Second Half of Spring Break/Semana Santa

Unfortunately, I had two more failed attempts at trying to watch the Semana Santa parades.  It continued to rain on and off for the rest of the week so they kept having to cancel processions.  On Thursday night my friends Sarah, Killian, Demetria, and I went out around 9:30PM in search of processions.  There were supposed to be a few going on around that time so we figured that  we were bound to run into at least one.  We wandered the streets for almost an hour but couldn't find any.  We ended up just going to cafe futbol.  I didn't get anything but Demetria got churros and chocolate and Sarah got ice cream.  The next day my friend Amy told me that all of the processions that day had been canceled. So sad!


On Friday I messaged a few of my friends to see if they wanted to go watch the processions but none of them responded.  I decided to go out anyways to watch them.  I ended up running into my friends Rachel, Sarah, Marlee, and Katie on the street Reyes Catholicos. There was supposed to be a procession passing by the street Gran Via so we all walked over there.  We waited for a while and then of course it started raining, and then pouring.  On our walk back to our houses, we ran into my friend Ashley.  Since she didn't have an umbrella I shared mine with her and she told me about her trip to Italy that she had just gotten back from.  Luckily one procession was able to leave that day a little after 8PM, but at that point I was already home, in my sweatpants, tired, and ready to just chill the rest of the night and talk with Eva. 


Saturday I FINALLY was able to watch a procession.  At 5:30PM I met up with my friends at Correos.  We walked over to the entrance way to the Alhambra, thinking that a procession would pass by there around 6:00.  We were obviously a little mistaken about the time that it was going to pass by that point, because the procession didn't come by until after 7:30.  However, since we were so early we had a really good spot.  Since there were only two processions that day and so many had been canceled during the week it seemed like the entire city had come to watch the ones on Saturday.  
Eva told me that the float with Jesus that was in the procession that I saw was the most famous and the most expensive float in Granada.  After the procession passed, we followed the crowd down the street.  When we were trying to leave we ended up getting trapped on the patio of a bar because we thought that there was a way out on the other side.  Then we had to watch the parade pass by again because we literally couldn't move.  It was pretty frustrating trying to get home because I kept running into the procession, and then a different one, on the streets that I needed to cross.

Easter Sunday I was definitely feeling homesick.  When my mom came, she brought Easter baskets for Jorge, Eva, and I in her carry-on suitcase.  Jorge had slept at his dad's house though, so I couldn't give him his until he got home that night.  In the morning I gave Eva her Easter basket though, with dove chocolate and lotion that my mom had brought for her at Corte Ingles after the original lotion didn't make it through airport security.  Easter in Spain doesn't usually include Sunday morning Easter baskets, but I had explained the whole concept to Eva a few days before and showed her pictures from google images too.  I also showed her a video of a Peep in the microwave and she found it very funny and entertaining.  During the day I skyped Alyssa and then later I skyped with my mom, grandma, and dad.


Today was my first day back at the CLM in over a week.  It was a pretty exhausting and long day, but I'm actually glad to be back at school.  I don't do well with a ton of free time.  Of course now that Semana Santa is over the weather today was beautiful.  There were clear, blue skies the entire day and was in the high 70's.  This weekend I am going on a trip to Cordoba and Seville with my program.  We are the second group to go on the trip, and everyone from the first group said that it was so much fun.  

Semana Santa

To start, here's a little background information about Semana Santa that I found on a website:
Spain celebrates Easter Week much more than most European countries. During the whole of Semana Santa, (Holy Week), street processions are organised in most Spanish towns each evening, from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday.

People carry statues of saints around on floats or wooden platforms, and an atmosphere of mourning - which can seem quite oppressive to onlookers - and the Easter week processions end with Easter Sunday, a day full of light and colour when church and cathedral bells are heard ringing throughout the country.

In some of the processions, marchers wear clothes reminiscent of the klu klux klan. Infact their clothes are meant to depict the Nazareños, people from Nazareth. The religious fraternities and brotherhoods are responsable for carrying the statues and organising the penitents and musicians. The Nazareños follow the people who carry the floats bearing sculptures and models of biblical scenes.

