I was SO happy to finally go to a reggae club last night and dance the night away!
I DID make it to class this morning, but now it´s time for a siesta.
Besos,
Ce
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Since we last spoke ....
A few funny and/or interesting stories to tell ...
1. The other day at dinner, Trini, the woman we are staying with, asked me what my brother´s name was. I wasn´t too surprised that didnt know cause she never says either of our names. We told her and she couldn´t pronounce it, kept calling him Sally. She asked what his name is in Spanish and we couldn´t figure it out. So Tyler says, "why don´t you call me Coco!" She goes, "Coco?!" In her strong Spanish accent, sounds like,"Coh Coh!" and he says, "Sí!" I was crying laughing so hard and to my shock she now calls him Coco all the time. Tyler says it´s with a K, like Koco, but there are no K´s in Spanish.
2. I´m in my room, down the hall from Tyler, the living room and kitchen, and I hear a big crack and Trini says, "Ahh! Coco!!" I run to see what happened and apparently Tyler sat on his bed and broke one of the bars underneath. Tyler has been eating three kabobs a day and Kinder flavored gelato every night, so he´s really fat now. (j/k he told me to say that) It was hilarious to say the least. Tyler´s new name is Loco Coco.Ty helped them move the mattress off the bed with his strong arms and Pepe (the husband) goes,"Oooh Rocky Balboa!" And once again we were on the floor laughing.
3. I´ve been wearing my Cougar In Training T-shirt the bed lately and so I eat breakfast while wearing it. The other morning Ty says, "thats a great shirt to be wearing around here," and I said, "yea, but they can´t read it so it doesn´t matter!" Yup, Cougar In Training even in Spain!!
4. A bunch of us went out for gelato Monday night and they have the craziest flavors. Donut, sesame, cheesecake, etc. and when I told Tyler they had Kinder flavored gelato his mouth dropped open in shock. Kinder is this German chocolate that Ty has loved since the first time he went to Germany back in his teen years. It was pretty cool.
5. In a Spanish grocery store there are a few rules that you must follow. In Corte Inglés, the bigger more expensive store, all the produce is packaged like Trader Joe´s, but there is a little stand in the middle that has individual fruit. But you can´t touch it. There is someone inside the circle of individual produce that you talk to and they pick out, weigh and package your fruit for you. If youa are at the Mercadona, a cheaper store, you must put on desposable plastic gloves to pick out your fruit, put it in a bag and then type the fruit´s number into a machine that produces a sticker that you slap on your produce. Very tricky these Spaniards. 80% of their deoderants are spray on and all of there containers for shampoo, soap etc. are small and petite. Corte Inglés surprisingly has tons of options for lactose free milk and cheese and a section for gluten free products. Awesome! Now we eat cereal in the mornings instead of loaves of french bread with butter and marmalade.
6. An overweight, hairy, balding, sexist teacher named Santiago, Santi for short, at Don Quijote, my school, asked one of our Jordanian friends out. Her name is Samira and after his incessent requests she said yes to be nice. He wined and dined her and told her that she was different from the rest and that he loved her. She said he put on his puppy dog face when she said it could never be and said that he ruined the most romantic place on earth for her. Cool.
xo
Ce
1. The other day at dinner, Trini, the woman we are staying with, asked me what my brother´s name was. I wasn´t too surprised that didnt know cause she never says either of our names. We told her and she couldn´t pronounce it, kept calling him Sally. She asked what his name is in Spanish and we couldn´t figure it out. So Tyler says, "why don´t you call me Coco!" She goes, "Coco?!" In her strong Spanish accent, sounds like,"Coh Coh!" and he says, "Sí!" I was crying laughing so hard and to my shock she now calls him Coco all the time. Tyler says it´s with a K, like Koco, but there are no K´s in Spanish.
2. I´m in my room, down the hall from Tyler, the living room and kitchen, and I hear a big crack and Trini says, "Ahh! Coco!!" I run to see what happened and apparently Tyler sat on his bed and broke one of the bars underneath. Tyler has been eating three kabobs a day and Kinder flavored gelato every night, so he´s really fat now. (j/k he told me to say that) It was hilarious to say the least. Tyler´s new name is Loco Coco.Ty helped them move the mattress off the bed with his strong arms and Pepe (the husband) goes,"Oooh Rocky Balboa!" And once again we were on the floor laughing.
3. I´ve been wearing my Cougar In Training T-shirt the bed lately and so I eat breakfast while wearing it. The other morning Ty says, "thats a great shirt to be wearing around here," and I said, "yea, but they can´t read it so it doesn´t matter!" Yup, Cougar In Training even in Spain!!
4. A bunch of us went out for gelato Monday night and they have the craziest flavors. Donut, sesame, cheesecake, etc. and when I told Tyler they had Kinder flavored gelato his mouth dropped open in shock. Kinder is this German chocolate that Ty has loved since the first time he went to Germany back in his teen years. It was pretty cool.
