A Beautiful Sunset Amongst Exams!

My apologies! It has been almost two weeks since I last wrote, but do not fret, this is the first of two blog posts to come in the next few days.  Therefore, I will do a quick recap of the past two weeks.  After finally recovering my half marathon I went paint balling with my intercambio and some of his friends.  It was quite a bit of fun because we went up in the mountains.  However, I was absolutely horrible and had possibly the worst aim ever.  After playing for about two hours one of his friends invited us back to her house in a small town around Granada to have lunch.  All of his friends were older than him due to the fact that he knew most of them from his cross-country ski club.  Therefore, I spent the afternoon with a bunch of 30 and 40 year olds but it was most definitely very enjoyable. However, my intercambio was the only one that spoke English therefore I got quite a bit of practice that afternoon.  That same weekend I also went to the movie theater twice with my friends.  The first time I saw The Help and then I saw a Spanish movie named Eva.  I would highly recommend Eva.  Going to the movies made me feel pretty good about myself because I was actually able to understand the majority of the Spanish! :)

The past few weeks also brought a lot of stress because I had my midterms and I took the DELE.  The DELE is a test given by the Spanish government.  If you can pass the exam, the Spanish government claims that you are fluent in Spanish at the certain level you took.  I will receive my results in February but I am hoping that it went well.  One of the best parts about last week is that I went up into the Albyzine with some friends for the sunset overlooking the Alhambra.  It was absolutely beautiful and it reminded me of how lucky I am to be having this experience in Spain.  Thus far it has very nearly been perfect and I would not change any part of it.  Look at my pictures below and be looking out for my next blog entry either tomorrow or Wednesday about this past weekend when I went to Sevilla with my program.  Miss you all!

 Me in my paintball gear!

 The Alhambra

 My friend Katy and I!

 The Sierra Nevada- Hopefully I will be going skiing there soon!

I ran a half marathon on Sunday... What did you do?!?

I successfully completed my half marathon on Sunday and the best part is that I did it in GRANADA.  For those of you that don't know, a half marathon is 13.1 miles or 21.17 kilometers.  My friend Rachel and I had been training for about a month before hand (normal training period is anywhere from 4 months plus) but we were able to run the whole time and we finished right at our goal.  We crossed the finish line at just about 2 hours therefore we averaged 9 minute miles the whole race.  It was probably one of the hardest things that I have ever done physically and I am still hurting but I am very glad that I chose to run it :) I posted some pictures below!

This week has been pretty boring.  I took the majority of my midterms and this weekend I will be staying in Granada studying for the DELE which I have on the 18th.  The DELE is a test administered by the Spanish government.  The goal is to demonstrate your proficiency in the language.  There are numerous levels, and I am taking the B2 level.  Hopefully I will be able to pass because supposedly medical school really like it :)  Hope everyone is having a good week!

 Eight people from my program ran the half marathon!

 Scared before the race!

 2300 men and only 200 women!

 Rachel and I after the race!

Madrid, Segovia, Toledo and the Escorial- A Great Weekend!

I apologize ahead of time for the numerous errors in this blog post, I am very tired and under a bit of a time crunch to finish it.  This past weekend I went to Madrid, Toledo, Segovia and The Escorial with my program.  We left Friday morning around 9 and arrived in Madrid a little after 2.  Our first stop was the Prado Museum where we saw famous works from Velazquez, Goya, Greco etc.  We were there for about 2 hours because the museum is absolutely huge and then we went and got STARBUCKS! A soy, vanilla latte has never tasted so good!  We next headed to the hotel where we had a little free time before having a group dinner at a nearby restaurant.  The hotel was quite nice and it was great fun sharing rooms with friends and being able to hang out.  In Spain no one enters into each other’s houses unless they are a family member or a lifetime friend, therefore, it has been awhile since I have gotten to lay around with my friends watching movies and whatnot.  It was quite refreshing.

Our second day in Madrid, we went with our program to the Escorial. The Escorial is the largest building in Spain which was build during the 16th century over the period of only 21 years by the king of Spain, Phillip II.  There were a few main motives behind the constructing of the building.  The first was that he wished for a beautiful place for his father, Carlos V, to be buried.  The second was that he wished for the Escorial to be a symbol for Spain.  The building is made up of a few major sections including a Basilica, a grand library, a monastery, a school and housing for the current Royal family.  The Basilica is located at the middle of the building which is located in the middle of Spain.  By that I mean the Spanish consider the Escorial to be located in the middle of the entire country.  Therefore, by placing the Basilica in the middle of the building which is in the middle of Spain it demonstrates how the Spanish society is centralized around Catholicism.  Also, at the time Philip II was using the religion to unite the Spanish people. Just a little history lesson for you!  My favorite part was the tombs.  The majority of the Kings and Queens of Spain from the period after Phillip the Second are buried in the Escorial in a beautiful room decorated with gold and marble. After leaving the Escorial we went back to Madrid where my friends and I did a little shopping then we went out to dinner at a place called Casa Minga.  It served the best chicken that I have ever had in my life.  It was slow roasted with Salt and Olive oil yet it was tender and delicious.  We also drank the house made Cider, which was pretty good as well.  That night we had another lovely evening hanging out in the hotel room attempting to find Disney Channel on Spanish television.

