Old friends

When I was in Argentina I met a girl named Roree from California. She was blonde, beautiful, and she turned me on to a bunch of new musicians. We laughed a lot and spent summer afternoons tumbadas in the hammock my family had hanging on the back porch. Sipping on terere, a form of Mate that is cold, we would talk about anything, laugh a bunch, listen to good music and enjoy spending time with each other. We saw the world in a similar way and so we quickly grew close. As life has moved forward for both of us, we have gone in different directions (quite literally) but still have kept in touch. We discovered recently that we were once again in the same continent. A visit was in order without a doubt. Obviously, I thought of going to Florence, but what ended up working better was for her to come visit. As planning usually goes for me, we powered full steam ahead and she had her ticket the next day. That Sunday, we picked her up from the bus station and gave her her first taste of the south of Spain. TAPAS. Yum!

Now a few sun rays, a dip in the ocean, and an incredible weekend later we are back in my bed reviewing all of the great pictures she captured on her fancy camera. A fun loving group of us took a trip to the south coast where many Granadinos have beach apartments. If you are middle class family here it is quite common to have a weekend place on the south coast because it is only about an hour from here. Roree, Juan Mi, Vitty, Paula, Rafa (a new friend), and I spent one night at Rafa's place and the next at Juan Mi's. When we got there we enjoyed Rafa's guitar playing and duets with Paula, while I joined in here or there to ruin a song.

The next day we woke up fairly early and traipsed to the beach to soak up the rays. It was a mind blowing kind of day. Warm wind, sunshine to boot, and a calm Mediterranean Sea. That night we raced back there after a trip to the supermarket to pick up Sangria ingredients. Wily Rafa whipped it together in less than five minutes and we spread out on towels and watched the sunset. Guitar was played and soon enough we were dancing to the beat of a very popular song, Danza Kuduro, that was blasted over ipod speakers.

This song Danza Kuduro is quickly becoming the theme song of this abroad trip, as overly played club songs tend to do. So, of course, the only logical thing would be to make a music video. The starring actors: four very foreign girls. The video clip had to include a bit of dancing so we decided to film on the beach today. It was deserted because it is still not tourist time. Quite honestly though, half of Spain's population decided to drive by as we were trying to film this scene. Embarrassing is an understatement. Whistles. Honks. Shouts. In the end, we finally did achieve our goal.

Que cojones!

Today I had coffee with my friend and conversation partner, Juanmi, which is short for Juan Miguel. It is common here in Spain that people have more than one first name, usually both of which are saints. Sayings are a significant part of what we end up discussing because we both have a fairly advanced level and grammar is a smaller issue for us. Since our conversation tends to be pretty fluid, and we can both forget at times that the other is not a native speaker, colloquial sayings come up...and then must be explained when a look of confusion rolls across the other's face. Today, we discussed a certain saying that most everyone would know...and I feel I have to mention only because of the hilariousness that ensued because of it. This is rather awkward for me because I believe the main audience of this blog consists of mostly members of my church, certain wonderful professors of mine, and my dear family. Sorry Mor Far (grandfather in Norwegian)!!

E: "....that they have the balls to actually go through with it."
JM: "Wait. Have ball to do it? What do you want to say with that?"
E: "It means to have the courage, the strength. Que tiene los cojones hacer algo."
JM: "Oh, ok. Yeah, its a saying we have here too. It is obviously something I should use formally in my English exam. When I walk in I will say, 'I am Juanmi, and I will use my balls to pass this test."

Here is where said hilarity ensued.

Valentines Dayte

As I was walking down Wide Virgin Street this morning (it is less funny in Spanish, I promise), I remembered today is Valentines Day. I have NEVER seen so many men walking the streets with bouquets of flowers as I have today. Spanish women must be ecstatic. Where are my flowers? I have to thank my mom for being the clever little thing she is because she bought some really retro Valentines back when they were on sale and buying them made no sense at all. These came in very handy because I was able to give little love notes to all my friends on this day. They aren't flowers, but who needs flowers when you have feisty little notes that say things like, "If I can't have you, I think I will explode," or "I have been watching you Valentine." Go commercial holidays! Nobody ever feels bad getting a love note.

Couch Surfing

Yesterday night I went with one of my conversation partners to a "couch surfing" meeting. It is a not for profit website that makes it possible for people to travel around the world and get to know new people and cultures. It is a form of social globalization that I personally appreciate very much. The idea is that people form their profile and get recommendations, certified and can get together with local clubs to hear about people's experiences. I heard about it from an Albanian friend when I was still back home, but the whole thing was a bit overwhelming and so I never fully made my profile.

The way the meeting worked last night is that we all went to a bar that has a back room for large groups. Basically, a group of about twenty people from all over (Poland, US, Spain, Italy, Thailand) came together to chat. It was alright. I will go again next week though and stay a little longer. I left at 1030 which is far too early here. Next week though I will be arriving late though because...

I will start taking Portuguese classes at that time next week.
Today I took a  placement exam, without ever having done classes to learn it. I was hoping that my chatting with a Brazilian friend once in a while would have taught me a thing or two. Despite people being very skeptical about what kind of level I could possibly have after hearing background chatter, and maybe a word here or there, I made it through the test. Granted, almost every grammatical thing I saw on there I invented...and I am pretty sure I got almost everything wrong. However, in the writing portion I managed to get my point across and then, I showed off my stop and go verbal skills. The professor was actually impressed and I convinced her that putting me with the students who have studied for a year and a half would not be a bad idea. We will see how that goes....!

here we go again

Classes started again yesterday. I am so glad actually. A week of Spanish oblivion, as relaxing as it was, got pretty tedious. Plus, I started running out of excuses as to why I wouldn't go out with the girls clubbing week nights. It came down to me just being a cranky old lady and bailing to go to bed. Vitty was SOOOO pleased.

