Sevilla

This past Saturday I went to a nearby town called Sevilla.  It's about 3 hours away so we had to get on the bus at 8:30 am.  We got there around noon because we ended up leaving but our first stop was the Plaza de Espana.  It's in the center of Sevilla and there was some parts in Star Wars 3 that were filmed there which is pretty cool.  It's basically this huge plaza with lots of bridges and a fountain in the middle.  To say the least it was gorgeous.

Then we visited downtown Sevilla and had 3 hours to ourselves to tour the city.  Some friends and I decided to go to the Catedral de Sevilla.  It's the third biggest Cathedral in the world and the biggest Gothic Cathedral.  We had to wait in line for a while but once we got in it was totally worth it.  There were these huge columns everywhere along with lots of paintings.  Then they had these rooms where people have service at but they were blocked off with gates because it's only for the Priests.  We probably spent a good hour just looking around in there.  I told my dad that if he would've been there he could've spent the whole day inside.

In the Cathedral they have the Girlada Tower which is 34 floors high.  It's very steep going from each floor to the next so you get a workout in.  Once you get to the top though you have an amazing view of the city.  They also have lots of bells at the top but you can't ring them.  Going down was lots easier then coming back up to say the least.  We probably spent 2 hours total there.

After that we couldn't resist and went to a Starbucks since they don't have one in Granada.  Most people ended up getting a drink but I had to have a blueberry muffin.  They have the best pastries ever so I wanted to save it for the ride home.

Once we were done with Starbucks we had to meet up with the rest of the group to go to the Real Alcazar de Sevilla.  It's hard to explain exactly what it is but it's this huge garden with lots of fountains and old buildings inside of it.  There was even an old castle in it and we saw lots of old paintings, the kings's room, and the princess' room.  We spent about 2 hours there and after that it was time to go home.  I ended up sleeping most of the ride home since we did a lot of walking that day and I was going out later that night.

Losing my passport

Last week I was using my passport to try and get bus tickets online so that way we had a way to Madrid.  I was using my passport but couldn't pay since i'm not from the EU (European Union).  I swore I put my passport back in a pocket of my backpack because I thought I would need it the next day to pay for something.  This was on Thursday.  On Friday I was pretty sure I had my passport at school but then when I was shopping that night it wasn't in my purse with the rest of my things.  Earlier that day I had moved stuff from my backpack to my purse for when I would go shopping.  I freaked out a little and had my friend Becca check her house to see if I had left it there and I hadn't.

 That night I searched the house and dumped my backpack and purse out several times to see if it was there and it wasn't.  That next day I wanted to check the school but since it was Saturday I wasn't sure it was going to be open.  Since I was also going to Sevilla I had to wake up at 5:30 am to go to the school before I was going to take the 8:30 am bus.  Of course the school wasn't open so I was going to have to wait until Monday.

  On Sunday me and my host mom searched my whole house and didn't have any luck.  We looked all around the living room where I was sitting where I last remembered having my passport.  We looked under seat cushions, in drawers, and moved furniture-nada.  We looked in the hallway-nada.  We looked in my room in my closet, clothes, dresser drawers, sacks, desk, carry on bag, and night stand-nada.  We dumped my purse and backpack 4 or 5 times and checked every pocket-nada.  We checked in my covers and in my bed/ under neath- nada.  It was officially not in my house.  My host brother looked too and he didn't find anything.  So on Monday I went to school and checked the classroom, asked my teachers, went to the secretary office, and went to the main office-nada.  I went to the police station, checked city hall, and also tourist offices-nada.  On my way home I also checked the streets in case it might have fallen out but it wasn't there either.

So now I have officially lost my passport.  I went to the police station to fill out a report that I had lost my passport.  There was one guy who spoke English so I got pretty lucky and he told me what I needed to do.  They had an American female passport but of course it wasn't mine.  I was so close!  While I was at the police station I met a girl from Germany who had her purse stolen with her id card and bank cards.  Her id card is for the EU and is more important that a passport is to us.  So she had to do the same thing I did.  We ended up having a nice 15 minute talk.

This means now that I have to go the US Embassy in Madrid to get a new passport.  Madrid is 5 hours away from Granada and the Embassy is only open in the mornings which means I have to miss a day of school.  My teachers say it won't count against me since this is something very important and we can only miss a certain number of days.  Thank goodness that they said that.  Though I have my final on Friday so i'm going to have to be studying all day Thursday when i'm not doing my passport stuff.