5. In a Spanish grocery store there are a few rules that you must follow. In Corte Inglés, the bigger more expensive store, all the produce is packaged like Trader Joe´s, but there is a little stand in the middle that has individual fruit. But you can´t touch it. There is someone inside the circle of individual produce that you talk to and they pick out, weigh and package your fruit for you. If youa are at the Mercadona, a cheaper store, you must put on desposable plastic gloves to pick out your fruit, put it in a bag and then type the fruit´s number into a machine that produces a sticker that you slap on your produce. Very tricky these Spaniards. 80% of their deoderants are spray on and all of there containers for shampoo, soap etc. are small and petite. Corte Inglés surprisingly has tons of options for lactose free milk and cheese and a section for gluten free products. Awesome! Now we eat cereal in the mornings instead of loaves of french bread with butter and marmalade.
6. An overweight, hairy, balding, sexist teacher named Santiago, Santi for short, at Don Quijote, my school, asked one of our Jordanian friends out. Her name is Samira and after his incessent requests she said yes to be nice. He wined and dined her and told her that she was different from the rest and that he loved her. She said he put on his puppy dog face when she said it could never be and said that he ruined the most romantic place on earth for her. Cool.
xo
Ce
Sunday, August 22, 2010
We finally went to the Alhambra ...
The whole week was nice and cool until the day before we were supposed to go to the Alhambra and then it got to about 35 degrees celsius. It was uncomfortably hot, but nonetheless we still enjoyed our visit to the Alhambra. A short little history on this palace, courtesy of Wikipedia: it was created in the 14th century by the Moorish rulers of the Emirate of Granada in Al-Andalus, which is now Andalusia, Spain. These palaces were built for the Muslim Emirs in Spain and its court, of the Nasrid dynasty. Many years after the Moors were defeated by the Catholic Monarchs, the Palace of Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, was built inside the Alhambra. It covers about 1,530,000 square feet. Okay, that's enough! The Islamic architecture was my favorite part; the engravings, the arches, the vaults, the arabesques, everything was done with such amazing detail you wonder how long it took them. (I tried to find it on wikipedia but i had to read too much)
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| Court of the Lions |
The one things I was majorly disappointed by was that one, it didn't look like it did in my history book, and two, the Court of the Lions was under construction or something and so it wasn't available to see. The lions were displayed indoors but you couldn't even take pictures of them. Super bummed! I was looking forward to that part the most! This is what it would have looked like:
Other than that it was pretty amazing. I put pictures up on photobucket.com. Just type in my email celeste.kuhlman@gmail.com and the PIN is cecepics.
xo
Ce
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| The view from the Alhambra castles |
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Tickets for the Alhambra - CHECK!
We finally bought tickets to the Alhambra, a must see if you are in Granada, for Friday with our two Aussie friends and one new Scottish friend.
Tonight we plan to go to San Nicholas in the Albazin, which is supposed to be an amazing place to watch the sunset. We are going with the same people as above plus possibly one more from New Jersey that we just met while on the internet at the hostel. I´m looking forward to a mellow night following this past weekend´s craziness.
Less than two more weeks in Granada and we will be off to Tenerife!
Tonight we plan to go to San Nicholas in the Albazin, which is supposed to be an amazing place to watch the sunset. We are going with the same people as above plus possibly one more from New Jersey that we just met while on the internet at the hostel. I´m looking forward to a mellow night following this past weekend´s craziness.
Less than two more weeks in Granada and we will be off to Tenerife!
On the Southern-most Tip of Europe
Our first weekend in Spain was memorable to say the least. We made last minute plans to travel by car with our two German friends, Sebastian and Dennis, to Tarifa, Conil de la Frontera, Cadiz and Sevilla.
We left Saturday afternoon from Granada and arrived in Tarifa around 10pm, after sunset leaving the sky a gray-blue. Greeted by a beach unlike one I had ever seen and a view of Morocco across the water, I realized how far away from how we were and how fortunate I was to be there. To save money, and for a better story to tell, we decided to spend the night on the beach.
For dinner we had fried baby fish, a strange ham and potato salad that nobody liked, shrimp with eyes and antennae attached and tortilla de camarones (shrimp), which was fried potato pancakes, eggs and shrimp, I think. I couldn´t get myself to eat food with eyes gazing up at me, so I left the shrimp for the boys. The alleyways were super narrow, much more than Granada I believe only a scooter could fit down them. While dodging people left and right in a search to find a bar or club that looked popular we passed by bright white, Arabian/Greecian buildings. We came to a tiny little surfer bar that could fit about 12 people comfortably and had amazing drinks made with their ice shaver and wooden pestle to crush the citrus fruits spraying lime and lemon bits around the bar counter. While the boys were talking up a group of Spanish girls I finished my drink and wandered up a flight of stairs towards a crowded discotech playing pop house music and danced inside the mass of Spaniards until the guys came up and joined me.We settled on the beach around 5am and woke up to the most beautiful beach I had ever seen. White sand and turquoise water; we were right where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean. After a day of swimming and tanning, we took off to Conil de la Frontera.
