Last Days in Spain

Gordita!

I cannot believe my semester in Spain has come to an end. It seems that just yesterday I was signing papers to sign up for the program and having no idea what the semester would bring. It's a very bittersweet feeling to know that it's over. I can't wait to go home and see everyone, but at the same time my life here has been amazing and it will be sad to leave such an beautiful city, and amazing host family. In the time I've spent here, I've done more than I normally would in a year.

My younger host sister, Leticia, and the other puppy!

View from their balcony in Jubrique

These last few weeks have been pretty fun. The past two weekends I went to the "pueblo" with my host family. They have a house on the side of the Sierras, and another around the other side of the mountain in a town called Jubrique. Both of them are beautiful. From the mountains you can see not only the Mediterranean, but the coast of Africa as well as Gibraltar since it's only about 10km away. They definitely were relaxing weekends. No computer, TV, or city noises! Plus it's a lot cooler there than in Granada. It's been very hot lately and it's almost unbearable to sit in the sun. My host sister and I spent one day playing with her aunt's puppies. I pulled out about 50 ticks from them... I couldn't help it! Her aunt's dogs at that house are for hunting, so they aren't trained very well and are kept outside with dog houses and access to water and food, however they have so many ticks. The puppies are adorable and if they had said I could, I would have taken the brown chubby one home with me (Leticia and I called her Gordita (fatty) since she isn't named yet). I was happy to go there again this past weekend so I could stay occupied and not think about the three days that I had left in Spain.

My host parents sitting next to me, Celestina and Fernando, and my professor Marco

Before our classes ended we had a group dinner with the host parents at a pizza place, called Pizza Metro. True to their name, the pizzas are one meter long. It was nice to see everyone all together since it rarely happens outside of class.

My only final exam I had went very well. It would've been hard to do poorly since our professor told us exactly what was on the exam. Besides class, I spent the last days walking around getting last minute gifts and souvenirs, drinking sangria, and hanging out with friends before they all left. Several times we went to one of my favorite spots in the city that overlooks the city and the La Alhambra. It's quite the hike to get up there since it's on the side of a mountain, but it's worth every step. If you go during sun set the sun sets off to the right of the city, and right after the Alhambra is lit up. You can see practically all of the city, the Alhambra right in front of you, and the mountains right behind it. Tour groups pass through here at night but people also come and drink wine, play flamenco, and admire the pretty view.

This is only a fraction of the team!

I also had my last practice with the Granada Club team. I'm so happy I had the opportunity to train with them here. I met a lot of really nice people and had some exposure to different training methods. Before I started with them I was running by myself most of the time and ended up having issues with my calves. It hurt so much to run for 3 miles, that I needed to take time off. Had I not met the team, I don't know if I would have continued to run while I was here had it not been for the team! Plus I got to practice Spanish more! The group of kids on the team is an awesome group, not to mention very fast!
It's honestly overwhelming to think back on all the things I've done and am going to miss about Granada and Spain. I could not have asked for a better semester, and am so thankful that it happened. Tomorrow is back to real life! I can't wait to see my family and friends, especially Riley (the dog)!!

My first (and last) bull fight

The Tuesday after returning from Barcelona, about 10 of us went to see the first bull fight in Granada. Before I saw it, I knew it would be quite the shocking event to watch. I am not for the bull fights nor support them, minus the 20E for the ticket, because it truly is a brutal sport. One of my professors is passionately against them, as are most Spaniards, and spent a good 5 minutes of class discussing how the brutality does not represent Spain and should never be used as a symbol to represent it's people because most do not relate to it. This comes as a shock to many people because they think Spain and bull fights go hand in hand, however it couldn't be any more untrue. Only about 15% of Spaniards are in favor of them. Since there is little funding for the events, tourism being one of them, citizens are taxed to keep these events running. Provinces such as Catalunya have prohibited them, and others are trying to do so. However, I figured it was worth watching once to witness as one of my other professors puts it "the beauty and brutality of humans and animals".

In every bull fight there are 6 fights, 6 matadors. In this particular event there were a few very famous matadors, "Cordobes", y "El Fandi". They're celebrities like Angelina Jolie and are often found in sections of magazines such as People or whatever Spanish version of that we have here.
The first kill was the most shocking to watch. My stomach twisted into knots as I saw the bull die, blood pouring out of the mouth, people cheering, and the bull keel over. The object is to tire the bull out until it has no fight in it left, and kill it as swiftly as possible. There is a point at the back of their neck where both shoulder blades meet that has a gap between them underneath the skin. If the matador does it right, the sword enters here and goes directly down to its vital organs, killing it very quickly. If not, it bounces off or does not enter all the way and the matador needs to do it again. Two out of the six fights were absolutely awful. At the end of a fight once the bull is dead, the matador receives one ear, two ears, or both ears and the tail. If it was horrible he receives nothing, but if its good its one ear, both its really good, and all three is stupendous. We saw performances where they received nothing, one ear, and a few two ears. There is a judges table where they grade him on many things such as performance, how the crowd reacts, the kill, and many other things I don't know of.

