So last Saturday I was supposed to go hiking in this place called Caharros in an excursion organized by people at my school, but they wrote down the wrong meeting place. So at 750 in the morning, there are four of us sitting there outside CLM waiting for our guide person to show up and by 830 no one has, so we are like, okay, whatever. So we turn to leave.
Now this entire time, I have been talking with this girl from England in a mixture of Spanish and English. It turns out that I know more spanish than she does, but she is more comfortable in the language, as she is also fluent in French and English, and 25 years old compared to my 20. And she still wants to go walking as she calls, and so do I. I already have my bag lunch of an orange the size of two of my fists, and two sandwiches, and two bottles of water. So when she says she wants to go the Sierra Nevada and go walking around, I say, ¨Can i come,¨ and she says sure.
We first try to go to the Oficino de turismo porque nosotros queremos mas informacíon, pero it wasn´t open yet. So we just catch a bus to the bus station and look up the information for getting Sierra Nevada. After I show her how to put the thing in english (click on the lovely british flag. Thank you Ingleterra) We buy our tickets and wait for the bus. Its about a 45 minute drive, and as we go up the mountain we see it goes from no snow, to lots of snow. And Angela (the girl from England) had never seen a ski town or resort area before or even that much snow. It was piled in some places up to my shoulders. Me, i was impressed by the snow, but thanks to our blizzards this past winter, i wasn´t all ¨oh my god snow!!!!¨
So we walk around into the town and eventually find the tourism office and he gives us directions to a place that might have walking trails. Of course we never really find it. Instead we trek up the mountain following the road. We see a lot of people sledding and we go walking on the snow for a bit. There were mounds of snow from the snow plows that were like minature hills to go climbing on it was pretty awesome. We then continued to trek up the hill and then down a hill, and then up the hill again (we went onto a different switchback after we failed at finding the other tourism office).
Eventually its about two o´clock in the afternoon and we decide to sit on a dry spot on the road and eat our lunch. She eats something vegetarian in a plastic tuperware box and i wolf down two sandwiches. I then decide to walk without my shoes on because my feet and shoes are soaking wet and I´m a bit worried about frost bite and the road is warm from the sun as well as dry.
We continue our adventure. We see beautiful trees covered in snow and some really interesting tracks that I originally thought were deer tracks, but upon closer examination realized that they were more like paw prints. We made it almost to the top of the mountain the Sierra Nevada. When we started coming down, we saw that there was a little trail in the snow about 20 minutes from the town. (We had a total of about 7 hours to kill inbetween leaving the bus, and our return home). So we went walking down to what is probabely a gift shop in the summer and a place for people to ride bikes. It was really pretty and I liked being off the road. We then followed the trail which i think was made from people cross country sking. It followed the road pretty closely and was quite fun to walk on because we got walk under the trees. It was really peaceful and beautiful.
We then ran into a group of people that we think were filming something or doing some sort of special effects. We weren´t entirely sure because niether one of us understood thier spanish, so we had to climb back up a small steep hill to the road, similiar to how roads are in the US, there is a steep drop off beyond hte guardrail.
We think walked back into town after waiting a few minutes for Angela to feel better (she felt sick for a few minutes for some reason). In town we went to bar or cafe and Angela got some tea and I ate my giant orange.
We then caught the bus and came home.
It was a fun day, and I got really sunburned. But twas an adventure. And I soon as I figure out how to post pictures somewhere, I will.
love, Liz
photo link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=165217&id=536555856&l=1ac3f6742d
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
General Information on my Casa, Food, and Classes
Heyllo Everyone,
So I am going to try and update this blog regularly or with good regularity on Thursdays. I can’t promise you that it will always be Thursday that it is updated or that it will be updated every week. Those of you who know me well know that I have issues keeping in contact with people, etc, etc. So I am trying.
But you don’t really care about that. What you may be much more interested in is Spain. Which is where I currently live with my host mom Yolanda and two other girls named Kristin and Analisa. Kristin is the girl from the same program that I am in. She is very nice, though currently she has hurt her knee so that she has problems walking, which by the way sucks since we walk everywhere in Granada. Analisa is from a different program and she moved in on Tuesday of this week. She is very nice and I have walked around a bit with her and met some of her other friends. She had already been for six weeks but had to change residencies because she had some problems with her last roommates.
The way things work in my house is we each have our own room. We all share the bathroom. Showers are supposed to be five to ten minutes and we have to ask for the hot water to turn on. If you are the first shower you might have to wait like five or ten minutes with the water running for it to get warm. When you aren’t actively using the water, the water is supposed to be turned off because there is a continuous water shortage here (which is ironic because its rained almost every day I’ve been here).
