Izulde in Granada: RL Dynasty

[Izulde]

At Icy's excellent suggestion, I've decided to start a dynasty about my semester abroad in Granada. :)

I've been keeping a few journal entries already, so I'll just go ahead and post those here as part of the prelude.

25 May, 2007
To me, the first question to ask someone when they're studying abroad is to ask them why they chose the place they did.

I chose Spain because I fell in love with the country's history after taking Prof. Sinclair's class on the History of Spain my first semester at UW-La Crosse. The multicultural aspect, the conflicts during the Middle Ages and Reconquista, the age of Spanish glory during the Age of Exploration, the sorrow of the Spanish Civil War, they all appealed to me in a way the history of no other country has.

I also like the warm weather and the fact that Spain is still a kingdom, complete with monarch, as I'm an admitted Monarchist and strong believer in a constitutional monarchy system of government.

Yet, I also considered a lot of other countries. Ireland and Italy were my favourite countries the last time I was in Europe and I adore French girls, film, and literature. I also gave pretty strong consideration to Korea and Japan, for those countries have fascinating histories in their own right, along with great music and pretty girls. ;)

Ultimately though, I decided Japan and Korea were best left to a later trip in life. Ireland has become one of the richest countries in Europe and so it'd be too expensive to study abroad there. I quite reluctantly set France aside, as my study abroad options didn't include any cities that strongly called to me.

So it was down to Florence, Italy, the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance, and Granada, Spain, whose history I was very much intrigued by and who has an excellent nightlife, perfect for the night owl like me.

I talked to a lot of friends of mine who live in Europe and they were split in opinion, but ultimately it was a friend of mine in Toledo, Spain, who sang the praises of Granada so well that I chose to go there.

It helped, too, that I've never been to Spain, that Spanish is one of the easiest languages to learn (even though it's a Romance language and I only speak English and have proficiency in German, which are both Germanic languages), and that Granada is close to Morocco, which would allow me to scratch Africa off my continents list as well.

There was a lot of red tape I had to cut through. Originally I was slated to go next spring, but because of graduation complications which would affect graduate school, I changed over to this fall.

In the process, I'm giving up my fraternity chapter's 40th anniversary reunion, my fraternity's national convention (which takes place once every other year), and my high school graduating class's 10 year reunion.

But it's all worth it in the end and I'm greatly looking forward to it :)

5 June 2007

I haven't received my housing assignment and won't until two weeks before I go, but I'm hoping to get into a residencia, which is like an American dorm. It'd allow me to meet Spanish students and includes a meal plan so I wouldn't have to worry about trying to make food myself. :D My second choice was a homestay, which I'm a little leery about because of my nocturnal schedule and tendency to be finicky when it comes to food, but I'd have no problem with that, as they ask a lot of questions on the housing application to ensure you get in a good place. I shouldn't have any difficulty getting first or second choice, though.

With regards to classes, I'm automatically signed up for two Spanish language classes. For my English language electives, I chose Spanish Literature, Islamic Culture in Spain, and Spanish Culture and Civilization, with the alternate options of Political Systems in Spain and the EU and History of Spain. Classes need to have at least 15 students to run, so I'm hoping all three of my top choices are able to go.

I haven't been able to find Washington Irving's Tales of the Alhambra yet, so I may have to pick that up in Granada. I'd really prefer to have it to read beforehand, though.

In other news, I'm headed down to Chicago to the Spanish Consulate tomorrow to formally apply for my student visa. I hope everything goes okay!

23 June 2007

Yep, that's right... I booked my flight today. I leave on August 28th and fly back December 21st in Malaga, which I discovered last night after somebody asked where it was, is right on the Mediterranean... whoot! And of course, Malaga's famous for its wine ;)

Just got done watching Joan the Mad, which those silly American advertisers have translated as Mad Love, since it's based on Queen Juana la Loca's obsession with her husband, Phillip the Fair, that Flemish bastard.

The script had some nice dialogue and I thought the actor who played Phillip did well of providing some depth to the character... It was also pleasing eye candy in parts (And no, not -that- kind of eye candy :P There was some of that, but it wasn't as sensational as the blurb led you to believe)...

...But... the story wasn't really that cohesive. Yes, things followed a linear progression, but it felt very much disjointed and kind of hither and dither. There were a few nice touches here and there in terms of scenes, but ultimately even the climatic, tense scenes (or what should have been), were underwhelming.

The movie had a lot of potential.. it really did. The story's a fascinating one, and even the film as presented had a chance, but it was just sort of ho-hum in the end. Granada did get mentioned a few times though :D

19 July 2007

I have my student visa!

Amusing thing happened in the Spanish Consulate, too.

A few other students were there when I went to pick up my visa, only they were all just applying.

I found out the one guy is going to Granada this fall too, and that he'd been to Mexico and Peru already. He also missed his first appointment to apply for a visa because he had a dental appointment the same day and he went to the dentist instead.

Oh and he also goes to UW-Madison. All of this info I found out from his mother, who was quite snobby of the fact that he goes to Madison and I go to UW-L.

Making things even more amusing: I introduced myself to the guy but he had zero interest in talking to me. He was drooling over this blonde girl who's going to Madrid and I mean that almost literally.

So he tried like hell to chat her up, even though -her- mother had said to me, "She's got a boyfriend!" when I asked the girl where she was going and found out Madrid.

Now, I will say this girl was cute, but drool-worthy? No. So I just laughed my ass off to myself while he's futilely trying to chat her up.

Even more hilarious was the fact that the guy's mother said, "We know it's late applying (which is true, as he leaves in 5 weeks, same as me), but he's the son of a Congressman, so the Congressman can push it along so the application gets through faster."

I damn near lost it with laughter and had to bite my cheek. Does this woman not know -anything- about how the diplomatic corps work? A Spanish consular officer over in Madrid isn't going to give a shit what some Wisconsin congressman has to say about anything and if anything, being pressured will make him delay it just for the fun of it.

Honestly, those were two very insecure, hyperactive mothers and the dude was hilarious in the desperate doggie kind of way.

I hope every day in Spain will provide some hilarious stories like these.

5 weeks to go! :)

1 August 2007

The month of departure is here!!!! Picked up some euros from the bank this afternoon and found myself disappointed in the paper euros. Too small and not nearly as pretty as the old European currencies I had back in 1994 when I was abroad or even the rubles I had in Russia last summer.

I still need to start putting in some work on the Spanish language CDs I got back in May. I'll be able to do that this weekend on my laptop when I go up north to visit my grandmother.

It's funny, it really does only seem like a short time ago that I was figuring out where to go. It's been a movies, Spain and Alexandre Dumas summer, one of the best I've had in years.

And the greatest autumn of my life is forthcoming. :)

[Icy]

Great! i'll be reading for sure and writing related stuff if it's is fine for you.

I love Granada, i have talked it a few times with my wife and if we ever decide to move away from Toledo (that i doubt) the chosen city would be Granada. We both have been there plenty of times and even my bachelors party was a full weekend there with 20 friends.

Granada has it all imho.

- Perfect location, 1 hour drive to the beach, 1 hour drive to the mountains and the best Sky station in Spain.

- An incredible old town for people who loves history as you do, full of medieval monuments including the amazing Alhambra, the cathedral, the Generalife gardens, etc with a nice mix of different cultures, you will notice it in the people, food etc.

- Great nightlife, Granada is a famous student's city, and of course it means that there are tons of bars, discos, pubs etc to party until the morning, also Spain has way more relaxed laws about alcohol and night parties than USA. You will probably attend to gypsy/flamenco dancing and singing spectacles, i'm not into that at all, but it's the typical from the south of Spain so you should at least watch one to see if you like it.

- The best place in Spain for "tapas". Soon you will learn the best areas where to eat tons of different tapas for free, you pay the drinks and the tapas are free. When i went there for my bachelors party, we went to a bar that offered a different free tapa with every drink. I can tell you that we drank a good amount of beers those days and never received the same tapa. For that weekend, we didn't expend anything on food, just on drinks and ate the free and great tapas. If you haven't tasted it yet, you will love the Spanish "Jamon Serrano" (country ham?) and the "gazpacho" (kind of cold tomato soup). At the tea shops, you can drink and taste Islamic food, like iced mint tea and all kind of exotic cakes made of almonds and honey.

Btw, get ready for 106F at the end of August, it's being a hot summer here in Spain.

Ask if you have any question about the city or the Spanish popular culture, etiquete, etc etc as i know it's something really different fom one country to another and could lead to fun or embarrassing situations.

For example, something that i have seen embarrassing other foreign students the first time they come to Spain is the way you salute a person from a different gender. When you are introduced to women, it's typical to kiss twice, once on each side of the face, not a big kiss, just like touching her face with yours (unless if it's an old person, in that case only hand shaking is used). That double kissing is used every time you meet a friend (women). Between men, a handshake is the usual. Spanish people is more used to physical contact than other Europeans or North Americans.

I'll be reading with high interest, fell free to ask anything you want to know :)

Here you got some pics:

Alhambra:
http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/averroes/sanwalabonso/andalucia/imagenes/alhambra_noche.jpg

Generalife:
http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/averroes/sanwalabonso/andalucia/imagenes/generalife.jpg

[MikeVic]

Very good start! I think this will be my most anticipated (although it's already on-going) dynasty.

Izulde has started with his stories, and Icy has already provided some cool info. Nice! :D

[Izulde]

Icy: Do certainly feel free to chime in with any commentary or advice you'd like to offer. :) It's extremely helpful, believe me and if I can think of any specific questions, I'll be sure to let you know. ;)

I have a feeling I'll like Spanish food myself and I've heard about the more physical contact thing, but wasn't sure if the double kiss thing applied or not. Good to know that it does. Greatly looking forward to Islamic food, too actually and I'm not normally a food person.

Ah, one question that springs to mind. Since I don't know enough Spanish to be able to read books or watch movies in the native language, are there bookstores with English language texts or films, either voiced or subtitled in Granada? Granted, I intend to speak as little English there as possible, but I love books and movies and hope to read and see as much there that I can't in the US as possible. :)

I know summers in Andalusia are hot, but how are the fall and winter, say September, October, November and December? I'm trying to figure out what to pack for clothes and I've heard that darker, more conservative clothing is the norm, but I don't know if that applies to the younger generation as well or not.

MikeVic: Glad to have you aboard! :) This is going to be a -really- fun dynasty to write.

[Icy]

Ah, one question that springs to mind. Since I don't know enough Spanish to be able to read books or watch movies in the native language, are there bookstores with English language texts or films, either voiced or subtitled in Granada? Granted, I intend to speak as little English there as possible, but I love books and movies and hope to read and see as much there that I can't in the US as possible. :)


Not so good news, everything is translated here to Spanish and no English subtitles are used. For example at he cinema, all the movies are translated to Spanish, same in TV.

The only way to watch English or subtitled stuff is if you buy/rent DVD's, as all them come with at least voices and subtitles in English, German, French and Spanish (most releases are common for all the European countries). Also if the place where you will live has satellite TV, you can watch some English channels, like BBC, CNN and Eurosports. Another thing, USA movies DVD's are released here 1 or 2 months later than in USA.

About books, the small shops only have Spanish ones or English tourists guides, but as Granada is a student's and tourists city, there must have been for sure some bigger book shops with English books apart from tourism guides. You have always also the option to buy online, Amazon UK ships to Spain (i have purchased English books there).


I know summers in Andalusia are hot, but how are the fall and winter, say September, October, November and December? I'm trying to figure out what to pack for clothes and I've heard that darker, more conservative clothing is the norm, but I don't know if that applies to the younger generation as well or not.


Andalusia is warm the whole year, but Granada is the exception as one of the higher mountains in Spain is close, so the temperature variation is extreme between Winter and Summer, from up to 106F on Summer to down to 30F on Winter. Its the same where i live in Toledo, we say that we only have summer or winter here, no spring/fall. Raining is very rare, it's always sunny.

About the dark conservative clothes... I would say the opposite for Granada. Have on mind it's a multicultural city, with big influences from the Islam and the huge amount of tourist, and you know how colorful they dress. Also as an students city, full of young people, it has a big mix of casual urban fashion. You will see a lot of grunge/hippie dressing people there between the students.

[Izulde]

Thanks for the helpful advice, Icy. :) When does it generally get down to the 30s? I'm staying there until December 21st, so I'm hoping I avoid the worst of the winter weather.

[Icy]

Thanks for the helpful advice, Icy. :) When does it generally get down to the 30s? I'm staying there until December 21st, so I'm hoping I avoid the worst of the winter weather.

Dec/Jan/Feb are the coldest months, so you might avoid the lowest temperatures if you leave mid Dec.

[Izulde]

Good to know :)

7 August 2007

Got an email detailing more specifically the itinerary and oh the places we'll go.

The Albaycin and the Arab Baths are confirmed group tours, as well as a Flamenco dance, so I'll get to see flamence for sure after all :D The baths sound really awesome from the pictures I've seen of them in a few guidebooks and I love baths anyway, especially after relaxing in one in Budapest last summer. Oh, there's a tapas night scheduled too, so it seems like they're hitting the Granada highlights.

A couple day trips are scheduled too, to Nerja and Alpujarras, neither name of which rings a bell admittedly.

Our two weekend trips are Sevilla and Gibraltar/Ronda, both of which I'm extremely hyped about, as they're places I definitely wanted to see. :)

[Izulde]

18 August, 2007

Horror descended upon the household earlier in the week we realized that all my pants are 4 hours away in a storage space. This prompted an emergency Banana Republic run down to Kenosha to get some pants. Still need to get jeans, but that'll come next week.

More consternation tonight as I'm going through preliminary packing and realizing that almost nothing coordinates as well as it should. Furthermore, I have way too much brown and green clothing, with a little white and black thrown in for good measure. Nothing's exceptionally bright, either. So I may have to yet more clothes shopping, as I'm feeling a major fashion crisis going on.

The clothes difficulty was further augmented with a camera mishap. More specifically, last night I found my computer cord for my digital camera. Only problem? Battery's dead and I can't find the charger. No problem, I order one online that'll be here in time. Then my mother gets the bright idea to use a charger that "fits the battery perfectly." I said "....No. Sony's real proprietary about their products. Just wait a few days till my charger comes in." She didn't listen, insisting that it'd work.

5 minutes later, melted battery, stinking living room.

So it'll be off to Batteries Plus to get a new battery. Thankfully I do have a backup battery, but it's my rule of thumb never to travel with just one battery.

Third crisis: I have absolutely -no- idea what small gift item to bring to my host senora and/or Spanish friends I might happen to meet, other than one. Icy, do you have any clues as to what would be good to bring? Something that's American only that's small that'd go over big with a senora I know nothing about?

A little over a week left and in that time, I have four dental appointments, two long shift work days, a family reunion, two parties and a haircut, not to mention all the remaining packing and shopping I have to do.

Oh yeah, fourth misadventure... I go looking for Eastpak backpack. Naturally they're not around Wisconsin anymore. I call my best friend in San Diego, asking her to look for it, as California usually has that kind of stuff. She spends all day today hunting, finding every brand under the sun except... you guessed it, Eastpak!

So I'll have to order one online. I absolutely refuse to use any backpack brand but Eastpak and I've been that way since freshman year in high school. They're durable, they're stylish, and they're roomy as hell, not to mention an absolutely fantastic warranty. The one time a backpack of mine did get busted (Broken zipper), they sent me a brand new one completely free of charge. Only they're not in stores anymore and I don't know why. Everyone I know who's ever gotten an Eastpak backpack has turned into an Eastpak diehard for life.

Oh well.

Calamity #5. I haven't received my financial aid award yet, so I called the financial aid office at school Monday. "Oh, we haven't processed it yet. When do you leave again?" "...August 28th." "One moment..." *3 minutes later* "We'll process it in the next batch. You should get an email by next Friday."

In brighter news, roommate and housing assignment lists came out early this last week. My roommate and I have done a little introductory e-mailing back and forth and I think we'll hit off pretty well. We've a room on or at Angel Barrios.... you familiar with that at all, Icy?

Also, I have about 6 or 7 snail mail addresses that I'll be handwriting letters to. One in particular I was extremely happy to get. :) It's a lost art form, the handwritten letter, but I intend to revive it.

Okay, enough writing. Eastpak hunting I go.

[Icy]

About Nerja: It's a nice coastal city with tons of history. You will see ruins from the old roman empire there and also from the muslims. It's famous also for the caves around the city, that seems to form a huge network inside the mountains, with tons of miles still unexplored.

About Alpujarras: It's the area of mountains and valleys surrounding Granada. It's a beautiful natural area crossed by tons of small rivers (some mineral water factories are found in the area). There is a small village there named Trévelez that is worldwide famous because the quallity of their Jamón Serrano (dry and salty ham). I have been there and it's curious to see all the buildings with drilled walls and full of ham inside. The drilled walls allow the fresh mountains air to dry the ham for months before it can be eaten. Probably they will show you that village or similar ones to taste the ham.

About the gift... for young people, usa brands t-shirts or caps are usually a good idea as are cheap there and expensive and trendy here. When i went to USA, i bought back surf/skate t-shirts for my friends and they loved them. For example Quicksilver, Billabong, O'Neill, Rip Curl, Dickies etc cost me there around $15 when the price here is around $50.

For the host señora... not sure what is typical in USA, post samples here and i'll tell you if could fit well.

Another thing that is always welcome could be chocolate. Of course we have all kind of chocolates here too, but with USA brands and English language in the envelop could be fun apart from tasty.

Related to USA food, you are going to notice a big difference in something as standard as Coke (named Coca Cola in Spain). The standard Coke in America is way more sweet than in Spain. I noticed a big difference in my trips to Miami and Mexico. Also we don't have as many flavors here. We have only standard, light and zero, not cherry or vanilla etc.

Where are you going to live finally? with a family? in a student's building? if so, only with other Americans? you said the place is named Angel Barrios but... there are tons of places named that way in Granada as he was a famous classic musician :) If you know the address or more details, i can research about it.

About the clothes, don't worry a lot, clothes are cheap here in franchise shops like Zara, Pull & Bear, Springfield, H&M etc.

Looking forward to read your experiences here, i'm curious about how an American sees my country. Also as you are going to expend a few months here and you CAN'T MISS my city Toledo, we should try to schedulle a meet once you are stabilized in Granada and can plan your schedule and trips. I would love to visit Granada again as i haven't visited it since my bachelors party 3 years ago, but as my wife pregnancy is due in early November, we can't travel a lot now so if we meet will need to be here in Toledo.

[Izulde]

Thanks, Icy :)

C/ Angel Barrios 3, 1oF
18004 Granada

is the address that's listed. I'm assuming the 1 F is the room number?

I certainly do plan on getting up to Toledo to meet you and go sword shopping, as nothing beats Toledo swordsmithing. ;)

Alpujarras I read has the white villages, which I'm guessing is the towns that you're talking about, so that should be fun and I'll quite enjoy Nerja and hopefully be able to compare the caves there to the Sac.. I forgot the exact spelling, but the gypsy caves in Granada. :D

[RPI-Fan]

So what kind of housing is this?

Do you speak Spanish at all?

[Izulde]

So what kind of housing is this?

Do you speak Spanish at all?

It's a homestay with a senora. I have a roommate as well. Now whether that entails an actual house or some kind of dorm-style apartment I don't know for certain until I get there. Maybe Icy can tell us more now that I gave the address. :D

No, no Spanish except for a few phrases here and there, so this is going to be an interesting challenge. Luckily, I should be able to pick it up fairly quickly, as #1, Spanish is purportedly the easiest foreign language for native English speakers to pick up and #2, I've already got considerable speaking proficiency in German and language acquisition gets easier after you've already more or less picked up a second one.

[RPI-Fan]

How the heck do you take Spanish-language classes then?

[Izulde]

How the heck do you take Spanish-language classes then?

Same way you take language courses here when you're new to a language... Start off with introductory courses and go from there. :)

All my other courses at University of Granada will be taught in English, btw.

[RPI-Fan]

Ohhhh... I thought that you'd have to take 2 "regular" college classes that are taught in Spanish. But it's just two Spanish classes... seems reasonable enough.

[Izulde]

Ohhhh... I thought that you'd have to take 2 "regular" college classes that are taught in Spanish. But it's just two Spanish classes... seems reasonable enough.

Haha yeah, two Spanish language courses and then 3 English language electives is what I'll be taking. Most people only take the required two language courses and two electives, but I want to get the most bang for my buck as it were.

Oh! That reminds me...

Icy, do you know of any fencing academies in Granada? I can't find -anyone- to fence sabre here in the Midwest US and it pisses me off... I was hoping to find someplace I could fence sabre and improve my game in Granada, maybe even get a few competitions in.

[Icy]

Icy, do you know of any fencing academies in Granada? I can't find -anyone- to fence sabre here in the Midwest US and it pisses me off... I was hoping to find someplace I could fence sabre and improve my game in Granada, maybe even get a few competitions in.

I googled a bit and found the official Granada's fencing club.
Here is a resume from their website info (that is in Spanish).
I guess you can try to email them in English to see if they can speak it, else i can write a Spanish email for you asking for more details.
First Spanish lesson: Fencing = Esgrima :)

Club Esgrima Granada (Granada's fencing club)

Phone numbers: 958.41.17.15 - 689.77.06.90
Website: www.esgrimagranada.org (http://www.esgrimagranada.org)
email: [email protected] or [email protected]

Address:
Polideportivo Municipal "AYNADAMAR"
Ctra. antigua de Murcia s/n (Albaicín) Granada
Map: http://www.esgrimagranada.org/imagenes/instalaciones/mapa.jpg

You can take the Bus #7 or F to go there.
Bus routes map: http://www.esgrimagranada.org/imagenes/instalaciones/ItinerarioBuses.jpg

Practice time:
Monday & Wednesday from 21:30 to 22:30

[Icy]

I have searched about the dorm, but can't find info about it. Probably it's a house that rents rooms to students (The door next to it is a hotel so maybe they are related).

Search in maps.google.com for: C/ Angel Barrios 3 granada, then select the satellite view and zoom in. You will see that your house/dorm is close to a nice park (Garcia Lorca Park). Good if you like to walk, running, etc. It's also close to the center of the city (old town).

[Izulde]

Thanks for everything, Icy. :)

I emailed them the maestro inquiring about sabre with sadly Babelfished Spanish and then English... so hopefully the message will get through in any case. *hangs head in shame for having used Babelfish*

[Izulde]

27 August, 2007

I leave tomorrow. In fact, 24 hours from now, I'll be in the car, headed down to Chicago.

A flurry of appointments and last-minute details today. Had a haircut this morning, got my new hearing aid molds installed shortly thereafter, went and got a black strap for my new watch, which had a gorgeous face but an ugly brown strap and said goodbye to the girls at work, who will all miss me. I'll miss them, too. The pay may be for shit at Victoria's Secret, but my co-workers are the best I've ever had.

Dentist appointment in 45 minutes. Deep cleaning for the gums. I may ask them to put a temporary in where they pulled my molar, as there's been nothing but pain and irritation there since they yanked it... and it's making both sides of my jaw hurt, in addition to this pain in my ears I've had the last few days. I suspect a dry pocket and if that's the case, it will suck, as that means medicated pads that I'll have to carry and maintain.

In any case, the extraction site is supposed to be partly healed by the end of this week, but not fully healed for about a month. That means 1/4th of my time in Granada I'll be dealing with the bloody thing. ARGH!

Said goodbye to Dreams Saturday night at the annual Victoria's Secret Summer Bash. It was nice to see her again and she's still as amazing as ever, maybe even more so in some respects. Too bad she went off and got married.

My two local buddies oddly haven't tried to contact me to say goodbye or hang out tonight, my last night in the US for 4 months. My two best friends in the fraternity, who live in Waukesha and Dekalb, respectively, wanted to meet up over the summer and see me before I left, but there just wasn't time... though I may see if they're interested in a last-minute get-together.

As far as non-FOFC online friends go, I've said goodbye to most of them. One in particular I specifically requested they clear tonight. :D That one I hope to see as my final person before I make futile attempt at sleep.

Still some last-minute packing and fiddling around on my laptop to do, as well as some addresses to add to my book, as demands for postcards and/or other handwritten correspondence have risen dramatically the last few days.

I still can't quite believe I'm actually going. I've wanted to study abroad since my junior year in high school and then after the academic struggles I had during my Minnesota and Parkside years, I thought I'd never be able to achieve the dream.

But it's here and it's happening. :)

[Icy]

Nice, looking forward to read your first post from Spain. Btw, do you know if you have internet in your dorm?

[MikeVic]

Didn't know you wore hearing aids. Good luck and have a safe trip!

[Izulde]

I hate plane rides. I really do. Chicago to London was as a pain in the butt as I figured it'd be, though I discovered these filters for the ears called Earplanes that cut down a lot on the ear hell I get from flying. Didn't eliminate it completely, but cut it down enough till it was manageable.

Both Heathrow and Malaga airport are undergoing heavyduty renovation which amused me for some reason, though I can't say for sure why.

