A few things that are shortening my lifespan...

To all of those who have sent me so much love in the form of letters, postcards, or packages: THANK YOU SO MUCH! Y'all are the best. I've been a slacker about writing back BUT... your love is now being returned! NOTICE: If you receive a postcard, and the date on the postcard leads you to believe that it took 2 months to reach you, do not be deceived: Although these postcards were sent today, they were actually written about a month and a half ago... woops!

Another notice: Today is the first day of Daylight Savings in Spain, so now we are 5 hours ahead of Eastern time and 6 hours ahead of Central. The clock reflects this change.

Final notice: If you publically proclaim that you have successfully avoided an illness, the illness gods will smite you. Yes, it seems that I have caught whatever bug was going around IES, and it has come with a vengance. I should have known...

This past week has been full of midterms, and they're not over yet. Not my idea of fun in Spain, but studying here is still more fun than studying in the good ole US of A, so I can handle it. Sadly, it is not normal, but rather a bit rude, to study in cafes here. But, since the only other place we have to study is our rooms, which can get old and clausterphobic, my friends and I have become regulars at Café Fútbol, where the waiters have resigned to the fact that we WILL be studying there, even though they sigh loudly and give us annoyed looks every time we come in, and continue to give us annoyed looks when we stay for hours and only buy one or two coffees. I think they're starting to warm up to us, though. They make fun of us less, and sometimes our favorite waiter Mauricio even gives us free churros.

This weekend has been just fabulous. Friday, I woke up and went to study at this little children's library near my house that I had heard about. It was perfect. There were a few classes of cute little kindergarteners who came in to learn about how to use a library. Sadly, it's only open a few hours a day on weekdays. That afternoon, I went and mailed my absentee ballot. Hopefully it gets there, because I don't think the woman really understood me when I told her it needed to be a "reliable express mail carrier". Oh well. Then I went to do a little more reading on a bench in front of Fuente de las Batallas, a big fountain in the center of town. Obviously I did more people watching than reading. And obviously, since I am in Spain and personal space does not exist, even though there were plenty of empty benches, I was constantly accompanied on my bench by cute, old, chain-smoking Spanish men. I think I am taking years off of my life by the amount of cigarette smoke I am inhaling here. But I had some interesting conversations with the Spanish men, and they all complimented me on my Spanish speaking abilities, which (whether true or not...) gave me a much needed confidence booster. That night, I celebrated Megan (one of my friends here)'s 21st birthday.... and (per her request. not mine. I like sleep.) stayed out until Café Fútbol opened at 6:30 am. After some early-morning churros con chocolate, I crawled into bed as the sun was rising at 7:30. That probably took a few days off my lifespan, too. Only in Spain.

Clearly, Saturday was mostly consumed with sleeping. But that afternoon, Liz (a friend who also goes to Wake) and I went to an Irish pub that has wireless to watch the Wake-Miami game. Sadly, we couldn't find it on ESPNU, so we had to watch the video game-type figures reenact it on Gametracker. And even more sadly, we lost. But it's ok, because Bama won, and I am in love with Nick Saban. Saturday night, we all went to a fancy dinner for Megan's birthday at an absolutely delicious Italian restaurant... I ate way too much, and will be full for days.

Today, I am doing a bit more studying , and going to meet another friend's parents tonight. After finishing all my midterms and papers this week, I'm going straight from class on Thursday to meet my parents in Málaga, and we're headed to Valencia and Barcelona before coming back to Granada for a few days! I'm so excited to see them and to get to show them all I've been doing this semester!

I love and miss you all so much, and I hope you're all doing well! ROLL TIDE!!!!!!

The New Boring...

Per orders from Dawson and the Wiley-man, and because I don't want to study, and because I don't have to study since my grades don't go into my GPA (just kidding, Daddy... sort of.), I am going to write a post even though I haven't done anything exciting since the last one.

