Sevilla, Saturday, March 12th

Today I ended up falling back asleep while Maggie was getting ready but good thing I didn't oversleep! Maggie and I had breakfast with our friend Audrey and some other people in CEA. Of course all of the Americans were loving the breakfast and eating as much as we could! And then one of the hotel staff made an announcement that we weren't allowed to take food back with us because apparently he had seen Jenna try to take a sandwich before. But of course a couple of us took food with us since lunch wouldn't be included. I was already prepared with snacks I had taken on the bus and stolen from the secret pantry. Over all breakfast was pretty good, even though Maggie and I never figured out how to use the rotating toaster haha. After breakfast we got on the bus and started the day with a panoramic view of the city which was great since we were all pretty tired of walking around from tours the day before. Then we made a stop at the Gardens of the Alcazar. They were beautiful and made me want to go on a beach vacation. Luckily Mallorca is coming up! I loved taking in the sights and the atmosphere especially since the temperature had improved by that time of day. I wanted to spend a whole day there.

After visiting the gardens we pulled into the Plaza de España and walked around taking pictures and listening to the history. Many people in our group were freaking out because one of the star wars films movies had been filmed there. I pretended to know that it was filmed there. Next we got back on the bus to get to the cathedral. I had to withstand another guided tour but the Cathedral was really beautiful. Then we went up the 30 some flights of ramps to get to the top of the tower! I wanted to take pictures along the way up but it was too crowded. The view from the top was beautiful... until I almost got strangled by a balloon that some wild kid was carrying around in the tower. (yes Lauryn Reiners I added that detail just for you :) Once we got down, we had some free time to get lunch at a sandwich place. Which happened to have an amazing ice cream menu so I just had to get some of course. I think the sundae I got was called banoffee. After a nice lunch with Audrey, Maggie, Jenna, and our new friend Jerod, we bought some post cards and made our way back to the bus. I really loved Sevilla and wish I could have spent more time there.

The bus ride home was just filled with so much awkwardness I was laughing most of the way home. First of all I need to explain that it is "culturally/socially acceptable" for spanish couples to get friendly where ever they feel like it even in any public place. But I was not accepting that two American couples wanted to get friendly on the 3 hour crowded bus ride home. So I had to sit by that, and then low and behold some girl close across from my seat is puking! She had been shopping that day and apparently just dumped her new clothes out and then threw up in the bag. So luckily for her (and the rest of the bus) it was time to pull over and give the driver a break. I pulled a pear out of my back pack for a snack and a chunk was missing out of it. Due to my senora only buying overripe fruit. And then I couldn't find the pear chunk in my back pack (I later saw it was wedged in between one of my folders for school, every teacher likes homework with pear stains right?) And then the only other awkward moment was that the rest of the bus ride was filled with animal noises that the kid behind me seemed to think he was great at impersonating animal noises so that was hilarious to listen to all the way home with everything that had already happened.

Trip to Córdoba and Sevilla! Friday, March 11th

On Friday morning Maggie and I hauled ass with all of our weekend bags to catch the bus with the rest of the CEA group. The drive to Cordoba was only about 3 hours so it wasn't too bad. I learned that in Spain it is a law for bus drivers to take a break at least every 2 hours for about 20-30 minutes. After learning this, I felt stupid for complaining and being worried when taking the bus to Madrid when the driver pulled over to a rest stop.

After arriving in Cordoba, everyone went on a long tour to see the Mezquita de Cordoba and an awesome bridge. I enjoyed the sights but the tour was way too long. Maggie and I even took some, "we hate tours pics" haha. After the long tour we had free time for lunch and bought some post cards after. Maggie and I were so hungry after waiting for lunch until 3:30 that we ate a big pizza, one for each of us. Then we got back on the bus heading for Sevilla.

After a couple more hours on the bus we made it to Sevilla at around 7pm. We checked into the hotel and Maggie and I were very excited to find out that we would be rooming together, and even more excited that the girl who was also placed with us, wanted to stay with her friends in another room.

I ate a peanut butter sandwich before dinner because I was so hungry and had no idea how the "free buffet dinner" would pan out. I had the right idea because the buffet was pretty bad and everything tasted like fish, even if it's wasn't fish. But I was very excited to have a giant salad. After dinner we hung out with our friend Jenna for a bit after the dinner and then, being the big party people that we are, Maggie and I went to bed at about midnight.

