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!

Life in Granada

Well, it has been a while since I've blogged again and I apologize for that! I'm going to have to think back to everything because so much has happened in this past week. Let's see I last left off where my host mom made me empanadas which was last Saturday! They were delicious by the way. They had tuna and well I just liked them. Anyway, later that night I went with a few people to this bar near our hostel which is the center of the city pretty much called Tantra bar. It was actually really cool, I liked it a lot there. It's a little bit small but not terrible, and it's darker. There were some people from Spain but also others from other countries and stuff. I went home early because the next day we all had to wake up because we were going on a tour of La Alhambra, this massive fortress/palace/city in Granada that was for the Sultan and military and stuff. Our whole program met our program director at 10:30 to hike on up there. It literally is basically a vertical slant up to walk all the way up to it, because it's a lot higher than the rest of the city.



This is only like.. a SMALL portion of what it actually looks like haha. The tour took about 6 hours to see all parts of it, the palaces, and Generalife which was the summer palace of the Sultan. It was gorgeous and really cool to see. Most of it was based on Islamic relgion and stuff so the architecture was focused around that, but in the middle of this massive Islamic city there were some Christian churches and stuff which was really weird. It's interesting because Islamic architecture is a LOT more intricate there than the Christian architecture was. It was very cool.

After La Alhambra, I went with some different people to go get CHURROS CON CHOCOLATE at Cafe Futbol, apparently the best restaurant for it in Granada. They literally are churros, fried dough (sans cinnamon/sugar) with a cup of this hot chocolate but its not like the stuff you drink it's really thick almost like melted chocolate stuff. Absolutely delicious. After, I went home and just hung out and stuff with my host mom and relaxed and stuff!


Monday we started classes at Cegrí! The school is pretty much in the center of town kind of, close to Café Futbol. it's inside of an older looking building ( I will take a picture of it soon I promise). They had this rather inefficient system of telling us what classes we had by posting all of the different classes/times and who was in them, rather than giving us individual classes. The options for times classes could be at were 9-1030, 11-1230, 1-230, 430-6 or 630-8, and they would be two times a week. Of course, I was originally assigned to have 2 classes at 9 am so thus I would have class Monday through Thursday at 9 am. Not happening. I switched one of them to an 11 am class, so I have class Monday and Wednesday from 9-1030 and then again 1-230. Tuesday I have class 11-1230, and again 630-8, and Thursday is 11-1230, and 430-6. I'm taking Spanish Culture, which has been REALLY interesting I really like it and the teacher, Oral Spanish, Culture of Islam, and Spanish Art History. Spanish Art History is awesome too because every Thursday we take "field trips" to different places around the city to see different things we learn about. All of the teachers are really great and I am actually really interested to learn the stuff we do. All of our classes are in Spanish, but I think that all of our teachers do a really good job of talking to us at a level we can really understand. So in between classes I walked around and stuff and found some stores and recharged my phone and other random things. We had class again, and then I went home to eat lunch con mi familia! Everybody stops working around 2 or 230 and goes home to eat, so my host father, Sebastián comes home and eats with us everyday. My host mom made crayfish, which were delicious! She showed me them on Sunday night and I actually gagged because they still had the heads on them, but LUCKY for me, she cut them off and I didn't have to do that myself. I wouldn't have haha. It was delicious though. I can't remember what I did later that night but I think it involved trying to plan out some trips and stuff.

Tuesday I had class again, and at night (the eve of my birthday) I went out with Karrah and Audrey for drinks and tapas. We have been going to different places that were suggested so we can try a bunch of different places.

Ah okay we're eating lunch BUT I will be back and will post more!

