Portugal's got mountains AND beaches?? I'm sold!

We hadn't really decided what to do on Monday, all we knew was that it would depend on the weather. We woke up at 9 feeling extremely refreshed after a full night's rest. We opened the window to see blue skies and sunshine. That meant that we could go to Cascais, a little beach town about 20 min outside of Lisboa by train. We ate breakfast in the hostel, got ready, and took the train out to Cascais. At the station we had a hard time figuring how the ticketing machine works. We didn't really act all confused, but a very nice Portuguese man saw that we were a couple of Americans staring at a machine and he coached us through the whole thing, actually basically did it all himself...without our even asking! It was so nice, proves how great the Portuguese are. We said "obregada" (Portuguese "thank you" if you're female. Males say "obregado") a thousand times. The train ride was really nice because this line was run on a cable line right alongside the ocean. We passed under this huge bridge that looks like a Golden Gate replica...how coincidental since Lisboa kind of reminds me of San Fran! Love it. We got to Cascais and detrained with the bright sun reflecting off the ocean immediately hitting our faces. We already knew that we would love this place. It's very much your typical beach town, but prettier and cuter...especially since it's Portuguese! Oh man, I'm so in love with Portugal, I can't wait to return when it's really warm out (I'm going to Lagos in April or May). We wandered the streets a bit, I bought an Indian scarf from a woman off the street (5 euro!). We saw some cute dogs and adorable children in disfraces (costumes) because Monday was Carnaval (like Mardi Gras, big in Brazil). We regretted not buying disraces for Portugal, we didn't even consider that they'd celebrate Carnaval. Then we decided to check out the beach scene. We walked along the ocean for awhile, saw some fishermen. The fishermen look just like how I'd picture cute old European fishermen would look: extremely tan and kind of wrinkley, in hats and knit sweaters and rubber boots. Hehe. After some walking we decided to tomar el sol (sunbathe). We layed out on some cement enclosures along the beach for about an hour, and man, it felt soooo good. After a bit we sat up and watched this woman play fetch with her yellow lab in the ocean. So cute! I miss my doggies. After laying out we did some more wandering. I bought a small wall hanging with the Portugal rooster on it! Yay! The decorations at my apartment next year are going to be so absurd, haha. Then we went to lunch. Since we had burned so much money on god knows what we found a cheap outdoor eatery. Our waiter was a nice, young guy, but couldn't understand much English. Most food places have menus translated into English, but this menu had a pretty poor translation. So we kept asking questions but he couln't answer them. We felt so badly, and I think that he felt badly, too. He tried! So he got his manager to come talk to us. Aw. I ordered another crabmeat sandwich. Can't get enough of 'em. After lunch we wandered a bit more, Courtney got some ice cream (appropriate on such a beautiful day), and then we headed out. We loved Cascais, but it's a beach town so there's not much to do but walk and go to the beach. And we got our fill. Cascais kind of reminded me of San Diego along the ocean meets the beachy areas of Mexico. So perfect. My dream would be to have a summer home out there! Stunning. We got back to Lisboa, stopped at the hostel, and decided to explore Lisboa on a nice day for once. We started wandering in the opposite direction than the first day and ended up in some weird, dead area. We were walking in the direction of the Golden Gate-like bridge, and Courtney remembered seeing some sort of park there, so we made that our destination. The more we walked the farther the bridge seemed to be. Oops. We walked over this one overpass and got hit by a couple water balloons by some crazy Portuguese kids standing up on one of the hilly areas. Ha, it was kind of funny. Crazy kids. It felt kind of good since the sun was pretty strong at that hour. After the balloon incident we decided to give up on our journey. Courtney wasn't feeling very well, anyways, so despite the gorgeous weather, we decided to cut the day short. Nevertheless, it felt good to walk around and see the awesome Lisboan buildings under the golden sunlight. On the way back we saw a cute old lady in a park feeding pigeons. Simple joys. We got back to the hostel and Courtney napped while I used the computer at the hostel for a long-ass time. I blogged and then learned about the new facebook feature where you can now befriend high schoolers. Ugh, I am not happy about this. Now facebook's becoming the next MySpace...Facebook is unique privelege that one must gain with age. Now it's nothing special. Stupid Mark Zuckerberg. OK, that's my facebook rant. Then Courtney woke up and went online and I looked at some weird Portuguese magazines that were kept in the main room. Let me tell you, these magazines have some pretty strange images. It's like adbusters to an extreme. Lots of weird nudity...it's not sexual, just weird. I wish I read Portuguese cuz I'd like to know what they were trying to accomplish in these magazines. If you want to check 'em out the name of them were either Umbigo or Umbiguo...I'm assuming it means Ambiguous. Then we got ready for the night, we planned to finally really go out that night since we were such bums the previous night. Before arriving at the hostel after trying to walk to the bridge we bought a cheap fifth of vodka, soda, and some food for breakfast the next day. That then meant cheap, small dinners and no wine! We walked to get food at a cheap cafeteria down the street from the hostel. We looked at the menu, which, although translated into English, we could not understand. All we knew was that it was cheap. Soon one of the cooks/waiters/servers (they're all the same at cafeterias) came out and said that he could do his best to explain. Oh man, it was a struggle. I felt bad, we were all struggling to understand. I finally got that we were at a Turkish place, which troubled Courtney a bit, but we decided that after all of that work to figure out the menu (trust me, it was an ordeal) we may as well give it a shot. Besides, you could get a wrap, fries, and a drink for under 5 euro. Quite a deal. It's funny, all of the food (except one lunch) that I had eaten in Portugal was from other countries. Whatever, Portuguese food isn't that distinct, just fish, sausage, and pastries, I guess. We got these lamb gyro-like wraps with fries and a drink. Although I typically like Turkish food, I don't eat lamb and I don't really eat french fries. It was the cheapest and easiest thing to order so I just dealt with it. The food was alright, but afterwords I felt gross from the fries. I'm really not used to food like that so my body was not too happy about it. After dinner we didn't really know what to do for the night. We decided to sit out in the main room and socialize with some of our fellow hostelmates. A bunch of people were there from the IES Granada program, they had all made food for themselves in the hostel kitchen (good idea, why didn't we think of that?). We all had really good conversation, they're all from all over, one is actually from Grand Rapids and knew some of our friends. Awesome. Their program director had told them about an awesome bar that has cabaret shows so we thought that that sounded like fun and decided to tag along. Courtney and I decided to do some pregaming so we wouldn't spend a lot of money that night. We invited people to join us but they didn't seem to interested. We found out that they weren't big drinkers...gotta represent the Big Ten party school on our own, I guess. Our pregame was so silly. Courtney got to use her rooster shot glass. But let me tell you, 2 person pregames are the most awkward thing in the world. We didn't have TV or music, so it was just taking shots in basic silence for the most part, lol. We came up with the bright idea of turning on Courtney's iPod at full volume which actually worked. It was really funny, though. What had we reduced ourselves to? Needless to say, parying's more fun in groups. Soon we got a knock on the door signaling that it was time to go. Aaaaand we were drunk...and nobody else was. That's kind of embarrassing, but like we cared. After getting a bit lost and walking up many hills and passing by many drunk people in disfraces (it's like Halloween!) we found the bar. There wasn't a cabaret, but this was honestly the coolest bar that I've ever seen. I can't even describe it. It has multiple rooms dimly lit with lots of antique kitch hanging all over the place. The seating was all of these fancy couchy things and mahogany tables. There were even waiters and they wore bow ties. We found seating in the back where there were 2 pool tables and the main bar, which was so cute and antique looking. Courtney and I went straight to the bar and looked at the huge, awesomely illustrated (think Toulousse Lautrec paintings), and intriguing. In the end Courtney got a beer and I splurged on a 7euro mojito (they looked so good!). In our drinks we got these paper peacock things, kind of like cocktail umbrellas, but peacocks. Exciting! That was definitely a big deal for our drunken selves. We sat in the awesome bar, hanging out, chatting for about an hour. My mojito was sooooooo good, and quite strong I may say. At around 1ish we decided to call it a night since we had had our share of drinks and everyone had to be up early the next day. On the way back we passed so many people in disfraces. I was kind of sad that I didn't take advantage of Carnaval, but I had an amazing night nonetheless despite its simplicity. I mean, honestly, this was the coolest bar EVER! We were in bed by 3 that night completely satisfied with our puente in Portugal. What an amazing country!!!

