Just Can't Get Enough

Hello everyone! Here's an update on my life for the past week or so...

The day after our hike I was literally so sore that I could barely move. Sad but true. Still, the pain was worth it. Last week I had midterms. The universities here don't really give tests throughout the semester, so most of our grades come from midterms, finals, participation, and attendance. This is awesome and awful all at the same time. It seems like we don't have any work to do during the week, but when testing time comes around it gets a little crazy! Luckily I studied a fair amount and my tests all went pretty well. My last midterm was Thursday morning. Thursday night I jumped on a plane and headed to Barcelona. I traveled with my friend Claire, and we stayed with her friend from college named Sam. Sam is studying in Barcelona, so he was a great tour guide and an amazing host. Having a nice place to stay for free was amazing! My best friend Hunter, who is studying in Paris, flew to Barcelona as well and met us. This was such a treat...after living together for an entire semester, not seeing each other for a few months has been a little sad for Hunter and me! We had a tearful and exciting reunion in the Barcelona airport at about 11:00 pm on Thursday. Before we had even gotten in the bus to take us to our next location, Hunter had started eating my bocadilla and we had opened up the Girl Scout cookies my mom brought me...the two of us truly have a food obsession (as evidenced by this blog...)We headed to the center of town, where we got a taxi to Sam's apartment. Thursday night, we went to this really cool club on the beach called Opium. We danced a lot and had so much fun!

Friday was a day full of sight-seeing. First, of course, we grabbed lunch at a Mexican restaurant. Most of my friends here in Spain will tell you how homesick everyone is for Mexican food. There are a couple Mexican restaurants in Granada but supposedly they are terrible (nothing like Los Arcos, I'm sure). I just about fainted at the idea of a burrito! It was delicious. We wandered around Barcelona a bit. The architecture is extremely unique. I haven't seen anything like it anywhere else in Europe thus far. We saw a lot of houses/buildings designed by Gaudi, a Spanish architect that did a lot of work around Barcelona. His style is quite interesting, but I really liked it. After checking out some Gaudi stuff and the Barcelona cathedral, we headed back to Sam's apartment. Claire took a siesta (we're addicted, it is true) and Hunter and I went out to walk around some more. We found a huge market that was really cool and sold literally everything--ham, seafood, and tons of fruit! It was a very colorful place to say the least. We also went to the Sagrada Familia, which is a huge church designed by, you guessed it, Gaudi. That night, Sam and Claire cooked hamburgers and asparagus (DELICIOUS) and we were all too sleepy to go out. Hunter and I watched Black Swan and ate ice cream and potato chips...the movie, the snacks, and the company were all fabulous. Really though, if you haven't seen Black Swan, you really should. It is a little on the crazy side but SO. GOOD.

After a good night of sleep, we were all ready to see some more of Barcelona on Saturday. We got off the metro and wandered around a little bit more as we headed to the beach! We stopped on the way and ate the BEST paella I have ever had. Seriously. Amazing. Hunter and I were in heaven. We hung out at the beach a little bit, but it was a little windy/chilly so we decided to head up to Park Guell, which is this huge area designed by....Gaudi. This might have been my favorite thing that we did. The weather was gorgeous and the park offers beautiful views of the city of Barcelona. There were lots of mosaics and stuff for decoration...the whole thing was just really impressive and cool. After spending most of the afternoon outside, we headed back to the apartment where Hunter and I cooked breakfast burritos for dinner. We headed out for our last night in Barcelona, which was so much fun. Then today (Sunday) we got up pretty early and went to the airport to catch our flights home! It was a short and jam-packed weekend, but I honestly can't even convey how much fun I had. I'm adding Barcelona to the list of places where I have left part of my soul! Also there was delicious gelato...check out the pics below, haha.

Love and miss you all! Only 2 months until I'm back in the states--time is really flying!

Shannon

Park Guell

View of Barcelona from the highest point in the Park!

