Whirlwind

Wow, that week went by fast. I’ve been so busy having a great time! So, highlights from the past week:

Last Saturday night some friends and I went to a tetería to talk and sit in a cozy atmosphere for a couple of hours, and then we went to a flamenco show that started at midnight. It was really fun, and we managed to be kind of Spanish and stay out till 2am. I’m so glad the friends I’ve made are like me and don’t make me feel bad about usually wanting to go home relatively early.

Last Sunday night I went to a show called Malgama with my theater class—I didn’t realize this class would include like 10 free shows throughout the semester…bonus! It was a mix of circus and flamenco with a bit of a plot line sprinkled in. Overall entertaining but glad it was free.

Last Monday I was homesick. But I got over it on Tuesday when the sun came out!

There is a retro film festival going on in Granada this week. On Tuesday night some of us went out for crepes and then to a free screening of The Man Who Knew Too Much at the theater at the library.

On Wednesday evening I had my first class at the University of Granada: History of Spanish Film. Basically we just watched a bunch of film clips in class… Not a bad deal, I think. The professor was really nice, too. I think it’ll be a good addition to my studies, even if it makes Mondays and Wednesdays really long as far as classes.

Thursday was heavenly. I had grammar class in the morning, and then I went for a walk in the sunshine around Puerta Real, smiling like an American at all the people and buildings and fountains. That evening I joined UGR’s science department’s choir :) Being a science person isn’t a requirement, thankfully; they just rehearse in the science building, which is only a five minute walk from where I live. Everyone was SO welcoming and super nice. There were 4 of us newbies on Thursday night, so about six of the Spanish people invited us to join them for tapas. I’m making real Spanish friends!! I’ve now been here for just over a month and I still mostly hang out with Americans… I really like all my new friends, but I’m quite excited to add authentic Spanish people to that list too.

Yesterday I was lazy, just read and rested, until the evening when I met some friends to have a double-feature movie night, courtesy of the Retro Back film festival. We saw The Misfits and The Seven Year Itch (I liked the second one better), and we had cake and cappuccino for dinner in between. :) What a wonderful little night.

This morning I went shopping and paseo-ing in the excellent weather with excellent company. This weekend is really going well. Also, Monday is Andalucía Day, so no classes, which means I’m not even half through the weekend yet. ¡Dulce!

Discoveries

Week two of classes flew by fantastically. I really enjoy my IES classes. This is going to be an academically excellent semester, I believe.

I think I have finally found a class I can take at UGR that fits all of my preferences: History of Spanish Film. Unfortunately, that puts me at 5 classes on Mondays, but…No pasa nada. In exchange, my weekends always start at 10:55 on Thursday mornings when grammar class ends. Besides, I may as well get the worst day of the week over with at the beginning.

A wonderful discovery I have made: Old books smell equally amazing everywhere in the world (as far as I have seen). Hannah and I went to UGR’s Modern Language Center which has a library with a delightful selection of books available in English. Hannah suggested Steinbeck’s Cannery Row to me, so I checked it out. It has the same sweet smell as my old books that I left at home. Perfect.

I have decided that for extra-curricular reading, my goal is at least one book in Spanish and at least one book in English per month. I’m here to learn Spanish, but I’m still an English major through and through. <3 being a nerd!

Other than classes, this week was pretty uneventful. We got rain again—slightly disappointing—but as of today that’s supposed to be over, hopefully for a long while. Tulsa weather is still my internet homepage, so I’ve been jealous of your 70 or so degrees over there this week. What? Oh, the midwest.

Yesterday morning after class, Hannah and I went to the St. Augustine Market (an indoor many-stalls butcher place) to get ourselves some more ham for stay-home dinners. This was definitely a good idea: We got more ham for less money (than at Hipercor) and we know it is fresh and local. Also, afterward, we went to our favorite bread lady in Plaza Trinidad for some pan salado (salted bread, quite tasty) for second breakfast, but she was out of it; instead, we got some pan con azúcar (bread with sugar) from her. The bread was between the consistency of normal bread and that of a donut, and it had a generous layer of powdered sugar on top. ¡Qué delicioso!

Also on the sugar theme: Last night I had a gofre con chocolate y nata (waffle with chocolate and whipped cream) for dessert—definitely a winner. My friends and I might become once-a-weekend regulars at Café Fútbol…there are a lot more sweet things left on their menu to try! (That’s where we had churros and chocolate last weekend.)

