La primera semana a la universidad + Granada

Hello there! I am terribly sorry that I haven't blogged in about two weeks now, and there is so much to catch up on! So, unless I'm feeling really into typing right now I might split up my blog into two different posts--I have to see what I can remember from so long ago! My internet and I have been having problems together. It hasn't been working so well with me and it seems that every other day or so, I'm on the phone with Dell or doing something to try to fix it. Now, I am finally sitting down to write! Also, I received some complaints about the blog being in spanish and that people were getting confused by the three things/ buttons that were in spanish. If you noticed, I gladly changed the language to english for you all. I also tried to change the set up for the commenting area, and so if I'm not mistaken you can easily comment without being a member of the blog or anything. Hopefully that will make it easier for you all.

Last week, the 9-12, was my first week of school. I had my class list sorted out and had a general idea of what it was going to be like, but we had the freedom to go and try out a few classes before really signing up for them. I started out my first class on Monday at 1 called the Projection of the Three Cultures in Sevilla. I arrived and was dismayed by three things: 1. I didn't know it was the three cultures in the middle ages, 2. the class was super boring, 3. the professor wouldn't make eye contact with any student and so when he talked to the class his body faced the class, but his eyes were staring at the top of the ceiling--not just above our heads but at the ceiling. I think it hurt my head knowing how hard it is to keep your eyes up there for so long. Anyway, it was very distracting just watching him not watch us! haha, immediately I knew that I had to rearrange my schedule and so I have.

So, I switched that class to a Cine class (film) which I was going to take anyway, but now I'm just taking it at a different time. It's fantastic. On the first day that I went we already watched a film to get us into the art of spanish film and while I thought it was okay, it was still exciting to watch. However, I'm not at a level yet where I can understand spanish films without at least having spanish subtitles, which we didn't have. I'm going to have to learn how to focus on understanding the films.

Afterwards I went to my flamenco art as a process of communication. That class is going very well so far--our teacher is a tocaor (or a guitar player in flamenco terms) so he's been teaching us the theory behind one of the forms of flamenco so far and then follows up and plays for us to understand it. I've never seen any body play the guitar like that in my life. It's an incredible art and I hope this class goes well.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have an interamerican relations class. It's probably my least favorite class right now, but I will continue to take it because it is at a good time and there's really not much else that I am interested in at that time. Our reader (notebook, journal, whatever you want to call it) has a lot of readings in english, and so far he has just stood at the front of the class basically reading the essay word for word, but saying it all in spanish instead of the english written there. It's not such a good way to spend two hours.

But then I have semantics, which again isn't going super fantastic, but I like it anyway because a lot of my friends are in there and I took a spanish linguistics class last semester at Berkeley and really enjoyed it, so I have a little background already to start me off.

So my schedule is great so far, on Mondays and Wednesdays I have class from 1-5, and then Tuesdays and Thursdays I have class from 11-3. No class on Fridays wooooo, so it's good to travel or do whatever. All my classes are taught in spanish, which is excellent, but I have learned something about myself. Each class is two hours, and that's a long time to concentrate for any kind of class. So not only do I have to concentrate for extra long, I have to concentrate in spanish. As you can imagine, my brain has to take breaks every now and then, so that's something I'm going to have to get used to as well.

On to more fun things! On the 13-14 of February, my group went to Granada! We woke up very early to meet at the bus stop by 8:45 and from there we made a pit stop to El Torcal de Antequera, which was this beautiful mountain/hiking path with these pancake looking rocks. They had told us that we were making a stop, but none of us realized it was going to be such a big hike, and because we weren't prepared, it became a very very long day-walking wise. The hike was very cool, but the drive up the mountain was not worth it--buses and windy roads don't do it for me. Anyway, the hike was about an hour, and we saw lots of animals, mostly goats I believe, and that was perfect because I was listening to the Mountain Goats on the way up!! I know I just make these entries so entertaining...

