Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

April 22, 2012

Today is Sunday April 22^nd, otherwise known as my wonderful mother’s birthday! I cannot wait to wish her a Happy Birthday later this afternoon when I speak to her and my dad over Skype. It should be great!

I have had quite a busy weekend. Friday night I went to an olive oil tasting, which I wrote about already. Yesterday (Saturday), I hung around the house all day doing homework and just being a bum. At 7:30 pm last night I left the house with Amy and Tesla to meet up with Shannon and Malissa on Ronda. Once we met up with went to a bar to watch the Real Madrid-F.C. Barcelona futbol game. We went to a tapas bar and have a few drinks while we watched the game. The game turned out to be fairly boring…Madrid won 2-1, which is sad since I was rooting for Barcelona. Unfortunately Barcelona just seemed to be having a bad night because they were not playing like their usual selves. Ahh well, it was fun anyways.

Today I planned on going hiking with my Intercambio group at 10 am, so I had to wake up at 9 am. So early! Especially since I didn’t go to bed till after 4 am…Anyways we planned to meet at Puerta Real and when I got there Chris was the only one there, and I arrived at exactly 10 am. We ended up waiting for 15 minutes for more people to show up till finally Trini, our Intercambio leader showed up. We waited another 5 minutes just in case anyone else was going to show, but no one did. We picked up one of Trini’s friends before we left the city and then took a 15 minute drive to Monachil, a small town at the base of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

We spent the day hiking on the trails around Monachil. The views were stunning! It was fun to hike in that area because there were parts of the trail where you had to be creative in how you climbed over the many rocks. Trini and her friend, Juan Lorenzo, also took us down into a cave with a waterfall in it. You had to climb over rocks that were so smooth that they were slippery. It was my favorite part. We had a picnic by the river and relaxed and took a siesta in the sun before hiking a little more and heading back to Granada. I really enjoyed hiking today.

Soooo, guess what?!?! My wonderful parents are currently on their way to visit me for 6 days!! They will arrive in Granada around 1 pm tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon. I cannot wait to give them the BIGGEST hugs of my life! I miss them soooo much! Because Mom and Dad are visiting I will be a little too busy showing them around Granada, so please don´t expect me to blog again for another week. 

In parting here is a copy of a hilarious email Maggie (my sister) sent to me. She had tried to help my mother out by showing her a Spanish "cheat sheet" (the basics of Spanish) she had in order to encourage my Mom and Dad to learn some more Spanish before they came to visit. My mother is the one who replied to her...

Sent: March 25, 2012

Hola,

I sent Mom and Dad a "Survival Guide" handout that my Spanish teacher gave us at the beginning of the semester, hoping that it will encourage them to start learning a few Spanish words, so they won't be complete fools when they come.  Here is how they responded to my e-mail.

Gracias,
No pasa nada
Salud! Jesus!

Mama, Papa


... Oh, they show so much promise.  Ha. :)  Thought you would enjoy that!  Hope you are having fun in Spain!

Maggie

Friday April 20th

This evening I went to an olive oil tasting with a group of people in my program. This was something set up by my program and it was a lot of fun and I was stuffed afterwards!

The store we went to to have the tasting is less than 5 minutes from the CLM (Centro de Lenguas Modernas, otherwise known as my school). Normally the store does not hold olive oil tastings because they are so expensive, but this was an exception because we are such a large group.

We started the olive oil tasting by receiving 3 small bowls of olive oil at each table. Each bowl was a different type of olive oil from a different region in Spain. The storekeeper gave each table olive oils from Granada, Huelva, and Cordoba (3 different regions in Andalucia). We taste-tested each oil with bread and then with potatoes. I liked the olive oil from Granada the best because it was the strongest tasting. It had the most olivy taste out of the three. He also put 2 different kinds of olives on the table for us to try as well, but I cannot stand olives (when they aren’t oil), so I didn’t try them.