One of the performances I thought didn't deserve an ear or anything at all, was very painful to watch. The bull ended up having to bleed to death because he stuck the sword in wrong. No one wants to see that, especially the matador. It's very shameful, embarrassing, and disgusting to watch. These matadors have been practicing since childhood, and as my professor puts it, "have a weird bond/connection with the bulls". They above all people don't want to see it die horribly, which is odd to think about since it's their profession. Typically after their fight they do a walk around the ring waving to the audience, but this matador simply just stood in place and twirled and left with his head hung low. I don't even think he grabbed his ear.
The last fight was the most incredible. The bull was beautiful, and never stopped fighting. Overall, I'd say he won this fight. The matador was less experienced, and decided to plop himself on his knees in front of the gate before the bull came out (see video below). This fight lasted a while, and at times it seemed the bull was bored of it. He would walk away, and the matador would slap him in the ass to get him to turn around. When the matador went for the first kill, we all knew it was too early. The bull was distracted by the crowd still, and still energized, and not tired out at all. The kill was awful because even after the third, fourth, and fifth time the matador tried, the bull was still on his legs. I think the matador was exhausted and misjudged the bull big time. He was the one matador that didn't receive anything. After the bull died, he was beyond ashamed. He was crying uncontrollably, and the other matador's offered their support, but he was in shambles.

The matador is fine in the end, he didn't get spiked by the bull, only prodded. Perhaps this is why the fight ended up being so bad. I can imagine the matador was quite shaken up after this!

Barcelona!

For my five day vacation this past weekend, eight of us went to Barcelona! Overall the weather was cloudy and rainy, but the sun eventually broke through the last day to make the end of the trip very nicely. We arrived late Thursday night, so the following morning we all woke up and headed to the Sagrada Familia which was a 15 minute walk from our hostel. I've seen too many cathedrals to count since I've been in Spain, but by far this structure is the most incredible I've ever seen. It is a Basilica due to its artistic design, and it has taken 126 years to build what is standing today with much more to be done. The inside is finished, but a 170 meter tower, one side of the building, and many more things, have yet to be completed. There are four 100 meter high towers that are absolutely enormous, so it's hard to imagine another almost twice as high! Sagrada Familia was the last project Gaudi worked on, and he only got to see some of it constructed before he died due to injuries after being hit from a tram. The Basilica has faced some set backs in its time. During the civil war in Spain, parts of the inside were destroyed as well as many of Gaudi's drawings and models. In fact if it weren't for a bridge in the structure that served as a lookout/shooting point during the war, the whole thing might have been destroyed because it stood for everything the rebels were against. The inside of it is breathtaking and like nothing I have ever seen or will see. Gaudi disliked traditional straight lines and right angles because he thought them to be boring. All of his work is influenced by nature and his designs always serve for some purpose besides their unique appearance. When entering the Sagrada Famlia, it feels as if you stepped into a forest because the pillars branch out at the top and the bottom making them look like trees. All of the windows are not finished but the ones that are, are the most vibrant and colorful stained glass windows I've ever seen. When all of them are stained, the inside will definitely feel more earth-like from all the deep blues and greens.

