It's the 'Granaino' life

¡Hola todos!

I've been in Granada for a week now! ISA doesn't take us to the Alhambra until October so the picture above is from afar. I took it while we were walking to the Albaicín for our first flamenco show! You all sit in a long semi circle inside one of the cuevas gitanas (gypsy caves) where a group performs a show for about an hour. It was so cool! I think those people who dance it have to be monkeys. They have to dance, clap, stomp, and even play percussion instruments at the same time. It looks like it would be very overwhelming to learn. It is quite impressive, and so passionate. The flamenco  guitarists are pretty   insane too.

Below is a picture of the inside of the Centro de Lenguas Modernas (Center of Modern Languages) in Granada. It used to be a small palace back in the day so it is pretty!































I did end up getting into the level I needed to be in. However, I felt bad for 90% of the Spanish majors who needed to place into advanced and didn't. They pretty much require you to be fluent to score a level 7 of the 9. In order to be 9, you need to be at the level of a native-born speaker.

One of the hardest things in a foreign country (i'd imagine) is when you need medicine. When I was in Toledo, I had an allergic reaction to something in the air. I had a bad headache and felt like I couldn't breathe. I walked to the farmacia that the hotel person said was open, and it wasn't. I did my best not to start bawling walking back to the hotel, all while repeating a mantra that I was a big girl and could handle it. It's scary when it hits you that you are in a foreign country, you need something, and you don't know how or even if you can attain it. The people around you speak a different language and don't understand you, nor do you understand them. I think it's distressing enough to make anyone start crying;). However, ISA (the program I'm with) came to save the day and called a taxi to take me to the nearest 24 hour farmacia. Then, luckily, I knew the words to describe what was wrong.

Let me just say that spanish over-the-counter meds are BETTER than what is in America. I was skeptical, but I'm pretty sure this nasal spray is probably like prescription stuff in the US because it's worked better than any allergy medicine I've ever taken. Farmacias here are not like pharmacies in the US. You don't have medicine ads on the television and there aren't tons of the medicines to choose from for a medical problem. Most often, there is only one or two. There isn't generic. However, the nasal spray was about 6 euros. Oh and it didn't have directions. Luckily I could understand the pharmacist's verbal directions on how many times and when to take it.

I do like Granada, and I live in the area that is the center of shopping for Granada. Of course, even here, I like the most expensive things. My host mom was walking us to class the first day and pointing out which stores were 'barata' (cheap). I pick out a black, leather dress that I thought looked awesome and she said, "vale, pero esa tienda es cara" [Okay (or yeah), but that store is expensive]. By the way, if you don't know what to say in a spanish conversation, just say 'vale', that's what I do at least. Stare dumbly and say 'vale' (pronounced ba-leh).

Im hoping to find other things to do here besides sit around and drink sangria with tapas. It's cool at first but gets old. I do miss the food from Oklahoma. My host mom is a good cook, but I miss the food.

Ending on a positive note, my friends and I went to a little moorish beach village called Salobreña this past saturday. We just took an hour bus ride from Granada to there in the morning and back. It was SO MUCH FUN, and so breathtakingly beautiful. One of my friends started tearing up when she saw it. The Mediterranean Sea looks like something out of a story book, with the waves crashing against rocky cliffs and crystalline blue waters beating the shore. This picture is when we first saw the ocean as we were walking down through the village.

Then we had to walk down this slippery stone path along the shore line, it's cut into the rocks. You have to be careful to time where you're at so you don't get sprayed by the waves! The pale grey part of the rocks is the little path.

While we were walking to this spot where we could rent chairs

 A friend and I climbed to the top of the big boulder that was there and I took this picture below and then the one below it.

If ever given the chance, go to a Mediterranean beach. Salobreña was beautiful. We were on the rocky side of the beach, but it was so peaceful. The sandy side was super crowded. We just layed in our chairs underneath thatch umbrellas and listened to the waves crashing against the shore.

¡Hasta pronto!

Toledo: El Ciudad Medieval

¡Hola!

A couple days ago, our group left Madrid to see Toledo. This time I took notes one the tour so I could remember the facts better. The picture above is a panormanic shot of Toledo. It is situated in the mountains so we were taking this picture from a mountain road on the opposite side of the river. The river seen here is the longest river in all of Spain. The history of Toledo is long and militaristic. It begins with its construction by Rome in 200 BC:

Here is a picture of some of the Roman ruins of Toledo. Back in those times, the Roman name for the Iberian peninsula was Hispania.

After the fall of the Roman empire, the Visigoths took over Spain and ruled it until their loss to the Islamic Moors in the 11th century. Toledo was the capital of the Moorish caliphate in Spain. Here is a picture overlooking the city with myself, Kylie, and Sarah. Sarah is my roommate:).

