Summary of Portugal

When I first got to the beach, here are the pictures I took!

That night, we went out to eat at different places. We decided on fish and ended up drinking Green Wine. I chose the salmon and it tasted like perfection. The potatoes on the side were heavenly!

The next day we went to a beach but I didn't get any pictures of that. We were sipping sangria in the sun! It was a beautiful day to be at the beach! Later on, we went to a place that was known as "the end of the world."

Some lady was doing yoga poses as the sun was setting, do I creeped and took a couple pictures of that.

 There was a restaurant called "Nah nah Bas" that had one of the top 50 hamburgers in the world. We ventured on  in and ordered the burger. It came with a pint of sangria or beer. Clearly I chose sangria, cause I am not a beer person. The hamburger was delicious!! There was a slice of pineapple on top of the meat that the combination of the flavors were marvelous!

 We had some time to kill so we decided on going to a bar before hand. The program I went with to Portugal is called Discover Excursions and they have deals with certain bars and restaurants around Lagos. As long as we had our yellow wristbands, we could get the deals. One if the guides took us to a bar and we got a shot and a drink. Ben got a free shot so I took it, and then Summer, Mina and I decided to split a drink. Summer and I ended up taking some selfies.

We're so attractive. Anywho, we went to Joe's Garage which is a bar where the bartenders are super tall and skinny, and do flips over horizontal bars, not vertical ones like a strip pole. They also had long shot and were whipping it around as they danced. They were like freaking mannequins, swear to god! 

  There were 4 guides in the trip: Benni, Nito, Luis, and Ignacio. Ignacio and Benni and were my favorites! I ended up getting a picture with Ignacio, who I have a little crush on! 

 This is Mina, Ignacio, me and Nito. The other dude in the back is some guide from another bus.

 On the way back to the hotel, I was walking with a group of people including Ignacio. I was walking arm in arm the most of the time, but then I'd let go, cause I didn't want to be obvious, which I'm sure was already what happened. I had been talking to him a lot anyways. 

 The next day we had free. I went to town with Genevieve, JR, and Alexis to buy souvenirs. I bought a little boat, a magnet for my momma and 2 postcards. On the way to town though, we saw a shit ton of graffiti but I only took pictures of 2.

 When we got back to the hotel, we went to the beach but the tide was too low so we decided on going to the pool that was on the rooftop! Here's Genevieve in the pool!

 We left the hotel at 4, and headed back to Spain. We arrived at Granada at 1 in the morning. However, when we got to Sevilla, we said bye to everyone and I got some people's numbers who I had met. Including Benni and Ignacio!!

 Sorry about not posting about Portuga soonerl, I've been stressed about the exam for the intensive course. I'm sure I'll do fine, but still. There's a shit ton of expressions we used; expressions with ser, ones with estar, ones with food, ones with body parts. 

With love, back in Granada,

     Tiz

Staying up in Spain for Portugal

I don't quite remember what happened Thursday until I started getting ready to go out. I was rushing to pack 3 days worth of clothes into my backpack and change to go out to Camborio. I decided on jeans and my black shirt with gold sequined collar. The jeans could easily be used to double for the next day so I could just change the top half.

 I met up with Jacey at the post office and we made out way down to plaza neuva where Katrina was going to meet us.

 Camborio was having an American themed party with a flip cup tournament. We signed up as soon as we got in there. We combined our small group of three with a group of six. They were super fun!! They ended up winning the tournament too! Second place got free drinks and first place got a free bottle of their choice; they chose rum. They wanted to finish the bottle that night so they took a couple shots and gave me some too and had rum and coke.

 I was dancing with my friends when a group of guys who were right next to us took a picture. I thought about the angle the camera was at and realized I was in. I told one of the guys and he thought I said I wanted to take a picture with them. I said sure why not and after I asked what their names were. I had already scoped out the group earlier and decided which was the most attractive. When I got to him I asked what his name was and he said Alex. He was super attractive. 

 I ended up leaving the club at 5:30 and Alex wanted me to go home with him but that was not happening. No matter how much he tried to sweet talk me. But I got his number and he said he's coming back next weekend so I'll see him again.

 I got to my house at 5:50 and had to be at the bus stop at 6:15. I gathered my things, kind of ran around the house to make sure I didn't forget anything important, and headed out. Luckily, I walked to the bus stop earlier so I wouldn't walk around like a lost dog in the middle of the night.

 I got the bus, and I wasn't the last person, Tyler's slow ass was. I didn't know he was going on the Portugal trip. I heard him mention it as he left Camborio earlier that night and I stopped him to make sure I didn't hear him wrong.