As for Malaga itself, I noticed the following things:

1) Construction
2) Graffiti
3) Car rental places and dealerships

And that was just on the bus ride to the hotel.

After we got all checked in, we had and still have free time until 8:30 pm, when dinner starts. Of couse, everyone is way freaking tired, including me, but we press on. I in particular wanted to see the Alcazaba, as I have a serious thing for castles.

This meant negotiating the Malaga bus system, I who know no Spanish and who, during an earlier walk with my hotel roommate to the beach, discovered that street signs in Malaga are a foreign invention.

Fortunately, I found the bus stop across from the hotel easily enough, after getting some assistance from the front desk and had a general idea of where to get off, particularly with the occasional signs that popped up.

Got off at the Malaga city centre and wandered in the general direction that I knew my destination to be in until I eventually stumbled upon it.

According to the information I got, there's supposed to be a Roman ruin of sorts at the foot of the hill, but I didn't really see it too well, unless it was the wide, sloping steps leading up to the entrance that could've passed for ampitheatre aisles, I suppose.

1,95 euros later and I was officially in the Alcazaba, with an extremely lightweight English-language brochure, which I patently just ignored as it didn't really tell me anything and instead just wandered the castle, taking pictures.

After about the first ten minutes, I came to the following realization:

Taking a picture of yourself, or attempting to, when sightseeing, is a real bitch. Try as I might, I just couldn't get a good photo of myself. On top of it, I dropped my camera and the top cracked, though thankfully not as bad as t did in the Parliament Building in Budapest. It still takes pictures, but I don't know how good they are now. I'll be uploading them and e-mailing them to my mom and she can take a look.

Despite my self-photography troubles, I did enjoy the Alcabaza. I have a real affinity for long, sloping steps, beautiful arches, long hallways and exquisitely designed gardens and fountains. This palace-fortress had everything but the long hallways (at least relative to other hallways I've seen). There were lots of little nooks and crannies to explore too, so that it was a good hour and a half before I finally left.

On my way back to the bus stop, which I figured the location of by deductive reasoning (i.e. it must be opposite of where I was dropped off), I strolled through an open-air mall that had pedestrian only zones. (I love those types of malls). Lot of international names there, mostly clothing and other speciality stores.

It was in that mall that I made my first authentic purchase in Spain. Since I was thirsty, I decided to order a mango drink. I didn't speak Spanish, the girl didn't speak English, so we did a two and a half minute me-pointing, she-guesing game until she got the bottle.

And then I realized the bottle was half-full and what I thought was a mango juice bottle was actually a little bit of mango juice in a lot of shaved ice, which she proceeded to mix together.

Then came payment time. I got the dos part right for 2 euros, but thought she meant 5 for the cents part and since I just happened to have 2 euros, 5 cents, I slid it over.

Nope.

She repeated the cents part and held up four fingers. Okay, apparently 2,40. So I just gave her a 10 euro bill to get some change.

Good mango shaved ice, by the by.

Then I hopped on the bus and got off at the SuperCor, which is my landmark for the hotel... only I didn't see my hotel. I'm starting to panic now, thinking I'm totally lost, but then my feet start walking without me and three minutes later, I'm in front of my hotel.

So yeah, in a lot of ways this is reminding me of last time in Europe, where I relied only minimally on maps and I have this weird ability to just find stuff by stumbling around.

I've an hour and a half to kill, so I'll probably go to the SuperCor supermarket and see what's what.

Overall, my initial impression of Malaga is that it's considerably overrated as a tourist destination. Its beaches, at least the one I saw, was pretty dirty and while it's a bustling city, I'm not really feeling any soul to this place, if you get what I mean.

I will say though, I'm definitely starting to grow fond of Moorish architecture. I love the arch styles and the geometric gardens are curiously peace-inducing.

[Icy]

Good start!

Agree about Malaga, the beaches are not great at all. Anyway, most of the tourists are in Marbella that is another coastal city in the Malaga province.

You must know that Spain is divided in provinces, and each provice has a capital city. The province and the capital city have the same name, so when it's said that Malaga is a tourists place, it's more said about the whole province (and specially Marbella city) than about the Marbella capital city itself, where you are now. I hope this made sense to you :)

I don't Marbella it either as it's so crowded both by people and hotels/buildings. The main interest of tourists in Marbella are mainly the tons of golf courses placed there and the night parties. The richest Spanish and foreign people go to Marbella, but unless you are rich or you love golf (and are rich), there are much better beaches to go in Spain.

When are you going to Granada? I'm sure you will fall in love with the city.

Btw, good to see you manage well to find places by yourelf and that you already managed to "comunicate" with other Spanish. Get used to it, English is not spoken by most of the people here besides people who wants to study it or who work at tourist places/offices.

[Izulde]

We leave for Granada tomorrow morning.

Not much more to write about concerning the rest of the day. Bought some German dark chocolate and my usual European standby of orange Fanta on a lark at the supermarket. Supper consisted of a buffet at which I ate this pasta with a curious green tint and sauce and a surprisingly good flavour and a sort of pasta salad with raisins that was good in its own right, along with a bottled water I'll have to try and remember the brand of. Oh yes, a pear, too. ;)

After that, went out with a bunch of my fellow students to a bar and I must admit, got bored very quickly. It was just like being in a bar in the US, but I'm sure that'll change in Granada. We probably went to the wrong place for a more interesting experience as well.

So yes, overall I'd say Malaga was something of a letdown, but that should make Granada all the sweeter when it comes tomorrow. :)

Oh yes, that reminds me.

I forgot to mention in my first update that it took me several minutes to figure out that in order to keep the lights on, you have to keep your hotel card in the slot in the room, or the lights go out after 5 minutes.

I find it to be a brilliant concept for two reasons: 1) It saves on electricity in case someone forgets to turn the lights off and 2) It cuts down on lost key-cards, because you'll always know it's in the slot giving you power.

What a smart idea!

2:00 am here and I'm not feeling the jet lag. I'm honestly not even all that tired anymore.... Well, actually I am. Too tired to update any of my dynasties, not tired enough to sleep.

I'll probably play something on my DS to help me drop off.

I am, so -so- looking forward to Granada tomorrow!

[MikeVic]

Good reading. Will you be posting pictures of places you see?

When I went to Europe after junior high (more than 9 years ago), I loved orange Fanta. :)

[Passacaglia]

If you have a thing for castles, I guess I should have told you about how we weren't able to get anyone to understand us when we asked where the Alcazar was -- it took us a while to figure out that everyone pronounced it "Alcathar."

Good reading so far!

[Icy]

Good reading. Will you be posting pictures of places you see?

When I went to Europe after junior high (more than 9 years ago), I loved orange Fanta. :)

Don't you have Fanta in USA? I thought it was a worldwide product as it's made by the Coke company.

[Izulde]

There is Fanta in the US but it's not as widely popular as in Europe and so to me it's acquired a European meaning. :)

Arrived in Granada about 1 pm. Didn't really see much of the city as I was busy listening to the group leader explain stuff about our itinerary for the next few days.

We met with our senora, my roommate and I, at the meeting point and she walked us to our homestay, which turns out to be in an apartment with her and her 21 year old son. We each have our own tiny room, which I love.

I took pictures of the room and whatnot.

It turns out that the senora speaks no English and I speak no Spanish. My roommate speaks a little Spanish, but not enough to make for fluent translations, so there's been some hilarious UIC so far, none of which I can remember right now, since I'm in a cybercafe which charges 1,80 Euro/hour and everything's flown out of my mind.

After that, we did a quick non-stopping tour of Granada. Beautiful city, though the graffiti makes me angry... thankfully it's less than in Malaga at least. The view from by the Alhambra is incredible and unfortunately I left my camera back in my room, so I didn't get any pictures of that.

When the group leader mentioned we wouldn't be going to the Alhambra today, but during classes, one guy quipped as we passed by it, "Oh, so this is like foreplay?" Mass hilarity ensued.

Came back and had supper at the house. Senora made omelets, which I had to bypass on because I despise eggs. So I had a tomato, cheese, and meat sandwich.

She fed us some kind of bean and vegetable thing, along with fruit and yogurt for lunch. My stomach still has to get used to Spanish food, but Immodium AD is my friend in that regard.

After dinner, my roommate and I walked to the Internet cafe nearest the house to see where it was, then went to meet up with someone. We waited, waited some more and finally left to continue our search for cigarettes which had been fruitless to that point. Roommate finally discovered a bar and braved the crowd to get us a pack.

Smoked our Lucky Strikes, found them better than the US version and came to Internet Cafe.

There's a lot more that went on today obviously, but my brain's a little scattershot right now, so I'm having trouble forming a logic flow. :)

I'd planned to start a series called Lyrical Notes, which is a punny name to me, where I ramble poetic occasionally on certain things. I wrote my first one on the road to Granada, but unfortunately I left my notebook back at the house. :rolleyes:

I'll write more coherent thought later.

And yes, I'll be posting pics. :)

[Izulde]

Quick run-in to post pics.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/Izulde/DSC01476.jpg
The Alcabaza in Malaga and me

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/Izulde/DSC01504.jpg
One of my fave of umpteen pics I took of the Alcabaza. The water running on the bottom fascinated me to no end.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/Izulde/DSC01464.jpg
Women's Secret. I assume a Victoria's Secret knock-off. :D In Malaga, though I've seen them here in Granada too.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/Izulde/DSC01571.jpg
[i]I've complained about graffiti but this is beautiful! Taken at night on one of the doors of a shop here in Granada. The shopowners are on vacation until 1st week in September.

[oliegirl]

Don't you have Fanta in USA? I thought it was a worldwide product as it's made by the Coke company.

I was having the same kind of thought, as we have Fanta here in Georgia...it's not really easy to find, but all the big convenience stores like RaceTrac and QuikTrip carry them.

Izulde, have a wonderful trip - it sounds like you are really embracing this experience! I can't wait to read more and see some pictures...

[Izulde]

I was having the same kind of thought, as we have Fanta here in Georgia...it's not really easy to find, but all the big convenience stores like RaceTrac and QuikTrip carry them.

Izulde, have a wonderful trip - it sounds like you are really embracing this experience! I can't wait to read more and see some pictures...

Thanks :)

I'll try and write more and upload more pics, though it's going to be hit and miss since I don't get internet in my homestay.

[Izulde]

The last few days have blurred together, the days filled with orientation, walking, eating and napping, the nights with walking and talking.

There's a park by our homestay that's one of the most beautiful I've ever been in, a mixture of brightly colored flowers, all manner of greenery from short shrubs to towering, slender trees that resemble thin pines. Fountains, too, which I love, as I may have said before.

My roomate, the girl he's been talking to a lot, and I hung out in the park for about an hour yesterday, walking around, chatting and yes, playing with the equipment that's there. :D Roommate took a picture of me one of the pieces, so when he uploads it, I'll grab it and put it up here.

At night, the three of us went to Hanigan and Sons, a grossly over-priced Irish bar that also had the dubious distinction of being extremely noisy and crowded with Americans. I can't hear in bar situations, so I simply sat and watched the Sevillia-Milan Super Cup final for the third time that day, occasionally sipping from a beer that the girl bought as the first round.

I say sipping because I hate beer. Needless to say, I was the last to finish, so I bought them each another beer. 7 euros for the two. I get the distinct feeling I'm not going to drink much here.

Hopefully we'll be going to the beach tomorrow. There's been some speculation among the group at large that we'll all go do that, which I'd like to do. Malaga's beach was a horror and I long for a respectable beach.

I got a cell phone yesterday as well. A basic Apelcom-affiliated Vodaphone with a sweetheart pricing deal, as it's an agreement between CEA and Apelcom that gives us lower rates because it's a group affair.

Today will be a lazy day, I believe. I woke up around 1:30 pm, showered and had lunch and then went with my roommate to the cyber-cafe, where we are. After we leave here, my roommate intends on a nap and I'll play either FOF2K7 or CK on my laptop... probably not a dynasty, though, as I'm still in the mode of adjusting to life in Granada.

One thing I've noticed: I'm starting to pick up some Spanish... if not the actual words (which I'm still limited on), then a general understanding of some of the language. For example, I was able to understand most of the conversation my roommate and our senora had about the book he lost in his room. (They found it a few days later).

Monday we have the second half of orientation and placement tests to determine what level class we'll be in for the intensive language class for the first 3 weeks before the semester proper starts. Needless to say, I'll be in Inicial A (Beginning A :D)

[Izulde]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/Izulde/meswing.jpg
Me on a swing :D

[Izulde]

Last night, the usual three wandered around the city. Went to Hanigan and Sons again, drank another beer. This time, I was just about to be in second, and just as I took the last swallow, the gag reflex I normally get with beer hit and I vomited back in the glass.

Second round involved beers for them, Bacardi & Sprite for me. 4,75 euros, but oh so delicious, a tall half-glass of Bacardi and a bottle of Sprite. I drank it in quick order and roommate and girl both stared at me in amazement, to which I casually answered, "Oh, I forgot to mention... this stuff is like water to me."

So then we left and walked some more. Roommate gave girl a lesson in salsa dancing in the middle of the cobblestone street, which led to applause and cheering from the patrons of the cafe nearby as they danced together. Something like that I don't imagine happening in the US, at least not in that convergence of cobblestone, cafe, night, narrow street, cheering crowd, etc.

We kept on walking and kept on talking, until we decided we were thirsty for another drink. This led to our asking two different groups of people where to find a bar still open (this was about 3:00 am). Neither group gave us directions we wholly understood.

Of the two, the first group was the most amusing. One of the guys had bummed a smoke and light from us, whereas another guy, all blinged out, was drunk off his ass and started cheering and talking about how great America and Americans were.

So finally, we went to a hotel to ask there. Roommate and girl debated over who should ask, so finally I, who knows no Spanish, said "Yo quiero taberna." This confused the clerk, as my pronounciation of it apparently indicated a specific place in Malaga. So then I pantomimed chugging back a shot and he understood. Thus, we finally got clear directions.

We arrived and discovered that there was a bar inside the bullfighting ring, but was unfortunately closed (it was shortly after 4 am). So we watched and commented on the drunk people staggering around in the small playground nearby, laughing like mad when we saw a guy humping a blowup doll and another guy on top of him pantomiming the same action. Naturally, another guy took a picture of this and the three of us looked at one another and said, "That's so going to get facebooked."

Returned home and slept. Woke up, ate lunch, watched TV that was infuriatingly the same exact stuff as yesterday. Walked to the Centre for Modern Languages at the University of Granada to know for sure where to go tomorrow and how to get there.

Wandered some more and ended up in the tourist alley by this massive, gorgeous, church, and that's when trouble struck.

Two old gypsy women grabbed the hands of my roommates and I and started going into a fortune-telling routine. I'm thinking, "Damn it! Damn it damn it damn it!!!" because I -know- what's coming.

Sure enough, they request money. I go to give my gypsy coins, she says no, paper. At this point I just want to get out of here, so I hand her 5 euros. She demands another 5 euros, and stupidly, I gave it to her.

So that's 10 euros gone and I'm still fuming about it, because I've traveled abroad extensively before. I -know- better than this and yet, I allowed myself to get hit. Oh well. I got a fragrant piece of greenery out of it, probably stolen from some public bush.

There's a Granada CF game tonight, but I don't know if I'll have time to find the bus I have to get to and get out to the stadium.

Icy, do you know where I could get tickets or what the schedule is? Or what bus I take to get to the stadium? I'm probably going to miss tonight's game, but I want to catch one before I have to go home.

Ah yes, that reminds me. I brought my notebook today.

Lyrical Notes #1 (30/08/07)

Malaga is a souless city, a conglomeration of construction, congestion, cars and tall buildings that dominate the skyline. Its beaches are small, cigarette butt-littered affairs with gritty sand. No Hawaiian luxury on these shorelines.

The countryside surrounding Malaga is another matter entirely. Multi-level hills and mountains dip and slope, rise and fall in an astonishing variety of humps and curves. The vegetation is plentiful but sparse at the same time, with spindly black trees supporting wooly heads of dark green leaves and the kind of stout grass and brush that reminds me of Wyoming.

Now and again a proud, lonely white house with red tile roof, that ubiqutous Spanish symbol, can be spotted in the hills. An occasional spike of an electric or communications tower, too.

The effect of all this is a sense of serenity. It is not, I think, a traditional beauty to be found on the road from Malaga to Granada, but rather a rugged, wild, tough loveliness. There's a sense of time's flow as well, for I can imagine, even in antiquity, the Romans and Phoenecians who settled this area marveling at the shifting, entrancing landscape.

[Izulde]

Placement exam today. I just wrote yo no hable y escrite espanol on both the essay and grammar parts... They told me after the break that I didn´t need to do the oral exam so I´ve gone wandering and am now in a Morrocan internet cafe. Good music playing and the incense smells nice.

International keyboard is a bit of a pain, though.

I´m headed back to the CLM shortly to see if my roommate´s done with his oral exam yet.

[Izulde]

3 has become 2 and 1.

I've been getting the sense lately that the two of them would prefer to hang out together and not have me along and that was confirmed today when they skeaddled off during the "tour", leaving me stranded after the large group broke up to go home.

To say I was pissed would be something of an understatement. Here I was, stuck on a side of Granada I wasn't familiar with and I was completely alone. Fortunately, my feet knew where to go and took me right back to my place, which was both something of a small miracle and the sort of thing that happens to me when I go abroad.

My roommate also neglected to tell me that breakfast was being served this morning, even though I was awake, just in my room getting stuff ready for the placement test. Needless to say, I missed out on breakfast, as he didn't tell me I missed it until halfway to the CLM when I grumbled about not being served breakfast.

So yeah, not too happy about that right now, though it's really for the better. I was getting seriously sick of being a third wheel anyway. That happens to me enough in the US; I don't need it here.

This was not the only set of mishaps during the day, but more on that later.

So we get to the testing center, get the instructions entirely in Spanish and the orientation of the CLM, also entirely in Spanish (anyone sensing irony here yet?). Fortunately, I was able to understand a good deal of it through context and cognates.

The first two parts of the test were essay and grammar. On both sections, I wrote "Yo no hable y escrite Espanol." (FOFC guys, I know I posted that before, but it's for the other groups I x-post to.) which means, in very bad Spanish that "I don't speak or write Spanish."

During the break after the grammar section, they told me the oral exam wasn't necessary, so I took a small tour of the neighborhood and got more familiar with the area surrounding it, which is where I found a Moroccan internet cafe that was a lot cheaper than this place, with great smelling incense and fantastically soothing incense

Since I didn't get breakfast, I bought two bananas and a water at the corner store I'm growing to really like. One of my favorite things about the place is the owner, who's a nice old guy very understanding of my lack of Spanish. Cool thing today was, I went to get a water out of the cooler, but it was warm, so then I turned around and he's handing me a cold water. Now that was awesome.

I also got my user name and password for the free wireless internet at the University, but it apparently won't be activated until tomorrow, as I tried it this afternoon.

Following the placement tests, we had the aforementioned crappy tour in which we were shown the medical clinic and the sport complex. It was also extraordinarily hot today, as in so hot, even -I- was feeling it.

So by the time I get back for lunch, I'm in a seriously ticked off mood and dying to get my hands on a sabre and fence. It didn't help that lunch was a bean and vegetable soup, because I don't like beans and I'm positively sick of vegetables, cold meat slices, hard bread and water at every damned meal. Our senora's a decent cook, but her lack of variety is driving me crazy.

I found out the location of the bus to take me to the Albaycin, where the fencing academy is, earlier in the day at the CLM, so I hop the bus, get off at the stop and start searching.

I asked at a pharmacy (thankfully the druggist spoke English) where the sport building was where fencing was held. I was trying to ask "Yo quiero Deportivo", but that just drew a blank look. Anyway, he tells me that it's down on the street I passed and to take a right and it'll be in the middle.

Okay, no problem. I'll just walk till I find it.

...An hour and a half later, I'm cursing out the fencing academy, the Albaycin, Granada, CEA and myself. It's nowhere to be found and I've spent the last hour and a half walking the same five blocks. I've asked some old men at a religious retirement home (from what I can tell) and some old women hanging out by the just-closed pharmacy and nobody can help me.

You see, nobody else in the whole flipping district speaks English.

The real killer was when this incredibly gorgeous girl said, when I asked her and her friend or sister or whatever "Hable tu ingles?", "Yes, I can." I cheered and said, "Thank you!", proceeding to inquire after my destination.

She smirked, laughed and said, "I have no English."

I blinked, replied, "Oh... gracias", and walked off.

Immediately I heard a storm of feminine giggles behind me, followed by the rapid-fire, high-pitched, hilarity-edged Spanish that indicates two girls are busy laughing at the poor, dumb American.

Finally, at 9:35, I gave up and trudged back to the bus stop, whereupon I start panicking as there's no sign of the bus in either direction after 7 minutes, so I asked a group of women sitting on the benches nearby, "Bus no *holds up 7 fingers and points to watch*"

They replied that it would be 10 minutes with a mixture of Spanish and the same fingered language I'd used.

So back on the bus I go, feeling utterly defeated. Appropriately enough, I'm the only one on.

But then, as the bus rumbles down the winding hill, away from the Albaycin and back to the city centre, I notice something.

The nighttime view of Granada from the Albaycin is absolutely breathtaking and the sunset I saw earlier was the most beautiful one I'd seen since a midsummer's night in Venice 13 years ago.

I reminded myself that failures and mistakes will happen during my time here and even the bad things will become amusing memories as I become more acclimated to the city and to the language.

I got off at my stop and started walking back home, telling myself that I did well to brave the Albaycin at night and survive it with virtually no Spanish. I bought two scoops of mango and passion fruit ice cream at a gelato shop as a reward for myself and as I ate and walked, I remembered the mango ice cream I had a few days ago and how I'm falling in love with the flavor, a taste that will forever be linked with this city.

The city centre is starting to feel like home now, especially after the Albaycin adventure. I'm becoming gradually more and more accustomed to Granada and tomorrow, I not only finally get free internet (hopefully), but I start the 3 week intensive Spanish course. 4 hours a day, from 4-8. I love that I have an evening class.

I also realized while walking home that I couldn't have fenced even if I had found the place. I didn't bring my shoes and I can't fence in sandals.

So Wednesday, I'll bring the address and my shoes and I -will- find my way to the academy this time.

Oh yeah, one more thing.

After I got home, I grabbed my laptop and was just about to head to the cafe here when the senora stopped me and asked if I wanted to eat supper. I was really hungry, so I said yes, dreading yet another vegetable, meat slice and bread concoction.

She serves some really tasty multi-coloured pasta with bits of fish and this awesome ham with bright red edges (I'm assuming a spice of some kind.) It was the single best meal I've had since I've been in Spain. :)

So the day started poorly, but it ended fantastically.

Here's to hoping tomorrow is all good. :)

[Icy]

Hehe i can imagine how was your day in the Albaicin not knowing a bit of Spanish. It's the oldest part of the city and probably the last place where to find English speakers. I'm glad you liked the night city view from there, i agree it's amazing.

I didn't answer before as i have been away the weekend, relaxing in a house in the mountains and without internet. So i couldn't answer in time about the soccer game.

About finding your way in the city, i highly recommend looking, studding and printing the Granada center map that you can find in google maps. You can also set there your señora's house and then find in google maps the full route to your destination as i gave you the fencing academy address. If you need to ask around, don't ask about fencing as that sports center is not only about fencing, ask for the "polideportivo" that means something like "multi sports center".

About the pork you ate, i guess it was "lomo adobado" that is the part of the pork at both sides of the spine (don't know the name in English) and the red stuff at the edges is the spice named "pimenton" that is made with dried red peppers. It's typical Spanish food (that i love too).

About the gypsy women close to the cathedral or churches, i forgot to warn you. They are so disturbing and always trying to rip off the foreigners. The 10€ you gave her is a big amount of money, most of Spanish don't give them anything, and in case we do, is 1€ max. Next time just ignore them, not even look at them no matter how much they shout at you, they are not going to do you any harm besides shouting (unless you believe in gypsy damns as that is what they will shout you :) ). Last time i went there, they tried to read my wife's hand, i told them to fuck off and they started to shout at us that we would die the following day and stupid things like that.

Always ignore gypsies, both women and men as they are always trying to rip you off or to look for troubles, not even look at them and they will forget about you and will look for another one to disturb. I might sound racist with that comments, but only who has seen them in action as you have now, can understand why i say that. They are just society parasites that do nothing than to live from the other's work.

Anyway I'm sure things will improve soon once you start with your Spanish lessons, the language barrier is hard in every country but way worse in the ones like Spain where most of people don't speak English at all.

[Izulde]

Yeah I kept saying Deportivo, trying to say the sports building but it didn't exactly work, though a few of them did say "Futbol?" as I was trying to explain what I was asking about. :D

But next time I'll have my map and shoes.

First class is in 20 minutes and I'm greatly looking forward to it.

