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.
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!
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.
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.
I didn't have classes on Monday or Tuesday this week because of Andalusia Day. This is a holiday that commemorates the referendum of the year 1980, which gave full autonomy to the Andalusian community. In many towns and cities are decorated balconies, where hangs the flag of Andalusia bars and there are competitions of Andalusian courtyards, among others. Since there are only four days during the semester that we have Friday classes, and this week isn't one on them, I have an extra long weekend. There was an optional trip to Morocco (Africa) through my program this weekend. I would have loved to go if it wasn't $500. It's so hard because I want to travel to other countries while I'm here, but the planning is always so complicated and the expenses add up fast.
Thursday night I dropped my purple intak water bottle, which I use every single day, on the floor and it broke. I was very sad and decided that I would need to buy a new water bottle ASAP. The next day I went to Carrefour to look for a new one. Carrefour is a huge "Hipermercado." It's sort of like a WalMart Supercenter or a Super Target that has just about everything you could need, such as books, electronics, sporting equipment, makeup, household items, and more. It's not too far from my house, but I hadn't been there before. What amazed me the most about it was the ginormous supermarket section. They had so many American brand food items there that my willpower was definitely tempted. I found a water bottle that I really liked so I was happy about that!
Friday night I went out for tapas with Amy, Ashley, and Ashley's friend Amy. We went to a bar called Bar Poes. I really liked it and I think I want to take my mom there when she comes. The owners, who are husband and wife, opened the bar when they came to Granada 9 years ago. The owner was really nice and we talked with him about how he and his wife just sort of randomly ended up settling down in Granada while traveling around Europe and about how awesome Granada is. Here is the description of Bar Poe from the website:
"Bar Poë is a tapas bar in the heart of Granada, Spain. We provide a wide range of drinks from local to world-wide breweries. Every drink comes with a FREE tapa and not any old tapa, oh no, we provide you with a fantastic selection of tapas inspired by different cultures, countries and tastes. There is our famously hot Portuguese Piri-Piri, our traditional Brazilian bean stew (Feijoada), our new Thai Chicken dish, our Italian vegetables and much, much more. And do you know the best thing of all? You get to select what you want!"
I ordered the Ensalada de Garbonzos (Chickpea salad). The great thing is that I didn't even order an alcoholic beverage! I just ordered pineapple juice. AND he poured it into a wine glass for me too. Fancy. 
Saturday Ashley and I did a workout at a beautiful park that is pretty close to our houses. Amy came along too to read and enjoy the gorgeous weather that we have been having lately. During the day, it's in the high 50's! I am very, very glad that I am not in Illinois right now with the snow and the cold. I had a nice, long skype session with my mom while she was eating breakfast. After talking with her, I was sort of feeling really down and homesick. I spent the night watching TV with Eva and talking a lot too. After talking with her I definitely felt better though. I told her how I was feeling homesick and a little frustrated because I felt like my Spanish wasn't improving as much as I wanted it to be. She told me that she definitely noticed an improvement in my Spanish and that it was obviously going to take time. She also make me laugh by telling me that a great way to practice my Spanish is to ask random people on the street "donde esta...?" ("Where is...?). That way I can talk to Granadians. I told her that it was a great idea very though I'm not really sure how much that would help haha.
Sunday was somewhat uneventful. I ran, caught up on my must watch TV shows (How I Met Your Mother, Gossip Girl, and Pretty Little Liars) and unfortunately added another one to the "must watch" list. I started watching the show New Girl and it's so funny! I love it. In the afternoon Ashley and I sat outside by the river and read and enjoyed the sun and warmth. Since pretty much none of the stores are open on Sundays (not even grocery stores) we went on a mad hunt to try to find Ashley some fruit to eat. She had to settle on some overprices pineapple juice from the mini mart to satisfy her fruit craving.
