Last week of fun!

I am going to apologize for the length of this one, like many of my last posts. This upcoming week is finals week and my friends and I knew that we would all be stressed and busy, so we thought we would go to a farewell dinner of our own, seeing as I won't be here for the whole program goodbye dinner. We met up (and dressed up) to go to a dinner at an Indian restaurant in downtown Granada. We talked about what we learned from each other and how we would carry each other with us after we left. I felt so loved in that moment and reflected on all that I have learned from this experience. I feel that I completely changed myself for the better since being here, and I wouldn't trade these last four months for anything in the world. I feel so much more secure in myself and actually love who I am, which is the most important thing in life, I believe.

The ones that matter the most.

Kokaale, Kelsey and I at the Indian restaurant.

Waiting to go for a drink afterwards.

Kokaale and I being good friends, like always.

I love this place.

In the bullfighting ring, there was an "Oktoberfest" celebration, so naturally, my friends and I wanted to see what it was all about. It was amazing, there was so much food and beer (which is a rare sight in Spain). My friend and I got a litre of Guinness and it was so delicious! The know how to brew beer in Europe. There was a lot of dancing and we also got to have soft pretzels, which is yet another food that I miss from the United States.

Kelsey and I at Oktoberfest.

Our litres of beer!

There was a lot of dancing.

Guinness, so big!

Now that's a mug of  beer.

Meguinness living up to her name.

As this time comes to an end, which I have talked about in many of my blogs recently, I want to recognize the fun times that I have had here that don't have to do with a weekend trip or some amazing architecture that I've seen. Here are some pictures of times with friends that I've had here.

Nora and I at the Botellon.

Kokaale, Carmen and I at Hannigan's Pub Quiz!

 Sarah and Chris came to visit! (Tapas at Poe= the best)

Kokaale and I at Hannigan's.

Bill apparently thinks I am strong, my face says otherwise.

Sarah and I at Hannigan's being sisters.

Lorca class poetry recital with our beautiful professor, Concha.

We like to dance, my friends and I.

This is the best wine one will ever have, and it comes in cans.

 The only dog in Spain that has only given me attention.

Once again, we're friends.

My cute little Spanish friend, Carmen.

As I continue to get sappier and sappier in my blog posts, I want to leave this one with a poem written by a fellow IES student, Elena Schaller:

My wonderful Granada, what words can I give to you?

From the majestic Alhambra to the charming Albaicín

From the stunning Sierras to the exquisite olive trees

How will I ever leave?

I will miss my beautiful host mother and extraordinary host sister

I will miss my incredible roommate and the bond that we share

I will miss the lasting friendships that I have been so lucky to find

I will miss Plaza Bib-Rambla and the IES center

I will miss seeing elegant pastry shops and pharmacies on every corner

I will miss the intriguing “no pasa nada” way of life and the terrible Andalusian accent

I will miss being surrounded by rich culture, history, and people

I will miss the easy-going hippies and fascinating street art

I will miss the cold and rainy weather and streets full of people

I will miss tortilla española, churros con chocolate, Cola-Coa, and tinto de verano,

wearing flowers in my hair and convincing myself that I can’t afford another pair of shoes

I will miss exploring new areas and climbing to my favorite spots

I will miss the distinct color palette of the landscape: the purples, browns, and greens

I will miss Herminio, Lofty, Javier, and the rest of the brilliant IES staff

But most of all, I will miss my life in this magical city

So, what words for you, Granada?

Thank you

Thank you for satisfying my curiosity and thirst for knowledge

Thank you for teaching me things about myself that I may never have known

Thank you for allowing me to discover the vibrancy of love

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to enjoy the simplicity of life

Thank you for opening yourself to me

Granada: my heart, my life, my city

My only wish is that I take this timeless experience with me wherever I go in hopes that it leads me back to you.

Although many of those reading this may not understand certain references in this poem, I think you get the general idea. This was read at the last open mic of the semester and I think it's safe to say that Elena was able to verbalize what each one of us was thinking. It's these moments that help each of us realize how fortunate we are and how much of us will forever be part of Granada and vice versa. 

