España 20

Here's our group at the restaurant for the farewell dinner.

So this is the post about Friday, again a day late. I'm sorry I'm so lazy.

We had our interviews this morning, the last thing for the class. Every single person in the class got an "A" on their interview. The teacher said that this was the first time this had happened to her, and was very happy with us. It also secured me as passing the class, so I was happy as well.

The interviews were really funny. We had to answer questions for about 3 minutes each. We went in in pairs, my partner was Ethan. So he answered questions, in Spanish, for about 3 minutes, and then I did as well. After that, we had a role playing scenario with objectives. Ethan was a flirty girlfriend and I was her jealous boyfriend. We ended up with a compromise: Ethan could still flirt with other guys, but not strangers, and especially not that creepy guy with tattoos. Roberto and Mariangela's turned out even funnier, but that's their story, not mine.

The farewell dinner was nice, much much better than the welcome dinner. We went to a nice restaurant, but one that actually served good food. We got the 3 course daily menus this time. I ended up with some soup (can't remember exactly...), a plate of chicken, and a chocolate cake. It was a good meal.

After the dinner, I went back to the apartment, and read for a while before sleeping. Some of the others stayed out all night, and didn't get any sleep. I didn't envy them the next day when we had to... But that's for the next post.

España 19

L-R: Daniel, Roberto, Ethan. Spain-Portugal semifinals, Daniel and Ethan for Spain and Roberto for Portugal.

One of the local guitar shops in Spain.

Sorry this wasn't up yesterday. I'll try to be better about that in the future.

So today was the final exam, even though it wasn't the final day of class. We had interviews tomorrow. (I might have had a few odd tenses there. The interviews were the day after this post was talking about, which is Thursday, so they're in the future of the post, but the past of now.) I did decently well on the final exam, and was happy with my score.

So yeah. At this point, Italy had just beat Germany the day before to advance to the finals, and the winner of the Spain-Portugal game would play them for the championship title of the Eurocup. Roberto liked the Portugal team, and had a jersey for them, so he supported them for the game. Thankfully, he was smart enough to stay in the apartments; I think he would have been mugged if he'd gone out on the streets with that shirt. It was the best game of the entire cup in my opinion, with both teams playing very well. The game ended 0-0 after 2 hours, and the teams went into shootouts, which Spain won 4-2, and thus advanced. That meant they'd play Italy and the crazy mohawk shirt-ripper dude on Sunday, while we were flying back to the states. We were a bit disappointed that we were going to miss the game. (Note, I may actually have the game dates for Spain-Portugal and Italy-Germany backwards, but I'm too lazy to look them up.)

During the day, I went to a guitar shop. That's it in the second picture. Again, you can see the granadas-on-poles that lined all of the streets. This was a luthier's shop, meaning that he sold guitars that he made himself. He made all types, flamenco and classical, spruce and cedar. I'm partial to a cedar, myself, and spent most of the time trying out a nice cedar classical. I don't like it as much as I like the guitar I have at home, but I don't like much anything as much as I like the guitar I have at home. I love that guitar. However, the guitar was certainly a concert quality instrument, and cheaper than any other guitar that quality that you can find in the states. I didn't get to visit any more guitar shops, but I got the impression that the quality and pricing were typical in Granada, if not all of Spain.

I hadn't played for a good three weeks before going in, because I hadn't brought my guitar to Spain, and the days before were spent packing and studying like a madman. So, I didn't sound my best on the guitar, but it felt really really good to get to play it. During that afternoon, the entire crew except me and one other went to the beach, and when I went to take maybe an hour for my siesta, I ended up sleeping for a good 5-6 hours until the others returned, because it was actually quiet and peaceful in the apartment for once. Thus, it was a really really good day. Good final exam grade, fun playing a nice guitar, a long, uninterrupted nap, and Spain won a really good game of football.

España 18

The Cathedral of Granada. One of the pinnacles of architecture in the world, it's an amazing and beautiful building. Those are organs on either side of the pews, and the central area and dome in the middle.

A better view of one of the organs. I would absolutely love to hear one (or both) of these things played. The acoustics in this huge, vaulted, stone room were absolutely amazing.

A better view of the central area, adorned with many pieces of famous artwork.

Some old Latin texts/songs. I do believe that the lines in between are Gregorian Chant.

The outside of the Cathedral. That graffiti is several hundred years old. It used to be that the students of the University of Granada would come here upon graduating and scribble their names on the wall.

