Marruecos!

Hello, again! Remember me? Oh, yeah. I’m still alive. Maybe a little too alive since I never have time (or want to take the time) to update this thing. So…some updates, long overdue. And after I write a few updates, I really will try to add photos at some point. I have been really bad about that. My internet at my homestay just really dislikes uploading photos—to blogspot, Facebook, anywhere really. So…here it goes.

This first latest post will be about my trip to Gibraltar and Morocco with IES from March 16^th through 20^th. Wow! Almost a month ago, now. Time has been racing here, I guess. Alright. To begin…

Friday, March 16^th
6:45am: Wake up. Get ready. Triple and quadruple check that I didn’t forget anything. Eat breakfast.
8:45am: Meet the bus at los Járdines del Triunfo. Travel to Linea, Spain
12:30pm: Arrive at the hotel in Linea (just a 20 minute-ish walk from GIBRALTAR). Eat lunch (on the beach—rocky but beautiful and perfect for a picnic prepared by Maria Carmen).
3:00pm: Walk to Gibraltar for a guided tour: A famous view (we could see the continent of Africa!), a cave (stalactites, stalagmites, a stage inside), monkeys (scary…) and all with the commentary of our guide/bus driver Robert while ascending the Rock of Gibraltar
5:00pm: Explore some shops in Gibraltar during a little bit of free time.
6:00pm: Hike up the Rock of Gibraltar to see the sunset. Okay, truthfully, I hiked part of the way and then, being the lazy being that I am, decided to stop with a couple of other exhausted girls to watch the sunset, I think about two-thirds of the way up the Rock of Gibraltar. This was a beautiful view and all very romantic, until we stood up to find that we had decided to sit in bird poop. Awesome. Still amazing, though.
8:00pm: Eat dinner at The Clipper in Gibraltar. At a British pub, fish and chips for me? No. Grilled cheese and tomato with a side of sautéed mushrooms and a ginger beer. Yes, please.
9:30pm: Walk back to the hotel in Linea and rest up for MOROCCO on Saturday!

Saturday, March 17^th
6:00am: Wake up, shower, pack, etc.
7:00am: Breakfast at the hotel. Lots of cheese (why do I always remember food so well but hardly anything else?) and some fresh orange juice. Yum!
7:30am: Board the bus to meet the ferry in Tarifa, Spain
8:30am: Meet our group for Morocco and our travel guide and IES staff guide
9:00am: Board the ferry to cross the Strait of Gibraltar from Tarifa, Spain to Tangier, Morocco
*Here, I am switching from actual hours to general times of day since upon arriving in Morocco, we were henceforth on “Morocco time,” which is even more laid back than Spanish time, apparently. To explicate, in Spain, if you say, “Let’s meet at 9pm,” expect the Spaniard you’re meeting to arrive around 9:05, 9:10…or…sometime within the half hour? In Morocco, “Let’s meet at 10am” could be translated any number of ways, probably requiring at least an hour of flexibility. Okay so…
After arriving in Tangier, Morocco:
Morning:
-Talk with Moroccan students in Tangier (studying translation)—they asked questions, we asked questions, everyone learned at least a little bit, I believe. Mostly discussing politics and the recent laws passed in Morocco giving more rights to women.
-Tour of “Darna” (which translates to “Our House”): A place for women of Tangier to go to learn marketable skills as well as literacy.
-Tea and lunch at Darna—again, with the food, but…Moroccan tea is minty and amazingly sweet and our lunch was a chicken tangine (I don’t actually know how to spell that and it’s also kind of hard to describe), basically baked chicken with a sweet sauce of raisins or dates or something. Weird but yummy.
Afternoon:
-Travel to Assilah, Morocco by bus (aka: 15 passenger van). But wait!
-CAMEL RIDES!!! So the bus just kind of pulled over in the middle of nowhere and we were all a little confused until our tour guide Rachael explained that we were stopping for camel rides. Did I ride a camel? Yes. Did I cry? Yes. Am I glad I rode the terrifying camel? Yes. Was the camel’s baby happy when I finally got off his mother? Yes.
–Brief interruption to introduce you to our tour guide, Rachael, since I just realized I never did that. Rachael originally went to Morocco with the Peace Corps for two years, but then she met a Moroccan man to whom she is now married. So…she’s still living in Morocco, but they (Rachael and her husband) will hopefully be moving to the U.S. sometime in the near-ish future. She is fluent in Moroccan Arabic and was, in my opinion, an interesting tour guide who offered a very unique perspective on Moroccan life. Now back to Saturday afternoon…
-Arrive in Assilah.
-Walk through the Medina (city center) for about an hour.
-Avoid a creepy Moroccan who was adamant about selling us some paintings…and possibly some illegal drugs.
-Travel to Rabat
Night:
-Meet our host families in Rabat (who we would be staying with for two nights and one day)
-Walk through the Medina of Rabat with our host brother Fehd (Caitlin [the other IES student who stayed in the homestay with me] were so tired but really enjoyed the walk through the city and markets—and we were extremely shocked by how wonderful Fehd’s English was. For example, he used colloquial terms like “chilling.” Wow, I hope my Spanish will be that good someday)
-Dinner with host family. Some sort of thin noodle, rice-like, with chicken. And bread. And we used spoons. It was delicious! And we ate out of a community dish, as is common in Morocco.
*Note: My homestay had Western toilets AND toilet paper! And even internet, actually. I was pleasantly surprised.

