Thanksgiving in Granada

Tortilla Espanola!!

Me with my host mom Ana making Spanish Tortilla.

Pumpkin soup at our Thanksgiving dinner.

The desert for Thanksgiving: apple pie, cheesecake and tiramisu.

The Thanksgiving meal main dish: turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and of course gravy!

Me at Thanksgiving with my pumpkin soup! Yum!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

Obviously I celebrated the holiday in Spain (where it doesn’t actually exist) with my friends. We had found a restaurant that has a sort of traditional American Thanksgiving dinner. It was actually pretty good! We had a starter plate (that didn’t have anything to do with Thanksgiving), but then they gave us pumpkin soup and turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy. There was also big bowls of cooked vegetables to share. For desert we each got a sampler plate with apple pie, cheesecake and tiramisu. Overall it was really good, except for the fact that there was no pumpkin pie. It is impossible to find it here! However, my friend Chris’s parents brought him two cans of pumpkin when they visited. So next weekend when Chris, Kathryn, Kyle and I go to Cádiz we are going to make pumpkin pie!!

Next weekend (the 4th through the 8th) is a holiday weekend. We don’t have school Friday, Monday or Tuesday so we are going to Cádiz for these days. Cádiz is a beautiful small town on the western coast of Spain. We found an apartment to rent for really cheap (since it is off season for travelling) with a kitchen and everything! Perfect for pie making!! It even has a hot tub! Pretty fancy for what we are paying for it! It should be a fun and relaxing trip, my last trip outside of Granada before coming home.

After the Cadiz trip, we have one last week of classes and then finals the week after that. After finals, I leave (December 19th)! So soon! I am ready to leave but it will be sad leaving Granada and my host mom. We have become very close over these past months. She is a sweetheart and I will miss her dearly.

Speaking of Ana, on Friday last week Ana taught me and Libby how to make Spanish Tortilla! The ingredients are potatoes, onions and eggs. Very simple but it’s a little more difficult than I expected. You literally have to flip the big mixture of potatoes and eggs! Ana made it look effortless but I am sure the first time I make it I won’t have as much luck! But I am planning on making it when I come home. So be prepared for some authentic Spanish food! I am looking forward to food at home (burgers, macaroni and cheese, bacon and eggs, tacos/burritos, steak and bagels with cream cheese--Mom are you taking note??).

I will write again next week after I get back from Cadiz. After that my life will be consumed with packing, studying for finals and classes. Not that interesting. I will most definitely need to sit on my suitcase to close it! After four months here I have accumulated lots of stuff (mostly presents for family, friends and of course myself). I can’t wait to see you all and hear from you when I come back.

18 days and counting

-Annie

Weekend Fun in Granada

Ana, my host mom, with her mandarin orange peel that looks like a tree!

Cute! She is an expert fruit peeler--always is able to do it in one chunk!

The sunset in Granada.

Me with my cappucino and chocolate and churros!

The jazz band Libby and I saw.

Me with the heart of a Fin Whale at Parque de Las Ciencias.

Me and the girls at Chris's parents apartment after having dinner.

Hello,

So this last weekend was spent in Granada. Since I am only here for another 25 days my friends and I decided to do everything in Granada that we hadn’t done yet. And of course just hang out, relax and enjoy each other’s company.

So on Thursday evening, a bunch of friends and I went over to Chris’s parents apartment. They came here from the USA for the week and were renting a place in Albaycin. So we went there and had an amazing dinner of baked potatoes (with all the toppings of course), garlic bread, cheese, fruit salad and a green salad. YUM!! It was super good and tons of fun. As you can see from the crazy pictures, we had a great time.

Then on Friday I went to Parque de las Ciencias with some friends. Basically it is like OMSI in Portland but a little different because it has a big outdoor area too. It was really fun. We went into a human body exhibit (the nursing majors loved that), saw a birds of prey live show and played on a giant chess board. I had a good time and was glad I made it there having heard about it and walked by it for most of my stay here. Apparently it is one of the best Science Museums in Spain. Later that evening after my run, Libby and I went to a café/bar to see a live jazz band. They were incredible!! It was a great atmosphere, the owners were nice (helping us with our Spanish) and of course the music was beyond this world. I have a few videos of the show if you want to see them. It takes forever to upload them on facebook, but I will try to when I have time.

