A Taste of Spain: 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