Granada and stuff

I know that I've been really bad about updating lately. I've just been SO busy! Midterms are all hitting... plus I have a project/presentation and paper in every class due within the next few weeks. I'm really sick of these classes... they're working us way too hard for study abroad. I think these classes are harder than the ones I have at TCU!

This past weekend Megan and I went to Granada. I LOVED it! I definitely think it was my favorite city in Spain so far. It's WAY smaller than Barcelona and it's just so quaint and pretty! All the buildings are gorgeous and they have so many cute little plazas and outdoor cafes.

We went to the cathedral and the Alhambra, which is a really old Spanish fortress, on the first day we got there. Pretty much the second we got our tickets and started walking towards it there was a TORRENTIAL downpour. We had umbrellas and jackets so we decided to just RUN because we only had an hour and a half til it closed. What ended up happening was that we got lost running around and the garden and became COMPLETELY drenched. We're talking not an inch of dryness on my jeans and shoes and socks completely soaked. We finally found the entrance to the palace and kinda had to rush through it to see it all. It was gorgeous though! The most amazing architecture! We did one of the little audio tour things, but we were so wet and cold that it was kinda hard to focus.

We went back to the hostel after that to get out of our wet clothes. Problem was that we only brought one pair of jeans since we were only staying 2 days. LESSON LEARNED: always travel with extra clothes. Needless to say, we spent the next hour sitting in the hostel blowdrying our pants to a wearable dryness. We went out that night to a couple of bars that were really cool. For every drink you buy, they bring you a tapa (appetizer type thing) FREE. And with each new drink they bring you a new tapa. We had a few drinks and basically ate dinner for free!

The next day we went to the Albayzin, don't quote my spelling. It's the old Islamic quarter of Granada, up on a hilltop, overlooking the city and the Alhambra. It was beautiful! Small, winding streets, and all the buildings were white sandstone. It was sooo beautiful to walk through... until we started seeing signs like "daily violent muggings" written in English and posted all over the walls. We then got really freaked out and made our way out of there as quickly as possible. Apparently it's only really dangerous at night, but it still scared us a lot! We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping (I bought lots of cute stuff!) and eating lunch. We caught the bus to the airport that afternoon and had a ridiculously long flight home, finally landing around 11pm. We pretty much crashed when we got home.

Since then I've just been busy trying to keep up with all my homework and studying. Sarah's coming to visit from Seville this weekend! I'm so excited! It's the first weekend we've stayed in Barca in a while. It'll be kind of nice.

I'm really sad that I missed my cousin's wedding this past weekend! It would have been really nice to see everyone... but it's not exactly easy or cheap to fly home for the weekend. So I'll just have to imagine it through everyone's pictures!

I can't believe how fast time is flying by! I think I only have like 37 more days here, or something crazy like that! Oh well! I guess I'll just have to live it up! Salamanca and Venice are still to come!