My Piso in Pictures

Barcelona Pictures

BARCELONA!

We had a week off before classes started, and we decided we wanted to stay in Spain so we could keep using our Spanish. Barcelona seemed like a perfect four day trip! And it turned out perfect, because only after booking our hostel and buying our plane tickets did we find out that we would be in Barcelona for the celebration of La Mercé, the Virgin Merced, aka lots of people and celebrations! Awesome timing. 

We flew out of Granada very early Tuesday morning. I had caught a stupid nasty head cold the night before, which is still bothering me more than a week later, the little bugger...We arrived at the airport, found a bus into the city, and then took the Metro for the first time and finally got to our hostel around noon. Nice, colorful hostel with friendly staff and young adults from all around the world. I love that environment.

Rather than listing what we did in boring chronological order, here are the noteworthy reflections and excitements of our trip, in the order they come to mind:

-LAS RAMBLAS. The famous main street, awesome! It is always flooded with people. When you see an aerial view of the city, it is the big wide green patch in the middle that leads to the ocean. It's a wide walking street bordered on both sides by big green shady trees. There are tons of street performers, or more just like people that have dressed themselves in such ridiculous costumes that they don't look human. There was an alien-looking thing, one man who worked out his props so it looked like his head was on a bloody platter on a table (see pictures I will post), knights in full armor....you get the idea. Crazy stuff. Really crazy. And of course there are artists, art galleries, souvenir shops. And then there are full-on plant stores with green plants spilling everywhere. My favorite part of the street was the stall where they were selling pets. Everything! Birds in cages, chickens, bunnies, and......(best part ever and I don't know if I agree with it morally..) CHIPMUNKS! Like 20 little adorable chipmunks in this cage. I wish I had a picture. I couldn't help but think of when I was a 10 year old backpacking with the family in the Canadian Rockies and how I was in love with those cute chipmunks and wanted one as a bet so badly! 

-GAUDI. We were good little tourists and visited all of the major Gaudi sites throughout the city. My favorite was Park Guell, a beautiful park full of his buildings, mosaic walls, huge long mosaic lizards...He has such a cool unique style! I will post some pictures, as they will show it much better than I can explain. Then we saw La Sagrada Familia, which was huge and powerful in all of its unfinished glory. Very intimidating gothic architecture. It did very much look like a grown-up sand drip castle. Gaudi must have been a pro sand castle maker as a child on the beach. Incredible how much is completed, and how much more until it will be finished the way Gaudi drew it. There was some good people-watching there too, as it is quite the tourist spot. We also saw some houses designed my Gaudi, which in my opinion looked like normal buildings that were reflected in one of those tall, wavy clown funhouse mirrors. All the lines of the buildings were wavy and distorted. Cool style!

-METRO. Love it. It made getting all over the huge city so easy and doable! And because we were there during La Mercé, a few nights it ran all night, which was very helpful when we were coming home to the hostel at 5am after a long night, and when we were heading to the bus station to leave on the 3am bus to the airport. Good deal! 

-LA MERCÉ. There were huge outdoor stages set up in all of the main big plazas, and free concerts every night. Fun to walk around the city and run into all of these different stages and music and crowds of people. One afternoon we were on Las Ramblas and there was this huge loud drum beat. We watched this procession pass, with a big group of kids in orange shirts playing percussion instruments, followed my men carrying a big float of this virgin statue. It looked like what I imagine La Semana Santa to be like this spring, but small scale and less religious. Friday night we found this fountain-light show that was magical! We found seats among the throng and watched this beautiful fountain show with music playing, from classical to old 80s hits like Video Killed the Radio Star and some Police songs. Amazing the effects they can do with colored lights and jets of water!

-BEACH. We had wonderful, warm weather our whole stay in Barcelona. (Which I appreciate even more now, as the past few days in Granada have been cold and overcast). We went to the beach a couple times. The water was fantastically refreshing, go Mediterranean! I saw some boys kicking a soccer ball around, and really wanted to join them, but as I got up to ask they were heading back to their towels. So I asked if I could use their ball. Turns out we had no language in common, as they were Italians and spoke no English or Spanish. We got along fine in Italian and Spanish, and then Henna and I kicked the ball around for a while. Then one of the Italian boys came and it turned out he was a goalkeeper too, so Ricardo and I preceded to shoot on each other in the ever-growing waves for a long time. It was really fun, diving in the waves, and trying to shoot the ball on the slanted shoreline. When I came back to our group on their circle of towels, the girls said to me, “Megan, most girls use sports to get boys. You use boys to get sports.” Haha. It was fun floating out in the waves too. Oh and I had a near-scare when I stood up after a particularly good wave-thrashing and felt that my nose piercing stud was loose, and it fell out in my hand! I found a bathroom and a mirror and out it back in, a little scarily and painfully. But now I've done it and it won't be a problem in the future. 