Cabo de Gata, Spain: Best Weekend Ever.

The best part of the IES program is the included trips that we have. Last weekend, we all went to Cabo de Gata, on the coast of Southern Spain. I didn't really know what to expect from it and was surprised at how amazing it was, to be honest. We got to the coast and hiked for a good seven hours. we hiked through some small mountains and stopped at beaches along the way. It was beautiful, as per usual about places in Spain.

Cute face on the side of a mountain.

The ladies in my life, my great friends.

Beautiful coast.

One of the many beaches.

Made it to the top in 95 degree weather, boss status.

My friends and I climbing and being really photogenic at the same time.

The final beach, we made it!

We got to our hostel, exhausted and ready to eat a large dinner. Our whole program went to a restaurant on the beach and had a filling meal. We decided to have some drinks on the beach with friends and had an amazing times with a lot of laughs. It was a great day with amazing friends, whom I will miss a lot when I leave. 

Megan and I drinking some beers before dinner.

Friends of mine.

Out on the terrace of our hostel.

Carmen, Megan and I at dinner.

All the girls at dinner.

We're in love, no big deal.

The next day, we rented bikes and sped around the beautiful, coastal town of Cabo de Gata. We spent a lot of time on the beach, playing volleyball and drinking wine with friends. It's not that we did a crazy amount of activities but it was the company that happened to be with us that made it so amazing. It was definitely amazing to have one final trip all together before we go our different ways.

Bike rides in Cabo de Gata.

Love my friends.

Lagos, Portugal: A Beautiful Paradise

I found myself neglecting my blog a little bit as it is the last week of my time in Granada. But I wanted to share a few last blog posts before I set off for my trip with my boyfriend. 

Two weekends ago, my friends and I went on an all-inclusive trip to Lagos, Portugal. I didn't anticipate the level of beauty that we were about to witness. This town was completely gorgeous. Our hotel was right on the beach, with majestic blue waters and golden cliffs. We were able to go to the beach for a little bit for the first day and then went out to dinner with the group and had the best burgers of our lives. For those of you who don't know, Spain isn't really known for their hamburgers (shocker, I know). Therefore, having a real beef burger, which was awarded one of the best 50 hamburgers in the world, needless to say, was a real treat. We then went to some cool bars to get our included drinks and danced for quite a long time.

The best burger ever!

At the bar with Meg.

The beautiful cliffs in Lagos.

Our beach by the hotel.

The next day we went on a Sangria Sailboat Cruise. It was so beautiful and it was great Sangria, with every fruit imaginable. Off the sailboat, there were mini tours into the grottoes of Lagos, which was very beautiful, like everything else in this small beach town. We then went to a new beach for a few hours and had some lunch beach side. There is a certain part of Portugal which is called the "End of the Earth," which is the ending of what people used to think was the entire Earth, pre-America of course. We watched an amazing sunset there. We then went to a dinner at a Mexican restaurant downtown and were completely exhausted and ended up going home to crash after an amazing day.

Sangria Sailboat with Megan, aka Meguinness.

The Sailboat with Nora, aka Snora.

The Grottoes in Lagos.

The End of the Earth sunset.

My pretty friends and I at the sunset.

Taking in the beauty.

Our last day in Lagos was super relaxing. We went to the beach for a long time; read, talked and listened to music. We also had an amazing breakfast, which included pancakes (another item greatly missed by us Americans). We drank some wine on the beach and got ready to go back to Granada for one of our last weeks in the beautiful city. The weekend was amazing and relaxing, much needed. 

Personal Reflections

As the semester is winding down, I found myself going through my previous blog entries. If it is possible to be nostalgic only a couple months after something happens, that´s what I was feeling. I also felt that none of my blog entries truly conveyed the message I wanted to share. Therefore, I think it is time to make an entry about my personal reflections during my semester here. I have learned a lot and don´t want to forget the valuable lessons I´ve been taught through my overwhelming number of experiences here. I want to carry this with me everywhere. So I apologize in advance for the long entry, and thanks to anyone who makes it all the way through.