Nothin but love for the Portuguese mountain towns

We planned to go to Sintra on Sunday, a small mountain town on the outskirts of Lisboa. We woke up around 9ish and had breakfast in the hostel which consisted of cereal, bread, different jams and spreads, ham and cheese, green tea and honey (yes!), pineapple juice, and some amazing apples (most likely organic). We had read in one of the guidebooks that the Portuguese have a huge sweet tooth. This was pretty obvious with the numerous "pastalerias" (Port. for bakery) we had seen, but it was also very obvious with the breakfast choices. Among the jams was this one spread that looked like nutella, but it was basically spreadable chocolate. Oh man, bad news. I gave it a sample, it was so good. It makes your bread taste like a donut. Bad bad bad. After breakfast we walked to the Metro, took that to the train station to train it over to Sintra. The weather was gorgeous, lucky us! The train was about 30 min. We detrained in Sintra, a beautiful, very green, mountainous area. It kind of reminded me of Catalina Island with a bit of Colorado-ness to it. There were huge old estates and castle places up in the mountains. The streets were narrow and packed with cute little shops and homes. Love it! We decided to check out one of the major palaces at the top of the mountain...there was el castelo de los mouros and el castelo de pena. We immediately outlawed the Moorish castle and bought tickets to see the 17th century castle of one of the old royal families of Portugal. We grabbed a packed bus to the top of the mountain which was quite the experience. They drive so fast up these steep-ass hills on these narrow cobblestone streets. I don't know how they do it--ya gotta be a pretty talented driver with a pretty powerful engine to drive like that. Not gonna lie, I was a bit nervous during the ride, but it was fun in the end. The ride was about 20 min., we got off and bought tickets to the castelo. Tickets were 6euros...ugh, our money was fading before our eyes. We then waited in line forever to grab a trolley up to the top, but the line was so slow moving that we decided to hike it. It was so steep an exhausting, but the walk was gorgeous. A glorious nature walk, so many old rocks, structures, gardens, and abundant greenery. Oh man, it was so green I can't even tell you. It was starting to become pretty overcast so the moss, grass, and trees seemed to glow. We got to the top after walking for a good 20 min. The castelo is simply stunning. It looks like a fairytale castle, no joke, and it's just chilling there on top of this beautiful mountain overlooking more green, beautiful mountains. Can you even imagine living like that?? The exterior is painted all of these brilliant colors with lots of architecturally stunning moldings and crevices. The architecture, view, etc. was just awesome. Walking the perimeter itself was breathtaking. It started raining a bit so we went inside the castle. It's cool, it's been completely reproduced on the inside to look like how it would have been decorated in the 1800's. It's like a firsthand museum. I mean, it's museum in the actual location, ya know? Hard to explain, but it was awesome. The rooms are gorgeous and ornate (unfortunately I wasn't allowed to take pictures), but just imagine how European kings of the 17th century lived and you'll get a pretty good picture of the beauty of its interior. After awhile at the castelo we hiked back down the mountain to the bus area and took a doubley scary bus ride down the mountain. They drive so fast! It doesn't seem like a good idea to me to drive such a heavy piece of machinery down steep, narrow hills like that. I mean, what if your breaks died? Whatever, I survived. After that we walked around and went into some really cute shops. The rain had stopped but it was still pretty overcast. We went to one really nice store that had some awesome postcards. At another gift shop Courtney bought a rooster shot glass...she had been wanting to buy a souvenir with the Portugal rooster on it that seems to appear everywhere. It's a silly lil rooster, and it's everywhere...I don't understand it, honestly. Should have done my research before arriving, haha. Then we went to lunch at this cute restaurant. Seating was upstairs, and it kind of looked like an old tavern. It had a very low ceiling and all of the walls were this really dark wood, it was like being in a cabin or old dollhouse or something. The tables were these little picnic-like benches. So cute. Our waiter was super nice...let me say, quickly, that people in Portugal are so freaking nice. SOOOO nice. They're always there to help. In Spain, as an American, I always feel like kind of a burden. In Portugal I always felt welcomed, people are just so inviting and friendly. We both ordered sandwiches, mine was a crabmeat sandwich. Not bad, the bread was really good, particularly. I also got an extra perk from a capuccino. After lunch we walked around a bit more. The sun had come out completely so we decided to do some walking. We passed by one of the palaces that's still in use today. Can't remember what it's called. Then we walked down another small slope to the train station. It was beautiful, the trees were awesome, and the views of Sintra from the path in the sun were breathtaking. I got nothing but love for the Portuguese mountain town...who knew they existed there! We took the train back, then the Metro, then walked back to the hostel. Upon arrival we got in bed and took a siesta. We just loved the bed, so comfy, and all of that walking is exhausting. After napping we showered, got ready to go out, etc. Then we went out in search of food. We headed up to the Bairro Alto. It was Sunday, so our options were a bit limited, and we weren't too hungry so we were being a bit picky...we needed to find a place that really sparked our interest to get us to eat there. We finally settled on a restaurant called Stravaganza, an Italian place. I realized that I hadn't eaten Italian food since coming to Europe, weird (there's Italian food all over Spain). We had a slight wait for seating, but the waitstaff was so nice and attentive while we waited. We were seated. Our waitress was super nice and spoke really great English. The restaurant was slightly elegant, the decor was silly, but the menu was pretty fancy. The music was hilarious, a lot of classic rock (Queen, Simon&Garfunkl), 80's (Wham, Madonna), and then random stuff like "YMCA" and Abba. So silly. We ordered another bottle of white wine to split...oh man, another silly romantic thing--Italian restaurant, wine, we're silly people. We split a caprese salad and then split an order of pasta cuz we weren't hungry enough to eat all of those carbs. We got fettuccini w/ pesto sauce which wasn't too bad. The salad was great. Then we ordered dessert--while we were waiting we saw a woman eating this chocolate souffle which looked to die for--so we had to get the souffle. It came, with real vanilla bean gelato on top. Oh man, this souffle was unreal, and on the inside was molten warm chocolate cream. Unbelievable. One of the best desserts I've ever eaten, I kid you not. 50euro later we were out of dinner (I swear money just disappears) around midnight. We planned on going out, but we were just so tired and the wine had definitely brought us down. So we called it an early night and we were asleep by 12:45am. Haha, I swear we're turning into adults. Who knew?

Finally going to another European country...Portugal day 1

We got into Lisboa around 4:30am. There are 2 stations in Lisboa, and we first pulled up to Esticao Sete Rios. The driver than addressed the bus in Portuguese about where we were. We couldn't really understand him, so we asked the woman next to us if we were in the most central station of Lisboa and she said yes. OK. It was confusing. The station was completely deserted except for all of us that had gotten off of the bus. We didn't really no where to go or what to do, with our grogginess and the language barrier. Yeah, about Portuguese. I thought that it wouldn't be hard to understand it. Boy was I wrong. Portuguese on paper looks just like Spanish, but it is pronounced completely differently. I mean, you can pick out certain words that sound Spanish, but really, it sounds like gibberish when spoken. For example, the word esticao (station) looks like the spanish word for station, estacion. Easy enough, right? Nope. It's pronounced strangely. I don't know how still. Craziness. After much confusion Courtney decided to give in and grab a taxi to our hostel which turned out to actually be pretty close. So we did everything right. Phew. We buzzed into the hostel, it was located on the second floor of an apartment building. We went up the two flights and entered the Lisbon Lounge Hostel. We were greeted by the whisper of a groggy, extremely handsome I may say, young Portuguese guy who spoke pretty good English. He told us that check-in wasn't until 11am that morning (it was 5am-ish by then), but we could sleep in the main room on one of their big bean bag love seats until then. Hehe, oh man. This was my first hostel stay, and I judged it to be pretty alright. I chose it because it got a really great review on hostelworld, and it's rated one of the top hostels in Portugal. Well, I didn't have much to compare it to so I couldn't really make a judgment. As we entered the main room we saw on our right a huge picture of George W. Bush with some Russian Slavic words spray painted in red over it. Note to self: find out what it means. The main room was nice, wood floors, a flat screen Dell with free internet access, a bunch of low glass tables with bean bag chairs and love seats all around. We both picked out bean bags and immediately curled up on them with our luggage. I slept so deeply, I didn't even realize it! I woke up at 9:15 to the sound of clinking dishes--breakfast had been served and people were sitting around me eating. I had no clue! Wow. Everyone there was around our age and spoke English (most were American, one British guy). After groggily hanging out a bit I decided to shower cuz I just felt gross. The bathroom was really nice, very clean. There are funny pictures of stick figures in front of it urinating (one guy and one girl...the bathroom is coed). The shower was very nice, great pressure, although the hot water ran out pretty quickly. Then I got ready and Courtney and I decided to explore to pass the time since we couldn't check in yet. When we walked outside it was raining! However, that didn't ruin much, I already had a good feeling about Lisboa. The hostel is located in the middle of a pretty happening area, so there was already a lot to look at. The streets are so cute and quiet (especially for the capital of Portugal). They're very hilly, it looks like a European San Francisco. The buildings are awesome, so colorful and cute, they look nothing like Spain's. Across the street there was an entrance to a cute old cable car ride (there are cable cars on every street!) that takes you up one of the many steep hilly streets. It was a cute lil ride, it had character and it was a good first little Portuguese activity. We then walked around, I bought an umbrella, we went to some stores (I bought a paperboy purse...it's bright orange and fantastic) and explored. The streets, again, are so cute, and they're quiet yet active. People seem much calmer there. There's a certain, well, "uptightness" in Spain, but here life seemed so much simpler. You definitely don't see women and men dressed to put on a fasion show like in Sevilla. Anyhoo, we wandered in the rain and such, fell in love with Lisbon more and more. Soon we went to a little cafeteria for a small Portuguese lunch. This cafeteria is just like the ones in Spain, except, well, Portuguese. We started speaking Spanish which turned out to be unsuccessful. So we gave English a go which turned out to be much more successful. We learned that there is a lot more English spoken by the Portuguese. And their accent when speaking Spanish is not as heavy as the Spanish speaking English, so it's easier to understand the Portuguese English than Spanish English. Does that make sense? OK. So. Portugal, of course, is known for its fish, and especially its bacalao (cod). I wasn't terribly hungry so I got this cod fritter that was filled with eggs and onions and spices. Not bad. Portugal is also known for its pastries so I got a sweet bread with toast coconut on top. Not bad! The rain let up a bit so we decided to be all touristy and visit the famous Moorish castle in Lisbon. It was about a 45 minute walk uphill which was very tiring and difficult since the streets are stone and therefore extreeeemely slippery when wet. On the way up we ran into a big cathedral, so, since we had grown accustomed to the cathedral visits, we decided to check it out. It was a gorgeous cathedral, definitely smaller than the others we had visited, but very nice. Lots of artwork, although without a guide and without and understanding of Portuguese I couldn't decipher what the pictures were, who was in what tomb, etc. etc. Ah well, I guess if you've seen one cathedral you've seen 'em all. As we neared the top we got lost a few times and the rain really started to pick up. We finally reached the top and entered the castelo (Port. for "castle"). It was cool at first with its huge courtyard overlooking the bounding hills of Lisboa. Then we walked around more, went up the steep, slippery steps, took some pictures. I don't know, we saw a pretty kick-ass Moorish castle in Granada the week before, and this one just wasn't cutting it. It's smaller, and pretty plain. Again, ya seen one Moorish castle, ya seen 'em all. There were some steep terraces you could look out on, and on my way down from one I slipped and fell. Not badly, but enough to get damp and dirty all up my pants. Blech. So we had had it with the castelo after about 20 min. As we walked down slowly as to not slip on the steep, slippery streets, it began to rain pretty heavily. As we slowly neared the bottom we passed a wine shop--one of many, Portuguese wine is a big deal, it's called Porto coming from that major region--that had a sign advertising free tastings. Yeah, we were in. We walked in and were the only ones there, but the shop was extremely cute mimicking a wine cellar. A young guy of a bout 23 gave us the wine tasting in the back, an he spoke a good amount of English (or at least for wine vocab). We tested 4 Porto red wines: a ruby, a tawny, and one aged 10 yrs and another aged 20 yrs. My favorite, surprisingly was the tawny. I learned that it has brandy in it...I liked the cinnamoniness of it. After the brief tasting we talked to the dude a bit, asking him about the Portuguese language. He told us about pronunciation and stuff...it's confusing. Basically, Portuguese sounds like this weird amalgamation of French, German, Russian, Spanish, and a dash of English. It's weird. But I was really growing to love Portugal, despite the rain, and I have been officially inspired to learn Portuguese. I'm really considering taking a Port. class next semester, no lie. After the tasting we decided that it would be in bad taste to leave without buying anything, and we did want to buy something since the wine was so good. We both bought mini samplers of a ruby, a white, and a 10 yr. Then we decided to head back to the hostel since we were very wet and cold. On the way a bus drove by and splashed us with water...just like in the movies, haha. Yeah, it was definitely time to go back. Our arrival at the hostel was quite silly. We got the key to our room which was in a double door with an image of stick figures have sex next to the door. Oh man. Then we entered. Now, when I booked a double private room I thought that that meant 2 single beds. I was greatly mistaken. It was one double bed. Not only that, above the bed was this lit up picture of a man and a woman in the middle of a "passionate moment". Oh man again. Before heading to Portugal we had joked about how since it was just the two of us we were having a romantic getaway...we didn't mean to take it this far, though. Hahaha. And so it goes. What was nice about the room was our own closet, big window, sink, aaaaand the bed was extremely comfortable despite the weirdness of it all. We also got a space heater and plenty of extra blankets. Nice. So we put our clothes up to dry and took a nice, long, well-deserved nap in our warm, comfy bed. At around 7 we woke up and started to get ready for the night. We had looked through many travel books to figure out how to take advantage of our nights in Lisboa. The books spoke of a traditional music performed at night called Fado with a deep, rich tradition (like Flamenco in Spain). We decided that perhaps we could check out one of the Fado cafes or something, but the first matter was finding dinner. We went out into the main room and met up with some of the other people staying in the hostel. I had never stayed in a hostel before and therefore hadn't realized how one can build up a small community in a matter of minutes. We decided to go to dinner with a couple girls, one Japanese the other Jamaican (but lived in America for around 5ish years each) who were studying abroad in Madrid, one girl from NYC who goes to UNC and is studying abroad in Granada, a guy bumming around Portugal and taking language courses who's from London, and a 19-year-old girl who just finished up being an oper in Madrid (w/o even knowing Spanish!) for a few months and was just traveling on her own. She was super cool, her name is Marie. Can you imagine graduating high school and going to a foreign country to be an oper? She said that it's pretty standard in Finland to take a year off after graduation and just get out and see the world. Pretty awesome. I should go be an oper in Europe! We walked around in search of a reasonable restaurant that had vegetarian options (I think Marie is veg.) which took awhile (hence why I gave up the vegetarianism here). We finally settled on a cute Indian place called Calcuta which worried both Courtney and myself since Courtney is not an adventurous eater by any means and Indian food is hard for me since it's typically spicy. Well, we both decided to give it a go. Courtney and I coincidentally ordered the same thing (the menu was huge and amazing!) which was a chicken dish with coconut milk and other spices, maybe tomato? With it we got nan, which is a typical Indian flatbread that comes in many varieties (it's similar to roti prata at Flattop). I got veggie, Courtney got cheese, and the Japanese girl got garlic. When the nan came the 3 of us did trades so we all got to try each others'. We also ordered sides of aromatic basmati rice and a bottle of white wine. The nan, the chicken, and rice were all AMAZING. I kid you not, this turned out to be one of the best meals I had eaten in a looooong time. It beat out the meal I had with Katie's mom! It was so good, and so filling. I tasted the British guy's dish, some pork thing and it was unbelievably delicious. Then I tried the girl from NYC's dish, a bariani rice dish which was equally delicious. OMG, everything was SO GOOD! Who knew? It was without a doubt the best Indian food that I had ever had, and Courtney loved it, too (and she's a pickier eater)!!! Parents, if we head over to Lisboa at all we're going there! At dinner Courtney and I sat near the British guy and he told us about all of the places he had traveled to in his lifetime. Crazy--he has been basically everywhere. Fascinating. He just gets up and travels on his own. After being in the hostel I've realized how easy it is to travel alone, you just meet so many people in the process so easily. He's been all over Asia, Africa, he's even been to Papua New Guinea. Good for him, my lord. Inspiring, I tell ya. There are so many people in this world doing cool things and they are my age...Courtney and I felt so boring! I gotta do something cool with myself one of these days, haha. After dinner we all decided to check out one of the Fado bar/cafes (they're all located in one area in Bairro Alto--the bairro that we were eating in which is conveniently close to our hostel). I forgot to say; the rain had stopped! No rain the whole night, nice. We went up to Bar Luso, one of the most famous Fado bars in Lisboa (I had read about it, hehe). It had a 15euro purchase minimum. We checked out some others and it was the same case. I mean, although it's pricey, it makes sense cuz you're seeing a show. So we decided to just check out a regular bar. We walked into a Cuban bar that seemed pretty cool. We noticed that cocktails were 5euro each, and Courtney and I decided that no matter where we went we'd end up spending close to 15 euro, and why pass up the chance to see some awesome Fado. So we separated and went to Bar Luso. What an awesome decision that turned out to be. We walked in and the maitre de told us to wait and he'd seat us. It was pretty packed, so we didn't know what to expect. The bar is actually a restaurant/bar/cafe. It's quite large and quaint; it has low, cave-like ceilings, dark, ambient lighting and drip candles at each table. It's actually one of the oldest standing buildings in Lisboa, you can definitely feel the tradition there. Then they seated us...right in the front row! We couldn't believe it. We ordered a bottle of white wine and a fruit salad (which was 6euros worth of sliced oranges, haha) and joked about how it really was like a romantic weekend. Haha, oh Portugal. The night consisted of many different Fado singers, men and women of many ages, who performed a 5-10 minute set each every 10 minutes. Omg, I cannot even begin to tell you how amazing it was. Fado is awesome. It's a very dramatic music, but it's virtuosic, the singers are amazingly talented. It beats out Flamenco tenfold. Flamenco singing is kind of chanty and yelly, Fado is beautiful and lyrical. The background music is awesome, really low-keyed. It's 3 men, one plays the laud, one the cello bass, and another a typical accoustic guitar, but the laud holds the melody while the singer sings all of these rifs and melismas. It's stunning, and relaxing! It's like primitive blues/jazz/jamband. Hehe. Gotta love it. During the performance there was a professional video camera set up with a elegantly, yet professionally dressed woman holding a microphone. I had read that some of the most famous Fado singers perform at Luso, so I guess that this meant that that night's performers were kind of a big deal. Huh. Seriously, we lucked out. Front row, amazing music, a bottle of Portuguese wine, priceless. The restaurant slowly cleared out until we were some of the last ones there. Finally, a little before 2 we left. We were sad to leave, there were performances still going on! But it had died down so much, and we were a bit drunk and very tired, and we had a lot to do the next day, lots to see. So we walked home and were asleep around 2:45am. It was an amazing night. I was so in love with Portugal already.

