Granada Weekend!

Hola a todos. It's Monday afternoon. I've been sitting and researching stuff for Marketing and for my Arab studies class all afternoon. Class work is finally starting, thank goodness. It's probably one of my favorite things to do. But we had a nice little break from school this weekend in Granada. There was a group of eight of us that went and we had a blast... for the most part.

We left early on Friday morning on the bus and I was a little tired but Brett and I are seat buddies and we talked the entire time so no nap time. We got into Granada and managed to use the metro system to get to our hostal, which was up on in a cute little alley. The room was great - it was my first hostal experience, and it was a success. The beds were a little shakey, but stable nevertheless. I had to have top bunk and I'm not a fan of that, but oh well, it was fun. We met a few really cool people also - this one couple that just took some time away from work to travel all through Europe. Talk about awesome! And then there was this one guy who was a wreck. He came to Granada to win back his ex-girlfriend's heart or something. She is studying abroad there and apparently he did something stupid and wanted her back. That conversation was a little funny/sad for the guy. The hostal wasn't dirty like I expected it to be, and we had our own bathroom. Our room fit all eight of us, too! Yay for a major sleepover! There was a kitchen as well, so we made some spaghetti the first night we were there and had a lot of fun. We ate it on the roof of the hostal in the breakfast room, and the view was great. We then proceeded to play Never Have I Ever which got interesting... :-)

On Friday we went to the Alhambra - that was absolutely amazing! Talk about intricate architecture. I swear, back then they had less technology and way cooler buildings. The ceilings in some of the rooms were just breathtaking. We walked around there for a few good hours... and afterwards just went and bought ingredients for our dinner and chatted for a long portion of the evening.

On Saturday Laura and Jenni went rock climbing and the rest of us took a bus to this town two hours away called Capileira, nestled in the Sierra Nevada. It was so pretty - on the bus ride there we saw about a gazillion olive trees, which made me crave olives very much. I am excited to buy some before I leave so I can have them at home in Seattle :-) The olives here are to die for. We got up to Capileira and walked around for a bit and then hiked to the town that was next to it called Bubion, which was only about one kilometer but fun nevertheless. We got back in the evening and went swimming at some random hot springs which was definitely interesting in and of itself. I've never been to a hot spring before and I'm probably never going back...

On Sunday, Lolita, Matt, Brett, and I woke up extra early and walked around Granada to explore the streets and found a pretty killer view of the Alhambra from some random neighborhood on a hill. We left around 4:30 in the afternoon, but not before I ate a kebab because it is officially the most delicious food on the planet. Had to indulge before coming back to Sevilla and starvation :-) Just kidding, it isn't as bad as I make it sound sometimes!

We finally started having homework a little, which is cool, but now I have to get used to actually having things to do. Not for long, though, since our finance class is cancelled tomorrow and on Thursday the whole program is going to Morocco until Saturday... so no homework getting done in those few days. I'm a little bummed because today I was going to go to some salsa club for lessons - and the first lesson is FREE (best price!) but we got assigned a presentation today for Marketing that we are presenting on Wednesday, so we have to have a group meeting instead of dancing the night away :-( Oh, school. Getting in the way of life! I am excited, though, because the winter quarter schedule was posted for UW and I can't wait to sign up on November 7th. I just want to be in Balmer!! It's amazing that I actually miss accounting classes - perhaps that's a sign that I'm choosing the right major if I miss it? I'm going to go with yes...

Anyway, not so very exciting entry, but it was a good mellow weekend full of sightseeing.

Cheers, hugs, and kisses,

Olivia

PS. I finally got my ATM card from my mom in the mail. Took long enough! I felt so naked without it - and not many places take credit cards in Spain and banks don't understand the concept of cash advances, so it was definitely a difficult past three weeks without any cash. I also received a fabulous CD from my mom - An Evening in Barcelona... you know, those CDs at Target that you can listen to snippets of if you press the button and it plays super loud and makes everyone you're with really embarrassed to be associated with you? Yes, I have that CD now so thank you mom! I am in love with it! Perfect homework doing music!