My new life!!

Okay so I am taking my mother´s advice and putting this all behind me and I am making a fresh new start. The potential mother that I talked about at the end of the last entry is going to be my new mother. She is really sweet and nice and always excited to see me. She gives me kisses and is interested in my life and wants to hear what I have going on it is just such an awesome change. I´ve been eating all of my meals with her but I officially move in on friday!! The new house is slightly farther from school but it will be good for me to do some more walking, I´ll just have to make sure that I remember that I don´t live 2 minutes from school anymore and I leave early enough!

Next week is midterm week so its been great trying to deal with this and school but I think I am going to make it through. I´ve already had one midterm and I got an A+ on it which is exciting. After I get done with my exams I am hoping on a plane to relax (as much as you can while your running around doing tourist stuff) in ITALY!!! I´ll be visiting friends throughout so I´ll be hitting Milan, Cinque Terre, Florence, and Rome. I am super excited. If anyone has any advise on what I must see in a certain city let me know. I´m really excited because I will be sitting on a lovely little beach in Cinque Terre on my birthday! I haven´t decided which kind of drink I will have yet but I´m sure that the bar tender will have some good suggestions.

And then as it turns out I will be flying into Valencia at about 9 in the morning and I´ve decided not to catch the bus back to Granada until 4pm so I will have a few hours to explore Valencia which will be nice because I have been wanting to get over there but I don´t really have any weekends left so....

It is so warm and sunny here right now it is awesome. Sometimes almost to warm for March for a girl from Oregon but I´m not complaining!

At CLM (my school here, a sattelite school of the University of Granada) we have a soccer league and I am on my programs team. We have had two games so far and the first one we one and then the second we won too because half of the other team didn´t show up. We still played though and just gave them some people from our team and the ref played. Again another good way to get some exercise.

I love and miss you all! I´ll be home JUNE 4th!!!! Its sad yet exciting at the same time. My time here has gone by so fast.

I have left the crazy house!

So from some stories you may or may not have heard my host mother is slightly crazy. Well last week she just went over the edge into the deep end. Her father died a couple of weekends ago so she left to go to his village. Shannon was in Madrid with her boyfriend so I was home alone. I decided not to go out and to just watch a movie in the family room. When she returned I told her that I watched the movie she had had up there and we chatted about it. The next day or so she asked me if I had seen any money up there on the table. I didn´t see anything let alone touch anything besides the DVD player. So I told her no. She didn´t understand what had happened to it because she knew that she had it there before she left and now it was gone. She decided that she would have to look more.

A couple of days later I wanted to watch another movie but she wasn´t home and I wanted to watch it in my room so I just borrowed one and started watching it. The cover got thrown on a pile of clothes in my room because we don´t have much space and then another shirt ended up getting thrown on top of it. Of course I didn´t think anything of it until I came home that night and we were in the kitchen. She goes and gets the DVD case from her bathroom and shoves it in my face yelling that it is hers and that I am a theif and a stealer and that I am the worse student that she has ever had live with her...that I am very stupid and disrespectful and just went off for like 5 minutes in front of Shannon and her boyfriend mind you. I didn´t understand why she was so upset that I had borrowed her DVD, its not like I even took it out of the house. And on top of that she had been going through my things so that made me mad. I tried to tell her that I didn´t want to keep the DVD forever. But when someone is yelling at you in a high pitch and you want to respond in but it is your second language it is not that easy. So she wasn´t having anything of what I was trying to say. She told me that Mark (our director knew) and that she didn´t want me in the house anymore however she was going to be nice and not exactly kick me out on the street. She said that until Mark found me a new house that I could stay there but she wasn´t going to talk to me and I was to touch nothing...I couldn´t even do the dishes or set the table. Then she stopped talking. So I turned around and sort of slightly started to cry...I didn´t know what to do...I didn´t understand. Then she starts talking about the DVD again and how I went into her room to get it and it is her room. I told her that no I didn´t I was only in the salon and plus I thought she didn´t want to talk to me anymore and then I stormed past her and went down to my room to call Mark.

