Continuing

So I will continue on as promised. We had gone out the night before or Sunday I forgot and got free mojitos at some Spanish bar, and the night before my birthday aka turning into my birthday, we ran into the same guy that gave us free drinks, and he gave us more because it was going to be my birthday. To explain, basically all over Granada, there are people who are paid to stand outside and kind of hand out coupons for free stuff. Some people confuse them for the gypsies who hand out little pieces of like.. tree/leaves and don't want to take it from them, but they tend to just be giving out free stuff, so total win. Anyway, we went and got the free drinks from the Spanish bar and then went home.

NEXT DAYYY was my BIRTHDAY! I am finally 21. Weird and it did not feel like my birthday AT ALL but I was all for it. It seemed like it was going to be one of the first big nights of going to a discoteca with my program, so people were preparing for it. During the day I had class and then went shopping around town with Karrah! Right now in Granada, and I think all over Spain, they have "rebajas" which are these CRAZY sales where everything is marked down at least 50% or more. These rebajas last until February I think so everything is on sale right now and is SUPER SUPER cheap but surprisingly you can still find TONS of stuff everywhere which is so awesome. Then I went home and ate lunch with my host family, and went to my room to find that they had given me a gift! They bought me a robe because the other day I had mentioned I was going to buy one (because there is no central heating in this building and it is LITERALLY freezing. I thought I was going to die.) It was so cute, they are AWESOME! I'm so lucky. (I WILL POST PICTURES OF MY HOST FAMILY/APARTMENT/SCHOOL NEXT I PROMISE! AKA TOMORROW OR TUESDAY!) Later I took a nap, and then went and tried to book some flights and stuff to some places. It is actually pretty hard to get everything under control and organized. Thennnn a TON of people in our program went to La Chupiteria which is basically a bar where you can take all of these different types of shots (sorry mom and dad), and you get points every time you take one. You hold onto these cards and eventually you can buy like a tshirt or sweatshirt. I know, it's worth it. Thennn we all went to Granada 10, a discoteca in the center of the city, and it was super fun! It's crazy because they stay open until 6 am or later. Literally. It's nuts.

The next dayyy I had class and such and at night our program was going to see a flamenco show in El Sacrimonio which is in the El Albaycín. It's a hike to get up there, but basically el sacrimonio is this cave village where everything is built into the mountains. So we went to this restaurant to see a flamenco show in this cave like building that was built into the side of a mountain. I am MAD because I didn't bring my camera and I WISH I had taken videos. It was SO cool; it was really different than anything I had seen. There were 3 lady dancers, this one male singer who sang like Spanish opera type music, and then some guitarists and a flutist. It was very interesting. It was not completely what I was expecting it to be but I thought it was really cool. I went home early that night because I was preparing to go skiing in the SIERRA NEVADA the next day. 7 us decided to go, and we were going to take an 8 am bus up to the mountains. The Sierra Nevada is about a 35 minute bus ride from Granada, because technically these mountains are in Granada. I woke up at 630 and went over to a bus stop to take the bus to the bus station where we would get on a bus to go up to the mountains. Exhausting, and riding on a massive bus up all of these mountains is not exactly fun. But it was absolutely gorgeous! We got up there early and it was way colder than I was expecting it to be. It also was not the easiest thing in the world to be able to do because none of us had any snow stuff, so we didn't really know what to wear/do. I wore both pairs of my winter leggings, a couple shirts and a sweatershirt and jacket. I have only skiied twice before, but I have snowboarded for a long time, but I want to get better at skiing, so I decided to ski. Probably a mistake because falling in skis is actually the worst thing but it was super fun. I got a little better at it even though I wiped out several times and thought I broke my finger at one point.



It was super fun. It was a long day and I can say truthfully that I am STILL in pain from it, but it was totally worth it. I'd go again but I'd probably snowboard so I can do the best of both worlds. It was interesting though because there were no trees like there are in Colorado, and the runs were a lot shorter, but it was still really awesome. I got home by about 8 pm after the ride home where I held onto the seat in front of me for dear life because I was about 95% sure we were going to actually topple down the mountain. I stayed in because I was exhausted and I hung out with Adriana, my host mom!

The next day I woke up late and then went to this mercadillo (market) which is on the other side of the river and close to the highway to leave Granada. Super far away. It was interesting, but I didn't particularly see many things I really cared to buy. So I went back home and ate with my family. After lunch I went running, and then went with my host mom to see her son who is bed ridden because he has a broken pelvis. He's 31 (his birthday is next weekend!) but all he can really do is lay in his bed. He got in a car accident the day after we landed in Granada, and luckily he was okay but he has this broken pelvis and really is not going to be able to do anything for about 3 months. He seemed like he was okay but in a lot of pain because they had just given him some injections. Talk about a horrible injury. I feel really bad. He was really nice though and was asking me stuff about saying things in English which is always interesting for me. My host family wants to learn English, so they always ask me how to say certain things in English, and it's just a funny perspective to have. They're great though and they're really learning. I love hanging out with them and getting to know them and what they think about stuff so it's cool. Later that night I went out with some of my friends for drinks/tapas and then we went to Granada 10 again. The cool thing about the tapas tradition in Granada is that the more drinks you order, the "better" the tapas get. So the other night when we had gone to this cafe before the Flamenco show called Cafe Europa, the first tapa was this potato thing with carrots/beets/and some white sauce thing, but then the second one when you got another drink was a burger and fries. Granted it wasn't this huge burger but it was still a burger which was awesome. The deal is usually a drink and a free tapa, so you could pay between 1,50 and 3 euro (usually around 2) and get a free tapa which can be actually a huge portion. We went to this chinese place called Feng Shui and they brought out huge plates of noodles. Sometimes you get to pick your tapa, but sometimes they just give you one. This other place gave us a toasted bagel sandwich with..ham and cheese (shocking.. not at all its all they eat), and fries. Unreal. So funny. Soooo yeah we went to the discoteca which was super fun. You dance the night away. I stayed out until late (again sorry mom and dad) but it was REALLY FUN!

I woke up this morning at about 12 and then hung out and did some research on some trips, and then ate lunch with my host parents, and their son Davíd who is 27 and his wife. She made these spinach crepes, which I've never tried but were delicious. She also had gotten bread (pan) from the pan lady. The pan lady (honestly I don't even know if its a lady its just the bread stand), where they bring in freshly baked bread from this pueblo outside of Granada where they hand make the bread every morning and cook them in stone ovens. DELICIOUS. The only thing is my host mom thinks I don't eat a lot because I don't have like 7 helpings at lunch. It's funny. Shes awesome. They think I'm crazy. They told me how a common thing to eat on your burger here is a fried egg. I told them no one does that in the United States, and they literally laughed at me. They think we are crazy because our lunches aren't that big, and sometimes people just eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. It's just a completely different culture, so its funny!


Later in the afternoon I went with Karrah to book our flights and hostel to Amsterdam, which we are going to in the beginning of February. We also need to finish planning our first spring break, during which we are going to Paris, London, and Germany (I think Frankfurt and Berlin!) I'm so excited. Later this evening a bunch of people in my program went to this bar called Paddy's to watch the Bears/Packers game. It's funny because there are some people from Madison in my program, so there was a rivalry, but we all know that despite the Bears loss, Wisconsin is not that great of a state. Just kidding. Kind of! But I'll cheer for the Packers in the superbowl. Now, I am in bed and I am tired. So I'll go to sleep. I'll try to blog more and do some interesting facts I've learned while being here and such, and I will take pictures of my apartment, room, and school! GO TO www.kellyrojek.shutterfly.com to see my pictures!