Adventures in the Albaycin

As my time here abroad is getting shorter and shorter, I have started to embrace a bit of a hurry up attitude, which is a good thing. This past week on Saturday, my program and I went to a Flamenco show at a locations called La Chumbera. The performance was an all female group, with a female guitarist and singer, as well as percussionist and others. During s a few of there songs a dancer came out and performed to the music, which was my first time watching the combination of both the authentic music and the actual dancing of Flamenco. On top of all of this was the fact that this location was in an area called the Albaycin which is the hill opposite of the Alhambra in Granada. As the performance began at La Chumbera, the curtains were raised behind the musical group and offered an unbelievable view of the Alhambra lit up at night.
Before La Chumbera, on Friday night, some friends and I went exploring around the Albaycin in search of some new tapas bars and anything interesting and new. We ended up walking near a popular discoteca, but instead of heading in we passed it up and kept walking donw the road. This was definitely the right move because we ended up finding a small local bar where an amazingly talented Flameco guitarist was playing and a few regulars would switch off singing to the music. The bar only had about 20 people in it and the room with the music was essentially a tiny cave with a few tables. This was truly an authentic experience that I really enjoyed, and the location of the bar was very beautiful with a great view and great music.
This weekend I head to Paris with a friend from Denison and his friend in Toledo. I've heard nothing but great things about the city, my only concern is that it is not very economically friendly for a frugal abroad college student! More to come...

Middle of the Road

So between having a few midterms this week and having just returned home from Barcelona, i've been a little hard pressed to write anything. Last weekend I ventured to Barcelona with my friend Richie who had already been there one time before. This ended up working out great because he was a free tour guide and new a lot of fun spots to go. Also, Richie traveled all over Europe, which is what most people in European hostels are doing, so that was an easy conversation starter. On Saturday in the afternoon, the 2 of us realized that the FC Barcelona game had gotten moved from Sunday to Saturday night. We ended up finding some pretty cheap tickets and going. My first European football experience was quite amazing, even though we were in the nose bleeds and it was pretty windy and cold. In the last 10 minutes Lionel Messi (they're Kobe) got a penalty kick on our side of the field and he scored which was pretty awesome considering I was sporting his jersey. Around Barcelona for the remainder of the weekend I did a little exploring and saw some amazing gothic architecture as well as some beatiful views of the city (standing inside of a giant tower with Christopher Columbus pointing out over the ocean on top of it).
Returning from Barcelona, I have a littel over a month left abroad (hence the middle of the road post title, not my best I know). Crazy. This semester has definitely gone by very fast, but I have been pretty fortunate to be able to do all the things that I have done in the last 2 months. Coming up on my docket are a weekend in Paris over Thanksgiving, and a cultural exchange program for 4 days in Morocco. But I can't lie, I will be excited to have Christmas in America with family and friends, (minus my brother Kyle who's teaching english to little misfits in Saigon). More stories to come, thanks for reading!

For Those About to Flamenco, We Salute You

Since I've been in Granada, I have been lucky enough to see 2 free flamenco guitar concerts at a small local venue. To say the least, this style of music is very soothing and nice to listen to, and to watch people play is truly amazing. The manner in which they actually strum as well as pluck the strings is insane, and when they get into these really intense sections of songs, its like their fingers are not even real, they are moving so fast. Alfredo Mesa is a local guitarist who is an absolute machine and who I was lucky enough to get to watch at one of the free shows. Go to this link and check him out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T13JL5ngnfQ&feature=PlayList&p=88183CA358AF68DF&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=29

now,being someone who has always enjoyed playing music and watching music be performed, I decided I wanted to dive deeper into this massive interest I have discovered in flamenco guitar. I was sitting in class and saw a girl with a sheet of classes that you can take at the University of Granada, like yoga and what not, and it turns out there was a beginner flamenco guitar class. I have since bought a cheap Spanish guitar, signed up and realized that the style of music is just as hard to play as it looks, if not harder. But the instructor is a fairly well known local artist as well and has already shown us some pretty cool things to start practicing. The nice thing is that much of the teaching is by showing things on the guitar and not by long verbal descriptions because the guy talks insanely fast and I'm one of only 3 english speaking people in the class. The language of music is much more forgiving than the language of Spanish! More to come...