More than ready for "El puente"

"El puente"=the term for a long weekend here in Spain.

Woke up Friday morning extremely exhausted from a crazy couple of days. I woke up at noon but had only gotten about 6 hours of sleep. It was ok, though, because at midnight that night I was scheduled to take a 7 hr bus ride to Portugal, and I needed to be tired to be able to get some sleep on the bus. I just don't do well sleeping outside of beds. Oh me. For breakfast I ate a small piece of my leftover bday cake. Yummy. Marta passed by and told me that both she and Maria del Mar had tried the cake and that it was "buenisimo". Hehe. Then I got dressed--put on my comfiest clothes for Spain's standards. So you know those days when you just wanna wear your pajamas all day? Yeah, we have many of those at UofM. However, in Sevilla, walking around in sweats is extremely taboo. It really makes you pop out as a lazy American. So I settled for a hooded sweater and stretch black pants. It's a start. Before heading to class I logged on thefacebook and read all of my lovely birthday wall posts and messages. Thanks to all, if you're reading this! Made some toast and walked to Teatro Lope de Vega. The weather really turned around, it was much warmer and very pretty out! Usually I'd be all pissed that it gets nice out the day after me bday, but in Spain my birthday is actually the 24th cuz, as I've said, I was born at 5:30am on the 24th Spain time. So the Spanish sun shone for my real birthday, gotta love it. Class was fine, it's getting a bit redundant. In fact, both of my lit. classes are really redundant and pretty useless right now. They're both just giving intros on the theatre arts (very redundant for me) and some little history briefs. I guess we'll really start doing useful things in class once we start reading the material. After class Stacey and I went to the center for our hour break. We ran into Courtney and Jessica and discussed the puente. Everyone had separate travel/visitor plans. Since it's UofM's spring break a lot of boyfriends and families were coming up to visit: Stacey's dad and sister, Melissa's mom, Katie's bf, and Jessica was meeting her bf in Barcelona to do some traveling around Spain and Italy for a week (she's taking the rest of the week off of class). There were huge plans in store since we had Sat, Sun, Mon, and Tue off. Since everyone had separate plans, Courtney and I, with nothing to do, planned a trip to Lisbon (Lisboa), Portugal for the entire puente. Our bus was scheduled to leave at midnight, so we arranged to meet up in front of the center that night at 11pm. Then Stacey and I headed to the center, I had a brief mandatory conference with Eva to finalize my class schedule and make any arrangements for tutors. I asked for a tutor for Art History and Iconografia since I struggle with understanding the profs in those classes, and they don't have any other people from my program in them. Then we all had Teatro hispanoamericano 4-5, which again, was redundant. My class is full of people from my program, so I said my weekend farewells to everyone. Then I sat outside of the University by myself and ate a bocadillo. Then I had iconografia 6-8, which made me a bit nervous since I would only have an hour after class to pack before dinner then catching the bus. So for the first quarter of the class I made a really dorky diagram of all of the outfits I planned to wear and what I had to bring in general. Yes, I am a huge dork, but I was nervous! I'm so terrible when it comes to packing, it really flusters me. For the remainder of class I really paid attention which, ya know, is always a good idea. I did learn some, who knew? During class the prof. then made a reference to a painting that is hanging in the Art Institute Chicago (some big Jesus that's "magnifico") and he asked who it was that was from Chicago. Thank god once again that I was paying attention! I immediately raised my hand and said "yo." Yeah for being on top of my game! Class got out at 7, thankfully, so I hurried home and began packing. Upon arrival I found a note on our small table from Maruja (she never writes notes...). It said that I had left the space heater on again (dammit) and if that happened again she'd have to remove it from the room. I swear, I've failed her way too many times this week. Ugh. Anyways, thanks to the list and diagram I made during class packing was a pretty smooth process...I actually finished early! Stacey then burst through the door all flustered because she had gotten extremely lost while trying to purchase futbol tickets at the stadium. She was lost for 3 hours in a really run-down barrio, I guess, and she got so frustrated and freake out that she took a cab home. Oh that girl. The funny thing is that, despite her frustration and worry, she was in good spirits. She had her moment, and got over it. I love people who don't sweat the small stuff, and that's Miss Stacey Hahn. Then dinner. We had grilled eggplant and croquetas. Very basic, simply because it was just the two of us and Maruja at dinner. Right when we sat down Maruja asked if I had accidentally tossed the napkin over the balcony when shaking out the tablecloth because one was missing. I definitely didn't because everytime I shake out the tablecloth I look over the edge to make sure that I don't. I tried explaining that to her. And if I had dropped it, I would have noticed and gone to get it. She then told me that before shaking out the tablecloth I have to count the napkins, etc. etc. She seemed angry. But this made me angry because although I shook out the tablecloth the previous night, I didn't eat lunch at home. So there's a very good chance that if it fell at all it was one of the Spanish girls. But, ya know, since we fuck up so much here it couldn't be anyone but me. I was so upset about her absurd accusation. Then, she asked if I got her note, I said yes, and she proceeded to sternly reiterate it. Then she turned to Stacey and got all up on her about how she had taken a shower today and didn't turn the water off to soap up. She ranted about that for a good while. Then, in her elevating anger, she started to get on our case about the laundry situation! I don't know if I discussed this in a blog, but I guess that we've been giving her too much laundry, and she told us only 2 pants and 2 shirts each for each load, which is a bit ridiculous, especially when it starts getting hot out. But anyways, she had told us about the laundry thing as early as Tuesday, she hadn't done laundry since, but for some reason she brought it up again! It's like she was digging for things to complain about us. It was really terrible and made us feel like shit. I mean, real dirt. We don't try to be a burden. For the rest of dinner it was really silent, not just because of how awkward it was, but also because Maruja doesn't really talk to us too much unless we talk to her. If she explains something to us and we don't understand, she doesn't take the time to explain it more clearly, she just looks to Maria del Mar or Marta to explain it to us. She only talks to us when we do something wrong. It's getting quite irritating. I was already pretty sensitized, so when the meal was over and we folded the tablecloth she blatantly counted the napkins while looking me in the eye. It was really insulting. I know for a fact that I didn't do it. I just can't really defend myself in Spanish. I was so frustrated and annoyed with her, I just couldn't wait to get away for the puente. After dinner I finished packing and was out the door by 10:30. Maruja was in her room doing something and I didn't even say goodbye, I was just so angry and needed to get out of the apartment. Walking with my bag all the way to the center wasn't as bad as usual since Stacey lent me her small rolling suitcase (gotta love that girl). As I approached the center some creepy bum started talking to me and being all creepy. With all of my bags I definitely looked like a victim so I just kept on walking past the center in the direction of the bus station. Then Courtney called me and I told her to just meet me across the street. Then we walked the 20 min to the bus station, boarded the bus a little before midnight, settled in, Courtney took some Nyquil and I took some nighttime Sudafed (I was still a bit sniffly anyways) and we left for Lisboa around 12:15. The bus was packed, there were actually a lot of Americans on it. It was a nice bus, but kind of tight. Luckily I was extremely tired and the cold medicine was kicking in. I turned on the iPod, blew up the airplane pillow, draped a blankie over me, and drifted off. I slept pretty lightly, waking up periodically, but I slept nonetheless. That's a definite success for me. I was so needing this vacation. Portugal, here I come!

