Are you wearing earrings? Cause I think one is jamming into my skull...

Ronda at Night

I would like to start out by saying how incredibly infuriated I am with my school!!! Lauren and I were signed up through our school’s website to go on a day trip to a place called Ronda. I don’t know too much about it except it’s really beautiful and they have a bull-fighting museum. I signed up, and paid with credit card about a month ago. I checked to make sure I was still signed up last week and everything looked fine. Last night, before we went out to meet some friends, I checked the website and guess what? It wasn’t showing up on my list of activities. Lauren checked hers and she wasn’t signed up either. We figured that the CLM website had another glitch (things like this have happened to us before) and it was nothing to worry about.

What we would've seen in Ronda

The trip was scheduled to leave at 7:30, which meant I had to wake up at the early hour of 6 a.m. to have enough time to get ready and eat breakfast. Do you know how long it’s been since I woke up that early? I don’t.

Lauren and I get to the meeting place and we got a big surprise! Our names weren’t on the list! Perfect.

I’m not too bummed about not seeing Ronda, because it’s close enough to see if to go any weekend, but I am pissed that I had to make up an ungodly hour just to be told I couldn’t go. I’m used to schools not having their shit together (I got to UNM, which is famous for fucking up) but this is just ridiculous! Ever since I’ve been here it’s been one thing after another; my classes, access to my student page and now this! I signed up for this trip before most of these douchebags. As of now my credit card hasn’t been charged, but if it is, heads will roll.

The rest of the week hasn’t been too eventful. I spent most of the week studying for midterms.

Delicious!

Last Sunday, Lauren and I went over to Emily, Valerie and Lizzie’s (EVL) house for American pancake brunch. For everyone who doesn’t know, Europe doesn’t know how to make pancakes. If you ask for pancakes, you get crepes. Don’t get me wrong, I love crepes, but every now and then I miss the fluffy goodness of REAL pancakes. Since the four of us were the only ones in town that weekend, we thought pancakes were a perfect pre-midterm meal.

I also developed a scary bump on my thigh. Remember when I went out to the hot springs last week? Well something bit me. At first I wasn’t concerned with it until I saw how massive it got after I scratched it. Basically it doubled in size in a week. All sorts of questions were going through my mind:

Is this a mosquito bite?

Did the mosquito carry west nile?

What if this is a tick bite?

Did the tick have lyme disease?

Am I gonna have to give up alcohol because it interferes with the medicine lyme disease patients take?

This last question made me cry inside. After I freaked myself out I did some more research on bug bites. I’m pretty sure it only grew because I scratched it so much. I’ve been putting hydrocortisone cream and ice on it all day and it looks and feels much better. Crisis averted.

Everyone at Five Club!

Since we had such a boring week studying for midterms and whatnot, we were in much need of a night out.A new club opened up in Granada, Five Club (how original) that specializes in playing hip-hop, funky house and R&B. It’s quite small but they played the best music that I’ve heard in a club so far. It was free to get in (the only time we’ll go out is when it’s free) and there was free tinto and beer til 2 a.m. We stayed til about 3:30 and Lauren and I got Doner Kebab’s by our house and went to sleep.

I woke up at the early hour of noon-thirty and did absolutely nothing. The day after a joyous night of dancing is usually followed by a day of complete laziness. I did muster up enough energy though to go grocery shopping and to spin class.

I should have mentioned earlier that the Spanish national team was in Granada this weekend playing the Czech Republic. I heard tickets we’re reasonably cheap (about 30 euros) but buying these tickets would have required me camping out overnight and I was not about to get mugged in my sleep on the streets of Granada, so we settled for watching the game on TV.

Our friend Ariel invited Lauren and I to go to a bar to watch the game. They put up a bunch of tents and a big screen at the Palacio de los Congresos, so we just walked over there instead. Spain won of course, which was good because I was worried if they lost, people would start an angry mob and stab people in the streets. You don’t mess with Europeans and their football. It’s just as important as their mother and their first-born child.

