Palomas en la Plaza

Maroc, Morocco, Marruecos, Al Maghrib, etc...

2008-04-21T05:07:00.000-07:00

So again I blog while waiting for class to start instead of studying like I should be doing. But, I consider this trip to Africa quite blogworthy so that justifies my present nonscholastic attitude, right?

So last Wednesday the 16th of April I departed for Algeciras, the city in which I would catch a ferry over to Tangier and then take my first step on African soil. Algeciras is a pretty town and it has schawarma so theres really nothing I can complain about. Not much noteworthy went on there except stumbling upon a hidden plaza at the top of a hill full of old men shootin' the Spanish breeze. The next morning Ali and I woke up at an ungodly hour (only to be eclipsed by the last morning of our trip) to go meet with the group and catch the ferry. The boat trip over was a bit choppy but no one tossed their cookies and everything was fine. We got to Tangier and went to Darna, which is like a woman's shelter and took a tour. After that, our translators, students at the university of translation in Tangier, had a talk with us about Moroccan culture to them. Very interesting. Then, one of the highlights of this trip happened. We drove a really long time but in the middle of our drive the guide, Lindsey woke up, turned around, and asked "Hey, do you guys want to ride camels?" And of course we did so we pulled over to te side of the road and rode camels on the beach. No, not wild camels unfortunately, they had....handlers. But I prefer to call them camel shepherds. Then we drove to Rabat to meet our homestay families.

Ok, Im realizing if I outline everything we did that would take a really long time and you would all lose interest in reading. So Ill sum it up. We talked to lots of people, stayed with homestay families another night, went to a Hammam (a Turkish bath house where everyone scrubs eachother down, p.s. I have never felt cleaner in my life), visited a family that lives in a village in a really rural area, ate lots of yummy cous cous, adn went to a mountain town that was way pretty. I learned a lot on the trip and definitely recommend this program to anyone. Oh, I havent told you the program... its called Morocco Exchange. Props to it. Heres some funny quotes that I was very amused by...

Jessica: Did you know that there is DNA from every baby that a woman has had still in her uterus?
Ali: Wow, you gotta get that flushed out, man.

Lindsey: It's not called Pepno Bismo? (Pepto Bismol)

Lindsey: I studied primatology so I studied monkeys in Belize and followed them and collected samples and watched where they'd sleep and go back to camp and...
Sara: Samples? What do you mean samples?
Lindsey:..........poop. I'd go back to camp and sift through their poop.

Bored and Procrastinating.

2008-04-08T06:09:00.000-07:00

So here are a few observations I have to make about Spain. Granada in particular since its my home base on this side of the Atlantic...

1. I was rereading my blog entries (yes, Im that bored and that much of a procrastinator) and they are chock full of funny stories and opinions and are much lighter in tone at the beginning of this trip. Me thinks I am no longer in a light hearted vacationy mood here in españa. That is to say, I have kind of internalized Granada as my home. At least for now... weird.

2. Pigeons have LOTS of sex. My piso´s living room window opens into the square center of the building... its hard to describe but basically its an area protected from everything outside. The pigeons have found it quite nice for their home though, they fly in from above and settle down on window ledges and a small rooftop at equal height with the aforementioned window of my piso. Point is, the pigeons are always on it. Doing it. Always. I, in fact, have been woken up by the sound of flapping wings and sexually strained cooing noises.

3. The amount of cous cous I have eaten in my life has quadrupled just from this year. I dont think much more of an explanation is necessary.

4. People dont judge you for buying mass amounts of alcohol multiple times in the same day. Rather, they are more prone to judge you because your outfit is not monochromatic, as is oh so popular here in Spain.

5. Buffy is still amazing... even in Spanish audio. The DVD player I have automatically sets the language to Castellano of every DVD it plays. This has resulted in many episodes of Buffy being watched for the first 5 or 10 minutes without realizing that Buffy habla español. I still laughed and cried in all the right places.

Ok, I need to move onto my next procrastinating activity which will most likely be either buying a newspaper or taking a walk in the drizzly rain (yay drizzly rain!).

Champagne, Rummy, Sun and Snow - life in Pradollano

2008-04-08T00:40:00.000-07:00

So this Saturday, after finding that Epsom salt, or Magnesium Sulfate does not exist in Granada (its a whole other story of why I was looking for it, but thats not today´s tale) there was an impromptu trip to Pradollano, the pueblo in the snow in the Sierra Nevadas. It was conveniently only a 45 minute bus ride away, but it was also, inconveniently, April. There was no snow in the town. So we decided to take a ride on the ski lifts to visit the snow. We were literally the only people not in snow gear or carrying skis while we stood in line. Then it turns out tickets were sold in a totally different place so we got out of line and went to buy a ticket or 3. Also turns out that they were 15 euros per ticket just for an up and back ride! Aw hellz no. So our snow plan was defeated. Instead, we bought some champagne and orange juice and made mimosas. We found a little corner where the Monachil five-O wouldnt disturb us and started up a game or 12 of rummy (thank god Emmy remembered to bring cards). We basically passed the whole time in that pueblo así. However, as nice as it was, the temperature was too nice and we didnt really realize we had been sitting in direct sunlight for like 5 hours. Yes, we are sunburned. And now my already gnarly farmer´s tan is even gnarlier. Do you spell narly with a g? I dont know, but I am a fan of silent g´s so Im spelling it that way. Deal with it.

Oh, and in two weekends from now I am goign to Morocco! My first time in Africa =) I´ve heard good things so I´m excited. Ummmmmm qué más? Not a whole lot, really. Ok, off to class I go. P.S. if you read tis please comment because the last and almost only comment I´ve gotten in the last like month was a spam comment. I know, I didnt realize they existed in blogging either. (See previous entry´s comments) Point is, I need to feel the love. Feel me it!....I think that sentence would only make sense to someone whose brain has been as warped by Spanish as mine has. Hasta luego!

Mateo

Lolzasaurus.

2008-04-02T01:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday on my way to class I was walking on Gran Via, basically the main street of Granada with all sorts of everyone walking around. I was waiting for the stoplight to change so I could cross the street and I heard in the distance an electronic sound like a police or ambulance siren. But, it didnt quite sound like the Granada police or ambulance. I kept looking up and down the street keeping an eye out for any emergency vehicles speeding past, but to no avail. What the heck could it be? Then, as I made my way to the other side of the street, the sound was suddenly behind me! I spun to to see what was making this sound and then, I recognized the sound. It wasnt just prolonged, monotone electronic beeps... IT WAS CELINE DION! The noise came from a 50 something year old homeless ...er, excuse me, hygenically challenged... old man riding his bicycle and absolutely blasting "My Heart Will Go On", you know, the Titanic theme song, on his Fisher-Price or Playschool brand megaphone! Apparently the Spanish dont find this very amusing since they just cast a sideways glance and continued on their way. I, on the other hand, cracked. up. I think the others on the street saw me as crazy as the bike guy, but probably chalked it up to me being a guiri (foreigner). Anyways, if youd have been inspired to listen to that magical song by Celine Dion, heres a link to the closest sounding version I could find. Mind you, this version is about 40 times better than what was coming out of the megaphone. Imagine only the main tones and no embellishment. Ok, here it is. http://wilstar.com/midi/titanic.htm

Paz.

Semana Santa: Gypsy Jesus and Runnin' Mary

2008-03-25T01:50:00.000-07:00

Over the Holy Week in Spain practically everyone I know took this vacation opportunity to travel to all sorts of fun places (mostly Ireland for St. Patty's Day) and I stayed here in Granada. I attribute this inability to travel to my job that has an insane payment system schedule so I get paid every 3 months. But whatever, I have complained about that way too much.

Anyways, there were a few of us here in Granada like Ashley and Elyse and Rachel who I went to see a Semana Santa procession with. We saw el Gitano Cristo (Gypsy Jesus) which is known as lo mas bonito de todo (the most beautiful of them all). I am no longer surprised by the pointy hats and robes that the people marching in the procession wear, which to all you American's look like KKK outfits; so instead of bewildering it was actually pretty. Now, as I mentioned, gypsy christ made an appearance there. No, it wasn't someone dressed in a crucified Jesus costume (although I would have had a great laugh at that), it was a statue that ~20 people stand under and carry along in the procession route. Its supposed to symbolize their penance and cleansing of sins or what have you. That's pretty typical of the Catholic religion, I'd say. But I digress, I wanted to talk about how special everyone considers the gypsy christ. Now, here in Granada there are gypsies that live in caves up on the hillside above the town so perhaps that unique characteristic of Granada lends some appeal to this statue. If its not that then it is merely the fact that Jesus's feet are not crossed. Yeah, there was a non gypsy Jesus statue the next night that looked identical except that the feet were crossed. Ashley even asked some people about why g. christ is so special and they said the foot crossing thing. Maybe this religious stuff is just a little too profound for me in a deceivingly simple sort of way.

