Paris

Thursday, April 9- Monday April 13 I was in Paris!! I met up with my cousin, Katie, at hour hostel. She is studying in Italy right now. The entire weekend we were like “we met up in Paris for the weekend!! Crazy!” On Friday, we did a free tour in the morning. Then in the afternoon we went in the Notre Dame. Friday night we went to the Louvre. Apparently we missed getting in for free by one week. They just changed it so that 18-26 year olds from Europe only got in free. How dumb. Oh well, I saw the Mona Lisa and some other famous stuff. It’s the biggest museum in the world. Saturday, we came back the Notre Dame to go up. We saw the gargoyles and the bell tower. Then we went to the Eifel Tower. The lines are forever long, but we made it. We went up the tower. There are so many people in that thing!! It was my favorite part of the trip!! I took so many pictures of it!! Haha. Sunday, we tried to go the catacombs but it was closed for Easter. Makes sense, but everything was closed for Easter!! We spent the day in the park: watching runners go by while we ate our lunch, watching kids sail their boats on the pond, and watching tennis matches. Later that night we walked around the Montmartre district, famous for the Moulin Rouge, artistic district, and the Sacre Coure (a white cathedral on the highest part of the city). At the Sacre Coure there was a band playing music (American of course). We watched that for awhile. He was pretty good. On Monday, Katie left right away. I had time to kill, so I went to see the Eifel tower again, and found the mini-Statue of Liberty. I totally recommend Paris!! Amazing city. (BTW I had a nearly lost voice during the entire trip)

Semana Santa

Tuesday, April 7 and Wednesday, April 8 I was in Granada. Well it was Semana Santa (Holy Week). In Spain, it is a BIG deal. There are processions all week starting on Palm Sunday to Easter. Brotherhoods from churches around the city each had their own procession. It consisted of people wearing Ku Klux Klan outfits, women wearing all black, people carrying crosses, a band, little kids keeping the candles lit, and other people that I have no idea what they did. Then there was the big part of the procession: THE FLOATS!! Some had two floats, others one. Each float represented something. Usually according to the day, a float matched what happened to Jesus. Like on Palm Sunday there was one with Jesus riding a donkey. But of course this originated as a Catholic festival so the Virgin Mary is the big thing. Her floats were always grand with tons of candles. People would yell “Viva la Virgin” (long live the virgin) and “guapa” (hey good-looking). People would carry the floats on their backs from like 4pm-1am approximately. And they would move to the beat of the band. There was a person that led the floats with a knocker. To tell them when there were stairs, or when to turn, etc. The streets of Granada were packed though. It was crazy!! So many people. It definitely beat Tulip Festival.

Morocco!!!

Hey Everyone!! Sorry it has been so long. It has been a crazy Spring Break!! I loved it. I have 3 new blogs about the different sections of my Spring Break. Hope that Easter treated everyone well!!
Well on Thursday, April 2 we left for Algeciras. It is a coastal town of Spain. This is where we met our tour guides for Morocco.
On Friday we took a ferry to Africa. Yeah we are that close to Africa!! We came into the port of Tanger. The first thing we did was go to the open-air market. We picked up some snacks for the trip. Then we went to a center that helps single women. There we met up with some students studying English. We were able to ask them questions about their lives and Morocco. A couple interesting things are: to come as a missionary to Morocco is illegal and punishable; it is illegal for Moroccans to talk bad about God, the king, and the country; for a Moroccan to leave the country it is nearly impossible, it might cost them 400 euro (about $600) to just get a VISA to leave their own country not including a VISA to get into another country and travel expenses; they have 2 national languages Arabic and French, however, the Arabic that they speak and write are different. I learned some Moroccan Arabic. Shukran=thank you, b’slammah=good-bye, salum uualikum=hello. Then we got to ride CAMELS!!! They are awesome. The best part of the trip, for sure!! We then went to Rabat and met our host families. They were so nice. How they eat: there is a bowl with meatballs, potatoes, etc in the center and you take pieces of your bread and grab it out of the bowl.
Saturday, we did some touring of ruins in the morning. We ate with our host families for lunch. In the afternoon we met up with some kids how are studying English and they showed us around the town of Rabat. What they do for fun and stuff. We went to a pool bar and played pool. Later that afternoon, a girl from Full-Bright Scholar doing a study on abortion in Morocco and a Peace Corp guy from Morocco told us about what they do there. Then we went to a Hammam. It is a public bath that they go to at least once a week. It’s interesting that is for sure.
Sunday, we went to a small village and talked (through a translator of course) to the people there. It was way up in the mountains and had a beautiful view. Then that night we went to Chefchaouen. It is a town in the middle of the mountains. Pretty touristy. I ate SNAILS!! They are actually pretty good, but you can see their little eyes and mouths, a little creepy when you are going to eat them.
Monday, we left to go to Ceuta, a Spanish city in Africa. We had to walk across the border. We literally had to push-and-shove our way to the front of the line to cross. It took almost 2hrs!! It was awful, but because we were Americans we actually made it through fast!! I can’t imagine waiting that long and then being denied to cross and then coming back the next day to do it again.

