Week four of classes...
Welp, Monday, October 17th, 2011, I woke up with a panic attack. (THAT's not supposed to happen here!!) There were some important things I needed to get done for the UC Study Center here in Granada and online in order to make sure that I will still be enrolled in UCSB and UGR while studying abroad. I thought the deadline day was the 17th and realized when I woke up that it was the 17th! How did that happen?! So I called Lauren (thank god for her!!) and accidentally woke her up too. However, she was able to calm my fears and help me realize that the 17th was a due date from something I had already done and that the 20th was the due date for the other thing. Perrrrfect! ...but still not a great way to start my day/ week.
(Tuesday, October 18th, 2011)
I had a pretty calm day on Tuesday... I even spent an hour and half in the cafeteria on campus with a group of Americanos (unfortunately speaking in english, but that's no surprise!). It was still nice to just kinda take it easy between my classes though. When I got home from classes I quickly wrote my 'trabajo' (in this case, a short essay about a play I had read) for my Spanish Theater class. It was about a page and half long and I checked it to make sure it was (what I thought) correct... then I went to the nice family that lives one floor above me (whose girls I am teaching english to) to ask them if someone could read my paper for mistakes before I turned it in. ...I knew I would have mistakes, but I was not expecting to have SO much red ink all over my paper... I've never had that much red ink on a spanish paper before in my life!! What is happening?? I ended up spending 2 HOURS in their apartment while the father read my paper 3 times for mistakes and changed things all over the place. :( Pretty much, my paper was so perfect at the end that before I turned it in, I changed a few things back to the way they were before (aka. incorrect). I'm a foreign exchange student!! I don't want the first paper I turn in to be so perfect that I have to live up to that the rest of the year... I hope for my papers to get better, not worse. Ayayay... But it was very nice of the father to spend so much time with me. I think he is just a very nit-picky, perfectionist...
When I finally got back to my piso, I skyped with my friend Kat as we had set up a Skype date earlier in the week. She is a friend of mine from Spanish classes at UCSB and is currently studying abroad in Chile. So cool to skype with her while we are both studying abroad. Skype is insane!! :) It was super fun to chat with her and hear all about her experiences abroad as well.
(Wednesday, October 19th, 2011)
As they say, 'the calm is always followed by the storm'... So remember how I told you that I fixed my paper to put some of my mistakes back? Well I woke up early today to do just that... I woke up at 8am to 'fix' my paper and (since I don't have a printer of my own here) got ready and left the house in search of a place to print my essay (and some other papers to turn in to the UC Study Center). However, I was amazed to find that at 20 minutes to 10am almost everything near my piso was still closed!! (Do Spaniards just no work? lol) The good thing about being out in the streets so early was this: I saw a woman who had to be at least 50 years old riding a razor scooter on the sidewalk (I'm assuming to get to work) and later saw a 60 year old professor riding his bike up the hill to Cartuja! Made me smile. :D So I took the bus to Cartuja where I knew there was a Copy shop. I printed everything, walked to the UC Study Center office (practically back to my piso), and then took the bus immediately back to Cartuja to get to my Psych class on time. Instead of having normal psych class today, we had a conference on Neuropsychology. A research psychologist from Cuba had come to talk about studies that she and her team had completed... it was interesting... what I could get out of it at least. She only had one hour and thus speed-raced through all the information, talking a mile a minute... in spanish! Interesting note: almost all studies are in english, so on the powerpoint this cuban woman was using, I was able to follow a little better because all the charts and most of the information was in english. (Sometime's its the same way in my class.) It's crazy to realize just how important english is in the world. I know I complain all the time about how I wish I was raised in Europe so I could already speak 5 languages, but I really am fortunate to have english as my first language. After the conference I walked back to my piso and skyped with Mom and Bug as they were getting ready for work and school, AND with my Auntie G and Uncle Jerry since they had surprise visited mi familia. :) I also got to the store today and made a delicious meal with fresh vegetables for lunch. yum!
We finally received our grades from the ILP program, and I was happy to find I got an A overall (and a perfect score in History!! Whoooo!!). By the way, Spaniards have a different approach to posting grades... we were all basically emailed a list with everyone's name and next to it, their grade. No secrecy like in the states!!
Later that night I went to my history class and met up with the italianos afterwards. They had gone to a Flamenco show on campus that ended the same time as my class. I walked back to my piso with Emanuela (since everyone else went out for Tapas), ate a small dinner and stayed up too late doing homework. What a long day, but a good one, nonetheless.
