Weekend Wonders: Amor y Animales

What an amaaaazing weekend! First off, my housemate finally cleaned the kitchen! So happy. Friday I met up with Christina and we went book shopping. Didn't find much in the way of secondhand bookstores, but I got a book of Juan Ramón Jimenez poems and then we went over to Karim's and had lunch with him and Danielle, which was unexpected and delicious.

After lunch Christina had a coffee date, so she went on her way and Karim and I went and had coffee at Bohemia, which was nice. Such a cute shop, and I had a really yummy cappuccino with whipped cream. Mmm.

After coffee I ran some errands with him and then we got Leto and took him for a walk to a thrift store where I purchased the most awesome and ridiculous furry white jacket EVER. Polar bear on Halloween? Yes, indeed!

I hung out with Karim, Danielle and Leto at their place for a while, and then headed home when they started getting ready for dinner. On the way home, when I passed the "cat sanctuary" the most adorable black kitten came out and said howdy to me, so I stopped to see if I could pet it and I ended up sitting there with a kitten purring in my lap for a good ten minutes. She was SUCH a sweetheart. I wanted to take her home, but I didn't know how my housemates would feel about it...

Anyway, Friday night Karim told us there was a goth DJ thing goin on for free at the Who Rock Bar, which is actually pretty close to my apartment, so Michelle and I went to check it out. It was pretty mellow, not a ton of people, and Karim, Danielle and his friend Javi had to leave after not too long, but Michelle and I had an awesome time watching goth kids dance with their super serious faces and whatnot.

Saturday was actually rainy and chilly, which was actually kind of nice. I stayed in bed late and wrote and was cozy, but I also kept thinking about the lil kitten in the rain, so I talked to Lucas and he said I could bring her home if I took care of her! I went and got some kitty supplies and made a ghetto litter box until I can make it to the pet store, and then went to the cat sanctuary but she wasn't there! So much sad. So, I went to a thrift store and realized there was an everything for 5 euros deal (stoked!) so a bought an awesome black dress, a stripey sweater and then a white lacy top and a white skirt for my polar bearness! I don't usually shop alone but there was something really nice and calm about poking around the thrift shop alone on a chilly autumn evening.

I also bought some veggies on the way home, so I had a yummy yum dinner of pasta with zucchini, onion and garlic marinara sauce. I made way too much, as usual, but luckily Michelle and Sydney came over at the perfect moment, so I fed their faces a bit and then we had drinks and went to see a Muse tribute band at the Who Rock Bar. It. Was. Awesome. Definitely a billion times more fun than I expected; we even ended up in a mini-mosh pit with this group of super enthused guys from Madrid. I danced/jumped/moshed/headbanged my ass off, and it felt AMAZING. I'm so stoked that those girls are as awesome as they are and down with going to shows and whatnot. Afterwards we decided to go check out some of the gay bars, since Michelle hadn't been yet. We ended up in La Sal, the lesbian bar, for quite some time and had a ton of fun dancing there. Afterwards we went to Kebab King and got delicious felafel. What a freaking awesome night!

Today, Felipe came over to put his copy of Photoshop on my computer, but I noticed that the sweet black kitty was back in the cat sanctuary, so we went and snagged some of Lucas' sausages and tried to lure her out. She is literally the sleepiest cat ever. She did not give a fuck about the meat at ALL. We sat there for like AGES trying to get her interested in the meat, and I even got smacked by another cat who was trying to get in on the food action. Finally I stuck my hand under the fence and kinda lifted her butt up, so she reluctantly got up and crawled under the fence and I nabbed her! I was ridiculously excited. She was a little uncertain about the coming home, but didn't complain or anything. I noticed she had some fleas on her face, so Felipe helped me bathe her in the bathroom sink and she wasn't happy about it, but relatively speaking was actually pretty mellow about the ordeal. We scrubbed her down with shampoo and picked off and killed her icky fleas and then dried her off in a fluffy towel and brought her to the window to dry in the sun. She is literally the sweetest most mellow kitty ever. She didn't even hold a grudge about the bathing, and has just been all kinds of sweet and cuddly, sitting in my lap and purring like a motorboat.

I'M IN LOVE.

Speaking of love, I realized I forgot to write about Casey's last two Friday gifts which were...

Lychee gummy candy and chipotle chilli chocolate! I wish I brought lychee candy with me, that shit is DOPE. I miss World Market.

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!