Munich, Here I Come....

We leave for Germany in approx 2 hours. Whoooo!

Hamotionally Exhausted

This may be what it comes down to. I can only eat so much ham in my lifetime.

Bad Life Choices of the Day

In no particular order:
#1: Wearing my favorite clogs to class
#2: Wearing my last pair of clean jeans to class
#3: Not packing my umbrella in my bag in case of emergency
#4: Getting out of bed

Little did I know today that when I put on my clogs (aka tractionless shoes of death) that I would be stepping out onto wet pavement. The relationship my clogs and wet pavement create is that of rollerblades on ice. My brisk 12 minute walk to class turned into a 25 minute gliding struggle. I'm sure it was a sight to see me trying to go up and down hills holding onto buildings and poles. I did finally make it to class, just with a little less dignity than I had before.

This was only the beginning.

After getting out of my 11:30 class, we discovered that it was raining, wait, monsooning. The roof of the patio in our school was leaking and it was actually raining inside of the building. I tried to wait it out but to no avail. I finally started back to my apartment after packing my backpack with papertowels in hopes of protecting my computer and Ipod. As soon as I got outside of the school my socks were soaked on contact. I started my glide/shuffle down the hill and slowly my jeans started becoming wetter and wetter. After my 30 minute walk home I walked into our room and my roommate looked at me like I'd been hit by a bus.

I am now wearing my american eagle sweatpants and my nikes (poop free). My little pink umbrella is tucked securely in my backpack because as soon as I left to come back to school, the rain ceased and the sun came out.

Touché, God.

Turns Out I Don't Speak Italian

Let me just start by saying that Italy may be one of the coolest countries I've ever seen (and I've seen almost five total including the U.S. and Canada). Spain definitely has some competition in the favorite country category. The food is better, the heating is better and they actually have grass (which was nowhere to be found in Granada on the poo day). The coolest part is that in the middle of this huge city there are ruins everywhere. Pieces of buildings from the Roman Empire are still scattered throughout the city and its amazing to see. But even with it's grass and heat and edible food, Spain still has a bigger piece of my heart.



We got to Rome at 10 in the morning and checked into our hotel around noon. We visited all of the touristy stuff that we could handle for one day and then we went back to the hotel and passed out. My biggest complaint about Rome is it's transportation (or lack thereof). They have only 2 metro lines and neither of them take you into the middle of the city. I think we walked more that first day than we did the entire week before in Granada. The next day we had a guided tour of the city via bus and we saw the Colosseum and Vatican City. We didn't get a chance to go into anything there but it was still amazing to see. The Pope actually addressed the people on Sunday at 9 in the morning and since I'm neither Catholic or a morning person, I slept right through that.



Saturday Laura and I went to Florence to see the city and a few of her friends. On the train ride over there, we got kicked out of first class and the dining car before we actaally figured out where we were supposed to sit. The city was amazing and we had so much fun with her friends. They took us to a place where you can see the entire city and about 10 people came up and they all brought food and wine and we hung out until sunset. SO awesome. We had to use the bathroom in the middle of the outing and the only one around us was at a little bar down the road from us. We each had to buy a drink before they would let us use the bathroom, creating a viscous circle... we went back there three times throughout the day.



On the train ride back to Rome we encountered the creepiest of all creepers who, as luck would have it, worked on the train and told us where to sit. The entire car he put us on was empty and he came in and sat in the same compartment as us... We created a barrier using the middle seats and we were huddled as close to the wall as possible. When he got up to leave he shook our hands. Two minutes later I was in the bathroom scrubbing like I've never scrubbed before.




And now I have to go scrub my brain.

Kickin' it Hobo Style

The Good News:
We booked our flight from Malaga to Dublin for the weekend of St. Patricks Day

The Bad News:
We can't find a single place to stay


Please send cardboard boxes.