Oh, I found out that the family gathering on Monday was due to the fact that it was Pepita’s birthday! She never even told me… What a rascal. ha!

Well, for today I’m just taking it easy at home, reading, homework, updating you all :)

Monday Night Thoughts

Parallel Parking 101: Don’t mind the curb, just drive on it if that will help you line up your parking job.

Today I bought an entire loaf of baked-this-morning bread for 70 eurocents :) not sandwich bread, like a loaf of italian bread. but made in Spain.

Today for lunch, Pepita had a bunch of family over. Three of her daughters + sons-in-law and her son + daughter-in-law, and 5 grandchildren. I guess I misunderstood yesterday when I thought she told me her daughter was coming over for lunch… ha! Well, no pasa nada. It was kind of a frenzy of meeting people and there was a lot of talking. Mostly I observed, but I did participate in the conversation when I could. Most of them can speak English, and I think they were surprised that I answered in the affirmative (“más o menos”) every time they asked me if I was able to understand what they were saying [in Spanish].

Oh! I went to mass at the Cathedral yesterday :) SO PRETTY!!! and HUGE. Unfortunately they were turning off lights and blocking off everything but the exit as soon as mass was over (lunch time!), so I didn’t get to see much of anything that I couldn’t see from my pew, but I’ll be going back I’m sure. The archbishop said mass, and he seems really nice. At one point this guy was walking across the main aisle during a prayer, don’t know why, and the bishop stopped and looked at him and waited for him to sit down before finishing the prayer. It was kind of comical… Also the bishop’s homily was super long, but I did understand it, mostly.

Oh it’s Valentine’s Day isn’t it… It’s not that big of a deal over here. I’ll give a little shout out to Justin though: Te amo ;)

¡Feliz Día de San Valentín a todos!

Third?! Weekend

My friends and I have decided that this is really only our first “real” weekend, because the the first first weekend, we didn’t know anything about Granada or what we were doing and we were still let-lagged, etc.; last weekend we weren’t even in Granada, we were touring around the rest of Andalucía; therefore this is our First Weekend. Mostly, we use this to rationalize why we have such trouble knowing how to order or where to find open places at various times of evening/night.

Anyway, this weekend (the first of all my 3-day-weekends. that’s right. no class on fridays.) has begun fantastically.

On Thursday night, Hannah, Malachi, and I did a little shopping… It was becoming displeasurable to walk by SO MANY shop windows on the way to and from class every day, wondering what was actually inside the store, so we went to get the girly desire to buy pretty things out of our systems. It was a success :) Next we tried out a brand new café-bar near where I live. It was pretty hip and the owner was super nice, especially considering we didn’t know what to do… I suppose someday we will, or we’ll be Spanish-feeling enough to act like we do.

Yesterday was SO GREAT! I got to sleep in, had a nice lunch with Pepita as always. When we talk, she often begins with, “En tu tierra…” (in your land) and then asks if we have certain things or do certain things. The word choice is just funny to me :)

In the afternoon, I went with Hannah, Malachi, Mara, and Atalie to the Alhambra—

Finally went up there! o.m.g. It was amazing. I knew it would be cool, but my own in-awe reaction surprised me a bit, to tell the truth. The ancient stone fortress and the intricacy of the decoration was delightful; I love old things! And the views…  From one side you could see the entire Alabaicín neighborhood all painted white on the hillside, and beyond that the rest of Granada. From the other side you could see the giant snow-capped mountains that you weren’t sure were real or really as pretty as the pictures. They are really that pretty. Amazing amazing amazing.

—where we sat in the sun very contentedly and then…went to the Matisse exhibit that’s inside! Free art exhibit, great time with new friends, beautiful ancient surroundings…what a lovely afternoon. Definitely worth skipping the siesta for, ha!

Most of us parted ways, but Malachi and I decided to try out a tetería (tea shop). We stopped at a convent where the nuns were praying the rosary in front of a gorgeous altar for a few minutes. :)

Anyway, we chose a tetería (there are a bunch of them on the street we were one), and it was fantastic. The atmosphere was very cozy, the place was tiny and cute, the service was friendly, and the tea was tasty! They brought us each our own individual-size teapot and a cup to pour it in at our leisure. We just sat there drinking tea and conversating for over an hour. So charming.

