she also showed us how to make arabic tea. she used spearmint leaves that smelled SO GOOD, and hot water and about 6 tablespoons of sugar in every pot. haha yikes. the whole thing was pretty interesting, but mostly relaxing and nice to be around a lot of the people from the group.

so there's this pretty...cool..trend going on here. haha. the women and some men wear these genie pants. like..full on aladin pants. the women here are stick thin and absolutely gorgeous and can totally pull them off in a very bizarre way. they are everywhere though. other than that kind of quirky thing, most of the clothes here are..normal? i guess. i don't think we have to do much to blend in, but i'm sure we still stick out. we were actually stopped a few times for directions so i guess we don't stick out too much! very cool to be able to tell someone in spanish how to get somewhere when i've been here for less than two weeks...

other than that it seems to have slowed down quite a bit...school is starting to feel like school, and the semester hasn't actually started yet. everyone is very very ready for it to cool down, but last night was the first night that i actually used my sheet to cover up with so that might be a good sign, and all i can think about when i'm hungry is how much i miss my mom's food! i am already thinking about what i'm going to want to be my first meal when i get back... :)

ps- i miss my grandmas a lot. anyone know if grandma hawkins' virus was fixed? and anyone think grandma june will get email anytime soon? haha

pps- our friend morgan, liz and i booked flights to florence! we'll be there the beginning of october

written by  Taryn Hawkins on September 10, 2009 from Granada, Spain
from the travel blog: Granada
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Nerja beach

last night half of our group went to a rave in Malaga :\ and everyone else who was here wanted to go to a discoteca which is basically a club, but is only open from 3am to 8am. so i went out for tapas with that group then came back to the apt and went to bed! ha i'm lame. i decided it was a very good decision seeing as i rolled over at 630am and my roomie was still not back. i enjoy my sleep and like i said before i don't like big groups either..and i don't drink.
today was our first sunday here in granada and it was pretty boring...which was alright for today. liz and i went out for churros, she got chocolate and i got honey :) the churros here are not like churros in the US. they have no cinnamon or sugar on the outside, its just basically fried dough with either chocolate or honey. i was not a huge fan.
back to class tomorrow then the beach next weekend. i'm looking forward to an uninterrupted, warm shower, and supposedly great food.

written by  Taryn Hawkins on September 13, 2009 from Granada, Spain
from the travel blog: Granada
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My prof told us the way to really get our señoras to stop giving us food. She said to say "no quiero más, de verdad" which means, I don't want more, it's true. HA
She also said that basically the spanish life is like theater. If someone asks you if you want to do something, they really don't want to do it unless they say it AT LEAST three times AND say "de verdad"
So if a group of friends are walking home and someone says, do you guys want to come hang out? the polite thing to say is no...maybe some other time, and if thats the end of the conversation, leave it at that, but if they say, yea come hang out de verdad come hang out, lets hang out, then it's okay to say alright let's hang out.

When asking for something, it's rude not to explain why. So if I say, do you mind if i open the window? it's "maleducado" or rude, to not say, it's because i'm hot. And the response i'll get is, "si abrela, abrela, abrela"....or yea, open it (3 times) ha.

If you go out to eat with someone, when it comes to paying the bill, if one person offers to pay, it is maleducado to not say no i'll pay it..which I think is sort of similar to the US. BUT what happens here is that the two people go back and forth until the waiter comes over, then at that point the person who offered first, must pay the bill.
(so why go through the whole motion every time...??)

If you're out with a big group of people, when it comes to paying the bill, it is usually split. This is where I would be missin out! So weather you drank water and owe nothing, or drank ten beers, you split the bill between however many people are at the table, end of story.

If someone says oh i have a headache, you are supposed to say something worse...oh i broke my toe three years ago...and this will go back and forth. I said..it's not a competition when it comes to pain, and she said, oh yea, in España it is.

que diferente...

written by  Taryn Hawkins on September 17, 2009 from Granada, Spain
from the travel blog: Granada
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we left saturday morning to go to the beach for the night. it was very nice to get out of granada. we ended up with good weather which was lovely. i only have a few pictures from the weekend because my camera decided to temporarily break, it's fine now, but i'm really hoping i won't have to deal with that again while i'm here.
the picture is of my friend at dinner...i said something like people would think we havent eaten in three weeks the way we're eating this free buffet, and everyone kind of looked at eachother and said...that's because we haven't been eating for three weeks...

a week from today is our exam for this class. it's hard to believe i'm going to get 5 credits for it, we have done just about nothing, but i'll take it.

there aren't too many new updates. i was having trouble with my phone so all week i have been trying to get it clarified. i ended up having to argue with this woman for over 20 minutes about a mistake she made and wouldn't admit it, in spanish. that's the first time i've been in a situation like that by myself.

i'm trying my hardest to stay positive, but i'm still having a really hard time adjusting to all of this. i'm having a hard time staying focused which worries me with classes starting soon. we had a culture shock meeting tonight that didn't give as much info as i would have liked, but i talked to my resident director and she said that at this point culture shock shouldn't be as bad as it's affecting me...

