Finally Home

I have forgotten to update since I have gotten home. Anyway, I had all good flights back with minimal sleep. We left for Malaga and spent the night in the airport there (Whats the point of going to Europe without sleeping in a airport or trian/bus station for atleast one night, right?) , then a flight to London - change airports + 8 hour layover - flight to Chicago - and my last flight to Cedar Rapids. All flights went well except for my last one. I missed my check in for my flight to Cedar Rapids by two minutes....2 MINUTES! So British Airways put me in a hotel for the night and I got a flight home the next morning.



It has been good to be home, seeing friends and family and of course Christmas. The only downfall is the subzero temperatures but with the snow it makes it not as bad...I guess. I will hopefully post one more time about my trip to Rome, so I guess check if you would like or I will see you soon if I haven't seen you already.


Merry Christmas & Happy New Year,
Chase

Its All Coming To An End...

I am finally done with all my classes. We change levels each month so I had eight days of class and then had to take exams, so it was a weird month of classes. We were allowed to miss 80% of classes so that means one class a week so I would miss Friday and sometimes Monday every other week to have a longer trip. My teacher called me “El viajero incansable” because I go on trips and miss class. Don’t worry mom… I attended at least the required amount of class. I have been ready to be done with classes here but I know I will miss Spain. Once Thanksgiving hit a lot of people started to say they were ready to go home.

Our Group Despedida Dinner Last Week - 37 people

Today I had my only two finals and now I’ve got two days of free time in Granada before I start my voyage home. It’s going to be a long day but I am excited to get back home and see friends and family. I get back Friday night around 11, so hopefully I will sleep on the plane rides and I will be able to see those of you who will be in Cedar Rapids.

Pete and I Slaving in the Kitchen

Pete and I were forced to cook dinner for our family last night because our señora refused for us to take her and the family out for a dinner, so she talked us into cooking. I just want to say neither of us had ever actually cooked over a stove before, because mac & cheese, ramen noodles and pre-made oven pizzas don’t really count. So we thought and really couldn’t come up with anything and we wanted to learn how to make Spanish tortilla, and its similar to omelets but they only put in potato and onion. So I went to the supermarket and found a bag of chopped onions, cucumbers, red and green peppers. I also got cheese and some ham – no meal in Spain is complete with out some kind of ham. Pete decided on an apple crisp for desert and it was interesting because his mom sent him a recipe in cups and ounces and we had to convert to grams and milliliters. The recipe required a stick of butter and we had more like a brick of butter and just made an educated guess.

My "Tortilla Americana"

Reminding you that we had never cooked these meals before, or ever really cooked much at all. Our meals turned out quite well. The flipping of the omelet was not as bad as expected and they turned out great. My señora borrowed by camera and took several pictures of us because she said your parents won’t believe you when you tell them that you cooked a meal and we liked it. There was a lot of pressure especially from Galdric, our host brother because he is a really good cook, and we were the first students to ever cook for them. They loved it and they called it “Tortilla Americana”. Pete’s apple crisp turned out well even though it wasn’t like normal apple crisp, but it was still delicious.

A Typical meal with the host family - Galdric to be funny by sticking a spoon in his mouth for the picture, Yaya looks like she's mad at Galdric, and Pete and I both have very stupid looks on our faces.

I’m happy that Pete and I made dinner for our host family. It was fun to cook, it turned out well, and most of all, they liked it. Also we have left over desert for when more family comes over tomorrow. Pete leaves Wednesday at 6 AM so tonight is our despedida or goodbye dinner with the rest of our family.

Trip to Foggy London Town

London was the second city on my list of places to see while in Europe. I asked around to see if people wanted to come with me, but people already had other trips planned or they had already been. I had a free place to stay with my friends from Central at the Vandon House and a free flight home courtesy of Ryan Air….well kind of since they still charge tax and other hidden fees – it was still the cheapest way of travel so far. My tickets were less than 70€ roundtrip along with not having to pay for a hostel for three nights, it worked out pretty well.


I knew that a few people would be gone on trips but the person I was going to stay with told me that he forgot that he was going to Wales that weekend – AKA Chris Weaver. So I met a bunch of people from Central that I never really met. I left Granada the day after thanksgiving at 12:30 so I left my house at 9:30AM to catch the 10AM bus, so just the combination of bus rides and waiting in airports made it a long day. It felt like an extremely long day since when I arrived in London, Victoria Station…not the Stansted Airport the sun already had set but 5PM. So it felt like 8 or 9 at night and I was trying to figure out why there were so many people around – Rush hour…Duh. Also I cut off so many people off by going to the right, I completely forgot that in England everyone walks on the left. I had got a Subway since I hadn’t eaten since breakfast and then called Lindsey and she came and found me because Vandon would have been impossible for me to find.