When you first walk over the bridge and through the gate (Toledo is a walled fortress), you enter the Jewish sector of the city. It is marked with these little tiles in the stone. The tile below is interesting because they used the hebrew symbols to make the shape of the Iberian peninsula.

Though it is the Jewish sector, the Franciscan Monastery of San Juan de Los Reyes lies there. It was built in the 15th century by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to commemorate the Battle of Toro (battle of the bull) during the time when Isabella became queen of Castile. The war was to decide whether Isabella or another women to take the throne. Obviously, Isabella won. Her and King Ferdinand should have been buried here but they are not. They changed their mind and were buried in the Cathedral in Granada, (yay!) since the victory in Granada marked the end of the Reconquest. Below is a picture of the monastery. 

Another beautiful picture of the hallway that surrounds the open garden in the monastery.

Let me say that none of these pictures can compare to the actual sight of these catholic buildings. AT ALL. Take what you see here and times it by 100 and that is the awe factor. I was blown away. I've never seen anything so beautiful in my short life. Below is where many people from Toledo and Spain make reservations to marry. Anyone can I guess…however the minimum wait list is two years.

The balcony right above these words is where the choir of monks sing during mass. The common people sit in the pews below the choir balcony. The next picture (just beneath these words) shows the balcony pedestal upon which Queen Isabella or King Ferdinand would of sat during mass. There is one on each side of the room for each of them.

The beautiful jardín of the monastery.

The picture below is especially funny. This monastery took a very long time to build, and by the time it was finished, protestantism had taken off. It is believed that one of the protestant Nordic or German sculptors who worked on the limestone carved a monkey in a monk's robe who is using a chamber pot. I guess that was his way of sticking it to the man?

The synagogue below (still in the Jewish quarter) looks more like a mosque than a synagogue. Its life has three stages: it was first a synagogue, then a Christian church, and now a museum. In the 12th century, it was all the rage to have arabic features in new construction. Hence, its Islamic visage. It was a synagogue until 1492. At the same time that Columbus came to the Americas, all Jews were commanded to convert or leave Spain in exile and the Spanish Inquisition began. The purpose of the inquisition was not to find jews, it was to test los conversions (the newly converted). They didn't trust that the jews or Islamic peoples had really converted to Christianity. They were looking for any instance of the old traditions or cultures. It was so thorough that many of the new converts picked entirely new names, often choosing their occupation (names like Baker, Shoemaker, ect.). The only piece of Jewish architecture in the entire building is a single star of David on a pillar. All the others have 8 points according to the Islamic tradition of its architects.

Here is the 2nd largest cathedral in Spain. The largest is in Sevilla. The tower is 300 feet high. It is HUGE. When I was inside it, I was like…and I thought the monastery was unbelievable. When you enter, you just don't know what to say. It's breathtaking. It is the most important cathedral in spain since it is the seat of their Archbishop. Originally there was a mosque here, but it was destroyed during the Reconquest. The cathedral's construction began in 1266 and ended in 1493. 

Below is a zoomed in picture of this shrine that has a little mini Jesus in the center. The centerpiece is made of gold brought from the Americas (It's an important piece of the history of Spanish colonization). The rest is made with gold-plated silver that was melted down from jewelry that Queen Isabella gave for its construction.

The picture below is not the gold piece where the picture above is from. it was in an entirely separate room, just to clarify. 

Its difficult to tell what these are…but imagine really fancy carved wooden folding stadium seats and thats what they are at the bottom. They are for the Church Cardinals.

I zoomed in at the top of the picture because that is the interesting part to me. All around the walls of this room, the genealogy of Christ is carved. Below are the statues  (right to left) of Jesse, David, and Solomon.

This was painted by an ambidextrous Italian painter who was known for being super fast due to his unique ability.

When I zoom into the bottom area of the painting, you can see Toledo as it was during the 1600s when this was painted. 

Technically, I wasn't allowed to take pictures….but everyone else was. Below is a painting by The Greek. He is called this because he came from Greece and his name was so difficult for Spaniards to pronounce that he was just called El Greco.  The painting is from the 1500s and shows Jesus surrounded by Spanish conquistadors. Greco was trying to communicate that Jesus died for everyone in this painting.

The plaza in Toledo is below. Here, you can find the sword makers who hand-crafted the swords for The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings films. Toledo is very famous for its authentic medieval sword making. Some guys in our group bought some…they are muy caro (very expensive).

A local recommended a place around the plaza for us to eat. The floors were plexiglass and you could see the Roman ruins beneath the restaurant. It was very cool!

Here is my view from my seat.

And at last Sarah and I came back to our adorable hotel room. First time ever seeing a bidet in real life! No we didn't use it.

