Arbolcitas (little trees)

Some pictures to start out with. I don´t have all of them here so this is what you get. Tonight I will copy more from my laptop so more to come! Part of the group (however almost all of the guys)...Kate, Mat, David, Nik, Casey, me, David, and Amy!
A view of the Albaicin (old Granada) from the Alhambra.

There are many fountains through out the alhambra because it is a symbol of life! An image of La Alhambra architecture! So goregous this doesn´t do it justice.

Aunt Mary...esto es para ti!

Last Saturday was awesome! I woke up early to go on a hike through the hills above the alhambra. (Yes I was out late the night before but I didn´t want to waste the beautiful day we had.) It was all hills the whole way and we were stripping off layers with in the first 10 minutes! It was also then that I realized I had forgotten my inhaler (yes i´m a nerd). Needless to say I pushed on under the careful watch of my friend Sean, who was also our guide. He was right we had amazing views and they just kept getting better. After about an hour and a half of walking from one view point to the other we were all getting tired and asked Sean when we were heading back down. He told us that there was one more view point and it was supposed to be the best and he wanted to check it out. So we continued. We came through some trees only to see a bunch of burnt logs scattered across the hill side (with a gorgeous view in the background). As we were adimiring the view a couple of young spaniards came over to us and asked if we spoke spanish. Then they told us what had happened and what they were up to. They were volunteers of an environmental group who were here to plant new trees because in July there was a huge fire. They asked if we wanted to help. Of course we all said yes and it was so awesome. We each planted about two trees and talked with the volunteers about their project. Soon they are going to be going up to the Sierra Nevadas to do the same thing. So we gave them our email addresses and hope to hear from them soon. The bonus was that the news crews were there so yesterday we were in the paper. Oh how fun to be in the local paper! I´ll bring home a copy!

The next day I went to mass at the Cathedral. It was so beautiful! However it is underconstruction so some of the views were obscurred but none the less. And I was sad that they did not use the huge organs they would have been amazing to hear. Perhaps once while I am here I will get to experience it because I only live about 3 minutes from it. Although I am trying to do what my mother suggested and hit up all the churches in Spain. The mass is of course easy to follow but at times hard to understand if that makes sense. I know what they should be saying but I can´t quite understand it. Give me a couple more weeks and I´ll be there.

So besides the usual going out (which of course I still did) I have a different story!

Hasta el proximo entrada!
Madelyn

Estoy enferma

So on friday after class got out I definitely hit a brick wall and couldn´t go anywhere for the rest of the weekend. So I stayed in while everyone else went out. I thought I was getting better so last night I went to a wine bar with a small group. We shared a bottle of a really good red wine (funny though becuase it was the cheapest) and then went home. Again before my mother. I think I´m definitely worse today so I don´t know whats up...I thought red wine was supposed to be good for you. Haha. I know it sounds like all I do is drink but really its not. I promise.

We are going to Madrid as a group at the end of the month for about five days! I´m excited for that. Other then that I´m just trying to make it through my classes. Four hours of grammer a day is tough. And now (starting today) on top of that I have another two hours of a Spanish media class in the afternoons. So my day is taken up with a lot of class and homework. But I guess I can´t complain.

Love to all!
Hasta luego.
Madelyn

La fin de Semana

Hola de España!!!!

This place is crazy. People are out all the time. I’m still getting over the jet lag and so I’m sleeping a lot and I feel like I’m missing everything. Usually my host mom stays out later then Shannon and me. It is so different. We are constantly hearing people out in the street when we are trying to sleep.

Yesterday we went to La Alhambra. I took a lot of pictures but I want to go back on a day that is sunny because it was cloudy when we were there. It was so cold because it is up on the mountain (it’s actually more like a really large hill). Right now in Granada it’s cold everywhere though. January is the coldest month and then in February it will start to get warm during the night. Today I had to buy guantes (gloves) and they came with a bufanta (scarf)…very cute.

We’ve only gone out once. And it was really funny because we did the typical American thing that everyone warned me about…we went out at 10:30. Here that is really early. We were the only ones in the bar that we went to. Although once others showed up most of them were older…like in their late 30s or so. So we left and went to another bar that was really small. But one of the guys in our group bought a round of Sangria for everyone (there were almost 20 of us there). So Katie I toasted it to you! Sangria por ti! As we were walking down the street looking for a new bar we found a bar called Dolce Delux. The funny thing about it is that Shannon and I met the owner in an internet café earlier in the night. He is from the states and he studied here a couple of years ago. He came back a bought a bar with a Spaniard friend. In other words free shots for everyone!!! I think we will be going there a lot because Shannon and I get to drink for free there.

Today we went on a walking tour of the old town. It was really neat and very authentic (but then so is everything in Spain). All of the houses are white with ceramic red tile roofs. The streets are small and all cobblestone, and the drivers here son locos. There are no sidewalks in the side streets so you have to pretty much hug the wall when a car comes.

Creo que es todo por ahora.

Adios

P.S. When I get my wireless thing to work I’ll start to post pictures, either here or on another site…probably webshots.

Estoy Aqui!!!!!!!

I´m here! The first few days have been great so far. It started out with a great plane ride. I got bumped up randomly to first class for my long flight. It was so nice. I will never fly coach again for long flights. I arrived in Spain at 9:30 on the 4th and my host mom is so sweet. She is really short, probablemente only 4´10" at most. She is in her 60s and on her own. Her children are all grown and have moved away, and we don´t know about their father yet. My roommate Shannon is really nice. She is from Tualatin and she goes to PLU (Pacific Luthern). She is really tall, like 5´10" so she and Luisa (mi madre) look really funny together.

...que otro? I live in the center of the city which is really nice, 4 minutes from school and everything else. Our house is muy pequeño y grande at the same time. It has 5 stories but only one room on each floor. The first floor is an entrance way, the second floor is Shannon and my room with a bathroom, the third is the kitchen/dining room with a bathroom, the fourth is a small family room and Luisa´s room, and the fifth floor is a terrace. Its very cute!

Today is a big holiday in Spain so most stores are closed. Today is like Christmas in the states and last night there was a big parade. All the floats had one of the three kings on them and then each float threw candy to the kids but the adults were very agressive in getting the candy too. It was really fun.

I think that´s all for now. Mucho mas luego.

Adios de españa!

Madelyn