Hiya! I wanted to blog really quickly about this wonderful Flamenco concert we went to last week before I run off to France and get too many cool things to blog about. :)
Last Tuesday my program took us to this Flamenco show by Sara Baras, who is arguably the best professional Flamenco dancer in Spain right now, and who is also a palindrome (read her name backwards). I was VERY excited because I love watching dance performances, but this completely surpassed my expectations. Her entire dance company was stellar, and the musicians that accompanied them were absolutely fantastic. It was really inspiring. All the dresses swooshing around making beautiful shapes, the constant clicking and stomping of the feet, the clapping and husky singing and passionately strummed guitars in the background, the interaction between dancers, the intense emotions they portrayed… and then Sara’s solo pieces, oh my goodness, BREATHTAKING. Her movement across the stage, her hips and arms and feet feet FEET all over the place, but with such control. It made me want to dance—it reminded me of learning Paso Doble (shame! shame on me! but still, Paso Doble WAS adapted from Flamenco… I think) and the power and control and cool shapes you get to make with that. I feel so lucky we got to see this show—especially since tickets were way too expensive for me to have bought one for myself if the program hadn’t have been paying.
I FINALLY SHOT THE MOON!!! Sorry, I’ve taken up the habit of playing hearts on my computer during study breaks and stuff, and this is the first time I’ve successfully shot the moon!! I’m very excited.
In other news, I just finished midterms and am flying off to France tomorrow EARLY in the morning from Madrid, so tonight I’m jumping on the overnight bus to the Madrid airport. Oh boy. I’m nervous because I feel like every time I’ve travelled here, something has gone wrong, but then again, it’s been magical anyways. So here I go again, and this time I’m going to see wonderful friends in Nantes (Nora) and then Paris (Kristin and Elisa, friends I met in Costa Rica!). Wish me luck, wish me good health, and wish me peace of mind. Maybe a change of scenery will be good for me—and coming home to Granada, even better. :)
Love to all,
Kelsey
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Weekend in Madrid!!
Written March 15th.
Wow, what a weekend. It was fraught with emotional turmoil and anxiety and even anger, but it was also incredible and provided me wonderful bonding time with some of my new friends here.
So this weekend I went to Madrid with my program. On Friday morning, we left (early, too) on the five hour bus ride to Madrid. I sat next to Katie and we napped and listened to music all the way. We stopped in Toledo for a tiny bit, which was fun for me because I’d already done all the sights, so I got to enjoy hearing about the history and taking random pictures. There were some adorable doggies there, and one of them hit me with his tail! I felt loved and special.
We got to Madrid in the late afternoon, and Katie and I took a nap before going out for dinner with some other girls. I forgot my camera, which was a bummer because we walked by the Palacio Real and the Plaza Mayor, both of which were really lovely by night. We found a nice little Italian place that gave us two free bottles of wine for the six of us, and we had delicious pizza and talked about boys and life and travel and all that fun stuff.
Saturday, we went inside the Palacio Real, which was SO beautiful. One of our teachers told me that there had been a king who really liked clocks (or something like that, can’t actually remember the story) and that there were a TON of awesome clocks, so I made a point of noticing them, and they were really spectacular. Tables that were clocks; sculpture clocks; globe clocks; massive clocks; tiny clocks; they were all beautiful and unique. THEN, we went into this room—and YOU GUYS—it had a full quartet of Stradivarius instruments!!! I was about to faint. They are SO beautiful, and my teacher says that really awesome professionals get to play them for the King and his family!!! I was in awe. SUCH beautiful instruments.
All the rooms in the Palacio Real were exquisite, and all very different. I loved one of the rooms that had pale blue silk on the walls… another was decorated with ceramic walls… another was a lovely dusty rose color with lovely dark wood accents… it was overwhelmingly lovely, but also kind of overly decadent. I kept thinking how I would have NO idea what to do with all that space if I were the queen! I’m looking forward to my wittle apartment this summer, I think it’ll be a relief after seeing that massive palace.
After seeing the palace, Katie and Luis and Russell and Jess and a few others (can’t really remember who) and I wandered around shopping for awhile. It was fun to look at clothes and shoes and stuff, but I wasn’t in the mood to buy anything, so I got bored with it fast. We had lunch, and then Katie and Alissa and I went to the modern art museum, the Reina Sofia, which I ADORED, although I’m not sure the others liked it as much as I did. I was fascinated by all the Dali and Picasso and… well, other artists as well, but I’m bad with names. Picasso’s “Guernica” is in this museum, and it was really moving to see it in person. The museum also has a lovely little sculpture garden-courtyard, which was fun to wander through. After seeing the museum, we walked up to the Parque de Retiro and wandered around enjoying the sunshine. We wanted to rent a rowboat for half an hour, but the line was too long, so we just took pictures of other people in rowboats instead. :P
I was pretty exhausted by the time we got back to our room, so I just showered and took a nap before dinner. Dinner was uneventful; we found a little cafetería with relatively cheap, decent food and made a fool of ourselves trying to pay (haha). THEN, we met up with the group and went to see a play!!!! It was SO GOOD. Ok, so maybe just me and Luis thought it was awesome; I think everyone else gave up trying to understand and fell asleep for the most part, but I LOVED it! It was “La Ratonera,” or “The Mousetrap” by Agatha Christy, and it had me on the edge of my seat—partly because I was trying so hard to understand, but mostly because it was really great. It was a murder mystery, and I had NO idea who the murderer was until the very end when he revealed himself. SO GOOD! And all the actors were pretty great, although one guy could have projected better and another kind of overdid some things that I thought didn’t need to be overdone. But that’s just me being elitist. :P Anyways, I was glad that I sat next to Luis, because he understood it perfectly (of course) and could explain things I missed, and also because he enjoyed it, too, and made me feel like less of a freak for getting so excited about it.
