Sorry for such the big delay with posting! I was hit hard by a couple of big events over the past couple of weeks, and I fell behind with updating the website. In late October, I was working on my medical school application and making sure everything was turned in for that. So even though I have a "seat" in medical school, I still have to go through the application process. Then we had a break in early November and I was planning to go somewhere. But the airline changed my plane reservation, so I ended up not going. Then I had my birthday, which was fun! Then I had midterm week here at Granada, so I was studying for all of my tests. But I will try to catch up on my posting. On one of the weekends in October, our school program took us on a day trip to the city of Cordoba. Cordoba was about a three hour bus ride from Granada. The first stop was to the Madinat Al-Zahar, which was about fifteen minutes outside of the city center. The Madinat Al-Zahar is a Muslim palace ruins from the 12th century because at this time the Muslim empire was experiencing a golden age in Spain. It was a huge palace that had many rooms. But over time the Muslim empire was broken up into many smaller kingdoms, and the palace was sacked and burned down to the ground. Now all that remains is the groundwork and a couple of arches. It was interesting to see, but at the same time it was hard to imagine the splendor that the palace was supposed to have. Our next stop was the Muslim Mosque/Catholic Cathedral. During the golden age of the Muslim empire there was a huge mosque built in Cordoba. However when the Spanish Catholic kingdom took over Cordoba, they decided instead of destroying the mosque they would build a cathedral right in the center of the mosque. So it was interesting when we first walked into the building, and you see rows and rows of arches. In the mosque part of the church, it was darker and seemed like a more intimate area. Then all of a sudden you walk into a bright cathedral. There were paintings and gold everywhere which was a huge difference from the mosque. It was a very interesting experience seeing the clash between the two different styles: Islam and Christian. After our visit, we walked back to the bus and drove back to Granada.
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Then on the last Sunday, everyone lines up along the streets to see the procession of the Virgen de las Angustias. It was super crowded, but thankfully I was able to wedge myself into a spot near the church. A band went by and groups upon groups of people walked by carrying "flags"? Suddenly the street was filled with the smell of incense from helpers swinging from the incense burners. Then the crowd of people started to cheer and clap their hands when the statue appeared in the doorway of the church. You can even hear the booms of fireworks going off in the distance. Slowly the statue made its way passed me, and it was looked beautiful and heavy! The men carrying the statue could only walk a couple of yards before having to set it down to rest, but each time they picked it up the crowd would cheer for them. It was a really neat thing to experience, and I am glad that I was able to see it. One of the most interesting parts of living in Granada is the tapas. A tapa is like a little snack or appetizer that you can get for free. When you go to a restaurant or a bar, you find a place to sit down and order a drink. It can be any type of drink ranging from lemonade to coke to wine to beer, which I am thankful for because I don't like alcoholic drinks. The closest thing I have had to alcohol is this drink called Tinto de Verano. It is a mixture of red wine and lemon soda, but when I order it I ask for very very little wine. Then, like magic, a plate of food arrives that comes free with your drink. I have had a couple of different tapas. I have had just chips and olives, chicken with some bread, mini hamburgers, one mozzarella stick, tiny ham sandwiches, or little burritos. The best tapa I had is probably a tapa that isn't served very regularly. We were with the school on a tapas tour, and we stopped at this one restaurant for probably two hours. While we were sitting there, they brought this huge tray full of ham and cheese. When you arrive in Spain, you quickly learn that Spaniards are very serious about their jamón (ham). I saw a leg of jamón iberico that was selling for 600 euros, which is close to 700 dollars! I was kind of hesitant to try some, but it was delicious paired with the cheese! I can now say I understand why people like it so much, but I can't ever see myself buying a 700 dollar ham! So the program that I am doing in Spain is called the Center for Modern Languages (CLM), which is part of the University of Granada. The University has a different set up than the traditional set up like in Albuquerque. Instead of having all of the buildings together in one central location, the buildings here are spread out throughout the city. Even our small section of the univeristy is split in half, which means we have two buildings that classes take place. They are probably about ten minutes apart from each other, but thankfully our apartment is between both buildings.
Before we did orientation on the 21st I thought that there would be around forty students, but there was only eight other students. We are part of the "Study Abroad" group at the CLM. Even though there are a lot of other students around, they are part of different programs such as ERASMUS or there own specific school program. There are even groups from China and Japan here learning Spanish. All of the classes are relatively small, and my class has about nine people including me. The program that I am doing is an intensive Spanish class. So that means I have class Monday through Friday from 9:30 to 1:30. We have two teachers, one for the first 2 hours and one for the second 2 hours. Thankfully, we get a twenty minute break when they switch off. It has only been my second day so far, but the class hasn't been too bad because I am following Spanish culture and taking a siesta *wink wink. |
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March 2019
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