Capítulo Veinticuatro: I Constantly Thank God for Esteban

"I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose."
- Woody Allen

"El Dia de Gracias" is this Thursday! It's simply too bad that I am not in the United States to celebrate it...

On a brighter note, though, I just got back from a celebration at the CIEE Office for Thanksgiving; it was a really nice treat, actually. Everyone brought their own dish to share with everyone. It's been a while since we as a program have gotten together, so it was nice to socialize with people I don't see very often anymore. It was also the last time we would get together, and thinking about that, it makes me kind of sad...more on the festivity. One of our program advisors bought a huge (and expensive) ham to the meal. Let me be clear that the ham people in the US envision is not the same as it is here, and anyone who's walked by Una Tienda de Jamon knows what I am talking about. This thing is almost like a giant, cooked pigs leg, and you can still see the hoof on it when you get it. Yeah, it sounds disgusting, but it tasted delicious! There's also a very particular way that it must be cut, which was demonstrated to us. Like I said, a really, really nice celebration. Safe to say I am very, very full (which is the sign of a successful Thanksgiving meal).

So, Robby and mine's trip to Granada. I'm jealous of Granada's day-time temperature (night time's another story), but I guess I can't complain about Madrid's because it's still better than Illinois'. The trip as a whole was really good, even though it was definitely tiring. For one thing, our hostal was located very close to Alhambra, literally one minute away, a palace that is located on top of a giant hill. So, we get into the city and we're trying to locate our hostal. We turn onto the appropriate street. It's a hill, though not really any worse than some of the hills in Madrid. Once we reach of the top of that hill, we reached the actual hill of death (I've decided to name it "La Colina del Diablo" after one of the short stories I read in class). No joke, this was one of the steepest hills I've ever climbed, and carrying all of our stuff while climbing it definitely didn't help. We walked down that hill later, and even that was hard to do! It was kind of annoying, because the scenery was gorgeous. It was in the midst of a forest, and there were tiny streams of running water next to the trail. And fall colors were taking over the leaves.

If you are a cross country runner or a biker, I'd recommend that you get in shape by running up that. Actually I don't.

So after climbing for a while, we finally make it to our hostal. It was actually a pretty nice place. The receptionist was a pretty cool guy, and we didn't have to worry about any other roommates that might come in late and awaken us. Unfortunately, it was an absolutely tiny bathroom. I mean, the closet in my apartment was bigger than that was...it was kind of pathetic, really. Also, I wouldn't have by any means considered those beds comfortable, and even the slightest movement would cause the beds to squeek. It's fair to say that neither one of us got much sleep throughout the whole weekend. But it was a hostal, so what can you do?

After we got checked in, we met up with Sandra and Emily, two friends from IWU who were studying there for the semester. They took us to get some food, to this place to get what is called a Shwerka (I know I spelled that wrong). It's kind of like a gyro, only with a lot more stuff on it. It's one of the closest things to American food I've tasted in Spain. Both of us fell in love with those, and we actually went there each day we were in Granada. It was cheap, too!

After restoring our energy with food, Sandra and Emily showed us around a little bit. They took us to a 'hang-out' place where people just chilled, and there was a great view of Alhambra y El Palacio de Carlos V (which we would visit the next day). We got to see the lights for both buildings turn on, and we got some good pictures! After that, we explored the city for a little bit, then went to an Intercambio for IES, their study abroad program. We got to meet a bunch of their friends from the program, and we got MORE free food! If anyone thinks that my eating habits are going to change after living in Spain for a semester, you're probably sorely mistaken. =)

It took a little bit of nagging, but Sandra convinced both of us to go play some futbol (yes, soccer) with some Spaniards. I think we were both kind of nervous for it at first, especially since neither one of us were exactly good at soccer nor had we played any major physical sports for a long time, but it turned out to be an excellent game! The Spaniards were very chill and were pretty patient with us. I always forget how physical futbol can really be; I accidentally hit Sandra in the nose during the game! And to think that jugadores do that intentionally in games sometimes...anyway, it ended in a tie by the time we had to get off the court to let someone else use it. But it was really fun, and the perfect thing to do in the cool night.