Any idea on how to find out when the next Granada CF home game is and what bus to take to get to the stadium?

I need to buy one of those multi-pack of bus tickets too, as it'll be cheaper in the long run.

Hope you enjoyed the mountains! :) I know I'll be there at some point this semester, albeit probably a different area than yours.

[RPI-Fan]

Re: the roomate. What he did seems pretty annoying. But try to forget about it and maybe just try to cut back from doing everything with him, to doing a few things a week. It'd be good to have a friend there and cutting back should make you guys get less sick of each other.

[MikeVic]

Sucks about your roommate just ditching you like that, but the rest of the posts in the thread seem like a good, adventurous time so far! Cold meats and bread seems to be prevalent in a few European cultures. My dad is Croatian and my mom is Polish, and we have cold meats a lot (even here in Canada, but every day at least one meal in Europe was at least partly cold meats). I like cold meats though, so it was alright. :)

I was under the impression that there would be a lot of seafood in Spanish dishes?

About the Fanta... I first saw and tried it in Europe, so it is something I associate with Europe, and don't drink it here at all. I do see it in stores, but for some reason it doesn't appeal to me here. :)

[Izulde]

Re: the roomate. What he did seems pretty annoying. But try to forget about it and maybe just try to cut back from doing everything with him, to doing a few things a week. It'd be good to have a friend there and cutting back should make you guys get less sick of each other.

I agree, though the way he's situated with regard to his level class, he's about half a class behind everyone else relative to where he tested, so he's going to be spending his entire time studying and occasionally hanging out with the girl.

Which I rather like, to be honest. I've been a lot happier since I've been exploring the city and so on, on my own. Sure it'd be nice to have someone to chill with, but I'm perfectly fine myself. :)


Sucks about your roommate just ditching you like that, but the rest of the posts in the thread seem like a good, adventurous time so far! Cold meats and bread seems to be prevalent in a few European cultures. My dad is Croatian and my mom is Polish, and we have cold meats a lot (even here in Canada, but every day at least one meal in Europe was at least partly cold meats). I like cold meats though, so it was alright.

I was under the impression that there would be a lot of seafood in Spanish dishes?

About the Fanta... I first saw and tried it in Europe, so it is something I associate with Europe, and don't drink it here at all. I do see it in stores, but for some reason it doesn't appeal to me here.

Cold meats I can take or leave, but if I'm going to have them, I'd really prefer that they be in a sandwich.

I figured there'd be more seafood, too, but I guess our senora isn't all about the seafood. My guess is that the restaurants are more typical.

Fanta is definitely a Europe association for me as the first time I drank it was when I toured Europe 13 years ago. It got to be so that I drank it religiously, in fact. I haven't had it too often here, simply because my teeth are still healing from a barrage of dental work in the week before I left and soda murders my teeth.

Mostly what I've had is warm water at the homestay. I had pineapple juice a couple times, which was great, but the one time she gave us milk, it was whole milk and I only drink skim (unless it's low-fat chocolate or strawberry). Needless to say, I haven't had milk since then.

First language class yesterday wasn't too bad, even though the two professors (we had one for the first half, another for the second half) used exceedingly little English, so it's real immersion. If I hadn't had German for a number of years and had a basic understanding of grammatical structures in foreign languages though, I'd be absolute toast.

I didn't do much last night... Came home, caught a few more Pokemon in Pearl, discovered that the voltage isn't right for the DS, so I'd need a voltage adapter if I want to recharge my DS, ate supper, went out for mango and passion fruit ice cream, came home again and went to bed early.

I got up around 11:30 this morning, showered, studied the map until I found the address for the bigger of the two bookstores where we could find our textbook... and was ecstatic to see that it's like three blocks from my homestay. So I went there, bought the textbook, the workbook, and Tales of the Alhambra by Washington Irving, with mood music to play while you read. Grand total: 41 euros, which made me :eek: VAT is a real pain.

I'm going to save my receipts though, because I remember reading somewhere that you can get the VAT on stuff back if you're not an EU citizen.

Lunch was vegetable soup again, though this time it had some kind of cheesy noodles to it which I was kinda eh, it's all right, on the taste of, but they really helped to spice up the soup.

Tonight I'm going to try the Albaicin again. This time I have the address with me and I noticed when I looked on the map that it doesn't appear to be on the Calle Ayandamar, but rather Callejon de Tallacarne, which would explain why I couldn't find it last time. Darn Aynadamar threw me off last time.

[RPI-Fan]

41 euros for ONE textbook would be a giant bargain for me. :)

[CamEdwards]

Reading this dynasty made me feel very old for a second, because I paid several thousand dollars this summer so my oldest step-daughter could do a study-abroad thing in Florence, Italy.

But then when I read you're missing out on your 10-year high school reunion I felt better, because you're only five years younger than me.

And then I felt depressed because you're only five years younger than me and you're hanging out in fucking Spain getting to hit on college girls while I'm driving my wife's minivan to take the kids to get haircuts.

I guess that's a long way of saying have fun and enjoy yourself... you're a lucky guy getting to do this!

[Izulde]

41 euros for ONE textbook would be a giant bargain for me. :)

It depends on what subject area you're in :D English majors in the US, our books aren't that expensive separately... it's that we have 50 million books that adds the cost up.


Reading this dynasty made me feel very old for a second, because I paid several thousand dollars this summer so my oldest step-daughter could do a study-abroad thing in Florence, Italy.

But then when I read you're missing out on your 10-year high school reunion I felt better, because you're only five years younger than me.

And then I felt depressed because you're only five years younger than me and you're hanging out in fucking Spain getting to hit on college girls while I'm driving my wife's minivan to take the kids to get haircuts.

I guess that's a long way of saying have fun and enjoy yourself... you're a lucky guy getting to do this!

:D Thanks! I have to say, that post made me laugh for a good 10 minutes.

How did your step-daughter like Florence? It was the other finalist in my choices for going abroad.

[MikeVic]

It depends on what subject area you're in :D English majors in the US, our books aren't that expensive separately... it's that we have 50 million books that adds the cost up.



:D Thanks! I have to say, that post made me laugh for a good 10 minutes.

How did your step-daughter like Florence? It was the other finalist in my choices for going abroad.

Just think, if the timing was different and you picked Florence, you could be with CamEdwards' daughter.

[Izulde]

Just think, if the timing was different and you picked Florence, you could be with CamEdwards' daughter.

This is true!

[Izulde]

It's funny, most of the native Spainairds who have hazarded a guess at my nationality thus far think I'm French. Just why this is, I have no idea, but I find it absolutely fascinating.

I've seen two accidents so far in my time here. The first one, there was a police motorcyle roaring along at breakneck speed and he slammed into the side of a girl's car as she was trying to pull over to get out of the way. The cop put a huge dent in the side of her car and she was furious.

The window worked okay, but that dent was a big-time one and I couldn't help but think that it was terribly ironic that she should get into an accident because of the police of all people.

The other accident, I didn't see personally, just the aftermath of it. Two delivery trucks, who with their short, squat white shapes reminded me of albino pigs for some strange reason, had run head-on into each other and the drivers and police were discussing it in a group. There wasn't too much damage fortunately, though I don't know if it's because they weren't going that fast when they hit or if it's because the trucks are made of pig iron or some other strong material.

I'll probably go out clubbing tonight. One of the guys in my class found out about a couple places worth checking out, so we're planning on investigating them.

Tomorrow I plan on hitting the beach. I haven't gone once since I've been in Spain, other than walked down to Malaga's crummy beaches and I really want to go swimming in the Mediterranean. Last time I went, I was 14... which was... oh wait, 14 years ago, not 13. My bad. :D

I remember it being enjoyable waters to swim in, but we'll see how it goes this time. I was also on the French Riveria then, whereas this time I'll be somewhere on the Spanish coast. I'll probably go to the beach where the bus fare is cheaper to get to and it's a shorter ride.

I'm still pondering what to do with my 10 days off after the intensive language course ends. Everyone in the group is hot on Amsterdam for obvious reasons, but I'm real meh. Wasn't terribly fond of the city last time I was in it, to say the least.

I'm considering the possiblity of going to a few different cities where I know people from FOFC and the Paradox forums, if you guys would be interested in meeting up. :) I know Toledo for sure is a destination, but beyond that I'm pretty open.

[Icy]

As you asked, here is the info about the next Granada soccer games at home in the Los Carmenes Stadium:

23rd September: Granada vs Cartagena
30th September: Granada vs Merida

Notice that we in Spain write first the home team and then the visitor, unlike in USA where visitor @ home is used.

[Izulde]

As you asked, here is the info about the next Granada soccer games at home in the Los Carmenes Stadium:

23rd September: Granada vs Cartagena
30th September: Granada vs Merida

Notice that we in Spain write first the home team and then the visitor, unlike in USA where visitor @ home is used.

Thanks :)

In other news, I've discovered that an American football team is holding tryouts? or starting play on October 1st, one of the two... here in Granada, so I may try out, especially if fencing doesn't work out.

Because I called the coach on Monday when nobody was at the practice site and I -think- he said it doesn't start up again until October. In any case, he said to call him back on Monday (That was interesting in and of itself, he having no English and my having only very bad two days' worth of broken Spanish :D)

[Icy]

American football i growing here in Spain, still totally amateur but yes, Granada has a team. It could be fun for you and as long as you are not disabled, you will make the team as most of American football teams in the league can't even have a defensive and offensive team, the players must play both sides because the lack of personal.

I was about to try out for a team in Madrid past year to accomplish my dream of wearing pads and helmet for once in my life, but first with the loss of my daughter and later knowing that I would had to drive 70 miles late at night 4 days per week to attend the practices and then 70 again back home, i ended not doing it.

[Izulde]

Ironman football? Awesome. :) I did that in high school my freshman year, played RB and DB... I wanted to play DL or LB, but the coach wouldn't let me.

Nowadays I'd probably be more of a TE and... I'm not sure what I'd play defensively. I'll give the guys listed on the slip a call tomorrow sometime to see what the situation is exactly.

I'm hoping to hit the beach today. :)

How many games do they usually play in a season? I'm only here through late December, so I'm not sure if I'd make all the games... if I try out though, I think I'll start a separate dynasty for that.

Last night was a blast. To put it succintly:

One chamber hookah... 15 euros
Strawberry tobacco... 6 euros
Charcoal.... 2 euros
Sitting on the steps of a church in Spain smoking hookah with two friends... Priceless :D

Last night was a wandering around night for the most part. Just walking to random places with roommate and girl and exploring more of the city. We stopped at this little Greek hole in the wall place, with the kind of wood paneling that you find in saunas. It was as hot as a sauna, too.

But all the sweating and the creepy posters (the baby's eyes were disturbing), turned out to be worth it, as we had falafel and fries that were both fantastic. I was surprised because both items had a bunch of stuff in/on them and normally I like those things plain, but it was delicious in this case.

Lamb meat with mayonaise and ketchup on the fries, the falafel containing bacon, lettuce, tomato, sauce, lamb, etc... It was all really tasty.

For dessert, we found this little bakery not too far from the Greek place and got these chocolate creme-filled doughnuts that were plain with a latticing of chocolate icing on top and solid chocolate on the bottom. Quite good.

Supper last night was a hamburger, with hard bread and a kind of cheese that I've gotten addicted to. It's a white cheese with a dark green edge to it. Not sure of the name of it and Jim didn't recognize it when he asked senora what kind it was.

For lunch (yes I know I'm going backwards here), I had a cheese and bologna sandwich senora made me so I could eat it while I did my fantasy football draft outside the CLM, which was awesome of her. Sandwich was pretty good, too.

I wasn't sure how my fantasy football team would turn out, since I picked 7th in the draft and I haven't had the time to be able research like I normally would, but it turned out pretty well, I think. Only one or two really stupid picks, and I can compensate for those through the waiver wire. As of this morning, I'm up 30-3 the first matchup, with my guys having played two players, my opponent's having played one.

Today I plan to get to the beach. Hoping to catch the 11 o'clock bus if I can buy a ticket and get to the station in time. If I don't make it, though, I'll probably just have a chill-out day, continuing my offline College Years dynasty with Wyoming that's proving a lot of fun.

[thealmighty]

How's it going with the roommate after a few more days?

[Izulde]

How's it going with the roommate after a few more days?

Much better, thanks :) I hung out with him and girl last night at his insistence.

In fact, his words were "Get your stuff. We're going out."

I think it works best that way, because I can take or leave hanging out with them and this way, when they want me to chill with them, they'll let me know.

I'm going to do the post-class hang out with the rest of my Spanish class tomorrow, I think. The guy from my larger group who's also in that class says they all go out to unwind after class (something I didn't know) and invited me to come along with them, so I will.

The beach didn't happen today. Woke up about 4 hours after I got home last night, trekked over to set my fantasy football lineup for the week and noticed that it was overcast and chilly, so I scratched the beach idea.

Instead, I slept off and on most of the day. On my way here, I discovered, through pure accident and sheer absentminded autopilot walking, two video stores close by each other.

One had a respectable, but not great collection, that was extremely well-organized to where all the videos were easy to see and they were broken down by category (Comedy/Drama/Action/Thriller/etc), which entailed primarily American movies, and countries or regions (i.e. Spanish, French, Italian, South American, Asian, etc).

The other appeared to have a much larger collection, but the only country distinction was Spain and it was very poorly organized. It seemed to be mostly American movies anyway, from the quick glancing I did.

A surprising number of the non-American movies had English subtitles. Granted, most of them didn't, which I expected, but there were still quite a few. I didn't rent a movie because I wasn't sure if you needed a card to rent movies here like you do in the US and besides, I have to be up fairly early (for me anyway) tomorrow, so I was going to spend tonight playing the computer and maybe writing a few letters, since I haven't done that yet.

I was happy to find the stores, because I've been having major movie withdrawal. I'll investigate either tomorrow (the better store closes at 10 pm) or Tuesday.

In terms of music, I'm still searching for Spanish music that really appeals to me. I like some of the pop I've heard so far, but have no idea who they are or what their albums are, etc.

What I know I do like is the Arabian music I've heard. It sounds beautiful to my ears and last night, while we were sitting on the church steps, there was a group about 50 feet away who was playing live Arabian music and there was a woman singing. They were apparently taping a music video of some kind, though I couldn't see the woman because she was in the house they were by. Gorgeous voice, though, and surreal to have that style of music flush against the largest church in Granada while two groups of Americans were sitting on its steps.

Which leads me to the following reflection on Granada: It is at its most beautiful when it is least sunny. The bright sunlight is too harsh on allowing you to see the beauty of the historical buildings, I've noticed. It's only when it's partly cloudy or when it's nighttime and the street lamps are on that the hard edges of the day subside and the softer edges of history and stunning architecture emerge.

I believe we're going to the Albaycin this week and I suspect the Alhambra is part of the tour. I'd like to be able to see it at night, too, for though the guidebooks remark that you can't see as much at night as during the day, my hunch is that the nocturnal Alhambra experience would be extremely inspirational.

And that's part of why I'm studying abroad, to find new inspiration for my writings.

[MikeVic]

Good to hear that the roommate situation is working out now. Seems like you're having fun!

[Izulde]

Good to hear that the roommate situation is working out now. Seems like you're having fun!

Indeed! :)

Went on the Albaycin tour with the group tonight which didn't turn out much in the way of a tour though I got a few pictures. The outside of the Alhambra is gorgeous at night but you need a really good camera to get decent pictures, so mine are only okay.

I'll have them uploaded later this week.

Didn't actually go in the Alhambra though... that's later on.

Then the group went to a Morroccan cafe where CEA paid for a free drink, so I got Turkish coffee, which was awesome, and then pretty much the entire group chipped in for hookahs and we all smoked hookah most of the rest of the night, including our guide. I liked the strawberry better than the apple.

Afterwards, I went with a couple guys from my group and hung out with them. We drank Alhambra beers, which is the first beer that's ever tasted pretty good to me and that was a major shock.

Then we walked around a bit, chatting, before we all headed our separate ways home.

My classes when they start suck in that I have to be at school at 8:30 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Thank goodness there's no Friday classes here!

Also, there's now two group possibilities. The guys who I hung out with are going to Amsterdam and Dublin, which would be awesome cuz Dublin is one of my two fave cities in Europe. The other group I'm interested in joining for their break trip is going to Barcelona and Venice... and Venice is my other fave city in Europe and the most gorgeous city I've ever been, period.

In fact, if I were to live in Europe, I'd probably live in Venice. It's my idea of the perfect fairytale city.

Oh yeah, I also got to check out the one guy's apartment. He lives at the foot of the Alhambra in an awesome apartment with a really great landlord who I met. Absolutely gorgeous scenery, rooms bigger than ours, and there's usual music or dancing going on in the square late at night. Low enough so that you can sleep if you want, but terrific to listen to.

Best part of the Albaycin tour was this group of musicians that was playing... Not sure of the style of music, but I really enjoyed it. I haven't been to the side of the Albacyin we were in, but it's pretty at night and the bazaar type area where we went to the cafe is really amazing.

I love Arabian culture. :D

Tomorrow class again. May see if I can hang out with those guys again after class since they usually do that.

These break plans mean that I'll shift Toledo to another weekend, but I still plan on getting there at some point this semester.

[Izulde]

It's raining and class looks cancelled tomorrow. 7 of 9 people going on trips.

Icy, are you available this weekend? And should I take the bus to Toledo?

[Icy]

It's raining and class looks cancelled tomorrow. 7 of 9 people going on trips.

Icy, are you available this weekend? And should I take the bus to Toledo?

Next weekend would be probably better. This one we are going to be away the whole Saturday, I could be with you Friday and Sunday if you come tomorrow but i don't feel ok leaving you alone a full day here.

Have you checked the bus? I just did and there are plenty from Madrid-Granada every day, the trip is around 4:30 hours and price is 13.70€ Then you would need to pick another bus from Madrid to Toledo that is a 45 minutes trip and costs around 3€.

The bus from Madrid to Toledo leaves from the same bus station that you will arrive from Granada so it's pretty easy to find, just go upstairs to the desk and buy the ticket, then go down again to pick the bus.

Do you have any kind of messenger like AIM, MSN etc so we can talk in real time? mines are:

AIM: IcySpanish
Yahoo: Icy_Spanish
MSN: [email protected]
gmail: [email protected]

I'm online almost 24/7 and I can also give you my phone # in a pm.

[Izulde]

Okay, in that case, we'll try another weekend where we're both free all 3 days :) I'm sure it'll happen at some point during this semester, since there's no Friday classes, as least as far I as understand it.

AIM: LDraco
MSN: [email protected]
Gmail: [email protected]

While I'm here in Spain, gmail chat is the place you're most likely to find me.

[Izulde]

Frustrations are starting to enter in.

It's Friday night and I'd love to get a movie or go to one, especially since everyone else is busy, except for the fact of the following: 1) all movies, as Icy said, are in Spanish, 2) I can only find the two video stores and my searches online for more video stores in Granada aren't turning up anything.

I went to a video game shop, thinking that it might be like the US where they sell used DVDs there as well.

Wrong.

Then, I buy a DS power adaptor thinking okay, now I can charge my DS Lite.

I'm 10 blocks down the street when I'm like "...Wait a minute... the box doesn't say DS Lite."

So I go back, find out that no, that wasn't the right one and no, unfortunately they didn't have the DS Lite adaptar, so they gave me my money back very briskly and efficiently.

The cool part was, I was able to say in Spanish that I bought it and I have a DS Lite.. would the adaptor work with it? So, on the bright side, my Spanish -is- improving.

I'm going to keep trying to look for video shops online, probably for about another 15 minutes before I pack it in and go hunting out in the city for an ice cream shop that's not Haagen Daaz. I'm seriously fiending for some ice cream.

[Izulde]

Woke up early enough this morning to not only shower and shave, but wander the city looking for a beach towel and a book before lunch.

I took a random road, letting my feet pick out the direction and lo and behold, I found myself looking at a store that was liquidating its inventory and had really cheap towels. So I went in and got an Espana soccer beach towel for 4 euros, which I felt pretty good about.

A little more wandering later, I ran across the international bookstore that I'd been looking for ever since seeing the sign for it by the CLM.

An entire bookshop filled with 95% English-language books.

I was thrilled.

Unfortunately, as you might expect, the prices were quite high, but nonetheless, I searched through the rather impressively expansive fiction section, determined to find something.

I read the backs of a few covers of books whose authors and titles were unfamiliar to me, as I didn't want anything I knew I could get in the US at those prices.

Normally I'd do a second run-through of the books I was debating between after I finished my first search of the fiction section, but my hand landed on Leo of Africa without any prompting and pulled it out.

Read the back again and then do what I always do when I'm debating on one book in particular: flipped open to a random section and read a few paragraphs to get a basic idea of the prose.

It sounded promising, so I bought it. 15 euros, but it was by a Lebanese author and the testimonials were all from British newpapers. i.e. not something I'd likely to find at a U.S. Barnes & Noble.

Went back home, packed, told senora I was going to the beach and quite happily took the bag lunch she insisted on making for me.

Finding the bus to the bus station was easy, as was finding the windows to buy my ticket.

Only there was one small problem.

I forgot where I wanted to go.

So I said in broken Spanish that I wanted to go to the beach but I forgot where, but that I wanted to take the 2:30 bus.

She said something that sounded like it could be a destination and "playa" which is Spanish for beach, so I said Si.

6,71 for the ticket and she flung the change and ticket through the window with such force and the look on her face was so sour, I got the feeling she was disgusted with my terrible Spanish and poor memory.

Tough luck, lady, I thought to myself. That's what happens sometimes in your job.

I went down to the terminal area and found myself with an hour to kill, so I started reading my book and was absolutely delighted to find that it began in Granada, a few short years before Ferdinand and Isabella reconquered it.

The prose was absolutely delicious, too, and with considerable depth to it as well, though the characters struck me as just a tiny bit cookie cutter. Nonetheless, I was enjoying it immensely, when I noticed that there was about 15 minutes before the bus was due to arrive.

Having spotted an ice cream and snack station down on the other end of the terminal and being hungry for some gelato, I walked over, hoping to find mango.

No mango. No much of anything really.

I settled on mint chocolate chip, a reminder of an occasional summer camp day when I'd be in the mood for a flavor other than Blue Moon (A Wisconsin original and an awesome flavor, by the way)

I finished shortly before the bus came, got my ticket checked and hopped on.

The countryside between Granada and Alcuepar (not the right spelling, but Icy will correct me on it) is absolutely breathtaking. Impressive mountains, much more green than those between Malaga and Granada, with shimmering white towns and the beautiful blue vistas of now a lake made by a massive dam, now the Mediterranean sea, were so beautiful I regret now not taking my camera out then (more on that later).

We first stopped at an S-named town, Sabodos or something like that, which had beaches and was a small sea-side village. For a moment I thought I was supposed to get off there and almost did, but decided not to.

As the bus climbed higher up the mountain, I saw it was a crummy little beach, apparently littered with chubby senior citizens, so I felt better.

Second town we stopped at, I know not the name of, but it had beautiful looking beaches, albeit from a distance. Unfortunately, there was no bus station, so I stayed on.

Finally we arrived in A-town. I was impressed with how picturesque the town appeared as we drove in (There's a great soccer stadium there, very green and pretty) and as the bus pulled into the station.

I got off and then realized I had absolutely no idea where to go.

Still, I knew where the beach approximately was so I walked in that direction. A few blocks later, I came across a bus stop that promised a bus that went beachside, but it wasn't due to arrive for another 45 minutes.

Feeling adventurous, I continued on, ill content with the idea of sitting around doing nothing for an almost hour.

15 minutes later, I was on the beach....

....And acutely disappointed with it. It was mostly rocks with some moderately passable strands of sand further down. Nothing like Hawaii yet (which I begin to think will always be my benchmark for beaches) or indeed even the French Riveria.

Not even the French Riveria in sand, nor in pretty, topless girls, for there were only two bare-breasted girleens as I tramped awkwardly down the half-rock, half-sand beach. One I would not wish even my greatest enemy to date, the other was a black-haired girl, pale and pretty, both in chest and in face, but with a boyfriend who seemed to scowl at me when I innocently glanced in that direction.

I changed into my suit in a room provided for that purpose and picked out a spot on the beach, close to as many people as possible so nobody would get the idea of making off with my stuff.

After getting situated, I went and dove into the Mediterranean Sea, that wonderful water of my youth.

Then I rememebered, or better said, realized two things as I hit the water.

1: The Mediterranean is salty. Very salty.

2: That sea water is cold. Damn cold.

So needless to say, I yelped from the cold and nearly choked on the saltwater I inadvertendly swallowed.

My swimmer instincts took over though and soon enough I was making my way through the sea, until I climbed on to the floating deck some ways out and just lay there in the sun, feeling triumphant and pleased with myself.

After a few minutes, I was feeling hungry and my eyes were still stinging from the salt, so I dove back in and swam to shore. All my stuff was still there, so I re-dressed and explored the town for a while, taking several pictures (which I'll try to post some of tomorrow)

I stopped at a park and ate the sandwich senora made me. Was disappointed to find raw bacon, as I like my bacon fried, but the first of two apples turned out to be absolutely delicious.

