the last days...

I can´t believe that these past 16 weeks have gone by so quickly and a week from now I will already be home! I am having mixed emotions about leaving, while I want to see everybody I can´t imagine leaving Granada.
To begin our countdown to home, on Monday night we walked up to the Albaizyn, a really cool neighborhood up on a hill overlooking Granada with the typical white Spanish houses. We went to Mirador San Anton which is this just like really cool spot where you overlook not only the entire city of Granada but right in front of you is the Alhambra (according to Molly, it is the most visited monument in Europe, which none of us believed, upon further research I believe it is the Eiffel Tower). Our original plan was to drink a bottle of wine, eat our bocadillas, and watch the sunset but we actually couldn´t see the sunset. We could only see the reflection of the sunset on the Alhambra which I think is just as cool and as it started getting darker outside they turned spotlights on the Alhambra. It is so crazy to me that I have lived in such an awesome place for the past four months and can walk 20 minutes from my house and see this anicent fortress built hundreds of years ago. After the Albaizyn, we went and got tapas at Bella y La Bestia (Beauty & the Beast for all you English speakers), I obviously don´t eat meat and Molly doesn´t eat pork (after watching the movie Babe) and the first tapa they serve is a ham and cheese bocadilla so we asked for all vegetarian tapas. The guy clearly didn´t like this. He not only tried to cheat Kristen out of 10 euros but then literally poured hotsauce all over our french fries and sauteed mushrooms that could have potentially been really good. After a very unsuccessful attempt at getting tapas, we made our way to Dolce Vita. The night was fun and ridiculous as always. Funny story...Kristen, Molly and I were going to the bathroom and Molly was trying to close the door and as she was trying to shoulder it close she completely wiped out and was laying on the bathroom floor (disgusting, I know) and then I, trying to be the good friend that I am, tried to help her off of the floor and the back wall of the bathroom literally fell on my back. Granted it was only plywood but it was hilarious to say the least.
On Thursday night, Isabel (my host mom) invited Carol and I out for tapas with her friend Pilar and Pilar´s two host daughters (so random, one of the girls was from Charlotte and the other girl was from Georgia). We went out to this little tapas bar down the street from where we live and sat at a table outside and drank wine and ate tapas. It was so much fun, I wish I had gone out with Isabel more often but we always assumed Thursday night was her time away from having host students in her house all the time. I also realized how much of a partier my host mom actually is. Her friend Pilar is crazy. Pilar is Isabel´s ex-husband´s sister but they still go out and get tapas every Thursday. After we went to tapas they were going to another bar down the street and invited us so I went and got another drink with them before going to meet up with my friends. When we went into the bar, Pilar and Isabel not only knew everybody there but Pilar was making her way around the room and trying to teach all of us how to dance flamenco/reggaeton.
I am currently in the bus station waiting for Meghan and Lauren to get here from Barcelona, I got the time a little off on their arrival so I am sitting in a little internet room. We are going to the Arab baths this afternoon that used to be public baths when the Moorish people lived in Granada and now have been converted into spas. Hammam, the one we are going to has 3 pools--one hot, one warm, and one cool and you just make your way around the room in the different pools and at the end you get a massage. I am so excited!

sorry i suck at updating my blog

Sorry I suck and haven’t written on my blog in FOREVER. My internet broke and I never figured out how to fix it and now my computer is also broken so it has made blogging a little difficult. So here are the last couple of weeks of my life.

            April 10-13: Dad and Susan came to visit me April 10-20^th and we had so much fun. The first weekend they got here we walked around Granada and saw all of the Semana Santa celebrations. In southern Spain, the week before Easter there are Christian processions organized by churches where people volunteer and dress up in cloaks and carry these giant handcrafted structures with Jesus and Mary on them. The parades got a little redundant but they were really cool, we were fortunate enough to be able to see a parade that only comes to one town every 100 years so it only comes to Granada every 10,000 years. On Monday, dad and Susan went to a small town in northern Spain to visit one of Susan’s friends for a couple of days. We went out for Molly’s 21^st birthday that Monday night to Dolce Vita. A bar we go to most Monday nights and pay 5 euros for all the beer and sangria we can drink.  Dad and Susan came back to Granada on Wednesday night. Isabel, my host-mom, invited them over for lunch on Thursday and she prepared a huge feast for them. A delicious salad and paella, it is one of the biggest meals we have had in Granada. It was really fun to have them come over for lunch and see where I live and how I eat lunch everyday. Ignacia, the grandmother that I live with, didn’t really understand that they didn’t speak Spanish so she would just yell louder in order for them to “understand.” After lunch (dad and Susan had rented a car to drive to northern Spain) we started driving to Gibraltar, which I realized was only 3 hours away from Granada. The Rock of Gibraltar is one of the coolest things I have ever seen, it is so amazing to see something that I have seen in textbooks all my life in real life. We went to Europa Point, the southern most point in Gibraltar and to your left we could see Spain, we were standing in England, and looked across the Strait of Gibraltar to Africa. Wow.  

April 16-19: The next day we drove to Tarifa, Spain (45 minutes to the east of Gibraltar) to take a 35-minute ferry to Tangier, Morocco.  Once we got to Tangier we drove from Tangier to Fez. It was supposed to be 3 ½ hours south from Tangier but it ended up taking us almost 6 hours because it was so dark outside and the roads were so bad (not even striped).  We finally made it to Fez and to our hotel around 11pm. The next morning we had an amazing buffet breakfast with Moroccan tea (black tea with mint leaves). We decided to hire a guide to show us around the city since we didn’t really know where to go or feel really comfortable traveling the city by ourselves. Our tour guide, Abdul, first took us to see the king’s palace. The king of Fez is one of the last kings left in Morocco. Next, we went to a pottery factory and were shown around and saw every step of making pottery. The artisans in the factory hand-make the tiles and individually paint each piece with one bristle before putting it in the kiln. We then went to Medina, the old city in Fez, and ate lunch at the most delicious restaurant. I ordered Moroccan salad, couscous, and for dessert more Moroccan tea. We then went to a Berber carpet store and then a tannery. A tannery is where they dye leather and it was the craziest place I’ve ever been. There were like 90 vats full of dye and this man was literally standing 3 feet in bright pink dye, dyeing camel hide. Later, the same man was standing in a vat full of limestone he was wearing protective gloves and boats but they were certainly not fully covering his skin. After the tannery we went to a factory that sold saris and scarves, handmade in Fez. Walking through Medina was so amazing; it was like stepping back in time 200 years.

