El Parque Garcia Lorca and the men of Spain

 Today we went on a tour to 3 gyms in case people wanted to work out and stuff. After the first 2, we walked through a park called El Parque Garcia Lorca. In the middle of all these buildings is the little park that's so tranquil and serene.

After walking in the park, we went to the last gym where I saw the MOST attractive person I have ever seen in real life. Well it's a tie between him and the guy who I saw at GAP the summer that I started: that man had a golden sun-kissed tan, dark hair and blue eyes. But back to this Spaniard.

 When we walked into the gym, I sat down on a bench, and Dani was talking to some dude. I leaned forward a little just so I could see who it was, and boy oh boy was that the best decision I made all day! I turned to Jen who was sitting beside me and I told her to lean forward and look at the guy. She immediately looked at me and we had our "holy shit" faces on. There stood a man so beautiful I couldn't believe my eyes. Even if I tried to describe him it wouldn't do him any justice. He had dark hair, dark eyes, and a little scruff. I can't even go into further detail. I should have taken a picture of him! All the girls saw him, of course. And when Dani told us to follow him, the first thing he usually says is "chicos" but instead he said "chicas." Obviously we knew why. Dani took us around the corner to some tables but the guy didn't follow. No joke, I asked Dani "is he coming back?" And everyone just smiled, cause they knew why. Even the guy must have known. If you're that attractive you must know.

  Jen and I decided to go upstairs and roam around for a little. Which was also a good idea because that's where the machines are. And where there are machines, there are boys. We stood in the doorway looking around pretending to "see what type of machines they had" when in reality we were scoping out the men. We decided to walk to the other side and back so we could see it all. The only thing I remember is pointing out a guy in a red shirt and a guy in a gray shirt.

Since I'm on the subject of Spanish men, let me just get this out. The men here are so much different than those in the US. In Spain, the guys actually care what they look like, they have style, and are put together. They know how to look good. If anything, American guys should aspire to be more like the Spanish. I know I wouldn't mind.

La Tetería Casablanca

 The trip to Albaycin was fun but the weather wasn't all that great. Callie and I walked at the end of the group so we could take pictures, and when I say we I mean mostly her but me just pointing out a couple things. I definitely will go back even if it's on my own. I don't mind walking on my own and having to find my way around. After walking all over and seeing an AMAZING view (which I promise to show you once I get pictures myself on a beautiful day).

 We ended up going into a Moroccan teteria which is where you drink tea. The guy came around and served the glasses to each of us. When he gave me mine, I said "saha" which is thank you and he replied but I have no idea how to spell it, something like "ahtik saha" which is your welcome. Maybe like 5 or 10 minutes later he came by again and and have us a pot if tea to refill if we wanted to and I said "labas" which is the popular Arabic for saying "how are you." And that's when he stopped and looked at me and started a little conversation with me and asked where I'm from. When he came by again I asked if he knows Berber but I used the Berber term for Berber. And he said yes. The thing with Berber is that although it's all considered to be Berber. There are different versions. I speak Kabyle also known as Taqvaylit. The guy said he knows Maghreb, which is a different version. There are some similarities but it's still different.

  Half of the group got up to leave and we were going to leave too until the guy who I want to say is the owner said that they had a special performance just for us (in reality he just found them on the street taking pictures for their new album). It was a girl who sings and a guy on a guitar. They did 3 songs for us and the girl was really good! Sucks for the people from our group who left because they missed out. After the 3 songs were done, the owner decided to sing something for us himself. After he finished I had the urge to tell "cheba" which means beautiful. Callie egged me on so I did. He was looking down and writing something when I yelled it. His head jerked up and he looked around trying to find who said it. So I repeated myself and he saw me. And then he was like "aaah" and then asked me where I'm from and what I'm doing with them. It was really funny. He actually sang a song and was going around pretending to sing the lyrics to the girls. He told me to get up dance because I'm Algerian and I know how. But I get nervous in front of people that I don't really know so I said no. When we left, I said bye and said thank you. It was raining when we left so we were ducking under coats and fitting 3 people to an umbrella. It was a fun day!

Orientation

We've been having orientation for the past 2 days about CEA in general and academics at the CLM and extracurricular activities.

 As you know, I'm studying at la Universidad de Granada. Each major of UGR has its own building. CLM stands for "Centro de las Lenguas Modernas," which is for the languages, but there's also another building that is used for CLM students called Kenya. Not really sure. The story behind it though is that it used to be a hotel which was later turned into a school. That's pretty cool, talk about recycling!