On Sunday our program took us to Segovia.  Segovia is about an hour north of Madrid and it is a city with a lot of medieval influence.  The main sites in the city include the roman aqueduct that continues for 15 Kilometers or about 9 miles, the Castle which is the same one that was used in Disney´s Snowwhite and the Cathedral.  Segovia was a very pretty city and we got a walking tour of it from a guide that had lived in Segovia his entire life making it was quite interesting to hear his perspective of the city.  Once returning to Madrid we had a free afternoon so my friend and I went for a run (our Half marathon is this Sunday) and then we went to a Mexican restaurant in the Chueca district for dinner.  Chueca is the primary restaurant district in Madrid and there are restaurants for blocks and blocks.  We walked around Madrid for a little bit and took some pictures then we called it a night.

On Monday we went on a walking tour of Madrid with the same guide from the Escorial and Segovia.  We walked around the city past many of the main monuments including the Royal Palace and the primary square, which is known as Puerta del Sol.  After eating a group lunch of Paella with whole lobster, crawfish, clams, mussels and mini crabs we had a short break then we went to the Reina Sofia, which is the primary contemporary museum in Madrid.  I enjoyed this museum more than the Prado because we got to see La Guernica, which was painted by Picasso.  We also saw works by Miró, Dalí and other very popular contemporary artists.  My favorite painting is in the Reina Sofia therefore it was very enjoyable to see that.  It is call The World.  I am sure many of you have seen it before but I have attached an image of it as well. After the Reina Sofia we worked our way back to the hotel and then went out for an early dinner around 8 at an Indian Restaurant.  Monday was Halloween.  Therefore, we all went back to the hotel and got ready for the night.  I was a nerd and I wore glasses, a yellow and grey argyle sweater vest, bright pink suspenders and Halloween socks with awkward pants.  We had a great night.  We went to the largest discoteca in Madrid called Kapital.  It has seven floors and they guessed there was anywhere between 10,000 and 15,000 people there that night. We had a great time dancing into the morning hours.  All in all it was a great Halloween and it was quite a bit of fun to see the Spanish interpretation of the holiday.  Most of the Spaniards dressed up in scary costumes with face paint and fake blood. 

Tuesday morning we woke up and left the hotel to head out to Toledo before returning to Granada. Toledo was definitely my favorite city that we have been to thus far.  The city was absolutely spectacular.  While we were there we had about six hours to wander around the city.  Therefore, we went to Greco’s house where we got to see not only where he did the majority of his paintings but also we all got to see many of his famous works.  After visiting Greco’s house we went to a monastery in the city.  It was beautiful and there was a historical art exhibit going on inside.  Our next stop consisted of eating some delicious chocolate cake before going to an Italian restaurant for lunch.  One of the great parts about being in Madrid is that we were able to eat a larger variety of foods, this was some therapy definitely needed for my taste buds.  We finished our time in Toledo by going to the Cathedral and I believe it definitely makes the top of my list for the prettiest cathedrals I have visited.  It is hard to describe, therefore, you should look at the pictures I posted of it. 

The weather is definitely beginning to change here.  I have officially put away my shorts and brought out the sweaters, jackets, pants and gloves.  I don’t mind that it has cooled down because during the first month it was uncomfortably hot, however, dryers do not exist in Spain.  Therefore, it can take weeks for your clothes to dry because they hang dry outside and the past week we have been getting huge (and I mean HUGE) rainstorms.  The streets are beginning to flood and my clothes are nowhere near being dry.  My mom finally realized that it was supposed to rain for the next week straight so she brought all of my soaking wet clothes in from outside.  My clothes are everywhere in my house.  Pants hanging from windows, shirts from chairs, it’s just quite a site.  I am to the point where I had to go buy more socks today because mine are dripping in my bathtub still after being washed on Wednesday.

During my time in Madrid I reached the two-month point in my program and I only have six and a half weeks left in Granada after this weekend.  I can hardly believe it and I am not quite sure how I feel about it. The next six weeks bring with them a trip to Florence, a Trip to Sevilla, Skiing in the Sierra Nevadas (Ski season actually starts kind of soon), a trip to Portugal and a Trip to Barcelona and we shall see where else the wind takes me during my free time.  This weekend I have my half marathon as I mentioned above.  I am also not completely sure how I feel about it either.  We shall see!  Love you all and take a look at my pictures posted below!