Monachillin in the Sierra Nevada's

This weekend I decided to stay in Granada with the hope that I would be able to experience something fun and unique about the area in which I live. A 45 minute, 1,10 euro bus ride and a 35 minute walk later I got to do just that. Monachil is a small pueblo at the base of the Sierra Nevada mountains that is a fairly popular destination for hiking and outdoor activities that was actually recommended to me by my program director. The hiking trail that my two friends and I decided to take was called Los Cahorros and it consists of a huge valley at the beginning followed by a long suspension bridge that takes you into this thin sliver between two rock faces where you walk along a small river for the duration of the hike. My friend Richie and I went climbing around on several of the rocks that would go up into these little caves, and also some of the boulders that we found later on in the hike in some of the vast areas of the Sierra Nevadas. Also with us was our friend Lindsay who functioned as the voice of reason when we we're maybe being a little stupid with where we were trying to explore / climb, and she also took some very cool pictures. One gentleman actually started yelling at us in Spanish when we were going up into this small cave. The only thing we could make out was that some guy fell before and had to get carted out be a goat drawn gourney type thing. It was akward and hilairous all at the same time, even thought the old man was upset. After eating lunch next to the water, we headed down the side of a mountain where I completley ate it after falling backwards, but luckily the rump broke my fall. For how close and easily accessible our hike was today I am hopeful that I can make it back up to check out another close by destination. Then the next thing on the list is to go Snowboarding at least one time in December. But a wonderful use of a Saturday (it was about 75 degrees all day long) and a great first experience in southern mountains of Spain.

Germans Invade Spain (In Speedos)

So anyone who is closely following this blog can realize that I haven't posted anything in two weeks, but I have some valid reasons. I have essentially been in Germany the last 2 weekends. The reason I say essentially is because I did in fact go to Munich Germany 2 weeks ago for Oktoberfest, yet, this past weekend I went to Mallorca, Spain which, if you went there knowing nothing about this island off of the east coast of the country, you would think you were in a different version of Germany with a beach. Let me slow down.
Oktoberfest in Germany was an unbelievable experience. The atmosphere of being in one of the beer gardens is unbelievable in the sense that you are surounded by 2,000 people from all over the world who want nothing more than to be in good spirits and drink very good beer. I went to Munich with a large group of friends from Denison which really made it a blast because it is probably very easy to be overwhelemed at Oktoberfest if your with a small group, or people you don't know, since everyone is drinking and screaming out songs such as "Heeeeeey, hey baby (ooo ahhh) I wanna know....if you'll be my girl" and others all day long. A very fun weekend overall that left me wanting to go back before I even got on my flight back to Madrid.
Now to Mallorca, where I just returned home from yesterday. This island off of the east coast of Spain is absoultely beautiful. However, it is a VERY popular tourist attraction for Germans, and not even in the sense that a lot go there, but literally restraunts and stores that advertise their sales in German, have menu's primarily in German, and German songs all the time. But the location was beautiful and our hotel was 200 yards from the beach in Palma de Mallorca, so everything was just fine. I guess the only annoying part was trying to use Spanish to order things and being answered in either English or some German accented English Also located there is what is renowned as "Europes finest aquarium" which actually turned out to be a lot of fun on our last day there, with some enormous sharks and a giant sea turtle.
The last two weeks have been very busy, but both were a great opportunity to get outside of Granada for a little bit and see some very interesing and beautiful parts of the world. However, I'm pleased to say that I am still reminded of how great this city is whenever I travel because I there are really so many awesome things about where I live (maybe #1 is how inexpensive it is here). More to come, and thanks to whoever has been following, I will attempt to be more consistent!