We did take a day trip to Córdoba on Friday for our Islamic Art History class, but that wasn't very exciting. It was interesting, but it was an all-day class, nonetheless, and on a Friday at that. Some friends and I were going to go camping in the Alpujaras or Sierra Nevadas this weekend, but it's already snowing there, so we decided that might not be wise, seeing as the warmest things I have here is a fleece pullover. So this week I've just caught up on sleep, caught up with friends, successfully avoided the bug that's been going around IES (so far...), come to the sad realization that I have to write a quite lengthy research paper for all 5 of my classes--in Spanish--by the end of the semester, done some more good wandering around Granada, studied on some park benches (sometimes next to sketchy men, sometimes next to nice old ladies, sometimes by myself), eaten lots of picnics in plazas with amigas, drunk lots of tea and café, and planned my Thanksgiving meal with Ellen, which is sure to be a supreme culinary experience, complete with sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, roasted chestnuts, and (hopefully) sweet old British professors. The best part of the week was either finding out about Max and Deby's baby, Ana Isabel!!!!, or possibly this morning when my madre decided to cook my roommate and I (something kind of like) pancakes to remind us of America... both were terrific!

Right now, I'm gearing up for the next 2 weeks of midterms and paper deadlines, and then my parents come!!!! It's crazy that I'm already half-way done with my time here in Spain. I think I am equally excited about still having a whole half left to go--sure to be even better than the first half, and of course chock-full of fun adventures--and only having half way left to go until I get to see all of you, communicate without significant effort, and easily be able to figure out if the sign on the door says "push" or "pull". I hope all of you Wake kids have had a wonderful Fall break, and that everyone has a great week!!!

The City of Blinding Lights

Well, folks, it's been a while. Let that be a sign to you that I am actually having fun here in Spain, and not wasting too much time on the computer. The past 2 weeks (has it really been that long?) since Morocco have been full of one after another beautiful days in the neighborhood. I figured out how to get streaming video on my laptop (they have restrictions on it when you're outside the US), which means that now I can watch FOOTBALL!!! This makes me so happy, I can't even describe it. And Wake Forest's program in Salamanca came down to Granada at the beginning of last week for a few days, so I got to see some Wake friends and show them around the city. It was so fun to a) hang out with people who had known me more than a month, b) be able to talk about Wake Forest and know that the people I am talking to actually care, and c) be the one who knows what they're doing in the foreign city (usually I'm the lost, confused one)!

After my first full week of class in a while (4 days in a row... it was rough.), I left Friday night for a weekend in Paris!!! I arrived at the Madrid bus station (after a fabulous 5-hour bus ride sitting next to a man with a very long mullet), and then the Madrid airport at 2 a.m. Saturday morning ready to camp out for the night. After reading 3 articles and one act of Bodas de Sangre, and writing 2.5 papers, I found a nice, soft, almost-clean square of carpet on which a car was displayed and fell asleep (sort of) with images of Tom Hanks in The Terminal dancing in my head. Saturday morning I woke up, had a cafe, finished a paper, flew to Paris, conquered the Paris public transportation system, met Ellen, and we found our hostel... all before lunch! It was so so good to see Ellen (again, having someone around who has known you for more than a month is a nice feeling), and we decided we'd make our trip as much like a weekend-long date as possible, since we were in the City of Love.

The first stop (and first of many picnic locations) was the Eiffel Tower, where we met up with Kendra, who was on the tail end of her Paris trip, for lunch on the lawn. It was just like you'd imagine... a huge, green lawn with people everywhere lounging and talking and eating baguettes and cheese... it was fabulous. After wandering around basically all of Paris that afternoon, we decided to return and partake in the oh-so-touristy ritual. We pretty much saw all of Paris that we wanted to see that afternoon and night through our wanderings. On foot. We were tired.

The next day, after sleeping a little later than planned, we embarked on our tour of Paris's tourist attractions. We began with the Louvre, which was a bit overrated. The Mona Lisa was cool, I guess, but it looked the same as in every photo I've ever seen, and there were too many people to get close to it. Then we took a picnic break and headed to the Musee d'Orsay, which is housed in a beautiful old train station, and was my favorite so far. We saw tons of Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Picasso, Degas, Cezanne, and other Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. That afternoon we went to the top of the belltower at Notre Dame, which was gorgeous, headed back to the Tuileries to rest and people watch, and found (after some searching) some delicious and reasonably-priced French onion soup for me and escargo for Ellen. After dinner, and a brief trip back to the hostel to doctor some blisters, we went to the top of Arc du Triomphe and wandered down Champ d'Elysees.

