19/2/2012

Friday morning left for Granada at 8:30 with our whole TDP group.  Slept almost the whole 3 hour ride there.  Got to Granada, checked into our hotel, and got ready.  Then we had lunch in the hotel.  Hotel lunches are always so good.  There was a buffet.  Enough said - I ate a ton.  Hadda try a little bit of everything ya know?    We then went to see la Alhambra and Generalife.  Generalife is an old royal city that the Muslims built in Granada, and la Alhambra is the palace (I think). I had been there before when I came to Spain, but it was different than I had remembered.  It was really pretty, but would be a thousand times better in the spring because a lot of it is gardens.  Still really cool though.  The view of Granada from la Alhambra was really cool because it's on a mountain so you look down and see the city.  The security at la Alhambra was intense.  They were everywhere, and you had a ticket with a time on it, and you had to enter at that time, and you could only stay in certain parts for a certain amount of time.  And they would scan your ticket at different doors.  My cooking teacher came to Granada with us and she was our tour guide.  She's awesome - really funny and she really knows her stuff.  It was actually interesting to learn.  Very different from when I came to Spain my junior year in high school and didn't  pay attention to any of the tour guides.  After la Alhambra we walked down the mountain.  Granada is just so pretty.  It's a cool city that's easy to navigate - we were only there one night and we found our way around no problem, where as we still get lost in Sevilla sometimes - and there are mountains in the background everywhere you go.  Then we had some free time.  Got some helado and walked around.  Went back to the hotel, took a siesta, and got ready.  We played some cards in one of our hotel rooms and drank some wine.  Then we went to get tapas.  CIEE gave us each 10 euro for tapas.  In Granada it's common to get a free tapa when you order a drink, so it was really cheap.  The place we went had mostly sandwiches - it was pretty good.  We then were going to a bar but we saw a place that had falafels.  Two of the girls - who had just ate - decided they wanted falafel.  It's crazy, I think I eat a ton, but some of the girls here eat even more than me.  It's great though.  Anyways so we hung out at some hippie bar while they ate.  Then we hung out outside because we saw a fire lamp.  We huddled around that and met some people who offered us food.  They had ordered drinks and gotten free tapas that they didn't want.  So we ended up eating more.  It's crazy we have been looking for bagels since we got to Spain, and these tapas had bagels! They were little ham and cheese bagel sandwiches!  Soo good.  I was so full but I had a few bites.  There were fries with aioli sauce too.. I couldn't resist!  That's really popular here - potatoes with aioli.. I love it.  I didn't drink much but we hung out there for a bit.  Then we went to a bar for a little while because it was pretty chilly out.  The next day we got up early and took a walking tour of the city.  It got a little boring and tiring but I love the city.  We stopped at the top of a hill at a spot where you can look out at the city.  There were a bunch of hippies (apparently there are a lot in Granada) that had blankets set up selling jewelry.  They made it right in front of us it was really cool.  I wish I had bought something but I didn't notice til we were about to leave.  We were walking down a little street and we stopped at a little door.  It had a sign that said "Hay dulces artesinos" (There are artisan pastries).  My teacher rang the bell, and we waited.  Then we heard a lady say something and we had to say some weird phrase back.  We opened the door and there was a lazy susan type pantry.  Then my teacher said she wanted to see what pastries they had today.  So the lady on the other side, who we couldn't see, put pastries on the shelves and spun it around.  They told us the prices and people bought whatever they wanted.  It was so weird!  Apparently it was a monestary and that was a nun.  It was really cool.  After we had a quick tour of a cathedral and then got more free time.  We went to a artistan market.  It was awesome!  There were a bunch of tiny little shops packed with cool stuff - kind of like a flee market but everything was hippie type stuff.  Just like awesome jewelry, cool decorations.  I bought a pink yellow and orange wall hanging with elephants.  We hung out in the sun for a bit, and then went back to the hotel.  Another buffffet! Ate wayyy too much again.  Slept on the bus ride home.  Relaxed that night.  Today I woke up and met up with Kirsten to work on a project for our teaching class.  Then went to the river with Kimby and Sarah.  It was so nice out.  We walked along it and then laid down by the water and tanned.  We've been speaking only in Spanish since Friday, when we began our pact.  Whoever loses (lose by giving up - if you forget and speak in English by accident it's fine) had to dress up weird and do karaoke sober.  It's been going really well though.  So today we were playing a game where someone thinks of a word and the other two have to guess it.  There are some weird rules to it and it's more complicated then just guessing a word but it was a really fun game.  It's confusing to explain so I'm not even gonna try.  It's helpful to practice Spanish though.  Gotta keep getting better!