The first night we hung out in Vandon and I got actually eat some real thanksgiving food since they had a bunch of leftovers, and my thanksgiving in Spain consisted of tropical fruits, seafood, and unlimited beer and wine. Theo and Derrick were also visiting for the night so we decided to go bowling in Queens and it was the worst I have ever bowled, the lanes had not been waxed in a long time. Only one person in our group of seven got over 100. After the lanes closed at 11 we walked around for a bit and decided to go to Walkabout, a pretty popular bar in London. It was a pretty cool bar and they played good music, but I have not idea why there would be several people dressed up like it was Halloween. The weirdest costume was probably the guy in the tele-tubby costume. Compared to Spain it was an early night, but it had been a long day of traveling. It was a cool walk home because we just turned a corner and there was Big Ben, it was completely unexpected, and then not to far from that was Westminister Abbey.


I had people take me around to the sights in London and we left Vandon around 11. Buckingham Palace was only a 5 minute walk so we went there first. We got to see part of the changing of the guards, which I have now seen in two countries – the other was in Prague. It was packed so we didn’t stay long and we walked though Hyde and Green Parks and then to Kensington Palace, which is where Princess Diana lived, so we also saw her memorial fountain. A day pass for the Underground cost 5.30 pounds but I got my moneys worth, we used it a ton each day. After lunch, at Pizza Hut we went over to St. Paul’s Cathedral, and I got yelled at for taking pictures in there. The people in front of me were taking pictures with flash, and I never use my flash and I was the one to get called out of a crowd for taking pictures – The only downfall of having a big camera, I guess. We also went across the Millennium Bridge to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, which was cool because it’s an exact replica of the original theatre. We couldn’t see in the theatre because it was the off season but the girls told me about they plays that they went to there and it sounded pretty cool and they had floor seats where it was standing room only and they are really close to the stage as well.


We went back to Vandon for dinner. Thankfully they had leftovers, which also made the trip cheaper. It was interesting to see how other people’s abroad experiences are since we all live all over the city and with host families who cook my meals and in London they all live in a hotel and have to cook for them selves. Many of them said they don’t think they could live with host families abroad, and I wasn’t crazy about it at first when I got to Spain but I never really appreciated it until talking to the people in the London program.


That night we went to a pub, O’Neill’s in Piccadilly Circus, which is kind of like Londons version of Time Square. The pub had three floors and a live band playing and they played cover songs from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Foo Fighters, Greenday, Coldplay and other bands like that. It was really cool. When we got back to Vandon we were making some food and other people were coming back from other pubs. Two girls from Central, Brynn and Kim walked through the kitchen and they both looked at me and had to a double take. They recognized me from Central and they both asked, “What are you doing here?” I told them that I was planning on visiting Chris, Zach and Jordan but they were all gone, but I already had my tickets so I decided to come on my own.


The next morning I planned on going to St. Paul’s for church with Rob and I couldn’t find him but there were some girls going to Westminster Abbey, so I tagged along with them. This was the first church service I had been to since I have been in Europe, but I have been in a bunch of cathedrals on tours in Spain so I hope that somewhat makes up for not going to church for three months. There are grave sites under the floor and just walking to where the mass was held I looked down and saw “Charles Darwin” and thought that was odd that he would be buried in a church especially Westminster Abbey, since he believed in evolution. I’m not used to the Catholic service, so it was cool to be there but kind of boring.


The weather definitely affects people in London, the cold and rain just makes you just want to sleep. I was like a tourist and raring to go and see more sights, and not many people were out of bed until 1 or later. I went with Rob to a Chinese buffet that was pretty close to Vandon and really cheap so when I got back some people were awake so we made plans to leave by 2 and go to Abbey Road. Zach had just got back from Barcelona and came with us to Abbey Road, since he knew how to get there. We had to take our picture just the like Beatles did crossing the cross walk and it was fairly cold so people wanted to go back. Kim said that she would take me a around, since she hadn’t had a chance to walk around London and there were a few things she had not seen yet. So in about five hours I saw: Tower Bridge, Tower of London, HMS Bellfast, London Bridge, Millennium Bridge, the Tate Modern Art Museum, Piccadilly Circus and ate at a Moroccan restaurant there, then Trafalgar Square, walked around the London Eye, Westminster Bridge, Big Ben/parliament and then St. James park near Buckingham Palace.

Abbey Road

The Tate Modern Art Museum was free and I really liked it because the only kind of art I have seen is pictures of Jesus and then portraits of royalty in Spain. I was happy to actually see an actual Picasso and Jackson Pollock in front of my face. Even though Pollock was a splatter painter it’s really cool to see how big the piece actually is and how his rhythm of the brush made it flow all together. Then I really liked just looking at the sketches/drawings, photos and sculptures they had. I really like most of the abstract art because it makes you think and you see different things every time you look at it. But they did have some really odd pieces and video artworks, which some pieces didn’t seem like art to me at all. We stayed until close so we were probably there for an hour to an hour and half.


