Rad Clothes, Readings and Religion

So many things, so little time! How do I express all the ups and downs of the past few days in this little space? It's impossible. I hope everyone gets the opportunity to have an experience like this; these words do so little justice to the days I'm spending in Granada. And it's hard to remember, but this is only the beginning!

Since my last update, Chelo took us to visit the Cartuja campus, which is where many of us will be taking classes. It's up a dauntingly steep hill, so I foresee perhaps taking the bus up and then walking back down. The hill has it's advantage though; the view is beautiful. That same day, we began our ridiculously confusing quest to choose classes. Words cannot express my frustration, but things are starting to become clearer now.

On another excursion day, we took a gander at what used to be an Arabic bathhouse. We got in for free, because Chelo told the man we were English; apparently we would have been charged for being Americans. The United States can be such a plague sometimes. The bathhouse was nice; there was a dingy green pond that wasn't particularly exciting, but the structure behind it was this cavern-like building made of stone with wonderful little star cutouts in the ceiling.

Afterwards we went to another colegio mayor where there were (surprise!) more nice views. The Alhambra seems like it's everywhere.

On the way back we ended up running into a few other sites of incomprehensible historical significance. It's so strange to be so thoroughly saturated in history that really incredible places are overlooked because they are so common.

After all the walking, thirst took hold of us, so we stopped in at a bar for some soda or tinto de verano. Felix had an appointment to look at a piso, which we were all going to tag along for, but on the way we discovered an adorable little vintage shop, and decided to stay behind to look around instead. I didn't buy anything, but I was super excited to come across it! I'll definitely be returning for a cozy sweater or two this winter.

On the way home we ran into two more thrift stores, as well! Heavenly. I bought a pair of sandals, finally succumbing to the Spanish heat. I know everyone is going to think I'm a hypocrite for this next photo, but really, how else can I show the sandals off? So shush!

Last night, according to a little schedule dealio I picked up in a cafe, there was a poetry reading in a little bar called La Tertulia. It was a reading of Borges and Machado, which happened to be timed perfectly, since we were scheduled to read Machado for our Literature class this Monday! So, a rather large group of us found our way to La Tertulia's big red door, where we found an artsy cafe/bar that was surprisingly empty. As we ordered drinks, an older man in a red and white striped button down warned us that there was going to be a poetry reading in a moment, but when we told him we'd come to see it, he seemed very pleased. He asked us where we were from and how we'd heard of his little bar, and was all around extremely sweet.

The reading itself was great. Two older men discussed and read poems written by Borges, Machado and themselves. One of them was a bit harder to understand than the other, but most of it came through and it was a pleasure to listen to. There was little intermission, during which time one of the readers had a CD to give away; the owner chose a number between one and twenty-two (or something strangely specific like that) and had us count off until someone guessed correctly. By chance, Laurel, who seemed a bit confused as to what was going on, was the third person to count, and after some explanation guessed fifteen and won the CD!

The reading continued, ending with a few songs from one of the poets (whose CD Laurel had won.) Afterwards, Laurel thanked him and we told him how much we enjoyed the reading. He was so sweet! He told us how much he appreciated seeing young people seek out poetry and thanked us for coming. He even signed Laurel's CD case, although there was some confusion as to how to spell her name. Ultimately, we all loved La Tertulia, and are hoping to come back soon (perhaps to take a gander at "Versions of Bob Dylan" which is performed every Monday...) I couldn't help but smile the whole way home; it was such a sweet place and having found an adorable vintage shop and a welcoming artsy bar in one day made me feel so content and at home. I'm really beginning to discover the Granada I want to be in.

Even the bathroom was awesome! This was spray painted on one of the walls.

When we returned to the resedencia, a group of people were headed for the bars, so we tagged along. The large number of people made decision-making nearly impossible, though, so one of the other girls, Leah, and I broke off and went to La Marisma (the vaguely scummy bar with cheap beer and sunflower seeds mentioned in this blog, as you may recall) to have a few beers and maybe try our hand at chatting with locals. It was actually quite nice to sit down and talk one on one, and eventually we did end up chatting with a few Engineering majors that were kind of goofy but pretty nice. One of them complimented my Spanish, so that was nice, but once the bar closed we left them to their own devices.

This morning was a tough one, but I managed to get some breakfast before our Academic Orientation, which was extremely helpful. I felt a lot better after Inma (the program coordinator) laid things out for us in a really clear and concise way.

Despite my sleepiness, I didn't manage a siesta after lunch, because, of course, it's Friday and Casey got to take a look at the next little pocket on his countdown calendar!

Little espresso candies! Case is such a caffeine addict, I thought he'd appreciate the caffeinated deliciousness. And they really are quite delicious; I had to sample one or two before putting the calendar together.

After our chat, I was scheduled to visit one of the big Cathedrals in a guided tour. I think my appreciation of it may have been tempered by my lack of sleep, but it was beautiful to look at. Disturbing but beautiful. Our guide, this adorable, well-dressed young history professor, told us a lot about the gory history of the Cathedral, where the Reyes Católicos, Fernando and Isabel are actually entombed. Creepy! The Cathedral is apparently built on top of the site of an old Muslim Mezquita, which was destroyed to punish the remaining Muslim population after they revolted against the Catholic governance. Basically a big, golden, Catholic "fuck you." There's even this huge gnarly wall where one of the saints is depicted literally stomping an opponent to death with a horse, whilst saints and the Virgin Mary look on with approval. Not the best picture but here it is:

All the violent discomfort aside, I did love the ceiling. It's this dusty blue colored huge home with golden stars painted on. This has officially been added to my "dream home" vision.

The organ was also impressive.

Anyhoo, the Cathedral visit was followed by a lot more walking and historical information, most of which kind of sailed in and out of my mind... Now I'm officially REALLY TIRED and need to take a power nap before playing drinking games and heading to a club in the Albayzín!