Busy Busy Week! Monday March 7- Thursday March 10th

On Monday I had a regular day at school and then came home for a short lunch before getting ready for volunteering. I came more prepared for volunteering with a lesson plan in hand with a review of spanish to english numbers and basic colors. I also drew a picture of a beach (a very crappy one) for another english lesson. I was happy that my "favorite guy" was there who is actually interested in my lessons and is the only older man who doesn't seem creepy at all. My lesson actually went pretty well. I was getting frustrated with the guy who really creeps me out (of course he was the first one there before anyone else) because every time a person would ask me how to pronounce something he would answer for me. And I wanted to say hey, I'm the american here. But other than that it went pretty well and two other girl volunteers showed up so creepy guy was distracted by them more than me. I realized how bad I really am at drawing when we all took time to relax and draw with step by step drawing books and I took the easiest one, and my favorite guy thought my peacock was a dog. It was actually pretty hilarious.

On Tuesday after fighting to stay awake through literature class I came back home and did some homework. Afterwards I met up with Francisco, who spoke in my islamic culture class about his work in Jordan. I got to know more about his job and get to know him a little and we got gelato! Which is always a highlight of any day.

Today I had a long day of classes. I was sad because the one day that I would allow myself to buy a coffee from the machine because it was a rainy day, it was out of order! But luckily I had gone grocery shopping the night before and was well equipped for the day with snacks. After an awkward moment of never understanding what the lady at the grocery store said to me. I said both yes and no to her question and neither worked haha so my safety answers failed me. Before dinner I went out with my friend Eli who I have conversation exchanges with once a week where she takes me to a different cafe each time. It was fun even though I wished we could have spoken more spanish. She has an exam in June and is very nervous about it so we mostly practice english, but I am going to change that soon!

The Granada Bullring

Last week some of the CEA group traveled to our city's very own bullring. The bullring is located very close to where I volunteer about a 50 minute walk from my house. Even though I liked the bullring a lot better in Ronda, I still really enjoy walking in a bullring and learning about the history of the sport. I always feel like I'm walking onto the set of Gladiator when I walk through a bull ring. The best part about visiting this bullring was that there were people actually practicing bullfighting inside! Maggie and I thought it was interesting to watch, but also kind of funny. We got a tour with an old tour guide who was very hard to understand. We got to see the prayer room, medical rooms, and every part of the ring. Except I was disapointed because I wanted to see some stuffed bull heads but he didn't take us to that part. If I had the opportunity to the see a bullfight I probably would, but they are way too expensive. Enjoy the pictures and video!

Pictures from the Albayzin and Alhambra

I have already written about these places but I just wanted to share some more recent pictures of one of my most favorite places in Granada, the Albayzin.

Monday February 28th. With travel, comes strugs

Today we got up at 6:15am to start our day of traveling. We got on the metro and ate our breakfast on the way to the airport. Luckily everything went as planned in the airport and Maggie and I got aggressive to be able to pick our seats on the plane. Earlier when I realized there was a starbucks in the airport I was very excited to get it. I had lots of awkward moments on the plane trying to put the arm rest up so I had more room and the person next to me pushing it back down... I won... Once landing, we gathered our luggage and were on our way to the metro to get to our 2pm bus to Madrid.

Then comes the strug...

As Maggie and I realized that it would take 50 minutes on the metro to make it to our 2pm bus (it was now 1pm) we decided to stop off at a different bus station to take a bus that left at 3pm. Once we tried to buy tickets from the machine, it wouldn't work. We went to buy tickets from the attendant but they told us that bus was sold out! So we had to take the metro back to the other bus station we were just at to buy tickets and wait for the 4:30pm bus. By this time we were starving (from all of the cardio drills with our luggage throughout the stairs and obstacles in the bus stations) and I settled on a sandwich place in the cafeteria of the bus station. I thought a salami sandwich and turkey and cheese sandwich would be safe... or so I thought. Just look at the pictures and you will understand. Whatever that was, it was not salami and the other was not turkey and cheese. So I binged on a bacon cheeseburger that saved the day. Once it was finally time to get to our bus, we couldn't find the right one. Apparently there were about 6 buses going from Madrid to Granada and we finally found which one we were supposed to be on.