The people who carry the weight of the floats are called "costaleros" and are expected the carry these "thrones" with solemnity and grace. They use a small cushion, "costal" to protect themselves from getting sores from the wood rubbing against their skin during the long processions.

In summary, it's a really big deal in Spain.  Considering that it has honestly rained about twice in the three months that I've been here, it was SO SAD that Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday it rained every day.  On Monday my friend Amy and I walked over to Plaza Nueva around 5:30PM because we wanted to watch the Salida (exit), of one of the floats from the church.  The procession was supposed to leave at 6PM.  They even opened up the church doors anticipating the start of the procession.  Pretty much right at 6:00 it starts down-pouring.  There were a ton of people all waiting to watch the parade but everyone quickly left to take cover from the rain.  The people who take part in the parades practice all year for this event, and they cry when they can't  have their procession.

Wednesday it finally didn't rain in the afternoon or at night.  It did pour that morning though.  In the morning I put on my rain coat and decided to go for a rain run, which was actually sort of fun.  In the afternoon Amy and I went to a cafe for tea and to do some studying.  After the cafe, I finally got to see the processions.  They were so interesting and different!  Then I met up with some of my friends for tapas.  Three of them had parents here visiting, so they came for tapas too.  We went to three different places, one of them being bar Poe because I suggested it and none of them had ever been there before.  Killian's dad even paid for my friend Sarah and me at Poe's because he said "since you two don't have parents here." It was so nice of him!  We had to find alternative routes when walking from place to place because we kept running into processions in the streets that we needed to go down.  Tonight is the procession of silence, which is supposed to be really cool to see.  I am definitely planning on watching more processions today.

MOM COMES TO SPAIN!

Let me start at last Saturday, the day that my mom was supposed to arrive in Granada (SUPPOSED TO being the key words here).  Her flight from Madrid to Granada was scheduled to get in at 5PM so my plan was to take the 4PM bus to the airport and meet her there.  As I was waiting at the bus stop, about 5 minutes before the bus was due to arrive, my phone rings.  It was my mom saying that because their layover flight from London to Madrid had arrived late in Madrid and that she was stuck there for the night.  I was pretty upset so I bought some soft serve frozen yogurt to try to cheer me up and then went back home and tried to study for the midterm that I had coming on on Tuesday.  I also skyped with Alyssa, Aunt Laura, Uncle John, and Nick for a while since they had stayed overnight at my house.  


Sunday I got up night and early, made sandwiches for the picnic lunch at Federico Garica Lorca Park that I had planned for my mom and I, and then went over to the bus stop to catch the 7:45AM bus to the airport.  When I got to the bus station I saw that on the sign it said that there was a bus at 7:15AM, then not another one until 10AM, and then one every hour after that.  I figured that the sign must be out of date because I had been e-mailing two of my program's coordinators about the bus and they had both said that the bus came everyday at 7:45AM, 9AM, 10AM, 11AM, etc.  I waited at the bus stop until about 8:20, and then decided that the bus wasn't coming.  When I went back to my room I went on the bus company's website and saw that as of February, they had moved the 7:45AM bus to 7:10AM and took away the 9AM bus.  Since my mom's plane got to Granada at 9AM, I had no choice but to sit and wait until she tried to contact me. When I didn't hear from her by 10:00, I started to get really worried.  I frantically tried calling EVERYWHERE (the airlines, the airport, a women who's cell she had borrowed, the hotel...).  Finally about 2 and a half hours after her flight landed my mom decided to call me.  She ended up just taking the bus to the last stop which is right near Eva's house.  We ate the picnic lunch that I had ready since 7AM that morning by the fountains that are near my house.  


After lunch we walked over to Hotel Carlos V, the hotel that we were staying at until Friday night.  The hotel turned out much better then I could have even hoped for.  It was really cute and had an adorable terrace with a great view of the city.  Mom and I ate breakfast out there every morning.  The funny thing was though that when we first walked into the building, the conveniently was very close to my school, we were really confused when it was totally deserted.  We didn't know what to do but finally about 5 minutes later I saw the sign that said that the hotel was on the 4th floor.  
Then we walked over the the Albayzin area.  I meant to take us to this spot that my friends and I have gone that has an amazing view but somehow we ended up in this area where there was a huge gathering of young people with dread locks and tattoos.  There were people playing guitars and drums, hula-hooping to music, juggling, drinking, and just hanging out.  There were also dogs running around everywhere.  It was definitely quite the scene. We went over to Eva's house for dinner and she made us each a fried egg with peas, bread, and then croquetas for mom to try.  