Sunday, March 18^th—Rabat!
Morning:
-Eat breakfast at the homestay: Yummy toast-bread stuff (flaky, but kind of dense also. Hard to describe, but amazing) with orange marmalade, butter, and cheese. Oh, yeah, and Moroccan TEA of course! (Oh, needless to say, Mom, I don’t think the Moroccan diet would work for you. You can remove “Living in Morocco” from your to-do list. ;-)  )
-Drive to Sale (the neighboring city to Rabat)—view of the slums from the tour bus (IES student: “Are we getting out?” Moroccan student: …nervous laughter…”No.”)
-Visit to NGO in Sale (I don’t remember what NGO stands for, but it is basically an organization that tries to improve the way of life for youth in the slums. First, “youth” is any age before marriage, really. Second, they have activities and soccer games and classes and stuff to keep the kids busy and entertained. Kind of like Boys and Girls Club, actually.)
-Talk with Moroccan students at NGO—again, politics was a big part of the discussion
-Walk through a market in Sale: crazy! I don’t think I could shop there daily. I narrowly missed seeing a chicken get beheaded. Wow! Interesting, though.
-Visit to the Mausoleum of Hassan II (a former king of Morocco) and la Mezquita Mayor (main mosque, never completed…but it would have been CRAZY HUGE had it been completed. Even incomplete, it was pretty amazing to see)
-Visit to the ruins of the Chellah-Roman ruins. Lots of storks. Beautiful gardens.
Afternoon:
-Lunch with our host families: We ate using spoons again (I was really scared of trying to eat with my hands, if I haven’t communicated that so far). Koos koos! Chicken, I think. And vegetables. And YUMMY! Also, they had buttermilk to drink with it as well as some other type of milk for Caitlin and I in case the buttermilk was too strong, which it was. So…I somehow ended up drinking almost the entire half gallon of this milk-yogurt hybrid since Caitlin couldn’t finish hers and I didn’t want it to be wasted and then my host mom added MORE to my glass and…well…to be continued in the next bullet point.
-Walk through the Kasbah, along the beach, and through the market of the Medina with Moroccan students in small groups. Okay. So…to continue. WAY TOO MUCH DAIRY IN ONE MEAL. Luckily, Rachael had Tums. Unfortunately, I have no idea what the Kasbah is—it’s just listed on the itinerary, so I assume I saw it sometime during my stomach-ache-stupor. Halfway through the walk, though, I felt infinitely better. The beach was beautiful and the Moroccan students wrote our names in Arabic in the sand. The market was crazy and interesting—so many vendors. And then we stopped for Moroccan tea at “Le Gran Terrace”—one of our group ordered avocado juice, also, which was weird.
Night:
-Run to host homes to grab stuff for the Hammam (Arabic baths)
-Hammam. Wow. So…this was pretty much our only option for a shower between leaving the hotel in Linea on Saturday morning and arriving at the hostel on Monday night. Was I terrified of going into a room full of naked women while also naked? Yes. Did I do it? Like. A. Rock. Star. Okay, maybe not like a rock star. But I did it. And I didn’t even cry. AND, bonus, my hair looked really awesome on Monday, if I do say so myself. It was actually pretty cool, but I think I like Western showers better. Privacy, at least.
-Henna: Mine looked pretty freaking cool. The artist who did our group’s henna was super fast and intricate and…I really enjoyed it. I will upload a picture someday. I hope. (I know…I’ve said that before…)
-Dinner with host family: using….our hands. Yeah. Like Moroccans. It was some sort of tomato soup like substance with meatballs. So we used bread and our hands to eat. By hands, I guess I should say hand, since the left one is considered unclean. But…Caitlin and I were successful. And it was again a delicious meal.