More people were back from their trips when I got back and we could hear Chris coming from about four blocks away because he was singing. He and a few people had gone to Wales for Hassman’s birthday so I got to hear about how crazy that trip was. I got to talk to Jordan briefly because they made enough noise when they got back from Sevilla it woke me up so I had to go pound on his door and he completely forgot that I was going to be in London. So even though my friends I was planning on seeing weren’t there for the weekend it was a great trip and I got to meet a lot of people from Central.

These signs were life savers...literally

I slept only for about 3 hours and had had to get up at 4:30 to catch the 5:10AM bus at Victoria Station. I almost missed the bus, it left within a minute of me sitting down. I sat next to a guy that I recognized from Fridays bus ride into London. He was from Hungary and studying in Granada for the year. So we stuck together through the airports and plane ride. That is one thing I have enjoyed while being in Europe is meeting new people almost every day from all over the world.


I slept on the plane and wanted to siesta when I got back to Granada but I didn’t have much time since lunch would be in an hour or less so I unpacked and then skyped with the parents, and got to hear about the Thanksgiving weekend. That night we had a group movie session that night. I probably saw about five minutes of the Motorcycle Diaries, and I was out, and Ben kept laughing at me because I kept bobbing my head because I was trying not to fall asleep. So this might be like how my trip home will be in a week when I get back to Iowa.


Thankfully, I went the weekend I did because I was thinking about going this past weekend, the first weekend in December. I know of at least two people that got stranded at the Stansted Airport because of protestors at the airport. So my friends missed at least two days of class and sucks since it was the last classes right before finals started. I have less than a week left here in Granada and today has been cold, cloudy and rainy so it gave me a chance to finally write about my trip to London. Hopefully I can write about my trip I had last weekend to Rome and have that up before I leave Spain. See you all in less than a week.

Prague, Praha, Praga

It was a fairly late night the night before our trip and Pete had the bright idea to get home from the discotec when I was going to wake up at 6 A.M. So I had three hours of sleep and he had none, so he planned on sleeping on all forms of public transport. To catch our mid-afternoon flight out of Madrid we had to take the first bus of the day out of Granada. So we started our trip with a five hour bus ride. It’s amazing how dark it is here at 7 A.M. – Still dark as it is at midnight. I’ve seen 7 A.M. only a couple of other times but that’s because we have stayed up all night and just getting home about that time. The sun did not rise until 8:30 so I got some decent sleep of the first hour or so on the bus. The bus ride went smoothly and then got a taxi to the airport and then waited for about two hours. The weather in Granada as of late was sunny and in the 70’s, when we landed in Prague at sunset and it is a balmy 8 degrees Celsius so roughly 45 degrees. While waiting for the bus at the airport we saw Air Force One so that was something pretty cool and completely unexpected. Pete was only awake for maybe an hour both the bus ride and the flight, so he accomplished his goal of catching up on his sleep.

Prague Castle

Muzeum

It was a fairly late night the night before our trip and Pete had the bright idea to get home from the discotec when I was going to wake up at 6 A.M. So I had three hours of sleep and he had none, so he planned on sleeping on all forms of public transport. To catch our mid-afternoon flight out of Madrid we had to take the first bus of the day out of Granada. So we started our trip with a five hour bus ride. It’s amazing how dark it is here at 7 A.M. – Still dark as it is at midnight. I’ve seen 7 A.M. only a couple of other times but that’s because we have stayed up all night and just getting home about that time. The sun did not rise until 8:30 so I got some decent sleep of the first hour or so on the bus. The bus ride went smoothly and then got a taxi to the airport and then waited for about two hours. The weather in Granada as of late was sunny and in the 70’s, when we landed in Prague at sunset and it is a balmy 8 degrees Celsius so roughly 45 degrees. While waiting for the bus at the airport we saw Air Force One so that was something pretty cool and completely unexpected. Pete was only awake for maybe an hour both the bus ride and the flight, so he accomplished his goal of catching up on his sleep.

Charles Bridge

When we got to Prague we got a three day public bus and metro pass because if you get caught without a pass the fines can be really expensive. We also exchanged currency… You’ve got to love the exchange rate when its 1€ = roughly 23ck. The prices aren’t equivalent of one to another, so seeing 30ck for a beer sounded ridiculous but was actually quite reasonable, around a 1,15€ for a pint of Pilsner Urquell – probably the best beer that I have had, and its labeled “The Best Beer In Prague”. We did not make any hostel plans but Pete’s friend Justin who has been to Prague on several occasions suggested the Czech Inn, and it ended up being full so they sent us to the next best place Miss Sophie’s and it ended up being cheaper than the Czech Inn. So the four of us, Pete, Melissa, Chris and myself split a room that had two bunk beds. The hostel had free internet and was really close to a metro station.


