La Rubia peligrosa

So keeping up with this blog became difficult since I came to Granada on Friday mainly because this hotel does not have wi-fi, so rather than continue in days I will take into account a daily procession of events is unrealistic so I will tell in bulk. So since I arrived in Granada I instantly noted the difference between Madrid and Granada. While this may be a pretty large city, it is all very central and the people treat you like family. At this point I am still in pursuit of housing and while I have looked at room after room, nothing seems to fit what I want/need. Me and my friend… what’s her name again? OH! Vicky(no me mates) are getting tired of this search and we have only a few days left before we get kicked out of this hotel. The only great thing that has come of our searches was meeting my new friend Robert who is a German Medical student who speaks really good Spanish(and English). One of the coolest people I have ever metJ

Anyway, I really love the people in my group, there are about 49 of us. I can honestly say that we all get along really well and are very sad about moving in separate housing, yet somewhat relieved we will soon have our own rooms and kitchens(especially me). Speaking of kitchens, the head cook/server deemed me the name “la rubia peligrosa” or dangerous blond simply because he almost ran in to me. However, it apparently has another meaning which he will not reveal to until the last day I am here.

In the past 4 days I have grown to LOVE Granada. The feel of it is unlike anything I have ever seen. No matter where you go there is beauty in the architecture, in the views and landscape, in the people(yeah definitely beauty in the male people…), and even in the stone walk-ways that make  up the streets of Granada(even if they are killer on the feet). It impossible not to fall in love in such a wonderful setting. I loved it so much I was moved to write a poem, it follows:

Granada you have streets

That really hurt my feets

… actually that’s all I’ve come up with

Anyway, I am happy to say I have found a rather large group to start going to church with me, I start today with a new found friend and on Sunday with a group of about 7(which is much more than I expected). I am very grateful to Pastor Larry who took initiative to look for one for me, it has benefitted several other students who were in need of one. We have all decided that we are going to start going together every week and I am very excited about this.

On Sunday I was able to talk to my parents and my brother for the first time since I left via skype and it was quite honestly the best thing in the world. I guess what is most difficult is seeing such beautiful things and not having them to share it with for the first time. At this point it hasn’t quite hit me that I won’t be physically with them for a year and so this may be the only thing keeping me from breaking down when I see their beautiful faces. I take joy in talking non-stop about my family and about how awesome it is. Victoria and I are seemingly obsessed with our nieces and take any opportunity to show them offJ I really miss them all, but it seems like the more I talk about them, the closer I feel to them…

Today was the first time I nearly had a heart attack that I couldn’t talk to my best friend Nat…. I had so much to tell her and it hit me that it wasn’t so easy to do so. This really made me sad.

All in all these past 5 days have been filled with a lot of phone calls to inquire on apartments, a ton of walking, a grip of laughter, a bunch of food, hella(as Vicky would say) of talking, and a load of gratuity for this opportunity. Until next time friends!(oh and I figured I would try to make up for the 4 days I missed of things learned.

Things I have learned:

16. you greet someone with what they call “dos besos” or 2 kisses which is really convenient in certain cases and a totally awkward and sometimes unpleasant in others.

17. Inviting 5 people to join you to meet with someone can quickly turn into 15 people joining.

18. Germans are exempt from “dos besos”

19. people here are not germaphobes, for instance a random guy offered my friend Victoria to take a bite of his bread to try it.

20. All down hill roads lead to the hotel, unless you are under it on the map… then all down hills lead you to Africa.

21. weinerschnitzel is not only pronounced veener-shnitsle, but it also does not mean yummy fast food hotdogs to Germans. It actually means scallop of tenderloin Vienna style.

22. People are friendliest when they are not working… then again who IS happy when they’re at work…

23. People will pay 113 euros to have tomatoes thrown at them for an hour in another city(Buñyol for la Tomatina about 9 hours away on bus from here, look it up) when I can easily to it in the comfort of their shower for free.

24. People love to cause scandal

25. don’t blow your soup to cool it down unless you know for sure it’s hot(apparently gaspacho is a cold soup and I was blowing it for nothing)

26. Laughter is good for you, unless you’re an asthmatic, then it can be both painful and embarrassing when done in excess… not that I would know first hand…

27. People take great offense when you pause before saying their name in the sentence, “this is my friend [pause] Vicky”

29. Coffee with milk is a good idea in the morning but a completely foolish idea at 12am, thus this blog update.

30. IPads are just about the coolest things in the world and extremely convenient for travel.

31. once you have lived in Granada, you will never take air conditioning for granted again.

