¡Málaga!

¡Me encantó Málaga! (I loved Málaga!)

this past weekend me and a group of my 7 friends went to málaga (home of picasso) which is a 2.5 hr train ride from sevilla.  we stayed in a hostel named "picasso's backpackers hostel" and the guy at the desk was a little cute french man named pier who we made friends with.  we arrived too early to check into our rooms so we decided to kill some time by getting a beer (obviously).  so we went to an irish pub where they served international beers and this one on the menu sounded delectable:  desperado, a light beer with a hit of tequila (and more that i cant remember). so i ordered it and what do they bring out?  a freakin corona!!! and it cost me 3 euros!  if i had known it was a corona i would have ordered a more exotic beer that i dont drink every day in the states....stupid irish bar!  

anwyways so we finally check in, change and go to the beach.  i immediately passed out.  i was running on 1 hour of sleep because our train was at 7am and i had to catch a bus at 630 and it takes me 30 mins to walk to the bus station.  so we had the bright idea to stay out all night and never go to bed.  that plan lasted until 5 when i couldnt stand up anymore so i slept for an hour.  needless to say i slept like a corpse.  the easiest thing to fall asleep to is the sound of the ocean....

that night we cooked dinner.  we had homemade guacamole, pasta salad, burgers and fruit salad.  it was amazing.  we feasted. it was glorious.  so we went out that night, got kidnapped by some spanish man who said he could get us into the "most exclusive club" in malaga.  i've seen better in sevilla but we still had a blast.  when we tried to leave they locked the doors and wouldnt let us out for a while!! it was funny/scary all at once

saturday was kinda rainy so we decided to pack for the beach and do some sight-seeing until it cleared up.  so we went to the picasso museum (my 2nd - 1st was in barcelona) which was nice as expected.  and then we climbed "the great wall of malaga" as we called it.  its really a fortress or castle or really big wall, i dont know.  but its goes all the way up this mini mountain and you can see all of malaga from it.  it was breath-taking.  i could have spent hours up there just looking out into the ocean, or turn around and look at the beautiful mountains right behind us.  as we were walking down i realized i lost a sandal!!! just one!!! i had put them in the side pockets of my backpack so i could wear them on the beach and one fell out!!!!  bummer!!! so i guess now i have an excuse to buy some new shoes ;-)

lunch that day we found some crazy pita place that in an odd way reminded me of chipotle (but nothing is better than chipotle).  the important part of this restaurant was that i had bbq sauce on my pita....again glorious.  and we met this mexican (yes mexican, not spanish) guy who told us to go to his friends bar (another mexican) where we could get free mojitos!  so of course we went!  but before we went to the coolest seafood restaurant right on the beach!  it was all fried food (yummmmmm)  and the waiters would walk around with plates in their hands, screaming out what it was and you would just point and say "¡queremos este!" (we want that!).  it was all sooooo good and we had no idea what we were eating.  after we botelloned (buy beer/wine/alcohol from the grocery store and drink in the streets - very spanish) on the beach and then got our free mojitos!  our gorgeous mexican took us to a discoteca, and next thing i knew it was 630am and we were still dancing!  on the way back to the hostel we got kebobs and then passed out for 4.5 hrs until we had to check out.  when we finally woke up we got dunkin coffee (its what they call dunkin donuts) and laid on the beach until our train left.

this was definitely my favorite trip so far and has been the inspiration behind my new life plan: graduate college, move to malaga and be a waitress/bartender.....sounds good right?!?!

¡besos!

omg its been over a month since ive last posted! but in my defense my computer crashed about 3 weeks ago!! my roommate let me use hers but i didnt want to inconvenience her too much.  but now my computer is better than new, thanks sooooo much to joe and my dad!  they sent me a new hard drive with more memory, so im up and running again!  so now ill give you a summery (but not quick because its been a month!) of everything that has happened!

