Primavera está aquí, con sol y viento

Spring is here, with sun and wind

That's right, it was 80° in Granada yesterday. I spent as much time outside as I could. The sky was so bright blue with clean fluffy clouds. Balloon vendors came out in droves with crazy shaped balloons (I especially want the unicorn-pegasus one, but Anabel said it was not normal in Spain for 20-yr-old girls to carry balloons. Which explains why they are the only vendors who don't approach me, but not why I want one so much). The heladerías opened too! Each ice cream flavor has its corresponding elaborately carved fruit. There was a chocolate picante flavor, with peppers on top. There was chocolate y naranja, with chocolate-drizzled oranges carved to look like flowers. I plan on tasting every one, except banana of course. Into the afternoon the wind from the Sierra Nevadas picked up and skirts went flying, to say the least.

Sarah from ALC 2008 is here! She's visiting from England for a week. She called me from Málaga and after we hung up I turned to Liz and said "God, she sounds so English!" We picked her up at her hostel and she said "God, you sound so American!" When I speak to English people in bars, I sometimes have more trouble understanding their accent than rapid Spanish. She's so impressed by how cheap Granada is. That's because it's the best place in the world. We're going to do every fun thing this week.

Monday is a regional holiday in Andalucía, the day they became an official region of Spain or something. No Spaniards seem to know. The actual holiday is Sunday, but Monday is a day off because otherwise we wouldn't get a day off. Oh, Spain. I wish the US worked like that. 4th of July on a weekend is the worst luck ever.

I have a bit of a snuffly cold but I feel fine. All is well because Anabel is making paella and Sarah is coming over in an hour. Today is only about 55° but we're going to spend it outside anyway. (Friends in the Northeast, just let that sink in for a moment... into the snow!)

"Y ahora tienes que bailar...no, ese fue un chiste"

"And now you have to dance... no, that was a joke."

A lot of news! This weekend we went to Carnaval in Cádiz. My friends and I dressed as a rainbow (arco iris) with one Native American, one gremlin creature, and one bellydancer. It would have been a great time except that it started pouring rain around midnight and we had nowhere to go until 6:30am, when our bus left. So we huddled under umbrellas in the freezing rain for two hours, wondering if we would ever be warm again.

(Here we are still dry).

I spoke today to the director of my program and the advisor for my independent study. I said it would probably more beneficial to study the evolution of the cathedral from a mosque to what it is today, and the political and social tensions that went into its design. As I'm talking about this (in Spanish, because she doesn't speak English) she whips out a 17th century map of Granada and suggests that I cover similar changes in the city as well. That might be too wide for me to study in one semester (and for only one credit). I'll be giving a presentation in Spanish to my art and architecture class, writing a paper (hopefully in English, but we'll see), and possibly giving a presentation next year at F&M as well. Daunting, but the good news is that I'm in control of what I study, which means I only look at the parts that truly interest me. I'm already so enamored with this cathedral that I'll welcome any excuse to talk about it.

En la Alhambra, sin camera

In the Alhambra, without a camera

Surprise! Today our profesora de arte y arquitectura islámica took us to the Alhambra. In the rain. I cleverly wore heels. We hiked up a steep alley, which led to an old stone door to the woods. There was a cobbled path lined with moss and designated stream areas on both sides. Up at the top of the hill was the beautiful Alhambra, where I will be doing much of my homework once it gets warm. The courtyards are free. Today we only visited the museum, which was small and crowded, but we have many more visits planned. And I will have to get into the habit of taking my camera with me wherever I go.

On the way back, Liz, Amanda and I ducked into a cafe to escape the rain and ease our (or only my) feet. By the time we left, the sun had come out! I don't think I've seen it in days! The residual water on the cathedral roof comes down out of gargoyles, like medieval waterfalls. The spice vendors were back, too! It's so nice to see you again, sunny Granada.