Palabra del día: Another phrase: Soy la leche, which is the Spanish translation of “I’m the shit.” It could also be taken in a more derogatory term, that I assume you could all guess what that means.

"I Hate You. Don't Touch Me!"

I’m really becoming a night owl. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night have been filed with so many activities.

First of all, guess how much all this costs? A four-course meal consisting of beef stew, chicken and rice, strawberries, a mini baguette, wine and water?

7 Euros? 9 Euros??

 3 EUROS!!!!

Tuesday afternoon, we continued our lunch tradition at one of the uni’s comedors. It’s basically the Spanish version of a cafeteria (La Po for all you UNMers out there) but it’s not disgusting! It was like a home cooked meal that made me miss Sunday dinners with my family and Charles at my sorority house. For three Euros, it’s the best deal I’ve found that tasted so exquisite.

Our friend, JT, who we met at the hostel in Madrid, was staying a few nights in Granada. We met him at Hannigan’s for drinks Tuesday night. He came with some really cool people that he was staying with at the hostel. David from LA, Elyse from Australia, the Doc (who’s name I can’t remember at this moment) from Brazil and a girl from Canada, but she doesn’t consider herself Canadian because she’s from Quebec. 0_o

It was also Hannigan’s open mic night and JT went up and played a few of his songs. When I first met him and he told me he was a musician and he was in Spain “on break from touring and recording” I thought he was full of shit. Turns out he’s a legit artist and he’s actually pretty good. Then David, in his slightly buzzed state decided he wanted to debut his cover of Under the Bridge, so he played guitar while JT sang. It was a more entertaining night than I thought it was gonna be!

Wednesday night I went with the hostel group on a hot springs tour. It sounded fun, but I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

I met everyone at the hostel and we walked over to Plaza del Triunfo to meet the person who was picking us up. We all pile into a rape van and head out to the middle of nowhere. I was too busy talking to different people to notice exactly where we were, but it looked like we were out near the airport.

Then she turned off the main road and we stopped at a random shack because we had to “change cars.” This process took a lot longer than we thought. We were all waiting in the van long enough to consider the fact that she wasn’t coming back and we were all gonna get slaughtered. She did come back though, with a safari truck.

This was definitely a “WTF” moment. Again, we all piled into this little safari-looking vehicle, with no seatbelts up to the hot springs. There were so many bumps and dips in the road I felt like a Mexican crossing the border.

Joke of the Night:

“Hey David, is this how you moved to Cali?”

“No dude, but my parents did.”

We finally get up to the hot springs and thank god it was so dark because everyone who was there was naked. I’m not a prude or anything, but these people where all old and wrinkly and I’m just not into that. All the boys except JT were totally into it though. They all got naked in the water and for a while a couple of them ran around the hot springs being free and one with nature.

We all hung out, had some beers and just enjoyed experiencing nature’s hot tub. I’m not sure when we left, but it was really late.  We went back to the hostel and had a late night sharwarma, which was not as good as the kebabs I’ve had before. We all went our separate way and I went to bed at the early hour of 3 a.m. just enough time to sleep for my 10 a.m. class!

Thursday was quite mellow compared to the late nights I’ve been having. That evening, we went to watch a Tango show at the Uni. Apparently Granada has the biggest Tango festival outside Argentina. I was really excited because anytime I can see free dancing is pretty awesome.

Turns out it wasn’t as awesome as I thought it was gonna be. In the 1+ the show ran there was only 4 dances and the majority of the show was some middle-aged woman singing sad tango songs. I was already tired from the 8 hours of sleep I had in the past two nights and this lady knocked me out. If I had to pay for that, I would have been pissed. However the dancing we did see was pretty cool, and there will be a video coming soon in a later post.

We were all hungry after the show. Valerie told us about this great deal at everyone’s favorite tapas bar, Poe. If you buy a bottle of wine, you get six free tapas of your choice. Lauren and I had yet to go and between the three of us it was a great deal.