Monday morning mom and I woke up around 8 and went for a run along the river.  After showers and a nice breakfast on the terrace I headed to class and mom headed out to walk around the city a bit.  For lunch Eva made us this thick puffy rice and topped mom's with chorizo and this scary looking, dark, crumbly sausage.  Mine was topped with a bunch of vegetables of course because Eva knows that I don't eat sausage.  Unfortunately I had classes from 3:30-6:30 that day, but mom was fine walking around a bit on her own and then taking a two hour siesta.  That night we tried to go to this bar that has delicious tapas and a great atmosphere called Bar Poe, but of course we didn't know that it was the only day of the week that it was closed.  We ended up going on a random tapa hunt and ended up getting tapas at two different restaurants that were right down the street from our hotel.


On Tuesday mom went to the Alhambra during the day.  I had my last midterm at 5PM so after going over to Eva's to eat lunch I came back to the hotel and tried to study.  After taking my Literatura Espanola midterm, which I think went pretty well, mom and I walked around by the Cathedral.  I brought two snow globes for my snow globe collection.  For dinner Eva made us what I think was one of mom's favorite meals here; a large spinach salad with avocado, tomato, cucumbers, green olives, and cheese cubes, and a tasty warm spinach dish with melted cheese on top that we dipped bread in.  

On Wednesday I had a decent amount of class again, so mom went and explored the Cathedral and went inside it too, which is something that I still need to do.  I found out that I got a perfect score on my Civilacion y Cultura Espanola midterm, so I was very happy about that.  For lunch mom got to try the tradicional Tortilla de Patata dish that Eva had made for us with another tasty salad.  That night we went back to Bar Poes, which was actually open this time.  It was really crazy because mom saw a guy that had graduated from the high school that she teaches at (Wheaton Warrenville South).  He said that he thought that she looked familiar when we walked in, and they have actually taught summer school at the same place before.  He's living and working in Granada, teaching English at one of the school's here.  What a small world!  Mom got three drinks and I got two so we got to try five different tapas and have five drinks for about ten euro.  We had a fish dish, two chicken ones, and two vegetable ones and they were all really tasty.

Thursday was my 21st birthday! It was also the day of the nationwide strike for the labor reform, so both of my classes for that day were canceled.  It was up to each professor individually if they wanted to hold class or not.  While we ate breakfast on the terrace that morning I opened birthday cards from mom and dad, papa, grandma, The Swiatlos, and the Nonceks.  I also got an iTunes giftcard and a Fossil bracelet and necklace set from my parents.  Mom and I made sandwiches at Eva's and ate a Picnic lunch at the beautiful Federico Garica Lorca Park (like I had originally planned for day 1).  

On the way back to Eva's we stopped at the Dunkin COFFEE, not Dunkin Donuts, that they have here.  I've never been to it before and I was surprised to see that although it is only a Dunkin and not an ice cream place like Baskin Robins too they still had soft serve ice cream and sundaes.  Mom got coffee and I got some soft serve frozen yogurt.  At 10:30AM U.S. time/5:30PM Spain time I registered for my Fall classes at ISU.  I somehow got into the Psychology class that I need for a middle level endorsement even though my counselor was telling me that the class would most likely be blocked for majors only.  I was very happy to get into that but now I'm going to have a pretty intense semester with 16 hours. For dinner that night we went to another bar with delicious tapas called Mayerlings.  We both started out with the "tapa especial" that I had gotten last time I went there.  It's rolled eggplant stuffed with seafood and cheese and served with some lettuce and dressing on the side.  It was a great birthday and I'm so glad that my mom was here to spend it with me.  