"Uno de los días más frío del año"

"One of the coldest days of the year"

Yeah, yeah. You have three feet of snow and no electricity or whatever. It's slushing here and the city has shut down. Anabel came home looking like she'd been in the Arctic, squealing about the snow. And I have to say, I don't like it. I can't do anything outside because it's so cold and wet and all I brought was a light abrigo (coat). Furthermore, I can barely even walk outside because the streets are so slick. I've been observing out the window and only three miserable people have been in sight in the last seven minutes. They are super bundled and have umbrellas. I'm glad I'm not going to Cadíz this weekend. When I go next weekend it's supposed to be almost 60! (Right now it's about 40.)

We just finished lunch. I'm not a big fish person but I eat and, for the most part, enjoy everything Anabel makes for me. We had salad with fish and bits of toast with fish and then she brought out a plate of raw tuna and cream cheese. I was about to draw the line, especially when she said it was our dessert.... I asked fearfully if it was fish and she said "What kind of fish looks like that?!" I explained about sushi and raw tuna...and she laughed at me. It was not tuna, it was a delicious mashed-up jammy kind of fruit that doesn't seem to have an English equivalent. And it wasn't cream cheese ("queso de philadelphia," they so amusingly call it), it was sweet cream. Crisis averted. Don't worry, I'll be coming home with a bagful of this mystery fruit.

El festival gitano en domingo y mis clases primeras

The gypsy festival on Sunday and my first classes

On Sunday morning, Liz, Pepe and I walked about an hour to Sacromonte, the ancient gypsy neighborhood, for the Festival of St Cecilia or something like that. We walked well into the hills, out of sight of the city and on the other side of the valley we could see doors on the mountainside that led to gypsy caves. There was loud flamenco music and professional flamenco dancers, paella, balloons, and free food. Always up for free food, especially what appeared to be gigantic green beans (but were not), we waited in an endless line until finally we arrived at the food tent. The first gypsy handed us a big paper bag with a handful of the huge beans inside. The second gypsy threw in a chunk of cod. Not wrapped, not cooked, just a hunk of salted fish. The third and final food tent gypsy tossed in a big loaf of gypsy bread, which is circular and salty and delicious.

Liz with the bread, me with the cod, and Alex with the fake green bean!

In the distance you can see the cathedral near my house, which I have come to think of as "my cathedral."

I tried to upload this picture a few days ago but for some reason I couldn't. This is a huge (~300') bridge in Ronda. We couldn't even see the bottom! The first bridge was but in eight months but fell after a few years, killing a bunch of people. The next one (this one) was built in the 18th century and took more than 30 years. They weren't taking any chances. The teensy window you see in the middle (actually quite large) is the window into the prison.

Yesterday was my first day of classes! Arabic is really difficult, but so far I can already say "I am Ferry. My country is America. My city is New York. I am a student. I am not married." I am putting together an independent study of Islamic tile patterns. My Islamic art and architecture professor here has offered to be my adviser. This will be really exciting if it works out!!

Algunos fotos de Sevilla y Ronda

Alex and Vicki descending the tower. It's a ramp, not stairs, so the Imam could ride his horse up there to make the call to prayer. I wouldn't.

The cathedral in Seville (like most other Spanish cathedrals, it used to be a mosque)

Royal gardens, filled with citrus trees.
I think it was about 15 degrees in Lancaster when I took this picture. :)

This is a Christian building. How you can tell: square doorways, Latin inscriptions

The main garden. Each wall has a different tile pattern.

It won't let me upload any more right now! I will do more later, but now I have to go to a festival in the gypsy neighborhood.

La guía española

The Spanish guide

Home sweet Granada! We went to Ronda and Seville this weekend and the lasting impression was that we are all SO HAPPY to be in Granada. For one thing, you have to pay for tapas in other cities. Seville was not as pretty (though the cathedral, the third largest in the world, was beautiful) and the men were much more forward, even by Spanish standards. And Ronda, also beautiful, was perched on a hill and it would be exhausting to get anywhere. I took about 100 pictures of old medieval and Arabic doors. Ronda is most famous for having the oldest extant bull ring in Spain and an epic bridge. We were split up into groups based on our Arabic art classes. Our professor doesn't speak English at all. So we took a tour of two cities and their monuments and understood the whole thing! We even got her jokes! Granted, she was speaking slowly, but I'm still feeling pretty proud of myself.

