Going to Marrueco (Morocco) tomorrow- Promise to update soon!

**Written on Thursday, Oct. 4th**

New photos below.

Hi everyone, I know that a huge update is in order. I’ll try my best –

Let’s see, since I’ve written last things have continued to be busy, but going well. The weekend after we went to Rhonda and Sevilla, we stayed in Granada to relax and get to know the city better. On Thursday we went to some Tapas bars in Plaza Albert Einstein (Bri, you would be so excited) that has become one of my favorite places because though it’s not the prettiest place, they have the best and cheapest tapas around. Friday night we went dancing to a salsa club and a few other clubs in the city. On Saturday, we were a bit more adventurous and decided to go to a concert, Las Mujeres de la Mediteranea on the outskirts of the city- basically in the middle of nowhere.

The concert was a lot of fun, and hosted 6 female performers, including Spanish, South American and Moroccan bands.

Favorite was La Schica: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auDs-IV_iKM

and La Mala Rodriguez was the headliner, but it was already 1:30 and we were freezing and tired so we headed back. It’s too bad though, she’s really great- check out her stuff here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-1N33kp3-g

Anyway, I have never seen so many dreadlocks in my life- all the hippies of Granada, and that’s a lot, came out. It was a lot of fun, and since the buses stopped working we had to take cabs back to the center of the city.

During the week I continued going to classes, which have overall been very good with the exception for my language class. I spoke with my professor about switching to the next highest level, and she said that my grammar, writing and understanding skills are high enough, but that my language skills are not at the same level. She suggested that I sign up for as many intercambios as I can, and I think we are going to do some personal lessons because the class is too easy, but I’m sort of in-between the levels. We will have to see, she’s very nice, but I’m not really sure what’s going to happen with that.

This past weekend was really great, one of the best. I went dancing with some friends on Thursday, we went to a club called “Camborio” that is in Sacramonte, an area of the city that has all these caves that people live in, some in very poor conditions without electricity or running water. You walk in to these whitewashed cave walls, it’s really cool. The top floor is this enclosed glass patio, and has an amazing view of the Alhambra and looks incredible when illuminated at night. That floor plays mostly American music, and was really crowded. The other floor plays more salsa/Spanish style music, and for some reason was really empty. We were sick of American music after awhile and decided to head home.

On Friday, I went to the Cartuja Campus, one of the University campuses, to check it out and try to find the Facultad de filosofía y Letras, where the classes I will attend are based. It was of course empty on a Friday afternoon, but it was still fun to see the University life- and all of the posters promoting free concerts, poetry readings, free food etc. On my way back, I talked with a grad student from Italy and I’m starting to get more confident in just starting conversations. Well, to be honest he offered his newspaper to me, but you get the idea. I was actually pretty happy because he said that he thought I was French or German, and that my accent didn’t sound very American. That night I met up with some friends for Tapas and we meet some British people who were in Spain for a wedding.

They were nice and we had some interesting conversations, but one thing they said really bothered me. They kept talking about how much they love the States, and how fascinating it is that each state has it’s own character (the only places they had been to was Las Vegas and New York) etc etc. I kept telling them that they are the lucky ones; they have all these countries at their finger tips who have a lot more varied cultures, histories and languages. I know you never take advantage of what is right in front of you, but I don’t think they understand what a fortunate position they are in.

Anyway, I’m going to try to take advantage, so on Saturday we took a day trip to the Alpujarras, which is composed of a national park and small towns that make up the highest points of the Sierra Nevada. The towns are beautiful, with white walls, windy streets and go along the mountain side like stairs, stacked on top of each other. The girls I went with and I had a lot of fun, we started in Capeliera, then took small hikes (about an hour long between each town) and tried some of the local food and wine along the way. The Alpujarras are famous for their artisan crafts, and they make these fuzzy blankets and rugs that to be honest looked like the precursor to 70’s shag if you asked me.

It was really nice to be outside of the city for a while, and we had a really good time. We took the last bus back to Granada at 6 pm and got back around 9pm. When we got back we went to this huge store called El Campo, that was basically the Spanish equivalent of Target without clothes shopping. As fun as these cute European-city stores are, with their mini-sized yogurts, it was very comforting to see huge boxes of pretzels and ketchup that would take years to get through. They also have an “international” section where we went to stock up on some peanut-butter.

That night, we went to a dance-club in the outskirts of the city, called “Embruja” that was basically Las Vegas- Spanish style. It was their big last summer-event, so they had fire-throwers, drag queens, fireworks and Egyptian Gods on stilts. To be honest, the guys on stilts creeped me out, but we had a lot of fun dancing. We went my friends’ Portuguese friends and I love listening to Portuguese, it’s so musical and intonated, even when they speak in Spanish. I got back at a time when I’m normally waking up for class, though respectable by Spanish standards.

Then, on Sunday it was Día de la Virgen, when they celebrate the city’s Virgin, Angustia. They’ve been making offerings to the Virgen all week, with flowers, and a great open air market with fresh fruits, nuts, pastries and a special Virgin cake.