-ST. JOSEPH BOQUERÍA. A fantastic outdoor food market. Stalls and stalls of fruit, vegetables, meat, overflowing bins of nuts and dried fruit and chocolates and candy, seafood, so much! It felt like what I imagine markets in Indonesia and India to be like. We spent lots of money on our lunch, with huge fruit salads and chocolates and fresh fruit juices...

Fun trip! I loved the group I was with: Adrienne, Henna, Kelsey, Armelle, and Kenneth. We got along very well for traveling in a group of 6 together 24/7 for four days! My first trip abroad was a success!

Adventure and Failure in Málaga.

So this happened a couple weekends ago, but here it is. I had a long list of items I needed for my new room in my piso, including a desk lamp, sheets and a warm down comforter, etc. We went to a couple different small textile stores here in town, but I decided I really wanted to go to Ikea and get good products for a cheap price. The closest Ikea is in Málaga, a 1.5 hour bus ride from Granada. Sweet! Let's make a day trip of it! Adrienne was down, so we chose the Saturday after ILP classes ended on Friday, so our first free day. We bused it to the Bus Station around noon, where we paid a fairly high price for a ticket to Málaga. Unfortunately the next bus was at 2:30, so we had a while to kill. We found a cafe and I ordered orange juice and Adrienne showed her stuff and ordered a beer (ha. gross. at noon!?). We were sitting and talking when this fairly disheveled guy came up to us and asked if he could join our table, he had a few hours to kill before his bus. Sure, why not, we have time to kill too. So Chris pulled up a chair, and we talked with him for a good 45 minutes or so. Very interesting guy. From the start we could tell he was very stoned and thus rather out of it, yet he told us more or less his life story, how he had started out as a Spanish teacher in Tennessee and ended up here in Spain and now is working for some computer company and raising his two year old daughter with his wife here in Granada. whew! Funny guy, kind of hard to read, but kind and interesting. I was happy to see he was carrying the latest issue of National Geographic—in Spanish. 

Adrienne and I left and boarded our bus, and it was a nice relaxing trip through the desert hills to Málaga. It was wonderful to listen to music and just gaze out the window and watch the scenery go by. We hardly ever ride in buses let alone cars here as we walk everywhere in Granada, and it was a nice feeling to get somewhere a ways away for a change. 

We arrived at 4pm and immediately bought tickets for the last bus back home, at 9:30. So we had a good chunk of time. We asked a cab driver how to get to Ikea, and he said it was a 15 minute bus ride out of the city. So we made a plan to walk to the beach, shop a bit, hang out, and then hit up Ikea near the end of the day and then come back with plenty of time for our bus. We walked to the beach, and came across the “movistar street tour”, a skateboarding exposition, in a random park. That was fun to watch for a while. And we shopped a bit and found some new warm clothing. Then we decided to head to Ikea. 

And thus begins the chaos. 

I asked an information desk how to get to Ikea. Bus 19. We waited for Bus 19 for 40 minutes, while watching all the other buses pass multiple times. Finally it came, and we jumped on. 5 minutes into it I walked up to the front and asked the driver what stop to use for Ikea. “Ikea?” he said. “No voy a Ikea.” CRAP! We had waited for the better part of an hour for the wrong bus? So we jumped off, and waited again. 

Bus 14. There it is! Before sitting down I ask about Ikea. Yes, this is the right bus! And it will stop right in front if Ikea. Sweet. So we look at our watches, and we'll be at Ikea in 15 minutes!

The minutes go by, and we drive farther and farther away from the center of the city, into the car sales district and past huge furniture stores, but no blue and yellow Swedish paradise. 

Then, we are all of a sudden driving through residential neighborhoods. It's been 30 minutes. I go and pester the driver again, “Hemos pasado Ikea?” No, we haven't missed it. 

Finally. After 45 minutes on the bus, we arrive in front of Ikea. At this point Adrienne and I are getting pretty worried, because it is already 8:15 and we are running out of time. Fast and painfully. As soon as the huge blue and yellow Ikea is in front of us, we make the decision that we have no time, and we jump off the bus, sprint across a lawn, and jump onto another bus heading back into the city. We have come all the way from Granada, hours to get here, and all I get is a picture of the Ikea sign. Shoot! While I sprint to the bus to go back into Málaga, I am just laughing out loud out of frustration and resignation. 