On Monday I went for an awesome long run along the river. Running along the river and right near the Sierra Nevada Mountains never gets old! Eva made her delicious noodle, chicken, and chickpea soup for lunch. In the afternoon I sat by the river and read and worked on school work. I took an amazing siesta and then went to Corte Ingles and a few other stores with Amy. Amy and I decided that we definitely need to practice using Spanish more when we are with out friends, because since we are all American we speak English. We spoke Spanish the whole time we were shopping which was una buena idea. The two month long Rebajas (deals) are on their final closeout prices and it is sooo hard not to buy things! I'm very proud that I resisted the rebajas and didn't buy anything because I really don't need anything at the moment.
Tuesday was the final day of my superrr long weekend. Once again it was a somewhat uneventful yet relaxing day. I FINALLY satisfied my ice cream craving by going to a soft serve frozen yogurt shop that they have here. I got the natural flavor with rainbow sprinkles like always. Yum! Considering I usually eat ice cream every single day, multiple times a day in the U.S. the fact that I have only had it three times here is very sad. Oh well what can ya do. I would also do just about anything to have a taco night in the Schneider household. I want a delicious, corn shell taco with black beans, dad's homemade salsa, and guacamole sooo bad. However, Eva is an amazing cook so I really can't complain. I don't think that I will ever get tired of all of her tasty meals, her carefully prepared salads and her delicious homemade soups. Here is my meal today for example...
It's going to be weird only having two days of classes this week and then the weekend again since this week isn't one of the weeks that classes meet on Friday. I wanted to go to Madrid this next weekend but now I don't know if that's going to happen. For my Flamenco class we are supposed to go to a Flamenco show in Friday but we got an e-mail from the professor saying that it might have to be rescheduled. My friend who is in my class and I were going to maybe leave for Madrid Friday afternoon, but now we don't know any details about the trip, or if it's even happening.
It is so hard to believe that February is almost over. I have been in Spain for about two months, which is crazy. Time is flying by. Since this year is a leap year, I actually get to say that it's exactly one month til my birthday tomorrow!
Yesterday was an intense skype day for me. First I skyped with my mom and dad. After that, I skyped Alyssa. After skying with Alyssa I FINALLY got to skype with Kaity and Alaina. I enjoyed hearing about Alaina's birthday celebration the night before ;) Thennnn I skyped with Brittany too! I miss my family and my friends so much sometimes.
Today was such a beautiful, warm, sunny here! I had a pretty chill morning that included a short run, working on some homework, eating the delicious chickpea dish and spinach salad that my senora made for me, and working on plans for when my mom comes to visit (which is only a little over a month from now!). When I was running down the street Reyes Catholicos I ran into an enormous procession or demonstration or whatever you call it in the street. I'm not really sure what it was for, but there were a bunch of people holding signs and waving flags and such. Then in the afternoon my friends and I took a walk over to the Albayzin. We took some photos and just enjoyed the amazing weather.
Ashley and I left a little bit before the other three. We passed a church and when we saw that mass had just started, Ashley asked if I wanted to go with her. She hadn't been to that church before, but figured it would be worth a try. For starters, it was freezing cold in the church. When the priest started talking, we were both a bit shocked that his voice was really, really scratchy and old and sort of scary. We felt bad but ended up sneaking out early because we were freezing and couldn't even make out the words that the priest was saying, his voice was that scratchy. Also, I was wearing yoga pants and an ISU hoodie at mass. Coming in late, sneaking out early, and rockin' the most American outfit that there is was a very bad way of attending my first mass in Spain haha.
I know that this was a short post but I figured that it was worth posting it so that I could post a few pictures as well...
Yes, I know that it's been a while since I've written. This week was week two of classes and pretty much just consisted of me getting into the swing of things. I REALLY like the two women teachers that I have. Jóse, my Flamenco and Literature teacher, is the only one that I have somewhat mixed feelings about. I do like him and how passionate that he is about the subjects, but he is really intimidating. He isn't afraid to tell someone off when they don't give the response that he is looking for. I'm sort of afraid to participate in his classes. I really need to start participating though because participation in class is factored into our final grade. Another thing that I'm a little worried about is how this semester will affect my GPA. Grades in Spain are on a totally different numeric system, where getting what are considered A's and B's in the U.S. are much more rare and hard to get. Oh well, there's no point in worrying about it now.