The next statue following Jesus was of his mother, the holy mother that is. There is some sort of appropriate parental symbolism there I think. Anyways, the amusing part about the Mary float was not the ornate decor nor the plethora of candles threatening to burn down the whole float as it swayed back and forth with every statue-carrier's step, rather the way the statue moved. Now, each city does this differently, for example in Cadiz they arch slowly and in Sevilla they do it faster, but here in Granada... Mary had places to go and had no time for interruptions. The cariers would stop for a minute or two and rest up to get ready for their sprint to the next rest stop 500 meters ahead of them. Very amusing. The statue stopped, pictures were taken, marveling was done by the crowd, and then *UP* and *MAD DASH FORWARD*. The Granada gang (Californian's staying in Granada during Semana Santa) nick named her Runnin' Mary.

One last note, I went to see Como La Vida Misma (Dan in Real Life, as its known in the English speaking regions of the world) and it was a cute movie. Enjoyment was had and the soundtrack was very nice. Upon further research I found out that Sondre Lerche provided pretty much all the music for the movie. I guess Steve Carrel is an indie kid at heart. So I decided to download his music to enjoy it in a non romantic-comedy context. Its good stuff and it seemed like something that would score indie points for obscure band/musician name dropping... but I guess Im way behind the times. He was indie-cool back in like 2002 or something. I tried to boost my indie points by talking about him to someone and they basically responded something like "oh is that old music? does he have new stuff?" Oh... they've heard of him... I guess Norwegian indie rock/folk musicians are more well known than I thought. Sigh. Another step down on the wannabe indie ladder. And I know I said this was the last thing but something just happened that caught my attention. The spellcheck on my computer knows the word "wannabe" its like, oh yeah thats cool, but "indie" wtf is that? you made a mistake sir *red underlining squiggles*. Crazy...

Dude! I just remembered a funny story!

2008-03-10T06:48:00.000-07:00

Ok so, over my blogging hiatus that was xmas break and the subsequent weeks, I fogot to tell you all this story! Its pretty much my favorite embarrassing moment ever. So...

As an extremely thoughtful and sweet christmas gift, Max and Laura picked out a pair of fuzzy tiger handcuffs for me. Classy, I know. So, they gave them to me in Zurich from where we took a train to Budapest and then another train to Vienna. Upon returning to Granada, Emmy and I bussed it over to Bratislava to catch a Ryanair flight. In the airport we were waiting and waiting and finally our flight started letting people into the holding area otherwise known as the boarding gate area (its a pretty small airport, and I think the only one in the western half of Slovakia or something...) Anyways, we are packing up our things and heading through the security check when my bag is stopped. The woman asks me in the English she knows to open the bag to check it and I thought that my shampoo bottles or deodorant was too big so Id have to throw them away. I opened the backpack and apologetically pointed to the shampoo when she told me, no, not this pocket. The other one... wtf is in the other pocket? I open it up and she reaches in and pulls out the tiger print fuzzy handcuffs. OH. SHIT. I forgot those were in there... I laugh nervous and embarrassedly and she smiles at me with this look on her face like, "lolz, really? you freak." And in my embarrassment I come back with the line, "they were a gift." which is what any person caught with handcuffs for kinky sexual practices would say. That just made her start laughing at me. Then she said we had to throw them away to which I quickly responded, ok. thats fine. So that was taken care of and she let me go on my way and as I was picking up my belongings in the gray plastic tub I looked back over to her at the xray station where she continued to laugh to herself. Glad I could make someone's day a little more humorous.

Just wanted to share that story with you guys since I find it very storytelling-worthy.

Paz y amor,
Matt

Bulgarian Gypsies are pretty guay

2008-03-09T06:12:00.000-07:00

Hey yall! So, the last two days were pretty eventful here in Granada. First, I´ll tell the story of my trip to the airport...

So, I booked my roundtrip ticket for Spain through a travel agency and it turns out that they have some ridiculous rules that (aside from not telling us about) forced me to take a trip out to the airport to book a return ticket a few days before my ticket would have expired. I wont go into details, but suffice to say that it was a stupid rule and I would write them an angry letter if I werent so lazy. So, Ben and I paid the 6 euros to take the bus to the airport and got there before siesta to go to the only Iberian Airline office in Granada. We got to the window and it was freakin closed. I then saw a man coming out of the office so I ran to him and bombarded him with frantic questions about if the office were open that day, when, how can i get a ticket, etc... to which he responded, I dont work here. I just handle the baggage. Oops. Embarrassing. Anyways, we waited half an hour and finally a woman came to the window. We asked her about the tickets and she told us we need to go to the other Iberian office window that didnt open until 5. We waited 4 more hours. We didnt want to have to pay 6 more euros to take another trip out to the airport and we really wanted to just get this done with so we hung out in the food court area and ate airport food for lunch. We also made our own deck of cards instead of paying for the expensive packs they had in the gift shop. We tore up pieces of printer paper I had in my backpack and wrote numbers and suits on them. We managed to play go fish, jacks and five, crzy 8s, war and soem other games before getting really bored.
In the end, it was 5 and we went to get the tickets fixed. Ben had no problem since he had his booked in advance and just had to sign some papers. However, when I went to do mine, the woman couldnt find any dates open in July for me to return as I had been planning this entire year. Instead it took her ages to keep telling me theres nothing. Finally, frustrated and just wanting a way back to CA, I asked her what about his flight? He just made it so it must still be open, right? And so it turns out I will be goign back to CA the 26th of June instead of the 15th of July. Iberia, YOU SUCK.

Ok, now abotu the Bulgarian Gypsies. Ali and I heard about a concert of Bulgarian Gypsy music yesterday and went to check it out with Isaac and Laura. It was up in the Carmen de somethin or other by the Alhambra and that place is realy pretty at night. You should all take a trip up there sometime. Anyways, we get to the ticket office and it turns out its not free like the band´s manaer told Isaac on the bus earlier that afternoon. So as I was about to peace out with Ali, the manager came out and saw Isaac and magic was worked and voila, 4 free tickets. Score! It was a really fun show, although I dont think Im totally used to Bulgarian gypsy music, but fun was had nonetheless. A big gracias to Isaac. Afterwards we made some mac and cheese (since my mom sent me 7 pounds of it in the mail) and watch Love Actually. It was a good night.

And now, I have nothing to do since I was actually productive this morning and wrote my essay and read what I needed to read for class. Now, Im off to watch the Simpsons. Later!!!

My neck hurts.

2008-02-18T05:23:00.000-08:00

I woke up today super effing early so I could get to my first day of the 830 AM class that I unfortunately decided I really like and won´t be dropping. Somewhere in the middle of that class my neck started freaking out on me. I probably slept on it wrong and I want it to go away ASAP. It is super annoying especially because I am super aware of it since I have this ginormous break between classes that isnt quite ginormous enough to go back home and come back up to the facultad. So instead I have been rewriting my notes from class (since my latent guilt of the worst academic semester of my life last cuatrimestre haunts me and propels me to kick scholastic ass this semester), eating )the workers in the cafeteria are giving me weird looks since I went in there like 4 times), and reading the newspaper (which I dont think I have ever really done before). Now, as you can tell, Im blogging. Time wasting has never been so unwanted before. But I suppose I should get used to it since I will be up on campus at 830 AM until 830PM every Monday and Wednesday. I think I´m going to be super guiri and take a nap on a bench or outside or something. I think if I dont I will possibly die in one of my later classes today. Hasta que te veo en mis sueños.

Matteo: trasladado

2008-02-11T11:28:00.000-08:00

Bueno, lo siento a todos de vosotros que no hablan español pero por la petición de mi prima, Katerina, esta entrada de blog está escrita en español. Y sé que solo has pedido una oración en español, prima mia, pero aquí tienes todo para ti. Menos mal, no?

Como dice el título de esta entrada, estoy trasladado. Jamás recibiré correo en calle Azacayas, jamás tendré fiestas de vino y queso en mi habitación gigante...sino que mis amigos y yo nos divertiremos en PLAZA ROMANILLA! Lut y yo hemos <> (theres a spanglishism for ya) y nos hemos mudado a otro piso chulísimo. El dueño es un poco raro pero bastante simpático. Nos ha dejado un impresora y los altavoces de su ordenador que son muy buenos. Además nos va a traer una tele! Supongo que estos regalos son remuneración para el piso más sucio del mundo que también nos dejó. Lut y yo hemos estado limpiando como hipcondriacos estos últimos días. Pero creo que tendremos un piso listo para una fiestita pronto (que suerte tenéis todos vosotros aquí en Granada).

También hoy es el último dia de mi primer cuatrimestre en la universidad de Granada. Gracias a dios!! Estoy harto de las asignaturas que tengo. Me alegrará mucho el cambio de horario y temas que viene el 18. No tengo ganas de saber más de la antropología de religión (la asignatura cuyo examen final tiene lugar mañana). Que más.... bueno, no lo sé pero si ma habláis por skype quizá os puedo dar una gira del piso. Pues nada, ya está. Hasta la próxima entrada!

