oh the end is near...

Friends!!

Our time in spain is ending in only 2 days!! Where did the time go? Dont worry though we have certainly made the most of this past week by cutting out the random boring things we were gonna do (science museum? yea right we dont have time for lame things like that!) and replacing them with crazy adventurous things (mountain biking in the sierra nevadas? done it!). anyways, here is a brief synopsis of the highlights of each day this last week...

Wednesday-Watched the US dominate España in futbol.. in a bar surrounded by spaniards. (plus the last night at our favorite discoteca... sad )

Thursday- Mountain Biking in the Sierra Nevadas... best time we have ever had! Straight uphill biking for 5 miles and then straight downhill falling/ biking/ walking for 4 miles. muy intensivo. Liz, somehow was the only person in our whole group who didnt fall at all so she has nothing cool to share here... i however, had a great wipeout into a prickly bush in which i received a clementine sized bruise on my hip to show of the next day at the beach. We both however received the most intense bruising on our "sits" bones that are still hurting us now.

at night, we went to a new discoteca in the "caves" up by the albaicin. Incredibly fun time minus the fact that we had to walk 5 miles in our brand new awesomely european heels and then dance 4 hours. the swelling caused by our heels after we took them off that night gave us strap marks for the next day, bruises and several blisters. oh the cost of beauty!

Friday-Saturday- class then "the Clemson Girls"- as we are called by the rest of the group -took off for the sandy beaches of Cadíz... There were no hostels to be found (even though we searched on the internet that day and after we arrived) So, we decided to make the most of our time by passing a few hours at a local tapas bar and then dancing the night away at the discoteca... when they closed at 6:30 am we took to the beach where we planned to sleep the rest of the night. To our surprise, it was amazingly cold that night and we were forced to rely on eachothers body heat for warmth! Lets just say wearing every piece of clothing we had brought and spooning hardcore makes for some great memories (all parents reading this- dont even worry we slept with our mace!). We made up for our lack of sleep the entire next day as we soaked up the rays! What a great trip!!

(sidenote- at one point we considered if we could get in trouble for sleeping on the beach... without even thinking alyssa responded by saying, "im sure we're fine, there are other homeless people on the beach too." )

Sunday- a very needed relaxed day catching up on sleep and showers (since we hadnt showered since thursday... dont judge, we were homeless) then last night had an amazing time with our AIFS group at a goodbye party drinking some great wine, eating some great dinner and watching a very cool Flamenco show.

Monday- skipping class to "study" and blog... we WILL ace our exams tomorrow!

We plan on seeing a spanish movie tonight since we didnt get to see one last week...

Tomorrow- We plan to take our exams, pack up, hit up a bar one last time and maybe sleep or maybe not before we fly out wednesday morning! Elizabeth, Kimberly and Alyssa head to Barcelona for three days while i head home. (be sure to ask Elizabeth about her adventures in Barcelona, im sure she will have many more cool stories!)

As we leave, we reminisce about things we miss from the states and things we will miss from España:

Things we miss from the states:

-Free refills

-Whole wheat bread

- Being able to pay separately at a restaurant

-Veggies

-Cereal!!!

-Polite men who dont yell "guapa" at you everywhere you go

-working out

- Dryers

- Shower heads that aren't detachable

-CVS (medicine is impossible to get here... oh my lengua barrier)

- "No smoking" signs

Things we will miss from España:

-Manolo!!!

-Siestas cada dia

- Legally enjoying a drink or two

- Discotecas

-Free tapas with a drink

-Guapos

- Cheap and easy transportation between cities

- Getting 6 credits for the easiest classes of our lives

-All our friends we have made here- particularly Lola, our favorite teacher ever

- 40- 50 Cerezas (cherries) a day

- donuts at dunkin coffee (because we know we have to start eating healthy again when we return home)

- and although we hate to admit it... pan (bread), we will miss you!

We Love you all! thanks for sharing in our adventures during our time in Spain!! See you soon!

-Janelle and Elizabeth

lots done with lots left to do

Hola friends!

First of all, happy fathers day to... my dad and elizabeths dad (who are probably the only fathers reading this blog) we love you and are sad we cant celebrate you both in person!

