should be packing up, 12:56 am, granada. april 1st

Okay, I really wasn't that sleep deprived in the morning; it didn't take too much effort to get out of bed. The wake up call was an abrupt reminder that yup, this is Spain! It was a recording saying "es la hora que despiertase" or something similar (meaning it's time to wake up). After getting dressed to the music of a growling stomach, we headed up to breakfast. It was a buffet style of pastries, cut fruit, eggs, and meat/cheese. I had a couple heaping platefuls of pretty good sliced fruit.

Immediately after breakfast, we left on the bus to visit La Alhambra and Los Gardines de Generalife (same location). I loved taking pictures here; yesterday morning I took 126 good pictures, and that's before attending the Flamenco show tonight (and probably tripping over my own feet learning how to dance) Since it was built for the Arab kings, you can see all types of Arabic influence. For example, the number 7 is everywhere (7th heaven is the closest you can get to 8th heaven, reserved solely for Allah (God)) in the architecture. It might be the sum of the digits of the number of wood pieces, or simply in millions of carvings around the entire palace.  The one thing that didn't quite go our way today was the weather; it started raining pretty hard as we left the fourth palace. Rain doesn't really bother me, but I didn't want to ruin my J1 camera! I loved seeing the reflection pools in the gardens, as well as seeing the entire city of Granada from our altitude. It really made me realize how small we were, with the entire city below us and looking straight at the Sierra Nevadas.
Reflection pool at La Alhambra (palace of the king)
Arches from the Sultan's first wife's room
Courtyard for the sultan
Group photo on top of the exterior of La Alhambra
Generalife


After we left Generalife, our bus dropped us downtown so we could explore and hunt for lunch. After purchasing umbrellas, we decided to make our way through the Arab markets in search of the cathedral. After all, it was Easter Sunday. The cobblestone streets are horrible at water drainage; there was standing water everywhere! My wallabies and jeans were soaked when we got back to the hotel. The vendors at the Arab markets weren't very kind, but at least we weren't accused of falsely stealing anything. Also, we have yet to encounter gypsies. Inside the cathedral, it was filled with the scent of incense. To a born and bred Baptist, that smell is just horrible. We didn't stay long, but long enough for me to understand the "preacher" (priest?) was talking about the resurrection and how Jesus rose to save us from our sins. It sounded so much more beautiful in Spanish, just saying.

To relieve our grumbling and growling grumpy stomachs, our next stop was to find something to eat. One day soon, Kimia said that she wants churros for lunch instead of a sit down meal. If you want fried sticks of refined carbs coated in sugar and dipped into very thick sugary hot chocolate I'm not going to stop you. I'm just going to order salmon and veggies, like I did for lunch today. The paella here was served differently-- the shrimp was on top of a pile of rice, calamari and mussels shaped like a 6" cake pan. Mrs. Piner, Alex, and Fernando ordered it, so even though I didn't order it, I still had a large helping to help finish up plates. What can I say, this runner appetite still exists even though it's been two days without doing any vigorous exercise :( I think I'm going to go crazy if I can't run in Seville.
My delicious salmon. Haters gonna hate

Since we were free until 6:30 pm, us students decided to explore Granada by foot some more and go shopping. I bought a couple postcards and a magazine, and Arden got some more ice cream (how she was still hungry after lunch was beyond me), but nothing else since most of the good non-food stores were closed being it was Sunday and Easter Sunday at that. My magazine, although not Runner's World Espana is pretty interesting from the Spanish culture perspective, reviewing recent Spanish races. One day when I come back to Spain, I'm going to race here. Like I've said, if only we were in Madrid on the 28th of April for Rock and Roll Madrid Marathon and Half Marathon. I suspect at least one of my favorite Spanish bands would be there: Maldita Nerea, La Fuga, El Sueno de Morfeo, El Pescao.... Did I mention that I missed the end of La Fuga's tour when they were in Granada LAST WEEK?! End rant. Oh, but we stopped at a chocolate factory that sold flavors from biscuits to tiramisu to lemon... crazy. And they had free samples that the group definitely put a hurting on. No, Dad, I didn't buy any for you. Sorry.
ir de compras con mis chicas! (shopping with my girls)

At 6:30, we were scheduled to leave for our flamenco dancing lesson. It wasn't horrible, but it was a reminder of why I wasn't the best cheerleader because although I had rhythm, I could just NOT do all those fancy hand motions (and my dancing still looked like a cheerleader imitating flamenco style to top it all off--sharp, stiff, impersonal, quick movements instead of appearing graceful and flowing) It was something different, and I enjoyed it even though I was horrible.

Dinner following was delicious! I have no idea how much heaver I'm going to come back to the states on Saturday, but I'm definitely going to be a few pounds heavier... Our appetizer was the typical sourdough bread dipped in olive oil, but the second dish was either a tortilla espanola (layered potatoes and eggs), cured Spanish ham and cheese. I had a salad with more Spanish olive oil. The main course was chicken, potatoes and veggies for most; I had sautéed veggies. For once, I was so full from lunch that I just couldn't quite eat it all (and eating dinner at 10pm didn't help my lack of appetite) While we were eating, a group of professional flamenco performers came and danced for us. Their costumes weren't the traditional attire I imagined, but their moves were on pointe. And the guy was getting it... If only the guys in the US could dance, just saying.
delicious sauteed vegetables!

Now I'm back in the room, freshly showered and feeling pretty pleased with myself for getting my pictures all uploaded to Facebook. I had written most of this entry earlier, but then my laptop decided that it had to restart in order to install some update or other at that particular second, so I lost it. Whatever. First Wi-Fi probs, then laptop probs. Nothing out of the ordinary for me. Anyways, this afternoon, we're getting on a bus to Seville, but apparently we're doing something in the morning because wakeup call is at 7 and breakfast is at 8. Hopefully they'll have more cut fruit again!!

So I guess I'll go pack up my stuff so I don't have much to do in the morning. No comments please Mom and Dad, I know I need to work on being neater for when I go off the college. And I promise I'll clean my room before I go to school on Monday; you really don't need to go in there...