Elections are coming up here in Spain. 2 weeks ago the construction all over Granada started up after being halted 2 years. As American students, we didn´t really understand why the geometrics of our walks, runs, and ¨marchas¨throughout the streets of our city were being changed. There are now more roadblocks appearing than we´ve ever seen as well as the increased presence of machines of all shapes and sizes that make the mornings a little more vibrant with their roaring velocities. The presence of more workers (men...) in their highliger yellow vests and uniforms. When we first all arrived here in our respective homes we were told, ¨The streets and construction will not be fixed because there is not enough money to do so.¨ For example, with the Metro project. These 2 weeks of construction projects means that more people are being paid to work with the exasperating number of Spaniards out of work.

My mother here, Marisa, shared with me just yesterday that she hopes that this isn´t just a political stunt/instrument of the political parties since the elections are this weekend. She worries that as soon as votes are in, construction will halt once again. She then began to tell me how elegant and marvelous our neighboring plaza used to look before all of the changes started. Wish I could see Granada BEFORE all of the changes somehow!

My parents have traveled to some nearby city, whether to do a beach trip with the kids, or what have you, every weekend since after my first weekend that I spent at home with my new family. This weekend they will stay in house because  they wouldn´t dare miss the elections. I was about to make the conclusion that in general all Spaniards vote but then I found out that one of my professors to this date still doesn´t know if she´s going to be voting this weekend. She feels that it´s not an issue of politics, but a large issue of the economy; that the PP or the PSOE still cannot fix the problem. Is there as large of a democratic defecit here in the EU as there is in the EEUU?

Makes me think of that clever picture of what seems like a less fortunate person on the streets. Instead of asking for money their sign reads this:
Keep your coins, I want CHANGE.
 
Especially when I'm writing in Spanish I still find that I'm translating exactly word for word to what the English translation would be. That is all. I may be a globe trotter but I am still a student of this wonderful language, learning more every day! Enjoy;

Manaña mi programa y yo viajamos a Madrid por autobus! Estoy tan emocionada. Primero vamos a parar por un rato en la ciudad de Toledo y despues, a mi querida ciudad de Madrid. Estaba pensando casi un año para mi regreso. Yo sé que Madrid problemente ahora siente los mismos sentimientos que yo.

Mucho ha sucedido desde mi ultima entrada. Pero, todo me ha pasado bien, honestamente. Los ultimas dias antes del llegado de Rachelle fue un poco intenso pero con mi horario loco de clases. Porque tengo un horario tan mezclado o enrollado con mañanas y tardes y NOCHES, ya no puedo participar en mi practica al sitio de Faisem. Aunque, voy a tratar de visitar unas veces más cuando tengo un poco tiempo libre.

Traté de mostrar, compartir, y enseñar la más posible a Rachelle cuando ella estaba visitandome. Fue un poco difícil con todas mis clases pero tuvimos mucho divertido. Pienso que la más divertido fue saliendo por tapas con mis padres adoptivas! Antonio y Marisa, Rachelle y yo, Pepe *el hermano de Antonio y su mujer, Ana, salimos por las calles como toros!! Jajaja broma, pero tuvimos mucho divertido! Especialmente porque mis padres saben todos los mejores lugares y saben la ciudad MUY, MUY bien. Este rato fue mi único desde mi llegado donde he salido de la casa con mis padres, y espero que tengamos más oportunidades como esa. Un día Rachelle, yo, Fatima, y Anna Marie hemos almorzadas encima del barrio Albaicyn, en el sitio que se llama el mirador de San Nicolas. Le enseñé unos de mis parques favoritos, el nombrado del escitor y poeta famoso, Federico Garcia Lorca. El jueves por la noche nos alquilamos un apartimiento con algunos amigos. Fue muy divertido porque por solo una noche, tuvimos propio lugar para pasar el rato y relejar, con nuevos amigos! El viernes fuimos a la playa por Autobus, en una ciudad preciosa, Almuñecar, después de desayunar, panqueques, en nuestra cocina. En la playa hacía sol pero hacía mucho viento también unfortunadamente, pero no pasa nada.

El sábado Rachelle tuvo la oportunidad para visitar a las cuevas del Sacromonte con mi programa. Fue una gran experiencia para aprender más de la historia de la gente que compone España, y también la antigua historia de la Alhambra y la seperación del Río Darro. Depués tuvimos tiempo para explorar, ir de compras y comer churros con chocolate *o en mi caso, churros con leche condensado YUM. La noche del Sábado nos conocimos mucha nueva gente en unos de mis sitios favoritos, ya sabes... El Camborio. Y esa noche es mi primera donde no he dormido toda la noche! Porque por la madrugada Rachelle tuvo que tomar el autobus al aeropuerto muy temprano. Mucho español, mucho explorando, caminando, bailando, comiendo, riendo... Espero que ella nunca se olivide esta experiencia.

