finals and lots of work, and Cordoba this weekend!

FINALS, ETC. so I haven't had much time to update on the blog or add pictures because things are getting crazy busy with schoolwork! our finals start in a few weeks, and I have tons of work to do. lots of reading, short essays to write, and then 2 big projects that I am just starting and are super intimidating. for my history of andalucia class we have to write a big long paper on any topic. my topic is "la enseñanza y educación de los niños moriscos en granada". so, the teaching and education of morisco (muslim converted to christianity) kids in granada. so just lots of research and writing for that. shouldn't be too bad. and then the other project that I am a little stressed about is for my anthropology of religion class. it's this long fieldwork project, in which we have to conduct an interview, and do all this background info, and then plan and start this whole project and plan it out with a timeline and budget and more....not really sure. it's rather confusing. I am still trying to figure out my topic, which I need to do like now because I am going to the thursday night buddhist talk tonight and I want to ask the speaker if we can find a time to meet so I can interview her. eeek I'm nervous about asking her! I'm thinking of interviewing her about buddhism in spain, and then interview Jim my step dad about buddhism in the US and compare them....we'll see! and then i have a bunch of exams too which I need to study for.

ánimo, megs! (that means spirit, encouragement, cheer up. i LOVE that word)

CORDOBA. something super cool! tomorrow alan and I are taking the 7:30 am bus to Córdoba, a small andalucian town a few hours away. he has a class field trip to the cathedral and muslim mosque there, which I saw four years ago and are incredible. then we are hosteling it tomorrow night, and then spending saturday exploring cordoba. for alan's xmas gift I reserved a time for us at 2pm to go to the Hammams Al Andalus, which are the arab baths. I went four years ago and remember loving them. They are beautiful baths with a room for hot water, a huge room with warm water and stars cut out in the high ceiling, and a cold water room. and we get massages too! I am super excited to go back! :)

http://www.hammamspain.com/cordoba/

ok well back to work studying!

back home in Granada! Trip recap and highlights.

So we returned safe and happy after our long adventures!

I have 699 photos. Wow. I need to edit them and then I am going to put al the best on facebook and then a few of my favorites here on my blog.

As for stories and adventures to tell regarding all our traveling, I will start to write about it on here. However, I am super busy now that I am back home, and so just check back here every now and then and I will continue to add stories as time comes.

It was an awesome trip! The group was wonderful, we were great together and had no problems whatsoever. I still love my three travel companions :).

All the cities were awesome. We couchsurfed in Dublin, Brussels, and Vienna, and thus saved a ton of money and also made some great international friends and had some great local tour guides! :) It was wonderful.

Highlights:

DUBLIN. I loved our day trip to the small seaside town of Howth, where we went on a long walk along the steep ocean cliffs that were reminiscent of Big Sur and thus made me feel at home :)

BRUSSELS. We stayed with a friend of Garren's, Juliette, a Belgian girl studying in Granada too. On Christmas she drove us to her parents' house outside of the city, and we were welcomed into the family and the warm, nice house complete with adorable black cat and hot fireplace. We had a nice Belgian dinner and we listened while everyone spoke French, and then after dinner we sat near the fire in a circle and opened presents. Juliette's mom had wrapped Belgian chocolate and beer for each of us. We felt like part of the family, what a wonderful christmas!

BRUGES. Ice skating in the center of this adorable town, surrounded by tons of christmas lights, and then eating hot, sugary Belgian waffles and sipping Gluhwein (milled wine) afterward. :)

VIENNA. New Year's eve! Our host Honzo took us to buy a big package of fireworks. eeeeEEEEE! Garren, Alan, and I went into the nearby park and set off a bunch of them and they were SO AWESOME! Then we headed into the center of town, where there were thousands and thousands of people, and a bunch of huge lighted stages with live music everywhere, xmas lights lining all the streets....we found the center plaza and it was completely cleared of people and it had been made into the firework launching pad. It was so incredibly loud! Huge firecrackers going off everywhere, bright flashes, huge almost painfully loud booms and crashes, people running.....it was madness! So much fun. We counted down to the new year in this huge crowd of people in the center of Vienna!

PARIS. I just loved walking around, we walked a lot. The sidewalk crepes are AMAZING. The Eiffel Tower was pretty cool, as well as all the other big monuments, Notre Dame....And I loved the glass pyramid at the Louve. And free entrance into the Louve being european students! We found a cute little boulangerie, bakery, where we went for breakfast every morning and tried some new french pastry every day. So good!

BERLIN. So much snow! And freezing! We went on a really good, almost 5 hour long free walking tour. Our Irish tour guide Barry was really good and enthusiastic, and I really enjoyed listening to the history of this very historically rich city! We also went on a fun pub crawl, which started in this cool bar with a ping pong table! That was way fun to play with Alan and Garren. And I just loved all the snow everywhere, and walking through blizzardy snowstorms!

OK well I need to go shower and do my laundry. More to come! Love you guys!