Granadadina

Flan de Calabazas y Italia

2007-12-11T05:41:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone, since my last update a lot has happened, life’s been busy, lots of tapas have been eaten.. the usual.

First of, I had my first Thanksgiving away- from- home, a whole continent away in fact. As I mentioned earlier, IES was gracious enough to host us a Thanksgiving dinner that was un-traditional but still nice.

We had some nice egg appetizers and for dinner had a turkey/meat loaf thing, some mushrooms, and some mashed potatoes. When I say “some” I mean “some”- these were not American portions, so some people left pretty disappointed.

My favorite part was the dessert, “flan de Calabasas” (pumpkins). I thought it was a perfect symbol of the mix of the too cultures, and absolutely delicious (and I normally don’t even like Flan!)

I also won the photo contest for one of the pictures I took in Morocco (see woman on rocks in other post) so that was exciting. I won two free entrances to the Arab baths (about 30 euros each, so not too shabby!) I’m going with some friends on Thursday to enjoy two hours of bath-time, aromatherapy and a massage… can’t wait.

I don’t really remember what happened the rest of the weekend after Thanksgiving- probably nothing too eventful.. went out on the weekend, did homework.. the usual.

I then went the weekend after that to Italy, which was really fun and deserves it’s own post.

Italy

Let me first of say that going to Italy was the first time I was traveling alone internationally (other than coming to Spain) and since time was of the essence, I wanted to make sure everything was going to go smoothly.

Well, I got a bit of a frantic Skype message from Bri saying that Italy’s transportation systems were going on strike…the Friday I was supposed to be traveling. We were both a bit worried about how things were going to turn out. After a few calls to Alitalia, who assured me that my flight was expected to be on schedule and they didn’t expect many delays.. I woke up at 5 am to take the 7 am bus to Malaga, to catch a 1:30 flight to Rome, with a two hour layover, to fly into Pisa and meet Bri. Everything worked out perfectly, and I was ohhing- and ahhing over the Chrstimas lights in Florence by 9pm that night.

As I mentioned earlier, I was really looking forward to visiting Bri because I have heard so much about Italy and couldn’t wait to see her new home. We took a little walk around the city, stopped by the Christmas market (which eventually became a daily occurrence) and had some strudel. I was also rather jealous of her apartment set-up, which was huge for European (or at least Granada Standards). As much as I love the experience of a home-stay, and I’ve been so lucky with mine, I really do miss the independence of living on my own, cooking for myself.. etc.

Anyway, after an exhausting day of traveling, we went to bed to prepare for the next day of sight-seeing. Let me say, we took Florence by storm, I was really impressed.

First we woke up and Bri cooked a cute breakfast (haha she even bought me purple yogurt!) and we stopped by the food market to explore the fresh fruit stands, meat, fish, pasta, pastries, cheese, you name it they had it. One of my personal favorites was her dried fruit market- complete with dried Kiwis.. I had never seen that before.

We also went to the outdoor market where they sold lots of the Ventian glass, leather products, tons of scarf’s, jewelry… everything. Sort of glad that our stores are at least a bit more hidden, not so tempting to spend money.

Started the day off by visiting the Academia and the “David” aka The David- Michelangelo’s David. Before the main attraction, we saw some of the Medicci family’s instruments, and some Boticellis and Rape of the Sabine Women. One funny thing, further proof of how small the world really can be, I was standing next to a painting when I heard a girl speaking in English, who sounded an awful lot like my friend Sahar from my IES program. I turned to my right, and there she was talking to her boyfriend and looking at the painting right next to me. I knew that she would be in Florence that weekend, but what a coincidence to bump into her!

We then went into the backroom, and upon entering you are just blown away by this huge, white, hunk of a man. Yes, I said hunk. It’s incredible, the attention to detail and form… I can’t even imagine making something so perfect, let alone on such a huge scale. After making friends with David, we visited some more sculptures that were also very nice, but still not quite the same. I felt bad for the other pieces in the room, which really get over-shadowed.

Unfortunately, no pictures allowed (understandably) so the only testament to David is my 1 euro postcard, and posing in front of the replica in Palazzo Vecchio (which is where David originally was).

We then went to visit the Santa Croce basilica, where some of the greats are buried, including Gailileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. It was cool to see how each monument/tomb included elements of their lives.. and how many important people are buried in that one place.

After that we stopped for my first taste of Italian gelato – hazelnut and café yumm. The gelato shop was really cute, and I could see why many people get easily addicted.

After our sugar jolt (we also had a caffeine jolt earlier with some cappuccinos that had coco-powder in the shape of a heart) we headed over to the duomo, the Renaissance- style Cathedral that just happens to be 5 minutes from Bri’s apartment. Renaissance architecture is so different from the Islamic/ Mudejar style I’ve been studying and I was appreciate of Bri’s explanations. She told me that they use the contrasts between the white and colors/ black to reflect a pencil drawing. I sometimes wonder what it must be like an architect, spend hours working and sketching and then finally seeing your building in full 3-d form. Even if inspired by a pencil drawing, I’m sure it’s never anything like what you had imagined.

We went back to her apartment for a little break, and then ventured out to the Ponte Vecchio (old bridge) to look at the jewelry shops that line the bridge. From far away, the bridge looks like a bunch of buildings stretched over the river, it’s a really unique design and a lot of fun to walk across. Bri also told me that the top layer of the buildings was built so that the Medici’s could walk across without interacting with the scum of the city haha.

We crossed and walked along the Amo river to visit another church on top of the hill. After a bit of a walk, I got a great view of Florence (despite the overcast weather) and visited the church San Miato. We came at that particular time to hear the Gregorian monks chant, which was really cool, I don’t think I’ve seen a live performance before and they have very impacting voices. On a side note, I found this church to be kind-of-creepy and funny at the same time. To conserve money and energy, the lights inside don’t work unless you put a euro coin into the nearby machines. Being the poor/cheap students that we are, we had to wait patiently for someone else to put in a coin before really being able to see it haha.

Before the monks, we also visited the cemetery where the author of Pinocchio (Carlo Collodi) is buried. We searched for a while, but the cemetery was pretty packed and chaotic with tombstones and monuments all over the place, so didn’t have any success. A voice came over the loudspeaker announcing that the cemetery was going to close, so we decided that even if we couldn’t find him, Collodi wasn’t going to be moving anytime soon so we would have to find him some other time.

After walking in the cold, we again stopped by the Christmas market to get some Vino Brule (warm wine) and cookies. We sat in front of the Santa Croce, and people/dog- watched.

That night we went to a nearby Tratoria, literally 30 feet from Bri’s house that she hadn’t had time to visit. After seeing Italy prices (museum entrances were upwards of ten euros) we were both impressed to find such a cute place, with such good food at a good price. We split the risotto with porcini mushrooms and a homemade pasta in red-sauce. They were both so yummy, and after some nice wine left feeling pretty good : ) There was a table of Italian girls in the other room, who were feeling even better and were singing at the top of their lungs in the restaurant haha.

The next day we re-visited the Christmas market (notice a trend?) and we found the Hungarian booth that was selling palinka and another one selling dolls ( there were a lot of booths with food/products from other countries). After living in Spain, whatever Hungarian I had left in me from when I was younger is buried underneath vosotros conjugations, because it was a really embarrassing exchange. I understood what they were saying, but I could only blurt out half-responses, half in Hungarian half in Spanish.

Anyway, after that we had planned on climbing to the top of the Duomo but it was closed on Sundays. I was a bit disappointed, but I had already seen a great view of the city, and it was an absurd amount of steps- no elevator in the duomo! We then met up with two of Bri’s apartment mates to visit the Uffizi, Florence’s world-class art museum.

