Wednesday, June 29, 2011

fourth one in four weeks...


Monday was so hot! Michelle and I went to the pool after our siesta. That night, everyone else had to study for their exam, but my class had already taken it, so Ethan, Melissa, and I went out for tapas. We got the best tapas I’ve had since I’ve been here. We basically got entire meals with each drink we ordered. After we went to the chupiteria and then went to the playground in the park. A guy came around saying the park was closing, so we left like two minutes later. He wasn’t kidding. They actually lock the 30 foot gates. We had to climb a wall to get out.

Tuesday we took a tiny part of our exam that we didn’t even know we still had to take, but it was so easy. We got our grades back early. I got sobresaliente y honor which is a 10 out of 10.

After class, Michelle and I went to find out hotel for Thursday and Friday night. It’s really close to our host home. We got ice cream and sat around to avoid going back to the house. It’s so hot and she won’t put on the air conditioning unless she is home. She yelled at us at lunch for not refilling the water jug, but we didn’t have any water at breakfast, so we’re almost positive she’s the one that drank it all and didn’t refill it. Another one of her friends died. That’s the fourth one in four weeks.

That night we went to get tapas with Melissa and then met everyone from out program at the chupiteria for David’s birthday. It was free entry at Mae West, so we went there after. It was fun, but so hot! 

Sunday, June 26, 2011

The bus trip from hell


Our trip back from Portugal was interesting to say the least. We go to the bus station at 12:30 to find out where the bus leaves from only to see that there is no bus for Sevilla (our stop over) on the board. After a minor freak out, we found the only guy still working and he told us we just had to wait outside because it didn’t come into the bus terminal. While we were waiting, we met two people who were also studying in Spain. One was from Texas and one was from Poland.

We get on the bus and the driver starts to rip off my ticket. I tell him that Sevilla is only a bus change for us and tell him I’m going to need that ticket to get on the bus for Granada. He assures me that he’s the one who is supposed to take it and tells me I’m supposed to use the receipt. I found it weird, but he wasn’t going to let us on without taking our tickets.

We get to Sevilla at 4:30 am only to find out that the bus for Granada isn’t until 8am. First of all, I don’t understand why they would have a bus at such an asinine time if the connections weren’t even until the morning anyway. Second of all, why don’t they put the time of your bus change on the ticket? Or the station and terminal of your bus change even? (Probably because the Spanish have the business sense of a six year old girl.)

At 7:50 am the bus for Granada arrives. We put our bags underneath and the driver looks at our ticket and is asking why it isn’t stamped. I don’t know, probably because it doesn’t say anywhere on my ticket that I need it stamped, nor did the last bus inform us. So we run inside and there’s a line. At 8:10 am the driver comes up, brings us to the front and mutters something to the woman at the desk. They start arguing about whether this was a round trip ticket and asked when and were we bought it. I told them we bought it in Granada two weeks ago and that the guy driving the bus from Portugal took my ticket. She tried to make us pay but the bus driver argued for us. Turns out, he just assumed we were going to Granada the back to Portugal and that was what all the trouble was about. Really, pal? If we were from Portugal and visiting Granada, why would we have bought our round trip train ticket IN Granada? I swear, the people that work for ALSA (the bus company) are some of the dumbest people I’ve encountered in Spain.

In the end, we got on the bus and got ourselves home. Even though I would never wish to do that hectic traveling over again, Portugal was worth it. The beaches and ocean were beautiful.

Small world...


Yesterday we went to the beach. We took a ferry to Farol Island 30 minutes off the coast. We got drinks at a beachside bar, laid out, and went swimming. It was great. After a while, Elyse had to go back and sit in the shade. Michelle and I waited for Carina to come back from her walk. After an hour and a half, we got kinda worried. I went down the beach to go find her and ended up finding her on the way back. At this point, we realized it was probably a bad idea not to bring phones with us…

We came back to the hotel to shower and get some dinner. The guy who owns the hotel is from Seekonk, MA. He used to do construction at RWU and RISD; small world! He was really nice and suggested a pizza place. We got so much food for 15 euro!

