Third Time's A Charm

I’m sitting on my own private terrace in my new room, one door away from some of my best friends in Granada, soaking in everything that just happened in one short day. Out of the blue Luc told me yesterday that his next-door neighbors (same floor of the same building) had an empty room in their piso, and were looking for somebody. For a while now I’ve been feeling like I’ve been missing out a bit on the living situation, as I felt a little isolated in my piso only living with one other person. I wanted my year abroad to be filled with tons of different people and experiences. Without any real intentions to act on it, I decided to see the empty piso out of pure curiosity. This soon turned into much more, as I fell in love with it as Piedad (one of my new roommates) showed me all the rooms. The minute that I saw that the vacant room had it’s own private balcony, I was pretty much sold. I pictured myself tanning, reading, eating, sleeping, and pretty much spending the majority of my life on that little terrace in the Spring and Summer. Also the piso is cheaper, right next door to friends, and shared with three Spanish girls—pretty much every foreigner’s dream. Pitu (Piedad) was so incredibly friendly while showing me around, and what’s more, I already have confirmation from Luc and his roommates that the neighbor’s (my new pisomates) are really friendly, since they had a potluck together last week.

So yes, I’m that girl who has now lived in three different apartments in Granada.. I’m like Ross from friends—divorced three times. But the way I see it, better to move to make yourself happier than stay and wonder what if, or worse, spend my last four months in Granada missing out on what could have been (and hopefully will be!) a truly memorable living experience.

I decided that night to move. Of course telling Neivar was very difficult and I’m not going to go into it here, but everything happened very fast and the next morning Rafa helped me move all my stuff. I felt simply elated, as Pitu and Guada (another pisomate) showed me the ins and outs of my new home. Some things I’m especially excited about, besides my balcony and living with three Spaniards, is the big living room (since I really like having people over for dinner, etc) and the spa-sized bath tub in one of the bathrooms. I’ve always been a shower person, but a girl can change.

The day kept getting better. After Rafa helped me move all my stuff and settle me into my new room (did I mention I have such amazing friends here???), I walked two steps out my front door and grabbed Luc and Cecile. The four of us set off to Alina’s house, where we met Alina and Javi for a MEXICAN feast! It must be symbolic that I moved on the day we planned to cook my favorite cuisine.

Cecile, Luc, and Rafa making guacamole

Javi, ¡por fin sales!

While there is nothing that beats actual Mexican food from at least West of the Atlantic, our fajitas were not half bad. The Coronas, guacamole and chocolate cake didn’t hurt either!

I know I’ve started to sound like a broken record, but there is really nothing better than sitting with friends around a table for hours and hours on end, eating and drinking and laughing until no sound comes out. I feel like I hit the jackpot today.

Cambio y corto. 

Alcalá la Real

On Friday my (Californian) friend Luc and I went with two of our Spanish friends, Rafa and Alina, to visit Rafa’s pueblo, Alcalá la Real. We met Rafa and Alina in last semester’s Geolinguistics class (making friends was about all that class was good for), and this semester we’ve been hanging out a lot. One day we decided it would be fun to take a day trip to Rafa’s town, since he lives only an hour away by bus and his town is historically significant in the conquest of the Reyes Católicos and such (a huge part of Spain’s past).

We left Friday morning and when we arrived in Alcalá we went directly to a café for breakfast. The town is in the province of Jaén, which is one of the two most famous provinces in all of Spain for producing olive oil, so naturally we doused our tostadas in about a cup of liquid gold. I vow to never eat toast with butter again. 

A little bread, a little tomato, a lot of oil

Then we set off to explore the fortress, perched high up on a hill overlooking the pueblo. It was beautiful and empty, so we had the place all to ourselves. We then went to lunch, where once again we took advantage of the olive oil sitting out on the tables. One of my favorite things about Spain is hanging out and just chatting for hours during a meal.

Luc, Rafa, Me, Alina

After lunch we went to the museum in the town, which honestly just had a lot of very old rocks. However, even old rocks are really fun when you’re in great company, joking and realizing the fact that you can have close friends and meaningful conversations thousands of miles and vocabularies away from what you’re used to.

Alina, Rafa, Me

Alina, Me, Luc on the fortress

Since most things in this culture center around conversation with food or drink, we ended the day with coffee and more chatting. Life is hard.

I had a great time in Alcalá la Real. The town is charming, but spending the entire day with genuine friends, whether in Granada or elsewhere, is the best part of the whole experience. I really never thought I would get so proficient in a second language as to be able to make real friends outside of the discoteca scene, but there we were, eating oil and examining rocks and climbing fortresses like four peas in a pod. (As Luc so eloquently put it, in high school we learned the subjunctive tense for the basic “Yo quiero que Juan venga a la fiesta,” and now we’re employing it in social settings to convey such phrases like “Que te den.”)

