Personal Post #7: Spain Fun Times

This week has given me hope that maybe a year in Spain isn't going to drag on as I thought it would back when I was super homesick. I definitely think it's safe to say I'm not homesick anymore. I mean, I Skyped with Megan and she was telling me about how she drove on the Blue Ridge Parkway and saw all of the beautiful fall foliage (that's basically my favorite thing to do in the fall), and my reaction was "Oh, how fun, but let me tell you about SPAIN!"

It all started when we went to Granada last weekend, and let me tell you, Granada is about 7,829,085 times better than Sevilla. #sorrynotsorry It just has a better atmosphere --  I don't know how else to describe it. There were mountains (for those who don't know me, mountains are my most favorite things on the entire planet...I literally tear up when I see mountains beautiful enough), the streets felt cleaner (do you even have any idea of how many times I have stepped in dog crap in Sevilla??), the air was crisp and fresh, and there was way more greenery (trees, flowers, and grass!). Oh, and of course I can't forget to mention the Alhambra, which is probably my most favorite place in Spain so far. Also, Granada also happens to be the home of the best vegan restaurant I've ever set foot into, and the home of the only "dollar store" I've seen. 

Okay, speaking of that vegan restaurant...on our free time in Granada on Saturday, my friends Isis and Genisis, who are vegetarian, and I set off during our free time to find a vegan restaurant I found on Happy Cow (praise da lawd for Happy Cow, what would I do without it? Also, if you don't know what Happy Cow is, it's a website and app that searches for vegetarian/vegan restaurants in your areas...it's like Yelp but solely for vegetarian/vegan places!). The journey there was interesting. We totally thought we were lost because we were going on all these deserted side streets, but we saw a lot of cool places that we probably wouldn't have seen otherwise. Plus, we got away from all the annoying touristy places, and that was really nice. Once we finally got there, we basically stood outside of the place, stared at it, and took pictures like we've never seen a (vegan) restaurant before (well, we have, but it's rare, okay? We aren't like you normal people who can walk up into any restaurant and eat whatever's on the menu). So after our moment of awe, we went inside, feeling all giddy like children who are about to eat dessert before their main meal, looked at the menu full of overwhelmingly mouth-watering options, and decided within like two minutes to eat dinner there instead of at the hotel, because we knew our options were going to be limited at the hotel (being vegetarian or vegan in Spain isn't the easiest thing in the world...there are usually 0-1 vegan options when you go out to eat, and I'm not really sure about vegetarian options because I don't really pay attention to those, but it's seriously lacking). And of course, I documented my vegan restaurant experience with photos:

Behold: the best vegan restaurante in the world (or at least that I've tried so far in my life)

The menu --the restaurant's name is "Hicuri"

"So fail for a good vegetarian food today" -- ohh, bad translations, you make my day

This probably looks like any ol' burger, but let me tell you things: 1. I haven't had a "real" burger since landing in Spain 2. This is a vegan burger 3. It had vegan mayo (best invention ever) 4. I don't really remember what chicken tastes like, but this was the best "chicken style veggie burger" I've ever had -- it didn't taste weird and overly processed like the ones in the states!

And, of course, when there is an option for vegan dessert, I must purchase it.  Vegan tira misu = lyfe

 So yeah. The fun didn't stop there, though. The restaurant also sold shirts, so I bought a shirt that says "Abolicionista ... libertad animales presos" on it (Abolitionist...free animal prisoners), and vegan banana bread that actually tasted like someone was making a corn muffin and accidentally dropped a banana into the batter. Weird, but it worked.

On the way back to the hotel, Genesis' Santa Semana senses started tingling, and the next thing Isis and I knew, Gen was power walking/half running off ahead of us in search for a Semana Santa ensayo (a Semana Santa practice) that we could hear in the distance. Don't know what Semana Santa is? Let us consult Google:

Here's a couple of photos of Semana Santa in Sevilla (that I obviously did not take because it hasn't happened yet -- it's not till spring):

Where I found this pic

Nazarenos outside of the Giralda (ps click here to go to where I found this pic)

If you want to learn more about Semana Santa, go make Google your friend! It's really cool.

So then, after chasing Genisis down and watching the ensayo, we headed back to the hotel with hopes that we'd be allowed to check in and skip dinner since we already ate. Luckily, that worked out. We rolled in and rolled out within 10 minutes. Then we spent the rest of our night hiking up a mountain. Yep, once again, instead of sticking to the typical touristy areas, we headed up a side street, which also happened to lead us up a giant mountain. Isis and Genisis walked up the mountain while I tripped my way up. I don't know what it was about Granada, but I could not walk without tripping every five seconds in that city! It happened both days, too! Anyway, the walk up was worth it, though, because look at the view of the Alhambra we got:

This photo does this view 0 justice, especially since it was just taken with my phone.

So yeah, Saturday was awesome. Oh, another thing I did on Saturday that I did but haven't mentioned yet was *saw Fernando and Isabel's tomb/coffins* (extreme Spanish major nerd freakout moment...they were the King and Queen that united Spain and that gave Christopher Columbus the money for his trip to the "Indies").

Then Sunday we spent all day at the Alhambra, aka my most favorite place in Spain. It was beautiful! Here are some more photos from the Alhambra:

Isis, Genisis, and me

 Granada<3

 The architecture was breathtaking

So intricate!

After the Alhambra, we headed back to the hotel for lunch (which was unimpressive by the way, especially after Hicuri). Then we hopped on the bus and headed back to Sevilla. 

