5.7.2012

I feel that I must say that in my opinion I have failed to utilize this blog in a way that accurately describes not only what I´m seeing and experiencing, but what I am thinking and how this experience has affected me. Too often I feel this blog has been a superficial recount of my day to day activites. I have also failed to update this blog regularly. So to you, my readers, I apologize. Now, let´s get down to business. It would be an understatement to say that April flew by. On March 30th I took a trip with some of my friends to Barcelona and on April 2nd, Chris (my roommate) and I took a trip Gibraltar. Both were really cool, but both were very different. Barcelona was your typical metropolitan city while Gibraltar was a smaller city with lot´s of tax-free shopping but most of the tourist attractions were more outdoorsy. In Barcelona we saw the Sagrada Familia, a Roman Catholica basilica that to this day has not been finished despite the fact that construction of the church began in 1883. Other sites visited were the Picasso Art Museum, Park Guell, the Cathedral of Barcelona, and an outdoor market. Then Chris and I headed to Gibraltar to explore the rock of Gibraltar and the natural park there. Let´s just say I had never experienced being so close to wild apes that I could touch them. The park also included other sites to explore such as a Moorish castle, a cave, and tunnels that were dug by the British military in the 1700s. Unfortunately, as many of you have already heard, the trip ended on sort of a bad note on the way back to Granada. Upon arriving to Malaga I discovered that my backpack had been stolen from the luggage compartment under the bus. The backpack contained my camera, computer, wallet, clothes, and my passport. I was really blessed however to have great program directors who helped me take care of everything including helping me file a police report and setting up an appointment at the US embassy in Madrid. I was also blessed that my roomate and my parents were so helpful in getting me money and that my dad took care of all the insurance issues (which I am also grateful to have had). All in all, the experience was a huge hassle, but everything turned out ok, even though I my backpack was never returned to me. I was able to get an emergency passport which was a huge blessing as I´ve been able to travel and will be able to go home on my scheduled return date. We returned to Granada from Gibraltar during Holy Week, which is the major holiday here in Spain. It´s interesting that here they celebrate the death/sacrifice of Christ rather than the resurrection. All of the catholic churches participate in the festivites of Holy Week, with each church making a procession around the city. Each church has it´s own "image" that they carry all around the city. The images are usually of Jesus or the virgin Mary. Each image is adorned with gold or silver, flowers, and insence. Many of the processions also feature a band that marches behind the image. Unfortunately, it rained most of the week so many of the processions were cancelled. Here are a few pictures of what these images look like:

The rest of April was pretty uneventful. Life here became even more routine and my time mostly consisted of going to class. I´m continuing to tutor once a week and am continuing to feel more like a part of the community at the church I´ve been attending. The end of April came with a short break at the beginning of May. I took the opportunity to do some traveling both with my friends and by myself. The last weekend of April I went to Carboneras, a beach town here in Spain with a few of my friends. From there I traveled to Madrid to catch a flight to Rome. In two and a half days I saw the Vatican, the Trevi fountain, the Palatino, the Roman Forum, and the Coloseum, and the Patheon. I also went to Pompeii, a free outdoor concert, and ate real Italian pizza and gelato! From Rome I went to Sevilla, Spain where I met up with a few of my friends from my program. We hung out and spent the night in Sevilla. The the next day (Friday May 4th) we went to Lagos, Portugal with a group of students both from our program and with other programs as well. Portugal was beautiful and overall the trip was really fun! I´m finally back in Granada. It´s hard to believe that I only have two weeks of class and a week of exams left in Spain. I know it´s going to go by really fast as the end of the semester class work piles on. I´m looking forward to enjoying these next few weeks and hopefully learn as much as I can. I know this is a very brief summary of all that I´ve been doing, but this will ahve to suffice for now. As always, thanks for reading!