April 30-May 3: This past weekend I went to my friend Angel’s condo in Benemadlena, a beach 15 minutes east of Malaga. It was so much fun! There were eight of us (Angel, Joshua, Hicham, Josera, Molly, Kristen, Miriam, and me) staying in a one-bedroom condo from Thursday to Sunday. The weather last weekend could not have been more perfect. We laid out on the beach or by the pool all day. At the pool, there were 5 pools connected to each other and were all at different heights with slides connecting each of the pools together. The slides were so much fun, I think I probably went down them like 50 times throughout the weekend. These two slides were like 20 feet long made out of stone and ended like 4 feet above the water, you literally like flew into the water. Molly and I before we even went down the slides the first time decided that it was a great idea to go down together. Kristen and I were racing each other down the slides next and I told her that I felt like I was on the Jamaican bobsled team (like from Cool Runnings) so then before every time we went down, we would say “feel the rhythm, feel the ride, something Jamaica (we couldn’t remember that line), it’s bobsled time.” Towards the end of the weekend, we of course had to take it to the next level and would clap at the end of the slide and then either try to spin into each other or away from each other. On Sunday, Molly, Kristen, and I decided that we wanted to take the bus back from Granada earlier than the boys were going back so we waited at the bus stop for like 35 minutes and realized that if we didn’t hurry that we were going to miss the 8 o’clock bus so we decided to take the cab to the bus station, 25 minutes away. We got to the bus station at 8:02 and saw our bus pulling away. A little dumbfounded, as this was the first time that we have ever had any consequences for our unorganized, always-tardy travel we decided to make the best of the situation. There is a train station directly next door to the bus station that has a lot more stores than the bus station. We walked in and immediately saw that there was a bowling alley, obvious decision. While all of the cousins know how good of a bowler haha I shockingly didn’t win, Molly scored 101, Kristen 99, and I had a whopping 58.  After bowling, we got dinner in an amazing wok restaurant that had a buffet where you could pick all of your toppings and they stir-fried it in front of you. We were walking back from dinner to catch the 10 o’clock bus and all the boys came walking up the stairs thoroughly confused about why we weren’t already back in Granada. 

i swear these dogs are magical

This past week was Semana Santa, a week long religious festival in Spain, so we had the whole week off of school. My friends and I started our break a little earlier than others and headed for Santorini, Greece last Wednesday. We flew from Granada to Milan and had an overnight layover there before our flight out the next morning. After leaving my passport on the plane (only temporarily, I realized it was missing when we got into the airport and a kind lady put on her reflective jacket and made an announcement over the plane which was already boarding again) we took a bus from the airport into the city and stopped at a cute little outdoor restaurant and split a bottle of wine. The restaurant was having "happy hour" and they had a whole buffet table filled with tapas, it was delicious. We got to our hostel and we all wanted to take full advantage of being in Italy again and go out for pizza. The restaurant offered a taxi service (strange, I know) and they came and picked us up and then took us back to our hostel after dinner. After our whirlwind trip to Italy, we boarded our flights (yes, Molly and I managed to book a different flight than everyone else) and headed for Athens. Our flight was delayed almost an hour because of riots going on in Greece and our ferry was delayed 6 hours. Apparently, women's pensions were taken away and in protest all public transportation, including air-traffic control, was shut down. We finally made it to Athens though and took the bus to the port that was an hour away from the airport and went and got the most delicious meal before our ferry left at 12:30am. 

Ok, let me preface this story. Molly has an abnormally large briefcase that she likes to call a laptop case that she used as her carry-on and has taken on previous vacations. We all picked on her and her briefcase so in order to try and make up for it, she tried to make us all jealous because she was able to "ramp" her briefcase over curves. We were going to be gone for 10 days so she decided that the briefcase didn't provide adequate room so she borrowed a suitcase from her Spanish boyfriend, Joshua. On our walk back from dinner she asked Kristen if she should try to ramp her suitcase over the curb which was more like a ledge given that it was a foot tall. Kristen obviously encouraged her to do so and she ran full speed toward the curb, ran her suitcase into the curb only it wasn't able to make jumps quite as easily as the briefcase. Her suitcase was still below the curb and she was holding the handle in her other hand. Funniest thing ever. She then had to carry her suitcase for a mile and a half to our ship. We got on the ship and immediately found a movie room that we thought would be a perfect place to be able to sleep on the 5 hour ferry ride. The seats reclined and they were playing a movie, seemed to be the perfect place to relax--oh how we were wrong. Within 5 minutes of sitting in the room, a baby started crying right in my ear. The mother apologized saying that he was a newborn, the child looked to be about 2. I finally fell asleep (the baby literally cried the entire ferry ride) when all of a sudden the armrest of my chair comes crashing down on my head. Someone in the baby's party hit my armrest and I had a legit bump on my head for the rest of our trip. To make matters even worse a creepy man from Pakistan literally stared at me, Kristen, and Molly the entire ferry ride (Stina and Leah were fortunate enough to have an entire row to themselves at the front of the room). 