Walkway in Parc Guell designed by Gaudi

The other major works we saw by Gaudi were Casa Batllo, Parc Guell, and La Pedrera. The buildings easily stand out from far away since they look nothing like any of the buildings around them. The owner of La Pedrera actually wanted his house to look just like Casa Batllo, but when Gaudi built it he made it look nothing like the drawing he made for the owner. At the time some people thought it was so ugly, supposedly mother's would cover their children's eyes as they passed to shield them from such an ugly sight. The wife of the owner hated it, and the day Gaudi died she had her ceiling re-plastered. However that was all in the past, and today people adore the different styled architecture. The rooftop of La Pedrera is fantastic, however I did not pay to go up and see it. Google images does it better justice than any picture I could take! One of my favorite places I visited in Barcelona is Parc Guell, a park designed by Gaudi. Originally, he built it with the intention that people would buy plots of land and it would become a giant real estate area. However, only three people lived there, Gaudi, his friend, and apprentice, so eventually it was turned into a public park. As my friends and I walked through the park we saw some musicians, people dancing, people having picnics, exercising, and of course touring the park. It's a very large park with colorful gardens and beautiful walkways and structures. Since it's set up on a hill, you can see just about all of Barcelona to the bay. 
Besides seeing Gaudi's work and going on tours about them, we also took a tour of the Old City which is the section of Barcelona that existed before it was conquered. In general, it was a very informative history lesson and we got to see the old neighborhoods and oldest buildings in Barcelona. We also learned about some Catalan traditions. One that is particularly different, is that in every nativity scene there is an extra figure besides Mary, Jesus, Joseph, the three kings.. etc. It's a person squatting and pooping. This is completely serious. It's supposed to symbolize giving back to the earth what we take from it. So around Christmas time you can go into shops and get celebrity squatters as souvenirs, or also your Christmas pooping log. The other Christmas tradition that's different also has to do with poop. Instead of a big fat man delivering the presents by a sleigh led by reindeer, families have logs with little faces on them that children sing to, leave food out for, and pet to bring presents. By 'bringing presents' I mean pooping them out.
One other tradition that we were able to witness is human towers. Sunday, in front of the Sagrada Familia, teams gathered to do their tower. It's a human pyramid sort of, but instead of people on all fours you're standing on shoulders. The base counts as one story, and they can go as high as 9 levels high. It's completed when the child at the top raises his or her hand. As the tower gets higher, the people get smaller and smaller, so the person at the top is probably as young as 5 or 6 years old. It's pretty nerve racking to watch since the people shake and the tower sways, but one local promised us they never fall, no matter how much they shake and sway. Despite what she told us, we learned on our tour that in the past people have died from falling, but its not very common.
We made our way a few times towards the beach and port, which was a very nice long walk. Almost every day we were there, we stopped for lunch at a small local shop called Bo De B. They have sandwiches for about 3,50E you can take away, and they are the best I've ever had! We were advised to get there early because exactly at 1:00pm, when they open, a line forms. Since it's a tiny shop, you could end up waiting outside for quite some time! You can ask for chicken, tuna, smoked salmon, beef, vege, and add all the sauces and vegetables you want. It's making me hungry just thinking about it!
On our last day we wanted to take the gondola up to the castle that overlooks the city. However, we somehow didn't find where to get on until we were almost there, so we had quite the hill to hike. The castle wasn't very big, but had gorgeous gardens and fountains around it, not to mention a great view of the city. The great thing about Barcelona is there is the busy city, but also big parks with lots of green and a beach nearby.
All the walking definitely made me tired this past week, but it was all obviously well worth it. The architecture is beautiful and at night the city is very pretty. However, I was happy to return home to Granada. Exploring and traveling a lot this past month has really made me want to explore and roam around Granada even more since less than a month is what remains of my semester!

Some friends and I at the port of Barcelona

Semana Santa and Italia!

These last few weeks have been filled with lots of school work and traveling. The week before Easter is Semana Santa (Saint week) in Spain, which is our spring break. All week long there are processions from every church during the day and night, late into the morning. Many of these were cancelled due to the rain which was a surprise because it rarely rains in Spain, especially in the plain (My Fair Lady anyone?!), and the one time it had to rain was this week. People were devastated because they practice all year long for this! All parts of Spain have different processions. In one part people gather and pound on drums for 26 hours in a plaza. If there's blood stains on their drums it means they did a good job. Here in Granada one of the famous ones that got cancelled is the silent procession. The people march to the beat of a drum, which is extremely slow, for miles. There is not a peep in the crowd, and if someone so happens to say something they are instantly shushed by everyone around them. The people in the procession wear penitents (the pointy hats the Ku Klux Klan uses). For American's it can be uncomfortable to see this, but the uniform has been in use since the Middle Ages designed to let people practice penance publicly without revealing their identity. The penitents may walk the streets barefoot wearing chains or carrying crosses in imitation of Christ's Passion. They are in every procession from Holy Thursday till Saturday, and women in the processions typically dress in all black carrying large candles or rosary beads (or both). When a float of the Virgin Mary goes by people shout "guapa!". The floats weigh a lot, and there can be about 24 men carrying it at the same time, sometimes barefoot. They make their way around narrow streets, up and down mountain sides, and all across the city, without any accidents. They used to use the historic relics from the churches, but now its all copies since there isn't any protection from the rain.
                                                                                           