After wandering around for an hour trying to find an open restaurant that offered dinner before 8pm we parked ourselves at a cafe that sold chemically sweet Icees and watched people as they came home from the beach. We were also lucky enough to sit next to an elderly woman with the gnarliest foot I had ever seen. At one point, Sebastian made a joke that he was going to chew on her toenails. It´s a good thing that many Spanish do not speak much English. I took a picture of 'the foot' for him. After our long search for dinner we found a nice restaurant that opened early, early being 8:30pm, and were served the most amazing paella we had ever eaten by a man with three teeth, all of which were black. Tyler didn´t eat with us as he was too hungry to wait, so he went down the street to get a Kabob and we watched him eat alone from our table. Knowing Tyler, he thoroughly enjoyed his K-bob. After finding the perfect spot on the beach, hidden from much of the wind and blowing sand, we laid out our towels, drank our red wine, talked and listened to deep house on Ty´s ipod player. After two bottles between the four of us, we ventured back into town going from bar to bar and meeting a few Spaniards on the way. We found our way back to our spot on the beach and after a meal of bread, canned tomatoes, pesto and tuna we slept under the stars. Unfortunately, we awoke surrounded by a trail of happy ants who had found our empty cans of tuna and tomatoes, but I guess that's what you get when you sleep like bums.
The next day we drove to Cadiz, a bigger metropolitan city that had some amazing Islamic architecture and then to Sevilla for our 3 hour train ride back to Granada. Needless to say, our first weekend abroad was amazing and we are looking forward to this coming weekend.
For dinner we had fried baby fish, a strange ham and potato salad that nobody liked, shrimp with eyes and antennae attached and tortilla de camarones (shrimp), which was fried potato pancakes, eggs and shrimp, I think. I couldn´t get myself to eat food with eyes gazing up at me, so I left the shrimp for the boys. The alleyways were super narrow, much more than Granada I believe only a scooter could fit down them. While dodging people left and right in a search to find a bar or club that looked popular we passed by bright white, Arabian/Greecian buildings. We came to a tiny little surfer bar that could fit about 12 people comfortably and had amazing drinks made with their ice shaver and wooden pestle to crush the citrus fruits spraying lime and lemon bits around the bar counter. While the boys were talking up a group of Spanish girls I finished my drink and wandered up a flight of stairs towards a crowded discotech playing pop house music and danced inside the mass of Spaniards until the guys came up and joined me.We settled on the beach around 5am and woke up to the most beautiful beach I had ever seen. White sand and turquoise water; we were right where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean. After a day of swimming and tanning, we took off to Conil de la Frontera.
After wandering around for an hour trying to find an open restaurant that offered dinner before 8pm we parked ourselves at a cafe that sold chemically sweet Icees and watched people as they came home from the beach. We were also lucky enough to sit next to an elderly woman with the gnarliest foot I had ever seen. At one point, Sebastian made a joke that he was going to chew on her toenails. It´s a good thing that many Spanish do not speak much English. I took a picture of 'the foot' for him. After our long search for dinner we found a nice restaurant that opened early, early being 8:30pm, and were served the most amazing paella we had ever eaten by a man with three teeth, all of which were black. Tyler didn´t eat with us as he was too hungry to wait, so he went down the street to get a Kabob and we watched him eat alone from our table. Knowing Tyler, he thoroughly enjoyed his K-bob. After finding the perfect spot on the beach, hidden from much of the wind and blowing sand, we laid out our towels, drank our red wine, talked and listened to deep house on Ty´s ipod player. After two bottles between the four of us, we ventured back into town going from bar to bar and meeting a few Spaniards on the way. We found our way back to our spot on the beach and after a meal of bread, canned tomatoes, pesto and tuna we slept under the stars. Unfortunately, we awoke surrounded by a trail of happy ants who had found our empty cans of tuna and tomatoes, but I guess that's what you get when you sleep like bums.
The next day we drove to Cadiz, a bigger metropolitan city that had some amazing Islamic architecture and then to Sevilla for our 3 hour train ride back to Granada. Needless to say, our first weekend abroad was amazing and we are looking forward to this coming weekend.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Three day weekends never get old!
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Get Lost!
Every day, if I am by myself, I get lost because I have no sense of direction. Even with a map, I get lost. Even walking to school, I get lost.