On Sunday, we went to the Museo del Prado, the main art museum which houses a lot of the works of Goya, Velazquez, El Greco, and many other important Spanish and foreign artists. I really loved the Flemish art wing, especially the seascapes, and also seeing Goya’s work transform over his life and into his Black Period—when he went kind of crazy and his paintings are ACTUALLY terrifying. The eyes he paints are the most simple yet expressive eyes I’ve ever seen… it was captivating. Of course, the “Meninas” was fabulous, but I actually preferred some other artist’s paintings of little girls (why can’t I remember his name??) which expressed a lot more interest, motion, and emotion to me. Ok, I’ll stop being an art snob now. :P
When we got exhausted from art overload, Katie, Luis, Russell, Mary and I went to lunch (I had a delicious sandwich) and then wandered around in the sunshine eating ice cream and enjoying Madrid. We ran into a mariachi band in the plaza Puerta del Sol, and Luis got really excited and it was very cute. :) Then, we kind of just window-shopped and chatted until it was time to go get on the bus to come back to Granada.
I’m sorry I can’t be more excited or expressive about these descriptions, but I’m still in a bit of a weird emotional place and it’s hard for me to get excited about this trip right now. It doesn’t help that I have a bit of a cold, and I always get grumpy and paranoid when I’m feeling under the weather. It WAS a wonderful weekend altogether, though, and I had some great bonding conversations with Russell (who reminds me of Heath a bit) and some really fun moments with Katie and Luis, so all in all, I feel good about how it turned out. Although in hindsight, I should have bought that scarf… ;)
I hope everyone I love had a fantastic weekend, and maybe one a little less tumultuous than mine. Tomorrow I’m going to see a Flamenco show, which I’m super excited about, so stay tuned to hear about that!
Pura vida,
Kelsey
Wow, what a weekend. It was fraught with emotional turmoil and anxiety and even anger, but it was also incredible and provided me wonderful bonding time with some of my new friends here.
So this weekend I went to Madrid with my program. On Friday morning, we left (early, too) on the five hour bus ride to Madrid. I sat next to Katie and we napped and listened to music all the way. We stopped in Toledo for a tiny bit, which was fun for me because I’d already done all the sights, so I got to enjoy hearing about the history and taking random pictures. There were some adorable doggies there, and one of them hit me with his tail! I felt loved and special.
We got to Madrid in the late afternoon, and Katie and I took a nap before going out for dinner with some other girls. I forgot my camera, which was a bummer because we walked by the Palacio Real and the Plaza Mayor, both of which were really lovely by night. We found a nice little Italian place that gave us two free bottles of wine for the six of us, and we had delicious pizza and talked about boys and life and travel and all that fun stuff.
Saturday, we went inside the Palacio Real, which was SO beautiful. One of our teachers told me that there had been a king who really liked clocks (or something like that, can’t actually remember the story) and that there were a TON of awesome clocks, so I made a point of noticing them, and they were really spectacular. Tables that were clocks; sculpture clocks; globe clocks; massive clocks; tiny clocks; they were all beautiful and unique. THEN, we went into this room—and YOU GUYS—it had a full quartet of Stradivarius instruments!!! I was about to faint. They are SO beautiful, and my teacher says that really awesome professionals get to play them for the King and his family!!! I was in awe. SUCH beautiful instruments.
All the rooms in the Palacio Real were exquisite, and all very different. I loved one of the rooms that had pale blue silk on the walls… another was decorated with ceramic walls… another was a lovely dusty rose color with lovely dark wood accents… it was overwhelmingly lovely, but also kind of overly decadent. I kept thinking how I would have NO idea what to do with all that space if I were the queen! I’m looking forward to my wittle apartment this summer, I think it’ll be a relief after seeing that massive palace.
After seeing the palace, Katie and Luis and Russell and Jess and a few others (can’t really remember who) and I wandered around shopping for awhile. It was fun to look at clothes and shoes and stuff, but I wasn’t in the mood to buy anything, so I got bored with it fast. We had lunch, and then Katie and Alissa and I went to the modern art museum, the Reina Sofia, which I ADORED, although I’m not sure the others liked it as much as I did. I was fascinated by all the Dali and Picasso and… well, other artists as well, but I’m bad with names. Picasso’s “Guernica” is in this museum, and it was really moving to see it in person. The museum also has a lovely little sculpture garden-courtyard, which was fun to wander through. After seeing the museum, we walked up to the Parque de Retiro and wandered around enjoying the sunshine. We wanted to rent a rowboat for half an hour, but the line was too long, so we just took pictures of other people in rowboats instead. :P
I was pretty exhausted by the time we got back to our room, so I just showered and took a nap before dinner. Dinner was uneventful; we found a little cafetería with relatively cheap, decent food and made a fool of ourselves trying to pay (haha). THEN, we met up with the group and went to see a play!!!! It was SO GOOD. Ok, so maybe just me and Luis thought it was awesome; I think everyone else gave up trying to understand and fell asleep for the most part, but I LOVED it! It was “La Ratonera,” or “The Mousetrap” by Agatha Christy, and it had me on the edge of my seat—partly because I was trying so hard to understand, but mostly because it was really great. It was a murder mystery, and I had NO idea who the murderer was until the very end when he revealed himself. SO GOOD! And all the actors were pretty great, although one guy could have projected better and another kind of overdid some things that I thought didn’t need to be overdone. But that’s just me being elitist. :P Anyways, I was glad that I sat next to Luis, because he understood it perfectly (of course) and could explain things I missed, and also because he enjoyed it, too, and made me feel like less of a freak for getting so excited about it.
