¡Os deseo una feliz Navidad!

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!

Anais, me and Cristina on Nochebuena (Christmas Eve).

 Sending you all Christmas spirit, warm wishes and lots of love from Granada!

Again- ¡Feliz Navidad y Próspero Año Nuevo!

Christmastime in Granada

¡Feliz Nochebuena!

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone! It's hard to believe (at least for me, anyways) that it's already December 24th! This month has flown by and it's been probably the busiest month that I've had here in Granada since arriving in the middle of September. With my big trip to Barcelona and Valencia at the beginning of the month, followed by lots of lessons about Christmas, New Years, etc. with my students at Alba Longa followed by another trip to Sevilla, I've been constantly on-the-go this December! Furthermore, last weekend all the GRIIS students abroad in Granada for the fall semester returned home to the States. We spent quite a lot of time together over the past few weeks taking advantage of their last days in Spain. Most of the students left on Saturday and John left on Sunday; it was really sad to see him go! I really enjoyed spending time with my "roommate" these past three months and the apartment has been a lot quieter since he left! Luckily, yesterday both Anais and Cristina came back to Granada for the start of Christmas vacation and I love having both my "sisters" at home with me again.

After three months of teaching, I'm happy to report that I still love my job! Every morning I look forward to going to work and to spending the day at IES Alba Longa with my coworkers and students. The students continue to be great and eager to speak English with me in and out of the classroom. This past month, we had many activities and lessons relating to Christmas in the USA and American New Years traditions as well as winter holiday and New Year celebrations around the world. For my last English class with each grade, I made a PowerPoint presentation about American Christmas traditions and made a playlist on my iPod with popular Christmas carols. They were curious about Rudolph and mistletoe and enjoyed listening to the carols- some students already knew how to sing the choruses!

I've really made some wonderful friends among my coworkers and I feel like a member of yet another family here in Spain. Everyone has told me that I need to find either a permanent job or a Spanish boyfriend so that I can stay next year... I've been telling them that I'll see what I can do! This Tuesday I celebrated the onset of the Christmas and the holiday vacation with my coworkers at a very nice lunch here in Granada. We met at Damasqueros, a restaurant about a 20 minutes' walk away from my apartment, at 3:00pm. I didn't return home that night until close to 1:00am! We enjoyed appetizers, wine, a main course and dessert in the restaurant before heading to various bars in the city for more tapas and drinks. It was so much fun to spend the entire day outside of the school with everyone that I work with! We spent the afternoon and evening talking, joking, dancing and exchanging stories together, happy and content with the start of Christmas. At lunch, I was surprised with a gift from everyone- a beautiful purse and a certificate for being "the best language assistant." I gave a little speech thereafter, saying how content I am with the job and how I love spending time in and out of the school with my coworkers who have become family. It was a great evening and a wonderful, fun way to start Christmas break!

Granada is absolutely lovely at Christmastime. I walked around the city one night a few weeks ago with my friend Liz and we were able to take some great pictures of all the lights and decorations around the city. Here are a few of my favorites:

Plaza Bib-Rambla.

Plaza del Carmen.

El Ayuntamiento de Granada (City Hall).

Puerta Real.

Reindeer and angels by the Fuente de las Batallas.

Fuente de las Batallas.

A large, lit-up Belén (nativity scene) in a small plaza.

In a few hours, I'll be heading over to Ana's mother's house in Padul with Ana, Cristina and Anais to celebrate Christmas Eve with my Spanish family. We'll have a big dinner, listen to Christmas carols and spend the entire evening enjoying each others' company. While I miss my family and friends so much, I'm very excited to be here in Spain this year for Christmas! I've never spent this time of year outside of the United States before and I'm eager to experience Spain's Christmas and New Year traditions! So, Christmas Eve this year will be in Padul and Christmas Day back here in Granada. On Sunday, just about all of my Spanish friends (and one of my German friends, too!) will be back in the city to spend a few days together. I can't wait to see them all again- some I haven't seen since I was abroad in the spring of 2009! On the 31st, I will head up to Madrid to spend New Year's Eve and New Year's Day in the city with Juanpe, one of my best friends here in Spain, and Simon, our friend from Germany. On January 3rd, Juanpe and I will take a bus to Lorca, a town in the region of Murcia, to spend a week with his family, including Three Kings Day. Then, sometime on the 7th or 8th of January, I'll return to Granada for the last few days of Christmas break before school starts up again on Monday the 10th. It's going to be a very busy Christmas break but I'm very excited for everything that I have planned :)

To my friends and family back home in the States, I hope that you have a very merry Christmas and a very happy and healthy New Year. I love you all and will be thinking of you- I can't wait to be with you all again! A mis amigos y familia aquí en España, ¡qué ganas tengo de pasarlo muy bien esta Navidad con todos vosotros! ¡Felices fiestas, os quiero mucho!

