Haha, gotta love my Spanglish.
Anywho, I´m loving Spain more and more, I wont lie. I´m in love with this place! It´s so alive, with and without the people. It has a beat of it´s own under the life of the people in the cities. I believe this is most true of Ronda, where I got to visit this last Sunday. The view was spectacular and it´s definitely in the top for my favorite place of all the places I´ve gone and things I´ve seen here. Anywho, let´s do this in a better order of what´s been goin on rather than having me just jump around a lot...
Last time I wrote was the Friday before we went to Sevilla. That was also the very sad day I ended up accidentally dropping my camera and therefore breaking it in a way since the button mean to be used to take pics popped off and disappeared so, sadly, that camera can no longer be used while I´m here. I´m really hopìng it can be fixed when I get it back to the states. It also happened to be about the time I got really ridiculously homesick, which lasted for about a week and now I´m really really happy here again. It didn´t help that I was spending all of my time alone that I wasn´t in classes or on group assigned trips. I really hit the point that I just wanted to go home on the next flight out of here... Luckily, as the phrase goes, "this too must pass" and it includes both the good and bad. That Friday I had the luxury of going to see the beauty of the area around the Alhambra. Sure, I was on my own here but that doesn´t stop me from appreciating and enjoying the beauty that is the area of the Alhambra. This area also includes the Palace of Carlos V (quinto in Spanish), which seemed pretty cool. I´m not sure if I saw all of it, but it truly was beautiful, I can see why they´d live in that area with that amazing view and the beauty all around it, especially if it looked back then anything like it does now. After I dropped my camera I pretty much called it a night though, getting a good ice cream cone and headed home.
That Saturday I spent most of the day alone. That morning I went out with my friends to the Federico García Lorca park which is BEAUTIFUL as well!
to be continued...
Showing posts with label España. Show all posts
Showing posts with label España. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Friday, June 10, 2011
España, part II
Soooo much to say! And so little time to say it all!
Last week, during my blog I never finished everything I wanted to say! We also went to Capilla Real last friday, which is the burial place of Queen Isabel & King Fernando, who conquered Spain and made everyone convert to either Christianity or Catholicism, I can´t remember which... It is also the burial place of their daughter, her husband, as well as their grandson. I love the romance that went with it all, it´s truly a love story to surpass the times, the daughter, I can´t remember her name, was madly in love with her husband and so when he died, she got really sad, causing people to believe she would not be a competent ruler and they wanted her off the throne. However, she ruled her country with grace and kindness, but never forgot about her love and never was completely happy without him. Both a cute and really sad story. There´s also the story of the grandson, I don´t know if he belonged to the same girl or what, but he was here visiting his grandparents on vacation at the age of 2 and he was pretty much a genius so they decided to teach him how to ride a horse, not very intelligent on their parts I think, and he fell off his horse, which eventually killed him :( way sad! Above/along with Capilla Real, there is also the Cathedral, which you´re not actually supposed to take pictures in so I don´t have any inside :( but it´s SOOO gorgeous! It´s also very elaborate and I didn´t feel comfortable there, but I could still appreciate the beauty of it. The thing that really hit me hard here is how much Catholics and other Christian religions really focus on the death of Christ, there were crosses and pictures of Christ on the cross everywhere, yet not a single one of his life, or of gethsemane even. It was beautiful but depressing and being here has given me a much greater appreciation for our religion and the fact that I am LDS. While I´m talking bout that, I´ll just skip to Sunday and come back to Saturday later. On Sunday, I had the luxury of not having any excursions or anything so I got to observe it as a regular Sabbath, although sadly, I did not fast :( I kinda forgot about it with all the craziness and I didn´t know how to explain it to Carmen anyway. I think church really was my favorite experience of Granada thus far. Our churches have a simple beauty about them, they´re not elaborate but they´re still beautiful in their own way. Not to mention the thing that was lacking in all the other churches I´ve visited here in Spain: the spirit. Honestly, it just reaffirmed what I already knew: the church is true! I felt the spirit there, as well as a peace I hadn´t felt, more or less since the last time I was at my single´s ward in Utah. I didn´t know any of the members but I still felt like I did, I still loved them and they were still my brothers and sisters, which I felt the second I walked in. I wasn´t just some random stranger there, as they weren´t random strangers to me, we were brothers and sisters in the gospel. They didn´t care about how I spoke, and they didn´t judge me for anything, I felt nothing but peace and love there, something I´ve missed here in Granada. I love my host family and feel comfortable in their house, but it´s completely different from walking in those doors last Sunday, because when I walked in them, I walked home, at least that was how I felt. I´m so grateful for the church in my life and getting to have such an awesome experience. I love the simple elegance I get to see by going to church, as well as the peace and love I felt there.