Mateo

Apologies, legal jargon, set ups, and my return to blogging!

2008-02-05T04:39:00.000-08:00

Dios mio, ha pasado un mes y no he escrito nada! Whoops. Bueno, ahora voy escribiendo una nueva entrada para todos vosotros. Now, there are some lengthy paragraphs here, I know, but they are good. You should not be scared of them; just keep reading. It's so worth your while.

Ok so, where to begin... I guess I left off at my xmas vacation plans with a promise to tell you all about them. However, I think suffice to say it was way fun, way cold (about -3 celcius everywhere we went except Barcelona) and all the pictures on facebook can tell the rest of the story. I´m sure there will be tidbits I´ll recall in everyday conversation so maybe you´ll get lucky enough to hear about some cool european adventures once we next converse.

Well, apart from getting back to Granada (a super weird experience to ¨go home¨ after a vacation back to Granada) I have been busy with finals prep...which is pretty ironic because as I type I am counting down to a final in one hour and 52 minutes for which I have not quite put in as much time studying as the syllabus suggests, but what the heck, everyday is an adventure here in Spain.

Also I have been getting hella work from my job that I have been doing. At first they would send me little newspaper articles to revise and it took like an hour each, but now it seems as though I have graduated to 20+ page legal documents with complex terminology and the requirement of consistency in syntax and word choice throughout the article. It usually takes me like 3 or 4 intense days of nothing but staring at the computer screen and reading aloud to myself trying to remember how English is supposed to sound (my brain is very cluttered with Spanish grammar at this point) but it pays well enough. Oh, well, it pays well enough once April comes around that is. See, I started working for this organization at the end of their 3 month payment cycle so I got about 50 euros for all my work until now because only December work counted. So between the end of December and the payment disbursements, I have a few hundred euros that I have earned unavailable to me until 3 months from now. I'm not too sure if I like this system...

Oh, AND I got set up on a date with a 30 year old chef. Thank you very much, Lut and Anna. Now, let me explain how nightlife interaction in Spain goes for me. First off, it's always in a pub or bar (bars here serve food, pubs are exclusively drinking cuz thats just how it goes in Granada) and there is loud music and lots of noise from other patrons of the establishment. Now, if you are an English speaker and you have gone into a noisy situation with me, you already know I can barely hold conversations in the context of my native language just because of the fact that my hearing is terrible. So, here in Spain I'm usually in that same context but with Spanish, naturally. So being a guiri (foreigner) when I need to ask a Spaniard to repeat him or herself they assume I just dont speak the language because somehow, everyone here has incredible hearing and has no problem conversing in loud bars or clubs. So, when I actually do have a conversation with someone, after asking for repetition a few times, they change gears into "speak to him like he's 3 years old". So it's fun to deal with that as well as the shameless and obvious flirting that goes on here. I cant tell you how many times I have gotten the "Te voy a ensenar espanol *wink wink*" here. Then if I reject said flirting they will try to backtrack by saying something like "oh, no you dont understand, its a spanish thing. thats all." And while Im polite enough to not say anything back, in my head my response ready to go is "Yeah, I'm sure you squeezing my ass as you wink at me and tell me you're going to teach me spanish is just a cultural thing."

Alright, I need to go do some last minute cramming for my final in one hour and thirty four minutes. But I will end this entry on a happy note by letting everyone know that I eat so much shawarma so frequently that the workers in about 4 shawarma shops on calle Elvira know me and give me free stuff. Woo hoo! ....is it bad i dont even know their names?... oh well, keep the shawarma coming, dudes.

Perks of living by a bar.

2007-12-11T06:20:00.000-08:00

So when I was looking for pisos here in Granada it was always in the daytime, of course. Therefore, I never noticed that the piso O chose is literally the building next to a bar by calle Elvira. Quiero decir, it´s loud. Most of the time it´s very bearable and I´ve learned to ignore it at night if Im gettign to bed early but some nights loud drunkards stand in the street and yell things or start singing and clapping. Clapping is HUGE here. It´s like... beatboxing except EVERYONE does it. Not just the rap/hiphop inclined. Anyways, there have been times when I am woken by the Spanish voice of a colonel Sanders (yes, the KFC man) who stood in the street convincing a younger man to follow him in his political crusade against the king of Spain. Once the man saw me staring at him he pointed to me and yelled ¨el enemigo!¨ (the enemy). I immediately closed my window shutter and huddled in the dark corner half expecting the man to try to throw something through my window or come up the stairs and who knows what. But everythign worked out and colonel Sanders hasn´t returned since.

So that is a fun story, I know, but what really prompted me to write this blog was a man yelling outside just today. At 3:17PM to be exact. Not AM as usual since the bar closes about then, but in the middle of the afternoon in the middle of siesta. Rude. He was screaming about how a woman left him and it really hit a chord with me when his voice cracked as he yelled. So sad, so emotional, so hilarious. He kept calling her a ¨sinverguenzas¨ which is like a shameless person but it´s a big insult that packs more of a punch here. Then he started having a dialogue with her in his head, but only speaking his side of it. So I would hear ¨claro que no puedes! claro! Sinverguenzas! Como que no puedes?! Eh!? Que te de por el culo! Puta!¨ It was really funny. I even looked out my window to see what this spurned lover looked like and although I couldnt see him I could see all the other people passing by on the street stopping and staring at him. There was a dog that wandered into the street right by the bar and the origin of the yelling and I assumed it was his dog. The poor thing looked so embarrassed to be with that guy. I actually had it´s ears back, its tail between its legs, and kind of a pissed off look on its face. I named it Scout because thats a cool name that actually makes sense unlike other dog names here where for the most part are 4 letters long and alternate consonant, vowel, consonant, vowel. Like Deka, Moko, Luri, etc etc...

Fun times on calle Azacayas.

Loja.

2007-12-02T07:50:00.001-08:00

It's a small town about an hour to the west of Granada set in a valley with the autovia on one side and beautiful, nearly untouched mountains on the other. Todya was my first time visiting. We caught the bus at 9AM and arrived at about 9:45 on this Sunday morning. Now, if you are to learn anything about Spain, especially rural or southern Spain, you should know that on Sunday, people sleep in and shops do not open. So we arrived in the deserted Loja with not a clue of where to go so we aimed ourselves toward the mountains and started our journey into the city. In the entire walk through the center of the town we saw maybe 4 people total. However, we did see an unnatural amount of dogs running about or barking at us from behind fences and balcony railings. Something was very wrong.

Turns out, as rumor has it, that people get turned into dogs when they go to Loja. And all the dogs are barking trying to warn the non-canine visitors and citizens of the town to get the hell out while they still can. BUT the genius of Loja is that people are turned into small dogs. Not like Australian shepherds or golden retrievers. Rather small ones with shrill barks that drive anyone crazy instantly. So no one listens to their warning. Ok well, this was the rumor about the town we made up while we were there. But I sure hope it sticks. Some other interesting things we found out about Loja are the following:
- The Lojan mafia buries their victims upside down so the feet are at the surface of the ground. We found the foot of someone while frolicking through a field.
- All the old men of the city take their morning walks on the dirt roads in the back of the town. And the rest all drive identical tractors along those same roads.
- Maria cookies make excellent Frisbees if you throw them from the mountain tops ...and if you know how to throw them right.

Other than those things, our trip to Loja was a great success especially after our steep hike/rock hopping when we bought Magnum bars (for those of you not in Spain, they are some of the BEST icecream bars you will ever taste). Also, today I felt a big step into integrating myself into Spain and the Spanish life. Not sure why, but on the bus ride back to Granada I was looking out the window and felt very at peace with my spanish surounding. Yay!

Im makin risotto!

2007-12-01T09:24:00.000-08:00

This is pretty exciting. I am literally in the proces of making asparagus, spinach parmesan risotto right now in the kitchen. Im sittign at the table stirring and chopping and typing all at once. And let me tell you, this risotto is going to be BOMB! it already tastes really yummy and i havent even added in the veggies yet. Oh lord, Im excited. Ill let you all know how it turns out. And ill take a picture too. Im so gourmet.

Anyways, last night was pretty fun. I learned a new card game from Ali and I will be playing it many times more when drinking with friends... or strangers. So the premise it that you deal out the whole deck first and someone picks a category. For example, fruit. So each person takes a turn and flips down a card kind of like war or egyptian rat slap or a game of that sort. So you never know what card is going to come up. But if someone plays the same card as someone else has on their turn those two people must then shout the other's name. So I'll recap how it went last night.

I play a 4, Emmy puts down a queen, Ben plays a 4. Uh oh! I start shouting banana! No, shit, that's my fruit. Kiwi! er, peach, shit shit shit and Ben yells out banana! So since he said my fruit before I said his, I lose and take all the cards he has played in front of him. His fruit was pear. So the game continues like this until someone runs out of cards. It gets creative with the categories too. One round we played vulgar words or expressions and there was a lot of nonsensical cussing going around the room. Anyways, you should all try out that game.

