beaches and stuff- april 26, 2009

the park about 5 minutes from my dorm.

April 26, 2009

I am finally caught up on life and blogging, I think.

As far as nightlife, we have been sticking to our Monday night rituals of Dolce Vida and Babylon and also been venturing to some new places as well. Last night we went to a highly suggested bar called Bar Emilio that has these oddly shaped individual/group pitchers that are designed to be held high above your head and poured from a distance into your mouth. Pretty fun. They also had sunflower seeds that you could throw on the floor, which I loved (small things in life). It reminded me of the restaurant back in the day in Lawrence, I think it was called Barbed Wire, where you could do the same thing with peanuts. Awesome.

Since Katherine and I are an incredible team, we once again started the tossing of seeds from a distance into her mouth. I have perfect aim (like my father) and she is very good at catching. It is really impressive to watch, actually. We started this partner/team sport in Sevilla when I wanted to throw small flowers into her mouth and it has nicely flourished into a common activity. No pun intended.

cutest baby on easter at the park!

School is going well. I got A’s on all but one midterm (business Spanish, 830 am class, it is tough to focus) but should be able to make up the grade with participation, the final, and the presentation Molly and I gave last Thursday. For the class, each partner pair has to give a 15-20 minute presentation about a business in Spain. We chose Cervezas Alhambra. Essentially, we did an entire project on beer. We incorporated taste testing into it as well by having them try to guess which was without alcohol (SIN, sin means without) and which was with. They each had 4 cups, 2 of each, and no one got it right. Our teacher was just casually drinking her beers during the lesson later. I love Spain. I especially love this teacher, she is nuts. Molly and I had bought tall boys of the normal beer to give out as prizes, but since no one won, we kept them for ourselves and cracked em’ during class. So not only is drinking in class okay, but it is okay for teachers to do (in moderation) too. Weird.

Grayson and Stina have a class together and one day their whole class split 4 bottles of wine during class as well, so that’s a big difference from America.

molly's bday glowsticks
katherine.
lightup rings from the chinese people who sell flowers in every bar
our countdown chain :(

We decided to have a fake bachelorette party last Saturday night since Molly’s brother is getting married and she is the maid of honor and is missing that one. We had Molly’s roommate, Kristina, pretend to be the bride and Molly brought around the wedding announcement. It was a good time.

This weekend we went to a beach in Almeria (a really pretty beach town) that was called Cabo de Gata. Gato means cat, so the entire bus ride from Almeria (about 2 hours away from Granada) to C.d. Gata (about 30 from Almeria) he was meow-ing at us. It was pretty funny because he was just this old man who was cracking himself up.

spidey and leah
bachelorette party!

The day was PERFECT at the beach, probably about 85 ish and no clouds. We got in the ocean about every hour since it was so hot. The water was so clear and so blue, I loved it. I surprisingly didn’t get a sunburn (I wore a lot of sunscreen, mom, you would be proud) and we laid out for probably 6 hours.

I think the sun made us dumb though, because there was a series of idiotic comments. It started by Grayson telling us that in high school she thought Alaska was a country. I then asked if Canada was a country and Molly responded with (brace yourself, as if my question wasn’t bad enough):

I know Canada is a country because I know there are 52 states

WOW. This sort of nonsense continued on throughout the day, it was ridiculous.

tapas

Since we never have a smooth travel/vacation, of course the hostel we planned on staying in was closed when we arrived. We decided to just head to the beach with all of our things (I severely overpacked (like always)) and figure out the hostel situation later. Eventually we were looking for a place to get some snacks and water for the beach and we spotted a bar that said “hostal” above it, so we decided to check it out, and it worked out! We had to get two separate rooms (it was the 5 of us) and when we walked in (Molly, Grayson, and I) into the room there were only 2 beds. We found that the other bed was underneath one of the beds and figured we needed to lift it up. I refused to have the bed without a fight, so I made us draw straws. Grayson lost, and her and I ended up sleeping in the beds right next to each other. But before we slept, we had to conquer getting it up, and it wouldn’t. It kept collapsing and Grayson seemed to be affected every time.

molly and me doing our standard jumping pic


broken bed

It fell on her foot once and the other time we thought we had finally gotten it, it collapsed wither on it. Molly and I were cracking up watching her and the personal struggle she was having.