More Park Guell

Best friends in Barcelona

Park Guell

Reunion in the Barcelona airport

Mosaics

Barcelona cathedral

BURRITO

Let Nature be Your Teacher

Hola everyone! It has been a fun and busy weekend. We celebrated St. Patrick's Day on Thursday by going to our favorite local Irish Pub...with about a thousand other people! We felt quite American, but it was still fun. Friday was the first day of Spring, and in Granada it is celebrated by a huge party called La Fiesta de la Primavera (the party of the spring).It is the only day in Granada without an open container law, so there are a lot of people in the streets. In one area of town, 25,000 people were gathered together. It was pretty impressive! We didn't partake too heavily in the festivities because we had big plans early on Saturday morning. At about 9, we met with the rest of our program to take a 1.5 hour bus ride to Las Alpujarras. Las Alpujarras is a region located in Southern Spain, and part of it is found in Granada. If you want more of an explanation about this region (I'll admit mine isn't very good), check out the ever-reliable Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpujarras

Anyways, we arrived in the town of Capileira, where we began our hike. The town was nice and cute, but very small! So we started our hike, which was...well, it was pretty treacherous. A lot of it was straight downhill through (not around, not close to, but through) a stream. However, it was so beautiful. The mountains and nature around were absolutely breathtaking, so I think most of us didn't notice how tough the hike was. We hiked from Capileira to another village, called Bubion. Here we ate our lunches (all of our madres had sent us with sandwiches!) and rested our legs a little bit. We left Bubion feeling refreshed and started hiking to the third and final village on our journey. After a shorter and much easier hike, we arrived in Pampaneira. Here we had a little more free time, so we stopped to try some authentic dishes from this area. We had heard that they have the best ham in all of Spain! So, we couldn't leave without trying some! I will say...it was pretty delicious! We had a chance to walk around some shops, too. This area is famous for its locally-made items, like ceramics and jewelry. The things in the shops were so cute...I wish I had enough room in my suitcase to bring back enough ceramics for my kitchen! They are so brightly painted, you can't help but smile when you look at them. After a couple hours spent walking around, we were excited to get back on the bus and head home. It was truly an exhausting day...and today everyone is feeling a little (ok, maybe a lot...) sore from all the moving around we did! So worth it, though...the pictures below really don't portray how beautiful this area was.

It's midterm week here in Granada...I have my grammar midterm on Tuesday, Speaking/Writing, Art History, and Islamic culture on Wednesday, and then Literature on Thursday. This is literally the first time I have had to study since I got to Spain...we haven't had a single test yet! It is a struggle to remember how to do this! Speaking of school, I did get some disappointing news this weekend. I had applied to nursing school at MUSC (the Medical University of South Carolina, in Charleston), but I found out yesterday that I didn't get in. Unfortunately, this means that my time in Charleston has most likely come to a close. I'm in the process of submitting my application to the UAB nursing school now. This is a big change for me, and it is quite bittersweet. I am absolutely not prepared, nor am I excited, to be leaving Charleston. There is a lot that I will miss. However, UAB also has a lot to offer. So, when it comes right down to it, it is just another change in my life. Another chapter to start. Everything happens for a reason, so I'm trying to keep an open mind! But enough about that, let's see some gorgeous pictures of the Spanish mountains, shall we?
Love and miss you all!
Un beso,
Shannon

See the snow in the background??

Cute little towns:)

MEOW

Horses

Water!

The directions on the path we took...a little sketchy...

Nature!!

My sweet friends Elissa and Claire

Cute store where I bought things...it was in the basement of a house!

Family is one of Nature's Masterpieces

Hello everyone! So much has been going on since I last updated. I went to Madrid last Friday. While 7:00 was a bit early to be getting on the plane, the trip went pretty well. I arrived at the Madrid airport about 2 hours before Mom and Patrick did, so I sat down and anxiously awaited their arrival. I think I looked at every single person who walked through the airport trying to see if it was them! My tired family finally met up with me, and we got on the metro to check in at our hotel. Riding on the metro was completely hilarious...they had a lot of luggage and there are a few stairs involved with the Madrid metro. We spent a lot of time laughing at ourselves while we struggled with the big bags. We eventually made it to our wonderful hotel, which was located right off the Puerta del Sol at the center of the city. Mom and Patrick took showers and we all took naps since we were really tired. We ate at the restaurant in our hotel, and it was delicious. Right after lunch, I met up with my friend Colleen, who has been my best friend since about the 6th grade! Colleen is spending this semester in London and came to Spain for her Spring Break. It was amazing to get to see her...especially in a city where neither of us is studying! I couldn't have been happier to see her. After hanging out in the hotel lobby for a bit, we decided to visit the Royal Palace. I had been to Madrid at the beginning of my Spanish journey, but it was really good to go back to all the sights a little less jet-lagged and overwhelmed! The palace was beautiful, of course. The weather was not. For the past couple weeks, I think Spain has been a little confused...there has been a lot of rain! Not normal weather for this time of year. However, we toughed it out and still managed to see a lot of stuff! We all slept very well on Friday night.

