Last Monday

And by that I mean: this Monday is my last Monday in Spain for who knows how long…

I had my theater final this morning which went really well. Only four more tests! They’re like vitamins—one a day.

This past week was totally great. After I turned in all of my projects, I was completely academically checked out. Every semester there’s a brick wall that I run into when my state of being changes from being really stressed out to be really apathetic. Sitting in classes was nearly unbearable. But oh well, I survived, and then I had non-class-time to just love Spain. Highlights:

.Oh wait this one was during class. My grammar teacher is the BEST. So we got him a card and a cake and framed a picture of our whole class for him and surprised him on Thursday during class. He was SO surprised and happy. It was just perfect. Also we had tinto de verano during class. The day before, my Lorca teacher brought us champagne. haha, Europe!

.On Thursday night Malachi had a concert! I felt really cool to be friends with her. Also, I was friends with her before I knew she was an internationally renowned musician, just saying. :)

.I’ve been back to Café Fútbol for probably the last time, and I’ve been up to the Alhambra a few lastish times, and I’ve been to a tetería again for most likely the last time too (although it was a hot day so we got milkshakes instead of tea, haha!). Also I saw one last flamenco show, courtesy of the IES flamenco classes, I’ve bought my last spanish shoes I’d been wanting, and I’m down to the last of the souvenirs I’m supposed to be getting. Hopefully that last sunburn was the last one (I’m trying to be good about my ‘leche solar’—literally ‘sun milk’ but really sunscreen lol). I went to my last Spanish Sunday mass, and I just today returned my last book to the Modern Languages Center. Last Week Livin. it’s cool.

I think my amount of time here has been just about perfect. A few weeks ago I was really homesick and just wanted to get out of this country, but I think that was partially caused by spending an entire week with friends from home and partially caused by then having an overwhelming amount of projects to do. These last 2 weeks I have been super content with the way life is going and the way the rest of it’s coming. I’m quite satisfied with what I’ve put in and gotten out of this semester here, and I’m also very happily looking forward to being at home again in six days. Overall, the semester has been different than what I expected but not in a bad way. I have lots of new stories and friends and memories and vocabulary and experiences and independence and tastes…and clothes! Well, not that many new clothes…no clearance racks here.

Probably only one or two more updates and then I’ll be all-American again and this blog will have fulfilled all of its purposes! How funny.

Accomplishments.

I think in the grand scheme of this semester I only have 4 more pages of writing left for all classes combined, and I could potentially finish all of them today and basically be done with everything but finals!

My Lorca paper ended up being 12 pages (over 5,000 words) long, and I was pretty happy with it. I was slightly disappointed to find out in class Monday that it actually only needed to be 7-10 pages long (not minimum 10 pages, which is what the guideline sheet said) after finishing it on Sunday night, but she did say longer would probably be better, soo hopefully that’ll weigh in my favor come grading time.

I also finished everything I was supposed to for last week without ever having to stay up all night as it sounds like several of my classmates did…I’m so glad I started my projects/papers early!!

This weekend IES took us to Cabo de Gata for a hike on Friday and a day at the beach yesterday. The trip was a mess, but it was overall fun. One of the buses (thankfully not mine) broke down about a half hour before destination so those poor guys had to wait an hour in the sun for one of the other buses to drop off its load and go back for them.

The hike was totally beautiful and the weather was just gorgeous and the Mediterranean was magnificent; however, they really should have been more upfront about what we were in for… The pre-departure e-mail we received warned us that the hike would be “long but not particularly difficult”, but actually it was really long and quite difficult indeed… 9 miles, at least half of it going up and down mountains. Including short stops at beaches it took about 8 hours. It was very exhausting. People were falling, there were lots of slippery rocks and some uphill climbs in sand—not fun. I just wish they’d’ve been less sugary about what to expect so I could have mentally prepared better. Oh well, yesterday Hannah, Malachi, and I just lay on the beach reading and chatting and reapplying sunscreen after jumping in the ocean for a bit, which was super relaxing after the previous day’s over-exertion. And I didn’t get sunburned except on the top of my toes where I forgot to reapply!