One of Bri’s apartment mates is an art history major, so it was great touring the museum with her. We saw Botticelli’s Primavera and The Birth of Venus, Tizian’s Venus of Urbino (a scandalous piece), Michelangelo, Raphael, and Parmigiano’s The Madonna with the long neck. The museum was a lot of fun, but exhausting, there is just room after room of pieces and apparently quite a few of the rooms were closed. I really liked the set-up of the museum because it was converted from old office buildings built by the Medici’s and on one side the windows open up to a cool courtyard and have great views of the city.

After a few hours there, we decided a break was in order so Bri and I went to one of her favorite pizzerias to have some famous Italian pizza. It was good, very fresh, and I hadn’t had mozzarella in ages.

At one point we also went to the leather school, a really cool place Bri had found where you can see the leather workers make some of the famous Italian leather goods. Since it was Sunday, there weren’t many workers, but we saw one of the workers emboss a little card box and saw some of the store.

We went back to her house, and later ventured back out to look at leather purses, and visit the outside of the Pitti palace, the Medici palace. We then went back to the Christmas market ( what’s the count at now?) and looked at some gorgeous amber rings that were really pretty but too big.

That night, Bri treated me to a home-made dinner and I had a lot of fun relaxing and helping her cook. She made a delicious meal she had learned in her cooking class (pasta, egg plant, tomatoes, fresh cheese- all that when put together looks like a volcano). After stuffing myself ( I think I will always associated Italy with that feeling) we had a relaxing night at her house and I went to bed pretty early since I had to catch the 3 am bus to the airport.

Early the next day I walked with Bri and her apartment mate (both of them had been up studying poor things) to the bus station and said Bye. It was a weird good-bye, because even though I was going home to another country, we both will be returning to the states in less than a week. We talked a lot about our experiences abroad, how we feel about going back.. Can’t believe it’s here already.

Got back the twelve hours later to Granada with no problems, and met- up with my group for a group project. I loved Florence, I can see why Bri likes it so much, but a lot really surprised me. I hadn’t expected it to be so small, but still so packed with history/art/ culture etc. I’ve also grown accustomed to the Spanish night-life, tapas bars etc. and seeing families out in the streets even at 12 at night.. The streets in Florence were pretty quiet. I also couldn’t believe how many Americans there were, I think probably because Granada is larger us Americans are diffused and less obvious (though you still can tell) but I had not expected that in Florence.

After visiting Florence and getting a (literal) taste of Italy, I really would like to go back and explore more. It wasn’t as chaotic as I had thought it would be, and though I can see why it might be frustrating with random laws (like the internet cafes that demand to copy ID because of “terrorist activity”) I really liked the people and their attitudes. On my flight home from Milan, I sat night to an older man (probably about 65 ish) who was really sweet and told me about his daughter who was a psychologist. He offered his sandwich to me, and even tucked my jacket around me when I feel asleep.

However, even though I was sad to say “ciao ciao” (they like to say it twice in Italy) and I was again relieved to get back home to Granada, which truly has become a home. That being said, I have very mixed feelings about going back, part of me looking forward to the holidays with my family and friends, and the other part wishing I could stay here. I’ll probably talk more about this later, but even though conflicted I’m actually lucky to be in this position. Like my Mom told me earlier, even if harder, it’s so much better to leave an experience wishing for more than running frantically away.

The Duomo

In front of "David"

In front of the Hungarian Booth

Bri and her gelatto

Michelangelo

Puente Veccio in background

Uffizi

Capucchinos

2007-11-18T05:58:00.000-08:00

Hello All,

Sorry for the lack of recent updates! Things have been really busy with traveling, and I haven´t had much opportunity to sit down and write things out.

Since my last update, almost a month ago, a lot has happened; traveled to Cordoba, went to Morocco, Mom and Bri visited, visited Portugal, and last weekend went to Jerez and Cadiz. I’ve split the updates by country/city…You can click on them on the right:

Visit here for more photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/kkiss7

sorry for the long-winded posts, once you start you just can’t stop! I doubt that you will read the whole thing, I wouldn’t haha, but I figured this blog is just as much for me to read later as it is for you to read now.

Things are good, I’ve been enjoying a weekend in Granada for the first time in weeks, and have taken advantage of sleeping in and doing some work. On Friday night I went to my first movie here in Granada, we saw the Oreido Express, which was really good, rather surrealist, and I actually understood a lot more than I had thought I would. Later that night we went to a few bars and had fun dancing. Yesterday a friend and I went to Casa de los Tires, a museum that had some Frederico García Lorca letters, early works etc. which was fun to see considering I really need to start working on that paper… That night we went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant, or at least the Spanish interpretation of one, and I called it an earlier night, coming home at 12:30 and watched an episode of entourage from an illegal Korean website.

I’ve been trying to avoid American movies/tv-shows (well I watch house, but in Spanish) but I figured you need a little American break every once-and a while, and show about 4 ridiculous American guys living ridiculous lives in Hollywood is as good as any other.

This past week has been pretty good, I wrote my first 11 page Spanish paper on the intellectual heritage in Islam and censorship, went volunteering, and hung out a bit with Lilia (host mom). It’s gotten really cold, and considering there is no heat in our apartment, sans a few space heaters, I’ve been taking advantage of my warm down-comforter bed. I think I’m going to get some boots because it’s getting a lot colder, and when the five-year old Spanish kids are even more fashionable than you with their little boots, it’s time for some action.

Hope all is well with everyone, I can’t believe next week is Thanksgiving! It’s the first Thanksgiving that I won’t be home, and though I am disappointed to miss both the family and friends’ dinners (who’s going to bring the salad?) I think the IES dinner will also be fun.

Besos,

Katica

Portugal

2007-11-18T05:15:00.000-08:00

Portugal

The day my Mom was leaving and I was also leaving for Portugal, so I couldn’t see her off. After a frenzied day of classes, a visit to a Mezquita, and the Alhambra for class, Sydney, Emme, Angie, Sahar (we met up the Rika and Dan later) and I caught a bus to Málaga so we could catch a flight the next day.

Let me first start that Portugal has been high on my to-visit list for a while, I’ve heard tons of praise and I was really excited for this trip because I was going to a wonderful country with a group of really fun and sweet people.

We arrived to Málaga, and a friend of Angie’s picked us up with his friend to drive us to the hostel. They were very sweet, waited for us to drop everything off and then brought us into the center. Ironically enough, they brought us to Pimpi, a popular Málagan restaurant we had visited with IES. We were actually in the same room as before, but instead a group of 70 loud Americans, we were with 70 even louder Spaniards. We had a good time, tasted some of the famous Málaga “agua” and went back to the hostel.

The next morning we took a flight to Madrid, hung out in the Madrid airport for a few hours and caught a plane into Lisboa. Haha, it’s funny re-living this as I think about it, but some of the girls wanted to get the Lisboa stamp on our airports so asked an airport attendant where we could get that. They kept insisting that it was not necessary, while the girls were insisting that they just wanted a little stamp…eventually two of the workers brought us on a walk to another building, shaking their heads as to why we wanted the damn stamp. Turned out the place was closed, and we left stampless and said good-bye to two amused Portuguese airport attendants.

Kind of a random story, I know, but it’s just such a perfect example of the European (or at least Spanish/Portuguese) system. They make us go through all these hops to get our official papers, return 5 times to an office that is only open from 10-12 and closes for smoking breaks, and after all that back and forth, the papers are never even asked for again later.

Anyway, we took a bus from the airport to Rossio plaza, right in the heart of Lisboa. Dropped our stuff off at the hostel, and took a walk around the city including walking up to the elevator where you can see the whole skyline with lights- beautiful. Walked around a bit more (were very excited when we discovered that Lisboa had an H&M) and grabbed a cab to go to a restaurant for dinner and a Fado show.