Saturday we woke up, found some breakfast, and walked over to the Prado Museum. As you may remember, the Prado is arguably the best painting museum in the world. There are so many famous pieces there! Needless to say, Mom really enjoyed it and Patrick did a good job pretending. We had some amazing Italian food for lunch. Then we were on to our next adventure--a Real Madrid soccer game. To be honest, I was a little terrified of going to such an intense game...I had heard how crazy the fans were! While transportation to and from the stadium was a bit of a disaster, the actual game was so much fun. Everybody was paying complete attention to the game--I honestly don't think anybody moved until halftime! Patrick really enjoyed the game, and Mom and I enjoyed trying to figure out what in the world was going on. Anyways, it was fun and it was awesome to see Real Madrid win! We ate dinner at the most adorable little restaurant ever, where we had the most charming waiter who loved speaking to me in Spanish. We aren't really used to this in Granada, so I was excited too! The food was delicious, and we were so hungry...it was like eleven at night!

Sunday we went to my old hangout in Madrid--Ulysses Irish Pub--for lunch. I came here a couple times when I was in Madrid the first time, and it was cool to go back for some fish and chips! We went and sat at a beautiful park for a bit, and then headed to the airport. The Madrid airport is a crazy and huge place, but we got back to Granada safely! I took Mom and Patrick to an Asian tapas place for dinner that night, which they really enjoyed. Monday we visited the Granada cathedral, which was beautiful and very historical. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel, the ones who funded Columbus's voyage to America, are buried here. The Granada cathedral is the second biggest in Spain (second to Sevilla), and is unlike any other cathedral I have been in. Tuesday we visited the Alhambra, which I wrote all about in another post. It was all beautiful and fun, and I think (hope) Mom and Patrick enjoyed it. On Wednesday, they went to Ronda, a small white-hill town I visited earlier in the semester. We ate lots of good food and had lots of laughs along the way.

I cannot express how much I enjoyed having my family here. It was so comforting. They are on their way back to Madrid now, where they will spend the night before flying back to America tomorrow morning. I already miss them...I feel like I may be starting the whole homesick process all over! Having a little piece of home with me in this foreign land was amazing. I know the trip was taxing for them, but it meant so much to me to be able to see them. I was reminded of just how much I love my family...and it makes me miss them that much more! However, things are going by so quickly here. My program is about halfway finished, and I will be home in less than 10 weeks! My midterms are next week (YIKES...), and I'll be going to Barcelona next weekend! Then it will be April (woah), and I go a little travel-crazy in April/May. I'll be in Dublin, Scotland, London, Cadiz, and hopefully Paris (Hunter, I'm comin for ya), all before I take my finals and return to America on May 25th. I know the second half will go by just as quickly as the first half.

Well, that's all for now...Thanks for reading! Happy Saint Patrick's Day! Love and miss you all!
Un beso,
Shannon

I love my mommy :)

At the top of the old fortress at the Alhambra

Carlos V Palace

Irish Pub in Madrid

The exact center of Spain

Real Madrid soccer game

Our favorite place to eat in Madrid--truly precious

Special treat seeing my Colleen in Madrid!

Clockwatching

Hola!! It has been a great and relaxing week in Granada. Monday I went to class and took a wonderful nap on the benches outside the CLM-K in the sun. Claire, Elissa, and I have an awkward 90 minute break between our classes, so we have started the tradition of laying on the benches with some coffee and a snack. The courtyard outside the building is beautiful with lots of orange trees and sunshine! Tuesday, the weather took a turn for the worst--it has been rainy and chilly ever since. Not my favorite. It always seems infinitely harder to get up and go to school in the rain! Tuesday I received some mail from my mom (which I always love!), which included a picture of all my aunts, uncles, and grandparents that were together this Christmas. I will be very honest here and say that this unexpected piece of home spurred a small crying fest in the office of my study abroad program...The program director started asking me questions about the people in the picture and I just couldn't keep it together anymore! Even she noted how much mom and Nana look alike, which I did get a little chuckle out of. She even thought Sean and Dillon were my brothers! It was actually a pretty precious moment despite my waterworks, haha. I have been fighting off quite the intense cold all week, so that hasn't been too fun. Luckily I found Spanish cough drops so I'm doing alright :)