 I decided that I want to play soccer while I'm here and I think it's a great way to meet Spaniards. I guess CEA (the program I came with) has a team of its own. I'd rather meet people and play soccer with people who know how to instead of Americans. No offense, I don't think Americans are really good at soccer. You don't see any of them on any European teams. And that's when it counts. You watch MLS? Please excuse me while I focus my attention on UEFA, English premiere and Spanish leagues.

 Yesterday after orientation, we went on a tour around Granada. I didn't take any pictures because I didn't want to look like a tourist in our massive group of 38. The majority are from ISU and Tulane though. I'd rather go back later when I'm not being rushed so I can get detailed pictures. But it was fun walking around and all. Today we are going on a tour to Albaycin which is the Moroccan neighborhoods of Granada. I'm super excited. And who knows, maybe I'll whip out my Arabic? Or my oriental dance moves that my Gap friends know about from working shipment in the back. 

Either way, I'm not making any promises. But it should be fun.

Fingers crossed!!

Day 1 part 2:

When I met my señora we did the usual kiss on the cheek thing which I'm used to anyways. Normally in Algeria when you see someone you haven't seen in a long time you do 4 kisses: left right left right. We also do 2, but I'm never really sure when it's 2 and when it's 4, it's kind of confusing. So as we were walking to the house, and she's asking me questions, but I was out of breathe because she was walking fast and I was trying to keep up. Knocked the wind out of me, not to mention that I had the 50 pound suitcase. When we got to the house it looked exactly like when I creeped on Google Earth to find it. When you first open the door, there'a set of staircases you go up. When we came through there was a man in boxers and button down shirt standing in the threshold. But it's just so pretty, so here's some pictures and I'll explain as I go.

You walk up the stairs and there's a hallway

The door straight up ahead leads to an outdoor eating area

There's more chairs but she put them away because it rained last night.

That's the kitchen and there's a little bench in the corner that you can't see in the picture.

I have my own bathroom. Fully equipped with a sink, toilet, bidet, and tub!

This is the formal dining and living room.

Did I mention this is only the first floor?

Stairs to the second floor.

Second floor: hallway

A direct right takes you to my bedroom.

My bed, and little side table, there's a dresser too, a desk and a built-in armoire.

This is the living room where we sit and watch tv.

I don't go in her room or her bathroom cause that personal privacy. She gives me mine so I give her hers.

But... Did I mention there's a terrace?

It's locked right now and I figure I should post the part 2 since its day 3 already. But I will show you what it looks like later!

Day 1 part 1:

I ended up having to get ready in the dark because the lights didn't work in the hotel but I didn't really care because it was only one night and I was leaving. Took the shuttle at 6 am back to the airport to checkin and take my last plane to Granada. I got there at like 6:20 and the plane didn't leave until 8:50. I'd rathe the early than late, that's all I know. To get through customs I stood there and finished drinking the last of he water in my water bottle so they wouldn't take it away. Customs was fast though since it was super early in the morning. I walked around and ended up eating breakfast. I had a chocolate croissant with chocolate sprinkles on top and a sunny D. Ended up sitting down in some random area next to a screen since they still didn't have the gate for my flight posted yet. Time goes by and nothing interesting happens. When I saw that they posted the gate I walked over to it and sat down. I saw some people talking in English and soon after decided to join them and not sit alone. Not even 5 minutes after I sit down, 2 people from ISU came: Katrina and Colin. Finally familiar faces! We got on the plane and took our seats. It was supposed to be 45 minutes long, and the time went by fast. I was just staring out the window look at the land from the airplane. When we got to the Granada airport, which is small. We walked down the steps from the aircraft and over into the building to get our luggage. The baggage claim area reminded me of the Algerian airport. It took awhile for our stuff to come off the plane. I looked outside of the exit doors and saw someone holding a CEA sign above the screen and peeking in the space between the glass and the pole. And then he waved. Only 3 other people saw it and we were like, "what?!" Once everybody had their suitcases we all walked out to meet Jorge and Dani. Jorge was wearing a green and navy striped shirt that reminded me of the guy from Blue's Clues. But umm, Dani was kind of cute. Dani showed us the way to the bus and everybody was turning around and I just walked in a straight line and ended up being in front of the crew. Out of all the people (some girl had 2 large suitcases and was rolling them herself) Dani decides to help me with mine. We started talking (in Spanish obvi) and then he says "your last name is Arabic, no?" And I was like woah, how does this bitch now? But not really calling him a bitch. More from surprise. And I didn't want to explain Berber because I don't really know how to say it in Spanish. He helped everyone put their stuff in the ALSA bus, which is like the Peoria charter only blue and green. There were so many people in the bus. When the guy who sat next to me got up for his stop, Dani (who was sitting on the stairs because all the seats were taken) came and sat by me so we chatted it up some more and he pointed out places as we passed them. Like the place where they have the bull ring, the hospital, the tallest building in Granada. And I taught him the word skyscraper because he called it sky-raper, as if it rapes skies. I thought it best he not say raper. We got off the bus and met our host families, they were at the bus stop waiting. I'll leave it at that because I have to finish my breakfast and start the day.  