Now I’m home to Granada and most likely will just be sticking around here for  the final 2 weeks, soaking in as much of the Andalucían sun as I can while it lasts. I have decided after all of my travels throughout Spain that Andalucía is my favorite. I just love it down south and I’m so glad this is where I chose to study this semester. The mountains, the accent, the tapas, everything andaluz and granadino. Love it! So I’ll get offline and go enjoy it some more I think. Be home in 2 weeks!

Progress

Things of note in my life recently.

I have exactly 3 weeks left in Spain. SO WEIRD.

I’ve started actually getting souvenirs. That certainly says “time’s almost up!”

Pepita has bronchitis. :( Her daughters have been over taking care of her the last couple days. Prayers for her would be great if you have a few extra seconds!

Progress report on my final projects and papers: Econ project: done. Theater project: written component done, artistic component sketched but not final-drafted. Literature projects: paper is halfway done, creative project also halfway done ish...I have to print pictures before I can do anything else on it. Grammar project: ummm well that’s not due till Thursday so I’m not worried yet. I really can’t wait for this week to be over so I can have everything turned in and then go enjoy myself at the beach in Cabo de Gata (last IES trip next weekend). Of course then I have to start studying for finals, but compared to all the work of the last week or so, that will be a piece of cake. (I hope)

Pepita’s family was over yesterday and they told me they’ve noticed that my spanish has improved since they first met me, which is really exciting, because that was my main goal coming here in the first place!! :)

Oh yes, I had a choir concert on Friday night which was so so great. Dear TU Chorale, I am joining you next year. Love, Elizabeth

Welllll I should get back to my pile of projects now, I suppose…

p.s. Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!

A chance of rain helps.

The 10am bus to Madrid was full on Friday morning, so Cecilie and I sat in the Granada bus station for a few hours, watching the rain, chatting, reading, and feeling a little disappointed that the forecast was calling for a pretty soggy weekend in Madrid. Once we made it to Madrid, we discovered that our hostel had locks/keys for neither the font door nor the individual room doors, and it also lacked blankets. ? I thought that was weird. In addition, the wireless internet wasn’t working. But in spite of my pessimistic first impression, it turned out to be fne (clean; comfortable; friendly staff), minus our less-than-ideal roommates (smoking, coming in at 6am talking loudly). Anyway, enough about the accommodations. On Friday night we met up with Cecilie’s cousin Sam who has been studying in Madrid all semester for dinner and advice about the must-see spots, which was nice. Also nice: it only rained a teensy weensy bit on us!

On Saturday we went to Toledo, the city of Don Quixote and very old buildings. (Also where Christians, Muslims, and Jews have been able to live in possibly the most peace ever anywhere.) So, um… Toledo. is. beautiful. In my opinion, it actually deserves all the credit it gets as a pretty and historic place. If you ever go to Madrid, don’t miss Toledo!! I was perfectly content just walking around and looking at everything, and not actually going inside anything except one little museum, and a side chapel of the Cathedral. I was also more than perfectly happy that we only needed our umbrellas for about an hour total all day, and the sun actually came out by the afternoon. This was an extremely welcome surprise.

Back in Madrid that night, we took a speed-tour through the Prado, because Sunday and Monday it wasn’t gong to be open. Not ideal, but since we got there after 6pm it was free, so not all loss either. Needless to saw, we were exhausted from a full day of walking, so we stopped in a place on the way “home” for tortilla sandwiches, talked to the soccer fans who were there, and then flopped into bed. Luckily, our friends were more courteous (or maybe just more tired) and less disruptive tonight.

