Grenada

El 5 de marzo de 2012

Buenas tardes!

It’s around 19,15 in the afternoon, and I’m sitting at la Plaza de España finishing up some homework and writing this post, while watching the sun set on this beautiful plaza.  Adi comes here all the time to relax and sometimes do work, and I’ve succumb to the powers of this beautiful area.  I’m chilling in the Malaga “cubby” right now.

This past weekend was a lot of fun!  The only bad part about it was my ear infection…remember how in my last post I talked about my ears never un-popping from the flight?  Ya, well they still haven’t.  So on Thursday (exactly one week since it started) when I woke up with little hearing in my left ear, I decided to go to URMESA, the emergency health clinic in Sevilla.  I went after class and struggled through the day, and after the appointment and being diagnosed with a mild ear infection, I picked up some antibiotics and a few other meds the doctor recommended and headed home.  Thursday night, I went out with a bunch of Spaniards, along with a friend of mine on the program, Drew Moss.  The day before, on Wednesday, we had an intercambio session in my Services Management class.  My teacher had his Spanish students come to our class and we all talked as a group about cultural differences and stuff (they asked a lot about fraternities, which was a little strange, but I guess they see it movies a lot so they were curious), and then CIEE paid for us all to go out afterwards for drinks – CIEE, thanks for the tinto de verano!  Drew and I made a bunch of new friends, and they invited us out with them Thursday night, so we joined.  I didn’t drink (per the doctor’s recommendation) but still hung out with everyone as they drank outside at Plaza San Salvador, a small plaza popular for drinking outside.  The Spaniards we met introduced us to some of their friends, and it turned out to be Drew and I and about seven or eight Spaniards.  It was a lot of fun!  The majority of the Spanish girls we were with live within a block or from me, so I took the bus back with them (first time taking the bus!).

Friday, in my European Corporate Organization course, we had a company visit – el Puerto de Sevilla.  The Port of Seville.  We learned about the company and its history, saw ships being loaded and unloaded, and more of their property….it was  cool to see, but very boring it learn about, I found.  They just lectured us, which is why I didn’t enjoy it I feel.  Friday night was nothing special – Adi and I hung out, and that’s all really.

We left for Grenada early Saturday morning, and we all slept on the bus ride there.  After a lunch buffet, we toured La Alhembra, which used to be a palace and a fortress.  It was really pretty!  The gardens were gorgeous and the views from on top of the mountain were fabulous.  In Grenada is Sierra Nevada, where many people go to ski and snowboard, so we could see all the snow at the top of the mountains, which was pretty.   Afterwards, we had a lot of free time, so a small group of friends and I got some coffee, hit up a church/walked around the area, and then checked out a modern art museum.  Modern art still doesn’t rub me the right way…I know it’s just different interpretations on things, but I still have no idea what the heck the artist is trying to portray.  Oh well.  After that, we searched for booze for my friends (I still wasn’t drinking because of the meds), and then went for dinner.  In Grenada, you can go out for drinks and a get a free tapa with a drink – bebida y taponazo – for only 2€!  Granted you don’t get to choose your tapa most of the time, some places let you choose.  We hopped around to three different tapa bars, and I got a chicken kebab at a nearby restaurant for dinner.  Kebabs and falafel are oddly popular in Spain – well, at least down here in Andalucia.  After dinner, we went back and changed to go out, and then hung out in a friend’s room and played drinking games then just hung out until around one in the morning (I’m still not drinking….tough when all of my friends are quite buzzed….) when Antonio, one of the program directors who came with, knocked on the door saying we were being too loud and needed to leave.  So, we decided to head out to the discoteca.  As I was going down to my room though, Antonio asked me what we were up to and then asked if he could come with….that came out of nowhere!  I said yes, of course, and he was the celebrity of the night!  I’m not sure how old Antonio is, but if I had to guess, I would say 28 or so.  He recommended we go to Mae West, which was about a ten minute walk from the hotel, and then three separate lines to get inside – by my assumptions, the first was checking for dress codes, the second for VIP entry, and the third for everyone else.  After a 10€ cover, which included two drinks, we were in!  Now, I figured because I paid for the drinks already, I should use them, so I did.  I researched the antibiotic online before I left and all the information I found was saying that excessive alcohol use can be harmful, but a little bit shouldn’t hurt.  So I had a little bit at the club.  It was so much fun!  Going to the discoteca’s here make me feel like I’m in a music video or something – blasting music, lights, alcohol, dancing, and hotties….just so much fun!  Until we left, my ear’s had been feeling really good, and then around 03,00 in the morning, they started hurting again.  I left at 04,00 (and the lines were so long to get in….yep, that’s how the Spaniards do it) and went back to the hotel for a few hours of rest until breakfast at nine.

The next day, we took a walking tour of el Barrio del Albaicín, a popular neighborhood to visit for its amazing views of Grendada.  The view from el Mirador de San Nicolás, the popular photo spot, was absolutely stunning!  Next, we walked down the super steep hill, stopped at a monastery to buy some magdalenas, or muffins, and then continued to see La Capilla Real, where the Catholic Kings and Queens are buried.The Capilla was a gothic cathedral, and absolutely breath taking, too.  I feel bad saying this, but after seeing so many churches in Europe, they don’t stand out to me anymore.  Everyone we see, essentially, is absolutely amazing and mind blowing.  Yes, I can name my favorite s, but seeing more and more cathedrals are like, excuse my nerdiness please, diminishing marginal returns.  The more you see the more fun you have, until you hit a point and then, the more you see, the less interest you have.  Fortunately though, I’m not the only one who feels this way – most of the people on my program do, too.  OK, so after all this, a few friends and I wandered around before lunch and ended up falling asleep on a plot of grass in front of fountain.  We made it back on time for lunch luckily, and then came back to Sevilla.  That night I Skyped with a lot of people I haven’t talked to in a while, which was really nice.  I watched the IU vs. Purdue game, which started at midnight here, and stayed up until 02,00 to watch us close off the regular season with a win over our biggest rival.

This week will be super busy with homework – midterms are a week from this Wednesday, and my birthday is two days after that!  Adi’s close friends Jonny (living with him next year) and Victor are coming to visit him starting this Sunday, for about a week.  This weekend I’m going up to Madrid with seven other friends (all girls)!  It should be a lot of fun.

Until next time….Hasta luego!