On Friday we took a little over an hour bus ride to Malaga, another city in Spain that is right along the Mediterranean Sea.  I didn't really do the best job researching how to get to our hotel once we got dropped off at the Malage bus station, but we figured it out eventually.  Out hotel was called Hotel Los Naranjos and was very close to the beach.  It wasn't warm enough to swim or anything, but it was still a beautiful view.  After checking into the hotel we walked over to this castle/fortress thing called the Alcazaba. On the way there we stopped at a restaurant for lunch and ordered Paella and salad.  I'm glad that mom got to try Paella since it is such a signature dish of Andalusia.  The Alcazaba dates back to the 11th century and sort of reminded my of Malaga's version of the Alhambra.  It was really cool to see it and also to see the amazing views of the city from the towers.  

We walked back to the hotel along the beach and stopped at good ol' Mercadona (my favorite supermarket in Spain) and bought some sliced ham from the deli, Brie cheese, green olives, and bread for a picnic lunch on the patio in our hotel room.  It wasn't as good as our patio at Hotel Carlos V in Granada though because there wasn't much of a view besides a wall.  That night we walked along the beach and got the most    breathtaking view of the city call lit up at night.  Then we went out for beers, but no tapas this time since we were full from dinner.  They did bring us out some delicious gourmat green olives though.  It's funny that I eat so many green olives now when I didn't even like them before I came to Spain.  

On Saturday we a large continental breakfast at the hotel.  They had a bunch  of fruit, yogurt, croissants, cereal, coffee, and freshly squeezed orange juice.  We walked over to the second of the who castles that are in Malaga.  This one was called the Castillo de Gibralfaro.  Since it was even high up on the mountain then the first one, we got an even more amazing view of the entire city, the Mediterranean Sea, and the mountains.  We made another stop at Mercadona to get ham and blue cheese for another picnic meal.  We had to check out of the hotel by noon so we brought our luggage and food to the beach and ate there.  Then we headed back to the bus station and took the ALSA bus back to Granada. 

When we got back to Granada we went to Eva's and mom tried to do the online check in for her flight.  My computer was being really annoying though so she wasn't able to do it.  We went to the hotel that I had booked us for the last night so that mom could shower before we headed out for a final night of tapas at Bar Poe.  I had booked us a room in a hotel that was cheaper than Carlos V called Hotel Niza.  I figured it didn't really matter since it was only for one night.  Don't get me wrong, it was a very cute little place with character, but you could definitely tell that it was a cheaper hotel.  The rooms were really tiny and old fashioned.  At Bar Poe mom decided to be brave and tried the spicy chicken liver tapa for her last one.  It was served with rice and actually tasted pretty good!  The problem with Hotel Niza that night was that there was one room that was playing loud music until 2AM. So rude! The fact that we had to get up at 6AM for that mom could catch the 7AM bus to the airport meant that we didn't get much sleep that night at all.  I was really sad to see my mom go.  We had such a great time here in Granada and had quite the adventure exploring Malaga.  I'm so glad that she was able to visit me here because it is such a huge chapter in my life!  

Flamenco shows and Midterms

This week was soooo busy.  I had two midterms so I had a lot of studying to do for those.  On Monday I went to a Flamenco event at the CLM (the building that my classes are in)  There was a tocaor (guitarist) a cantaor (singer) and a bailaor (dancer).  There was also a lady that played the violin, which is one of the instruments that sometimes accompanies the guitar during a Flamenco performance.  I have been learning so much about Flamenco lately because not only do I have a class that is all about it, but we also had a Flamenco unit in my Civilization and Culture of Spain class this week.  It was awesome to actually see what I have been learning about so much about.  I also really liked the addition of the violin.  


I had a lot of trouble and stress with trying to plan out things for when my mom is here.  Eva told me that she didn't mind preparing meals for my mom and I while she is here.  Eva and I then planned out a bunch of traditional Spanish dishes that she was going to make, such as Paella and Tortilla de Patata.  Then the next day Eva told me that it's not allowed to have parents in the home-stay house for several meals.  I was so disappointed because I had told my mom about all of the delicious meals that Eva was going to cook for us.  Then Eva talked to someone from the CEA program and found out that she actually IS allowed to cook meals for us.  They just don't allow parents to stay with the home-stay families while they are visiting Granada because people might think that the student's family is paying the Senora to sleep and eat there, or something strange like that.  My mom also pretty much put me in charge of figuring out EVERYTHING (the hotel, transportation from the airport, etc.) so I had to take care of that too.  I'm hoping that everything goes smoothly when she gets here TOMORROW! ahh I'm so excited though =]