MY AWESOMELY SPANISH BIRTHDAY

Woke up to my alarm around noon with a slight hangover, haha. Gotta blame it on the "Diego Specials," I may say. Drank some water and ate some toast which made me feel ten times better. It was my birthday! Way too happy to worry. Ran into Maruja and she got on my case about how although we had told her on Tuesday that we wouldn´t eat dinner at home on Wednesday, we didn´t write a note and she forgot. And, of course, it was our fault. It seems like lately we don´t do anything right. I do appreciate Maruja, but she doesn´t really talk to us unless it´s to correct something that we´ve done wrong. This was a good example. But she´s strange, because just when I think that she´s upset with me, she comes into my room 5 minutes later asking me enthusiastically if today was the day of my birthday ("mi cumple"). I said yes and she got all excited and embraced me and kissed me on both cheeks. Ohhhh Maruja. I then got ready for class and headed out, on the way out Maruja said, "Cuando regreses, bacalao." ("And when you return, cod). I mentioned this, but she asked me what I wanted to eat for my bday dinner and I had said the bacalao dish that she had prepared way back in January. Exciting! On the way to class my parents called, but I could barely hear them since my phone has been acting up and the voice volume is really low...and you can´t adjust the voice volume on my phone! Trust me. It was so frustrating because I could barely hear them as I walked down the loud streets of Sevilla. I told them to call me back in 5 min, which they did, but I was still outside and I couldn´t hear them. I told them to wait five more minutes. I was getting pretty frustrated...technology just never works in my favor here. Finally I got to the U. and found the quietest, smallest hall possible and ducked down in a corner. They finally called, I hunched over and covered my other ear so tightly. I could hear them! It was so great to talk to them! I definitely miss them. I was so happy to get through to them and hear their voices. I told them about what I did the night before (oh man) and what my plans were and such. Yay for family birthday greetings! My first class was Teatro de Lope de Vega which went slowly. The weather was also weighing me down a bit, it was cloudy and one of the coldest days since we had arrived. Supposedly, the previous night it had snowed a bit near the airport...it has only snowed once in Sevilla in the past 100 years. Crazy. I find it quite appropriate for my bday, it makes me feel more at home since I´m used to having my birthday on cloudy, cold days. It´s like the weather knew, haha. After class I decided to get a drink since, ya know, it´s my 21st birthday. We went to Café de Indias and I ordered some sort of hot chocolate that had Malibu and some liquer in it, a slice of yema (egg) cake, and later a glass of red wine. Stacey got a piece of cheesecake and a pint of Guinness. Yeah, I was kind of drunk by the time we left and arrived at our next class: Teatro Hispanoamericano. Funny. Class was fine, kind of entertaining, hehe. After class Stacey and I walked back to the center. I hung out, ate a bocadillo, went online, called the grandparents to thank them for their gift :). I definitely wasn´t drunk anymore, and I thought that then it´d be appropriate to go get another, but I just wasn´t motivated and it was getting a bit excessive, haha. So I just hung out at the center and then headed over to the U. for my next class, Iconografía. Class was fine, I actually got picked out in class. The prof. was discussing religious art and what it represents for the development of Catholocism. He was talking about Popes and Cardinals or something. I hadn´t really been paying attention until he began talking about that. Then he said something about asking an American. He pointed to me and said, "Usted" ("you"), and I was a bit thrown off, saying "Yo?" ("me") a bunch of times until I realized that he was addressing me. He asked me where I was from, I said Chicago, and then he asked me something that I couldn´t quite understand. I think that he may have asked if I knew who my Cardinal was? Well, needless to say, I said no. And then he made some comment about how not many americans know such things (it wasn´t insulting, just a factual statement) and then he asked the Spanish students if they knew. One of them did. Then he continued lecture. One of the americanas in my class turned around and said, "I wouldn´t have known that, either." Well, at least my "no" was an appropriate answer, haha. I felt lucky, however, that I had been paying attention when he called on me. Oh man, that would have been bad. But that´s the first time that I had participated in a Spanish University class! Wooo happy birthday to me! Hehe. After class I walked home ready for my big Maruja birthday dinner. When I arrived Stacey told me to wait outside of the room for a second. After 5 minutes she let me back in and she presented me with a card and 2 wrapped gifts! I couldn´t believe that after all that she had done she actually bought me gifts. I mean, not only did she throw me a party, but she also paid for my dinner and drinks. What a gal. I opened the card which was hilarious: a chimp wishing me happy bday in Spanish. Gotta love it. Then my first gift: a Lindt chocolate bar that I´ve been dying to try and talked about a couple times...it´s stuffed with a tiramisu filling. Wow. Then I opened the big gift, and lo and behold, a HOOKAH! The whole time that we had been in Spain I had talked about how much I had to buy a hookah here. It turns out that she ditched class and walked a half an hour to that headshop that we found when we were lost weeks before. I mean, she took so much time out of her life to find out where it was, walk there, and then make the purchase. And, although hookahs are cheaper here, the hookah she bought me was probably between 20 or 30 euro. I couldn´t believe it. She had really gone all out for my birthday, and when you think about it we´ve only known each other for a little over a month. Seriously, she is amazing. I am so lucky to have her as a roommate and friend. She truly made my birthday unforgettable. Wow. After stashing the hookah, María del Mar came into my room and wished me a very happy birthday, we embraced and did the standard double cheek kiss. At 9:30 dinner was served: homemade cole slaw with pomegranate (mmmm) and the bacalao dorado (YESSSS!!!). Oh man, was I excited!!!!! And, damn, was it good. I wish that she made more! Haha. Dinner was great, it was very lively, lots of chatting (which is rare, many times our dinners are kind of quiet). Marta came home right before dinner and also hugged/kissed me and wished me a happy birthday. After an unbelievably satisfying dinner, Maruja unveiled the dessert. Now, Maruja never makes dessert, so this was a real treat. It was a tarta de chocolate like she had promised. It was a layered white and milk chocolate pudding thing with shortbread galletas (cookies) layered within. It´s called "Tarta de galletas." It was AMAZING. She said that it´s her granddaughters´favorite. I can see why! Oh man, and I ate so much of it. Unbelievable, truly. What a great birthday dinner, honestly! After dinner Stacey and I did some internetting and planning for the night. People had previously discussed going out, but people started to bail on us because they were all so tired. I was disappointed, but I don´t blame them, the previous night was insane, definitely took a lot out on me, and the weather was kind of a downer (sooooo cold). I mean, if it wasn´t my birthday I definitely would have stayed in. I was honestly tired as hell. But I was determined to make it out! Then Stacey revealed another surprise: a birthday cake! She, Katie, and Melissa had bought me a huge chocolate cake that said "Feliz Cumpleaños" with plastic plates and silverware! Wow. So we made plans to meet up with just Katie and Melissa at Cadillac (yes, again) and have cake and a drink. On the way we called Alyssa to see what she was up to, and she was going out to Alfalfa with her friends who were visiting from Madrid, and Stacey and I decided that perhaps we would meet up. The cake was so good, we had huuuuuge pieces. We also had a drink each...me with my vodka tonic, of course. Then since we had a whole half a cake leftover we decided to cut a piece for Diego. He was so excited! Gotta love the Diego. I mean, he let us have that huge party and only charged us 30euro the night before, AND put up with my drunken shenanigans. Soon he came to our table and gave us each a free shot. Lord knows what it was, it was sweet and not too strong. The four of us had a good time just chilling out and whatnot. Katie and Melissa got me a bday present, also, and gave it to me! Yayyy birthdays! It was in an OpenCor bag, which is always a good sign. It was a milk chocolate bar (oh man, that´s dangerous), a box of Kellogg´s Fruit n Fiber (my favorite snackfood/savior in Sevilla), and 2 apples (I always am eating apples here and talk about how much I want apples, hehe). So happy! Gotta say, they were the perfect gifts. At around 12:30 Katie and Melissa called it a night. I called Alyssa who decided to stay at Alfalfa and invited us to come meet up with her. We definitely were not motivated with our tiredness and the cold weather to walk a half an hour to Alfalfa, so Stacey and I decided to have our own mini celebration at Cadillac. Cadillac is now my official birthday spot! We had so much fun just chatting the two of us. We ordered a couple more drinks and played a game of pool. Around 2ish the bar started to clear out. Stacey then decided that it´d be a good idea to take a chupito since we were just slightly buzzed. Gotta love that girl. So we sat at the bar, and it was just us two and Diego at Cadillac. We asked for a chupito, and he said "fuerte," (strong) "o débil?" (weak). Stacey and I looked at each other, and she said fuerte. He wouldn´t let us look at what he was mixing for us. Silly Diego. I have no clue what it was. We got the shots, and they smelled pretty strong, and they were in double-sized shot glasses! Oh man. In my broken Spanish I asked for a chaser. He gave me a glass of water. We then toasted with Diego, who drank strictly Red Bull (he doesn´t drink, how ironic) and took the shots. They actually weren´t that bad and the chaser was unnecessary. After that Stacey and I chatted with Diego. We talked about where we were from, how we were doing with the Spanish language. He even gave us some pointers on our Spanish and taught us some new words. He told us that "borracho," the word that we learned in high school/college for "drunk" actually has a negative connatation here. It implies that you´re a messy alcoholic like the bums here if you´re borracho. He told us that when you are drunk you call it "alegre" which we learned in hs/college to mean "joyful". I like that word! Definitely good vocab to know. Then we discussed the Spanish eating schedule compared to the American one. He was shocked by the hours of meals in the U.S. Haha, well, they make sense to us. Then he told us about how he snacks throughout the day to hold him over, and pulled out a huge box of Frosted Flakes. I got so excited, he´s just like me! Cereal snackers unite! I grabbed my Fruit n Fiber and showed him my snack obsession, and he laughed after I told him that it was a bday gift. Hehe. Then I showed him my pictures from the night before. He especially enjoyed the pictures of Alyssa and me on the bull. Oh man. After a bit Stacey decided that since we still weren´t too drunk it was time for another shot. He asked if we wanted it "fuerte" or "fuertísimo" (really strong). Stacey immediately answered fuertísimo. Oy vey. Diego had a conniving look in his eye, took out two more double shot glasses, and grabbed some liquor while covering their labels. He put the shots in front of us, and man, they did not smell too great. We begged Diego to tell us what he had mixed. Finally he showed us: Captain Morgan´s and Gin. Ohhhhhhh no. I asked for a Coca-Cola Light to chase. After much hesitation we took the shots. Not that fun. But it did the trick. We were both good and drunk hanging out with Diego in Cadillac. Soon a group of Spanish kids about our age stumbled in around 3ish. Diego knew them, so they all chatted for a bit. Stacey and I then decided to call it a night. We got the bill...only 9 euro! 9 euro for 4 vodka tonics and 2 shots! We couldn´t believe it. That meant that the shots he gave us were free. Gotta love the Diego, as I´ve said many a time. He´s my favoritest bartender in the whole world! Then we walked the one block to our apartment. Stacey went straight to bed and I stayed up until 5:45am chatting online. I found out that morning on the phone with my parents that I was born at 10:30pm, which was 5:30am on Feb. 24th Spain time (haha, my birthday is 2/24 in Spain), so I was awake for my official birthday. At 5:30am I turned 21 for real, for that´s when I was born. Exciting! At that point my birthday had officially come to a close. It had been an amazing 24+ hours...some of the best that I´ve had. My 21st turned out to be one of my most unforgettable birthdays. Definitely surpassed all expectations, I couldn´t ask for any better. So much thanks to all!!! It´s good to be 21.

