GRANADA

I do apologize for Brad´s super speedy and not super informative blog...but that really was mostly what happened outside of orientation sessions that lasted most of the day.

After speaking to my mom the other day, I realized that many of you still have no idea what our living situation and the environment is like in Granada...so here it is!

We left Malaga in the late afternoon and came straight to Granada. The ride was beautiful and relatively short. We dropped off all of the other students to meet their host families and then we continued by bus to our dorm, Residencia Carlos V. Miriam (we love Miriam) brought us into the office and helped us take care of lots of logistical things. Then Nathan, Brad, Christina (another IES girl) and I were escorted by the office woman to our rooms, which happened to be in the same hall. As the woman showed Nathan and Brad their rooms, Christina and I met 2 girls who live in the hall. They are from some part of Spain that speaks even faster than Andalucians so I was pretty lost. Miriam introduced us and then I awkwardly put my hand out to shake Nuria´s hand, and she went in for besos....it was awkward. (sorry for people who had to read that story for the second time).

Anyway, the rooms are really nice. Brad and Nathan share a HUGE room and Christina and I have little rooms that are very cute and nice. We all have a bathroom, refrigerator, and microwave as well. I wish that American dorms were this awesome! We also get our rooms cleaned every Friday. We spend that first night hanging out, and Miriam ordered us a pizza.

The next day we were delighted to have delicious residencia breakfast. (Ken, this part is for you) Every day we can eat toasted bagettes with any combination of tomato spread, butter, jam, cheese, and ham (math nerds who are reading this, that means there are 128 different combinations of bread toast). Furthermore, there is always one type of cereal which is usually pretty bad, but for a week we had frosted flakes...yum! Then there are 3 different types of donuts, and best of all...MUFFINS. They are the most delicious muffins in the world. Finally, there is a station with coffee, milk, hot milk, hot water, tea, etc. (again, so many mathematical options). Brad gets cocoa, I get coffee, and Nathan has been making tea. In all, it is all quite delicious.

Anyway, we arrived in Granada on Thursday night, and Friday morning we met at the IES center to continue with orientation. IES is about a 30 minute walk away from the Residencia, and it is very close to the center of town. It is located in the Plaza Nueva and there is a great view of the Alhambra from the "terraza." Anyway, orientation class was meant for a bit of grammar review (before the big placement test), to get us familiar with important vocab, give a bit of city orientation, and to get us out and speaking with Spaniards. We would have a variety of assignments such as "go order coffee and find out what the different types of coffee are here" or "go fake shopping at _____ store" etc. We would also meet at night for Paseos and walk around to beautiful places that we probably would not have explored on our own. In all, it was beautiful.

The first week was a great way to explore and enjoy the town, and the FREE TAPAS that come with drinks at night. (If you didn´t know, Granada is the only city in Spain that does this, which if for no other reason, makes it the best!)

That is all for now. We will be posting soon about our individual experiences and more places we´ve seen.

Malaga - speed blogging

Tengo una cita en diez minutos entonces solo puedo escribir en este tiempo. So... this is going to be a SPEED BLOG (cause i only have 10 minutes, maybe less, before i have to meet with our dear friend Miriam, a spaniard who works at our program and is in charge of all student activities. She is amazing and we all love her a lot! More on that later.)

Malaga - We took the train from Madrid to Malaga. It was a nice ride. Pretty, and we had a table with four seats so we could relax. And play gin. or some game.

We arrived at the train station and tried to find our way to the hotel, which was a little bit farther than the ínformative man at the information booth told us (if any of you are ever in charge of hiring the people to work at information booths make sure they are actually informative, please). Hmm an unecessary paragraph, not a good start to the speed blogging.

Went to the hotel, IES staff was waiting to say hi. They were nice. Met up with some poeple we knew from home/i knew from school. We got there just in time to put our stuff in our room and make it back down to leave with the group for lunch. Since we were already 60 by that time, (translates better in spanish) we obviamente had to split up into different resteraunts. We went with a group of about 12 people (highlights of these people are Brad, Brian Manning from Yale, Rocio Sumillera de Espana). After lunch, walked 5 minutes to the beach. Water was cold. We talked and learned that Brian was pretty cool and that Rocio was pretty good at Spanish. Walked back to hotel.

From hotel we went to the Picasso museum (he was born in Malaga you know). It was interestante. So we went there and saw picassos... I think the art I did as a niño was comprable to the art he did... i guess he just peaked later than me. What a shame.

Some of us went out to a bar. It was fun, met some new people. Bed.

Next day amazing buffet breakfast (call me if you want more details Ken, it was amazing! but no time.. speed blog).

Next thing i remember is lunch... also amazing, kept bringing us food-tapas and alcohol and juice and delicious. Took bus to Granada. Hooray! Sat next to Rocio and Javier (director of IES and teacher of my theatre class). Dropped people off at the gym where they met host families. Miriam took us to the Residencia Carlos V.