Once we got settled into our room we went out for the night and first walked to Charles Bridge where we planned to meet Pete and Melissa’s friend Hallie from Bradley who is studying in Rome this semester. We walked around and looked for a bar to eat at and a place to warm up. We found this small corner bar and it said capacity of 350 people and for what we could see it didn’t seem that full but it was busy. We couldn’t find a table and they pointed us to go down stairs and went down the stairs and took the hallway to the right. It opened up into a huge room, similar to a scene in the movie Beerfest, where it’s just a huge room full of people and the waitresses are carrying around 8 pint glasses of beer or more at once and crazy bar food like “Pork Knee”. The thing that sucks about Prague is that they put food on your table like giant pretzels and chips and mixed nuts. Good thing we were previously warmed about this, because it turns out to be very expensive to eat the bar munchies that are put on your table.

Statues on Charles Bridge - Kind of looks like the Heisman pose

It wasn’t an incredibly late night, we got back shortly after midnight and our hostel’s bathroom had two feet of glass at the top so it illuminated the entire room when being used and also was triggered by a motion light, which was somewhat inconvenient. Apparently I was snoring…or Melissa described it as, “I was making the bed rumble” so she yelled at me to stop snoring and I replied “Ok” to her and just rolled over.

Day 2: October 25

We got up around 9ish and we all showered and left for the day around 11. Our first stop of the day was Prague Castle but saw many of the sights on the way – Old Town Square, Tyn Church, St. James, National Theatre and then walked across the entire Charles Bridge to cross the river. We spent about three hours at the Castle, but two of the exhibits were closed – The Powder Tower and the Main Cathedral. It wasn’t that big of a deal the entrance to the Castle and other touristy things in Prague are fairly cheap, so we didn’t feel completely ripped off, but they could have put up a sign saying that some things were closed. We got lunch near the Castle and I got the least expensive thing on the menu, spaghetti. On the way back we got some great views of Prague and stopped in a park as the sun was setting. We went back to the hostel and took a siesta since I apparently kept Melissa up with my snoring from the night before and then walking around all day made us all pretty tired. That night we went to the Museum stop which is the center of the city and had cheap food there. We found a Chinese restaurant that was pretty cheap and very filling. Once again we walked around town and found a couple of bars and watched a few football (soccer) games.

Day 3: October 26

We had a daylight savings time change so we got some extra sleep and we had to be up earlier to catch a train to Karljstein which is about 45 minutes outside of the city and had a huge castle there. The train was really cheap, about 200 ck for the four of us roundtrip since we traveled in a group of four. We weren’t really sure where to go when we got off the train but we kind of just followed the crowd until we actually saw signs for the castle. The countryside was beautiful and so green along with the trees changing colors. We don’t have that many trees in Granada in the city and wasn’t quite cold enough for fall weather yet. It was also kind of foggy as well especially near the river which made the sunlight all day feel like an early morning fall sun. I found this weird but interesting because it always felt like morning by just looking at the type of light that was emitted by the sun. I got a brat for 30ck, a painting for 300ck and some other souvenirs and looked around in Bohemia Crystal stores.

Karljstein Castle was very cool, while we were walking up the hill through town and it ‘just popped up out of nowhere’. The tour was cool and interesting but it’s not as impacting since we did not have any previous knowledge about the king and his family that lived there. On the way back to the train station the fog has cleared off and I got some good pictures of the river and some reflections of the countryside in the water.

Karljstein Castle

Pete, Melissa, Chris and I

We got back before sunset and walked around near the river down to the Fred and Ginger Dancing Building. Once sun set we took another siesta, Pete and Chris were both snoring and at one point Melissa yelled, “Who ever is snoring…shut up now!” and it was complete dead silence. The chineese was so good and cheap we had that again for dinner and after that we met up with Hallie and her friends at a restaurant that had live music. While walking to meet Hallie at Old town square, Pete got whistled at by a guy sitting on a back pack on the street, and it was Petes friend Justin who was supposed to meet us the day before but got delayed out of Barcelona. At the restaurant, Margaritas were 2 for 1 for 140ck, so that’s what Chris and I picked and Pete got a couple pints of beer while we were there and he paid over 180ck for two beers, so he was not happy about that. Justin snuck into our hostel and slept on our floor – he brought camping gear for when he was coming to Spain the following week to visit Pete.