Thsi just in, the risotto is delicious. I am really really proud of myself. Oh and for the non spanish speaking readers of my blog, sorry for the occasional spanish rant such as in my last entry. That was the alcohol talking. Talking in Spanish. Ok so. not much more to report right now. I'm gonna go eat my super yummy risotto now, buen aproveche to me!

I AM SO DRUNK BUT NONETHElESS GLAD THAT LAURA WILL BE IN BUDAPEST WITH US!!!

2007-11-27T16:38:00.000-08:00

as the title states, drunk. Yes, i am. but Lut is more drunk and throwing up in the bathroom now. I feel bad because I know she has a lower tolerance than me but I played card drinking games with her anyways until this point of vomiting.

IM SORRY LUT! But in good news, Laura will be joining me and Max and Emmy in Budapest (provided we find a train to get there from Zurich) and it will be a blast! I can´t wait until the navidad break....after my anthropology of religion presentation where I have to speak in front of a class of many Spanish speaking students in Spanish. Oh I am so nervous. But thank god today was my last day of work so I have many more hours (24 per week to be exact) to work on academia and make me not get deported for failing classes. No worries to all of you reading this, I promise I´ll pull off at least passing grades (if not better, for you padres mios) and wow i can´t write more because it´s nonsensical and its amazing that I can still speak in one language. Porque hablar en español es demasiado difícil para mi ahora mismo y prefiero comunicar todo lo que me ha pasado en una lengua que tiene razon. Espe, eres la unica persona que conozco que es española y que lee mi bl0g, entonces perdona mi estado de estar emborrachado y disfruta el blog como si no fuera tan emborrachado! jajajaja, bueno, ahora me acuesto porque este blog se convierte en..... basura. No tengo ni pies ni cabeza ahora mismo. Hasta mañana cuando no estoy borracho!

matt

(submit comments with suggestions of a title for this entry)

2007-11-26T05:37:00.000-08:00

Exciting piece of news number 1. Tomorrow is my last day of my receptionist job. Its been only a month at Hostal AB and at first I thought my intense desire to flee from that job was a sign of patheticness, but it turns out, no one really likes the boss. I hope he doesn´t facebookstalk me and find out I have a blog and read this, but you guys should know. He´s a creeper. I think a large part of me having no ganas de staying there was him. Right from the get go he made me kind of uncomfortable. Oh well, that short short chapter of my life is reaching its proverbial final period.

Also, my plans are solidifying for this navidad break coming up. Here´s an outline so if any of you are in the same place at the same time we can meet up and find somehow to not freeze to death (average predicted temperature for this trip is about 3 degrees celcius). In any case, *December 23rd- I catch my .01 cent flight to Barcelona Girona and then make my way into the city from the tiny airport in the middle of nowhere known as Girona. Hopefully rendezvous-ing with Max will happen since we are staying in the same hostel, Sant Jordi Diagonal. Then at some point Emmy and her family step into the picture and there is joy and merriment as Christmas passes.
*December 26th- I fly out of the MAIN airport of Barcelona (eff you ryanair!) and arrive a few hours later in Zurich, Switzerland where the temperature is sure to be close to freezing with a RealFeel temperature of -5 degrees. FANTASTIC! But thank you to Max´s uncle who is letting us stay at his place for a few days while we wander through the Swiss winter wonderland.
*December 30th- Although this is still in the planning stages, hopefully it will solidify later today when Emmy and I have a planning party... We catch an overnight train, with beds and everything! so exciting!, to Budapest, Hungary where we check into the hostel with an unpronounceable name where we will reside until New Years. Hopefully there will be awesome parties and things to go to. Emmy´s cousin recommended a really fun bar that occasionally puts on drag shows, which would make great photo opps for facebook albums. I can imagine now, ¨Me and Minnie Coffee in Budapest on New Years. We later took shots of absinthe.¨ How bad ass will that be? Well, painful too, you ever had a shot of absinthe? It burns.
*January 2nd- I have to go to class soon so I´ll wrap this up. We will take a train to Vienna, Austria for four days (hostel yet to be reserved) and have much much Viennese fun until we return home by ryanair....*sigh* to Granada on the 7th... or 6th. I cant remember. Good thing we´re having a planning party today.

Off to anthropology! Hasta la hora!

stupid granada weather...

2007-11-20T13:08:00.000-08:00

So here in Andalucia it doesn't rain much. However when it does, it RAINS if only for 10 minutes. Today I was at work and as 830 rolls around and its time for me to make the 20 minute treck home, it begins to pour, naturally. So I decide to take the bus home and walk down to Camino de Ronda and lucky for me there is no bus stop to be found. So I keep walking until I get all the way to the end of the street (soaked, of course) and I decide screw it. Im buying an umbrella. So I walk into a.... I hate using this word....chino, and buy an umbrella and literally the second I step outside it has stopped raining. So not only am I soaked already, I have an extra umbrella. THe rest of the way back home I walked under the rain gutters that spilled water into the street just so I'd have an excuse to use my new, excessive umbrella.

Now for an anecdote about how I'm a total nerd. Locale - Anthro of Religion class. People - Rachel, Lauren, Ben, me. Topic - Spanish, as usual. Ben comments that its interesting that when Spaniards say things like ski or spanish, they actually say "esqui" and "espanish". However, with words liek super, it just comes out "supe" not "esuper". He then said, "I wonder why that is." Now you all know I am a sucker for linguistics and it just so happens that in my Structure of Romance Language class back in SC we cover exactly this topic. I was so excited that I was actually fidgeting waiting for him to finish his sentence so I could chime in and explain this. When it was my turn to talk, I thought to myself, speak slowly and clearly and not too stupidly excited so they dont think you are bizarre and possibly asthmatic. I then overcorrected by having the excitement stress my voice and I started talking like I was panting or something. My moment of linguisticy glory had corroded into embarrassed wheezing, basically. Entertaining, right? I thought it was blog worthy..

Que mas... oh, I'm 21 now for those of you who werent in the facebook birthday notification loop. Yes, I got cards and presents (mostly alcohol, but the good stuff) and a email from my dad that said at one part "we're going to go out for cocktails once you get back." and I imagined to myself that scenario. I would walk into a bar or restaurant or wherever and order somethign deliciously sophisticated and of course, alcoholic, and then they'd ask me for my ID. I can understand how on your 21st birthday you actually WANT to get carded but I feel like after a year in Spain where the drinking age is .... well, its not all that clear if there is one actually. But my point is, I think I'm going to feel insulted if I'm carded. I mean, I'll not only have been a year into drinking in anyestablishment and buyingn alcohol whenever I want, but I'll already be 7 or 8 months into being 21. Anywho, I made a really dlicious veggie over rice dish with homemade peanut sauce and I really want to eat it. So hasta luego everyone~

Guest post - Wine, Scrabble (as in Scramble) and Cominos

2007-11-16T14:20:00.000-08:00

Shalom!
Ali here. You may or may not know me. I am a friend of Mateo's. He's a super nice guy. And I'm a generally nice girl. We get along well.
I am in Mateo's cocina. Ben and Emmy just left to buy more vino. Mateo wonders if we should chip in. "Girlfriend" by Avril Lavigne is playing. He says this is the better version. He is taking out the trash. He just said "berb" as in to signify "brb".
Anywhos. This is Ali, still. We just created a bizarre form of food. Digression: we just took a shot. It tasted like scope. Normally I don't use scope. It really hurts my mouth. Germs don't go easy. Mateo is drinking milk now. And he added this bizarre scope business. Green milk.
Hokay. So. About our dinner.
Setting: Mateo's kitchen, Albaicin, Granada, Andalucia, Spain, Iberian Peninsula, Europe, Eurasia, Western Hemisphere, Earth, Solar System, Milky Way, Universe.
Time: Right now? About 23.27
Peoples: Mateo, Emmy, Benjamín, and yours truly
Food: Turkey Pancake Scrabble. Yep, it's as good as it sounds. It has turkey, potatoes, eggs, milk, butter, salt, pepper, cominos (lots of), and romero. You should try it.
Drink: Vino and scope

What else to say? Very little. Over and out.
Pace,
Ali

Visitors!

2007-11-07T07:43:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, I couldn't get Julia to make a guest post here but we will cross paths again so look forward to an entry by the lovely Miss Bergen.

Today was indeed a sad day in Granada. Max and Julia both left this lovely little city in southern Spain to continue on their journeys. Max is flying to the UK and Julia is off to Barcelona before her return to London. I miss them already and the excuse they gave me to not go to all of my classes... but I guess now I'll get back to the real world. What of my travel plans, you ask? I'm still here in Granada until Christmas time when I'll be heading to Barcelona, France?, Switzerland and Hungary! I'm very excited although I'm still not sure how I'm getting to all those places. All I know is I have a reservation in Budapest and a place to stay in Zurich. Oh well, as the number one couch surfer host of Amsterdam Larry Greweldinger says, "There's not really any point in making plans. The more plans you make, the more you can mess them up. No plans = no mess ups ;)" Yes, he even put the winking face.