We finally made it to Santorini at 5:30 in the morning and found the van for our hostel that offered free transportation to and from the port. We got in the van and were on our way to the hostel, commenting on how surprisingly smooth our traveling was going so far when all of a sudden boom, we have a flat tire. Our driver speaks no English so he calls the owner of the hostel and explains to him in Greek that we have a flat tire and then hands the phone to Kristen. The owner of the hostel explains that another van is on the way and should be there soon, Kristen then relays that message to the other people in our van--3 Chilean boys and 4 other American girls. 5 minutes later another van pulls up and we all start climbing out of the van, Molly literally was about to open the door when the van zooms away. We are all stranded on the side of the highway, in Greece, at 6 o'clock in the morning. We all just kind of hung out, clearly asking if we are being punked, when 30 minutes later another van finally pulls up. We never really received an explanation for that. We got to our hostel which was awesome. For 10 euros per person/per night, we had a 5 person room with our own bathroom and kitchen 30 feet away from the beach. The first day we just laid out on the beach  all day and then we were getting ready to go out and started talking to the Chilean boys and we all ended up going out together. They were so nice, they were 25 and had just graduated from engineering school and were just traveling around. They were only in Santorini for a night but it was really fun, we salsa danced with them all night at this club. 

There are a ton of stray dogs in Santorini who found us everywhere we went. We were laying on the beach the first day when this cute little black dog, which Molly named "Taco", came up to us. On our way back from the club, Taco was laying in the chair in the lobby of the hostel so we assumed that maybe he wasn't a stray after all and that he must be the hostel owners dog. It looked like Taco had had a bath, he was much cleaner than he was earlier, so Molly and I picked Taco up and brought him back to our room with us to show Stina. Stina was already peacefully sleeping and we layed Taco next to her. She didn't appreciate this very much so we decided that we should probably put Taco back. We laid out on the beach again all day Saturday and then decided that we should probably try to see a lot of the island so that night we rented four-wheelers to tour the island on Sunday. It was only 15 euros for a 24 hour rental, best purchase I've made in awhile. We woke up on Sunday and it wasn't very pretty, unlike the first two days, but we headed off on our four-wheelers anyway. I wish it had been prettier but we got to see the coolest red rock beach and rode all through these small towns. Our four-wheelers were really fast, at one point I was going 57 km/h (don't really know how fast that is in mph but I felt like I was flying haha). We rode all over the island though and we were going up this mountain that is the highest point on Santorini and we were literally in a cloud. It was actually pretty scary because the road was so small and all of sudden a truck would come flying down the mountain on the other side so we decided to turn around and eat a picnic overlooking the countryside of Greece. It started raining on our way back and we still had like a 30 minute ride back to our hostel so we stopped in Fira, the capital of Santorini  and some tapas (well a Greek pizza) until the rain cleared. That night we ate one of the best meals I have had since I've been here. All of us love sharing food (except Stina was on her own) we ordered 4 tapas to share and then Molly and I split prawns and musaka, a typical Greek meal, which tasted more like lasagna with potatoes. 

We had booked a sailing tour around Santorini for Monday but when we woke up it was still raining but we decided to go anyways. After climbing down 170 steps to get to the old port (my calves were literally shaking when I got to the bottom) we boarded our sailboat that has the capacity to hold 160 people but there were only 15 people on our tour. Our first stop was at an active volcano that used to be attached to Santorini but after it erupted in 1957, it became detached from the island. It was pouring down rain, our tour guide kept urging us to turn around but we wanted to see the top of the volcano. It was so cool, there is an active crater at the top and smoke was pouring out of it. Our next stop was to hot-springs which we assumed the boat docked and you walked over to the hot-springs, man were we wrong. Our tour guide got on the microphone and said in order to visit the hot-springs you had to be a good swimmer because you had to dive off of the boat and swim 100 meters to the springs. The temperature of the hot-springs depends on the temperature outside and she said that they would probably be about 20-22 degrees Celsius because it was so cold out meaning that the ocean water was like 16, how could we resist. I dove off of the boat and the temperature was literally shocking but we made it over to the hot-springs which turned out to not be so hot after all but there was this really cool mud at the bottom that supposedly opens your pores. The horn on the boat blew signaling that we had to swim back. I have never been colder in my life. I literally felt like there was a needle in every pore in my body. I thought this Chinese girl was going to drown, everybody (only 8 people from our boat went in the water, us being 5 of them) had already passed her and her lips were literally blue. Our tour guide was holding the little life-saver circle because she thought the girl wasn't going to make it back but she did! Our last stop was at Oia where we had to climb up 171 steps to be in the town. It was beautiful though, the weather had finally started clearing up and when we were walking up the steps there was a bride standing on a cliff overlooking the ocean having her wedding pictures taken. I wonder if they know how beautiful of a place they live in. We wandered around some stores in Oia and then took a taxi back to Fira (we had missed the bus by 5 minutes and the next one didn't come for 2 hours). The other girls went back to our hostel but Molly and I wandered around Fira, did some souvenir shopping, and then went to this restaurant and split a bottle of wine and hummus before taking the bus back to Perissa (the town our hostel was in). Molly, Kristen, and Leah's ferry left at 12:30am on Monday because they were going to Paris and Barcelona for the rest of Semana Santa but Stina and I stayed in Santorini for another flight and took the 3:30 ferry back to Athens. Greece was one of the prettiest places I have ever been, I really want to go back one day and venture to another island. Thanks mom and dad!

irlandoooo

Where do I even begin...

I was waiting at the bus stop to catch the bus to the bus station to go to the big bus station and eventually to the Malaga airport. As I was waiting at the bus stop, I heard Molly calling my name and looked over at Kristen, Leah, and Molly were all in a cab headed to the bus station so clearly I hopped in. I have never seen as much traffic in Granada until of course we are on a time limit. We asked the cab driver how much further to the bus station and he asked if we were on the 7 o'clock bus and we said no 6:30 and he said we would have "to fly" if we wanted to make it on time. We call Stina, the responsible one out of our friends who had like 45 minutes before we did, and she bought our tickets. We FINALLY make it to the bus station in the nick of time and head for Malaga. Not 5 minutes into our adventure our bus gets in a wreck. NO JOKE. Who has ever heard of someone getting into a "bus wreck" so we are stuck on the side of the road for AN HOUR. I look to my left while at the scene of the crash and there are prostitutes, standing on the side of the road, in broad daylight. Kristen and I were like what is there excuse going to be when the police come, just waiting for a ride? So we finally get on the road and make it to the bus station in Malaga and then have to take a taxi to the airport. The ride is only an hour and a half from Granada to Malaga but it took us 2 1/2 hours. We get to the airport at 9:20 for our 9:45 flight and every single check-in kiosk is closed. We run to customer service and he tells us that the flight is already closed and that there is nothing that we can do. We were super nice to him, explained to him that we left Granada at 6:30 and that our bus got in a wreck, he makes a few phone calls and tells us how lucky we are and writes us handmade boarding passes. And we're off...

