San José/Cabo de Gata

 Last weekend, fuimos a San José y Cabo de Gata con API! (we went to San José/Cabo de Gata with API!) We went for two days, one night and stayed in a hostal that was very nice: clean, had a pool with a turf grass area with lounge chairs, AND my room had a little balcony with table/chairs that looked out onto the pool.

 View from my room window

 Our balcony

 Poolside view!

The first day, about 30 minutes after we arrived, a group of us went with Curra to the supermarket to get snacks if we wanted and also bottled water (the water in San José is not potable) Afterwards, we went on a hike to a beach called Genoveses where there is nothing. No bathrooms, no shops, no restaurants, nada. The beach was gorgeous and the water was perfect. To enter the water was a painful experience due to the fact that there was an abundance of different sized rocks all along the border into the water. Though once you got past the foot or two of them, the sand was soft. We swam and walked along the beach. Even though I put on sunscreen, I still got a little burnt but alas, the life of a pale person. Some of us returned to the hostel, showered, and headed off into the town for dinner. We ended up going to a restaurant that didn’t turn out as we had quite expected. The food was cheap and not bad but we’re pretty certain we got ripped off when we ordered margharitas that ended up being 6 euro and were the size of my palm. Again, living and learning!

 

The un-realness of San José. This was on our walk to the Playa Genoveses

 At the Playa Genoveses! It was literally, UN. REAL.

En domingo (On Sunday), we ate breakfast at the hostel and then headed off to the San José beach which was significantly closer to us than the beach from the previous day. We had until 7:30 that night until we needed to be back at the hostel to take the bus back to Granada, so we staked out on the beach all day. We swam in the water (again, crystal clear and the perfect temperature), played Frisbee, played Frisbee in the water, laid out in the sun, etc. We grabbed some pizza for lunch and then went back to the beach. We went back to the hostel around 6 o’clock to swim in the pool a little and use the outdoor showers/change into dry clothes before heading back onto the bus.

After we got back from San José, I started getting a sore throat which turned into me going to the doctor on Thursday because it started to hurt so much. My glands got swollen and it started hurting my ears too.  It was a successful doctor’s appointment and I went all by myself too! I got some antibiotics and something for the inflammation too. Now, I am feeling all better and just waiting to finish up my meds over the next couple days.

In other news, I now have some European adventures booked! 5 of my friends and I are doing a 5 day tour of Italy in October, landing in Pisa to stay there for a night (just enough time to get the classic ‘Look! I’m holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa!’ picture) then shipping off to Florence for 2 nights, and finally ending in Bologna for one more night. I also just booked a 3 day visit to my friend Michelle’s place in Germany in December! My friend, Rachel (who is also an academic year student), and I will be flying into Eindhoven and we’ll be staying at Michelle and her boyfriend, Jimmy’s, new apartment. We’re planning on going to Amsterdam as well as Cologne. With API, we still have trips to Seville and Paris planned and this weekend, I’m heading off to Lagos, Portugal! I’m looking into maybe visiting London during one of our breaks in December, which I could only imagine would be gorgeous around Christmas time.

My plans for exploring the world are in full swing! (While still studying, of course, and absolutely loving my host/now new home city of Granada :)  )

Senderismo

Hola todos! Okay, so since it has been quite a while since I have filled you in on my seemingly un-real life in Granada I’m going to split up these next few posts so that I don’t write you one big novel at once.

Senderismo is the Spanish word for hiking! On Sunday, September 11, Marcela (my roommate) and I decided to go on a hike. There is a huge book of laminated pages all about different hiking routes and trails in the API office and the API intern, Lydia, recommended a hike through a pueblo called Monachil. Unfortunately, I did not  grab the laminated pages detailing where we should go from the API office (which they more than welcome you to do) so, our senderismo adventure definitely deserves the title of an adventure.  

We looked online for the path to do in Monachil, called Los Cahorros. It had a beautiful picture of a suspension bridge and waterfalls. We decided to try to do this hike so we packed our bags and our bocadillos (basically, the love child of a sandwich and a hoagie) and we were on our way via the Granada public transportation system. The bus took us to the Barrio Monachil (the neighborhood of Monachil), then we walked about 1 km to the Pueblo de Monachil (the town of Monachil). We had a rocky start to our senderismo when we weren’t sure exactly where to go once we got to the pueblo. After asking around for a while, we started walking towards the direction of Los Cahorros. Walking a bit took us to an option of turning up a hill towards a sign that was about a marked hiking path or continuing down the road. All we really wanted to do was do some hiking so we decided to take the path where there was a definite marked sign instead of venturing down the street where we couldn’t see much of anything about to happen.   

