Final Thoughts

Well, apparently this study abroad thing is actually coming to an end.  I finished my final exams today, and said goodbye to some of my friends at our last churros outing at Cafe Futbol.  Tomorrow I'm going to need to pack, as Thursday I leave for Madrid, and then Friday I come back to Chicago.  I don't know how I feel about this.  On the one hand, this has been a really great experience, and I've gotten so comfortable here and I don't want to leave.  On the other, I'm so excited to come home and be with my family and friends and among familiar things.  Spain is beautiful, but I think I've had enough for now.  Here are some things I'm going to miss most about living in Granada, and some other things I won't:

 

Food: Yes, I'm going to miss this deliciousness so much.  It's been really convenient having my food prepared for me in my house at the same time every day.  I don't even need to think about deciding what I want, but I know that whatever I get will be great.  And the basket that's always full of bread, always right there, is just a little fantastic.  There's so much of it, but I'm OK with that.  The food here is just wonderful and I don't know what I'm going to eat when I go back to the States.

 

People: I always considered myself to be someone who is comfortable in a crowd.  Not in Spain. The people here are all so slow and pushy and sometimes it's just really difficult to get to where you need to go. Especially when you're stuck walking behind a group of super slow people.  What's the worst is when they're smoking, though, and you are just stuck walking behind them with their smoke blowing in your face. Almost as bad as cigarette smoke is the PDA here.  There are some things that I just don't want to see while I am waiting for the crosswalk light.  Or ever, for that matter.

 

The laid-back, relaxed lifestyle:  It's really nice to just take some time to relax in the middle of the day.  I do enjoy just sitting around chatting after a meal or tapas.  And it's a bit of a relief that people just don't expect that much from you. "No te preocupes" (Don't worry about it) was something that I got used to hearing quite a bit.  In some ways it's good that Spaniards just don't take everything so seriously.

On the other hand, this can go overboard, too.  In general, people don't seem to take their work too seriously, which can be annoying when you want to purchase something at a store, and you have to wait for the cashier to finish texting before she will ring you up.  Sometimes I just wondered "Do you want my money or not?"  And while it was really nice not to be overly stressed about schoolwork this term, sometimes I was just craving a bit more of a challenge.  Why should I be satisfied just memorizing the characteristics of each economic sector in the 60's when I can go one step further and tell you how the rural exodus affected each of them.  Considering I'm usually the one who's running late for things, I really shouldn't complain about waiting around for everyone to get organized so things can happen.  But when we are waiting 30+ minutes to take our final exam because the professor got the date wrong, I get a little annoyed.


Scenery: Spain is beautiful.  The mountains, the sea, the streets, the buildings, the olive groves, everything.  I'm also going to miss seeing little pieces of history all over.  And the weather.  I never thought I would say this, but I got used to 60 degrees and sunny days in December.  The sky is so blue, and the leaves are finally changing color and falling now, and it's all just so pretty.

  

Sanitation: As gorgeous as everything is in general, Spaniards don't seem to care too much about cleanliness or personal hygiene.  Showers here are small, and cold, and the water gets backed up, and so we just avoid them as much as possible.  Also, public bathrooms always seem to lack soap or toilet paper, and toilet seats tend to be either missing or broken.  And people need to learn to pick up after their dogs.  It's just annoying because there isn't really any other place for dogs to do their business other than in the middle of the street (no grass), so you always need to watch out where you're walking.  Another thing is that garbage pick up is at night.  It's actually illegal to take your garbage out any time other than 8-11 pm.  And it just so happens that no matter what time it is when I go to bed, that's when I hear the garbage truck right outside my window.


But Spain really is great, and I am going to miss it here.  I've seen some really interesting things, had some really fun experiences, and met some really cool people.  But what will really stick with me is everything that I've learned about different cultures, and everything I've learned about myself.  And hopefully my Spanish.  I like being able to communicate in two different languages.  I'm going to need to keep that up.

Well, tomorrow I have the performance with my theater workshop.  That's been one of my favorite activities here, so that will be a bittersweet time.  And I'm hanging out with some more of my friends for one last time.  Thursday I will head up to Madrid and spend the evening there, and Friday I'm hopping on a plane to London, where I will meet up with Katie at Heathrow, and we will fly to Chicago together. I will have one more Granada post, but after that, see you across the pond!

 

Feliz Navidad

It's hard to believe that Christmas Eve is only 10 days away, not being constantly inundated with Christmas music, holiday sales, or winter wonderlands.  But it is still definitely Christmastime in Granada.  Last weekend I mentioned the markets that are set up in some of the plazas.  Holiday lights have been hanging over the streets since before Halloween, but they finally started lighting them up just over a week ago.   Store windows have some holiday decorations, and some of the street performers have been playing Christmas songs.

 

Another big Christmas thing here is Belen (Bethlehem) scenes.  These are like really elaborate Nativity sets that sometimes include the whole town, not just the manger scene.  I've seen these in store fronts, the patio of my school, and in tents in plazas.    You can buy all sorts of pieces for them at the Christmas markets or at a store.  This includes all the main pieces of course, like the Holy Family, the shepherds, and the Three Kings, but you can make a really detailed Bethlehem with household objects like pots and pans, tiny vegetables and animals, and fountains with real running water.

Los perros de Granada

People sure like their dogs in Granada.  I always see them walking down the streets with their owners, chilling at outdoor restaurants, waiting for their owners outside of stores and other businesses, or napping up on a balcony.  It makes me happy to see dogs all the time, but it still never beats hanging out with Brandy.

Yay, puente!

