Wednesday, April 29, 2009

A little Spanish culture before I leave it again...

I can hardly believe it...I'm just getting used to being back from Amsterdam, and now I'm leaving for Italy tonight!  Craziness....

Not too much has gone on this week.  I've been busy with presentations, homework, and preparing for the END of the semester.   I'm also very excited for an olive oil tour this afternoon.  Olive oil is a huge part of the Spanish culture, everything is cooked with it!  I'll take lots of pictures and let you know what I've learned.  :) 

Since I haven't actually written about much SPANISH stuff lately (after all, I am living here, right?), I thought that I'd give you a glimpse of some of the crazy Spanish traditions that I've learned about in my classes.  I haven't personally witnessed these, but they are pretty great on video too. 

Here are some my favorites...



And a few just for fun :) 


Enjoy!!

Monday, April 27, 2009

Back from the Motherland!

I made it back, safe and sound from Amsterdam...I had such a great time, and it went by so quickly!  We stayed so busy the entire weekend, but I'll try not to make this too long and boring :) 

My friend Amanda met us at the airport on Friday, which was a nice change since we usually travel on our own!  It was a bit of a hike to our hostel, but we had great weather all weekend, so it wasn't a big deal.  Our hostel was very nice, so we were happy. 

Our first activity of the night was a visit to the Anne Frank House.  This is the building that Anne and her family spent their months in hiding during WWII.  None of the other girls had been there, so it was fun to see that again and experience it with them.  It is a really powerful place, and I'd definitely recommend a visit (or two!).  

After a quick bite for supper, we went on a "Red Shirt" tour of the Red Light District.  It was a really fun and interesting way to learn the history of the area and how it has become what it is today. 

The next day, we walked through the flower markets (we felt like we were back at home during Tulip Time!) and then went to Madame Tusseau's Wax Museum.  The wax museum was really fun, and we now have pictures with so many "celebrities"!

We also went on a regular "Red Shirt" tour of Amsterdam that afternoon.  I highly recommend any of these tours if you are traveling around Europe...they are free and mainly geared toward students, but they do an amazing job of showing you the city and make it a really fun day.  

We filled up the rest of the afternoon with shopping, the Van Gogh Museum, and the Heineken Experience, all of which were a lot of fun.  

Our last full day in Holland, we took a train to Leiden to visit Amanda.  We saw her dorms, school, favorite bakery, the Saturday market, toured a windmill and other sights around the city.  was another beautiful day and we had a great time in Leiden.  

On the way home, we drove past beautiful fields of thousands of blooming tulips...how pretty!  We made it home in time to do our souvenier shopping, have a Coke in a cafe where Ocean's 12 was shot, and we caught a movie...in English!  That was a nice change from Spain :)

It was a great last day to our trip.  Sunday was basically an all day traveling day...not overly exciting, but a necessity.  We made it back to Granada a little before midnight.  This week has been jam packed with classes a projects already, but I'm skipping out a little early again this week to take one last trip...I'll be in ITALY for the weekend!  Should be an exciting weekend. 

Well...that's all for now...if you'd like to check out my pictures, please click HERE or HERE.  

Miss you all, and talk to you SOON!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Off to Amsterdam!

There hasn't been too much going on this week, so not much to report, but I am looking forward to my weekend in Amsterdam!  A few friends of mine and I are going to visit my friend Amanda...we'll get to explore a lot of Amsterdam, a little of Leiden, and hopefully we'll get to see the tulip fields in bloom!  (I'll get my Tulip Time/Tulip Festival fix in, since I'll be missing those!)  

Also...here are a few pictures of my time at the Science Center in Granada, along with the Semana Santa pictures of Granada.  You may have already seen them on Facebook, but if not, HERE they are.  :)

I'll be sure to give you an update when I get home on Monday...Have a great weekend!

Monday, April 20, 2009

My Weekend Project...

So...this weekend didn't really go as planned, which was kinda sad.  My trip to Ronda was cancelled...unfortunately, no one told us that, so my friend and I still showed up at the meeting place at 8 in the morning.  Grr...

Our other plan to go to the beach today was also cancelled when we woke up to rain...double grr...

Oh well...instead of my planned weekend, my friend Lisa and I went to the science museum here in Granada, which was actually pretty fun.  I'll put some pictures up tomorrow. 

My other activity was finishing up my Morocco slideshow of my favorite pictures...you can check out a slightly crappy copy of it here on YouTube.  Enjoy, and talk to you soon!

Friday, April 17, 2009

Have you recovered yet?

So...decided to take a week off from blogging, because nothing too exciting has happened, and I figured you all deserved a break if you made it through my Spring Break entries and pictures!!

Like I said, not much has happened this week...I was in a slightly dreary mood most of the time because the weather hasn't been great, and I've been sick, but hopefully this weekend will lift my spirits. :)

Today I shopped a bit with a friend (fun!), searched far a wide for cheap hostels in Rome and Amsterdam (they don't exist...) and then had my first intercambio!  I was realizing last weekend when Dad had asked me if my Spanish had improved that my listening and comprehension skills were definitely better, but my speaking was showing little improvement...most of my friends are Americans, and when I speak to my family, it's pretty basic stuff.

Anyway, intercambios are Spanish students that are trying to learn English that meet with you so you both get a chance to practice you language.  We had coffee and switched off and on between English and Spanish, which was a lot of fun.  Hopefully, meeting with him the rest of the semester will really help my speaking!

As for the rest of the weekend...tomorrow I will be going on a trip through the CLM to Ronda, a nearby city, which I've heard is really beautiful.  Also, weather permitting, my roomie and I are hoping to hit the beach on Sunday, but we'll see...the weather has been a bit questionable all week. :)  

Hope you all have a great weekend as well...I miss you all, and am counting down the days till I get to see you again!  (38...hehe)  Adios amigos!


Sunday, April 12, 2009

Happy Easter!

My Easter is almost over, but hope you all have a Happy Easter!  

I've been pretty lazy this whole weekend, since I haven't been feeling great, but I did force myself out for quite a few processions this week, including my favorite one this morning...a procession carried and followed by many of the kids in the town.  It was so cute, because the procession was followed by hundreds of people, mostly kids ringing their little clay bells.  

I'll post some pictures and videos tomorrow...just thought I'd say hello. :)