Tomorrow I am headed to Madrid to meet Mom and Patrick. By tomorrow I really mean...I will be leaving my apartment before 5 AM, which is in six hours. Too bad I haven't packed a single thing! Oops. I will meet them in the airport, and then we will head to our hotel. I'm hoping to meet up with Colleen tomorrow, and we have tickets to see a Real Madrid soccer game Saturday night! This is going to be quite an experience, especially for my sport buff brother. I think he is excited...well, as excited as Patrick gets. We will sight see around Madrid until Sunday afternoon, when we fly to Granada. I am so excited to see them and show them around Spain! I wish my daddy were coming too, though! (I know dad, you have to pay for the trip...)

Sorry I don't have a whole lot of exciting things to say in this post! I promise to have lots of pictures and stories for the next one :) Hope everyone has a great weekend!!
Un beso, Shannon

Put Me In, Coach

Hello everybody!! It's been a lovely weekend here in Granada. After my wonderful trip to Sevilla last weekend, I was so glad to return to my home in Spain! I spent Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday being a student...yes, I said Friday. We normally don't have class on Friday, but we did this Friday since we had been off on Monday. Let me tell you, I am so spoiled! Everyone (including myself) was whining about Friday classes, even though we're used to having them in the States! Thankfully, I don't have another Friday class until some random day in April! Friday night I went out with some friends to our favorite Asian tapas bar...there's nothing quite like eating egg rolls in Spain! (Seriously though, they are delicious...)

Saturday was quite the exciting day! API took us to a real Spanish soccer game...Granada v. Salamanca! I honestly had no idea what to expect but I knew (or thought I knew) how intense the Spanish were about their soccer. It was truly unbelievable! Granada is a division 2 team, but they are trying to move up to division 1 (this appears to be a system somewhat similar to the NCAA). Teams like Barcelona and Real Madrid are Division 1 teams. Since Granada is trying to move up, this was a pretty good time to go to a game! Now, I feel like I can hold my own at most sporting events--baseball, football, basketball...I pretty much know what's going on most of the time. Soccer is the complete opposite. I have literally had the off-sides rule explained to me two dozen times and I can't understand it AT ALL. To make matters worse, they don't have any announcements at soccer games here...so I kept getting confused about what was going on! I don't understand the penalties either...maybe I'll do research before my next game! Watching the game was so fun (those soccer players are amazing athletes), but I had an equally good time watching the fans. They are, as Shakira would say, LOCA LOCA LOCA. So crazy! They show up, totally decked out in red and white, and scream through the entire game. They have cheers and songs, and some fans even bring drums and other instruments! I'm so glad I had the chance to go to a game...I can only imagine how insane it was when Spain won the World Cup last summer! I kind of wish I had been there to experience that!

After the game, my girlfriends came over to the apartment. We ordered Domino's Pizza...which is so much better here than in America. Who would have thought? We stayed up super late chatting and listening to music and having a great time! It was a great weekend! I've got a full week of classes, and then a 7 AM flight to Madrid on Friday to meet up with Mommy and Patrick...I'm so excited! And I get to see Colleen, who will be in Madrid for a part of her Spring Break tour of Spain. It will be so nice to see some familiar, southern faces :)

Have a great Monday! Miss and love you all!

Besos, Shannon :)

Granada stadium!

Stadium again

The field! The weather was so gross :(

We had really good seats!

Goooooo Granada!