Monday, March 19^th Morning:
-Breakfast at homestay—the same awesome toast stuff and marmalade and cheese and tea
-Adios to the host family: We actually didn’t see our host dad or brother to say bye. Sad. But we said bye to our host mom and gave her lots of chocolate as a thank you.
-Travel through the Rif Mountains to meet a rural Moroccan family for discussion and food
Afternoon:
-Lunch in a pueblo at a home with a rural family: Veggies for an appetizer, and tuna, and bread and then vegetable koos koos for lunch. Yum!
-Question and answer session with the family (to get a different perspective of Moroccan life)—much thanks to our translator Abs (That’s not his full name, but he gave us a nickname because we were struggling to pronounce his actual name). The discussion was somewhat heated and awkward, but very enlightening—and I imagine incredibly uncomfortable for Abs, which I will explain in my overall reflections.
-Walk/hike to a BEAUTIFUL view of a valley and river near the house. SO PRETTY! Maybe one of my very favorite parts of the trip.
-Travel to Chefchaouen (mountain town) for our last night in Morocco
Night:
-Explore/shop in the markets of Chefchaouen. I much prefer set prices to bartering, by the way.
-Dinner at a restaurant (I can’t remember the name)—I tried SO MANY THINGS thanks to some genius girls I was able to travel with. We each ordered a different appetizer and main (but the same desserts) in order to experience more Moroccan foods. YUM!
-Impromptu game of “Never Have I Ever” in the hostel in Chefchaouen and finally some much needed sleep

Tuesday, March 20^th
Morning:
-Optional hike up to the Spanish mosque in Chefchaouen. Such a beautiful view of the city! And a beautiful day for a walk, too.
-Breakfast at a restaurant in the Plaza Mayor of Chefchaouen-more toasty things and tea. So much food. And so delicious!
-Travel to Ceuta to meet the ferry to take us back to the mainland of Spain
-Ferry across the Strait of Gibraltar from Ceuta, Spain (on the continent of Africa) to Algeciras, Spain (on the Iberian Peninsula)
-Adios to Rachael, our tour guide
Afternoon:
-Reunion with the other groups from IES and a bus ride back to Granada, “Home, Sweet Home.”