On Sunday, we went to the Museo del Prado, the main art museum which houses a lot of the works of Goya, Velazquez, El Greco, and many other important Spanish and foreign artists. I really loved the Flemish art wing, especially the seascapes, and also seeing Goya’s work transform over his life and into his Black Period—when he went kind of crazy and his paintings are ACTUALLY terrifying. The eyes he paints are the most simple yet expressive eyes I’ve ever seen… it was captivating. Of course, the “Meninas” was fabulous, but I actually preferred some other artist’s paintings of little girls (why can’t I remember his name??) which expressed a lot more interest, motion, and emotion to me. Ok, I’ll stop being an art snob now. :P
When we got exhausted from art overload, Katie, Luis, Russell, Mary and I went to lunch (I had a delicious sandwich) and then wandered around in the sunshine eating ice cream and enjoying Madrid. We ran into a mariachi band in the plaza Puerta del Sol, and Luis got really excited and it was very cute. :) Then, we kind of just window-shopped and chatted until it was time to go get on the bus to come back to Granada.
I’m sorry I can’t be more excited or expressive about these descriptions, but I’m still in a bit of a weird emotional place and it’s hard for me to get excited about this trip right now. It doesn’t help that I have a bit of a cold, and I always get grumpy and paranoid when I’m feeling under the weather. It WAS a wonderful weekend altogether, though, and I had some great bonding conversations with Russell (who reminds me of Heath a bit) and some really fun moments with Katie and Luis, so all in all, I feel good about how it turned out. Although in hindsight, I should have bought that scarf… ;)
I hope everyone I love had a fantastic weekend, and maybe one a little less tumultuous than mine. Tomorrow I’m going to see a Flamenco show, which I’m super excited about, so stay tuned to hear about that!
Pura vida,
Kelsey
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Close Encounters of the Spanish Kind...
I realized the other day that I forgot to mention something that happened on the bus to Toledo—or, well, the bus from Granada to Madrid, but our ultimate goal was Toledo. About twenty minutes into the five hour trip, there was a commotion in the aisle next to me and Nora (I was by the window, Nora by the aisle), and people started shouting for the bus driver to stop. I couldn’t see what had happened in the aisle from my seat, so I was confused, but when the bus pulled over, I sort of peeked over Nora and saw that a guy was laying face-down in the aisle. Apparently, he just slumped over and fell into the aisle. A couple of guys got him turned over and eventually he stood up with their help and they took him outside. When he was turned over and I saw his face, he looked so sad. He was crying, and just looked really sad. There was a med student on the bus that went outside with them, and someone ran to a gas station to get a bottle of water for him, and then we just waited for an ambulance to get there to take him somewhere to get checked out. It was kind of a surreal experience, but I’m glad it happened on a bus rather than a plane or something like that where you can’t just pull over. I was also impressed that everyone was so helpful and patient. So that was our little unplanned adventure on the way to Toledo. I hope he’s ok, poor guy.
This weekend has been a whirlwind and a workout! On Friday, I walked up to the Albaycín with Luis and Jocy to watch the sunset on the Alhambra and see all the lights come on and such. It was really fun to hang out with them and just sit and talk and watch the light change over the cityscape. We were sitting on this ledge-wall-thing that divides the lookout from the street below, which has a pretty big drop to the street. I’m afraid of heights, so I was sitting on the edge of the wall that was on the lookout side and trying not to look down at all on the other side, because it made my head spin. Luis and Jocy were on either side of me, and both were sitting with their feet dangling over the street-side, and every once in awhile one of them would forget they were sitting so close to the edge and be like, “Wow, I almost lost my balance, haha!” I kept getting nervous for them and like grabbing their arm in panic that they were going to fall over; it was actually really hilarious, but I was definitely relieved when we got up and moved away from the wall, haha.