This morning we went to Vilamora, which is similar to Marina Bay in Quincy. It’s definitely the richer part of this coast. We took the bus there and got on a boat to do a 4 hour tour of the rocks and caves. It was a long and choppy boat ride to the caves. There we took a dinghy to the caves, but it was too rough to go through them. We thought we were going to fall off the dinghy, but it was actually really fun. We got back to the boat and had a small lunch on the way back and ended up taking a taxi back to Faro. We got McDonald’s for dinner. That’s the first time we’ve had American food since we’ve been here and it was really only out of convenience.

Right now, Michelle and I are camped out in the hotel lobby, waiting for our bus. It’s not until 1:15am and it is currently 11:15. I’d like to add that I still feel as if I’m on a boat 5 hours after getting on land.

It’s crazy to think that we go home in a week. We have 4 nights at our host home and 2 in a hotel. I cannot believe how quickly the past 5 weeks went by! 

Thursday, June 23, 2011

If you can't find it, come back. I take you


This morning we got to the bus station and had to wait until everyone else had boarded until we could get on because we didn’t have an assigned seat. We should have taken that as a sign of how today was going to go. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a bad day, just full of little surprises.

We get to Sevilla where we had a bus change. We get to the station and the woman only spoke Spanish at the information desk. It was fine because all four of us know Spanish, but she had no idea what she was talking about! She told us our ticket was closed or something, so I asked what was closed because I didn’t get what she meant. She then went on to explain that closed is the opposite of open. Thank you for that… And it wasn’t my lack of Spanish because they other people who spoke Spanish tried to help us and didn’t understand. Finally, a nice Italian woman figured out what she meant and explained it to us in a mix of English, Spanish and Italian. The woman wanted us to go to a different bus station to get the bus and said we had to wait two hours. Since she seemed like a dimwit, we asked the guys outside where the buses were. He said that the bus was at this station at 2.

We took the bus and walked to the hotel. It’s not a very touristy area, but it’s only 5 miles from the beach. We eventually found our way after asking a guy at a store, who luckily spoke Spanish. The hotel isn’t as nice as the website, but it’s not bad. We went to a restaurant for dinner for a hamburger. They charged us 8 Euro for a basket of bread. It said 2, but apparently it was per person. Naranjas de la China. But seriously, we were pissed! It was so lame. Then we try to walk back, but it’s nothing like Granada. Everything was closed at 10, so there was barely anyone out. It was kind of sketchy. We couldn’t find our way back so we asked a waiter who sent us totally out of the way. So then we ended up back near the same restaurant and another waiter yelled to us. He told us turn by turn directions to the hotel. After he told us “Don’t forget that. If you can’t find it, come back, I take you.” He wasn’t as sketchy as that sounds, though.

Tomorrow we’re going to the beach! Can’t wait!

So there are two rivers in Faro, Portugal...


This week has flown by! On Monday we reviewed a little for our test. We didn’t do too much after class. Tuesday we had the reading comprehension and the listening parts of our exam. After class we went to the pool at the University for a bit. It’s getting so hot here! I can deal without air conditioning, but we don’t have fans and our sheets and comforter are thick fleece. I have no idea why Maria even owns those. At night we had the goodbye dinner with our program. We went to San Nicolas up in the Albaycin. We got so much food! We had a fried calamari dish to start and bread with olive oil. Every 3 people got a jar of sangria to share. Then we had salad. After that the brought out French fries while we waited for our meal. I got sormorillo de ternera which was a sirloin steak. It was humungous. Then they brought out ice cream and cheesecake for dessert. After, we all got a shot of this liquor that they make at the restaurant. It was citrus and herbs, but I forget what it was called.