I walked along some more, found the soccer stadium and wanted to go in and take pictures, but it was closed. That's when I really regretted not taking my camera out earlier. So I just took one of the outside.

A few blocks down, I found a supermarket and went inside, as I needed to pick up some shampoo. I found Timotei shampoo, which in addition to being named after me :D had Greek on the back. Unfortunately the bottle wasn't that big and it was 3 euros.

Next to it was a series of massive bottles, some off-brand shampoo that cost a euro. They were so large I thought I could easily get one and be set for the rest of my time here.

I'm standing there in the middle of the supermarket aisle, debating between the two, when my grandfather's voice pops in my head.

"Get the cheap one. It's just as good as the expensive stuff and it'll last you a lot longer."

So I got the cheap one.

On my way back to the bus station, I was eating the second apple senora gave me, pleased with the day, but feeling a little lonely because it was just me when the following thought struck me:

Here it is, it's mid-September. It's in at least the mid-80s and I'm strolling in a seaside town in Spain, having just gotten back from the beach, munching on an apple without a care in the world. Nowhere I have to be, no pressing responsibilities, no nothing. I'm absolutely free, unrestricted by any boundaries but the need to eventually get back to Granada.

That's an awesome situation to be in.

I was so inspired by that though, I took a picture of me eating the apple. I'll try to post it tomorrow.

Got back to the bus station and on a bus that was just about to leave for Granada. Talk about awesome timing.

Unfortunately, all the window seats were taken, so I had to setttle for an aisle seat and once again I regretted not taking pictures on the way to A-town, when I -did- have a window seat.

After we reached Granada, I went looking for the Bus 10 line to take me back to my street, only I couldn't find it anywhere.

So I said to hell with it and walked back. Got lost a few times, but found my bearings, ironically enough, when I found the international bookshop. Talk about completing the circle.

It took me just 45 minutes and I felt pretty proud of myself for the feat, as the bus station is way out on the outskirts of the city and my homestay is in the southernmost area of the city, in the centre.

Watched a bullfight from start to finish as I ate supper. I found myself extremely angry with the whole affair. It's rigged against the bull and any time the main matador gets in trouble or is feeling winded, he wanders off and catches his breath while the poor bull, who's probably drugged to hell and back, gets more of his energy run down by about five or six other matadors who keep distracting him.

I know there's a whole mythos behind bullfighting and I look forward to learning about it in one of my classes (it's in the course description), but right now, it's just frustrating.

I have to say though, those matador outfits are things of absolute beauty. Truly deserving of their name as "suits of light."

That's all for now. There's some mango and passion fruit ice cream at overpriced Haagen-Daaz waiting for me.

[JeeberD]

Great stuff, Izulde, glad you're having a good time! When we were living in Germany when I was in junior high my family took a spring break trip through France and Spain, and we spent a day in Grenada and the Alhambra. It was an amazing trip, the architecture there is simply astounding. Have a great time on the rest of your trip, and I'll be reading!

[Izulde]

Great stuff, Izulde, glad you're having a good time! When we were living in Germany when I was in junior high my family took a spring break trip through France and Spain, and we spent a day in Grenada and the Alhambra. It was an amazing trip, the architecture there is simply astounding. Have a great time on the rest of your trip, and I'll be reading!

Thanks :) I haven't hit the Alhambra yet, but it's definitely on the list! And I agree, a lot of the architecture here is incredible.

[Izulde]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/Izulde/DSC01659.jpg
The promised apple-eating picture

[Icy]

ROFL, i can imagine the face of the woman in the tickets windows when you said you want to go to the beach but don't know where.

It sounds that you are enjoying your stay, and I admire your abillity to find paths and to move in a foreign city and country by yourself without even knowing the language.

How are going your Spanish classes? Making improvements? Are you watching Spanish TV? if so, what? What about football, are you watching the nfl? and soccer?

[Izulde]

ROFL, i can imagine the face of the woman in the tickets windows when you said you want to go to the beach but don't know where.

If looks of disgust could kill, I would've met my end in the Granada bus station. :D

It sounds that you are enjoying your stay, and I admire your abillity to find paths and to move in a foreign city and country by yourself without even knowing the language.

I am! :) And thank you, though I have to say I attribute it to my previous, fairly extensive international travel abroad experience, plus the semester I spent at Wyoming, where I really discovered that I'm more resourceful than I thought.

How are going your Spanish classes? Making improvements? Are you watching Spanish TV? if so, what? What about football, are you watching the nfl? and soccer?

Making a little improvement each day, it seems. The intensive language class is about hmm maybe a week? week and a half? Two weeks? from being finished. Then it's a 10 day break and it looks like I'll be going to Amsterdam and Dublin with the guys I hung out with the other night, as the group that's going to Barcelona and Venice never did get a hold of me.

It kinda sucks that I'll be going to cities I've been to before, but I'll be experiencing aspects of Amsterdam I couldn't 14 years ago, so that'll be sweet, and Dublin's my second favorite city in Europe after Venice and I'll be able to serve as a sort of guide, so that's cool :)

Regarding TV, I'm pretty much at the mercy of everybody else in the house, though to be honest there isn't much on. The TV in my homestay gets maybe 10-15 channels, tops, and the son channel flips between a bunch of different stuff. Mostly I've watched Sevilla futbol matches, FIBA Europe games, and bullfights. The problem is, I usually end up seeing all this stuff in the middle or towards the end, so I'm not getting much out of it.

Oh yeah, they also watch the news a -ton-. But it's all pretty much the same stories, so Spanish TV has been something of a disappointment thus far.

[Izulde]

Depression setting in fast.

Venice group never got back to me.

Amsterdam-Dublin group gave the impression they really didn't want me going along with them.

By itself, this wouldn't bother me, as I simply looked into tours in Turkey, Morocco and Egypt.

Found a terrific Turkey tour, but it's so close to the time of departure that the first decent airflight is $835, a price I'm not willing to pay.

Flights to Cairo and Fez are all booked.

I wish they'd let me know sooner, rather than just leave me hanging like that.

I'm afraid I won't be going anywhere during the 10 days off now. I'm angry at myself for not finding out sooner or acting in some other way sooner and bitterly disappointed right now.

This was my best chance to go to other countries during my time here and it's quickly going up in flames.

[Izulde]

Today/tonight is going to shit real quick.

Not only the trip issues, but I just found out that $2,000 in study abroad grant money I should've gotten, I'm not going to get because I "filed too late for a state deadline."

WTF? Nobody mentioned a god damned motherfucking thing about a state deadline to me and I filed it before last semester was over.

And this was after the financial aid office said they weren't giving out grants because the state budget was at an impasse.

Come to find out last week that oh, they've been handing grants out!

And now this bullshit.

FUCK.YOU.UW-LA CROSSE.BULLSHIT.FUCKING.FINANCIAL AID OFFICE.

This is the most seriously pissed I've been in in months. I'm not one to develop a persecution complex, but if I was, today would seriously point me in that direction.

[Izulde]

Sorry about my outburst last night, guys.

I found out last night shortly after my post that yes, it was the financial aid office's screw-up.

Unfortunately, the money is no longer there.

So I'm out $2,000.

But after getting Eastside Hockey Manager (freeware edition) going last night and having fun with it, as well as getting a good night's rest, I'm much more calm.

Sure I could've really used that $2,000 and yeah it sucks that the two groups ditched on me, but Turkey is still a possibility. I found a flight out of Malaga this morning that's $500 and I found a tour that's got most of the stuff I want in it, even better than the one I was looking at before.

The only problem with the Malaga flight is, it gets me in at 2 am, which I'm not certain if it'd render me ineligible for airport transfer, so I emailed the company to find out. Just waiting to hear back from them before I book it and the tour.

Funny thing, that two grand would've covered me for both the Turkey tour (including the extra day excursion I want to take) and my Malaga flight to and from Istanbul.

But at least I'm pretty happy here in Granada, overall. I could be like the girl a few benchs down, who my heart goes out to and who's spent the last hour crying on the phone about how she hates it here and she wishes she would've gone somewhere else, etc.

[Icy]

Istambul is a really beautiful city, i went there past year and I was amazed at the Muslim musks. I was a bit worried about the Muslims there (I guess that all the crap going on lately is making all us a bit racist) but they were really nice.

Another city you could consider and that is not expensive at all, is Praha in the Czech Republic. Beautiful city with amazingly colored buildings and lots of art everywhere. They all speak English so you will feel comfortable there.

[Izulde]

I'll definitely consider Praha if Turcia falls through :)

The most embarassing thing happened to me during the class break. I tripped up a flight of stairs and dropped a full plastic glass of water.

Now, in and of itself, this wouldn't be a problem.

Except walking behind me was one of the most beautiful girls I've seen since I've been here.

Naturally she looks at me with great concern and starts speaking to me in Spanish, presumably asking if I'm okay.

What Spanish I do know goes flying out of my head and I just stand there, mouth open, looking stupid, even while my brain is noticing that her accent is very clean, very lyrical, very pure... with none of the lisping -th sound I hear all the time here.

So my brain's trying to place her accent, my eyes are watching her, my heart's jumping every which way and my body's immobile.

Oh yeah, my brain's also screaming, "Perfect opportunity! Say something! Do something!"

My mouth says, in English, "Um, I'm okay, thanks. No problem." while my feet stumble off up the steps towards the classroom, even as I slip on the puddle of water and nearly fall again.

So yeah, I'm a dumbass. :D

[Izulde]

It's rainstorming here, so fast and so hard that even with the umbrella senora loaned me, I and my things still got unbelievably drenched.

It sounded like most of the people from Seattle in my class were going to Cadiz today, two of them said they weren't planning on going, meaning there'd be four of us, enough to run the class.

I get here and there's a grand total of me and me alone.

It's not all bad, though. I mean I would've had to come here anyway to see if either of the two Turkey groups e-mailed me back (they haven't), meaning trudging through the rainstorm and this way, I'm in a nice, warm room while I wait for my stuff to dry out.

I do belive I'll be leaving at 5:30 pm though (it's 4:25 pm right now), since my stuff should be mostly dry by then and hopefully one of the tour groups will have gotten back to me by that point.

Not sure yet what I'll do tomorrow. I know Sunday I plan on seeing if I can get to the futbol (soccer) game here in Granada, if I can find what bus # I'm supposed to take to get to the stadium.

I've finished Leo the African. Pretty decent novel all in all, though it seemed a little skimpy in some respects... but that's probably just because I'm used to the epic sweep of Colleen McCollough's Roman series.

Watched most of El Negociador for the second time in as many days, but then right at the end, when I'm trying to figure how the offer and exchange system works and I'd find out if the woman won 60,000 euros, which was one of the cards on her side of the table, senora took the remote and changed the channel.

I tried to ask if she could switch back to the other program so I could see the end, but I think what I asked is if there were a couple minutes until the show that came next on the channel she watched and she said something about the program coming up next being one of her favorites.

So I was disappointed, especially after getting a little hooked on El Negociador yesterday, when a woman had 32,000 euros on the table and there was some offer of 5,000 euros... but she ended up with the last card, which was -100%, meaning she went home with 0 euros... no money.

I might take a day trip tomorrow if the weather's cleared up by then, though just where i'm not sure.

[MikeVic]

Sounds like some ups and downs so far. I'm horrible with navigation and sense of orientation, so I respect that you can walk around a strange land and find your bearings so fast.

You should console that girl on the bench, maybe show her what aspects of Grenada you like. Maybe it'll help her out.

[Izulde]

Sounds like some ups and downs so far. I'm horrible with navigation and sense of orientation, so I respect that you can walk around a strange land and find your bearings so fast.

You should console that girl on the bench, maybe show her what aspects of Grenada you like. Maybe it'll help her out.

What's really strange is, when I'm at home in the United States, I have a horrible navigational sense, but when I'm abroad, I can find my way around pretty easily. It's the weirdest thing.

She was already long gone by the time I saw your suggestion and I haven't seen her since.

I do find it sad though that for the break between intensive language course and the start of classes, that she's flying home to the US.

I, on the other hand, am going to Turkey!!!!! :)

Got my spot on the tour confirmed this morning.

http://www.feztravel.com/Aegean_Delight.php is the tour I'll be going on :)

[RPI-Fan]

I do find it sad though that for the break between intensive language course and the start of classes, that she's flying home to the US.

Think it's a pretty fair guess that she won't be back...

[Izulde]

Think it's a pretty fair guess that she won't be back...

That's a lot of money she's eating if she doesn't come back.

Meanwhile, while I was hunting around today to try and find when Granada C.F. plays today, I discovered the following things:

1) Nobody and I mean -nobody-, not even the official Spanish league website, has the actual of times of Segunda B games.

2) Granada CF played today already to a 1-1 draw, which would explain why there's more tourists here than usual, I think.

3) Granada 74 played yesterday to a draw, but they're in Segunda A, so the actual times are posted. Wow, what a concept.

4) Nobody seems to really care about 74 even though they're in a higher division. All the discussion seems to be around Granada CF vs Granada Athletico, the latter of which is a team formed by a rich guy to try and run Granada CF into the ground, whereas Granada CF has some faded glory in its past.

5) Based on the above, I'm a Granada CF fan. It just frustrates me about the times.

Last night I had a glass of Alpujarras red wine and a free Vietnamese-style noodle and vegetables tapa. Very good both of them were and for a euro, you can't beat the price.

Then, as it was getting crowded and I was on my laptop, I went to leave only I walked straight into a glass door that I thought was open.

A couple people laughed and held the door open for me, which was nice.

Also bought a couple shirts for Turkey, as I was short a couple shirts for the 8 days I'll be there. One on hindsight I don't like much though, as the color doesn't appeal to me and it's too big on me.

But the other shirt is my new favorite shirt and it was just 3 euros (the other shirt was 6). So I might go back to one of the umpteen million stores I looked in and buy a shirt I thought looked awesome, but was like 18 euros.

Five people asked me yesterday about WiFi access as I was sitting out here on the sidewalk. Two of them were hot and female who spoke some English. I offered the one to use my computer for a bit as she said she had to get on today and the CLM won't be open till Monday, but she said no that was okay.

Not sure what I'll do today as just about everything's closed. I'm feeling a little run down and might have a cold coming on, which I hope to hell I don't, because I leave Friday for Turkey.

[Icy]

Granada CF is the "real" Granada team. It's a team with a long history, founded in 1931. It used to be a good team in the 70's, playing in the first division, but for some different reasons, they are in 2-B division now.

Granada 74 is the project of a rich bussinessmen who bought another team from another city, Ciudad the Murcia, changed the team name and city and made it the Granada 74. Unlike in USA sports franchises, in Spain soccer a team is not allowed to move to a different city ever. If you move a team to another city, it's like a fresh start, you need to start from the lowest division, all your players contracts become void etc.

Past summer, Granada 74 owner challenged the Spanish soccer federation rules pretending to move from Murcia to any other city in Spain that would offer him the most money for the franchise (it seems he wanted to do the same that is done with franchises in USA, that are bought and sold and change names/cities).

He was not allowed to do it by the rules i said before, but he brought it to the standard Spanish laws system and won the lawsuit against the soccer federation laws, claiming that he bought a business and he can do whatever he wants with it, so he was allowed to move and rename the team to where he wanted to.

Even ending being legal after the long lawsuit, everybody in Spain hated this as we don't want teams moving cities. It's against the Spanish soccer history an tradition, against the fans that can lose his city team from now etc. So every city in Spain rejected to bid to host the team, to allow it to play in their public stadiums, etc.

He tried to bring the team to my city, Toledo, as it's a big and historical city that could bring a lot of fans to the stadium, but both the local government and the citizens refused it for the way he tried to change soccer traditions.

At the end, he managed to get a deal with the Granada city to host the team and have it named Granada 74, but not being allowed to play in the main Granada stadium where the "real" Granada CF team plays. So they ended playing in a small stadium that they rented outside the city.

For that long story i wrote, Granada 74 has no fans, it's hated by every soccer fan in Spain, the professional players doesn't want to play there, so i guess it will disappear soon. We are traditionalist about soccer as you are about some USA sports, so nobody wants teams going against everybody in the soccer world and law suiting the soccer rules just for money.

Here you got some info about Granada CF:

Granada CF website with calendar:
http://www.granadacf.es/0708/index.php

Granada CF wikipedia entry in English (to learn about history etc)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granada_CF

[Izulde]

Granada CF is the "real" Granada team. It's a team with a long history, founded in 1931. It used to be a good team in the 70's, playing in the first division, but for some different reasons, they are in 2-B division now.

Granada 74 is the project of a rich bussinessmen who bought another team from another city, Ciudad the Murcia, changed the team name and city and made it the Granada 74. Unlike in USA sports franchises, in Spain soccer a team is not allowed to move to a different city ever. If you move a team to another city, it's like a fresh start, you need to start from the lowest division, all your players contracts become void etc.

Past summer, Granada 74 owner challenged the Spanish soccer federation rules pretending to move from Murcia to any other city in Spain that would offer him the most money for the franchise (it seems he wanted to do the same that is done with franchises in USA, that are bought and sold and change names/cities).

He was not allowed to do it by the rules i said before, but he brought it to the standard Spanish laws system and won the lawsuit against the soccer federation laws, claiming that he bought a business and he can do whatever he wants with it, so he was allowed to move and rename the team to where he wanted to.

Even ending being legal after the long lawsuit, everybody in Spain hated this as we don't want teams moving cities. It's against the Spanish soccer history an tradition, against the fans that can lose his city team from now etc. So every city in Spain rejected to bid to host the team, to allow it to play in their public stadiums, etc.

He tried to bring the team to my city, Toledo, as it's a big and historical city that could bring a lot of fans to the stadium, but both the local government and the citizens refused it for the way he tried to change soccer traditions.

At the end, he managed to get a deal with the Granada city to host the team and have it named Granada 74, but not being allowed to play in the main Granada stadium where the "real" Granada CF team plays. So they ended playing in a small stadium that they rented outside the city.

For that long story i wrote, Granada 74 has no fans, it's hated by every soccer fan in Spain, the professional players doesn't want to play there, so i guess it will disappear soon. We are traditionalist about soccer as you are about some USA sports, so nobody wants teams going against everybody in the soccer world and law suiting the soccer rules just for money.

Here you got some info about Granada CF:

Granada CF website with calendar:
http://www.granadacf.es/0708/index.php

Granada CF wikipedia entry in English (to learn about history etc)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granada_CF

Thanks for the history lesson and the links :)

I still don't see the actual times of the games, but at least I know the days now and I'll be able to catch at least a few games.

Bought two very touristy T-shirts. 18 euros for the both. I was happy with it as I like touristy T-shirts and they're both cool in my opinion. I'll probably take them to Turkey with me, since I really like the shirts and I'll be touristy there anyway.

After shirt purchases, I stopped in a teahouse in the Albaycin and Pasion Turca (Turkish Passion if I'm translating it right) tea, which was fruit tea with some other stuff. 4 or 5 glasses of hot tea for 2,80. Not bad at all, particularly since it was delicious tea, sweet and soothing.

I think some of the good taste came from the fact that it made me feel better even though I wasn't feeling so hot. It's a few hours later now and I'm still feeling under the weather, so it's official that I have a cold or the flu. I blame it on the monsoon I got caught in a few days ago.

For dessert, I was delighted to discover an ice cream stand that had melon gelato. 2 scoops for 2,20, a giant dish that makes Haagen Daaz's 2,80 for 1 scoop look even pricier. Walked the street and tried to savor every last spoonful, but it's been close to a week since I last had melon ice cream and so it was gone after a few blocks.

Came home and senora had one of those boxes with assorted pastries open on the table, some already eaten. She invited me to try a couple.

First, I had a chocolate and custard spongy type cake, which was quite tasty.

But then, at her insistence that I try another, I sampled a small chocolate covered ice cream cone pastry with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles in the cone.

And with the first bite, I found my Spanish crack.

This was no Cool Whip and no half-assed chocolate.

This was -real- whipped cream and well-made chocolate. It's a good thing I don't know where to buy them separately or by the time I left Spain, I'd be so fat I'd make Jack Black look like Kate Moss.

Played through a few months of EHM freeware version. Made the playoffs for the second straight year, but lost in the first round, -again- to the Red Wings, even though I won the division and was the #3 seed. Bill Guerin, my top free agent signing, was out with a 2 month ankle injury, which didn't help.

Started up my third season and made a move for a very talented young goalie, who's a restricted free agent and wants a little over $2 million a year for an extended contract. Backup insurance, because two-time All-Star goalie Thomas Vokoun wants $10 million a year, which would be 1/3 of my current salary cap (Haven't figured out how to get the team to raise the cap allowance so I can be a big-name player).

In first after October and my Nashville Predators are considered Cup contenders which is pretty cool.

Speaking of cup, I think I'll get another teapot. It seems to help and I'm determined to knock this out by Friday at the extreme latest.

[Izulde]

I've been battling this cold the last two or three days now and it's not giving up easily. I've alternated between Tylenol Dayquil variant (to kill fever) and Zicam (to relieve congestion and hopefully get this killed off more quickly).

This morning's hot shower helped a bit, as did especially shaving, since I'd let that go for a few days as I wasn't in the mood for it. My hair's getting awfully long, so while I originally planned to get it cut after Turkey, I may get it cut before. (Note to self: Ask professor how to say "just a trim" en Espanol)

Other than the cold, things are going well. Fired Ron Low 54 games into the third season and hired Ken Hitchcock, who if I remember right, led Dallas to the 1999 Stanley Cup.

Hitchcock took the team from in danger of not even qualifying for the playoffs to the #2 seed, where, despite being heavily favored, we lost 4-2 to the Anaheim Mighty Ducks in the first round. At least it wasn't the Detroit Red Wings like the last two seasons.

A month into season #3, we're playing well, but again bleeding money. That's when I looked online and discovered that a) I shouldn't be signing my prospects unless they'll make the team and b) when signing minor leaguers, give them two-way contracts so their pay is a lot cheaper in the AHL.

Oops.

Oh well, I'll be able to rectify it going forward.

Then, unable to sleep still, I did a fresh re-install of Crusader Kings with 1.05 patch and the crashes I was getting are gone now. Played about 10 years with the County of Rhodos when I realized I was seriously bored. I know there's a lot of Byzantine-philes on the Paradox Forums, but honestly, playing an Orthodox dynasty is tedious. No fun of the Crusades, no playing around with the Pope and excommunications, none of that.

That being said, the location of the Byzantine Empire and the mass elective law going on makes for a very fun game and is what kept my interest so long. Oh yeah, the rebellions help to, but just my luck, I picked a county that a) has a liege lord who doesn't have elective law as succession and b) stayed loyal to Michael Dukas.

If I try Rhodos again (or any of the Byzantine counties), I'll edit the scenario file to make the Count Catholic.

Oh yeah, I also accidentally played on normal/normal, which makes for a much slower-paced game than easy. :D

Finally about 5 am I was able to sleep... until 8 am. Took a Zicam and fell back asleep, woke up at 11 am. Another Zicam (it's every 3 hours) and back to sleep.

Woke up at 12:30 pm for good.

I tried to watch Heroes online before class, but to no avail. Says "This clip is not available for your location."

Needless to say, that's put me in a -really- bad mood. I've been waiting all summer for Season 2 to start.

Oh well, at least it's 88 degrees, a dry heat with no breeze and sunny here. Hopefully the warm weather will help me get over this cold quicker :)

Oh, one more thing. Regarding American football, it's out. I'll be in Turkey when tryouts start. I'm guessing fencing will still be a possibility though. I'll go there again either the Monday or Wednesday after I get back to see if they've started up yet or not.

[RPI-Fan]

Tryouts _start_ while you're in Turkey? Why don't you just show up when you get back and see if you can't dominate and make them cut you (presumably one of the better players on the team)?

[Izulde]

Tryouts _start_ while you're in Turkey? Why don't you just show up when you get back and see if you can't dominate and make them cut you (presumably one of the better players on the team)?

To be honest, I don't know if they start or if they're solely that day. :) And it's been 14 years since I played football, so the rust is going to be there for sure.

We went to an Arab bath tonight, the CEA group, that is.

It was much smaller than the one in Budapest I went to, much more intimate. One cold pool, the rest ranging from lukewarm to hot.

We had free reign for an hour and a half with not only the pools, but the adjoining tea room. A 15 massage of either back or legs was also included.

I was still feeling miserable from this cold, so it wasn't until after my turn at the massage that I finally started to loosen up a little. The poor massue no doubt had trouble with the tightness of my back, but she did well with the limited amount of time she had.

A few more cycles of hot and cold later, I went into the tea room and was delighted to find the tea peppermint flavored, with a small bowl of hard candies sitting nearby.

It made me think of my grandpa, who loved peppermint and was addicted to hard candies. If there's an afterlife, he's no doubt tickled pink that his grandson was sitting in an Arab bath in Spain, drinking peppermint tea and eating hard candies.

