Reflection: one year later

Exactly one year ago yesterday... I moved to Spain.

The four and a half month I lived in Granada, in a piso overlooking Meat Street were the best months in my life. I learned that I could live on my own, be independent and adapt to new situations. I learned that sidewalks in Spain are either non-existent or slippery when wet. I learned to never accept the rosemary from the gypsies or else I'd be robbed. I learned that people have no problem having sex in an apartment lobby and that if you wear shorts and flip-flops in public people will call you a puta.

But most importantly I learned that there's bigger and more important things in the world than you can ever imagine.

There is not a day that goes by that I don't wish I could be back in Granada. Then I take a step back and remember that everything comes to an end. In some ways, it seemed like a fake life. I had no worries or responsibilities. Classes were ridiculously easy and some of my biggest problems were trying to find the cheapest hostel for my next weekend getaway.

I met so many amazing people and I was lucky enough to bring some of them home with me. For those who are in other states and countries, I'll see you soon.

When i look back on my semester in Spain the only regret I have is not spending a full year in that gorgeous city.

Now, a year later, things are going pretty good.

I finally paid off my credit card debt from my travels! I (sorta) quit my job at Cracker Barrel (aka Crack Bar) because I found something much better.
I am now a staff reporter at the UNM Daily Lobo. If you want to read my breaking news articles, go here.
I still work as an office assistant in the foreign language department, but not as much as I did last year. I finally have free time!

I'm applying for every internship I find. Ideally I would like to live in D.C. for the summer (I'm coming for you Mike!) but I'll accept anything I can get (But I'd prefer ABCNews).

I will officially be a college graduate in December! I can't imagine life out of school so it will be an interesting adjustment. I decided that if I can't find a real journalism job, then I'm going to apply to be an Au pair and move back to Europe for a year.

I'm thinking of starting a new travel blog about New Mexico. If I do I'll post the link.

As far as that list of goals I made, here is an update:

1. Become more outdoorsy. Right now it's really cold outside so I prefer to stay indoors.

2. Learn another language. Learning Hungarian is low on my priority list, but I'm taking two Spanish classes this semester instead of just 1.

3. Start my novel(s). After taking creative writing this semester, I have a better idea of what direction I want to take my stories. Chapters have been written but it's still a work in progress.

4. Compete in running competitions. I'm pleased to announce that I will be competing in the Warrior Dash! It's a 5k complete with different obstacles. Training started yesterday.

5. Visit another continent. Hopefully within a year I'll travel again. My top choices are Australia, New Zeland, India, Egypt and Japan.

All great things take time.

That semester changed me for the better. When I think about Granada and my travels and all they taught me, I can't help to ask some questions:

What do you think the Dutchman is doing with his life? Did he move to Cadiz like he wanted, or is he still in Granada creating art that no one buys?

What about Lauren's lover, Juan, and his creepy grenade friend? What are they doing with their lives?

And Vincent? And Carlo? And José?

Is Poe still as delicious as I remember? (OMG I'd kill to have a piri-piri or coconut chicken)!!!

Did that guy in London ever find some cocaine?

Did that crazy man in Nerja ever find that missing little girl that was taken from her real mama and papa?

Does this make me a groupie? (Only Lauren can answer this question).

What was that weird vegetable that Lauren questioned?

Is the bread man still selling his bread outside my piso?

Is Encarnación still alive?

Are there still creepers hitting on American girls in the clubs because they think they'll sleep with them?

Is that old lady with Alzheimers still protesting in Barcelona?

Will I ever get the chance to seduce Enrique Iglesias with my beautiful Spanish words?

Why does Bryce hate Prague?

and last but not least...

Where can I find fried chocolatey goodness?

Hasta Luego y nos vemos!

Tapas Tour: Take 2

Lizzie, Bryce and I continued our quest for delicious Tapas last night. We’ve had this assignment for a while and we still needed two more places to go in our designated area.

The first place we went to is called Reca. We were gonna go this place the first night, but it was super crowded and we didn’t want to stand in the rain.

Lizzie had diet coke, Bryce had a beer and I had tinto de verano. SIDE NOTE: Spaniards prefer to drink tinto de verano rather than sangria. It tastes the same to me, but I think the big difference is that sangria has fruit and tinto doesn’t.

The waiter brought us our drinks and our tapa: Mini ravioli in a creamy alfredo-like sauce with ham bits on top. I’m not sure what was inside the ravioli, but it was good. I think its was just cheese, but who knows. There may have been some ham mixed in it as well. Overall it was a 3 out of 5. 

 Lizzie and Bryce Enjoying their drinks

We continued on our journey to Poe, the best place in Granada to get Tapas!!! Poe is run by a guy from the UK and his Jamaican wife. It’s very popular with all the students. My favorite thing about Poe is that you can choose your tapas and they are all equally delicious. My favorites are the beef and pineapple skewer and the coconut chicken. They also have really good deals. A bottle of wine for 11 Euros comes with six tapas. If you’re splitting the bill with one or two people that’s a great way to save money. We weren’t exactly sure if Pose is in our jurisdiction, but it’s so good that we decided to add it anyway. 

 Delicious coconut chicken =P

 Black Bean Soup mmmmm!!!

"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.

"Do you know where I could find fried, chocolaty goodness?"