After months of non-friendly Spanish restaurant service, this restaurant was such a nice welcome. I’m guessing that the couple owns the restaurant, they were so sweet, kept coming over to us, you could hear everyone yelling and bagging pans in the kitchen, and the woman even sang Fado for a bit as well. There was another younger male singer (also the waiter) and another older women who was introduced to as a famous/important Fado figure. The show was really good, very powerful voices, and we had some yummy Portuguese food (fish of course for me).

The next day we traveled to Sintra, about an hour outside of the city. I think from the moment we started walking around, we all fell in love with Sintra. Even thought it’s a relatively small place, there is just so much to do, so many castles and museums, restaurants and cute cafes. When walking into the town, which is tucked inside a mountain, there is a huge garden in the cliffs and modern art along the pathway.

We went to the Palácio Nacional de Sintra, which was really pretty and had lots of cool stories. It was where the Royal family lived, even when the Muslims took over, and there was even one room where the King imprisoned his brother. I also really liked the kitchen that has two cones for a roof and is still used to this day in important government functions.

Afterwards we bought some roasted chestnuts (a new favorite, and you can’t resist singing the song) and wandered over to Quinta de Regaleira. This place was incredible, completely fantastical and surreal and like a playground for adults. The owner worked really closely with an the Italian architect Luigi Manini that for the beginning part of his career was a stage designer, and it really shows. Everything was super creative, elaborate and ornate… the library had a mirrored floor so it looked like you were going to fall into a sea of books, and the stairwell was like a slide. However, the best part was the gardens. There were towers, grottos, statues, sacrificial groves, bridges.. all kinds of things to explore. We left to grab lunch (which took forever) and returned later so we could explore properly.

The descriptions and explanations of the architecture, including that of the gardens, was also incredibly bizarre and funny. It talked about a place in the gardens to “criticize the accent of your consciousness” and all other kinds of mythological and strange/mystic phrases.

Afterwards we grabbed some famous Sintra pastries, which had an apple filling and were incredible. Amazing- I have never had as many good pastries as I have had in Portugal.

We took the train back that night, hung around in the hostel for a bit and then went out to Bairro Alto to grab Indian food, yumm. Bairro Alto is where a lot of the bars are, and the street was just hopping with people, a really fun part of the town. We got back to the hostel and then went out to a few bars with other people in the hostel, and had a really fun night dancing.

The next day was declared explore Lisboa day- so we played tourist all day. We visited Alfama, went to the castle (Castelo de Sao Jorge), and the Cathedral (Sé de Lisboa) and walked around the small streets. Then, we went to back to the center, and visited an old church that has since been converted into an archeological museum. This was one of my favorite places because the roof of the church was unfortunately destroyed in Lisboa’s large earthquake, but now the stone frames are left and open straight to the sky. It was a beautiful day, so I loved this inside/outside church with grass growing inside.

Then we grabbed some lunch for later (fruit, bread, salad etc) and took the tram to Belém, the seafront part of the city. We first visited the Mosteiro Dos Jerónminos (Monastery) that was beautiful and had an inner court yard that looked the West Minster Abby and the scariest Jesus on the cross I have ever seen.

We ate lunch at the public gardens where they had music coming from the loudspeakers. We then walked over the Torre de Belém, and half-way there realizing they were 5 min. from closing started running. We got there right when they were shutting the doors, and the attendant, so corrupt, said they people could come in for 15 euros for 15 minutes. We decided the torre wasn’t that large anyway and instead hung out by the water for sunset.

It was such a beautiful day, and there were so many people out just walking around and enjoying the view. One of my friends made the good point that being surrounded by so much water and seeing that never-ending ocean is such an inspiration to explore. You really could imagine being in Lisboa, waiting for the ships to come in and out of the harbor, coming back with all these tales of these exotic places they’ve been to. As Americans, we hear all about the “discovery of America” and the expansions, but it was really cool to be on the other side, to see what inspired that motivation and for me, if anything, it would be shear curiosity to find out what is at the end of the never-ending blue line.

Then, saving the best (or at least most delicious) part for last, we stopped at Pasteis de Belém, the famous pastry shop. I had expected a quaint little pastry shop, perhaps with a few tables in the back. But oh my god. This place was a living monument to the famed pastries that look like little custard tarts. The line was out the door, and so while some of the girls were in line, I went into the bathroom and to look at the restaurant. There were a bazillion rooms, one room where you could see them making the pastries, and the only thing on the menu are drinks and the pastries. You don’t need anything else.

We all bought a few, and wished that we could eat 20 more. They were amazing, even better with a bit of cinnamon and then went back to the hostel. We hung out in the hostel for a bit, I attempted to sign up for some classes for next semester and then we went out to get a few drinks and some fun. We had an early flight the next day, so grabbed a cab and headed for the airport- everything worked out fine despite some line mix-ups and we got to Barcelona, caught our flight to Málaga and then took the three hour bus ride back to Granada.

There is always such a let-down after a trip, all the excitement of a new place, but coming back to Granada was such a nice break from the jam-packed weeks I had before. I was exhausted, and even though I normally have trouble sleeping on planes and busses fell asleep the whole ride, waking up intermittently so we could catch the next flight etc. Overall, we had so much fun, laughed a lot, met some great people, didn’t get lost, and even though three days was not enough time, still felt like we got a good taste of what Lisboa had to offer – which is a lot, and includes some damn good pastries : )

On top of the elevator

Sintra

Royal Palace

La Quinta

They are.. criticizing the accent of their consciousness?

Mom and Bri visit

2007-11-18T05:10:00.000-08:00

Mom and Bri Visit

The day I got back from Morocco my Mom and Bri visited, but since I got home later we didn’t meet up until the next day for breakfast. Walking into the café on Gran Via and seeing my mom and Bri sitting at a table was so surreal, it’s always such a strange thing when different worlds collide, but it was so great to have them here. They stayed together in the same hotel room, and explored the city while I was in class, and then we would meet up later for lunch, or go to the Alhambra etc.

Isn’t it sad that you don’t really explore your home city until you have visitors come? I have to admit I hadn’t visited some places of the Alhambra (I went to some other parts already) since the time I visited 5 years ago. Anyway, the girls had tickets for the generalife (gardens) and the alcazaba (military fortress) and then we met up in the Nazari Palaces. Since my entrance was an hour before theirs, I waited inside the palace in the first room for an hour and tourist-watched. There were so many tours from all over the world, one minute a group of Korean tourists all wearing the same bright blue shirt would come, two minutes later 30 Dutch blond/blue-eyed tourists invaded. I think I probably heard about 20 different languages in about an hour.

The palace, (which I just recently re-visited at night, a completely different experience) is amazing. The ornamentation is so intricate, and it must have been amazing back in the day when the colors were still vibrant, had rugs, furniture, incense. Sort of wish I was one of the royal wives, but not a concubine thank you very much.

I tried to show them the life of an average student, so I brought them to meet some friends for tapas in Albert Einstein, and later we went to a bar that had a flamenco night. The dancers and singers were really young and bohemian, and we had a lot of fun.

Over the weekend we went to Seville since Bri was leaving from there to fly back to Italy. We revisited basically the trip I had done earlier, but it’s always fun to return and actually know a bit about what you are looking at. (And we bought some of the Seville pastries I wasn’t able to buy last time). One weird thing was that as usual, on Saturday there were a million weddings. We were leaving a park to catch the bus and saw one bride taking photos, she was really striking and I loved her dress. Anyway, 5 hours later that night, when my mom and I were back in her hotel in Granada we saw that same bride, she was having the reception in the hotel – small world, or at least Small Spain.