We ride 45 minutes back, and barely make it in time for our bus home. We are starving as we never stopped to have a meal all day, and all we have between us is a couple coins and so we each buy a soda and a small can of Pringles for our dinner. 

And that's the adventure of Málaga! We get home at around midnight, drop stuff off at home, and get ready to go out on the town with friends, despite being exhausted. 

moved in to the piso!

The Intensive Language Program program ended on Friday. We had finals for our classes on Thursday, which were a breeze. Then Friday night we had our farewell dinner. It was fun, it was in this nice hotel dining room, and there were tables full of fancy, beautiful appetizers. Waiters walked around with trays of drinks, and special plates of cute delicious food. I tried escargot for the first time! I was surprised that I liked it! Very fishy. I guess that's to be expected. 

Then we all moved out of the Colegio and into our new pisos. It was really exciting unpacking and decorating my room since it will be my new home all year! I will take some pictures of my room and piso and put them up here.

Saturday Adrienne and I took the bus to Málaga. That was an adventure. I will post the story when I have more time on the internet.

My piso doesn't have internet yet, unfortunately. I am at my friend Garren's piso using his wifi right now. But hopefully we'll have internet in 2 weeks in my piso. Cross your fingers!

This week we have a free week before classes start at UGR next week. So friends and I are going to Barcelona! We leave Tuesday morning. I will post more stories and fill in the gaps when I have more time on the internet. But things are good! I miss my family and friends from home, but things are going well. 

Thunderstorm Run!

So the weather has been so weird and trippy lately! It'll be sunny and blue skies one moment, and then I'll look out the window and it's raining cats and dogs! (ah I wish, I miss them :( ) anyway, it's pretty crazy. 

Monday night I got dressed to go on a good long run, and right when I got outside it started POURING. I was soaked in 30 seconds! It was so so fun, it made me run so much faster! And wow, I thought I was getting a lot of looks while running before...this time everyone gave me the most incredulous looks. It was pretty funny. I ran hard for half an hour, and then came back and took a nice long hot shower. What a wonderful adventure! Then the rest of the night my legs felt so weird and hot and floppy, my muscles were super confused about the freezing rain and then the hot shower....weird feeling! 

I love rain running! :)

Fotos de La Alhambra

View of La Alhambra from Mirador de San Nicolas.
View from one of the towers of the white buildings around the palace.
The wall of El Palacio de Carlos V.
Check out those crazy carved walls!

Inside Carlos V's palace.
This is El Torre de la Vela (Guard Tower of the Candle). Amazing view from the top of all of Granada. Great location for a fortress, you can see everything!


These are Arabic letters that say there is no greater ruler than Allah.
View from the Tower of the Candle, this is the Granada Cathedral. 

Palace of Carlos V. This 16th century Christian architecture is very different than the Moorish style.

El Catedrál y La Alhambra!

Thursday afternoon we visited the beautiful Cathedral here in Granada (see photos below), and on Friday we toured the world famous Alhambra (photos in next post). La Alhambra is the most visited tourist site in the whole country. Gorgeous! "The Red Fortress" is a palace of the Moorish rulers Al Andalus during the 14th century. It is built with a mix of Islamic architecture and the 16th century Christian style, which is an interesting dichotomy of art and style. It is huge, comprised of many different palaces of various rulers, 13 towers, beautiful gardens, fountains and bath houses....My favorite part are the hand-carved walls and ceilings--they're insane! I can't even fathom how long that took. In the carvings on the wall there is a repeated phrase in Arabic, that reads "no hay más vencedor que Allah", so "there is no one more powerful than Allah". The arabic carving is beautiful and intricate. It's a spectacular place. 

Runnnnning in the night in the city.

So I have gone running every night the past 5 nights and I am so so happy! This is the first time I've really ran successfully since tearing the ligaments in my lower back snowboarding in New Mexico last December, so 9 months ago! I had continually tried to run, but it was never too comfortable. Well, I'm finally doing better enough to run! I've been stretching on my yoga mat every day, and taking nice hot showers every morning, and my back's been feeling better. 

I love LOVE night running in this city. I guess I've never really ran in a city before, only neighborhoods. It's fun, I stick to the big lighted streets, and I have to dodge around people. There are so many people out walking, eating ice cream, walking their dogs. I love these dogs! Anyway. My friend Adrienne showed me this awesome Danish rock band called Nephew and they are great to run to. 

