Week 5 (Part 2): Classes, Hiking, and Soccer -- 2/23 to 2/25/16

This week has been quite busy as usual. Between classes, homework, soccer games to watch, hiking to do, and soccer games to play, I've been stretching myself in all different directions--which is good! There are two highlights of this week though: (1) making a new Spanish friend named Pablo in order for him to practice English and me to practice my Spanish and (2) going on a hike with some students from Granada and playing a pickup soccer game.

One of the directors of my program asked me if I would like to meet a spaniard who was 19 years old and wants to practice Spanish. I of course could't pass of the offer! I got coffee with Pablo Monday, and he is so nice and his English is very good. It is also easy for me to talk to him in Spanish as he knows the struggles of practicing a different language. We're headed tonight to a pizza place for "Happy Hour" where there are one euro slices...needless to say I am super pumped.

As for the hike and soccer game, we walked up passed the Alhambra fortress above the city of Granada to play a pickup soccer game on some secluded fields. It was so beautiful. There were maybe three or four fields with a panoramic background view of the Sierra Nevada mountain whitecaps.

When playing the pickup game, I met a guy who just graduated from Granada and is now going to work for a civil engineering company, so I got to talk with him a bit about what it was like studying it and what part of civil engineering interested him (if you guys don't know, I am interested in studying environmental engineering, and there is a lot of overlap with civil).

Anyway, the pickup game was so much fun, and I got to practice my Spanish a lot while on the field!


As for this weekend, I am heading with my friend Jack to Barcelona! I leave tomorrow morning and get back Monday (as it is a holiday for Andalusia, the southern autonomous community in which Granada is a part of). Sunday night I am heading to a football game between Barcelona and Seville, so it should be fun!

Here are some pictures from the hike and pickup game:

The soccer field we played on, with the picturesque view

Me wearing my Peruvian club jersey (Christmas gift from Tom :D) 

Another beautiful on the hike home

Hope you enjoyed! Many pictures to come from this weekend too!

Week 5: Hiking Los Cahorros, Monachil, Spain -- 2/19 to 2/22/16

This Saturday I went hiking with some friends to the Cahorros which is a trail just outside of Granada in a town called Monachil. We hiked through a valley following a river and then hiked up the mountains to a ridge area to go back to the town. The sights were beautiful, and we could see Granada in the distance through the mountains. I would definitely head back there again as it's so close!

Here are some pictures from the day!

Here's our group! (minus me and plus one of the dogs who followed us)

Another semi-group photo under a cool cave!

These two dogs (we named the left one Swiffer and the other Henrich...) decided to follow us on our hike and show us the way across the bridge. They would literally run ahead and then look back to make sure we were coming! So cute. 

Here's Swiffer guiding Oscar and Wyatt across one of the bridges. 

Some closeups of good ol' Swiffer!

Here's the long footbridge that we had to cross! I made sure not to scare people by jumping up and down on the rickety boards and shaking the entire thing... :D 

Here's Henrich finally working up the courage to make his way across the daunting footbridge. 

We ended up having to make our way through some caves/canyon areas while we followed the river, so much fun! 

Here is some of our group in the cave/canyon we hiked through! From left to right: Megan, Jordan, Sam, Jack, Oscar, and me! 

Here is one of the beautiful views from the valley we hiked through

Here's another picture of the gang for the day! My mom told me I needed to take more pictures with "people" in them. I think she just wanted to make sure I had friends... Also photo creds to Sam!

Another beautiful view from where we stopped for a water break

If you look closely, you can see me reppin' my Rustic Pathways shirt! 

Some of the gang forging ahead to ascend the ridge part of the hike

Here's a view from higher up looking into the valley where we had come from

If you look closely off in the distance, you can see Granada! 

Me again, but closer this time

A couple cool pictures of one of the paths we went on and then realized we were going the wrong way, it was a good extra workout to go back uphill though...

The road we ended on with Granada in the distance

Another dog we encountered on our hike!

A cat staring us down as we all got some lunch at a bar in Monachil.

Casual horse crossing the street

Ended the tiring but beautiful morning with some drinks and a delicious lunch! 

Hope you guys enjoyed the photos! More to come soon!

Week 4 (Part 2): Classes Continue and Giving Directions -- 2/16 to2/17/16

This week has been quite busy so far! I now have three projects in the works for my classes: one for Civilization, one for Music, and one for my speaking class. I am starting to feel a little pressure doing all of the work in Spanish too. I am pretty proficient at writing and doing two or three page papers, but speaking and talking about the topics is still harder for me, especially in class because a lot of my classmates are much more experienced with Spanish, so it is somewhat intimidating. Although that is why I´m here right? Hopefully in a couple of weeks I will be more comfortable speaking in class and asking questions and so on.