By the time we got out, my nose was feeling much less congested and a lot of the aches I had were gone as well.

I saw one of the other girls taking pictures of the bath on my way out, so I hung around, originally to wait for my roommate (who, by the way, even though we were both going to the baths tonight, dashed off without waiting for me, which I rolled my eyes at when he was out the door. But that's just me... I find it common courtesy that when people who live in the same apartment/house/whatever are going to the same place and have to be there at the same time, that they go there together).

Anyway, I noticed the door to the bath was open, so I dashed in and took a few very hurried pictures, most of which didn't come out.

After I took my last picture and was heading out again, a slim, pretty, slender-shouldered Spanish girl emerged out of the steam, clad only in a white towel.

I was reminded instantly reminded of Rabindranath Tagore's short story Hungry Stones as she slipped past me and walked in perfect runway form towards the showers, a half-glance given back over her shoulder to me as she disappeared through the door.

It was a nice image and sequence of events, the kind that never happen to me in the United States. :D

Anyway, since I've been very lax about posting pics in this thread, I'm going to post a few here of the baths.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/Izulde/DSC01680.jpg
Lobby and entry to baths

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/Izulde/DSC01681.jpg
One of the hot baths to the left, the cold bath to the right


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/Izulde/DSC01683.jpg
The tea room. Teapots and hard candies are gone as it was after we left, naturally.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/Izulde/DSC01687.jpg
Yeah I know, it's crooked. But I think it gives a better idea of the decor of the place and I love the steam effect, particularly given the girl emerged from there shortly thereafter.

[Izulde]

Relations between the roommate and I have reached the ignoring each other as much as possible stage, which is fine.

What -does- bother me is that I got my hair cut today and the woman ruined it. I leave for Turkey in two days. It's not going to grow back fast enough. :(

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/Izulde/DSC01690.jpg
Note: I know I need to trim my moustache line up, but I can do that myself. I'm just glad she didn't touch my goatee because I'd have nothing left there either, otherwise.

[Izulde]

I had my two exams today for the intensive course.

First one I got a C+ on because of some tricky questions and a mishap on the professor's part that led me to change an answer I originally had right. It was also the lowest score in the class.

But then the prof said he would consider raising everyone's grade by a point, which in the Spanish system means I go from a C+ to a B. Very cool if he does in fact do this.

The second exam was... brutal. Honestly, I'll probably be lucky to have passed it, though I should still pass the course once everything's averaged in, especially if I get the higher grade on the first exam.

I was feeling pretty depressed about it all, even though the grades won't affect my GPA at my home university as none of these courses are being taken for academic credit.

Then one of the guys in the class pointed out to me as I was talking to him afterwards, "You came here with no Spanish at all. Everyone else has had at least 1 or 2 years of Spanish before. You probably still passed the class and you should feel pretty damn proud of yourself for how far you've come in just a month."

That made me feel a lot better and helped put into perspective.

After the exams, the whole class went to the Seattle crew's apartment to smoke hookah, listen to music, and just chill. I needed that relaxation.

Then, tonight we were supposed to meet our professor for tapas. I showed up 10 minutes late (living in the far south of Granada + fighting red lights and insane amount of foot and car traffic = taking forever to get to places), so they'd already gone.

But I was determined to make the best of it, and as I hadn't eaten supper, because I rushed out of the homestay to try to make it to tapas on time, I decided to eat at a restaurant, something I've been wanting to do since I got here.

Out of habit, I walked to the lowest part of the Albaycin district and found a Lebanese restaurant. I didn't have much money on hand, so I just got an appetizer: falafel balls, and some Lebanese coffee. The balls were great and the coffee the best I've had since I've been in Spain, which is a pretty good feat in and of itself.

After I finished, I sat there for like half an hour waiting for the check before it dawned on me that I had to specifically ask for it. I felt pretty dumb about that, but hey it's part of being in a new culture. I'll definitely go back there, as not only was my food and drink terrific, but the food on other people's plates at the other tables looked really tasty too.

Came home, packed and re-packed about three times for Turkey, which I leave for tomorrow. There's still some minor packing stuff to do tomorrow morning after I get ready to go, but the bulk of it is done.

I'm -really- looking forward to it!!!!! :)

[JeeberD]

Have a safe flight, and enjoy your trip!

[Izulde]

Have a safe flight, and enjoy your trip!

Thanks :)

Yesterday was, as you might expect, brutal.

Originally planning to leave around 8 or 9 am, I couldn't sleep and chose to leave at 6:30 am instead. I -just- caught the 7 am bus to Malaga by like 30 seconds, which had me in a good mood.

Couple American girls sitting across from me turned out to be from, of all places, Chicago. They were talking about going to Morocco for 180 euros for the weekend later in the semester and were quite enthused when I told them they could do Tangiers for a weekend at 65 euros at a lot of Granada travel agencies.

They then proceeded to ignore me for the rest of the way there, talking to each other about inside stories, most of which involved guys and too much drinking. In other words, your typical American girls who I've grown to dislike even more than I already did before in my time abroad.

We get to Malaga and after some inquiries, I found where the shuttle to the airport from the bus station was. A large group of us were waiting there when the shuttle drove up. The driver kept pushing his hand forward, which I and some other people thought we should move to the front part of the bus, which we did.

Only the bus didn't stop. It kept right on going, leaving 25 very angry and confused people in its wake. I guess the guy meant he was just passing through and to wait for the next shuttle, though why I have no idea. There weren't any people on his bus.

Anyway, next bus came after 15 minutes. The ride took -forever-. In fact, I'm tempted to get a taxi next time I come to Malaga, for when I have to fly back home in December. The construction and congestion are both just ridiculous and I can now say that I absolutely -despise- Malaga.

But however much I hate the city, it's got a great airport. Finding the check-in counters wasn't easy, but there was no line at the Spanair one and security was a breeze.

The best part of Malaga's airport is the shops. Quite a few really cool shops that I spent the first hour browsing in. Note: I had 5 hours to kill because I got there so early. I did this deliberately as I wanted to plan for any setbacks and because I wanted to see how close I'd be cutting it for my flight home. Despite the shuttle difficulties, it looks all systems go for December if I catch the 7 am Granada to Malaga bus.

Hours #2 and #3 were spent dozing. Hour #4 another tour through the shops, which led me to boarding time.

Got into Madrid and I had some more time to kill, about 2 hours. The shops were disappointing in Madrid's airport, and even though the food was still outrageously overpriced like it always is in an airport, even moreso given the weakness of the dollar, I decided to eat. I knew it was going to be my only chance before Istanbul.

So I had tasteless mostacolli and a tasty whipped chocolate drink (Yoohoo-style).

Then the plane to Frankfurt hadn't even started boarding by the time it was supposed to leave. I start panicking and swearing, because I only have an hour layover in Frankfurt and I'm paranoid I'm going to miss my Istanbul flight.

We leave 40 minutes late and I'm absolutely freaked.

Then, somehow, (I suspect my grandfather gave us a push from behind or something), we end up in Frankfurt... on time.

Yes, on time.

I gleefully passed through the German passport control (which I found interesting, since it's the only place I've been to that has passport control for transfer flights) and waltzed to my gate.

Then we arrived in Istanbul half an hour late.

I get my luggage (now missing its luggage strap for some reason) and walk out the terminal. There's a line of people standing and only two of them have sheets of paper.

One says "Tim Morgengank". I blink, look at it, keep on walking, and search the line again.

Finally, I go up to the guy and ask if he's with Fez Travel and it turns out he is.

After that... oh shoot, I'm almost out of power on the comp. More details tomorrow night!

[Izulde]

So we go to his car, which turns out to be this square vehicle I wish I'd taken a picture of... I'd never seen anything like it.

And then we go to the hotel.

Now, this was no normal, sedate drive.

This was my driver zooming down the highway, leaving even time-pressured taxi cabs in his dust. It was like the Indy 500 was turned into a weiner dog race in comparison.

I didn't get a chance to see much, as it was still night and we were racing by everything, literally, but what I did see I enjoyed. The vegetation was much more varied and colorful than I'd anticipated and I could see the outlines of several intriguing looking buildings.

My driver slowed down to maybe about 60 miles an hour so he could point out the Blue Mosque to me, which is one of the places I'll be seeing today. Absolutely gorgeous from the outside at night, but our speed prevented me from taking a picture.

Even with the racing, it still took a good 30-45 minutes to get from the airport to the hotel and the traffic wasn't all that heavy. Makes me even more glad that I chose the tour option, as a taxi would've just been brutal costwise.

So I tip my driver a US dollar, as I had no Turkish lira on me at the moment. He was quite pleased, as he went to walk off without anything. (Note: exchange rate is approximately $1 USD = 1.2 Turkish lira... a nice way to convert after the horrors of the euro).

I walk in the hotel and find out that I can't check in until noon and for some reason dealing with freelancing or something or the other (I couldn't quite understand it), I wasn't able to get a room and just pay the money.

But they told me I was more than welcome to wait in the lobby. This I gratefully did and hung out online for a while before crashing in and out of sleep, waiting for noon to come.

I woke up finally about 9:30 am and the front desk guy says, "Your room is ready." I stood up, cheered and said, "Yay! That's so awesome!!!!" Keep in mind, I was on about 4 hours of very crappy sleep and I'd only had 2 hours since 1 pm Thursday, so I was still punch-drunk.

Got into the room. Absolutely no view, but the room itself was nice enough. Took a hot bath in this square cube tub that I think is actually just supposed to be a shower, but I turned it into a bath anyway cuz it has the spigot for it and I've been dying for a bath since I got to Spain.

Then I hit the bed and just crashed until 5 pm.

Woke up and upon walking downstairs to the lobby, found out I had a couple hours to go until the tour group was to meet. So I took advantage of the opportunity to walk around the neighborhood a little bit.

This district is 85% hotels and restaurants, the other 15% shops and only if you find the right street. After much searching and some assistance from a couple people, I finally found an ATM and got some Turkish lira. The lack of ATMs was quite a culture shock after being used to Spain, where there's an ATM machine every other block (at least in Granada).

I bought a Caramio bar, which is like a Caramello bar, only with very light, creamy milk chocolate and much better and tastier caramel. I'd have liked it to be darker chocolate, but oh man, was it ever good. About 60 cents too, which was quite reasonable from American standards.

Got back to the hotel and met the guide. I also saw four other people from my group and I thought: Oh god, my worst nightmare is come true. It's two young couples, the kind that are likely to associate with each other and ostracize me.

While I was feeling rather grim about my social prospects, the guide said we'd wait another 45 minutes as we were waiting for more people to show up. So I hopped online for a bit, did a bit of unpacking, etc. We met again in 45 minutes and I discovered it was still the 5 of us. There's supposed to be 8 total. The guide read off the tour stuff which was on the website, so it was a little pointless.

Except for the fact that we mentioned we hadn't eaten and he advised us to eat a kebab or soup, something light since we'd spent all day traveling.

After the meeting ended, I followed the four of my group, who, just as I suspected, were already getting on extremely well, especially the men, as I figured they were going to supper.

Then it looked for a second they might be going their separate ways and I froze, uncertain of what to do. I glanced back at the hotel and then one of the girls said, "You're going to have supper with us, aren't you?"

I immediately grabbed on to this lifeline and said yes. It turned out the four were eating together.

So we wound up eating at this open-air restaurant that's literally right outside our hotel's front door. I had a kebab that didn't have the stick down the middle, but consisted of a very delicious, long strip of lamb, pita bread, green peppers (which I surprised myself by eating), some kind of rice, water, and tomatoes (these I didn't eat, as I hate tomatoes in a non-sauce form).

All very delicious and the conversation went extremely well, with the subjects ranging from mining to Shakespeare. A lot of travel discussion was included as well, and I was thankful I've traveled extensively internationally before, because both these couples have too. One is white South African, the other Australian living in London. And then of course there's American me, spending the semester in Spain. :D The South Africans lived in Australia for a while, too, so we've all been expats at one time or another.

I was able to slip into the conversation that I can't hear very well, so I got that awkwardness out of the way fast and though I didn't say as much relative to everyone else, I was still quite talkative for me.

Afterwards, we adjourned to the hotel bar for a drink. I stuck with apple tea, which was cheap (1 lira) and terrific.

We then retired to bed.

As for today's events, I'll cover them in the next post, as it's time to go on the tour!

[Izulde]

What a blur the last two days has been. So many things seen...

It started yesterday morning. I woke up at 7 am, as we were leaving at 9 am. The original wakeup call was slated for 8 am, but I changed to 7, knowing it'd take me a while to get going.

Breakfast was something of a disappointment, but I cobbled together a breakfast out of chocolate flakes cereal, immensely delicious cheese, and severa l glasses of grape and orange juice.

The rest of our group showed up and we were at the full 8 when we set off. More on them later.

We started off with 3 hours of Topkapi Palace, which, to me, is the Neuschawnstein of Turkish sights. Pretty on the outside, but the interior leaves much to be desired, consisting as it does of a series of tiny museums, large crowds, and very few actual rooms.

That being said, the gardens were pretty, especially the First Garden (which, ironically enough, was the only one permitted to commoners) and I greatly enjoyed the museum exhibits, particularly the weaponry one, which held, among other things, swords of the sultans.

I would've liked to have had about an hour less in Topkapi, but it was fine.

Following Topkapi, we had lunch. A thin, crispy bread that is easily the most delicious bread I've ever had, some soup that needed something more to flavor it, a salad with far too much lemon, and a great-tasting mixed kebab with white rice was our meal. Oh and also a very sweet, liquid-filled desert which is a kind of Turkish staple.

Next on our stop was the Hippodrome, where chariot races were formerly held and two rebellions ensued from angry chariot teams during Byzantine times. It is still an entertainment square, albeit modernized, with a lot of noisy children playing at the 500 million air hockey tables set up throughout the central plaza.

There's also an obelisk there, 3,500 years old, from Egypt. It was built by Pharoh Thutmose III and dedicated to himself and the god Ra. Considering I'd been reading Nefertiti, which is set in ancient Egypt, on the plane rides to Istanbul, I found it quite fascinating and took a few pictures of it and the marble base, which was added in Byzantine times, around 400 A.D., when it was brought to then-Constantinople from Egypt.

We kept walking (this was all walking today) until we came to the Blue Mosque, which is one of the most beautiful holy buildings I've ever been too, both outside and in. It was packed with a few tourists and many worshippers, for it's still a functioning mosque and Muslims everywhere were in prayer. The mosque is divided into prayer area for women and prayer area for men, the bulk of it going to the males.

The tourists, as you might expect, are relegated to the women's area and asked not to move to the front and take pictures until prayers were over. That being said, you could still take pictures from the back and so that's what we all did. I got my picture taken as while by a group member, but it turned out blurry as they must have inadvertendly moved the camera when they snapped the picture.

Although disappointed in the blurriness, I pressed on with the rest of the group. We exited the mosque, put our shoes back on (we were required to be barefoot inside, a practice I wholly approve of) and crossed the street to the Hagia Sophia.

Another 10 lira for the Hagia Sophia, the second of three 10 lira entrance fees we would pay that day (Topkapi was the first one). The Hagia Sophia is another church, one that was rebuilt twice before the third re-construction, in 532 under Justinian (if I have my date and Emperor right), finally made it and still stands today.

Although plain on the outside, the Hagia Sophia is breathtaking inside, vast and with a convergence of religions. Ottoman artwork covered up old Byzantine icons, some of which have been partially uncovered and others of which still have yet to be revealed and on the left side of the building, there are several multi-colored pillars which speak of older religions.

More specifically, the red pillars are from ancient Egypt and the green pillars are from the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. I felt a pull towards the Artemis pillars and asked the guide to take my picture with one of them. Although, it, too, came out blurry, when I put my hand on the pillar, I felt peace and serenity flowing through me and I saw again, in my mind's eye, the image of the silver-haired woman arising out of the moon who appeared to me one night in Minnesota, when I was eighteen and terribly unhappy.

We took more pictures of the church as we explored the Hagia Sophia and went up to the second level, to see the icons they've uncovered and take pictures of them. There was also a rock with a hole in it and our guide told us that it was put there by an Emperor and that legend had it if you could put your thumb in the hole and move your hand all around in a complete circle without moving any other part of our body, your wish would come true.

All eight of us tried and all eight of us failed. No wishes for us.

Out we went after our attempts, down the narrow, rock ramps to the first floor that were so uneven and so perilous that cobblestone streets seem luxurious in comparison, out of the Emperor's Gate we entered through, and into the world outside.

I did stop to take a picture of the scarcophagus of the Byzantine Empress who had a dream that after she died, snakes would devour her body, and so she insisted on her tomb being inside the Hagia Sophia, where it would be safe from snakes.

Hating snakes as I do, I applauded the move and half-wondered if I could apply to the government of Turkey to have my coffin placed in the Hagia Sophia too.

Our last stop was the Basicilica Cistern, a Byzantine water reservoir that is just absolutely stunning, with multiple rows of columns in the Dorian and Ionic styles, a lot of fat fish who live off the tourists and two gigantic Medusa heads, which are from Roman imperial times and are turned sideways and upside down respectively, so that no one is turned to stone. Medusa heads, the guide informed us, were considered a good luck charm for the places and things they were in and since the cistern provided water for the city of Constantinople, it needed all the protection it could get.

Back to the hotel for a brief respite before supper, which was again a lacking soup, bread that wasn't nearly so good, but a surprisingly tasty main course of Turkish meatballs which I liked far more than I thought would. Dessert was the high point of the meal, syrup soaked apricots with almonds. I took the almonds out and dined on the apricots, which were exquisite. Then again, I love apricots and nobody does them better than Turkey.

Dinner was quite the uncomfortable affair, for I said nothing, having nothing to contribute to the group conversation and no effort was made to draw me in. Here is where I can provide an accurate picture of our group:

1 white South African, who lived in Australia for 6 years and who lives with his Australian fiancee in London.
1 Australian, the South African's fiancee. They plan on moving back to Australia as soon as they can.

2 Australians who live in London and have no plans to move back to Oz, though they still visit on occasion.

2 Australians who live in another part of England and love it there.

1 Malaysian girl, who's lived in Malaysia, Spain, and now London. She's given some thought to moving back to Malyasia, but is happy in London for now.

1 American who's living in Spain for the moment. Me.

As you can see, this is a very couples-oriented tour and I do mean very. I tried talking to the Malay girl a couple times but she evidently got the impression I was hitting on her (I wasn't...I don't find Malaysian girls attractive at all) and would do her best to find some pre-text of talking to the guide or one of the couples after giving me a short answer.

This was a theme that would continue.

Back to the hotel, where I decided to have a cup of apple tea before retiring. This time, I was charged 2,50 lira, rather than the 1 lira last night. Apparently you can get charged either one, for while apple tea is listed as 1 lira, the tea in a cup was 2,50 lira. I was so tired by this point that I didn't even debate the point. I just paid the 2,50 and let it go.

A hot bath later, I was in bed.

Day #2 next post.

[Izulde]

Today we got up ridiculously early, as in 6 am early.

I very quickly got dressed, packed and had breakfast. Even with my speediness, it was still 10 to 7 before I was ready and 7 am is when we all loaded our stuff up on the bus and headed out.

A 5 hour drive to our destination, during which we made two stops. I got a Caramio bar, a Kinder egg, and a Fruto something or the other for a drink.

The Caramio bar I've described before. The Kinder egg is this ridiculously yummy chocolate egg inside of which is a plastic egg that has some kind of toy inside. In this case, it turned out to be a hilarious wizard figure in two pieces who I put together and is apparently part of a magicians set.

I named my new wizard Zerturk and I'll have to get a picture of him up sometime.

The Fruto somethingortheother is like a Cherry 7 Up, but better tasting. I'll definitely have to see if I can find it again, as it was great stuff.

At the second stop, there was a small zoo, which had such wildly varying animals as pheasants, a hen, a parrot, a deer, a zebra, a Siberian Husky, a peacock and donkeys. Everyone had their own name plates in Turkish, English, and German saying what they were except the poor donkeys. I guess when you're a real jackass, you don't get your own name plate.

Our destination was Gallopoli, site of the Battle of Gallopoli, between the Turkish and the combined British/Australian/New Zealander forces that lasted from April 25th, 1915 to mid-December 1915. It was, like the American Civil War, anticipated as a short campaign, but turned out to be a very bloody, drawn-out battle that saw many lives lost on both sides, for the British had underestimated the ability of the Turkish soldiers and the Turks were determined to defend their homeland.

The battle was about access to the Dardenelle Straits, if I understood it correctly.

Evidently April 25th is Anzac Day, in memory of the Australian and New Zealander soldiers who died during the campaign and, being conscious of that, I kept to myself as much as possible, feeling as an American I couldn't understand it the way the Orzies in our group could.

And yet, as I looked through the exhibits at the museum (2 lira entry fee), which had the guns, the bayonets, the canteens, the books, the tobacco, the uniforms, the pictures, the personal letters, and, most disturbingly, the bones of dead soldiers, I felt tears in my eyes.

The letters, which had both Turkish and English translations, were particularly heart-breaking, as many of them were written by soldiers who died to their loved ones in the days and weeks before they fell in battle. They, along with the personal effects, gave a tremendously human quality to the battle and made it very real.

I got the same sensation, as well as the chills, looking at a skull of one of the dead, with a bullet hole where he'd been shot and killed.

And yet, despite all the horror, there were stories of bravery and legend, too.

Gallopoli is called, our guide tells us, the War of Brothers, for the Anzac (Aus/NZ) soldiers and Turkish opponents often traded items and stories together in the moments of ceasefire. These were many of them young men, 18 and 19 on the Allies' side, some as young as 14 on the Turkish side, fresh from home and even without the training to be soldiers.

There was John Simpson, who with his donkeys, carried the wounded from both sides off the battlefield and who would eventually himself be killed on the field.

There was the Turkish soldier, who, hearing the cries of an Australian soldier, wounded on the field, attached his underwear to his gun and held it aloft and in the ensuing ceasefire, went out and carried the dying Australian in his arms off the battlefield. (The fighting resumed as soon as the soldier was rescued).

Many of the stories of Gallopoli surround Attaturk, the eventual founder of the Republic of Turkey, who had his acension to power during this months-long trench warfare.

The first was when the Allies attacked and made some ground, Attaturk ignored the orders of his superiors (he was a Colonel at the time), and went out himself to investigate the situation.

There were two lone Turkish soldiers running. He stopped and asked them why they were running. They told him, "We are out of bullets, sir." Attaturk replied, "Then fix your bayonets to the ends of your guns and fight with them."

The soldiers did so, dropping to the ground and preparing to meet the enemy. The New Zealander troops rushing their position saw this, and they too, fell to the ground and attached their bayonets, a sign of fairness and equality that showed the two groups were not so different after all.

This quick thinking by Attaturk bought the Turks valuable time and reinforcements arrived in time to drive the New Zealanders back and repulse the Allied advance.

The second story about Attaturk says that he was on the highest point on the Gallopoli peninsula with his riding crop in his hand and watching the Allied advance. By this time, he was commander of 20,000 troops and one of the Turkish generals. It was his plan that he would signal with his riding crop when the troops were to counterattack the Allies.

Just about the time Attaturk was about to give the signal, an Allied bullet flew up and struck him in the chest. Instead of hitting his heart, it drilled into his pocketwatch that he had in his breast pocket.

Unminding of the fact that he'd just been shot, Attaturk gave the signal with his crop and the Turks surged forward, to win the day.

Had there been no pocketwatch, Attaturk would have died that day and the face of Turkey everafter would've been changed forever. That he gave the signal and showed no concern for having been shot illustrates his toughness and bravery as well, at least in my opinion.

It was rough, touring some of the cemetaries there. Seeing all those names...Aussie, Kiwi, Turk, in their respective graveyards, with so many 18, 19, 20 year old soldiers among the dead, gone before they really had a chance to live much of life.

But it was also peaceful in those cemetaries, which those who know me best will find strange, for I'm known for my dislike of cemetaries. Perhaps it's because their sacrifice was, to me, not in vain. Their death brought the respective nations closer together in the aftermath of the war and in these headstones, by the breathtakingly beautiful Dardenelle Straits, in the shade of trees, they have immortality in an earthly paradise.

As so many of the stones and larger plagues proclaim, "Their name shall live for evermore."

It was a very moving, very sobering 3 hours and we were all of us silent as we bordered the bus to leave.

Things brightened considerably with a boat trip across the Dardenelles. I've grown to love that stretch of water and this land is beautiful in a way that I can't find the words to describe. I also saw a green light as we reached the other side and tried to take pictures of it, thinking of Gatsby's green light, but I don't think it came out because of the sun.

I had to hurry down the boat and back to the van, because I hadn't realized until I saw vehicles driving off the boat that we'd landed. On the way, I think I bent a couple cars' windshields out of shape because the spaces were so narrow, but I didn't have time to apologize. As it was, I just barely made it to the van in time.