As for Saturday, I allowed myself to really be a tourist. I walked around town with my camera in hand, taking tons of pictures and just randomly walking around, which I also plan to do tomorrow. I got to see this awesome random festival here, also Catholic based, though I never caught the real name when Carmen told me what it was, sorry. It was cool, they had tons of girls dressed in Flamenco dresses and bulls pulling this huge alter-like thing, though in a way, it also reminded me of the scene in the 10 commandments, a random thought that just came to my mind, lol! Then I went and got lost in the Albaicín. I was trying to go to the Alhambra to try and find the Palace Alhambra Hotel, but that didn´t work well since I missed the turn I needed. Instead, I got to see more of the Albaicín, which was an interesting walk. Maybe not the most beautiful thing I´ve ever seen but I didn´t hate it or anything like that, so that´s good.
As for this week, I´ve hung out with my friends, gotten drenched in the rain, and got to actually go to and in the Alhambra as well as on an excursion they call the "Ruta Federico García Lorca" (translated, roughly is the route of Federico Lorca), where we actually just went to a bunch of different plazas that were somehow related to his life. If you don´t know, Lorca was a Spanish poet and playwrite who was mostly killed because of who he was related to, the person who had been the mayor (but was also killed) was his brother in law, so when the new party or whatever it was, took over, they killed Lorca too. He is now famous for completely different works than he was famous for in his lifetime, but he loves his symbols and his works are kinda depressing. So on this route, we went to the plazas around where he´d lived as well as the theatre where his plays were performed, and read his works at the places, most especially things related to the place we were at. We were supposed to end at the park named for him but the rain kinda changed those plans. When it rains here, it RAINS! It truly pours down, I think it competes with the fact that when it snows in Utah, it SNOWS! Anyway, I´m going to the park tomorrow so I´ll take pictures. That was what I did Tuesday.
On Wednesday, I got to go to the Alhambra! (Spanish pronunciation- all-ahm-bruh) Oh my gosh it is soooo beautiful! I don´t think I´ve ever seen anything so beautiful in my life! I don´t remember all the specific history of it anymore, sorry, I´m bad at that and will probably have to do a lot of research when I get home so I can explain these places I saw. Anywho, it´s this massive palace and I mean HUGE with these lavish gardens, it´s gorgeous and rather amazing. It was built by the Muslims, which you can tell by all the architecture, and before the Catholics decided to truly take over Spain, it´s amazing! They have these gorgeous HUGE gardens, which are the best part of it, and sadly was the fastest part of the trip since we went at 5 and they close at 8, which was about the time we made it to the gardens. I honestly wish I could just go spend an entire day there. If I ever come back to Spain, I will definitely take an entire day just to walk around the Alhambra!
