I don’t have too much time left here in Europe, so I need to catch my blog up. I left off on the weekend before my birthday. And I’m sure you’re all dying to know how my 21st went…
4/13
After school I went out shopping for something to wear for my birthday with Katherine and our friend Emily. I found a cute, backless dress. After a dinner with my senora I met up with everyone by the river and we hung out. It was actually a really fun night of goofing around and drinking. (Of course, my first drink ever Mom…) Basically that was all there is for that night…ahem.
All of us down by the river
4/14 My 21st Birthday!
I went to class as usual this day. MaryPat brought me a pink boa. J But I chose not to wear it all day as it was shedding all over. And at lunch my senora gave me a nice scarf and we had some ice cream. It was really sweet of her. That day in art class we saw some more beautiful Arabic sites in Granada. And after class, Katherine, Kelly, Justine and I went back to CEGRI.
I walked up to the door to find a sign with a picture of the 5 of us that said “Happy 21st Birthday, Kaye!” Once inside the library there were signs all over the walls. MaryPat had gone through pretty much ALL of my Facebook pictures and made signs with the most random ones. Each sign had a reason I was “fabulous.” There were 21 in all. And then there was a big sign that said Happy Birthday for people to sign. It was very wonderful, and a little embarrassing. (Mair put up some pictures that were really NOT flattering.) Even more, the five of them surprised me with a cake and a present of a cute shirt, earrings and most importantly candy from a Chino shop and Kinder Buenos! One of the teachers said that it was the most celebrated birthday in the history of CEGRI—practically a CEGRI holiday. Basically, my friends are the best. Thanks again guys!!
Yum!
My Birthday present bag. How well my friends know me.
Unfortunately, my birthday fell on a pretty bad week. Tons of homework and tests were looming. But MaryPat and I still went out for tapas at “Al Pan Pan y Al Vino Vino.” Then we met up with our friends Melanie, Jill, Shelby and Sarah at the Chupiteria. Sarah Berkley’s birthday was the 15th so we had a duel celebration. (We shared my hot pink boa.) Some man bought us shots and MaryPat treated me to some wine. After the Chupiteria, we went to a Kebab place, and THAT guy gave me a free Beer. Kind of a great birthday. After our food break—in which we sat and talked to the worker who was from Syria about being a Muslim in Spain (clearly all of us were taking Culture of Islam)—we went to Feeling! Sarah and Shelby had run along to a discotecca, so only Melanie, Jill, MaryPat and I went to Feeling. It was fairly empty so we were able to dominate the dance floor. If that wasn’t fun enough, it was extremely enjoyable to watch Melanie attempt to do a line dance with all the Moroccan men. Feeling closed at 3am so we made our way over to Mae West to meet up with the other girls. For some reason that night they needed a 21 I.D. MaryPat and I didn’t have I.D.s with us (let’s reiterate..we’re in Spain! Why do we need IDs??) Turns out me saying “I’m 21! It’s my birthday, see!” and holding up my boa is not a sufficient form of I.D. It was alright though because the night was a success.
4/15
Thursday I skipped class because Antxon said if it’s your 21st you have an excused absence. I had a nice night of sleep and got up refreshed to go teach the ninos. First I told the story of Jack and the Beanstalk to the 4th graders. They have themes of the month for the whole school. This month was plants, so naturally a magical Beanstalk was a must have. They had 6 pages with a picture on each. I held the picture up and sort of said the story. I elaborated and named the cow, Bessy. Any humor that might be a part of that was completely lost on these little children. In their version of the story they had a chicken that laid golden eggs. The story as I knew it was with goose that laid golden eggs. I let it slide, but I did add “Fee Fi Fo Fum, I smell the blood of an English-man.” That might have been a bit confusing for them!