That night, I went out with them and this other guy from our program, Russell, and these other Americans from a different program who were really nice and fun. We went to a tapas bar, and then to this bar called L’Scandelo where we’ve been developing a relationship with the bartenders and we get really cheap (sometimes free) drinks. Most nights, nothing extraordinarily exciting happens, but that night, I had two rather interesting encounters. First, this bachelorette party arrives and the bride approaches us to ask me and Jocy to help her do a puzzle. She’s probably in her mid-forties, and her friends had four different little challenges for her to do over the night, the first of which was the puzzle. Next, she had to get five people to jump rope—and yup, you guessed it, we helped her with that one, too! That was definitely the most interesting challenge, just because everyone had been drinking for at least a few hours at that point—and the bride was very drunk—so our coordination was not fantastic. I’ll let you imagine for yourselves the hilarity that ensued. Next, they had a little toy dartboard with magnetic darts and they split us Americans up into two teams of three and had us compete, with free shots as our reward. Of course, the bride was basically in love with us by then, and she ended up buying shots for all of us. Her last challenge was to get us all to sing a song in Spanish, which was almost impossible, because almost none of us knew any songs in Spanish, and we ended up kind of faking along with “Estas son las mañanitas…” which was hilarious.
My second interesting encounter was after the bride and her entourage left, and I was starting to think seriously about going home for the night since I had early morning plans. This random guy came over and started talking to me and Jocy and another girl (who was it at that point? I can’t remember her name, an American girl I’d just met that night). He was from Madrid and only in Granada for the weekend, and he said he was going to give us Spanish lessons, at which point I was already like, ok, sketchy man, whatever. Our first “lesson” was the two-kiss-on-the-cheek thing, which I was also wary of, but definitely expecting, since that is trick #1 that you learn to spot as a gringa (or guiri, as we’re called here) around sketchy Spanish guys. So he did the kisses with Jocy, and then with me, and then all of a sudden he had a hold of one of my arms and his other arm around my waist and was talking in my ear, saying, “Wow, just those two cheek kisses and I’m already in love with you!” So I’m like leaning back away from him, but he has me by the waist so I can’t exactly move away (don’t worry, I didn’t feel unsafe—this guy was a sketchmeister for sure, but he wasn’t dangerous, especially when I had a few good guy friends a few feet away if I needed them, so I was just kind of amused, and definitely not scared). He told me he was going skiing the next day and wanted me to come with him, and I just said, nope, I don’t ski, while still trying to subtly worm my way away from him. As he was wheedling and asking me why I was soooo busy I couldn’t spend the day with him, I got my hand free—success! After about five minutes of bantering back and forth and him saying, “come on come on come on!” and me saying, “no no no!” he said, “ok, I’ll give you thirty seconds to come up with a decent excuse not to come up to the mountains with me tomorrow” and backed away a tiny bit. As soon as his arm wasn’t around my waist anymore, bam, in swooped one of my new guy friends (Ryan, I’d just met him that night, but I think I might have a class with him?) and, taking my hand, leaned over and said, “Hey, are you ok?” I was kind of still reeling from Intense Madrid Man, so I just kind of smiled and nodded my head slightly, and he was like, “Are you sure?” And I just squeezed his hand and was like, “Well, UM.” And he totally took over the situation, stepped in front of me and engaged the Madrid guy in conversation for a few minutes, after which the guy said goodbye, looked at me kind of disappointedly, and left the bar with his friend. I was like, holy crap, I need to go out with you more often, new friend!! I mean, I could have eventually gotten rid of the guy, but when I’m a few drinks in, really tired, my Spanish is fuzzy, and the guy is particularly insistent and doesn’t give me any good reason to be particularly MEAN to him, it does take awhile to get them to go away. I am curious to know what Ryan said to the guy, because it worked really well and he didn’t even get feisty and try to pick a fight or anything! I always try NOT to let my guy friends get involved in a situation where a guy is hitting on me and I don’t want him to, just because if the guy gets upset or belligerent and violent, it’s very unlikely he’ll hit me (at least in Spain, from what I can tell), but it is VERY likely he would hit a guy friend who’s trying to defend me. Plus, I can defend myself pretty well, sometimes it just takes me awhile to put my foot down, you know? I’m way too nice. I feel like any guy who has the guts to come straight up to me and say, “I’m crazy about you, please go out with me” deserves at least a kind rejection, you know? No, maybe I’m just way too nice. Anyways, that was my second interesting encounter of the night.
So, after getting home and into bed at around 4 am, I woke up at 8:15 so I could go up to las Alupjarras with my friend Katie the next morning. Haha, weee! I was really impressed with how it wasn’t too difficult at all, actually. I was sleepy, of course, but I didn’t even have a headache or anything like that. My hair still smelled like bar, but I just put it up and said to myself, I’ll deal with that later. We didn’t really have a plan, so once we got up into the mountains, we just got off the bus in a little town called Órgiva, and were like, now what? Once we realized how stupid we were for not having planned anything at ALL, we couldn’t stop laughing at ourselves. We found the tourism office, got a few rather unhelpful maps, had a coffee and some lunch, and then set off on a random road out of town to explore the mountains a bit. We ended up having a blast wandering around the town and up this beautiful curvy road where we met a doggy friend, who we named Waldo. He was adorable and followed us all the way up and most of the way down the road, and I wuv him. It was a great day, and super fun to just get out of town and explore a different, beautiful part of the area with a good friend.