Next, we were served toasted bread with tomatoes and olive oil. This type of Spanish dish is called Tomaca and is a popular breakfast food. It was really good, I liked it a lot. I actually had not had tomaca till last night, so it was nice to try it. Next came Gazpacho, which is a cold Spanish soup and is made with a lot of ingredients, including: olive oil, vinegar, salt, peppers, dry fennel, garlic, bread, and tomato. All the ingredients are blended together to create the soup. Normally it is drunk out of a cup, but I also dipped bread into it and that was delicious too!

After the gazpacho we were served avocados covered in an olive oil with a lemon flavor. It was great, but the lemon flavor in the olive oil was not my favorite. After that came a slice of tomatoe and a slice of goat cheese; both we covered in olive oil. This is a popular tapas food. After the tomato and cheese we were served fried garlic and olive oil on a lettuce leaf. This was different, but very good. I enjoyed the tastes of the 3 foods together.

I should mention that this entire time we are being served an unlimited amount of bread. At this time I was also becoming very full, and we weren’t even close to being done. 

Next, we were served a small slice of pork loin on bread with olive oil on top. The pork was delicious and made me miss the delicious meats at home. After that we were served a cube of cheese dipped in olive oil. The cheese was very rich, but heavenly.

After all this the dessert portion was about to begin. We were served 2 types of typical Spanish pastries. Olive oil was used to make them. They were delectable. One was basically a sugared donut and the other was a pastry covered in sugar. Finally, we were served dark chocolate ice cream where olive oil was used to cook it. Oh, dear goodness, that was amazing! I love dark chocolate in the first place and making it into an ice cream made it even better.

After the olive oil tasting was over I went with my friends to Café Futbol where I got a cup of ice cream called Copa Futbol and a Tinto de Verano. It was a perfect way to end the night.

Differences in food tastes between Spain and the U.S.

Food in Spain is a lot more bland compared to the food at home. Sometimes when my host mom gives us our food it tastes like the only spices she uses is pepper and salt (she uses a lot of salt). My friends have said similar things, that their families don't use much for spices either.

Spaniards differences in tastes don't stop there though. Their opinion of "spicy" is not spicy at all. Their spicy is our normal type of seasoned food. There is a Mexican restaurant that I have gone to with my friends and a dish that said on the menu it was "spicy" was not spicy whatsoever. I was slightly disappointed because I was looking forward to having something with a little spice.

Even the sweets here don't seem as sweet here as compared to the U.S. I can never put my finger on it but every time I have chocolate it doesn't taste quite the same, almost like there isn't as much sugar (this is probably a good thing though) in it. One of my favorite sweets here are Principe cookies. They are two wafer crackers with a bit of chocolate in between creating a sandwich. They are sweet enough for my tastes.

The ice cream tastes different here too. It almost seems that there is more sugar in it than ice cream from home, but you can't taste the extra sugar. It is weird, but I cannot explain it much better. I'm not a fan of the ice cream here for that reason.

I realize that I didn't explain the differences in food here very well, but it is very difficult to explain. One almost needs to visit Spain in order to experience the taste differences for their self.

Families in Spain and the U.S.

First let me say that my knowledge on this subject is limited strictly to mainly my host family (her two grown daughters, her son-in-law, and her grandson) and to stories I have been told by my friends about their host families. My generalizations about the Spanish family stem from this.

Overall the family unit is generally the same in Spain as it is in the United States. The parents work, the children go to school, etc. What I think is different in Spain than in the U.S. is that families seem closer here than families in the states do. For example, my host mother Carmen watches her grandson, Juan Antonio, every day of the week while her daughter and son-in-law work. At lunch each day her 2 daughters and son-in-law come to eat the lunch she has made for every one. During lunchtime they always have a continuous conversation going, and even after lunch has concluded Juan Antonio's normally stay and nap before heading back to work. Some afternoons I come back to find Carmen, her daughters, and Juan Antonio hanging out together in the apartment. They all seem very close.

