Pre-Christmas Ramblings

I haven’t updated in a while because I’ve been too busy watching Spanish-dubbed Grey’s Anatomy (only half kidding), but here are some exciting things that have happened in the past couple weeks:

My friends Cat and Sydney from Santa Barbara came to visit Claire and me! They were studying in Florence for the quarter and their program just ended, so they’re traveling a bit around Europe and the Middle East before heading back. It was great to see them and they absolutely loved Granada, which assured Claire and me even more that we chose the greatest city. We went out to a Paella lunch with them on Sunday (I’m actually relatively sure we were eating in a hospice home, since there were about 50 tables in the restaurant and they were all occupied by elderly couples—but this is beside the point.) It was delicious and one of the very few restaurant meals I’ve actually had here, since normally we just go out for tapas. I was very content with the food, but six hours later Claire and Sydney were not, as they got violently ill with food poisoning. I kept waiting for it to hit me but somehow I escaped it, even though I ate all the meat and seafood. I’m so glad Cat and Sydney came but I’m so sorry we took them to that restaurant! They had to catch a bus to Madrid while Sydney was still sick, and I hope their Granada experience wasn’t tainted too much….

This past week I was planning on cooking dinner with my friend Luc and his British housemate Emily, who is teaching English here in Granada. Luc told me a few hours before that there had been a change of plans—it turns out Emily’s boss is the Vice President of Granada’s Fútbol team, and was giving out tickets at her work! So that night we ended up seeing my first Spanish live fútbol match for free. Granada was playing a team from San Sebastian, and we won 2-1. However, we needed to win by three points to advance to the next round of the competition, so it was bitter sweet. The game itself was very exciting though, and we were sitting in front of three drunken Spaniards who inadvertently taught me more Spanish slang in 90 minutes than I’ve learned in 4 months here. There’s nothing like enthusiastic fútbol fans.

My parents sent me a package for Christmas at the very beginning of December, and since Spanish mail is less than efficient, it got here just a few days ago. Also, Spain has started charging exorbitant prices to collect packages sent from outside the EU, so to add some Christmas cheer all the UC kids have been having to shell out about 40 euros each time they collect their gifts from home. Spanish bureaucracy aside, though, I have to express in my blog how adorable this Christmas present from my family is! They made me an advent calendar with a present to open each day of December (meaning I got to open about 20 presents in one day, thanks to the mail delay). So cute and creative! Even in this holiday season I really haven’t been homesick at all, but it’s amazing how unwrapping things like peanut butter cups and chocolate pretzels makes me ache for the simple pleasures of home. Spain needs to amp up their importing a bit and bring more of these American treats overseas.

Tomorrow I’m celebrating Christmas with Anna by baking our sorrows away all day, and then it’s off for some travel throughout Spain! FELIZ NAVIDAD EVERYONE!!