In other news, my mom is here in Granada also. I took her to the Albaicin and to a shawarma place and I think they enjoyed it, but I also think the Granadina culture is a little different from them, but they'll either adjust or just keep on getting strange looks from everyone. No pasa nada.

ALSO, this was pretty exciting in a funny way... let me explain. So I live next to the "bohemian" street of town and naturally that attracts the transients and wanna be transients who have decided to make their meager living selling drugs. Now, on this street it is not at all uncommon for people to approach you and ask you if you want to buy drugs from them. Mostly there are offers for hash but the other day I got offered coke. TWICE. Ok well, it wasnt in the same day so that last sentence wasnt written very well but im too lazy to go back and change it. Deal with it. BUT COKE! How cool must I be for people to look at me on the street and think, "he wants to buy coke"..... oh.... wait.... that must mean i look like a coke head. Damnit. I guess I still don't have the Spanish style down yet.

Ya esta.

<3

Hola Espana!

2007-11-01T18:57:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome to guest post numero (that's "number" as they say here in Spain!) 2. Me llamo Max, but being as Spaniards seem to be a little unwilling to accept the name so as often as not it turns temporarily into "Matt" . . . whatevs. So today marks my 4th night in Granada and I, as I discovered earlier today when perusing my good pal Matt's blog, am expected to impart wisdom upon all yalls (I don't know who actually reads this but shop GAP (they told me they'd give me $5 to plug their new shade of taupe)). So tonight we smoked hash that we bought from a Spanish gypsy who pulled it out of her sock, but she insured us that it was quality and I now believe her. She introduced us to her party in order to gain our trust, which included her girlfriend (who I thought was a man) and three dogs that took a minute from eating the trash that was out behind a falafel stand to give us ominous glances. One of their names was "animal" which is actually Spanish but spelled the same way which is why you will read it incorrectly . . . unless you speak mainly Spanish, thus understanding that when she told us this dog's name it sounded like "aun-ee-mal." Tonight we ate at a restaurant that had its menu in several languages which gave us great pleasure in discovering that the Spaniards spelled "ham" "jam." Well done Spain, five points. Although I really am not one to talk being as I only know how to order red wine, espresso and point to things on a menu. Luckily the folk here in Granada seem quite used to putting up with shit from people like myself so they just smile and nod their heads. Went to a gay bar tonight but had to leave once I realised that perhaps having men hitting on me and not being able to explain the fact that I am not actually gay but prefer the welcoming and friendly environment as well as the superior drink prices and music perhaps wasn't the best for my first week in Spanish culture. Perhaps we'll have another go after I have properly assimilated. Ok, I am being told that the party is leaving Matt's room so I should sine off (oh, math joke SNAP). I look forward to speaking Spanish to you soon!

p.s. Have a LOLkat

My funny piso mates.

2007-10-30T13:30:00.000-07:00

Im sitting in the kitchen as I write this listening to my piso mates do their thing. Its very entertaining, really. Lut and Andres always have these little discourses about nothing really. It always comes back to either a mixer that has been broken since I moved in here or the smell that never quite goes away in the fridge. They argue back and forth telling each other that their private parts smell bad or that their significant others are somehow not quite adequate... either way its funny. Now Lut is speaking in Dutch to her grandma on the phone on the other side of the table and Andres is frying something. Not sure what but I can hear the oil popping and crackling 3 feet away from me. Oh life in this piso. I realize this blog entry is not the most entertaining blog entry ever, but you all should appreciate this insight into my piso life. Next time I'll tell a funny story cuz I'm sure to have them now that tall Max is here IN GRANADA!!! Yay! He's going to write the next blog entry, I think so stay tuned everyone!

life on track.... but i hit a speed bump.

2007-10-27T12:16:00.000-07:00

i shoudl just let it roll off my back or whatever that expresison in english is )i am losing more and more control over my native language every day= but i messed up at work and my boss yelled at me. like a lot. and then he sent an email to everyone telling them i fucked up. i am pretty sad now. All I did was potentially prevent the hostal from renting 2 rooms by making a reservation on the phone and forgettign to get their information. Yeah, I did mess up, but I feel like it wasnt as big of deal as it would seem from the quantity and intensity of this scolding me both on the phone and in cyberspace. SIGH. Now I am soaked from having to walk back from work in the rain and I just want to go to sleep. I hope the two days off I get will help me recover...

and its a bummer also because everything went so smoothly today until then!!! urrrrggghhhh.

but im trying to think abotu more linguistics stuff because it makes me happy. Hoda! Kristan! help!

I need to get my life on track!

2007-10-23T04:46:00.000-07:00

So recently I have been skippingn way too many classes. I havent gone to the last 2 Linguistics classes in a row mostly because they bore me. I already know the material because I have already taken like 20 linguistics classes at Santa Cruz so he cant surprise me. Also, I didnt go to my Translation class today! That is bad. I dont think I missed too much nor do I think the professor will mind terribly that I missed one class but still, sleeping is not better then class once im into the 10th hour of sleep for that night! Thats just too much sleeping! Ok, so, starting tonight after work I am going to get my act together. I will be a good student and do the right thing and go to classes.

Tambien, pienso que una razon que no fui a mi clase de traduccion hoy es porque estaba demasiado preocupado sobre mi trabajo. Yo se que con mas tiempo y practica me mejorare pero ahora siento tan tonto cuando comito un eror y 10 personas me dicen que me equivoque. Lo que sea. Hare un dia de trabajo increible hoy y nadie me podra decir que he hecho algo malo...espero. Sigh. Vamos a ver.

Other than these things what has been going on lately... nothing out of the ordinary except since I cant get my bank of america accoutn to link to my citibank account (and I dont want to ask my parents for money) I have 40 dollars until November. I hope I can make that stretch.

Im not very interesting right now so you guys write to me and let me know about the excitign things that are going on for you guys!!

Re: El post de mi amor/companera de piso

2007-10-21T14:29:00.001-07:00

1. i dont even use the same bathroom as lut.

2. and I did NOT steal her chips. No one knows who took them but I promise I did not take them because I had my own bag of chips!!!

3. burritos and fajitas are not bad and everyone from california who reads this will agree with me.

4. but yes, i am a bad cook and i have the scar to prove it!

I <3 you too Lut.

my beloved roommate

2007-10-21T14:22:00.000-07:00

well im the belgian roommate from mate. dont know what to write.... when i first met him i thought hmmmm he is different :) and i was right. We went for a drink had some nice talks, and i loved him. He is so great, stylish, cool and off the hook ;)

then we went to a party and i loved him even more. Even though he is a bad cook and cut himself once in a while, and brakes our cleaning stuff... everybody loves matt!!!!
He s eating is horrible: it excist in buritos, fajitas and that s pretty much it!!!!!
He even rearranged his room while i wastold not to do that for more than 8 month. I steals my chips and leaves his dyed blond hear in the bathtub :)

well we still all love matt.... hope there is more to come..... matt is my beloved roommate your cool dude!!!!
love your roomie lut

My heels hurt.

2007-10-17T10:11:00.000-07:00

This morning was a special day for me. I woke up at 830 to get ready for this momentous day, and promptly fell back asleep until 9. But then I got up and got ready.... in a hurry. I left the piso at 915 togive myself enough time to walk all the way down to Camino de Ronda where I was to meet someone at Hostal AB. After consulting my map, I made my way down and arrived with 15 minutes to spare before I was to meet them. However, it took my 17 minutes to find the damn hostal. Turns out I was on the wrong side of the street, but its not as bad as it sounds because its a big street and i had to walk into the block to find the hostal. Anyways, upon arriving I met Esperanza, my new coworker. Thats right, I GOT A JOB!!!!!! Its pretty exciting and the hostal is very low key so no worries about being super proper and formal and appeasing absolutely everyone to the point where I am licking their shoes clean. I am a receptionist there and its gonna be way guai. Anyways, I got a tour and a run down of how everything works and it seems pretty simple so Ill let you all know how it goes once I start next Tuesday.

Then I went to classes, well, one class out of the three. We got out early frommy first class and I went to the library to research linguistic-y stuff and it made me soooo happy that I didnt go to my next class. I stayed and literally read the dictionary of linguistics and phonology for entertainment long after I had enough information for my paper. Go ahead, judge me, but you will never know the joy of apocope or subordinate clauses. Ill keep this blog relatively short and end by saying that I have played Under the Blacklight by Rilo Kiley about 30 times straight in the last two days. Im obsessed. I just wish I hadnt found out about this 2 or 3 months after it came out. Dang Atlantic Ocean separating me from my favorite music!