Claro, después de su viaje es mi semana de examanes parciales. Tengo suerte porque de mis 8 clases, solamente tuve 2 examenes y solamente uno yo considero un examen real, de verdad. Entonches el martes tuve mi primero por la madrugada para mi clase de Civilización y Cultura. Recibimos un artículo y tuvimos que formar un opinión. El tema? El aborto. Por eso tu comentario podría ser tan sujetivo como quieras. Mi segundo examen fue para mi clase de Literatura Española y este semestre desde el principio hemos cubrido mucha información, desde el siglo XVII hasta el siglo XIX, con el barroco, el Renacimiento, la Ilustración con el teatro Ilustrado y la poesía ilustrado, el Neoclasicismo, el Romanticismo, y nos hemos prestado atención a otras partes de Europa, por ejemplo, con la revolución francesa y esas tipas de influencia en la vida y la historia de España, hasta personas fundamentales en todos de estes temas, los elementos básicos de la literatura y la diferencia entre prosa y verso.
Hoy en mi clase de Civilización y Cultura hemos comenzados nuestra segunda película, Alma Gitana, y la me interesa muchísimo.

Espero que pronto pueda visitar y subir la Sierra Nevada.
He encontrado más maneras para obtener más intercambios.
Este semana vi mi primera película en el cine! Fue un película americana pero claro, en español, tan graciosa!

Tengo que cometer y dedicar más tiempo con el lenguaje! A veces los fines de semana incluyen demasiado español. Quiero cambiarlo. Y también necesito encontar alguien que quiera clases de inglés!

Madrid, cariño, vengo mañana!

ps. I don't think I ever wrote about this but about the 2nd day of March I went with half of my program to see the Alhambra. Pictures are up on Facebook and when my parents come, I'm thinking I'll probably go back?
 
As the title says, this post is for updates on new matters of business!

Mi profe de mi clase de civilizacion y cultura aka one of the 2 male professors that I have out of 6 here at the CLM, got a hair hair..looking sharp!
All of my classes that were rollos before are getting a little bit more exciting, and if not that, at least a little more interesting and bearable ha, very exciting stuff! Of my 8 courses only one I have to turn in assignments for regularly. (I have 5 core classes like what I would have with a typical schedule back in the states.) How the grading scale works is a rating from 1 to 10. Lower than a 5 is not passing. For my Literatura hispanoamericana class I have to write an essay (yes, of course, in Spanish) everyday, and if not every day, every other day. She passes them back one by one; althoug hshe doesnçt read everyone´s grades outloud, the bright red market she uses can be seen at least a span of a few desks to the left and a few desks to the right. Her system also includes arrows to give better insight on where yuor particular essay fell in regards to the rest of the class. For example an 8 with an arrow down, which is the lowest score I hope to get this year. (That was also what I received on my very first assignment here, it is a good mark! And I´ve only gone up from there and hope to maintain this.)

This week I had scheduled a full week of classes which I wasn´t too excited to jump into when the sun was setting on Sunday and the weekend finally came to a close. But we made it, it´s Thursday! After a very relaxing weekend, watching Crazy Stupid Love in my empty house on Friday then went out for a little bit with some friends. Saturday evening was a little more active and we started at the very beloved Botellon with what seemed like thousands of other Granadinos, although the evening lacked significant interaction with Spaniards as I was saying in my last entry. That´s the plan for tonight if we can swing it right!

My class for this evening, which was supposed to be starting right now, got cancelled;) Tonight was also supposed to be our program´s cultural visit to the Cata de Vino! We had a Granada Seminar class (this is just an hour class that I have weekly strictly to enhance my knowledge on the culture of Spain and Granada) devoted solely to the process of making vine, the hitsorical origin, the various different tpyes of wine, and how to identify them. There was a lot of information but after this meeting on Monday with all of my newfound knowledge, I was very excited! Yesterday we received an email from our program director that it was cancelled and not necessarily postponed so unfortunately there´s a possibility that we don´t do it at all. But my mom, Marisa me ha aconsejado un bar con buenos vinos en muchos variades para tratar. That´s one thing that I´m going to save for when my parents are here, and I´m hoping that we can all do it together like one huge family. :)

That´s one thing that I´ve been trying to do in my free time: plan the visits of my sister in less than a week and at the end of April of my parents. It´s exciting but also a lot of other things as well, hehe, because I have to make sure that they see verything that they need to to really experience Granada, in full effect! And it´s equally important that they see the reasons why I love it here so much. Rachelle literally just 20 minutes ago asked to see schedule I had planned for her... I have no intention of disappointing! :) Or sleeping ;) For Rachelle the trip will be a little more difficult because although she´s on spring break, I still have a full week of classes, lucking out with having class on FRIDAY too that week, ugh. But when my parents are here the entire country will be on break celebrating, as will I.