And continuing

Alright so I will get this all in today. So we got off the plane and this is the lovely view we had 

Finally I got the picture in the blog. I had to copy and paste it because the upload wasn't working but whatever. SOOOO we got off the plane and that's when I realized Granada was in the middle of mountains, good job Kelly on NOT knowing that one before. We went inside and all got our luggage at this TINY airport, and then we met Miguel Angel, our program director, and Narea, the assistant/his wife. We all had to load our luggage onto big coach buses and we were off to Hostel Atenas, where we would stay for a couple days before meeting our host families. We drove around Granada and I was honestly really surprised that it was so modern looking. (But as I would find out later, it really is not at all haha). It kind of has main streets like you would find in a typical city, but then there are all of these side streets/alleys that go to big plazas and stuff so there is a LOT more in the city than you would think there is. There are TONS of shops and stuff everywhere. There are these really awesome street lights too and they look very modern. The stoplights are different than the US, somewhat strange. Anyway, we got to the hostal and got our luggage and divided up into rooms. I was in a room with Audrey and Madeline, (two girls in my sorority incase you didnt know). We put our stuff down and we all laid down for a while/tried to get working internet. The internet at the hostal was impossible to work with haha. A bit later, us three went out walking around and realized that there were all of those side streets/plazas. We met up with Karrah, Andrea, Cory (who are all in my sorority also), and Meagan, Cory's friend, and we went out for drinks and tapas. The COOL thing about Granada is that whenever you order a drink, you get a free tapa. This apparently is the only place in Spain where they do this. My host mom told me the other day that the more drinks you order, the better the tapas get. Interesante. We all tried "tinto de verano" which is basically red wine and lemonade. See below.



It's DELICIOUS. We got a couple rounds of drinks and a few tapas. Our first free tapa was basically a cut baguette bread with cream cheese and jamón serrano, which is cured ham aka extremely salty and delicious. Andrea ordered "huevos rotos con jamón y chorizo" which should be like scrambled eggs with ham and chorizo, a Spanish sausage. Instead it was fries with a fried egg and some jamon serrano and chorizo on top. Very weird and HILARIOUS. Then, we all went back to the hostal and PASSED OUT because we were so tired. I definitely could probably have slept for like 16 days because we had no windows in our room so it was pitch black.

We woke up the next morning and went to a building near our school, Cegrí, to begin our orientation. BEFORE THAT though, we all got free tickets to get breakfast next door, so we went over and got cafe con leche and they gave us this croissant thing for free. People in Spain eat a lot of bread haha. Anyway we started our orientation by having a cultural orientation and basically going over some different things in Spain and the program and stuff, and then we had an academic orientation where we picked our classes, even though we had already picked them before we went abroad. Luckily though some people had to change stuff, and I wanted to change a class, so we were able to do that. The director of Cegrí went over one sheet of paper and it took over an hour to discuss... sooo it was long and we all were still not used to the whole eating a big lunch at 2:30 pm thing so needless to say we were all REALLY hungry. It's really interesting, most of you know, but incase you dont.. Spain has a unique tradition, especially in southern Spain, of having a HUGE lunch around 2:30/3, where most stores close and people go home for this big meal with 3 or 4 courses with their family, and then take a small nap or relax, and then go back to work around 5. Dinner is at 9:30 or 10 and is a much much smaller meal. Anyway, we were starving, so a bunch of us went out to this restaurant called Hicure, recommended by our program director. Most of us got the "menú del dia" which is the typical 3 or 4 course meal offered by the restaurant that day. It consists of an appetizer, main dish, dessert, drink, and usually bread. I got a salad with chicken and some tomatoes and it had some dressing on it that I didn't know what it was but I liked it, salmon with couscous, white wine to drink, and pineapple for dessert. Delicioso. It was actually really good I enjoyed it very much. Then, several us walked around and kind of explored around. At 5:30 we had the "Granada survival tour", where Miguel Angel and Narea showed us around Granada where the different important things were, like our school, El Corte Inglés (a massive superstore), the post office, police station, church, shops, etc. After, we went back and since the internet was literally not working, some of us went over to this nearby pub called Hannigans to use their internet. We ordered drinks and got free tapas which were some like potato thing with aioli, carrots and corn. Weird but really good. I called my mom via gmail and tried to catch up on informing the world of what I was doing but it was taking forever. Then a bit later, we again went out for drinks and tapas, and then went and hung out in the lounge of our hostel with a ton of people from our program. Later that night.. around 330 am (dont kill me mom), a few of us went and got SCHWARMAS which are the most delicious pita type thing in the world. SO good. It was hilarious.