One day this week I decided to run down a street that I haven't been down since the first week that I was here, all the way back in the beginning on January. There is a building on the street called Molinos that some classes are held in. Since I haven't had a class there, I never need to walk down it though. Since I haven't been down that street since the first week when we took a walking tour of the city I forgot about all of the AMAZING graffiti art that is on it. After running down Molinos that morning and rediscovering how cool it was, I decided to walk down it before my 11:30AM class that day to take pictures. Seriously, it's not graffiti, it's artwork.
Before I start this next topic, I want to make something very clear. I LOVE my senora Eva and couldn't be happier with her. However, this past week there have just been a few things that are starting to drive me slightly crazy. The main thing is that she asks me the exact same questions every single day, multiple times a day. For example, every day during the week I wake up at 8:15AM, put on somewhat the same running clothes, and go for a run. Every single day she asks me "vas a correr?!" (are you going running?) Yes... just like I do every day at this time, in these clothes. Other questions that she asks me every day, multiple times a day include "are you studying?" No, I don't study every second of every day. Then on the weekends "are you going out with your friends tonight?" which is annoying because I usually don't know my plans until an hour or two before I leave, yet she asks me about it all day long.
Every single time she sets a meal in front of me she asks "está bien o quieres más?!" (Is this good or do you want more?) This question is usually asked again during the meal and then at the end too. "quieres más?" "quieres más?" "quieres más?" ahhh I'm sorry, but not once have a answered "si". She still doesn't seem to understand that half the time I am physically incapable of eating the very large amount of food that she give me in the first place. And I hate wasting food. And I feel bad when I can't eat it all. I just really, really wish she would catch on... Okay sorry enough complaining because like I said before, I love Eva and the fact that she is always so caring and happy and sweet.
Normally there are no Friday classes, since they are either Monday/Wednesday or Tuesday/Thursday. However, there are four Fridays during the semester that we have class. Two of those times the Monday/Wednesday classes meet and two of those times the Tuesday/Thursday ones meet. Yesterday was one of the Fridays that we had classes. I definitely didn't enjoy having classes on Friday when I'm used to having Friday's off. That night I went out for tapas with my friends Amy, Rachel, and Sarah. Amy suggested that we try this place called Cocoa's. We went there and it was so cute! The walls were covered with mosaics and other designs, such as roses. They also serve breakfast, tea, coffee, crepes, and sandwiches there.
It was definitely a pretty girly restaurant, with all of the flowers and colorful artwork on the walls and a lot of tea and coffee drinks. I ordered what I always do, tinto de verano. I do love that drink but I need to learn what other drinks they have here that I like. I always get tinto partly because I don't know what else there is. They also had some great options for tapas at Cocoa's. The only problem when selecting a tapa in Granada is that most of the time it's hard to understand the descriptions of them on the menu. Usually I just pick something and hope that it's good, without really knowing what to expect. One tapas said "crema de calabaza con tortellini y mozzarella." I knew that calabaza means pumpkin so I decided to try it. It was different, but had a really good taste to it!
My life here in Granada is just sooo different then my life in Illinois. I love it here so much and I am so happy to be here. My classes are going well, the city is gorgeous, and everyone is really nice. I have met some great people here too. It's just hard because there are a lot of things that I miss about home. I miss my mom, dad, and Alyssa SO MUCH. I also miss my friends and having access to certain things that I don't have here (a car, certain restaurants and stores, etc.). I'm trying really hard to just focus on being here and enjoying every minute of it, and not think about home. That's about all for now. I'll try to write back again soon.
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. 