On Saturday Libby and I walked around near our house and did some shopping and browsing--more shopping than browsing though! And we got chocolate and churros!!! YUM!! Then it was time to relax and work on some homework. On Sunday we slept in…finally! Later in the afternoon I went on a walk through Albaycin with Libby and her friend from church Kimberly. The neighborhood up there is beautiful because it has an amazing view of La Alhambra and we were able to see the sun setting. Of course, the street performers, the flamenco dancers and the weed smokers all added to the Albaycin atmosphere. It’s one of the more popular neighborhoods to hang out in and has a mix of all kinds of different people.

Ok so this is probably one of the most exciting things that has happened here, at least in my opinion. As usual Ana, my host mom, is AMAZING and the other night her granddaughter Sunsole was here and we were all having dinner, talking and laughing. We taught Ana how to say some words in English (she wanted to know what bonita (pretty) and preciosa (cute) were in English), sang songs and played silly Spanish games. Libby took about a 20 minute video of Ana and Sunsole playing, singing and laughing in the kitchen. It was ADORABLE and probably one of the most incredible evenings here with my host mom. Ana keeps telling us that we are the best students she has had and that she would adopt us in a heartbeat. She is truly the sweetest. Ask me when I get back and I would love to show you the video. It is amazing beyond words.
For the remaining 25!! days here I am going to be enjoying myself! For Thanksgiving on Thursday my friends and I are going to a restaurant that has actual traditional, American Thanksgiving food! Yay! Then over the weekend I am planning on celebrating a friends birthday, shopping for last minute gifts for others and myself and enjoying one of the last weekends I might ever have in Granada.

On Friday December 4th through Monday the 7th, Kathryn, Chris, Kyle and I are going to Cadiz, the last trip I will be taking here. Cadiz is a beautiful town here in Andalucía about a 4 hour bus ride from Granada. It should be a relaxing and fun trip, a good way to end the adventures in Spain.

Once this last adventure is over, I will be focusing on studying for finals and packing up to fly home on December 19th. I cannot believe it is time to start thinking about packing. Cross your fingers I can fit everything in my suitcases! However, I am ready to be coming home. I will miss my host mom and everything here, but I am also really excited to go home for Christmas and to see my family and friends. I miss you all so much!

Seeing you very soon,

Annie

Last Group Trip: Sevilla

Me and some of the gang with Starbucks in Sevilla.

The Roman ruins in Sevilla.

Los Reales Alacazares in Sevilla

The gardens of Los Reales Alcazares.

Me, Chris and Brittany in Parque Maria Lusia riding on the cool bicycles!

Me in the driver's seat! Look Out!

The Cathedral in Sevilla.

An view of the city from the tower in the Cathedral.

Me and Kathryn at the top of the tower of the Catedral.

Hola Amigos!

I write this blog with only about one month remaining in my adventure in Spain. Crazy!! But needless to say, I am ready to come home. Don’t get me wrong, I love the city of Granada, my classes and my host mom, but I do miss the great northwest and the wonderful UP campus.
So now I will catch you all up on the details of my life here in Granada. Firstly, I have been sick the last couple of weekends, bad cold and then a nasty stomach virus that prevented me from eating anything for about three days. Not fun, but I am fine now and my host mom is the best and took really good care of me. It is actually cold here now. It has been warm through all of October, warm being low 70s and sunny in the afternoons, but a little chillier at night. So far in November it has been a lot colder, but the last couple of days have been sunny and on the warmer side. Still no rain. There are actually clouds in the sky today which gives me some hope that it might rain, but it has yet to rain since the beginning of October. This is unusual for Granada, where it normally rains more, but in the last few years Spain has been experiencing droughts due to lack of rain. I miss the rain. So if you can send some to me. We could use it here.
So I took the DELE exam last Friday. It went better than I had expected, but I have no idea if I was able to pass it or not. You have to get 70% or higher on each section in order to pass. I have high hopes of passing the writing and reading sections, but the grammer and vocab section was difficult. I don’t find out until February or March if I passed. So for now I am just basking in the glory of having completed the exam. And all of my midterms are over, so I don’t have anymore tests until finals week in December. Yay!

Last weekend, after the DELE, my program went on its last trip together. Sad! We went to Sevilla for the weekend, a beautiful city about twice as big as Granada, about 3 hours away. On Saturday we visited Los Reales Alcázares, which are basically a bunch of beautiful gardens and castles that were built for the kings to live in. Then later I went to La Hospital de la Caridad (Hospital of Charity), a church that has a beautiful “retablo” in it that I learned about in my art history class. It was really cool to see what I had learned about in person. Later my friends and I went to STARBUCKS! Yeah I know totally an American thing to do, but it had been a long time since I had a frapaccino. Yum! After we caffeinated up, we went to El Parque Maria Luisa, a really big park in Sevilla. In the park we came across a place where you could rent bicycles. Now these were not ordinary bicycles, there were more like carts that you sat in and pedaled your way around. Since there were six of us, we rented two and split up. And of course when there are two bicycles and a bunch of caffeinated youngsters, what else do you do but race? My team won! It was tons of fun and a good work out! Since there was only one person who could drive at a time, we would switch occasionally and do a Chinese fire drill! Needless to say it was a fun evening!