I have to take a 1:30 am bus from Granada to Madrid because they don't offer anything until 7 am and the Embassy closes at 1 pm so I wouldn't make it there in time.  My appointment is at 9 am so i'll just take a taxi to the Embassy and study until it's my turn to go.  Though it'll be nice because i'll get done faster because I take priority for being an American citizen.  While i'm there i'll have to fill out a couple papers and give them my police report and a copy of my passport.  Good thing I had one of those done earlier in the semester.

I'll also have to get my picture taken and pay a fee since i'm getting a new passport.  It's going to cost 115 euros.  Yikes that's a dent in my bank account! I'm getting an emergency passport since i'll be traveling to Paris on Saturday which means i'll have a temporary passport for 3 months.  Good thing I have a little less than 3 months left because they day after I get home it will expire.  After I get done at the embassy I have a 2 pm bus home which means i'll get back at 7 pm.  It's going to be a long day but worth it so I can still travel around Europe and back home without a problem.

Shopping/Fashion

The first couple weeks that I was here I hit the jackpot when it came to shopping.  Now i'm not a big shopper but during the month of January is when Spain has their big sales.  So when I first came everything was 50 % off and then within 2 weeks everything was 70-90% off because stores were trying to get rid of everything before the spring clothing lines came in.  One day I got 3 shirts, a tank top, a blazer all for 30 euro which is about 40 dollars.  For every one euro it's about 1.2 US dollars.  Then I also got a pair of boots for 20 euro.  I am loving the sales right now but they are all pretty much gone.  I have enough long sleeve shirts to last me a while and when it starts to warm up i'm going to go on another mini shopping spree to get some cute short sleeve shirts here and maybe a dress or two.  My store though that I have gotten my stuff from is called Pull & Bear which reminds me a little like Hollister back home except not as preppy.  Then I have gotten the rest of my stuff from H&M because they have some pretty good deals.  My friend Emma was saying how she tends to be flowery prints and how I tend to buy lots of stripes.  So we nicknamed each other flowers and stripes.  Though sure enough pretty much every thing I ended up looking at was stripes and half my clothes here are stripes.  I need to get away from that but can't see to.  Also everyone here is super fashionable.  I was telling my friend Anna that she would fit in here because she has such good fashion and has all the right clothes.  Pretty much no one here wears sweats which are my best friend.  So I have only worn them out of the house twice because I was sick and didn't really care what anyone else thought.  Though now that i'm not sick I make sure to wear jeans with a nice top and sometimes my boots.  I'm getting a little fashionable here but nothing compared to what everyone else is, especially the kids.  I swear that as soon as they are born they are shown what is fashionable and what isn't because they are always dressed better than me.  My purchases so far are:

a coat, scarf, and gloves (because I didn't realize it was going to be as cold as it was here)

 a see through nude top and wear a tank-top underneath and a pair of boots

                                     

      a blazer, tank top, and a plain white t-shirt

a mint colored shirt and a striped half sleeve shirt (of course I couldn't resist stripes)

P.S. Happy Valentine's Day! :)

Rockin' Morocco

Last week I went to Morocco from Saturday-Tuesday and it was one amazing time.  We left the friday night before to drive 4 hours down to a city in southern Spain in which we were going to take the ferry the next day.  We got there at about 9 pm and we all passed out because we were going to have a next early day.

                                                             We're going to Africa!!!!

 On saturday we got up at 615 for all of us in the room to have enough time to get ready.  Being lucky me I was the first one up but I got the hottest shower that i've had since i've been here so i'm not complaining.  Oh how I envy the people who have nice steamy hot water for more than 10 minutes.  We got on a bus from Algecris to Tarifa Spain so we could get on the ferry.  It was about an hour ride.  Then we crossed the Mediterranean Sea to Tangier, Morocco.  That was not a fun boat ride because I got sea sick and ended up throwing up.  I think this means I probably won't be able to ride on a cruise ship.  Once we got to Tangier we went to a women's center called DARNA which helps women get a better education to help them get better jobs.  We had a conversation with a couple Moroccean students about their lives and how things are much more modern now than conservative.  For lunch we had the traditional meal of couscous which is rice, vegetables, and meat.