After the very muddy hike up and down steep rocks (something I forgot to add before, but one of the things for which they did not prepare us), we continued to Granada. Another windy ride down the mountain and an hour drive and finally we were there! Our hotel was right near the Alhambra, which I will talk about in a minute, but it was also on top of the biggest hill I have seen in a city in a while. For you Berkeleyans, think about going from College Ave up dwight until you get to the top, but maybe about a half a mile's worth. It was so steep going down just to get to the center, and we were already pretty sore from that hike we had taken a few hours before. We walked around the city for a bit, and it was beautiful! There were so many little vendors selling morrocan-esque things, so it was like going to morroco while being in spain. We hung out down there for a while until we needed to get back to the hotel for dinner, but good thing we left a little early because that walk back up hill was RIDICULOUS!!!! Please imagine me screaming that because it was just that bad. After the hike and not really being prepared for the amount of walking that we were doing, this up-hill trek was just too much. There were many pauses not just because we needed to take a break, but because we were laughing so hard about how impossible this was that we couldn't breathe again and then had to take a break. Needless to say, if we ever went down that hill again, we took a taxi up--it was okay though because we only stayed one night. My legs hurt for many hours after that.

Friday night we went to a Flamenco show in one of the many caves that shapes Granada's landscape. It's so awesome because there are a lot of hills around Granada (obviously) and many caves, and so over time, people have built there houses into caves! So, it looks like a house from the outside, but that's usually just the outside wall and then all you can see is the mountain. It's pretty cool. So, the flamenco show we went to was in one of these cave/house structures. Until that point, I had never really been to a flamenco show, and it is such a big part of Andalucían culture, so it was really fun to watch. I decided to film a little clip of it on my camera, and let me see if it uploads for you all to watch too! (sorry, you have to turn your head sideways until I figure out how to change it up)

The next day we toured around La Alhambra, an old Arabic castle/mini city (the Red fortress) that was completed in the 1300s, and eventually taken over by the Catholics in the late 1500/1600s, like everything else. The architecture and grounds were amazing and you could see both styles of the early Arabs and the later Catholics. The palace was just so huge that we only saw a fraction of it, and it has been used traditionally for centuries until it became one of the biggest tourist attractions.


Some of the barracks in the fortress

Jessica, Alli, me and Flor--on the left you can see the very snowy Sierra Nevadas.

View of Granada from La Alhambra

Before we left Granada, we went down to the city for lunch again and ate these Turkish entities called döner kebaps which was deliciousness in a sandwich. It was very similar to something I have eaten greek-style, and I wish I took a picture of it, or took one back with me because it was so freaking good. It was like a pita-sandwich with chicken-gyro meat, lettuce, tomato, cheese, the yogurt sauce, and some other kind of sauce and it was absolutely ah so good, I don't know what words I should use right now to describe it. Overall it was a great trip and I would happily go back there again, minus all of the hiking, and especially to get that sandwich again.

I will finally end this post with a great little anecdote that occurred just last week before we went to Granada. On Monday, my first day of school, I had class from 1-5. We usually eat lunch at the house around 2:30/3ish, and after class, even though I was starving, I went out with a couple of friends to talk about travel plans. So, I finally made it home around 7 and was super hungry. I went upstairs and María was there and was like, "oh, Haley, pobrecita, you must be so hungry you haven't eaten all day!! I left out your lunch and there is dinner coming up soon too so you should eat something don't be hungry!" and then I responded, yes I know I had class so late and I am so so hungry, thanks for leaving the stuff out for me, I think I am going to eat a 'mierda'." (Okay, now while the story I am telling you is not in spanish, I will have to explain these translations). Right after I said "mierda" I thought to myself, oh shit! (sorry mom) because I literally just said "shit". Mierda means shit, one of those slang words, you know? So, immediately I was like, ohhh no no no sorry so sorry aaaah, what is that word what is that word!!! And I was saying all of that out loud because I completely forgot the word for snack. It just left my mind and I was like "how do you say...uh..I don't know, what is that meal between lunch and dinner???" and she goes, "merienda??" and I said YES YES merienda--I want a merienda and I felt so badly for saying mierda, and she goes, "you do know what mierda means, right?" and I said, yes I know it's a bad word I am sorry. She said it was okay because I am still learning spanish, but it was a pretty funny occasion in my life. Those are the types of stories I save up to try to share with you all.

Okay, I am going to go now, but I'm going to write another blog very soon to get you caught up on this last week (including today, the 20th) but I will have to do that later on.

Un besito,
Haley