Now, let me finish explaining the rest of my amazing week. I didn't plan on making this post so full of my Granada adventures...but I guess that shows just how much I loved it!

Anyway, the beginning of the week wasn't anything special. Monday was uneventful. Internship, class, internship again, lunch, class again, homework. Eh. 

Tuesday is when things started getting better. On Tuesday, I ~~**~*FINALLY*~**~~ got my internship hours settled. 13 hours a week! Definitely gonna get in all of my hours this semester. Now if I want, I can just do the internship a few hours a week next semester! That was my "high of the day" for Tuesday. (Ohh, how I miss camp where everyday at the end of the day we got to share our "highs of the day" aka the best parts of our day).

Then Wednesday was basically just the perfect day. It was like I started at the bottom of a hill on Monday, then walked up it as the week went on -- and Wednesday was the top! Let me summarize Wednesday for you in list form:

1. First class was only 15 minutes (instead of two hours) and 10 of those 15 minutes were waiting for the professor to show up, so technically my first class was 5 minutes
2. Went to the Mercado de Triana and had "real" conversations with Spaniards where I understood everything that was said to me (I had to ask questions to the vendors in the market for one of my assignments for my gastronomía española class)
3. Went to a random Spanish café and ordered a coffee (sin leche) and toast and didn't make myself look like a complete fool (they totally knew I was American thanks to my still bad accent, but w/e.)
4. I taught a great class at my internship, and I found out I got to go on a field trip later in the week! :D
5. Thanks to my coffee, I was actually awake for my really boring classes and didn't struggle to stay awake -- I can't even begin to explain how great it is to sit in a class and not feel your eyes crossing and closing
6. I managed to find exact change for the bus, so I took the bus home from the University (first time by myself!) for lunch and saved like 15 minutes on my commute
7. I got a "job" tutoring my host mom's granddaughter for 8 euros each Wednesday for one hour ;D

All of those small little victories added up to me feeling awesome at the end of the day! 

Then, Thursday was pretty great, too! I had to be at el colegio (the school) for my internship from 8am-9am. It went well...but as I was walking out of the school, I happened to walk past the principal who said, "Oh, Kari, do you have time to come translate something for me really quick?" so since I didn't have class until 11 and it was only 9, I obviously said "Of course!" So we went to her office where she handed me a piece of paper where a student had written a very vulgar comment in English to one of his teachers. Of course, I had to translate it/explain it to the principal because she didn't really understand what it said, and she wasn't sure what she should do about punishment. After my explanation, she was like "Yeah...there's definitely gonna be a nice punishment for him." Awkwaaard. So after that, I wandered aimlessly around Sevilla to pass the time, and I happened to stumble upon a café with a sign out front that said, "tenemos leche de arroz y leche de soja" (we have rice milk and soy milk). I basically stopped dead in my tracks, stared at the sign in disbelief, then marched in there, ordered a café con leche de soja (coffee with soymilk), hunkered down in a cozy corner with my yummy coffee and did some homework until it was time to go to class! It was pretty decently close to the University, too. ¡Que suerte! Then that night, Isis and I went to intercambio where we met some really nice people! I exchanged numbers with two people so we can meet up later next week for more language exchange. :) Building that Spanish network!  

And then, today, Friday, was ridiculously fun, and I totally feel super accomplished. I went on a field trip with MariCarmen's (one of the teachers I work with) class, and two other classes (in all, it was the classes 6° A, B, and C, aka the 5th grade classes...at least I think 5th grade. One of the students I asked said they were all 10 and 11...) to Aventura Sevilla at a really pretty park about 20 minutes away from Sevilla called "La Corchuela." We did this giant ropes course with three "levels:" easy, medium, and hard. Basically, the easy course was close to the ground with easy things to do and the hard course was really high up and had crazy stuff to do. I only had time to complete the easy and medium courses, though, but a lot of my students had time to do all three and they loved telling me about it! It had some awesome zip-lines, and on the hard course there was even some weird looking bicycle thing that you pedal from one tree to the next. Wish I could have seen some of my students try that! It was so fun, and I loved spending that time getting to know the students better and teaching them a few vocab words like zip line, net, harness, trees, ropes, ground, leaves, scary, heights, logs, wood, tunnel...and some other random words that had to do with whatever we happened to be doing! It was seriously so much fun, and I'm so glad I got the chance to do that! 

Also, my proud moment of the day, MariCarmen explained to the lady who was going to give my group a tutorial on how to go through to course that I was their American English assistant, and the lady looked kind of scared and was like, "¿...habla español...?" (does she speak Spanish?) and MariCarmen super confidently said, "Sí, ¡por supesto!" (Yes, of course!). I looked at MariCarmen like "Oh God. Why do you have so much confidence in my Spanish?? What if I have no idea what this lady is saying when she explains what to do?! I don't know any vocab related to this stuff! I'm not trying to fall out of a tree today because I didn't understand the instructions!" Well, I shouldn't have been worried because #1. The monitora (lady explaining how to use the equipment/go through the course) was explaining everything to a group of 10 and 11 year olds, so obviously she repeated herself like 2,930,934 times to make sure the kids understood what they had to do. #2. I actually understood everything she said! I felt so normal! The only thing I didn't understand was how to open the mosquetón (carabiner -- I didn't know the English word for that until I looked it up just now!), but that's just because I wasn't watching when she demonstrated...oops. But yeah, I am super proud of myself for understanding everything today in such a new situation!

And...to end such a great week, JYS has an excursion to Madrid tomorrow! :D