I would first like to talk about how my mind has completely opened since I came here. It sounds cliche to say that, but I whole-heartedly believe that Granada, well Europe in general, has completely changed my perspective on life. One of the main ways I can see this change is in my attitude toward Islam and the Arab World. Granada is in Southern Spain, which basically means that Islamic influence and history is intertwined with the history of Spain. I have been taking classes here about the history of the Arab World, Islamic Art and Architecture and Mediterranean literature. As an American, I had an ignorant, but obvious negative view towards the religion of Islam and the Middle East. It was not until I was able to understand more about the culture and history that I could let those negative thoughts go. It is something so easy to forget; that ignorance is bliss. But in this case, I was pushed into remembering my ignorant point of view through education.

It was not only my classes that changed my way of thinking, but the complete immersion into a utterly different society. From the meal times to the perception of time to the value of resting, it was a tough change. I feel that being thrust into this situation could have either been disastrous or the best experience of my life, and I´m happy to say that I experienced the latter of the two options.

Secondly, I would like to talk about how traveling almost every weekend made me a calmer person. I think everyone knows that I am a naturally stressful person, and yes, from time to time, I like to be in control. But, I had to learn how to be more calm here. My first traveling experience was to Barcelona, and I was completely stressed about it. It was planned completely by us and I was very nervous about being in a new city with no idea how to get around. I tried to control every tiny aspect of the trip and eventually realized that it wasn´t worth the energy. I found that you can try your best to make things the way you want them, and if they don´t happen to turn out that way, everything will still be alright. This has proved to  be a valuable lesson in my other various trips, and I was able to enjoy my time much more as well.

My third reflection has to do with the friends I have made here. I truly did not think that I would meet people who would end up having such a huge impact on me. There is something to be said for being able to fully feel at home in a city that is not your own, and the only thing that really made this my home was my relationships with the people I have met. We each have a unique connection to each other, while all having the same, immense connection with each and every person in the program. We have gone through this huge changing period in our lives and everyone experience it all together. There is an unspoken understanding between my friends and I here and equally, the bond between us also goes without saying. No matter what I was going through here, I felt I had a community of support and not only that, but I completely and utterly love these people. We have had so many amazing times; laughing at stupid jokes, drinking tinto de verano, pretending to do work at cafes, burning cals with pals and traveling all over Europe. When I think back to these memories in the future, I know what will be at the forefront of my mind: the amazing people who have inspired me to be a better person and more importantly, to be myself. And for that, I want to thank them. In an effort to be completely cliche, I´m going to quote my favorite song from my favorite musical, Wicked- "For Good."

I've heard it said

That people come into our lives for a reason, 

Bringing something we must learn and we are led to those

Who help us most to grow if we let them

And we help them in return

Now I don't know if I believe that's true

But I know I'm who I am today because I knew you 

Like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes the sun
Like a stream that meets a boulder halfway through the wood
Who can say if I've been changed for the better
But because I knew you, I have been changed for good

It well may be that we will never meet again in this lifetime

So let me say before we part

So much of me is what I have learned from you

You'll be with me, like a handprint on my heart

Now whatever way our stories end

I know you have rewritten mine by being my friend

The final topic I want to talk about is my family. Everyone has heard the saying that distance makes the heart grow fonder, and again, I apologize for being cliche. But I completely believe that is true. Not only does distance make you fonder of someone, but also more appreciative of the relationships you have that will never fade. Family is just that; relationships that will never fade. They are the only ones who I know will love me no matter what and support me through whatever decisions I make; that kind of unconditional love was very crucial while I was here. Furthermore, I recently heard from my dad through an e-mail about how proud he was of his three daughters and how my mom and him, even though at some times may have doubted themselves (only because I was such a little brat), had done a decent job in raising us. Well I wanted to confirm that, whole heartedly. Being in Europe, being able to live here for a semester and experience all these different cultures, is such an immense opportunity. I would like to credit my family for this, not only because they pushed me to succeed academically, but I believe they gave me the tools as a person to succeed in any situation. If I wasn´t raised to take risks and work hard for things, I probably would not have even dreamed of studying abroad. But my parents and many other family members made this a possibility for me. For this, among many other things, I am eternally grateful.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, friends. I wanted to show how I really felt about my time here and I am happy that you decided to read this. 