Other than that, I haven´t done a whole lot. Spent some time walking around with my friends and going to stores. We got to go to a gym for free yesterday and just went swimming, it was way fun and I wish I´d taken a picture of the pool, it was awesome, the side had a waterfall effect! We also tried pig intestines, I don´t know what the Spanish name was for them, YUCK!, as well as breaded anchovies, and huge shrimps, both of which tasted pretty fishy to me so of course, I was not a fan and found them all pretty gross. We also tried flan, not such a fan of that either. I think I´m finding that I´m not a fan of most of the traditional Spanish food, sad day :(
Anywho, I think that´s about it for my life at the moment, I´ll let you know about Sevilla and this weekend next week, probably about the same time! ¡Espero que tenga una semana buena! TTFN
Last week, during my blog I never finished everything I wanted to say! We also went to Capilla Real last friday, which is the burial place of Queen Isabel & King Fernando, who conquered Spain and made everyone convert to either Christianity or Catholicism, I can´t remember which... It is also the burial place of their daughter, her husband, as well as their grandson. I love the romance that went with it all, it´s truly a love story to surpass the times, the daughter, I can´t remember her name, was madly in love with her husband and so when he died, she got really sad, causing people to believe she would not be a competent ruler and they wanted her off the throne. However, she ruled her country with grace and kindness, but never forgot about her love and never was completely happy without him. Both a cute and really sad story. There´s also the story of the grandson, I don´t know if he belonged to the same girl or what, but he was here visiting his grandparents on vacation at the age of 2 and he was pretty much a genius so they decided to teach him how to ride a horse, not very intelligent on their parts I think, and he fell off his horse, which eventually killed him :( way sad! Above/along with Capilla Real, there is also the Cathedral, which you´re not actually supposed to take pictures in so I don´t have any inside :( but it´s SOOO gorgeous! It´s also very elaborate and I didn´t feel comfortable there, but I could still appreciate the beauty of it. The thing that really hit me hard here is how much Catholics and other Christian religions really focus on the death of Christ, there were crosses and pictures of Christ on the cross everywhere, yet not a single one of his life, or of gethsemane even. It was beautiful but depressing and being here has given me a much greater appreciation for our religion and the fact that I am LDS. While I´m talking bout that, I´ll just skip to Sunday and come back to Saturday later. On Sunday, I had the luxury of not having any excursions or anything so I got to observe it as a regular Sabbath, although sadly, I did not fast :( I kinda forgot about it with all the craziness and I didn´t know how to explain it to Carmen anyway. I think church really was my favorite experience of Granada thus far. Our churches have a simple beauty about them, they´re not elaborate but they´re still beautiful in their own way. Not to mention the thing that was lacking in all the other churches I´ve visited here in Spain: the spirit. Honestly, it just reaffirmed what I already knew: the church is true! I felt the spirit there, as well as a peace I hadn´t felt, more or less since the last time I was at my single´s ward in Utah. I didn´t know any of the members but I still felt like I did, I still loved them and they were still my brothers and sisters, which I felt the second I walked in. I wasn´t just some random stranger there, as they weren´t random strangers to me, we were brothers and sisters in the gospel. They didn´t care about how I spoke, and they didn´t judge me for anything, I felt nothing but peace and love there, something I´ve missed here in Granada. I love my host family and feel comfortable in their house, but it´s completely different from walking in those doors last Sunday, because when I walked in them, I walked home, at least that was how I felt. I´m so grateful for the church in my life and getting to have such an awesome experience. I love the simple elegance I get to see by going to church, as well as the peace and love I felt there.
As for Saturday, I allowed myself to really be a tourist. I walked around town with my camera in hand, taking tons of pictures and just randomly walking around, which I also plan to do tomorrow. I got to see this awesome random festival here, also Catholic based, though I never caught the real name when Carmen told me what it was, sorry. It was cool, they had tons of girls dressed in Flamenco dresses and bulls pulling this huge alter-like thing, though in a way, it also reminded me of the scene in the 10 commandments, a random thought that just came to my mind, lol! Then I went and got lost in the Albaicín. I was trying to go to the Alhambra to try and find the Palace Alhambra Hotel, but that didn´t work well since I missed the turn I needed. Instead, I got to see more of the Albaicín, which was an interesting walk. Maybe not the most beautiful thing I´ve ever seen but I didn´t hate it or anything like that, so that´s good.
As for this week, I´ve hung out with my friends, gotten drenched in the rain, and got to actually go to and in the Alhambra as well as on an excursion they call the "Ruta Federico García Lorca" (translated, roughly is the route of Federico Lorca), where we actually just went to a bunch of different plazas that were somehow related to his life. If you don´t know, Lorca was a Spanish poet and playwrite who was mostly killed because of who he was related to, the person who had been the mayor (but was also killed) was his brother in law, so when the new party or whatever it was, took over, they killed Lorca too. He is now famous for completely different works than he was famous for in his lifetime, but he loves his symbols and his works are kinda depressing. So on this route, we went to the plazas around where he´d lived as well as the theatre where his plays were performed, and read his works at the places, most especially things related to the place we were at. We were supposed to end at the park named for him but the rain kinda changed those plans. When it rains here, it RAINS! It truly pours down, I think it competes with the fact that when it snows in Utah, it SNOWS! Anyway, I´m going to the park tomorrow so I´ll take pictures. That was what I did Tuesday.