After 4th grade, I went to the 3rd grade class. We played the Plant themed Hangman in this class. The kids were adorable. In fact, I have a favorite. There is this little boy that is so sweet, always listening and eager to participate—without being obnoxious. At one point the teacher left to take a phone call. As soon as he was gone a kid came up to me and asked to go to the bathroom. I told him sure, which I’m figured out was probably not normal. Five kids came up to me immediately after and I realized my mistake. “No one can go to the bathroom! Sit!” And that is the moment the children went CRAZY. They were screaming and talking. I tried to teach them Heads Up 7s Up. But they would not settle. So I then decided I would teach them silent coyote. For those who don’t know, Silent Coyote occurs in groups or classes of children (or sorority sisters during Recruitment) to signal a time to be quiet. When someone puts up at silent coyote, everyone else is to be quiet and put up the coyote as well. As soon as I did this hand gesture they all got quiet for about 2 seconds before cracking up and telling me not to do that. Apparently it is a really big insult in Spain. It’s not a coyote, it’s a bull. Then, all the children started running around making the bull symbol and fake running at each other. I was ready to pull my hairs out at this point. It’s not easy to maintain order in Spanish. Chaos ensued. My favorite little kid was up front with me telling everyone to be quiet and then he turned to me and said, “I’m gonna go get the professor.” But by the time the Professor reappeared I had finally managed to calm the children down and teach them Heads Up 7s Up. It took a little bit to explain the rules, but pretty soon they were loving the game. True it had nothing to do with English or Spanish, BUT it involves silence. Thank god.
That night I packed for my early morning trip to Munich, Germany. Justine, Kelly, and I decided to go to Taberna for a little bit that night. Just a little socialization and then I went home to sleep or in reality take a four hour nap.
4/16
I woke up at 5am, took my stuff, and then went to the bus stop. Took the bus to the airport, flew from Granada to Madrid, and waited around for my next flight. I decided to pay for some expensive internet to check on the status of the Volcano. After looking at the hundreds of people waiting in line because of cancelled flights, I decided I did not want to get stuck in Munich before a really busy week.
I called MaryPat up and asked her to hop on a bus to Madrid. While Mair was on her way, I stood in line for 6 hours to get my 155 euro back. It was an extremely long wait, but I made friends with a German business man and a woman from Italy living in Brussels. It was a very interesting time talking with these two and I learned a lot about Europe in general. They thought I was crazy to wait in line for 155 euro, but I said for 5 hours in line its 30 euro and that is like 45 dollars an hour! I’m used to making 10 dollars an hour—it was worth it. At one point the German man asked me a question with “Where” but he said “vhere.” I kept my laugh inside but thought it was so funny, until I realized I have a stupid accent in Spain every day. While waiting in line I was interviewed twice in Spanish for the state of the airport. Which I thought was pretty funny. One woman recorded me and I was like…eek good luck understanding. But she told me I spoke well…so no pasa nada.
Turned out almost all flights towards Germany were being canceled. The Munich airport was closed only a couple hours later. I made the right decision. That was a relief because I felt so bad choosing to miss the trip in Munich. Instead, MaryPat and I had a great weekend in Madrid!
Friday night, MaryPat arrived around 9:30pm so we at dinner at the restaurant in the hotel and had some nice food. Then we did a little homework and watched Glee!
Our extremely nice hotel.
MaryPat to the rescue!
So glad to be at a hotel after 6 hours in line at the airport...
4/17
Saturday we met up with MaryPat’s friend Joe who was also visiting Madrid. He was staying with a friend of his, Alfonso, that he stayed with while in High School during an exchange type program. The four of us went to the Prado Museum. It was beautiful. We really had a fun time. But we moved through it pretty quickly because the boys had plans later that afternoon.
After the museum we grabbed a quick lunch. Lunch was VERY entertaining. Alfonso speaks English, but makes mistakes still. In fact at one point he was telling us about a surprise he had for us on Sunday. So I asked, “Wait you have a surprise! Where are we going?” And he replied, “Accept my surprises. You have no f*cking idea.” We, of course, burst out laughing because he just dropped that f-bomb right in there. He turned to Joe and said, “Was that too harsh?” Pretty much, yes. Then he asked me what I was studying. In Spanish the word for major is la carrera. So when I told him I was studying Creative Writing, with complete shock he asked “That’s a career?!?” I laughed and told him not a reliable one. And my parents probably had the same reaction.
The boys went off to play a game of fútbol, so MaryPat and I went to Reina Sofia and looked at some interesting artwork! It was a little odd at times. BUT we were able to see some artwork by Dalí. AND we saw Guernica by Pablo Picasso. All in all a very cultured afternoon.
Yes, it is a picture made with egg shells...
What is life WITHOUT a watermelon room...
Dali!