Hasta luego!

lockouts, fajitas, drugs, and chocolate

2007-10-14T12:45:00.000-07:00

If Emmy were a video game character, she would not be a rogue. Rogues, unlike Emmy can pick locks. Ok, so in all honesty I wouldnt be a rogue either. Here's the story:

2PM - Naturally, I had just woken up. Then I got a call from Emmy informing me that she had locked herself out of her piso and couldnt get back in because one of her piso mates was in Cadiz and the other was working and the location of her job was not known. So, we went over to her piso and waited outside until someone went into the building becuase there was a "backdoor" to the piso we thought we could enter through. No one came to open the doors but we did get accosted by a homeless man who told us about how much he hated Granada. Eventually we just buzzed a random floor and asked the woman who answered to open the door. So the "backdoor" turned out to be closed off with metal bars which is good for the security of Emmys piso but bad for us since we couldnt get in. Then Emmy started texting piso mates to ask to borrow keys (probably a good idea to have done in the first place, but whatever you get more entertainment this way) and it took the piso mates a long time to respond so we tried other ways of opening the door. We tried ringing the doorbell, using MY keys in HER door, and we even resorted to attempting to pick the lock with a bobbypin. We couldnt get the door open but we did get the pin stuck in the door so even the right set of keys wouldnt be able to open that door. All turned out well since Leila responded and it turns out she works about 1 block away from the piso so borrowing her keys was easy.

Then Emmy fixed fajitas which were amazing and we played cards, listened to music and laughed at ourselves until we went out later that night. We went over to Ali's and then out to Kapital. Now, we had never been to Kapital but it was recommended by Ali's piso mate. Personally, I wasnt a huge fan especially since there were more drugged out people in that club than in Porter meadow on 420. Well, I exaggerate but there were tweakers there for sure. One almost burned Lauras hair with his cigarette and other ones stroked Ali's friends back when she walked by to go to the bathroom. It was creepy. They also played a little too much reggaeton for my taste. Vogue still reigns supreme as my favorite afterhours club in Granada.

Now as I write this blog not much has happened other than the rearranging of my room. I am trying to read these anthropology articles for class but they are insanely complex and my guiri brain cant handle it. Luckily my friend Tim, form high school, invited me to churros con chocolate on him. It was the most delicious thing Ive eaten in a long while. I <3 you, churros. I <3 <3 you too, chocolate.

zomgwow

2007-09-29T05:26:00.001-07:00

So for lack of a title for this entry you get zomgwow. Its a mix of zomg and gwow. gwow is like wow, but in spain. So I went to Oktoberfest and it was glorious. I drank OH so much beer and then traveled for 19 hours. Yes, consecutively with no break in between. Getting to Munich only took 8 hours but on the way back the plane had a problem IN THE AIR and we had to turn aroudn and land. TWICE. thats right, we took off again after "fixing the problem" and it happened again. Then they brought a plane in from London and messed up their schedule and we had to wait 5 more hours. I was exhausted and probably lookin' a beast, but I got home. Then I slept for 14 hours.

Also, I just performed my chore of the week which was trash and washing kitchen floor. It went fine until I was mopping. I broke the mop. Honestly, last night Lut mopped and half broke it but I sealed the deal and broke it in two. I went out and bought a new one but I think the one I broke was only 2 days old. Oops. Andres might be mad. I also hope to join a gym today or tomorrow - depending on when Im feelign lazy enough to actually leave the piso to go there and sign up.

Ok, now I have to go search through the schedule of classes to see which I signed up for. I forgot and I start classes in 2 days. Shoot. Wish me luck!

Rihanna is the new Britney.

2007-09-16T07:53:00.000-07:00

So I watched Britney's performance on the 2007 VMAs. It was difficult to find a video that was actually still on the internet and not taken down by Viacom, however leave it to the Spanish websites to have the pirated material.

There are a few things I want to say about her performance. First, she is NOT fat. She does, however, look as though she has birthed two children... not very becoming of a pop star. Second, how sad was it that she couldnt even dance? My friend Natasha pointed out that in Britney's Oops I did it again performance of 2000 she was running around shakin it and workin it like the true super pop star she was. But now its just not the same. Third, my favorite part of the video was that Diddy, 50 Cent, Kid Rock, and Rihanna are dumbfounded by her lackluster performance. Rihanna actually laughed at her. I swear to god, its in the video.

Now this brings me to my next point, I am currently obsessed with not only Gimme More (FANTASTIC song with a horrible performer attached to it) but also Shut Up and Drive by little miss sunshine, Rihanna. She has 2 singles out right now - Umbrella and the aforementioned work of genius. This is how you know they are ballin as a pop star. And given Rihanna's success combined with her world wide televised show of laughing in Britney's face, I say Rihanna has got all the makings of being the new "it" pop star.

Not much else is new now... I move into my piso on Thursday though, thats exciting. Hasta luego!

Cuentos de la Alham....Granada.

2007-09-12T01:25:00.001-07:00

So I know it's been a while since my last bog entry (or Emmy's rather, which got RAVE reviews) but heres some fun stories for y'all.

1. Supermodelo 2007 - This is Spain's version of America's Next Top Model mixed with the voting style of American Idol. Basically, two thumbs way down from me. First of all, the show is a recap of the last week the girls had, it doesnt actually show them doing anything, rather it shows clips out of sequential order depicting bitchy moments the girls have. I couldnt follow what they had the girls do in order to become supermodels. They also don't have photo shoots. Ok, thats a lie. they have very few photoshoots and they dont even show the final photos. Instead, they have dance and aerobic classes. BORING. Finally, all of the makeovers except 2 made the girls look like wanna-be American prostitutes. Why don't they work with the Spanish heritage and COMPLEMENT that instead of fighting it by dying hair very unnatural shades of blonde?

2. I went bowling last night which was fun. I also ate a hamburguesa at the bowling alley which was the first burguesa (to invent some more Spanglish) I have had in Spain. It had egg in it, but I liked it. Too bad the bowling alley is on the complete other side of town. Ok, now to the point of this bowling blog. The monitores (group leaders that take us foreign students out to do stuff) typed in all the info on the computers like our names and who bowls where, etc. They got everyone's name correct even kinda complicated ones like Isaac (two A's) or Marianne (how did they know it was an I?) However, Matt must have been a little complicated because my name ended up as Malt. I thought it was a typo at first but then I realized that L and T are not even remotely close to each other on a keyboard...... they think my name is Malt.

3. Finally, I went to my trial day at a gym here with Celia and Marianne. It is reputedly the best gym in Granada (thank you MTV guidebook to Spain) and, honestly it is really nice. We did an aerobics class called Aero G.A.P. Yeah, we had no idea what that meant either. Turns out, the Aero = aerobics... but aerobics = dancing. We ended up prancing across the room spinning and kicking our legs out at just the right moment for extra flare in our baile. We werent big fans so we left after the Aero part of the class. The G.A.P. turned out to be Glutes, Abs, and Piernas (legs) which would have been a good part of the class to go to. However, once we left we went over to the spinning class. It was amazing, if only 45 minutes. The instructor was nice but her orm of encouraging was...loud. VENGA! SIGUE! VENGAVENGAVENGA!!! I was intimidated at first but it ended up making me laugh when she shouted at us. I learned useful spinning commands:
sigue - keep going!
adelante - lean forward
arriba - out of the saddle
sube - turn the resistance up
baja - turn it down
sentamos - sit down (not really something new to me...)
VENGA!!!!! - GOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGO COME ON DO IT DO IT DO IT!!!!

I have to go pick classes now which is one of the most confusing things I have ever done in my life. Adios!

A special treat

2007-09-06T14:44:00.000-07:00

Today we have a guest author in this here blog. Please give a warm welcome to EMMY!!!!

Good Evening. Good News! Matt and I have graduated....from Pre-ILP Cadiz summer 2007! That's right folks, we passed a series of classes that did absolutely nothing to improve our spanish....On a slightly different topic, we have also been going out quite a bit recently (except for tonight, of course, because we are busy writing blogs and all). One night we headed to a bar where I actually got to meet the owner. Many people were suspicious if he was actually the owner or just saying so. Regardless, I thought it would be a good idea to get to know this fellow whether or not he was the owner because he could prove to be of great service. After Mary (a friend here) asked him for free "chupitos" we knew that he was telling the truth. However, he didn't exactly have the right idea on what we wanted. He continued to pour HUGE shots of what tasted like poison! We forced them down because, hey, they were free! After people left in order to preserve the rest of their taste buds, I thought it would be a good idea to continue this interaction. However, whether it was the sketchy man or the sketchy drink, I was dragged away due to some intuition people where receiving from the situation....who knows! speaking of odd... another night Some guy just randomly grabbed my head at a club......ummm, ok...my head? really?! whatever. Anyways, I should really go. Matt's getting paranoid I should really tend to the situation at hand. Until, another time where I can take advantage of Matt's intoxicated state of being, Adios!

Pisopisopisopisopisopiso

2007-09-05T01:07:00.000-07:00

I officially have a piso now which is pretty awesome.

I think I had psyched myself up to be excited for this piso no matter how trashy it was because until then my search had been bombing, but it turned out to be pretty nice....I think, I hope Im not still psyching myself out. Anyways, my room is HUGE because it is intended to be a double room, but I´ll pay extra to keep it a single. I figure if it becomes a problem I can find a roommate. Since I had budgeted for Californian apartment prices even paying extra here is about half of what I would be spending in California. Its amazing.