Fred and Ginger Dancing Building

Day 3: October 27

For some odd reason I had set my alarm to wake up from our siesta and accidentally set it on A.M. and I woke up and could hear some faint kind of music. This went on for about 15 minutes until I realized it was my alarm going off in the dresser underneath my bed. Thankfully no one else heard it. I had a few emails and messages and thought the email from Teahen was pretty funny which included the website www.chasehennessey.com, and him asking who the kid was, I got a pretty big kick out of that. We had an afternoon flight so we had time to walk around and get souvenirs before we left. We wanted to see the Jewish Cemetery but it turned out costing 160ck more than expected so that was off our list of places to see. The flight went smoothly and I got caught up on my journal from the trip while everyone slept. When we got to Madrid it was a pain getting metro passes because all of the payment forms were electronic. We took the metro to the bus station and caught the 7:30 bus so we got back to Granada at 12:30. I had one day of review for class then a final, since I missed a Friday and a Monday for this trip.

Despite the cold temperatures, I really liked Prague and would love to return again someday. I would have to say it is a MUST SEE city in Europe. I am thankful for Pete asking me if I was interested in going even though it was not on my list of places to visit or even see in Europe, I am so happy that I went. The sites were amazing, the weather during the day and in the sun was not bad – perfect fall days – but the nights were pretty cold. The weather in Spain also took a turn for the worse, we always seem to bring some aspect of it back and this time it was cold temperatures. So that has been the end of our 20 degree Celsius days (Roughly 70 degrees Fahrenheit) since we have been back in Spain for the past 6 weeks.

Sorry that this post took so long but I have traveled a lot lately and have had two finals at the end of each month. I will try to post soon about my three weekend trips to the Sierra Nevada’s, Sevilla & Cordoba and then this past weekends trip to London. And if I don’t get any of those done before Thursday…Ojala… I will be going to Rome this weekend for four days and will be my last trip for my abroad experience. I have loved it all so far and hope this last trip is everything and more than what I have heard about Rome, its my number one place that I wanted to visit on my list before coming abroad. So my days here are slim but I will see you in a matter of weeks, so good luck to everyone on the weeks from hell coming up – AKA Finals, and see you for Christmas break.

Happy Turkey Day!!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Tomorrow I have my second finals, so Happy Thanksgiving to me. I have studied all day and some last night so I feel as ready as I am going to get. I haven’t posted lately, big surprise right??? I have been working on writing up on Prague, so maybe next week…Cross your fingers. So two weekends ago we DID end up going four wheeling and it was unbelievable. We were far up in the mountains and it overlooked Granada and then the snow covered Sierra Nevada’s on the other side. It was mostly gravel off road trails and then we got to drive on some roads as well. I got up to 80km/h so roughly 50 mph on a downhill straightaway. They had the governors turned way down so people like Kyle and I wouldn’t break the four wheelers.


Then I skipped class last Friday and got up at 6:40 AM to go snowboarding in the Sierra’s. The mountain that we were on was the highest mountain on the Iberian Peninsula. It was a perfect day in the upper 20’s Fahrenheit and sunny. The trails were mostly groomed but I did end up finding some powder up to 3 feet deep in spots. I also rode a T bar to the very top to the expert part of the mountain and it is merely impossible on a snowboard. At one point I fell and somehow I ended up being drug up the hill backwards and then flipped around and back onto my feet. It was more of a workout getting to the top that riding down. On the way down we found the terrain park and I hit a jump, a couple of rails and a couple of boxes and then another jump near a lift pole. The jump threw me up in the air and turned me perpendicular with the hill, so from 5 feet up I landed right on my face but my sunglasses happened to break my fall….Which resulted in a black eye, so this week it has progressively looked worse. The mountain had several lifts and most of them were speed lifts, so from the very top to bottom, it’s about a 20 to 30 minute ride, so it is by far the biggest place I have ever snowboarded at.


For Thanksgiving I have my finals for this month, then we are going to play a game of AMERICAN FOOTBALL, and then we have a group dinner in the Albaycin. So at least we are doing something fun. Lately in class we have been talk about customs and holidays in our respective countries and it definitely made me jealous that I was not going to be home for a Thanksgiving meal with my family and to watch football the rest of the afternoon.


Friday I am off to London for the weekend and coming back to Granada on Monday around noon, so I will be around to talk on Skype about my trip. Then next week I go to Rome for a long weekend. My time is running out here in Granada/Europe – I am going to miss it a ton, I already can’t wait till I come back. I have my photo website all updated even from this past weekends trip to Sevilla and Cordoba. Each photo on the website is an album that has 50-200 pictures in it, so to see all of my pictures, open the Album…Mom. Sorry I had to just throw that in.

Once again, Happy Thanksgiving, eat lots of turkey and all that good stuff. Also watch some football for me, especially the Cowboys game. Almost three weeks left until I return home, so see you all soon.