On Sunday we got a tour of an old Monestery that Christopher Columbus had stayed at during his time in Spain planning a second trip to America. Then we went and saw some roman ruins just outside of Sevilla. The Roman Empire, during its glory days, had occupied what is now Spain. After a lunch break, we visited the Cathedral and Plaza de España. It was a really good trip and I had lots of fun hanging out with my friends. I am sad though that it was our last trip together because I have gotten to know all of the people on the trip and I will miss them when it’s over.
As for my last month here in Spain, I will spend some well deserved time in Granada. This weekend I am going to explore the city I call home and visit Parque de las Ciencias (Park of the Sciences) here in Granada. And of course I will be hanging out with my friends and hopefully my intercambio.

In early December, we have a five day break so I am going to travel one last time with a few friends before we leave Spain. We haven’t decided where yet, but are considering Santiago de Compostela, Cadiz or possibly Portugal.

I hope everything is well back home with you all. I miss you all and can’t wait to see you. Only one more month!

Peace,
Annie

Madrid, Segovia y Toledo

A view of Toledo.

Me overlooking Toledo.

A picture of the Cathedral in Segovia.

The ancient aqueduct in Segovia.

Me in Madrid near el Valle de los Caidos overlooking the beautiful greenery!

El Valle de los Caidos.

El Escorial

Our feet on the plaque that marks the center of Spain in Madrid.

El Palacio Real in Madrid.

Statue of a king in Madrid

Guernica by Picasso in El Mueso de la Reina Sofia.

A carved pumpkin in Madrid on Halloween!

Long time no write:

Howdy everyone. Over the weekend I went to Madrid, Segovia and Toledo with the entire 40 students in my program. We had a really fun time and got to see all of the culture and beauty of these three wonderful, yet very different, cities. The first few days we stayed in Madrid and went to el Museo de la Reina Sofia, el Museo Prado, took a guided tour of the city and last but not least partied it up on Halloween. Halloween in Spain is different. There were a good number of people dressed up in costumes, but the trick-or-treating deal really doesn’t happen here. But I had a lot of fun hanging out with my friends and exploring Madrid. We also made a trip to El Escorial (a famous palace) and El Valle de los Caidos, which is a church/monument that Franco built for the fallen soldiers in the civil war in Spain. It is actually quite a politically controversial monument. Franco is also buried there. In El Escorial almost all of the kings and queens of Spain, and their families, are buried in this palace. A little creepy but at the same time the architecture was amazing and the caskets were ornately decorated.

Then on Sunday we took a day trip to Segovia. Segovia is a beautiful but very small city outside of Madrid and it is famous for its aqueduct. We took a historic walk around, visited the Alcazar (basically a big palace) and the cathedral of Segovia--all very beautiful and interesting.
Then on Monday we went to Toledo, another small town that is absolutely adorable. The streets are almost all cobblestoned and the houses and buildings are out of the movies. Literally--there have actually been quite a few movies that are set in the middle ages that have been filmed in Toledo. We had free time all day so my friends and I explored the Cathedral, saw the famous painting by El Greco “El Entierro del Conde de Orgaz” and visited a few other smaller churches and synagogues. Toledo is also known for its metal and there were shops everywhere with swords and knives!

So overall the trip was really fun and really beautiful. I also learned lots from the museums because we saw artists that we had been studying in Culture class: Goya, El Greco, Picasso, Velazquez and Dali. I had never really had the opportunity before to see a lot of these artworks in real life. It was very cool. My favorite painting was Picasso’s Guernica in La Reina Sofia. I had studied it is high school Spanish class but seeing it is real life was surreal. It is huge and very awe-inspiring.

Now begins this week of studying. I gave my presentation this morning and it went well. Now I have a Culture test on Friday and then one midterm next week plus the DELE exam on Friday the 13th. Then that weekend our program is going to Sevilla, then the week after I have one other test. Yeah how creepy that the DELE is on Friday the 13th…maybe it will be lucky instead of unlucky. So I should get to studying…wish me luck!

Peace,
Annie