We had originally planned to go out with Sandra and her friend Claire that night, but due to exhaustion and a communication error, we ended up just staying in for the night, which in the long run was probably the better idea since we wanted to get up really early to go to Alhambra in the morning. And this time, we actually went through with our plan to get up early and got up around 7:20 to get some breakfast and go to it! I was so proud of us!

Just as an FYI, Alhambra is the most visited sight in Spain, and it's pretty understandable why that is with it's extremely impressive Islamic architecture. Not to mention the place is huge! People who had visited Granada before us had mentioned that their cameras died before they were able to finish it, so we made sure our cameras were fully charged before we dove in. We ourselves spent over three hours exploring. The place really is quite amazing. It's kind of like a cathedral in the sense that there were a lot of little details that went into the architecture and other art, but the fortress was significantly more massive. We got to walk through the fortress itself as well as the Palacio de Carlos V, which we really couldn't explore without spending more than we wanted to (most of it was un museo). But the fortress definitely made up for that! It had a lot fountains and reflecting pools, and a fantastic view of the city! We got to go up a couple of the towers and walk along the wall. The other really cool thing we got to go through in Alhambra was El Generalife, which is pretty much its gardens. For the record, the pronunciation is not like the English 'General Life' even though it seems to be spelled that way. But those were some impressive gardens! Even more fountains and pools, and gorgeous plants. There were roses scattered all over the place, among other flowers. The shape of some of the trees and bushes, and the arches of some of them, were really neat to look at. My favorite part of El Generalife though was definitely las escaleras de agua -- the railings had running water down them, and for some reason, this was just really neat to me. Kind of reminded me of a Water Dungeon in a Zelda game.

After exhausting ourselves in Alhambra, we got ourselves some food (Shwerkas again), and then quickly hit up La Catedral de Granada. If I had to be honest, this cathedral wasn't as impressive as the others. I wonder if it's because I've seen so many at this point that they're all startint o look the same, but it just wasn't as mind blowing as Segovia o Burgos. Still, on the plus side, they let us take pictures, which I can't say for some of the others...*coughTOLEDOcough*

We were pretty beat at this point, even though it was only around 1 in the afternoon. Our friends were busy with school work or other things, so we decided to drag ourselves back up that hill and go back to the hostal and relax as we waited for them. There was actually a pool on the roof of our hostal, and we figured we could just sit around the pool, maybe even go in if the water temperature permitted it (air temperature was pretty good). Of course, the pool was absolute ICE. I stuck my feet in and was just shocked on how cold it was; my feet were sore and could probably have used a little bit of ice anyway, but this was ridiculous. My feet weren't even adjusting to the temperature. So instead of doing that, we grabbed some chairs and just laid out for an hour and a half.

We met up with Emily afterwards and went to La Capilla, a royal chapel where Isabel de Castilla y Fernando de Aragon were buried. It was pretty much a typical Spanish church, only you could see caskets of the two royalties listed above, so I guess it was a little bit unique in that regard. Afterwards, we headed to one of the parks, Los Jardines de Lorca, that was in the southern (or according to the map -- more on this in a little bit) part of Spain. The gardens were pretty neat, though nothing too out of the ordinary. It did have, however, La Casa - Museo Frederico Garcia Lorca, who was a famous Spanish poetist/dramatist and theater director that was killed right at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. For lack of anything better to do, we took a tour of the small house. I have to admit, that was one of the most awkward tours I've ever been on. The tour guide kept looking at us (yes, we're Americans, no need to stare), and there was one guy who kept asking us if we spoke Spanish and if we understood what was going on. He seemed really 'proud' that we were so young and taking in such 'heavy material' -- I'm sure he thought we were younger than what we actually are. He was particularly fond of Robby, too, as he kept trying to talk to him. The house was neat to explore, since it had a bunch of old drawings and writings from the people who lived there, and a really old piano! Still, just a really weird tour...

