A través de Andalucía

These past couple weeks I have explored some local spots of extreme beauty. Some insane architecture and beautiful views -- the south of Spain is filled with hidden treasures.

This is the tower of the cathedral/mosque in Córdoba. Originally this was a Moorish mosque from the 8th century, built by a series of Muslim leaders who made their legacy by adding their own portion to the mosque. Once the Spanish Catholics conquered Córdoba, they put a cathedral inside of the mosque -- making this building the ultimate symbol of Andalucía, a combination of Muslim and Catholic influence. It is absolutely beautiful. See for yourselves...

I know it's a little blurry, but the arches are so pretty...

More arches...

This is the cathedral -- so different from the mosque.

The Alhambra! This is where a lot of upper-level military officials lived (right side) and also where they kept arms (left side).

All the walls are so pretty, so intricately made... this is the inside of one of the towers and, like all of them, it's so beautiful.

Close-up of the walls; look at all the calligraphy and detailing!

We went to the beach, but it wasn't quite as hot and sunny as we hoped. However, it was a beautiful view from the top of this huge rock.

Life outside of architecture: Mostly I've been eating ice cream, now that the heladerías have opened for the season and enjoying the sun which has finally peaked out of the rain clouds. Spring break starts this weekend! I leave on Wednesday after classes for Málaga and fly from there to Rome early Thursday morning. Lucky me, my class on Thursday was canceled and I never have class on Fridays! I'm spending a couple days in Rome, a few more in Venice, and the rest of the week in Ireland with my best friend from school. Once I get back, 8 more weeks left in the semester! Time has flown by... I have lots of travel plans left though: Morocco for 5 days with my program, Paris for a weekend, a couple beach trips and four of my friends are coming to visit me here in Granada. And at the end of the semester, my parents are coming to Granada and we're spending a week and a half in Barcelona. But back to the present: I have two midterms this week and then it's off to Italy!

La vida académica

So recently I've gotten a little carried away talking about my travels in my blog posts. But there's more to life than that! In fact, I'm in Granada most of the time and I spend a lot of that time in class... so I wanted to share a little of my academic life. I promise it's not as boring as you'd think.

First off, here's the sched: Spanish Grammar (required), Islamic Art and Architecture, the Arab World and the West, Translation: Spanish to English, and Applied Information. Sounds thrilling right?

Brief summary: I'll start with Applied Information (at the University of Granada - UGR, in Spanish) since I've only been to one class so there's not much to say*. But let me say this: I guess all those typing classes in elementary school and PowerPoint presentations paid off, because I'm in a second or third year college course that is going over what .doc means as opposed to .txt. We practiced changing it. And we talked about what a systems operator was for 1/2 hour. So thank you American education system for making my study abroad class a breeze.

*The class I was GOING to take was apparently full and IES did not tell me this until earlier this week, so this is my had-to-pick-a-class-in-three-hours replacement class.

Translation (@UGR, English): Well lucky for me I am a native English speaker and the class is not Spanish to English because that would be impossible (imagine trying to write the way native Spanish speakers write). Instead, translating from Spanish to English is so fun! Okay don't judge me, but working with Spanish students in groups (the entire class is group work) is so great -- I get to speak in Spanish (hello, fluency, here I come! No, I am so far from that) but also I know what English texts are supposed to sound like so the half of my grade that is determined by my "grasp of English grammar, spelling and fluidity" is pretty much taken care of. (or should I say, "of which that half of my grade is taken care" -- you know about those pesky dangling prepositions...) Basically I get to make Spanish friends and it's the only time of the day I get to help Spanish students. Yay!

Arab World (at IES and in English): Excellent political science class about the interactions between the League of Arab Nations and the EU. It's very interesting and the growth of Islam as a religion is surprising. According to my professor, in roughly 20 years, Islam spread from Mecca and Medina to the entire northern half of Africa, the Iberian Peninsula and the majority of the Byzantine Empire. Respect. Plus my only assignment all semester is a 10 page paper on Turkey and the EU.

