Packing :(

Today is my last full day in Granada.... and it feels very strange! :/ I have without a doubt had the time of my life and I'm having a difficult time watching it come to an end. I have been blessed to meet amazing people and make such amazing friendships. This past week has been filled with celebrations and get-togethers; we're all attempting to spend as much time together as possible.

This past weekend was my friend Melissa's birthday and we had a great time going out to dinner and hanging out with one another. We went to a Mexican food restaurant for dinner and were a bit skeptical about what it might taste like, but it wasn't too bad ;) It definitely wasn't San Diego Mexican food, but it passed the test. We celebrated with Churros con Chocolate and Sangria :)

It snowed on Monday in Granada, so the weather is definitely dropping. Glad to be out of here before it gets too too cold! Nevertheless it was really fun to see the snow in the city before we leave :)

Last night was our going away party and our entire program went to a Flamenco show together. We were sandwiched in there like sardines, but had a fabulous time :) For whatever reason I always get picked out of the audience to dance on stage, so yet again I had to make a fool of myself on stage. Wouldn't have been the same without it ;) A few of my friends and I raised money to hep pay for a new camera for our director, that was stolen on our trip to Morocco, so we presented that to him last night and he was very surprised. It made our night to give back to him! He's off to buy a new camera today.

I'm off to finish packing... hope to see everyone soon when I get home!

Road Trip: Tarifa

Our last day of our road trip, we woke up and went down to the beach of Conil before we got on the road. It was a nice beach and the weather was perfect, but I was shocked at how in awe Nicole, Melissa, and Sherman were. Having grown up by the beach I wasn't surprised at what we saw, but they were just in shock soaking everything in, it was great! THey didn't know or understand how surfing worked, so we explained it to them and how tides work... they were in awe, it was so neat. I've really come to value and appreciate how different we all are in our own country, let alone around the world, and how much there is to explore there. It makes me excited to visit them and see what their version of the US is like.

After wading in the waves in Conil we headed for another coastal beach town named Tarifa. Tarifa is the southernmost point of Europe and has spectacular views of the coast of Africa. We took our lunch for the day and sat and overlooked the ocean and the continent of Africa. It was very cool to sit there and think that just over a month ago I was over there having the time of my life. I would love to spend more time in Africa one day.

After eating our lunch, we walked down the ain streets of Tarifa and headed back to Granada. We were not looking forward to leaving the nice, warm, beach weather. We drove back around Gibraltar, Marbella, and Malaga and headed towards the Sierra Nevadas. As soon as we headed towards the mountains, our lovely 21 degree celcius weather turned in to 9 degrees. It did feel more like winter and christmas season when we got back in to Granada. We pulled in to Granada and everyone was all bundles up in their pea coats and scarves. SO glad I've had a taste of a cold winter, so I can really appreciate our warm winter back home!

Road Trip: Cadiz

Our full day on Saturday was spend within the port city of Cadiz. Cadiz is the oldest European city, dating back prior to the Romans, but the best thing about it is it doesn't look like an old run down city, it is beautiful.

We drove about forty minutes from Conil, where we were staying, to Cadiz. Sherman was awesome and looked up things for us to do there and took us around the city. It was so nice to not have to think about anything, we were so appreciative of all his hard work. We went on a coastal walk, stopping to look at various monuments along the way. We went first to a castle built on the coast. We couldn't go inside, but the scenery was beautiful. The castle was surrounded by tide pools, men fishing for sea urchins, men sailing and walking along the beach. The Atlantic ocean was bright blue and it was fun knowing that the United States was just on the other side of the water from where we were standing. We sat on the walls and looked back at the city and Cathedral of Cadiz and out into the ocean. We could not have asked for better weather!

We walked a little further down the bay and came to the next fortress built in 1596 and went inside to explore. We were a bit disappointed to ind that there was a contemporary art exhibition going on inside, because it kind of ruined the vibe and atmosphere of the castle for us. But the view was beautiful of course, so we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless.