On Wednesday, I got to go to the Alhambra! (Spanish pronunciation- all-ahm-bruh) Oh my gosh it is soooo beautiful! I don´t think I´ve ever seen anything so beautiful in my life! I don´t remember all the specific history of it anymore, sorry, I´m bad at that and will probably have to do a lot of research when I get home so I can explain these places I saw. Anywho, it´s this massive palace and I mean HUGE with these lavish gardens, it´s gorgeous and rather amazing. It was built by the Muslims, which you can tell by all the architecture, and before the Catholics decided to truly take over Spain, it´s amazing! They have these gorgeous HUGE gardens, which are the best part of it, and sadly was the fastest part of the trip since we went at 5 and they close at 8, which was about the time we made it to the gardens. I honestly wish I could just go spend an entire day there. If I ever come back to Spain, I will definitely take an entire day just to walk around the Alhambra!
Other than that, I haven´t done a whole lot. Spent some time walking around with my friends and going to stores. We got to go to a gym for free yesterday and just went swimming, it was way fun and I wish I´d taken a picture of the pool, it was awesome, the side had a waterfall effect! We also tried pig intestines, I don´t know what the Spanish name was for them, YUCK!, as well as breaded anchovies, and huge shrimps, both of which tasted pretty fishy to me so of course, I was not a fan and found them all pretty gross. We also tried flan, not such a fan of that either. I think I´m finding that I´m not a fan of most of the traditional Spanish food, sad day :(
Anywho, I think that´s about it for my life at the moment, I´ll let you know about Sevilla and this weekend next week, probably about the same time! ¡Espero que tenga una semana buena! TTFN
Friday, June 3, 2011
Granada, España and my many adventures thus far...
So yea, I´m here in Granada and it was quite an adventure to get here, let me tell you!
So the first part of my journey here was fine, met some really nice people who sat next to me on both the planes. One even told me about knitting bombing or somethin like that, I don´t exactly recall the name but it was really interesting. Then, I got to JFK and things got interesting fast, and in a bad way. I almost missed my flight out of JFK to Madrid because I was at the wrong gate. Oh my gosh, that airport is sooo confusing! I understand why people refuse to fly in or out of it... Then, I finally got to Granada and had to spend 321 Euros because when my flight from Madrid to Granada was booked it got scheduled for the wrong day. It was scheduled for the 28th when I didn´t even get to Spain until the 29th. Oh man, it sucked so bad dealing with all of that. I´d hardly eaten because the food on the plane was disgusting and then I´d hardly slept because I couldn´t get comfortable and when I finally drifted off the person next to me kept moving and hitting me so I honestly wasn´t in a good mood or a good emotional state, needless to say.
Then, I finally got to Granada and my host family´s house around six pm here and got everything inside and got to relax a little before I had to go meet my group for a meeting. My host mom is sooo nice! My host family´s so nice, though I hope they get some laughter out of me or they must just think I´m the biggest idiot on the planet and get pretty irritated with me... Anywho, my host mom walked me over to the Plaza Nueva since I didn´t know where it was and was stupid enough to forget my directions at home in the U.S. and she talked to my professor some. My prof pretty much loves here, she always talks about how nice Carmen is, and I admit, I must agree with her. The bad part about it is the fact that I got lost going home that night because I kept thinking it was closer than it is and I was almost right next to it for the whole two hours I was wandering around this city trying to find my way there since I didn´t have any way of contacting anyone about how to get home and pretty much everyone that lives here doubts that my street even exists, which is annoying and confusing in my opinion. Then I finally got home and got a shower! YAY after traveling and walking around so much, that´s about the only time I get really girly about a shower, after long journeys, getting really dirty, or sweating a lot, lol. Then I got to rest up some and relax, which was really nice and helped me to somewhat prepare for the week.