MY 21st BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!

And what an amazing (and blurry) night it was!! Let us begin the post of all posts.

So we walked to a tapas restaurant that Katie and Melissa love called Ciento Mil Montaditos (100,000 Mini Sandwiches) that had a huge list of small sandwiches of all types, 1euro a piece. There are these pieces of paper (kind of like at Za´s in A2 or Cosi in HP) and you check off which sandwiches you want, what you want on the side, what to drink, and your name. You typically order multiple sandwiches; I got a grilled chicken and onion, a lox and caviar (can you believe that it´s 1 euro??), a smoked tuna and red pepper, shrimp with ali oli (garlic mayo), and jamón ibérico (Iberian ham, a Spanish delicacy) with chopped tomato. On the side I ordered marinated olives. It was all so unbelievably delicious--the perfect birthday meal, especially before all of the drinking that was about to occur. I planned on not drinking until midnight, but Alyssa and I were pressured into buying jugs of beer. That´s what happens when you turn 21 in Spain, you drink beforehand so that you´re drunk before midnight hits. Haha. I don´t typically drink beer when I´m sober, so it was kind of a struggle. I drank really slowly, so slowly that by the time everyone was finished I was only a quarter of the way finished. So, I got pressured (welcomed, pressure, mind you) into chugging the rest. Oh man, it was rough. Afterwords I was so bloated and full. Ugh, beer. I was a bit tipsy already. I forgot to say: before getting home from class that day I decided that in order to make it through the night I needed something bready to take with me. So in my purse I had 2 croissantes integrales (wheat croissants) from OpenCor. OK, I digress, but those will make an appearance later. We finished eating around 10:30 and Stacey and co. led Alyssa and me to our next mystery destination. It took us about 15 minutes until we got into los Remedios. I knew where we were going. We got to Madigan´s around 11. I was so excited! Madigan´s is so far one of my favorite bars in Sevilla. We all walked in and got car bombs all around. By then my beer fullness had settled and I was ready to really get the night started. Haha, we were barhopping already and it wasn´t even midnight yet. We had those lovely car bombs, hung out for a bit until Stacey looked at her watch and said that it was time for the next destination. Exciting! Already feeling a teensy bit drunk we walked deeper into los Remedios. Then it hit me: we were going to Cadillac!!!!!!! What a great surprise! We went to my favoritest bar in Sevilla!!!! Right away we ordered chupitos all around...tequila. Done. Then we ordered another right away. Done. Soon about half of our program turned up! I found out that Stacey had invited EVERYONE to celebrate Alyssa´s and my 21st at Cadillac!! It was so incredibly awesome of her, and it was so fun...I mean, a birthday party at Cadillac! Does it GET any better?? Then the drinks started flowing like water. Then midnight hit!!! Alyssa and I were good and drunk already, but it was still exciting!!! It felt like New Years, haha. We had turned 21!!!!!!! So exciting!!!!!! The liquor continued to flow like water, I don´t even think I kept track of what I was drinking, I just kept drinking. People kept ordering shots for everyone (by the way, the tab, in the end, was only 30euro for everyone! Gotta love Diego and Cadillac). At Cadillac I must have had 3-4 tequila shots, 3 "Diego Specials", and 2 vodka tonics. But again, who knows. The evening gets kind of blurry after that, although I never got sick nor passed out. Since I never felt woozy I didn´t think that I was drunk. Reflecting on the night, I realize now that I was pretty drunk because my memory is pretty fuzzy. I look at my pictures and see that I took about 5 pictures of the same things...I just kept forgetting that I had taken pictures of people and kept on taking them. Somehow Alyssa and I ended up behind the bar with Diego. I don´t know how nor why. I just have the photos. Around 3:30ish we all decided to then get more drinks barhopping on Calle Betis. At that point many were burnt out (appropriately) but Alyssa (of course), Stacey, Melissa, Courtney, Alexi, Vicki and I just kept on going. We stopped in Big Ben which had stopped serving alcohol (it was a Wednesday, mind you). Then we went to another, I don´t really know which, which was completely empty except for the bartender and this huge bull statue. Somehow Alyssa and I ended up on the bull taking multiple jager shots. Again, I don´t know how or why and have a very vague recollection of all this. Like I´ve said, I only have the photos. After being a couple of drunken idiots there we decided to go to TexMex for munchies. I wasn´t hungry, I just planned on drinking more there. Alyssa decided to head home. I found out that she got sick, but was OK. Haha, way to be on your 21st, I must say. She also had early class the next day, hehe. Walking out of the bar I ate my croissant and shared the other with the others. Gotta love the croissants. Then we walked all the way to TexMex to find out that they closed at 4 (it was 4:30). Damn, I really could´ve drunk more. Damned Wednesdays, haha. So we all headed home. When I got back at 5 I decided to stay up until 6am, which is midnight in Ann Arbor and therefore my 21st bday over there, haha! So I went online and had many a drunken chat. That´s when I realized how drunk I was. I really didn´t think that I was that drunk that night until I tried typing. It just wasn´t happening! That´s always a sure sign. Like I´ve said, reflecting on the night I realize how drunk I was, I guess that I expected to be pass-out drunk or something. I was just extremely silly drunk, which is the best kind, I must say. Supposedly I also called Amanda, Nicole, and Joe who were "celebrating my birthday" back in Ann Arbor. I vaguely remember this. Rumor has it I was pretty beligerant and silly on the phone. Honestly I´m not surprised. Finally around 6:30am I called it a night. I had an amazing night welcoming in the big 21. OMG, I´M 21!! Sometimes it´s strange to think about it. It´s an age that I never thought that I would reach. And I have. Holy crap! I went to sleep content knowing that it was my birthday in Spain, Ann Arbor, and Chicago in a half and hour. So good to be the birthday girl! And I was especially grateful for Stacey and her organizing of an amazing birthday night. She is so amazing, I am so lucky to have her here. Gotta love my roomie luck. Anyhoo, YAYYYY 21!!!

LAST DAY UNDER AGE (in the U.S....)!

You´ll have to forgive me about this post. The end of last week was a whirlwind of events (as you could guess) so blogging just couldn´t happen. However, I happen to be sitting in my lovely hostel in Lisbon, Portugal right now with some downtime, so it seems fitting to begin to catch up on the blogs. But again, forgive me for any forgetfulness. It´s been awhile.
Woke up Wednesday morning around 11am after getting a wonderful 10.5 hours of sleep. Sooo perfect since I was fearing sickness during my big birthday week. I woke up feeling refreshed and a lot better, halleluyah. Got ready, walked to class which began at 2. The weather was pretty nice, not bad for a final day of 20ness. I honestly didn´t really pay attention in my classes that day, I was so psyched about turning 21 that night. Stacey had told me to leave all of the festivities up to her, so I was anxiously awaiting what was in store for my big night. During my first break between classes I bummed around the U., ate my bocadillo, ran into people from my program asking about my bday and if I was excited and such. Ummm, OF COURSE! I also got multiple large green teas and OJ´s from Starbucks and downed Zinc and Echinacea on my class breaks. Yes, I was feeling a lot better, but it´s always good to play it safe. On my second class break I had a lot of time to do nothing, so after buying my natural meds from Starbucks I sat outside in the brisk, yet sunny Sevilla weather, overlooked the bustling streets and journaled. I was feeling very contemplative about my birthday. I dunno, I always get pretty nostalgic when birthdays come about, growing up is hard for me. I´m always been the person who believes in living up every day because before you know it it´s over. I mean, turning 21 is a big deal, you truly become categorized as a 20-something. I´m really an adult! I mean, 21 is the last landmark age, the last age that allows you new priveleges. After that, birthdays are not as exciting, they´re just about aging rather than gaining any new privelege. It´s so strange. I was talking to this with Jessica and she said, "Well, unless you decide to run for president." Haha, well, maybe I´ll go into politics and then I´ll have 35 to look forward to. Oh wait, that´ll never happen. Haha. I dunno, it´s just so weird to grow up! Everyone says that their 20´s were the best years of their lives, but, ya know, I really liked being a kid! I mean, 8 was a good age...I dunno. I am having an amazing time in my 20´s so far, and I know that there are great things in store. I just always get strange before my birthday. So I journaled about all of that and the philosophy of aging and whatnot. I then went back for Art History until 7. The prof. started lecturing about ancient Greek temples and sculpture. I think. Ohhhh Spain. After class I walked home, fed the birds in front of the University all of my leftover bread from Maruja´s bocadillos. She always makes them with white bread, which is not only gross, but extremely unhealthy. So I´ve gotten into the habit of just eating the lunch meat out of the middle and feeding the bread to the birds. It´s cute. The deli meat here is of a very high quality anyways, why ruin it with gross white bread? It tastes quite good on its own, so the bread is superfluous. I then walked home in a rush because Stacey had told me to meet everyone in front of the Starbucks next to the Cathedral at 9pm to get the night started...and I had a lot of preparation to do! I hurried back, struggled to find a fun birthday outfit, makeupped, did the hair, and was out the door by 9. Oh man, I´m bad. But whatever, it was my night, and I´ll be fashionably late if I want to. I walked really quickly and was there by 9:20 to meet up with Stacey, Melissa, Katie, Jessica, Courtney, Alexi (an academic yearer), and Alyssa (the other birthday girl, woo woo!). We then headed down the street to have birthday dinner. Let the festivities begin.