Sunday, Bloody Sunday

As I walked away from the ticket counter outside of Plaza de Torros last Friday, I couldn’t help but think that I just bought a ticket to see 6 bulls killed in a ring in front of a bunch of people. That was mainly due to the fact that a Corrido de los torros is just that. A bullfight is a bit conflicting. It was a very interesting event that had some performance type things involving cool moves that the Torreros would do to lure in the bulls, most of which got an applause from the audience. But after wounding the bull several times the final thing is that stab an entire knife right into its spine and then the animal slowly dies. It’s a bit odd to be in a stadium and watch a giant animal slowly die, but I did think that it was a worthy event…
The event consisted of 3 torreros and 6 bulls; each one gets 2 bulls. The gate is opened and the bull runs out into the ring where there are multiple guys attracting the bull with these huge pink curtains. After a while, two men come out of the gates on horses to spear the bull, which where the initial bloodshed begins. After this, the Torero takes 2 stickers and attracts the bull to him. While charging at the guy, the torero runs out of the way and sticks the bull mid stride, which is pretty impressive. One of the things I didn’t fully realize is that there is a long process of wounding the bull and, once it is much more bloody and injured, the Torrero begins to do his little performance. One of the guys actually fell backwards during his solo thing, and the bull had him pinned down. It was insane to watch because I immediately thought “this guy is toast.” However, the torero got up, tied a string above the wound on his leg, and went on to deliver probably the best performance of the night that got the audience pretty jazzed up. This is because the bull died immediately after the torero finished the bull with his knife, where as all the other ones involved the bulls taking a long time to die, which is pretty hard to watch, and a little discomforting.
Overall, I am glad that I experienced this part of Spanish culture because it is a very common event, and the toreros do work hard to put on a good show and earn the respect of the crowd. But the killing of the bull is anything but fun to watch, and actually kind of weird to see when it takes a lot longer to go down. My host mom absolutely hates them and has never even been to one, but some of my friends who went said that their host dads like them a lot, so maybe it’s just more a masculine event, not so much a good idea for a first date. I’m off to Munich this weekend for Oktoberfest… until then…. Hasta luego

Weekend in Madrid

This past weekend I got on a 5 hr. bus to Madrid for La Noche en Blanco to experience big city life in Spain and see my friend Tanner from Denison. The one thing we tried to do the most in Madrid was save money where we could, which explains the homemade turkey and cheese sandwiches that we inhaled in our hostel both nights before we went out. The first night was quite an experience going to club Kapital, which painfully cost us 18 euro just to get into. However, the club had something like 7 stories, all with a different theme and music, It was pretty unbelievable. During the day on Saturday a few people went to the Prado art museum and we saw some unbelievable paintings from Goya, El Greco, Frenando Velasquez, and Rafael. It was cool to see a lot of these works up close because I’ve seen / done projects on several of them in Spanish classes in the past. The second evening in Madrid was Noche en Blanco where the majority of streets were absolutely covered with people, literally building to building. The group we were with was rather large and a lot of the night consisted of attempting to find people which was a bummer, but overall a fun experience in the countries capital. However, I did walk away realizing that Granada is definitely a lot more fun and MUCH more inexpensive….I’m happy with my location choice still and am looking forward to my friend Tanner from Denison coming down with some friends this weekend so I can play tour guide and attempt to show off the NADA the best that I can. More to come!

My First Intercambio (are you eating my hair?)

After wandering around lost and confused for 15 minutes last night, I finally arrived at Plaza de Carmen and met a guy named Javier who I will be doing an intercambio with for the next 2 weeks or so. An intercambio is essentially two people meeting up who would like to learn one another’s language. To be quite honest, I didn’t know how academic it was going to be, but I figured my program director would not set me up with a weirdo, and thankfully she didn’t. Javier is 28 and going to Madrid in a month to get his masters in project management, and he works in the architecture field. We got some tapas at a near by bar that were very delicious and made me realize that the places I have been going are sub par, which is an advantage to meeting up with a local, and a disadvantage that I am still a gringo and don't know where the good spots are. The intercambio experience is nice because you get to see what issues Spanish people have with speaking English. For instance, Javier has trouble saying “taught” and he instead says “touched” which seems like a harmless error. But we had a good laugh over the fact that it may translate into “I touched young kids for a few months.” Seriously, so funny. He also “touched” me some good phrases such as

Tengo una papa en lo alto = Literally: I have a potato on my head, traslation in Spain = I’m Tipsy

Me estas tomando mi pelo? = Literally : you are eating my hair? Trans: “are you kidding me?”

