Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Londres, part two

After Scotland, we took a short ride down to London and stayed with Kels for a few days before heading back to Granada.

(Parliament and Big Ben)

(London Eye)

(trafalgar square)

(Christmas tree donated by Norway in trafalgar square)

St. James Park

(Buckingham Palace)

(MI6, where Bond works)

London was really cool as well. It was great to get to explore more of the city and have Kelsey show us around. While we were there we spent one day walking all around the city seeing all the touristy things but it was still a lot of fun to explore.  Also while we were there Kelsey showed us this pub basically dedicated to Winston Churchill with a cool Thai restaurant in the back. We walked through Kensington Gardens on the way there which was fun to see in the fall.  We also went to Borough Market which was a little outside market that sold lots of organic food like cheese and meats; it was fun to walk around and try free samples of different things. I think my favorite thing we did was go to Winter Wonderland. I forgot my camera that night but it was incredible. Hyde Park is filled with a Christmas fair with a market and carnival rides and fried foods, it was great to walk through everything and get in the holiday spirit. I couldn't stop thinking about how much fun it will be to show Kelsey around Granada later this month when she comes to Spain.

Escocia (Scotland)!

November was definitely my hard month for school but as soon as I finished that nonsense I got to start December which is definitely my easiest month for school. We had a break in the very beginning so Bret and I went to Scotland to meet up with Kelsey, we met in Glasgow and spent most of our time in Edinburgh. After that we went to London for a few days before coming back to Granada. It was a good start to a month that should be a lot of fun with my family and Kelsey visiting later on.
Here's some pictures from Glasgow:

(downtown looking all Christmas-y)

(there wasn't much to do there, but this is the world's tallest movie theater that we went to)

Pictures from Edinburgh:

(view of Edinburgh and Arthur's Seat, the mountain in the back that we hikd later on)

(Castle Rock- named because it's a castle on a rock haha)

(view of downtown Edinburgh)


(Bret and Kels in front of the world's largest whiskey collection!)

(view of Arthur's Seat on the hike up)

(view from the top)

Scotland was amazing! I think it was my favorite place I've been so far while I've been in Europe.  Glasgow was a little slow and not super exciting in my opinion but Edinburgh was one of the coolest cities I've seen.  We could walk practically anywhere and there was so much history everywhere you looked. The only downside was how cold it was there, but we sort of got used to that as we were there longer. We did a lot while we were there. We visited the Castle which was really cool, plus we saw the 1 o'clock gun where they fire a cannon at 1 pm every day (it used to be used as a way of telling the sailors what time it was), went on a Scotch Whiskey Experience Tour which was both ridiculous and awesome, got a tour of the underground network of streets that exists intact underneath Edinburgh because it was built over later on, ate some great food including Haggis (sheep's intestine) and neeps (mashed turnips) at some really cool pubs, and went to the Christmas market in town.  My favorite thing we did was definitely hiking Arthur's Seat though. It was a completely ridiculous experience. My shoes had absolutely no traction so as we walked higher up it became snowier and icier til it got to the point where I couldn't move whithout sliding backwards. So for the rest of the hike I wore one of Bret's shoes and completed the hike to a great view of the whole city and the bay. I really loved Edinburgh but I think a huge part of it was hanging out with Kelsey and Bret again.

Friday, November 25, 2011

El Día de Acción de Gracias (Thanksgiving)

Yesterday marked a lot of things, the first time I have ever cooked that much food, a couple days before the three month marker of my time here in Spain and the first time I spent Thanksgiving away from home.  My program has a dinner planned for us tonight, the day after Thanksgiving which I'm really excited for but let's be honest, I couldn't let Thanksgiving pass up without doing something. So Bret and I decided to try our best to make a ton of Thanksgiving food and have two of our better friends from the program over, as well as introducing our two Spanish roomates and one of their girlfriends to this foreign holiday. Bret and I spent a while cooking the food; we made green bean casserole, stuffing, mashed sweet potatoes, and pan fried some turkey because we were too intimidated to cook a whole bird. As well as Bret made an apple pie for dessert the day before and our friends brought some food as well. So we had plenty among the 7 of us.




It was a really fun night all in all. We ate a ton and then hung around. I'm glad I still was able to get that feeling of Thanksgiving thousands of miles away from home. But it was also definitely bittersweet being away from home on a day that everyone associates with family and friends. I definitely have a better appreciation of how lucky I am and how exciting it's going to be to go home.


Sunday, November 13, 2011

A Spanish University

When I first came to Spain one of the things I was most worried about was the idea of taking classes in a foreign country.  There were so many things that would be different: the language, what type of homework and projects I would be doing, how the professors act and how the other Spanish and international students interact.  So I was definitely nervous.  Luckily, the more time I spend in this institution I realize that it's nothing to sweat too much. It might just be that the University of Granada isn't particularly difficult but it seems generally pretty relaxed. The Spanish students don't really seem to take it as seriously as students in America do. Now this is obviously a huge generalization but I don't intend it to mean that the Spaniards care less about their education, just that there is less intensity and urgency associated with college here.  It's also strange to adjust to the homework. In the US I've always had a lot of consistent homework throughout the week with the occasional project or essay or exam whereas here there seems to be a much larger emphasis on those occasional projects or essays and not so much emphasis on the reading and sidework. It makes it interesting as you go from weeks with hardly any work to do to another week with two huge projects due.  I'm not really sure which system is better. I feel like I definitely learn more in the US but that's hardly fair considering I'm learning it in my native language whereas in Spain the majority of my focus is simply on understanding. But I do enjoy the change and its fun to see how other countries view and approach the idea of education.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Madrid

We had a long weekend over Halloween so some of us decided to visit Madrid considering we hadn't had the chance to see it yet. Plus it worked out in our favor that a friend offered for us to stay in his apartment and it's only a bus ride away. It was a ton of fun all in all.