Islamic Art and Architecture (IES, Spanish): Half the classes are walking tours of the city which is spectacular. Everything is fascinating even though I am NOT an art history buff by any means. The Alhambra is amazing and the history of architecture in this area is incredible.

Grammar (IES, Spanish): One word: worthless. The professor is the kind that assigns a million things (all busywork) and never follows up on any of them. Nothing is helpful and the class is a joke. I have no respect at all for my prof plus it's four days a week!

The highlights: I am meeting Spanish students, finally, and it's great! They're so awesome. My Spanish is improving and I am learning some interesting things, plus classes are mostly a total breeze.

Downside: I'm in class more than I would be at home (18 hours) and class is generally speaking not as interesting or worthwhile. But that's why I'm not taking it too seriously and THAT is definitely a plus. Turns out academic stress is a huge bummer and I am loving the relaxation and sleep!

It all turns out alright in the end

I have a friend who always says, so eloquently, that "shit just works out." It's a nice sentiment but usually it's in situations where it is unlikely that "shit" so to speak, will work out. Situations that require some small miracle to turn out alright. But this has been the story of my weekend, so James, I take back all of my snide comments towards your optimism, because it all worked out in the end.

But let me start at the beginning. After flying into Gatwick in London, I maneuvered expertly on the trains to King's Cross. I was supposed to meet my friend there, but my phone wouldn't dial any numbers. And since European numbers require some sort of magic genius to understand, all the numbers I had in my phone were somehow incorrect so I couldn't contact a single person even from a pay phone. Situation: In a large city with no destination and no way of contacting anyone... So I started to panic. Out of sheer luck, I saw a friend of mine from Haverford who was leaving for the weekend in King's Cross (major coincidence) who told me how to get to a friend's dorm. Once I got there, I couldn't find out her room number (security) and my phone had somehow erased her number from my phone so I couldn't call her even with the expertise of an Englander at my side. The scene ends in me crying to the receptionist while he hands me tissues and tries to feed me chocolate. Disaster. But somehow, I got a hold of another friend of mine (coincidentally, the one whose quote I stole) and when I left to meet him, I ran into the friend I was supposed to meet -- miracle.

Some post-recovery activities were as follows...


Unfortunately my camera died after this photo, but I went on to stand in the middle of the deep blue water (on a bridge) and gaze all around to see the beautiful lights of the London Eye, Parliament, and Big Ben. What a gorgeous sight.


Mmmm so many delicious things in Harrods! My friend and I perused the huge department store and all of its rooms. If I were a child, this is where I would want to get lost.


Portobello Market! Incredible. Olives, avocados, all kinds of fruits and vegetables, clothes, strange souvenirs, ornate objects, hot, ethnic food, and everything else. ¡Fantástico!


This dessert is called pavlova. It is literally going to be my summer goal to learn how to make it. I actually think it was the best dessert I have ever had.


Obviously there was a lot of tea to be had on this trip. The one in the middle was Earl Grey with Blue Flowers. It was a little sweeter than the classic EG, but had a nice flavor. There's a lot of tea here in Granada as well and I am loving all the new flavors! Oh, and this tea shop was in Covent Garden which was beautiful!


Saturday night was a blast. We went to a huge club called Fabric where one of my friends' friends bought a VIP table where the bartenders waited on us and we had a view of several crazy dance floors. Such a great time! These are some of the girls I went out with, but not even half of my friends who were in London this weekend! It was pretty much a Haverford fiesta en Londres.


Camden market! This was the coolest place I went I think. They have motorcycle seats as chairs and tons of ethnic food simmering in huge pots and gaudy jewelry and printed clothing. It's a rush just taking it all in.

After such a crazy weekend of walking all day and going out all night, Sunday was a little bit of a struggle. Finally I got to the airport, only to find out that my flight was delayed meaning I would miss my bus back to Granada (I flew into Málaga). Sitting on the plane I was problem-solving how I would get back since the buses stop running after 10, which was when my plane was getting in. I have a habit of blabbering on about my anxieties when I'm nervous so I started telling the woman sitting next to me about my dilemma. Turns out she was going to Santa Fe (the town next to Granada) and offered to drive me to Granada! What good luck. A series of unfortunate events had led her to the seat next to me, so it was incredibly coincidental that we were even introduced, but it was quite a fortunate event for me!

