muchas cosas

Hello all. If you have translated the title to this post, you may have discovered that I have been extremely busy of late; thus why I have only posted once a week or so...Tomorrow morning I am leaving for Madrid and Barcelona for 10 days, so I thought I’d get yall caught up on some of the neat things I’ve been fortunate enough to do in and around Granada for the past few weekends…

1.14.2007 – The Alhambra
For our first Saturday in Granada our group received a tour of the crown jewel of Granada: The Alhambra. The name itself derives from an Arabic word meaning “red one” and essentially the Alhambra is a giant “red” military fortress located in the foothills of Granada. Looking at it from afar, it simply appears like a practical military base, but inside it is full of intricate Muslim architecture. When the Muslim armies invaded Granada in AD 711, they began constructing The Alhambra, which would later function as the last Muslim outpost when the Reconquista began in Spain and Ferdinand and Isabella began to push out the Muslims down into the tip of Spain. Everything came to a crashing end when The Alhambra was sacked by said couple on January 1, 1942. From here, future Catholic and Christian rulers began to build within the original confines of the Muslim fortress. Thus, today, The Alhambra is an awe-inspiring blend of gaudy renaissance-like architecture with little substance on the inside, and pale and bulk Muslim buildings with gorgeous and intricate interiors. The juxtaposition of these two styles is incredible. Anyways, that’s enough of a history lesson, here are a few pics:

The Aifs crew, can you find me? (click to enlarge)

A general view of the Alhambra

One of the many beautiful courtyards of the sultan palaces

One of the Christian buildings constructed within the confines of the Alhambra after the conquering of the Muslims in 1492

Meeee with the Alhambra behind

1.21.2007 – The Albaicin
Although the Christians set fire to all the mosques in the lower part of Granada when they sacked the city and the Alhambra, one primary Moorish district remained in tack: The Albaicin - which happened to be our program’s second destination for our next free Saturday. I won’t bore you too much, but the Albaicin is basically a neighborhood chock full of Moorish houses and twisting alleys that represent the only Arab district to survive the Reconquista in tact. One of the churches within the district, St. Nicholos, proved to be the most beautiful place in Granada I have seen thus far. Here our some pics of, and within the Albaicin:

The Albaicin from afar

The view of the Sierra Nevadas from the Albaicin

Our crew at the beautiful St. Nicholas church overlook

1.26.2007 – Biking In Granada
This past Friday I signed up for a bike ride with the school to check out Granada 'n such. It was quite the winter wonderland when we started:

Yup!

Right before we were about to begin!

Anyways, it ended up clearing up and it was really neat to see a lot of the city that we hadn’t been able to see on foot thus far...

1.28.2007 – Bull Fight in Atarfe
And just yesterday, I had the wonderful opportunity to check out a Portugese style bullfight in the nearby city of Atarfe. While we were there they went through about four bulls, which all remained in the ring until their eventual death (differing from the traditional Spanish style bullfight). For each bull, a torero en cabello (bullfighter on horseback) would taunt it and proceed to stab it with various spears, swords, and knives. This continued until the bull became too bloody to walk or run, and the torrero gave the final blow. However, the most interesting, and exciting part of the fights, were when the torero took a break, and this line of joker looking fellows would come out and taunt the bull right to his face. Here’s what ensued:

(I tried uploading a YouTube video of this, but it's not working. I will try again another day.)

Oh, and here’s a few more pics, no captions, they are fairly self-explanatory:




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Wow. Ok. I’m tired after all that. I hope you enjoyed. Tonight is my last night in Granada before I embark on my 10 day excursion to Madrid with the program and then onto Barcelona to hang with Ryan and Peter. Should be good times. Leave some comments for when I get back. That’s be neat. Alright, love you all, and I’ll be sure to update you on all my travels when I return. Adios.

en y cerca de granada

hey all, it’s been awhile since i’ve last posted, but being busy and having my internet hijacked from my home stay has lead to a few setbacks in my Granada blogging career. but here I am; back with some new pics n such…

every morning I get up around 9ish. I haven’t had a morning where I’ve been tired thus far, so I’m obviously doing something right. Although it didn’t take much to improve on my sleeping habits during Christmas break (dad will testify). Anyways, my senora purri (note the spelling correction from last time, double r’s and double l’s, when said fast = confusion for a struggling Spanish student) prepares a light breakfast for me every morning (I’ll talk about food here in a second) and then I take a shower and leave the apartment by 10.