Anyways, Elizabeth and I just returned from a trip to Sevilla and Córdoba which was very fun! We went on several bus tours, saw cathedrals in both cities, hit up the night scene in Sevilla and almost died of heat. For real... both cities clocked in at about 109 degrees Farenheit! Needless to say we sweat a ton and drank lots of fluids. That being said though, both cities were gorgeous and were full of the charm we have come to expect from Spanish cities.

To ensure that we accomplish all that we want to do and experience here in Granada, Elizabeth and I have created a "to experience" list... we did several things this past week and have several more to accomplish in this next and last week:

DONE:

- The Arabic Baths- 2 hours of lounging in 5 pools of varying temperatures while sipping té verde followed by a 15 min massage. the best part, it was cheap!

-Bus Tour around Granada- you are clearly not a native when you get on bus #11 in Granada and stay on it from start to finish as it circles the city... yes we have done that!

-Running in Parque Garcia Lorca- a beautiful park very close to our apartment.. complete with random workout equipment, a duck pond and plenty of couples making out, at all times of the day.

-Téteria- Really chill arabic influenced hookah places with sofas where you can opt to sip té verde instead of smoke. very relaxing!

- Crepes- enough said.

- Tapas with some locals- did it.

- Fancy Dinner at the Albaicin- The old part of Granada is called the Albaicin which is gorgeous and overlooks the Alhambra. We got dressed up and went with some friends to have some fondue sitting outside on a balcony that showed the full beauty of the Alhambra lit up at night... it was truly breathtaking. Also, elizabeth and I were the only ones who split chocolate fondue for dessert... we didnt even feel guilty of embarrassed because it was so amazingly good.

TO EXPERIENCE:

- The Science Museum- apparently a very cool hands on museum in Granada that isn't very pricey... we plan to visit on Monday

-Cine- view a spanish movie... we are doing this with our group on Wednesday

-Cadiz- a beautiful beach that we have been told by several people (including Manolo!) that we absolutely need to visit- we are going for the day on Saturday hopefully!

Will keep you posted this next week as we wrap up our time here... much love!

Janelle and Elizabeth

El Campo... even better than we expected

Dear Friends,

As many of you know Elizabeth and I have been eagerly waiting to visit "el campo" with our señor and the rest of our spanish family... little did we know what the day would hold!

The events of the day are as follows:

 30 minute drive to el campo with Mateo, their son, who it turns out speaks english! Oh my! We had no idea!  However, he chooses to still speak spanish with us because he isn't great at english.  

Tour of the very old house which was handed down to Manolo and his siblings from their parents... a little creepy with lots of catholic church symbols and artifacts.. but still very gorgeous.

Tour of the land which included helping manolo cut the horse food/ grass stuff with a machete, seeing all the gardens, watching them wash the horses, feeding and "riding" the horses, etc

sidenote: a little story for your enjoyment... 

Manolo asked us if we wanted to get on one of their horses... bareback.  Due to some intestinal issues elizabeth graciously declined.  I however, not wanting to miss an opportunity for fun, agreed even though I was wearing a dress.  I managed to lunge onto the horse with Mateo's help without flashing anyone and still maintaining my dignity.  Unfortunately I hadn't been told that this was the most skittish horse in the world.  after several pictures but before I could prepare myself... the horse freaked out from the flies, reared up, fell over and threw me off.  Thankfully there were no serious injuries.

Lunch with the Family and then siesta for about two hours.

Cherry picking in the fields with Manolo! (We have the best picture of us with Manolo and the cherry trees...he is in the middle of eating a cherry with his mouth open in a perfect circle. It is priceless!)

FYI: By this point in the day, I had broken out into hives everywhere! Apparently I'm allergic to only foreign horses, because I didn't break out when I rode them in colorado.  My eyes were swollen and I had rashes all over my legs and face..i was a mess! 

Lastly, we drove home with Mateo, ate dinner, then did homework and went to bed. 

We have a full week of school this week....it's going to be a long week.  We're getting tapas with one of our Spanish friends tomorrow and maybe going to the creperia (for crepes) later this week.  big news... We put new sheets on our beds today! haha it's funny though because they dont have dryers here so the laundry is just a bit crunchy!  Its ok though because we're so thankful that our senora does our laundry:)

I think that's about it for now.  We're going to Seville and Cordoba this weekend with our AIFS group! 

Adios amigos,

Janelle and Elizabeth

 

Oh my CajaMadrid!!!

