The Last Week

Today I write my blog not in Spain, but on a train in Ireland. It has been quite some time since I have posted due to the busy busy last few weeks I had in Spain. It was a bittersweet week full of confused emotions, but in all, I made the best of my last moments in Spain and enjoyed what I could. Javier believes that we live for today, and for today only because the future brings unexpected things, so we need to enjoy the moments we are living in the present. So, I spent my last week following the wise motto of Javier, making the best of my time.

I have a lot of time to cover, so I am posting mainly pictures with captions on the general ideas. Enjoy!

One of my first nights in Granada, Nicole and I went out with our family to the Plaza de Toros for tapas. However, we had only seen the bar outside of the arena, not the inside. So, we headed to the Plaza de Toros to finally see the inside. It was pretty cool. There was a boy practicing to be a matador and he was adorable. Meanwhile, Nicole and I pretended to be toros (bulls) and run around the arena.

Partido de Futbol! Finally!! The last home game in Granada, we convinced our professor to let us go to a soccer game. Granada played the team from Navarra in the north of Spain. It was an important game because it determined whether or not Granada would remain in the Division 1 League. Thankfully, Granada won 3-1! It was a very exciting game full of energy! The crowd looked like 'Where's Waldo' because everyone was dressed in white and red. 

Mom and Lorelle arrived in Granada Sunday May 19th! Yumm Churros

Monday night all the students from UNH went to our politics professor's house for a goodbye dinner. He is a teacher affiliated with UNH, who has lived in New Hampshire with his family from time to time. The dinner was really fun and I got to see a more casual side of my professor. We ate delicious food, a mix of traditional Spanish food and American food (plus the best carrot cake ever!). We also had a dance party, sang a variety of songs chosen by Pepe, and danced the chicken dance in order to receive our final grades. 

Tuesday night we had our UNH family goodbye dinner. Everyone dressed up and brought their host parents to a garden with a beautiful view of the Alhambra. The only problem with the night was that our professor, Carmen, told everyone it would be a fancy dinner, so everyone was expecting a huge table full of food and more. However, the night actually consisted of an open bar and tapas. That was it. By the end of the two our dinner, most of the people were drunk, due to the excess of drinks and lack of food. Slight problem. And, Carmen had planned a night visit to the Alhambra immediately after, which was interesting.

The UNH crew and our 3 professors...see if you can find them!

Night visit to the Alhambra! It was very pretty!!

There's a cafe near the Centro de Lenguas Modernas (our school) where many of my friends go after class. We went there for the last time the morning of Emily's 21st birthday and had toast and juice. We hung out there for an hour or so, everyone was so sad to leave. This is a picture with us and the owner.

They gave Emily a birthday bread with candles, and birthday shots!

Tuesday night we had a wine tasting. Carmen organized a tasting at a restaurant in Granada, so we had three different wines and multiple tapas to go along with each one. I personally do not like the taste of wine very much, but I found the experience to be very cool and fun. Plus most of the food was very good. 

After the wine tasting, we had a surprise visit to Generalife at night (the gardens next to the Alhambra). 

After the night visit to Generalife with the UNH crew, Mom and Lorelle met us all at G10 (a discoteca) for our last Ladies Night. It was also my friend's 21st birthday, which made it all the better because everyone went to celebrate. Mom had a wonderful time at the club. All my friend love her, probably because she has no care in the world and has fun doing anything and everything. She took a celebratory tequilla shot with everyone for my friend's birthday and danced on the stage with a couple of my friends, including Lorelle. It was a really funny night.

Oh, and did I mention my professor, Carmen, and her husband came to the club with us as well? Yep, she did. And she was busting out the moves on stage with John and Nicole!

Most of my UNH friends left Granada on Friday morning, so Thursday afternoon we all met up at Cafe Futbol to reminisce and say goodbye. It was really sad, but happy because we knew we would all see each other back at school. We have all become really close friends, and are very thankful for the bond we all shared as a group.

Bye friends!

Treasure the Final Moments

These kids graduate the day before I leave!

Even though I still have two weeks left in Granada, my time here is dwindling and it has become very apparent. I have begun to say my goodbyes to those who I do not see often, and it is very sad. All the people I have met over the past five months have made an impact on my life, and I will remember them forever. Thursday was my last day volunteering at the high school. I had to say goodbye to my favorite class, which was so much harder than I had expected. We played a review game about biology because they had a test coming up, and as their last question, I asked them to spell my name. Now, you may be thinking, well if you've had them as students shouldn't they know your name? And yes, yes they do. But they cannot spell it. Because of the Spanish accent, many of the kids in the lower grades think my name is Jane, because that's how they pronounce Jenn. It was really funny walking around to see the responses the students had put down! Some of them got it right, some struggled a little bit and looked so confused when I said my name wasn't Jane. They looked so disappointed.