I met up with a friend to watch the procession, which ended up taking quite a long time, they had all these bands and processionals that came first. The whole city was on the streets, and it was nuts. I returned to my house and then later came back to the city center to meet up with some people to discuss an upcoming project.

Well, the streets were still buzzing even at 10 at night, and when were trying to get through the streets we accidentally stumbled into the apparent grand-finale. It was so beautiful, we were right up front, and the processional stopped in front of the cathedral. There was incense, people had candles, everyone sang the city song, a responsive reading and the priest spoke. I’m not a religious person, but seeing that and everyone calling out “Viva la virgen” gave me goosebumps, it was really beautiful and full of tradition.

This past week has been more stressful than normally, mainly because University classes have started and I’ve been having trouble fitting in what I would like to take and finding classes that I’m happy with. I’m also rather overly-sensitive about this kind of stuff, but I just hate wasting time and I want to find a class that I am interested in, challenged and comfortable with all at the same time.

The first class I tried was an anthropology of gender class, whose material seems really interesting that I think I would like. However, the professor “profe” was so hard to understand, she mumbled, spoke really quietly and basically ran out after class so I didn’t have a chance to talk to her. We have to talk to our profe to make sure it is ok if we take the final exams/essays early because we leave in December while the semester isn’t over until February. She just seemed really inaccessible, and I’ve been so lucky with professors who are really approachable, so that was frustrating.

**warning- class rant upcoming**

The other class I took that day was an education class- on gender and social change, mainly in education. Again, professor was hard to understand but at least seemed more interested in the students. However, the students were really rude and talked the whole time, I couldn’t believe it. And then, she made us split into these research groups, one half of the class being education students and the others non-education (it’s a class that’s open to everyone, regardless of which Faculty they are matriculated in).

Anyway, she made us go around in a circle and talk about our research interests, and I was the second one to go… I said something about being interested in immigration and education and was put in a group with my other friend and this other Spaniard. I talked with the professor later if it would be ok to take the exam early, and she said that was fine, but I don’t understand what would happen to this poor Spanish girl if we aren’t there for the last two months..

Anyway, I took another Anth of Development class later on that was much more promising, but then I would have to drop one of my IES classes that I really like and would probably not ever take at GW (History of Islam class).

Then, I went this afternoon to another class, only to find that it doesn’t exist?

**still coming**

I feel like there’s a lot of running back and forth in this education system- which is something I’m very used to at GW, but it’s much more frustrating when it’s in another language. I went to the photocopy room to get the class program, only to find that I needed to go somewhere else to find my class number, which wasn’t even posted yet. Then I waited around for an hour for the sociology of education class to start, thinking it was in room number 3 of the education faculty. Well, I couldn’t find it so I asked some girls and they said it was in the other building- I went there, but then the kids waiting outside that room said they were there for another class… we looked in their class book to find that the room wasn’t listed, and told me to go the information desk to find out. Info desk also said they had no idea…

Anyway, by that time I was tired, had stepped in dog poop, had wet shoes from a sudden downpour and decided that it was time to head home. Not to sound like an over-dramatic movie, but it was definitely just one of those days. Oh well, I ended up taking the wrong bus, which was my fault, and was happy to get back to the apartment. I made myself some dinner, tea, and here I am.

**class rant over**

All that aside, things are good- I was supposed to meet up w/ a Spanish guy, Nacho (I know, such a “cheesy” name, the level of jokes is awful), I met the other night, but we had to re-sched because of mutual class conflicts. All my friends and I are hoping he has a moped, and he is actually mullet free (unlike 85% of the guys here).

Lilía’s aunt is also visiting from Venezuela, and is really sweet. Amazingly enough, she studied at GW and lived in Miami for a long time as a marine biologist. We speak in Spanish, but it’s nice to have that connection. She’s staying for a week, and both Lilia and Valentina were so excited for her arrival. I came home last night to find wine, olives and jam waiting (and Venezuelan chocolates!) waiting.

This weekend is also very promising, we are going to Córdoba on Saturday with IES and on Friday I have a field trip for my Lorca class. I’m really excited to return to Córdoba, I remember loving it when visiting it last time, and know I will have a new appreciation for it. I know all my silly concerns will be resolved soon, and I can’t get too picky about this stuff- it’s just taking some time for this no pasa nada mentality to really get into my blood.

Well, I think I have babbled enough, so I am off to watch some trashy Spanish tv, or badly dubbed American shows. Ok, before I go though, I must add on a completely tangent note, that I came home the other day to find Valentina watching “The Nanny” with Fran Dresser in Spanish. Let’s just say that her awful, nasal voice does not translate, and she actually sounded perfectly normal – quite disappointing.

What an awful way to end, but I couldn’t resist-

Until later, All my love!

Bienvenido a Las Alpujarras

































































































This was the door used w/in this wire fence, I thought it was rather cute

















My favorite picture



Traditional Alpujarras Rugs















































































Angustia, la Virgen

















Procession













haha




Mujeres in the Medit. concert:


































Quick shot of the living room/dining room


My room- double bed!