Aceptas las tarjetas de credito?

That has been the sentence that we have heard over and over again on this trip because one of our friends accidentally only has a credit card with her haha. AND, CajaMadrid (a bank in Spain) ate my ATM card when I tried to get cash! No worries though, I got it back the next morning.

Janelle and I just got back this morning at about 5am from our trip to Madrid/Toledo.  We did a lot of walking and wandering but had an awesome time.  Our bus to Madrid left Wednesday afternoon so we spent some time Wednesday in Granada watching the parade for Corpus Christi and packing for our trip.  The bus ride was about 5 hours so we arrived Wednesday night and then took the metro into the city to find a hostel.  We found a great hostel in no time.  The four of us had a room and a bathroom to ourselves.  After we found a hostel off puerta del sol, we went to a bar to grab some food before bed.  Janelle got meatballs that were soooo good.  The rest of us just ate the free pan (bread) and churizos (sausage) that are very popular in Spain.  One thing we've discovered about spain is that PDA (public display of affection) is very common here...people do not hold back.  For example, at the bar wednesday night, there was a couple to my right, a couple behind janelle and a couple to my left all making out!! We were surrounded.  I never would've thought that the metro would be a good place to make out either, but apparently it is! 

Thursday morning we got up and headed into the center of Madrid to grab breakfast and do some shopping! We all got churros finally (they're like donuts but not circular that you dip in chocolate...kind of hard to describe) and cafe con leche.  Then, we went to a few stores on Gran Via and bought some european/80's clothes haha. I got my first pair of real skinny jeans and janelle got a sweet pair of pink converses.  We then decided to head to Retiro park to find some lunch and walk around.  Retiro was beautiful and huge! We ate a cafe there and relaxed for a while before we decided what to do.  By this point in the day, we were so hot because we had already been walking a lot.  We kept seeing this tour bus pass by called Madrid Vision so we decided to do it.  Let's just say we spent the rest of the day taking wrong turns, walking miles, and eventually finding Madrid Vision only to realize that they were closed because of the holiday Corpus Christi.  Another one of our goals for the day was to see the Real Madrid stadium. So, as soon as we found out madrid vision was closed, we looked up the Real Madrid and saw that it closed at 6:30 on holidays...it was 6:40.  We were so hot and exhausted so we fell asleep in the park in front of Palacio Real (once again surrounded by couples making out).  Another thing we learned about Spaniards is that everyone knows their way (or at least think they do).  We asked a ton of people for directions and nobody ever said they weren't sure.  That left us with so many different opinions that we had to find our own way.  It ended up being a great day though because we realized that sometimes the best way to see the city is to take a few wrong turns and get a feel for the real spots, rather than just the touristy places. Anyways, that night we grabbed dinner and ice cream, then headed to bed early.

Friday we went to Toledo!!!!!!!!!!! We LOVED it! It was my favorite.  It was absolutely beautiful, and they had so many cool swords and armor everywhere haha.  We got to see a museum of art, the alcazar, a cathedral, and some beautiful side streets.  Lunch was an experience in Toledo.  Sometimes we regret not buying a travel book with recommended restaurants because we always end up stumbling into the ones that look good but are not.  I ordered "lomo" because we couldn't figure out what is was and I was curious...I still don't know what it is.  I think it's the back of a hog or something haha. Lomo means back or loin...so it's probably something gross.  It wasn't that bad though.  I have a slight bruise on my nose now because our chinese waitress banged my head with janelle's pasta plate while six workmen starred at us from the bar in a spanish restaurant.  It was the weirdest thing ever, but hilarious.  We had been walking all day in the heat (at record high's!) so we were pretty exhausted.  We wanted to make it to Plaza del Torros but it was too far to walk and Toledo doesn't have a Metro.  We took a train back to Madrid at 5:30.  (the trains are awesome here...it only took us 25 min) 

Janelle and I met her brother-in-law's sister, Miriam, outside the metro that night and hung out with her and her fiance, Jonathan, until our bus ride back at 11:30.  Miriam and Jonathan were so nice! I loved them.  It was such a blessing to get to spend time with christians from spain who knew their way around.  We also got to see Isaac's (janelle's brother in law) parents. They were so sweet.  We thought we were going to miss our 11:30 bus ride, but thanks to Jonathan saving the day, we made it in perfect time!