I got back home at around 7:30 at night, and went into my room for a bit to empty my bag and settle in. I put my headphones in for a few minutes while I was putting my pictures on my computer, and when I took them out, I heard Concha throwing up in the bathroom. I came rushing into the hall (of course), and her best friend was coming in at the same moment—Concha must have called her when she started not feeling well. Concha literally looked grayish green and like she might faint, but she didn’t want to go to the doctor or anything like that, so we put her to bed, and then her friend left. I was, of course, worried about her, but there wasn’t exactly much I could do—I know from experience that sometimes you just need to sleep that stuff off, especially stomach flu-like illnesses. I took a quick shower, then went to bed, too, but I left both our bedroom doors open so I could hear her snoring and know she was ok. Eventually I fell asleep (really early, I imagine, since I got into bed at around 10), and when I woke up at 10:30 this morning, my door was closed and Concha was up and about, doing her normal Sunday stuff. I got up and asked her how she was, and she said she’s feeling ok, although still a little punky, of course. She had plans to go see La Traviata tonight, but I don’t know if she’ll end up going. I told her to just sit down and take the day off, but she’s super stubborn and insists on doing SOMETHING, even if it’s just dusting, so that she doesn’t feel so useless. I’ll definitely be keeping a close eye on her over the next few days, but I think the worst is over. Uy uy uy, what a semester of stomach illnesses it has been! What is up with that?
This next weekend we’re going to Madrid with our program, which is super exciting!! Then it’s only a few more weeks until midterms—eek! I have no idea what to expect, because I still haven’t turned in any work to any of my teachers, but I don’t think it will be TOO awful. I guess we’ll see. :)
I hope everyone is doing well and that you’re all enjoying the beginnings of Spring wherever you are!
Pura vida,
Kelsey
This weekend has been a whirlwind and a workout! On Friday, I walked up to the Albaycín with Luis and Jocy to watch the sunset on the Alhambra and see all the lights come on and such. It was really fun to hang out with them and just sit and talk and watch the light change over the cityscape. We were sitting on this ledge-wall-thing that divides the lookout from the street below, which has a pretty big drop to the street. I’m afraid of heights, so I was sitting on the edge of the wall that was on the lookout side and trying not to look down at all on the other side, because it made my head spin. Luis and Jocy were on either side of me, and both were sitting with their feet dangling over the street-side, and every once in awhile one of them would forget they were sitting so close to the edge and be like, “Wow, I almost lost my balance, haha!” I kept getting nervous for them and like grabbing their arm in panic that they were going to fall over; it was actually really hilarious, but I was definitely relieved when we got up and moved away from the wall, haha.
That night, I went out with them and this other guy from our program, Russell, and these other Americans from a different program who were really nice and fun. We went to a tapas bar, and then to this bar called L’Scandelo where we’ve been developing a relationship with the bartenders and we get really cheap (sometimes free) drinks. Most nights, nothing extraordinarily exciting happens, but that night, I had two rather interesting encounters. First, this bachelorette party arrives and the bride approaches us to ask me and Jocy to help her do a puzzle. She’s probably in her mid-forties, and her friends had four different little challenges for her to do over the night, the first of which was the puzzle. Next, she had to get five people to jump rope—and yup, you guessed it, we helped her with that one, too! That was definitely the most interesting challenge, just because everyone had been drinking for at least a few hours at that point—and the bride was very drunk—so our coordination was not fantastic. I’ll let you imagine for yourselves the hilarity that ensued. Next, they had a little toy dartboard with magnetic darts and they split us Americans up into two teams of three and had us compete, with free shots as our reward. Of course, the bride was basically in love with us by then, and she ended up buying shots for all of us. Her last challenge was to get us all to sing a song in Spanish, which was almost impossible, because almost none of us knew any songs in Spanish, and we ended up kind of faking along with “Estas son las mañanitas…” which was hilarious.
My second interesting encounter was after the bride and her entourage left, and I was starting to think seriously about going home for the night since I had early morning plans. This random guy came over and started talking to me and Jocy and another girl (who was it at that point? I can’t remember her name, an American girl I’d just met that night). He was from Madrid and only in Granada for the weekend, and he said he was going to give us Spanish lessons, at which point I was already like, ok, sketchy man, whatever. Our first “lesson” was the two-kiss-on-the-cheek thing, which I was also wary of, but definitely expecting, since that is trick #1 that you learn to spot as a gringa (or guiri, as we’re called here) around sketchy Spanish guys. So he did the kisses with Jocy, and then with me, and then all of a sudden he had a hold of one of my arms and his other arm around my waist and was talking in my ear, saying, “Wow, just those two cheek kisses and I’m already in love with you!” So I’m like leaning back away from him, but he has me by the waist so I can’t exactly move away (don’t worry, I didn’t feel unsafe—this guy was a sketchmeister for sure, but he wasn’t dangerous, especially when I had a few good guy friends a few feet away if I needed them, so I was just kind of amused, and definitely not scared). He told me he was going skiing the next day and wanted me to come with him, and I just said, nope, I don’t ski, while still trying to subtly worm my way away from him. As he was wheedling and asking me why I was soooo busy I couldn’t spend the day with him, I got my hand free—success! After about five minutes of bantering back and forth and him saying, “come on come on come on!” and me saying, “no no no!” he said, “ok, I’ll give you thirty seconds to come up with a decent excuse not to come up to the mountains with me tomorrow” and backed away a tiny bit. As soon as his arm wasn’t around my waist anymore, bam, in swooped one of my new guy friends (Ryan, I’d just met him that night, but I think I might have a class with him?) and, taking my hand, leaned over and said, “Hey, are you ok?” I was kind of still reeling from Intense Madrid Man, so I just kind of smiled and nodded my head slightly, and he was like, “Are you sure?” And I just squeezed his hand and was like, “Well, UM.” And he totally took over the situation, stepped in front of me and engaged the Madrid guy in conversation for a few minutes, after which the guy said goodbye, looked at me kind of disappointedly, and left the bar with his friend. I was like, holy crap, I need to go out with you more often, new friend!! I mean, I could have eventually gotten rid of the guy, but when I’m a few drinks in, really tired, my Spanish is fuzzy, and the guy is particularly insistent and doesn’t give me any good reason to be particularly MEAN to him, it does take awhile to get them to go away. I am curious to know what Ryan said to the guy, because it worked really well and he didn’t even get feisty and try to pick a fight or anything! I always try NOT to let my guy friends get involved in a situation where a guy is hitting on me and I don’t want him to, just because if the guy gets upset or belligerent and violent, it’s very unlikely he’ll hit me (at least in Spain, from what I can tell), but it is VERY likely he would hit a guy friend who’s trying to defend me. Plus, I can defend myself pretty well, sometimes it just takes me awhile to put my foot down, you know? I’m way too nice. I feel like any guy who has the guts to come straight up to me and say, “I’m crazy about you, please go out with me” deserves at least a kind rejection, you know? No, maybe I’m just way too nice. Anyways, that was my second interesting encounter of the night.