We finally make it to Shannon, Ireland at 11:45 Thursday night and take a taxi to our hostel. We woke up the next morning and went to Bunratty Castle which was one of the coolest things I have ever done. They think it is the castle where William Penn was born and had it all set up like it was when the Earls lived there. There is a whole little village around Bunratty depicting Ireland 300 years ago. It was really cool! We hung out in Shannon for most of the day and then went to Limerick to catch a bus to Dublin. We got to Dublin around 9 on Friday night, cooked dinner, and then in typical hostel style went out to a local pub with some boys from our hostel. La Mez was a really cool Irish pub with a live band and what do you know? Carlsberg, probably the best beer in the world. Molly told the lead singer that it was my birthday and he not only sang happy birthday to me but the entire pub started singing happy birthday to me! 

Saturday morning (my birthday!) we woke up and took a train to Howth, 30 minutes outside of Dublin. There were the coolest cliffs that we walked along on the coast. It was one of the prettiest things that I have seen in my life. Running a close second behind the mountain I climbed in Malawi. We hung out in Howth for a little and ate the best sandwich I have ever had in my life. When we got back to Dublin we went to the Guiness Storehouse. It is like a 7 floor museum that explains the history of the beer and how it is made. It is of course included with a free pint of Guiness at the end of the tour. Once again Molly (she loves birthdays as much as a do) told the bartender that it was my birthday and they gave me another free pint of beer with 21 drawn in the foam. We went out to dinner after the factory and then the other girls went home because Ireland is ridulously expensive but Molly and I decided to hit the town...

We seriously went to one of the craziest clubs I have ever been to. We were standing in line and the girls in front of us who were from Dublin told us that the guys in the club were kind of creepy. We kind of shrugged it off because hey, they were from Dublin and were still going. When we got into the club Molly and I were just hanging out, dancing by ourselves when some boy came up behind me and SMELLED MY HAIR. WHO DOES THAT? I was so creeped out that Molly and I just decided to keep a constant movement around the club so that no other boy had the opportunity to smell the scent of my shampoo. 

It was soo much fun though and Ireland is absolutely gorgeous! Christine is coming to Granada this weekend, I have midterms Tuesday and Wednesday next week and then I head to Greece on Wednesday for Semana Santa--woop woop!

love, love, love,

grayson

Roma

pictures from barcelona

                                                     on the beach in march, i love it!
parc guell
la sagrada familia
after our hike up montjuic, overloooking the port
pretty sailboats in the port

barca

Travel was not smooth, although Mary didn't lose her luggage...

My last class on Thursday was cancelled which I took as some sort of positive sign because I was planning on skipping the class anyways to make sure that I didn't miss my flight to Barcelona. I was wrong. Stina and I began our adventure around 5:15 Thursday afternoon, hopped on a city bus to try to make the 6 o'clock bus headed to Malaga, where the airport is. After completely missing the first bus, 15 minutes later another bus finally arrives, we hop on it, and head to the bus station constantly checking our watches as the time is quickly passing. We run into the bus station at 5 minutes until 6 and wait in the long line to purchase our tickets only to find out that the bus has been delayed until 6:30 (somewhat of a relief, I guess). So we take the 1 1/2 bus ride to Malaga and get off the bus 20 minutes away from the airport not really knowing what our next move was. We walked around trying to find a bus stop because we knew which bus we should take but a bus stop was nowhere to be found. It was nearing 8 o'clock and our flight left at 8:45, we finally find the bus stop but realize that it takes 20 to 30 minutes by bus to get to the airport. We decide that we have to take a cab or else we were never going to make it to the airport. Instead of paying a 1 euro bus fare, we end up paying an 18 euro cab ride. BUMMER. Finally make it to the airport, on our flight and we are off to Barcelona...

Get to the Barcelona airport at 11:30 and have directions to get to our hostel that say take the train from the airport. As we are walking to the train station a very nice boy tells us that the last train already left and that he is either going to try to take the bus or get a cab into the city. He offers to help us out, so we follow this strange boy through the Barcelona airport, he asks someone where to get a bus (he luckily spoke Catalan). We get on the bus and he tells us which stop to get off and points us in the direction of our hostel. He was our lifesaver that night and saved us probably 30 euros from not having to take a cab. We finally get to our hostel and it was awesome. It was so clean and everyone who worked there was super nice. We went out to try to find tapas but everywhere was already closed so we ended up going to this Irish pub for a beer before turning in for the night. Went to bed around 2 to only be woken up by the 4 Portugese girls who were also staying in our room at 7:45am. They were literally talking in a normal voice, laughing, eating, knocking on the door, blow drying their hair. IT WAS AWFUL. But we were in Barcelona staying at a hostel for 16 euros a night, what can you expect.