What a trip! WOW! First, I really liked the way the trip was planned. A lot of trips taken with IES are a little more “touristy” in that we see important sights or monuments. It makes sense—a lot of the sights are related to the subject matter for various classes. Morocco, however, was a little different. We saw some monuments, but most of all, we met people and talked with them. It was really beautiful. That being said, I found the opinions of liberty in Morocco to be very interesting. Many of the students expressed contentment with the state of Morocco politically, socially, etc. They don’t feel oppressed and feel that they have freedom of expression. But I think their definition of freedom is different from that of, say, and American student. Also, the drastic difference between city life and rural life was amazing to me. In the city, I was shocked by how many women were not covered and how many couples were holding hands or being affectionate. I really didn’t expect Rabat to be so…modern. But in the pueblo, I felt that a lot of the recent changes hadn’t really taken effect. The women still have so few rights! Which brings me to the discussion of Abs and…the discussion. How awkward it must have been for him! Basically, there was a group of 13 American students (male and female), our two guides, our translator, and the family: one man and three women (and children, but they were outside playing so…) Many of the questions that were asked were very controversial and would have been so even in a setting with only women present or only men. I think many of the answers we received might have been different had the discussion been structured differently. In fact, many times, the husband would answer a question and the women would be on the verge of contradicting him. So interesting! Also, this reflection is so scatter-brained, but a final point before I have to move on to the next update…or homework…haha. The men of Morocco. Wow. The men we met through IES and the official trip were nice and helpful, at least the ones I met. But the men in the towns and cities made me very uncomfortable. The cat calls were just…scary. The men would switch to English, which somehow felt so personal. And sometimes, they would even follow the person they were addressing, which is terrifying, by the way. That is really the only negative memory I have of the trip, though, so I will stop complaining. The trip was so fun and I learned and experienced so much!!!
Okay…to start working on my Semana Santa update and eventually a general Granada update…so… talk to you soon!
PEACE!
(And please disregard crazy typos…I was typing crazy fast…)  :D

An update! (Pictures to come) :D [I can title these things! Haha]

Oh, hey! Alright. So…another post. Yesterday, I thought of something awesome to post about. But I have since forgotten it, so I’m just going to ramble a bit and call that a post. Sound good? Good.

Okay. So… Here we go. Things I’ve noticed/learned in the last few days. Four day weeks are awesome. Yesterday was such a good day! I woke up late, took a walk, bought some groceries, read some of Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal, and then ate lunch. LENTEJAS!!! I think my favorite Spanish food so far—a variety of lentil soup. I think I mentioned it in an earlier post. I spent the siesta “hour” upstairs with Jose Manuel and Maria Carmen, knitting and sleeping. And I kind of just chilled for the night at the residence halls.

And then…today. This morning was good. I woke up kind of late and finished some homework before lunch. We ate pork and a salad of potatoes, eggs, and tuna. Yeah. That’s kind of three types of mayonnaise-based salads all in one. I liked it. Also, I don’t know if I’ve mentioned the varieties of soup here. English just does not have enough words. There are like fifteen different words in Spanish to describe varieties of soups and stews. Today, we had “una crema de zanahorias.” Yeah. Carrot soup. LOVE IT! I pretty much love all of the vegetable-y soups here. Actually, I just love food. Also, I have discovered that staples in my diet are bread, cheese, and produce. And siesta was the best yet. It was warm enough to sit out on the patio…and Nicole and I just chilled and read and it was AWESOME. I think we both needed a little vitamin D.

Now to the adventure part. So Nicole and I were going to get our eyebrows waxed. We took the bus because we heard of a place that was really cheap but kind of far away. Well…that place was closed, so we went to a different location, slightly more expensive. Nicole goes first. And…the lady charged her money for tweezing. Yeah. So I asked if I could have a wax. And she refused and said tweezing was better. So…not very successful. Then I decided to look for a pair of shoes before the end of “rebajas” next week (huge sales) on my way home. Fail. I had a Skype date with my mom and Meghan. I was running a little bit late, so I thought, naturally, “With my excellent sense of direction, I’m going to take the shortcut through the Albaicín. The neighborhood/part of town with teeny tiny streets that are kind of confusing.” Yeah. So shortcuts are only short if you don’t get lost for an hour in a neighborhood that gets a little sketchy past sunset. Luckily, I found my way out before then. But not before I had completely missed my Skype date. (Again, sorry, Mom! Sorry, Meghan! SORRY!) So…this afternoon was pretty much one failure on top of another.