More stories and pictures to come, but I'm pressed for time now.

Miraculously my ipod survived six hours of bus rides. I slept. Coming into Granada I emerged from my nest of coats and right out my window was my old friend Orion! I told him to make sure that he says hey from me when he sees you tonight.

Pocas cosas raras

Some strange things

I think I've adjusted fairly well to a Spanish lifestyle. My friends have had trouble getting used to the eating schedule, but it's when I eat anyway: optional breakfast at 0900, snack at 1200, lunch at 1400, and dinner at 2200. I thought I would have problems finding food I like, but so far things are delicious! Even things Anabel makes for me, which I never would have tasted at home, I really enjoy! I tried chorizo at home and wasn't impressed, but here it's SO GOOD. I have a bocadillo (sandwich) of fancy French bread (1 euro for three!) with chorizo y queso every night before I go out. It takes a great deal of self control to walk past the panerías (bakeries for bread) and pastelerías (bakeries for croissants and neopolitanas and other delicious baked goods) both of which there are very, very many.

And I love the idea of siesta. Everything stops for an hour or so. It's just right for collecting thoughts, taking a break, bocadillos, everything. I'm going to keep having siesta when I go home.

Things I have not adjusted to yet:
- Figuring out what time it is when everything is in military time. Every night I think 2000 is 10pm but it's not. It's 8pm. Confusing, and pointless too because Spaniards say 8, not 2000.
- Outside my door is very bright, so every morning I forget to turn on the light in the staircase. By the time I get to the floor below me, it's too dark to see, so I have to feel around for the lightswitch, which, depending on what floor you're on, switches places with the doorbell. So most mornings I ring these peoples' doorbell and then run downstairs in the dark before they can open the door. I'm sorry, downstairs neighbors!
- Spaniards aren't polite. That's not to say they're not friendly or nice, but they don't waste words on "I'm sorry," "please," and "thank you" unless they really mean it. I can't stop saying any of those things. But they don't expect it and give me strange looks.
- They don't tip here. Awesome. This will be difficult when I go back to the states.
- English words are very cool here. Random English songs play all the time, everywhere. A few days ago I was in a bar eating breakfast, surrounded by children and other breakfasters, and 'Because I Got High' came on. Completely uncensored, which I hadn't ever heard before. And last night the bar we were in played John Lennon, old JLo, U2, various songs from the '50s, and Shakira, among other things that had nothing to do with each other.
- Oh yeah, people eat every meal in bars. Multipurpose.
- They LOVE Brad Pitt. LOVE. They don't care about Angie. Only Brad Pitt.
- Spaniards are very touchy-feely. Shop girls are always touching me as they point me to the dressing rooms.

I'm excited to get used to these things (but maybe not the music one). It's so much fun to live here and be familiar with such a beautiful little city. ¡Me encanta Granada!

¿Dónde está Pepe?

Where is Pepe?

The staggering ratio of boys to girls means that either all the boys stick together, or each group of girls gets one boy. Luckily we have Pepe. He speaks Spanish better than the rest of us, so he handles our expenses and makes sure no creepy Spanish men are absconding with us. In exchange, being in a group of nine American girls, he reaps the benefits of all the free things we get. For example, last night we got two free bottles of Spanish dessert wine. While we stand around in the street deciding where to go, Pepe (which isn't his real name, by the way) wanders off and we follow him and this is how we actually get places. Today we lost him.

Sometimes being here feels a little like going back in time. I walk through narrow streets, with a cathedral and spice vendors, and all the brightly colored houses with fancy white windows. I keep half-expecting a lady in a gown and Spanish headdress to peer out of one of them. The Spanish have clung to their traditional fashions. The nicer clothing stores sell matador-inspired chaquetas (jackets). There's a lot of lace and frills and polka dots. It's all very ornate, and super cheap because of the crisis. ("Creesees," they call it.)

My internet seems pretty solid now, so I can finally talk to you a bit on skype or facebook or lo que quieres.

PS. I TOOK THE PICTURE AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE!