The Last Week in a Semi-Larger-Than-Normal Nutshell.

So sorry for the delay in posting... It's been a crazy week! We'll just start with the embarassing moments. After about 7 days of being in Spain, I realized that I had been unknowingly interchanging the words barata, meaning "cheap", and borracha, meaning "drunk". Gladly, I remain utterly unaware of all the specific times I misused the words, but it made for some interesting first impressions, I am sure.

So, after the initial "honeymoon period" ended, culture shock hit me like a load of bricks. I think what made it difficult was not only that no one here knows me, but also that I can't express myself in Spanish the way I do in English, so it's just been hard to feel like myself. The bad news was that I had to check my ego a bit, because I usually think of myself as adventurous and adaptive--a cultural chameleon, if you will. The good news was that once I found out that everyone else was just as overwhelmed, I felt a lot better! And I think I'm over the hump, now!

So many things have happened since Cabo de Gato, but here are some highlights:
-I got the last sea urchin spike out of my foot! It still feels like there's some nerve issues going on, but that's also gotten better with time.
-I've done some great wandering, and found a spice and tea market very close to the IES center, but a little off the beaten path. I took pictures... it was amazing. All of the teas were apparently medicinal, because they had the ailment they cured written on the sign. It's possible that they could also get you high, because I felt pretty funny after inhaling the aromas for a good 15 minutes. I plan to return and buy some tea later.
-I got coffee with a friend of a friend who is a missionary here in Granada, which was fabulous.
-I went to see Mama Mia at an "outdoor" theater, which really ended up being an indoor theater with no roof. It was dubbed in Spanish, except for the songs, which had Spanish subtitles. We were (once again) the annoying group of loud Americans because we laughed throughout the whole movie. We decided that the Spaniards just didn't appreciate the hilarity of Pierce Brosnan singing Broadway tunes to Maryl Streep...
-I ran out of underwear
-I bought three pair of underwear and paid 25 euro. Seriously? Yes.
-and, last but most certainly not least, I heard "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Ramblin' Man" in the same day.

Friday, we left for a weekend trip with my program. We spent Friday afternoon in Ronda, a town about 2 hours from Granada, that was built on a very, very, very tall cliff with a canyon running straight through the town. There is an amazing bridge that connects the original part of the town with the "new" town. We also visited the remnants of the Arab Baths and the Plaza de Toros, the largest and oldest still-running bullfighting ring in Spain. Sadly, I didn't have my camera with me in Ronda, but you should all look some photos up on Google or something, because it was beautiful. Then, that night we went to Sevilla (you may know this city as Seville, as in "The Barber of..."), and had a nice cocktail party on the river. I unknowingly tried fried, pickled shark. Tastes like chicken.

So, I left for Sevilla not really knowing anything about the city, but it is actually quite significant. For over 100 years, it was the only city that had a port to America, so it had a monopoly on all goods going to or from the Americas. It was, in essence, the center of the world for that period of time. The Cathedral, which we visited Saturday, is the third largest in the world, and the largest Gothic Cathedral in the world. I'll spare you (more of) the boring details, but take a look at the pictures... it's a pretty spectacular city. Saturday night they took us to a flamenco show, which was spectacular, and not different from what I expected. It was like a combination between tap dancing, a prayer chant, and STOMP, with a little bit of old-school guitar and very expressive eyebrows thrown into the mix. It was pretty spectacular. And after flamenco came the best part: we went to a Sevilla fútbol game and sat in the front row... right next to the hooligan section!!! I was so excited about it all week, and even though I didn't end up painting my face, it still exceeded my expectations. Overall it was a great weekend... trips with the program are great because a) we get our own personal tour guides (our director, Javier, and some professors always come), b) they've got all the connections, and c) they do things right like get us front row seats, and d) it's all already paid for.

Tomorrow we start classes at last. You can tell that everyone here is from the same type of school, because we are all about to go crazy without work to do. I myself am very ready to get into my own routine, rather than being on the same routine as 80 other Americans. In case you are interested, here are the classes I am taking (this is really so my mother does not have to write it down another time...):
-Spanish grammar (required)
-Lorca and the Andalusian Literary Tradition
-Islamic Civillization in Spain until 1492
-Islamic Art and Architecture in Spain
-The Arab World and the West (in ENGLISH!)

Shoutout to Cabin 16: my host mom just came in to my room to ask me what type of animal my kitty is. I had to explain to her that even though the tail does look like that of a platypus, it is not in fact a platypus, but rather a gato.