I told Mark just what I said above (for the most part) and that I wanted out of the house that night and I had already started packing. I told him I didn´t know what to do though because I didn´t want to leave Shannon there by herself. He said okay talk to Shannon and I´ll see what I can do...in any case we will put you in a hostal tonight. So I called Shannon downstairs and when we were talking I found out a little more of the story. Andrew (her boyfriend who speaks spanish) started asking Luisa questions to try and clarify the story. It turns out that she thinks since I had the DVD that I stole the money (which she said was 80€) and a black t-shirt from her room. I was absolutely flabbergasted. She just flat out accused me of something that I would never do.

She left the house but not before mentioning that her friend was going to come by all the next day (oh because by this time it was the next weekend and she was going to go to her father´s funeral) to check up on me and that maybe even the police were going to come by. When she was gone I packed everything, Mark came I got me, took me to the hostal, and I left that house and that crazy lady forever. The next day Mark talked to Luisa and he just couldn´t understand. They thought that maybe I had someone else in the house when she was gone who could have taken the money. I told him that I didn´t because I knew better then that and then Luisa said that it had to be me then. It just had to be me. Mark told me not to worry about it...the program could pay her 80€ if that is what she really wanted. So later in that day Mark talked to Luisa again and guess what...the 80€ that she said to Andrew the night before turned into 800€. She is absolutely ridiculous because first of all who just leaves 800€ sitting on a table when they leave for the weekend...second of all I´m pretty sure that Luisa doesn´t have 800€ to withdraw from the bank at one time. Now she is just trying to get money out of the situation. She is CRAZY!!!

Shannon moved all of her stuff out when Luisa was at the funeral and we hope never to see her again although it is a gran possibility because Granada is small and she also lives 2 minutes from my school. Then yesterday she called me and I didn´t recognize the number so I answered it. She told me that she had or that she was going to make a claim at the police station. I just hung up on her because I didn´t want to talk to her. I told Mark right away and he said not to worry about it because if she did the police will probably contact him and we will just go in and make our statement. But its still scary.

The one good thing that came out of this is that I don´t have to live with her anymore and my potential new house mom is really nice and inviting and I´m ready for the change. Needless to say its been a very chaotic last 5 days.

Sevilla

Now we are really going to be caught up. This past weekend we went as a whole group to Sevilla (Seville). And it was yet another whirlwind packed two day trip. Like usual!

As soon as we arrived we went straight to the cathedral. We found out that it is the third largest cathedral in the world. First is of course St. Peter’s in Rome and the second is St. Paul’s in London (which I saw when I was there the other summer). So now when I go to Rome and see St. Peter’s I will have seen all of them! It was pretty big although I expected larger from the third largest. Nonetheless it was filled with tons of history. There is a famous painting done by Murillo (who I am studying in my art class). There is the tomb of Christopher Columbus’ son, then the supposed tomb of Christopher Columbus. They aren’t sure that he is actually in there. So his whereabouts is a huge mystery. There is also a thorn from Jesus’ crown. The picture turned out blurry because we can’t have flash but how amazing! Then we went up into the bell tower called Giralda Tower. There are 16 bells in it! And it is ramps all the way up, 34 ramps going in a circling manner up to the top. You could see the whole city from up there, it was gorgeous. There was a wedding going on in the cathedral and that was neat to see…we don’t know who it was but they must be pretty important or have money!

That afternoon we went to Parque de Maria Luisa. It is a huge park in the center of Sevilla and kind of a little oasis from the city. Lots of people take advantage of the view from horse drawn carriages. We rented one of those bus bike things for six people and we rode around the park. Then our chain fell off so I tried to fix it but couldn’t and instead I just got my hands all greasy. Luckily it was at the end of our half hour. After that we headed over to Plaza de España. It is a large semicircular plaza and was designed as the center piece for the Spanish American Exposition of 1929. Most of its walls are covered in tile showing historic images and moments from the 40 regions of Spain. It was also used as a set in the movie Star Wars: Attack of the Clones for its other worldly feel.