(Thursday, October 20, 2011)
Today I just had German and apparently didn't do too much. I was tired from yesterday though, so I stayed in and watched TV with Emanuela and Dani. ...I fell asleep on the couch watching Medium in spanish. It's been awhile since I've done that! I just love how much time we spend together in my piso. Everything really did work out pretty perfectly with my roommies. :)
(Friday, October 21, 2011)
I woke up semi-early today to get to the post office (finally) and send my semi-broken glasses to my mother. That was an adventure! But the man behind the counter was very helpful and patient with me. :) It was also nice to just walk through the city alone on a sunny day... I haven't had much time alone lately- I'm always socializing with my roommies or going out and meeting up with people. (I'm not complaining though!!) Later that night, I had plans to go dancing with Emanuela and Chiara!! We ate dinner in our piso... Emanuela, Chris, Chiara and I all ate in my room (since it's huge and has a couch and coffee table!) and because Dani had a bunch of friends over and they were eating in the living room, therefore there was no room for us in there. We got all dolled up and went to Mae West, a western style club here in Granada that plays electro/pop music (and also has a room for Reggetón). If you arrive before 2am you pay a 10euro entrance fee that also gets you two drinks of your choice. But, if you arrive after 2, its still 10euro and only with 1 drink. I think we got there at about 12:30am and then danced until 5:30am. Emanuela and I arrived home and still had a ton of energy for some reason. We heard that Dani and his friends were watching TV in the salón, so we quietly snuck to the salón and scared them all! They actually jumped and screamed! It was awesome!! :) Then we chatted with them and watched House in spanish for an hour before finally going to bed at about 6:30.
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| The girlies before going out! Chiara, Emanuela and me... I had to get my Betsey shoes in this one! :) |
(Saturday, October 22, 2011)
We woke up to rain, rain, rain today!! :) Mohammed had invited us (meaning me and the italianos) to his house (about a 20min bus ride outside of Granada center) for a potluck lunch. We arrived at about 2:30 and I think we ate from about 3 until 7pm... talk about a huge lunch.... it was like never ending food! And all sooo good. Mohamed made a delicious arabic something (as he is from Morocco), some of the Italian girls had made a potato casserole with eggs and bacon, Emanuela made a spinach quiche-like something, someone brought mini pigs-in-a-blanket, Alex (one of the two german girls I became friends with today) made a potato salad, and Carolina (another Italian girl) made Parmigiana (Eggplant parmesan). After eating the 'main course' we had dessert- "Himbeer Traum" (delicious!!) made by, you guessed it, my other german friend, Verena. I made brownies (from one of the boxes my mother sent me- they were a HUGE success!! The first first dessert to disappear!). Mohamed had made flan as well (probably the best flan I've ever tried... and that's saying something, cuz I don't usually like it.) Then Mohamed made Tea for us with herbs from Morocco and mint leaves (it was sooooooooo good!) and afterwards he made crepes for everyone! No one wanted the crepes because we were all too full, but he made us eat them anyway. Mohamed is a fantastic chef and a great host! It was such a fun way to spend a rainy day. That night, we all caught the bus back to town and then Valentina, Alessandro and Francesca came over to my piso. They made 4 mini pizza's to share between the 6 of us and then we watched a movie- The Kingdom (a bit politically charged, but quite good!)- until 3am.
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| Making brownies in Spain is a little different... for example: We don't have normal bowls in my piso, so I used a pot, they don't have vegetable oil like we do, so I used corn oil (corn's a veggie!), the oven doesn't have a temperature gauge, and I didn't have measuring cups, so I eyeballed it! They turned out just fine! :) |
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| Me loving the rain and the fall leaves in Spain!! |
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| Lovin' the Rain... this fountain is near Mohamed's house |
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| The gray sky and wet pavement... |
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| "La familia de Chris" under an umbrella together in the rain |
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| Everyone waiting in the rain for our bus |
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| Los italianos locos!! |
(Sunday, October 23, 2011)
As I didn't go to bed until about 4am, I slept in until 12:30. I woke up at about 11:30 to a HUGE roll of thunder... probably the longest and largest rumble of thunder I think I've ever heard! It was soooo cool!! Then I fell back asleep, of course, and woke up an hour later. It was my turn to clean the kitchen, so I started in right away. I just did homework today. I also helped Christina (the 16year old girl from upstairs) with her english homework. After she left, I ate dinner with Emanuela while watching the Simpsons (she LOVES cartoons, especially the Simpsons... everyone in Europe is obsessed with the Simpsons....). And ended the night by drinking tea in the kitchen and chatting with Chris and Emanuela. :)
T'was yet another good week. :)
<3 Besos a vosotros!! <3
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