Last night the five of us went out to a place a granadino had recommended to us. I think we’ll have to try it again sometime when the entire Barcelona rugby team is not there…but it was a ridiculous new experience to be surrounded by tipsy out-of-town rugby players who wanted to practice their English. I taught one of them a couple of idioms, one of my favorite things about languages: “Look it up” (@Dad) and “the next best thing.” :)

Afterward we found another recommended place for churros and chocolate. It was much calmer, and the dessert was delicious!! (and probably horribly unhealthy lol) Anyway, I slept well afterward and have had a relaxing morning so far today.

Weekends. Los fines de semana. ¡Qué bueno!

Wednesday Night

Today I had a little evening adventure. I needed to buy notebooks to take notes at school, so that was my primary goal after siesta. I decided I also wanted to go to mass, so I used misas.org (great website for locating Catholic churches and mass schedules in Spain) to find out that the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Perpetual Help—about a 15 minute walk from my house—would be having mass at 8pm. Perfect. So at about 7:20, I set out with the intention of finding a papelería (literally, “paper store”) and this church. I stepped inside a thrift store along the way just to see what a Spanish thrift store is like. It was pretty much exactly like American ones… I saw a couple things I sort of liked but there wasn’t really time to try on so I noted the place in my mind and continued on my way.

I found a papelería directly in my path to the church. That happens also to be my path to school every morning, but this particular papelería had never been open when I went by before. Hours of operation are a little scattered here. Anyway, they had exactly what I wanted, even if a bit pricey, but I’m hoping these will last all semester. In reality, about $8.00 for a semester’s worth of note-taking paper…not all that bad.

I found the church without a problem. This church was way more awesome than the churches I’ve been to on Sundays, which were just small parishes. This one was huge, traditional, and beautiful, very cathedral-esque, except it’s not the cathedral here. I have yet to visit that; it’s on my list. Anyway, it reminded me of the Roman churches, and I couldn’t help but be an American and smile at the whole place.

I think there were about 20 people at mass. So much space, so few people. How ridiculous. I think statistically, Spain is like 90% Catholic (nominally) but in practice, it’s more like 10% maybe less. But I am definitely going to make mass a Wednesday night tradition again, and perhaps more times a week. I feel that I should take advantage of the total awe-inspiring-ness of the worship spaces here as often as possible, you know?

So, mass was great, and then I wandered home. I stopped in this store that was something like a dollar store because of the range and randomness of the items inside, but the stuff wasn’t actually that cheap in price or quality. It was not something I’m used to. However, I found some empty envelopes and blank/colored paper…maybe I can get a head start on this summer’s card party (@Mary) and continue a little hobby from home :)

Well, I guess it’s dinner time now, then a bit of homework. Last day of classes for the week tomorrow! I really like my schedule here. And I like the weather here. Sorry to hear about your snow [again]…how absurd.

Real Life Begins

On Saturday night after returning from Ronda I was able to meet up with Jordan who was on an excursion to Granada with his program from Alicante. It was great to talk in person with someone I’ve known for more than 2 weeks… Just talking about Spain and how great it is, what we’re missing at home. Tapas and a paseo. Fun :)

This Sunday was pretty wonderful. I got up to meet Hannah for a walk through the park; the weather was absolutely beautiful. After a while we met up with a few other friends to go to the festival of St. Cecilio (first bishop of Granada and a martyr) in Sacromonte. It was a notably long uphill walk, but so worth it! It was basically like a street fair in LS except on a Granadino hill… We waited in line for a free sack of traditional St. Cecilio festival food: a little loaf of bread, a few lima bean pods, and a piece of cured fish. I tried all of it…I liked the bread :) The fish was SO salty, couldn’t handle it.

The 5 of us sat on a hillside watching/listening to traditional flamenco, and watching the crowd grow steadily larger. I kind of got grass stains on my pants but I rinsed them and soap should finish the job. No pasa nada.

At 7pm I went to mass at the Parish of St. Raphael. It’s a really tiny church on the first floor of an apartment building, but it was actually really pretty inside. The altar was nice, sparkly but not overdone, a Mary statue, etc… Oh and the tabernacle was behind the altar (@Justin). This was definitely an old-people church…but the priest was really nice, although sometimes difficult to understand.

I LOVE the universality of the Catholic church. I was feeling sort of homesick after chillin with Jordan, so going to mass was very comforting. I can’t recite the prayers in Spanish, but I can listen to them and follow along in English in my head. Isn’t in wonderful how God’s love is not limited by languages? So comforting.