That week I had three midterms, so I normally stayed at my mom’s hotel to spend time with her and because it’s closer to the center than my apartment. And of course, I took advantage of the free hot water (15 minute hot showers!) and even splurged on a nice long bath. : )

My Mom(s) (Hungarian and Spanish) wanted to meet, so my mom and I invited Lilia and Valentina to get a drink. Lilia invited her into the apartment, so I brought my Mom up with me, thinking she would get a tour and then we would go a nearby bar. Well, when we got there Lilia had bought Spanish wine, jamón, cheese, olives… the whole Spanish spread. It was so sweet and they really seemed to like each other. I played translator, which is always a head-spin, but it was good they could meet each other.

It was fun showing my Mom around, especially since I’ve really come to love living in Granada, but it also made me realize how much I’m starting to grow-up. Whenever I normally travel with my family, my parents are the ones who plan things (with my input), make sure we know where we are going and often translate if we are in Hungary or French speaking country. But this time, I was the one translating, showing her my favorite places, suggesting itineraries, and though she was on her own a lot and had no problems, I still felt a dynamic shift.

I'm also really looking forward to visiting Bri in Florence. It was so fun to see people in their new worlds. I'm sad that meeting up w/GW people hasn't really worked out, but it's so hard to figure out travel schedules when everyone else is literally in their own country and own schedule.

Alhambra

Alcazar

Isn't she cute?

Seville

Granada, Paseo de los tristes

Isn't she cute?

Aren't we cute?

Maurreco

2007-11-18T04:28:00.001-08:00

Morocco

The weekend after cordoba, we went to Morocco which was just an incredibly impressionable trip. I´m including our iteinary below, but it was really packed of activities and opportunities to talk with Moroccan students and such. I like that the trip wasn´t just a tourist visit, but that we lived with Moroccan families and had real one on one interactions with the people there.

We began our trip by first staying in Gibraltar, which was a completely bizarre city. It’s a British territory on the Spanish coast, the people speak a gibberish mix of Spanish and English, and they use both the euro and the pound. There are British pubs right next to tapas bars and we went a bit crazy buying British chocolate because it was so good. We took a bus tour to the top of the Gibraltar rock and visited the cave and feed some of the monkeys that live up there. They were obviously very used to tourists, but there was a baby monkey that was soo cute and they were all jumping on the cars and running around. That night we had fish and chips and hard cider, at a local pub. However, overall I felt really confused in Gibraltar. I have heard there is some sense of culture shock once you return from abroad, and I think it´s going to feel a lot like that. Though, don´t get me wrong, I’m guilty of speaking English with other people in my program, it was so strange to hear so much of it around me. I would walk into a store and talk to the attendant in Spanish, and they would respond in English and with a complete British accent. After dinner we walked across the border ¨back to Spain¨ which was where our hotel was. The border is actually the landing strip of the airport, so when planes are arriving you can´t cross the border.

The next day we got onto a boat and crossed the Gibraltar straight, arriving in Tánger. Right away after getting of the boat, you could tell this was a completely different place. I find that lot of times once you arrive in another country; it’s more of a transitory process. Airports, train stations etc. all look the same, and as you venture out to the city or outside is when you start to see the more genuine culture. Not in Morocco. You get off and there are people dressed in full hijab and traditional clothing, standing right next to people wearing very western clothing. The signs are all in Arabic, french, english and spanish and it´s just very chaotic. In ceuta, which is still considered a Spanish territory (isn´t amazing to think that the Spanish border is actually on another continent??) they speak spanish, but every where else it´s Moroccan Arabic, French and some people speak English.

We went through the town, visited the market which had beautiful spice stores with rows and rows of all kinds of spices and lots of fresh fruit stands. We then visited a woman’s center where we talked with Moroccan students (who turned out to be a couple and were getting married next year) about their experiences. It´s always a bit awkward starting these kinds of conversations in such a big group, but there input was very interesting. I think overall they were very honest with us, but I think they were very clear about emphasizing the tolerance, acceptance etc in Moroccan culture. I think in this trip, as is to be expected, there are a lot of defensive attitudes,, where people are more interested in trying to break a stereotype than really discuss the issue.

Anyway, they showed us the center which seemed to be a really great organization. They have classes to help the women develop computer skills, sewing, etc and they have their own handicraft store and theatre. They fed us lunch which was amazing vegetable couscous and of course invited us to the famed Moroccan mint tea, that is super sweet but really good.

We then got back on the bus and started the four hour drive to Rabat. Most of us fell asleep along the way, but woke up to a really nice surprise. All of the sudden, the driver pulled to the side of the road and on our right, right along the banks of the river was a heard of about ten camels. We got to ride the camels, which as really fun. I´ve ridden a camel before, but a ten minute ride at the DC zoo is really not the same as a riding a camel named Fatimah while on the banks of a river in Northwest Morocco. After lots of pictures, we got back on the bus and drove to Rabat.

Once we arrived in Rábat, our ¨host mom¨ escorted us to where we were staying. She was very sweet, but only spoke Arabic and a bit of French, so it was difficult to communicate with her. We met her husband (who was about 40 years older, so we thought at first he was her father) and had dinner in the kitchen. It was interesting trying to communicate with the two of them, but between hand motions, lots of pointing and smiling, and us trying to speak some version of French with Spanish we were all right. We had hoops (bread) and pasta for dinner. To be honest, there were times that were very awkward because we weren’t sure what to do, but once the sister arrived home, she spoke English, things were a bit easier.

We found out that the mom was a bread baker and that the guy was her father. They introduced us to some other family members, an aunt and cousin, and the bakery assistants that live with them. There were always people coming in and out, the concept of privacy seems to be an impossible and foreign concept. You would eat in the kitchen at the same time as people sleeping on couches in the same room, the TV would be on, the mother would be yelling to warm water for the tea… it was all pretty crazy but fun.

The next day we started the morning with a conversation with four Moroccan students. We were supposed to talk about “Stereotypes” but the conversation went in a lot of directions and was really interesting. One thing that particularly stood out to me was when the students were talking about the freedom of speech in their country. We were telling them about the peace protests in DC against the war, and they were all very surprised that the protestors didn’t get in trouble. Although morocco is considered a constitutional democracy, the king has the highest and final say, and citizens can not criticize him or “his” government. Some of the students seemed to openly agree with this, while one was pretty adamant about saying that they should have the right to criticize, something that if he said publicly could have landed him in prison.

We also talked a lot about the role of education in Morocco, and how so many students are trying to leave the country for school. They were saying that since Morocco only gained its independence from France in 1956, there is still a lot of struggles in becoming a democracy and still maintain its Islamic tradition. My overall impression of Morocco was that it’s full of contradictions- it’s a democracy with an unquestionable King, Islamic state that has both very fundamentalist and liberal Muslims, and the elites are both extremely proud of being Moroccan but just dying to get out.

After the conversation, we went into tourist mood and visited a few monuments, including las ruinas romanas de Chellah, el Mausoleo Hassan II y la Mezquita Mayor. In the roman ruins, there was a pond with eels and an old lady with about 50 cats stays there. For a couple dirham, women buy eggs from the lady and feed them to the eels for fertility. Even though a bit hesitant, we eventually fed the eels and hoped that it was just another Moroccan suspicion (I’m writing this four weeks later and still baby-free, phew!

The Mausoleo was also interesting, another reminder of how important the royal family is in Morocco. Right next to the mausoleo, was the Mezquita Mayor, which is technically the only Mezquita that I, as a non-muslim, can enter in Morocco. It was actually intended to be the largest Mezquita in the world, but after an earthquake it was ruined and they never continued with building it. All that’s left are the capitals but you can still see how incredibly huge the Mezquita (mosque) was intended to be.