2 DAYS TILL 21!

Actually, not even. I am writing this at 11:30pm Spain time, and in 24.5 hours I will be 21. Holy shite.

So today. Tuesday the 21st of good ole febrero. I woke up at 10:30 with that tickle in my throat. I knew this tickle: it's the pre-sickness tickle. That only meant one thing: the fight was ON. There was absolutely no way that I would let myself be sick on my birthday, nor when I go to Portugal this weekend. Nuh-uh. So on the way to film class I stopped at perhaps about 4 pharmacies (there's one on every street corner, basically) to find me some Zinc supplements. They don't have ColdEez nor Zycam here, so I had to improvise. Almost every pharmacy was out of Zinc! On the way I also bought a huuuuuge green tea from Starbucks. I finally found some at the pharmacy near the University, and I got the last package. I was late for class, but it was well worth it. Class was pretty boring again, the lecture about the history of film continued. We got out of class early, though. I then walked home for lunch. I was about 10 min late, so when I got there everyone was already eating their main course. So I inhaled my lentil soup (which is a shame cuz it was pretty delicious) and then dug into the delicious main course: chicken breast with a thick cheesey white wine sauce...I can't put my finger on what the sauce was, all I know is that it looked like hummus. Hehe. There was also a homemade oil n vinegar cole slaw with pomegranate--so good! At lunch I took my multi-vitamin, an echinacea, and a zinc caplet. Then I came back to the room and blogged for a hella long time before class. Left around 5:30, and it was sunny. Halfway to class it began raining. Maruja was right, febrero es loco. On the way I picked up a bottle of water at a kiosk...must drink fluids! Got to class on time right as a thunderstorm began. The storm then only lasted about 10 min. Then the rain completely stopped. Febrero es muy loco. Class was fine, some more lecture about temples and sculptures and temple drawings and stuff. I am starting to follow him better and I'm picking up on what's important, what I should note, and what I need to look up on my own. We got out of class on time, ran into Jessica and Amanda who were all like, "Excited for tomorrow...?" hehe, of course! Stacey had told me after lunch that I should just leave tomorrow night open and leave it up to them. Oooooh, gotta love the semi-surprises! I'm so excited!! I guess that everyone's just planning it, and, Alyssa from the program is also turning 21 on the 23rd, so there's like twice as many people involved in the planning. This is bound to be off the hook. All the more reason to battle the cold. After class I stopped at the Starbucks next to the U. and got another fresh squeezed OJ. Walked back to los Remedios, stopped at the Starbucks there and got another huuuuge green tea. At the end of the day I had spent almost all of the 20 euro that I had started with...just to fight this damned cold! It's worth it. I got back and did some computer stuff until dinner at 9:30. We had cooked cauliflower w/ olive oil and then cheeseburgers. I took another zinc caplet and echinacea. After dinner I came back to the room, talked to some people on the phone, etc. etc. Not very eventful. Nothing too special about the day except for the fact that I turn 21 two days from now!!! What what!!!!!

The beginning of my BIRTHDAY WEEK!

COUNTDOWN TO 21: 3 DAYS!!!!

That being said, here's my Monday. Woke up at 10:30 feeling well-rested, but with a slightly sore throat. Shouldn't have smoked all that hookah on Saturday. I was very excited this particular morning because the night before I had received a call from Allan (to all you none UofMers, one of my good college friends dating way back to freshman year) saying that he and Kate (his gf who has been studying for the year in France) were in Sevilla and wanted to meet up on Monday. Allan met Kate in France for his Spring Break, they traveled to Portugal, and now they were in Sevilla for a couple days. So that's exciting. Anyhoo, I walked to Historia del cine, which was OK, kind of boring. The prof. started a lecture on the true history of film...I mean, who invented stuff, dates, etc. etc. Nothing too special. Then I walked home for lunch, which was sooooo good: more grilled artichookes and boiled potatoes (but this time in olive oil, not broth) and some really good lightly breaded chicken breasts. Very simple, but quite tastey. Oh! When I got back for lunch Marta ecstatically told me that she had passed her big med exam! Therefore, she's a certified doctor now! Can you believe it?? She was so happy, she told me that she had been laughing and crying all morning. Oh yeah, we hugged it out. I am so happy for her! Now she's going to take some much needed vacation time and then we'll see. I'll be sad if she moves out, I love Marta! After a lunch filled with good food and high spirits I did some blogging before heading out to my 6-7:30 Historia del arte. On my way there I coincidentally ran into Allan and Kate walking down the street by the University! I literally bolted across the street and attacked them. They were quite surprised. I hugged the crap out of them, haha. But then I had to run since I was running late to class, but I told them that I'd talk to them around 10 that night. Class was fine, I sat with my new friend, Cristina. I'm starting to understand the prof. a little better, I'm getting used to his dialect. We started talking about ancient Egyptian temples and sculpture. Kind of boring, but still a bit interesting. I got out of class early, around 7, and I told Stacey that I'd meet up with her, Melissa, and Katie at Starbucks at 8 because Katie's mom was in town and she had invited us to dinner. I got to Starbucks and ordered a fresh squeezed OJ (gotta love Spanish OJ) and a huuuuge green tea because I started getting nervous that the tickle in my throat was more than just a side effect of the hookah. Julia, Emily, and Freya from Cornell were sitting on some couches reading, so I decided to join them. We talked about travel plans and such. Good times. Right at 8 Stacey, Melissa, Katie, and her mom entered. Katie's mom is so cute, your typical midwest mom type, has Katie's face--definitely see the resemblance. We then began our walk to a restaurant that Pepe had recommended. It took us about 10 min to find it because we're kind of dense when it comes to directions. The restaurant is connected to some really nice hotel where, once you enter, about 10 people wait on/take care of you. Many (practically all) of them spoke a good amount of English. We sat in the bar area and looked at the menu for about 10 min, then a woman led us up a marble staircase and led us into a private dining room! Oh man, I was in my street clothes! I guess this place was pretty fancy cuz every table gets its own room. It was reeeeeeeally nice! We got real menus, which were in English, with a large, amazing variety of meat and fish dishes to choose from, not to mention gourmet appetizers. A waiter or waitress frequently came around and refilled our water (bottled) and our plates with fresh, hot rolls (the bread in Spain is amazing, but this bread was EXTRA amazing). There was olive oil on the table and, although I don't typically do this, I dipped my bread in it. I chose to do so because Spain is known for its olive oil, and I hadn't yet had the chance to try it on its own. Holy crap it's good, let me tell you. Then we all ordered. I chose a bacalao (cod) dish...I'm a huge bacalao fan now. We also all ordered a jar of sangria--can you believe that I hadn't tried authentic Spanish sangria yet??--which was amazing...so we ordered another. Our food came pretty quickly. My dish was AMAZING. I kid you not, it was the best thing that I had eaten in Spain, hands down. Everyone else's dish was amazing, too, according to them. Yeah, this restaurant just kept on impressing me. I'm telling you, the best meal I've had here. It was a big bowl with a fancy creamy white garlic sauce, olive oil, and fresh diced tomatoes with two small, yet thick slices of fresh bacalao. I cut up the fish and mixed it all together. The flavor was to die for. When the family comes up we're going there for sure. The food...oh man...just thinking about it...! We had an amazing dinner, we couldn't stop thanking Katie's mom. Aside from the food it was so much fun, lots of great conversation, stories to tell, etc. We finished around 10:30, said goodbye to Katie's mom, and Katie who was sleeping in the hotel with her, and Melissa, Stacey, and I walked back to los Remedios. I had talked to Allan upon leaving dinner and he and Kate were chilling in Vicki's (an academic year person who I knew previously from the RC, good friend of Kate's) apartment which is in los Remedios. It was really easy to find, they buzzed me in, and they were upstairs sitting on futons watching some CSI and talking. We all just sat around talking and catching up for a couple hours. We also met one of Vicki's housemates, some random Brazilian guy, haha. It was fun, Allan and I filled Vicki and Kate in on what had changed in Ann Arbor that fall. Allan then told us about the suicides that occurred on campus. Now, of course I knew about Jeff, but supposedly last week another student jumped off the same parking structure and killed him/herself (an LSA soph.)...so sad and kind of creepy. What is up with this year, A2?? Then Allan gave me a bday present that he had delivered from Amanda and Nicole! Yay, first birthday present! It came with this adorable card, a chihuaha sitting atop a big birthday cake. Love it, it's displayed on my shelf right now, it gives me a lil chuckle everytime I look at it. Then the present: an awesome flask! And it's awesome because it's turquoise and sparkley...and Lisa loves her sparkles. It's perfect for all the botellons we have, and it fits in the pocket. Perfect gift for a 21st bday. I love it so much! It needs a name. Suggestions are welcomed. Then Allan and Kate gave me their gift: liquor to go with it! Haha. They gave me my friend, Smirnoff. Gotta love them. Gotta love turning 21. Gotta love the birthday week. Around 12:30ish we left, Allan and Kate walked me home (how niiiice). We said our goodbyes. It was so good to see them. And quite surreal, honestly. Hehe. It was a great visit! I went upstairs to the apt., did some internet shtuff, and passed out around 2.