I always bundle up for the morning walk since it’s always a bit chilly. I even bought a new jacket pretty much solely for the morning walks. I do not dread these walks at all, however. I just strap on my ipod and enjoy the beautiful scenery. Here are some pics from my walk to school (click on any for a larger image):


Intersection of two big streets outside my apartment (Paseo del Violon and Camino de Ronda)


Paseo del violon


Looking back towards my apartment on the river canal


The river canal on my way to school; nice view of a church and the hillside


The best part of the walk: carrera del genil


Neat fountain at the end of carrera del genil


The main fashion district drag

I haven’t taken any pictures of my school building yet. Its not much to look at, just a three or four story building tucked back inbetween some small streets. It has a courtyard and the majority of study aborad students have their classes here. For these first few weeks I am in an intensive Spanish class, where I meet for four hours a day (10:30 – 2:30). 10:30-12:20ish is solely grammar and such, while the latter half focuses on conversation. We have a break in between the two sections for twenty minutes, which is very nice considering four hours of Spanish-only teaching can begin to wear on you. I like both of my teachers; both are eccentric and engaging for the most part. Im learning exponentially, and I’m giddy to think about how much I will know in the coming months.

When classes are finished, I usually try to talk to people and make plans for the evening since I don’t have a cell phone. Im still holding strong, but ill prolly give in here soon. I then make my trek home, ipod in hand, in order to make it home for lunch. (errr, look at the above pics backwards or something for a visual of what walking home looks like). Normally I eat lunch and take a short nap until 5ish. Dinner is at 9, so I usually will either do something in between lunch and dinner, like go walk around the town or shop or what not, and then stay in after dinner or I will hang out at the house until dinner and then meet people at night for tapas (free food when you order a drink!). so yaaa, that’s my typical week day schedule, at least for the next few weeks. The days seem to go by suuuuper fast. I already can’t wait to travel. Our program is going to Madrid for 4 days at the end of January and then even after that finishes, we still have 5 days until classes begin so im going to head about to Barcelona to see ryan, peter, and company. I can’t wait.

oh ya, I said I’d talk about food. I have never had consecutively (that ‘consecutively’ is for you mom and dad) this many great meals. I seriously look forward to lunch and dinner so much. Breakfast is always the same: toast with jelly, orange juice, a coffee with milk, and a muffin. It’s light but it suits me well…lunch is always the biggest meal and the yummiest. Normally it’s an incredible vegetable, fish, or bean ‘n rice soup with some other meat to accompany it. It’s always superbly delicious. Every meal also is accompanied with a fresh loaf of bread and fresh fruit (pears, bananas, and manadrines) which are always totally scrumptious too. My senora always makes me eat a ton, but I cant say no, because it’s so darn good. Dinner is normally a tad lighter, but still great, as it consists of some fried fish or chicken or a sandwich. The other night she made me this huge Bocadillo (see sandwich) on fresh bread, with cheese, tomatoes, and three slices of chicken. I know it doesn’t sound too special, but it was amazing…usually I eat lunch with the whole fam, while I typically eat dinner with just my senora and senor (without the kids). Each meal i increasingly become more comfortable communicating, and slowly and slowly I am able to understand the family as they talk a lot more as well. It’s neat.

Welllll, that’s it for now. We are going to check out the Albaicin tomorrow with the program, so I figure I will up pics from that and last week’s excursion to the Alhambra next time I post.

Buuut, Here’s a pic to tide you over mom. I know how much u love silly faces…



Hasta luego.

i live here:

errr. welcome to my first post via granada, spain. there is an infinite amount of things i could write about or show you, so ill have to be specific for these entries...

i live with a senora (Pulli) and senor (Antonio). they have three kids, all in there twenties, two of which still live in the house. no one in the family speaks english, however, which posed quite the dilemma for an out-of-practice spanish student like me - but im embracing the challenge. ive already progressed in conversing with them, and the progress is exciting and motivating.

food so far is really good. ive had some really good stews/soups, lotsa good meat (bacon, ham, sausage), and even some american-ish things like french fries and a hamburger. i literally havent had one bad thing yet, so im excited about that.

i really got a good set-up for my homestay, despite my initial hesitations. i was kinda worried at first because a. its farther away from the school than anyone else's homestay b. they dont speak any english and c. i dont have a roommate like everyone else. BUT, everything is great: i am enjoying the walk to school (it logs in at around 30min, but i just strap on my ipod and enjoy the crisp morning air), my spanish is increasingly improving, and i have my own room. here are some pics of my apartment and room (click on any pic for a bigger image):





...well. thats it for now, but fear not mom, there's plenty more to come; my next entry will document my walk to school. its pretty. ok. bye. oh, and leave comments too, if ud like and i can answer questions n stuff in the comments too.