Oh, yeah. One more to add. While walking through the Albaicín, I finally decided to stop and ask for directions in a little store. Now, someone—not to name names, Mom—made me really weird about going into places and using amenities (like knowledge of the city and directions) without purchasing something. So I asked the lady (who wasn’t that helpful), and I purchased…a Monster. (Dear Lauren, be strong. Keep resisting them. Love, Danielle). I only drank half of it and I felt so guilty because Lauren and I both agreed not to drink them for 2012. Rachel, please make sure Lauren is stronger than I was. So…I failed at almost everything today. Haha. But it has been a pretty good day nonetheless and I am going for tapas with some friends tonight. It should be wonderful.

I wonder if I have anything else irrelevant and insignificant to say for today… I don’t know. Maybe I’ll add some pictures? Okay. Yeah.

OH! I just remembered—reflections on Ash Wednesday Mass. Using the Magnificat for the correct month: the best! And they put the ashes on your head—like, sprinkled in your hair—instead of on your forehead. And there was a REALLY cute baby a bit in front of me. It was AWESOME! Haha. Pause here to reflect on the video that Brenten posted a bit back, I think it was “Things Catholic Girls Say.” Seriously. Real life. I think I’ve said ninety percent of them. Please watch the video if you haven’t seen it, especially if you’re a Catholic girl. Youtube plug over, I guess.

Okay. I this is crazy as usual. I will edit the post to add pictures at the next opportunity—the WiFi at my house is just so slow and I have to leave fairly soon for tapas. But I love you all and miss you. Feel free to keep me updated of the happenings at home (Please!).

With love, in Christ, through Mary,

Danielle



Meet Nicole! My roommate! At a bar in Granada
to watch the Superbowl. Late night the night
before our first day of classes. College! Haha.



2/20/2012

WARNING: THIS IS GOING TO BE CONFUSING. I am writing about some recent revelations and giving a picture summary simultaneously and they don’t go together at all but I’m still going to mix them so that it’s kind of like an adventure to read my blog. YAY! Parts in the picture-story update will have text highlighted in a different color (purple?), kind of captioning the pictures.  (there will be three more pictures in this post...I just can't get them to upload right now...so here's part and I'll edit this later or something). The rest (my revelations and not photo-updates) will be...like this. Haha.



Our room at the homestay. NOT where I use the internet. I'll
take a picture of the staircase, maybe. The magical staircase
of functioning WiFi. But it's kind of home, so that's okay.



Hace mucho tiempo, pero HOLA! Sorry, ya’ll. I have not written in an extremely long time. I have been exploring Spain, and it’s hard to write about everything while also taking everything in. I’m going to try writing this post a little differently, but I think it will be good. A little more brief, but maybe less painful to read. Alright.

Yarn STORE!!! Okay. Random. But this (I think) was the first
non-food place that I was able to actually purchase something.
And it's YARN!!! Haha.

So…the big picture. When I first arrived, I was tired. Incredibly tired. Also a little euphoric (“Ah, EVERYTHING is SO PRETTY!!!” You can hear me, right?). And then I was a little sad. So I just explained my version of culture stock, I believe. A couple days were really hard and involved some crying. Others were easier. But I feel mostly adjusted. I have a few friends here who I am getting to know more about each day, and it’s a little scary and very enjoyable. And I really like most everyone that I have met in my program. I am still working on making a few Spanish friends to improve my Spanish, but at least having people to lean on here is helping incredibly, and knowing I am helping a few people in return is even better.



Liz (left) and Alicia. CHOCOLATE and CHURROS.
Okay, so the girls are more awesome the food. But I like both.
New friends!

Ronda. What a beautiful city! I wish pictures were more
adequate for communicating beauty.

Tyler and I at a restaurant in Sevilla (with Liz and Dave)...
Tomatoes and cheese. BEST DINNER! Okay, so Maria
Carmen is a wonderful cook. But I love tomatoes!

Bells at the top of the Cathedral in Sevilla.
BEAUTIFUL! More amazing in person, again.