Barcelona is beautiful! Interestingly enough, Stina and I had just done a project on "A Day in Barcelona" so we kind of knew a couple of things that we wanted to do. We walked down one of the main streets in Barcelona, La Ramblas and into the marketplace that is really famous. There was fruit, vegetables, and meat for sell EVERYWHERE. We unfortunately found ourselves in the meat section the majority of the time where I saw the most disgusting things ever, if I wasn't already a vegetarian I think this would have convinced me to be one. There was whole rabbits, skinned with eyes and teeth still attached; stomach lining, brains, and intestines of various animals all on sale. It was foul to say the least. We quickly left the market and walked down to the port which is one of the biggest ports in the world (second according to dad), it was so pretty there were all of these sailboats anchored in the water so we just sat on the dock and enjoyed the warm weather and sunshine. We then walked up Montjuic, which is this hill that offers some of the prettiest views of Barcelona. It was really cool! After our big hike we were pretty hungry so we found an awesome little hole in the wall restaurant. In Spain they offer "Menu del Dia" where you choose from a list of appetizers, main courses, red or white wine, and a dessert for like 8-10 euros. It was delicious, by far my best meal in Spain. I ordered pasta alfredo, fish with vegetables, white wine, and fruit. The waiter brought the fish out and it was a whole fish with eyes, he immediately offered to clean the fish for me when he saw my face. The fish was delicious though but I'm really glad I didn't have to skin it myself...

The next day we woke up early again and walked over to La Sagrada Familia which is this really big, beautiful church designed by Gaudi. Construction of the church began in 1882 and it is still being built today. From there we decided to walk to Parc Guell which is also designed by Gaudi and is one of the most famous parks in Barcelona. A lot of it was being renovated but it was really cool, there are all these intricately designed paths and mosaics everywhere. Stina and I found a grassy area (it is really odd, in Spain the majority of the parks don't actually have grassy areas to sit in) and took a nap. The park was about a 45 minute walk from our hostel so we decided to take a bus back. It was really nice our hostel had a kitchen so we chose to eat big lunches out and then cook dinner to try and save money and because I miss cooking so much. We made delicious pasta on Friday night and then vegetable stir-fry on Saturday night. On Saturday, we went out to the oldest bar in Granada with Kristen and some of her friends who are studying in France and Italy. Then we went to this bar called Dow Jones which is designed to be like the stock market. They have screens up all around the room with different drinks and the price next to them. Every couple of minutes the prices change so you have to decide when the best time to buy your drinks is. It was pretty cool.

Woke up this morning and went to the beach, it was amazing. I literally just napped on the beach and enjoyed the sun for a couple of hours before we had to go. It wasn't warm enough to be in a bathing suit but it was still awesome to be on the beach in Spain in March. Flew home around 7 tonight which was one of the weirdest flights I've ever experienced. We flew Ryanair which is one of the cheapest airlines in Spain, it only cost 40 euros to fly to Barcelona. You have to pay to get an assigned seat which obviously most people don't do so it is just like a mad rush to get on the plane and not get stuck with the middle seat. After finally settling into our seats and taking off, the flight attendants literally walked up and down the aisle trying to sell various products the ENTIRE flight. They were trying to sell perfume, drinks, scratch-off lottery tickets--it was really weird and really disturbed my nap time. So we finally landed into Granada and everyone on the plane began to clap as if they were unsure if we were going to land safe or not. After the clapping seized, an announcement comes on "don donno don, another Ryanair flight has safely landed." Real unnerving, might need to do a little more research on Ryanair before I take another flight with them... Just kidding! It was fun though and I can't wait for this weekend, I'm going to Rome! 

p.s. everyone should go ahead and start my birthday countdown...13 days

i'm the king of carnaval

I went to carnaval yesterday and it was one of the craziest things I have ever done. We literally got on a bus at 10am yesterday morning in Granada and started our voyage to Cadiz, a coastal town about a 4 hour bus ride from Granada. Carnaval is a mixture of Mardi Gras and Halloween. People dress up in groups and go to Cadiz for basically a really big botellon (outdoor drinking party if you don't remember from last week). In lieu of the ridiculously high smoking rates in Spain and Europe (it literally seems like every other person smokes here) we decided to do an anti-smoking campaign, why not?

75 people boarded a double decker bus and headed off to Cadiz. I knew the majority of the people on the bus and the bus ride was literally half of the fun. We had music playing, contests, and a raffle drawing on our way there. The 5 of us won the costume contest! Impressive, I know. We won free Alhambra beer for having the best costumes. People were literally walking up to us saying what a good idea it was and how they were going to dress as cigarettes next Halloween. When we were about an hour away from Cadiz there was a raffle, the bus company was giving away t-shirts, beer, rum, and 4 lucky winners won free trips to either Seville or Valencia. I never win ANYTHING but I happened to be one of the 2 lucky winners to get a trip to Valencia. But of course, I can't even go. I am going to be in Rome the first weekend of Las Fallas Festival and in Ireland for my birthday the next weekend. That would happen to me...I'll probably never win anything else for the next 5 years. But I was nice enough to have them redraw another winner so that someone actually went, I should have bartered with someone for there t-shirt in exchange for the trip. 

So we arrived in Cadiz around 4pm and immediately walked over to the beach. It was so pretty! The 5 of us decided it would be a great idea to get on this large rock structure and to take a picture in our costumes with the ocean in the background. So we all climbed up on top of this rock and were commenting on how beautiful the beach and ocean were when all of a sudden a wave literally crashes over us. Keep in mind, this rock is approximately 6 feet off the ground and I believe that was the only big wave of the day. We were all drenched and the rest of our entire group was cracking up at us. Everyone saw us! They were seriously like this made my night. It would happen to us...so as we are climbing down off the rock in our soaking wet clothes Kristen lost her grip and tumbled off the rock face-planting into the sand. Not only was she soaking wet but was then also covered in sand. Needless to say, this summed up the rest of our day. We sat out on the beach for a little while longer, trying to dry off by the sun and then we went to where the real party was. There were 100s and 100s of people all dressed in costumes drinking in front of, of course, a cathedral. The night was so much fun but it was definitely one of the longest days/nights I have ever experienced. I woke up at 8:30 Saturday morning, got to Cadiz at 4, and we didn't leave Cadiz until 6am the next morning. Needless to say, it has been a pretty unproductive days. I doubt I would ever go to carnaval again but it was a lot of fun! 

why are you taking out 70 euros? i'm going to rome!

me stina and leah in seville

botellon

Sorry I haven't updated in awhile I've been busy with school and what not! Hmm where did I leave off...