So theres a kitchen with nice furnishings and a living room which isnt that big but it for sure is cozy. I like it a lot. There are 2 bathrooms both with showers and toilets and sinks so that is convenient. And there are 3 others living with me. One girl is from Belgium and she speaks about 5 languages. I am jealous. She is really nice and if I ever get stuck in communicating, she speaks English too. Booyah. Another girl is from Spain, not sure where exactly yet since Im saving some conversation for when I move in, but she studied law and wants to be a lawyer. She is the one I met the other night at the bar with her lawyer friends (you remember, right?). The third person is a Spanish guy who I just met last night when I go the piso. I dont know much about him except he works and his name is Andres.

So Andres called me last night at about 1030. I was planning on calling it a night a bit early so I was chillin watching Veronica Mars when my phone rings. I looked at the number and upon not recognizing it i was very tempted to not pick it up but I figured it might have been someone from the residencia with a new phone or something so I picked up and then a flurry of Spanish flew into my ear. My mind flopped around since it was very unprepared for Spanish and I managed to catch ¨my name is .......¨ and I paused because I didnt know what his name was much less him. Then he told me he was the 3rd guy from the piso I hadnt yet met. And he told me that there were lots of people who wanted to look at the apartment but if I still wanted it I could have the room. Excited, I said yes and then he told me I had to pay the mes de fianza (kinda like a security deposit.....i think. It happens with EVERY piso so its nothing shady) right then. I asked if there was a different time to pay it rather than 1030 at night while Im already in my pijamas. He said no because he was going on vacation the next day. So sluggishly I agreed and luckily I had 300 euros cash on me from Emmy´s apartment renting experience. I recruited Emmy who walked me down to the piso and we got everything straightened out. I even got keys to the place!

Now I have 2 classes of history back to back from 11 until 2 because the literature professor isnt here today. So to compensate for 2 history and no lit, on Monday I get back to back lit classes at the same time as today´s history. I want to cry. Its going to be so painful.

2007-09-04T01:46:00.000-07:00

There is a phone in this hallways that rings every day for a long ass time. Like, no one is going to pick up after 12 rings. Just hang up! But no, they keep calling. After some hunting I found that the calls are coming from room 3404 - where no one lives. I am contemplating breaking down the door and placing the phone off the hook so it wont ring anymore. I am so annoyed.

Ok, I just had to vent. Dont get distracted by this entry, there is a better one below it.

Currently listening to Handshakes by Metric. (very livejournal, no?)

Ya es la hora.

2007-09-04T01:06:00.000-07:00

Again it is my break in between classes where I like to write my blogs. So heres a new one for y´all.

Well, the last few days cant quite top the weirdness I talked about in my last entry however I can tell you about last night when I went to meet someone who lives in (hopefully) my future piso.

I was supposed to meet her at the piso to talk to her about it and get to know her a little bit. But when I went to the piso I got a call from her saying that she had gone out with some friends to a bar and that I should come join them. Now, I was told by the other girl in the piso that Rebeca, the one I was meeting with, was a student. So I was under the impression that she would be somewhere near my age. Upon my arrival to the bar, however, I was introduced to her and her 4 lawyer friends, all 27 and above in age. They were really nice but it was kinda awkward since I didnt understand much of what they were saying since they talked quickly and not generally in my direction. So occasionally they would ask me if I understood and I would honestly tell them no. I did not. At first they thought that was really cute
and told me if I dont understand something I should ask because they hate it when people pretend to understand and then laugh awkwardly as though they are in on the joke too when in reality they have no idea why everyone is laughing. Since I couldnt ask them to repeat EVERY sentence they said, I opted to not really ask about what they were talking about. So I stood quietly until there was a lull in conversation and tried to pose a question without making an awkward topic change. Then they asked me how old I was. Upon responding 20, they then called me el bebe the rest of the night.

The night wasnt bad, overall, however it has left me with doubts as to whether I will get that piso or not. I guess I should keep looking just in case. Piso hunting no es guai.

I want Buffy.

Weirdest last 12 hours of my life.

2007-09-02T04:51:00.000-07:00

Ok so, I was convinced to go out to a bar last night even though we had an excursion today at 9am. It was and I had a good time until we went to leave. My friend and I were walking back up to the main street in Granada and as we passed out of a smaller street onto Gran Via, two guys walked by. One of them went out of his way to walk inbetween me and my friend thus pushing me outward toward his friend who, as I passed by, swung his arm at my head and brushed his hand through my hair. Two inches closer and he would have clocked me in the head. So startled, I turned around and looked at him and he said ¨hey. hey. HEY. HEY.¨ and I said hola not understanding what this interaction meant. Then he said ¨ven aqui. ven aqui conmigo.¨ And I said adios. It that how people hit on you in Spain? They go literal?

THEN today I got 3 hours of sleep and got ready to go on the hike we just got back from. We ended up crawling under rock formations jutting out into the path we walked on several feet above a rocky creek-stream. So that was intense. But the hike was nice.

Then coming back to the residencia I went to buy monedas to use the washer and dryers downstairs. I went in with Ali who also bought monedas and she talked to the receptionist first. She bought her monedas while I fished out change to pay with, and also while a new family came to move their daughter into the residencia. Her bag tags said she was from Israel...just thought Id mention it. Anyways, they went in front of me while I got money. They got the key to her room and the receptionist asked if they knew where the room was. He then left the office to point out the building it was in. While he was outside I waited patiently fo rhim to return since it was quarter to 2, when the office closed. He waved them adieu and came back to the door. ¨great, I get to wash my clothes now¨ i thought. He reached for the door and pulled to no avail. I thoguht he had locked himself out. So he brought out his door keys and put them in the door, turned them, pulled the door again (which didnt open) and walked away. He locked me in the office and left for his break 15 minutes early. So I stood there confused for a while then searched out people that might still be in the office. No one. Then I called Emmy and asked her to find someone who could unlock the door. She went on her search and thank you for doing so Emmy! I ended up flagging down a cleaning lady as she walked by who asked me what I was doing in the office. IM TRYING TO GET SOME GOD DAMN MONEDAS AND LEAVE. But she walked around the corner after seeing my predicament and brought the receptionist back who was very embarrassed and insisted that I was in the baño while he left. False. I was directly in front of the door, basically. So now Im going to use these hard earned monedas and take a nap.

Until the next story -

How I learned to stop riding the bus at night and survive the ghetto.

2007-08-30T01:31:00.000-07:00

Since it is absurdly hot here as I may have mentioned before I went to buy an electric fan with Emmy. The fan is now y new best friend (sorry everyone, youve been replaced) but getting it was quite the adventure.

First we went to El Corte Ingles, the Macy´s or Sears of Spain at 5PM. They didnt have any but they recommended we go to the shopping center a ways away so we did. We walked really far and got there to find that in the entire mall they only had 2 fans - one of which was way too big and the other way too expensive. We were about to give up and go home hot and disappointed (cuento de mi vida) until we remembered that there is a Spanish Walmart! Its called Alcampo and while I am not a fan of big box stores, we needed fans. We were on the complete other side of the city so we bussed it over to Alcampo and got fans! It was fantastic and we also bought food. So we had lots of bags and large boxes with fans and we decided that walking back to the university might lead to our death from exhaustion so we tried to take the bus back and this is where it gets interesting.

We waited for the 20 line which goes up to campus only to, 20 minutes later, realize it didnt run during non school months such as August. So we changed plans and got on the 8 bus which we had seen on campus earlier that day. The bus drove and drove until we started to think that for some reason it didnt go to campus. A guy who had been standing up at every single stop and looking around as if he should get off at each started to talk to me and I asked him if the bus went to campus. Not at night, he responded. Fuck. We got off teh bus and decided to try to navigate our way back to the residencia but the guy on the bus followed us and kept talking. He said he would walk us back and even after our protesting he left us little choice but to follow him since we were completely lost and had just found out from him that the part of the city we were in was the ghetto. ¨There are lots of drugs, gangs, fights, and people will drive up on a moto behind you and stab you if youre not careful,¨ he told us. So scared out of our minds, lost, and weighed down with shopping bags we followed him.

Sketchy act number one was that the guy was standign at every stop on the bus but sketchy act 2 was when he told us that he knew a shortcut and tried to take us down an alleyway. Emmy and I stopped and asked DONDE ESTAMOS EN EL MAPA. MUESTRANOS. Since he didnt point out our location we were once again left no choice but to follow him. This is where i thoguht Emmy was goign to die because as we came out of the alley, Emmy was at the mouth of it and a moto started speedign up behind her. I remember thinking ¨shit, shes going to get stabbed by a guy on a moto like our creep tour guide mentioned. Luckily, Creep knew the guy on a moto and nothing happened.

