Random things

So here are some random things I have noticed while in Spain:

1. The Andalusian Accent - the accent in Granada and most of Andalucía is VERY difficult to understand. A lot of people don't pronounce the ends of words; so Granada turns into Grana which to me sounds like an entirely different place. The letters z and c are apparently interchangeable so sometimes my señora asks "When I am coming back to the caza?" Los niños is lo niños with a breathyness to the 'lo.' At first it was very hard to understand what teachers/my señora was saying, but I think I have grown accustomed to the accent.

2. Crosswalks - Maybe I am just so impatient that I can never wait for the crosswalk sign to cross a street; but the Granadinos will always wait for the crosswalk sign! When I leave for school with just enough time to get there, I can't wait for the crosswalk!

3. Bread - Bread with every meal. In my house, breakfast is no exception.

4. Tapas - Granada is one of the only cities in Spain that gives free tapas with drinks! I LOVE TAPAS. Essentially you can eat a small meal by ordering only 2 cervezas (only 4 Euro total!) The tapas are all really good, obviously there are a few exceptions, but at most bars there is a list of tapas you can choose from!

5. HAM. Ham is everywhere here. Especially jamón serrano; which is a dry-cured, thinly sliced ham that can be eaten plain or with bread. The ham comes in the shape of a pig leg... it's a little weird when you find one in the closet of your house.

Ahhh!!!

6. The Laid Back Spanish Lifestyle - The people of Granada are really never in rush. This can be a great thing, or really really annoying. For example, if you go to a restaurant to eat, your meal can take hours because the waiter is in no rush to serve you. Most Spanish people tend to sit and talk for at least an hour after their meal; so when we are in a rush, we literally have to ask the waitress for the check as soon as the food comes. But if you go to a cafe, buying one coffee entitles you to sit there for hours just hanging out.

7. Lack of courtesy - Granadinos aren't rude, but they aren't quick to be polite. If you accidentally bump into someone on the street they never say perdón or  lo siento (I'm sorry.) If you enter a little shop, the owner/ storekeeper rarely says hello. When someone sneezes I've never heard someone say salud.  Just the little things.

8. Water - In terms of drinking water, Granada has some of the best water in the country. The water comes straight from the Sierra Nevadas and it is delicious! On the flip side, Spain is currently experiencing a drought and the people are trying to conserve water. This means quick showers, and hot water that only lasts for 2 minutes...

9. Electricity - Electricity is very expensive in Spain. My Señora keeps all the lights off in her apartment except for the room that she using. This makes it extremely difficult to navigate at night, and I regularly walk into the table in the hallway. One day I was hanging out in my room doing some homework, and got up to go to the bathroom. When I came back to my room, my Señora had turned off my light!

10. Television - The television is always on. The tv must be some exception to the whole 'electricity is expensive' thing. Even during family lunches, we are always watching either the news or the Disney channel. What's also interesting is that a lot of American tv shows are played here; all the main shows, Pretty Little Liars, Grey's Anatomy, The Simpsons, How I Met Your Mother etc. and sadly even Jersey Shore has made it Spain. In fact, Spain is starting it's own version, Geordie Shore in Valencia. The characters' voices are dubbed over in Spanish, so it's weird watching Grey's Anatomy and having a Spanish voice speak Meredith's lines.

11. Music - The popular music in Spain is composed mostly of American songs. Any club will play mostly American music, and I often hear my Señora's granddaughters singing the latest Katy Perry songs.

12. My English - As my Spanish gets better and better, I notice my English getting worse. Even with these blog posts, I find so many grammatical errors, because I phrased things the way you would in Spanish! Not sure if this is a good thing...


I will continue adding to the list! As for now, keep safe everyone back home with Hurricane Sandy!

Madrid, Toledo, Ávila

Last weekend I went on the first of three weekend trips planned by UConn! We left Thursday morning for Madrid and had plans to take day trips to Ávila on Saturday and Toledo on Sunday. On our way to Madrid we stopped at a small pueblo called Amargo to see the city centre and an old theater. 