Bullfight in Granada.

As is tradition in Spain, there was a bullfight in Granada last Tuesday for the holiday. When I came to Spain, I didn't think that I would ever go to a bullfight, mostly because I hate seeing any type of animal hurt, but I decided that I had to go because it is such a cultural experience, if nothing else. I went with my sister, her boyfriend and my friend Megan. I advise you, some of this is graphic, so I apologize in advance.

The actual bullfighting ring was impressive. It is a huge circle with sand as a floor. There are entryways on three areas of the ring for the matador and his helpers to escape from the bulls. There is a place where the bull comes out of and a place where the horses come from. At first, I thought it was going to be very gruesome and bloody but there were only certain parts that I could not watch.

Sarah and I at the bullfight.

The bullfighting ring of Granada.

There are six separate bullfights, each with a different bull and different matador. The entire event starts off with the entrance of all the matadors, helpers, horsemen and horsewomen. I was surprised that the matadors weren't dressed in more extravagant outfits, but apparently each city does bullfights differently and thus, the custom in Granada is for the matador to almost blend with his helpers. There were a few horses, each with a different purpose. Two of the horses were ridden by women who basically only introduced the whole crew before the start of the first fight. Two other smaller horses were chained to what seemed to be a carriage holder without the carriage. Those horses were used to take the dead bulls out of the ring. The other two horses were dressed in what seemed to look like a cardboard box. This material was wrapped all the way around the horse in order to protect it from the bull. These horses are ridden by the men who stab the bull first, in order to start the bleeding and tire the bull. 

The crew.

The crew again.

When each bullfight begins, the bull comes raging out of its gate. The matador's helpers are there with pink capes, luring the bull in and then hiding behind the barricades. This is used to tire the bull before the horseman comes to stab it for the first time. Sometimes the matador helps in this and sometimes he waits until the bull is more tired. The more involved the matador is through the whole process, the more praise he receives. After the bull is stabbed by the horseman, there are four or six fish hook- type rods that are stuck into the bulls back, around the shoulder blades. These are colorful rods which make the bull bleed even more, again, to tire it before the final stabbing. After other people have helped the matador, it is solely him and the bull in the ring. He uses his red cape to show off different moves and dangers. Sometimes, the matador is very risky and sometimes, he is boring to watch because he is so safe. Finally, after a few more "OLE'S!", the matador will point his sword at the bull and concentrate. The whole crowd is completely quiet, and if one person talks, everyone will 'shush' them. At this point, the matador needs to stab the sword directly in the soft spot between the bull's shoulder blades. If it is done right, the lungs and heart will collapse, and the bull will die almost instantly. If it is done wrong, the bull suffers more. A few times, it wasn't done right and therefore, very hard to watch because the bull was struggling so much. When it was done right though, it was almost instant and seemed to not be a struggle. Then one of the matador's helpers cuts the brain stem just to insure that the bull will not lunge its horns one more time and the horses come to take it away.

 The matador's helper.

The standoff.

The horseman stabbing the bull.

The final point of the sword before the final stabbing.

In general, the crowd is very sympathetic towards the bull. If a matador is not doing the stabbing correctly and thus, making the bull suffer, the crowd thinks poorly of him. When the bull does die, people have white flags that they wave in honor of the bull and the courage it had. It was interesting to look at all these people who had all paid to see an animal (or six) get slaughtered but then be sympathetic towards said animal. The whole atmosphere was entirely hypocritical but an interesting cultural experience, none the less.