So, no tests at all today. We had a small quiz (I aced it), but it was a laid back and relaxing class, in the middle of all of the madness. We went to two quite interesting places in the afternoon; the Royal Chapel of Granada, and the Cathedral of Granada.

There were no pictures allowed of the Royal Chapel, sadly. It was amazing. It's a beautiful structure, and it also contains the graves of Isabel and Ferdinand, perhaps the most famous king and queen of Spain ever. It also contains the graves of their daughter Juana la Loca (remember her?), and her husband, King Phillip the first.

Then, we went to the Cathedral of Granada. As you can see from the pictures above, it's a massive and absolutely stunning building. Just wow... Those people know how to build. They really know how to build. If you go to see anything in Spain, it's the architecture. It's some of the best in the world.

Random side note: My new computer came in today, and I love it. Thank you, mom! :)

España 17

Here's the 19 decks of cards I bought in Spain.

And 56 more unique decks.

Not much. There was a test, I did meh. I think there was a football game, can't remember. Anyways...

So yeah. When I travel, I collect decks of cards. I don't get postcards (though I sent a handful from Spain. I hope those arrived...) or other stuff. I get cards. I've been doing this for a few years, as you can see. It's quite fun, and it gives me a lot of choice when I want to play a card game... I'm tempted to challenge someone to a game of war with all of my decks...

In Spain, they have a different kind of card deck than we have here. It's called a Baraja Española. They call our decks Barajas de Poker or Barajas Bridge. They typically also include 3 jokers in our decks, though I'm not sure why. The bottom row of decks in the top picture is American decks from Spain, and the top row is Spanish decks. It's quite the fun hobby. If anyone reading wants to give me cards, I'd love to take them. :)

España 16

A lady in the Plaza Nueva doing some type of hand weaving.

A much more traditional flamenco show, in Granada.

Some random hill with a castle on top. That you can barely see, but it's still there and pretty cool.

So yeah. This day was our composition, a 3-5 page composition that was about our trip. It was fairly easy to write, because we had done so much on the trip and there was a lot to talk about. I did well, and passed it.

That night, we went to what was a much, much more traditional flamenco show than the one in Madrid. There were about 5-7 dancers, though only one at a time, as well as a singer and a guitarist. At least, we saw a guitarist. I couldn't hear him over the dancing, so I have no idea if he was actually any good or not.

Yeah, that bit of floor has a special plate on it that's replaced every now and then so that the dancers don't wear holes in the floor. From what I understood, this location has these shows as a daily thing.

I didn't terribly enjoy the show. It hurt my ear, and I couldn't hear anything else in the place, not even the person next to me. I didn't hear any music, mostly just rhythm. I like music. I'm a guitarist. I wanna hear the guitarist.

Ah well. A good grade on the essay made it a good day, overall. I am happy when I make good grades.  :)

España 15

This is still from Saturday, but Sunday was boring. :) Um, the Eurocup was played while we were in Spain, and football (we call it soccer) is bigger over there than american football is by several orders of magnitude. It's insane. So anyways, we watched most of the games from our hotel room TV, but this night we decided to go out. It was Spain Vs. France in the quarterfinals (8 teams, single elimination brackets). We were in Córdoba. We decided to go out to the local plaza and watch the game at a bar. Here I am, dressed in my Spain shirt, all ready (minus shoes.) We all got the shirts.

Many of us, including the teacher, had the Spanish flag painted on our faces. It's nice they have such an easy flag to draw.

And yeah. Spain won, 2-0. Quite a game. Here's people celebrating.

I'm tired and I'm up too late. Sorry for the late post and not saying much. I'll do more tomorrow. I promises.

España 14

This picture and the next are actually still from Friday, but The Alhambra was awesome enough that I left everything else until today. As we were walking down the hill, we saw these. Umbrella hats... I want one for when I'm biking and it's raining.

International Music Festival. A student orchestra from a local university was in the Plaza Nueva, and played classical music for a while. Well, too.

Next day, Saturday. We went to Córdoba, and spent the night, returning the next day. This was one of the main ways to get around the city. Horse drawn carriage. Pretty cool, if you ask me.

Roman ruins. These were scattered throughout the city.

An old Visigothic Church under the floor.

The inside of a mosque.

And a beautiful cathedral.

And the mosque, seen from the cathedral. Wha?

Yeah. Those last four pictures are from La Mesquita, a mosque/cathedral with identity issues in Córdoba. Wikipedia explains it better than I do.

I'm going to talk about the rest of Saturday tomorrow, mostly because nothing much happened on Sunday.