Eating a pionono at Cafe Isla! Best place for piononos in Granada. No pasa nada en Graná :)
Also you probably can’t see but I am wearing my new granada necklace! Granada means pomegranate so that’s what I got. Four euros and sterling silver. Booyaaa.
Go to Mae West with mis chicas and Spanish men photobomb hardcore on Tuesday night.
Pictures from my day :)
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were so fun! Kelsey and I woke up at 2:30 on Friday, ate lunch, and then decided to wonder over to the ILACA party. The theme was “chino sheek” which means that you go to a chino and find the most ridiculous outfit possible. We started hiking up to the field by the church that the party was held at and then we decided that we didn’t want to pass one of our last days in Granada with people we didn’t really want to hang out with. Instead we walked back home and ended up running into Conchi and her friends at a bar on our street. We ended up hanging out with them from 7:30 PM until 12. Her friends are absolutely crazy. Julia kept harassing Kelsey and I to “dime la verdad” about our opinions on Spain and she kept asking us questions about differences between Spain and the US. She talked so slowly to us too and Conchi got mad and said that we can understand. Julia seriously wouldn’t leave us alone and just kept asking us question after question. Her other friend Eva was so sweet and liked to kiss everyone and kept calling me “carino”. Then there was Conchi’s “viejo verde” Manuelo who is in his 70s and has the biggest crush on Conchi but Conchi isn’t interested and he kept saying how much he liked her but how she didn’t like him back. Her friends did say that Conchi is super hard to understand. Thank God. Thought it was me. We ended up at Metropolitan and Luis played the piano and Conchi and Eva sang along and it was so adorable.
On Saturday it was Día de la Rocío also known as Paloma Blanca. I went with Conchi and Kelsey and Conchi explained the whole procession to us. Día de la Rocío is when all the pueblos prepare a caravan and jump on the backs of horses to make their way to the shrine of Rocío in Almonte in order to pay homage. Each caravan is equipped with beds, food for a week, lots of drinks, showers, air-conditioning, and everything you could practically need. A huge tractor pulled each caravan! In front of all the caravans were a bunch of men on horseback, followed by a band, followed by the Simpecado which was a cart carried by two huge oxen. This cart represents the brotherhood and the devotion of the virgin Rocío. Behind the cart were all the women singing songs and dressed in flamenco dresses. There were also lots of carriages being pulled by horses and everyone was wearing boots typical of the countryside. It takes about a week for the whole thing to get to Almonte. They stop each night and go from caravan to caravan hanging out with everyone and maybe get a bit of sleep. After hanging out at the procession we went and ate migas at Dali Dali with Conchi and ran into three more of her friends that we hadn’t met yet. One of them, Pilar, asked us questions in English and then asked us to repeat them back to her in Spanish like five times. She was pretty annoying but it was funnier than anything. After a couple of tapas at Dali Dali I took a nap, got shawarma, and ended up spending the night at the mirador with Becca and Jecoliah and after we ended up at Granada 10 for a bit. Today consisted of studying and hanging out at Metropolitan with Luis.
This week I have to take four tests, write one paper, complete the take home exam for Mark and Maria, pack up everything, take the DELE, and say goodbye to Conchi. :(
Yesterday was the last day of classes! I am glad I am done. The classes here weren’t rigorous at all and overall were mostly boring except for grammar. I spent the evening eating pizza, chocolate, and chips in the air coordinating of my program’s office. We saw Primos which involved a hilarious event of the three main guys singing a Backstreet Boys song. After I sat by the river with Victoria, Becca, and Kelsey and studied colloquial and vulgar phrases in Spanish haha. We went home around 12 and then decided to go out for one of the last times in Granada with lots of encouragement from Conchi. It just ended up being Kelsey and I. We ended up at Camborio but then realized that we didn’t wanna deal with all the dumb, drunk Americans so we peaced out and ended up running into Sol, my host sister’s boyfriend. He took us to this weird club that I had been to before with Bilal and his roommate. There were definitely no Americans there thank God. On our way there we ran into Christian from Metropolitan! We stayed at the club until 6:30 in the morning playing pool, hanging out with Sol and Christian, and practicing our Spanish. Sol, Kelsey, and I ate churros and chocolate at Cafe Futbol and I crawled into bed at 7:30 AM.
My best friends and I in the romantic gardens next to the Alhambra.
Out for the night! Kelsey and I came home at 12 and Conchi was super tired but then we told her we were going out again and then she jumped up out of her chair and jumped up and down from excitement. The Spanish are really crazy…
Saw Jessica and Luisa off last night. :( This is us in front of Plaza Isabela la Catolica with Luisa’s childhood friend Petra on the far right.
Action shot from the last leg of the 10k in Madrid I forgot to post.
Almost over. :( T-minus 11 days.
Fresh squeezed orange juice, half a tostada of scrambled eggs with avocado, and half a tostada with butter and jam for breakfast. Spent the morning in the romantic gardens with all the animals and flowers next to the Alhambra, and the evening eating tapas in Plaza de Toros and chilling at the Mirador de San Nicolas. There were fireworks at the mirador too to top it all off. Love having Jessica and Luisa in town.
It has been incredibly hot the past couple of days. It jumped from winter to summer without any adjustment period. Ugh it has been in the 90s so I have been taking advantage of drinking all the coke and orange juice and lemon flavored slushies.
We talked about children in Spain today in my last culture class ever. Basically France didn’t believe in divorce or contraceptives and encouraged people to have tons and tons of kids. Maria said she knew a lady with 23! After Franco died people started having less kids and then the crisis happened. So now 67% of kids 19 - 27 live at home because they can’t find jobs and because their parents want to give them every thing they didn’t have. So moms let kids live at home without having to pay rent and they do all their own laundry and cook for them and the kids get to go and come as they please. Parents want to give their kids everything they didn’t have but they are overcompensating.
