Spanish Pre-Gaming and Weekend Plans

There are so many things I should be doing right now, but I know if I don't write a bit I'll get  behind and these posts will become giant laborious novels. Really, not that much has been going on these past few days, more of the same: classes, walks, long weekend nights. I'm getting so used to being here and living in the colegio mayor that it's almost troubling. The next phase is going to be so different and potentially a lot more grueling. I feel like we're kind of in denial right now; this definitely doesn't feel like real life.

Anyway, today is a holiday in Granada, so we have the day off and last night was a definitely designated as a party day. It wasn't the most eventful of evenings, but we did get to go botellón, which is essentially when all the young people congregate in this huge kind of plaza-like area and just drink a bunch. It's basically the official pre-gaming zone, and it's actually legal to drink there. There were literally hundreds of people. It would NEVER be legal in the USA; even without the alcohol, no one would ever let that many young people congregate in the same place. The unfortunate thing is that there are no bathrooms, so there are a few pretty gnarly little piss corners and, as with many places in Spain, some truly horrible smells abound. Still, it was a great place to practice Spanish with the locals, and there were actually some ramps and things for skateboarders, which made me happy because I can use this information to convince Casey to come visit! After a few hours we decided to go to a club but they were charging more than we expected so we ended up wandering around, getting felafel and going home relatively early- around 4am or so.

Today feels like a Sunday; lazy and sleepy. Tomorrow we have a visit to the Alhambra, so I'm not planning on doing anything too wild tonight, but hopefully I'll have some sweet photos to share! Also, this Saturday a group of us are heading to Málaga, a nearby beach town, where we're going to check out the Picasso museum (it's his birthplace!) and hopefully swim and lounge a bit. Sunday we're planning on busing to Nerja, also nearby, to take a look at some caves and more beach, and then we'll head home that night. Very excited to check out some new places, especially since I'm going with some lovely people like Laurel, Amber and Christina (amongst others; I'm not entirely sure who all is coming but I think it's a fairly large group.)

I suppose that's all for now, but tomorrow is Friday, which of course means Casey gets a new little gifty! I don't know whose more excited, him or me....