My favorite class! They're awesome!

Friday I went to the high school for my last after school conversation group with the kids. I made cookies and we played Headbands (the English version that I brought from home) to practice asking questions and describing things. The kids really had fun with that. Conveniently afterward, there was a class going on with a lot of my students, including one of my favorites that attends Thursday conversations with me! I was so excited to get to say goodbye for real! I got so many hugs and didn't want to leave, it was so heartwarming.

Me and Clara, my favorite student. I'm going to miss her the most!

They came after school to say goodbye to me and Nicole!

View from Pepe and Lola's balcony

Saturday Javier took Nicole, Ana and I to the beach in Almunecar where they have an apartment. We ate lunch at abuela Lola's apartment, a beautiful apartment with a terrace balcony that looks over the ocean. Lola cooked fish and migas (a breadcrumb dish) along with melon and their homemade wine. It was a lovely lunch on the balcony with a nice sea breeze.

After lunch we all hung out on the beach. I was pooped, so I took a nap on my towel. It was cloudy and I didn't plan on sleeping for long, but when I woke up, I had a lovely sunburn on the backs of my legs. Ana had an even worse burn on her back, it was very very red. Needless to say, we all got sunburnt and Javier joked that we would have to cover ourselves in front of Big Beatriz so she wouldn't find out and get mad. When we got home she just laughed at us and gave us some aloe.

Ana applying Javier's sunblock

Sunday was a relaxed day. I spent most of it making a scrapbook for the family when I leave. They are getting very sad as the days go by, and it's going to be very hard to leave them. But till then, I will continue to treasure the moments we share together!

A Wonderful Day in Granada

My favorite clan of students! <3

Today was a wonderful day! This is my last week volunteering at the high school, so it was a sad but exciting day! I went to my two classes at the school; my first one was with Sacra, the professor that took me to the concert a few weekends ago. She allotted half the class for her students to ask me questions about my experience, and for them to interact with me. Surprisingly the students had a lot of questions and were very interested in what I had to say. At the end of the class, Sacra gave me a huge hug and gave me a pair of paper made earrings from India. It was adorable. My second class was even harder to say goodbye. The students are about 14 or 15 years old, and have grown very close to me over the past few months. They hadn't realized it was my last day, so when they found out I was bombarded with hugs and more hugs. It was so hard to walk away; every time the students would turn there backs, they would run back and give me another hug. They just couldn't let me go; it was adorable. At one point, a couple of the girls started to cry, and begged me to come back next week. Maybe I will pay them a visit, who knows.

Me and Sacra, she's the best!

Sacra's two student teachers studying to become spanish teachers. They're so sweet!

My youngest students :)

The school

I was also extremely productive today! I finished two essays and two powerpoints!! So, I'm pretty much done for the semester with two weeks to spare!!! Also, my professor sent out an email today saying that she is going to pay for everyone in the UNH group to go to a soccer game the last weekend we are here, and that she has scheduled a wine tasting with traditional tapas for our last week here as well. It is suppose to be really fun. She also mentioned there were a few surprises to come, but of course I don't know what they are yet!

Banana Bread!!!!

To top of my fantastic day, I made banana bread! Yes, BANANA BREAD! Man have I missed that delicious treat! I told my host family I was going to make it, and they looked at me strangely, because the concept of bananas and bread just didn't click in their minds. However, their opinion quickly changed as they took a bite of fresh, warm homemade banana bread that little Beatriz helped me make this afternoon. It was very satisfying, and they insist I teach them how to make it!

Lagos, Portugal

Lagos, Portugal: The first group trip booked, the last trip to experience. I must say, it was perfect timing to go away for a beach getaway weekend with my UNH group, just before the stress of exams start and we all have to say goodbye. We booked the trip through DiscoverGranadaExcursions, a travel group that runs trips for study abroad students. All but one of the students in my UNH group signed up, so it was a fun time.

We left Granada bright and early Friday morning, leaving the city around 6AM and heading to Sevilla to pick up more students. The trip in total probably had a couple hundred students, but there were two different tour groups, so we really only had 100 or so. The bus ride took about 7 hours, and we arrived in Lagos, Portugal (the southern end of Portugal) around 1PM. Our hotel was only a couple hundred feet away from the beach, a nice easy walk to the beautiful shoreline and cliffs. I put my things down in my room and headed to the cliffs to check out the scenery. 

