¡Viva España!: ¡Me encanta Granada!

Hola! I have been so busy this past week, it is crazy! There is so much to fill everyone in on!

Although this is a painfully embarrassing story, it is one worth sharing. Last week I went to the track and needed to get a longer recovery run in so I decided to run around the huge park where the track is located rather than running like 15 laps around the track. Apparently everyone else had the same idea because there were so many people running and walking, it was nuts! I was dodging people left and right in trying to avoid running into them or a bench and, in doing so, I neglected to dodge the brick wall that surrounds the park. Fail. I ended up with a huge gash in my arm and blooding gushing everywhere! I came home and showed my host Mom, and she freaked out. She was running around the house trying to find alcohol to clean it with and a big enough band-aid to cover it. She was so upset with herself when she realized she didn't have any alcohol, but nonetheless she just used some other stuff that made the gash burn like crazy! She took care of me like I was a little kid; it was so precious!!

Last Thursday I had a presentation/debate in my cultural heritage class, and as you all can expect, I was freaking out for it. I spent the whole week preparing and then was up late on Wednesday night getting all my notes in order and the such. It ended up going pretty well, but I am very glad that it's over! (We only have to do it once the whole semester!) I really am not a huge fan of presentations in English, much less in Spanish.

This past weekend I went to Granada which is in the province of Andalucia, about 4 hours south of Toledo. I was so excited for this trip because in telling all my patients at the hospital about my plans to take a trip to Granada I received the same excited reaction from them all. They were all so happy for me that I was getting the opportunity to travel there.

It all started on Friday morning, bright and early. I woke up at 5am in order to take a shower and get ready because we needed to catch the 6:30am bus to Madrid at the Toledo bus station. Since the buses in Toledo do not start running that early we (Elizabeth, Willie, Anny, Rachel, Laura and myself) had to walk to the bus station. Since Willie lives in the same neighborhood I do we planned to meet at the Fundacion (my school) and then walk the approximately 20 minute walk together. Well, to make a long story short, Willie's alarm clock malfunctioned and I was sitting at school waiting for him. As 6am came and went I started to get a little nervous that maybe he wasn't going to show up and that possibly I should just walk to the bus station by myself. I was nervous to do this, however, because I didn't have Willie's number to text/call him to tell him I was going to leave without him. Regardless, I decided to just leave, and by this point, it was getting very close to 6:15. Do the math!! haha I ended up running from my school to the bus station. I felt like I was on Amazing Race because I had my backpack and my purse with me! In arriving at the bus station I couldn't figure out where to enter the actual building. I called my friends, Elizabeth and Anny, and they tried to talk me through it, but I just wasn't getting it. The building that I originally thought was the bus station was pitch black and didn't even look like it was open which just confused me even more. With that being said, I ended up running down the ramp that the buses usually use to come up from the bus station and onto the street. I said a little prayer before doing this that a bus wouldn't be coming up because there really isn't room for a bus and a person! Who knows why? haha I frantically got on the bus, and mind you, at this point I am sweating and stinky and gross and thinking that the shower I took an hour earlier was quite pointless. The bus was full with a lot of angry looking Spaniards, but I don't know why because I arrived just in time! We left at 6:31. It took me the whole hour to Madrid to calm myself down. I felt like I had ran a marathon already and it wasn't even 8am yet!

After arriving in Madrid (and please keep in mind that Willie, the friend I supposed to go to the bus station with, did not make it to the bus station in Toledo and we are still without him) we needed to take the metro to get to the other bus station to get on the bus to Granada. The metro was a success, but when arriving at the teller and telling her we wanted to buy a ticket for the 8am bus to Granada she said that that bus was already full and we would need to wait until 11:30. Darn it! We woke up early for nothing, and I ran to the bus station for nothing! Since we had like 3 hours to kill we did some walking around Madrid and then sat in a cafe in the Madrid bus station (the bus station was like an airport, kind of). At this point we finally got a hold of Willie and he arrived before 11:30 so he made the Granada bus.

The bus ride was nice with amazing views of the mountains once we got closer to Granada. After arriving in Granada and paying 1.20 euro for the local bus (so expensive compared to Toledo!) and with the help of some locals pointing us in the right direction we found our hostal. It was so nice! It was kind of like a loft and even had a patio with views of the ever-popular Alhambra. There was two rooms to the hostal...one with 2 beds and the other with 4, complete with a bathroom with a practically see- through door...a little awkward I must say, with no "little" about it. The people that worked there were very nice as well! On Friday night we did some exploring around Granada and did some shopping in the Arab stores. We were all in awe of the beauty that Granada had to offer. I wish you all could just see it for yourselves because my descriptions and pictures DO NOT do it justice in the least bit. We ate at Kabob King on Friday night for dinner, and it was basically just a giant gyro. It was pretty good actually. After dinner we decided to go to a restaurant that was very near our hostal for drinks and tapas. We had heard that the tapas in Granada were the biggest of all the cities in Spain so we were very excited to try them! Well, turns out we didn't really need dinner at all...all we had to do was get drinks and the tapas could be our dinner because they were huge! And whenever someone orders another drink they get another tapa. They were so yummy :) We all came to the conclusion that they should have tapas in the states! We sat and talked and laughed A LOT until pretty late evening/early morning! We ended up meeting a couple who was from the United States as well and talked with them for a bit IN ENGLISH (yay!) They were very interested in all of us, and it turns out the wife is a psychologist! Small world.