Today was my first day of classes at IES. My language teacher seems pretty cool. I’m excited about my Federico Garcia Lorca (a Granadino) literature class. A few of my friends are in there with me. My class about Spain and the European Union sounds like it’s going to be very interesting, but I’m glad I’m not taking it for credit…less pressure. Econ: not my best skill.

Well, it’s just another Monday night off. No one does much on Mondays so I’m taking it easy at home. Maybe I’ll go to bed early, more classes tomorrow! I’m actually pretty enthused about getting into a “real life” routine with school, homework, etc. It will help me truly settle, I hope.

Oh, several people have asked about this, so here in a central location is my mailing address:

Elizabeth Behm
c/o: Institute for the International Education of Students
Pisas, 2 - 2º
18010 Granada, España

…receiving mail would be super exciting, but I don’t really know how postage works here, so…good luck! :)

Dessert

I had been unintentionally and inexplicably not meeting my daily sweets quota while in Spain. However, on Thursday night some friends and I decided we were in the mood for something sweet. Two different Granadinos (natives of Granada) had suggested a place on University Square as the only place in Granada to get good crepes, so we went there. It was a tiny, hole-in-the-wall place, and I got a crepe with dark chocolate and almonds in it, which was SO. GOOD. Speaking of almonds, the word for them in Spanish is almendras, a very pretty-sounding word in my opinion :) and the almond trees are so pretty in bloom here right now!

This week IES took us on an excursion to Sevilla and Ronda. The first stop was Sevilla, the capital of Andalucía. I was super excited to see KC´s sister city; it did not disappoint. We took a tour through the Reales Alcázares, basically an old palace and its gardens. Then we had picnic lunches in a plaza… For lunch Pepita packed me 2 sandwiches and 5 oranges—ha!—I saved some for snacks in the afternoon :) It was beautiful weather all weekend, so sitting on a bench for lunch was just lovely.

Then we went to the cathedral. o.m.g. That was probably my favorite part of the entire excursion. The cathedral in Sevilla is the third largest (behind St. Peter’s in Rome and St. Paul’s in London), but it is the largest gothic-style cathedral in the world. Totally awesome! And I’ll be back in Sevilla with Ali Emily and Jordan for Easter, so we may even get to go to mass there… How cool would that be? :)

The last event of the day in Sevilla was a tiny private flamenco show. It really wasn’t at all what I was expecting… It was more storytelling, less showy, and more foot movement based than I would have thought. However, the guitar player was amazing.

To compare Granada and Sevilla:

·         Sevilla’s river (Guadalquivir) is a lot more impressive than Granada’s (the Genil). Ours looks more like a creek right now because the mountains are hoarding the water (winter/snow).

·         Personally, I like Granada’s local brew (Alhambra) better than Sevilla’s (Cruzcampo), although I don’t really like beer that much at all.*

·         Granada is obviously much smaller than Sevilla. Granada is a lot more manageable, and for my goals (to integrate myself so I don’t feel like a tourist) I’d say Granada was the best choice…Sevilla was a close second though.

·         Sevilla is not in the mountains like Granada is, therefore it has a generally warmer climate. It was soo nice this weekend!!

·         I can’t decide if I liked Sevillas cream-filled, chocolate-covered churro, or Granada’s crispy churro dipped in drinking chocolate better…

Ronda yesterday was really pretty. It’s a city built on a cliff…awesome views! Also I got to go inside the bullfighting arena, and to see the Arab baths. And I got coffee + walnuts and cream flavored ice cream there. Cool :)

The bus rides between all the cities this weekend have caused me to decide that living in a mountainous region for a semester will be a fun change of scenery. It’s so abnormal (for me) to see giant cliffs and hills of rock, all the orchards on the slopes (olives, oranges, almonds), and heavy duty wire netting covering the cliffs right by the highway in case a boulder decides to fall so it won’t crash through someone’s  car window. Just different. I kinda like it.

I’ve made some progress in my little for-fun book. The boy calls his younger brother “the Imbecile.” It’s pretty entertaining.

I love all the fresh fruit (I think I eat like 3 oranges a day), but I do enjoy a “real” sugar fix every once in a while… A thank-you shout-out to those who supplied me with American candy before I left. Mike&Ikes really hit the spot lately :)

Have a sweet Sunday!

¡Que tenid un dulce domingo!

*Just to clarify: I am of legal drinking age here in Europe, and I don’t drink in excess :)