My midterms went pretty well.  I had my Civ. and Culture one on Wednesday, and it wasn't very hard at all.  Then on Thursday I had my Historia de Espana midterm.  It was pretty difficult to learn, study, and take the test on the history all in Spanish when I don't even know the history in English to begin with.  That one went pretty well too though.  Unfortunately I still have on more midterm to go (on Tuesday).  It's for my Spanish Lit. class and I'm sort of nervous for it. 

Last night I went to a Flamenco show in the Albayzin.  My Flamenco class and the professor all went to it together.  We met up at Plaza Nueva and then walked up to the Albayzin from there.  Although there were several things that were similar to the Flamenco even that I went to on Monday, this show was definitely pretty different from the first.  The one at the school was a lot more clam and most of the performers were professors of their skill (the dancer was a teacher of Flamenco dancing for example).  The guitarrist also told us some of the history and other information about Flamenco inbetween songs.  The performers in the Albayzin performance were more "rugged" and to me at least, seemed like authentic performers.  We sat at tables and they brought everyone pitchers of sangria.  

I can't believe that my mom is coming tomorrow! I also can't believe that it is already the end of March.  Time is going by so extremely fast.  On Sunday, I will have exactly two more months left in Spain.  My 21st birthday is on Thursday!  It is also the day of a nationwide strike in Spain for the labor reform.  A bunch of people aren't going to work that day, and some professors are canceling their classes.  As far as I know I still have classes that day though.  It's also my registration day for my Fall classes at ISU.  College in general is just flying by way to fast.

A Week/Weekend a lot like the Last

I haven't written in my blog a lot lately because to be honest, not much new or exciting has been happening.  I have two midterms next week, so I've been trying to prepare for those.  I was supposed to have three, but one of my professors changed it to the following week.  I'm really not happy about that because that is the week that my mom is going to be here.  I think that I am stressing way too much over my midterms.  The thing is, I really don't know what to expect because I haven't had any tests, quizzes, or pretty much anything to turn in for feedback in any of my classes.  Also, they midterms are a big portion of the final grade.  I'm so excited for  my mom to be here in ONE WEEK!  I asked Eva about putting food in her fridge if I buy some for when my mom is here, and she pretty much told me that she doesn't mind making meals for my mom and I. 


This weekend was another very chill weekend.  Once again, I went for an amazing long run on Saturday.  Just like I did last weekend, I went wayyy far down the Fuente de la Bicha.  I was tried to study Historia de Espana during the day, but wasn't that productive.  I also had a nice, long skype session with my mom.  That night I went out for Tapas with Ashley and Amy at a place called Mayerling.  We all tried a very different, but delicious tapa.  It was rolled eggplant stuffed with seafood and some sort of cheese and then served with a little side salad type thing.   It was the "Tapa Especial" on the tapa menu.  We brought  along some stuff to study while we were there, but Amy and I pretty much just talked while Ashley studied.  I ordered a tinto de verano and obviously tapas are free with your drink since it's Granada, so I got all this for 1,80 euro! 
Sunday was simply a day of studying and e-mailing/skyping with my family.  I finally got a decent amount of studying done.  I've been trying to get everything figured out for when my mom is here and that has been somewhat of a challenge.  I just need my midterms to be over with so I can relax! 

A Hectic Week and a Relaxing Weekend

This week I was SUPER busy and stressed with classes.  For one thing, it was my week to present a news article for my POE class.  I get nervous enough having to speak in front of the class, but when it's completely in Spanish it's even scarier.  I had that presentation on Wednesday and it went okay, but it definitely could have been better.  I read way too much from the paper that I had prepared for the presentation and probably conjugated a bunch of verbs wrong.  That's another thing that I really let get to me this week; the fact that I continuously make the same stupid conjugation mistakes and forget words that I definitely should not be forgetting.  I'm starting to get worried that I won't be fluent enough in Spanish by the time that I leave Granada.  