We ordered a bottle of white wine and I had a pork and pineapple skewer, Thai chicken and rice, and then coconut chicken with polenta. Delicious!!!

Being St, Patty’s day and all we thought it was appropriate to go over to Hannigan’s for some Guiness and Magner’s. I’ve never seen it more packed! There was nowhere to stand inside so we spilled out to the street with everyone else. While we were out there was some ghetto action taking place. Some guy pushed a drunk girl into the street and took off in his car. Her boyfriend must have been watching because he threw a beer bottle at his car and the guy got out and they almost threw chingasos in the street! This was also the first time I saw the police in Granada. It brings back great memories of NM!

Last night was the biggest botellodromo in Granada. Basically a botelledromo is a a gathering of students who bring their own alcohol and drink in the streets. It started at 3 p.m. and there were supposed to be an estimated 20,000 people there! Of course we aren’t as ambitious as the early birds so we got there about 10 p.m. and it was completely packed. We found a place to stand and drank. We also were in for another treat because there was more ghetto action, except there with real chingasos being thrown this time!

I would also like to point out there is such a thing as a hot Spaniard, they just aren’t at El Camborio on a Thursday night.

All throughout the night drunk guys were coming up to us asking for our alcohol. Sorry dude, if I want to get close to your level, I’m gonna need this.

People were also too drunk to realize they left their perfectly good Tinto de Verano unopened and rolling around the street. We found 3 full liters hanging out on the street, which was fabulous because Lauren and I ran out of our wine. Score for us!

Everything started winding down and we headed back to Valerie and Emily’s place.   Even though it was the biggest drinking party in Granada, this was the earliest we had gone home, 11:30 p.m. On our way back we ran into some Spanish guys who were pretty wasted. There was one who was talking to me but I only understood half the conversation. He was talking about eggs or something and Valerie made a comment that it could also mean his balls.

“Yeah I have two of those.” 0_o

However, it was nice to practice my Spanish.

Then there was this little shrimp sized guy who was super drunk and yelling the only English phrases he knew:

“I hate you! Don’t touch me!”

He had nothing to worry about.

We went to our favorite Kebab place and I tried it with Lamb instead of chicken, which I like 100 times more.

Now that all the craziness is over, it is finally time for me to study for midterms. A whole week of tests and since I never have homework or assignments I have to do well or else I’ll have some sad looking transfer credits at the end of the semester. Thursday can’t come fast enough!

Palabra del Día: Pecas, meaning freckles. It’s one of the words I need to know for my test. Por ejemplo: Gingers tiene muy pecas.

Does Anybody have some Cocaine?

This last weekend was one of the best experiences of my life! We decided to take an extended weekend trip to the land of double-deckers and hot princes. London!!!

Before we came to Spain, Lauren looked to see if her favorite band, Yellowcard, was playing a show here. Unfortunately they weren’t touring Spain, but they were in the London. Needless to say we bought tickets as soon as we could!

I’ve always wanted to see London and it was nice to be in place where they speak English all the time! I didn’t realize how much I missed it until we got there.

We had almost 12 hours of travel from Granada to London, because like usual, we found out there was an easier way to get there after we bought our flight through Madrid. Did you know that there is a direct flight from Malaga to London and it only takes a 2-hour bus ride? We didn’t, but you live and learn.

After we got off the tube, we were walking on the sidewalk when some guy opened his window and yelled out to the world, “does anybody have some cocaine?” 

Welcome to London.

The best fish n' chips I've ever had!!!

We finally found our hostel at 10p.m. We stayed at the Generator Hostel and it is the best hostel I’ve ever stayed in. They have a chain of these places through the UK, Germany and Denmark. There’s a bar, nightclub, pool tables and free breakfast. It was very hip and student-oriented. Sadly, we didn’t spend a lot of time there because we want to see so many things.

After not having a decent meal all day we decided to eat at the diner across from our hostel that had the best fish ‘n chips I’ve ever had. The fish was melt in your mouth good battered in fried deliciousness. The chips were also made how I like; soft, not crunchy.