So, after getting home and into bed at around 4 am, I woke up at 8:15 so I could go up to las Alupjarras with my friend Katie the next morning. Haha, weee! I was really impressed with how it wasn’t too difficult at all, actually. I was sleepy, of course, but I didn’t even have a headache or anything like that. My hair still smelled like bar, but I just put it up and said to myself, I’ll deal with that later. We didn’t really have a plan, so once we got up into the mountains, we just got off the bus in a little town called Órgiva, and were like, now what? Once we realized how stupid we were for not having planned anything at ALL, we couldn’t stop laughing at ourselves. We found the tourism office, got a few rather unhelpful maps, had a coffee and some lunch, and then set off on a random road out of town to explore the mountains a bit. We ended up having a blast wandering around the town and up this beautiful curvy road where we met a doggy friend, who we named Waldo. He was adorable and followed us all the way up and most of the way down the road, and I wuv him. It was a great day, and super fun to just get out of town and explore a different, beautiful part of the area with a good friend.
I got back home at around 7:30 at night, and went into my room for a bit to empty my bag and settle in. I put my headphones in for a few minutes while I was putting my pictures on my computer, and when I took them out, I heard Concha throwing up in the bathroom. I came rushing into the hall (of course), and her best friend was coming in at the same moment—Concha must have called her when she started not feeling well. Concha literally looked grayish green and like she might faint, but she didn’t want to go to the doctor or anything like that, so we put her to bed, and then her friend left. I was, of course, worried about her, but there wasn’t exactly much I could do—I know from experience that sometimes you just need to sleep that stuff off, especially stomach flu-like illnesses. I took a quick shower, then went to bed, too, but I left both our bedroom doors open so I could hear her snoring and know she was ok. Eventually I fell asleep (really early, I imagine, since I got into bed at around 10), and when I woke up at 10:30 this morning, my door was closed and Concha was up and about, doing her normal Sunday stuff. I got up and asked her how she was, and she said she’s feeling ok, although still a little punky, of course. She had plans to go see La Traviata tonight, but I don’t know if she’ll end up going. I told her to just sit down and take the day off, but she’s super stubborn and insists on doing SOMETHING, even if it’s just dusting, so that she doesn’t feel so useless. I’ll definitely be keeping a close eye on her over the next few days, but I think the worst is over. Uy uy uy, what a semester of stomach illnesses it has been! What is up with that?
This next weekend we’re going to Madrid with our program, which is super exciting!! Then it’s only a few more weeks until midterms—eek! I have no idea what to expect, because I still haven’t turned in any work to any of my teachers, but I don’t think it will be TOO awful. I guess we’ll see. :)
I hope everyone is doing well and that you’re all enjoying the beginnings of Spring wherever you are!
Pura vida,
Kelsey
Monday, March 1, 2010
(Belated) February Playlist
I keep meaning to put up a brief list of songs I’ve been really loving lately, but I’ve forgotten for so long that my list is quite long !! So here’s a not-so-brief playlist for those of you who like this sort of thing (I’m thinking mainly of April). I hope you love my music as much as I do!
The Wind–Amos Lee
Venezia Sin Ti—Charles Aznavour (I thought it was appropriate, considering...)
The World is Waiting for the Sunrise –Coleman Hawkins (Beautiful musicianship, lovely title)
Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien –Edith Piaf (Fantastic anthem—'No, I don’t regret anything')
Rosa Pastel – Belanova (Reminds me of Costa Rica, plus I just love her)
Either Way I Lose—Nina Simone (So tragic, I just adore it)
Lo Dudo – Los Panchos
L’enfer –Coralie Clément
Je Suis Jalouse—Emily Loizeau (Gotta throw my Frenchies in here)
Blankest Year –Nada Surf
Cinema Nostalgia –Joe Hisaishi (I’ve been really into instrumental stuff lately, and this guy is the GOD of instrumental music)
Straight Lines –Thea Gilmore
At Last –Neko Case
Ocean Rising –Justin Sullivan
One Mississippi – Tom McRae
Slow Pony Home – The Weepies
Whatever You Like –Anya Marina (A really interesting cover of this song—she makes it very sexy)
Cry Me a River—Dinah Washington (what attitude! Love this song by Ella Fitzgerald, too)
Misty—Ella Fitzgerald (classic!!)
