la extranjera

Hola, Tumblr! Okay, so first order of business- I just cannot ignore all of the recent UK success. Yeah! GO CATS!! To all of you UK haters out there- step off. The Cats are here to stay. I couldn’t have been happier last night. I may or may not have cried…. FINAL FOUR BABY! It was a beautiful moment. 

But enough about that. Ya’ll don’t follow me for sports updates, do you? Let’s talk about my weekend trip! This past weekend I went on a school field trip with my Hispanic Culture and Civilization class to Granada and Cordoba! I was just so excited to escape to the warm weather of southern Spain that it didn’t really matter that it was an educational trip. I’m actually pretty worn out from the wear and tear of traveling and gladly held up my wrist to be dragged from sight to sight by an adult. It was sooo nice not having to worry about catching a plane, passports, sleeping in the airport, arguing about where to go and when, dealing with cranky travel buddies, finding a hostel… It was lovely to just be led. 

Our adventure began at 8:30 Friday morning. Well, that’s when it was supposed to begin. My friend and classmate Adam went to Kapital on Thursday night, overslept, and completely missed our bus. Oops. We waited at school for an extra 20 minutes or so, but then decided to leave without him. It turned out to be a good decision because he slept in until 12 and then realized that he missed the bus and had to book a new bus ticket to Granada. What are we going to do with that child?

Anyways, after a five or six hour bus trip we arrived in Granada, the beautiful Spanish city that is located at the bottom of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. We checked into our NICE (our teacher insisted we get 4 stars) hotel, then freshened up and began to explore the city. Our class reunited at the Cathedral, where we had a three hour guided tour around some of the city’s best sights. We saw La Capilla Real, where lie the bodies of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella (cool!), The Royal Chancery, the gorgeous Granada Cathedral, the Madraza university, and much more. 

We were given free time that evening, and I went out with Dani and our friends Brittany and Zach for some souvenir shopping and absolutely delicious dinner at a Moroccan restaurant. We also spent some of the evening exploring Granada’s main street, Gran Via, and even found ice cream for one euro! Exhausted, Dani and I finished the night by cuddling in our hotel (!) room, reading, and watching “Raising Helen” in Spanish on TV….ahhh living the dream…

I had the last of my midterms today. They were kind of wack. First of all, Dani and I studied (crammed) sooo hard for our Culture and Civilization test and it turned out to be a 10-point, 6-question quiz! What!? We studied so much extra information! Also, my teacher told us that we’d have to memorize 6 Spanish autonomies and their cities, so I did just that. Heck, I even went the extra mile and memorized 7. Well, on the test she asked us to name the cities of one particular autonomy- Castille y Leon. Of course that wasn’t one of the ones that I memorized so I had no idea! That’s no fair! Why would she’ve told us to choose any six, then quiz us on one specific one?! Also, my dance test was much harder than it should’ve been (I mean c’mon, it’s dance), but I still think I pulled off a pretty good grade. Ah well, they’re all over now and it’s the weekend…

Speaking of weekends, this is the first since I’ve been here that I’ll actually be spending in Madrid, so I’m super excited! We have a lot of plans to explore more of the city and I just can’t wait. It’s so nice to take a break from traveling and just relax… and sleep. Don’t expect anything spectacular out of me over the next three days…

And now let me share with you some recent words of wisdom from none other than our favorite house mama, Mercedes:

1. Brussels is a country, not a city. Hm.

2. Fruit is a great source of protein.

3. Anorexia is the most efficient and effective diet. 

4. A 50 Euro dress is a “steal.” Yeah. That’s your money, Mom and Dad. 

5. Reincarnation is real. Also, if you’re a Catholic, you have to believe in it.

Yesterday I told her that I was a witch who practices black magic. She asked me what powers I had and I told her that I could a. make animals talk, b. fly, c. study and party at the same time, and d. read her thoughts. She asked me what she was thinking and I said “..that you [I] are very pretty and that I [she] has the best ninas ever.” She responded with “NO.” and laughter. Awesome.