After that, we went home for lunch and had some more wonderful vegetable couscous. We met the grandmother, who was an incredibly striking woman and had tattoos on her forehead, I’m not quite sure what that was about. They were very sweet and everyone ate the couscous from a big plate in the middle. Apparently, though the food is communal, there are still important food rules to keep in mind. You can only eat the part right in front of you, and you never never eat or pass with your left hand. The grandmother and mother also showed us how to role couscous balls with just one hand (well I tried to do it, it was very hard) and of course we had plenty of Moroccan tea.

Later we walked to the beach and then met some students to walk around Rábat and the market. I like the two students we met, who were from the city across the bridge and were both translation students. The linguistic abilities of Moroccans is amazing, everyone speaks at least two or three languages, and they seems to have a real talent of learning more. One of the guys said he’s only been speaking English for a few years, and he was incredibly fluent. He knew all about American music, and was a big Nirvana fan so we bonded over that. They brought us to the market and helped us bargain down some deals.

Though both were relatively liberal Muslims, they both had girlfriends, one of the guys really surprised me. He was very open with how liberal he was, and told us that he smoked pot, and smoked hookah with wine and a lot of other things that were prohibited. I didn’t have that many expectations going into Morocco, but I was really taken aback about how such openly liberal and extremely conservative Muslims co-existed. The other guy was much more religious, prayed 5 times a day and we asked him if it bothered him that his friend was so liberal. He was a bit taken aback, as if we asked did he mind that his friend had a different flavor ice-cream, and told us it made no difference at all. I wonder if that’s really true.

That night we went to the Hamam, which was one of my favorite experiences. The hamams are the public baths, well really vapor rooms, that everyone goes to about once a week. We were a bit nervous as to what to expect, bought kishes (scrubs) to wash ourselves, and went with our host sister, host mom and host grandmother. I have to say though, it felt amazing. The room was really hot and we rented big buckets to pour hot water in and really enjoyed ourselves. The other women were really sweet, and complete strangers gave some of the girls rub-downs and gave us mud to use. I thought it was interesting how something totally foreign, a public, semi-nude (we wore underwear bottoms) public washing could so quickly become totally comfortable.

Afterwards we went to talk to a Fulbright scholar who is doing research in Morocco. She was really nice and gave some good insight, and now I really would like to try to get a Fulbright or some kind of research grant as a gap year between going to grad-school. She was really passionate about her research, she was researching educational systems in morocco, and knew about AIESEC which was pretty cool.

Though I loved the hamam, I have to say my favorite memory in Morocco was waking up to hear the 5 am oration. I can’t even describe how it sounds, almost eerie, but unlike anything I have ever heard before. The first time it took me some time to register that it was the call to prayer, I just remember waking up to a completely silent city with this ethereal music/noise in the background. My friend has a recording of the imam (orator) that I’m going to copy, but it certainly won’t be the same.

The next day we left Rabat, drove by the shantytowns, stopped in a small, poor town in the Rif mountains and then arrived in chefchaoun. Driving by the shanty-towns was really sad, they are right outside of the city just like they were in Capetown, and it’s just such desperate conditions. In contrast to the city poor, the rural poor were really different. They told us that the rif mountains has a lot of hashish growing, because it’s such a cash crop, but that the government doesn’t do all that much about it. We stopped to have lunch with a rural family, who we talked to with a translator (who turned out be an NYC cab driver). That night we drove to Chefchaoun, a beautiful town in the mountains that had these amazing blue-washed walls (they even sold the blue paint pigment). Did some shopping there, went out to dinner and went out for hookah with some of the Moroccan student-tour guides. The next morning we woke up early to see the sunrise, and left soon after to drive to the port to catch the boat back to Spain.

Going to Morocco was an amazing experience, a place that I would have been much more hesitant to visit on my own, and it was so valuable to spend so much time just talking to Moroccans and see how they really live. And.. I now can add a few Arabic words to my vocabulary, in particular bread (hopps), zween (good/pretty), shukran (thank you), salam uaalikum, waalikum salam ( hello, peace be upon you), and my personal favorite: hashak (excuse my dirt which is responded with aazk llah ‘may god grant you pride and honor’). Very valuable.

Gibraltar

Algeciras

Algeciras

Rabat, Roman Ruins

Rabat

Us with our host family

Rif Mountains

Chefchaouen

Itinerary:

Viernes 19 de octubre GRANADA - LA LÍNEA - GIBRALTAR

10:30 Salida de Granada

13:30 Llegada a La Línea: Hotel AC La Línea

15:00 Visita guiada a Gibraltar

Tarde y noche Gibraltar (opcional y libre)

Sábado, 20 de octubre ALGECIRAS - TÁNGER – ASILAH - RABAT

7:15 Desayuno en el hotel

7:45 Salida para la Estación Marítima de Algeciras

9:00 Travesía del Estrecho de Gibraltar de Algeciras a Tánger

Mañana:

- Conversación “Cultural diversity in Morocco” con el Profesor Ali Azeriah y estudiantes de L’Ecole Superior de Traduction de Tánger

- Visita a Centro para Mujeres Darna en Tánger

Tarde:

- Traslado a Asilah y paseo por la Medina

- Comida en un restaurante junto a las murallas

- Traslado a Rabat (3 horas)

Noche:

- Encuentro con las familias (Dos o tres estudiantes se quedarán con cada familia)

- Cena con las familias

- Posible paseo por la Medina de Rabat en grupos pequeños

Domingo, 21 de octubre RABAT

Mañana:

- Desayuno

- Presentación y debate:

“West and Arab worlds - images about each other” con el Profesor Zaki

- Visita de las ruinas romanas de Chellah, el Mausoleo Hassan II y la Mezquita Mayor

Tarde:

- Comida con las familias

- Paseo por la Kasbah, la playa y el Mercado de la Medina en grupos pequeños formados por estudiantes de IES y estudiantes marroquíes de la Universidad de Rabat

Noche:

- OPCIONAL:Conversación con becarios Fulbright y voluntarios del Peace Corps

- Cena con las familias en la Medina

- Tiempo libre. Posibilidades: Hammam, compras, paseos, tiempo con las familias

Lunes, 22 de octubre RABAT – MONTAÑAS DEL RIF - CHEFCHAOUEN

Mañana:

- Traslado a Akchour, en las Montañas del Rif cruzando áreas rurales de Marruecos (3 horas y media)

- Paseo por un valle en las Montañas del Rif

Tarde:

- Picnic y tiempo libre

- Conversación con familias del Rif

- Traslado a Chefchaouen (30 minutos)

- Paseo guiado por la Medina de Chefchaouen

- Llegada al Hotel (Hostal Andaluz/Hostal Yasmina)

Noche:

- Tiempo libre para explorar la Medina de Chefchaouen

- Cena en un restaurante en la Medina

Martes, 23 de octubre CHEFCHAOUEN - CEUTA – ALGECIRAS - GRANADA

Mañana:

- Ruta a pie hasta un monte en las afueras de Chefchaouen

- Traslado a Ceuta (2 horas)

- Desayuno por el camino

- Cruce de la frontera de Marruecos a España en Ceuta

Tarde:

- Travesía del Estrecho de Gibraltar de Ceuta a Algeciras (llegada a las 15:30)

- Traslado en autobús de Algeciras a Granada (llegada hacia las 19:30)

Cordoba

2007-11-18T04:17:00.000-08:00

Cordoba

I was really looking forward to this trip because I remember loving Cordoba the first time that I visited. We left early on a Saturday morning, and first drove to Medina Alzarat, a small city outside of Cordoba that was built by the Muslims. All that´s left of the city is basically archeological remains, and though it seems extensive, is only like 10 percent of what was there. It was still really beautiful, and I sometimes like incomplete remains better because you have to imagine how it once was in its prime.