Last night I ran into the main plaza and up a ways to La Alhambra, and then turned around and came home, but I still had some energy so I ran onto the University of Granada campus where I knew others had been running. It's way cool; there's this strip of pavement, like a pretty promenade, that's exactly 400 meters, so it's sort of like a track. And there are tons of runners running back and forth, back and forth. And then, best part--I found some paved courts to the side of the track where I found some small games of pick-up fútbol being played! There were a few small games going on, all boys, my age and probably a bit younger. I really wanted to go join them, but I had already ran for too long and was exhausted. But I think tonight on my run I'm going to start out there and ask to join these guys! Man it's been ages since I've played soccer, and I'm a little worried about my back, so I'll take it easy. Stoked!

Awesome, Amazing New Additions to My Life.

Meet Rocinante, my new classical spanish guitar! We've bonded a lot already. I'm so excited! I've already gotten carried away playing guitar for hours...
My new nose piercing. It's hard to see here, but it's a tiny light blue stud. Cool fact: here studs are called "brillantes" which is awesome, because that means sparkle, or brilliant. :) Brilliant!

Clubbing in Granada 10

Last night a group of us went out "de marcha", aka walking around the city and stopping in a various number of bars, before heading to the club Granada 10 around 2am. Things get started SO LATE here! We got to the club and it was relatively empty and people only started coming after 3am! The venue was gorgeous; an old restored big theater, with pretty decorations and lights and curtain things...They played fun music, some techno and your typical popular hip hop. It's funny that the majority of songs they play here are all in english. We were with Henna's new French roommate, Amédé, and his Swiss friend Olouf. They were both great, fun dancers. Amédé and I danced for a long time, and we were doing a sort of salsa-like dance with lots of twists and turns, and since we were dancing differently than most of the other people there they all watched and smiled and gave us room to dance; it was great. Good fun! We finally left the club around 6:30 am and walked back home to shower and crash in bed. I closed my window shutters for darkness, and slept in until 15:oo/3pm today. 

Best Sign Ever.

I wish I took a picture of this. 

So we went to the beautiful beach at Salobreña all day yesterday. There was a cafe with a big sign advertising pictures of crazy ice cream desserts, and there was one with a yummy picture and the title:

Banana Spit

! we were laughing so hard. perfect! I wonder if they know?

My Piso!

So yesterday I made a few calls and planned a few visits to pisos, and found my piso!

It is on the 5th story of an apartment building on one of the biggest streets in the city, called Camino de Ronda. The piso has five rooms, two bathrooms, kitchen and salón (living room) and a tiny little balcony. The three biggest nicest rooms are already taken by three spanish girl students who will move in mid-September. Apparently two of them are psychology majors, which I am excited about as that's my minor. And then the fourth room is mine, and then the owner will find one more girl for the fifth room. It's not perfect, but I'm excited about it. I really wanted a gorgeous view and a terrace, and it turns out my room only has an interior window (meaning I look out my window and see a white wall about 8 feet away). So I am bummed about that. And the other thing is the salon, or the common area, is tiny; the small kitchen table barely fits. And it's a little far away from the old, center of town where I wanted to live, near all the gorgeous old churches and buildings. 

So a few things like that aren't perfect. BUT, what I am most excited and happy about is the fact that there will be 4 other girls my age who are all students, and they are all moving in to this apartment for the first time this year, so I feel like we will all be in the same boat and so I'm hoping that means we will get to be friends and be in the same place. I haven't met them yet, but I am looking forward to it when I move in on the 18th. 

The owner Paco was really cool and friendly and we chatted for a while, and when I decided I wanted it I found an ATM on the street and withdrew enough money for the first month's rent and the deposit, equal to another month's rent. Then he gave me the keys! So I now officially have the keys to my new place!

It's been an interesting task, finding pisos. It's scary because you find something you like and you don't know if you'll find something better, so you have to make a decision one way or the other and go for it. Paco told me there were a couple other girls very interested in the room who he was expecting calls from, and so I felt a little pressured to choose yes or no right then. 

The way it turned out is that I didn't get the location and views I wanted, but I got the social situation I wanted. I wanted to live with spanish students my age, so my spanish will get awesome and I will hopefully learn the Andalucían accent. In Cristina's piso, I loved the view, but I didn't love the people. And I have decided the people are them most important thing. If I feel trapped without a view from my room, I can go take a walk outside. But it is imperative that I am comfortable and happy with those living in my apartment. At this point I haven't met them so I don't know, but I am optimistic and hopefully we will get along and live well together. 