I have been told similar stories by my friends in my program. Normally the immediate family and many friends of their host families are always traipsing through the apartments. Many of the stories I have been told have occurred when my friends are having dinner with their families and the friends and other family come over for a meal or for coffee/tea.

Another thing I have noticed between families in Spain and the United States is that children and more babied here. For example Juan Antonio is 2 years old and normally at that age children are already eating solid foods, but I have never seen him eat a solid food. Normally for lunch he eats a pureed soup and yogurt. I have only seen him eat a piece of bread, but even then he only sucks on it. It's very different.

My friend, Tesla, also told me that when her host mother's grandchildren visited her that her host mother bathed her 8 year old grandson. I don't know about other people in the U.S., but when I was 8 I was bathing on my own.

Overall I think children are babied more and stay children longer than in the U.S. Children here also live with their families longer too. I have met a few Spaniards that still live with their families and they are college-aged.

I have no opinion on which country raises their children better, because I think there are positive and negative points with each country. I only write about this to point out the differences that I have seen.

London!!

Tuesday April 3, 2012
We left Galway at 7:15 am and took a bus straight to the Dublin airport, where we waited around till we checked in for our flight around 1 pm. Our flight from Dublin to London departed at 3ish and we arrived at the Gatwick airport around 4:30 pm. We took a train and the tube to the hostel we were staying at. When Amy and I arrived at the Gatwick airport we were a little overwhelmed by all the people and the hustle and bustle going on around us that we both got a little angry with each other because we were so overwhelmed. Neither of us wanted to admit how we were feeling either. ;)

Our hostel was not what we were expecting. The previous 2 hostels we stayed at were both nice and clean and when we arrived here the hostel was clean enough, but still visibly dirty. It was also a maze of doors to traverse. Just to get to the bathroom from our room you had to go through 5 doors and one flight of stairs to reach it. There were a few times where I had to stop and ask myself which door was I supposed to go through because I had about 4 choices.

After we adjusted to the shock of London a bit we took the tube to King's Cross Station. This is a famous train station in London and it is a site used in the Harry Potter series. At the station is the famous Platform 9 3/4, made famous in the books, so Amy and I went to see it. We were a little confused at first as to where it was, but after a couple directions from the guards at the station we found it, and boy were we disappointed. We were both expecting an actual train platform, but what we found was about 10 feet of brick wall with a cart stuck in the wall and a sign above it. We took a picture and left.

We took the tube back to our hostel, grabbed some delicious Chinese from across the street, relaxed, showered, and hit the sack for the night.

Wednesday April 4, 2012
Today was a very busy day. Amy and I left the hostel about 9:30 am, took the tube to Hyde Park where we walked around and enjoyed the beauty for a bit.

Then we headed over to Buckingham Palace to watch the Changing of the Guard. We were about 45 minutes early and we got a decent spot at the side of the palace right up at the gate. The guard changing began about 15 minutes late and we basically watched the troops march into the gates and stand at attention for 20 minutes while the head guards marched back and forth between the palace and the gates. It was incredibly boring, even though I am sure  there was some type of significance to all of it that I am unaware of. After the marching stopped a marching band marched into the gates, played a few songs, one of which was "We are the Champions" by Queen, and then more marching began. Amy and I left almost an hour into the ceremony because we weren't sure how much longer it would last and we wanted to move on to other things.

We walked around the palace to Westminister Cathedral, then to Westminister Abbey, Big Ben and the parliament buildings, and across the Westminister bridge to the London Eye (which is a giant ferris wheel where people can see wonderful views of the city). After that we grabbed lunch, then walked to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, then walked across the Millennium Bridge to St. Paul's Cathedral.

We continued walking to the London Bridge (This was not what I was expecting. I thought the London Bridge was a huge, cool landmark in the city, but when we walked across it we found that it is nothing more than a bridge. Very disappointing...), then to the Tower Bridge (I think this was the famous landmark that I had always seen in pictures and this what I was expecting for the London Bridge.).