We left the castles and headed for a park in the city to relax and have lunch. The park was beautiful and very relaxing. We continued our stroll along the coast and ended up at the Cathedral. The Cathedral was fantastic, very different from others we've seen. It's a neoclassical style, which is very different than the gothic we have become accustomed to. It was a much softer look and much easier on the eyes. My favorite Cathedral to date. I feel like I should make a ist of the churches I've seen now... every city has a large handful of them.

We saw an old Roman theater near the Cathedral. Supposedly they didn't discover it until 1980, but we're not sure how something so big, above ground, in the center of the city wasn't discovered until now.... interesting.

Road Trip: Gibraltar

This weekend, Ellen, Nicole, Melissa, Sherman and I road tripped throughout Southern Spain. Our first day we visited Marbella and Gibraltar. We rented a car in Granada and were anticipating difficulties while driving in Spain, but it wasn't too bad. We made a good team navigating and driving. We drove to Marbella first, about a 2 hour drive to the coast, to see the famous beach town in Spain. Marbella is the town for the rich and famous. Their yachts are parked in the bay, but we didn't feel out of place. It was till a very traditional, Spanish city. The weather was gorgeous! We only stopped for a few minutes, but I was so impressed with Marbella's tropical, Mediterranean feel.

We drove for another hour so and made it to Gibraltar. I absolutely fell in love with it!. It is a British territory located on the Southern end of Spain and shares a land border with Spain. Gibraltar and Spain have not been on the best of terms for years. Spain has wanted Gibraltar in order to control navigation through the Mediterranean, but the people of Gibraltar have made it clear that they wish to remain British citizens. They have voted on it on numerous occasions and have always remained true to their British roots.

Our tour guide pointed out to us, that as we crossed the border in to Gibraltar there were Spanish border agents and Gibraltarian agents checking our passports. The Spanish, technically shouldn't check our passports as we leave their country, but want to make a petty point that they believe they have some control of the territory. Our tour guide also informed us that the bay of Gibraltar is called the bay of Gibraltar by most world maps, but that the Spanish maps label the bay as the bay of Algeciras, the Spanish city that shares it's border with Gibraltar.

The contention between the two is very interesting and provides for an interesting blend of the two cultures. The official language of Gibraltar is English, but children are taught both English and Spanish. The mix of English and Spanish has created an actual form of Spanglish known throughout Gibraltar and is spoken on an everyday basis. Our guide we met shared a newspaper article with us and it was very cool! It would say something along the lines of, "The libro is muy interesante, pero in reality es un rollo." completely mixing the two languages. There didn't seem to be rules as to when to use each language, but there must be some system. This language, "Gibrish," even has it's own made words to trow in to the mix.

Now...what we actually did in Gibraltar. Walking down main street we ran into a man giving guided tours of the Rock of Gibraltar. He began to give us his shpeal on the deal we would get and were immediately turned off, but by the end, decided it was a good idea. And whether he was a good salesman or not, it was a blast and I'm so glad we did it.

Normally, you have to hike the Rock of Gibraltar for about 4 hours to see the sights we saw, but he drove us everywhere in his own van and took us directly to the best places. Eric, our guide, first took us to the Pillars of Hercules. The myth is, the Rock of Gibraltar and the mountain of Northern Africa were the two pillars signaling the end of the world by Hercules. After sailing through these pillars, you would fall off the world, because it was flat. Funny enough, these pillars are the origins of the American dollar. After Columbus sailed to the Americas, they were regarded as the port to the new world. The monument for the pillars has a scroll running through them and this is where we get our symbol for the American dollar, the scroll with the two pillars $. From the Pillars of Hercules you could see the northern coast of Africa and it was beautiful.

We then headed to Saint Michael's cave. The cave was not the most impressive or biggest I've seen, but nonetheless was very cool to see. We walked around in the caves for a bit and headed for the best part of the day.

