The gods have a cruel sense of humor.

After this week I am convinced there must be demi-gods. Why? My reasoning is this: if there is one God, he or she must be a loving God (according to most of the world's major religions) and I don't take him or her to be vindictive. I don't deign to think that the all-powerful God would have time to play jokes on me. However, some omnipotent being is clearly trying to teach me a lesson or play a joke on me. Therefore: there must be multiple gods.
After my first real night out in Granada, I came down with a cold. I figured I had worn myself out staying out late and caught a bug. A few days of resting and not going out except to class got me back on my feet. I finally rejoined society to celebrate the birthday of one of the girls living in the dorms with me. The next day, I was in bed again with a fever and extremely painful sore throat. I got to experience the drop-in clinic. One of the resident directors who accompanied me to the doctor's office said she often sees the doctor drinking coffee on the plaza when he is supposed to be seeing patients, which is why the wait period is always longer than it should be. The doctor basically told me to get some prescription strength ibuprofen from the pharmacy and some cough syrup and to come back if my fever didn't go away in a few days.
I was finally feeling better on Saturday and decided I was tired of missing out on all the fun, so I went out to some tapas bars Saturday night with three friends. We checked out all the bars within a one block radius of our dorms (there were about three we hadn't explored yet) and then finally decided to go to the salsa bar right behind the residence that we can hear at night. The salsa bar was packed with locals who clearly knew what they were doing, so I was a little intimidated to try at first. But after some convincing we all decided to try our salsa skills. One of the guys had been taking salsa classes through the university and I learned some basic steps a while ago, so we taught the other two how to salsa (sort of). It ended up being a lot of fun. My friend Alan and I (the one who is taking salsa classes) even sort of figured out how to do the basic meringue steps by watching the people who knew what they were doing and I think we did alright. We were by far the youngest people in the bar but no one seemed to mind too much as long as we didn't step on anyone.
I should have known as soon as I started having fun that illness was not far behind. (If you are not interested in the gory details stop reading now.) At the beginning of the night my eye started watering and I thought I had just gotten some makeup in it. Later I noticed my eye was a little blurry and I went to the bathroom and had to wipe some film out of it, which should have been another sign but I thought my eye was just irritated. By the time we got home my eye was swollen all the way around and in the morning I had to peel it open because it had glued itself shut overnight. I am hoping that it is not pink eye, but I'm waiting until tomorrow to find out because I don't want to add a trip to the emergency room to my list of experiences here in Spain. That is officially three times in a row a night of fun was lead to illness. I am completely convinced there is some demi-god just waiting for me to enjoy myself so he or she can stick me with some new infirmity.
Before my eye looked like quasi-modo I took a trip to the beach for the day. The bus ticket is only 8 euro each way for about a 1.5 hour ride to the coast. We boarded the bus around 10am on Saturday and were on the beach by noon. We brought sandwiches and apples and some other snacks to munch on while we sat on the beach. It was so fun to just explore the little beach town (I think it was called Nerja) and lay on the beach. Plus I was in my bathing suit soaking up the sun while I would have been studying my butt off back at Berkeley. Bonus points. I think I may have gotten some sand in my eye while I was napping, which may be why my eye looks like it was stung by a bee and is oozing a constant secretion of slimy gunk. Do eyes work like oysters? If so this better be one hell of a pearl.