Sunday we went out to th town of San Lorenzo  to see the Escorial (a monastery and where lots of Spanish royalty is buried), but bummer: due to the holiday, it was closed! So we took pictures from the outside (it’s a very impressive building) and then wandered into the madrileño countryside, where we made a lovely morning of wildflowers, quaint benches, and cows. After a couple hours of peaceful prettiness (which, by the way, made me really homesick for the Farm… I’ve been living in city city for quite a while now) we hopped back on the bus to Madrid, where we spent the rest of the day being tourists. After going to mass at the Cathedral that’s right across from the palace, we went on a quest of hitting up all the most famous places in Madrid, finished up the night with people-watching in Puerta del Sol, and getting ice cream to accompany us on the way home. Did I mention that we had a perfectly blue and marshmallow-cloud sky day? It was just wonderful.

Monday it was sunny from the moment we woke up, which made for another day of excellent vacation weather, contrary to the dismal forecast we had been expecting. Win! That morning we fulfilled Cecilie’s life-long dream of sitting at a café in Plaza Mayor by getting churros and chocolate for breakfast, and then we went to the Reina Sofía museum to see a few more famous pieces of art and a lot of pieces we neither understood nor particularly liked, but in the name of being cultured (and because with student IDs we got in free) I'd say it was time well-spent. After a little more plaza sitting and metro-hurrying, we made it back to the bus station and finally home again. Today (tuesday) is a public holiday, so no classes! :)

I’m really glad I made it to Madrid, and I’m really glad it hardly rained while I was there! I think it was to our benefit that the forecast had told us rain, though, because we appreciated the lack thereof so much more that way. It was a beautiful relaxing weekend before I have to truly buckle down and finish all my projects that are due next week. Wish me luck on those…

Spring Break

Spring Break was great! This will be a super quickie rundown of all 11 days.

Thursday (april 14)

6pm. Bus to San Sebastian! In one station where we stopped I was going to use the bathroom and I put in my 20 cents to open the door and…it was jammed. So I was out 20 cents and I had to get back on the bus. :\

Friday

6:40am. Emily picked me up at the Sanse bus station and we walked along the river back to her apartment to take a nap before beginning our festivities. San Sebastian was a lot of pretty views from hilltops and beautiful blue ocean and sitting in nature-y places to chat. San Sebastian is a lot calmer than Granada, just less people out and about. It was nice. I liked it a lot. :)

Saturday

11:55pm. We got on a bus to Barcelona, and were told the rules of the bus ride: Basically you can do whatever you want, get up and move, eat, go to sleep, etc., except smoke or take off your shoes. What? The Spanish have a really weird not-okay-ness with barefootedness. One teensy aspect of Spain I will not particularly miss…

Sunday

Palm Sunday! Also, day one of Barcelona! We made friends with the metro and then saw lots of pretty things, including a park with a hedge labyrinth in it (fun!), the Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, and the Mediterranean Sea (although only from afar today). We went out for dinner to the Travel Bar (suggested by our hostel) and ordered the “cheapies” meal—buy a drink and get chili con carne for free! It was still more expensive than granadino free tapas everywhere with every drink anyway, but it was decent, and we had a funny conversation with our obviously English waitress to explain to her what tinto de verano is. Then we went home and turned in for the night pretty soon after a little game of hearts with Hannah and her friend Rebecca…yep we were in the same hostel…not a coincidence but still fun :)

Monday

More famous sights (a castle and an olympic stadium for example, nbd) and actually being by the sea in Barcelona. We saw the cruise ship port which made me think of my parents’ obsession…everyone else feel free to give them a hard time about leaving on a cruise less than a week after I get home ;) Anyway, we made ourselves grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner with the cheap bread we’d bought in San Sebastian and the cheese we’d bought today at the market and the olive oil in the hostel’s kitchen as a butter substitute.