Once again, merry Christmas Eve, everyone!

Sevilla: capital city of Andalucía

This entry's a little late in being posted but I've been extremely busy these past few days... (as usual, time is flying by and shows no signs of stopping!)

On Saturday, December 11th, John and I were up bright and early again at the ungodly hour of 6:45am to go on our last day trip with all of the students in GRIIS. This time, our destination was Sevilla, the capital city of the region of Andalucía. While Sevilla is a capital city, it's not the capital of Spain (which all of you already know is Madrid) but rather just the region of Andalucía. Let me explain- the whole country of Spain is made up of 17 autonomous regions. Politically speaking, Spain has a central government (with both a king and a president of the government) and then devolved, regional power in each of the 17 communities. The local governments in each of these regions are responsible for creating and maintaining policies relating to school and university administration, public health, social services, local culture, urban and rural development and, occasionally, the local police forces. Within each region there are various provinces, which are then broken down into cities and towns. Granada, both the city and the province, are part of Andalucía, the southernmost region in mainland Spain. (Two groups of islands, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean and the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea, also belong to Spain as well as two autonomous cities, Ceuta and Melilla, located in Northern Africa.) Thus, Sevilla is the capital city of the region in which I'm currently living and working.  

The mainland 15 regions of Spain, divided into their various provinces.

Too much about politics and geography? Okay, let's get back to my actual trip... Leaving Granada around 7:30am, we reached Sevilla by 11:00am. Our first stop was to the Parque de María Luisa. This popular park contains lovely walking and biking paths, gardens and multiple plazas. We visited the popular Plaza de América which contains, in addition to the largest amount of pigeons that I've ever seen in one place, two museums, the Museo Arqueológico and Museo de Artes y Costumbres Populares. After visiting this plaza, we walked through the park to the Plaza de España, one of the prettiest plazas that I've ever seen. The plaza contains a beautiful building built for the 1929 Exposición Iberoamericana featuring a bench and decorative tiles for each province in Spain. In front of the building are fountains, bridges and mini canals.

Entering Plaza de América.

El Museo de Artes y Costumbres Populares.

The large fountain in the center of the plaza.

Strolling through Parque María Luisa.

A tree dedicated to a poet.

Plaza de España. It may look familiar to you- the plaza was used in the movie Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones as part of Queen Amidala's palace grounds.

A perfect day for rowing on the canal!

The GRIIS students sitting on the benches and tiles dedicated to the province of Granada.

After we finished up in the park, we headed over to the Avenida de la Constitución, one of the major streets in Sevilla. Just off of this street is Sevilla's Cathedral, la Catedral de Santa María de la Sede. The Cathedral is the biggest cathedral in Spain and the third largest in the world. Like many of the cathedrals in southern Spain, this one also stands on the location of a Moorish mosque that dates back to the 12th century. Sevilla, once an Islamic city, fell to the Christians in 1248 and the mosque was used as a church until the beginning of the 15th century. In 1401, construction of the cathedral was begun. While the cathedral is a grand Catholic church, much remains of its Moorish roots. First and foremost is the Giralda, a large brick tower that looms over the Cathedral. The tower was constructed between 1184 and 1198 and was originally the minaret of the mosque. You can climb to the top of the Giralda to get some great views of the city. Don't like stairs? Not to worry! Instead of stairs, the tower contains a series of ramps which you walk up to reach the top. It was constructed in this manner so that guards could reach the top on horseback while on lookout. This cathedral also contains a Patio de los Naranjos, much like the one to be found outside of the Cathedral/Mosque in Córdoba. All together there are 66 orange trees in the patio and a large fountain at its center. Perhaps one of the most interesting tidbits about Sevilla's cathedral is that it is one of the contested burial sites of Christopher Columbus. Just inside the Puerta de los Príncipes is a huge monumental tomb containing his supposed remains. However, Columbus died in Valladolid, a city in northern Spain, in 1506 and his remains were moved many times. Thus, no one is exactly sure where the explorer's remains are buried today!