I also have a friend, Steven, from UNM who’s studying abroad in England and he spent the weekend with us. It was nice to have another friendly face there, it made the trip a lot more fun to have a bigger group.

In front of Westminster Abbey

Bright and early Saturday morning, we met Steven and for some bizarre reason, the sun was actually out. Our first stop was Westminster Abbey. This was the place I was super-duper excited about, for two reasons. The first is that I love history, especially the Tudor England period. When I was in seventh grade I had to do a presentation on Queen Isabella and proceeded to connect her to Henry VIII and his wives all the way down to the death of Elizabeth I! Needless to say, I got an A. I was a really nerdy kid, haha. 

To visit the site where so many important coronations, burials and other important events in Britain’s history took place is truly surreal. To experience it for yourself is a very humbling experience.

The second reason is that I wanted to try and steal a brick. When my Aunt was in college, she took a tour of the Abbey and somehow managed to steal a brick, which she still has today and promised to give me when she dies, haha.

I was unsuccessful. After touring the Abbey, I have no idea how she did that. Those bricks are massive and with all the cameras and people around I don’t understand how no one saw. Plus, I was so awe-struck, I totally forgot about my plan.

After the Abbey, we met the New Europe people to do a free city tour, like the one we did in Madrid. We took the tube to Hyde Park and in 2 hours we saw, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Parliament, Trafalgar Square, and a lot of really distinguished places. 

After the tour, we were all starving. We stayed with our tour guide to go have a bite to eat. We got a 25% discount, which is awesome since London is so expensive. At first I was gonna stick with fish n’ chips, but then I saw Macaroni and cheese on the menu. Besides green chili, Mac and cheese is one of the other foods that I desperately miss. I was extremely disappointed, because the British totally failed at this dish. There was hardly, if any cheese in my meal and it was very bland.But for only 3.75 pounds, it was sufficient.

View from the Eye

Afterward we decided to head over to the London Eye. Even though the tickets are pricey, its something you have to do! We got our tickets and got in our gondola about twilight, so we were able to see the city at night! It was one of the most beautiful views I've ever seen!

Besides going to the abbey, riding the eye was the only other time that I was at a loss for words. London is such a big city, and to really see it, you need to see it from a bird’s eye view. It was another reminder that there are bigger things going on in the world, and there’s so much more to see and experience in this world than the places we are comfortable in.

Once we were finished, we were getting hungry again. Since lunch sucked, we wanted to get something really delicious, like Indian food. We went back to the hostel to ask where we could find a good place and the guy recommended we go to Bricklane. It’s a neighborhood that’s apparently jam-packed with Indian restaurants.

“You take either the tube to Liverpool Street or Adgate East and it should be on your right.”

When he said “on your right” he should have said, “its hella far away to your right." After we got off Liverpool, we walked for about 15 minutes on the road that we were supposed to be on, but there was no Bricklane. We were tired and hungry so we settled on the ext best thing: Pakistani food, and since Pakistan used to be part of India, I assume it’s almost the same thing.

It was delicious! We had a combination of Lamb and chicken in different sauces and rice and this really amazing sweet bread. A perfect meal after that poor excuse for mac n’ cheese. 

We finished our night at King's Cross Station to see none other than platform 9 and 3/4!!! For some weird reason, we couldn't get through the platform, I have no idea why haha.

The British Museum

The next day we went to the biggest housing of stolen artifacts; the British Museum! Again, the nerd in me was coming out! This was the kind of place that I could spend a whole day in just taking in the wonders of civilization! Sadly, we only spent two hours there because we wanted to get to the Tower of London. 

We only got to take pictures of the bridge and the Tower because we were super hungry and needed to eat before the concert. We had some French food that was reasonably priced and then headed back to the hostel to change and get ready for the concert.