So I have a couple of literature classes, one of which is over 18-19th century lit, and the other which is about 20th century lit. XIX is taught by the witch who did my placement exam, the reason I had to move up classes and feel hassled. Turns out, after having three weeks of intensive grammar that the witch thing is just a front. She is hilarious, and quite lovable in a very sandpapery teddy bear kind of way. I am pumped to be back with her again. It will make for an interesting and challenging class. Then, for XX I got a new professor who is incredibly terrifying. He is brilliant. I am sure of it. Seriously though, I cannot imagine talking in his class though because he ridicules and has extremely strong opinions. The first interaction we had went as follows...

P: "I want everyone to say who they are, where they study, and what."

ME: "I am Eleanor and I study in Minnesota, USA. I study Spanish, International Business and Global Studies."

P: "Yeah. Whatever that is."

ME: (RED RED REDDD FACE)

Another thing worth mentioning is that I have become acquainted with the fruit store man by my house. I go in almost everyday to buy some new fresh thing and he is now getting to know what I like. He made a recommendation for this very yummy olive oil that I incorporate into almost every meal. Even breakfast sometimes. It is a very common breakfast here to have olive oil on toast. YUM!

The City of Children

If Granada is one of the best university cities, I will say that Cordoba is one of the best cities for pedofiles. Seriously, there are so many middle school kids roaming the streets. I do not get it. All day yesterday Paula and I walked around Cordoba visiting various touristic spots and hanging out like true Spaniards in the plazas people watching. It was an INCREDIBLE day of sun. I think I actually got a little brown...for a Norwegian.

We will return to Cordoba at some point though because we found out we failed on our questing. We thought we had seen the Mezquita which is a mosque that contains a Catholic church inside of it, very very famous, but we did not realize we had to enter. We looked at the outside and took some pictures, but we never went in. We missed out on the biggest tourist site in the city...waaam waaaaaaaa!

Not only did we miss out on that though, we missed out on several other places too. Fail. Anyway, we will go back and take Vittoria with us next time because my flat mate's brother invited us back. He and his family were so incredibly nice! They tried to send us in the right touristy directions and we just were not savvy enough to figure them out.

Another place we went was the Museum of Archeology which was incredible. Beneath this museum they discovered the ruins of a Roman theater. There were still steps intact. It was so cool to imagine the whole thing standing at one time. Over the years new things had been built on top of it, but at one time it was such an incredible piece of architecture that the whole city was basically built around it. They had immense underground piping to draw the water away from the city and this theater that would then flow into the river. BAMFS those Romans were!

Also, all of the pigeons were white. In the whole city I hardly saw a grey or brown flying rat. Just doves. It was rather nice...although I suspect it was some strange city improvement project that went on behind public eyes.

Blessing: Awesome trip with Paula (a really great travel buddy), and the fact that we can RETURN!

Don´t Ride Motorcycles

When I was in Argentina I saw a dead man with his body spread on the road. He had fallen off of his motorcycle and was never going to get up. Today, I once again saw this horrible sight. Except, instead of Argentina, I was in Spain just arriving (but seriously, still on the bus) to Cordoba. My friend Paula, mentioned in previous entries, agreed to adventure with me to this new city and get a taste of Spain in a different way. As we were coming to the center of the city there was a big commotion outside of the bus and all the pedestrias has stopped to stare. As we drove by, this quite possibly dead man was laying just below my bus window. Same sick feeling as two years ago. Please brother and sister, if you listen to one thing I say, never get on a motorcycle.

Anyway, now that that is done and over with I can start from the beginning. I have not be blogging lately because seriously nothing of interest has been happening. You might moan and groan that I am in Spain and there is always something to say but really, there was not. The past few days have been hellishly boring and so when we decided to take a relatively spontaneous trip to Cordoba I was ecstatic. I can actually say I am looking forward to having classes, and some schedule to my life. The last days were extremely lazy, meaning I woke up and lollygagged around, maybe took a walk to enjoy the sunshine and late afternoon would meet up with a conversation partner.

The past week was good for meeting some new folks. One new convo partner who was really sweet and is named Ethel. She and I had coffee at this super bohemian coffee shop and chatted for a couple hours. Lots of coffee dates...thats all I have to say. There was another one Jesus, who is extremely sweet and chatty AND the best part is that he is part of the "couch surfing" community. It is basically a not for profit website where people who are travel lovers can make profiles and get certified as travelers and hosters. When you travel to a place you can search peoples´profiles and then you have a local host who will show you around to their favorite spots. Obviously, most people shy away from this idea, but I heard about it from my Albanian friend Noar last semester, and he said that he has met some of the best people of his life doing this. Traveling AND hosting. I got on and made a profile but never followed through to get certified or fill in details. I may have to now that I have met Jesus who has also hosted. Every Wednesday he tells me between 40 and 50 people get together at whatever local bar and hang out and chat about their COUCHSURFING experiences. YAAA! Can´t wait to go with him to the next one. Here I come new friends!!! The last convo partner was very nice. Very tired. He is "the perfect example of the results of the economy fail here in Spain" as my friend Juan Miguel put it. He got transferred from the city where he has spent his whole life to Granada to work. Now he worries every day about getting layed off. He spends every minute working, studying English (so he has a better chance of keeping his job), or taking classes so he can renew his teaching degree (in case he ends up getting laid off). To top it off, his wife cannot work because she is extremely pregnant. The new baby will come in one month. Life is hard.

Blessing: So many things I cannot count. For one, I have no explained need to ride motorcyles.  I am traveling with an amazing friend right now. I do not have to feel the horrible pressures of the failing economy.

Will talk about my trip more tomorrow! Must share computer...