Our landing point was Canakkale, a pretty little seaside city of 80,000 people. We stopped and took pictures of the Trojan horse used in the film Troy (the Brad Pitt one) and at a convenience store, where I bought a bottled water, another Caramio bar, and another Kinder egg, though I haven't seen what's in the second egg yet. I will after this update.

The hotel we're staying in is incredible. It's 4* and is simply swank. The view from my room is absolutely gorgeous, looking out over the pool that's unfortunately closed for the season. I haven't had a chance to take pictures of the outside, but I will before we go.

We were to all meet for the buffet dinner at 7, but although I only intended to get a short 15 minute nap in, it turned into 2 hours before the guide called me and told me I could still get dinner if I hadn't had it yet. I apologized for missing it with the others and he said that was no problem.

Honestly, though, it wouldn't have made any difference if I was there. Lunch was again a silent affair for me and at our first stop of the day, when I went to join the group, which was laughing and chatting away, everyone fell silent and became flatfaced when I walked up.

It seems like in every group there's going to be one person who's on the outs. It's the social form of capitalism, as a communistic approach doesn't work for the economy or for people interaction. In this case, it turns out to be me.

I'm not angry about it or anything like that... only a little sad is all.

But even that can't detract from the wonderful time overall I'm having on this tour and this experience of Turkey. Tomorrow promises to be a real treat and I'm eagerly looking forward to it.

Wake up call at 7, departure at 8:30. :)

[Karlifornia]

I'm keeping up with this...if solely for the physical comedy that you provide.....my favorite moments so far:

-Throwing up beer
-Walking into sliding glass door
-Spilling water and nearly slipping in it

[Izulde]

I'm keeping up with this...if solely for the physical comedy that you provide.....my favorite moments so far:

-Throwing up beer
-Walking into sliding glass door
-Spilling water and nearly slipping in it

:D Glad my mishaps can entertain -somebody-.

Yesterday I woke up, showered, shaved, blah blah blah, went to breakfast.

And everyone and I mean everyone from the group that I ran into said hi or good morning to me, which leads me to believe that our guide said something to the group last night when I wasn't at dinner.

I cheerfully said hi or good morning back and finished packing.

We left around 8 am and made the short trip to Troy.

I forgot to mention that yesterday, as we were riding through the Dardenelles and as we made the boat trip across the straits, I sensed the timelessness of this region and heard the whispers of the ages echoing through the laps of the waves.

This historical feeling was further augmented by Troy, which is a series of ruins from the 9 ages of the city (the 6th was the Trojan War one). Oddly enough, though I hated the Roman ruins, I absolutely loved the Trojan ruins. As we walked through the outer walls from the 6th age, I heard the shouts of soldiers and the jostling of their weapons and in my mind's eye, I could see them racing to and fro as they took up their defensive positions.

It would not be the first extrasensory/supernatural experience I had that day.

Oh, there was also a horse there, but it was one built by the government of Turkey. The one in Canakkale, where we'd stayed the night before, was much more authentic, as they were the same types of material.

I asked the guide after the tour about souveniers and he agreed that we could stop just outside the gate where the main tourist shop was and get stuff. He said 10 minutes, so I hurried and rushed through... picking up a guidebook on Troy, Ephesus (which we saw today), and a Troy T-shirt. The shirt was white, but I didn't see the black in XL and I didn't think I had time to look. It turns out I had lots of time, but I was fine with it.

Then we journeyed to Pergamum, where the ruins and I had the following conversation (not really, but this is how I imagine it going :D)

Pergamum: Hi.

Me: Hi.

Pergamum: You came from Troy, right?

Me: Yeah.

Pergamum: Really cool city huh?

Me: Yep! It was totally sweet!

Pergamum: Oh yeah? Well, get a load of -me-! *shows off Major Impressiveness That Totally Kicks Troy's Ass*

Pergamum is a much more completely excavated city and what's more, it's high in the mountains, with a dazzling panoramic view of the valley and cities below. Its theatre has the second steepest incline of any in the world and seated 10,000 people.

What was more striking than even the brilliant mountain vistas or the impressive buildings was the sense that I'd been there before. And that's when it struck me.

I've dreamt of this city before. This exact mountain city I've dreamt of before I've even seen so much as a picture of it, much less the city itself.

Adding to that effect, while we were by the city's acropolis, I heard the laughter of three girls coming from, in my mind's eye, a pretty girl with grey eyes and light brown hair in a royal purple toga, running through the square with two of her female friends or servants, I don't know which, in white togas. I heard the exasparated sigh of her father from some distance away, but he didn't appear before my mental sight.

Whether this was from a dream I'd previously had or whether it belongs in the same category as the earlier imagery and sounds at Troy, I'm not certain, but it was a fascinating occurrence.

I bought a guidebook for this city, too, which moved to my most favorite site that we've visited so far.

After dinner and a very long drive, we went to a leather goods store, where they served us sweet, cold tea and put on a short, hilarious fashion show where two female and two male models did the runway with various leather outfits.

I say hilarious because none of these models had good runway form and the one guy kept doing a pelvic thrust as he modeled, which made us all bite our lips to hold in our laughter.

Afterwards, we were introduced to some kind of new lambskin leather that's four-weather material and extremely soft and flexible, better than the normal leathers. It felt wonderful under my fingers, like no other leather I've touched before.

Following that brief lecture, we were invited to look around, but also reminded that this was the end of the season, so the selection wasn't nearly as varied as it normally was. Our guide had advised us before we went in the store to not be afraid to bargain and negotiate for a better price.

So I start walking through the store and end up in the women's section. The clerk hid a grin as he said, "Sir, this is for ladies." "Oh... where's the men's section?" He showed me to it and immediately another salesperson is showing me some coats and the like. I shook my head and said, "No thank you."

Now, I was in the market for the right kind of leather coat, but I didn't see anything there, so I headed down to the regular leather section of the store (the earlier spot was all that lambskin leather).

Two guys there asked me what I was looking for and showed me a coat. I said, "No thank you, unless you've got something that's ankle-length."

They conferred together and one of them told me, "We may not have any left. The full-length coats are very popular and we can not keep them in stock, but wait here and I'll go check."

Okay, no problem.

He comes back a few minutes later and says, "I'm sorry, but we don't have any. We do have this 3/4 length coat, though." Which he had in his hands.

I tried it on for politeness sake and looked in the mirror. Nope, it wasn't anywhere near what I wanted, so I took it off and handed it to him with a smile, "Sorry, but I want the full-length. Thank you, though."

I walked over to where our guide was and hung out, waiting for the rest of the group to finish looking around. Five minutes later, there's a commotion behind me and a tapping on my shoulder.

"Sir, come, look! We found the last full-length coat in the store!"

I turn around and there's an absolutely beautiful full-length black leather coat with some sharp black sequin pinstriping here and there. I'm very cautiously optimistic as I allow myself to be led over to the mirror and try it on.

At first glance, it looks terrific on me and feels great. Then I look a little closer. The buttons are extremely loose, practically hanging on by a thread, much like the cheap $50 full-length jacket I bought in Milwaukee some years ago. And there's something about it that just doesn't look quite right on me.

While I'm thinking about it, I take it off and he says, "I'll give you a good deal on it. $500!" I said, "No, no thank you though." handing him the jacket back.

He replies, "What do you want for it? I'll make you special price. A special deal! Look, here is my manager!"

The manager comes over and I say, "Hmm... let me try it on again, just to be sure." As I do, the original salesperson says, "You wear a scarf with it, yes?"

And that's when it hits me. It's too large and too open around my neck. If I was the type to wear scarves, I'd seriously consider it, but I hate wearing scarves. That and the flimsiness of the buttons really has me wary, so I shake my head and slip the jacket off, "No thank you. It's just not me."

"What! Why not? It's perfect on you!" protests the salesperson.

"Come on, how much do you want it for?" stagewhispers the manager in my ear, "I'll make you a special deal."

So I do the final round of thinking. If I even do a halfway decent job, I can probably get this down to $200 and if I do a smashing job, maybe $125-150. But this is the very last full-length jacket in the store, so it's probably not in the best condition and was probably stuffed somewhere in the back. I'm also really not liking the construction of the buttons, and I'm not about to start wearing scarves.

Then the final clincher hits me.

I don't have anywhere near enough room in my suitcase. And I'm not about to pay what the outrageous amounts of shipping would be.

So I tell the manager, "Nope, it's just not me. Thank you though." He smiles and says, "All right." and left me alone after that.

As the group is walking out the store, Malayasian girl says to me, "You didn't get that jacket?" "Nope. Decided it just wasn't for me in the end." "That's too bad.... you looked really cool in it, like Neo."

I could've kissed her for that one. :D

Incidentally, nobody got anything.

Two hours later, we reached the hotel, which has the best Internet connection we've had thus far, but not much of a bath at all, which is a little disappointing, but I'll make do.

This time, I made supper with everyone, though I was half an hour late, as I was listening to the Turkish pop music I'd bought cheap at a gas station during our long driving day.

I crashed early, around 9:30 pm and didn't get up until 8 am today when the wakeup call came.

Next post covers today!

[Izulde]

I'm exhausted.

One of the top 10 most eventful nights of my life and I have a wakeup call I set for myself in 6 hours.

I'm 3 days behind on Turkey reportage and I'm sorry about that.

But oh so damn much to tell.

[Izulde]

I'm back in Granada now and naturally, I'm a few days behind in reporting, so it's time for me to get cracking on telling about the rest of my Turkey tour. :)

The day after the last post was another starting routine of waking, readying, and breakfast. We started our day with a short drive to Ephesus, which is the single-most well preserved ancient city we'd been to, complete with whole roads and far more complete structures in shape and number than either Troy or Pergamum.

Unfortunately, it was also by far the most crowded city we'd been to. Babel citified, as I heard, in the space of our walking there, Turkish, English, German, French, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and Russian that I was able to identify, as well as a couple of languages that I had no idea as to what they were. Very cool from a linguistic standpoint, but from the vantage point of hearing the echoes of the past as we walked the ruins, not so cool. Nothing came to mind in this place... too much noise and too many people, too much touristyness going on.

Ephesus's history is a fascinating one, as it was an important city in both the time of the Greek city-states and the Roman era. Furthermore, for the Christians, it held one of the three most important churches in the early days of the religion's establishment. St. Paul also preached here (and was imprisoned, thanks to the people who still devoutly followed Artemis ;) and St. John the Baptist and Mary, Mother of Jesus, lived in Ephesus. In fact, according to one school of thought among historians, Mary actually died in Ephesus after coming to the city with John following Jesus's crucifixion.

There's a famous ancient library in Ephesus, a massive building that, though impressive on the outside, was somewhat anticlimatic on the interior, though I grinned when I was able to translate a fair bit of the German on the plaques inside. You see, the Germans did a lot of the excavating of these old cities and hied off with their discoveries, so not only are these places heavily visited by German tourists, but many of the artificats are sitting in German museums, or British museums, or Russian museums, depending on the nationality of the archaeologists that found the items.

Turkey's tried to get back the stuff back through the years, but the other nations' governments refuse to hand them over, so it remains a spot of contention. It makes you realize just how much is at stake with these digs and the importance of being the first one to uncover these past relics. Like our guide joked, now we have a reason to visit these different cities in other countries, to find the stuff the archaeologists stole from the sites.

Anyway, it was while searching the library that I was stopped by three elderly Spanish women, who asked me en Espanol, to take their picture with it. I naturally agreed and did so, but was both simultaneously amused and puzzled as to why they asked me of all people.

Then I glanced down.

I was wearing my Espana T-shirt.

Mystery solved. :D

Amusingly enough, there's also a brothel close by the library and our guide told us there was a secret tunnel which led from the library to the brothel, so the various nobles who frequented the love house would be able to visit it without being detected. Needless to say, upon hearing that, I couldn't resist having my picture taken in the brothel with the library in the background. It also gave me an idea for a short story, which I've yet to start writing.

After Ephesus, we trekked to a carpet making place, where a guy gave us an excellent lecture on the process of carpet-making and how to tell the difference between hand-woven carpets and machine-made ones, as well as tips on how to distinguish between wool and silk carpets. Sadly, I've forgotten most of the information he gave us, but he showed us a lot of -gorgeous- carpets as examples for his explanations and told us “Go on! Touch them, feel them, look at them, lift them up and look at the backs!”

He was extremely passionate about his work and we all greatly enjoyed his talk. He also told us that he was born in a small village in the interior of Anatolia and that many of the people of his mother's generation were illiterate, but believed strongly in getting their children educated, so he and the others were sent off to various boarding schools. His love of carpets also came from his hometown, where they made carpets in much the same way as they did at the factory.

My favorite tidbit he gave us was that he told us when looking for carpets, we should go with a lighter and try to set the carpet on fire. If someone rushes over and starts yelling at us, then we'd know something's wrong, because wool doesn't burn, but the machine-made carpets are made of materials that do burn, so it isn't a carpet we'd want in that case.

We also found out that the price of a Turkish carpet is based directly on how long it takes to make a carpet. The more people involved, the stronger the material, the more knots, the longer it takes. So a small wool carpet might take one weaver a month to make. A large silk carpet might take three of the most skilled weavers in the factory working side by side 5-7 years to finish.

Also, once a weaver or group of weavers start working on a carpet, they're the ones to do the whole thing. No other weaver is allowed to work on it.

Our lecturer added, “When I go to other countries and see the prices of the Turkish carpets there, I have a heart attack. $10,000 for a carpet! That's ridicilous, I say to myself. But then I start thinking, okay, the transportation costs, the custom duties, the red tape... yeah, then I can see why. But here, because we don't deal with that and because we're a branch of the Turkish government, we can sell them for a much more reasonable price.”

With that segue, we were freed to look at carpets, under no obligation to buy, but I was, as I think I've said before, very interested in getting a carpet.

A guy who looked an awful lot like my old kyukido instructor saw me looking at a small carpet walked over to me and struck up a conversation, asking me where I was from, how was I enjoying Turkey, etc.

He told me the carpet I was looking at was silk and I laughed and said, “I was looking for wool actually, and small, because it has to fit in my suitcase.”

“We ship and it's free, because we're under the government”, he replied.

I said that I knew that, but I still wanted to take it with me.

So he said no problem and proceeded to take me into a room and show me a lot of different smaller carpets.
I immediately spot this -beautiful- small carpet with a design I love and colors, especially a bright red, that were just I was looking for.

“$900,” the guy informs me and my heart sinks. I knew we were supposed to negotiate, much like in the leather place, but there's no way I can bring that one to an affordable price.

He starts showing me some other carpets and rattling off prices.

I interrupt, “Um, the thing is, I don't have much money...I'm a student and everything...”

“How much are you looking to spend then?” he asks.

I just stare at him with an embarrased look.

He smiles and beckons with his hands, “Come on, just tell me. It's okay.”

“Um.. $200?”

His manner turns brisk and he starts sweeping through the carpets, “For $200, I can give you...” pointing out some atrociously ugly pieces and I'm getting more and more depressed.

Then I see a carpet with a really cool design, dark blue and a kind of muted orangeish-red.

“$275” he says, seeing my eyes on that carpet.

“Do you have anything in a bright red?” I ask, as that was the color I really wanted.

“Hmm... I can give you this one for $100”, he answers, holding up a bright red carpet, “But it's used and the shape is bad. You really don't want this one.”

It -was- a bad shape and he was right, I didn't want it.

I go over and look at the orangeish-red carpet again.

“$250” the seller says and I know we're officially in the negotiation stage. I really do like the carpet, but at the same time, I really wanted something that's bright red.

He starts going on about how the carpet's Turkish red and blue, very traditional Turkish colors and so on, which was actually a damn good selling point to use with me, as I wanted something authentically Turkish if I could find it.

Meanwhile, there's young Turks (:D) going back and forth with more carpets during his prattling, unrolling them for me to look at.

I'm half-listening to his chatter when I spy a red carpet with touches of green. It's not a bright red, but it's much closer to the true red I was looking for. I go over to take a look at it and I find myself interested.

I go back and forth between the two carpets, which are on separate sides of the room, looking at and touching both of them.

“For $200, I will give you one or the other of these carpets!”, he says.

For $200, I can do one of these, but I'm still not sure what one I want. I love the design on the first carpet, but the red is nifty on the second one.

The guy motions for the young Turks to stop bringing in more carpets and to take the two carpets and place them side by side, since they're obviously the finalists.

At this point, a higher up comes walking in, one of the managers of the place.

He'd been appraised of the situation before he came in, because this place is extremely well-run and after we greet each other, he says:

“For $175, I give you one of these carpets.”

I say nothing, but continue making the hand gestures that I always do when trying to decide between two things. At this point, I'm leaning towards the Turkish red and blue carpet, but I'm not entirely certain.

After a few minutes of these, the manager smiles and says, “Tell you what. For $300, I let you have both carpets if you take them with you.”

“No, can't do that.” is my immediate response, even as I note that we've just brought down the price of one carpet to $150. I was already planning on taking whatever I bought with me anyway, but naturally I don't mention that.

“Okay, for $275 you take both carpets”, counters the manager.

I smile inside my head. Bingo. Now we're at the stage where I'll take both carpets, but $275 is still too stiff for my liking.

“Can you do $250 and I take both carpets?” I ask.

He thinks a bit before saying in a quite serious tone, “I don't want to break your heart, but I do have my limits, you understand... so for $10 more, I can give you both carpets.”

“Deal!” I cheerfully answer.

We all smile and the young Turks and the first seller cheer and clap while the manager and I shake hands to seal the deal.

As the youngsters bustle about to collect my carpets and pack them up, the first salesman congratulates me on my shrewd negotiating.

“You just got a carpet free, you know, because the price on the one was $275. That was some excellent work!”

I received similar messages of congratulation from other employees of the store as word spread of the story. My tour group was impressed as well, including the Malaysian girl, and even my guide was like, “$260 American for both carpets? You did an excellent job.” and he's not one given to hyperbole.

The South Africans got an absolutely gorgeous carpet themselves for $500. The initial asking price for $700, but they didn't bargain very hard, because as the guy later said, “When we see something we like, we generally prefer to get it and don't like bargaining.”

One of the Australian couples almost got a carpet as well, but they weren't able to get a carpet in the color they wanted (dark purple) for their budget and the guy didn't like that it was the same price whether they took it with them or had it shipped and indeed it would have to be shipped, as they've got another month of travel to go. Needless to say, their negotations weren't so harmonious, though to be honest, I don't think they weren't -really- that interested in getting a carpet.

When I heard about the Australians' experiences, I admit I did feel better about not being able to get a bright red. Apparently it's an expensive color to get and purple's priceyness is, of course, legendary, royal purple and all.

After the carpet place, we went to a museum that had artificats from the Ephesus excavations that hadn't been made off with, along with relics from other parts of the former Greek city-state regions, back when water once flowed where mountains now stand. Very interesting and priced right too, at 2 lira.

Our last stop was the Temple of Artemis, once an ancient wonder of the world, burned down twice, once by an old man who wanted to immortalize his name (which he did, incidentally), and rebuilt by Alexander the Great, a miniature bust of whom I'd just bought in the museum shop.

The rest of the group stood at the edge and took pictures, but I could tell they weren't that interested, as it's nothing more than some random free-standing stones and a restored pillar.

For me, though, this site had greater significance.

And so I handed my camera to the guide and scrambled over mound and stone until I reached the pillar and rested my hand on it. As I made my way across the ground, I could see the priests of ages past, walking and chanting, a few smiling as they cried, “Welcome, brother!”

Once again, as in the Vatican, as in touching the pillars of the Temple of Artemis now in Hagia Sophia, I felt the holiness of the place and the presence of something or someone immortal, some greater power far beyond my mortal understanding.

Returning to the lighter note of the tour, we went back to our hotel after the Temple and had a free afternoon. I took advantage of the opportunity to swim in the pool, sprawl in the sun for a little and just relax in general. Dinner and sleep followed.

The next day will come in the next update, as this was a long one. ;)

[thealmighty]

What was in your second Kinder egg? :)

[Izulde]

What was in your second Kinder egg? :)


Oops. Forgot to mention that and also forgot to mention a social thing I did the night of the last post, which I'll cover in next post when I write it. :)

What I got in the second Kinder egg was one of the Champion Ghosts, a cute little bloke with a Blue 1 on his chest and a tiny little die inside of him.

I've named him Morty. :D

[Izulde]

I actually did do one thing that night besides dinner and sleep.

There was some talk about people from the two travel groups going out and watching the Liverpool-Marseille Champions League game.

I was leaning towards going, but wasn't certain, when the Malaysian girl asked me if I was going.

I told her I wasn't sure and neither was she, but a few minutes later, I decided to go and to hell with the tired state I was somewhat in.

When I stepped out of the elevator after fetching my hoodie, Malaysian girl was there and I remarked, "I decided I'm going after all."

She smiled, "I think I will too."

A short taxi ride later, six of us were on a main street in... Kumalkia? Whatever the name of the city we stayed two nights at in this part of the trip.

Chelsea-Valencia was the main game on most screens, but we eventually found a bar that offered to put up Liverpool-Marseille for us.

Our group consisted of two Liverpool fanatics and four indifferent, though I found myself cheering for Liverpool anyway, simply because I didn't care either way who won really and I wanted our group to go home happy.

Marseille put on an absolutely brilliant game and Liverpool got a few chances, but couldn't convert. Final score: 1-0 Marseille and the whole bar and street went absolutely ballistic, because it was a huge, -huge- upset.

I mostly watched the game, but chatted some with one of the Australians that came with. Interestingly enough, the Malaysian was the only girl in attendance.

I chatted with our tour guide, who came along, and the girl on the way back, mostly talking about my soccer coaching experiences and mentioning how European soccer was growing on me.

-Then- it was sleep time. :D

Oh yes, that reminds me. Another thing I forgot about Ephesus while we were there. They have an absolutely astounding theatre with amazing acoustics there. Malaysian girl and I made the long climb up to the top and then some guy started singing Maria down on the stage... and we could actually hear him perfectly! He really had a good voice too and held the entire place in thrall, receiving repeated rounds of thunderous applause.

The next day was a quiet one. Most of it was spent driving to Pamukkale, famous for its white terraces and the pools thereon. An absolutely gorgeous place, but the pools are really more wading and pictures and aren't deep enough to swim.

There is, however, a thermal spring/pool inside that is quite good for swimming and quite costly too (18 lira for one round).

Our guide recommended that for the 3 hours we had open to go out on the terraces first and swim second.

We took his advice and headed out in a large group.

That's when I discovered something about the terraces.

They're extremely rocky and absolute hell on bare feet, which just about everyone goes in, presumably because of the pools.

As a result of this rockiness, our group start breaking off into smaller subgroups about midway through the walk, until, at one point, it was me and the Malaysian girl.

We were about two pools from the end of the terraces and the couple that was ahead of us had just decided to turn back and go off inside.

"I think I'm going to keep going" she said.

"Ah, I'll go with you then, if that's cool" I replied offhandedly.

She said that would be cool and so we walked to the other pools.

Or sort of walked. Like I said, it was extremely rocky, so people didn't walk as much as they searched for the right foothold and made their way across the terrain.

She turned out to be quite light on her feet, adept at finding the best spots. I, on the other hand, stumbled and owed and grimaced clumsily behind her, all the while noticing how the sunlight shone on her perfectly applied purple toenail polish and how deft and graceful her movements were.

During periodic stops, we small talked about what we were doing in our respective countries of the moment. She'd been on a two year work visa in England as a physical therapist or physical therapist assistant, I'm not sure which, and said visa runs out in November. And you all know what I'm doing. :D

We took some pictures as we conquered the last two pools before making the long trek back. This time she went slower, but I nearly fell on my nose about three or four times, any one of which would have had me sprawling right into her and bringing her down with me.

Fortunately, I managed to keep my balance enough for -that- embarassment to be prevented.

As we were walking back inside where the swimmable pool was, she commented that her knees were out of sorts from the high-stepping, though her feet were fine. I chuckled and answered that my feet were saying hooray hooray to be in shoes again but my knees were great. Very yin-yang in a way. :D

After we got back inside, I paid the 18 lira and swam. She decided not to because there was a gorgeous thermal spring waiting at the hotel.

A hotel I would not be staying in because I, along with one of the Australian couples, was headed on the overnight train back to Istanbul.

This spring, however, was absolutely delicious. Hot-tub warm, relaxing, and a great place to swim. The only drawback was that it murdered the eyes whenever you went underwater, which I did often because that's how I like to swim.

Before leaving, I bought a Turkey hat that I really liked. We all changed and headed to the hotel to check people in. While there, I borrowed a piece of paper and a pen from the front desk clerk and asked everyone in the group for their e-mail address, though I was most interested in one in particular, which frankly surprised me.

Mission successful as I got everyone's email.

The whole group trekked out to see the three of us that were leaving for the train off. We all did the requisite handshakes, hugs, goodbyes, etc. The interaction between me and the Malaysian girl provided some unintentional comedy.