On the bus, I didn't really sleep. I just sat and talked to Tyler and ate my Principe cookies.

 We got to Sevilla 2 or 3 hours later and picked up a shit ton of people, and then headed to Portugal.

 A girl named Emily sat next to me. She goes to Syracuse and studies marketing and supply chain. She was really cool. Tyler was talking to us for like 2 hours and Emily and I were a little tired. We had a long ass time until we got to the hotel but my small nap was amazeballs!

 Some hours later, we arrived to PORTUGAL! 

With love from Portugal,

     Tiz

Wednesday: Cursed in Spain

Today we went to Abadía de Sacromonte which was a church, a school, and something else.

 On the way there we crammed into a bus and I sat on Jacey's lap. And then Claire was standing close to me, and it was getting hot so it became a sweaty thigh fest.  I looked out the window and there was this kid in a blue shirt staring at me. I seriously looked away like 4 or 5 times, only to turn around and see him still staring. Naturally, I decided to wave. His response was a raise of the eyebrows. Jacey and I laughed. It was taking awhile for the bus to get a move on, but once we slowly started pulling away, I waved goodbye and the kid gave me a head nod and started smiling and laughing. Great moment, I made a new friend without having to open my mouth. Skill! 

 The bus didn't drop us off exactly at Abadía because it had to take a different route to get down and it can't go backwards down the hill and yeah.  The view from that point was kind of cool though. 

Selfie with Jacey:

We walked a little ways to the front and had a little downtime before our tour started. The vending machine wasn't working except for Joe. I don't know what I did but I got it to work though so I felt proud. The water was so refreshing though. Inside the building, you're not allowed to take pictures so I don't have a lot. Only of the church.  Here's a couple of pictures from the tour though:

About the gypsy curse... We were walking down the path; very steep and windy. All of a sudden we get to this house that has blue plates sticking out of it. A bunch of us took out our cameras and started snapping some pics. Then we continued with our walk down to the Albaycin and to plaza nueva. Tommy and Jen wanted to go to the teteria we went to the first time and I agreed to join them.

 We sat down inside and got a couple menus and ordered. We decided in the same read we had the first time we came, tommy and I got a chocolate crepe with Nutella and tommy and Allison got a hookah. It wasn't until later that tommy brought up the gypsy house and I freaked out. He said  he was the only one who payed, the thing was empty and until he put in 2 euros. I decided to ask Mercedes (my señora) about the gypsies and superstitions in Spain. 

 The guy who sang to us last time came over and I was talking to him in French. I asked him how long he's been on Spain and he's been here 28 years. He told me was in France over the weekend to enroll his niece in a university  in Lyons. I asked what brought him to Spain and he said: "to take back the Alhambra." I started laughing really hard cause it was hilarious. It automatically reminded me of my dad and his sense of humor.  Before I left, my dad made the first joke about black people I've ever heard. It was something about walking at night in the dark and bumping into your black friend and saying something like "I didn't see you, you weren't smiling and your eyes were closed." The context of the joke and my dads accent made it a priceless moment. 

 The guy then told me that I should come back and go to the restaurant some time. He brought me a menu and I before opening it I asked if they had couscous. And he said of course and showed it to me on the menu. He gave me a little card of the restaurant too so I wouldn't forget. I absolutely plan on goings back. I feel at home with all the jokes and familiar smells and the taste of the food is going to be the cherry on top of it all. He asked what my name is and I said it like they do in Berber. And he recognized it and said the next part in Arabic "Eeh?? You're tamazight?" And I said yeah. He told me he's Maghreb and I said I'm Kabyle. He told me that I had to come back then. He had to go and left but we did la bise and said bye. (La bise = besos, in French)

 We left soon after and I got home with an hour left before I had to leave to hang out with Jorge and Andrés.

We met up at Los Italianos but they hadn't eaten dinner yet so we went to La Bellla y La Bestia which is a bar that has really good tapas. It was my first time there but I had already heard about it from Sarra and Bru and Antonio years before. We just talked and made jokes and that it was it. It was chill, different from the usual bar and discoteca scene. 

La Bella y La Bestia is right next to Granada10 which is the ONLY discoteca my sister ever talked about. It was opening night, and since it was a Wednesday, means it was ladies night. There was a long line to get in. Now that it's finally open though I want to go see how it is inside.

 Jorge, Andrés, and I payed and left. They asked why I don't bring my friends when we hang out and that night Jacey was going to come but she had to work on a project. Besides they're my friends that I made on my own, hahaha. I'm not sharing with people I don't like. Kidding! We split ways since they both wanted to get back to studying or sleeping to study in the morning.

The end!