                                                                            coucous

After that we had our drive to Asilah on the Atlantic Coast where we also got to ride camels.  Yep that's right we got to ride camels.  How cool is that!?!  It was scary getting on and off because you feel like you're going to fall off but it's totally worth it.  It was a one time thing for me though.  There was one time where I was taking pictures on the ground beside a camel and he turned his head at the same time as me which scared the crap out of me but my friend got a picture and it turned out really cool.  They are very gentle and calm because you could get right up next to them and they wouldn't do anything.
  

                                                              me riding on the camel

                                 we were turning our heads at the same time and I wasn't paying attention!

Once we got to Asilah it was beautiful.  We got to go on the dock of the town and the waves were crashing down below us.  You got the view of the whole town and of the Atlantic coast which was amazing.  The pictures don't describe how pretty it was.  All the buildings on the coast towns have white and blue paint on them because of Jewish influence that was there.  We also walked through the Medina which means the old part of town.

                                                              Atlantic coast of Asiliah

Once we were done in Asilah we drove to the capitol city of Rabat which was 3 hours away.  We met with our home stay families and me, Emma, and Becca all lived together.  We stayed with a lady who had grown up in her house and now lived there with her sister, and her sister's child and grandchild.    They have 4 other sisters who live in different towns throughout Morocco.

On Sunday we visited an NGO site in Sale (which is a sister city to Rabat).  An NGO site is something that is created by the king and it's funded to help students get better education.  In Morocco the public schools are really bad so you have to have your siblings teach you or go to a private school.  We went to a public market which was a very interesting scene.  We walked through a place with veges, then meats (which were in all sorts of shapes and parts), and then the fish market.  Let me tell you it did not have the best smell and was very gross looking.  Then we went to visit Roman ruins which were right outside the city.  They were so big and there was this huge wall holding them in.  Me and a couple other people went up on the wall but then we got in trouble and had to get done.  Our motto here is that go somewhere until they tell you that you can't!

roman ruins

me sitting on a toilet seat

                                                     
                                               me, emma, and  becca at the front of the ruins

Later after lunch with our families which was the traditional couscous again we went to Rabat's Kasbah which is an old fort and went through the Medina market.  The market we went to was huge and had lots of really cool stuff.  I ended up getting quite a few things because everything is so cheap there.  For example I got a pretty ceramic bowl for 40 durhma which is 4 euros which is about 5 dollars.  Everything that I got cost me total of less than 20 euros.  The conversion rate for dollars to euros is 1.2 for us.

                                             what I bought: a scarf, blanket, wodden camel,
                                                   ceramic bowl, and eye of fatima keychain
  

That evening we met with Peace Corps Volunteers along with a Fulbright Scholar who talked about their time in Morocco.  The main difference between them was that Peace Corps work for 2 years for volunteer while Fulbright works 1 year for pretty good money.  It was really interesting to hear about and made you think.  It made me figure out what i'm going to do after college and maybe do one of those as a possibility.  I don't know how well my parents would handle me being that far away from them for 1-2 years though.  That night we went to a Hammam which is a public bath.  We went in our swimming suits and they have nice hot water with a steam room and special soap that you use.  You feel so much cleaner after you go and it's such a cultural experience.  Also we had traditional mint sweet tea which was served with us at every meal.  Our host mom also had us eat couscous in little balls and I tried to do that too but it was unsuccessful!

                                                   our host mom feeding us couscous balls

                                            me trying to make one as well but it wasn't
                                             working out with only using one hand!

                                                                   traditional mint tea

On Monday we left our host families and drove up to a village in the Rif Mountains which was about a 4 hour drive.  The family that we met with had a mother, father, and 5 kids.  It was interesting to hear how happy they were with how little they had.  Also the people there are really hospitable which you don't normally find back home.  They have a huge amount of land where you could see the mountains and it looked amazing.  It kind of reminds me of Colorado except so much prettier.    It was so good! I would know because normally i'm not a tea drinker, you can ask my parents or my friends who drink it all the time.

                                                           we slept on really long couches

                                                               me and my host mom

                                                        where king mohammod V is buried

                                                what was supposed to be the biggest mosque

the gorgeous Rif mountains

After we met with the family we went to the town of Chefchaouen which is a town of about 30,000.  We did so much walking there because it was in the mountains.  My butt was in so much pain the next day.  It's crazy how everything here is so steep, it gives you a workout 24/7!  We went shopping through the Medina that night and then ate at supper with some people in my group.  The place that we went to had really good food and a great dessert which was yogurt with cinnamon and strawberries.  That night we stayed in a hostel and had a group talk about our time in Morocco.  Our group leader Justin gave us Moroccean friendship bracelets and key chains that were of the eye of fatima (which is a goddess in Morocco).