And then we used our last metro pass to go to the bus station for a very uncomfortable overnight bus to Alicante…

Tuesday

4:30am. We got in to the Alicante bus station where our wonderful friend Jordan was waiting for us to lead us to some couches where we could crash for a few more hours before our much-looked-forward-to Beach Day. Unfortunately, when we woke up again, it was cloudy, and stayed that way all day…but we were determined to enjoy a day next to the ocean, and somehow I got sunburned even though I didn’t actually see the sun for hardly more than an hour all day. There was also a castle to see in Alicante, so we did that between beach-bumming sessions.

After a bit of turrón (a very alicantino almond-and-honey dessert) and a bit of a really weird sci-fi movie, Emily and I were headed back to the bus station for another overnight to Granada. We had a lovely 23 hours in Alicante. :)

Wednesday

My hometown! There’s a bunch of funny stories that go with this day that are better told in person I think, so ask me when I get home! By the end of the day though, we were e.x.h.a.u.s.t.e.d. So we slept for 13 hours.

Thursday

We had chocolate at every meal today, from the breakfast pastries (at 1pm) to the mid-afternoon ice cream, to the crepes for dinner, and the daily dose of Mr. Choc (tasty off-brand Twix from the Sanse grocery store) when we got back to our sleeping quarters. Of perhaps more importance, we went to the Alhambra and the Carmen de los Martires and had lots of nice plaza-sitting. I have decided after this week of spanish travel that Granada has the best plazas (and so many!)

Friday

Slept in a little then got croissants for breakfast then hopped on a bus to Sevilla! Sadness=rain in the south of spain during spring break. Oh well……

Once in Sevilla we got a vegetable sandwich for lunch (haha) and then had some nice damp wanderings with Jordan to the cathedral, the Maria Luisa Park, and the Plaza de España—that last one was (is) one of my favorite things I’ve been to yet in Spain.

When Ali and Merijke got in, we went for some super-yum meat-free tapas! I guess the weather maybe was just trying to remind us that it was Good Friday…not really a sunshiney kind of day, you know?

Saturday

We went to a grocery store to gather supplies for dinner tonight for roughly 80 cents apiece: scrambled eggs with onions and red pepper and cheese, and bread, and wine. …and Mr. Choc for dessert :)

We did some more wandering and playing on playgrounds until the free walking tour of the city which was full of fun little stories and rain. Also we caught a glimpse of the only Semana Santa procession that hadn’t been cancelled since we’d been there, so that was nifty. (The procession floats are so old and ornate that if it even looks like it’s going to rain they pretty much just go ahead and cancel the procession.)

We chilled on the [covered] terrace awhile after dinner till it got dark and then we went to bed! My last hostel night for…a little bit. (I’m going to Madrid and Toledo this upcoming weekend!)

Sunday

Happy Easter!! We went to the cathedral where we saw parts of another procession (the sun came out today!) and listened to the Liturgy of the Hours sung in Latin and then attended mass. So pretty and nice. :)

We got some celebratory ice cream (esp because Ali had given it up for Lent) and then went back to the hostel to pack up and head out. My friends off to Italy and me back home to Granada. I finished my Lenten goal of reading the Catechism during the bus ride, after a nice little conversation with the guy next to me who is from the Canary Islands and is hoping to get a teaching job in the States next year.

Getting home, it was nice to know I didn’t have to live out of a backpack anymore. Also, I was really looking forward to comida on Monday after over a week of eating on a college-kid travel-budget.

Now, I’m back into the swing of things. I have started one of my papers that’s due in 2 weeks. What? haha… Just a month or so ish left here. So weird!

Well, it’s my bedtime. Goodnight and thanks for reading!!

Hello, April! How are you half over already?

It’s finally Spring Break!! I’m about to hop on a bus to San Sebastian for a nice little travel loop vacation with the wonderful Emily Puetz. I get to see her “hometown” and then we’re going to Barcelona, then Alicante to say hello to the Mediterranean and Jordan, then to Granada, then Sevilla for an Easter TU reunion (with Ali and Jordan). We are going to be tired but we’re going to see lots of cool things! Vale la pena, por supuesto.