I’ve never been a big fan of Yellowcard because I haven’t heard anything after Ocean Avenue, but they were really good. They were only the opening act for a band called All Time Low, who according to my friend Nick, blows, but they were alright. They also got a lot of bras for their collection, and taught the audience what a furry party is! The only thing I noticed was that the Brits don’t get too wild at concerts. It wasn’t super crowded and no one was pushing. I don’t know if it was because it was a Sunday night or if they’re just boring. After the show, I was hoping that the place with the fish n’ chips was opened but it wasn’t. We went to bed and three hours later we headed home on another 12-hour journey.

Palabra del día: Since this is a British themed post I'm gonna give you my favorite English slang word: Bollocks meaning nonsense, useless or testicles. 

Cheerio for now!

"Now let's walk over here so I can talk about 2000 years of Spanish history! YAY"!!!

Puerta de Alcalá (Thanks Nieves R!)

One of the best parts about being in Europe is that all the cities are close together so it makes it easy to take a mini-vacation!

Since we had a 4-day weekend, we decided to make the most of it and head up to Madrid. It was super fun, super beautiful, and so much to do that we barely had anytime for sleep.

Let me start off by saying there was a crazy lady staying in our Hostel. She was about mid 50's with long gray hair. I get creeped out by old people staying in hostels, mainly becasue I think there had to be something wrong with you if you're that old staying in a youth hostel.

When we first got there she was sitting on her bed on her computer. A few hours later, she was in the same spot. Then when Lauren and I got back from dinner at about 11 p.m. she was still there! She didn't acknowledge our presence or say anything, until she started reading out loud what she was working on all day. Basically she believes that Obama and Biden have been murdered and the FBI has been covering it up for seven months. Then she started talking about wire taps, sutras, terrorist attacks and a JFK conspiracy. I remember distinctly hearing her say that she had talked to the head of the FBI yesterday about the conspiracy too. Lauren was able to get a glimpse at her computer and she has the web-cam covered up. I guess she was afraid they were "watching her." I was seriously afraid she was gonna kill me in my sleep.

Saturday was our full day of sightseeing. We went on a Sandeman’s free tour, which was fun and our tour was really funny and made things interesting.  His name was Ian from Pennsylvania and made us cheer a lot. The tour was a little more than three hours, but we saw a lot of cool places and Ian would always tell a fun story to go along with it.

“Now we’re gonna walk aver here and talk about a much happier topic, suicide! Every raise you hands and say YAY!!!!!”

We got to see a lot of the city and we met some cool people. There was Magdaline from Germany, and another guy, JT, who we found out was staying at out hostel.

We stopped at the Museo de Jamon for a break on the tour and got lunch. Let me just say I have new love for Spanish ham. Everyone who knows me well knows that I don’t like most pig products, but the Spanish know how to cure some good ham! It was super cheap too! A sandwich, drink and an apple was only 2 euros! Best. deal. Yet.

The Royal Palace

On the second half we saw the Royal Palace and the Cathedral. Ian also showed us the best place to get churros and chocolate Chocolateria San Gines, which Lauren and I took advantage of later that day. 

I like these churros better than the first ones we had because they were thinner and crunchier. They have a lot of pictures of famous people like to come here, like Penelope Cruz and a bunch of people that I didn’t recognize.

After the tour we went back to the hostel to get some R&R before venturing out into the unknown. We went to the park, Buen Retiro, which was something out of Alice in Wonderland! All the trees and bushes are trimmed perfectly (that’s what she said) and there are a lot of cool looking modern art sculptures, statues, fountains and a lake! We walked toward the pond and ran into some guys who were staying at the hostel with us and hung out with them for a while. Once it got dark we went to the hostel together.

We also took the time to continue the quest for the Perfect Paella! The girl working at the hostel recommended a place that has really great Spanish food. The only problem was that she forgot what it was called.

“If you turn right off of Sol, the take an immediate right, it’s right there. It’s right next to an Irish Pub, but that place isn’t really good. I always forget the name and I always tell people to go there.”