After all the walking we took the tube out to the edge of the city to the tube stop "Abbey Road", which I thought was the stop nearest the famous street Abbey Road, made famous by the Beatles and their album cover. I was wrong. We get out of the tube station, start walking only to start wondering if this is the right place. The buildings didn't look right and neither did the streets. We did find Abbey Road...It definitely was not the correct street. We stopped in a shop and asked the owner where Abbey Road was, he knew we weren't talking about the street a few blocks away, gave a look like "you're stupid", and told us that the street we wanted was in the center of London, where we had just come from. Wonderful! :) Apparently I need to be more thorough in my research...

A couple stops back on the tube was the Olympic 2012 stadium, so we stopped at that after our trek out to the wrong Abbey Road. After that was more Chinese from the same Chinese restaurant, mixed with some Italian from a nearby restaurant for supper, then relaxing, and bed.

Thursday April 5, 2012
This morning we slept in, checked out of the hostel, then went to the Hard Rock Cafe so Amy could buy her dad a souvenir. After that we stopped at the real Abbey Road, took some pictures that rivaled the Beatles' album cover ;) and went to a nearby Beatles memorabilia shop to look at the merchandise for fun.

After our morning fun we made the trek via train to the Stansted airport. We were flying RyanAir to Malaga and this airline sells dirt cheap tickets, but enjoys finding every way possible to charge you extra. One of the ways they do this is by the size and weight of your carry-on bag. Your bag must fit into the tiny overhead bin and must be under 10 kilograms (about 22 pounds). Amy and I thought that both our bags wouldn't fit in the overhead bins so we both wore extra clothes on the plane. I ended up wearing 5 shirts and 2 pairs of jeans in order for my bag to be smaller. Amy had me beat with 6 shirts, a pair of sweat pants, and a pair of jeans. Oh what we do to travel. ;)

We returned to our apartment in Granada about 11:30 pm that night.

Overall I think I enjoyed Ireland so much more than London. I think I had a little to high of expectations of London and was expecting it to be wonderful or magical somehow. I am glad I visited the city though. I had a fantastic spring break trip and wouldn't have changed it for anything.

Galway--The Best!!

Sunday, April 1, 2012
I cannot believe April is here already! Where has the time gone?! In just a short 1.75 months I will be home! Goodness!

Today Amy and I took a bus to Galway on the western coast of Ireland. It is about 2.5 hours away. On the way here I was able to see the beautiful Irish countryside,which included the rolling, luscious green hills, which contained a plentiful amount of livestock (mainly cattle, sheep, and horses).

Once in Galway we found our hostel mainly by guessing which roads were which, because people in Galway apparently don't believe in street signs and must know all the streets because there were no streets signs to go by. It is weird...lol Anyways, we found the hostel, checked in, all is well.

We explored the city a bit in the afternoon, walking through the Galway shopping district, the Latin Quarter, the bay/port area, and a local neighborhood. On our walking adventure we stopped for lunch in a small restaurant where we were sat at a table under the stairs. It was very quaint, but weird because we basically sat and stared at a brick wall till we received our food, then we stared at the food. Ah well, all in the experience. :) Also on our walking adventure we watched a game of some unknown sport to us. It was a combination of futbol (soccer), ruby, and football (American style) and Amy and I did not understand it.

We were exhausted fairly early during the day so we returned to the hostel, used the Internet, and relaxed in our room, till we got supper for ourselves at a local grocery store; and now, bedtime. :)

Monday April 2, 2012
Ok! Today Amy and I took a bus tour south of Galway through the Barren landscape to the Cliffs of Mohr. Let me just say flat out that it was a fantastic day!!

We started the tour off by passing through the villages of Clarenbridge, Kilogen, Balendury, and Kinvara. In Kinvara we saw some authentic thatched roofs, one of them being the largest thatched roof in the world, hooker boats used for fishing in the region, and the Dunguaire castle. The 4 villages were very small, quiet, and quaint and I am thrilled that we drove through them!

Our journey continued through the Burren landscape, which is a limestone landscape created in this region from the last ice age, about 10,000 years ago. We ended up driving through this landscape for a majority of the day.