Eric drove us to see the monkeys! :) The British sailors brought monkeys with them from Africa during the 1800s and they've been there ever since. Winston Churchill once said, "When the monkeys seize to exist, Gibraltar will no longer be a British territory." So, as you can imagine, they are a protected species and receive veterinary care regularly. Each monkey is tattooed with a number and is taken care of from birth. Eric sees the monkeys on a regular basis and knows them on a first name basis, so as you can imagine, the monkeys loved him. He called one monkey in to the car and he rode along with us until we got to our monkey destination. The monkeys are very territorial and hierarchical, so Eric had to tell us which monkey's to play with and when to be careful.

Eric would call the monkeys and they would jump up on to our back or heads. The monkeys were obsessed with my hair and wanted to see if they could find any bugs in it...thankfully they weren't successful. It was exactly what I picture monkeys acting like. We truly were their jungle gyms. Technically, they're not monkeys, because they don't have tails, but mekaks. The mekaks live to be about 29 years old. One mekak, Michael, is the oldest monkey on the island and is as old as the latest Spanish constitution, at 29 years old. There were a blast. We would have stayed there all day if we could.

Our next stop was at the mouth of a series of militaristic tunnels in the rock. There are over 72 km of tunnel within the rock. The tunnels were impressive, but the view was amazing. We were looking back towards Spain across the Strait of Gibraltar. The Strait has an airport runway along the width of the Strait. It is the only runway in the world with a traffic light for public cars to pass through, as it's the only way in and out of the territory, by land. It was very cool and very beautiful looking back over the Strait.

Our final ISA Excursion to Sevilla and Cordoba

This past friday afternoon we left Granada for Sevilla, Spain. After a four hour bus ride we arrived in Sevilla. Sevilla is a much larger city than Granada (Granada has about 250,000 people and Sevilla has about 750,000). We were taken to Hotel Becquer, named after a famous Spanish author, sculptor, and painter, and then went on a walking tour of the Triana neighborhood. Triana is located on the far side of the Guadilquivir river. Sevilla had a very romantic vibe to it, and reminded me a lot of Paris and the Seine river. The river, the lights, bridges and buildings seemed very Parisian. Secilla is the capital of Andalusia... it was my favorite Spanish city outside of Granada. I absolutely loved it!

The next day we toured the city. We started at the Alcazar, the palace in Sevilla modeled after the Alhambra. The alhambra was deserted for a short while and wasn't taken care of, but the Alcazar had the colors that the Alhambra should have and was unique for that reason. It is one of the oldest palaces in Europe still in use. It was very reminiscent of the Alhambra, but had been added on to by various rulers, so it incorporated many other styles as well. Interestingly enough the Alcazar has many monuments and elements in honor of Christopher Columbus and his discoveries. Christopher Columbus set sail for the Americas from the city of Sevilla. One of the paintings in the palace shows the very first depiction of the native americans by Europeans after their discovery. They weren't painted savagely or anything but in a pretty realistic form. Overall, the Alcazar was beautiful and encompassed all of those things I loved about the Alhambra.... minus the fantastic gardens.

After visiting the Alcazar we visited the Cathedral in Sevilla. I was excited to see the Cathedral after learning about it in my art history class. When the Catholics conquered Spainm they destroyed all of the mosques to build cathedrals of their own. But rather than destroy the call tower of the mosque, they added to it and made it a combination of both styles and uses by adding a bell tower. The Sevilla Cathedral is one of the three largest cathedrals in all of Europe... it was impressive for this reason. I am not a fan of large, gaudy Cathedrals, but I could appreciate its size and grandeur. There was a large, silver altar made from the silver of the Americas, after its discovery, and it had a very "mayan" flare to it.