It started off as a handshake and then we stood there, hands still locked, eyes looking into each other's... and we started drawing closer together... but at the last second, I went left and she went right in this comical sort of half-hug. I caught the South African girl smirking knowingly at us while the Malaysian girl laughed and said, "Sorry.. I'm too used to the European hug-hug kiss-kiss thing."

I laughed and said it was no problem. With that, we were off.

The train ride was pleasant. I liked trains and my car had the bonus of a pull-down bed and being able to hook up my laptop for some CK playing. I fell asleep incredibly early, as Pamukkale was just that relaxing. To the tune of 6 pm early.

It would be 4 am before I woke up again.

[Izulde]

I woke up at 4 am, as I said in the last post, unable to go back to sleep.

So I played a short game as the County of Ulaid, 1066 scenario, in CK, eventually getting the Kingship of Scotland after Malcom got himself excommunicated.

We got in to the station around 8 am and were transported through very grueling traffic to the same hotel as the first night. A word to the wise: Never be on the Asia side of Istanbul heading to the European side at 8 am in the morning, because a lot of people live on Asia side and work in European side. It took an hour and a half before we got there.

I took a bath and crashed, then woke up in the afternoon. I'd originally intended to go on Bosphorous cruise, but it wasn't running that night, so I decided to go to a Turkish bath instead.

The front desk guy was very unhelpful with his directions, so I struck out on my own. 3 hours later, it's only about another hour and a half until the bath closes. I've asked literally dozens of people for directions and can't find the way they're pointing me.

Finally, I'm back by the Blue Mosque and run into another group of Turks who not only know where it is, but offer me a ride there, which amazed me. I of course accepted.

I got to the bath, only to find out that it's closed, but the guy told me about another bath and ordered a taxi for me. The taxi came and the driver asks if the other bath is open, because he doesn't want me spending money if I can't go there. His concern really touched me. Closed bath dude had no idea, but I told the driver I wanted to go anyway.

So I get to the second bath and it's open. There was an hour left before it closed, but unfortunately, there was this group of annoying American girls who complained that the bath cost too much and were trying to get a lower price from the guy at the front desk.

10 minutes later, I'm coughing loudly and giving these girls very dirty looks. They finally get the hint and step aside. So I go upstairs and change into my trunks, only to have the room attendant guy tell me "Go and change!" I'm like "...I did change." "No, no go and change!" Finally, he sent me back downstairs in disgust.

Before I head into the bath, another guy stops me and says, "Don't forget your soap!" I take it, but I'm seriously confused at this point.

I go into the bath and start looking around for the pools, because it's been a long, stressful night.

That's when I realize there's no pools. There's only a large stone and small chambers with fountains and bowls in them. Oh and lots of fat, hairy guys in only a towel.

And that's when I figure out why it said "Bathe yourself" which confused me at first and why I was handed the soap.

So I lay on the stone awhile, filled some bowls with hot, warm, cool and cold water and did a few cycles of those, etc. 30 minutes later, I was done.

I changed and headed out into the night, choosing to walk home rather than go through the hassle of another taxi.

I wandered around and eventually found an open air market, with rows and rows of stalls by the Blue Mosque. Crescent moon lights and gorgeous trees, with masses of smiling, chatting people milling about.

I thought to myself, "So this is Ramadan at night in Turkey." The whole place had a mystical, enchanted air about it, very relaxing and very calming in a way that the Turkish bath wasn't.

The smells of food and drink made me hungry and thirsty and I got a glass of fresh-squeezed pomegranate juice as I was more thirsty than hungry. It was delicious.

I continued walking when a man stopped me and asked for the time. I gave it to him and he starts talking to me. Turns out he's Ukranian and occasionally visits Turkey. We walk and talk for a while until he invites me to a club, saying there's lots of pretty girls there and the like.

My professor's voice comes into my head, telling me the story of what happened when he went to a club in Istanbul that had that exact same pitchline. With that memory, I had no problems declining the Ukranian's offer, saying I had to get up early and so needed to go back to my hotel.

Which was true, but I wanted to enjoy this night of Ramadan in Turkey some more, so I kept walking.

I bought a Sufi music CD at one of the stalls and started to make my way back to my hotel when I heard this music playing that really spoke to me for some reason. It seemed perfect for the night and for my whole experience in Turkey.

I went in and asked who it was. The shopkeeper showed me the CD and I said I wanted it, handing him my debit card, as I had no cash on hand.

It came back rejected, because the machine only took Turkish cards.

I was disappointed, but thanked him for trying and told myself I'd just get the CD from online when I got home.

On my way out of the stall, I noticed another guy indicating the CD I was going to buy and talking to the shopkeeper. Good choice, I thought to myself.

Two minutes later, there's the rush of footsteps behind me and an accented voice asks me, "Are you busy sir?"

I turn around and it's the second guy from the CD place I just left.

"Er...." I answer. He smiles and hands me the CD I wanted to buy, "For you."

"What? Are you sure?" I'm a little suspicious after my Ukranian experience, not quite taking the CD yet.

"Yes. It's a gift. Enjoy your time in Turkey." He smiled again, pressed the CD into my hand and walked off back to the marketplace.

I stood there, holding the CD, overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of the Turkish people that I'd encountered during my tour. I felt my eyes grow moist with gratitude and I walked back to my hotel in a wonderful, reflective mood.

The next day, I made my way back to Spain. Missed my connection in Munich, so had to get a new itinerary, but the German airline gave me a free 10 euro voucher to eat lunch, which I thought was awesome. Then the Spanish airlines lost my luggage, as Spanish airlines are notorious for doing, but I got it back the next day and everything was in it, thankfully. :)

[Izulde]

Friday, we went to Nerja. The caves were pretty and interesting to look at, but underwhelming in a way I can't explain.

The beaches, on the other hand, are delicious... finally a beach in Spain that's sandy! Plus the usual assortment of bare-breasted lovelies, including, much to my delight, quite a few of the girls in our American group :D

We also ate paella there at the restaurant that's famous for it. Ayo, I believe was the name. Great food. Great weather, too, as it was sunny and in the 80s. Only down part was the fact that the Mediterranean there has more gunk in it than I'd like.

I've started classes and my favorite prof from the intensive language course is my prof for Islamic Culture in Spain, which rocks. The prof for my two Spanish language courses is really awesome, too and a fantastic teacher.

Spanish Civilization and Culture is a mixed bag, but should be fun overall.

Then there's Spanish Literature, which can be summed up in the following phrase:

Eight people, when asked, "Why should we analyze literature?", bleat, "To find the author's meaning!"

Hello, ninth circle of Hell.

To make a long story short, after the class, the prof pulled me over and strongly recommended I drop the course, which I'm doing.

I'm unfortunately in a bit of a bind, because my Spanish is 2-3 years away from even beginning to approach this stuff in the original, hence precluding my taking the Spanish Literature courses in Spanish.

So I'm going to see if I can arrange an independent study.

The social life isn't going too hot right now. I've emailed a couple people, one in particular which I was to have a dinner date with, and there's been nothing but the sound.... of the silence. I'm going to try and hook up with fencing tonight, as it should've started by now.

If fencing doesn't pan out, however, the guy I get on the best with in the group has recommended that I do kickboxing with him, so I'll at least have some athletic activity to get involved in.

And I'm not even going to talk about the Dolphins.

At least my fantasy team just might be able to make the playoffs this year.

[Izulde]

I've been incredibly busy the last week as my mom came to visit, so I gave her the grand tour of the people and places of my life in Granada.

We visited Cordoba this past weekend and saw the Mezquita, which is amazing for its vastness, along with the Alcazaba (very much a military fortress, but the gardens are absolutely incredible) and the old Arab baths.

Last night, we went to the Alhambra, which like the Mezquita in Cordoba, is impressive for its size. The Nasrid palaces have some absolutely stunning architecture as well, but overall the Alhambra was slightly underwhelming to me. Probably because it's been hyped up so much.

In my Islamic Culture in Spain class yesterday morning, we read some of the script of a film dealing with the history of Islam and the Alhambra. Said script was in Spanish and the prof mentioned that a friend of a friend of his had made the film and was looking for someone to translate it into English, so the sales opportunities could grow, as the filmmaker is currently limited to Spanish speakers.

I talked to the prof after the class and said I'd like to try and tackle it. Although my Spanish is still pretty basic, with the prof's help and my skills with the English language, I should be able to produce a bang-up translation. :)

[Izulde]

Tomorrow Sevilla for the weekend with my insanely cliquey group.

I've been sleeping pretty poorly the last couple of nights and am beset with crises of confidence with regards to women and writing.

No replies from any of the girls I've contacted, either to hang out or, in quite a few cases, just to see how they're doing.

And it feels like whatever writing talent I had, if I had any to begin with, is decaying more and more each day.

I was planning on going somewhere next week, when I get a 5 day holiday, but I may just either stay here in Granada, or take a weekend trip to somewhere in Spain.

I'd like to be able to get up to Normandy, to visit the beaches and fulfill the vow I made before I left, especially since I may be going to Amsterdam with a guy from my program for the December break, but I don't know... I'm feeling like it'd be very lonely being there by myself.

But we'll see.

[thealmighty]

In my extensive research on the subject, I have found that extensive writing of CK dynasty posts will often bring the decay of writing talent to a halt and, in most cases, accelerate the positive vibes from women. :D

[Cap Ologist]

In my extensive research on the subject, I have found that extensive writing of CK dynasty posts will often bring the decay of writing talent to a halt and, in most cases, accelerate the positive vibes from women. :D

I believe there was an article about that in Modern Medicine last week that said the same thing.

[CamEdwards]

Izulde,

Have you ever read "Of Human Bondage" by Somerset Maugham? I think you would get quite a bit out of it.

[Izulde]

Izulde,

Have you ever read "Of Human Bondage" by Somerset Maugham? I think you would get quite a bit out of it.

I absolutely -love- that book. :)

[Izulde]

Thanks, guys, by the way. :) Those replies cracked me up. :D

Sevilla is the most beautiful and awesome city in Spain. There's so much to do and so much to see, it's unreal. And with around a million people, it's just small enough to feel comfortable.

It's also a lot less congested than Granada, despite having 4x the number of people.

We saw, in our too short time there, Maria Luisa Park (a tiny section of it) and a couple of the buildings from the 1929 Expo which are really cool and unique. We also saw the bullfighting ring and museum, which was an incredible and enlightening experience, thanks to a great guide, along with the cathedral, 3rd largest in the world.

Attached to the cathedral is the Giralda, a minaret tower left over from the Muslim mosque. I wound up walking up all 34 floors to the top. Incredible view and it's easy access because it's no stairs... all ramp, since in the days of the mosque, the man who would give the call to prayer made his way to the top of the minaret on horse.

After we got back to Granada, it was raining something fierce, so I waited under a roof for about an hour for it to let up. An African or Jamaican guy sold umbrellas next to me and he managed to sell a few. I offered him an apple, because I had two. He thanked me, but declined.

As he was leaving to try his luck elsewhere, he asked if I wanted an umbrella. I said yes and he handed me one. I went to pay him and he refused, telling me it was a gift.

That was really awesome and with it, I was able to make my way back home. The rain had also let up by then, which helped.

Oh, and I also heard back from my first girlfriend. From the way I'm reading her letter, it sounds like she's single, which, if true, shocks the hell out of me, as I thought sure she'd be married by now.

Oh yeah, the weird thing about it? She was just thinking about me the day before on her way to work, wondering if my email still worked.

So, who knows?

[Izulde]

I've been a sleeping a lot lately, like 10-12 hours a day and my energy isn't what it used to be. I'm thinking it's about time I cracked into the medication I brought along with me.

Last night, I was sitting on the steps outside the CLM like I always do when it's closed, talking to a few people online, surfing, etc, when this guy asked me, first in Spanish I couldn't comprehend, then in fairly passable English, if he could use my Internet for something.

Though he was pretty sketchy looking and there was a light in his eyes which wasn't all there, I said sure.

Turns out he's a schizophrenic who recently got prescribed Lonseren and he was looking for information on it in Spanish. We tried a few different Google searches, discussing possible hits that might work in a mixture of broken English on his end and broken Spanish on mine.

No luck on finding it in Spanish, and my language skills are nowhere near the level needed to have explained the English to him. Finally, he thanked me and went on his way, only to come back five minutes later, asking if I had a cigarette, which I didn't.

I did recommend he try asking at a pharmacy to see if they had information there.

Then he went on this little mini-rant in the English which is somewhat better than my Spanish about how schizophrenia is an illness in the brain and the chemicals are all wrong.

As I stood there and listened to him, I really felt his pain. To me, it's always seemed that when the sentence of schizophrenia is passed, every thought you have, every action you make, is subject to self-scrutiny. Is this me, is this rational or is it the Other, this imbalance that plagues me?

It especially hit home, because it was clear that this guy was quite intelligent, but not in the best of circumstances financially or healthwise. And I fear and have feared a similiar future for myself for a long time.

Eventually, we said good night and shook hands, each going our own separate ways.

I don't know if I'll run into him again or not, but it was definitely an experience.

[Izulde]

Although I'm probably not going anywhere during this 6 day holiday, unless it's a day trip to Almeria tomorrow, it's been extremely productive.

After consulting with my department chair back home and a few other people, I figured out what I'm going to do about grad school (See that particular thread), though I may change some of the schools I'll be applying to, pending another review. Arkansas will for sure make the list, though, as that's the one that matches closest to my interests.

I also spent a very gorgeous fall afternoon walking around the city and shopping.

It's getting colder lately, so I wanted to get a coat. I checked a few different stores, but couldn't find anything to my liking.

Then I walked into Zara, where in the men's department, I tried on this really awesome black coat that made me feel like the man. Although I really liked it, I wanted to check a few other things first, such as a tweed coat in the same store that, while it was warm and looked pretty good on me, just didn't have the wow factor, so I put it back.

I checked the Bershka's men store as a last stop, even though there was only one XL left in the awesome coat and I heard my mom and my grandfather's voices in my head both telling me to get it. Bershka had a somewhat similiar jacket that was $45 cheaper, but the material was of an inferior quality and I just felt icky even touching it.

So back to Zara's I go, where awesome coat is still there and a black fedora-style hat that must be the only non-absurdly priced one in Granada and goes perfectly with the coat is too, so I get both.

At the checkout, I hand the clerk my credit card and my ID. Only there's a problem. Student IDs, even though it has my photo and signature that match me and my credit card's signature, aren't accepted. I'm feeling like an absolute dumbass standing there while the clerk calls the manager to get it approved because I work upscale retail and I -know- this stuff, damn it. Fortunately, the manager gave the go-ahead.

After taking my purchases home, I go get ice cream from my favorite shop and in the spirit of adventure and the beautiful fall day, I decide to get an ice cream cone, as I haven't had one in years.

30 seconds later, I realize why I've stuck to dishes all this time.

Beards are not conducive to eating ice cream cones.

See, with a dish and spoon, you control the amount of ice cream that's going into your mouth. Not so with a cone. If that ice cream wants to come off, it's coming off, gosh darn it!

It got so bad that I made no less than 3 English tourists and a Spanish nun smile at how ridiculous I looked.

Oh well, at least I brightened somebody's day. :) And the ice cream was excellent as always.

[Izulde]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/Izulde/Picture4.jpg

Me in new coat and hat. I apologize for this cafe's really terrible lighting.

[Izulde]

I finally beat Luminous Arc and checked gamefaqs to discover that there's some stuff I missed but not a whole lot.

On the whole, I'd recommend Luminous Arc. Yeah, it's a pretty easy, pretty straightforward tactical RPG, but the characters and story both managed to suck me in and the battles are fun, with some -very- unique characters in terms of their ability sets.

Perhaps not the greatest showing ever by Atlus, but certainly the most personally enjoyable. :)

[Izulde]

I tried out kickboxing tonight. Didn't like it all, though. Too much a fan of Asian martial arts, so I won't be pursuing it. Tomorrow I'll see if fencing has started up yet, even though I have this nasty cold.

I chatted up this really awesome Belgian girl today and talked fairly extensively about the Basque Country with this supercute Laotian chick (We turned out to have pretty much the exact same opinion concerning it). One thing that's nice about Spain is I find myself talking to women a lot more than I do in the States (outside of work that is).

Also, I received awesome news today. Dartmouth invited me to check out their grad school specifically for a Masters in Literature w/a concentration in Creative Writing. Granted it's too damn cold and a lot would depend on what type of financial aid package they'd offer, but I'm definitely going to look into it!

[Izulde]

6 Bacardi and Sprites in 1 hour + me waiting for chick who shows up with an entourage of female friends none of whom I know + noisy noisy bar environment = bad.

I cut out before things got ugly.

Oh, Icy, I have to give a presentation on Castilla-La Mancha Nov 27th. That's Toledo's community, right?

Do you think you'll be free any weekend before then?

[Izulde]

My knee's banged up from hitting a metal post on the way over here, but I'm still in a fantastic mood. :)

We visited Pamaneira (sp) in the La Alpujarras today and the La Alpujarras region, and I have to say, it's some of the most beautiful country I've ever been in.

When we got to the town, the CEA director told the two girls that had sandals that they couldn't go on the two hour hike because they were wearing sandals, which would be too dangerous.

On our way out, she notices my sandals and asks the local guide who's leading us on the hike about them. He looks at them and goes, "Oh, he'll be fine. They're leather and they look sturdy."

Two hours later, we're all completely exhausted. Uphill, downhill aroundhill for two straight hours, including extremely steep uphills, so steep they're almost sheer. I made it just fine, though, other than a couple stumbles where the rocks were looser than I thought. Yes, rocks. No smooth paths here. Not a hike for the faint of heart.

Another girl in the group wasn't quite as lucky. She turns out to have asthma, so it was quite rough on her. She finished though.

But oh, what beautiful beautiful country. I'm going to have to post a few pics when I get the chance.

Got back to the town and had lunch. Pasta was good, fries were greasy, and chicken was horrible. We also stopped at the fountain of St. Antonio, where, legend has it, if you drink the water, you'll have good luck in finding a boyfriend or girlfriend.

As I'd paid the rip-off price of a 1,50 euro for a small bottle of water in Granada, I went back to this fountain repeatedly throughout the rest of the stay to fill up and ended up drinking enough water to have Adriana Lima waiting in my bed when I got back home.

After lunch, I explored the incredibly tiny town and did some shopping. Bought a bottle of Alpujarra red wine, an awesome, though pricy sweatshirt, and, by following a group of people who went to the chocolate shop, some incredibly delicious, bargain-priced dark chocolate.

Upon returning to Granada, I stopped at the Isabel Theatre to see if the ticket office was open. It was, so I was able to buy a ticket for Sunday's Granada C.F. home game! :)

It wasn't until I returned home that the day took its only slight downturn.

I didn't drink enough no water.

No Adriana Lima waiting in bed for me. :D

[Izulde]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/Izulde/DSC03048.jpg
I just love the bare trees against their more festively colored brethren

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/Izulde/DSC03077.jpg
This is one of my favorite pictures... probably because to me, it has that enchanted forest feel to it.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/Izulde/DSC03053.jpg
Cascading water is one of my picture obsessions, hence this here mountain stream.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/Izulde/DSC03050.jpg
I wasn't kidding when I said it was rocky going on our hike.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/Izulde/DSC03115.jpg
Two girls from the group drinking water at St. Antonio's fountain. Not that either one needs it, as they both have boyfriends. :D

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/Izulde/DSC03102.jpg
My new favorite picture of myself. I've got the mountain man look and the hat and coat go perfectly with it. There's the waterfall, the trees, the bridge, my camera, the 1,50 euro Lajaron bottle (which, incidentally is bottled in the Alpujarras region)... what more do you need? :)

[Izulde]

Saturday night, I was feeling in the mood for a movie, so I went to see Knocked Up in Spanish.

Beforehand, I had about two hours to kill, so I wandered around and went to Francisco Garcia Lorca Park, which is as beautiful by night as it is by day and sunset, especially with the colored lights on the fountains.

I went to the small playground and swung on the swings for a while, just relaxing and forgetting some stuff that'd been driving me crazy, mostly related to school and housing back in the US.

About half an hour later, a van pulled up and two guys got out. I had the premonition that they were there because of me, so I stayed where I was, as they looked to be wearing official uniforms. Sure enough, they told me that the park closed at 10 (It was 10:30 then), so I had to leave. They were extremely nice about it, too.

Went back and watched the movie in a theatre that had seats which were okay and far, far more leg room than in the US. Unfortunately, the screen was also much smaller than I'm used to, which took some getting used to, along with the whole assigned seats thing.

A lot of the sex and nudity-related humour failed to make a hit with the audience, but some of the same parts generated laughter and they particularly thought the scene where Seth Rogen's playing outside with the two daughters was hilarious. They laughed so hard and so long at that part we missed a few lines. It seemed that in general, this particular Spanish audience appreciated physical humour. Not sure if that's a national tendency, though.

Sunday was the soccer game. Granada C.F. against... arg can't remember the name now. C.D. Basa? something like that. Great seats for $15! The first half was pretty boring, with the opposition having a few great chances, but couldn't convert. Granada C.F. played terrible. The second half, both teams played a lot better and though the opposition deserved to win, the score ended in a 1-1 tie.

I noticed C.D.B. in general played with a lot more passion and enthusiasm than Granada and I regret to say that I saw the most evidence yet why Granadinos have a reputation for being mean and rude in Spain, such as the guys behind me who used my coat as an ashtray and tray for their sunflower seeds until I put it on just to get them off of it.

After the game, I was waiting at the bus stop to go back home and the visiting team's fans' bus was directly across the street. A sizeable group of Granada C.F. fans were about half a block down, prevented from getting closer by 8 police officers and a paddy wagon that protected the bus. There was a lot of shouting and gestures and whatnot from the Granada fans and a little bit from the C.D.B. fans on the bus. One of the officers rapped his nightstick on the bus window and went on twice to tell the people not to antagonize the Granada C.F. fans.

All in all, it was a busy, fun weekend. :) Midterms this week. Spanish Culture and Civ will be easy, though I'm dreading the Spanish language midterms. So much to remember!

[Izulde]

I did okay but not great on my midterms, I think.

Friday morning, my Islamic Civilization in Spain class took a 3 hour hike through parts of Granada that I haven't been to yet and the professor took us to places like the Isabel Convent, where the nuns sell pastries through a secret door.

You pull on this knocker, wait for an answer, open the little door, tell them what you want and put your money on this rotating shelf.

The shelf spins around and a few minutes later, your purchase and your change come out on it, so you never see the nuns at all and they don't see you. It's pretty darn cool, actually.

The pastries turned out to be sort of a lemon muffin-cake type thing with sugar sprinkled on top. It was -delicious-! The prof got us each one and we took a break in a small park to eat them.

We also saw a Moorish palace which was like the Nasrid palaces only in very, very miniature, the church that used to be the main mosque in Granada before it got converted to a Christian church and then finally the main current mosque in Granada, which had a very pretty garden and lovely fountains. Oh, we saw a couple other places too, but I don't remember them all now.

Saturday night, I'm out walking and realizing that it's very cold out and since I'm hoping to get to Paris before I go, I realize I'll need gloves. Luckily, Zaras was still open so I went down to the men's department. There's one pair of XL gloves in my size. They're black, leather extraordinarily comfortable, and go great with my coat and hat.

They're also $22.

After a lot of deliberation, I told myself I deserved them because unlike everyone else, I don't go out drinking every night and spending money on overpriced booze. So I bought them and man am I glad I did. I don't know how they'll be when it gets Wisconsin winter cold, but they're perfect for now.

Tonight (Sunday night) I decided to go walking again and take some new routes I haven't before. In doing so I discovered the Jardines de Triunfo (sp), which a taxi cab driver had been very upset with me for not having seen. After seeing those gardens, the impressively tall statue of what I presume is Granada's patron saint, and most of all, the stunning row of fountains that change colors at night, I can only say I understand now why he insisted that I see them.

I also found, in the course of my travels, the falafel place and the bakery where the original three of us (roommate, girl and I) got that great falafel and those tasty doughnuts all those weeks ago. I got a doughnut and left, feeling quite cheerful.

A block down, I discover an arcade, one that's open till midnight on Sunday. For the fun of it, I go in and look around.

And there I see Virtua Tennis 2.

Now, a little known fact about me: I love tennis, both video game and in real life. Super Tennis is one of my top 25 fave games of all time and is one of 3 reasons why I still occasionally play my SNES (Romance of the Three Kingdoms II and NCAA Basketball are the other two). I also played tennis for two years in high school, winning Most Improved my junior year and having tennis as my only sport senior year, when I worked at Best Buy. My fondest sports playing memory is from tennis and the sport's my second favorite to watch.

That being said, I haven't had a really really fun video game tennis experience since Super Tennis, but I've heard rave reviews about the Virtua Tennis series, so I decide to put a euro in and play a couple games.

