Granada y La Alhambra

This past weekend was my trip to Granada, Spain with my program. We caught the bus bright and early at 8:00am and most slept for the 3 and a half hour ride there. Luckily I can't sleep on buses so I got to see all of the vineyards and olive oil trees that we were passing. As we got closer you could see the snow-capped Sierra Nevada Mountains in the background, it was beautiful! We got to our hotel, dropped off our stuff in our rooms (me, Megan, and Erica shared one) and stuffed our faces at the buffet lunch. Then came the highlight of our trip, and the main reason we journeyed to Granada. The Alhambra. Granada was the last Muslim Capital of Spain, and this was the palace of the King and Queen lived before Christians finally conquered the city. Not too shabby if you ask me. The mix of incredibly detailed plasterwork, tile work, and wood ceilings completely covered in gorgeous Arabic designs was mesmerizing! Fountains and reflection pools in the perfectly maintained gardens leave visitors speechless, but luckily our professor was doing plenty of talking about the history and pointing out all the specific details. I highly recommend googling this and looking at pictures, it is INCREDIBLE! After that we had some went to an Arabic Tea House and had Moroccan Green Tea with Mint (unbelievable, I’m a tea girl not a coffee one). Finally they gave us some free time, and then we headed back for dinner, which was another very filling and wonderful buffet!

Now, I'm not one to go out very often, I don't get wasted every night like the rest of the students here, and show up to class hung over and looking like death. But my usual excuse, and a legitimate one if you ask me, is that I live about an hours walk away from where the rest of the students live and don't want to walk back by myself at 5am. Unfortunately this wasn't going to work tonight, and the hoard of girl that is my program (28) attacked me with full force when they realized I was willing to make myself look like a girl and accompany them to the bars that evening. Before I knew it hair straighteners, makeup brushes, and perfumes were coming at me from every direction! I was overwhelmed but sucked it up and realized that I’ve made it almost half way through my trip without this happening yet, but I thought I had left this part of my life back in the states. FALSE. Once the painting and sculpting of my new fake appearance was complete everyone stood back and proceeded, as girls always do, to oooh and ahhh and snap an unnecessary amount of pictures. It was going to be a long night. Luckily, it didn’t turn out to be that bad because I ditched between the bars and discotheque (dance club). The bars weren’t bad but we were just a giant group of Americans meandering and majority of which were looking like complete idiots which I would prefer not to associate with. So after the second bar Alyssa, Brittany, and I decided since it was 2:30 or so, to head back to the hotel since we had to be up in about 5 hours for another busy day. The cab ride home was pretty sweet because we managed to strike up a conversation with the driver that started about the weather in Granada to whether or not he was in agreement with Obama and his ideas. We were all pretty proud of how well the conversation went. We’ve come along way from where we started just saying, “I hungry” “I go sleep” haha. Not much sleep was had for me though since my 2 roommates came back around 5ish completely trashed, it was entertaining to joke about in the morning, but at the time I wasn’t in the cheeriest of spirits. The next day we got to walk around the city and saw where Queen Isabel and Fernando (I forget what number, maybe the 3rd?) were buried which was cool, and then we headed home.

Overall it was a really fun trip and I’m very glad I went. Today I went to another soccer game. This one was during the day and between two Spanish teams so it wasn’t as intense, and I went with my English student, Andres, and met up with his friend Manolo on the bus. Over all it cost me 3 euros it helped me procrastinate for my 3 exams, 2 compositions, and other assignments that I have to do this week! Next weekend I’m off to Madrid to see Tina, Nikki, and Brittany who are visiting Mike. I am VERY excited!