Friday, November 19th

yum lemons :)

Birthday Crew :)

Friday was one of Teresa’s friend’s birthdays. So after they got done with classes, I met all of Teresa’s friends from her university across town to go out to dinner for Marta’s bday!

Before dinner Teresa and I walked by our Abu’s house because it was close by. She didn’t have the key though so I just got to see the outside of the apartment complex. Fail Teresa, Fail. Haha!

<3

:)

We went to eat at this cheeseburger restaurant. I was so happy to eat some American food!! It stuck though because they messed up our cheeseburgers and put onions on mine and Teresa’s. L They were little onions too so there was no just scrapping them off, oh well there’s worse things in life. I also split a fried calamari dish with Teresa and Ana.

After dinner we went to this cocktail bar nearby. The inside of the bar looked like a cave! It was super cool and they played great music! Ana, Teresa, and I split a couple of HUGE cocktails. They were yummy, but super strong!

DANI!!!!!

"new coats"

The cocktail bar got really crowded around 1 am, so we decided to switch locations. One of my good friends from home, Danielle Osmond, is studying in Murcia Spain, but was in Madrid for the weekend, so we met her at a metro stop and she came out with us!

Finally, around 4 am, we decided to call it a night and head for the night buses. Naturally it was raining. If you’ve been following my blog, you know I have a little bit of trouble with my umbrella.. The darn thing opened up inside out. I’m not kidding like full on the opposite direction… Not too helpful for keeping Dani and I dry. I got in trouble the next morning for not telling my senora sooner and getting a new umbrella! Haha!

Thursday, November 18th

Teresa and I

Today my amazingly, awesome, Spanish uncle came over and helped me for THREE hours with homework!!! He corrected 3, 5 page papers for me!!! What a relief to have those suckers turned it and out of my hands!!!! :-D I was so happy and grateful!! Seriously!! I never expected him to stay so long! 5:30 to almost 8:30! My goodness! He told me that he'd love to help me again too! Have I said enough that I LOVE my Spanish family?!?!

Now for an explanation for the photos... A few weeks ago when I went out to dinner with Teresa and her friends at this Chinese restaurant, Teresa picked up the buisness card so I could go back. I didn't really want the card so I stuck it in her pocket. While I was brushing my teeth she put it back on my desk in my bedroom.. From that moment on we hid the chino card in each other's belongings.

poor chino card :(

Well on Wednesday I found the BEST hiding spot EVER... in her umbrella!!!! Seriously, I'm a genius, I know! The problem was that when she opened up the umbrella, the card fell underneath Marta's car in a huge, nasty puddle. Teresa left the poor card there to drown.. :( So we wore gray/black on Thursday to morn the loss of the chino card!! :)

Wednesday, November 17th

Katies

Today for my Education class, we went to the Institute Cervantes to get familiar with the library and do some research for our final papers. I’m writing about the importance of games in foreign language classes. I’m having a little trouble finding a lot of theory on the topic, but I have some time! I really like the library though. I think I’m going to start using it to study once in a while. The problem is that the building closes at 6 pm, so I can’t stay very late.

Me, Teresa, and Ana

Fail.

Wednesday night we went out for dinner at 100 Montanditos, one of my favorite restaurants in Madrid! Wednesday night if you buy a drink and a sandwich they’re both 1 euro. I went with 3 girls from school and invited Teresa and one of her friends, Ana, to come too! It was so much fun just to sit around and talk in Spanish. Definitely needed that after how much homework I have to do!! 

Tuesday, November 16th

Teresa and Abu

Today I had my language exchange with Juanjo in the evening. As always we walked around the block and ended up getting Cokes and our normal restaurant, VIPS. I just love talking with him because he’s so eager to learn English and always comes with all sorts of questions for me. He watches some English learning TV show, does this program on the computer, and is reading a book in Spanish and comparing it with the English copy. It’s just so adorable how excited he is to learn English!! AND I can seriously tell he’s improving. Obviously I can’t take all the credit, if even any at all, but it still makes me feel good! J

Towards the end of our chat he asked if there was any way he could help me with all of the homework I have. I told him I just didn’t know how he could, unless he wanted to become an expert on Picasso or write a paper on Lope de Vega. He offered to come by the house sometime and edit some of my work though. Although Teresa and my mom offer to help me, I feel bad making them look over EVERYTHING. I mean seriously. Who wants to read 6 pages comparing the Carlos IV family to the royal family today? I just don’t want to be a burden for anyone.  Anyways, we set up a date that he’d come on Thursday and we’d only speak in Spanish! J What a nice guy!!!

Monday, November 15th

our special buddies and THE RING
(on the flash drive!)

Monday night my sister and I watched The Ring in Spanish. I'm just going to throw this out there, I have a memory problem. I totally forgot more than half of the movie!! Teresa kept asking me if a scary part was coming up and I'd be like oh nooo, nothing - and then a dead guy would pop up on the screen. SORRY TERESA!! She thought I was lying to her the whole time.. Whoops! Plus the movie was in Spanish and that was just a challenge to watch a scary movie in Spanish.. NUTS! :)


In the end I should have slept in Teresa's room. I was fine until 6 am when I thought I heard her my room (I thought she came in to scare me or because she was scared). When I couldn't find the source of the noise, I was certain that Samara had come for me!!! Oh well.. I survived! :)

Sunday, November 14th

me and Teresa's stuffed puppy :)

Today we got up much later than Saturday. It was nice to get a couple extra hours of sleep and leisurely enjoy the hotel’s breakfast buffet.