3.29.2012

It's hard to imagine that just four days ago, March 25th, marked the beginning of my final two months here in Granada. Granada is definitely turning into home for me. I've noticed over the last month or so that as I travel to other places (and enjoy doing so) I can't wait to go "home" and always feel better upon returning to Granada. The city is beautiful and has a relaxing and laid-back atmosphere. I know the next two months are going to fly by as I finish my classes and travel on the weekends. This weekend I will be traveling to Barcelona and Gibraltar. I am planning trips to Italy, Portugal, and Paris. It will be interesting to see if I can do all of it in only two months.
I had four exams last week and am glad they are finally over. I have received all but one of my grades and for the most part I did well, at least by Spanish standards. Since most of my grades are based almost entirely on exams, I hope I do just a little better on my finals.
Last weekend I went with my program to the Alpujarras which are towns located in the mountains of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Unfortunately, the bus ride gave me pretty bad motion sickness, but I still did the hiking anyway. We hiked around the mountains for about 5 hours or so. The scenery was beautiful and the hike was a lot of fun despite the cloudy sky and on and off drizzling of rain.
Next week begins Holy Week. I'm excited to see the processions and the reactions of the people watching them. Most of the streets are pretty small here so it will be interesting to see how the hoards of people watching the processions will fit. I'll be sure to take tons of pictures.
Speaking of pictures, I'm going to try to take more pictures of Granada (both important sites and my favorite places) and post them on here or on Facebook so that you can see what I'm seeing.
One last thing I want to mention is the volunteering I've been doing. Volunteering has definitely showed me that I eventually want to somehow be involved in education; whether it be teaching or tutoring. I tutor a boy who is originally from the Dominican Republic. He and his two sisters come to the Residencia La Milagrosa to receive tutoring a few times a week. He is a super nice and intelligent kid, but unfortunately has a very low level in school. He seems very discouraged and most of his motivation to learn is to pass his classes, not to learn for the sake of learning. Pray that I'll be able to motivate and encourage him.
Well, that's all for now. I'll be sure to update again after this weekend. Much love from Granada!

3.13.2012

Life is definitely beginning to feel more natural here, but all in all not much has changed. I've been busy going to class and hitting up tapas bars with my friends. I've gotten to meet up with my language exchange partner, Valeria, every Thursday morning for the past several weeks. It's been great to get more practice with my Spanish. I've also had fun helping Valeria with her English. She watches a lot of documentaries about the US and tv shows in English. She brings me her questions and it usually leads to some interesting conversation. Up until now, I've been really disappointed with the amount of interaction (or lack thereof)I've been having with Spaniards, so it's been nice to slowly get more practice. I mentioned in my last post that I found a church and have been attending said church for the past several weeks. Two Saturdays ago I went to a youth event in Almeria (another city about an hour and half from Granada) with some of the young people from the church. In the morning we had a church-like service with worship and a message. Afterwards, we ate lunch and then spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach. I got to meet a lot of new people while practicing my Spanish. Many of the Spaniards there wanted to practice their English too, so it was fun to help all of them. Seeking further interaction with Spaniards, I started tutoring a 14 year-old boy every Tuesday. I will usually tutor him in English, although today he brought his math homework. God help him...who would have thought that I would have ever tutored anyone in math...I certainly wouldn't have. I actually did know how to do the problems, however, I didn't know all of the technical math terms in Spanish, so I think my explanation was a little confusing for him. He told me I explained it in a different way than his team , although I think that's a good thing because from what I could tell he was doing it wrong anyway. I'm also thankful that I've been able to talk to my host family more over the past week and that they're starting to open up. I spent last night in the kitchen with my host mom, not only discussing issues such as religion, but laughing and making jokes with her as well. This was exactly how I pictured my study abroad experience and I really hope it continues to be this way.
Oh, I suppose I should mention that over the weekend I went to Seville and Cordoba with ISA. Both cities were beautiful. My favorite sites were Plaza de Espana in Seville and the Cathedral in Cordoba, which was once a mosque. The building itself is huge and is truly magnificent. It's hard to describe such an incredible structure that has such a rich history and has undergone many transformations. The cathedral was once St. Vincent's Bascilica, which then became a mosque during the time that Cordoba became the capital of the Western Islamic world. After the Reconquista, which expelled the Muslims from Spain, the Christians made the mosque into a cathedral, putting the altar and nave in the center of building.
Well, that's about all for now! As always, thanks for reading!

2.23.2012

Hello all!