This Weekend in Granada

So good news, I have finally booked my last trips. I booked London for the weekend after Thanksgiving, November 28th – December 1st. This works out great since I will have a final on Thanksgiving, dinner with my group that night and then leave the next day and then no class the following Monday. The tickets were pretty cheap for flying out of Granada and for buying them only two weeks ahead of time. The return flight was actually free so I just had to pay the tax. As of right now I am going on my own but I have some friends studying there that I want to visit and Teahen’s brother, Robbie lives in London, so Hopefully we can meet up as well. I also booked Rome for the following weekend, December 4th – December 8th. I am going with Kendall, Megan, Liz and Evan. I’m happy that I actually got these booked because I had been asking people for weeks about going to these places and I was worried that I would not get them in. They are my top two cities I wanted to visit in Europe.

I was going to go to Barcelona this weekend but I waited too long to buy tickets and they doubled over night for when I wanted to buy them. So since that fell through, I am staying in Granada this weekend. I have a pretty good weekend planned so far since it is one of my last weekends in Granada. Kyle found an indoor go-carting place so there is a possibility of doing that as well this weekend, and maybe go bowling as well since it close to the go-carting place. This week for my Granada Seminar class we learned about tapas, so now I have a long list of places that I need to check out before I leave. So for those of you who have not been to Granada or not heard about the tapas here. When we go out and buy a drink, usually a beer because it’s cheaper than pop or bottled water you get tapas with your drink… FOR FREE!!! Depending on the place you can get a wide variety of food. Pete and I found this place called the EuroBar and it is always packed, hence the name, everything’s a Euro and the first tapa is a ham and cheese panini, then hamburger, then a slice of pizza, and the list goes on. So with every drink, you get a new kind of food. We also found a sushi tapas bar and one of my classmates works there so we get extra sushi from time to time.

Also on Sunday, a group of seven of us are going four wheeling in the Sierra Nevada’s. We were going to go two weeks ago but when I set it up through the school they did not tell us that we have to pay ahead of time, so the company was not there to pick us up. I am looking forward to this because how many people can say that they went on a four wheeling excursion in the Sierra Nevada’s? Also the weather has for this weekend is going to be much better from two weeks ago, temperatures in the 40’s and rainy. As of late, the weather has been perfect here and will be through the weekend. It’s been sunny and in the mid to upper 60’s. And to top off this amazing weekend, I am skipping class on Tuesday to go snowboarding with Pete and who else is willing to miss 1 day of class.

So far it’s been a good weekend. We went to a discotec of Thursday night. I went to a movie on Friday night, “Un Novia Para Dos” or in English it is – My Best Friends Girl – with Dane Cook, Jason Biggs and Kate Hudson. It was a pretty good movie but since I already know their voices in English, it was really weird with the voiceovers. I think I will have to see it in the states to completely understand what happens. I went to the open market today near the sports stadiums and bought some gifts and then had lunch and took a siesta. Pete and I walked around and went to look at snowboarding stuff, since we might need gloves. The cheapest pair of gloves I found was 35€ and they weren’t that nice. The stores are ridiculously over priced, almost like the stores at the resorts. But anyway that’s the update so far for the weekend.

Morocco

Our bus left Granada at 8:30 P.M. on October 9^th and it was a three and a half hour bus ride to Algeciras – the main port out of Spain. We got into Algeciras just before midnight and then we had to wander from the bus station to find our hotel. The directions that the program gave us were more like take a left when the street comes to a T then another left a few blocks away rather than just giving street names. We ended up finding the hotel thanks to the police officers who kept circling the block. Pete had reserved a hotel room for four so Sara and Melissa roomed with us and then four others from our program stayed in the hostel around the block.

Day 1 - October 10^: The next morning we had to meet at the port at 8 A.M. so I got up at 6:45 to shower and the hotel breakfast was at 7 – This was the advantage of staying in the hotel over the hostel. There was a storm that had moved in early in the morning so we walked to the port in the strong wind and rain. Long story short - Sara and Melissa had gone to Germany on their week off of class and it rained everyday but once on their trip. So this is why we blame them because it seems to always rain whenever they are together.

We met our guides for the trip around 9 and the boats were delayed anyway because of the weather. So we split into our two groups of 15 and made our through customs and onto the boat. While waiting to depart we had got our itineraries for the trip and did some icebreaker activities. All of the students in our group were studying in Granada except for one girl and there were eight of us from the Central College Program. We probably sat for an hour and a half before we started moving I walked around for a bit and the boat was really rocky and I would just be standing and then move almost five feet one way and then five the other. I think it made everyone tired because about after 15 minutes of that most of the people on the boat were laying down, so I got my Mp3 player and laid down and listened to some music for a while. I had to listen to some Jimmy Buffet since were out at sea. The boat ride was supposed to be two hours and it ended up being over three or it seemed like it at least. It was weird because we somehow crossed two time zones, so my sense of time on the boat was all messed up.