Ok, so last Thursday I did one of the most fun things I have ever done. Unlike most cities in Spain, it is illegal to drink on the streets of Granada but there is this one plaza where it is legal to drink and everyone goes there on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday before going to the clubs. It is called botellon which basically means "big bottle" and there were literally like 300 people there it was crazy! Everyone goes to the store and buys a bottle of liquor, a bottle of Fanta, cups, and ice and stays there until like 3 in the morning. We might have been the only Americans there but it was so much fun and then we went dancing at a club called Kapital. Molly and I met these two boys who are from Spain but studied at South Carolina last semester--how weird! They were in Charlotte more recently than I was! 

This past weekend I went to Seville with API, it is a city about 3 hours west of Granada. It was really cool because Christine is studying there so I got to hang out with her which was so weird. We acted like it was so normal to see each other but then we were like wait, we are in Spain together. She is coming to Granada in a couple of weeks which I am really excited about! Seville is really, really pretty we visited the third largest cathedral in the world, how crazy! Inside of the cathedral was the tomb of Columbus but apparently there is controversy about whether or not it really is Columbus. Spain believes that Columbus is in Spain and that his son was buried in the Dominican Republic and the Dominican Republic thinks that Columbus is buried there and his son is in Spain. Our tour guide told us that they are going to do a DNA test to figure out where Columbus is actually buried. Seville was a lot different than Granada, it is about 3 times the size of Granada and was about 10 degrees warmer. The warmer temperature was definitely nice, it was almost 70 on Sunday but it definitely made me realize how much I love Granada. Even though Seville has wider roads and bigger parks and plazas, there were so many more Americans in Seville. Literally everywhere I went I heard people talking in English which is a really bad thing for me because I don't try to talk in Spanish as much. 

I started volunteering last week and it is fun but a lot different than I thought it was going to be. Last week I was basically a guest speaker. I felt like I was at show and tell. The teacher made me stand in front of the class for an hour talking about myself and explaining the school system in the United States. The kids are all around 11 or 12 years old and have been taking English since they started school but the questions they were asking me were hilarious. One of the girls asked me if I liked to ice skate, I have no idea how she knew the word ice skate but apparently it is one of her favorite sports and she was telling me where I could go ice skating here. 

I am going to Cadiz for carnaval this weekend which I am really excited about. My costume ideas are hungry hungry hippos, Captain Planet, or Pocahontas. Not really sure how I am going to be any of those things but it should be interesting. Alright, time for a siesta. I went out last night for Joshua's birthday (one of the boys who studied at USC) and had to get up early for volunteering so I am going to try to nap before class! 

are you walking to madrid?

My big hiking adventure...

Yesterday, Stina and I went to a town called Guejar Sierra that is known for having some of the best hiking in the area. We took a 40 minute bus ride and got dropped off in the town not really knowing what our next move was (we of course opted out of the guided tour). We began walking around the town asking people if they knew where the trail was that we wanted to hike, Vereda de la Estrella. We were pointed in the right direction and began our trek. It ended up being a 5.4 km walk to even get to the hike. The hike was so beautiful though! It was a trail up through the Sierra Nevadas that we thought we could hike in one day but a fellow hiker told us that it took 2 days to complete the entire trail. We decided against camping out in makeshift tents. As we were walking along the trail and I looked over and saw a herd of sheep being moved across the mountain by a herdsman. It was the coolest thing I have ever seen! There were literally hundreds of sheep across the river on the other mountain. When you looked in front of you there were three mountain peaks and the one in the middle was snow-covered. It was absolutely beautiful. 

                         

me stuck in the tree...

We passed this really cool tree and decided that it would be an ideal place to eat lunch. I began to climb the tree only to realize that I am not much of a tree climber (shockingly enough) and it is even harder with a book bag on to fit through a small opening in-between the trunk of a tree. Stina was on the ground cracking up at my attempt to get out onto one of the limbs and photographing my climb. I made it pretty high up on the tree, I was probably 12 feet off the ground but then I got really scared that I wasn't going to be able to make it down so I decided to turn around and we ended up eating on level ground. The hike, with the walk to and from the city, ended up being 15.5 km long, a little over 9 miles. I don't think I have ever walked that far in one day! But it was so much fun and so pretty! Today, I walked over to this park that is about 5 minutes away from my house and read for a couple of hours this afternoon. Today was one of the prettiest days we have had so far, it was so sunny and almost 60 degrees! No big plans this week except more class and I start volunteering on Wednesday morning which I am really excited about! 

graffiti, kabobs, and dog poop

This weekend was so much fun! On Friday night we went out for Leah's 22nd birthday to this mexican restaurant (yes mexican, not spanish) that was delicious! Then we went to this club Granada 10 where we went the first night we were in Granada. It was a lot different atmosphere on a Friday night than on a Monday. It was a lot of fun but really crowded and drinks were terribly expensive! On Saturday we went to this flamenco show that was not what I expected at all. I have always imagined flamenco shows as 

people dancing and girls wearing brightly colored dresses. This show was four people--a guitarist, a singer, and two people who I am unsure of their role in the performance. The majority of the time they sat there randomly clapping and saying random words. I thought there was going to be no dancing at all but finally on the last song that both got up and danced randomly but their faces were definitely more intense than the performance should have allowed. It was fun though and I guess we did only pay 4 euros to see it so maybe one day I will splurge and go see another flamenco show in one of the gypsy caves. after the flamenco show we went to this club called El Camborio. It was so cool! There is this area called Sacramonte, which I will tell you about later, where the whole town is built out of caves including this club. When you walked up the stairs of the club there was the most amazing view of Granada and the Alhambra. The club also wasn't too packed so it was a lot of fun, there were break-dancers at the club who were so good. The only other time I have seen break-dancers was at the metro in NYC so seeing it in a club was quite the experience. The keep asking Molly and I how Americans danced so we taught them how to raise the roof hahaha (I think I got the majority of my dance skills from dad) Stina and I successfully ate two kabobs on Saturday, one in between the flamenco show and one after the club. There are kabob places EVERYWHERE in Granada and they are so amazing! It would be like having pita pit every 5 feet. I usually get falafel however, Stina got chicken which was speared on this large roaster and was approximately 1 foot high full of meat GROSS. Molly's roommate Kristina said that she tries to limit herself to one kabob per week, Stina and I are trying to resist multiple kabobs per day. Yes, I know I'm very skinny! 