Madrid

Luckily, the plane to Madrid wasn't full, no one sat by me so I stretched out in 3 seats and fell asleep. I hope I didn't snore or anything but I woke up and this girl was staring at me. There was a British guy and his dad in front of me and an American girl in front of them. When we landed she asked them a question and as we walked to the baggage claim, I started talking to her. She was actually pretty cool.  And gave me her information so that I could meet up with her over the semester. I had to call the hotel to get the shuttle to come pick me up and the guy talking over the phone at first spoke fast but then slowed down and I was like thank god, because shit is not going to work. I honestly got lost for a little because I couldn't find where the hotel buses were. Stupid signs. But I got there well before the shuttle came. I talked to the guy a little and he asked me if I live in Spain and I told him I'm from the US. And you know small talk, but he was friendly. When we got to the hotel the guy at the desk was super nice too. It wasn't until like 5 hours later that I knew he spoke English. My room is pretty cool though. Simple but I like it. I had to go to the bathroom and was looking for the light switch. I COULDN'T FIND IT!! I grabbed my phone and used it as a flash light and checked each wall to make sure I wasn't crazy. No luck. So I'm like ooh, maybe it's on the outside of the door. And it was, but when I flipped the switch. Nothing happened. I flipped all the other switches that went to lights and nothing happened. I turned on the tv to make sure the electricity worked and it did. I ended up watching half an episode of Castle (in English) and then fell asleep in 1.5 hour increments. The phone went off in the hotel and I jumped cause I was like who the hell is calling. Ended up being my dad. Then I got up and put my pants back on cause I had changed into shorts. And sat in the lobby for awhile. And chatted it up with the front desk dude. Now I'm sitting down in front a flat screen about to go HAM on my hamburger! I haven't eaten in the past 12 hours. Which obviously you guys know, I eat like every 2 or 3 hours. I feel like I'm fasting!! 

To London and beyond!

My plane to London Heathrow left from O'hare at 6. I was supposed to sit next to some girl but she wanted to sit by her friend so this 13 year old boy moved over and sat by me. We had a lovely conversation the entire way over about our favorite food, candy, sports, juice, artists, music, movies and more. We also compared rugby to American football and he told me he plays rugby and he doesn't like soccer. For a 13 year old, he really knows a lot of things and he mentioned watching documentaries and I asked him if he watched a lot. His response: "no, I watch a lot of YouTube videos." He was great company on the way. We were cracking jokes. I tried to sleep on the plane but it was not working out for me, facking plane! I watched Wreck it ralph, identity thief, and started Oz but couldn't finish that shit. I was super gassy though for some reason but i didn't let it out. Thank you self control. Instead, you know when you invert it and the bubbles go to your stomach? yeah that was my life for the last 3 hours. Anyway, him, his mom and his sister were on their way back from the Cayman Islands. He mentioned what his name was because he was telling me a story about how he got held up at customs for 2 hours. And the only part I could make out was that his last name is Jones. So I called him jones and I said bye. It was kinda sad because it was a fun flight and I got him to speak with an American accent. Oh and he was feeding me skittles. He was a lot of fun. And his mom and sister looked over and saw that we were chatting. I mean, it was a long ass flight I might as well talk to the person I sit by. After saying bye to Jones, I walked  down an endless hallway until I got to the bus that takes you to terminal 5. I let an old man sit next to me even though I was cramped and didn't have any leg space. I didn't catch his name but him and his wife Lindsey are on their way to Zurich for their sabbatical and they are later going to Italy. His wife is fluent in Spanish and Italian. He asked where I was headed and what for and I told him I'm studying in Granada and then you know how old people get. They like to talk about their kids and so he was telling me at story about when his son was a senior in high school. I arrived at Heathrow at 8, and my next flight is at 11:10. I wish I could sleep though, but that is not happening within the next 3 hours. I literally spent 20 minutes to a half hour in the bathroom sitting on the toilet, sleeping. I didn't want anybody taking my stuff!