For the majority of my week I was in Italy with eight other friends. We stayed three nights in Rome and then one other friend and I stayed in Florence for three nights. Rome was absolutely incredible. There are too many things to do in Rome and if I had been there for a month I would still have many things to see. The major things we saw were,  the Colosseum, Palatine, Roman Forum, The Trevi Fountain, Spanish steps, The Vatican, catacombs and much more. It was crazy to see so many things I've only ever seen pictures of. It was the perfect time of the year to go because all the trees and flowers had started to bloom! It was very beautiful. We were  in Rome on Palm Sunday, so we thought it would be a good experience to try and attend Palm Sunday mass in St. Peter's square with the Pope. I wasn't too positive that we would get the tickets because we only applied for them three days before. After waiting in a terribly long line to enter the Basilica, I was greeted by Swiss guards and sent to a room with boxes filled with envelopes. As they searched on a large list for my name, I was starting to get doubtful as I was staring at all the packets, but he found my name and we got the tickets! Mass was very pretty and absolutely packed. Even though I didn't understand the majority of the mass, it was well worth it!
A main reason I was so excited for Italy was the food. Every time I smelt food from a restaurant or pastry shop, my mouth instantly watered from craving real pizza and Italian food for such a long time, and it smelt like that at about every corner. One of the things I had to test were the cannolis. I am a huge fan of them, especially from Mike's Pastry, (who isn't?), but I had to test which ones were better. Of all the cannolis I have ever eaten, I think its safe to say that by far Mike's
 cannolis are much better!

None of my friends speak any Italian, so for the first time since we've been studying in Spain we would be in a country where we didn't know anything about the language. There are some cognates that are the same in Spanish, but on the whole Italian is different, despite that some Spanish people, and Italian, think they are similar/the same. A few times in restaurants or shops, people would ask us where we were from and what languages we speak. After saying English and Spanish, they would say "Oh! I know some English, but my Spanish is better!" and proceed to talk to us in Italian after saying a few words of Spanish, even after we insisted that we did not speak Italian. We did a lot of smiling and nodding that week.

Florence was much more relaxing than Rome. With not nearly as much to do, my friend Sarah and I had lots of down time to just wander. It is definitely a shopping center, with tons of ritzy stores, but we managed to only spend money on the important things, such as food. We climbed the Duomo, which is a large cathedral that has a huge dome with a wrap around balcony at the top. The climb is very claustrophobic and steep with people going up and down at the same time but it's worth every 8E, because the view is incredible. We could see all of Florence! The houses are painted all painted colors of dull yellows, oranges, and reds, which adds a very 'homey' feel to the city, plus  the mountains and hills in the background also add to the beautiful view. The river has several bridges, the Ponte Veccio is the most famous with shops all along it, most of which are jewelry places (picture below). We also climbed up to Michael Angleou's Piazza and were entertained by some street performers who were very charming. It was very enjoyable to sit for an hour and listen and just observe the beautiful landscape. Unlike other cities, you have to pay for everything. We didn't enter some churches, gardens, or museums because we had to pay with no student discounts, which was annoying, but we manged to find ones off the beaten path we could just go into. There are fees in cafe's for simply sitting at a table. Even if you don't order anything, they'll charge you for simply sitting down, so your cappuccino or gelato could be three different prices depending if you sit, stand, or take it to go.
Overall our trip went very smooth. No passports were stolen, no weird incidents, or broken bones! Upon landing in Madrid, Sarah and I had less than an hour from the time we got off the plane to find the metro, take two lines to the bus station, and get on our bus. I was eerily calm the whole time we were on the metro, either because there was a man playing and singing Bob Marley songs on his guitar, or because I knew there was nothing I could do to make the metro go any faster, We  had to sprint through the airport, both metro stations, and then the bus station to catch our bus, but we did make it with less than five minutes to spare. Had we not caught our bus, we would have slept in the metro station over night since no other buses were leaving that night. As appealing as that sounded to us, we could not have been happier, and were very shocked, that everything went smoothly! I could not have been happier to spend my spring break in Italy, and I don't think it hit me half way through the week that I was actually there. I was awe all week of everything around me, and so grateful what I have opportunities to do things like this! Studying abroad is definitely one of the top, if not the best, decisions I've made during my college career!

Valencia: Las Fallas

This past Friday through early Monday morning our group went to a festival in Valencia called Las Fallas. We stayed in Gandia, a good walks away from the beautiful beach, and at night would take the bus or train into Valencia.

Las Fallas weekend is the most incredible weekend I’ve had in Spain. The experience is completely unexplainable it’s that incredible. I was even thinking about not writing anything about it because in no way shape or form can I do it justice by writing about it, but I will do my best.

                              This picture is of my favorite falla. This is just a small part of the entire piece, but it was absolutely beautiful. Everything was a flower/fairy and the amount of detail was immense.