The next morning we got up and had a housing orientation basically where we went over rules and stuff! Then we walked around for a while again, and found this gorgeous fountain/the river area and I realized that was by where I wOULD be living. Then we got bocadillos and fruta from the market and went back to the hostel and ate. Then, I walked around with Karrah, Cory, and Meagan trying to find a place with working internet but NO WHERE was open because it was SIESTA time. So I went back and took a nap before our "touristy tour" of Granada! We then went on the tour and went to see El Albaycín which is this older neighorhood area of Granada that basically has crazy winding cobblestone roads that go up into the mountain, and you have the most unbelievable views of La Alhambra and the Cathedral de Granada. They were BEAUTIFUL! The streets were brutal on my feet though but it was gorgeous. A lot of the shops/houses are built directly into the mountain/hill, so its really really cool. There are some flamenco bars up there which a few of us are planning to go to. It kind of reminded me of Greece, even though I haven't been there yet! After the touristy tour we got back and hung out for a while before going out to our "welcome dinner" for our entire program. We all went to this restaurant by the cathedral and had dinner, and then went to Hannigans, the irish pub from before. We weren't out for long because we were going to meet our HOST FAMILIES the next day and we wanted to be ready for them.

This post is literally incredibly long so sorry to whoever is reading this. We went back to the hostal and got our stuff together and went to bed. Saturday was the day we were going to MEET OUR FAMILIES! I was really nervous but super excited! I had talked to my hostmom a few times over facebook message and she seemed AWESOME and I was really excited to meet her. We were broken up over a few different times to go downstairs and meet our families. I got down there early but when she came, I knew who she was! She's ACTUALLY hilarious and I love her and my host dad. She came with her daughter who is 30 years old, and her sister who is a few years younger than her, who were also both having students this semester. I found out later that I am her first student staying with her and her husband. We walked all through the streets back to her apartment and she showed me my room. She is an artist and painted all of these paintings and decorated the room just for me! It was so nice. She showed me all of these drawings she has done and stuff and she is actually an AMAZING artist. I want her to teach me! Then her husband came home around 1:30 or so and we all ate lunch together. I was trying to teach them English which was hilarious, but they want to know! The host father listens to the same music as me and I was helping to teach him about Dispatch, one of my favorite bands. I put all of my stuff away in my room and then was hanging out with my host mom, Adriana, in the family room, watching TV and talking and stuff. We went and got me a phone and then came back to the apartment and I unpacked more stuff and had a "life chat" if you will with Adriana in the kitchen about everything and being able to accept being so far from a place you know and friends you know and stuff. She and her husband are actually from Argentina and moved to Granada about 8 years ago with her kids (who are older) and her mother. She has said that Argentina is somewhat unsafe and NOTHING like Granada because it is so safe and relaxed here. Her husband, Sebastian aka bocha, owns a candy shop somewhere in Granada, that I have to go find. I met her one son, Davíd, but her other son, Emiliano, broke his pelvis in a motorcycle accident the other week so he is on bedrest and I haven't been able to meet him yet. Hopefully soon. I feel bad, definitely a bad accident. Her and her husband have been going over to his apartment to help him with some things and his girlfriend is around to help obviously. Anyway, my host mom made empanadas for dinner and I basically just hung out and talked with her and stuff for a long time. She told me all of the good discotecas to go to and such. Anyway, I will continue more later because I'm super tired. ADIOS MIS AMIGOS!

Bien.