Monday morning we got up early to see the L'Orangerie, which houses Monet's Waterlillies. These paintings were the kind that, no matter how many times you look at them on slides or how much you study them, you can never do them justice unless you sit in the middle of them. Probably my favorite work of art. After sitting and gawking for a while, we headed out to Versailles, and,, even though the chateau, museum, and apartment of Marie-Antionette were all closed, it was so worth it to enjoy the gardens and the town. We got a baguette and took a small siesta in the grass under some beautiful yellow oak trees surrounded by statues of who I'm sure were very famous people. It was one of those surreal moments where you have to stop and remind yourself that yes, this is in fact your life.

I got back to Granada at about 5 am, set my alarm for 8, heard it at 8, rolled over and turned it off, and skipped my 9 am class. When I got back for lunch, my madre had made a delicious meal to welcome me home, and even played French music at lunch(at least it sounded French, and I told myself it was in my honor...)! I'm here this week, trying to get a handle on what right now seems like a lot of work, but at this time next semester I'm sure will not. I hope you are all enjoying fall and football for me!!!

where the streets have no name.

Morocco is a country for the senses. The vibrant colors and the breathtaking views, the strong smells of spices in the streets and burning trash along the roads, and the permeating call to prayer five times daily were overwhelming. This trip was an experience like no other. I discovered so many things about the Arab culture and the religion of Islam that changed so many of my misconceptions that I haven't quite been able to process it all yet. But here is my attempt at describing the trip: beware, it may be quite lengthy.

The first day of the adventure (Friday) was spent in Gibraltar, the British territory on the tip of the Iberian peninsula. It was a bizarre place - it felt very British (complete with red telephone booths and fish and chips), but also African (apes everywhere), and not so much Spanish, even though it is mere feet from Spain. However, I was especially excited about this part of the trip because my anscestor, General George Agustus Elliott, was the one who defended Gibraltar in the Seige of Gibraltar in the late 18th century. I just knew there was going to be a great plaque I could take a picture with. Turns out, there's not only a plague, but also a statue and a hotel named after the general. All the locals were impressed, even in awe, when I told them who I was. One local, after I spent considerable effort convincing him that I was in fact telling the truth, even told me that in Gibraltar, being related to General Elliott is the equivilant of being related to Abe Lincoln in the States. Perfecto. We took a tour of the island, grabbed some fish and chips for dinner, then headed back to the hotel for the night.

Saturday morning we woke up early to catch the ferry to Tangier. Welcome to Africa, continent number five checked off my list. When we got off the ferry, we met our guide, Daren (lovingly nicknamed D-Magic). We went with a guide company called Morocco Exchange (a great organization which was started by a German, but is now mostly run by Americans who know Morocco very well) that takes Americans and Western Europeans to Morocco with the goal of challenging their perceptions of the Arab world and, at the same time, the Arab world's perceptions of Westerners. Our guide quickly informed us that this was his first trip to lead by himself, and that we might get lost a few times. Bueno. In Tangier, we first went to a market to buy lunch. I guess this is how everyone else in the world does it, but the meat section was a bit graphic. Heads, inards, tails everywhere, and the chickens were still twitching. The sights were not so bad, but the smell really got me. We then walked to Darna, a women's center right in the center of Tangier that takes in women and teaches them to read and write, and also teaches them a trade so that they can support themselves. At the center, we had a discussion with three Moroccan students. They were all pursuing their Masters degree, so their perspective was a little more progressive than the typical Moroccan, but it was very intersting to be able to ask them questions and understand their viewpoints. One thing that stuck out to me from this descussion was their perception of Americans. We asked many people in Morocco about their perception of Americans and always the response was the same. No Arabs agree with the international politics of the United States, which is understandable - I don't think you would either if you lived there. But they all separate the political realm of the U.S. with the popular realm. Not a single person we spoke with had any negative feelings towards the American people, but were almost infatuated with Americans and American culture. We then had a delicious meal of soup, couscous, vegetables, and Moroccan mint tea and hopped back on the bus.