As we were leaving the plaza to head back for dinner we saw these guys on bikes doing really cool tricks. One was jumping over chains and onto blocks of cement while the other was filming. The one that was filming said something to us and we thought that he wanted us to film them together. Oh no he wanted us to be part of his trick. So he had us all line down in a row and then he jumped each one of us individually. The pictures help explain a little more. While we were lying on the ground they were saying funny things like "Como se dice en ingles…" (which means how do you say in english…) then he said "Ambulance" It was funny! He shimmied his bike over me…again hard to explain. But so crazy. Afterwards he gave us their website address so pretty soon we will be able to see it on the internet. But if you go to their site right now you can see all of the cool tricks they do. These guys are absolutely amazing with the things they can do with their bikes. http://www.biketrialsur.com/

We had some time before dinner so we decided that we should squeeze in one more activity. The closest that was still open was the Archeological Museum so we went there. I really do not have much interest in things like that but it was kind of neat to see. Our friend LaDonna likes to make a lot of funny comments so that made it alright.

Day two we went to the Real Alcázar which is the palace. It was absolutely gorgeous and I kept commenting on how much it would cost to rent it for a summer. It would be a nice little (actually big) getaway. There are gardens surrounding all of the buildings and all of the buildings were built at different times so there is some Moorish, Gothic, and Renaissance influence. Other then that it is really hard to explain. Pretty much just really pretty to see. Over the main door there is a saying written in blue tiles in Arabic that says "God is the only conquistador."

After that we went to Hospital de la Caridad which is a charity hospital that was founded by the reformed Miguel de Mañara who was the inspiration for the mythical lady killer Don Juan. What interested me most about this place was in the church there were two paintings done by Leon Valdes (who I am also studying in my art class). They are paintings about how quickly your life can be taken away. One is titled "In Ictu Oculi" which is Latin for in the blink of an eye. The other one is "Finis Glorie Mundi" which is also Latin for the final world glory. When I get home I can explain what each of them represents.

That was pretty much my trip to Sevilla, oh we did take a boat ride down the river but you couldn’t really see anything so…if you ever go to Sevilla I would not recommend it.

Now there is a file of photos from Sevilla. http://community.webshots.com/user/madmorepics

BARCELONA!!!