Granada: the Colorado of Spain

Last day in Granada was a doozey. Woke up groggy as hell at 8:45am to hit up the free hotel breakfast, pack, and be ready to go to the Alhambra (the most famous part of Granada) at 10. I was not a happy camper, nuh-uh. Whatever, we had good stories to tell. I think that we told our story from the night a dozen times. Melissa was laughing about it in the end, she's a good sport. We took a bus to the Alhambra (thank god, we were not in any mood to walk). Again, it was supposed to rain, but the sun was breaking. Not bad. However, throughout the tour there were spurts of clouds, rain, wind, then sun, and allll over again. Schizofrenic Spanish weather. Maruja told me one day that in Spain "Febrero es loco"...so they're February is like the Midwest's April, I guess. Anyway, the tour of the Alhambra was actually really nice. Our tour guide was really intelligent, energetic, and easy to follow. The Alhambra is also really awesome, it's the oldest standing Muslim kingdom. All of the architecture is authentic and shows Muslim, Jewish, and Christian influence. It's awesome to see such artistic-religioius unity. The kingdom is huge and situated on a mountain overlooking the hills and streets of Granada. Gorgeous. The kingdom is so huge that our tour was over 2 hours long! Despite how tired I was, I did enjoy myself. After the tour the girls and I walked down to get coffee and food (cuz boy did we need it). We got to this plaza by our hotel (the sun came out, yay!) surrounded by restaurants with ample outdoor seating. Despite how upset my stomach was the day before from the falafel, I wanted more...it's just too damn good in Granada. So I went to a little falafel place (it looks just like what Oasis in Ann Arbor looked like before it expanded) and ordered this huge falafel pita which I like to call the pita o happiness. We sat outside, tired as hell still, not really saying much, just eating and staring at dogs. Oh man, the dogs are so cute. Here's the thing: Granada is like the Colorado of Spain (hence why I love it). It's got mountains and skiing, hippies, and the people are just so much more laid back. In Sevilla, walking down the streets is like going to a fashion show. So much Burberry, skirts, leather, fancy boots, etc. Nobody ever wears tennis shoes. I don't understand this lack of dressing for comfort in Sevilla at times. Also, the dogs in Sevilla are mostly little "accessory" dogs, you know, little things. Well, in Granada, it's very different. First of all, people wear fleeces! We actually fit in for once. It was a very big deal to see people wearing fleeces...and jeans! In Sevilla they wear jeans, but they're more like designer jeans. In Granada, it was all about the comfort. Granada is very much a mountain town. Also, people have real dogs. When I say real I mean like Border Collies, Greyhounds, Labs, Retrievers, Huskies, etc. So refreshing. I'm definitely in love with Granada and HAVE to return. After lunch my stomach was even angrier at me for putting more falafel in it. Oh well, it's a "recuerdo de Granada". Then Stacey and Jessica decided to sit around: Stacey had hw and Jessica wasn't feeling well. So they went back to the hotel to sit as Courtney, Melissa, and I went to the Arab district to do some shopping. We stopped in many stores, and there was so much to look at! I wanted to buy everything. In the end I walked away with an amazing table runner which I plan on using as a wall hanging next year (it's hanging in my room in Sevilla right now, actually). It has blue and purple tie-dyed pactches arranged in this cool geometric pattern with intricate gold and silver beading and patterns threaded throughout. It's hard to describe. Perhaps I shall take a picture. After shopping we met back up in the hotel lobby around 3:45 to get ready to leave. I then ran into Theresa Burridge (housemate from last summer on the Granada program) at the hotel! She had run into Elena, who is also in the RC, who had brought her to the hotel. It was so good to see her! At around 4 we took the long walk to the bus, got on, and I attempted to sleep, which was pretty unsuccessful since the people sitting behind me were talking a lot. Whatever, I tried. Also my stomach was hurting still, so it was just a bad combo...plus I have enough trouble sleeping on public transportation as it is. We got back to Sevilla around 7:15. Melissa, Stacey, and I walked back to los Remedios, on the way we saw the funniest little chihuahua wearing a sherpa jacket which put our tired selves back in good spirits, and got home around 7:45. When we arrived Maria del Mar and Marta were mixing a bowl of chocolates to make truffles for a wedding that Maruja is going to attend this week. We told them about our crazy weekend and the robbery. Oh man. Then we retreated to our room and I proceeded to take an hour nap before dinner. My stomach was still bothering me when I awoke, so I was praying that dinner was anything but fried food. Well, we had croquetas. Of course, that's my luck. And I had to eat some because they were homemade. Oh man. They were actually pretty good, at least, she made them with shrimp this time. We also had a delicious broth soup with boiled potatoes and grilled artichokes. Then oranges/manderinas for dessert. As we were cleaning up after dinner Maruja asked me when my birthday is since she remembered that it was in February. I told her that it was Thursday and she got allll excited and asked if I'd be home for dinner. I said yes, so she asked me what I wanted to eat. It didn't take me long to decide: the Portuguese bacalao (cod) dish that we had our second day here. She has recycled a lot of meals, but not that one, and it was one of Stacey's and my favorites, and everyday we have hoped and prayed for that dish...to no avail. So she's making it! Stacey's b-day is in March, and she said that she's going to ask for it, too, haha. Then Maruja asked what I wanted for dessert...she gave me choices. She mentioned a tarta (cake), to which I immediately said "Si". Then she asked what kind; she said chocolate, which sparked my interest, and Maria del Mar and Marta, who were standing behind her, were giving me signals to choose chocolate. So I went for it. I'm so excited! Maruja cooking like whoa! Maruja bday dinner is going to be a-ma-zing. Maria del Mar told me that Maruja's chocolate cake is to die for. YAYYY! After cleaning, Maria del Mar and Marta started to roll up and coat the truffles. They invited us to help...well, I just couldn't resist. It was really fun and messy! Our hands were literally coated in chocolate (which ain't such a bad thing). There's also something about baking that brings family closer...I feel like we bonded a little bit! After we finished we licked alllllll of the chocolate off of our hands. Then, we got to sample a few. They were unbelieeeeeevable. Best truffle that I've ever tasted, no joke. We asked Maruja for the recipe right away, which she gladly gave to us. So family, prepare to get fat this summer cuz I'm making chocolate truffles every week, mwa ha ha! After the fun I did some internetting for a couple hours, and my stomach began to feel a lot better. I finally passed out around midnight. And man, it felt gooooooood.

El "recuerdo de Granada" verdadero

="The real memory of Granada"
So, here comes our messed up night in Granada.
We get back to the hotel after hookah...we all go to our respective rooms. Stacey and I decide to host the pre-game in our room since the hotel hooked us up. Then Courtney called, back from skiing (which she very much enjoyed, btw), saying that we should pregame in her room since she wouldn't be ready for awhile. Otay. Stacey then called her bf to check up on him; I don't know if I've mentioned this already, but he broke his leg and ankle the other day falling on ice in Ann Arbor about a weekish ago. He went in for surgery the other day. So they're phone call actually turned out to be pretty long, so Stacey sat at our coffee table and took multiple vodka shots and ate peanut m&m's while on the phone with him. It was so funny, and quite a sight to see. Soon we headed down to Courtney&Jessica's room where we took shots, chatted, and watched Cheaper by the Dozen (in Spanish, yeah, random). We actually pre-gamed for awhile, getting all wrapped up in convo and all, and didn't leave the hotel until after 1am. No biggy, our hotel was right next store to some bars and a club, so we were set. We first went to an Irish pub literally right next to the hotel. It was packed but really fun. We all had an Irish car bomb, which was actually quite intense. Then we stood to the side and danced to the AWESOME music that the bar was playing...B-52's, Michael Jackson, etc....oh it was fantastic. Around 2ish Courtney decided that she was tired from skiing so she went back to the hotel. It's funny, before we entered the bar we ran into a bunch of people from our program who had decided to go to bed as we were leaving. We gave them crap for not living up their one night in Granada...we also gave Courtney some crap for leaving. Little did we know how right on their intuition was...
We then decided to find a discoteca (club) to do some dancing. Granada 10, a discoteca, was right next store to the pub, but we decided to see what we could find and then hit up that one on the way back. We were walking down the main street chatting and laughing and whatnot. We stopped for a split second so Melissa could get something out of her purse. A second later I see Melissa sprinting away and yelling. I was so confused, I didn't know what had happened. Stacey looked at me and said, "Some kid just grabbed her purse!" Yeah, so Melissa had been holding her bag securely next to her all night, and for the one split second that she took it off of her arm, 2 teenagers (about 16 or 17) ran up from behind her and yanked the purse right out of her hands and ran away! Melissa had run after them screaming but couldn't catch them. We stood there shocked and dumbfounded. I think that Melissa was yellling and screaming loud enough that suddenly this brigade of approx. 20 Spanish men came out, trapped one of the friends (not the one with the purse) and started interrogating him, helping Melissa out! It was amazing. Random acts of kindness like whoa. Jessica, Stacey and I ran over. Melissa was crying and freaking out, so Stacey and Jessica stood there calming her down. The men trapped the one guy up in an alley, but didn't stand around on the other side, so I swooped up around and trapped him on the other side with my hand in my pocket grasping the trigger of my mace. The kid was not answering the men's questions about his friend with the purse, so one of the men slapped him across the face. It was crazy! Then Stacey held her phone out and started yelling, "Cual es el numero de la policia??" ("what's the number for the police?"), and one of the men called the police for us. This was such a relief because Evan had told me that a friend of his got robbed in Madrid, and when they went to the police they were not helpful at all saying things like, "You're not in America so you can't just leave your things sitting out." Having the Spanish men do the talking ensured that we were helped. Meanwhile, Melissa is yelling and swearing at this boy in English because, let's face it, Spanish just won't suffice when you're that traumatized and angry. The police showed up pretty fast. They got the boy in the car (they don't use handcuffs...weird) and asked some questions. Luckily, when I'm empassioned, my Spanish just flows, and I was able to communicate pretty clearly. They asked us if we knew where the station is so we could go give info and file a report. We said no, but two of the men offered to walk us there. We got there in about 10 minutes with all of us trying to calm Melissa down the whole way. Luckily, she only had her camera, cell, and 5 euro in the purse...she had followed the advice of our program directors and carried her credit card in her pocket and kept her ID in the hotel. It was just the trauma of the whole thing. We got to the station and answered questions about what the friend who had the purse looked like (I saw him run away). It was mostly me and the two men answering questions because Melissa was so flustered, and suddenly my Spanish was coming naturally. Who knew? We sat for awhile, and the two men sat with us to make sure that we were OK. Melissa was feeling crappy, blaming herself for being a blonde American speaking English and looking like a victim. The men told us that it doesn't have too much to do with being American nor female, that the same thing had happened to them before, it's just part of being in Spain. But they also pointed out that that's the worst that it gets, that, for example, in the U.S., if you are robbed, it's typically armed robbery. In Spain, it's just, well, clever robbery, but almost never with weapons. It's usually just stupid kids, like the two that got her purse, looking to get extra cash for who knows why. We waited in the station then for about 3 hours. The men left after about 2 cuz they saw that everything was alright. That was so nice of them. While we were waiting the cops dragged in this beligerantly drunk man who was screaming, lashing out, and crying. It was weird, because only one cop carried him in, holding him by the elbows as this guy was kicking and screaming...no handcuffs. And, the drunk man was bigger than the cop. Yet the cop stayed perfectly calm. Finally two more cops approached, grabbed the drunk guys legs, and they carried him upstairs into a cell. For the next hour and a half we heard him screaming and crying. A little before 5 one of the cops grabbed Melissa for questioning, they then asked me to come too because I knew Spanish really well. It's so strange, cuz my level of Spanish is equal to that of Melissa's, I was just so full of adrenaline that the Spanish just rolled off my tongue like it was my native language. Crazy. Once we got to the top of the steps they told us to wait a second, they went to the end of the hall where the drunk man was locked. We don't know what they did with him. Jessica and Stacey, who were waiting downstairs, told us that the cops were beating him up right before we got up there. I had no idea. I guess that they heard hits, then cries, kicks, then screams, etc. etc. etc. Oh man, this night was the true "recuerdo de Granada" for sure. They asked us questions about appearance of the kids, where it occurred, where we were from, etc. etc. Melissa answered the questions because she was definitely calmed down at this point. The cop was typing up the report and Melissa, who always has an eye for the absurd (hence why I enjoy her so very much) chuckled upon noticing the cop's misspelling of Sevilla, and then his usage of spell check! Ha. Despite the detail of the police report, we got the sense that we weren't getting the purse back. Melissa was not in low spirits, though, because she didn't have anything of large value (besides the camera, but that's easily replaceable) in it, nor was the purse valuable. As we were giving more info, we told the cop about our program and that we could call Pepe, the only program director who came to Granada with us. I called Jessica downstairs to get Pepe's number, she answered and told me that she had already called Pepe, and he was downstairs! Nice. The cop said to bring him up. So I went downstairs and got him, the cop then told me to stay. Pepe gave him program info, his cell, etc. Pepe looked so tired, I felt so badly. We finally finished and left the station at 6:15 am, walking home in the rain. What a night, I tell ya. We then got back to the hotel and I literally passed out at 6:45. We had to be up in 2 hours for our trip to the Alhambra the next day. Great, just what I needed after the previous night's unsatisfying 4 hours. Well, the bright side is that I learned that I really can speak Spanish, and that I should always keep my purse inside my jacket if I decide to carry one. It's funny, also, how intuitively Courtney knew to go back to the hotel early, as did everyone else. Moral of the story: we should have followed the group, and/or we should have just gone to Granada 10.