Mid-Terms Week

¡¡¡Hola todos!!! okay, so Thursday I did my annual salsa dancing. I know that I tell you that every time, but I just have so much fun there. Sometime I will video it and put it on here, of course that will be when I look really, really good. haha. Man I love it, I think that Pella needs a salsa bar. Maybe I should look into that. Maybe Des Moines has one?? Anyone know?? On Friday I tried some more ice cream. All of the ice cream shops are opening up now. So good!! The rest of the weekend I have spent studying. We have mid-terms this week. We only have two tests during the entire time that we are here. So they are kind of a big deal. The have questions and you are supposed to write everything that you know about it. Or so we were told. So, I studied a lot!! I had to study the actual curriculum of the class, my spanish grammar to make sentences, and a lot of vocabulary. a lot. Well, this morning I had my Business class. I studied a lot for that test. It turned out to be a joke. Then later today I had my writing and talking class. Another joke. They were getting me all nervous for these tests and it turns out that I didn´t need to study that much. BUT I tell you what, I think that my spanish has improved tremendously this weekend due to all the studying that I have done. Oh well 2 down 3 to go!! And then on Thursday I leave for Morocco!! I can not wait. I return on Monday then on Wednesday I leave for Paris. So I will not be writing next week. And in between I get to see a little bit of Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Spain. It is a huge deal here. Sorry guys I know how disappointed you are. haha. Just say "Yes, Brittney, we are so dissapointed" oh, and guess what. I learned a song on the guitar!! yeah, yeah. "This is the air I breath" or if Rachel is saying it "this is the ivory" I can never understand her British accent.

Another Week Goes By

So, I have sort of gotten into a routine and I find it hard to write this blog. I mean you don´t want to hear about all of the normal routine things of life, and I really don´t want to write about them. One of the most exciting things that happened this last week was on Tuesday i was so sick. I haven´t been sick like that for awhile. So I stayed in bed the entire day. Luckily it was the one day that my class was cancelled, so instead of enjoying all of my free time. I slept!! Yeah, how fun. On Thursday a group of four of us signed up for a bike ride. We were thinking we were going through the mountains, Well we signed up for the wrong one. Very Easy!! We rode around the town on bikes. And yes it was easy as in not physically draining, BUT I have so much more respect for the bikers now. Riding through the city on a bike is dangerous!!! And to top it off they have the smallest seats on those bikes. I still have bruises on my butt from that ride!! Mostly i have been attempting to study for midterms coming up next week. I say attempting because I actually haven´t done any studying yet. I friend told me about the college library. I think that I will try to find that and check it out. On Sunday we went to the beach. It was so cold and windy!! But I mean still gorgeous. And to top it off, it is only an hour away!! i mean Granada comes with everything: mountains and beach and history and no snow and yup everything. Also, on Friday a friend of mine gave me a moped ride through Granada and in part of the country. Wow, it was amazing. I could never drive in the streets. I would always go the wrong way!! It was my favorite part of the week. And it was one of the things that I wanted to do when I came to Europe!! It was awesome!!

Hott Hott Hott!!!

So it has been crazy warm here!! Amazing, but warm.
-On Thursday, Brigitte and I did our weekely trek to the salsa place for our free lessons. We met some people from the University here and they took us to a Kareoke Bar. It was amazing. We sang a duet, Summer Nights from Grease and everyone new the words.
-Friday a bunch of us went up to the Sierra Nevada again for some more sledding. It was so hott in the mountains.
-Saturday we had a trip to Sevilla. It is a gorgious city, but we only got 4 hours to see it. But it was okay because it was over 90. I don't understand Spanairds. How can they were so many layers and dark clothes all of the time. I was sweating like crazy!! On Saturday night we had a Flamenco show. It was quite amusing. It told the story of Aladdin, but there was contemporary interpretive dance in it. Jafar came out doing the splits and acting like a tiger. It was hilarious.
-Sunday, Tosha's senora wasn't there so I went and hung out at her piso. It was amazing.

Also, Happy Father´s Day. It was Dad´s day in Spain on Sunday.

Another Week Goes By

Hey everyone. Alright. So last week it was freezing here. By freezing I mean 50· and pouring rain everyday. It was a monsoon and so windy. I couldn´t use my umbrella because it would flip inside out. For my service learning. It is about a half hour to 45 min walk. I was completely drenched by the time I got there!! BUT then on Saturday, it was so beautiful and HOTT!! It was 85·!! haha. And it has been about 80· everyday since!! I know that you all are jealous. Let me tell you, this year I will be tanner before my sister!! Yes, Paige, I am talking about you.
Here in Granada, there is an awesome museum!! It is a science museum and in every exhibition there are interactive things. We spent quite a few hours in there. haha. We are such nerds. On Sunday, Tosha and I were just laying in the grass in the park. then later on a group of people from the church came out with their drums and guitars. We just sang with them whenever we knew the song. But mostly they would be singing Spanish and we were in English, and the pauses are at different times. So we probably made it sound worse. oh well. On Monday, we had our first IM VB game!! We dominated. Actually it only took like 10 min. Oh, and also, I have an intercambio now!! An intercambio is a person who is trying to learn English and we talk to each other to improve our language abilities. It is so much fun!! And I officially took the city bus by myself to the edge of town and back. I was successful, BUT my busdriver obviously wasn´t paying attention to the construction roads because we had to turn around. Hence, the busdriver made me late for class. I would have been on time, really, but the driver wasn´t paying attention. But other than that, it was a major accomplishment for me!!
I know that this is a really random post. But these are the highlights of my week. And trust me, many of these things are very BIG deals. Just a reminder they don´t speak English here.