The hike ended up being neither a waterfall nor a suspension bridge. The path was called El Camino de la Cuesta aka a very dry mountain. Though it was fun, none the less! Here are some pictures:

 The view from the beginning of our hike

 At the top!

 Another view from the top of a very dry mountain

Then, the next week, we decided to return to Monachil with a few more people and actually find this mysterious waterfall and suspension bridge. Much to my delight, we found them! The hike was much more successful and lots of fun. We went hiking through gorgeous mountains and found many tiny suspension bridges, rivers, and a little canal leading up to the waterfall. The waterfall was gorgeous as was the extremely long suspension bridge. Most of us decided to go swimming in the waterfall which was more like taking the most magnificent ice bath of my life. So. Cold. On our journey, we also ate wild almonds off of an almond tree we found as well as wild higos (figs) which I have discovered are my new favorite fruit.

 A view at one point during the hike

 Yours truly on top of the waterfall and in front of the suspension bridge

Me and Kat going into the waterfall!

 So, so, so, cold

 Our hiking group in front of the waterfall

Overall, my first two times doing senderismo here were loads of fun and many memories made. Since we live surrounded by mountains, there is definitely more hiking to be done. I really want to do part of the Sierra Nevada Mountains at some point. API is awesome with providing information for a plethora of activities to do outside of the classroom. In the office there are thick binders full of sports, hiking, other extracurricular activites, and travel information from API and from former API students about places all throughout Europe. Our program directors here, Carmen and Curra (and the intern Lydia), are so helpful in all aspects of the imagination. Lydia went with me to Barclays with me to open up my first Spanish bank account and Curra/Carmen helped me when I needed to go to the doctor a couple days ago by giving me all the information I needed to specifically ask for in order to fill out my insurance form later. They even offered to come with me if I felt as if I needed someone there. API has been doing a great job with everything. I couldn’t be happier with my choice to study abroad with them!

Some changes I've noticed so far

Changes I’ve noticed thus far:

• ·         Handicap sign is backwards

• ·         There are practically no nursing homes. Every day I see middle aged children walking up and down the river and through the city with their elderly parents

• ·         We walk EVERYWHERE

• ·         We eat bread with EVERYTHING

• ·         Their lunches are much larger than ours and their dinner are much smaller. Breakfast is not a very big meal either: no eggs, bacon, and bagel here. I have two pieces of toast with butter and jelly every morning with either tea or coffee.

• ·         They are very conscious here of their use of electricity. They use the sunrise/sunset light when they can and at night, you only keep on one light per room and only if you’re in the room. During the day they have awnings that they put down, over their windows so that the sun’s heat doesn’t come through. They also keep their windows and blinds down to help with this and to keep all the cool air from nighttime in (At night, all the windows in the house are open so the friquito air can come in)

• ·         For how immaculately clean Granada (and Spain in general) is, you must always be on the lookout for dog poop in the streets/sidewalks. They do not have to pick up after their dogs, so they don’t!

• ·         The whole siesta thing? It’s a legitimate, recognized thing. If you are out around the city from 230-5/6, there is nothing open. Nothing. Now that I’ve been here for about 2 weeks now, I can understand why. The heat at that time of the day is almost unbearable so everyone goes home for a big lunch and then has siesta time. 

My apologies on the lack of blogging lately! I've been enjoying everything that this wonderful city/country has to offer that I've not been keeping up with the blogging. This weekend, we have an API excursion to San Jose/Cabo de Gata and today (Thursday) we don't have class! It is Dia de la Virgen (Day of the Virgin) pues, we got off today but still have class tomorrow. School is going well and I am excited for October to start because that is when I start my Hispanic Studies classes :) !

I'll play catch up blogging a little later to fill you in on all the amazing adventures I've been having.


Until then!


Katie

Vale

Let me just begin by saying that I am having so much fun and have met such cool people here. I still have to pinch myself sometimes to remind myself that, yes, Katie, this is real. Por eso (therefore), I have been slacking a little on my blogging because I have been so busy enjoying this amazing city! So this will be a long post but full of fun goodies about the rest of my first week in Granada.