Amargo

When we arrived at Madrid, we checked into our hotel and got settled. The hotel we were staying at was on the other side of the city from the hostel I stayed at last time; so we walked around a bit to orient ourselves and explore. We had the rest of the day free, so we went to get a late lunch and then napped! That night I went out with some of the frisbee kids I had met the weekend earlier in Salamanca who were studying in Madrid. 

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel and then had a 3 hour bus tour of the city... It was a little bit boring because we were stuck in the bus and couldn't see the city in person but we stopped at the bull fighting arena (Plaza de Toros)!

Plaza de Toros

Group Shot

After the bus tour, we went to see the Palacio Real. The Royal Family of Spain used to live here, but now it's only used for ceremonial purposes and other government stuff. We got to walk inside and see some of the King's and Queen's chambers and the dining room. It was so beautiful and intricate inside, but unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures.

Palacio Real

 The next morning we took our first day trip to Ávila. Ávila has medieval city walls and was a really cool city to explore.

City Walls

Ávila

After returning to Madrid, we treated ourselves to a fancy dinner. I had the best seafood paella I've had all trip! Then we went to Kapital (the huge club). On Sunday we went to Toledo. According to our tour guide the city's history is interlaced with religion. Jews, Christians, and Muslims lived simultaneously in Toledo until the Reconquista of Spain by the Christians. The tour guide said there were 40 something churches in Toledo! Holy Toledo!

Cathedral of Toledo

view of Toledo

Toledo was a very beautiful city and I wish we could have stayed for more than a couple hours. But we still had a four hour bus ride back to Granada. Overall it was a really fun weekend; great food, great friends, and great cities!

Ultimate Day!

Last weekend I went to a frisbee tournament held in Salamanca, Spain! It was a hat tournament, meaning that everyone who signs up, gets sorted onto teams based on ability and then the teams play. This was especially great for me because I got to meet a lot of people and practice my Spanish a lot! The Quimera Ultimate Salamanca team did a fabulous job organizing the tournament and other activities and kept the price to a nice 5€! The tournament was called Ultimate Day; a little play on the Mayan theory of the last day of the world (ultimate) and ultimate frisbee. Clever, but not really relavent just yet... The bus ride from Granada to Madrid to Salamanca was a tough 8-9 hour ride but totally worth it in my opinion! We arrived in Salamanca on Friday afternoon, settled in, and went out for a few drinks and tapas. When nearly everyone had arrived we got more drinks and then went on a tour of the city's highlights (the city was really beautiful, but unfortunately I broke my camera two days before I left, so the only pictures I have are from my friend's camera). After that we separated into our teams for the weekend and had to do a scavenger hunt around the city. Unfortunately we didn't realize that none of the other teams were meandering through the tasks and not stopping for drinks, so we came in last :( Then everyone went to this really fun bar and danced!

Ironically my team had the most foreigners on it (with only 4 Spaniards, and 5 students (all American, except for 1 German)). Regardless, we still had to speak Spanish because the Spanish players didn't speak English. Our team name was: Jakaltekos; which I'm pretty sure doesn't mean anything, it's just a random word...

My team!

Anyway, the games were really fun and surprisingly my team played really well. Everyone had a bit of experience, but unlike the other teams we had no big handler to help us out. I even handled for some of the games! It was soo nice playing in a tournament again and I've decided to try and play as much as I can while I'm in Spain. After 6 games the first day, we were all super exhausted and went to this awesome wok buffet place for dinner. At first I was really nervous talking to all the Spanish players but as the day went on I think I talked to nearly every single person at the tournament (about 80 people total, it was quite a feat!)

The next morning it was raining lightly but we had to finish the tournament. My team somehow made it to the championships but then lost. Oh well. I had a really great time playing and became good friends with the other students on my team. Two of them are studying in Madrid, one in Sevilla, and the other in Salamanca!