So again it’s been awhile. As you can see writing blogs is not one of my favorite things to do. But I want all of you to be able to keep up to date on what I am doing here.
I’m two weekends behind and I must catch up! On the 3rd of March Shannon and I, and our friend Ashley traveled to Barcelona. We only gave ourselves 3 days to discover this huge city. Our schedule was packed full! Day one we explored the main street which is called Las Ramblas. It is one long street that runs from the center plaza to the sea. It is full of street performers, pet markets, cafes, and plenty of tourists. So we did the tourist thing and took pictures with some of the live statues and just took in the atmosphere. Also on Las Ramblas there is a huge outdoor market, like the farmers market. So we went in there and checked out all of the stands and bought food for dinner. Then we headed to the statue of Christopher Columbus. We went up to the top and got a beautiful view of the city. After that we tried to go up to this place on a hill that would give us another view of the city but it turns out it was closed so we found a park and ate our picnic dinner from the market. That night we went out and ended up meeting a couple of guys from the city (actually one was from France but he had lived in Barcelona for a while) and they gave us a mini tour of the Gothic Neighborhood. It was really neat because we saw some things that we would have never seen or known on our own. Such as this small little plaza that has a church in it. During the civil war the plaza was used as an execution sight and you can see the bullet holes in the side walls of the church. It was slightly disturbing but very fascinating at the same time.
The next day we headed to Park Guell which is full of Gaudi’s famous work. There is a tunnel shaped like a wave, and a salamander statue to name a few. After the Park we headed across town to see another one of Gaudi’s famous works, La Sagrada Familia. It is a church that is still in the works today, it is expected to be finished by the mid-21st century so it looks like I will be making a trip back to Barcelona because it is a magnificent piece of work. It is like something you have never seen before, it is so hard to describe. Gaudi was really into mosaic work so you see a lot of that. He was also into taking images from nature and turning them into his architecture forms, hence the wave tunnel, salamander fountain, and then inside the church the columns look like tree trunks with the branches cut off. He was so creative.
That night we went to a very traditional Catlonian restaurant and had some amazing food and wine from the region. It was really good, but more expensive then we wanted it to be, however it is all part of the experience. After dinner we met up with the guys from the night before. They took us to a really small typical bar of Barcelona and we had a drink called Leche de Pantera which is translated to Panther Milk. It was really good! It was milk, gin or rum (you can use either) and sugar. Then you put it into a small shot glass and put cinnamon on top of it. It was amazing! We wanted to get home somewhat "early" that night because we had a lot to do the next day. So we left the guys at about 3:15 to try and find a taxi. That was almost impossible. We had to walk down the whole length of Las Ramblas (which is 1000 meters long) and at the end of that we found a line for taxis that we then had to wait in for 45 minutes. We in absolute amazement that there were so many people out on the streets at 4 in the morning that we couldn’t even get a taxi at the busiest plaza in the middle of Barcelona. Spaniards are CRAZY!!!!
So the next day was Sunday and Shannon’s guide book let us know about this traditional Catalonian dance that is performed in front of the Cathedral on Sundays. So we went and watched that. It was so cute because it was mostly elderly people with their special shoes on dancing in a circle holding hands. Then there was also an orchestra providing the music. After that we went to mass inside the Cathedral…which was packed because it is such a tourist spot and if you go on Sundays you don’t have to pay to enter. But it was so grand and beautiful. Also there is a central patio to the cathedral where one can find palm trees and geese. It was a very odd juxtaposition. Unfortunately for us the skies decided to open up and pour down rain upon us so we weren’t able to finish our plans for the day which was to explore the Gothic Neighborhood (during the day). So we decided to head for the airport. Luckily for us we gave ourselves plenty of time because somehow we got on the wrong train and ended up going 45 minutes outside of Barcelona. Once we realized it there was nothing we could do but race against time to get back to the airport to catch our flight. Once the train made it to the airport we started running…I don’t think that I have ever had to do that. Once we got to the counter I went straight to the front and asked a guy if we could go in front of him because we were so late. He was nice and let us do it and we were able to check in one minute before the cut off time. However we still had to run from the counter to the gate because they were like on opposite sides of the airport…go figure! We did make it home though! So that was my whirlwind trip in Barcelona!

Soo...the reason that I don´t like blogging so much is because it takes so long to upload the photos...so I have decided to start an actual photo website that is a lot easier...so right now there is a Barcelona album on it. And here is the website http://community.webshots.com/user/madmorepics so now you can check here for the pictures and there will be a lot more!!

Hiking and Cadiz!

Oh where to begin…well two weekends ago a group of us decided that we would go to the Arab Baths. The Arab Baths that we went to are actually a replica of the idea of the ancient Arab baths. The Arabs used to bathe in a social atmosphere. They actually had a multiple array of different pools with varying temperatures and depths. So someone in Granada got the idea to replicate this and make it into a way to make money off of tourists. Sad you didn’t think of it huh? Well so a group of six of us decided that we would give up a Friday night and 22 euros but it was worth it. You go in and they give you a number and a towel, you change into your suit, and open the door to experience a wave of steam. There were seven different pools of water. We were given free range of which pools we wanted to stay in because we liked and which we would only go in once (a freezing cold one). Then they would call your number and you would go to the back for a nice 20 minute massage. There was also a small room off to the side with some really good tea. So we had a two hour experience of total relaxation! You are supposed to be silent during the whole experience but unfortunately there was a group of 6 or 7 young girls who just kept talking and splashing around. Luckily for me though they were getting their massages at the same time I was so I had pure silence.
This is all of us after the baths. Me, Crystal, Nik, Casey, Shannon, and Erin
Here are the girls drinking tea.
After the baths ended we wanted to continue the period of relaxation and hanging out so we went to a téteria which is a tea shop. We had crepes and more delicious Moroccan tea! I also went on a hike the next day. I think that is what made me sick because we thought it was going to be really warm so I didn’t bring a lot of clothes and then a storm came in on us. But oh well it was a really fun hike.