(downtown Madrid)

(paintings from the Museum of Sofia Reina)



(lake in the middle of Retiro Park)

(more of Retiro Park)

It was a really fun weekend in Madrid. Really busy but really fun. We went one of the museums which had a lot of more modern art but was really really cool. They had a lot of pieces by Dali and Picasso including Guernica which is one of my favorite paintings. It took up an entire wall and was really impressive but we weren't allowed to take pictures of it for obvious reasons.  We also did a lot of walking around and saw a ton of the city and checked out some of the different neighborhoods.  Retiro Park was one of my favorite things we did. We bought some food and had a picnic in the park which was a lot of fun and the park was huge. We were lucky because Anthony (who was hosting us) knew a ton about the city and showed us around to a lot of things we probably wouldn't have known about without him.  One night he showed us a little cafe where they had a ton of board games so we drank coffee and played trivial pursuit which was pretty fun.  Madrid was definitely a big city, much more so than Granada and even seemed more so than Barcelona. I'm really glad I got to visit and I definitely would like to go back again if I have the chance but that being said I don't think I could see myself living there. It seemed too much like every other really big city, a ton to do but kind of overwhelming. It was nice to return to Granada and realize that it feels more and more like a home for me the longer I stay here.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

¡Barca!

This post is a little late but here it is! Last weekend I went to the amazing city of Barcelona with Bret and we met up with Kelsey and some of her friends and hung out in this city.

La Boqueria

La Catedral

View from Parc Güell

Parc Güell

Cute pic of Kels

Sagrada Familia

Sagrada Familia

Arc de Triomf

Fountain Show

Another shot of the water at the fountain show

Barca was a much bigger city than Granada is so it was much easier to find things to do. We were definitely busy the whole time we were there. We went to the beach a couple times, la boqueria which is a giant open air market with lots of really good food, saw a bunch of things by the architect Gaudi who has had a huge influence on the city (designed Parc Güell and Sagrada Familia), walked around this huge park in the middle of the city which was close to the Arc de Triomf, and later that night went to the fountain show which was really close to the olympic stadium in Barca.  It was a really jam-packed weekend but I feel like I really got a feel for the city and felt like I could navigate it (and its public transportation) pretty well by the end of the weekend. Plus it was really fun to hang out with Kels and her friends as well as Bret.  Although Barca had a ton of stuff to do and was probably on the whole more  of a city in every way than Granada, I was definitely happy to return on Sunday. It's nice that the more time I spend here the more I start to think of Granada as my home base and it's becoming more and more like home (although still nowhere close to how much I love socal and Berkeley).

Friday, October 7, 2011

Mi Piso (apartment)

(my room)

(living room)


(terrace)


I moved out of the dorms a couple weeks ago but never put up a blog post about it... so here's one now haha.  Bret and I were really lucky when it came to our new apartment. We're living with Jorge and Antonio, two spaniards who are really nice. Plus, the apartment is in a really great location, very close to the center of the city. And I love having the terrace to hang out on.

Londres!

This last weekend, I was lucky enough to be able to go visit my girlfriend Kelsey in London where she's studying abroad for the semester. Thanks to ryan air the tickets weren't too expensive either.

(had to take a picture of this...)

(Natural History Museum)



(Kensington Gardens and Palace, where Will and Kate will be living)

These are a few pictures I took from this really great weekend.  While I was there Kels was able to show me around her neighborhood that she's living in now. We went to the natural history museum, the park, a local pub which was fun, and some restaurants.  It was really fun to do some exploring in a new city but in all honesty the best part was just hanging out with Kels again. Luckily, I'll get to see her again soon because we're going to meet up in Barcelona next weekend!

Monday, September 19, 2011

Alhambra and a weekend trip

This Friday our group had a guided tour to the Alhambra, the main attraction of Granada so needless to say I was incredibly excited. The only disappointment of that day was that I thought I had charged my camera yet found out that it had essentially no battery left and I got this one picture of the entrance haha.


That being said, it was definitely the most amazing experience I've had so far in Granada and Spain as a whole. It was absolutely beautiful and learning about the history behind it from one of my professors was awesome. Plus, it's situated on top of the highest hill of the city so it has amazing views of the rest of the city.  So Friday was definitely a great (yet exhausting) day.

This weekend, some of the people who are in the program with me and I went to Málaga and Nerja, two cities on the beach.  We spent Saturday in Málaga which was a really cool city. We ended up going to the Pablo Picasso Museum (he was from there) and then spent the rest of the day at a beach called Pedregalejo which was about 20 minutes outside of the city. It was an awesome beach and all the restaurants were amazing. Each one did this thing where they filled up a boat with sand and used it as a giant bbq for fresh fish. That night we explored the city a little bit and ended up hanging out on the roof of our hostel because there was a free concert which was surprisingly good. The next morning we took a bus ride to Nerja, a small town that is right on the Mediterranean. We went to the Cueva Nerja (Nerja Cave) first. It was amazing, I was blown away at how big the caves actually were and how beautiful they were. Plus it was nice to get out of the sun for a little. After that we went down to the beach and spent the rest of the day swimming in the Mediterranean.  This weekend was so much fun and really relaxing.