Hola un vez mas. Let's see where I left off. I am probably not going to be able to get in everything again but that's okay! Let's see. So I left off on the plane with me having my first legal drink, which was some cheap white wine but whatever. I sat next to this girl Lauren and she's super fun and HILARIOUS. The food was mediocre, and they put on the movie "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps". Clearly that movie did not do very well in theaters because it was being played already on a Spanish airline. Iberia was fine, it wasn't anything special, but it was comfortable and enough. I thought the flight attendants were really nice and came back and offered a lot of things several times which was helpful. Of course, my headphones broke on the plane. So now, I either need to buy some new ones somewhere here in Granada or... survive off of the airplane ones. Not sure how those will suffice but we will see. Anyway. I tried to sleep but I couldn't which is fine, so I watched the OC on my computer (the one disk I happened to leave in it) and I read my Spanish phrasebook (which in all reality did not help at all). We were getting to Madrid around 8 am (Madrid time) but the weird thing was it was not light out. I was freaking out because it just did not make sense to me that it was STILL dark at 8 am.. but then I thought about it and realized Madrid is probably farther back in the timezone that the city is in, as opposed to Chicago which is at the very front of CST. Thus, Madrid gets light later. Anyway. We had a few hour layover and I had to lug my huge bags/2 coats all around Barajas airport which was a chore. It's safe to say I was quite warm. We got through customs and stuff and our connecting flight didn't have a gate so a bunch of us sat at this small sandwich restaurant called "Rodilla" (pienso?). I got a bocadillo (MOST DELICIOUS SANDWICHES IN THE WORLD. Ham and cheese on a baguette type bread. Delicious). We sat around and chatted and stuff and eventually got up and found our connecting gate and went to wait for a while. The plane was late boarding (I am finding that as they say, Spaniards are always 10 minutes late at least with everything), but we all eventually got on and took off out of there. I was exhausted so I fell asleep for the 45 minute plane ride, but woke up in time to see us landing in BEAUTIFUL Granada. Granada is a city completely surrounded by mountains (including the Sierra Nevada). The airport is tiny, so they had to bring stairs to the airplane, and this is the view we got when getting off.

Ugh ok lies the picture won't upload right now but I WILL upload more tomorrow and I will continue to blog and promise that these posts won't be tiny!

Hello from Hannigan's!

Hi hi hi. This post probably won't be super long but WE ARE IN GRANADA! I'm posting from Hannigan's, which is an Irish pub in Granada, because our internet is actually terrible haha! I left on Tuesday at 445 pm from O'Hare with most other people on my program! We got there and I checked in with Cory and Meagan and we walked down the wrong terminal lugging our HUGE bags (literally they broke my back). When we got to the end of the L terminal we realized our gate was actually K19. Good job over here, I know. We finally got to our gate though and met a bunch of people and all hung out, and it kinddd of hit me that I was actually leaving and go to Spain. Real weird that I'm not going to be back until May. We got on the plane and it took off pretty close to the time it was supposed to. BUT, our seats were randomly assigned and I actually sat next to this girl Lauren, who I was supposed to meet because she was the cousin of a girl who grew up across the street from me in Schaumburg. It was a fun plane ride, we talked alot and I had my first LEGAL alcoholic beverage. See below.

High quality. I know. I gotta go for now but I will finish posting a bit later (probably tomorrow) and tell you the rest of my trip here and what we've been doing since. Chau for now!

Hello from Barrington

Welcome to my blog. Sorry this isn't more aesthetically pleasing. It's quite likely I'll be changing the look of it but for now, this is what it will be. I kind of like the top part though, I just want to be able to have a background image and I will figure that out eventually. Anyway! I leave for Granada, Spain tomorrow afternoon! Crazy to think that I have been thinking about studying abroad since my sister went to Madrid, Spain a few years ago. I will be living with a wonderful host family who I cannot wait to meet! I plan to travel all over Spain, as well as many parts of Europe! I can't wait to see tons of new places, meet new people and try new things! It's crazy that it's already here, but I cannot wait to go. This is funny. I feel weird blogging. But I kind of like it. This is all for now, my friends! Chau!