However, what's good is unexpected things happen when you get lost which have encouraged me to explore more and find cool cafes, bars, shops that I wouldn't have found before.
However, what's good is unexpected things happen when you get lost which have encouraged me to explore more and find cool cafes, bars, shops that I wouldn't have found before.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Hace MUCHO calor!
That's the phrase I am hearing all the time out here! And Tyler's favorite phrase too.
I am starting to get used to living in Spain and feel a bit less like a tourist each day. However, when see something picture worthy my inner tourista emerges and I just don't give a shit.
I had my first Tortilla dish today, eggs and potatoes, con jamon serrano or purchuto. I don't know how to spell that and am not going to use dictionary.com! Homemade paella with shrimp and chicken and tapas galore. I walk SO MUCH every day and sweat like I never have before.
My new favorite drink, tinto verano AKA red wine, soda and lime. Muy bueno!!
It's time to go out; we've got to go meet our amigos internationales!
I am starting to get used to living in Spain and feel a bit less like a tourist each day. However, when see something picture worthy my inner tourista emerges and I just don't give a shit.
I had my first Tortilla dish today, eggs and potatoes, con jamon serrano or purchuto. I don't know how to spell that and am not going to use dictionary.com! Homemade paella with shrimp and chicken and tapas galore. I walk SO MUCH every day and sweat like I never have before.
My new favorite drink, tinto verano AKA red wine, soda and lime. Muy bueno!!
It's time to go out; we've got to go meet our amigos internationales!
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Domingo: Día de descanso! (Sunday: Lazy Day)
When we arrived, Felicity from Australia was in her PJs listening to Van Halen (and MJ before that we later found out). Very sweet and very knowledgeable about Granada. She got us a map and circled everything we should see. The hostel has about 5 rooms, three stories, the top story being the terrace, a kitchen, two bathrooms, a laundry room and a funky eating/hangout room. Ty and I took much needed showers and headed out to explore for what turned out to be a 4 hour walk around Granada. We saw areas of the Albazìn, San Antòn and parts of the Alhambra from the river below. Narrow alleyway after alleyway just begged to be photographed, so I did. The buildings are ancient, beautiful and overlap eachother descending up or down to some other hidden walkway or tiny shopping area. Tons of little corner shops, many of them selling Islamic and Jewish tourist items, were covered in tilework and designs from floor to ceiling. The first bar we went to had outdoor seating, which most do, and after waiting a short while I went inside to see if we needed to order first or wait outside to be served. After saying, Uhhhhhh, for a long time, I said, ¨Lo siento, uh, do we, uh, afuera o inside??¨ The girl at the register just smiled and helped me figure out what I wanted to say. Little did I know, right after I entered the bar a waiter passed by me with a tall cervesa that he gave to Tyler before he even asked for one. Ty was pleased to say the least. I ordered a beer along with un agua sin gas (non-carbonated) and he brought out a paella looking tapa with chicken, FOR FREE! All tapas are free with each drink you order and they get better the more drinks you buy. We only had to order one beer each and the total came out to around €5. We walked along the awesome cobblestone streets, all of which are accessible to cars and motorbikes, you just have to keep your ears open to the sounds of an engine behind you and get out of the way. Ty waited patiently as I took so many pictures that my camera ran out of batteries before the 3rd hour was up. I wanted to buy so much, but since we will be here for 3 weeks, I decided to hold off on most of them just in case better ones presented themselves.
Our one night in the hostel has certainly shown me how quickly friends are made. Scotland, Canada, Australia, Italy and one good ol´ Americana from Santa Cruz! (Jillian, who was just spying over my shoulder, ¨You forgot California!¨) We had a blast out in Granada last night with everyone. The first bar we went to had live music (American music from the 90`s, Ty was stoked, ¨More 90`s!! Whooooooo!!!¨) Nirvana, Radiohead, etc. The walls were covered with torn album posters (there was one old Hendrix poster too) and the lights were dim leaving a red cast over the room making the dancing foreigners look like they were at a rave. The bar was filled with internationals, most if not all from Europe, Australia or America. It was great talking and drinking with the folks from the hostel. Gabriel and Felicity work at the hostel and are very accomodating. They even said we could come back any time we want to hang out or use the free WiFi. Our host house is only a few blocks away, calle de Zaida, and our school is on the same street as the hostel, calle de Azuma. Go figure! There will be a few people around for my birthday, Wednesday, so hopefully we will all be able to get together for drinks and tapas.
This should be enough for now, or maybe too much. It is my first detailed post and I promise they will get better!
xo
Ce
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Estamos en Espana!
Just want to let everyone know we have made it to Spain in one piece. We are in Granada at the Granada One Hostel. I will write more later, but I will say that it is absolutely gorgeous here. Tapas time!
xo
Ce
Thursday, August 5, 2010
The Day Before
C
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