So with our bad direction we headed out and of course in typical fashion, we chose the wrong place the first night. So we went back the next night, and lemme tell you, it was worth it!

We finally learned that the place was called El Rocio and the paella was the best I’ve had so far. It was super huge and full of mussels, shrimp, baby crabs and squid! The flavor wasn’t too fishy and the red peppers and tomatoes were a good compliment. There more than me Lauren could handle. I felt like I should principle eat because it was so delicious, but I knew if I did I wold go into a food coma and I'd be too tired to go out. With Sangria and bread, it was the epitome of the perfect Spanish meal. I give it an 11 out of 10!

That night we decided we wanted to go to this club we had heard about, Kapital or I like to say, seven-stories of fun! Lauren and I have been talking about this place for months and we knew we couldn’t pass this up.

Unfortunately, this was the most expensive thing we had done so far. It was twenty dollars each to get in and that only included one drink, but I figured it was worth it because we were only going once, but it didn’t disappoint. Each floor has a different theme and type of music that they play; my favorites were the ground floor, third floor and fifth floor. They had hot dancers and gymnastic performances and if you’re drunk enough, karaoke. It was definitely the biggest club I’ve ever been to!

On another side-not, this really is a small world. Turns out some of the guy staying in our hostel were also studying in Granada:

Scenario:
Blond Guy: "Tell my friends that they need to go to Kapital."
Me: It's pretty sweet, I think seven stories is worth the price.
Other ginger looking guy: Yeah but twenty Euros worth?
Me: Well I figure it's worth it for one time, we get in free everywhere in Granada so...
Blond Guy: Wait, you guys are studying in Granada, so are we!
*five minutes later when his friends leave the room*
Blond Guy: Do you wanna go smoke a bowl with us.
Lauren and I: Umm... I think we're okay, but thanks!

Needless to say we go t three hours of sleep before we had to check out and get back on the bus. It’s definitely an amazing place and there’s so much to do that sometime in my life I have to go again to focus on other things like El Prado and Reina Sofia.

Palabra del día: so this is a phrase, not a word, which I learned from my new friend Bryce. Asco de vida, which is the Spanish version of FML!

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Perfect Paella: Take 1

My friends and I are on a quest to find the best paella in Granada. For anyone who doesn’t know, paella is a mixture of rice and traditionally seafood, but you can add chicken, pork or vegetables. Next to Gazpacho, it’s one of the most popular dishes in Spain. We’ve tried a few other places, and it’s been good, but we haven’t found one that is knocks our socks off delicious.

There are a few things to know about ordering paella. The longer it takes for the paella to get to you table, the better. If the food takes awhile it means that the chef was taking the time to cook the paella so it’s hot ‘n fresh when it get to your table. We’ve also been weary to try places with different picture of the varieties they make because that is usually a sign that the paella is pre-packaged and frozen so it probably tastes like the food that gets stuck in the drain after you do dishes.

Anyway after class we went to a place called Café Cristobal. Paella was on the menu del día that day and out of all the paella dishes I’ve had, this one had the best flavor. It consisted mostly of clams, squid and baby octopus, but they could’ve been a little more generous with the seafood and there were no vegetables. Overall I give it a 7 out of 10.

Afterwards Lizzie led us to a place that had the best gelato I’ve had since I’ve been here at a place called Heladeria Tiggiani. I got a scoop of Leche Merengue and it was just like natillas in frozen form.

So we’re eating our ice cream talking about the randomness of our lives in Granada and out of nowhere, this guy with braces and dreadlocks comes up to us.

Weird dude: Hey, uhhh, do you guys uhhh, wanna, ummm, do you want some uhh marijuana?

Everyone at once: No.

After what happened yesterday, things like this shouldn't surprise me anymore.

Palabra del día: Dibujar, meaning to draw. Today in class I was brave enough to volunteer and she told me to draw on the board, and I had no idea what she was saying and it took me about five minutes to figure out what I needed to do. I'm a star student.