Well, that's it for now.  We're gonna head out to take a bus around the city of Granada today. We're hopefully going to get to go to "el campo" tomorrow with Manolo, but we're not sure. Monday we have Arabic baths on our schedule...can't wait for that! Buenas Dias!

Elizabeth and Janelle

One week til El Campo with Manolo!

Hello Amigos!

Good news first: (there is no bad news by the way): Our señor, Manolo, told us today that he would take us with him to "el campo"(his house in the countryside) next sunday! We are so excited....a day with Manolo! Yes! If only we could understand him!  It's like, we're coming back early from our trip to pick cherries with Manolo at el campo! YAY

Not too much has happened since our last post, but I'll fill you in on a few things.  Yesterday, we visited the Alhambra, a famous palace in Granada, and it was B-E-A-U-tiful.  The weather was awesome and it was the perfect day to go.  When we got back, Janelle and I took a nap (of course) for about 3 hours (as usual).  We then got up, ate dinner and went out with some friends for the night.  We went to the discoteca, danced the night away and then came back to get some sleep before La playa!  We spent today laying out on a beach called Almuñecar that we went to with our AIFS group.  It was a much needed day of relaxation and vitamin D. We layed out, ate helado, and took some interesting walks/hikes to the nearby rocks at the point. Janelle and I can now say that we've gone completely under (even though the water was shockingly cold) and successfully peed in the Mediterranean. 

This coming week, there's a holiday going on in Spain called Corpus Christi and we don't have school wednesday thursday or friday. Hooooorayy! Janelle, Kim, Alyssa, and I are planning on going to Madrid, Toledo, and possibly Malaga.  I can't wait!  Well, that's all for now! 

Adios,

Elizabeth and Janelle

P.S. We love school here. Although we have class for 5 hours a day, the most homework we've had is 10 minutes a night!  We learn a ton in class and so they don't give a lot of work (so far at least). It rocks! 

We sleep in 3 hour increments!!

The past week in review...

hola friends! this past week has been crazy but full of many hilarious stories and adventures. Elizabeth and I started class on tuesday which we have together (thankfully) for 5 hours each day in the smallest room in the world.. essentially an office. Classes are interesting, we like 2 of our teachers alot, one is really funny and all the guys in the class are in love with her, but the 3rd is kind of annoying and elizabeth has to sit next to a girl with the smelliest feet in the world and the class is so small we both get wiffs every so often, so thats unfortunate AND in one of our classes everyone is essentially fluent which we love since it means we are humbled every day (kidding, it stinks).

Other than just class, we have also had several planned events with our group including: a visit to the Cathedral which was gorgeous and interesting to hear all about the history of Granada and Ferdinand and Isabella (who are buried here) , an arabic tea ceremony where we saw a belly dancer and heard her tell the stories of 1001 nights and sinbad the sailor, and finally, an "intercambio"where the program arranged for us to have tapas with some local spanish students... it was so fun and we loved making friends with some of the locals so we can hang out with them some more! ALSO tomorrow we get to see the Alhambra which will be incredible!

lets see... we also have hit up the discotecas several times which are crazy but so incredibly fun. the hard part is that things dont get hopping around here until around midnight or later which makes for sleep in little increments... so here is a typical day for us:

7:30 am- wake up (except the one day that we went running, we'll see if that happens again)

8:15- Eat "breakfast"- heres the thing about breakfast in spain... it doesnt really exist. This fact has caused elizabeth and I many hours of starvation during class from 9 am to 2:45 when we finally eat lunch. therefore we have to pack several snacks, however we are both beginning to run of granola bars and may eventually have to settle for spanish twinkies from the vending machine. All they eat here is bread and olive oil.

8:30am- 20 min walk to class which causes our feet to become grimey and always includes elizabeth tripping at least once on the cobblestone and me sliding on the limestone sidewalks

9-2:15 pm- class- for 5 hours makes for an incredibly long day keeping in mind the smelly feet and the starvation

2:45 pm- delicious lunch with our senora and senor, finally

sidenote: we absolutely love our family... but we adore our senor. we dont really understand him that well because of his strong lisp but we have realized that he is incredibly sarcastic and therefore the cutest old man we know. For example, he collects little knives and uses a different one every meal to slice even his bread. also he chuckles at his own jokes (the ones we dont understand), his face has a permanent tint of white due to the sunscreen he applies every day even though we dont think he goes outside all day. anyways he is adorable and his name is manolo and we love him.