32. Nat is highly needed in Spain

33. I am running out of things learned

34. Don’t wear flip-flops to go apartment hunting in an area with highly uneven stone walks

35.  When you hear the word, “Jesus” in public, don’t assume they are calling out to Jesus… someone probably just sneezed as “Jesus” is the way they say ‘Bless you’ or ‘salud’ here in Spain

36. You can always assume the concierge knows where everything in the city is

37. Fish, and calamari taste wonderful when you have no other food choice…

38. I miss clothes dryers

39. It is NOT ok to pass by someone you have met once before and pretend like you do not know them. This is not America, people remember you, and would love to greet you, ignoring them offends them. Glad to say NOT experienced first handJ

and last but not least

40. Fall in love with Spain, don’t fall in love IN Spain.

Day 3

This morning Marcela took the liberty to serve as my personal alarm clock. Boy, is she good at it. She pounds on your door and starts screaming out, "Wake up Call!!!". I got up and had coffee, the. Went to an orientation with the Granada advisor. She is great. After said orientation a few of us went to the botanical gardens in Madrid and walked around for a bit before some of us got tired and went to sit in the shade for a bit. From there we went to plaza mayor and then took the metro to the restaurant the program chose to host the welcome dinner. The food was so good and while it was a welcome it was also a goodbye seeing that after today we won't be seeing the Madrid group again. It has been a long and crazy day but another great one in Madrid. Before I close this small post I will round up the 5 things I learned today.
11. Don't get close to statues in the streets, they tend to be real people that can really scare the life out of you.
12. Water is good for you.
13. Juice is called zumo not jugo
14. The ham museum does not actually have exhibits, rather it is yet another ham market.
15. Not all white people speak English.

Day 2

This morning I got to breakfast late so I bought "un refresco de melocotón" which apparently means peach to spaniards rather than your regular "durazno". Today the Granada group had a free day because the Madrid people had stuff to do so we went to El Museo el Prado. We saw it cost 8 euros to get in and we figured we would rather wait until 6pm to get in for free. In the mean time we went to el parque de retiro which was rather lovely. Unfortunately when we got back to el Museo the line was so long we couldn't see the end of it, thus a few of us girls went walking around instead. We walked to la Playa del Sol which is more of a plaza then a playa considering there are a ton of shops and NO shore... or body of water for that matter. The Granada group is wonderful and the girls I met today are great:)
The architecture in Playa del Sol is amazing. You can see the difference instantly. I took pictures and as soon as I figure out how to load them on to this bloggy thingy I will do so:)
after dinner(which ends at 10pm) I came up to my room checked my facebook and went out at 11pm with some friends to plaza mayor. THANKFULLY the friends I have made are not like the rest and thus don't tend to go out clubbin' or drinking late. Instead, we went to have coffee and churros con chocolate at la chocolatería en plaza Mayor. There was one guy with us which gave me a bit of peace cus there are creepers here. It is generally safe as long as you are not by yourself and the bigger the group the better as long as it's not so big that you forget who is there and who isn't. We got back at 1:40am which is normal here and everyone was still up and running like nothing. When I got to the dorms we were chatting and I was super startled when someone came behind me and friggin scared the life out of me. MARCELA! Because of personal emergency she came tonight and she surprised me in the lobby:) so happy she got here safely. So far I love every one here and the area. I leave for Granada Friday morning. Can't wait!
Things I learned today:
6. There really are not that many spaniards in Madrid
7. El museo el Prado get PACKED after 6pm cus it's free
8. Ice cream cones are really long
9. If you live in Nor-cal you say "hella" every other word
10. there is no spaniard that doesn't say "vale" after every sentence

Day 1

I arrived to Madrid, España safely on august 23. It honestly felt like i skipped a whole day because I left at 7am american time and arrived 8am Spain time. I have yet to take pictures so you will have to forgive me for that. So far, I have made several friends from this CSU program and they have all been amazing. A group of us girls went wandering into Madrid yesterday afternoon and it was great. Unfortunately my horrible allergies drove me to buy medication from a local pharmacy that appeared similar to zyrtec-D. What I didn't know is that regardless of the main ingredient psuedophedrine, it still causes drowsiness. Needless to say while walking through Madrid the girls I was with decided to buy some drinks and sit down to chat. While I sat with them, I started to take 2 second naps and it became hard to focus on what they were saying. I found it difficult to stay awake. So I came back to my dorm and knocked out. I woke up at 2am and unfortunately missed dinner:(. The eating schedule it very different here, breakfast (desayuno) is typically between 7-9:30 am, lunch(comida) is around 2-3pm with a time for siesta at around 3-4:30. Dinner(cena) is served around 9-10pm. It seems like people don't sleep here which makes sense when you try the coffee, needless to say, I'm wired on this coffee! So despite the lack of a starbucks, I  have yummy coffee. However, thanks to my best friend i can "make an ordinary coffee extraordinary!' with my very own starbucks kit! I will end this blog with a short list of things I have learned so far.
1. Coins are of great value, 1 euro may look measly but can get you a lot
2. A bottle of wine can cost as little as 1euro
3. wi-fi is pronounced WEE FEE here
4. Café con leche is pretty much espresso with hot milk
5. Spaniards have little sense of what personal space is, experienced first hand.