And look, we´re in Granada! There ya go. more later. including pictures. Tell your friends, new blog is out!
-Bradley Samuel Ross

Madrid and Toledo (1/20-1/22) written by Brooke ( with prelude/preface by Brad)

Preface: Alrighty, welcome back to some awesome blogging. Let me seee.. First things first:

Which one of these is not a law/practice in Mykonos:

There can be no chain stores/restaurants - CORRECT (just found out you can manipulate text color/size)
We actually came across a starbucks sitting atop a hill. It was glorious and very american.

Houses must be painted white with colored doors/windows -WRONG
All those pretty pictures of white houses with colored doors/windows are beautiful by law! The law also guarantees that....

Houses must be 2 stories tall or less - WRONG

Everything is closed on Wednesday afternoons - WRONG
In addition to Sundays everything closes on Wednesday nights. Hard to say why.. i feel like i asked at the time but since it's been so long since we've actually been in Greece i seem to have forgotten the reason.

Nextly, i would like to thank all 4 of you or whatever poor showing we had for the previous contest in which the best blog reader would be mentioned for eternal fame in this very blog. Of the few attempts that were made a couple stood out. The runner up will remain annonomous but (s)he posted:

doc in the back sippin on yac.

Very inciteful and concise.

And the winner with the unanimous vote (from me) is my very own Aunt Donna with her poem 'Untitled.' A very excellent piece using the classic ABAB construction typical of the quatrain poetry.

And now I present to you the fabulous Brooke L. J. :

Hey all of you blog fans. Sorry about the lack of contact with you all. Things have been busy and exciting, which is great news....we can assume.

The theme of this blog has changed slightly now, to less of a “play by play” of our travels, and more of our thoughts, special events, and views on life (we are deep like that). The other side note is that while we are in Spain, the keyboard is a bit different, so I am going to start utilizing the upside down question mark...?¿?

Anyway, as for Madrid, it was fun returning to Spain from Greece. While it was difficult to transition from the Greek phrases such as “parakalo,” “efaristo,” and “ya sas” (which means hi, but was used by Brad for pretty much everything such as “hi,” “bye,” “follow me,” “please,” and “I love the Greek scenery, it´s amazing!”) and back into Spanish.

We decided that we were going to stay in Madrid for our two nights before we headed to Malaga, so we immediately searched for awesome activities in the city (although very little could top Bella y la Bestía) and we found out that Real Madrid was playing Atletico Madrid that night! For those of you who aren´t up to date on your Spanish fútbol standings, Real Madrid is 1^st in Spain right now, and Atletico is 4^th. CRAZY COOL!

So we found this amazing sports bar and restaurant called “Locos para Fútbol,” the craziest and most awesome place to ever watch soccer. There was a 10 euro cover charge to get in (with a free drink), but it was well worth it for the atmosphere inside, and the opportunity to watch the game, which otherwise we would have not been able to because literally every bar or restaurant with a TV was packed with fans from both teams. The game was amazing, and it ended in a 1-0 victory for Real Madrid. After the game, we went to a horribly over priced restaurant, where the glass of Sangria that I ordered came back as a pitcher. Best 10 euros I ever spent?¿? (side note, that sentence was written solely for the use of the upside down question mark...(side-side note: i liked the restaurant, though the portions were small. I shared some sushi and terrayki chicken in case Ken was wondering - Brad))

The next day we took a 30 minute train ride to Toledo to spend the day exploring. Nathan had remembered visiting an incredible cathedral and a Jewish quarter, so we were pumped to see it. (side note, the trains in spain are AMAZING and all who want comfort travel should do so by train...this is not sarcasm. The seats lean back without intruding on the personal space of the person behind you...increíble!) We got off the train and went straight to the cathedral. When we walked in, we were absolutely in awe of the mere size of it, not to mention the beautiful art work, details, and oh so much more. (sorry to say, photographs were not allowed, so we have no examples, but OMG...amazing.) The best way to describe it...an alacrity!

Afterwards, we headed over to the Jewish quarter. It was nice to see Jewish paraphernalia in Spain, along with the synagogues. Unfortunately, since it was a Monday, the major synagogue was closed to viewers, but we were able to visit another one. From an historical viewpoint, it was interesting to see the changes from what was a synagogue to the current view, being that of a church. From a Jewish viewpoint, it was sad to see the few remains of what once was a lively and prosperous culture.

We then continued our walk around Toledo (after stopping for Mazapan) in search of the Parador, an incredible hotel that is government owned and in many Spanish cities. The walk took us on a beautiful sunset tour around the city. There was a spectacular view of the inner city, a city full of castle-esk architecture and beautiful bridges, amazing!

We finally found the Parador, snuck inside for about 3 minutes, and then had to book it back to the train station (another beautiful walk...if only we had known about “paseos” back then, it wouldn´t have seemed so bad---paseos are spanish walks that are taken regularly for fun). We made it just in time to grab some more mazapan “to go” and headed for Madrid.

Tomorrow is Malaga...