Wednesday I had the grammar portion of the exam. I got a 9.3 out of 10 on the first 2/3rd, but I won’t find out the last part until Monday. After the exam, Ethan, Amy, Allison, Melissa and I went to get a drink before we made our way to the parade for Corpus Christi. (I forgot my camera). Nothing in the parade was motorized. There were 15 foot tall figures that were carried by men underneath. The first two represented the Catholic kings and queens and the second two represented the Moorish kings and queens. There were also these people that had huge heads on. The walked around the a Chinese tea lantern filled with beans or something and would smash people in the crowd off the head. There were also a couple marching bands, but it was relatively small.

Michelle and I then took a bus from our house to the soccer field to get a Granada CF jersey. It closed at 1:30, we got there at 1:32… hijo de puta. Some crazy lady was muttering Spanish at us asking us where the soccer field was. Mind you, we were standing right in front of the giant stadium. We took a bus back home and ate lunch (pork loin and mixed vegetables) and went to the CLM to get wifi. We get there and it’s closed for the holiday. Figures. I used my laptop outside, but Michelle didn’t have hers so she went to the internet place near our house. (The CLM is a 20 minute walk if you’re speed walking, so this was a pain in the ass).

As I’m about two minutes from our house, I get a call from Michelle. “Um, I just map quest how long it takes from the bus station to our hotel. It’s 57 minutes!” I assumed she meant walking so I was like oh we can take a bus. No, that was the time driving, and there are no buses to get there. We had the bull fight in about 2 hours, so we ran home, took 20 minutes between the two of us showering and getting ready and ran back out. We had to cancel our first hotel and paid a $50 fee. We ended up booking the same hotel that our friends Carina and Elyse are staying in, so that works out better, but cost a bit more. We had about 20 minutes to cancel the old one and book a new one in order to get to the bullfight on time. We also had no idea where this was. We ran down the street and jumped in a taxi to get us there on time. It was quite the stressful situation. (So here’s what happened with the hotel. There are two river things on either side of Faro, Portugal. We thought we were on opposite sides of the same river as Carina and Elyse (and our bus). Nope, we were on the opposite side of the other river. Whoops!)

The bullfight was an interesting experience to say the least. It was great to have experienced such a huge part of the Spanish culture, but I never want to see one of those again. I now understand why they have outlawed it in Barcelona. One of the matadors was so good that he did everything. Usually they have a team of three helpers that does different things to prepare the bull and tire it out for the matador, but he did it himself. After Michelle and I went home to pack for Portugal!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

¡Vamos mi Granada, vamos campeon!


Friday night we went to the club. Courtney, Maureen, Melissa and I had paid to go in but Danielle and Michelle ended up not coming in because it was a little expensive and pretty late anyways. The four of us were followed the entire night by this group of three guys. At first we nicely told them we did not want to dance with them. After the third time that we moved only to find them 5 feet away, we weren’t so nice. Eventually they got the hint. One looked like he was about 40, so I don’t even know why he was there. We left around 4:30.

Saturday morning, Michelle and I slept in and went shopping with Danielle. I got a strapless bathing suit top so I can try to get rid of my sweet tan lines. I also got a dress for the goodbye dinner next week and a bag. It’s actually a satchel, (I keep my skittles in there..) We also went to the markets near the Catedral and I got the last of my presents for home. We saw Melissa, Courtney, and Maureen and they told us there was a huge game on that night for Granada C.F. If they won, they would move up to the first division (the one with Real Madrid and Barcelona).

We thought it was at 7, so we didn’t tell Maria we wouldn’t be home for dinner. Then we found out it was at 9, so we figured we could stay til the half time and get home at 10 since Maria doesn’t even get home until 10 some nights. We went to Hannigan’s and watched the first half and some guy helped us learn the fight song. The only part we really remember is “Vamos mi Granada, vamos campeon” which roughly translates to Let’s go (my) Granada, we’re going (to be) champions.