The Alhambra, Albaicin and Hiking

This weekend and last I had the opportunity to do some sightseeing with my study abroad group. Last weekend we visited the Alhambra. It is the oldest example of Arabic art in the world. It was definitely as amazing as everyone said it would be. There are three different parts of the Alhambra that we saw: the fortress, the main palace, and the summer palace for the royal family. The fortress part had amazing views of Granada. It was built of bricks of a reddish color that led to it being known as the red castle by the residents of Granada who saw it being built from the city below. The palace was full of the classic parts of the Alhambra, although much of the original decoration had been stolen by tourists before the Alhambra was regulated. Apparently whole original ceilings had been stolen and can now be found in museums or installed in some old homes around Europe. The summer palace had beautiful gardens, both romantic and traditional Arabic gardens which have less flowers and more fountains. The romantic gardens are like a maze, creating the illusion that you are lost in the flowers. Mostly there were no flowers though, they are supposed to be great in the summer.
This weekend on Saturday we took a tour of the Albaicin, which is the old part of town originally settled by Arabs, then Romans, then Goths. A few of the highlights were San Nicolas plaza and the free "extra eucharist" from one of the convents. When the Christians took over the area they put over 40 convents around it to reeducate the population. We rang the bell at one and the nuns gave us a bag of leftover flat bread, out of which they cut the eucharist for the masses. San Nicolas plaza had a spectacular view of the city, the Alhambra, and the Sierra Nevadas. Apparently it is quite popular with Americans because Bill Clinton brought Hillary there when he was president. He studied in Granada as a college student and wanted to show Hillary the most beautiful sight he had ever seen. I agree, and was excited to learn I will be the second President of the United States who has studied in Granada. The sight was so beautiful my friends and I returned to see the sunset at the plaza on Sunday and shared a bottle of red wine made right in Granada. Both were great.
Saturday night a few of us tried out the Arabic tea houses we had heard about. I had been wanting to try the tea houses since we arrived in Granada, so I was really excited to finally muster up a group to go with me. Just off the main street of tapas bars and discos is a little narrow street of Moroccan shops and stalls, as well as restaurants and tea houses. We each tried a different type of tea and they came brewing in traditional Moroccan teapots, single serving size. We all enjoyed our tea and the nice relaxing atmosphere. Some of the girls tried out the crepes also, which will definitely tempt me to return another night.
Sunday morning I woke up early to go on a guided hike of the hills behind the city. We hiked up behind the Alhambra and continued up into the hills. I felt like I could reach out and touch the snow covered mountains. Our tour guide told me once he was leading a hike when he rounded a curve and saw two black bulls in the path. Luckily nothing happened that time, but I was not hoping for a recreation of that moment. I was also proud I understood his stories, because he spoke in Spanish the whole hike, which was four hours all told. We had lunch at the top half way through, and I was so excited to see the city again at the end. I definitely earned the pizza hut feast my friends from the residence and I brought in for dinner. It may seem like a waste of a chance to try authentic Spanish food, but it was much more affordable to split a bunch of pizzas between seven of us, and pizza hut is much better in Spain. I don't know why... I think they put olive oil on the pizza. I also learned that Spain in the second biggest producer of olives in the world. And I discovered that I really like green olives!!! Overall, I managed to check of a bunch of things on my do list this weekend and had a great time exploring my new home for the next 4.5 months!!!

London and Getting into Granada

After a stressful week I am starting to get settled in Granada. I first flew to London for 2-ish days which was a lot of fun. We had the first day free so I just walked around a little and saw the area around my hotel. After a nap my roommate in London and some new friends and I went out to dinner and then just hung around the hotel. The second day we had a whirlwind bus tour of basically every sight in London. I saw everything from Westminster Abby to St. Paul's Cathedral to Ye Old Cheese where Charles Dickens used to throw back pints. After the tour I had some fish and chips (well I had chips and cheese) and we set out to the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery, both of which were amazing. We took a ride on the London Eye and got some great views of the city at night. After dinner at Masala Zone and a trip to Platform 9 3/4 (Harry Potter... they actually put a luggage cart in the wall so it looks like it is going into platform 9 3/4 at the train station) I was ready for bed.
We woke up at 4:30 the next morning to catch our flight to Malaga and a bus to Granada. The weather in London was a little chilly, but Malaga was beautiful. I was ready to go to the beach. Granada is a little bit colder, especially since we did not have heat or hot water for the first three days... When we arrived in Granada all the homestay kids met their senoras and we were dropped at the residence. There is no food for us on Sundays so we went out to find dinner. Unfortunately it was in the middle of siesta and a holiday. We finally found somewhere and I discovered that most of us do not speak much Spanish. That first meal was the biggest communication challenge so far.
I've been getting settled in since then, we have both hot water and internet now although it is still cold. I'm definitely a fan of siesta. It makes my habit of afternoon napping socially acceptable. Those of us in the dorms have been getting to know each other and I'm really glad I got to meet all these people. It's nice to have a little family here even though I don't have a spanish Senora or family. I've also been getting to know the Spanish students who live here. We made some friends who have been helping us learn and kindly speak very slowly to us. We went to a discotec with them last night and apparently Spaniards stay out late. I think I got home at 6:15am... I learned my lesson though because now I am definitely sick like everyone else in the residence and I will not be going out at all for a while.