This ends my traveling days for a couple weeks. I will go to Córdoba this weekend for a day and perhaps the beach the following weekend (an hour from Granada), but my next big trip is at the end of March. Spring break in Italy and Ireland!

I promise I will finally update about classes and all the other boring things in my life sometime soon. Unfortunately there have been some issues in enrolling, so I've been waiting to finalize my schedule (yes, still not finalized!!!) until I give a full update.

Mi primer viaje afuera de España: Amsterdam

I will apologize right now for the extreme length of the post. I can't bring myself to summarize -- I had too much fun to exclude all the unimportant details.

I caught a bus from Granada to Madrid (5 hours) Wednesday night at 1pm, took drammamine (thank you Liz!) and slept the entire time. In Madrid, I expertly navigated the metro and got to the massive Madrid airport (step down MIA and O'Hare -- you have to get on a highway to switch terminals in Madrid) way before my flight. The French were on strike apparently, so planes were all delayed. I missed my connection (barely) because my flight was over 3 hours late! But instead of catching one five hours later (thank you Lufthansa for rescheduling me on that flight...), a magic flight person printed me a boarding pass for one that left half an hour after I arrived in Frankfurt. After, again, mastering public transit in foreign languages, I got to my hostel in Amsterdam and went out for Heinekens with Cameron, my best friend from Haverford who is studying in Galway, Ireland. Every city in Europe I've been to has such pride in its beer...

Instead of giving a play by play of the whole weekend, I'll just insert some photos. Basic trip details: five friends of mine from Haverford who are studying in a variety of cities in Europe (two from London, one from Milan, one from Berlin, and one from Galway) all met me in Amsterdam for the weekend. Cameron, Pam and I stayed in a hostel together and met up with the three boys (James, Max, and Will) throughout the days.

The whole sign says: I amsterdam with the "I am" in red. Obviously ridiculously touristy, but it is a sweet sign.

We went to an amazing beads store. I'm not normally a huge beads fan or anything, but this was an awesome store. And the store was also completely organized by color which excites me. They had SO MANY BEADS. My dad would have loved this store.

This is essentially everything Amsterdam: clogs and tulips (the clogs are really seeds to grow tulips).

Also, tons of canals in Amsterdam. How did they even begin to build this city?

Saturday morning we went to this amazing pancake place. We do not have pancakes or waffles or anything in Spain and so they were triple amazing here. Mine had bananas, chocolate and whipped cream. Oh and speaking of breakfast desserts, the waffles they have in the little bakeries coated in chocolate and heated up are absolutely delicious.

Spent most of Saturday looking at shops like this. They had the silliest stuff -- little metal men to hold your pot up when it's hot, strange pig-shaped things, rubber duckie headphones, etc. It was colorful and wonderful. There were also a lot of robots.

This is the photo representation of all the fun clubs and bars we went to. Seriously Amsterdam is so much fun! We met lots of strange people from many different countries and our hostel was next to the red light district which was pretty surreal. Those girls actually stand in windows with red lights... Who knew that was reality? ALSO I will use it as a segue to say that half the fun of the weekend was the people (including James, Max, and Will) and it was GREAT to see my beautiful friends again.

Other notes without pictures: Went to the Van Gogh museum and it was pretty spectacular. Such beautiful paintings -- the brushwork is so phenomenal. I wasn't allowed to take any pictures or I would post them. In terms of being "cultural", we also went to the large park, which was starkly majestic in the winter time, and saw the tulip market (and the tulip museum actually). The city was just beautiful and we spent a lot of time just walking up and down the streets and over all the canals. My trip home was wonderful too -- my flight was canceled and so I got rescheduled on a direct flight that left earlier and got me home much sooner than I had planned. Also, since my travel time from Granada to Amsterdam was so lengthy, I started and finished Three Cups of Tea which is an incredible book and also began reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime which I also like. And now I'm home in Granada and I love it. Studying abroad = best idea ever.