Approaching the Cathedral.

Looking up at the Giralda from inside the Patio de los Naranjos.

An aerial view of Sevilla from the top of the Giralda tower.

Another aerial look at Sevilla from the Giralda.

After seeing the Cathedral the group had lunch at one of Amalia's favorite restaurants in the city before visiting the Alcázar, another World Heritage Site. The Alcázar is a royal palace of the Spanish monarchy and, like many other important monuments and buildings in southern Spain, it was originally a Moorish fort dating back to the early 900s A.D. In its eleven centuries of existence, the Alcázar has been modified and added to many times and the palace is one of the best remaining examples of mudéjar architecture. While the Alcázar is a national, historical monument the Spanish royal family still uses its upper levels as its official residence while in Sevilla. The Alcázar is one of my favorite sites to visit when in Sevilla... I love all the gardens! The various patios are beautiful, too, and resemble the style of architecture and decoration seen in the Alhambra here in Granada.

Entering the gardens of the Alcázar.

Walking around the grounds of the Alcázar.

Isn't it beautiful?! I still can't believe that this photo was taken in the middle of December...

Sevilla is full of wonderful orange trees.

Entering the Moorish palaces... the colors of the tiles and overall styles resemble those of the Alhambra.

El Patio de las Doncellas.

This section of the Alcázar is simply stunning...

The Patio de las Muñecas.

The Palacio de Pedro I.

After our visit to the Alcázar, it was around 4:30pm. Scheduled to catch a 6:30pm bus back to Granada we had two hours of "free time" to wander through the city on our own. We walked through the Barrio de Santa Cruz. This beautiful neighborhood used to be Sevilla's Jewish quarter. The streets in Santa Cruz are full of cafés, plazas, orange and lemon trees, gardens and small shops. After wandering through the neighborhood, our large group split up and I went off with a few others to get some ice cream and explore the streets off of the Avenida de la Constitución.

Strolling through Sevilla.

Plaza Virgen de los Reyes.

Walking along Avenida de la Constitución.

Entering the Barrio de Santa Cruz.

You can see the Giralda towering above the buildings in the background.

Plaza de Doña Elvira.

At 6:30pm our group reunited and we were on our way back to Granada! We had a great day (complete with warm weather!) in Sevilla together for our last excursion of the "semester"!

Driving along Spain's eastern coast: Valencia and Alicante

Like I said in my last post, on Monday morning our group left Barcelona for Valencia. Our group changed a bit that morning, as Molly and Amy headed back to Granada. Thus Anais, Jayson, Liz, John, Courtney and I caught the 12:00pm train and arrived in Valencia around 3:30pm, meeting our other friend, Lacie, at the train station. Lacie had gotten into the city the night before and was able to lead us on the 10 minute walk to our hostel. Exhausted, we freshened up and rested for a little while before leaving the hostel around 7:00pm to walk around the city. Valencia is beautiful at night and we were lucky to run into lots of friendly people willing to take photos of our whole group. A few minutes from our house was the Plaza de Ayuntamiento. This plaza contains a beautiful fountain, the City Hall, the main Post Office and other buildings from the city's golden age. The plaza was decorated for Christmas with garlands of lights and a giant lit-up Christmas tree in the center. From this plaza we walked to the cathedral and took a look around. However, there was either a mass or some kind of meeting about to begin just as we were arriving thus we didn't spend too much time inside.

Valencia at night.

Group photo in the Plaza de Ayuntamiento.

The fountain in the Plaza de Ayuntamiento.

Courtney, Lacie, Jayson, Anais and Liz... being silly.

Valencia's cathedral.

Inside by the alter.

Late night walks are my favorite!

Me and John.

Tuesday morning we got up early and made our way into the city around 11:00am, wanting to take full advantage of our one full day in Valencia. We started the day off at Valencia's port. While there's not much there now, the port was the host of the 33nd annual America's Cup (sailing races) in 2007 and we were able to see all the teams buildings, etc.

Finally... Valencia in the daylight!

Valencia's small port.

Anais and John.