I’m starting to believe that this semester is not real life. Even for someone who has one of the easiest majors at UNM, the stuff I’m doing here is child’s play.  We aren’t doing anything in my classes and the homework I have is stuff that I would have done in middle school. I’m bored and when I’m bored I get lazy.

However, I’m not complaining about this assignment. For my Spanish oral and writing class we have to do a review of 4 or 5 different tapas bars and rate them based on food, drink, price, atmosphere, etc. Anything that allows me to eat for a grade sounds like the best assignment ever.

For everyone who doesn’t know, Granada is the only place in Spain that serves free tapas with drinks. So you get a bigger bang for your buck.

Of course we got to choose our groups, so who better than my friends Lizzie and Bryce. We met up last night in Plaza Trinidad on the quest for delicious tapas.

We started the night at a place called El Cielo. I ordered a glass of wine (Rioja, of course) Bryce ordered a beer, Lizzie ordered diet coke and our friend, Valerie, ordered a regular coke.

The place had a very trendy, clean, modern look with a lot of blue up lighting. The waiter brought us thinly sliced pork loin with bread drizzled with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. It was quite good. The pork was cooked just right and the bread and dressing was a nice compliment.

Even though the tapa was good and the place looked hip. There wasn’t a lot going on there. It seemed like a place where forty something’s go after work to watch the football game. We were bored so we went to another place.

The second place was a lot cooler than the other place. It was underground and the ambiance had a very old feel to it. There were a lot more people our age there and the food was better. Our first tapa was salchiches in tomato sauce with patatas fritas (French fries). It was really good and worth the 1 euro beer that came along with it. Since we liked the first one so much, Bryce and I decided to try our luck again, but it was met with mixed reviews: blood sausage and olives.

First of all I hate olives. When I was three or four, my mom put out a bowl of olives for Easter dinner. I, of course mistook them for grapes. When my mom went to answer the door, I snuck a whole bunch under the table and quickly shoved them all in my mouth. Needless to say, I was surprised and to this day, I won’t eat olives.

Second of all, I also refuse to eat sausage (that’s what she said) and when it’s mixed with congealed blood and other mysterious products I’m less impressed. However, in the name of becoming a more adaptable person, I tried it, and it was actually quite tasty. The trick is to not think about what it is and pretend its candy.

At this second place we ran into Bryce’s friend Andrea and some of her Spanish friends. After hanging out with them for a while Andrea asked us if we wanted to go to Chupiteria, a really cool shot bar where a lot of students hang out.  Lizzie and Valerie opted out, but Bryce was game. Of course I was on the fence about it, but like usual I was talked into going. Before Chupiteria, Andrea and her friends were going to another bar first and we were going to try one more tapas bar.

my first Buñuelos

The third place didn’t happen. It was really crowded in and out on the street, plus it was raining. By this time, Bryce and I had three drinks each and were feeling pretty good. I also decided that I wanted Buñuelos.

Unfortunately for us, the Buñuelos place was already closed. Lizzie and Valerie decided to go home, and Bryce and I decided to go on the prowl for any sort of fried, chocolaty goodness.

We walked up and down Reyes Catolicos and nothing was opened. Who knew that Spain closes after midnight? We decided to head down to the area where Chupiteria is and hopefully find something on the way.

Even with my umbrella, somehow the back of my head was completely soaked. Since I looked like a wet dog mess, it was the perfect time to run into the Dutchman.

Me: “HEY! What are you doing?”

Daan: “I’m on my way home, how are you doing, ya know?”

Me: I’m doing awesome! DO you know where I could find fried, chocolaty goodness around.

Daan: What?!

Even though he speaks almost perfect English, this was lost in translation. I shouldn’t be allowed to talk to people while tipsy.

After exchanging pleasantries with him, Bryce and I continued walking in the rain for 45 minutes. After asking a few Chinese people where Chupiteria is, we finally found some girls who spoke English who happened to be on their way to the same place! It was a Fat Tuesday miracle!

We walk in and are instantly greeted by one of our friends who sprinted towards us.

Drunk friend: HEEEEYYY!!! *give both of us giant hugs* what are you doing here?

Us: oh you know we’re just meeting a few people.

Drunk friend: “Are you here for Kyle’s birthday?

Me: Who’s Kyle

She then proceeded to take us to Kyle. Apparently this Kyle guy is in my 8:30 poli sci class. You could tell it was his birthday because he was the drunkest person in the bar.

Kyle: *Grabs Bryce by the shoulders*
DUUUDE you’re in my geography class! I turned in my homework this afternoon. IT’S MY BIRTHDAY!

All three of us: WHOOOO

By this time my buzz had worn off and I was enjoying all the drunken frivolity going on.

Anyway, this place has 120 different shot combinations categorized by strong, medium and soft for 1 euro each. I had 4 total last night. Two were medium, banana, coco and rum, a strong one with kiwi, gin and rum, (which was disgusting) and another medium one with berry, coco and rum.

The shots also came along with tickets. If you collect enough tickets you can get prizes. For example, 75 tickets get you a sweatshirt and 45 tickets get you a thong!

After the place died down, we got French fries at a Doner Kebab place and walked home. I went to bed at 3 a.m. and went to my 8:30 a.m. class like a boss! Kyle however, did not make it to class.

Palabra del día: chupito, meaning shot. Hench the name of the shot bar is chupiteria.