Another thing that was causing me a lot of problems and anxiety this week was the fact that I needed to read a book for my Flamenco class that the University bookstore didn't have.  I went there on Monday and the girl that was working told me to come back tomorrow.  When I went back the next day they still didn't have it.  Then when I went back on Wednesday for the third day in a row it still wasn't there! I was starting to loose hope of ever getting the book but it was finally there on Thursday.  Since our Tuesday/Thursday classes met on Friday, I had two days to read the book.  Luckily it was very short, but still.  I also decided this week that I should just leave my camera in my backpack because every single day I see things that I want to take pictures of.  I added a few of my random pictures from the week.

Luckily Saturday was a lot better and just what I needed to relax and unwind from the long, hectic, and stressful week. I went on an amazing 9 miles long run along the river, running further then I ever have before along the Fuente de la Bicha.  In the afternoon I went to Carrefour, the awesome Target/Walmart like super center.  I have been avoiding getting a haircut for the longest time because I didn't know where to go, and everyone that I asked gave me different advise.  Little did I know, there is a hair salon in Carrefour where you can get a haircut for only 7 euro! The girl that cut my hair was so sweet.  Not only did she cut my hair, but she took time to dry it, straighten it, and make it look nice too.  When I tried to give her a tip, she told me that they weren't allowed to accept tips.  

The supermarket in Carrefour is pretty awesome too.  Just look at now many different types and flavors or Nocilla they had! (It's a brand that's only in Spain of crema del cocao.  It's sort of like Nutella, but some that are mixed flavors).  They also had ginormous jars of Nutella and it was the first time that I saw peanut butter in a supermarket in Spain.  They literally don't know about peanut butter in Spain.  One time I was trying to explain peanut butter and what it is used for to my senora.  When I showed her a picture of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, she was very confused and asked if people eat it for breakfast.  Of course it was another beautiful day in Granada with clear blue skies and lots of sun.  I walked home through Tico Medina park and took pictures along the way.   Later that day I went out for tapas with Amy, Ashely, Ashley's friend Amy, Rachel, and Sarah.  Sunday I procrastinated until about 3PM and then finally got down to doing some studying for the midterms that I have coming up.  It's daylight savings time in the U.S. today and I'm wondering why Spain doesn't have daylight savings times.  I'm also wondering what the time difference is now between here and the U.S.  

Madrid!

This weekend I went to Madrid with some of my friends.  My friend Amy and I took the 10AM bus to Madrid and met up with four other girls who had taken an earlier bus.  I woke up early (7AM) to run before meeting up with Amy at the Palecio de Congressos.  We took the Granada public bus to the Estacion de Autobuses.   After the five hour bus ride from Granada to Madrid, we arrived at the Estacion de Sur.  From there we got on the Metra and were able to take it to a stop that was right down the street from our hostel called Way Hostel.  Someone tried to pickpocket Amy when we were on the train though! That was a bit scary.


I have only stayed in one other hostel before, when I went to Paris at the end of January.  Staying at Way Hostel was definitely a bit different of an experience.  Don't get me wrong, it was a very nice hostel with friendly and helpful staff, a free breakfast, four computers to use, and a lot more to offer too.  However, in Paris the four of us had our own four person room and our own bathroom.  In Madrid we stayed in a 12 person mixed dorm room with two shared bathrooms, one for the girls and one for the guys.  There were two showers in the girls bathroom and the glass doors were somewhat see through so that got a bit awkward at times.  We were really shocked to find that three other girls from our program (Demetria, Rita, and Emma) were in the same room as us!  I knew that they were coming to Madrid that weekend two but I had know idea that they would be staying in the same hostel.  Our friends Rachel, Sarah, Katie, and Marlee  had made their hostel reservation earlier then Amy and I had so they were in a different room then we were.  