After spending a little while walking along the port, we made our way to the City of Arts and Sciences, an incredible group of museums, venues and monuments that Valencia is famous for. The "park" is amazing- it's impossible to describe and almost as impossible to capture in photos. Here's a description that I snagged from a website: "The City of Arts and Sciences is a huge futuristic educational complex designed for Valencia by the famous Spanish architect Santiago Calatrva, as a present to his home city. Calatrava's vision is that of the space age, inspired by animal skeletons.[...] The City of Arts and Sciences is composed of 5 elements, all bound together in a luxurious landscape of clear water spaces and greenery. It is truly a city within a city- you will find yourself far, far away from Valencia, on some distant planet in a distant time." While in the park, we were able to spend time at both the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia (the Concert/Opera Hall) as well as the Museo de Ciences Principe Felipe (the Museum of Science). If I ever get the opportunity to return to Valencia, I'd love to visit the park's L'Oceanografic (the Marine Park), the biggest aquarium in the world!

Approaching the City of Arts and Sciences.

The Science Museum.

Left: The Concert Hall; Right: The iMax Theater

The Concert Hall.

L-R: Lacie, Courtney, Anais, John, Liz and me.

What a cool place! I wish that I could have visited it for a longer period of time...

It began to rain as we were walking around the City of Arts and Sciences and while having lunch at a nearby shopping center, Lacie suggested that we make our next stop the Museo Fallero (Museum of Las Fallas). Las Fallas is a festival that takes place in Valencia every March and it's undoubtedly one of the most unique and crazy festivals in Spain. Originally started as a feast day for St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters, Las Fallas has evolved into a five-day, multifaceted celebration involving fire. Here's a brief history about the celebration: "the focus of the fiesta is the creation and destruction of ninots (“puppets” or “dolls”), which are huge cardboard, wood, paper-machè and plaster statues. The ninots are extremely lifelike and usually depict bawdy, satirical scenes and current events. A popular theme is poking fun at corrupt politicians and Spanish celebrities. The labor intensive ninots, often costing up to US$75,000, are crafted by neighborhood organizations and take almost the entire year to construct. Many ninots are several stories tall and need to be moved into their final location of over 350 key intersections and parks around the city with the aid of cranes on the day of la plantà (the rising). The ninots remain in place until March 19th, the day known as La Cremá (the burning). Starting in the early evening, young men with axes chop cleverly-hidden holes in the statues and stuff them with fireworks. The crowds start to chant, the streetlights are turned off, and all of the ninots are set on fire at exactly midnight." It was a really interesting museum and we had a great time looking at all of the sarcastic and satirical winning ninots. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to see the celebration in person this upcoming March!

Museum of Las Fallas.

Lacie with one of the winning (and therefore spared from burning) ninots of a previous festival.

It's hard to believe that the figures are made from paper mache!

Who's grumpier, Jayson or the old woman?

After walking around and thoroughly enjoying the Museum of Las Fallas, we caught a local bus and headed back into the city center. We strolled through Valencia's Central Market and ended the day with a traditional Spanish meal of paella and tapas at a local restaurant. It was a busy day but we definitely enjoyed all that Valencia had to offer!

Central Market.

This would make a great Christmas card photo!

The next day, Wednesday December 8th, was the last day of our vacation and time for us to head back home to Granada. We said goodbye to Courtney who took a train back to Granada and Anais who had to take a bus back to Madrid. The rest of us (John, Jayson, Liz, Lacie and myself) decided to rent a car for the day and to make our own way back to Granada. It was going to be a long drive- about seven hours- but we were excited to be able to make the trip at our own pace, with our own music, enjoying each other's company. So, armed with just a map of Spain's major highways (nope, no GPS on this road trip!), we left Valencia and headed south along the coast, reading the highway signs to direct us. After a few hours of driving, we began seeing signs for beaches. Hungry and anxious to stretch our legs for a bit, we stopped at La Playa de San Juan located in the coastal city of Alicante. We were shocked to discover free parking just a minute's walk from the beach! Getting out of the car, we took off our shoes and sweaters and made our way to the water. We couldn't believe that on December 8th we were enjoying 72 degree weather and wading in the Mediterranean Sea!

Playa de San Juan.

Wait... is it really December 8th?!

Loving the warm weather! (L-R) Liz, Lacie, John, me and Jayson.

We spent a few hours enjoying the day and grabbed a hamburger and beer at an outdoor cafe before heading back to the car and finishing up the drive to Granada. By the time we arrived home that night it was already 11:00pm and we were exhausted, but thoroughly happy with a wonderful long "weekend" and lots of new memories! What a great vacation!