The team we lost to in the finals :(

One weird thing about the tournament (or maybe because this was a hat tournament) was the crazy amout of spirit / friendliness (not really sure how to describe it). After every game we would all line up, just like how we would at home, but instead of highfives, we did the kisses on the cheeks. Now I'm all about the kisses on the cheeks, but not after everyone is all sweaty and gross! The worst was when you would see a guy with a thick beard and it would touch your cheek and there would be actual wetness on your skin. Eww! We also did spirit circles after every game and one person from each team would reflect on the game and then say how everyone really enjoyed the competition. It was really nice at first, but after the first two circles it was often hard to find new things to say, and ended up getting awkward. After the spirit circles the teams would always play some game together like ninja, mini tank etc.

After the championship, awards were given to the winners, the most spirited and MVP. Somehow I was nominated for MVP and actually won it. But it was so awkward because everything was said in Spanish, I didn't even realize what I was being nominated for; I was just told to stand in the center of everyone while people cheered for whoever they wanted. Then they called my name and I just like smiled around and only after I asked my friend who spoke Spanish, what the heck was happening did I understand.

All of us who were nominated for MVP!

After a most welcome shower and a delicious tortilla bocadillo, it was time to get back on the bus for the ride home. I ended up getting home around 3am on Monday only to wake up for class a few hours later (it sucked), but to me it was definitely worth it. I met soo many great people who all have a pasion for ultimate, and so many of the players were so nice to me when I tried/struggled to talk to them. I really like the ultimate community here, and have already signed up for two more tournaments!

Friends from the Granada team who also came to the tournament! 

This weekend (tomorrow) I am going to Madrid, Toledo, and Avila with UConn, and I'm already planning on spending time with my new frisbee friends who are studying there! I love Spain!

Cory goes to Spain and destroys all her electronics

Last Wednesday I broke my camera, today I dropped my iPod. What have I done to deserve this!?!? Gahhhhhhh

Madrid!

Last weekend I went to Madrid! All the girls from my program (7 total) decided to come and we had an amazing time. It was a five hour bus ride from Granada, so we arrived on Thursday night and left on Sunday afternoon. It was the perfect amount of time to do everything I wanted to do! Thursday night we went to an Irish pub (go figure) and then went to one of Madrid's most famous clubs: Kapital. Kapital is a huge club that has seven floors and each floor has a different theme; for example bottom floor was house music, 1st floor was karaoke, 2nd floor was a relaxed/chill atmosphere etc. We made sure we spent some time on every floor just for the full experience, although we didn't linger on the 4th floor: the kissing floor!

At Kapital

We spent most of Friday at the Museo del Prado, looking at some of the world's most famous artwork. There were pieces by Goya, Velázquez, El Greco and many more! It was especially cool to see all the Spanish artwork I had studied throughout my Spanish classes in real life. For example:

Las Meninas by Velázquez

The Third of May by Goya

One of my favorite paintings was one by Bosch, called The Garden of Earthly Delights:

Friday afternoon we walked around in the Parque de Retiro and enjoyed the sun.

For dinner we went to an amazing sea-food place called El Rocio where they had the best mejillones (mussels). Thanks for the recommendation Kylie!

yummmmmm

That night we did a pub crawl that was hosted by our hostel. We got to meet a lot of other foreign kids our age which was really fun, and it was also interesting to hear everyone else's travel plans. (For anyone looking for a hostel in Madrid, I would definitely recommend The Way. It had a great location, was very clean, safe, and I had a great time there.)

Saturday morning we did a free walking tour with hostel. The tour guide, Pablo, kept the tour interesting and although it was over two hours long I had a great time. He told us the history of several buildings and events in a funny way. The Cathedral and the Royal Palace are right next door to each other, and the Palace looks very grand while the Cathedral looks very plain. Seeing as Spain is one of the most Catholic countries in the world, you would have thought that the Cathedral would be amazing; but Pablo told us that the Cathedral had to be made to look plain because it couldn't upstage the Palace. But, the architects made the back of the Cathedral look beautiful because from that angle the Palace isn't visible and it wouldn't have detracted from the Palace.

The back of the Cathedral

We then had lunch, where I had my first tasting of paella! It was actually a bit of a disappointment, I guess I like the American version better. The rice wasn't cooked enough, and there were a lot of bones in it, and the shrimp still had the shell on. I guess I'll just have to continue my search for good paella here!

The paella I thought was going to be amazing...