Both are very useful and interesting in the fact that they literally translate into ridiculous phrases, a reminder that you can’t think in English when trying t speak Spanish. Javier and I will hopefully get 30 min. of conversation every night, speed man-dating if you will. I’m excited to learn a lot more useful things and have lots of good insider info in the days to come!

A Few Tales from Week 2

The first full week of language intensive classes was a little daunting last Sunday, but now having completed it, and realizing that both of my teachers are very cool and helpful, I am very relieved. My morning professors name is Susana, who is a bit more blunt and not afraid to just look right at you and simply say “No” if you incorrectly say something. However, she is very good at explaining things and being very patient on a lot of different mistakes, which is nice. My afternoon woman is named Pilar and she may be the most animated Spanish teacher I’ve ever had. When she slows things down and speaks them loudly it sometimes can sound like she is singing the Spanish sentence to us. It’s good having her in the afternoons because she doesn’t put you to sleep like some language teacher can and she switches up the things we do everyday.
On Thursday of this week I went to my first Botellon in Spain. A Botellon is a designated location where it is legal to have a drink outside, and it takes place at this large parking lot area every Thursday – Sunday. It sounds a little odd, but a ton of Spanish people show up and it starts to look like a college football tailgate minus the grilling and tossing of footballs. On Thursday I was approached by a Spanish guy who maybe started happy hour a little early, and was introducing me to his lady friend that was celebrating her birthday that night. After a little bit other people from his group were talking to other people in our group which was a good experience. However, the guy then began to start saying how his lady friend and I should go to the discoteca together and I should be “el regalo de sus cumpleanos” (her birthday gift). A little weirded out to say the least, but they were very innebreated and harmless. I went on to find out that the girl wants to learn English and she later took down mine and a friends email address, and, sure enough, I got a facebook friend request the next day. If nothing else, the Botellon is where you find out how good your verbal skills are in a conversation, especially after you’ve had one or two bebidas.
I also had an interesting evening at a Discoteca called Mae West, which is picky about letting Americans in. I was sure I was going to get laughed at and turned away, but I guess the fact that I rolled up with 9 women helped, and I just didn’t talk or smile and I blended right in. I would go on to find out that they had no problem letting Spanish men in because by 3am or so, there were literally 8 dudes for every one girl, it was so odd, and a bit uncomfortable, but hilarious in hindsight because for every girl in my group who was dancing with someone, Which I think they all were, there were about 12 dudes nearby with looks of disappointment on their faces. I missed my opportunity to go to another beach today as a result of my early morning return home, but I think it was worth the sacrificed sleep and energy to get a fun look at Spanish nightlife. All in all, strange, but a great experience. More to come…

One Week in the Bag

I have only been in Spain for one week and I am thoroughly optimistic about what is to come. Although I’ve only had 2 days of class (last Thursday and Friday), I think that finding the balance between experiencing nightlife and staying studious will be very easy to adjust to, just like when you start college your freshman year. On my first day of classes I met some people both in my class and in other classes that had been talking to friends in my program. My first Friday night here consisted of hanging out with these people as well as a few from my Arcadia program. I was fortunate enough to get my first clubbing experience in at a place called Kapital where we didn’t have to pay a cover charge, and there were more ripped jeans and popped collars on guys than you could even imagine. One of the interesting things that I’ve realized in my first week is that there is a ton of popular American music played at clubs and bars and what not, and all the Spanish people sing along. At a place we went on Thursday, where they played techno stuff with popular songs mixed in, they would play New York, New York by Frank Sinatra, the part where it says “I want to wake up in a city that doesn’t sleep.” It was hilarious and actually really cool to hear and watch Spanish people sing.
Yesterday, Saturday, was another day at the beach with a smaller group and more kids from a Bucknell program and others. This time we went exploring to find some cliffs to jump off of and were very successful. It was one of the more fun things I have done in a while. While exploring we found this cove where 10-15 Spanish guys were all jumping off of what looked like 40 feet up, into crystal clear water. These guys were nuts though, doing swan dives and what not. As a result of being in the sun all day long, Saturday evening was not as intense, and involved some light food and then my first opportunity to sleep for more than 5 hours, which felt amazing. Sunday is now here, I’m touring the Albaicin today with my group, should be very cool. Then finding time to do my official first bit of homework. One week down, 14 more to go….