Primavera

Coming from California, I’ve never really gotten to appreciate seasons—especially in Santa Barbara, where we treat light drizzling as torrential downpours worthy of skipping every class that week. But after being consistently cold in Granada for four straight months (OK, winter here is pretty mild in comparison to the rest of Europe, but like I said, I’m a California kid), I am overjoyed to say that this week Spring arrived! I’ve whipped out my Rainbow flip-flops from the back of my closet, and even applied sunscreen once or twice. Yesterday I went for coffee with a friend and was literally sweating while sitting outside. The bakeries have been replacing their winter sweets with all different flavors of ice cream (and I unfortunately walk by my favorite one at least twice a day on my way to school). The change of weather makes me really start appreciating this wonderful city again—let’s see how many posts until I start complaining about the unbearable heat….

A lot of my Californian friends have left, since the first semester ended a couple weeks ago. Although I’m sad to see them go, I’ve taken it as an opportunity to try and more thoroughly immerse myself in these last four (only four!!!) months. For one of my classes I have to read a 400 page book in Spanish, and I’m so excited to say that I’m getting through it fairly easily. It’s so gratifying to know that I prepared for Spain in California by struggling through children’s novels, and now I’m reading adult non-fiction. Also, since two American friends I hung out with a lot the past few months are now gone, it’s forcing me to make more native friends in my classes to keep from getting too lonely. I think I’m also going to take a break from traveling at least for a little while—we have Spring Break coming up, but I plan on staying in Spain since it’s Semana Santa, which is a week packed full of festivals leading up to Easter, and most famously celebrated in Andalucia.

Also, as a random note, every time I teach English the little boys find some way to make me laugh. The other day we were practicing some new verbs, and I said “draw,” to which they were supposed to mime the action of coloring. Out of the blue, and without missing a beat, the littlest one Alejandro shouted out, “¡¡YO VOY A DIBUJAR UN TORO COMIENDOSE UNA VACA!!” “I’m going to draw a bull eating a cow!!” I really don’t know where little kids come up with such things. 

Ciao Regazzi!

 In the second week of the new semester we already had a Puente, so I took advantage of this one to visit some friends in Italy. I was flying out of Madrid, so I decided to go a day early and do some site-seeing, since I had yet to explore the capital of Spain. Madrid is beautiful in some parts (like the enormous plazas, palace, and Retiro park), but I definitely prefer Barcelona or Granada. On Sunday I flew into Bologna, Italy in the morning, and after eating a pizza and panini (I had to cram in as much Italian food as possible in one short week) I caught the train to Padova, where my friend from UCSB, Ezezz, is studying for the whole year.

My favorite restaurant sign in Madrid: "Prohibited to speak of the Crisis"

Ezezz met me at the train station and then we walked the streets of Padova as the sun was beginning to set. It is such a beautiful city and I immediately re-fell in love with Italy (I had been to Rome and Florence 4.5 years ago). The beautiful colored buildings, arched walkways, and accordion-playing street performers all added to the city’s charm. When we arrived at Ezezz’s apartment I met one of her Italian roommates, Eleanora, who was so nice. She made us dinner, and later we met up with Ezezz’s friend Hannah from England for some drinks and pizza bread. I turned 21 in the restaurant and they sang me “Happy Birthday” in Italian.

Beautiful buildings in Padova

The next day Ezezz and I went over to Hannah’s flat, where she made me crepes for a birthday breakfast! I was so blown away by her generosity—I met her the night before and yet she was celebrating my birthday like we went way back. Crepes with all the fixings, and she even laid out candles in the shape of 21.

Ezezz and I then caught the train to Venice. We were so lucky that the sun was out and it was a beautiful day in February (which rarely happens in Wintertime in Northern Italy). The great weather made Venice all the more beautiful, and we wandered our way through tiny alleys and canals for hours. We had a picnic lunch on the waterfront—the whole time I couldn’t help thinking how memorable this birthday was.

On the Rialto Bridge over the Grand Canal in Venice

Where we ate our lunch

Yummy picnic

When we returned later that night to Padova, Ezezz’s roommates made us dinner, and a birthday cake!! We all sat around the table for hours speaking an odd mixture of Italian, English and Spanish, drinking wine and stuffing ourselves on one of the most delicious cakes I’ve ever had! It was definitely one of the best birthday ever, and far from the typical American 21^st. Although I met most people a day before, I truly felt surrounded by life-long friends.