First thing on our agenda was to see the public baths that were near our hotel. They were closed, but it was still cool to see the outside of them.

Granada = <3 

Next we walked up to another plaza to see another view of the Alhambra and the river. It was really pretty. Of course I got lots of pictures! J

We were going to try to go to the house of Garcia Lorca or this other building that was similar to a mosque, but the both ended up being too far away for the short time that we had before we had to catch our bus. In the end, we decided to go to the chapel where Fernado and Isabel, Juana la Loca and Juan el Hermoso are buried. The little church was really pretty and had lots of pretty artwork in it for such is size.

By this time we were all three pretty hungry so we went to another tapas bar near our hotel. The king and queen of Spain ate there a few years back, so we figured it had to be good. It was! We ordered chorizo, croquets, soup, and drinks.

After lunch it was time to get out of Granada. We picked up our luggage from the hotel and hailed a taxi to the bus station. Our bus ride was another 5 hours, but again I tried to utilize my time. I read 3 articles for my research paper for my education class (I’m writing about the importance of games in class), read some of our book for literature, and caught up on my blog! The bus was approximately 9 million degrees, so I sweated my butt off!!

for my Abu (Pilar)

When I got back home, my Spanish fam was all waiting to hear about my adventures! My mom had fixed a wonderful dinner, but the problem was I wasn’t feeling so great. My professor had been sick the week before and we had been sharing tapas all weekend, including bowls of soup. I know, I know, not the brightest move on my part!!

Beer and Wine :)

Anyways, I got the “sheer pleasure” of trying the Spanish version of Emergen-C. Teresa enjoyed watching me suffer through the glass WAY too much!! It wasn’t *too* bad, but the aftertaste was all powdery and nasty! So too “chase” the flavor, Teresa kindly handed me a piece of bread.. Thanks a lot brat!! :-P My mom got out the Christmas candies and made me eat a bunch of chocolate instead! J

Our "new bff".. Dona
has been replaced!

… Just for the record I woke up Monday morning feeling LOTS better! J

Saturday, November 13th

The Alhambra 

Saturday we got up at a decent time to tour the city. Our first stop was the Alhambra, an old palace/castle place. We had a guide for this part of the trip and she was awesome. The problem was that she spoke really fast and had a thick Andalucían accent. Katy and I couldn’t really understand the majority of what she said, but she was super sweet and tried to explain things to us. It was nice because it was just the three of us with her so she was able to take a lot of time and show us everything! She said she has a new house with a pool that she rents out to students if we ever want to study in Granada, so if you know anyone who is looking for a place in Granada, I can hook them up! J

The Alhambra was absolutely spectacular. All of the Muslim artwork was incredible. The architecture was amazing too. It was really cool to see the things that we’re learning about in class in real life. I was super bummed though because the Lion Patio is under construction. We still got to see the lions from the fountain, but it just wasn’t the same. The Lion Fountain is incredible because the way the water pressure works, on the hour, every hour, a lion shoots water out of its mouth. How awesome is that!? I was amazed that so long ago they had the methods to make that happen!

Katy and I at a pretty fountain

After visiting the Alhambra we ate lunch in a nearby Carmen restaurant. We had a menu del dia, but it kind of stunk. I really liked the soup, but my second course wasn’t that great. I ordered the chicken dish like Ana, but it was really pepper. The dessert was on the other end of the spectrum with no flavor. Overall I wasn’t impressed, but oh well, that’s life.

tree hugging

After lunch we were all pooped so we went back to the hotel to observe the Spanish Siesta. After resting for a solid hour and a half, we ventured back out into the city.

Katy, Ana, and I

We took the city bus up to this famous look-out point. It was so beautiful because you can see the Sierra Nevada Mountains, which were snow capped, and the Alhambra and the sun was setting.

Next we went down to the cathedral. We didn’t have a ton of time to see the cathedral because it closed about the time we got there, but it was still impressive. I really liked the organ and the altar.

Granada

Since the majority of the monuments had closed down for the day, we hit up the shopping district. I was determined to find boots, at that I did! Ana and Katy were super patient as I went from store to store trying on different pairs of shoes. In the end I found a fabulous pair that were fairly cheap. I also ended up buying a super cute headband. My professor kept saying how it was “me”. Haha!

pillow fight in the lobby :)

After our mini shopping spree, we went to another famous section of town to get tapas. We ended up at one of the most famous tapas bars in Granada. The food was delicious! We had a platter of different hams and chorizos, soup, bread, cheese, and more tinto de verano.

me and my boots <3 

We contemplated staying out after dinner, but we were all three so sleepy we decided just to call it a night so we could get up the next morning and do some more sightseeing.