Moving In, Standing on the Edge

While a hotel lobby filled up with older Spanish women dressed nicely, both myself and the other kids in our program sat and sort of stared and ignored, even though one of these women was inevitably our homestay mothers, or Senoras. After an awkward 25 minutes our program coordinators finally showed up and we went down the adoption line of calling out a name and then kissing both cheeks of a woman whom you would be staying with for the next 3 months. My home-stay moms is Melina, who does not speak much English at all, and has 2 very cool dogs which I sadly still cannot remember the names of. The first moments living with someone in a different country were a bit difficult because you are doing your best to understand them, but a lot of the first conversations are about some of the rules they have for their houses, essentially all the things you really need to know. But after that was out of the way and I was situated, I got a first taste of having homemade meals all the time when I was greeted at my first meal by a plate full of French fries, a hamburger patty, a giant salad and an episode of the Simpsons on the TV. Doesn’t get much more American than that. Although its very early, I’m starting to realize that the home stay is where the tedious stuff in the classroom pays off.
Before our first day of class on Thursday, we went to la playa Salobrena in the south of Granada on the beaches of the Mediterranean. There is this enormous rock there that we got to check out for a little bit and the view of both the city and the ocean was unreal. You could get right up on the edge and be looking probably 80-90 feet down and bright blue water. They are not lying though when they tell you the Spanish sun is powerful. Both the people in my group and myself all got toasted. But a very good day to have before language intensive courses begin tomorrow. First day of school, and I’ve got a 20 minute walk to my building, which is good since I’m having a plethora of food presented to me at every meal which I yet to finish one so far. Also attempting to get a gym membership tomorrow, should be an interesting episode…

The first 2 days

As I sunk into my seat on my flight from Boston to Madrid on Saturday night, getting ready for the 6 hours ahead of me on a crowded with babies crying flight, I was instantly introduced to the concept of language immersion. A woman was talking with the flight attendant and kept looking at me and back at her. I started to realize she was going to ask to if her husband could take my seat so that they could sit together, which was going to say yes to either way. She then approached me smiling and talking in Spanish faster than I could ever describe, all the while I’m attempting to keep up and pointing at my seat and her husband repeatedly saying “aqui?” When all was said and done, they both probably realized that I was a gringo estupido, but they were super nice and her husband gave me a little grin and a thumbs up right before they sat down in their seats.
I arrived in Granada, greeted by our student advisor Christina, with about 7 kids from my program and we all came to hotel inglaterra, which is right near the center of the city. By 8pm that night the rest of our group had showed up and we all went out to a welcoming dinner nearby. The most interesting part of this portion of the day was realizing that there are 16 people in my program… 14 of which are girls. It was a little bit of a shock at first but they are all nice and share the same excitement to be in Europe for a few months, so I don’t think there will be any issues of me feeling left out if I don’t order an apple-tini at dinner when we go out. The dinner we had on the first night was our introduction to tapas, which are small plates of food. What’s unique about Granada is that it is the only place in Spain that gives a free tapa with the order of a drink at specified “bars de tapas, allowing you to eat an assortment of food on the bill of drink orders. As far a tourism goes, we have walked around and seen different plazas, but nothing informative quite yet as it is only our second day. …So that’s been the last 48 hrs of my time here, more to come very soon y Hasta Luego!

Leaving for Spain in 10 days

August 29th marks the first time I will have been on a plane for more than 4 hours since I went to Italy 12 years ago when i was going into the 3rd grade. The jump across the pond then consisted of me sleeping and waiting for the next meal, whereas this one will consist of heavy doses of Ambien any other medicines that may knock me out. I am going to Granada, Spain to study at the Centro de Lenguas Modernas from sept. 1rst to December 16th. I have never done a blog in my life, so I figured going to a foreign country for 3 and a half months would be a go reason to do so, and not just be talking about pointless things that I do day to day, but rather interesting things that are new to me and may even prdoduce a laugh here and there. So I hope friends and family can follow this, and let's just hope that I stay consistent on updating this thing a few times a week. I will do my best, and I hope the things that I talk about will keep you all interested!