Another realization, after culture shock and making new friends, Spanish is sneaky. SNEAKY. I went to Cadiz, Spain for Carnival on Saturday, and I met several people while I was there, and had some conversations. They mostly asked if I was German, but they could tell what I was saying! (I think!) And I think I understood them. What is even crazier is how much I am able to communicate with my host parents. Each day still has its challenges; but I am not as shy, and I boldly step out into the idiot zone of Spanish, making all sorts of mistakes, and communicating more or less. They (Jose Manuel and Maria Carmen) told me the other day that they can tell I’m improving. I do more than just smile and nod. The most recent confirmation, though, was Mass last night. I forgot to look up the readings in advance so I could sort of follow along. I got to Mass and said an extra prayer for understanding and wisdom, and guess who understood most of the readings, the homily, and even followed pretty well with the prayers?! (reading along with the March Magnificat, since I missed the February one—only about a week more until I can ACTUALLY use my Magnificat to pray the Mass!) Okay, so I’ve had some small victories.



In Ronda. Beautiful view. (more beautiful in real life)
Dave (referenced earlier), Liz, and Alicia



Two more small realizations for today (there were three, but I can only think of two now. Maybe later…haha), before I continue living the Spanish life. First, obviously, I am not a very good blogger. I find it slightly tedious to write. I feel like I want to remember everything so I NEED to blog, but I want to experience EVERYTHING so I need to avoid the internet. What I need is a video camera to record 24 hours a day and a crew to help with that, and maybe someone to write a book about this also. Mostly for me to watch later (on Hulu?), but a reality TV show? Sure. Haha. I really will try to update more consistently, maybe once a week? On Fridays? Nag me if you really want an update, okay (Mom :D )? Alright.



This kind of relates to the text around it! Here is the bathroom
in my homestay. Toilet flush button and all. Please note,
the shower head doesn't stay up. We hold it. And turn
the water off and on. A lot. New experiences.



Second small realization. Finally, to close for now, I want to say a word about toilets. Random, I know. (P.S. Extra shout out to Kelsi if you’re reading, because your toilets oratory sometimes plays in my head here, especially the sound in the intro...) Bathrooms and toilets in Spain are WEIRD. I do not think I have seen a single automatic toilet yet. But I think I’ve also only seen ONE with a lever flusher. They usually have a button instead (sometimes two buttons, I think one with more water pressure than the other). And my favorite part: THEY ALL HAVE LIDS. (Well, almost. Definitely a greater proportion than in the U.S.) Let me clarify, though, that I love the complete lack of automatic toilets! I do wish more of the bathrooms had paper towels, though. Some of them do. Most of them don’t. Some of the ones that don’t have a “hand dryer” instead—these usually just blow a weak stream of coldish air that doesn’t actually make any difference. Haha. But…yeah. I don’t know why I just explained European bathrooms except that they are somewhat fascinating to me and I thought it might be a nice change of pace. At least it isn’t a boring summary. If you want more details or different ones, send me a message on facebook or something, maybe we can Skype. Haha. Weirdest post ever. I’m going to insert some RANDOM photos in the middle, periodically, to mix it up and THAT will be probably the short summary of the last couple weeks. I hope you can follow this, at least a little. Anyway…I miss you all. A lot. But I am also loving Spain. A lot. J Peace and love!