After checking into the hostel, we met up with Marlee's friend who is studying abroad in Madrid for the semester.  She showed us around the city a bit. Rachel, Sarah, and Marlee bought tickets to see "Grease the Muscial" that night.  Right away I could tell that Madrid was a very different city from Granada.  There were sooo many Americanized chain restaurants there, such as Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, McDonald's, Burger King, and we even saw a TGI Fridays. In Granada, we pretty much have a handful on chain restaurants like those and then the rest are cute little privately own cafes, restaurants, and stores.  Another thing that was very different in Madrid was the amount of English that you heard everywhere that you went.  I feel like if I studied abroad there I would be able to speak English most of the time.  I love how in Granada I'm forced to speak Spanish more often and I don't hear English being spoken everywhere that I go.  I don't want to give Madrid a bad impression though.  There were a lot of things that I loved about the city and I thought that it was very beautiful and historic.  I just always realize how much more I love Granada whenever I visit a new place in Europe.  

Anyways... after we walked around for a while Sarah, Katie, and Marlee decided that they wanted Thai food for dinner.  Rachel doesn't like Thai food so her, Amy, and I walked around looking for a cheap place that she could buy some dinner while the two of us ate sandwiches that we had made before leaving Granada.  Amy and I were seriously the budget queens on this trip.  We are probably going to sound like huge cheapskates in this blog post, but our philosophy is try to spend the least amount of money as possible on meal expenses when traveling so that we can put our money towards better things.  While we were waiting outside the Thai restaurant for the other three girls to pay, a huge group of African American men ran past us and down a side street.  At first I was scared because I thought that they had robbed someone or something and that was why they were running away.  Then we realized that they were the people that we always see on the streets illegally selling things such as sun glasses, bags, clothing, etc.  They had seen that a police car was coming so they quickly wrapped up their stuff in the blankets that they lay them on (for a quick get away such as that one) and ran.  Less then a minute later two little police motorcycles drove by. 


We then stopped at a soft serve frozen yogurt place to get some frozen yogurt.  Of course I had to get some because frozen yogurt is one thing that I can't resist spending money on.  Sadly, they didn't have rainbow sprinkles as one of the toppings, but it was still delicious.  The frozen yogurt shop was right next to the street where a bunch of prostitutes are at night.  That was definitely a new experience for me too, watching a group of four or five prostitutes stop just about any man that passed on the street and try to get them to leave with them.  Although it was sort of sad and sickening to watch, we sat there and watched them for a decent amount of time because they were right by the ice cream place and it was sort of interesting to see.


Rachel, Sarah, and Marlee left for the musical and Amy and I headed to a bar that she had heard about called El Tigre.  She said that it is a pretty popular bar in Madrid, one of the reasons being that it offers free tapas.  That's another thing that is awesome about Granada, pretty much all tapas are free!  When we got there we were surprised to see that there was a line of people outside waiting to get in.  A lady came out of the bar and said that there was another El Tigre that was near by and that there wasn't a line there so we walked over to the other one.  Amy got a tinto de verano and a nice variety tapa plate a long with it. 


That night in the hostel I slept horribly.  I had the bottom bunk of a bunk bed that was right next to the window.  The window was cracked open all night because it was the only way to get a little light into the room for people to see as they arrived back to the hostel from being out on the town.  I was so cold and I kept waking up when people came in to go to sleep.  We woke up at 8AM, got ready, and then went down for the free breakfast that the hostel had every morning.  They had cereal, toast, nutella, butter, jelly, coffee, tea, and hot chocolate.  Amy and I each took extra bread. Then a few hours later we bought lunch meat and a wedge of brie cheese from a Dia supermarket and made sandwiches for lunch.  The turkey and cheese lasted us for two days and we got six sandwiches out of it (three each)!  Considering we each only had to pay 1,60 euro, it was DEFINITELY the way to go.  Luckily I don't each sandwiches very much in Granada because that's pretty much all I eat when I travel.  


After breakfast we headed out to do some sight seeing and to take some pictures before going to Plaza Mayor for a free walking tour that we had signed up for.  We saw places such as  the Catedral, the Palacio Real, and the Jardines de Sabatini.  We also went to the Parque de las Vistillas that had some pretty cool street art.  My friend Amy loves street art and always takes pictures of it.  She has gotten me a bit obsessed with it too, so I've been taking a lot of pictures of graffiti lately.  There is just so such awesome graffiti in Europe.  At 11AM we went to the Plaza Mayor for a free tour.  The tour was through the same company as the one that we went on in Paris.  However, this tour wasn't really as fun or interesting as the one in Paris, so we ended up leaving it early.  