Following Columbus's death, he was "buried" in Sevilla, then Valladolid, then Santiago, then Habana and back to Sevilla. In the process of his post-life travels, the actual remains of his body were unknown. Both Sevilla and Santiago claimed to have the body of Columbus until 2000 when researchers did a DNA sample of the body in Sevilla and confirmed the remains to be that of Columbus. So... there remains a tomb and monument to Christopher Columbus inside the cathedral. When Columbus died he was still under the impression that he had found a new route to India, rather than a new continent. For this reason, America is named after Americo Vespuce who was the first to declare America as a new continent previously unknown to Europe.

After touring the cathedral, we went up in to the Giralda tower (the bell tower). We climbed 36 ramps to make it to the top of the tower. The Moorish ruler originally had it built with ramps rather than stairs, so that he could ride his horse to the top of the tower. Once at the top we were situated underneath the bells and looking out over the city of Sevilla. It was a fantastic view!

After lunch, my friends Ellen, Nicole, Melissa, Cate and I went on a carriage ride throughout the city. It was a blast! Sandwiched in to the carriage, we saw the res of Sevilla on our carriage ride. We went along the river and saw El Torre del Oro, the Bull Ring, the university, Plaza Espana, the large public park and arrived back at the cathedral. We had entirely too much fun and laughed hysterically all day long.

Sevilla has a lot of history in Flamenco and Torreros. A large portion of Flamenco originated in Sevilla and the bull ring in unique to Sevilla as well. This particular ring has eight sides, rather than being a circular ring, and has unique yellow, sand in the arena.

After visiting Sevilla for a day and a half, we went to COrdoba to visit the Mosque of Cordoba (La Mezquita). La Mezquita en Cordoba is the only one of 300 mosques still standing in Spain. The Catholics demolished the other mosques in order to further weaken their moral and establish their own religious customs.

There are three main sections to any mosque ; the tower, the patio, and main church. The Mezquita in Cordoba is a mixture between the old mosque and catholic cathedral. The call tower of the mosque was altered, like the one in Sevilla, to become the bell tower of the cathedral. The patio was left the same and the "Salon de Oraciones," or main room, was altered drastically. The mosque itself was built to look like a forest of candy-cane striped columns and the effect is beautiful. HOwever, the catholics decided to build a cathedral right, smack-dab in the middle . You can no longer see through the forest of columns and the entire flow is broken.

While it is a shame that such a beautiful building was tampered with, it probably only today because of the cathedral within it. Had the cathedral not been built, it is likely that it would have been demolished like all of the others. When the architect contacted the King, King Ferdinand III, the king had never been to Cordoba and seen the Mezquita, and okayed the construction of the cathedral. It is said, that later when the King passes through Cordoba on his honeymoon he was horrified. He said, "Had I known what they were damaging to build this cathedral, I never would have allowed it."

The Mezquita is truly astonishing, unlike anything I have ever seen before. The columns are astounding and provide a very serene ambiance. It is exactly the kind of place I would like to go to for worship. The pulpit is decorated, but no where as distracting and overwhelming as the altars of a Catholic church. The simple, intricacy is stunning. All mosques are supposed to face the direction of Mecca, but.. the architects that built the mosque were from Sevilla and oriented the mosque in the same direction, thinking the direction was the same as Sevilla. So, the mosque is not actually facing Mecca as it should be, go figure. Never the less it has captivated the hearts of many for centuries.

All of the columns throughout the building are different from one another. They didn't have the time to build them all, so they sole them from various locations. Although this is an odd way of going about building a house of worship, it provides for an interesting result. What a way to end my adventures with ISA! It was a fantastic weeked :)

“El mejor intercambio de nuestra vida”

One of our amazing directors Marissa has put together an annual magazine called MagazaISA. She collects articles and poems and pictures from all of the students who wish to participate and puts them together into one large magazine for all of us to take home. It's a very cool idea and I'm excited that she's doing it. Each article has to be written in Spanish, but can be about anything we've experienced while on our travels. This way, each of us that participates has a cool memento to take home with us :) I decided to write a poem about our experience in the Moroccan desert with the burburs. I'm sharing my poem with you, but I'm not going to translate it, because it won't sound very pretty in English ;) so here it is: “El mejor intercambio de nuestra vida”

Yo Hago las maletas y sueño sobre viajes,
Excursiones con arena y estrellas,
Las dunas consume el mundo en mi mente,
Y los camellos pasea en el paisaje;
Pero está oscuro y me pone nervioso.