We continued walking and then Creep tried to sell us hash. We politely declined and e then told us that people mix additives with hash so its cheaper to make and they sell fo rhte same. Those aditives are actually poison so if we werent careful we could smoke poisonous hash and get sick. FORTUNATELY his hash didnt have those but he coudl sell it to us at an incredibly cheap price of 10 euros. Great. Now he was trying to poison us with his cheap hash. Once we got out of the ghetto my nerves calmed a little bit but Creep didnt stop being weird. ¨I have agirlfriend. Her name is so and so. We dont have problems. I dont have problems. We have no problems. We are very goo dtogether. She doesnt have problems. No problem. problemproblemproblem etc...¨ for about 5 minutes straight. Then he told Emmy she looked like a tomato. Smooth.

Anyways, we got back to the base of campus and told him thank you, we could walk from there but he insisted on walking us to the doorstep of the residencia. He said it was on his way anyways and I asked where he lived and he pointed in the opposite direction. Go figure. We talked him out of following us but he insisted I take him phone number. I will promise you all now that Creep is not getting a phone call from me.

Time for class. Hasta luego.

For the linguists....aka Hoda

2007-08-29T01:09:00.001-07:00

Today I actually went to the clase de gramatica and I loved it because the profesor talked about the derivation of pronouns and articles from Latin and naturally, the nerdy linguist Matt took over. El profe explained how at one point the Latin-Spanish language used words like Ille, Illa, and Illum for masculine, feminine, and neuter respectively then at one point the Illa changed to Ela and when used with feminine nouns that start with strong ¨a¨sounds like agua or hambre, the last ¨a¨ of ela was eventually omitted because it was the same sound as the first sound of the noun. This all seems logical and super cool if you are a linguist BUT THEN he said ¨and today people say el agua and el hambre because thats what they know, but they dont know that they say that because years and years ago people made a mistake and changed it to ¨el¨. EXCUSE ME?!?! A mistake!!??? Oh you damn prescriptivist. He lost major points today.

Soy idiot.

2007-08-28T02:18:00.001-07:00

I just missed my first class of gramatica today. I mixed up the schedule in my head and thought i had break right now but no. I have class. And in Cadiz they told us that if you are late to a class just dont go because the teachers get really super offended so Im afraid to show up now that its 20 minutes into the class. Soy inteligente... At least Christianna is online so I can talk to her instead of being in my room all alone thinking about what Im missing below.

Polvo´s in the air

2007-08-25T09:41:00.000-07:00

Granada is enveloped by a giant dust cloud. From our dorms on the hill you can´t even see the city below. Instead its a brown-grey curtain of dust. You can even smell the dirt in the air. Oh and its still like 38 degrees C.... I dont know what that is in american temperature but its hot.

I also found a discoteca in a mall. It looks fun and its called Mae West.

Schwarma, will you be my burrito?

2007-08-24T08:49:00.000-07:00

So its been a long week here in Granada awaiting the ILP program but it has been a good week also. Mostly I walked around the city and explored different areas. I have yet to visit the Alhambra because it is the peak time for tourist season here. This means that if I wanted to go visit the Alhambra now I would need to wake up t about 530, head over the the ticket office, wait in the lone that has formed by 6AM, and wait until 8 when the tickets go on sale for the day. After that, if I would be lucky enough to get the first tickets, I would stat my tour an hour later at 9 when the Alhambra opens. Yes, ridicuouls, I know so I have elected to wait until later in the year, winter perhaps, when there are no tourists and I wont have to wake up at an ungodly period of the morning just to wait for another 4 hours. I also bought Entrevista con el vampiro since I have neither read it nor seen the movie and I should start practicing Spanish in ways other than ordering food and asking directions.

I was approached one day by foreigners and they asked me for directions to the Alhambra in their very bad Spanish accent when I was down by Plaza Isabel la Catolica. Why me? I don’t look like I speak Spanish, I don’t think I look like a Granadino, and Im pretty sure they came up to me while Emmy and I were speaking in English – kind of a giveaway that we´re not locals. Basically I pointed in the wrong direction and told them – allí

I started a book called Perfume which I thought was related to the movie about a crazy man who tries to make perfumes out of women he abducts because he has an incredible sense of smell. So far he´s only been severely disfigured by diseases and strangled one girl. Im already halfway through the book and its disappointing. I hope he starts going crazier soon.

I got to make my own food! Since the hostal has its own kitchen and fridge Emmy and I made pasta. Lots of it. AND WITHOUT TUNA IN THE SAUCE!!! Anyone who was in Cádiz last month will understand that sentiment. Also, I have found my new burrito! Some of you may know how big of a fan I am of the burritos back in California and it is one of the greatest disappointments as pointed out by Hoda in another of my blog entries that burritos don’t really exist here. So, par recommendation of Hoda I had a schwarma. These delectable burrito-esque foods are delicioso. Ill spare you from a description of their creamy sauces and warm crunchy wrap with various stuffings but in conclusion, they are close enough to burritos in structure and enjoyableness that I am comforted. (p.s. you should all eat a burrito in honor of burrito lovers living in Spain. We miss them.)

A quickie...

2007-08-20T02:37:00.000-07:00

Im in Granada now and staying at this backpackers hostal that has only been open for 5 weeks. The owners\security guard\only two people that work there and ex surfers who are really laid back. They smoke everyone out....every night. I sleep on an airmattress that makes a lot of noise if you move around on it and the person on the top bunk changes every night as people come and go. HOWEVER, Granada is awesome.

Ok, now to the point of this message.
I dont have internet at the hostal so I wont be able to blog much this week (sad, I know. try to be strong). But once I move into the dorms on the 24th Im sure there will be many stories to tell about the borrachos that wander the streets and play incredible flamenco guitar music, the schwarmas that I have yet to try, and many other things.

Hasta luego!

Futbol es guai.

2007-08-17T02:40:00.001-07:00

So last night we went to the huge BBQ thing on the beach and we heard it was big but we had no idea. Imagine the crowd at Porter meadow on 420 (for all you Santa Cruzers) and multiply that by the 7 kilometers of beach that this event took place on. This craziness usually lasts until 6 or 7 in the morning when the cops come and kick everyone out. Why BBQ so much? you might ask. The answer is futbol. It was the end of the Cadizian futbol season and although Cádiz lost, people still like to BBQ...and drink. The funny part is that the day before was a dia festivo for some religious observance that no one knows the significance of. So basically everyone took that day off and chillaxed. Then the next day for futbol reasons it was the largest party I have seen in my life. Way to prioritize, Spain.

I also got more passport photos taken and as expected, worst photos of my life. I kind of look like a cracked out chipmunk. I hope the professors at University of Granada appreciate them.

I miss burritos.

A breif summary

2007-08-16T05:12:00.000-07:00

Since I suck at actually writing to people I thought that a blog would be helpful to spread any news that's worth reporting. So I'll do my best to keep this blog alive. Here's a recap of what's been happening since my arrival in Spain...

Upon arrival in Seville, after 23 hours of traveling, I found that my baggage had been lost. First time ever that that's happened to me. It ended up coming a week and a half later so I was wearing the same two pairs of clothes for the first week of meeting all the other students and professors. Yeah, I felt cool. P.S. in this case cool = dirty.

The beaches are amazing here and it is worth going every day except for the tragic fact that I am uber white and burn very easily. I have to catch up to the experienced beach-goers in my group but I'm making progress.

We've gone on a few field trips including an excursion of El museo de los diques. Just in case you don't speak Spanish this translates to roughly a Dock museum. Yes, a museum dedicated to docks. Like where boats tie up to in the water. As you could probably tell it was FASCINATING.....

My room faces a stone wall across the street but if I scrunch up into the corner behind my desk I have a semi view of the plaza de la catedral outside the residencia which is actually really beautiful. I have pictures but of course I forgot to bring my cord to get those pictures off of my camera. Soy genius. Pigeons also like to land on my windowsill so we're buds. They are kind of the inspiration for the name of my blog palomas en la plaza. That and also all the times when I walk through plazas and a child thinks its hilarious to scare a flock of pigeons (flock? herd? who the fuck knows.) which then swarm around you and fly menacingly close to your face.

I have met some very cool people here in Cadiz and some who I will not miss once we go our separate ways to other cities in Spain (but shhhh, dont tell them). Overall Cadiz has been great despite the sarcasm laced through the sentences of this blog entry and I will be a little triste to leave but Granada is sure to bring more adventures. OH MY GOD one more story before I go -

Last night Emmy and I were sitting in the plaza de la catedral sipping on some cervezas and vino when a man came up to us and asked for money. I decided to pretend that I was a total tourist and that I didn't know Spanish so with my best American accent and confused expression I repeatedly told him that I didn't understand what he was saying, but he didn't get the hint and kept asking until he decided that a fantastic way to communicate his motives without words would be to remove the bandaid from his left eye thus revealing his...lack of eye. He pulled open the gaping hole in his head and said "give me a euro". I'm glad I have watched enough medical shows to be partly desensitized to the body so that I didn't have nightmares last night. Unfortunately his fleshy crater did not convince me to give him a euro so he covered up his eye again and walked away.

More to follow. Paz afuera.