I´m Going To Portugal!!!

Thats it, the plans are set! We´re going to Portugal!!!

So, the plan!?
Tomorrow, at 8am, I leave Granada and drive 7 hours to Lisboa!!
I spend two nights at the Lisboa Central Hostel, walking around and exploring the capital.
Sunday Morning, wake up early and drive 3 hours to Lagos!!!
All of Sunday will be spent chilling on the beaches of Southern Portugal, and then we will spend the night at the Rising Cock Hostal (sorry guys, that is what it is called)...
On Monday morning, we´ll wake up and drive 5 hours back to Granada...And then probably collapse from so much ADVENTURE!!!

I am really unbelievably excited and I have absolutely NO IDEA what to expect. I am nervous to drive, but I will take on the task at hand and DOMINATE THE ROADS....yeah!

Well, outside of that, Spain.....

I have just been living life. I went out for drinks with a few of my friends, and we got some olives and pickles for tapas, a cheap tapa but .. I didn´t hate the olives. Apparently, I am growing as a person. Wow.

Here, there is a drink called tinto de verano, a half glass of red wine and the other half, lemonade. The Spanish version of an Arnold Palmer. Its delicious, but definitely a kiddie drink. Really, its wine for babies!! Yummy!!

Its still warm. Classes are going strong. I am doing alright. I miss you all!!

One of those Mornings

Isn´t it the best feeling to wake up in your bed and hear the storm settling over your home? You listen to the pitter patter against the windows, hear the chilly winds spiraling outside, while you lay there, warm and comfortable, hours before any need to remove yourself from the cacoon of blankets and pillows. Well that was me this morning, as the first storm settled over Granada, thundering and blustering through the neighborhood. The only difference: I woke up eight minutes before my alarm was set to go, and would soon be thrust out into the rain, a downpour of gray, forced to walk to school at least half an hour away.

Well, I walked, and it rained, and Granada, a mountain town built, I think, specificically for people to fall, was covered in smooth and beautiful but also incredibly slippery stone walkways. There I was, sliding to class, a fell into a puddle, and quickly attempted to recover, knowing that about twenty people saw the foreign girl fall into a murky pool of water of the edge of a street. I came into class, wet and dray, my umbrella protecting parts of me while leaving others (like my backpack) exposed to the harmful rain. SO, this has been my morning, and now, I sit, typing away in the computer lab, wondering, when or if the rain is going to stop.

Now, onto more exciting adventures. After many days of discussions, and shifts of groups of people and caravans, I have officially rented a car with three other girls and we are headed to Portugal!! The plan so far is a short drive to Lagos, a coastal beach town, for a day of (I HOPE) sun, then a drive north to LIZBON (okay, its Lisboa, but c´mon...c´mon) for a few days of meandering. The most exciting part about this whole thing is that I know NOTHING about Portugal, I have no idea what to expect. And there is something incredibly exciting about that fact. I know one word, obrigado, thank you, in Portuguese. I know is is on the Coast of the Iberian Peninsula and that it produces Port Wine, I know family that has gone there and loved it, and I know that for some reason I imagine it to be blue tinted, kind of like CSI New York, but more romantic. I hope its chillier there, the heat is killing me and I am ready to wear some fall appropriate clothes. I hope its cheaper there, although I have been living relatively inexpensively, I wouldn´t mind any cut in costs. I hope its alive there, because since I am now used to siesta and children playing in the park at 11pm, I expect life to bubble up out of nowhere in Europe. I hope a lot of things, but I expect NOTHING and that is what is the most fun.

Ofcourse, I am nervous. I am the only one driving, and European driving is a whole new experience for me, I have seen it done, but I have never done it myself. I guess, I just have to be both SAFE and CONFIDENT while FOCUSING ONLY ON THE ROAD. Well, cross your fingers for me!!

I mean, all is well, one of those, ¨I feel like a brat for complaining, my life is so great and I still manage to find reasons to sulk¨ feelings, is floating over me. Its hard being away from home, but having the oppourtunity to travel so much and to experience life, well, I will never have that again. So I am here to live, DAMNIT, and to explore, and to do things that I would never do otherwise (only if reasonably priced and safe, which may be why I won´t go to Greece) and to see the world. Its almost like one of those Grand Tours in the Victorian era. Take a trip around the world, experience culture, see things, meet people, go to museums, etc. etc. I am here to see what is around and to test myself emotionally and to, I dunno, drive to Portugal. ha.