My hotel room!

View from our room!

Everyone in my group signed up to go on a sangria cruise through the grotto of Portugal (the cliff structures). They played fun music and served unlimited sangria for the entire ride. When we got out to sea, we took a smaller boat through the arches and rock structures along the shore, which was amazing! I have never seen something as beautiful, it was a dream come true! 

The small boat took us back to the main boat, and I attempted to go swimming in the water. Well, attempted. I jumped in, swam a little, lost all feeling in my body, had difficulty breathing from being so cold, and swam right back to the boat, all in under a minute. It was freezing! Nevertheless, I was stupid enough to jump in again and managed to stay in for maybe 2 minutes this time, enough for a quick picture and that's it. It was sooooooo cold!! I shivered the whole way back to shore while wrapped tight in my towel in the sun.

The boat driver

We went downtown for dinner. The tour guides showed us which places were best. All the kids from UNH wanted Mexican, but me and my friend Lauren decided to split off from the group and get hamburgers at Nah Nah Bah, a little burger joint that apparently serves one of the worlds top 50 hamburgers. I must say, for 12 euros, I got a giant glass of sangria, a whopping burger filled with pineapple, lettuce, tomato, onions, cheese, and bacon, and a side of fries. The burger was so big and so yummy, but I couldn't finish it. Lauren and I sat for a while just talking; I love how in Europe you are allowed to sit and relax at restaurants as long as you like without feeling rushed or bothered by the waiters. They come over to make sure you don't need anything, but allow you to stay as long as you want.

Dinner!!! 

I was pretty pooped after dinner, and although there was a welcome party for all the students on the trip at a bar downtown, most of us decided to head back to the hotel. A couple of us walked down to the beach by the hotel and hung out there; one girl led a yoga session, which ended up being very difficult on the sand.

Saturday we went to the beach for a beach day!! First though, we spent a little while exploring the beach next to our hotel, and then took a stop at some cliffs to take pictures. The area was gorgeous!! The beach we finally went to was also very pretty, and I spent a lot of it walking along the shore, playing soccer, and relaxing in the sun. We were served unlimited sangria once again which was very satisfying considering it was the only cold drink I had. 

Beach by the hotel

The cliffs

The UNH Crew!

After a long day on the beach, we went to the southwestern tip of Portugal to watch the sun set. This area is known as the "end of the world" because for a while it was believed that there was nothing else past that point. It was a perfect night to watch the sun set, there were very few clouds in the sky, and although it was very windy, the views of the sunset were amazing. 

We went downtown for dinner once again, this time everyone went to the burger place Lauren and I had gone the night before, and we went to this little American type restaurant. We ordered onion rings and fajitas, which were very tasty! We were given little cups of different toppings as well; one looked like a hamburger salsa type thing so I tried it, but it was extremely spicy! Of course, the only thing I had to drink was water so that only made it worse, but I managed! After dinner Lauren and I met our group at a bar for the second welcome party. It was very crowded so we didn't stay too long.

Sunday = Surf!! Me, Nicole, Kim, Amanda, and Jordan went to a beach on the west coast to take a surfing lesson! It was an optional excursion through the tour group, so got the full deal: wetsuit, lesson, and board for a couple hours. It was unbelievably fun! First we had to go for a run on the beach in our wetsuits. As if we weren't hot enough in our black full body wetsuits, we got even more sweaty form the warmup run. Thankfully, we then had to go into the water with the wetsuits and body surf to get used to timing of the waves. The wetsuit was such a weird feeling. I could feel the water yet I was surprisingly not cold, it was so cool!! Finally we got to bring the surfboards into the water and boogie board, getting used to timing yourself perfectly with hopping onto the board and catching the wave. Finally, we were taught how to stand up on the board while staying balanced. Somehow I managed to stand up and ride all the way in on my second try!!!!!!! I honestly don't know how I managed that, considering I couldn't do it nearly as well a second time. But, I still felt very accomplished and it was a ton of fun!!

Our tour guide, Russel Brand

Unfortunately, when we got back from the surfing trip it was time to head home. The bus ride went by very fast because we watched great movies all the way home. First we watched Cool Runnings, which I had never seen before but was hilarious. Then we watched Dodgeball, and Finally, Forgetting Sara Marshall. It was so ironic that we watched Forgetting Sara Marshall because one of our tour guides (also on our bus) looked exactly like Russel Brand. Also, there is a funny surfing scene because the movie takes place in Hawaii. All in all, it was an unforgettable trip and a great way to finish off the semester with my UNH family!