love the people on this trip.  I am very excited to get to know everyone better!) Kelly, MaryPat, and our friends Krishna, Katherine, Justine and I went to this bar called 380.   Luckily they had this separate back room area so we didn't have to be seen as the obnoxious Americans, just heard.  This place was great-definitely a good deal.  For 6 of us we had two bottles of vino for 16 euro a piece.  With one bottle of wine, came 8 free tapas!! And they were delicious.  So we have 16 tapas and paid 6 euro each.  (We had red wine and we need to get Kelly acquire the taste!)   We ordered this calamari tapas...YUM!! And these papas fritas type thing with this hot sauce and some other sauce on top of it...it was amazing.  I have just been trying everything--I try to avoid onions if there is a direct description with it, but I'm sure I've been eating  them.  We have decided that vino makes everything taste better AND your Spanish sound better.  Last night really was so much fun.  After 380, we went to this Irish Pub called Hannigan's.  We were there for a bit and the server, Russ, wrote down a list of places to go when we visit Dublin!  He also didn't care too much when I told him I was Irish and didn't believe MaryPat when she said she was related to Father Flannigan.  I believe you, MaryPat!


Then we went to bed.  We seem to have a hard time hearing the alarms on our watches.  We had a busy morning, so I wanted to get up early to look over some grammar before our placement tests, but we woke up an hour later than we wanted.  So we rushed to get our breakfast (a small cup of coffee and a small bread. Yumm?)   Then we went over to this Mayor Collegio to have an orientation on the culture.  We talked about a free Salsa dance class (jippee!) and getting a phone.  We're gonna go get vodafone.  Its a pretty good deal for when we are in Spain.  If any of you ever want to call me while I'm in Spain, I receive free incoming calls.  We were told if those in the states buy a special phone card that is cheaper to call Spain, you can do that from a land line and call me!  Also, they talked about culture shock.  Apparently there are stages: 1) Initial Euphoria 2) Irritation and Hostility 3) Gradual Adjustment 4) Adaption and biculturalism.  Then they have a graph of the initial high and then low.  I read this and thought, that won't happen to me!  But you will all be my witnesses and we'll see.  Apparently with phase two you have "outbursts of anger."  So we'll see if my blog gets a little testy! 


After that orientation, we took our placement test.  I had been stressing before, but then Kelly made me feel better.  We figure I need to be a level that I am actually at and not ahead of myself because I just flipped through something right before.  We all agreed that everything looked familiar.  We just need to be refreshed. After that we signed up for our classes and had the rest of the day to ourselves!  


We went to Kebab King for lunch.  I ordered a chicken and egg kebab (basically a pita).  It came with papas fritas.  I thought: well that sounds good!  But then I was confused when the man asked if I wanted it all inside.  I thought, well of course, who would want their chicken and eggs OUTSIDE of the pita.  Apparently he meant the French fries.  So I had a pita with chicken and eggs and french fries.  My friend, Justine, felt it was the Spanish version of Fat Sandwich.  (For those who don't go to U of I, Fat Sandwich was the worst idea of a restaurant ever, yet still in business somehow.  You can order a sandwich and put anything on it (mozzarella sticks, French fries, chicken wings.)  I've heard you can get a donut between two layers of bread.)  

So that was an interesting meal.  I could only eat about 1/3 to 1/2 of it.  My appetite has been so small lately.  I'm not complaining money wise, but I think it could be the result of the Mono still.  There is such a strong focus on food here.  They take meal times very seriously because during WWII food was so scarce.  Now the luxury of having food is almost treated reverently (in the older generations, like parents of our senoras.)  So we were told today that they eat mas, mas, mas.  I am going to have to immediately tell my senora that I don't eat much.  AND that I like fruit and vegetables.  So more fruit, less bread.  


After lunch we went back to Hostal Atenas.  The plan? To check emails, blog, and take a nap.  Then at 6:30 go get our phones.  What actually happened?  I laid down at 3pm and was woken up by MaryPat saying, "SHOOT!! It's 7:45pm."  Needless to say we seem to hate waking up when we need to.  Instead we hung around and didn't end up leaving to get food until 10:30pm.  We hoped to find a nice postre, dessert.  It turns out Spaniards don't eat desserts after 6pm.  That is so not the way I work.  We walked around looking for a place to eat that wasn't an expensive restaurant.  We looked for about 2 hours!  It was ridiculous.  All the places are very tiny and do not fit groups of 6 or more if they are crowded.  We had hope and kept looking at one bar and then another.  Since we're still getting acclimated we are very awkward when we enter a place.  The 6 or so of us, would stand outside the bar staring, waiting for one brave soul to open the door.  I finally took the lead and opened the door at one place, but my friends saw right through my facade when I held the door for them-- I didn't have to go in first!  Once in, we stood around like clueless Americans starting at the one open table with two stools.  Can we fit?  Maybe if we stand here and stare long enough chairs, tables, and food will appear?  Alas, no.  We had gone into La Rivera eventually.  This place was a smoking environment...and oh my goodness.  I don't think I have ever been around such a smoky place. It was disgusting.  We sat down (sitting two people per seat) and looked at a menu.  None of us felt like drinking really and the place didn't offer postres.  So we moved on to La Bella y Bestia, another tapas bar.  And yes, I went in first here, and then was the first to venture through to the other side of the bar to see if there was a table.  It is funny how in my mind I was so conscious of being the first to enter, the first confused American to walk in looking like a lost puppy.  (And this place did have a sign "No perros" So...)  I think the fear of this ultimately comes from the concern that if you are first you have to do the talking!  Still, we squeezed in there and ordered cokes expecting free tapas.  But none came!  The waiter seemed a little disinterested in trying to help us.  So we failed at that attempt (they also did not have cheap food.)  So we paid 2 Euro for a small glass of coke.  That is $3!! No bueno.  We are a little confused trying to get a grasp on the way they eat here and all the restaurants.  Many seem to close at 12am.  But the discotecas don't get going until 3am.  Where do they go for those 3 hours? No se!  


In desperation, we scurried along the alleyways of Granada our stomachs growling.  Finally we saw it.  Salvation.  The light at the end of the tunnel.  An Asian convenient store.  Packaged food never looked so good.  It was the best feeling ever looking at all the options.  Do I want ham flavored chips?

 Ice Cream (recall it is like 30 degrees out)? Here in Spain, even the non-meat food items have faces. 

This is Jean holding a cookie...with a face.

But my chosen cena was the mini chocolate covered donuts.  I think I ate about 7.  "No Me Toques Los Donettes."  

Dinner!

Yes, I do feel a little nauseous and yes, I do miss vegetables.  We figure once we get to our Senoras and have full meals prepared for us things will get a little healthier.  If not, I am going to stock up on fruit from the mercado!!  


Oh and in other big news: I believe we had our first cat call today.  It was kind of like a "whoop."  Not that I want to be creeped out by these Spaniards, but I think we had different expectations.  Where is the "Rubia! Rubia!" for MaryPat and Kelly?  I'll keep you posted on the cat calling front.


So that is all I have from today.  Stay tuned for more! Click here for more Granada fun: MaryPat's Blog "A Spoonful of Spain" and Kelly's Blog "Granada Chica".  And then for further amusement the three of us have combined our wit, creativity, and perceptive skills to create Our Observaciones!  Check it out!


P.S. I do miss things from home, like seeing Stephanie Czeschin's red hair!!