Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Amanda and I hit the town:
Original plans were to meet up with our new Spanish friends, go to a tapas bar that played bingo all night, and then head out to a discoteca. Turns out, the Spanish friends had too much homework and couldn’t go out with us anymore. Amanda and I were still itching to leave our houses and “viven en las calles” this night. We started off pregaming, just the two of us, in this sketchy parking lot, with a 40 of Alhambra. From there, we (obviously) moved it on to schwarma and shared a basket of freshly made french fries. Next stop: tapas bar for one more beer. It was so fun and random to go out with just Amanda, but also super fun and hilarious! We made a last pit stop at Pepe’s Bar Playa. Pepe is one of Amandas mejor amigos. When we arrived, he was so happy to see her! He gave each of us a shot of tequila and also made us a delicious mixed drink that resembled a long island iced tea. Price: free! This was my second night in Granada that I was elected to help bartend! Amanda and I made drinks for the locals- epic! We eventually made it out of there alive, strange but awesome night!
Pepe and his 2 new bartenders :)
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Peacock Park!
I haven’t really talked about school at all. Believe me, I do attend school Monday-Thursday with 2 hour-and-a-half long classes each day. I think my favorite class is Spanish Art History. Once a week, we go on an excursion to either a museum, or church, or other places of historical significance around Granada. Today, we went to a place called Carmen de los Martires, which is a park and also the home to many peacocks, pavos reales! It was probably the most fun class by far since we hiked up towards the Alhambra and explored the park. The flowers were just beginning to bloom and the views of the city were amazing! Best part: pavos reales!
Thursday, March 31st, 2011
Shopping, Volunteering, and tapas:
After class and lunch today, I headed off towards the shops. I also had a huge craving for ice cream and had to try out Los Italianos. This is probably Granada’s best and most popular ice cream shop; I got a cone with cookies and cream ice cream. Una merienda buena!
Los Italianos Ice cream shop on Gran Via in Granada
I casually strolled through the city center back towards Calle San Anton, which is a street with a ton of great shopping. I went in and out of stores, tried on a few things, but no luck. I ended up popping into a very small shop with jewelry and purses. It resembled an Arabic shop, but with more of a modern twist. I talked with the dueno, owner, for a long time. He told me how everything must be sold- liquidacion- very soon because he is moving away to Italy. Entonces, everything was 3 or 4 euro! I definitely had my mind sent on buying one, but ended up with three. Gahhh! He was such a good salesmen! I promised him I would return with friends, and he was so happy he said he would give me a regalito, little gift, if I did next week.
Later that evening after a shower and a little time to rest, I went off to meet Rachel at Corte Ingles to walk to the comedor social (soup kitchen) to volunteer. Right away, another volunteer met us at the door. He caught us red handed because neither of us remembered his name (Abdul, not Antonio…). But anyways, the rest of the night went without flaw. We served the soup, the pasta, the bread, and the chocolate pudding. It is great to work here because I am able to speak with volunteers as well as those attending the soup kitchen. I learned several new words and phrases (sink =fregadero) but the best was learning a cute Spanish pick up line: "He visto todos los monumentos de Granada, pero me falta tu." (I have seen all of the monuments in Granada, except for you). Another fun fact, there is a man who always eats there on Thursdays and when he was leaving, he said: hasta luego princesa! Ahh, this volunteer work will never get old. Last one: there is a pretty cute, young boy who eats at the soup kitchen on Thursdays (too bad he is probably homeless) but anyways, I think he was hitting on me, but then suddenly lost interest when he found out that I eat cerdo (pig) because he was Muslim… would have been a bit difficult to pursue me anyways buddy (first prerequisite: not be homeless).
When we had finished cleaning up and said goodbye to the staff, Rachel and I headed out for tapas. We had a fun “date” together and tried out three different tapas places on Calle Navas. We ran into Tess, a girl from our program, and her senora! Apparently, it is very common for them to go out for tapas together, especially because her senora is an important seller of ham and cheese in the area of Andalucía, mainly Granada. Entonces, her senora was super fun, knew everyone at the bar, and even paid for our drinks. I want to be just like her when I get old!
Calle Navas- Street with tons of tapas bars!
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