Spring is Here—Bill Evans
The Shadow of Your Smile—Astrud Gilberto (Looove her voice)
Which Way to Happy—The Magic Numbers
Take it Back—She and Him (I LOVE She and Him; go fall in love with them)
Mi Mayor Venganza—La India (Great empowering ‘I don’t need no man’ song)
Love Today—Mika (A gift from Nora, and I love it—my morning pep-up song)
Love to all! Happy listening!
Kelsey
The Wind–Amos Lee
Venezia Sin Ti—Charles Aznavour (I thought it was appropriate, considering...)
The World is Waiting for the Sunrise –Coleman Hawkins (Beautiful musicianship, lovely title)
Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien –Edith Piaf (Fantastic anthem—'No, I don’t regret anything')
Rosa Pastel – Belanova (Reminds me of Costa Rica, plus I just love her)
Either Way I Lose—Nina Simone (So tragic, I just adore it)
Lo Dudo – Los Panchos
L’enfer –Coralie Clément
Je Suis Jalouse—Emily Loizeau (Gotta throw my Frenchies in here)
Blankest Year –Nada Surf
Cinema Nostalgia –Joe Hisaishi (I’ve been really into instrumental stuff lately, and this guy is the GOD of instrumental music)
Straight Lines –Thea Gilmore
At Last –Neko Case
Ocean Rising –Justin Sullivan
One Mississippi – Tom McRae
Slow Pony Home – The Weepies
Whatever You Like –Anya Marina (A really interesting cover of this song—she makes it very sexy)
Cry Me a River—Dinah Washington (what attitude! Love this song by Ella Fitzgerald, too)
Misty—Ella Fitzgerald (classic!!)
Spring is Here—Bill Evans
The Shadow of Your Smile—Astrud Gilberto (Looove her voice)
Which Way to Happy—The Magic Numbers
Take it Back—She and Him (I LOVE She and Him; go fall in love with them)
Mi Mayor Venganza—La India (Great empowering ‘I don’t need no man’ song)
Love Today—Mika (A gift from Nora, and I love it—my morning pep-up song)
Love to all! Happy listening!
Kelsey
Granada and Toledo with NORA!!
Wow, how is it already March?! That seems impossible! I can’t believe how fast time is passing here!
I just got done with one of the most exciting, fun, and stressful weeks I’ve had here. Nora, my really great friend from Scripps who is studying abroad in France right now, came to visit me from Tuesday to Friday, and then we went to Toledo together for the weekend. We stayed in a hostel together during the week while I ran back and forth between classes and sightseeing with her, and it was sooo much fun, but also incredibly busy. We had fun exploring the different neighborhoods of Granada, sipping tea at a Tetería, eating greasy churros con chocolate, and all the fun touristy stuff I don’t really get to do on a regular basis. We were lucky to have great weather while Nora was here as well—I think it only sprinkled once or twice the entire time. On Thursday, we had lunch with Concha, and unfortunately Nora got sick, so our plans for the afternoon kind of went out the window. It happened to be the birthday of one of my best friend’s here, Katie, and as much I wanted to stay in and be with Nora, she reasoned that there wasn’t anything I could do for her anyways, so I went out for a bit to wish Katie a happy birthday. It was actually really fun to hang out with my new friends, but I was worrying about Nora the whole time, so I guess it was a mixed fun and not so fun night.
On Friday we traveled to Toledo, which was really quite a journey! The bus from Granada to Madrid takes about 5 hours, with a stop in the middle for food/coffee/bathrooms. It was a beautiful ride from what I could tell—I was asleep for much of it—but my booty certainly didn’t appreciate sitting for that long! Then, we took another bus from Madrid to Toledo, and a taxi to our hotel. Both Nora and I were pretty exhausted and feeling under the weather, so we stayed in Friday night and just chatted, watched part of a weird movie on the TV, and went to bed. Saturday was our one full day in Toledo, and I actually feel like we managed to see a lot of the city in only that one day. Toledo is a lovely, well-preserved old city with tiny labyrinth-like streets and a lot of awesome artwork and historical buildings/museums. I was so excited to get to see a lot of work by El Greco, not only because he was a great and important artist, but also because we just studied a few of his pieces in my Art/Lit class!! And the few that we studied were all in Toledo, and I saw them!!! It was so cool to be able to tell Nora what my teacher had told me about the shapes, colors, themes, etc. It was super fun. We also went to a Jewish museum that is in an old Synagogue, and that was both beautiful and really informative. It had a few really lovely courtyards, too, which we took advantage of for little recuperation breaks (Nora was still not feeling very well, and my arm was bothering me for some reason).
On Sunday, we woke up early to get back to Madrid in time for Nora’s flight, and for me to get a bus back to Granada. I met this really nice lady in the bus station in Madrid while waiting for my bus home, and we talked for a good 20 minutes. I like random nice people.
