Amor y el Albayzín

I'm in love with Granada. Sleepy, achy, contented love.

Last night I went out with a huge group of EAP kids for one of our classmate's birthdays. It was ladies night, so we all got in for free and even got a free drink. I have no idea what it was but it tasted like strawberries and was pretty delicious. It was a fun night; I finally got to speak to a few locals, and I didn't get home until somewhere around 4:30am. Needless to say, class this morning was brutal.

After lunch I got to Skype with Casey for a moment before he went to school. We had decided that he'd get his little calendar gifts on Fridays, but since he's going to be out of town this weekend he opened it today. Check it out:

It's a little worry doll! Not the most masculine gift, but I thought it was cute. I also got to see Mishka again. I feel like she's already bigger.

After our brief chitchat I took a siesta, and then met up with the ENTIRE group for a trip to the Albayzín. It was a little bit ridiculous how many of us there where, but the actual trip was so amazing that I'm afraid to try and describe it. We walked along these winding cobblestone roads past all these old white houses with flowers pouring down from little balconies. There were big rain clouds gathering in the sky and the sun was beginning to sink down behind them, and everything looked old and wonderful. Along the way we'd stop and take pictures of the Alhambra. Eventually we came upon a plaza with a beautiful view of the Alhambra and the whole city, where a group of musicians were playing. I really want to take Casey to see it. I took photos, but only with my Instax camera, and since I don't have a scanner I can't upload them! I wish I'd brought my iPhone, but I'm sure I'll be back soon. The whole area had such a good vibe, I absolutely loved it. I wish I could live there, but everyone says that it's dangerous and that there are a lot of gypsies and thieves. We took a different route to get back to the resedencia and ended up passing back through the area with all the tea houses that I loved so much when Chelo took us, which made the whole area that much more appealing.

I'm actually beginning to make progress with my search for a house; tomorrow I'm going to look at a few places. Neither of them are particularly thrilling from what I can see so far, but it's a start. I had one really weird, pushy offer from a man that wanted me to teach his daughter English. Not only was he weird and pushy but the house was really far from the campus where I'll be studying, and I'm not interested in living with a family. I emailed him back denying the offer but he sent me two more messages and then CALLED ME (which was annoying because I don't have very many minutes!) and sent me another message after we hung up. LOCO.

In other news my Spanish is getting better and is stealing all my brain space. Yesterday I caught myself beginning to say, "I already have hunger." I hope this is a good sign.

Anyway, I feel like a dead person and I have to get up for an Orientation talk about personal safety, traveling, housing, insurance and classes so I'm going to do something sedentary like watch a movie and then crash hard.

A demonstration of how I feel.