The food here is really good. Yolanda makes all of our meals, and she´s a very good cook. Breakfast tends to be around 9 in the morning and consists of tea, two to three pieces of toast with butter and jam, and possibly a muffin of some kind. Lunch isn’t until about 330 or four in the afternoon and is the largest meal of the day. We normally have some kind of salad, bread, and then a main entre. The first day it was pumpkin soup, and yesterday we had some sort of sea food. Which i ate. It was okay. It had squid, clams, shrimp, something else, something else, and potatoes. I tried the clams and they were good. I still don´t really like squid, but i´m coping. And then dinner is not til about ten at night, and it tends to be something really basic. We had eggs and cheese on toast last night which was delicious. The night before we had grilled cheese with tomato. (Yes, i keep talking about food, but food is really important to me and I´m hungry right now.) To help with the long time between meals, I normally eat a piece of fruit in between classes at school around 12, and at night there are tapas (which are snacks) which eaten at any time really. I have no chance of getting scurvy while I´m here because I eat like two oranges every day. They are really good here.
So classes wise, I have two classes right now that meet every day. My first class is a basic spanish writing and speaking class and is from 10 to 11:30. My second class is a spanish culture class which is from 11:30 to 1. I like both my classes a lot and both classes are taught in spanish, which is sorta comprehend at times. At home, during meals, we aren´t allowed to speak in English. My spanish is better than i thought it was but its still really really bad.
After class, I tend to go walks by myself because my roommate injured her knee and has trouble walking until it gets better. There are fountains and plazas everywhere that are really pretty. I will post pictures eventually (hopefully next week). My favorite plaza is Plaza de los lobos. Its really pretty, and is a bit small, but has a fountain that spouts water and some orange trees next to it. It´s really small, but has a few benches for people to sit around and is really near my house.
During the week, I tend to explore and stay at home. Last monday, we all went out for dinner to celebrate two of the girl´s 21st birthdays (which of course doesn´t seem that important to the spanish because they can drink when they are 18). We went to an Italian resturante, and it was really nice. Afterwards a few people went out to a bar, but me and my roommate went home to sleep. On the weekends, we go out the dance clubs and the bars. We tend to leave our houses and meet up around 11, and then go to a few bars before getting the clubs around 1 or 2. And then we dance until about 4,5,6 in the morning. Both nights that I went out, I was out until about six am. The clubs are pretty packed until about 530am. 4am is considered early here. Dancing is really fun. Us girls are really good at helping save each other from the Spanish boys, who are really forward. We have system where we help pull the girl away from a really persistent boy and then get in between her and the boy.
All in all, its a very different time schedule than the one I am used to, but I am adjusting. I still go to bed at the same time I always did (which is like 2am, except on weekends thus far).
Interesting cultural things I have learned here thus far from either class or my host mom:
1. cuba libre is rum and coke
2. most spanish boys and girls lose thier virginity in a car or in a park (that was fun day in class)
3. a lot of people don´t know how to read, and only like 47% of the population read for fun
4. water is scarce and a problem
5. there is a only small amount of divorce, but it still more common than i thought it would be (my host mom is divorced)
And yea, I will talk to you all again soon. Love, Liz
So I am going to try and update this blog regularly or with good regularity on Thursdays. I can’t promise you that it will always be Thursday that it is updated or that it will be updated every week. Those of you who know me well know that I have issues keeping in contact with people, etc, etc. So I am trying.
But you don’t really care about that. What you may be much more interested in is Spain. Which is where I currently live with my host mom Yolanda and two other girls named Kristin and Analisa. Kristin is the girl from the same program that I am in. She is very nice, though currently she has hurt her knee so that she has problems walking, which by the way sucks since we walk everywhere in Granada. Analisa is from a different program and she moved in on Tuesday of this week. She is very nice and I have walked around a bit with her and met some of her other friends. She had already been for six weeks but had to change residencies because she had some problems with her last roommates.
The way things work in my house is we each have our own room. We all share the bathroom. Showers are supposed to be five to ten minutes and we have to ask for the hot water to turn on. If you are the first shower you might have to wait like five or ten minutes with the water running for it to get warm. When you aren’t actively using the water, the water is supposed to be turned off because there is a continuous water shortage here (which is ironic because its rained almost every day I’ve been here).
The food here is really good. Yolanda makes all of our meals, and she´s a very good cook. Breakfast tends to be around 9 in the morning and consists of tea, two to three pieces of toast with butter and jam, and possibly a muffin of some kind. Lunch isn’t until about 330 or four in the afternoon and is the largest meal of the day. We normally have some kind of salad, bread, and then a main entre. The first day it was pumpkin soup, and yesterday we had some sort of sea food. Which i ate. It was okay. It had squid, clams, shrimp, something else, something else, and potatoes. I tried the clams and they were good. I still don´t really like squid, but i´m coping. And then dinner is not til about ten at night, and it tends to be something really basic. We had eggs and cheese on toast last night which was delicious. The night before we had grilled cheese with tomato. (Yes, i keep talking about food, but food is really important to me and I´m hungry right now.) To help with the long time between meals, I normally eat a piece of fruit in between classes at school around 12, and at night there are tapas (which are snacks) which eaten at any time really. I have no chance of getting scurvy while I´m here because I eat like two oranges every day. They are really good here.