So, short tangent about my host family because I honestly love these people! My mom is Carmen, and she´s gorgeous. I´m hoping to get some pics and then figure out how to add them but haven´t exactly gotten around to it yet... Anyway, she´s divorced and owns her own clothing store and she has the best style! Then there´s Mamen, who I´m guessing is somewhere around my age. She´s just as gorgeous as her mom and is studying rights at college, if I understand them correctly which is not guaranteed, lol. After her there´s Antonio who talks the fastest and I´m pretty much positive he thinks I´m a complete imbecile who knows no Spanish whatsoever... But he´s also a teenager and they always think the worst about people, in my opinion and experience. Last but certainly not least, there´s Fernando, who actually had a birthday on Monday. Fernando cracks me up the most and he´s really nice to me. If he stays the way he´s headed he will be a perfect gentleman when he´s older which I hope he is.
Monday we had our placement exam at the school and luckily I did NOT get lost! We went and bought our cell phones, well three of us went and bought cell phones, I wanted one after getting so lost Sunday night and to keep up somewhat with the group since I´m the only girl without a roommate and I live across town from everyone else. The only funny story I have from Monday is that during my placement exam, we had a grammatical test as well as a written and ended with an oral part. The guy in charge of my oral exam was completely puzzled by me because I understand so much better than I speak but I also put my own thoughts into words far better than I can finish other people´s thoughts in Spanish... Maybe I´m weird, but that´s just how I am. And so the poor guy was amazed when I went off in Spanish during my oral because that was one of my good days speaking Spanish, probably because my brain wasn´t so totally fried, lol! He told me I was a difficult case because grammatically I should be in level 4 but he thought I could do well in level 5 and figure it all out. I just hope he´s right since he did put me in level 5 after much thought and now I can no longer change my class... :$ :/
Tuesday we went to the Mirador where you can see the Alhambra, which is basically the pride of Granada. From what I understand the Alhambra is the old castle of Ferdinand and Isabel but I´m not sure... The Mirador is so pretty! It´s probably the prettiest sight I´ve ever seen in my life, which is saying something because I was in love with DC... We went through the Albaicín to get to the Mirador which is really interesting because it´s the ol part of town and basically the only part that I didn´t see a ton of graffitti in. That´s my one thing about Spain, there´s graffitti EVERYWHERE here! Which is really sad since there´s also so much history and they´re ruining it!! :( But it was also a really small area, which I think is because it´s so old. I´ll try to get the picture up but the staircase we went through to enter the Albaicín, I felt really big in it. I swear, if anyone were claustrophobic going through there, they´d probably pass out because it is so small.
Then, Wednesday we went as a group without our professor to do the stuff on our list for culture. We went to al Convento de San Jerónimo and al Palacio de la Madraza. I wasn´t a big fan of the Palacio, it´s interesting and historical but wasn´t anywhere near as awesome as the convent and everything else I´ve seen while here in Spain. The Convent was awesome and so pretty! I loved the atmosphere and it was so pretty!
The convent had several different rooms that had pictures and statues of Christ, with one truly big room that´s more equivalent to a chapel. Anywho, I´m all blogged out for now, TTFN!
So the first part of my journey here was fine, met some really nice people who sat next to me on both the planes. One even told me about knitting bombing or somethin like that, I don´t exactly recall the name but it was really interesting. Then, I got to JFK and things got interesting fast, and in a bad way. I almost missed my flight out of JFK to Madrid because I was at the wrong gate. Oh my gosh, that airport is sooo confusing! I understand why people refuse to fly in or out of it... Then, I finally got to Granada and had to spend 321 Euros because when my flight from Madrid to Granada was booked it got scheduled for the wrong day. It was scheduled for the 28th when I didn´t even get to Spain until the 29th. Oh man, it sucked so bad dealing with all of that. I´d hardly eaten because the food on the plane was disgusting and then I´d hardly slept because I couldn´t get comfortable and when I finally drifted off the person next to me kept moving and hitting me so I honestly wasn´t in a good mood or a good emotional state, needless to say.