                                                                 our junk food stash

cheese omlet that had no cheese in it

                                                                    homemade hot bread

a pasta dish that I tried and loved (which me and Emma switched plates)

                                       our delicious desert of yogurt, cinnanom, and strawberries

On Tuesday we spent the day driving back through the mountains and riding the ferry home.  It was a day spent traveling and relaxing which was nice to do.  All of us were excited to have a real shower and food once we got home.  Now we all consider Granada our home.  It doesn't feel that i've only been here for 3 weeks.  I feel like I have lived here much longer.

Oh how I hate sickness

Let me tell you being sick in a foreign country is the worst thing ever.  So I went to Morocco last week and when I came back Tuesday night I was feeling fine but then by Wednesday night I wasn't feeling so hot.  The next day at school I puked so I went home for the day and couldn't keep anything in (from either end).  I know it's gross but it's part of my sickness.  Then I tried going to school on Friday but the same thing happened again so I went home.  Then on Saturday I started getting these really bad stomach cramps.  Also anytime I tried to eat or drink something I would puke it up immediately.  That night I couldn't sleep at all.  I woke up about every hour and then would be up for a while because my stomach hurt so bad.  On Sunday my host mom took me to the doctor which was probably the scariest thing ever.  Since I had no idea what they were talking about it probably made it worse than what it was.  At least my host mom knew what was wrong with me so she could talk to the doctor.  He ended up checking out my stomach to feel for the pain and he barely touched my stomach but it felt like he was punching because I was in so much pain.  I then went to a separate room where I got two very painful shots in my butt.  I ended up talking to my program director since she can speak English and she told me that I have this bad stomach infection where I have to take lots of medicine and have a very strict diet for the next week.  So yesterday (Sunday) I took 5 pills for lunch and felt immediate relief.  I have to take 5 pills 3x a day for the next 5 or 6 days.  Today is Monday and I already am feeling so much better than I was on Sunday and even Saturday.  I was able to sleep through the whole night except for once or twice but that wasn't too bad.  I mostly sleep so I don't have to feel the little pain that I do have or watch a movie to help distract myself.  I hope I don't get sick during the rest of my stay here because it sucks so much.  I will probably never go back to Morocco because I will associate it with this sickness and I never want to get this thing again.  I know it might not be Morocco's fault but i'm still blaming them.

My First (unsuccessful) week at school

So I started classes on Wednesday and I am in the lowest level possible, which is level one.  I have 3 other students in my class and I have my friend Becca with me which makes it nice to already know someone.  I have class from 9-1 with two different professors.  We have a couple ten minute breaks throughout the time slot but mostly it's 4 hours straight.  It doesn't really feel like four hours straight though because my professors are really nice and they make the class interesting.  In the first part of class we mostly learn about grammar and in the second part of class we have been learning about geography.  It's weird how some of the countries in Spanish are close to how we say it in English but others are completely different.  My teachers talk in Spanish the whole time but if we get confused they'll repeat it a couple times and then say it in English.  If we don't know a word in   Spanish we say "como si dice" but if we don't know a word in Spanish we say "que significa".  For the most part it's pretty easy because we are in the lowest level so we are reviewing all the grammar but I know it will get a little tougher later on.  So we were supposed to start our first day of classes on Tuesday but since I was in Morocco I didn't start until the next day.  Then I brought a sickness back with me so I went to class yesterday for about a half an hour and then tried to go today but only managed to last an hour.  It sucks missing this much class this early but my teachers understand and want me to get better.  This means though that I can't miss anymore class for the next 2 and a half weeks until we have our exam.  This shouldn't be too hard because I don't plan on missing anymore class between now and then.  Let's hope that I get over this sickness soon.  The way they do classes in Spain are different than back home.  I'm in the intensive program which means I have class for 3 weeks straight then have a final exam followed by about a 5 or 6 day break.  Then I move up to the higher level (level 2) and do the same thing over again.  I should be a level 4 when I am all done in Spain which means my Spanish will be greatly improved.  My friend Becca figured out that we only have about 63 days of actual school and we have 62 days of vacation and weekends which is spread out in the semester.  How awesome is that!?!  They should definitely change that back in the States.