The mezquita in the medina (which means city in Arabic) is particularly interesting because it was the first Mezquita built in Spain that actually is correctly oriented towards Mecca. I think it´s so interesting that the mihrab (i only know the spanish versions of these Arabic words, sorry) is calculated to orient towards Mecca. However, in the first cities, like the Mezquita in Cordoba which is much older, they didn´t have the proper calculations and is misoriented. Apparently, the funny thing is, they actually figured this out pretty early but decided not to change it anyway.

From the Medina, we drove to Cordoba to visit the Mezquita which is just incredible. first we went to lunch and sample salmorenja, which is basically gazpacho with eggs and ham which is a specialty of Cordoba. It was in my mind a mix between gazpacho and lecho, a Hungarian dish that I really like, so I was a big fan.

We then went into the Mezquita, which has been one of my favorite places this trip. The mezquita is complete symbol of cultural interaction, and how one culture feeds into another. There are roman ruins, Muslim mosque , and a catholic cathedral all integrated into one building. It´s very dark when you first enter, but right away you just see rows and rows of the iconic red and white horseshoe arches that just feed into one another forever. In the center is the mihrab, which is so ornate and complex, and lots of really detailed coranic scriptures and ornamentation. It´s a bit bizarre that adjacent to that is this ornate cathedral, literally right in the middle, but somehow it all works.

I really enjoy going on these trips with out Profe Lupe, because you learn so much more than just being a normal tourist. She showed us the signatures of some of the builders that are inscribed throughout the walls, and all about the different amplifications and how the mezquita had evolved. I later did my art history paper on the quibla wall, and the mihrab because I liked it so much. I wanted to bring my mom and bri there when they visited, but we didn´t have time, oh well.

2007-11-07T14:14:00.000-08:00

Check out the photos of my recent travels:

http://picasaweb.google.com/kkiss7

Love,
Katica

2007-10-18T16:40:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-06T13:49:00.000-07:00

**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!

2007-10-03T14:46:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-09-21T03:57:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, sorry for the delays in updating- things have gotten busier here and I am still trying to figure out how to structure my time. (Note the new pics in the post below!)

Well, my vacation is Spain is officially over- the real classes, ie. Not just “getting to know the city” orientation classes have started. But, before I get into all of that- last weekend we went on a great trip to Ronda, and Seville.

Trip to Ronda and Seville

Ronda is this beautiful town about two hours from Granada. It’s situated on top of this huge cannon- one side is the old part of the city, and the other is the new. From the minute we got off the bus, I really felt like I was in Spain. They had beautiful white-washed houses with great iron balconies, winding roads, beautiful flowers and just gorgeous views of all the olive trees surrounding the area. We took a tour around the city, took some pictures, visited the Arab bathes and then went to the Plaza del torsos (bull ring). I really enjoyed visiting the baths, it’s just amazing that to this day they are still standing. It’s really interesting to also hear about their social functions, and the unique separation between private and public places. In my mind, a bath is about as private as it gets, but they functioned as a real social hub- the men congregated to talk politics, and the women would meet their friends, find daughter-in-laws etc… or at least that was the picture our tour guide painted. Also, since the Arabs, Jews and Christians were all living there, they had certain days reserved for each group and then divided the hours by sexes as well. Anyway, though there aren’t any waters left (not like the Roman baths in Bath, England etc) it was still really cool.

The Plaza del torros was also interesting, especially since I saw a bullfight last time in Spain so it was cool to see what it was like behind all the closed doors. We literally went behind the doors, and saw the small rooms they keep the bulls and this system of pulleys and doors they use to get the bull out without getting anyone hurt. The role of bullfighting is very interesting in Spain, a lot of Spanish people (like our director) do not agree with the violent treatment of the bulls, but do respect the tradition and it’s role in Spanish history. The correos del torros are not in the sports section of the newspaper, but rather the culture/theatre pages. He suggested that everyone go to see a bullfight w/ an open mind, and I have to agree that though I was really not looking forward to it when I went there was a lot more respect for the bull than I had imagined. I think a lot of people in my group still had a lot of trouble accepting the tradition-

After Ronda we boarded the bus and drove another two and a half hours to Seville- I remember being very impressed w/ Seville the first time I visited, and this time was no different. It’s beautiful- very quintessential Spain- gorgeous homes, palm trees, great plazas, a beautiful river (that has water!) and some of the best architecture.

The first night we got there we walked around for a bit and then when to a fancy restaurant where we had a really good meal- they kept bringing out different small courses, some typical, like paella, but also some interesting shiskabobs (sp?) with this curry sauce that I just loved. I still like mom’s gazpacho better though- a lot of the gazpachos I’ve had here are really bland. We also had these great desserts and some really nice Spanish wine. Afterwards we walked around the city and went to a club across the bridge- I ended up leaving with some people to go explore Plaza Alfalfa, where my friend heard a lot of the young students hang out. Well it ended up not being as great as we hoped, but the funniest thing happened- I was walking down the street and all the sudden heard “Katica” and I ran into Tara Simpson, a girl I had girlscouts with, have known since like 1^st grade and haven’t seen since high school graduation. Anyway, it was pretty funny, small world that it is and it turns out she’s studying there for the semester.

The next day we visted the Alcazar- the Palace/fortress built in Mudéjar style in 884 (Mudéjar refers to the Arabs that were in Spain who did not convert to Christianity during Christian rule). I really enjoyed visiting the palace, because it’s amazing that a Christian king, Santo Ray Fernando III, purposefully built the place with Arabic style art/architecture, but you can see Christian elements in that there are representations of the lions and people that you never find in Arabic art.

After the place and it’s beautiful gardens, we took a break to wander around and I went with the Spanish girls and a few people to find Plaza de España, which has huge fountains and is a large monument to the Spanish cities. We finally found it, but by had to return quickly to go to the Cathedral and climbed the Giralda. I love going to Cathedrals, and this one is really huge- very ornate and lots of gilded gold details. The whole place just glowed. Javier showed us some interesting statues, such as a statue that the people of Seville claim holds Christopher Colon’s remains and is being carried by the last Catholic Kings (Los Reyes Catholicos). In the statue one of the Kings is stepping on a pomegranate, meant to represent the recent conquest of Granada from Islamic rule (Granada means pomegranate). The Gilbralda, originally a minaret, is a converted bell tower that has ramps instead of stairs so that the horses could easily climb to the top. Once you get to the top you can see a great view of Seville, and when we were up there one of the bells started ringing and I practically fell over because the reverberations were so loud.

After our day of being tourists, we went back to the hotel, showered and went out to grab tapas before going to the Flamenco show. I was with some friends at a tapa bar on the side of the river when this Catholic parade came down the street- complete with candles, incense, full band, and float. It turned out it was the city’s Saint Day and we could hear them walking threw the streets as we walked back across the river.

That night we went to a private Flamenco show that was absolutely incredible. I had seen a Flamenco show last time I was in Spain, but this time I was literally front row and saw every detail- The singer and guitarist (my personal favorite) dressed in black and with long hair started out the show and did a few songs with just the two of them. Then the female flamenco dancer came out and she was so talented, I have no idea how she moved her feet so fast, and she had so much passion and concentration- Later the male flamenco dancer came out and danced as well. It was also fun watching everyone’s faces during the show- some people were grinning, others were just staring in amazement. The ambiance was beautiful, in this inner country yard with ivy walls and flickering candles and it was mesmerizing. Afterwards everyone was in the mood to go dancing, so we went to a club called Cathedral that had these huge bed/lounge things and stayed there for a while. I eventually went with some people to get churros (a late night craving staple- fried dough dipped in chocolate yumm) and headed back to the hotel.

