with passing time

so i haven´t been so great at maintaining this blog, only 3 entries, pathetic, i know... but, it´s hard if you don´t have a computer. whenever i have computer/internet access, i usu. only have time to check e-mail. i would like to give my sincere apologies for not responding rapidly to e-mails, but please keep sending them because i do read them. i´m definately exhausted, i´m not so sure if i can become accustomed to staying up to 7 in the morning. when they say the spanish stay out all night, they really do stay out ALL night. the typical "going out" night: meet for drinks and tapas at one of the million bars at about 11 and either go bar hopping or stay there until like 2 or 3 and then continue to a bar/club with a dance floor or to a discoteca. it´s pretty fabulous that in granada tapas are free... fyi, tapas are sm. portions of food, could be anywhere from toasted bread with cheese or ham (they LOVE ham), a sm. hamburger, fried calamari or once i had half an avocado- an avocado with mayonase, but definately took the mayo off. so continuing on with the night, if you so wish, you go dancing or just continue drinking at a bar. return home at about 7 and hope that you don´t have to get up until lunch the next day. i definately love the discotecas and bars with dance floors- so much fun. there´s a wide variety of music they play at bars- anywhere from reggae to r&b to techno, not a fan of techno though... it seems like my friends that are high enjoy techno the most. so moving on... i am actually staying quite busy with school. we have school from mon-thurs and have each class twice a week, 1 1/2 hours each time, talk about long, long, long... the fav is my european union class, so interesting. i have a very animated professor who definately takes up the full hour and a half. i need to start studying for the dele exam soon, i´ve definately been putting that off. recent excursions... i went with my program to madrid, segovia and toledo- great trip. in madrid, we hit up the museums- museo del prado, museo reina sofía, museo thyssen-bornemisza and saw garcía lorca´s "la casa de bernarda alba". i got a taste of velázquez, goya, zurbarán, ribera and so many others, only slightly impressive ;) . i went out one night with friends. i have some spanish friends in granada who have friends in madrid, so a couple of girls and i met up with them. two of them own bars, so we stopped by both and stayed at one after it closed- it was pretty rad, we had a bar to ourselves. we stayed there for awhile and then went dancing. the next day was rough with touring, but it was worth it. outside of madrid, we passed through san lorenzo de el escorial (a mausoleum of the spanish monarchs, palace and monastery complex) and afterward "el valle de los caídos" (the valley of the fallen)- a place i totally recommend you read about. it was breathtaking- situated up on a mountainside with a spectacular view. the site contains the largest basilica in the world which hollows out a hill and makes it seem like a cave. atop the basilica is the tallest memorial cross in the world. the fascist history surrounding the valley, the remains of the 40,000 from the spanish civil war the monument sits atop on and the slave labor involved in constructing the memorial gives the valley an eery feeling. the basilica was frigid and dark, but left a sense of awe. the next day, we toured around segovia- such a picturesque city. we passed through the cathedrals, aqueducts and visited the castle that appears in snow white. toledo, the old capital of spain, was more fortified, as could be expected, and had a much different appeal. consider the side of a building to be a face, if more decorative and "pretty", the architecture is labeled feminine. more simplistic and fortified architecture is more masculine. if i can ever upload my pictures at a decent rate, i can show you how toledo is considered a more masculine city and segovia, more feminine. i got to run, until next time...

transition

granada´s charm is starting to rub off on me now... i´m starting to understand granidians better now and my speaking is coming along. hopefully i´ll be exiting the culture shock stage soon. but of course, i had a stroke of bad luck... i was on crutches. i busted up my foot and my toe is broken. no glorious story to go along with the break either. it wasn´t from dancing the night away at a discoteca or climbing mountainous terrain, but rather from slamming my foot into a door frame at my host family's apartment. classic klutz.
now i've made the smooth transition to wearing a boot. i finished 3 weeks of intensivo - 4 hours straight of class in the morning, the first 2 hours with a speaking class and the second 2 hours, a grammar class, and a DELE class for an hour and a half in the evening. the DELE is similar to the US TOEFL, therefore testing spanish proficiency. as part of the program, we are required to take the DELE exam in may (it's offered in november and may). after finishing intensivo we have about a week off. we went to córdoba and sevilla with the program, involving about 29 students, and now i broke off with a group of girls and we're in barcelona. córdoba, a smaller town, was one of those classic european towns, with narrow winding streets, old apartment buildings with small windows and shutters, with clothes hanging on clothes lines, and small cafés with patios in plazas. we were only there for about half a day and soaked up the beatiful muslim mezquita and bathed in the arabic bathes. how heavenly- i think i will have to live close to bathes such as those or construct a miniature version when i have a house. i would welcome all my guests there. afterward we bused off to sevilla, a much larger scale city than córdoba, walked through the remains of an ancient roman city, toured a museum and the third biggest cathedral in the world, went on a short boat tour, visited the gardens and a muslim palace. when i get my computer, i will finally post pictures. now in barcelona... amazing city. huge and gothic- one of my favorite types of architecture. we are still in our first days, and i am sure i will write more about this enchanting city. staying in a hostel is crazy interesting, i've met some people from all over the world, the most amiable have been a group of 12 irish students studying in england. we went to a hole in the wall type of bar last night that is more of a local spot and it was great. i spoke some spanish with some locals who were really encouraging me to practice, it was fun. anyway, i hope things continue to perk up... no more hospital visits. my first was with a friend who was attacked by a dog in the streets. it was our first time hanging out. the dog didn't dig into her skin, but knocked her on her side and she twisted her ankle. such luck. the dog was being walked by an owner and it just went crazy. we saw the dog in passing the other day and now it has a muzzle (: serves it right.

first encounter

una nueva entrada... so far i don´t like it here at all. okay, so the historical aspects are really cool. granada is a beautiful city with impressive architecture. i haven´t had the opportunity to tour much, but that´s where i will be. the people here are ridiculous- so rude, with no common courtesy. they instill SO MUCH importance in fashion. there is a type you must conform to or else you are ostracized. it´s so frustrating not being able to speak and speak openly. i could potentially pass as a spaniard, if i dressed appropriately, but i can´t speak or understand anyone. anyway, i guess it will come with patience and practice. i start school tomorrow, hopefully then i can really pick up with the spanish. classes are at the centro de las lenguas modernas - un edifcio muy agradable y historico. all the instructors are very nice, so that will be a good change... i don´t really have any pictures to post yet, but will soon. miss you all.

starting up the blog

here's the place. i'll post pictures from spain and other travels. and write a bit here and there. i leave the 1st of january and may return the 15th of june...