El Escorial

Segovia

Madrid at Night

Seafood Paella

The World-at Reina Sofia

I Love Paraguay!

Halloween

Toledo

Wow! It has been awhile since I last wrote in my blog.  My apologies.  The past few weeks have been zooming by, it is beginning to scare me because I still have so much I want to experience in Spain.  Speaking of time flying by ridiculously fast… yesterday, Friday 21^st, was the halfway mark to my program, as come December 21^st I will be leaving my host family.  Over the past ten days I have been really busy with school, training for the half-marathon, traveling and hanging out with friends.

Last Wednesday we had a holiday break from school so a few of my friends and I went up to Lanjaron, which is a hiking area on the southern part of the Sierra Nevadas.  We went for about a 4-hour hike and it was absolutely beautiful.  The majority of the land was very brown.  It was really nice to get out of the city for a few hours and enjoy being in the outdoors since the weather is still so nice here.  We finished the day by drinking blackberry milkshakes while waiting for our bus back to Granada. 

Last weekend a group of ten of us went to a beach in southern Spain called Cadiz.  It was great fun! We left Granada on the night bus at 3 am arriving in Cadiz around 8 in the morning.  We ate some breakfast and then checked into our hostel.  Due to the fact that this trip was a very last minute decision, half of our group was sleeping on the rough of the hostel in hammocks.  The hostel was an actual hostel.  By that I mean that people cooked in the kitchen together and there was a friendly, family ambiance to it.  We really enjoyed the hostel and it only cost us 13.50 each for the night!  We spent the entire first day, from 11 to 8, on a beach name La Caleta swimming, playing a paddle board game, napping, reading and eating tons of junk food. I forgot how good chips are.  We stayed at the beach until sunset and it was incredibly beautiful.  The sky was an amazing orange red color and the way it reflected off the little dingy boats in the water was striking.  I truly felt like I was in my own little paradise.  That night we all worked together and made a big spaghetti dinner, with a salad and bread and it was actually quite tasty.  We played some card games and called it a night.  The next morning we went straight to the beach again and spent the majority of the next day playing and laying in the sun again.  We had to head back to Granada around 3 because we had class the next day but all in all it was a great weekend trip to the beach.

Nothing all too exciting happened this week.  I ran eight miles on Thursday and that was pretty exciting because I was feeling pretty good after, two weeks till the half marathon.  This weekend I am just staying around Granada working on homework and hanging out with friends.  However, next weekend I am going to Madrid with my program and we will be there for five days.  We will be seeing many of the major sites in Madrid but also will be going to Toledo and Segovia for day trips.  Check out my pictures from my beach and mountain trips below.

I learned a very interesting word today… “chalé” it caught my eye in a book because it is my last name (obviously) and it means bungalow.

Lanjaron

 Cádiz

Weekend Number SIX!

I have been in Granada for over six weeks, that is just two weeks away from the mid-point of my program! Through our program, we receive intercambios for our time in Spain.  An intercambio is another student that is trying to learn English.  Therefore, the idea is that you speak in both Spanish and English to help both improve.  My intercambios name is Roberto and he lives in a pueblo (small town) about 20 minutes outside of Granada named Monachil.  Therefore, we meet about once a week and practice speaking in both Spanish and English.  This Saturday, I went with him to some mountains near his pueblo where we went on a short hike.  It was quite refreshing to be outside of the city and in nature.  The hike we went on was probably only about three to five miles in total but we were walking along large rock walls next to a river; therefore, it was quite beautiful.  I have posted some photos below.

            This weekend I also visited the Catedral de Granada (the cathedral of Granada).  It was absolutely beautiful and I was surprised by how large it was.  It looks quite large from the outside but once inside, it was obvious that it was much larger than I was expecting.  The inside was full of huge white granite pillars that went from the floor to the ceiling and many parts were adorned with gold decoration.  It was build after the Reyes Católicos (Catholic Kings) took over the city of Granada in 1492.  I have also attached pictures of the Cathedral below.

            I am now in my second week of classes and I am enjoying them for the most part.  My friend and I have also started training for a half marathon that we will be running in Granada in a month (gah so soon); therefore each day we have been going for runs around the city which has been another great way to explore more areas.  Most of the time we end up running along the river, which leads to a few mountain trails and I am enjoying it quite a bit.  Tomorrow we don’t have class because there is a national holiday; therefore, my friends and I are going to return to the mountains and go on another hike! Hope all is well :)

Monachil

 La Catedral