We arrived in Tangier and went to a market first thing and got some water, fruit and other snacks for our long bus rides on the 18 passenger bus. We had lunch at a women’s center called DARNA, and while we ate students who study English in Morocco came and talked to us. The meal we had was Cuscus – which is great – It’s similar to rice and then vegetables and meat are placed on top. Along with the meal we were served milk, and they didn’t say anything until we took a sip, and to be honest it was awful because it was sour goats milk – its similar to homemade yogurt but extremely sour and somewhat chunky. But after the meal we were served the best tea I have ever had - The tea is green tea with mint leaves and sugar.

Me riding a camel

After the meal we got a tour of DARNA, and we got to see some of the things they have to offer to help the women. A majority of what they offer is craft related so they can take the skills that they learn there and use them to make money and get back onto their feet. We got on the bus and drove to Rabat. We were behind schedule because of the boat delay so we had to skip Medina – a beach town on the Atlantic coast. Once were on our way it started raining and Ben (our guide) had us pull over and we got to ride camels and of course once we got out it started to rain harder, and eventually started pouring…So thank you to our rain goddesses - Sara and Melissa. Standing out in the rain and riding the camels was definitely worth being soaked and getting on the bus, smelling of wet camels and having the windows get fogged up.

Some of the group enjoying the rain

After a few more hours on the bus we got into Rabat after 9 P.M. where we were to stay with our host families for the next couple of nights. I roomed with Ben from our program and we stayed with a family who knew very minimal English. When we got to the house we were fed bread with jam and honey, and black and green olives. We were starving and we also thought it was dinner so we stuffed our faces. A friend of the family who studied English came over to the house to help translate so we could have conversation and then we all went for a walk around the city. On our walk we saw a market which had anything from food, music, movies, crafts, toys and clothes. Another cool thing was we got to see a wedding and we just happened to stand by the door and the family or who was walking past invited us in and they brought us chairs to sit and observe. The people in Morocco are so nice, not only to us, but everyone just in general, so that was completely unexpected. Even if they are acquaintances or best friends they will stop walking and ask each other how their day is going. When we walked the streets with Hisham, our “host brother” people would yell his name when they saw him coming which I though was really cool. Another thing I liked about their culture is when they would greet each other; they would shake hands and then put their right hand over their heart.

The Wedding

After we got back from our walk we had dinner. On the table was a huge bowl filled with rice and sliced chicken on top. After dinner we were served tea again – which was even better than the tea we had earlier in the day.

A Typical place setting and meal in Morocco

Day 2 – October 11: We told Hisham that we were getting up at 8 and before bed we decided to move our alarm back 10 minutes. We woke up just after 8 with Hisham standing inside the door clapping to wake us up, so looking back at that is just one of those odd but funny experiences. We met with a business professor at the University at 9 to talk about the culture of Morocco compared to the states. It was interesting to get his views of our country and hear what everyone thought about Morocco even though we had been there for half a day. I felt that he didn’t want to offend anyone so we didn’t get as in depth as some of us wanted. Typically in Morocco they speak a variety of languages: Berber (The native language), Arabic, French, Spanish, and English. One of the things I found interesting was that Moroccans give the nicest room in the house (Typically the dining room) to their guest and the reason behind it is, “Give all good things to the one you invited.” Along with this the guest can stay as long as they want but they have to stay at least three days.

Part of the Roman Ruin

Part of a Mosque inside the Ruin

The next thing we did was visited the Roman ruins of Chellah. The ruins were really cool, it had an old Mosque in it that was surrounded by gardens. Walking through it was really nice because it was not one of those tours that give you tons of information, we just got to walk around and take pictures and our guide, Ben covered the basic information, he kept it short and to the point. We took a short bus ride to the Mausoleum of King Mohammed V. The Mausoleum was originally intended to be a mosque but an earthquake had occurred during the construction and shortly after that the king died. So now inside the exterior of the Mosque there is a small Mausoleum housing the bodies of the current king’s grandfather, father, and uncle. The mosque was never finished but it is more like a large patio area and portions of the exterior walls have cracked and fallen from the earthquake and the patio contains over 300 pillars which would have supported the roof – So essentially, this thing is HUGE! (Easily could have held 6 football fields if not more). Also the tower was only a third of the way constructed and it is 6 or 7 stories tall. The size of it all was just phenomenal.

The Part of the Old Mosque

We went back to our host families homes for lunch around 3 which was nice so we didn’t really have to adapt to a whole new culture’s lunch time. After lunch we divided into groups and walked around with Moroccan students who were studying English at the University. We had free time to walk the city, markets, get food, basically what ever we wanted. So Ben, Pete and I were in a group with a guy named Abraham but said to call him Brian instead. We were all impressed with his English; he wants to be an English teacher either in Morocco, England or the U.S. We walked through the city and also to the coast and looked over the Atlantic coast and watched people surf and Jet Ski for awhile. We walked though a market which had all kinds of artisan things, which were really cool to look at, but seemed way over priced. That night we had a short meeting with three people from the Peace Corps and listened to their experiences and how it has impacted them. It sounds very interesting, but if I ever did that I would like to go somewhere where and I could use my Spanish and preferably warm.

