Monday, March 26, 2012

My Favorite Things!

Here are some of my favorite parts of life in Granada.  Not surprisingly, most of them are food-related!

Sangria!  I already know I'm going to miss this :-(

La mesa camilla- There's a space heater under there and we use the tablecloth as a blanket

Many, many pastries and desserts special for Holy Week

Peach & Grape juice--LITERALLY the best juice in the entire world

Cookies!  So delish

"Fruta del bosque" yogurt!  Literally means "fruit from the forest."  WHAT A GOOD FLAVOR

During the times when I get homesick or start to miss Chipotle burritos, chicken parmesan, or macaroni and cheese, I try to remember the fantastic things that I have here that I'll soon be missing when I get home!

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Daytrips galore!

After all the  traveling I did last weekend, it was really nice to have a weekend in Granada.  Don't be fooled though--I did plenty of exploring in Southern Spain!

On Friday, my program took us to Sevilla for the day!  Sevilla is another city in Andalusia, about three hours away from Granada.  We left Granada at 7:30am (!!!) and drove to Sevilla.  We got there at about 10:45 and our first stop was the Plaza de España!   This was actually the third time I'd visited Sevilla and my third time at this Plaza, but it was still a beautiful place to see again.  And the weather in Sevilla was GORGEOUS.  I got to wear a new sundress!!

Plaza de España!






After the Plaza de España, we walked through the streets of Sevilla to the Cathedral.  The cathedral of Sevilla is pretty cool--Christopher Columbus' remains are there!  Our guide (a professor from the CLM who came with us for the day) lead us all around the cathedral, explaining a ton of things.  It was a beautiful place, but I honestly got a little bored.  I'd much rather wander around a cathedral and explore than stop at every painting and sculpture!

Columbus's tomb



After the cathedral, we went to a lovely lunch and then headed over to the Alcazar, an old palace and garden in the middle of the city.  The alcazar's style and architecture was modeled after the Alhambra, so we recognized a lot!







We had a really great day!  It was a shame, though, that our visit was so rushed.  We really didn't get to see Sevilla--just the three main attractions.  I feel very lucky that I've already been there because our trip on Friday did not really do Sevilla justice :-(

On Saturday, my friend Catherine and I took the bus up to the Sierra Nevada!  Here are some picture from our trip back to winter:








 And now it's Sunday and I am RELAXING and enjoying staying in my PJs until lunch :-)  I (hopefully) will be leaving on Thursday for Paris!  I say hopefully because Spain has scheduled a general strike for Thursday, so we have no idea what trying to travel will be like.  Keep your fingers crossed for us, please!!!

Wednesday, March 21, 2012