I'm a little scared because my piso doesn't have central heating, and we have been hearing from everyone that the winters here are freezing. Unfortunately, many of the pisos don't have central heating because they are old. I am planning on just buying a good quality space heater for my room. Luckily my room is pretty small so hopefully the electricity bill won't be too great. And I will go to Ikea sometime and buy a really heavy warn down blanket for my bed! It will be fine. And it will be fun, definitely the coldest winter I've lived in yet. 

My room is small and has no view but I like everything else about it. It has nice furniture, and has a good amount of storage space, with some cute shelves on the walls and a nice wood desk and armoire for my clothes. It should be perfect! And we don't have internet yet, but there is the capability for it so hopefully when we have all moved in we can collaborate and get internet and share the cost. 

I found my place and paid for it and got the key at about 3pm yesterday, and I had previously made another date to see a piso at 8pm. So I no longer needed to see it, but I took Adrienne. We saw the piso, loved it, and she got it! I love her place. It is on a small cute street and is right across from the gorgeous old San Juan de Dios Church, so out of all of the windows there's a great view of it. And they are on the top level, so she has a nice cute sunny terrace. And they have a nice big salon... SO, I think if I had seen this piso first I would have gotten it. But, the ways things go it happened the way it did, and I found the other place first. I am a little bummed, but I know in the end we will all love our places and all have a wonderful year. And I can come visit her anytime and enjoy the view :). 

I have learned through this experience that it is easy to second guess your decisions, especially when they are this big and important. It is easy to be jealous of what others have found. I know that whatever decision I make there will always be advantages and disadvantages, and you have to take it all together. But I am confident that I will be happy, and being me I will as always make the best of what I have and love all of it. 

I am super stoked to meet my other four piso-mates! I will move in around the 18th or so, and will probably meet them then. Yay!

The Drama with Cristina's Piso

So. This whole piso thing has been fun, scary, frustrating, exciting, and is now over!

So last time I posted I told about Cristina's piso, on the 9th floor with the cat. Well, a lot has happened since then haha. I went back to meet with the other roommate, Lucía, on Monday. Adrienne, Henna, and I went and chatted with the two girls a bit, looked around the piso again. Basically the shake down was this: I can tell the two girls lead a very different lifestyle than me: they are bigger, non-athletic, both have multiple piercings including their nose, and wear gothic-style clothes...but most of all, they are both smokers. While we were talking, Cristina was practically blowing smoke in my face. I think I was excited about the cat and about finding a piso and so I had acted too hasty in my decision saying I wanted it, and I had shrugged off the fact that they smoked. So I told them I was still interested, and we left and she said they would call me later and let me know if we were on. 

Later, in the internet cafe, I was super stressed and couldn't focus on anything other than my decision and my growing doubts about it. I was totally second-guessing myself, and I couldn't think of anything else. I talked to others about it, and while talking I realized it wasn't just the fact that they smoked that was worrying me. I realized I had gotten a weird, uncomfortable feeling from the two girls, and the dynamic wasn't a good one. I realized one thing was that Cristina had lived there for 5 years, and so it seemed like she was the one in charge and that I had to ask for her permission for everything, and so it seemed like I wouldn't feel comfortable and responsible of the piso myself. Hard to explain, but whatever it was I was really doubting that I had found the right place. I made a pros and cons list and finally decided to tell Cristina I no longer wanted it. So I texted her an apology and explanation that I had realized I couldn't live with smokers. She never texted me back. And I know I made the right decision. 

So the search had started again! Amazingly enough, later that afternoon I found another place...

to be continued!

hike in Los Cahorros

my whole group of like 45 UC students went in a bus Sunday to a pretty white village on these dry foothills about 20 minutes by bus out of Granada. we hiked up through the steep streets of the village and then came out into this gorgeous big valley that we hiked along. going into the mountains we hiked along the river which was gorgeous, and at some points we had to crawl where the rock wall was low hanging. it was a very fun trail. we stopped a ways in and then were told we had some time for lunch. a big group of us decided we wanted to scale this really steep path and get as high up as we could, so we took off through the thick, sharp bushes until we reached this awesome lunch spot on an outcropping of very pointy rocks with an incredible view. it was a fun hike, in the middle of the day so it was crazy hot. it was wonderful to get some good exercise for the first time in a while too.