I most likely won’t have any internet access until I get back home on Easter. Until then, have happy Holy Week!

The Lateliness

Yesterday I had the pleasure of showing off Granada to Ali and her parents. We had a beautiful (kind of hot) sunny day, and I hope they had fun! I certainly enjoyed taking a day off from being a student here to show them around.

Friday was a weird day and I got sunburned and I wasn’t very hungry all day but then I got to sit in the shade in the grass in the park with some lovely friends for some wonderful conversation, and then I went home to do homework.

Thursday was full of planning Spring Break which I am looking forward to, and getting a milkshake with the choir girls after rehearsal.

Wednesday’s graffiti made me happy: I saw “Sonríe” written on the sidewalk on the way to class, and then class was actually canceled when I got to the door of the room—almost disappointing after the more than a mile uphill walk—but  “Buenos Días :)” was written on a wall on the way back from class, so I got some gelato and went to sit on the terraza at IES and kind of do homework until the sun went down.

Tuesday was nothing special except I got to register for classes for next Fall back at TU.

Monday I had my midterm in econ which I think went fine. Monday is class all day day.

Last Sunday it was rainy and I let my hair dry naturally because I thought I didn’t have to go anywhere besides church and then I remembered I had a show to watch for theater, which I didn’t even like that much after seeing it, maybe just because it caused me to have to walk through the chill and rain for over an hour by the time it was all said and done.

Last Saturday Hannah came over and we made tea plus tostadas with nutella and watched Orgullo y Perjuicio. Fun times.

Just in general, all the plants are visibly alive now and the trees have leaves so the plaza has shade and the flowers are blooming so I’m experiencing a few Spanish alergías but it’s okay because it feels like summertime even though I still have a lot of work to do this week (and the following ones).

So, if anyone feels inclined to pray for me that I may be able to stay focused and do well in all these classes that do transfer back to TU for real major credit, that would probably help me a lot. Thanks :)

I love vocal thirds

This weekend Pepita went out of town for a spiritual retreat or something, so I have the house to myself. The first thing I’ve done to take advantage of this was to unplug my headphones and turn up country music to sing along with. I haven’t indulged in country music yet this semester, but it felt appropriate yesterday (and today) for some reason. Mostly I hear American pop music in stores and spanish pop music other places. And choral music in choir, of course.

The past week or so I have finally gotten to enjoy better weather than Tulsa. When I see the midwest’s forecast of today: 40, tomorrow: 79, the next day: 53 and rain, I really appreciate the predictability of Spanish weather. We’ve been having high 60s to mid 70s (gradually increasing daily for at least a week now) and mostly sunny or partly cloudly. Perfect weather for getting sunburned on park benches while reading, or getting sunburned because you left the window above the bed open while taking a siesta…that might have happened yesterday…

Remember how I’m reading one book in English and one in Spanish per month here? Well last month I read Oliver Twist and then El barbero de Sevilla. (It’s a play but it still counts.) (Also I highly recommend both of those.) For my April English book I decided to continue the tradition of books-that-Disney-loosely-based-movies-off-of and checked out The Jungle Books. I like it so far, although it’s already very obvious that Disney told his story writers not to read Kipling’s book (which he did, after he vetoed the original story board that was written by someone who had read the books, as I learned from watching the bonus features on the Special Edition DVD last summer, haha).

I’ve been preoccupied with having spring fever and anticipating class registration coming up this week and it’s been difficult to focus on schoolwork lately. But this happens every year. Hopefully I’ll get over it soon so I can buckle down on research papers and creative projects, get them done, and enjoy the end of the semester relatively stress-free.

In cooking class this week we learned how to make buñuelos! They weren’t as good as the ones we had in Valencia but same idea. And much more economical, I’m sure.

From Dwight to Rascs, I am having a great Saturday morning. Happy weekend to you all!