Then, I finally got to Granada and my host family´s house around six pm here and got everything inside and got to relax a little before I had to go meet my group for a meeting. My host mom is sooo nice! My host family´s so nice, though I hope they get some laughter out of me or they must just think I´m the biggest idiot on the planet and get pretty irritated with me... Anywho, my host mom walked me over to the Plaza Nueva since I didn´t know where it was and was stupid enough to forget my directions at home in the U.S. and she talked to my professor some. My prof pretty much loves here, she always talks about how nice Carmen is, and I admit, I must agree with her. The bad part about it is the fact that I got lost going home that night because I kept thinking it was closer than it is and I was almost right next to it for the whole two hours I was wandering around this city trying to find my way there since I didn´t have any way of contacting anyone about how to get home and pretty much everyone that lives here doubts that my street even exists, which is annoying and confusing in my opinion. Then I finally got home and got a shower! YAY after traveling and walking around so much, that´s about the only time I get really girly about a shower, after long journeys, getting really dirty, or sweating a lot, lol. Then I got to rest up some and relax, which was really nice and helped me to somewhat prepare for the week.
So, short tangent about my host family because I honestly love these people! My mom is Carmen, and she´s gorgeous. I´m hoping to get some pics and then figure out how to add them but haven´t exactly gotten around to it yet... Anyway, she´s divorced and owns her own clothing store and she has the best style! Then there´s Mamen, who I´m guessing is somewhere around my age. She´s just as gorgeous as her mom and is studying rights at college, if I understand them correctly which is not guaranteed, lol. After her there´s Antonio who talks the fastest and I´m pretty much positive he thinks I´m a complete imbecile who knows no Spanish whatsoever... But he´s also a teenager and they always think the worst about people, in my opinion and experience. Last but certainly not least, there´s Fernando, who actually had a birthday on Monday. Fernando cracks me up the most and he´s really nice to me. If he stays the way he´s headed he will be a perfect gentleman when he´s older which I hope he is.
Monday we had our placement exam at the school and luckily I did NOT get lost! We went and bought our cell phones, well three of us went and bought cell phones, I wanted one after getting so lost Sunday night and to keep up somewhat with the group since I´m the only girl without a roommate and I live across town from everyone else. The only funny story I have from Monday is that during my placement exam, we had a grammatical test as well as a written and ended with an oral part. The guy in charge of my oral exam was completely puzzled by me because I understand so much better than I speak but I also put my own thoughts into words far better than I can finish other people´s thoughts in Spanish... Maybe I´m weird, but that´s just how I am. And so the poor guy was amazed when I went off in Spanish during my oral because that was one of my good days speaking Spanish, probably because my brain wasn´t so totally fried, lol! He told me I was a difficult case because grammatically I should be in level 4 but he thought I could do well in level 5 and figure it all out. I just hope he´s right since he did put me in level 5 after much thought and now I can no longer change my class... :$ :/
Tuesday we went to the Mirador where you can see the Alhambra, which is basically the pride of Granada. From what I understand the Alhambra is the old castle of Ferdinand and Isabel but I´m not sure... The Mirador is so pretty! It´s probably the prettiest sight I´ve ever seen in my life, which is saying something because I was in love with DC... We went through the Albaicín to get to the Mirador which is really interesting because it´s the ol part of town and basically the only part that I didn´t see a ton of graffitti in. That´s my one thing about Spain, there´s graffitti EVERYWHERE here! Which is really sad since there´s also so much history and they´re ruining it!! :( But it was also a really small area, which I think is because it´s so old. I´ll try to get the picture up but the staircase we went through to enter the Albaicín, I felt really big in it. I swear, if anyone were claustrophobic going through there, they´d probably pass out because it is so small.
Then, Wednesday we went as a group without our professor to do the stuff on our list for culture. We went to al Convento de San Jerónimo and al Palacio de la Madraza. I wasn´t a big fan of the Palacio, it´s interesting and historical but wasn´t anywhere near as awesome as the convent and everything else I´ve seen while here in Spain. The Convent was awesome and so pretty! I loved the atmosphere and it was so pretty!
The convent had several different rooms that had pictures and statues of Christ, with one truly big room that´s more equivalent to a chapel. Anywho, I´m all blogged out for now, TTFN!
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