For a year, artists work on and build their “falla”. ‘Falla’ in Catalan, language of Valencians, means fire.  The big fallas are anywhere from six to eight stories high, and the small ones more or less than ten feet tall.They depict anything from children’s fables to politics. There are a lot of hidden images, and such as sexual innuendos, in the artwork as well as many other things, and are made of a paper mache type material. When you find a big falla it takes a good amount of time to take everything in. For one, there are tons of people trying to work their way around it, and also there’s just so much beauty and details you need a few moments just to take in the outline. The festival is for Saint Joseph, as all festivals in Spain are for some saint, but none of the fallas I saw had anything to do with St. Joseph/religion.

The atmosphere is what makes it so incredible. Overall it’s one giant party but it is really divided into two invisible parties, one for the people from Valencia, and the second for everyone else. Millions of people come here from all over the world and Spain, and everyone is so friendly. The cool thing about this festival is that it’s for everyone. The young and the old, families, teens, everyone are enjoying themselves. Everyone in Valencia takes part in it some how. Parades were constantly going on. Women, men, children, and babies were always walking down the street in some sort of traditional looking clothing, each holding one flower which was placed at the body of the Virgin Mary statue at the end, making a huge skirt of flowers around it. Besides that, there were these devilish looking costumes people wore running around with fire and sparkler things and occasionally spraying the audience with sparks, people on stilts, large animal things, and much more. Every second, not exaggerating, some sort of firework, sparkler, or bomb noise was going off. As one of my friends put it, it was as if it were an end of the world party. My hearing probably didn’t fully recover till a day after I got back to Granada.

For the week of the even, the entire city is closed for Las Fallas. Neon lights are on every corner and light show displays occurred in many places. One of my favorite places I saw was the Eifel Tower. You could see this light display so many blocks in advance because it was so bright. It was absolutely beautiful. They played classical music and had the lights in synch with it while me and my friends were right under it.

Las Fallas would not be Las Fallas if it were not for the incredible amount of fire that’s made during this festival. Many times I kept thinking how something like this would never and could never happen in the US. For one thing, we have fire regulations that apparently aren’t as strict here, second the police would be going crazy with the amount of people drinking in the street and amount of people in one area period. Never once did I see a fight or tiff between people because everyone’s enjoying themselves and the fallas.

The major event of the weekend is the burning of all the fallas. I may have seen 30 fallas in the course of three longs nights. Over 700 burned. The burning started around 10:30 for the small ones, then the larger ones around midnight or 1:00am. The falla that won first place goes to a museum, but all the rest burn. I was in the center of a huge plaza, packed with so many people before the start of burning of the large fallas. Somehow, my friends and I stumbled into other people from our UNH group, which is crazy because there were an incredible amount of people packed into the center of this area and had we tried to find them it would have been impossible. We met all the people around us and there were people from Spain, England, Holland, Ireland, the US and many more. We had views, not close, but views all the same, of three fallas, which means three very awesome firework shows. Before every falla was lit, no matter big or small, a firework display went off. These were the best fireworks I have ever seen in my life. They had it down to a slow rhythm at first that only got faster and faster it was insane. I couldn’t stop thinking about gigantic sum of money it took to buy all of the fireworks.

Finally, they light the falla by first wrapping a huge rope with firecrackers on it around the falla, then it lights and there’s a one hundred feet tall fire. The sky filled with black smoke and eventually huge chunks of ash was falling on our heads.

                                    A side photo of one of my favorite fallas. This one was about 6-7
                                                                    stories high

The emotions that run through the crowd are very mixed. Some people are cheering and shouting, but also there are people in silence and even crying. My friend saw a group of young teenagers crying together as the falla was lit. IThe fact that artists have worked for a year on a masterpiece then set it on fire themselves is intense.  It’s tradition and they know it will be set on fire, but nonetheless I’m sure it’s still very painful for them. Besides that, another reason to cry over it is it’s very beautiful. The falla, the burning of the falla, the atmosphere, is all very beautiful.

This is a very general description of what Las Fallas are like/are. My professor said before the trip that if it’s not on your bucket list already, it should be. Had I known about Las Fallas before, it definitely would’ve been on it. It baffles me when so many people in Granada haven’t been to Valencia for Las Fallas. It’s a good drive away, but it’s worth every second. There isn’t one moment that stands out more than the rest. The whole experience in my mind lasted over a week, not three days. It’s definitely one of those “had to be there” events, but I would encourage anyone who ever thought of visiting Spain to go to Las Fallas. I loved every single minute of it, and am so grateful I can study abroad, let alone in such a great country.

Under the firework to the left it the burning falla. It's mostly black from all the smoke, but in comparison to the building behind it you can see that it's absolutely huge. The photo was also taken from far away.