Danielle



Thursday (today): Last day of orientation. We talked about free time and things to do in Granada. Antonio (professor) talked about some of his favorite places. I am officially excited to go to a couple of “discotecas” (like clubs, basically, but a little less intense, I think). Most of the IES students have been to one called Camborio, but I think it’s mostly international students. I really want to meet Granadinos! We also talked about some of the places we’ve discovered so far. Guess who has discovered mostly churches? Yes, this guy. So excited about attending some of them now that I will be able to follow the Mass! Pubs? Bars? Discotecas? Parks? No. Just churches, mostly. Love it. Anyway…last day of orientation, a little sad. Antonio spoke to us in English for the first time. He said, “I will miss you.” With a very strong Spanish accent. Adorable. Haha. (Again, the giggling). It’s good, though. I don’t know how much longer I would have been able to contain laughter when other stupid-questions-girl kept talking. COMIDA: Sopa. Soup with ham, rice, chickpeas, and chicken. (The mixing of meats; I don’t really understand). Also, I don’t know if I mentioned that Nicole and I recently learned to see. Apparently we were blind. On the counter right next to where we make our toast every morning, there are LEGS. Yes. Legs of animals. Really normal in Spain, apparently. It’s…cured meat? I think? Kind of weird. Anyway, so we had soup. And Swiss chard! I described it yesterday to learn the word, and Maria Carmen (my madre) made it for lunch today! Again, Jose Manuel had me finish the vegetables. I eat a little less bread if he gives me all the veggies, though, so I guess I can’t complain. Also, most importantly, there was some sort of little fried fish stuff on the table. Like….fish. Serious fish. They looked pretty much like the animal and everything. Nicole and I both tried them. She ate half of one. Jose Manuel gave me four. And I don’t even think I made a face. They tasted okay, actually. I just prefer when my meat looks nothing like its source. Anyway, we had a walk through streets near our neighborhood this evening. To learn about places to eat and buy stuff and whatnot. Pretty cool. By that, I mean interesting. And really cold. I made a new friend! Speech path, kind of shy like me, really nice, chill. Yeah. (Oh, have I mentioned that in Spain, I’m shy? I don’t know when that happened, but I am.) Anyway…returned to my house. Ate cheese for dinner. Because we aren’t really allowed to cook-we can use the fridge but no the stove. Not that I’m complaining. I love cheese. A lot. And…talked with my mom on Skype. And a few people on Facebook. And now I am writing a ridiculously huge amount for you beautiful, patient people to read. Next post will have pictures. Sorry! They just load crazy slow. Okay. For now I will say, “Peace!”

Love,

Danielle

Wednesday: Breakfast. Class: “La Universidad.” We talked about the different organization of the education system in the US and Spain. It’s pretty crazy. I will address this in more detail later, maybe tomorrow if I’m awesome. I will say, I think I prefer the system in the US, although public college here is apparently crazy awesome and way cheaper. Comida: a tortilla Espanola (eggs, potatoes, ham, kind of like and omelet) for a tapita (little tapa, like an appetizer) and chicken and spinach with eggs. Yum! And a dessert, of course. I don’t know if I mentioned, but we have dessert with every comida, usually consisting of a fruit. I love “mandarinas.” And so far, I’ve mostly avoided platanos (bananas). Also, meals are always really fun. Nicole is trying so many things for the first time. For example, she tried a pear for the first time this week. And she is such a good sport. She tries everything, even the seafood, which is really hard for her. I’m also trying everything and I think I’ve done well so far. (I also like most things, of course). We had oral exams in the evening. During siesta, I hit a new nerd high. I was, quite literally, reading a dictionary. Yes. I’m starting a list of words that I know but sometimes forget or have learned recently or need to learn. Then I went to my oral exam. But…drum roll please…I found a libreria (bookstore) with religious-looking books on my way to IES. I stopped in. They had the Magnificat (March, again). I looked and found that it had all of the Mass responses and prayers in the middle, but I still wanted the February readings for daily Mass. Guess who was able to understand my crappy Spanish? Yes, my new favorite employee of Red de Librerias in Granada. I asked about February and she said, “No, we don’t have it. But…I can order it and call you when it’s in. Would you like that?” Would I like that!?!! I think I scared her a little because I was so happy. I almost started to cry. And some poor man looked very concerned for me. So…yeah. SUCCESS! My oral exam was okay. I was told that I speak Spanish very well. Which was generous, I think. But he explained that he can understand me and my accent is very good and I communicate well, but my vocabulary is small. More or less, I can communicate with patient Spaniards. Hooray! I went for tapas with friends after chilling in the lounge area thing at IES. By tapas, I mean we encountered kebabs. Kebabs! Okay, wow. Discovery of something fantastic? YES! No, I’m not talking about a giant toothpick with meat-veggie-meat-veggie setup. Although that’s what I thought at first. It’s a pita thing with thinly sliced meat and some veggies and it was SO GOOD! Again, thankful for “La Cuesta.” Not that I walked it last night. I actually rode the bus. Scary? Yes. I felt like Forrest Gump, a little. The bus driver was kind of mean and I was really confused, but I got home safely and with less energy for only 1,20 Euros. Not bad.