After lunch we went to the Reina Sofia, another world famous art museum; which houses artwork by Dali, Picasso, Juan Gris etc. Also artwork I've studied previously, and even a few pieces I've started to study in Art History. We got to see Guernica, which is a famous painting by Picasso depicting the horrors of the bombing of a town called Guernica in Northern Spain by the Germans and Italians in 1937. The painting was huge, and had it's own room; this picture doesn't really do it justice.

Guernica, Pablo Picasso

We decided to go to an American place for dinner; and for dessert we got these chocolate-nut brownies with warm vanilla ice cream on top, and I was in heaven! SO GOOD! Unfortunately we all dug in too fast to get a picture, but I got a picture of the sandwich! After dinner we went to Las Cuervas, a local sangria bar that was super guay (cool)! It had quotes from famous Spaniards, and copies of some of the paintings we had seen in the two museums earlier in the weekend. (Shout out to Kylie for recommending so many great places in Madrid for us!)

Nom nom nom nom nom!

 On our last day we went to El Rastro, which is a huge market in Madrid that is only open on Sundays. There were vendors selling everything from clothes and trinkets, to electrical appliances and carabiners.  I got these really super awesome loose gypsy-ish pants that are perfect to hide the food baby from this weekend.

The bear and tree is the official symbol of Madrid!

On our tour with Pablo, he explained to us the official meaning of the bear and tree (which I forget), but he told us the representation he likes the best. Now I don't remember it exactly, but here's how I think it goes: Apparently the fruit from the tree that bear eats has fermented and has alcohol in it. So the bear eats and eats and then finally gets drunk and passes out; and then when it wakes up, has a combination of hangover and hunger, and starts to eat again, and the so system continues. Pablo said that this is like the Spaniards, they like to drink and have a good time, and then pass out, and then the next day they drink again! Essentially the Spaniards love to have a good time and are very relaxed. 

El Centro de Lenguas Modernas

The university I go to is the Centro de Lenguas Modernas, a branch of the University of Granada. I'm now starting my third week of school, and classes are going well! My classes are: Spanish Literature, Art History, Political Systems of Spain and the EU, Grammar, and a culture class; all the classes are taught in Spanish and some of the teachers don't know much English! Most of the professors speak slow enough so that I can understand them, but the Political Systems teacher always gets so excited that he speaks very quickly and sometimes I have absolutely no idea what we are learning. Most of the material is interesting, although I have the tendency to fall asleep every class. The classes are nearly two hours long and it is soo difficult to pay attention! I have to keep an arsenal of snacks in my backpack to help me stay awake. The worst part about school is that if we have to go home for lunch, and we have class after lunch, we have to walk all the way back to school aka I have to walk an hour and 40 mins just to go to school! And I thought UConn was bad!

Two weeks ago we went with our culture class to a flamenco show! It reminded me of tap dancing, but seemed much more difficult and more passionate. Here's a quick clip:

Since it was a Thursday, we continued our tradition of going to Hannigan & Sons 2 for karaoke!

Brittany and I always sing together...

and drink together!

UConn friends at El Botellón!

I also started practicing regularly with Penultimanos, the frisbee team based in Granada. The team is composed of a lot of students studying abroad, so I have become friends with kids from Germany, Ukraine, and Italy! The only language everyone understands is Spanish, so I really get to practice speaking a lot. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to explain vert stack in Spanish! Most of the players are fairly new to the sport and though I'm certainly not an expert I have to explain some of the throws and drills to them, which is quite difficult. There are three American guys who now live in Granada who are really good, and are teaching me some new things too. The team drinks just as much as it plays; which is really fun, because I'm making some good friends! After practice we always get tapas and drinks, and a couple weekends ago we did a beer scavenger hunt around the city. The team has been planning a fun Halloween weekend filled with parties and tournaments! The theme for dressing up is: famous people who died tragically. I'm not sure that's correct because all the emails are in Spanish and sometimes I have to ask my señora's granddaughters to help me understand them; but if you have any ideas let me know!

The weather here is amazing! It's still high 70's and has only rained 2 days since I've been here. Although I am missing the fall, I really can't complain!