I scan through the available players and am disappointed to see no Anna Kournikova or Maria Sharapova, so I go with the next best option and take Jelena Dokic. Ironically enough, the opening tournament is in Paris and I draw Sanchez-Vicario, a Spainard, as my first opponent.

Now, I'm extremely rusty, so I have to go to deuce in both games, but I beat Sanchez-Vicario 2 games to 0.

Then this flashes on the screen:

2nd round: Jelena Dokic vs. Venus Williams

Oh. Fuck.

I got my ass handed to me the first go-round, to the tune of only getting 2 points the whole 2 games.

Second time, after I use my other credit, I start playing baseline more, which is my fave tactic in video tennis and I win the first game. I go up 30-0 in the second game and I'm feeling pretty good. Then Williams goes apeshit and before I know it, it's 1-1 tie, leading to the deciding game. We go back and forth and it's 30-30. I'm sweating cuz a) it's hot as hell in there and I've got my coat on and b) it's been years since I've played in an arcade, so my reflexes are a little dull.

Bam. Bam.

"Game. Set. Match, Venus Williams."

Damn.

Still, it was a lot of fun and I'm still cheerful as I head to the Internet cafe. I decide to get the 40 hours for 36 euros bonus card thing, which makes it half-price for those 40 hours and is perfect for my plan of one hour a night in the cafe during the rest of my time here.

I get the card, go to the laptop section, and fire up my computer.

I plug in the adaptor.

Bam.

The whole cafe loses power.

We all just kind of sat there for a minute in shock, before we start getting up and heading to the register. The guy there told everyone to just give him the time cards and they wouldn't have to pay, because with the power gone, the computer that measures the time spent for each person was out, too.

A few people insisted on paying, which I thought was cool. Some people just took the free time they got and left. I obviously didn't pay anything or use my card, because I was never connected.

I go outside and find out that I didn't just take out the cafe.

I took out the whole city block.

But then again, I should've known the evening was going to be eventful when, as I got to the gas station before I turn to go to school, I saw the Belgian chick I screwed things up with by asking her out using a political joke.

We said hi and I asked how she was. She said she was waiting for a friend to go to the movies and I replied that was cool, I just lived a few blocks from there and was on my way walking.

Now, she was smiling and seemed open to conversation. A normal guy would've stayed to chat her up, maybe repair the damage from his earlier screw-up.

Me? I was busy thinking about my The Beautiful Girl and the History Class dynasty and wanted to play around in my head with some more ideas, so I just grinned, told her to enjoy the movie, waved and walked off.

[Cap Ologist]

Much more important to get cyberlaid, than in real-life, huh? ;)

[Izulde]

Much more important to get cyberlaid, than in real-life, huh? ;)

Yeah, tell me about it. The really geeky part about it is, it's not even a question of me getting cyberlaid vs RL... it's a question of me chatting up a hot girl who might've been receptive to starting over from previous screwup and instead wandering off to think about a story that I post online that's partially derived from a computer game I play.

I don't think anyone can touch that level of nerdiness.

[Cap Ologist]

So, does this mean a Ck update is coming soon?

[Izulde]

So, does this mean a Ck update is coming soon?

Probably tomorrow. I'm in class most of the day today and a depressing series of events has me out of the mood to write much.

[Izulde]

I've had to a ton of hoop jumping tonight and for some reason, the flight from Malaga to Dusseldorf on the way out and back into Malaga via Frankfurt on the way back require paper tickets.... so travelocity is having to international fed ex me my tickets (they said they wouldn't charge me, which I thought was very nice of them and to be honest, this is the first time I've ever had any complications with any bookings through travelocity)

...but the good thing is....

I'M GOING BACK TO PARIS FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 14 YEARS!!!!!!!

[Cap Ologist]

...but the good thing is....

I'M GOING TO HAVE THE NEXT CK UPDATE POSTED SHORTLY.

fixed it for you.

[Izulde]

fixed it for you.

:D I'll have an update posted later tonight, though I'm not sure when.

[Icy]

Looking forward to meet with you in 1 hour :)

[Izulde]

Toledo is awesome, Icy is like, the best person you could have show you a town ever and I ended up with 3 swords when I planned to get 0 or 1. All involve long stories but I'm too drained from the 6 hour bus trip from Madrid to Granada to write much.

Thanks agian for everything, Icy!! :) I had a blast!

[Icy]

Thanks for your kind words, now post the damn pics :p

[Izulde]

Yes, sir! :D

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/Izulde/DSC03289.jpg
Icy ponders lunch.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/Izulde/DSC03337.jpg
Hmm, centurion guy or knight guy? Wizard Hat or Robe for Men Question.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/Izulde/DSC03524.jpg
Part of New Toledo, where most everyone lives.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/Izulde/DSC03569.jpg
Cool bridge by night.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/Izulde/DSC03565.jpg
Two weird guys hanging out on Cholesterol Road in front of a panoramic view of Toledo.

[Izulde]

I have to be honest, Gibraltar was something of a letdown in terms of the actual city. I expected something bustling and active and it's really not. It's just this small cluster of touristy shops, restaurants, government buildings, apartment complexes, and a pretty cool harbor.

That being said, the Rock of Gibraltar is awesome and the caves inside pretty cool, as are the mosque on the very southern tip of the town and the Moorish castle, neither of which we got to visit, nor did we visit the World War II siege tunnels.

As for the apes.... they're funny and cute. One jumped up on our mini-bus and tried to drive. Another one, after we left St. Michael's cave and parked, jumped up and honked the horn repeatedly. We all jumped and thought it was the guy behind the bus because we had to park in the middle of the road, but it turned out to be the silly monkey.

Then, after I get my picture taken with the small monkey who hopped from shoulder to shoulder, I'm standing there watching other people get their picture with the small monkey, when I feel this giant weight on my shoulders. The large monkey decided my shoulders and hat looked like a really cool resting and climbing spot.

The funny thing was, he did it once, then climbed off after a bit. Then, like thirty seconds later, he did it again! That monkey must have really thought I was totally cool or something. After that, I'm like, "...Okay, I'm moving over here now."

Before St. Michael's Cave, we went to the very southern tip of the city, where, on a clear day, you can see Africa within sight. Naturally, we came on a cloudy day and furthermore, we were there at the worst possible time for taking pictures, as the sun was to our backs for photo ops.

When we broke for free time, I went with a bunch of people from my group to The Clipper. Great food and the second-best fish and chips I've ever had (Nothing will beat Beschoff's), but they charged us for two fish and chip plates we didn't order and they were also -VERY- SLOW. It took so long to get it straightened out, that I didn't have time to grab anything shoppingwise save for a couple postcards.

The exchange rate is a ripoff too. Gibraltans charge an amount in euros that's higher in dollars than what the equivalent dollar price would be in pounds. So, instead of $15 for my meal like it should've been, it was $18. Not a big difference, I suppose, but it all adds up.

We're in Ronda for tonight, but I'm just going to chill in my hotel room. Don't feel like getting drunk or spending that kind of money. Tomorrow's the tour of Ronda and I'm looking forward to it, especially New Bridge! :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/Izulde/DSC03681.jpg
The Rock of Gibraltar

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/Izulde/DSC03658.jpg
Good Rex Ape

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/Izulde/DSC03660.jpg
Bad Rex Ape

[Izulde]

Ronda is one of Spain's best kept secrets.

Gorgeous, gorgeous city with lots of incredible mountain scenery and the New Bridge is awesome.

It's re-affirmed more strongly than ever the idea that I need to live someplace where there's mountains. I'd love for it to be close to a beach too, but mountains definitely.

It's also a lot more lively than Gibraltar, it seems. The guided tour we went on was awesome, with lots of cool information, not all of which I can remember right now, and I got some great pictures.

In our free time after the tour, I visited the bullfighting ring, which, while not as impressive as Sevilla's, is pretty in its own right. I also saw books on bullfighting in English, but they were at ripoff prices, so I figure I'll just buy some when I get home, now that I know what they are. I did, however, get a DVD on bullfighting.

After that, I went shop browsing and wandering the city. Ate my cheese sandwich that senora made for me and had chocolate with churros at a little place where I accidentally asked, "Am I open?" instead of "Are you open?", which made the cute Spanish girl sweeping laugh. The churros were fantastic and the chocolate good, but the chocolate was much thinner and not nearly as tasty as the thick chocolate at Cafe Futbol here in Granada. I also had a piece of chocolate cake a short while later when I ran into some friends from the program.

They told me they'd gone down into the canyon to take pictures of the New Bridge from there and so I raced down into the canyon, because I was running short of time, and nearly fell on my nose twice. Not helping matters was the fact that a small shack where the best path to the bottom of the canyon to take pictures of the bridge was advertised for a euro was empty. I would've paid a euro for that but no go. I even knocked on the door and called through it, too.

But it was worth it. The view from there is awesome and you can see the waterfall that's in the canyon, which you can't do from up above. On the way back, I ran into a couple pretty Korean girls who smiled broadly at my heaving, sweating, panting self because it was a steep, steep climb going back up and I was already exhausted from my run down.

Oh yes, a couple things about Gibraltar I forgot to mention last post. First off, they have a legend that says once the monkeys leave Gibraltar, it'll become Spanish again. The Gibraltans don't want that, so they have a hospital set up just for the monkeys.

Secondly, I experienced considerable culture shock seeing and hearing English predominately again. It felt strange and unnatural to my ears, which have become used to Spanish. This probably means I'm due for one hell of a culture shock when I get back to the US. ;)

[Izulde]

Ugh. Talking to the people back home about the credit card bill and it appears there's been quite a few errors made.

Not cool. Not cool at all.

[Izulde]

Good news: The credit card mishaps were actually my dad reading the bill wrong. Everything's cool.

So, yesterday I get up at 6:45 am to commence the long journey: bus from Granada to Malaga, plane from Malaga to Dusseldorf, plane from Dusseldorf to Paris, taxi from Charles de Gaulle airport to hotel.

Everything went smoothly until the taxi part.

I thought the address for my hotel was on one of the tour vouchers I have, but it wasn't, so the taxi cab driver had to call one of his friends to look it up online because he didn't know the address offhand.

Thankfully, he had a GPS system in the taxi to let him know for sure how to get there once he had the address.

So we got that problem finally straightened out only to run into the great Parisian horror known as nighttime traffic. An hour and 15 minutes before we finally got out of bumper to bumper traffic and it was nearly an hour and a half and $100 from the airport to the hotel.

Nice hotel room, though, especially for the price. Have to share a toilet and a shower, each of which are in separate rooms, with the other 5 rooms on the floor, but I'm used to this after fraternity house and dorm life.

Today was Normandy, which I'll cover in my Izulde in Normandy mini-dynasty.

After I got back from Normandy tonight, I took a quick 15 minute nap, had some water and biscuits (the English version of the word) and decided to go exploring.

I came across a massive cineplex in my exploration and since my guide told me that in the touristy places the American films are usually original language subtitled in French and this main street in Montmarte definitely looked touristy, I thought I'd watch a film.

I had trouble reading the schedule because it said Seance, Film, Fin. I assumed that it meant previews, film, ending time and saw I could catch the Golden Compass at 7:50, which was the exact time then.

Okay, no problem. I'll miss previews and opening credits which sucks, but I can deal.

I mispronounce the name naturally, but the guy smiles and corrects me. I pay the 7 euros, get the ticket torn and the right theatre pointed out.

I look at my ticket and notice with horror and irritation that it says 7:35 pm. What the hell? I know there's a cultural misunderstanding on my part here, but it's still aggravating. Ah well, I tell myself, at least I can catch most of the movie and just see the rest when I get back to the States.

So I go downstairs to theatre 2.

Gorgeous theatre, with starry lighting and comfortable seats. Big American-style picture screen. Terrific film transfer.

One problem.

It's dubbed in French.

I sit there about 5 minutes before I think, "This is stupid. I want to see this movie. Why ruin it by watching it in a language I can maybe pick out a few words here and there based on cognates of what I know in English, German, and Spanish?"

So I get up and walk out.

Ticket taker guy is smirking and he smirks even more when I go out the wrong exit twice, which cashier quite cheerfully points out to me.

As I finally go out the right exit, I can hear the two of them laughing at me.

I explored some more and after studying the metro map, decided to call it quits for the night and make up for it by spending tomorrow walking along the Seine.

[Izulde]

My only day in Paris proper was yesterday. It was also my only day to sleep in, so I got up shortly after 9. By 9:30, I was ready to go.

I walked around Rue de Montmartre for a while until I thought, "This is stupid. I knew the subway really well 14 years ago and it shouldn't be hard to figure it out again."

Sure enough, a two-day unlimited Metro pass purchase and a subway map consultation later and I remembered it just as well or even better than I did when I was 14.

I zipped on over to Champs de Mars, making a couple line changes along the way and was quite pleased to come out very near the Eiffel Tower.

I was immediately accosted by a woman who asked if I spoke English.

First thought: She looks like a gypsy.

After reading the card: "Blah blah blah out of work blah blah blah two kids blah blah blah sick mother blah blah blah father dead for two months"...

Second thought: She -is- a gypsy.

Needless to say, I quickly resumed walking and despite repeated calls of, "Excuse me, sir, do you speak English?" from the fifty million other gypsies at and around the Tower, I ignored them.

Until I got so fed up, I started shouting "Rougka!" at them whenever one tried to approach me.

After a couple times of this, a girl came over to me and asked, "...Why are you shouting 'Pen!' at them?"

I answered, "Because they obviously speak English and since I and a ton of other Spainards are on holiday here, there's a good chance they'll know Spanish. We're close enough to Germany that they might well know German, which leaves Russian."

"What if they know Russian?" she countered.

I grinned, "In that case, they have to decide whether I'm stupid or crazy for shouting 'Pen!' at them. I'm obviously not stupid, so therefore must be crazy and hence avoided."

After she laughed, I went on my way and saw there were two lines: One for the lift (very long) and one for the stairs (very short). I thought to myself: How bad can the stairs be? and took that option.

350 steps to the first level. Another 350 steps to the second level.

My legs nearly gave out on me, because going up 700 steps is not fun.

Gorgeous views, though also slightly disappointing because of all the safety grills in place. That's become quite common the last several years though, I've noticed. Probably one too many idiot leaning out too far on these monuments and falling off to their Darwin Award-style death.

I met a lot of Spainards at the Tower and had one couple take my picture after they asked me to take theirs. It would be a process I'd repeat throughout much of the day, as I spoke Spanish whenever someone spoke to me, unless it was an official tourist type person that I knew spoke English.

After the Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral, which shocked me by how touristy it's become. No longer a vast, beautiful, quiet cathedral which chairs lining the walls (at least how I remember it). No, now it's jammed full of tourists, with umpteen chapels and saints' statues on the sides, along with encouragement to take away votive candles for 2 euros a piece, though the choice to donate or not was up to the individual.

I almost got one from the candles by St. Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc), as she's my favorite of all the saints, but decided not to.

As it was after 1 by the time I left Notre Dame, I decided to find lunch and located this extremely busy cafe a few blocks down from the cathedral which had menus with English translations.

Expensive, but excellent food. The escargot was exquisite, the seafood sandwich special recommended by the waiter very good, and the vanilla sundae with chocolate syrup and whipped cream quite tasty.

I was amazed at how efficient the staff was there, even though they looked like they were short as even the manager was waiting and bussing tables. Extremely popular place, with a heavy contigent of French, so it's not like it was a restaurant just for tourists. A lot of locals there as well.

My last stop of the day was the Louvre, which again surprised me by having an attached mall that I didn't remember being there before. I was also quite pleasantly shocked by the discovery of electronic ticket machines that allowed me to bypass the long ticket lines completely. Needless to say, I took advantage.

In the Louvre itself, I visited the Napoleon III apartments, which I don't remember seeing before. Gorgeously appointed rooms that I'd love to live in. I also went to the Ancient Egypt section and took pictures of sphinxes and we all know why. :)

By the time I got out of those two places, it was around 5 pm. Normally the Louvre closes at 5:30, but because it was Friday, it was open until 9:30. This allowed me to visit the French painting sections and see lots of artwork by Jacques Louis-David, my favorite French painter, including some of his most famous pieces, like The Coronation of Napoleon and Josephine, which I'd seen before but was glad to see again. Everything I saw by him, I took a picture of it. :D

I was specifically looking for his Cupid and Psyche though, and spent an hour trying to find it... asking the guides in the rooms, being directed first to the second floor, second to the first floor, etc, etc. I found it strange that a couple of the guides had no idea what I was talking about.

Finally I gave up and went to the bookstore, to see if I could find the painting to show the guides. I found it in a book...

...Only to discover it's in the Cleveland Museum of Art.

As it was coming up at 7 by the time of this revelation, I decided to head back to the hotel. The Louvre metro station closed at 8:30 pm and I wanted to get back to Montmartre well before then.

All in all, a fun day visiting the places in Paris I've been. Today it's Versailles and Fontainebleau.

[Izulde]

Four months vanished, in what seems like a week's time.

Today was my last day in Granada.

I started off early with going to the University to find out my Spanish language grades. I got a 7.5 in Spanish Grammar and 8.5 in Spanish Writing and Conversation, which translate to a B and B+ respectively. Quite surprising, considering how I butchered the exam and hosed my presentation, but my participation grade and my strong final interview saved me.

Ran into the guy who's my best friend here on the way back and together we found out that he got 8.5 in both Spanish language classes. As we ran into our professor in the street, she showed us where we could buy a book on a local graffiti artist whose work we all admire and showed us where he lives, a brightly colored and graffitied affair, with a cluttered, sunken recreation area, whose most fascinating thing was an empty birdcage, though I don't know why it struck me so.

He wasn't at home, though, so I headed to the homestay to eat lunch and re-pack. Discovered I didn't have enough room in my two suitcases, so went out to go shopping for last-minute souveniers, including the graffiti artist book, and to pick up a third suitcase to use as a carry-on.

While I was doing some browsing in the Morrocan/Arabic part of the Albaycin, I saw none other than the Belgian girl. She was looking at a ring from one of the vendors. I tried talking to her, but she didn't answer. I assumed she was busy with the ring and waited, watching. She liked the ring, but didn't have enough money for it when she dug in her coinpurse, so the guy said, "Un regalo. Un regalo." A gift, a gift, always for the pretty women here.

I would've paid for it, being the generous person I am, but she stood up my friend on a date and pretty much ignored me after that night our paths crossed at the gas station. So in my opinion, she didnt' deserve it.

As I stood there, watching, it struck me just how Araby this moment was. This Arabian stall marketplace with its enchanted feel that most tourists believe has been here for centuries, but has only been around the last 15-20 years, with the recent immigration influx.

And I knew I'd always remember the Belgian girl this way, in this moment, with the bright, harsh light of the bare, incadescent bulb throwing her beautiful face half in light, half in shadow, the white man vendor, about my age, bearded and dreadlocked, staring at her with quiet, desparate longing as a dark purple dusky sky watched overhead.

Once she accepted the gift, I made my presence known again. This time she answered and I kept up a stream of cheerfully awkward conversation. I say cheerfully awkward because she made it fairly clear from her body language that she didn't want to be talking to me or around me, though she responded out of politeness, and I, on the other hand, was quite glad to be vengeful and make her uncomfortable for a few blocks until she finally found a pretext to be rid of me. Not for me, you understand. I didn't care. It was more for the way she treated my friend that I paid her back in that small way.

Shopping done, I went back and packed a third time. This time, thanks to the new suitcase and my backpack, I was able to finally fit everything I wanted to. Even with this, some things will stay remain behind, though nothing too terribly important. Mostly cheap things that I won't miss in the least.

Back out again I went, to take pictures of the fountains in the Triunfo Gardens (sp) and to have, one last time, churros con chocolate at Cafe Futbol. It's true that they're the best in Granada and maybe even in all of Spain, for the chocolate they use is rich and thick, like pudding. Oh so tasty, right down to the last spoonful.

Lot of families at Cafe Futbol. Saw grandparents, parents, and children laughing and having a happy time together, which only increased my holiday spirit.

Afterwards, I went walking some more. Saw this street performer who was absolutely brilliant in manipulating a marionette to play a real violin as well as an actual performer. Lady in Red was playing when I stopped by that plaza and he had a large crowd watching him and tossing their coins in his violin case. He was really good, probably the best I've seen since I've been here.

I also saw an African man get arrested. He was shouting about something not working because of people he knows or some such thing. That, too drew a crowd, especially when he made some small attempts at resistance against the cuffs. Not too much, though. Just enough to get his point across that he wasn't going along willingly.

On the way back, I stopped at Game Over one last time, to play Virtua Tennis 2 again. Took Mary Pierce, the American-turned-French because of her asshat father. Ironically drew Jelena Dokic, who I used last time, and spanked her. Then got beat out by Sanchez-Vicario. Spain trumps France, in my study abroad and in this game.

Got back to the homestay and did my final tidying up. Went to go to the internet cafe to round out my evening when a voice inside my head said, "Go get the lighter you got in Lanjaron Wednesday and take it with you. Give it to the Internet Cafe guy as a gift."

So I went back and got the lighter, a beautiful green one with an amazing button and terrific flame. 2 euros in a shop in woefully overrated Lanjaron. Fantastic water, terrible town. But more on that later, as in another post later. AKA for those of you in this group or reading this dynasty, don't leave it just yet. :P

I got to the cafe and saw from the outside that it was completely empty.

I found this puzzling and went inside. Fortunately the guy was there and not the girl who's sometimes there instead.

The following conversation ensued, entirely in Spanish. I'm including an English translation.

Guy: I'm sorry, we're closed.

Me: *blinks*

Guy: I just got a telephone call. There's been a death in the family.

Me: I'm sorry.

Guy: Thank you.

Me: A gift for you *hands lighter*

Guy: Thank you very much. *small smile* *gets ready to get his coat and leave* We'll be open again tomorrow or Saturday.

Me: It's my last night in Spain.

Guy: You're going back to the United States?

Me: Yes. Tomorrow morning.

Guy: But you will come back someday, I'm sure. Until then, it was very nice to have known you.

Me: Thank you. You too.

So we shook hands and said goodbye. I'm glad I went back and got the lighter. It's a small bit of brightness in a dark day.

Thus, fate destined me to visit one last place. The Potemkin Bar, where I love their Vietnamese tapas and Rioja red wine. I had a glass and a tapa and am now sitting outside on the steps of the university. It was too crowded in there to set up my laptop and it's gotten even more crowded since then.

Understandable. It's a popular place.

After I get back to the States and settled in, I'll be doing a final summary post reflecting on my experiences in Spain.

[Izulde]

I've been back in the US a week now and though much of the initial strangeness has gone, quite a bit still remains.

I keep wanting to go walking amidst the centuries-old, beautiful buildings and listen to the hubbub of Spanish as I walk among the throng. American voices, especially Wisconsin ones, sound so flat, so dull to my ears now, in a way they didn't before.

Although it's nice having everything in English now and it's a sheer delight being able to watch football again, I still really miss Spain. In particular the food, strange as it seems. I can't take the greasy, high-fat diet that American food entails anymore. In the week that I've been back and returned to much of my pre-Spain diet, I've noticed my energy, my mood, and my general state of health all taking a huge hit.

This strangeness probably won't fully wear off until I'm back in La Crosse and school's started again. I like Racine even less than before (and I hated it then) and northern Wisconsin has always chafed me with its small towns and lacklustre landscape.

That said, let's go through a summary review of my 4 months in Spain, grading specific areas.

Academics
Probably the single biggest disappointment of my time abroad. While my Spanish Civilization & Culture class was excellent, as were the language classes I took, my Spanish Lit class was so basic and so worthless I dropped it and my Islamic Culture in Spain class was a joke. I learned little in there, which is a real shame.

And I'm cutting this short. My grandmother has internal bleeding and she's going to the hospital as I type this. We depart ourselves for it.

[thealmighty]

Hope your grandmother is ok.

Just wanted to thank you for letting us come along with you for your semester abroad. It was very interesting following you around.

[Izulde]

Hope your grandmother is ok.

Just wanted to thank you for letting us come along with you for your semester abroad. It was very interesting following you around.

It's touch and go still right now, but my hunch is, she'll make it. Lot of things are going to change as a result of it, though.

And I'm glad you guys came along with me. :) It made it even more fun.

I'll continue the final summary when I'm not so tired.

[Icy]

It has been a good read and so nice for me to read the experiences of a "foreign" in my country.

It was great to meet you in real person too, and to be able to talk about football with somebody in real life, something i haven't ever done before as here nobody cares about the "other football i watch".

[Izulde]

It has been a good read and so nice for me to read the experiences of a "foreign" in my country.

It was great to meet you in real person too, and to be able to talk about football with somebody in real life, something i haven't ever done before as here nobody cares about the "other football i watch".

It was definitely awesome hanging around with you and I'm glad you've enjoyed this dynasty :)

[Karlifornia]

Man, that Belgian girl seems like a real bitch.

[Izulde]

Man, that Belgian girl seems like a real bitch.

That's a fair assessment. :D