Friday was a holiday because of Constitution Day, and today was a holiday because of the Immaculate Conception, so we had a long weekend, known as a puente (bridge).  It was perfect timing, too.  After a month of traveling every weekend, and knowing I'm going to spend next weekend thinking about finals, I was happy to spend these days enjoying Granada to its fullest.  I wasn't the only one out and about in Granada this weekend.  The streets and plazas were even more crowded than usual.  This was probably mostly due to the holiday weekend and Christmas markets, but I think the warm weather also played a part. Thursday night my friends and I went to the movie theaters to see Disney's Frozen.  It was really cute! I enjoyed it a lot.

 

On Friday I went to the Arab Baths with a few of my friends.  It was quite an experience!  First we got massages, which were just wonderful.  Then we had about an hour to just enjoy the baths.  There was a warm one, a hot one, and a cold one.  We dipped in all three and just relaxed.  The atmosphere was so calming.  It was nice and warm (except for in the cold bath), and it smelled really good from all of the lotions and stuff.  There were also saunas to lie down in and tea to drink.  After our experience in the Arab Baths, my friend Lizzie and I went up to visit the Alhambra.  It's nice that we can just go up and explore this beautiful piece of history whenever we want (at least the parts that are free to the public).  That night we went out for tapas and then met up with some of our other friends to chill in a British pub we like.

Saturday Lizzie and I had a plan to walk across town to the McDonald's for McFlurries, and then trek back to the other side of town and climb up to Mirador de San Nicolas.  Well, that didn't exactly happen.  We arrived at the golden arches, and saw that there wasn't a McDonald's restaurant to be found. So we figured it must be inside the Carrefour that was there, which I had believed to be a supermarket.  I was grossly mistaken.  To call Carrefour a supermarket would be like calling the Alhambra a little shack.  It was a huge store that sold everything, and it also had a mall inside.  A mall, as in a bunch of other stores within this store.  It was weird.  We did find the McDonald's, but their ice cream machine wasn't working, so we never did get our McFlurries.  Instead, we just explored Carrefour.  We visited the animals at the pet store (the German Shepard puppy was the cutest), and browsed around part of the main store too.  I was going to buy some chocolate here, but the line was way too long.  By the time we had left Carrefour, we didn't have enough time to hike up to Mirador de San Nicolas before it was time to meet up with our other friends.  We went to Plaza Bib Rambla, where a Christmas Market was going on, to try out a new place for churros y chocolate (good thing we never got those McFlurries).  Then we checked out this Christmas Market, and the one that is closer to my house.

 

Sunday afternoon my friends and I went to a tetería in Albayzín, which was of course up a hill so we got a pretty view of Granada and the Alhambra.  Next time we'll need to go at a less busy time so we can sit up in the attic and enjoy the view the whole time.  Afterwards we browsed around some shops and Christmas Markets for a bit.  This afternoon I set out to explore Sacromonte, an area a little past Albayzín.  Sacromonte is notable for its cave houses, is traditionally inhabited by Gypsies, and claims to be one of the birth places of Flamenco.  This is actually where we went to see the Flamenco show in a cave at the beginning of the program.  I had only just been to the very edge of it before, and I am so glad I took the time to see more of it today. It is absolutely gorgeous, and a really interesting area.  It it not too far from the center of Granada (and plenty of buses go through), but you feel like you are isolated and just surrounded by all this gorgeous scenery.  I have decided that I really like mountains.

Día contra violencia de género

This post is actually pretty late, but that's OK.  Two weeks ago Monday I noticed a bunch of people crowding around a ring in the plaza that always has the marketplaces.  I didn't think too much of it, because there are always demonstrations and manifestations in Granada.  But in class we had talked about how 25 November is Day Against Gender Based Violence, so I decided to check it out.  It's a day not only to support and remember people who have been killed or abused, but also a day of action to support causes that help victims of gender based violence and education and laws to prevent it from happening in the first place.  People were standing in a circle holding up banners for various organizations, and some people were standing in the middle giving speeches.  It was pretty interesting, but it was too crowded to see or hear much of anything, so I continued on my way.

 

Then I came across a clothesline with little papers pinned onto it.  Each of the papers had an inspiring message that someone wrote.  Volunteers from the Red Cross had a booth there, and they were encouraging people to write messages and giving away ribbon pins.  They were also giving out copies of a story that an 8 year old girl wrote.  It's about a grandma and a grandpa who go on vacation, and they find out that the grandma really likes to drive and the grandpa really likes to cook, so that's what they do.  Later on the Red Cross volunteers put on a little performance.  They all had a poster with something negative related to gender based violence written on it, and they were surrounding the guy in the center who was the "victim."  Eventually they all threw down their negative posters, gave the guy a hug, and picked up their posters again, this time showing the side with the positive message.  Then they did a cute little dance.

I think Spain has come a long way in terms of gender equality in the last few decades.  My host mom's boyfriend said to us "Earlier, men were forced to find a job and they had all of the pressure of supporting their family. And they weren't allowed to touch anything to do with the house.  Lucky for you we're allowed to do housework now so you can enjoy my cooking." (He does most of the cooking in our house, and he's really good, too.) Employers used to discriminate against women, and it would be harder for them to get a good job, so they became financially dependent on their partners, which gave them fewer options if their partners tried to abuse them or control their lives.  But now it's hard for anybody to get a good job, so everyone is in the same boat.  And there are more places for people to turn to if they need help getting out of a dangerous relationship.  There are ads up everywhere encouraging citizens to report domestic violence that they know about.  It says "Don't wait until you don't hear anything."