You Only Live Once

Hi everybody! I had an amazing weekend in Sevilla. I am so glad I got to visit! I met up with the girls I travelled with- Claire, Sarah, and Haley- on Saturday morning. We took a taxi to the train station, where we bought our tickets and hung out in the lobby a bit before getting on the train. Our Spanish madres had packed us all lunches, so we of course munched on those during the wait. We got on the train, which was very crowded. We all found seats and sat down…and then the chaos began. Haley and Sarah hadn’t ridden on the train before, but Claire and I had when we went to Ronda. When we went to Ronda, we sat wherever we wanted, spread out, and paid no attention to seat numbers. After much confusion, a few angry Spainards, and a train worker explaining the ticket system to us, we discovered that you actually have assigned seats on trains…who knew? The train ride lasted about 3 hours and was very scenic. We got off the train in Sevilla and got on a bus to begin following the directions to our hostel. We finally found it and checked in. I was a little nervous about my first hostel experience, but I honestly have no complaints! Our hostel was nice and clean, and it included breakfast, a terrace, and a bar. We met people from all over—San Diego, Switzerland, Croatia, and Australia. Everybody was so nice! So, after we checked in, we decided to walk around the city a little bit. Sevilla is a bit bigger than Granada, but still manageable (and loveable). After wandering around and exploring (which we really enjoyed), we returned to the hostel to get ready for dinner. We headed out to find something to eat and stumbled upon amazing Italian food…we shared a pizza and then I got some delicious lasagna. Dare I say it rivaled the lasagna I ate in Italy! We stayed out for a while after dinner, but we were all exhausted so we came back to the hostel to sleep!

Sunday morning, we woke up and had breakfast at the hostel. The hostel offered a walking tour every morning, but we decided that it would be in our best interest to do our own…that way we could take our time! Rick Steves gave us an amazing walking tour guide in his book, so we pretty much followed that. We got to see a ton of the city and learned a lot! We got some good authentic paella for lunch (see pictures below) along with some mussels and garlic bread. So delicious. After lunch, we went to the Real Alcazar, which is this huge garden in Sevilla. They built it after the Alhambra was built in Granada, as a form of response. I think the Alhambra was more impressive…but I’m biased J We also visited the Cathedral in Sevilla…it was amazing. It is the third largest cathedral, preceded by St. Peter’s at the Vatican and St. Paul’s in London. Now I’ve seen all three…super cool! Christopher Columbus is also buried in this cathedral. We climbed to the top, but instead of stairs they had ramps. I thought it was because they wanted to make it handicap accessible…silly me. It’s because, a long time ago, someone would ride up the ramps on a horse to do the Muslim call to prayer at the top of the tower. We also spent a lot of time Sunday evening by the beautiful river in Sevilla. It’s a pretty popular hangout, and it’s a gorgeous view! We saw a little bit of a flamenco show on Sunday night…it was in the back room of a bar and very interesting! Wish I could dance like that! And I can’t wait to go to another flamenco show with some more legit seats so I can observe it better!

Monday we packed up our stuff and got ready to come home. We spent a lot of time that day figuring out how to get back to Granada…the train and bus schedules simply were not cooperating! We ended up leaving Sevilla on a bus at 5:00 and arriving home in Granada at 8. After a lot of uncertainty and stress, it ended up working out perfectly! I absolutely adored my time in Sevilla. It is such a colorful city—many of the buildings are painted different colors, and there are people out in the streets all the time. I could have seen myself studying there…but I’m still glad I picked Granada! I'm so glad we chose this long weekend to go to Sevilla-it was a little bit warmer there than Granada, and it was a nice place to go without having to do too much extensive traveling! This week is another week of school, and we even have class on Friday (the horror!) since we didn't have school on Monday. This weekend, my program is taking us to a Granada soccer game (SO EXCITED), and we're hoping to go to the beach for a day also! Next weekend I'll be headed to Madrid to meet Mom and Patrick...Can't wait to see some family!! On another note, I cannot believe it is already March…it is so hard to believe that I will be leaving Granada 12 weeks from tomorrow. Time really does fly…

Have a wonderful week everybody! Love and miss you all so very much! Besos :)

Me with a very colorful church

One of the many charming plazas

Huge tree!

Sevilla, like Granada, has tons of orange trees!

The river!

Sitting by the river!

Spain has cool graffiti

Pretty flowers!

Mother Theresa stayed here!

Real Alcazar

Real Alcazar

Real Alcazar

Mussels!

Most delish garlic bread ever!

Three different kinds of paella...all were amazing!

Cathedral!

More cathedral

Sevilla from the top of the tower

Columbus's tomb!

Our survival method for travel stress...