Michelle and I got home right at 10, only to find Maria in the hallway waiting (while on the phone). We see her and she yells, “¿DONDE ESTAIS?” We tried to explain that we were coming from the game. Then she told us at dinner that she wasn’t mad, but next time we should have asked her for a sandwich to go. She thought it was ridiculous that we were missing the game to come home for dinner. We were planning to catch the end after dinner, but hadn’t mentioned it before she said, “you must leave running so you can see the ending!” And that we did. We got to the bar near our house with 2 minutes left of so. It was tied 1-1 and went into overtime. We were pretty far away, but could clearly see Granada’s breakaway from about midfield to score for the win. The place went insane! I guess that makes up for not being in Boston when the Bruins won. We went to meet up with the same group again and could barely make it down the street. People were hanging out of cars and honking. We went to a bar for a little but then went home around 2:30.

Today we went to Salobreña, a beach nearby. We got on the right bus (barely) and made it there. It was so hot! But the water was freezing. Just as cold as at home in the early summer. We went in anyway though. Now we’re just going to relax and do our homework. Maria won’t be here for dinner. She must have explained to me 7 times how to heat up the microwave pizza. I think I can handle that, but she seemed adamant on telling me to put it on the plate and to put it in the microwave. Nothing else is new. It was a low key, fun weekend.

Me piro, rampiro.

Friday, June 17, 2011


Haven’t written for a while. This week flew by! Monday night we went to an Irish pub. Surprisingly, there are a lot of those. Ethan and Amy came with us, too.

Tuesday was pretty low key. Michelle and I just went to the internet place for a bit so that we could book our hotel for Portugal! We leave next Thursday morning and we come home Sunday (our bus is at 1:15 am. ¡Coño!). But there is a fiesta all day on Sunday for Corpus Christi, so we’ll be back in time for that.

Wednesday we had a tutorial on the bull fight that we’re going to next Wednesday. I have a feeling I’m not really going to like it, but they said there is a ton of other stuff going on around you so you don’t need to watch. After, Michelle and I went home and got our bocadillo that our señora insisted on making us for dinner so we could take it to the park and watch the lunar eclipse. I don’t think she realized the lunar eclipse wasn’t until 11:30, not 9. But we ate in the park anyway and then met up with Amy, Ethan, Ethan’s host brother Elio, and his friends Ana, Ana, and Patri. We went to a tapas place far from all the touristy spots and they tapas were the best we’ve had. They know a little more English than we do Spanish, so they were helping us out if we didn’t know a word. It was nice to talk to someone who wasn’t shaking their head at you everytime you mis-conjugate a word. A lot of the adults here aren’t as patient with us, but I think since they’re learning English they understand how hard it can be. They were really artsy and not people I would normally see myself hanging out with, but they were so nice and extremely funny.

Thursday, we had fried calamari for lunch. It was really fresh. No dipping sauce though, so it was kinda weird. That night, we had a meeting with Veronica and a lecture from Aurelio. He does most of our tours and is SO boring. He got the dates mixed up and couldn’t come to Sevilla and Córdoba with us as planned, so instead we got to have over an hour long lecture on the mezquita in Córdoba. We also learned Arabic and about Islam. It was such a waste of time. We spent 15 minutes doing virtual tours of the mosque. That’s funny, because I vividly remember actually being there about 4 days early. ¡Cabrón! After the meeting, we went to Chile Grande for 1 euro margaritas and Mexican food. I got tacos, but they aren’t as good as Mom’s. After we went to salsa lessons. It’s a cumulative thing, but Michelle and I tagged along to try. He was going pretty quick but the steps were easy so I could keep up. Danielle got some video of it and took some pictures on my camera.

Today I went for a run. I only ran for a little less than 25 minutes. I could have run long if it weren’t 100 degrees… (¡Joder, que calor!) I’m going to attempt to run longer this weekend, but it could get up to 105. I’d rather not pass out in the park. Tonight we’re going out for tapas for Amy’s birthday and then going to the discoteca. Michelle and I haven’t gone to one yet, so we’ll see how it goes. They stay until 6 or 8 am. I’m not even a big fan of going to the club at home, but I want to go at least once while I’m here.