We get out of the park and decide that it was dinner time. Unfortunately, we managed to get a little bit lost...the map was kind of strange (and I'd looked at maps of Granada on Google Images, and there was not one consistent layout; for example, one map had Alhambra at the Northeast part of the city, another had it in the south, etc...so it just got really confusing), and we ran into a few unhelpful people. Eventually, we reached the street that we were looking for. We got a cheap dinner (Burger King for the win), took a BUS back up that dreadful hill, and turned in early.

We got up fairly early to again get breakfast and to check out. We were able to leave our stuff at Sandra's place so we weren't walking around with it all day. Sandra came and hung out with us for a while, taking us to other parts of the city so we could get some more pictures of some cool stuff. She eventually had to retreat back to her apartment for a little bit to get a little bit of work done. Robby and I entertained ourselves by getting more food (Shwerkas yet again!) and exploring a park while playing cards. I taught him how to play Spit, which is pretty much a combination of Speed and Solitaire (sort of). This is a game that can last a while since the tides can turn so easily, and it's really hard to win. Our first game lasted a good hour and a half!

After Sandra was done with homework, we finished the trip up with some good, ol' Granada tapas...which actually were kind of a rip off. They were really cheap, but the portions were really small. And by small, we got one of everything we ordered: we both got 'croquetas', which means we got one fairly large croqueta; and I also got chorizo, which was one sausage link. Yeah, it was pretty sad, and it didn't even taste that good. Thankfully, it was cheap.

I really like noticing the differences between all the big Spanish cities, like Barcelona, Madrid, and now Granada. This city had a bit more of a 'Caribbean' feal to it, and even the accent was a little bit like Latin America -- they don't pronounce the s if it's at the end of the word, and sometimes they just don't pronounce the last letter in general. Size wise, it's probably a little smaller than Barcelona, and a lot smaller than Madrid, which I kind of liked. I think Granada is pretty much how Emily described it: There are a lot of great, small things to do, but it takes time to find them. Obviously, one weekend isn't going to let us find everything. Still, I had a great time in Granada, and it was fun to visit some fellow Titans!

While I haven't been taking trips, I've been super busy. The end is nigh for classes, so I'm trying to finish up my last few assignments and study for finals. I spent eight hours at La Carlos III studying and doing things for classes! Tomorrow's looking to be another busy day at school, but tomorrow is also Anti-Karaoke! We all had way too much fun last time to not go again this month!

It's not be entirely fair to be so judgmental of the other Spanish cities, but I am really glad I studied in Madrid. The city just has a great feel to it, a city-feel, but a comfortable one, too. And I like the way people speak here, nice and clear. Madrid took me out of my comfort zone in many ways, but it's taught me a lot of different things, like it's improved my language and it's taught me to be more social and confident by presenting me with many different things to do. I don't think I'd be able to handle Barcelona because of the Catalan language, and I'm not sure if Granada would have been the best fit for me, either, since it doesn't exactly present everything to you on a plate like Madrid has. I haven't regretted for a moment studying here, and I am really glad for this opportunity. And for the chance to travel!

Speaking of traveling, Robby and I discussed how these last few trips, these last few hang-outs and moments in Europe are going to make it even harder to say good-bye. We've both had a really great semester here in Spain; we've met some amazing people and have had some of the most memorable times of our lives. It's going to be sad to leave it all, but hey, this may not be good-bye; it might just be a 'see you later.' And in many ways, both of us are looking forward to coming home soon.

Weird to think about what little time we have left, though...

I will post pictures of both Barcelona and Granada (and probably London at this point) after finals are done! I will be in London this weekend, so expect an update shortly after! Sorry for such few posts this month!

Hope you all have a great Dia de Gracias! Be thankful! Kthx.

Hasta luego.

~ LSquared