3:30-7:30 pm- siesta/ group activity- if we have a planned activity (which we usually do) we only have time to do homework before we leave, otherwise we try to squeeze in a tiny nap

sidenote: on the rare occasions we attempt to sleep for an hour or so, annoying street workers decide to use the stinkin jackhammer right outside our window... building a subway in the city comes at a high price... our sleep!

7:30- 8:30 pm- tapas/ walking around/ shopping/ helado, etc- we love wandering around the beautiful streets here and trying to ask random strangers in spanish where things are

9:00 pm- another delicious meal with our family- both meals include some awkward silences and alot of us trying to get as much practice speaking spanish even though its hard and we aren't very good at it, but we make a great team!

9:30-11:30- NAP!- its true, sometimes we nap after dinner so we have energy to go out! if we dont nap we do our homework or relax in our room

11:30- 3- discoteca!

sidenote: on the weekends some places dont get going until around 2 or 3 so it makes for much later nights

3-7:30- sleep!

so that is the summary of our days in spain! we would love to tell you more stories (ask elizabeth about the day her skirt blew completely up in the air and exposed her backside 3 times or the time we got locked out of our apartment because we are retards and cant use our key) ... we will fill you in again as things happen! we appreciate your prayers!

much love,

janelle and elizabeth

May 30 and 31st

As of June 2 our address changed again! sorry, the new address is listed below... thanks!

May 31

Hi everyone! Janelle and I landed safely in Spain today! Hoorah! We didn't get any sleep last night because we had to be ready to leave for the airport at 2:30am but it's ok we slept some on the plane and on the bus ride from Málaga to Granada. We arrived at el centro de Neptuna and met our Señora Trini Martinez. She is so nice. We LOVE her. She's married and had three sons--two older ones, one of which is married and a younger son in his 20's. Two of them live at home and are helpful because they speak a little english. We had two meals with our family today and they were delicious. Our señora is an excellent cook, and we loved the food. Although our speaking skills aren't great, we got along okay and I'm sure they will improve:)

May 30

This was a great day! The night before, Janelle, a few other girls and I ate at this Thai restaurant because curry is a popular dish in London. The restaurant was great, but I'm not a fan of curry. It was so spicy, it was burning our throats! haha. After that, we were so exhausted that we went straight to bed at around 10:30. The next day, we woke up for a tour of the city. We saw everything including Big ben, London eye, Buckingham palace, St. Paul's cathedral, Westminister, the Tower of London, London bridge, Drury lane, fleet street (from sweeney todd) and a lot of museums and pretty churches. Our tour ended at Covent Gardens, which is basically a market with great food and a lot of shops. Janelle and I split a "pasty" for lunch which is a common food in London kind of similar to a hot pocket but a different shape. It's filled with a meat and potatoes and veggies usually. It was yummy but boy was it expensive! London was really expensive altogether, especially since it's in pounds which is almost double the dollar. After covent gardens, we rode the tube (which is the subway) to knightsbridge road. Knightsbridge is the place to shop! All the high dollar stores are located here. We went to Harrod's, which is a famous shop in london. It was huge! It had six floors and really really expensive stuff haha. After our shopping, we went to Hyde park to lay down for a while. Hyde park is cool because it's encircled by a horse track so you would see people riding horses randomly haha. Next, we went to Trafalgar square and took some pictures then finally ended up at Drury lane where we ate at the Prince of Whales pub. It was such an awesome place...we felt like locals haha! I loved it! Then, we went back to the hotel for a power nap before going out for the night with some of our new AIFS friends. It was so fun! The british were really friendly and we met some really nice locals.

Funny story: Cute british boy ran into a car on his bicycle. All gasp, then Elizabeth accidentally asks in a strong brit accent, "Are you okay?" He says "yes" then we continued the conversation in strong american accents. He was probably so confused haha! oops!

Quote:

"We're playing a little game of jickery pockery"-Tour guide in regards to the chaos of traffic

New address:

AIFS in Granada

Plaza del Campillo 2

Edificio Marcia, 3*E

18009 Granada, Spain

Love, Elizabeth and Janelle