....uno mas...

Tuesday: First, I guess I should address breakfast. I actually don’t know if I have talked about that. If so, please skip this. Nicole and I eat breakfast before going to school. I don’t know what most people eat for breakfast. I usually either eat…a horrendous amount of food; ham, eggs, chai from Panera... Or nothing at all. Here, we eat toast. With olive oil. Nutella is an option. So is strawberry jam. Can I emphasize Nutella, please? I LOVE NUTELLA. And lucky for me, I don’t miss peanut butter. I also have café con leche. (Coffee, milk, +sugar, for me, of course.) Usually orange juice. And a yogurt. Lots of food, but not as much protein as I’m used to. I think I am starting to get used to it. For class, we talked about…FOOD! I love food. :) A lot. Naturally, during the “descanso” (break), I was hungry from all the food talk, so I bought a coffee and toast with cold tomato spread. Love it. After class, Nicole, Eric (another IES student, lives with a neighbor), and I walked up the huge hill for comida. Pause. Okay, I’m complaining a little about this hill. I am SOOO lazy at home, I pretty much don’t do anything strenuous. So naturally, walking up a hill/small mountain while hungry is crazy exhausting for me. However, considering the amount of bread (and food, in general) that I’ve been eating since I got to Spain, I would also like to take a moment to be thankful for the hill of pain. I will refer to it as “La Cuesta” after this, though (since it is actually called “La Cuesta de San Antonio”). Comida. Yeah! We had pasta with cream sauce and ham. Love it! And salad! I don’t know whether I should be embarrassed or excited, but Jose Manual (my padre) switched the salad bowl for my plate towards the end of lunch. And he sometimes calls me “a little rabbit” now. Awesome. I walked back to IES for a meeting about volunteering and then tried the WiFi at IES. It’s pretty great. I don’t even have to sit in a stairwell to use it. Haha. And I went shopping. I looked for a yarn store and a book store with religious books. I found both; I successfully purchased yarn. I was not so successful at the book store. I told the woman I needed a Missal and she didn’t understand. I saw a Magnificat, but the only had it for March, so I asked if she knew where I could find one for February. It was very stressful, she didn’t understand, and I started crying. Haha. But it was alright. I met people from IES to talk to La Cartuja—an area for playing futbol on the University of Granada campus. IES vs. U of G students. I watched, of course. Pretty cool.

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Monday: More orientation classes. Pretty interesting. We talked about shopping and clothes. I like my orientation group, more or less. I think I might be “stupid-questions-kid.” But it’s all relative, right? Because there is one girl who might be worse than me. She asks questions, but usually, I think they are to show that she knows everything. My questions may be dumb, but they’re honest. I wish I hadn’t forgotten everything from my first three years of Spanish. Also, I must pause for a moment to talk about my orientation professor. I assume that he will never read this so…his name is Antonio and I think most of the girls in my class have a little crush on him. He’s pretty funny. And he has a “moto!” (MoPed). It’s pretty funny. When he told us about his “moto,” all of the girls did that awkward smile-giggle thing. Incidentally, after we talked about clothes in class on Monday, we were supposed to take turns describing people in the class. We ran out of time, so he had the last girl describe him. Of course, giggling once again ensued. I appreciate my class, I guess is what I’m trying to say. After class, we had comida (lentejas, I think, if I have my days in order). Lentejas is a lentil soup…so far one of my favorite foods here. Although, I pretty much like everything. Food. I mean, yes. Please. We had language placement exams in the evening: a written portion and a grammar portion. It was pretty bad. Haha. I forgot EVERYTHING! Afterwards, I ended up running into a few IES people and we went for tapas at La Buena Vida, near IES. Not only were these free, but we also got to pick. I had hummus, a tuna thing, and bread with honey and goat cheese. Pretty cool. Also, tinto de verano (red wine, usually pretty cheap-often boxed-with Fanta Limon). I think maybe more stuff happened on Monday, but I don’t really remember. This is precisely why I need to blog more than once or twice a week.

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