Our first stop was made at a farm of a local family that gives a tour of their land and another stop at some nearby caves. Passengers are able to choose one of the two tours; Amy and I chose the farm tour. The tour took us through the farmyard, where we saw some of their cows on the farm and a baby calf (sooo adorable!) and it continued through the pastures and up a mountain adjoining their land. The mountain is covered with the limestone from the Burren landscape and the pastures would have been covered with the rock, but it has been cleared away by farmers through time. The rock that covered the fields is actually used to make rock walls to create that lines where land changes hands and to divide pastures.

Our guide, Darra, (he is the nephew if the owner of the farm and he helps his uncle with giving the tours on the farm and with other work when needed) took us up the mountain where we were able to see some fantastic views of the surrounding area. Darra told us that the nearby village's name is Ottemen (I think this is the correct name). While on the mountain Darra pointed out a rock fence crossing the mountain. He said that this fence does not divide land or pastures and actually serves no purpose. It was built during the time of the potato famine by the poor to earn food from their landlords. He joked that the landlords were really smart to make their renters built a fence that serves no purpose when they could have been building roads, houses, schools, hospitals, etc. to be used in the country's infrastructure. ;)

After we left them farm we travelled on the bus to the mini cliffs where we got out and took pictures for a few minutes. The mini cliffs were breathtaking. We were able to get up to the edge of the rocks and look down into the sea. It was a steep drop! The mini cliffs are comprised of the limestone from the Burren landscape.

We stopped for lunch in the village of Doolin. The majority of the group ate at Fitzpatrick's Bar where our bus driver recommended we try the the Seafood Chowder. I tried it and oh my goodness was it delicious! It had all types of seafood in it and was served with 2 slices of brown bread and I also bought a scone with raisins to eat with my lunch. It was a fantastic lunch!

Our next stop was the Cliffs of Mohr! Finally! The cliffs stretch about 8 miles along the south western coast of Ireland. At the top they are grassy fields, the sides are jagged, rocky, and shear all the way down to the rough waters of the Atlantic Ocean below. The bus stopped for an hour and a half here and Amy and I began our free time by walking along the pre-made paths built by the Cliffs of Mohr Park, but you could hardly see down the cliffs, so we found another path that allowed you to go to the edge of the cliff. We took pictures, sat at the edge of the cliffs, and Amy threw rocks into the water to see them splash. We could have easily sat there all day long taking in the beauty of the cliffs.

Fun fact: a scene from the movie Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (the fifth movie) was shot at the Cliffs of Mohr.

Our day concluded with the drive back to Galway, stopping at a dolmens (two large pillars, with a third across the top, used as an ancient burial ground). The only reason I mention this very boring stop is that I am currently studying this form of art in my History of Art class.

When we returned to Galway we got supper from a grocery store so we could cook at the hostel, relaxed, showered, and went to sleep.

Dublin, Ireland

 Hello again!! I have safely returned from my spring break trip to Dublin, Galway, and London and because I had so many wonderful adventures my blog got a little long, so what I am going to do is break it up into 3 parts over the course of the week. Here is the first part about my time in Dublin...enjoy!!

Friday March 30, 2012
Amy and I woke up bright and early at 5:45 this morning to catch the first city bus to the bus station. Carmen wasn't too pleased with us, but she got up and made us breakfast anyway. I love her for that. We made it to the bus station in Granada for our bus to Malaga. We made it to the Malaga bus station, then took a shuttle bus to the airport, where we got our tickets, went through security, and chilled in the terminal for 2 hours before our flight.

We flew Aer Lingus to Dublin. I like the Aer Lingus company very much; Amy and I were able to sit next to each other on the flight and each passenger was able to watch movies on a personalized screen. During the 3 hour flight I watched The Ides of March. Loved it!!

Finally we were in Dublin!! Yay!