Well, we have all survived the first week in Granada and first week and a half in Espana! This past weekend was lots of fun. On Friday night, almost everybody from our API early start group went out to a club called Kapital and danced the night away. And with that phrase is no exaggeration. We danced until 6 in the morning and I went to bed at 6:30 am. Here's a picture from that night:

Here is from left to right: Marcela, Colleen, Carrie, Rita, Lorelyn, Kat, me.

Saturday wasn't too exciting. I slept until noon after not going to bed until 6:30, woke up for breakfast, ate lunch, and siesta-ed. There was a music festival in the city center of Granada that we stumbled upon so we hung out there for about an hour and danced!

On Sunday, 6 other people and I decided to go to the beach for the day! After a slightly rocky start involving us just setting the time to meet a little to early for anyone to get there on time, we ended up at the Granada Estación de Autobuses. We originally were heading to Malaga for a beach day but Malaga is about 2 hours away and the timing didn't work out so, we randomly chose a city that they had buses going to after asking around to make sure it had a beach. We went to Almuñecar and it turned out better than any of us could have imagined. This little beach town was perfect for what we wanted. There wasn't so much sand as there were piedras (rocks). We got to the beach and staked out a spot to hang out which ended up being one of my rockiest parts of the beach but all was well. We hung out and waded in the water a little (it was so cold!). Then we wandered around the town to find some place for lunch. My host mom, Maria Jose, had packed me a lunch to take with me but since our trip was so last minute, not everyone got packed lunches. We went to a pizza place that was pretty good. Afterwards, we found a sandier part of the beach and took a group siesta on the beach (hard life, I know!) A few of us, including me, ended up going all the way into the crystal clear water but it was a short lived experience since it was so cold.

Here is a picture of the group of us who went:

From left to right: Derrick, Katie, Me, Ryan, Allyson, Kevin, and Liz


Almuñecar's bus station was close to the beach so we were able to get a lot a time at the beach without having to trek to and from the bus. We left around 6 pm and got back into Granada at 7:30. I had dinner at home with Marcela and Maria Jose. Marcela and I have come to a consensus that we have lucked out a lot with our host mom. She's a good cook and almost everything she has made us we have liked! Sunday night was a chill night with Marcela, Adam, Parker, and me just going out for some tapas since we were all kind of tired and had class the next morning.

Monday, I had my second day of class. Nothing too exciting to report about class yet. We're going over a lot of perfecto/indefinido and ser/estar. Some people from my class and I went to the API office after class to sign up for the rooming list for our API excursion to San Jose/Cabo de Gata! Marcela, Molly, Lorelyn, Kat, and I then went shopping for a little around Granada. On the way home, Marcela and I found a group of breakdancers the practice everyday except Sunday's behind our house at  8 o'clock. They are so good, it's crazy that people can move their bodies like that.

On Tuesday, API held a meeting about all the cultural activities that the CLM and Universidad de Granada has to offer. So many cool things from rock climbing to swimming to theater to salsa lessons. There are some volunteer opportunities with a school in Granada for primary and secondary school students and once I get my class schedule for the semester, I am going to go and volunteer there for a couple hours a week. They are very flexible with your schedule (aka you tell them when you can do it, what age, and what subject you would like best and they pretty much honor that). I can't wait to start doing all these activities! Most of them start in October since that is when the actual semester for the Universidad starts (I'm doing early start which is the Intensive month beforehand) so we still have a week or two to wait until everything starts up.

After the meeting, a group of us went out for tapas by the API office. That night, API had a movie night with a movie by Garcia Lorca. It was a movie held at a building really far away and it turned out being a bust. Nothing could have warned us that it wasn't going to be a success though. The movie just wasn't very good (it was actually a play that was put onto film) and 20 minutes in, it started skipping which did not help the movie's cause. We ended up leaving early, going to get frozen yogurt/gelato and sitting by the statue of Christopher Columbus and Isabella in the city center.

Last night (Wednesday night), we all went out for Marcela's 20th birthday which is today! It was ladies night at one of the clubs called Granada10 and since it was her birthday, she sent them a list of everyone in our group beforehand and we all got in for free. It was so much fun!!