We went out to eat that night on the beach (this town was SO small and basically deserted). There were only 3 restaurants to choose from but we picked a good one. Molly, Grayson, and I split a brie tarta, wich is like a crunchy pastry thing but for dinner with cheese and some vegetables on it. We also split a delicious vegetable and pesto pizza and some angler fish that was delicious with potatoes. Grayson and split some tirimissu for dessert as well, and it was equally as awesome. We ate dinner on the beach so we could watch the sunset, and it was beautiful. We made a bet to guess by what time the sun would be unseen and blocked by the mountain it was setting behind. Grayson won. This is the second ocean-related bet she has won, I know she is cheating. The other was about the distance you can see to the horizon of the water when you are on the beach. I guessed 20 something miles, she guessed 3. I was a little off.

our meal

The second day was super windy and cloudy outside. We tried laying out, but it was really cold, so that failed. We ate breakfast and lunch on the beach and walked around a little bit before heading back to Granada. We went out last night and today I have done basically nothing. I got some laundry done but then it was pouring rain outside and all the stores in Granada are closed on Sundays. I caught up a little bit on homework and watched some of the Office season 2 that I brought here.

I also skyped with my friend Wes from Minnesota and he told me all about the crazy riots that happened there last night. It was our Spring Jam (which is like a homecoming in the Spring) and apparently things got very out of hand with cars being lit on fire and the police tear-gassing all of Dinkytown. Nuts.

sunset

Volunteering has been really great lately too. The kids crack me up, especially Pablo, who is a twin with another boy in the class. Pablo is hilarious, a trouble maker, a flirt, and smart. He is the best. We taught them about body/face characteristics last class and had them draw a picture of someone in the class for everyone else to guess who it was. We learned things like colors of eyes, short and big (for like ears and eyes) and hair color. Pablo drew the girl he is in love with, Marta, and I now have that picture up on my wall in my dorm. My other favorite boy in the class is named Pepin, and he drew me! I drew him too, without knowing, so we exchanged our pictures after class. I put that picture up in my room too.

the drawing of me done by a 6 year old. impressive. red squares = my sunglasses. such attention to detail. also, it says "short nose"...apparently i'm not that good of a teacher.

airplaning grayson on the beach

I finally got a hold of some peanut butter here, so I have basically overdosed on it by eating it on toast, with apples, with bananas, and sometimes plain. The food at our dorm has been kind of sketchy lately, so I have been buying things to make sandwiches (like tomatoes, cucumbers, tuna, cheese, etc) and it has been a lot better.

I think I officially love vinegar and oil (with salt and pepper) as salad dressing and I know I will continue this back in America too. I also really love tuna. Canned tuna. I will continue this back home as well.

I have also become accustomed to eating sandwiches for breakfast, since they usually have ham and cheese on a piece of bread for breakfast in restaurants. I like to have melted cheese, tomato, and olive oil. It is awesome.

I also never drank coffee before here, but I loved it now. I will probably have coffee everyday once school starts in Minnesota (which means I need to be taught how to work the coffee maker).

windy ocean.

Katie Anderson (my roommate next year at Minnesota who was studying in Barecelona but now is done) is coming to visit me tomorrow! I can’t wait to show her Granada and see her again!

According to Leah and my countdown chain, we have 24 days left in Granada. I have 8 more after that when my family comes! So I will see my family in a little over 3 weeks. Incredible.

I think that is all for now. I am going to a beach near Malaga next weekend with Molly and our friend Miriam, so that should be fun! After that we have a trip to Nerja with our program, and then I think it is the last weekend here. I don’t know how I am going to start packing or studying or saying goodbye to this place. I don’t really want to think about it. Yikes!