A city shuttle bus brought us to the city center and from there a 5 minute walk brought us to our hostel. We are staying at the Dublin Center Hostel, but Amy and I believe that the receptionist is an imbecile. Other than that the hostel is great. When we checked in and I had the reservation under my name and when you book online hostels automatically charge your credit card 10% of the bill in case you cancel. Well, the receptionist couldn't work his brain around the fact that Amy and I wanted to split the bill and that he needed to factor in the 10% already taken off the original amount. Amy and I attempted to use our best customer service voices possible to explain the situation, and we ended up figuring out the correct amount that each of us owed and telling the dummy what he was supposed to charge us.

After settling in we went off to explore Dublin! We started choosing streets at random to see where we would end up. We passed a Catholic church during our wanderings, so we went in. It was so beautiful!! We continued on, stopping for coffee and chips (french fries), wandering through an adorable residential area of the city, then to Phoenix Park (one of the largest parks in the city, and boy is it beautiful and FULL of green grass!), then down by the river, and finally exploring the area around the Guinness Factory. One our way back towards the hostel we took a wrong turn and ended up taking the long way back. We were recommended to a nice bar & grill called Aurora for supper by a bartender at a different bar. Aurora was delicious! I had chicken and pasta, yum! With our bellies full we got back to the hostel, showered, then collapsed on our beds for the night. We were exhausted!

The homes here are actual home, not apartment complexes like in Spain. Some of the homes even have small lawns in front of them! It is so cozy and reminds me a lot of home. The homes here are almost all connected (I believe they are called row houses?) and each house tends to be a different bright color with an equally bright front door.

Since the Irish drive the opposite side of the road than they do in the United States one has to pay extra special attention to which way traffic is traveling. Normally when you automatically look left you should have looked right. Thankfully the Irish combat this problem by painting "look left" or "look right" on the cement in front of the crosswalk depending on which one is necessary. This is incredibly helpful because I will see it out of the corner of my eye and will look in that direction for traffic versus looking the opposite way in which my mind tells me to look. Even though these messages are painted on the cement I still manage to walk out in front of on-coming traffic sometimes because I looked the wrong way. I will get this down eventually...

Saturday, March 31, 2012
Today, Amy and I slept in till 8:45 am, got up, had breakfast at the hostel (cereal and toast) and were headed to the Guinness Factory by 9:30 am. At the factory we went through a self-guided tour where we learned the process and the ingredients it takes to make the Guinness beer the way it is, went through a taste-testing (I actually like the beer, that is saying a lot because I normally cannot stand beer.), participated in other interactive activities through the plant tour, saw a view of the city from the sky deck at the plant, and learned how to pour the perfect beer from the tap. We even got certificates showing our achievement of pouring the beer! Lol at the end of the tour we got a complimentary pint of Guinness, but Amy and I could barely drink it because neither of us are major beer drinkers. I drank about three inches of my cup, than gave up.

Amy and I were hungry after all our excitement at the Guinness Factory, so we got lunch to go at a little cafe and took it to eat in Phoenix Park. The park is so beautiful. It is full of luscious, green grass, and blooming flowers. You can walk into the park and instantly smell the wonderful aroma of all the flowers. In the park is the Dublin Zoo, so after lunch Amy and I spent over 2 hours exploring the zoo. We saw lions, and tigers, but not bears (Oh my!). It was a lot of fun!

We were exhausted after the excitement of the day, so we returned to the hostel to rest for a while. Once we were rested we headed out again to find the bus stop we will need for tomorrow and to find the Hard Rock cafe so Amy could buy her dad a pin. After that, we shopped a little in the tourist shops and walked past the Dublin Castle. We found an early supper, 7:30 pm (early for our stomachs that are set on Spanish time) at Murray's Pub where we enjoyed some Irish music while Amy had pasta and I had Irish Stew with Guinness bread and potatoes. The Irish Stew had lamb, carrots, squash, and broccoli in it. It was one of the best meals in my life!!

After supper we returned to the hostel, where we have been relaxing and where I am now currently writing about my time from today.