You're a tricky one, Antonio

Well it's been an insane week to say the least. We have been trying like crazy to book our Germany trip and have started to look at traveling to Florence from Rome this Saturday. We had every credit card problem you can imagine (including double and triple charges!) and the flights we wanted kept changing. We finally got our stuff together and Germany is all set. We may try to take a day trip by train out of Munich but we need to get through Italy this weekend first. We have to be at the bus station to leave for the aiport at 5:30 on Thursday. When I first read that, a little part of me died... but I guess it will be worth it in the end. We get to Rome at 10:30 and will be there until laaaate Sunday night. We get back to Granada at 1:30 a.m. Monday. We are going to try to squeeze in Florence on Saturday since it's only 60 euro round trip by train and that will give us 10 hours there. It's going to be a super long weekend but I'm pumped for it.
We've already started looking at Ireland for spring break and it looks like we are going to try to hit Galway for Friday and Saturday and then take a train to Dublin for Sunday and Monday (St. Patty's). After that everyone want to come back for the Santa Semana festivities in Granada but I want to keep traveling. I'll have to see if anyone else is interested or if maybe I could go visit Brie for part of the week.
Classes started and so far, so good. I've had three of the five and so far the professors are great (none of them trying to ruin my life like last time). I really like the school and it's location (even though I have to walk 2 miles UPHILL TWICE A DAY to get there). Who needs the gym when you live in the mountains?
We went exploring the other day and it was such a bad life choice. We got lost in the Albaycin a.k.a. the mountain town part of Granada. We walked around for two hours up and down hills and by the end of it I wanted to die. Like I said, who needs a gym.
I got an email this morning from my cell phone provider over here saying that they turned my phone off becuase it was reported stolen... I definitely have my phone in my possession and I also have a nice $169 dollar charge to my credit card to replace my lost equipment... I'm waiting to hear back from them via email and hopefully they will turn my phone back on asap. What a pain, nonetheless.
Well it's almost time to go eat lunch and maybe today Antonio won't trick me into eating bread with hidden tuna in it.... These cooks are stealth.

New shoes ASAP

You know when you step in poop on the street and then you can never get the stench completely off your shoe? Welcome to my life today. On the way to school I managed to step in the biggest pile of doo imaginable. Of course I was wearing my nike´s and of course I stepped in it right on the huge indent on the bottom... I didn´t even notice until the middle of class when I smelled it and then I promtly left the room. The poo removal was unsuccessful and I am now wearing clogs. Lame.
We went to a Mexican restaurant last night (this morning) for the Superbowl and it was awesome. The place only had Americans and the announcers actually spoke English. Everytime there was a commercial break though, they would just zoom out and show the entire stadium. So needless to say, I´m out of the loop on commercials and will probably end up watching them online later. We got home around 4:30 and had class at noon so it wasn´t too bad. My roommate fell into the room at 11 this morning and is still sleeping. She´s really good at making great life choices.
We´re about to book our trip to Germany for the end of the month so I gotta go. If anyone would like to send me new nike´s or a power washer, it would be greatly appreciated.

Superbowl Monday

Holaaaaa. Today marks the one week mark in Granada (it feels like I´ve been here for at least three, but whatever). We went to La Alhambra with our school today.... bad life choice. The giant fortress could have been one of the coolest things I´d ever seen, but we got put in a group with a horrible tour guide... she yelled at us for taking pictures and kept making us rush from room to room. She talked about the most boring stuff and picked the least interesting rooms to visit. I´m now exhausted and my legs are slowly dying. We´ll definitely have to go by ourselves and see the place because it was bor-ing today.
We´re going to this churro place tonight where they give you churros and a huge pot of chocolate to dip them in. It´s going to be a nice, chill night and then we´re all heading home to sleep before Superbowl Monday tomorrow... since we´re 6 hours ahead, we are supposed to get to the bar at 11:30 for the pre-game. It´s going to be a long day tomorrow, followed by an even longer day Monday when we have to be at class by noon. Maybe I´ll take my first siesta on Monday because I have a presentation in the evening class.
It´s almost time for dinner and I am almost completely starving. Cross your fingers for some edible food tonight! Talk to you all soon. Hasta luego.