"Un recuerdo de Granada" take 1

="A memory of Granada"
Thaaaaat's right, I went to Granada this weekend. It was a weekend to remember. Let us begin.
Woke up at 6:30am on Saturday very unhappy about the unsatisfying 4 hours of sleep that I had just gotten. We didn't ask Maruja for a bocadillo because we hadn't given here enough warning for her to go out and buy bread. Whatev, we figured that we'd just pick up some wraps at VIPS. At 7:50 we left to meet at the Torre del oro (just across the bridge) to catch our big salmon colored bus to Granada. We walked to VIPS to discover that it was closed. I was not a happy camper, especially since I was so tired. Starbucks, its neighbor, wasn't even open...so I couldn't get coffee. Blah. We got to the bus about 15 min early so I made a quick run to OpenCor and picked up a box of All Bran and some candy for Stacey. I returned, got on our huge, nice bus, and we were off. I kind of slept for the first hour and a half of the ride...I mean, my eyes were closed and I was relaxed, but you know me--I can't sleep anywhere else but in a bed. Well at least I tried. After that hour and a half we stopped at a gas station/cafeteria where I picked up some yogurt and an apple. I ate that and my cereal at the bus which woke me up a bit. As we neared Granada we passed so many mountains and such, it was great, so perdy. After the 3ish hour bus ride we arrived in Granada which at first glance looked like Sevilla except more hilly. Our hotel was on some random side street so we had to de-bus about a half a mile from our hotel. That was not a happy walk: I was exhausted and my bag was heavy. We finally got to our hotel: el Hotel Inglaterra which is on the corner of a small side street in an amaaaazing area (adjacent to the main Arab district). The hotel was also really nice. Stacey's and my room was at the top in a lofted area so we had a huuuuuuuuuuuge room with its own balcony! We had one of the biggest rooms of anyone. Around 1ish after settling in a bit Stacey and I met up with Melissa and Jessica (Katie didn't come to Granada since her mom's in town, and Courtney decided to go skiing with a bunch of the academic year kids) to go grab some lunch and a cafe. We walked around the corner to a really cute cafe which was actually serving food (it was nearing siesta...in Sevilla you rarely can find food served during the day) and got an upstairs seat. This cafe was really nice--huge menu, and there was barely any smoke. Let me just say, one of the things that I really loved about Granada was that there is so much less smoking than in Sevilla. I never had to worry about airing out my clothes there because of smoke...in Sevilla I'm always airing my clothing out everyday. We spent a lot of time at the cafe, chilling out after our long trip. Stacey and I got some bocadillos, mine was an open-faced grilled veggie thing which was very good. Another thing about Granada, it was like I became a vegetarian again! Granada has a huuuuge Arab and Middle Eastern influence (I mean, HUGE) so it's reeeeeally easy to find quality vegetarian food (think hummus, falafel, etc.). I also got a cafe cortado (espresso w/ a bit of milk) which woke me up. Then everyone got ice cream, so I got a little flan. Mmmmm. After lunch we walked to the hotel, changed, and were out again...we decided to take a hike in the mountainous area near the Alhambra (medieval Muslim kingdom). We headed out around 3:30 and took the ten minute walk towards the mountain. The road we walked down was filled with all of these awesome Arab stores. Actually, Granada is full of Arab stores, which is a huge problem for me because I loved everything that I saw. I mean, this stuff was screaming "Buy me!". Every store was filled with incense, hookahs, tunics, beeeaaatiful tapestries, exotic scarves, jingly large earrings and necklaces, exotically painted floor lamps, candles...oh man, it was sensory overload. It was like Cost Plus World Market meets 42 degrees in Ann Arbor (minus the drug paraphernalia). We stopped in almost every store on that street. There was one really awesome street in which we spent a longer amount of time. The shopkeeper was asking if I wanted prices on things and stuff, of course I loved the stuff, but I only had 5 euro on me. Then he asked me if I wanted to take a picture in the store for what he kept insisting, "un recuerdo de Granada". I thought that he meant just a picture of me in front of some scarves or something, so I said OK. Little did I know what I was in for. First, he wraps a belly dancing skirt around my waist, which I thought was silly. I took my camera out for him to take a picture, but he had disappeared. He re-appeared with a belly dancing shirt, then a headdress, an arm cuff, a choker, arm cloths...omg, it never seemed to end! I mean, this guy decked me out. Then he tucked my shirt in so that my stomach was exposed. I was so baffled by the whole thing as it happened, I honestly don't know how it happened. I looked to my left and the other shopkeeper was doing the same to Melissa! She was laughing so hard because she was also extremely confused by the whole thing. They just kept assuring "Es un recuerdo de Granada!" ("It's a memory of Granada!"). After what seemed like forever they had finished, and we looked like belly dancers. They grabbed our cameras, and they showed us how to pose like an authentic belly dancer. It was silly. Oh so silly. Wait till you see the pics. As we left Melissa and I could not stop laughing cuz we had no idea how or why that happened. Oh man. We trecked up a paved hill and got to an even steeper hill in a beautful area surrounded by woods. On either side of the paved path were downhill babbling brooks. Suddenly, the sun came out. It was supposed to rain all weekend, and the sun had come out right as we began our hike! As we made our way up the path we passed some beautiful waterfalls. We also passed many old mosques and areas of the Alhambra. Then we got to the top of the paved path and were officially at the foot of the mountain. We found another paved path and followed that for a bit, but it started to move downhill. We wanted to get to the top of the mountain, but we couldn't find a path. So, we found an area condusive for climbing and we "off-roaded" the mountain. It was pretty hard work since there was no path and the mountain just got steeper and steeper as we got higher and higher. As we neared the top we were climbing on all fours! It was amazing. The nature was amazing, and the view was breathtaking. After about 45 min we got to the top! It was so cathartic. We stood for awhile just staring out over the city in front of us. To our left were the snow-capped mountains. It was breathtaking, and we felt amazing. After about 20 min it suddenly began to rain lightly. I mean, we were literally inside a rain cloud! We stood under the rain for awhile, cooling off and such. It was like the grand finale...the climax. It just seemed so appropriate. We then decided that we should climb back down before the ground got too soft. Going down the mountain was a lot harder than going up! Stacey and I actually had the easiest time because the steepness of the mountain required agility (thank god for the gymnastics background) rather than endurance and strength. It was still a challenge, which made it just even that much more fun! We finally got down and were feeling pretty damn good. It wasn't raining down there, either. We then took a quick pit stop, a gift shop stuff (the gift shops here are weird...think rastafarian figurines having butt sex on an ash tray...yeah, strange), then walked back towards the hotel. On the way back we stopped at some more of the Arab shops. Jessica bought a huge, gorgeous tapestry that's pink and red with gold and silver thread and various beads. Gorgeous. Near the hotel we stoped at a pasteleria (bakery) and got some pastries. I got mini pastries: a mini chocolate baklava and a little coconut roll pastry thing...SO good. Then we returned to the hotel where I took the greatest shower of my life (I miss real showers!) AND I got to shave my legs. Bonus. Oh man, amazing. I was truly loving Granada. I was getting sad that we only had one day and a night there...especially due to my pimped out hotel room, hehe. After I showered, it was Stacey's turn. The hot water caused my 4 hours of sleep to catch up with me so I took an hour nap. Around 8ish Stacey, Jessica, and I walked down the street to buy some pre-game supplies...we stuck with our good ole friend, Smirnoff. We walked back and asked the concierge where the Arab district was cuz we were craving some awesome middle eastern food...I mean, hummus cravings like whoa. Turns out that the district was merely a block away from our hotel! Score! We met with Melissa around 8:30 and began exploring the quaint, patchouli and nag champa-scented, narrow streets of the Arab district on an intense hummus quest. After awhile we stumbled upon a Lebanese restaurant with a rockin' menu. We were all so hungry, we went to town. I missed my good ole Mediterranean food! I got tabbouli, stuffed grape leaves (amaaaaazing) and falafel (double amaaaaazing). Literally, best falafel that I've ever had. Oh man, but my stomach was not happy about it. It's strange, my stomach usually loves this food, but I guess now that I'm all adjusted to Spanish cuisine it's not used to that type of food. Maybe I just wasn't ready to eat vegetarian again, haha. After dinner we were on a quest for some hookah, which wasn't too hard...the street we were on is teeming with teterias (arab tea houses) which also serve hookah ("shisha"). We picked a cute little place with close-to-ground seating and lots of ambient lighting and Arabic music. Melissa and I ordered a strawberry hookah, Jessica and Stacey just got coffee, and I ordered some sort of exotic tea that the waiter recommended (the tea list was way too long for me to figure out!). Oh man, another reason why I love Granada: TEA. There is tea everywhere, and so many types. Every Arab shop sells mounds and mounds of tea. Mmmmm. The hookah was great, Melissa and I split it just the 2 of us so we took forever on it and got pretty giddy from it. The tea that I had was AMAZING. Mad props, waiter man. After our lovely hookah experience we headed back to the hotel to prepare for the night. I had such a lovely day in Granada, and was so sad that I only had one day. Granada is definitely a more chill place, so it's a "daytime" place. It's a definite mountain town, which I of course love. We all plan on returning in May or June to really get a better taste of Granada because it's brimming with culture and such. Love it. SO much.