So for the past two days I have gone on cultural tours with API to get class credit. Yesterday we walked through Sacramonte and the Albaicin. They are two neighborhoods in Granada and what I pictured Granada looking like from pictures I had seen before I came here. The neighborhoods are all little white houses that all resemble each other and in Sacramonte there are all of these gypsy caves. The gypsies all try to sell stuff or open bars in one of the caves serving sangria and what not. It was a really pretty view and luckily was on one of the first sunny days here so it was really pleasant to walk around. There are a lot of cool restaurants in Sacramonte that I want to go back to once it is warmer outside and sit on a patio overlooking the city. Today we went to the Alhambra which was amazing. Whoever comes to visit me, we are definitely going back. It was a Moorish city built in the 13th century but looks more like a palace, it is known as the red fortress. The architecture is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. All of the rooms have intricately designed ceilings and tile covering the walls and floors. There is a big Islamic influence in the architecture because it was built by a Muslim ruler. In the center of the Alhambra is a reflecting pool surrounded by four doors. According to the Koran, Muslims are allowed to have four wives so the doors correspond to the four different living quarters of the wives. The Moors who were living in Spain were conquered by the Christians under Ferdinand and Isabella so there is also a Christian influence on the architecture in the Alhambra. Charles V was also the one who erected the palace in the center of the Alhambra. So there was a brief history lesson for yall. It was seriously one of the prettiest places I have ever seen. Each room you walked in was so incredibly built, I can't imagine how long it took to construct the Alhambra!

Alright, well bed time for me. This is going to be the earliest I have gone to bed since I have been here but unfortunately tomorrow I am going to have to stop living my fairy tale life and start class BOO! 

levanta el cielo

Differences I have found in Granada:

1) The time difference: It has taken me almost a week to get used to the different schedule in Granada. People sleep here a lot later than I normally do at school. It is normal (especially for my family who doesn't work) to sleep until 11 o'clock in the morning. Breakfast is usually a cup of coffee and cereal which I usually prefer to opt out of. The milk for the cereal is room temperature whole milk that is stored in the pantry (GROSS). Lunch isn't served here until around 2:30 or 3 and is considered the biggest meal of the day. It usually consists of a 3 course meal--salad, entree, some sort of vegetable, and of course an entire baguette. The dessert for lunch is always a plate of fruit, usually mandarin oranges that grow on all of the trees around Granada. Spaniards also don't snack as often as Americans do which is really hard for me because dinner isn't served until usually around 9. Dinner is not considered a big meal here and is sometimes leftovers from lunch or soup. The time after dinner people use to get ready for the big night ahead. People normally go to tapas bars around 11 and with every drink you order you get a free tapa (appetizer). Friday and Saturday are the biggest nights here where people go to discotheques around 2 or 2:30 and don't usually go home until 6 or 7 in the morning (it is quite a challenge to try to keep up with all of the party goers here). 

                                                 

                                          Me, Stina, and Leah on our walk home Saturday night

2) The architecture: Everything in Spain is so beautiful! Everywhere you look there are intricately designed buildings, churches, and palaces. Even the University of Granada campus is beautiful, it is in a building that was built in the 14th century with a terrace in the middle with fountains and trees that have fresh blooming flowers and oranges. Everywhere I look I want to take a picture of all of the amazing architecture.

                                                                  

                                                                             A Cathedral in Toledo                   

On the other hand, Granada is very dirty. I wear a pair of shoes or pants once and they are stained a dark gray color despite the fact that people are constantly sweeping and mopping the sidewalks and streets. The streets are also scattered with stray dogs who roam the streets all day long without leashes, running in and out of traffic. I am not sure if these dogs are strays or if there owners just let them out because they always seem to be running to a specific place. There are also a lot of homeless people in Granada. They never seem to be begging but are always laying on the sidewalks or in the doors of businesses sleeping on makeshift beds with blankets completely covering their faces. Instead of the homeless people begging for money, there are plenty of street performers. People playing the accordion or spray-painting themselves as statues who will dance if they are given money. 

3) People in Spain don't volunteer: Spaniards find it very odd that people would want to volunteer at schools, at homeless shelters, or at assisted living places. Most volunteer positions in the United States are paid positions in Europe therefore volunteering is almost non-existent. No worries though, I found my way around it. I am going to be volunteering once a week at an elementary school called Colegio Caja Granada. It is a public elementary school where I will be helping teach English to elementary age students. I went today and met with one of the teachers at the school to talk about what days I could volunteer and what age students I was interested in working with. The school seems really nice and very interactive. They do video conferences with American elementary schools and play games where the Spanish students ask the Americans kids questions in English and the American students respond in Spanish. I am going to start volunteering either next Tuesday or Thursday so I am really excited! 

Well it is getting really late here so I am going to go to bed so that I can rest up for Leah's 22nd birthday tomorrow. I think we are going to walk up to the Alhambra (a old Moorish palace which I am visiting on Monday) and watch the sunset and then go out to dinner and the partay! I will definitely try to update at the end of the weekend because I am sure there will be more exciting stories! 