Spain is weird, its different, and its hard sometimes to feel so alone. Yet, it is also something that I love and will never forget and try to cherish every moment. Know that I miss you all! I love you all!


Now, some side notes:

In Spain, bras are always OPTINIONAL, no matter how large you are or how old.

In Spain, there are always two light switches in a bedroom, one by the door and one next to your bed, so no need to get up out of bed if you´re falling asleep with the lights on.

In Granada, a free tapa is expected. And if you order a second round of drinks, you will get another one. The tapas I have seen: entire baked potatos, tuna salad and bread, paella, a fried egg with tuna and lettuce in between, sitting atop a piece of bread with tomato sauce, deep fried mystery fish, and, russian salad (yes, ensalada ruso) which consists of potato, some other cut up veggies, all tossed together in a mayo sauce...sounds familiar, no?

In Spain, if you order a cheese sandwich, you will get bread and cheese. That is all.

In Spain, Olive Oil goes with EVERYTHING.

In Spain, sometimes its okay to have a mullet.

Alright,
I guess thats all for now.

Miss everyone!

Love Love Love,
Me

A Few Days Later

So, here I am, a few days after the hike, relaxing back at school. The summer sun still beats on us every day, and the sun still rises after I leave the house (I don´t leave early, only around 8:15, but because of the mountains, the sun doesn´t come out until about 9). My classes are nice, so far so good.

I mean, honestly, nothing exciting to tell. After the hike, I came home and slept for about 12 hours, solidly. I woke up and read some of my book and did some homework and went out with a few classmates for cafe. A nice and LAZY sunday.

I really don´t have much to say today, but hopefully, tomorrow, I will have more exciting news.

I guess, I am just finally settling into Spanish life, slow, lesiurely, incredibly hot.

I´ve been reading everyone´s messages and responses! Its so great to hear from all of you!! I miss you lots!!! I feel bad not responding to anyone specifically, but I am trying!!! I´m glad this whole blog plan worked out, and being able to share with you all my stories as soon as they happen is great!! I want to hear about whats happening back home!! What is GOING ON!!!?? I know all about the wallet incident now (all I can say is WOW WOW WOW !!!) and how the general life is, but seriously, I feel that everyone should maintain a blog. I will religiously check all of yours and see what is happening back home... Its a great way to stay involved in the lives of those we love...oh behold the magic of the internet.

Well, I guess that is all for now. I truly love and miss you all!! Its still tough sometimes being here, and seeing all the posts and knowing you guys are thinking of me as much as I think of you is great to know!! Sorry, this is growing increasingly cheesy, so I will stop now, but hope all is well!

Miss you lots, Love you more,
me

Hiking, or Oh My God, Liza finally posted PICTURES!!???

Blurry picture of the Alhambra lit up at night. This was the first night of my entire trip. IT was amazing.
A Little Artsy Shot of Inside the Alhambra
One of the many white-washed mountain towns I walked to in the past two days. Correct, CLIMBED to...like, for real.

So, now that I lured you in with my advanced photography, let me tell you why I have been away for the past two days.

I am in no way a nature person. As a kid, I lied to myself, walking through a rough and tumble prairie shortcut on my way back from school, coming home bruised and cut by the grasses that were often talled than me. As I aged, I found myself drawn to the hustle and bustle of city life, the roaring crowds of people, the chirping of taxi cab horns, and the gusty blows of the L zooming past you. I am not an outdoorsy person. I have, some how, managaed to climb two mountains, never really on purpose, never really wanting to, and yet, somehow, there I stand, on the peak of the giant monster of earthen gravel, wondering, how the hell am I gonna get back down?

Well, so, I signed up for a hiknig trip, a bonding thing with my classmates, why not, right? I can handle nature, and sometime, if I accept that the world is my bathroom, I even enjoy it. But, then, I came, a pair of jeans, a urban outfitters printed tshirt, an old pair of pumas who were more decorative than logical (but still the best shoes I got for the job) and sunglasses, to walk the mountains. When I was in South Africa, our professor warned us, this will be intense, you don´t have to go if you don´t want to, blah blah blah. As a challenge to myself, I did it, and I was greatful. I felt this trip to the Sierra Nevadas would run along in somewhat the same way.