This is the group on the hike. We put the camera on a tree but it still works.

This past weekend I went to Cadiz, which is on the far south west coast of Spain (close to Portugal), for Carnaval. Carnaval is like Mardi Gras but it’s a two week long party rather then just one day. People book hotels almost a year in advance to be able to stay in Cadiz. So needless to say we couldn’t find anything on our own. We decided to go through a travel agency and they hooked us up!!! We got to stay in a four star hotel and the round trip bus ride all for 90 euros. So Saturday morning we got up really early to catch our bus. Unfortunately for us the four hour bus ride ended up taking nine hours because as we have learned the Spanish like to do things slow with many breaks. I mean we took a two and a half hour lunch break. Definitely not necessary. But we got to our hotel which was about half an hour outside of Cadiz and had some time to relax and get ready. My mother Luisa picked out our outfits. Shannon was a Bruja de Suerte which is a witch of luck, and I was a maid (she bought me a feather duster so I couldn’t say no). Then we hopped back on the bus to go have a night that we will never forget.

Now I’ve never been to New Orleans for Mardi Gras but I imagine that it is something like this (if this doesn’t top it). It is simply a huge botellón which means a party in the street. I’m not a good judge of people but one guy I met said that there were at least a million people there. And to be honest I don’t doubt him. It was insane. We met a ton of people…none of who I can actually remember their names because there were just too many. We noticed that people almost always dress up in groups. There were very few people who were dressed on their own such as we were. So I think that we stuck out but it also doesn’t help that I have bright blond hair. Most people would start speaking broken English to us. We would have to ask them to speak in Spanish. Once I was talking with this guy and I couldn’t understand much of what he was saying to me in English. Then his friend came up to us and was like "Dude, she speaks normally, talk to her in Spanish" I just laughed at that. He was much relieved when he realized that he didn’t have to strain his brain to have a conversation with me. The costumes where very creative and you could tell that people had been planning them since last year. It was also quite refreshing because it was nothing like our Halloween where girls use it as an excuse to dress sluty. This is probably because it was about 40 degrees outside but also people were just creative and it really was about dressing up. I saw a group of guys dressed as milk and cookies. There was a group of Smurphs, a group of Waldos, what else…it’s hard to remember all that I saw, oh a group of guys that were Underwear Men. They were really funny because one of them had on a costume that said Super Hero and I asked him why his didn’t say "Underwear Man (yet in Spanish)" and he told me it was because his mommy didn’t have time to make it. I thought that was sad yet cute at the same time. Oh there was a group of guys dressed as Flamenco dancers (girls), there was a group of cell phones. Then there were a lot of groups that just put on all the costume stuff they could, such as face paint and wigs and weird clothes.

The group of us in Cadiz. Casey, me, Shannon, Aimee, Nik, and Iri.
The Flamenco boys.
A huge group of people in front of the Cathedral.
Aimee and Iri with the Smurphs.
Me with the waldos!

Me with the underwear men... you can see the one guy´s shirt that says superhero!
Milk and Cookies
All of us crowded in a Ben and Jerry´s when it started raining.
Everyone was getting a little bit sleepy.

The next day they took us back into Cadiz so we could enjoy the day life of Carnaval such as the parade and all of the little kids in their costumes. That was fun. For most of the day though we just sat on the beach. It was gorgeous!
All of us again.

Shannon and I with the Atlantic ocean in the background.
My pink toes in the water.
At night the light up the signs on the wall to old Cadiz.
This is everyone on the street waiting for the parade.
Looks like it could be Hawaii huh?
I like the reflection of the sunset in the tide.
The parade finally came!

Well this weekend I’m headed off to Barcelona. Hopefully I’ll have some fun stories of that!