Once I got home to Granada, I took a quick shower and then went out for coffee and a snack with my friend, Katie, which was super fun bonding time. :) That night, we also went out with two other friends, who I absolutely adore, and it was so nice to just hang out with these wonderful people. OH, guys, by the way, one of my new friends here, Luis, CAN DANCE. AND LIKES TO DANCE. WITH ME. It’s maybe the best thing ever. I have missed dancing SO. MUCH. I have missed dancing with a good lead on a regular basis more than I thought I had. And yeah, ok, it’s not exactly like we’re waltzing around the bar (ha.ha.) but he knows salsa and merengue and, um, just how to move his hips. Haha. I know my dancers out there are all rejoicing on my behalf—thanks, guys! Anyways, I hope we end up being good friends so I don’t have to be creepy and stalk him and force him to dance with me. :P
Yesterday was Día de Andalucía—basically a day celebrating the region—so we had the day off of school today! Yay! It was great, I did homework all day. :P No, but really, I needed to catch up on my homework, so it actually was a good thing we had the day off. Tomorrow, it’s back to life as usual, and I’m not unhappy about that. I loved traveling and being a tourist and hanging out with Nora, but I’ll be glad to be back to my normal schedule, and to have some down time again this week.
Oof, time to get back to my reading! Love you all!
Pura Vida,
Kelsey
I just got done with one of the most exciting, fun, and stressful weeks I’ve had here. Nora, my really great friend from Scripps who is studying abroad in France right now, came to visit me from Tuesday to Friday, and then we went to Toledo together for the weekend. We stayed in a hostel together during the week while I ran back and forth between classes and sightseeing with her, and it was sooo much fun, but also incredibly busy. We had fun exploring the different neighborhoods of Granada, sipping tea at a Tetería, eating greasy churros con chocolate, and all the fun touristy stuff I don’t really get to do on a regular basis. We were lucky to have great weather while Nora was here as well—I think it only sprinkled once or twice the entire time. On Thursday, we had lunch with Concha, and unfortunately Nora got sick, so our plans for the afternoon kind of went out the window. It happened to be the birthday of one of my best friend’s here, Katie, and as much I wanted to stay in and be with Nora, she reasoned that there wasn’t anything I could do for her anyways, so I went out for a bit to wish Katie a happy birthday. It was actually really fun to hang out with my new friends, but I was worrying about Nora the whole time, so I guess it was a mixed fun and not so fun night.
On Friday we traveled to Toledo, which was really quite a journey! The bus from Granada to Madrid takes about 5 hours, with a stop in the middle for food/coffee/bathrooms. It was a beautiful ride from what I could tell—I was asleep for much of it—but my booty certainly didn’t appreciate sitting for that long! Then, we took another bus from Madrid to Toledo, and a taxi to our hotel. Both Nora and I were pretty exhausted and feeling under the weather, so we stayed in Friday night and just chatted, watched part of a weird movie on the TV, and went to bed. Saturday was our one full day in Toledo, and I actually feel like we managed to see a lot of the city in only that one day. Toledo is a lovely, well-preserved old city with tiny labyrinth-like streets and a lot of awesome artwork and historical buildings/museums. I was so excited to get to see a lot of work by El Greco, not only because he was a great and important artist, but also because we just studied a few of his pieces in my Art/Lit class!! And the few that we studied were all in Toledo, and I saw them!!! It was so cool to be able to tell Nora what my teacher had told me about the shapes, colors, themes, etc. It was super fun. We also went to a Jewish museum that is in an old Synagogue, and that was both beautiful and really informative. It had a few really lovely courtyards, too, which we took advantage of for little recuperation breaks (Nora was still not feeling very well, and my arm was bothering me for some reason).
On Sunday, we woke up early to get back to Madrid in time for Nora’s flight, and for me to get a bus back to Granada. I met this really nice lady in the bus station in Madrid while waiting for my bus home, and we talked for a good 20 minutes. I like random nice people.
Once I got home to Granada, I took a quick shower and then went out for coffee and a snack with my friend, Katie, which was super fun bonding time. :) That night, we also went out with two other friends, who I absolutely adore, and it was so nice to just hang out with these wonderful people. OH, guys, by the way, one of my new friends here, Luis, CAN DANCE. AND LIKES TO DANCE. WITH ME. It’s maybe the best thing ever. I have missed dancing SO. MUCH. I have missed dancing with a good lead on a regular basis more than I thought I had. And yeah, ok, it’s not exactly like we’re waltzing around the bar (ha.ha.) but he knows salsa and merengue and, um, just how to move his hips. Haha. I know my dancers out there are all rejoicing on my behalf—thanks, guys! Anyways, I hope we end up being good friends so I don’t have to be creepy and stalk him and force him to dance with me. :P
Yesterday was Día de Andalucía—basically a day celebrating the region—so we had the day off of school today! Yay! It was great, I did homework all day. :P No, but really, I needed to catch up on my homework, so it actually was a good thing we had the day off. Tomorrow, it’s back to life as usual, and I’m not unhappy about that. I loved traveling and being a tourist and hanging out with Nora, but I’ll be glad to be back to my normal schedule, and to have some down time again this week.
Oof, time to get back to my reading! Love you all!
Pura Vida,
Kelsey
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