Oh was I wrong. Before even starting our hike, the usual bocadillo reserved for about 2pm was devoured. Hmm...thats a lot of carbs before noon, I thought, but I brushed it off, blaming the Spainairds love of carbo loading. Then our guide came, about 5'2'', she was a tiny, almost sprite like woman, who was tan, and tiny, smaller than small, and yet somehow, undeniable healthy looking. I began to grow increasingly nervous.

So, we began, our walk, up and down and up and down and up the mountains. And, after six hours of hiking, I thought to myself: exercise can be rewarding, but right now, I would be okay with just never doing this again. What was it like, you may ask? Well, while our hikes uphill were tiring, as an uphill trek will be, our downhill times were a master class in agility, and for someone who lacks any agility, it was really a simple means of darting death. The paths were not those I myself am used to, these were made mostly of rough large rocks that had an innate ability to wobble nervously underneath you when you least expect it. The walkways never had railings, instead there were many sheer drops, where one could easily fall and never return. Walking miles and miles uphill, often in sweltering heat, and stopping only every so often to make sure that no one had fallen to their death, or so far behind that death was probably immenent. And our guide, the little sprite, just skipped and ran along as if she was a three year old running in the park. I hated her, I truly, strongly hated her, more than any other living person in the entire world. I suddenly began to believe in the devil, this woman, jumping and skipping, tralilila, while all of us stumbled and slipped and skidded down the rocky mountain ¨path.¨ Yes. It was hard. Really hard. And my focus, so centered on not dying, left me little time to breath in the mountain air and love life and do all those things that hiking is supposed to do.

We came back to our hostal, yeah, apparently no camping for me, and I devoured swordfish. At least that was nice and surprisingly fancy. All of us were drained, discussing not only the horror of another day in the mountains but the logisitcs of the entire thing. We, all inexperienced hikers from the great plains, placed into what seemed like an advance hike, were being draggged through paths so unruly and wild that all of us were still nursing our wounds. Scrabs, bruises, cuts, sores, sitting as an open reminder of the adventures of the day. How was this legal? How did no one DIE? How could one women be so evil!?

Then came day two. The night settled over me while my feet throbbed in pain, and I woke up to aches all over my lower body. So, then, I climbed again. This time almost two hours of straight uphill climbing. We walked, and walked, and the roads kept zigzagging, and we kept moving higher and higher, and the high altitude reduced our oxygen supply, and I was going to die, the higher we walked the steeper it seemed to get, and we tried to make her stop, and we hoped she would let us breath, and then, suddenly we were at the top. Yes, the tippy tippy top. Although we were fifty miles away, we could see the Medditeranean, and we could see everything, and there, in the distance, a white blur of houses, was our starting point. We had climbed to the top of a mountain. Somehow I had managed to make it all the way up (and not the last person to do so!), I had conquered my second mountain top, and I was impressed with myself. I also did not even want to think about the fact that I still had four more hours of walking ahead of me. But I did it, and I didn´t die, but wow, did I come close, and wow, did I think I was going to.

All in all, I mastered some mountains, but I also came close to crying not once, but twice. And you know what? I NEVER EVER EVER want to do it again. Towards the very end of our walk, a girl slipped and twisted her ankle. I felt awful. It could so easily have been me. Well, now I am back in the city, and I am happy, and I will sleep tonight knowing I had one of them most intense workouts of my entire life, and that I have truly climbed a mountain, and that tomorrow, I don´t have to do any of that crap.


Now, some more pictures.....


We ran into some sheep while hiking through the mountains. Just for clarification, this was the nice, leisurely, post mountain climb walked where everything was flat. Don´t call me a baby, trust me .... it was STEEEEEP.
This is my bedroom. Yesterday, my señora actually asked if I would like the picture of the Saint weeping taken down from above my bed. I said it was okay, I am fine with it, it doesn´t bother me. I actually have a desk across from my bed. But, just so everyone understands, when I sleep on this bed, my feet hang off the edge, it is designed for midgets or something.
These are the mountains we climbed, just to give you an idea, see that little white town in the center we climbed from there to where I was taking the picture. And that was only the first half of the first day!
A view of the town of Granada from the top of the Alhambra.
The main square and meeting place for people who live really far from Granada.