In contrasst to this, yesterday while walking to class, I was approached two sepparate times by people asking for directions. One seemed to be from France and was trying to get to a street with a bunch of restaurants. I -- surprisingly -- used my Spanish Google Maps Vocabulary to give directions and showed her the way. Then, literally 5 minutes later, a Latin American couple came up to me and asked me where the Univervisty Bookstore was located. Since it was on my way somewhat, I knew exactly where it was and gave them directions, but then ended up telling them if they wanted to buy t-shirts or sweatshirts, they could get better deals by going downtown to some other shops where shirts are sold for 3/4 price. It was weird being able to first know enough about the city and locations of things, and to communicate that in Spanish. I definitely surprised myself.

 Also since I don't have any pictures from this week, here are three from the drive home from Cordova! Also there's one of the jersey I got for really cheap for the Barcelona game I am going to in two weeks!

Hope you enjoyed my post!

              

Week 4: Sevilla and Cordova -- 2/12 to 2/15/16

This past weekend I went on an excursion with my ISA group to Sevilla and Cordova! It was a jam-packed weekend with amazing sights and -- my favorite part -- A cathedral and a Mosque--Cathedral.

I have a lot of pictures, so I will just write a quick blurb about the weekend and then show you what we saw!

In Seville we got a tour of the Real Alcazar Palace (for those Game of Thrones fans is the palace that was used to film all the scenes in Dorne in season 5) and then went to the cathedral. Both were beautiful in totally different ways. The highlight of the palace had to be the intricate artwork and woodwork (somewhat like the Alhambra in Granada) and the lush gardens. I want to go back so I can take the time to explore the gardens more, as they were huge. For the Cathedral it had to be the gold and silver plated altars and sheer size of the church itself. It was intensely humbling to walk inside a building and immediately feel small and unimportant. I ended up going to mass the next morning there before we took off, and I was one of a few people who went to the early service so I was able to walk around without huge crowds, and it was quite amazing.

In Sevilla too a couple of us found a cool "hole in the wall" Flamenco bar where we had some sangria and watched some flamenco to move the night on. It was a little far away but worth the walk!

We then headed to Cordova which was much different (smaller, more intimate) than Sevilla. We had time to walk around before doing a tour, and my friend Cameron and I headed to explore the small city. We ended up finding a cool artisan market, within the labyrinth-like streets, where there were woodworkers, leather makers, and other artisans working on pieces to sell. We then got a tour of the Mosque which was converted into a Church. This was so cool because there was a mix of architecture which signified the mixing of cultures between the Moors and the Christians. The most iconic part was the brick and stone mixed arches lining the entire center portion of the Mosque. The building seemed to sprawl out and it was easy to get lost, I had to keep close to our group!

Anyway, to really show the true magnificence of all that I have told you guys about, here are some pictures! Hope you enjoy!

Sevilla:

One of the ceilings at the Real Alcazar 

A fountain in the garden of the Alcazar






A couple fountain areas in the Real Alcazar...or should I say Palace at Dorne

A few pictures of the Cathedral in Seville

Horse drawn carriages were common throughout the streets 

A couple more pictures of the outside of the Cathedral. We also were able to go up to the tower to get a better look of Seville as a whole. 

Massive organ, I wish I could have heard it been played

Christopher Columbus' tomb

Some magnificent ceilings in the Cathedral

One of my favorite altars with the gold plated wall behind it. The gold seemed to shine even with out a light. Truly beautiful. 

Here was where I went to mass Sunday morning inside the Cathedral

A cool view from the tower of the cathedral and Seville

The Andalusia Government building

A bunch of pictures of the Plaza de España 

Cordova:

A picture of the bridge and the gate in Cordova

The Artisan Market Plaza that we found

This man was making wood carvings--as you can see that bust on the right is what he was working on.

It is extremely common in Cordova for people to hang pots with flowers outside their doors. In the Spring the town has a festival of flowers and it draws crowds of people to see the beautiful colors of the flowers and pots. 

Picture from within the Mosque in Cordova

Here are the arches made with brick and stone alternating

A couple awe-inspiring ceilings in the Mosque--Cathedral

One of two dueling organs 

The other dueling organ... I really want to hear how they would sound if played at the same time...

These two statues symbolize Matthew (Angel) and Mark (Lion), two of the four gospel writers

Here are the other two gospel writers: Luke (the Ox) and John (the Eagle).

Tower of the Mosque--Cathedral

Hope you enjoyed!