The strug continues...

As Maggie and I were riding the crowded bus back both of the people sitting in front of us decided to recline their seats as far back as they could. Which brought their seats into our laps. As the woman in front of me started reclining, I quickly stopped her by putting my hand up on the back of her seat forcing it to stay where it was, but Maggie did not. I showed her my technique of gently shaking the seat of the person in front of her to make the person put their seat back up... She thought that was hilarious. I've learned that very rarely, it works to fight immaturity with immaturity haha.

I don't understand why Spaniards are fine with being in class all day with no breaks for food or rest, but they can't take a 5 hour bus ride without a 30 minute break. So while being stopped at a rest stop Maggie and I fought with the vending machine to give us peanut M&Ms. Of course they were the only candy that didn't work. And then some girl bought a roll of donuts and dropped them on the floor and screamed. That was pretty funny.

After finally getting back to Granada the whole town tried to get on the city bus with all of their luggage so needless to say that was a challenge. I ended up having to hold on to some guy I didn't know because I couldn't reach the handle.

The strug ends... oh wait not yet

As Maggie and I were outside of our apartment with practically the key inside the lock, low and behold the neighbors that neither we or our family has ever met start talking to us. They were so excited that we were American and invited us over and said we could come over anytime to "beber algo" (drink something) By this point I was unlocking the door because Maggie and I had been traveling from 6:15am-10:15pm and we were looking and feeling rough, so we said some awkward goodbyes and finally got into our house! And the funny thing is later on that week the neighbors rang our doorbell asking for us and our senora and sister got all freaked out because they had no idea who it was. Our senora wouldn't even open the door for them and she came back telling us I wouldn't have come and got you but, well ,we're having dinner, and I didn't know them. But we didn't care because we thought they were creepy in the first place.

Sunday, February 27th

On Sunday we got up early to try and see as much as we could. We ended up getting a little screwed up on the metro but we finallymade it to the catacombs exhibit! We waited in line for about 45 minutes and then were admitted in. I enjoyed the exhibit and thought it was pretty creepy but cool at the same time. For lunch Maggie and I had giant margherita pizzas which we loved. Then we took the metro to a different town. We decided to go see the Eiffel tower again, because we figured the Luxembourg gardens wouldn't have too many flowers in February. We were able to buy tickets to get to the top of the Eiffel tower. Maggie and I were very excited because it was our favorite thing about Paris. Of course while waiting in line, I had an awkward moment. Both Maggie and I find it annoying that in Europe couples are not shy at all to show affection to eachother, even if it's in a line. While I was making fun of a couple who were getting friendly in the line, I should have thought about if they knew english or not. I ended up dropping a couple coins while waiting in line, and the girl picked up one of my euros and kept it. As I was picking up my other coins, she realized she had taken it from me and frantically searched through her coin purse to give it back to me. And then I realized she could speak english.

After making it to the top level of the Eiffel tower, we got very cold from the wind and took the elevator down to the regular level. I thought it was amazing to view Paris from up there. We took lots of pictures and then made our way back down.

Then we headed back to the hostel to take a break and freshen up before heading out again to have dinner. We had been bringing our water bottles to not have to pay for a drink at restaurants but we quickly learned that the waiters think it's so weird that you don't want anything to drink, that they end up bringing out free water anyway. Then I suggested that we go to Hagen Daz again because I have no self control when it comes to eating ice cream. We got it to go, and soon enough I was walking to our river cruise with my two new best friends: caramel biscuit and chocolate praline. When we got to our river cruise, we were sitting on top of the boat enjoying the sights, but quickly got too cold and went on the inside. It was very nice but a little too relaxing because we were about to fall asleep! We got a little confused finding our way back to the hostel, but finally made it home for the night and had to get everything packed to be ready to travel the next morning.

Saturday Febrauary 26th.

