After missing the bus from Cambridge back to the London airport (our only missed connection on the trip, and of course, the last one we needed to make)NOTE: Pictures in reverse order again, sorry.
Eating our dessert platter in Cambridge
Scenic Breakfast Perch
On the bus from Alicante to Madrid
Waiting for our second couch surf host.
Eating a covert build-your-own-burrito lunch in Burger King when the beach in Alicante got cold!
Trying out the Capoeira instrument at our first couchsurfing house.
Guiseppe and Jonathan's apartment (our hosts)
Waiting for Guiseppe and Juan Carlos to arrive...
Delicious pears in the garden next to the Alhambra in Granada
Wisteria was blooming everywhere!
Teas, spices, and herbs in Granada
My typical traveling attire.
Sweets in Malaga!
The bull ring
Malaga view
Libby and Alex in the tree!
Burritos again!
Sevilla
A stressed out lunch in Sevilla
Mary.
Jesus on the cross
Metro in Madrid, we were pros by the end!
It's been a long time, but life is busy (for real!) here! We are in the midst of finals, and haven't seemed to hesitate about giving us all of the work that we should have had spread out over the year in a 2 week (for me) period. Well, actually, it isn't all that bad. I have just ramped back up to a normal Whitman workload. On Wednesday, we were given our take home final for glacial geology. None of us really knew what to expect, but we certainly did not expect what we were given... They gave us a week to answer 5 questions with a 4 page (single spaced) max/ per question. The example of the essay that got top marks last year was 25 single spaced pages long! Since that was the maximum length, I thought I was going to be way under since I am usually a fairly concise writer, but so far, I've been keeping pace with that limit. It has actually been sort of fun to settle back into an intense working routine. It was difficult to stay focused the first day I put in long thinking hours, but by now, I've pretty much slipped back into it. Next Wednesday is going to be a big day-- a 12-15 pg term paper, this big glacier assignment, and a 30 min presentation! Then we have 4 days to study for volcanology and nature based tourism exams, worth 80% and 70% of our final grade... But THEN we have ten days off before leaving for our 6 day glacier field course, which seems like it is going to be work filled, but SUPER educational.
Given all of the writing I am doing for school, I am not really in the mood to write a long post about all of my Spanish adventures, but I thought that I would just give a tiny update and post some pictures!
Overall, Alex, Libby and I had a great time living the Spanish life. The travel logistics were a little bit more difficult than we expected and things went wrong at every turn (for example, libby realized while trying to check in that she had accidentally booked her flight from London to Spain for 8 in the morning instead of 8 at night-- that military time...), but we all felt like it was a trip to be proud of. Some days, the name of the game was survival, other days, luxury. After landing in Madrid, we went to Sevilla, Malaga, Granada, and Alicante before returning to Madrid to fly home. We managed to live quite frugally, only spending 301 Euros/ person for everything (minus airfare) for the 2 weeks. We stayed with Alex's new romance's (I'm not sure what to call him) parents in Madrid, which was fun, but a little intimidating. I had to do most of the communication the entire trip because of my Spanish skills, but it was definitely great assertiveness training. Because I usually am worried about making sure I get my point across, I wouldn't beat around the bush when asking for something. Usually, it worked well, much to my delight! The spanish accent was definitely a challenge, especially in Sevilla, but my listening skills definitely improved during our stay.
Sevilla was completely insane, due to all of the Semana Santa (holy week before Easter) festivities. It was a struggle to find a place to stay, but we managed! I had to be a little bit insistent with some of the hostel owners (convincing them to let us stay in a small room and just sleep on the floor), but all of them ended up conceding. It was pretty interesting to be immersed in the craziness of Semana Santa. I can't remember ever seeing such intense religious fervor before. At night, parades of people dressed up in KKK outfits (almost identical-- incredibly disconcerting), would follow this big candle/white rose covered cart that carried a statue of an intense looking Virgin Mary. The processions included bands playing somber music, marching steadily along. The streets were absolutely jam packed-- not exactly my favorite city scene, as many of you know. I found a YouTube video that sort of captures the scene, although I must say, it felt way more intense on the streets:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xIoTnAyYbs&feature=related
We met up with Libby's cousin, Ellen, our last night in Sevilla, and then the four of us traveled to Malaga the next day. We found a cheap hostel right of the bat in Malaga, which was a huge relief. It was also just a relief to get out of Sevilla. I think all of us finally felt like we could relax a bit from then on out. I am already spending too much time on this, so maybe I will just list a few things that we did for the rest of our time in both Granada and Malaga.
1. Beach
2. Aerial view of a bullfight on Easter. Happened across it on our way down from a castle. A bit traumatic, I must say. I am REALLY glad that we weren't closer.
3. Granada sights
4. La Alhambra
5. Lots of meals.
Food was a central focus of this trip. I felt sort of like Grammy McCune, always planning for the next meal! We ate lots of cold burritos and sandwiches, since we didn't want to spend lots of money going out every night, but didn't have any cooking facilities. I liked it though, it meant my knife came in handy every day! Alex told me to tell me dad that my knife was "the most useful and important item on the trip." Hahah
We couch surfed at two different houses in Alicante, which was actually really fun. We were worried that the first two guys we were staying with weren't going to show up, but they did! We had fun cooking them dinner (potato soup), going to their Capoeira class (Brazilian dance fighting), and then going out with them the third night we were in Alicante, even though we weren't staying with them any more. The second guy we stayed with was a police officer in Alicante. He had a really nice apartment and seemed eager to have people to talk to. We felt bad because we didn't spend a ton of time hanging out with him, but hopefully he enjoyed our presence while we were there.
Much to my delight, Alex, Libby, and I are still great friends after all of this. We know a RIDICULOUS amount about each other's lives, but I think living in icy Iceland and traveling together for 2 weeks can do that. I'm hard pressed to tell a story they haven't heard.
Ok, I really need to stop here and start doing homework! But, I will post again after Wednesday to give a more thorough update. I can't believe I am going home in a month! Life is CRAZY!