I don't have any pictures yet…but we arrived in Granada yesterday. My host family is very sweet! However not having AC in a place where it is like 95 degrees is terrible. No one in my program could sleep since we were all soaked in sweat. The food is good though, and it is much cheaper than Madrid. I had to take my placement exam this morning to find out which level I will be in. It was 3 hours long. I find out in an hour or so what I got, so I'm pretty nervous!

¡Buenas tardes! (aquí)

Madrid: El Dia Segundo

Well my pictures finally loaded (took a full 8 hours in Spain to load this many pictures at the hotel). Day two of Madrid was a blast! Some other students and I literally walked around the city for over seven hours. I quickly realized why some Europeans are so thin but smelly. Some other students, a couple locals, and I went club hopping together in the Plaza del Sol which was so fun!

Just to list some of the major differences from the US: no air conditioning, drinking alcohol more than water (alcohol is most of the time less expensive but sometimes equal to water), terrible wifi, and conserving energy and water (like turning off the shower when you're scrubbing your hair and then back on to wash it). Oh and eating dinner at 8:30ish and lunch at 2:30ish. I said clubbing, but keep in mind the drinking culture in Spain is VERY different than the US. In the states, "getting wasted" is seen by many as equivalent to partying. In Spain, drunkenness is rude and embarrassing to the other members of your party even if you don't feel embarrassed yourself. It's a wine country, and they like to drink, but Spaniards drink in moderation. Adults and children go together to bars. Their cervezaria (bar) sells not only alcohol, but ice cream, expressos, and pastries as well. It's like an ice cream shop, coffee shop, and pub all mixed together. To be honest, I'm not sure why they have heladarias, cafeterias, or cervezarias since they practically all sell ice cream (helado), coffee (cafe), and beer (cerveza).

In the morning. ISA (International Studies Abroad) took us on a tour of the Museo del Prado and Museo Reina Sofia, which are both art museums. The cathedral below was behind the Museo del Prado. Unfortunately, I couldn't take pictures inside of the museum. It is an art museum that held the masterpieces of Goya, the Greek, and Velazquez. They were beautiful. Also, the entire tour was in Spanish so I didn't catch all the facts, but I did understand some of them. 

Personally, my favorite is Goya because you can see so much emotion in his paintings. So much pain. He lived during the time when Spain was attacked by Napoleon of France. His two most famous paintings show the incredibly brave uprising against their french conquerors and the massacre that resulted. In his later days, Goya suffered from depression and his paintings become darker and darker. I love the expressionism in his paintings, the way they seem to be artfully portrayed screams from within.

 The painting above shows the massacre that occurred in Madrid on the 3rd of May in 1808 after the towns people had attacked the french troops with kitchen knives, pitch forks, basically anything sharp that they could grab on May 2nd. It was very courageous, and the were killed for it. Madrid celebrates their act of bravery on its anniversary every year. I believe the front of the museum is the picture below (if I am remembering correctly)

The Museo Reina Sofia was pretty boring, in my opinion. It's a modern art museum. I understand that it's all about the perspectives and imagination…but I'm into the beauty and emotion in art. It just wasn't my taste. It houses the artwork of the famous Picasso and Dalí. Most people know about Picasso, so I won't go into that. Dalí is very famous in the Latin world. He created surrealist art. The tour guide talked for 5 minutes about the symbolism in this one painting…but I just felt uncomfortable since it was apparently his wife sniffing a guy's balls (the painting was symbolizing the naturalism of sexuality…still weird). Overall, I wasn't really into the museum, but I'm glad I went to it.

In Madrid, a friend named Kylie and I had our first paella in Spain! It was actually really good. It was paella mexicana, which has rice, saffron, pimiento, peas, salchichas (sausages), peppers, and a kick:). We shared it and almost ate the entire thing. It figures that an american would like the paella mexicana, but I am not into seafood so it seemed like the best choice. It is the one and only time I will try to drink beer with my meal. It was lunchtime and everyone in the restaurant had beer, so Kylie and I figured we would follow custom and got the small 1 euro ones. She liked it; I didn't even finish mine. However, I can say i've had a local Spanish beer called Mahou.

Here are some pretty pictures of government buildings in Madrid:

Some of the most spectacular buildings in Madrid are located in their financial sector. 

After walking around all day, my friends and I stopped at a little bar. Here is my first sangria! The chips in the middle is the tapa we got with the sangria. If you can see the little computer screen in the back, that is a slot machine and an old lady playing at it. First sight of gambling in Spain…reminds me of Oklahoma;). 

The most fun of the day happened at night with the clubbing in Madrid. Keep in mind, prime time for clubbing is three am and we didn't get back to the hotel until 4:45 in the morning. They close at five. 

All in all, Madrid was a great experience! Later today or tomorrow I will post about Toledo and arriving at my host family in Granada (which i I did yesterday. I am behind). 

¡Hasta luego!

Maegan