Love, Grayson 

i think i just punctured an internal organ

I finally found an internet cafe that is close to my house so hopefully I will be able to start talking to people on skype. I went snowboarding on Friday with Kristen, Stina, Leah and Molly at Sierra Nevada, a ski resort about 30 minutes away from here. We woke up at 6:30 in the morning to catch the 8 o'clock bus. We bought our bus tickets and rented all of our equipment from a rental shop at the bus station with ease but then the adventure started...

Molly´s story: When we got to the mountain we were trying to find a locker to put all of our bookbags in and left our skis and snowboards on a rock, when we got back to the rack everyone´s stuff was there except for Molly's. After frantically looking for her skis, she asked the police if there was a lost and found in case someone accidently took her skis instead of their own. The police basically laughed at her and said that someone had stolen them and she had to file a police report (this entire interaction was spoken in spanish). After having already bought her lift ticket, she had to rent a new pair of skis at the pricier rental shop on the mountain. Leah and Molly were walking back to meet the rest of us on the mountain when (icing on the cake) Molly slipped on a patch of ice and fell down. Molly told Leah not to say anything or laugh because she was going to ¨freak out¨ haha but the bad news is that Molly ended up having to pay 50 euros to replace the stolen skis.

Kristen's story: We decided to get a feel of the terrain and opted doing a green for the first run down. After that, we were all up for the challenge and took another lift up that offered only blues and reds. We took the blue trail down that half way down turned out to be mostly a red (which we later found out is a black diamond in the US). Kristen hasn't been skiing since the 8th grade and has a little trouble controlling her speed (possibly because she keeps her skis completely together, her poles horizontally off the ground, and maintains a crouched position). I wish that I constantly walked around with a video camera because I saw quite possibly the funniest thing in my life that would have definitely won money on America's Funniest Home Videos. I was going down the mountain when all of a sudden Kristen comes flying down the mountain past me. She completely wipes out not even attempting to break her fall with her hands. She loses a ski half way back up the mountain that I had to pick up and bring down to her. The slope we were on was really steep and she couldn't put her ski back on so she just decided to try and make it to the bottom on her butt and one ski with poles and the other ski in hand. She is still flying down the mountain, spinning in circles with snow blowing in her face when all of sudden this older man comes zooming down the mountain with one of his skis flying down in front of him. The man tumbles down and is lying on his back with his poles and skis in the air and whizzes underneath a "DESPACIO" sign which means "SLOW" that is approximately 6 inches off of the ground. The man's other ski flew off the side of the mountain and he was leaning over to try and lift it with his pole. Needless to say, it took some time for me to stop laughing and continue down the mountain...

Snowboarding in Spain is definitely different than snowboarding in Jackson. You have to take a gondola up the mountain that drops you off in front of 5 different lifts, which take you further up the mountain. It was so awesome because the runs were so long but getting on the gondola was a different challenge. Apparently Spaniards don't believe in waiting in lines so instead of it being an orderly process it was more diving into the gondolas in hopes that there was enough room. I was so sore yesterday and had a KILLER sunglass tan (really attractive, I know). It was a lot of fun though! We went to a discotheque last night called Kapital. It was fun but it was also a lot of API (my program) students, which makes it a little difficult to meet local Spaniards. It was definitely a late night though, people here don't eat dinner until like 9 o'clock and don't usually go out until 12 or 1 at night and the discotheques don't close until 6 or 7 in the morning on the weekends. Don't worry--I was definitely at home asleep before then. We are going to go watch the super bowl tonight at an Irish pub called Hannigans but it doesn't start here until 12 so I doubt I will be able to stay up and watch the end. Hope everyone has fun at all of the super bowl festivities! Miss yall!

Love, Grayson  

halow

hola chicos! i am in granada and finally have access to internet, my apartment doesn't have it so i have to go on campus to use the computer. my host family is really nice. the lady's name is isabella and her mother, ignacia, lives with her. the language barrier is a little difficult but she is really nice and tries to help us with our spanish. the food is pretty good and she cooks vegetarian which is awesome. both of her daughters come over for lunch everyday and we all sit in the den and eat. one of her daughters, isabella, has two daughters adriana and elvidra who are adorable! the vase was a huge hit and i went and bought her flowers yesterday to put in it. i don't start class until february 4th but all this week and next we are having a refresher spanish class. on friday we are all going to go snowboarding because we don't have class on this friday or any friday! there is a mountain about an hour away that you can take a bus there for like 5 euros. there is also a beach that is an hour away that is supposedly always warm, what a great life! we went out on monday night and it was fun but all of the spanish students have exams for the next two weeks so there weren't a lot of people out. there is this one street that everyone goes out on that i think will be really fun once people start going out. alright, well i have to go to this meeting now but i am going to try to post pictures!

love, grayson 

chin chin

i made it! i made it! i made it! spain is so amazing and i have only been here for 24 hours. i meet four really cool girls almost immediately after i landed. kristen, liah, and molly are all from kansas and christina is originally from sweden but moved to massachusetts. my roommate is really nice but we are pretty different which is ok, i actually think it might be easier living with someone for four months and not hang out with them all the time. the entire group went out to dinner last night and then the five of us went out to a bar called dubliners where we tested our spanish with the locals. today we went to a museum and then went to the royal palace where king phillip v lived. it was BEAUTIFUL! unfortunately i wasn't allowed to take pictures inside of either the museum or the palace. we are going to a monastery tomorrow and then leave for granada on sunday. i think that i might move to spain when i graduate (smith we might need to forget skyscrapers and switch our dreams to european architecture). when i was at lunch today, these four business men were taking there 3 hour break in the middle of the day enjoying a leisurely lunch, a bottle of wine, and a game of cards--talk about the good life.

time for my siesta! more later...

love, grayson 

ps. chin chin means cheers

here goes attempt number two...

hey yall! i am going to try to start a blog again so that everyone can keep up with me while i travel. hopefully the internet will work better in granada than it did in malawi and i will be able to post more than twice! skype (grayson.caldwell) will probably be the best form of communication so if a really random number is calling, answer because it may be me! i'll miss yall!

love, grayson