I posted all of my Ireland pics to Facebook today, but here are some more for you to enjoy, yo.

at the Cliffs of Moher

St. Stephen’s Green

St. Patrick’s Cathdral

Ballyreen

So somehow we got on the topic of supernatural phenomena and imaginary monsters tonight at dinner. Just for amusement’s sake, I facetiously kept asking Mercedes if certain creatures existed: mummies, ghosts, witches, Frankenstein’s monster… the whole shebang. Finally she just got fed up with me and told me that I’m in college and therefore shouldn’t believe in such things. I’m such a child! She then proceeded to tell us a story verdadero about ghosts… hypocrite. 

I looked up tickets for a Real Madrid game today. Seeing how expensive they are (somewhere between 60 and 1250 euros/seat) was like a bullet straight to my heart. How can I call myself a Madrileno without seeing Real Madrid play?! I guess for now a jersey will suffice…

Mercedes fixed our shower! (kinda) At dinner tonight we mentioned how “nice it would be to come home this weekend and have a shower that isn’t broken,” so she got right on that! Yippee! It now has a real shower head…but no way to mount it to the wall. Ah well, one step at a time. 

Our lecture today in Hispanic Culture and Civilization was on the Paleolithic and Neolithic ages. I’m not quite sure how that logically follows the history of the Spanish royal family, but it’s cool… I mean, I like the Ice Age and cave drawings and wolly mammoths…

My roommates and I are all really jittery with excitement and nerves right now because we’ve got a big weekend coming up! I can’t reveal what exactly we’re doing for privacy reasons, but just know that Monday’s post is bound to be more exciting than this one! Unfortunately I probably won’t be able to blog for the next few days, but I promise the payoff will be worthwhile!

Once again, no more fun pictures from today, soooo here are me and my roommates out at Dubliner’s

I just want to apologize for how incredibly boring this blog post is going to be…

Exciting news though! So a few days ago we found a box of Quaker instant-oatmeal packets in the food closet in Lexi’s room. BINGO. We tried to convince Mercedes at dinner last night that we love oatmeal and would like to eat it for breakfast (subtle hint.) Being Mercedes though, she told us that oatmeal is for animals and that we could not eat it. This morning, however, Dani and I slyly tricked Rose into remembering the hidden Quaker, and she snuck us each a packet for breakfast. Hallelujah!! A break from crackers! We had to be really quiet about it though, and hide the oatmeal from Mercedes. So worth it. We were so proud of our devilish little selves. 

Interesting fact: One of my current Spanish teachers (Hispanic Lit) taught my previous SLU St. Louis teacher as she was working on her degree! Small world!! I need to email my old teacher pronto. 

We never ended up having that quiz in Culture and Civilization. I’m a little disappointed because I actually took the time to memorize some of the Spanish autonomies and their cities. Oh well. At least I’m more knowledgeable now!

In dance class today, we started salsa!! It was started in Cuba and is muy divertido (very fun)! My latin dance style tally total is now up to three- merengue, tango, and salsa. Watch out America- I’m coming back a dancing fiend!

Tonight is my friend Shannon’s birthday so we are going to go out to Sol to celebrate. It’s funny how there aren’t really “going-out” nights here like there are in the United States (aka weekends). You can pretty much go out on any (and I mean any) night of the week and there will be something going on. Spain likes to party. 

We had pasta at dinner again tonight, but it was actually pretty good because it wasn’t COLD. Amen! I think that Mercedes and Rose are beginning to catch on to our not-so-subtle helpful hints…

No pictures from today, so here are some random ones from Salamanca and El Escorial

Graffiti near the cathedral in Salamanca that actually hadn’t been painted over. It says “Love me when I least deserve it, because that will be when I most need it.” Beautiful

w3 r $!lLy Gur1z. S-L-U! (We should be on the school website)