Guernica
Afterwards Mair and I shopped a little bit and had a vegetarian dinner—falafel, yum! Then we went back to our hotel…which was pretty much an hour outside of the city. But we got ready, and then met up with Joe, Alfonso, and some of their friends. We went to a bar where we tried calimoxos for the first time. A calimoxo is a mix between Coca-Cola and red wine. It was actually really good. I think if Spain has taught me anything it is that red wine can pretty much be mixed with anything for a good drink. We hung out at another bar until 3am then Joe, Alfonso, MaryPat and I hit up a Discoteca. Because a taxi would have been muy expensive to take back to our hotel and the metro closes at 1:30, MP and I stayed out until it reopened. Soooo we didn’t get home until 8am in the morning. Great night of dancing!
Alfonso and Mair
4/18
We went back to our hotel to shower, sleep, and check out. Then we headed over to Alfonso’s apartment. And we all watched a little bit of Formula 1. Alfonso and his roommate were really into it. I found it kind of funny because personally…I don’t get the appeal.
Alfonso and his roommate, Danny, made us this really taste paella sort of dish. It was really nice of them. But while they were cooking Alfonso’s other roommate came home after a weekend away and walked into the apartment and just saw me, Joe, and MaryPat lounging on the couches. He looked a little shocked to see a room full of strange Americans. We had a good time talking with his roommates in Spanish and just hanging out before Joe, MaryPat and I left for the bus to take us back to Granada. I taught them awkward turtle and the “this little piggy” game (you know, for a baby’s toes.) They showed us the Spanish version and taught me swear words. Probably that is all I will remember of Spanish in a month.
4/19-4/22
This week of school was the beginning of crunch time. I had a presentation with Katherine and Michelle Payne in art for Wednesday. Then Justine, Kelly, Katherine, and I had a 45 minute presentation on Women in Saudi Arabia for Thursday. Pretty much my entire week was spent working on those projects and papers that I had due. Good news though, they both went well!
Thursday night we celebrated the tough week by going to Taberna for a bit. We went to bed early though because some of us had our trip to Las Alpujarras the next day.
4/23
Las Aplujarras are little towns close to Granada up in the mountains. We spent Friday and Saturday hiking with such great weather. We left at 8am on Friday and hiked from 11 to 4pm. We stopped for a picnic in a lovely area. The picnic was so good too. There was turkey lunch meat!! Friday was really fun. There were some falls, but overall it was a great time. Kelly and I remade some songs, changing the lyrics to Spanish. For example, Push It by Salt and Pepper became Empujalo. We also enjoyed singing some songs with Miguel Ángel "sin gafas."
At four we returned back to our hostel (which was very nice.) MaryPat, Kelly, and I took a very much needed nap after our week of not sleeping. Then Katherine, MaryPat, and I shopped and found some really beautiful jewelry and blown glass. Dinner that night was amazing. We had tinto verano (red wine and lemonade mix) and this great salad. I ordered swordfish and it came with French fries.
And as if the dinner wasn’t already amazing enough, I had homemade flan for dessert. Needless to say, it was much better than flan in a cup. During dinner we played “Telephone” and it was pretty interesting.
After dinner Buffy the Vampire Slayer was playing on T.V. in ENGLISH. So we all watched an episode. The perfect ending to a fantastic day.
4/24
Saturday was equally as wonderful as Friday. We woke up around 9, ate a great breakfast of toast and a tomato sauce with salt. Then we hiked from 10am to 4pm. The view was stunning. We hiked a mile up at one point and just took in the fresh air and gorgeous view. Our picnic this day was just as good and we stopped at a point on the mountain where there is naturally occurring carbonated water.
Best way to hike is with your best friends!
On a mountain one mile up! "Mile High Club" as Miguel Angel called it...hmm...not quite!
Hey Justine! You're on mountain!!
There were a couple more falls this day I actually slipped into the splits. It wasn’t “falling” it was entertaining the rest of the group. Completely intentional. At least I didn’t step in dog poop—TWICE like Kelly did. As we climbed though we saw a herd of sheep and one of the goats had 3 Horns! It was so weird. Looked like a devil goat. I thought I was recording it, but it turns out I never hit play. So take my word. The goat was part devil.
Sheep! Goats! Oh My!
While hiking, Brian Park and I developed a plan to create superlatives for our CEGRI program. We spent the rest of the day thinking of superlatives with the help of people on the trip.
That night I went to an internet café with Justine, cried a little as the realization that I was leaving Granada soon hit me. Then I spent the next week studying for my three finals and working on my last papers. MaryPat, Katherine, Justine, Kelly and I eagerly awaited the end of our tests and our trip to GREECE on Thursday! The image of a sunny beach and a turquoise blue sea was the light at the end of the tunnel this week.
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