So classes wise, I have two classes right now that meet every day. My first class is a basic spanish writing and speaking class and is from 10 to 11:30. My second class is a spanish culture class which is from 11:30 to 1. I like both my classes a lot and both classes are taught in spanish, which is sorta comprehend at times. At home, during meals, we aren´t allowed to speak in English. My spanish is better than i thought it was but its still really really bad.
After class, I tend to go walks by myself because my roommate injured her knee and has trouble walking until it gets better. There are fountains and plazas everywhere that are really pretty. I will post pictures eventually (hopefully next week). My favorite plaza is Plaza de los lobos. Its really pretty, and is a bit small, but has a fountain that spouts water and some orange trees next to it. It´s really small, but has a few benches for people to sit around and is really near my house.
During the week, I tend to explore and stay at home. Last monday, we all went out for dinner to celebrate two of the girl´s 21st birthdays (which of course doesn´t seem that important to the spanish because they can drink when they are 18). We went to an Italian resturante, and it was really nice. Afterwards a few people went out to a bar, but me and my roommate went home to sleep. On the weekends, we go out the dance clubs and the bars. We tend to leave our houses and meet up around 11, and then go to a few bars before getting the clubs around 1 or 2. And then we dance until about 4,5,6 in the morning. Both nights that I went out, I was out until about six am. The clubs are pretty packed until about 530am. 4am is considered early here. Dancing is really fun. Us girls are really good at helping save each other from the Spanish boys, who are really forward. We have system where we help pull the girl away from a really persistent boy and then get in between her and the boy.
All in all, its a very different time schedule than the one I am used to, but I am adjusting. I still go to bed at the same time I always did (which is like 2am, except on weekends thus far).
Interesting cultural things I have learned here thus far from either class or my host mom:
1. cuba libre is rum and coke
2. most spanish boys and girls lose thier virginity in a car or in a park (that was fun day in class)
3. a lot of people don´t know how to read, and only like 47% of the population read for fun
4. water is scarce and a problem
5. there is a only small amount of divorce, but it still more common than i thought it would be (my host mom is divorced)
And yea, I will talk to you all again soon. Love, Liz
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Estoy in Espana
Heyllo,
So i made it to Spain. I do not have the internet in mi casa. La madre de mi case, se llama Yolanda. Trying to speak Spanish no es facil. Lo siento, if people have trouble understanding my spangles. Pero, mi familia y mis amigos tienen el internet mas bueno de mi. (better than mine). I do not know how often I will post because I do not have the internet and in general I´m bad at this sort of thing. The key board is set up differently than those at home, and so it is hard to capitlize or space things without hitting the wrong keys.
I really like my host mother. She is very nice. I don´t understand her about half the time, but my roommate speaks Spanish much better than I do and we have a lot of conversations. When we eat lunch, which is the main meal of the day, we talk about our sorts of things like our family, the customs in the U.S and the customs in Spain. We talked about smoking yesterday because everyone smokes here. I have my own room with a fantastic view of the city. It has a small balcony off of it. It´s very awesome. I can see a courtyard across the street which has trees that are growing lemons and oranges.
It has rained every day so far. which is triste, pero I´m very glad I brought an umbrello. And i hope those of you at home in the blizzard still have power and that ya´ll survive it.
I have to go home for lunch soon. I will send letters and post more some other time.
Adios.
So i made it to Spain. I do not have the internet in mi casa. La madre de mi case, se llama Yolanda. Trying to speak Spanish no es facil. Lo siento, if people have trouble understanding my spangles. Pero, mi familia y mis amigos tienen el internet mas bueno de mi. (better than mine). I do not know how often I will post because I do not have the internet and in general I´m bad at this sort of thing. The key board is set up differently than those at home, and so it is hard to capitlize or space things without hitting the wrong keys.
I really like my host mother. She is very nice. I don´t understand her about half the time, but my roommate speaks Spanish much better than I do and we have a lot of conversations. When we eat lunch, which is the main meal of the day, we talk about our sorts of things like our family, the customs in the U.S and the customs in Spain. We talked about smoking yesterday because everyone smokes here. I have my own room with a fantastic view of the city. It has a small balcony off of it. It´s very awesome. I can see a courtyard across the street which has trees that are growing lemons and oranges.
It has rained every day so far. which is triste, pero I´m very glad I brought an umbrello. And i hope those of you at home in the blizzard still have power and that ya´ll survive it.
I have to go home for lunch soon. I will send letters and post more some other time.
Adios.
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