Here is a picture of me and the birthday girl before we went out on the town:

 (More pictures to come. I didn't bring my camera out and the people who did have not yet posted pictures)

This morning was rough because we didn't end up getting home until 5:30 am (whoops!) and I had class at 9 and Marcela had class at 10. I only slept about 2 1/2 hours before I had to get up for class so I was a little tired (God bless cafe). Then I had a solid 3 hour siesta right after lunch when I got back from class.

Well, that pretty much sums up the past couple days! I'm having a blast here and I am 100% happy with my choice to study in Granada. I like our Intensive Language classes so far but am excited to find out more information on Monday about my Hispanic Studies classes.

Pues, hasta luego!

Katie

Algunas fotos

Here are a few pictures for you guys of my adventures thus far...

This is our second night in Madrid when we went to a restaurant para cenar (to eat dinner). Here in order we have Rachel, Samantha, Me, Juan Carlos (he was working the music/karaoke at the restaurant), Valerie, and Marcela. This night was so much fun. We danced, sang karaoke, made friends with the workers in the restaurant, and they gave us some sombreros to wear for a bit. Nos divertimos mucho! (We had a lot of fun!)

 Here are some pictures of my room with Marcela. We have two beds, two bookcases, two dressers, two night stands, and a table.

Here are the views from desk next to my window. We're right next to the Rio Genil and it's a great place for people watching/listening because there is always foot traffic along the river.


I just tried to upload more and it was taking a little too long so I will put some more up sometime soon.

Hasta luego!

Katie

Primer dia de clase

Feliz Septiembre! Today is my third full day in Granada and our first day of class. Yesterday, everyone from API had to go to the CLM (Centro de Lenguas Modernas) to take a placement test to find out what level we need to be in for our intensive language month (since we're early start, we take a intensive month of class and then we start our normal classes). I am very happy because I placed into Nivel 6: Advanced! This is what I needed in order to be in Nivel 7: High Advanced so I can take my Hispanic Studies classes. After the test yesterday, we went on a tour through the Albaicin which is the Moorish/Arab community in Granada. The neighborhood was so cool looking. I also finally saw the Alhambra por la primera vez (first time)! Like so many other things here, it was breath taking. I saw it and all of a sudden I heard myself say 'woah'. The weather was perfecto and the skyline was awesome. Despues, we walked a little further through El Albaicin and then a group of us decided to hike one of the mountains in Granada where there are some people that live in caves. We hiked up and the visto was even better. We met some of the people who live in the caves and they played some music for us. We then went even higher to the highest point in Granada to an iglesia (church) on the hill. Again, 'WOAH'. It was magnificent. I couldn't believe that we were that high up and that we could see all of Granada in one visto.

Finally, we climbed back down the hill and on the way down, I was walking with Parker a little ahead of the group and there was a family right behind/in front of us. Well, we passed the family but the little boy didn't realize that his mom and dad were further back and all of a sudden I feel something on my hand. The boy thought I was his mom and was holding my hand! I was so confused, didn't know what to do, and couldn't stop laughing! He even let go and then did it again! I even tried to move my hand away but he was not having it haha. Finally, he looked up, realized, and looked absolutely terrified. He ran back to his mom and te dijo 'No pasa nada!' (I told him, don't worry about it/it's okay!) The family was chuckling and we couldn't stop laughing. The poor boy looked like he was crying after a minute or two!

After dinner, where we had fries and a pattie that was chicken and pavo (turkey), I went with a group to go to the place where they have the best gelato in Granda (which, was true. It was awesome). Then, we sat on the statue of Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus) and chatted for a while.

Class today was good. I like my teachers a lot and there are 5 other people from API in my class (which will only last for this month, but I think there will be API people in my classes in Octubre-Deciembre also). I have class Monday-Friday from 9am-1pm in the Kenia building which is only a 15-20 minute walk from my house (and it's a beautiful walk too).

For lunch today, since Marcela has class from 10-2pm, Maria Jose and I ate after my classes ended at 1. Her granddaughter has been here for a few hours today and yesterday and she is preciosa. Her name is Paula and she is 1 and a half years old. Pre. ci. o. sa. She's the daughter of one of Maria Jose's 4 children (2 boys, 2 girls) and they live right around here so she might be here every once in a while, which I am more than okay with because I am in love with her!

Pues, this is the first weekend we have in Granada and I am so excited! It'll definitely be relaxing and lots of fun to go explore the town and start to know my way around.


Hasta luego! (Until next time!)

Katie