We woke up pretty early on Saturday morning because we wanted to fit a lot in before our 5:30 appointment to the Alhambra. For breakfast Anny found this great cafe that served American breakfast so we went there, and it was delicious. I got toast with jam (they have the best jam here!!) and then fried eggs. We went and visited the cathedral, which is the 2nd biggest in Spain (thanks to my history major friend, Elizabeth!) The cathedral is sooo beautiful!! Laura and I had fun trying to read the old Spanish and making up stories about the history of the cathedral. We think the big song book was for the whole congregation to read while they were sitting in the pews, but we're not really sure! After the cathedral we did some more shopping and some people went into the chapel where Ferdinand and Isabel are buried. Rachel and I waited outside for the others and tried to avoid the gypsies as much as possible. Granada is known for lots and lots of gypsies in which try to rope you in to them reading your palm and then they expect you to pay them. Some are very persistent and will even grab your hand and follow you. One of my friends was telling me that a lot of the gypsies are sons and daughters of rich families that live in Northern Spain and the kids come down to Granada to be gypsies just to make their parents mad. hahaha! I had to get a laugh out of that! After, we ate and then headed to Alhambra. We were at the Alhambra for 5 hours!! It is so big, it is craziness! And I definitely had a bad shoe choice that morning as I chose to wear flip flops! Yea, not a good idea in the least bit. We walked through all of the Alhambra and took in all of the beautiful views! Everyone should visit the Alhambra at least once in their lifetime, in my opinion. It was kind of funny because the group got a little split up here because we all wanted to see different things, and at one point Willie and I ended up together. Our appointment to enter the palacio was at 5:30 and around 5:20 Willie realized that we were wandering in the complete opposite direction of the palacio. Soooo...I soon found myself running again. I said that I had done way too much running with cargo while on this trip and that I wasn't a fan of it! ;) After weaving in and out of people and tour groups we made it in plenty of time! Whew! Rachel and Laura were sitting on a bench waiting outside the palacio and saw two people running and asked themselves, "who are those people running?" "Oh, hey, we know them!" hahaha :) We basically got kicked out of the Alhambra because they were closing and by this point we were all exhausted and starving! We went back to the hostal and suddenly realized that we still needed to buy our return bus ticket from Granada to Madrid. I was a little nervous about the fact that the bus(es) might be full because I was the only one that absolutely needed to be back on Monday morning. So, Laura and I rode the bus back to the bus station and bought everyone's return tickets to make sure everyone had a spot. Next time we will know to buy them the day we arrive at the bus station! This must have all just slipped our minds because we were so excited to begin our adventures on the first day!

For dinner Laura and I ate at this really great cafe very near our hostal. I had a tuna sandwich and chips that were very good! The workers were very nice to us as well; this is the first time we experienced the workers waiting on us (like they do in the states). Usually you have to do all the work when you go to a restaurant and even need to ask for the bill when you are finished. However, waiters and waitresses here do not get tips, so it kind of makes sense I guess.

On Sunday we went back to the cafe we ate at for breakfast on Saturday and did a little more shopping in different Arab stores. Everyone but Anny and Willie (they stayed to go paragliding) left in the early afternoon. It was a very long day of traveling as I did not get back to my house until around 8pm. And I still had my homework to do, boo. The weekend was so worth it though :) I HAD SO MUCH FUN! I know I have not seen that much in Spain yet, but I would have to say that Granada is one of my favorites so far, and I would not mind living there at all!!! The atmosphere was just so much different than Toledo or Madrid. There were a lot more younger people there due to so many universities and students studying there. And there was a Domino's so who wouldn't love Granada?! Just a little taste of the states in Granada!

On Monday, I went to the hospital as usual. And it was a great experience, as it always is. I talked with the same patients I have been. One of my patients even gave me a little gift, a fan like all the women use here in Toledo because of the heat. She was so excited to give it to me! And it is from Sevilla so that is kind of cool because I probably won't make it there, which I am a little upset about. I will have to make that a priority when I return to Spain :)

This past week, too, I met with Yuki, one of the nicest women you will ever meet who works at the fundacion, about teaching English to children. I will be going to this family's house every Tuesday for an hour and a half and playing and talking with 2 kids all in English. I am very excited for this opportunity!

Yesterday, Elizabeth and I went and people watched in the Plaza de Ayuntamiento and then the Plaza de Zocodover. People watching in Spain is so much fun...it is fun in the states but it is SO much better here, I don't know how to explain it! We did that for probably 3 hours before our conversation class. Good times!!

This coming week classes will start to pick up a bit since the following week is our midterms and then our fall break already. I know I ask this same question over and over, but seriously, where is the time going? It needs to slow down! For fall break I will be going to Barcelona, Spain for a few days and then traveling from Barcelona to Italy for the rest of break! And I couldn't be more excited for it all! :) It will be a nice break after midterms, that's for sure.

Today for my art class we went and visited the cathedral in Toledo. It was absolutely beautiful. Again, my pictures do not do it justice. In fact, taking pictures in Spain, just makes me angry because my camera sucks at capturing the beauty of everything. You all will just have to come with me when I return to Spain one day so you can see for yourselves!!

It is kind of hard right now because with fall break quickly approaching a lot of people's friends and family are visiting! Some families are even staying in the dorms of the fundacion for a few days before they get their hostals or hotels. I am so very happy for all of them though!!

I think this is basically all for now. Tomorrow I am going with others from the fundacion on an excursion! Then, on Sunday I will be in attendance at the last bullfight of the season in Madrid! I am very excited for this, but also a little nervous.

Mucho amor para todos!

P.S. In honor of me not being able to eat pretzels because they are not in abundance here, everyone should eat a pretzel for me! Although this past weekend Elizabeth did spot a pretzel in some chex mix one of the restaurants had for a tapa and she nabbed me one!! So, thank you Elizabeth :) Oh and eat peanut butter because that does not exist here...sad day, I know :(