After Tangier, we started the trek to Rabat, making a few stops on the way. First, we stopped at Asilah, a beautiful, quiet little town on the Atlantic Ocean that reminded me a little of Santorini. Then we stopped on the side of the road to ride some camels along the beach. In Africa. No big deal. Lastly, we stopped just before Rabat at sundown so our driver could break fast and pray (it was Ramadan, so everyone was fasting from sun up to sun down - in fact, we couldn't eat or drink in the streets, either.)

We finally arrived in Rabat, the capital of Morocco, and our home base for the trip. We were paired with homestay families and Lauren, Erika, and I walked with Hannen, our host sister, to our home. From the streets, the city of Rabat looks very plain, almost sad. But the inside of the homes are absolutely spectacular (our home especially so because it had a western toilet...). This is very typical of Islamic architecture, so I've learned in my art history class. It has to do with the idea of keeping the private sphere private. And much of the socializing is done in the homes, as opposed to Spain where it is all in the streets. Anyway, there is no way I will be able to describe here all I saw and experienced in the homestay, but the family was so different than I thought they would be. I was surprised at all of the things that reminded me of any given home or family in the United States, and the family was extremely generous and hospitable.

Sunday, we met with a Moroccan professor who has written many books on the relationship between the Arab world and the west. The most interesting thing I learned from this discussion, and possibly what stuck out most from the whole trip, was about how the religion of Islam has been manipulated. Just as with any religion or idealogy, when the masses are illiterate, the texts can be manipulated for political or monetary gain (there are many examples of this in Christian history, especially from the period of the Crusades and the Middle Ages). Some very interesting examples of this are burkah/hijab/women's dress as well as Islamic extremism. Ask me more about it - I was really interested in it, but to discuss it here-would only make this post longer... which clearly is not necessary.

Anyway, then we went to some Roman ruins and a Mosoleum. They were sort of interesting. Just look at the pictures. Then came Sunday night, which was chock-full of surreal experiences. First, we had break fast with the family, which was delicious, of course. They make a dangerously heavy soup, which is accompanied by ever so many delicious sweets. That is only the appetizer, of course. After break fast we somehow communicated toour family (in charades) that we needed buckets, because we were going to the hammam, the Arab baths. Sounds great, right? Actually, it was hilariously uncomfortable. We begacotyn the adventure by trekking down the street with our buckets and showering materials, as if to announce to the citye of Rabat that we are off to bathe. Kind of normal? So then we arrive at the hammam, purchase our scrubbers, and head to the changing room. This is where things get uncomfortable. Let's just say that the ladies in the baths would not let me cover myself quite as much as I would have liked... Just try to imagine 7 less-than-covered American girls in a small, steamy room crowded with lots of less-than-covered Moroccan women and girls dumping hot water on eachother and scrubbing eachother until their skin peels off. Quite the cultural experience. After the baths, sqeaky clean and closer than ever before, the girls headed to one of the host families' homes to get our hands and feet tatooed with henna, which is a Moroccan tradition for special occasions. Then, after I wiped my nose with my henna on the way home (an orange nose for three weeks? splendid.), our family fed us. Again. Because the first dinner wasn't enough. The problem was that I had wet henna on my hands, so my host sister, Fati, fed me the entire meal... a hilariously bizarre experience in itself.

Monday morning we left Rabat for the Rif Mountain region of Morocco to spend the day with a family that lives in a remote village. This day showed us that Morocco is a land of extremes. The difference in quality of life between the cities and the country was astounding. Whereas in the city, there are more women in universities than men, in the villages, for many children the closest school is 10km away, and roads to get there are rare. The average boy living in the country gets 6 years of education, and most girls never learn to read or write. However, the family we spent the day with was amazing, and again extremely hospitable and generous. The matriarch of the family, Fati, petitioned the government for years to have a road built to the village just 5 years ago after her daughter in law became one of the many women to
die in childbirth because of lack of access to medical care.

Overall, the trip was eye-opening, and I wish I could share more of what I learned with you here, but alas, that would take too many blog entries. I am back in Granada now, patiently awaiting the moment when I find Greys and the Office (and maybe the presidential debate) online... Until next time.