Etap Hotel Granada

... Scott's larger bag. My homestay is in the opposite direction of the bus station so it ended up taking longer than expected. Luckily we built some cushion time into our schedule and thus we made it onto our bus safely but with only minutes to spare. The bus ride itself was faily uneventful, there is not much to see as far as landscape goes between Madrid and Granada so Scott and I passed the 5 hour trip talking and staring out at the vast, empty plains of Spain. We ...

... was perched almost on the top of the mountain. Upon arriving in Frigiliana by bus, we had to hike through the entire village and then take another 600 steps up the steep side of the mountain. It afforded us beautiful views, incredible peace and quiet, and plenty of exercise. Avocado, olive, lemon, and orange trees surrounded the area. It was a wonderful place to rest and relax during Thanksgiving week.

Paul's cousin ...

... of vino and a few hands of WHOT, it´s off to bed.

20 Nov
We awake to a chilly yet sunny Granada morning and decide to bus it into town. We are accompanied for the day by Amanda and Gavin a Scottish couple currently living in Barcelona. Alighting from the bus in town, we head up the hill to the Alhambra, which turns out to be a wonderful visual experience comprising of extensive gardens and a number of interconnected palaces. The ...

So much to share! The Spanish tradition of not getting anything done is really starting to weasel its way into my mind and I am finding it really difficult to get more than one thing a day checked off my to do list. So, my apologies for the delay in writing. For this entry I shall group topics so that you can skip around if you get bored!

Halloween

I dressed up as a black cat at school and the kids loved it! While I was teaching my kindegarten ...

... do not. Air conditioning is a very nice addition since its been consistently at 90 degrees of above ever since we've gotten here. The food is very good as well and we get 3 meals cooked for us a day, except for Sundays when we have to fend for ourselves. One of the toughest parts is adjusting to the meal schedule! Breakfast is at 8am and it consists of café con leche and a piece of pan tostado (coffee and toast). Lunch is not served until 2pm but its usually a pretty ...

... to a bar to eat some Tapas and watch the Barcalona - Chelsea Euro Cup semifinal game.  If Barca tied they'd advance but it didn't look good.  They were down 1-0 for the majority of the game, and got hit with a controversial red card that left them a man down.  The ref allotted 4 minutes of extra time and with less than a minute of extra time remaining; Barca set up what everyone understood was their last chance.  The ball was passed around the box before Barca dropped it to a ...

Chupiteria: In trying to think back what went on this day, it's pretty hard to remember, but I recall it being relatively standard. Millis and I got up relatively late again, rolled out, got some food and went to class. Classes were fine for the most part. In Francisca's class, we actually played Tabú, only playing the game in Spanish, which proved to be much tougher in terms of using vocabulary and ...

... the only night I was in town, Que suerte! (What luck!) The show I saw was a cross between the costumes from Andrew Llyod Webers' "CATS" and classic Flamenco dance, called FLAMENCATS! Flamenco was birthed out of the Andalucia region so there is an immense pride in the art. Flamenco's origin, being mired in persecution and hardship, lends to its common themes: desperation, hope, and pride. It is a mystical ...

... that she had done some crazy renovation on the piso and now had a brand new kitchen (a very modern, classy one) and two remodeled bathrooms. I have to say, I'm a little jealous of the girls who get to live with the new bathroom and everything. After lunch (more fish that I didn't mind eating...yes, I ate fish and didn't mind) I spent the next couple hours showing her pictures of everyone. I went through all the pictures that Erik and I took ...

... on to the Bodegas Antigua, where we also had free tapas, papas al pobre (poor man's potatoes). Thinking earlier we were going out to dinner, we quickly gave up on that idea, stuffed to the gills as we were with tapas, so we went home. Our last day in Granada we went to the Hammam baths, where we were ready for massages and relaxation. We entered the dressing area and changed into our bathing suits, then into the baths, which were dimly lit and had candles in ...