Another week gone by...

Yet another week gone by, and when I decided it was time to start listening to Christmas carols on repeat (they don't celebrate Thanksgiving, so there's no one telling me it's not time to start yet...), I realized how quickly this semester has flown by!! I can't believe I only have a little over a month left here!

Last week I played catch up on sleep and work and friends after having my parents here. I may or may not have slept for 17 hours over a 24 hour period between Wednesday and Thursday.... I got a lot of research done in (one of) the (many) University of Granada libraries for some of my papers. Researching in libraries is difficult anyway, but trying to do research in a Spanish library is nearly impossible. Especially when the books about the same topic are scattered throughout libraries all across the city. Why do the Spaniards have to make things so difficult? I've settled for using Wake library's database for English sources, and then translating the information into Spanish (which adds a step to the process, but saves money on bus tickets).

Saturday morning, the best part of my week arrived at the train station around 8:45... Sally came to visit!!!!! It was so fabulous to have her here!! We found her hostel (which was possibly the best hostel I've ever seen - if you're ever in Granada, stay at Hostal Oaisis!), dropped off her things, and went to wander around! We got some coffee at the IES favorite, Pilar, walked around the Cathedral/Alcaecería/tea and spice market area for a bit, as well as the free areas of the Alhambra and the Manuel de Falla park (home to a peck of "wild" peacocks!), and then we decided to rent bikes! We actually thought we were renting a scooter, and were slightly disappointed at first that it was only a motorized bike, but quickly learned that we would have died had they actually been scooters. What is a motorized bike, you ask? Well, I still don't really know, but I know it was battery-powered, and when you pedal it gives you an extra little boost, so you really don't have to exert any physical energy... it's great! We rode all around the city, only narrowly escaping being killed by cars and running into pedestrians, buildings, and/or other stationary objects. After becoming sufficiently afraid of the main roads, and when the sidewalks became too crowded for slightly out-of-practice bikers, we rode along the river out of the city a bit. It was beautiful, and so nice to be out of the city! I was surprised to find out that the algea- and trash-filled stagnant mess that Granada calls a "river" actually comes froma lush, clean, flowing brook! We took in the beautiful views of the Sierras, filled our lungs with clean-ish, smoke free-ish air, and enjoyed the beautiful day and beautiful company. We also passed some weird things, like what looked like the partial remains of a circus and a small girl pooping in a park along with her parents looking on approvingly.... Later Saturday afternoon, Sally and I watched the sunset from San Nicolas/the Mosque overlook and headed back down to the center for some tapas, and of course a visit to Mauricio for some churros!! Sunday morning we grabbed some breakfast, and then I sent her on her way after a sad goodbye! The weekend was rejuvinating - full of good times, good weather and good conversation.

Funny side note: Today, I was sitting on a bench reading, and this cat that looked like a much younger, much less fat, and much less crazy Sox, came up and started walking in between my legs like cats do. It seemed clean, so I didn't kick it. Then it jumped up on the bench and kept trying to crawl in my lap just like Sox does. I kept pushing it off but it kept coming back. Finally it settled for sitting on my bag right next to me and staring at me. It was just like I was sitting on the couch at home trying every possible way to keep Sox from crawling into my lap, except this cat was not staring and hissing at things that do not exist. Lots of little kids walked by and commented on how cute my cat was... it was not my cat.

This week, again, will be full of paper-writing, or at least feeling like I should be paper-writing. It seems that when people told me you don't have to do any work abroad, they were misleading me. It's a good thing I'm a quite practiced, nearly professional slacker. Most of my friends are going to be in either Paris or Barcelona this weekend (and since I have already been to those places, I did not feel like I needed to accompany them... although I'm sure they would have appreciated my expert guiding skillz), so hopefully I'll get most of this paper junk out of the way! My last weekends here are chock-full of traveling, which I am SO EXCITED about! I am hopefully going to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia not this weekend but the next, then Cambridge/London for a long weekend over Thanksgiving, and then Ireland to visit Molly right before we start exams... so get ready for some amazing adventure stories!! Love you all, and can't wait to see you sort of soon!!!