The next day some people had gotten tickets to the Seville fútbol game but the tickets had been pretty expensive and I had forgotten to sign up. The twenty or so people that weren’t going to a game went to a national park for about two hours and got back to Granada around 6 pm.

Overall the weekend was great, but it in many ways confirmed my choice to study in Granada and not in Seville. I would say Seville is “prettier” in terms of architecture and offerings, it is also much more non-Spanish- there are starbucks, McDonalds (Granada only has one Burger King), Pizza huts, and overall is a lot more touristy- I heard English everywhere.

The only other problem we had is that American college guys can act stupidly in any context, and this weekend they did that in full glory. I’m still not sure of the whole story, but basically a bunch of the guys were really drunk and ran around the hotel being a disturbance, broke into the janitor’s closet to steal the pool key and scaled the pool wall to go swimming. Basically, the next morning Javier had a big talk with everyone, and look furious- Viky told me later she had never seen him so upset and had wanted to go back to Granada the next day until Natalia convinced him otherwise. It really upset me that some of the people in our program acted so irresponsibly and are immature- it confirms every stereotype and is really unfortunate. Anyway, other than that, I returned to Granada happier than ever that I was in Spain.

(Ronda and Seville trip over)

Allright, well since the trip explanation is over back to daily life in Granada. Classes started this week and I have to say they are going to be harder than I thought. Granted taking classes in another language are going to pose a challenge, but I think I will be all right, it’s just going to take work. Right now I’m signed up for an Islamic History class, my language class (which I’m not really happy with but I’m going to talk to the teacher), Islamic Art/Architecture class, Anthropology class “Spanish experience of the other” and a García Lorca literature class.

I’m in a bit of a dilemma because I need to drop one to take a university class, but all of them I’ve enjoyed and I’m still not sure. I think I might drop the Islamic Art/Architecture class and ask if I can audit it and still go on the visitas. Vamos a ver. It’s funny how school shopping can make you home sick- they only have graph paper in notebooks, not lined, and apparently a big tote bag is a foreign concept. That’s another thing I don’t understand, all of the school children carry the smallest bags here, I remember being in middle school and practically falling over w/ all of my notebooks. I think Spaniards have a Marry Poppins quality- they eat bread, cheese and meat but don’t gain a pound and have one of the best school systems in Europe and don’t have books? I’m going to investigate.

I’ve also started volunteering this week, I will be an English tutor for sixteen year old twins, Gabriella and Stefania, immigrants from Ecuador. I go to their apartment twice a week for 1 ½ hours each time to help them with English. They are both really sweet, and though have not done well with English in the past, I hope I can help them. I’ve never taught English before and not sure how to approach it. It’s also been a strange experience because I’ve been switching between English and Spanish so my head hurts a bit afterwards haha. The program I’m working is called “Coge” and helps immigrant families for a year, with legal, financial and academic assistance. The mom is very sweet and they also have a five year old brother named Andrés.

The girls are very interested in my life, and love to ask questions after our lessons. They asked me about my friends, my classes, if I am dating anyone, when I came to spain- all of that. Apparently they’ve been in Spain for five years, but I think they will both be an interesting resource in anth class when I need to do a research project on immigration in Spain. They are both smart, and told me that they are amazed that I’ve come to another country to learn Spanish. It’s interesting that they mentioned that because even though they are young, they recognize initiative which makes me hopeful that they can see that quality in themselves as well.

I’m also going to be working at the IES center for a little extra pocket money- I’ve gone to a couple of the facultads to find their “guías” or guide books and will start working more next week. I also hope to start doing some yoga or art classes soon, but don’t want to pack too much in.

The big news this week is that some travel plans are being finalized. On October 18 or 19^th I’m leaving with our program for a trip to Morroco, and then come back on October 23^rd. That same day my Mom and Bri (who’s studying in beautiful Florence) will visit me for a few days. On Wednesday my Mom leaves for Madrid, while I leave for Málaga and then to Lisboa, Portugal the next day! I will be in Portugal with four other friends until Sunday, Nov. 4^th and am really excited. We booked a beautiful hostel right in the center of the city and I’ve heard wonderful things about Portugal.

Overall, things are still going well, but I’m starting to feel the effects of cultural adaptation. I’ve heard from other friends and psychologists that people often feel really tired, and I’ve been exhausted recently. It’s just a lot of stimulation, planning, sounds etc. and I’ve feel like I’m alert all the time and concentrating to understand what’s going on around me. A lot of kids have gotten sick, and one of my friends is on antibiotics because she has some bizarre throat infection.

My friend called her linguistics professor the other day and he also said that learning Spanish in Andalusia is particularly difficult because of their strong accents, and that they drop “linguistic information” ie- they don’t say the end of their words, and mumble them into one word. Porfavor becomes “porfa” and instead of “Granada” they say “Grana.”

I’ve of course noticed their strong accents, but I’ve find that looking at their mouths really helps. Either way, her professor said that since we are learning here, it means that in the future it will be a lot easier to understand other accents because we will be used to interpreting meaning from little “linguistic information.” So basically, I’m going to be confused for a lot longer but in the end better equipped.

As happy as I am here, I still can’t get that “go” mentality out of my head- I want to travel, explore, and get antsy that I have little time here and a lot of goals I want to achieve. I know I just need to calm down, get out there and let all of this happen naturally-

Today I took advantage of no classes and slept in, and relaxed in the apartment. I’m listening to the new Manu Chau cd and the rain is pouring outside. I was planning on running in the morning, but I might read the book I borrowed from Lilia instead- a nice rainy day in Spain.

All of my love!

Ronda and Seville Pictures

2007-09-21T03:04:00.000-07:00

Ronda

Ronda- one side of the Canyon

Puente connecting the two sides in the background.

Arab baths

Plaza del torros

Fancy dinner

Alcazar

Arabic art w/Christian elements (Lion). You can't see it here, but the icon for the Spanish royal family is two columns wraped together w/ a banner- you can also see it on the American dollar because right after the war for independence the US used Spanish pesos for currency.

Beautiful Alcazar gardens

Plaza de España (with Vicky one of the Spanish students)

Manu Chao poster in Seville

Cathedral in Seville

2007-09-11T10:48:00.000-07:00

Below are a few photos of the Alhambra and surrounding garden patios that I took on a walk yesterday with my program. I’m sorry there aren’t more, but when 40 Americans invade it gets a bit crowded to get some really good shots.

We walked around the Alhambra a bit before sunset and it was so beautiful- it’s actually a lot closer to the center of the city than I had imagined. The Alhambra just seems like the elusive palace on top of the hill, but it’s really quite close and accessible. You just walk through la calle de los tristes (named the road of the sad/mourners bc of a nearby cemetery), take a right onto this dirt path and walk uphill for about 20 minutes. It’s pretty incredible that in less than an hour you can walk away from the bustle of mopeds and tourists, to such a historic and famous place. the incredible thing about Europe, there is just so much history that it becomes part of the everyday- The Cathedral is practically next to the Corte De Ingles, a really huge department store right in the middle and somehow it doesn’t match, yet seems natural.

The Alhambra also offers great views of the city, including the Albacín which is where I was the other day in wrote about my other post. At one look out point, you can see horizontally across to the St. Christopher Cathedral were a few days ago I was looking at the Alhambra. After our walk we went back to center of the city and four of us split from the larger group to grab some drinks and tapas.

It’s actually sort of funny, but apparently a lot of Granadians think that most of the American students who come to study don’t speak a word of Spanish. We were sitting outside at our table and talking in English (sometimes we try to speak in Spanish, but it can be frustrating so we had switched back to English) and a guy in the next table said something to his friend thinking that we wouldn’t understand it. He said something to the effect of how ridiculous it is that all of these Americans come to study in Spain and just speak in English the whole time.