Today Maggie and I had free breakfast at the hostel. The only bad thing about getting breakfast for free is that it was incredibly crowded and had a sign that said you could only take one piece of bread at a time. ha. one piece of bread... After breakfast we went to La Basilique du Sacré Coeur. Even though it was raining outside, it was still very beautiful. We paid to take a shuttle to the top because but ended up walking down the very long staircase while taking pictures. When we got down there were a lot of African men, who grab your hand and immediately star rapping string around your finger, making you a bracelet. They try to say nice things to you and ask you about your trip and then demand money when they're done with the bracelet. I tried to get out of the situation and grabbed Maggie and pulled her away from the group but there were others who stopped us. Luckily all they wanted was to take the bracelet back off. I was ready to bring out the mixed martial arts if needed haha. We then traveled to the Louvre museum, but since there was such a long line, (and that we're not really big fans of art) we decided to take pictures from outside the museum and move on. Then we had lunch at a restaurant after trying to search for the cheapest one. I really like that restaurants in Europe put their menus outside so you can tell how expensive the food would be. and we were very excited to have our first salad since we had been in Europe! We then were able to see the Notre Dam which I loved, and then walked through the Latin Quarter which has a lot of shopping. We tried to find the Pantheon, but by then we were exhausted and gave up on trying to find it. But then there's nothing like Hagen Daz icecream to get you energized! I definitely had a great time my first time at an actual hagen daz icecream place. I had caramel coffee toffee and white chocolate raspberry. Then we spent some time back at the hostel and went out for dinner. We were so excited to find a Hard Rock Cafe in Paris! After dinner we went and visited the Eiffel tower for the first time and loved it! Then we headed back to the hostel to get some rest before another packed day.

Friday February 25th

We got in our taxi at 4am and were exhausted. I always hate having to get up in the middle of the night for flights because I am always in a daze all day until I get a nap. It felt like I was in a dream listening to awkward spanish music in the taxi. Luckily everything in the airport went much more smoothly than in Munich. aka we didn't have a crazy santa taxi driver jip us on money. Unfortunately I had a cold so the flight was kind of painful with my ears but I was fine after. Then we had a long bus ride into Paris because our airport was out in boofoo France. We were starving when we finally made it there so we found a restaurant that had a burger and fries that we were very happy to have. We then traveled to see the Arc de Triomphe. At first we were very confused about how to get to it because we saw it in the center of four lanes of traffic. So we just went gung hoe and crossed four lanes but made it there safely, only to find out there was a much safer route to get there but we enjoyed the adventure. I thought the Arc was really cool and we also saw the tomb of the unknown soldier. Then we took a long awaited nap. We went on to walk around and get more acquainted with the area and I suddenly saw the eiffel tower out of the corner of my eye and I told Maggie and we started freaking out about seeing it for the first time even though it was far away. After that we went and got dinner, since everything was very expensive I got the cheapest thing I could find. Needless to say I was completely happy with my banana nutella crepe :) Then Maggie and I went back to our hostel and went to bed.

Thursday February 24th

Today Maggie and I went to class and then ate "lasagna" for lunch. I scarfed it down because I was so excited about traveling to Paris. I needed to pack Maggie and I some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the road because we knew our packed lunches (picnics) wouldn't be enough. I started making incognito sandwiches in my room with the jelly from the fridge. I realized I forgot paper towels. When I went in the kitchen to get some I quickly ran back in my room because I realized my senora was in the kitchen. I quickly had to finish the sandwiches because I had to leave for school in 10 minutes but I had a problem. The jelly was still in my room and my host sister was sitting there eating breakfast in the kitchen.

I had 10 minutes to get to class so I had to think about how to get the jelly back in the fridge in stealth mode. I finally figured out a plan to put the jelly in a bag and walk into the kitchen with it and grab a yogurt out of the fridge while putting the jelly back in, pretending to grab a yogurt for a snack. the plan worked! I was proud.

Later on, Maggie and I were headed on a super crowded bus to the Granada bus station to take a bus to Madrid. After a long bus ride of 5 hours, we finally made it to Madrid and had little trouble finding our hostel there. I was a little nervous because once we checked into our hostel, (after the hostel attendant made us haul ass up 4 flights of stairs with our luggage and there was an elevator) he had us walking back down the stairs and to a different building with another group of 2 American girls. I was ready to asses a weird situation but luckily he was just taking us to a sister hostel and we got un upgraded room because there were no rooms in the other one available for us. Too bad we got a great room for only about six hours, because we were up at 3:30am the next morning.