 

It was time for lunch so while the other four girls went off in search of a kabob restaurant, Amy and I headed back to the hostel to make our sandwiches.  After lunch Amy and I went to a free art exhibit at the Instituto Cervantes.  She had seen online that there was a street art exhibit there, but they must have changed it since then.  There was an exhibit by an artist named Max Panoptica, who was a graphic artist.  When the other girls were done with lunch (they couldn't find a kabob restaurant and settled on KFC) all six of us went to the Reina Sofia Museum.  It was a huge museum with so many different types of art in it.  They had paintings, photos, short films, still life, sculptures, and just a bunch of very modern and different types of artwork.  Unfortunately I ended up loosing the rest of the group though.  I felt bad when I finally decided to go and get my phone from my backpack in the coatroom and found out that they had tried calling me and had waiting for me for a while on the floor that we started on.  We also ran into three other girls from our program in the museum. What are the chances of that!  They told us about a row boat ride that they had taken in a park the was near by, so we decided to go there and check it out.

I'm so glad that we went to the Parque del Retino and road in the row boats in the lake there because it was one of my favorite parts of the trip.  Retino Park is a huge, beautiful park in Madrid.  We split up into two groups (I went on a boat with Amy and Katie) and each only had to pay 1,55 euro to row around the lake for 45 minutes.  After our boat ride, we did a bit of shopping before meeting up with Demetria, Rita, Emma, and Rita's friend who is studying abroad in Ireland for the semester.  We ate dinner at a Chinese restaurant.  I wanted soup and I usually get sweet and sour soup at Chinese restaurants, but I decided to try a new kind and ordered chicken and mushroom soup.  I also got a delicious roll of sushi.  After dinner Rachel, Sarah, Amy, Marlee, and I went to a Chocolateria that served Churros con Chocolate.  The restaurant was packed with people, all eating churros with hot mugs of thick chocolate to dip them in.  I don't like churros since they're fried, but Sarah only used half of her mug of chocolate,   so I drank the rest.  I was exhausted from the long, action packed day so after the chocolateria I took a shower, checked my e-mails and facebook and such on one of the computers in the hostel, wrote a lot in my beautiful journal that Heather gave me for Christmas, and then went to bed.  I slept a little bit better that night, but not much better.

Sunday was our last day in Madrid.  After breakfast we went to the Museo de Prado.  We thought that it opened at 9AM, but it was actually 10AM.  It wasn't a big deal though because there was already a decent size line forming outside when we got there.  Like every museum that I've been to in Europe so far, we got in free with proof that we were students between a certain age (I forget what the age range is).  The Prado Museum had mostly painting and drawings and includes artwork from artists such as Goya, Velazquez., and Rubin.  I liked the museum, but I got bored with it sort of quickly and I definitely liked the Reina Sofia Museum more.  Outside of the museum we took a picture with out "Roaming Redbirds" study abroad tshirt to send to our program coordinators.  Then we went to this flee market that they have every Sunday.  There was a ton of stalls with things such as scarfs, bags, clothing, jewlery, and more.  There were a lot of places that were selling scarfs for only 1 euro.  I went to buy two scarfs and when I gave the lady a 2 euro coin I think she miscalculated because she gave me 1 euro back.  That means that I got my scarfs for ,50 cents each!  After the market Sarah, Rachel, Marlee, and Katie went to eat lunch at a kabob place since they hadn't found one the day before.  Guess where Amy and I went? That's right, back to the hostel to use up the rest of our cheese and lunchmeat and make sandwiches with the break that we had taken at breakfast that morning. 


When we were all reunited at the hostel, we packed up our stuff and took the Metra to the Estacion de Sur.  Our bus left Madrid at 4:30PM.  Amy and I were on a different bus from Rachel, Sarah, Marlee, and Katie.  Since our bus was the second bus, it was only about half full.  There was no body in the back row of the bus, so Amy and I went back there and got the five seats along the back to ourselves.  We arrived back at the Granada bus station around 10PM.  Then we got on the Granada public bus and took that back to our houses.  It's funny that when I come back to Granada after a trip, I just love Granada that much more.  Granada is definitely my home away from home.