when my camera decided to work again, we were waiting for the bus, so the only picture of monito that i have is of him in the lobby of the hotel...at the bottom of the palm tree.

so i finished another week. i dont remember if i've said what this class is like, but it's four hours a day. the first two hours i have with one professor, and the next two is with another. my second professor has been gone all week and our exam is on tuesday...

my days here right now basically go like this..
wake up at 730, hit snooze til 8, have my two pieces of toast and water for breakfast, walk 30 minutes to class that starts at 9, class til 1, walk back home and hang out maybe mini siesta til lunch at 230, then real siesta, which is usually about three hours for me when i can sleep, then liz and i usually just hang out in our rooms, maybe read the books we bought in spanish, maybe watch the jungle book that i bought in spanish, but cheat and really watch it in english, spanish subtitles if we're feeling ambitious, then dinner at 930.

something we have been kind of...wondering about, i guess, is what we're supposed to be doing in all of our down time. because we have a lot of it. all of our friends say the same thing too, we just hang out in our rooms. it almost seems rude but we don't know what else to do. conversation during meals is usually pretty forced to begin with, and spanish tv gives me a headache. plus, i dont know how much more of the TMZ-like spanish gossip tv i can take. this is what our host sister watches all day every day when she's not on her computer.
just about every day since we got here, the story has been about this matador who had an affair with this woman who had his child. so the girl is ten years old now...and it's still being talked about...every day.

tonight we are going out for tapas. tomorrow we have a four hour hike which i am very scared for. the past hikes we've had have been two hours, i cant imagine having to climb up these mountains for four hours straight.
sunday i'm going to a corridas de torros...running of the bulls. i absolutely do not support this event whatsoever, i actually think it is very cruel, i'm going to root on the bulls!!
i saw something recently that said that hunting can only be called a sport when the animals can shoot back. i sort of see the running of the bulls kind of like hunting. i'm going for the cultural experience fully expecting not to be able to make it through the whole thing.

written by  Taryn Hawkins on September 25, 2009 from Granada, Spain
from the travel blog: Granada
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2) the manly man with a sweater
it is seen as very masculine for a man to wear his sweater or scarf around your neck. very european, i don't think that's seen too much in the US, and if it is, the man isn't seen as manly.

3) let's meet at the corner at 2
2am that is, to begin the night. i've said this plenty, and will probably continue, people here don't start their nights til 2, and that's actually seen as early here. from what i've heard the discotecas don't get busy until 3. it's normal to stay out until the cafes open to eat churros y chocolate around 8.

4) maddy's thriving business
you may or may not know that after i left, maddy started walking dogs for dimes. well here, she could easily make a living. there are men walking dogs, women walking dogs, children walking dogs, dogs walking dogs...good thing i love puppiesss

5) bad smelling good luck
i was told today that if you step in dog poop, it's considered good luck. well as we all know...there are lots of dogs here, which also means there are lots of lucky people here. fortunately...or unfortunately? i'm not considered lucky yet.

6) permanently dirty feet
okay, my feet have not been clean since i got here. i swear the dirt is in my skin and won't come out. but, if my feet are this dirty, can you imagine my shoes? and yet we are not allowed to take our shoes off in the house. they see it as dirty to wear socks or bare feet. why do they want me trudging around in my shoes that probably have dog poop, bird poop, and plenty of dirt and mud on them?

7) gripe A
They are freaking out about gripe A (aka swine flu) and yet there is never toilet paper or soap in any public restrooms. We go through a lot of tissue and hand sanitizer. Thank you grandma for the purell!!

8) milk that lasts for 6 months
the milk and eggs here are not refridgerated. some of the people in my program have commented on how they found a stash of milk in the cupboard. funny, it lasts forever too...que extrano

9) no pasa nada
no pasa nada...it doesn't matter..they say this for about everything. gracias..no pasa nada...but the funniest thing i've seen so far that they use it for is while parking cars..parallel parking here must be so much easier than it is at home. all you have to do is go til you hit the car in front of you, reverse til you hit the giant trash bins behind you...no pasa nada

only in spain...

everyone should keep maddy lou in your thoughts and prayers these next few weeks...
Maddy Loop- I love you so much and I know you are so strong! you are the bravest person I know!! good luck sweetie, i hope you are super comfy in your new pajamas and i hope all the doctors and nurses love your brett favre jersy!! i miss you so much! much love and many hugs and kisses. xoxo

written by  Taryn Hawkins on September 28, 2009 from Granada, Spain
from the travel blog: Granada
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The only time I've eaten better food than what I'm eating here is when I eat my mom's food. Morgan's very very pregnant cousin (8.5 months) and their family own a restaurant here. I keep thinking about Anthony because her cousin talks about how she now knows how the food is made here and now that she understands that she realizes there are two really good italian restaurants in Florence, one is theirs. ha, but when we ate lunch i thought that was the best meal, then we went back for dinner, and it was even better.
my next big adventure in life is going to be learning italian after i feel more comfortable with spanish...but i would enjoy coming back here some day.
today we are going to the duorma? for mass then to acadamia and to explore florence.

written by  Taryn Hawkins on October 4, 2009 from Florence, Italy
from the travel blog: Granada
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