Granted he had a good point, but it was pretty funny when we all turned around and told him that we understood what he had just said. He was pretty embarrassed, but the conversation recovered and they asked us what we were studying, recommended some nearby towns to visit, talked about Nadal etc. Even though the encounter was initiated through sort of embarrassing circumstances, it was actually one of the longest conversations we’ve had with some locals. It’s really true that it’s only through small groups that these sort of things happen, and I hope that as we all become more adjusted and develop closer friendships these smaller- less touristy groups will develop. They are a lot more manageable.

I’ve started to notice what are some characteristics that distinguishes Americans/extranjeros from the locals, and it’s interesting to see it reflected within myself. This morning I was walking across the bridge to school and I saw a group of girls in front of me. I saw that they were walking with quite a bit of distance between them, and was thinking to myself that they must be American, because Spaniards have a closer sense of personal space. As I walked past them, my suspicions were confirmed because I heard them speaking in English about their classes. I was sort of proud of myself for being able to distinguish them, because from dress they could have been Spaniards- no running shoes or anything.

However, as much as I can recognize it in others, it’s very strange to recognize these behaviors within yourself, mid-action. A psychologist came to our orientation class and I was the first person in the class so I was making small talk with her. I asked her where she was from, and she said she was Mayorca (an island of the coast of Spain) and I told her about this book I read where the woman was from there etc.. Well mid-conversation she asked me what I name was and I told her, and out of instinct reached out to shake her hand. Right as I had extended it, I realized my error because to shake someone’s hand is a very very formal thing and not appropriate in that context. She sort of smiled at me as we were shaking heads (as I was thinking damn! In my head) and smiled at my very American error.

I had to laugh afterwards because it was a funny feeling to know I had made an error and sort of naturally did it anyway. I wasn’t really upset or embarrassed, but it’s the sort of thing you have to have a sense of humor about. I’ve been getting better about saying “Pardón” instead of “lo siento” (I’m sorry) because you only use lo siento if you are apologizing for some larger, personal offense- not just bumping into someone in the street. Actually, they normally don’t even say anything at all. I never realized how often we say “I’m sorry” on an everyday basis, that is until people look at you funny when it’s your response to bumping their elbow.

A similar thing happened later when I went home and my hermana’s friend came over for a play date. We were sitting at the table and this cute 11 year old walked in, and instantly went up to me to kiss both of my cheeks as a greeting. I though it was funny because even though I’m older, she was the one taking charge in the meeting and knew exactly what to do.

It’s these initial reactionary greetings that I have to get used to. It’s not that I’m feel like it’s an invasion of personal space, but when you meet a friend’s friend for the first time because you bumped into her on the street, and they interrupt the conversation just to kiss your cheeks you are sort of taken aback- When I told my Mom about this story earlier we had a laugh because even though Kiss is my last name, I have to get used to doing it to complete strangers.

It was nice to talk to some people on the phone today to catch up, but I think it’s time to do some more exploring. We have a lot of free time since classes don’t start ‘till Monday so I will try to round up some people for dinner. ¡Hasta lluego!

2007-09-11T10:39:00.000-07:00

2007-09-09T08:39:00.000-07:00

Hello All-

I finally got around to setting up my blog, sorry for the delay.

Granada is absolutely beautiful, I am really happy that I picked this city to study in, it’s wonderful mix of people, great history and the perfect size to navigate.

I’m living with a Venezuelan woman, Lília, and her 11 year old daughter, Valéntina. Lília is an architect who received her masters in the University of Granada. She is really sweet, very creative and has been very welcoming. Lília affectionately calls her daughter “gordita,” little fat one, but she is anything but that. She’s really cute, very sweet, likes to draw and thought was a bit timid around me, we’ve started to talk more and she showed me her books and some of her pictures. They have a very loving relationship, and I’m already starting to feel like the older sister. Her school doesn’t start until the 17^th so she’s been home a lot and had a friend over for a play-date.

The apartment is small, but very cute. There’s art all over the walls, and Lília and I have already talked about some of our favorite artists, and she has great prints of Gustav Klimt and Andy Warhol. They both loved my gifts, and put my photo that I took of Long Valley on the walls. They also loved the Maple Syrup and blueberry Jam, and Lília made pancakes this morning to try them out. I’ve been getting to know them better during our meals, or while watching the news, etc.

It’s interesting to have two Spanish influences, a South American homestay while in a Spanish city. Lília told me that she really appreciates the Spanish way of life, and that the Spaniards really know how to relax and enjoy life. It’s true, everyone stops for their siesta, return home and eat with their families.

Yesterday we traveled to Cabo de Gato, right on the coast about two hours from Granada, right at the tip of the Iberian peninsula. We took a beautiful (and long!) hike through the rocks and beeches. The tour guide was really great and told us all about the unusual plants, and how the rocks formed, the issues with immigration from Northern Africa etc. We hiked 16 km and my legs are killing this morning. We also stopped at a few beaches along the way, many of them were very isolated and private. It’s a bit embarrassing to travel around with 71 Americans, we are stampede, and I felt bad that we were interrupting so many people’s quiet day at the beach. We walked to a small coastal town, San Jose, that looked like Greece with white walls and flowers, and right on the coast of the Mediterranean. We ate at a pizzeria and didn’t get back to Granada until 12:30 am. However, for here that’s nothing- when I was walking to where the bus was meeting at 7 am in the morning, there were a lot of people just getting back from their nights of partying. Life is definitely later here, it’s not uncommon to walk through La Plaza nueva or through Gran Via and see families with small children at the bars well past 11 pm.

My program has been very organized and has definitely helped in making a smooth transition. Javier, the program director is great, and actually lived in Hungary for a few months. There are also two students from the University of have been helping out, who are both really sweet and friendly. One of them, Rocío, and I share a lot of similar interests and I hope that we can develop a friendship. I know that it’s going to be difficult to develop friendships with Spaniards, but I’m starting to get more comfortable w/ my language skills. Rocío’s sister, who is also sweet and studying Medicine in the university, told me that I speak well and with a good accent, and my Señora has said the same. I really hope that I can become near fluent, but I know a lot of that depends on getting over my hesitancy to speak and not be afraid to make mistakes. It was very nice of them to say so, but it’s still really frustrating to not be able to communicate my exact thoughts- Humor and wit is a lot harder in Spanish!

I’ve been trying to explore the city, and it’s beautiful. Each part has its own flavor and character. In the Albacín, the old Arabic part of the city, there are great small streets with white walls, small churches and boast great views of the Alhambra. As you walk down the central part of the city, there are certain streets with Moroccan and Turkish stores and restaurants, and others with great Tapas Bars and small shops. The center, Gran Via and plaza nueva is definitely more touristy, but has beautiful fountains and some of the best ice cream shops in the city.

As I start to write, I could talk for hours, but I have to go for now. I’m sitting in the family/dinning room watching “Step Mom” in Spanish while my hermanita is playing Nintendo. I’ve been also meeting more of the IES students, and have found some people who I think will be good friends, and are also interested in exploring the city. I went this morning on a paseo (walk) with a friend and will meet some people later to most likely go to a Tapas bar or café. I hope all is well with everyone, I will try to update often. I’ll add some earlier entries that I wrote in a notebook on my time in Málaga and first impressions. All my love!

2007-09-09T08:10:00.001-07:00

The river with little water- I walk along the river everyday to go to classes, about a 1/2 hr walk each way.

El Albacín

Plaza Ana (right next to the IES school)

Cabo de Gato

Shepherd on the way to San Jose

Cabo de Gato

2007-09-09T08:06:00.001-07:00

Cabo de Gato