To end our night we went to the Arab baths (Hammam) and it was quite an interesting experience to say the least. I had heard about it from other people who had went and thought it was good and some thought it was bad, so I was skeptical but I had to try it for myself. So basically it is a series of three large steam rooms that progressively get cooler as you move back towards the main door. I will have to just tell you in person when I get back to the states, because the story will be much better and a lot funnier in person. It ended up being one of the coolest, funniest, and most interesting parts of the trip. I recommend going to the Hammam if you ever happen to go to Morocco.

I had a liter and a half of water afterwards because we were in the steam room for a half hour to 45 minutes and pretty dehydrated. We went over to a friend of Hashim’s for tea and deserts, and there were over 10 different types of cookie-pastry kind of things and they put one of each on a plate for Ben and I. We were exhausted after that and probably asleep by midnight.

The Mausoleum where the Old Kings Rest

Day 3 – October 12: We were up by 7, had breakfast and said our goodbyes to the family. We exchanged emails with Hisham and he said if we are ever in Morocco, we have a place to stay. We left Rabat at 8 and drove 4 hours on the bus to the Rif Mountains to eat with a family. The family lives off of land that they farm and then trade with other families/farmers for other crops. This was very interesting because they do not have any currency exchanged for their crops. We had cuscus for lunch and then hiked up the hill to the mountaintop behind the house and all of the kids from the surrounding houses followed us up. The views were incredible and there were mountain ranges on all sides. Since it had rained quite a bit there in the past few days, our guide Ben pointed out a small river that was completely dry a week earlier when he brought other students up there. After playing with the kids and thanking the family we left for Chefchauen, a small town built into the mountainside. The drive was through the mountains and the city just kind of came out of no where, which was very picturesque. We walked through town and many of the buildings are painted two shades of blue to represent the sea and the sky. Even though everything was blue for about 10 feet or less on the buildings it made the walks around town very cool.

The Central Group

We got to our hostel and we had 16 people so we took over the entire thing. After that Ben explained bartering/haggling and to aware of being offered drugs. I was offered drugs probably over 20 times within our three hours of our free time. The drug dealers and the police in Chefchauen have a drug ring where a dealer will offer you drugs and then walk away and someone else will come up and tell you that you owe them money or they will tell the police – so Ben’s advice was to just walk away. I was happy to use my bartering skills again that I picked up from Peru a few years ago. I bought some leather bracelets and a hat and knocked off a couple of euros there and I also got a silk and wool blanket and the seller wanted 35€ and I ended up getting it for 20€. We had a group dinner at a nice restaurant and it included a three course meal. After that we went back to our hostel and then met on the roof for a reflection period. I really enjoyed this because we stood around a candle and each of us shared our thoughts of Morocco. Each person had something different to say – which was so interesting since all 16 of us had shared the same experiences over the past few days. We also shared some stories that we would never forget, which for the guys the hammam stories were by far the funniest.

The Sunset from the Roof of Our Hostel

Day 4 - October 14: There is nothing like starting off your day like a 7 AM hike to the mountains. We walked up behind the city; the view was incredible overlooking the city and the mountain range. We stayed up there for twenty minutes or so and then headed back to the hotel and Ben had gone out the night before and bought everything left in a bakery. So we all stuffed our faces before our three hour bus ride to the Cuenta. We had to go through a security check and then walk through “no man’s land” to get to the Spanish part of Africa. We waited about an hour at the port and ate before we got on the boat. We said our goodbyes and thank you’s to our guides, because they were staying in Africa while we got on the ferry for Spain. This time the sun was out and the boat ride was much faster and smoother. When we got to the bus station, we had just missed the bus to Granada by five minutes, so we had to wait an hour and a half for the next bus. We got back to Granada, and guess what??? Rain – it followed us back to Spain!

The Streets of Chefchauen

Since I have been writing this over the past couple of weeks I have gotten to look back and reflect on Morocco. I know I will never forget my four days there – It was an unbelievable trip and definitely worth the money, so if you have a chance to, DO IT. A lot of our señora’s didn’t want us to go, and ours told us to be careful about five times as we walked out the door. It’s interesting to see the stereotype that Spaniards have of Moroccans, but they are completely wrong. The people that we met in Morocco were absolutely the nicest people that I have ever met. Even though there was a language barrier, it wasn’t that hard to communicate and express a general idea though gestures. From riding the camels on the beach in the rain to the perfectly sunny day hiking up the Rif Mountains, the trip was unforgettable. And I know if I ever go back I will have a place to stay.