I know it's been awhile since I last posted. Life has not changed too much. Classes are going well. On Monday and Tuesday of next week we do not have school because Tuesday is a holiday in Andalucia. Many of my friends are travling to other places during this time. As of now I am not going anywhere, but we'll see what mischeif I can get into. Today I signed up to volunteer with Residencia La Milagrosa, a place where children can come and get help with their homework. I'll be tutoring one day a week starting the first week of March. The lady who runs the program seems very nice and I'm excited to get involved. I also met with my intercabio for the first time. An intercambio is a Spaniard (or in my case, an Italian woman who speaks fluent Spanish and moved to Granada to marry her boyfriend) that I meet up with to practice my Spanish. In turn, I get to help her with her English. She is very nice and I think she is going to be able to help me a lot with my Spanish. Over the past two weeks I've gotten to skype with a lot of people. It's been great to talk to so many friends from Ohio State and also the lovely Mackenzie Touby. Funny story...but first some background context. On Monday night I skyped with my friend Maddie Gutkoski. I decided to do so in the kitchen in an attempt to not bother my roommate who was sleeping. Later that night I was going skype with the guys from the West campus action groups. Seeing as how there was a little bit of time in between each skype session, I decided to look over a couple of class notes for a few minutes while I waited. As I was doing this, my host mom's niece entered the kitched, gave me a weird look, and promtly left to return to the living room. This bring us to Tuesday evening. It was then that I was attempting to skype with Mackenzie. Again, trying to be a nuisance to my roommate, I decided to look for another place in the apartment to talk with Mackenzie. Seeing that people where in the kitchen and the living room, I decided to pop a squat in the foyer, which was as usual, not lit. Suddenly my host mother appears and begins "yelling" at me (please, note, the following is a translation from the actual conversation that occured in Spanish):
"Jamie-son, why do you choose the wierdest places in the house to study? I know you were studying in the kitchen last night. Why do you do that? You have a desk in your room"
Me:"Uhhh...what? No, I'm not studying. I'm talking to my cousin on skype."
Mom:"Ok. But last night you were studying in the kitchen. Why?"
Me:"I wasn't studying in the kitchen last night. I was using skype last night, but I didn't want to bother Chris because he was sleeping."
Mom:"I know you were studying last night. My niece saw you. You have a little light in your room that way your can turn off the big light so the other person can sleep. Why don't you use it?"
Me: "I was looking at a few notes from class while I was waiting for my friends to get on skype. I promise I wasn't just studying in the kitchen. I was using skype."
Mom:"Ok. I just want you to be comfortable and if you need something I want to ask me."
After that whole ordeal that Mackenzie had just witnessed, my host mom proceeded to walk away. It was thefirst experience I had with my host family not understanding the things I do (or at least, the first time they've voiced their concern). Looking back, the whole dialogue was really hilarious and at the end it was really sweet for my mom to tell me that she just wanted me to be comfortable. It made me feel like I'm not just a visitor.
All in all, I've had a great two weeks here in Granada despite catching a bit of a cold. I'm loving that I'm becoming a bit more integrated into life here, especially since I've been feeling really detached from the country and its people. I'm going to sign off for now, thanks for reading friends!

2.16.2012

Hey all!

In my last post I talked about my classes. After tomorrow I will have finished the first two weeks of the semester. All of my classes are going well so I definitely have that to be thankful for. Last weekend ISA (the program I'm studying with) took us to Ronda and Malaga. Both cities were really pretty. I also enjoyed using the showers in the hotel. Unlimited hot water, heck even five to ten minute showers with hot water are something I definitely took for granted in the States.
On Sunday, I finally got a chance to attend church, and actually found the hotel where the Sunday service is held. Everyone there was really nice and I'm definitely going to go back. The service is held at 6:30 in the evening which is nice because it allows me to hang out with people on Saturday night without having to worry about what time I go to sleep. The only downside is that I left after the service had gone about two and half hours-I didn't want to miss dinner at 9:30!

In other news, I finally feel like my host family is opening up more, which excites me. My host family is really nice so I'm really looking forward to getting to know them more over the next few months. Yesterday I spent lunch discussing politics with my host mom. It was awesome to have an extensive conversation in Spanish, something I haven't done since this summer in Venezuela.
Well, that's about all I have for this post. Hasta luego!

Observations of Spain

The following are a few of my observations from January up until this point. Some may have been mentioned already in other posts, but I'm attempting to create a cumulative list. Enjoy!

1)Wi-fi is pronounced wee-fee.
2)Bangs are really popular for girls.
3)Guys dress very metro-sexual.
4)Skinny jeans are a very popular fashion trend.
5)Everyone smokes. To me it is interesting that Spaniards are more worried about the affects of taking a couple pills of ibuprofen than they are about the long term affects of smoking cigarettes.
6)There are many churches here, but the people that I have encountered so far are not very religious.
7)The siesta is quite prossibly the best invention ever.
8)Chocolate con churros is a close second.
9) Street signs are small and very hard to find. Sometimes they're just missing altogether.
10) Many Spaniards spend their free time in bars talking to other people. They drink more, but binge drinking and all-our drunkeness are seen as ugly.
11) Tipping in restaurants doesn't exist except in cases of exceptional service. Waiters are paid an actual salary and taxes are also inculded in the prices.
12)Eating and drinking in class is not acceptable.
13)Spaniards party hard and party late...or early, depending on how you look at it.
14)There are dogs everywhere. In many cases they are better dressed than I am.
15)Olive oil is used on everything. In general, food here is much more healthy. I can definitely tell a difference (for the better) in how I'm feeling. Spaniards enjoy the natural taste of foods and use little salt and pepper. Also bread is better here. I'm going to have to spend more money to buy higher quality bread in States.

A Few Pictures from inside the Globe Theatre