so about a week after my last post i went to granada with my program for the weekend.  its a 3 hour bus ride from sevilla.  it was a gorgeous city, right on a mountain, so the entire city was hilly (the exact opposite of sevilla which is all flat).  the city is filled of narrow roads that cars wont fit on, walled with houses/apartments with potted plants in the windowsills.  we got to go to the cathedral where ferdinand, isabella, philip and juana are buried.  our guia (guide) told us the "true" story of juana la loca (the crazy).  this is how i remember it (but its been a month, and some parts are probably a little wrong):  ferdinand and isabella were king and queen when their daughter, juana married philip el hermoso (the handsome).  when ferdinand, isabella and their son died, juana was the next to rule spain.  her and philip ruled together for a while until he died suddenly.  juana's son was very ambitious and wanted to be king so he told everyone that his mother was so in love with philip that when he died she became crazy.  he sent her off to a monastery to be imprisoned until she died...pretty cool right?  so anyways we got to see their tombs and walk underground to where they are buried and it smelled horrible lol.  that night we went out to a popular night club and didnt get home until 530AM!  it was horrible because we had to be up at 830 to go to Alhambra.  once i got past being tired la alhambra was pretty cool.  its this HUGE (many acres) fort/palace.  you can see a lot of arabic influences in the architecture with the mosaics and fountains in the courtyards.  and i can imagine that during the summer it is beautiful with all of the gardens....my memory of granada ends here!

what else have i done?  i started my regular classes!  i am taking a class about "spain and european integration" aka about the EU.  the concept of the class is interesting but my professor is pretty boring.  we went over the same information for 3 weeks straight:   european communities the pillars of the EU.  that information could be hard, but we are barley skimming the surface.  it just gets old pretty quickly.  but my other classes i really like.  "spanish for business" is my favorite! my teacher, antonio, is great.  he is so energetic and add that he moves all over the room all the time.  and its information that i want to be learning.  it is exactly like my IB (international business) class in the states, just in spanish.  we are learning business terms, how to conduct business in the spanish world, and the global financial crisis (in spanish!)!  another class is "contemporary spanish film" but "contemporary" means all of film because in reality, cine (film) hasnt been around for that long.  so we are learning about the early spanish films, films made during francos rule and the censorship, and how the industry changed after franco died.  my last class is "flamenco" (but about the history and culture, we dont actually dance).  its pretty cool to learn the origins: gitano (gypsy) andaluz (andalusian) and otros (others).  i just had all 4 of my mid-terms today.  for the most part i think i did ok, but the spanish grading system is completely diferent from the US, so who knows how everything will turn out...pray for me!

im still taking flamenco dance lessons with maria rosa.  its very fun and we are getting better.  we are preparing to dance during feria (end of april) and its good taht there are 3 boys in our class because then we have someone to dance with!  and the other day maria rosa made me try on all her flamenco dresses and she picked one out for me to wear during feria and she kept saying "que guapa, como una modela" (how pretty, like a model).  its great living with her because everytime jacquelin and i leave the house she always tells us how guapa (beautiful) we look...such a confidence booster haha.

ok last thing before i sign off!  

andrew and i went to barcelona weekends ago.  our friend who is studying in rome, randi, was on her spring break and traveled there, so we thought it would be a good weekend trip for us.  we flew there, took the train and the metro in to our hostel.  it was our first real traveling experience (becasue everything else has been with our program) and we were pretty impressed with how well we did.  so we experienced the barcelona night life, which is a lot more expensive than sevilla.  we had to take taxis everywhere (which we never do in sevilla) and pay 2-3 euros for beer (when we normally pay 1-2). lol we are so cheap.  we went to this one bar named chupitos (shots) where there were over 200 different types of shots, may of which involved fire!!  i had one where the bartender lit my finger on fire then i put it out in my mouth.  another was called the "boy scout" where they set the bar on fire and you roast a marshmallow and use it as your "chaser" to your shot.  it was a fun night.....anyway....we got to see gaudi's casa batiló which was amazing.  definitely has to be the coolest place to live in.  and we also saw gaudi's sagrada familia (his cathedral) which is still under construction.  and the last thing of guadi that we saw was park guell with all of the mosaic animals.  the best part about barcelona was being able to see my roommate from psu Randi.  she is studying in rome and was on her spring break and went to barcelona, thus was the whole point of my trip to barcelona.  it was sooooo nice to be reunited with one of my girlies and also horrible to say goodbye to her again :(

ok....really the last thing now:

last friday my friends and i were feeling impulsive so we bought a bus ticket to cádiz (1 hr away) and went to the beach for the day.  it was so nice to hear the ocean and lay in the sun....dont worry i used protection!! i love that 30spf!   we were there from 9am to 9pm so we got a full day of relaxation.

ok now im going to relaxxxxxxxxx

besos!! steph