Me empaño la oscuridad del vacío,
Los camellos y las estrellas desaparece.
Una figura aparece con una mano extendida,
No puedo ver pero la tomo fielmente,
El ambiente del desierto me da confianza.

Caminamos hacia el amanecer,
Mano en mano, armonía.
Nos sentimos lo caluroso del sol,
Nuestras almas juntan,
Personas y tierra se unen en tranquilidad.

El sol resplandeciente sale,
Todo el desierto transforma en oro.
Los camellos vuelven a aparecer,
Unidos con bereberes y los visitantes,
Las sonrisas ilumina todo y me emociona.

Se celebran todas las diferencias,
Idiomas, culturas, comidas… vidas.
Aunque poco tiempo ha pasado,
Agradecemos y aprendemos mucho.
Se llama “la escuela internacional,”
Lo llamamos el intercambio más deseable en la vida.

Visiting the village in the desert

We left the large dunes on camelback and arrived in a small desert village. It felt eerie and abandoned as we walked through the town, until we realized the eyes peering back at us through the windows. The men were all at work and the women were left to stay in doors throughout the day, so needless to say we saw very few people in the village. A few women stepped out doors to watch us pass by, but most stayed indoors tending to do their jobs for the day. There were children EVERYWHERE! Everywhere we went we had children at our feet asking for water or something to eat. It was very hard to tell them that we didn't have anything for them, knowing full well we had backpacks full of supplies.

On our walk towards the school we passed two brothers playing in the sand. I made sure no one was around and gave each of the boys a small plastic soccer ball. The expressions on their faces vanished and you could tell they were trying so hard not to lose it... the moment I turned around to walk towards the school they erupted in to screams and ran home waving the balls in the air. I can only imagine how many balls they have had to play with in their lifetime... very few.

We were given strict instructions by our directors not to hand out anything to the children if we were surrounded by a large group, otherwise it was pretty clear that we would be bombarded by children. We walked through the town and split up in to separate groups. The Granada group was the only group going to deliver supplies to the local school kids, which made me feel good to know that I was part of conscientious few. The school building was an adobe room without a door and a few broken desks inside.

Our director Eugenio began handing us each a bag of pencils, pens or markers to hand out to the class. Immediately the kids jumped out of their seats and tried to attack you for something. One of the young burbur men had come in with us and he immediately yelled at everyone to sit back in their seats. He proceeded to tell them that if they couldn't handle the excitement and act politely that we would take our things somewhere else. It was amazing to see the kids respond so quickly to him, he wasn't the teacher or anyone remotely connected to them, but they knew to follow his orders. The kids squirmed in their seats and tried to maintain some composure. We were in the classroom for about twenty minutes and handed out every single thing we had.

When we left the school and headed back towards our camp I felt a small tug on the back of my shirt. It was the two boys that I had given the balls to. They had come back to play with us :) We didn't have any plans with our program that afternoon, so our director told us it would be okay to stay behind and play with them for a few minutes, so we did. We played with Hamid and his little brother as they chased the soccer balls around the desert. It was a very rewarding and uplifting experience. These two boys didn't want to hoard their treasures to themselves, they wanted to share in it with us. Our director handed out two small pieces of candy to a little girl, and instead of eating them both she unwrapped one of the candies and promptly stuffed it in to our directors mouth. They don't have a lot, but they aren't poor. They just have a better idea of what is necessary and what is excessive. They don't seem to miss out on anything or feel as though they're missing out, but simply have what they need to get by. It was a great reminder that the things we have in life can bring joy, but by themselves are of no importance.