Intercambios to help people with their English language in pursuit and changes to be made soon with my internship.

Un beso,
Nos vemos
 
I've just been itching to blog, so here I am:) For an update on the week and other random thoughts that have been circling around in my mind.

Segunda Rebajas are finally over! Which is hard to fathom..mostly because I which when Rachelle and my parents come they could find the good "deals" I found heheh. I did do a decent amount of shopping I admitted to myself on Monday when Anna Marie, Fatima, and I went to go take advantage of the last day sales. But don't worry, all of it hasn't been for me. There are gifts in there that I can't wait to share:)

Tuesday was our official last day of Puente and it officially is named the "Fiesta de Andalucia". SInce the weather's finally changing, day by day, we knew that we would want to take this first opportunity to enjoy the beach! Upon recommendation we chose the beach Salobrena, only a 45 minute bus ride away (11 euros ida y vuelta). I went with Rob, Fatima, and Anna Marie. The city was beautiful nonetheless with the overcast weather and the sun hiding behind the clouds almost the entire time we were there... We saw more people riding horseback in the streets than I have anywhere in Spain thus far. I was dying to watch the sunset on the beach but we returned before 19h so our friend Rob could get home early. One thing we weren't expecting was the "sand" on the beach, to be all tiny rocks. We probably will return again now that we know how cheap it is and how GREAT it could be given the perfect weather. When I returned to school the next day (we only had 2 days of classes! - Miercoles y Jueves) I heard word of the other beaches people traveled to and the magnificent weather they had... trial and error, I suppose :)

Speaking again specifically of gifts and branching into new beginnings, MARCH is finally here. It's something I'm a little weary to admit because we all prefer that we have more time here and as soon as people start counting down the days and reminding us of the specifics, we get a little antsy. But that's not what I wanted to discuss, yesterday not only marked the beginning of a new chapter BUT my older sister's birthday! Since we're all always away at school I don't usually have the chance to see her on her birthday, because I would normally have practice every day and then other activities throughout the week or competitions on the weekend. This time is very different since we're literally miles and oceans apart. Although we live in a overly tech-crazy world, I'm glad I have some type of instrument to try to express and send my love to her on her special day!

March also apparently means the inter mural sports are starting. Naturally, I signed up for volleyball and formed a team with other people in my CCA program. Only one other girl plays volleyball at the collegiate level, at CC which is DIII, and the rest are just some of our friends:) so it should be fun/interesting! Either way, I just need to finally touch a volleyball again. I honestly haven't even SEEN a volleyball since I've been here. And my plans for the beginning of the summer beg me to reacquaint myself with the sport. (Rachelle and I will be competing in Holland, from invitation, to join the USA Athletes International team for a relatively quick tour.) Jumping to another sport related topic, I don't have details and need to confirm and ask my sister again (Paloma, 9 years old), at dinner the other night, she asked me if I would participate at her school in a carerra. It's a 5k race that they hold annually, some date in April, and she always participates in. Although she says she doesn't finish, she always starts and always tries her best! I'm not sure if it's for a charity or just something to keep the kids active yet and if a lot of other people will be participating too but I of course said that I would do it. It's really interesting though for me because I'm not the "racer" in the family, in regards to literally signing up to do 5k, 10k, triathlons, and all of the above. I run on my own either in the mornings or the afternoons every day that I can, because that's my only option (gym membership fees are too expensive!) in addition to doing other exercises etc. That being said, I don't know if I could say that I would be getting in line to sign up for a race this semester, summer, year/otherwise, so it's cool that I have this to motivate me.

So again, like I said... it's MARCH: I still desire for more opportunities to meet, converse, and exchange with more espanolas y granadinas. I'm seeking more intercambios! I thought I would have done a better job with this by now? Too much english is being spoken in free time, although I am learning and have learned and have improved A LOT; I know I have more to give.

I have a lot of random topics that I want to discuss but this is all for now, It's finally Friday, we have (had) a 3 day weekend and I'm relaxing at home. The forecast called for rain but I'm desperately hoping for otherwise.. at 3:30 I'm meeting with half of my program to FINALLY explore and visit the Alhambra. I can't wait! Expect tons of AMAZING pictures ;P I really pray the rain does not put a damper on this trip, literally. Our last city excursion my group, Group 1, had bad luck and had to do the entire tour in the rain, while the following day, Group 2 had sunshine. La vida es asi.

Bendicion 
Nos vemos

The Globe Trotter
:)