My birthday cake!

The next day was spent sightseeing in Padova, and then later that night I took the fast-train to Rome. Somehow I managed to find a 10-euro ticket online for this train, even though the normal rates are upwards of 75, so I was skeptical the whole time and half of me was waiting to be thrown off the train when the conductor came around. However, everything went smoothly and I landed in Rome three hours later. While waiting for the bus to the city center I met three Spaniards studying abroad in Italy, and we had such a fun and lively conversation for the next half-hour. (Also it should be noted that they were drinking inside the bus—oh Spain, you never cease to impress me….) It was so cool to be traveling in Italy but still use my Spanish for directions and casual conversations with people. Although sometimes traveling and sightseeing tends to blend together after a while, the people I keep meeting during my trips (like these three students) make each  experience so memorable.

At midnight I met my high-school friend Dana and her two roommates (who are studying for the semester in Rome) in Campo de Fiori, as well as my sister Katie!! She was traveling in Germany and found a cheap flight to hop on down to Rome for a few days. We all shared an exciting reunion in the plaza, and then walked a few minutes to Dana’s gorgeous apartment in the heart of the city.

The next day we went all over the city site seeing. I’d already been to Rome 4 years ago, so I didn’t feel a frantic urge to pack all the history into 4 short days. So instead we took a leisurely route, saw a big park and the Pantheon and a church decorated with human bones (very cool!), and also ate the best gelato I’ve ever had. For dinner that night we went out to a really nice restaurant and splurged on an amazing Italian feast. That country really gets food right, that’s all I can say.

Katie and me

On Thursday Katie and I walked to Vatican City and the Coliseum. I was very intrigued the whole time by some of the worst street performers I’ve ever seen—Rome seems to have a plethora of sub-par mimes and gladiators. One Statue of Liberty mime was fanning himself with his book prop, a man dressed all in gold was turning side to side in a miserable attempt to stay still, and a gladiator had the nerve to talk on a cell phone while trying to solicit a paid photo!

Dana and me

Katie and I took a train to Naples on Friday, and for part of the ride I sat next to a woman with the most adorable puppy. It must have been less than 6 weeks old, and it was climbing all over me and licking me. Definitely worth the cost of the train tickets right there. When we arrived in Naples I felt like I was in a different country. It was swarming with black market products (someone offered me an iPhone 4 for 20 euros—I still sort of regret not buying it….) and people aren’t lying when they say it’s a dirty city. Nonetheless, it certainly had some life to it, and we wandered around the streets for hours looking for a perfect pizza in pizza’s homeland. It was good, although I do have to say that pizza in the U.S. is sort of unbeatable if you’re a thick-crust person. In Napoli I also tried a Sicilian Canoli—not too sure why everyone in the world doesn’t just adopt Italy’s cuisine. We took the train back that same day and went out in Rome on Friday night. I’m sort of worried that after Spain (which even among Europeans is known as the craziest country for night-life), everything might seem lame to me. When everyone wanted to go home at 2 I was supremely disappointed, and I can’t imagine how I’ll feel in I.V. next year when the cops come around turning off the music at midnight.

The puppy on the train--my heart's melting as I write this....

Mmmmmm Canoli

Katie left on Saturday morning, and for the remainder of the day the rest of us dedicated ourselves to an eating marathon, since I knew I would soon be returning to the land of ham and more ham. They brought me to a pizza place that did not disappoint—truly some of the best pizza I’ve ever had (which sort of negated the purpose for going to Naples….oh well….). I’m shocked that Italians aren’t as obese as Americans—slices of pizza aren’t too common, and instead everyone is served their own individual pizza. Obviously we each finished ours, with room to spare for some delicious gelato later.

I felt like I was living the "Eat" part of "Eat, Pray, Love"

My flight back to Madrid was also great, owed to the fact that I sat next to a wonderful gay couple that taught me all about the difference between the three Mafias in Italy. We chatted the whole way—and not just about the Mafia—once again with a mixture of three languages. When I made it back to Madrid I was forced to book a last-minute hostel, because the late bus going back to Granada was full. It turns out my hostel-mate was a guy from Rome—small world!

My trip to Italy was one of my favorite trips this year, mostly because it was so much fun to meet up with so many people from home. I’ve started to feel a bit jaded from traveling, because as I’ve mentioned before, a lot of places start to look and feel the same (#firstworldproblems). But what truly set Italy apart, besides the mouthwatering food, was the amazing hospitality of Ezezz, Dana and her roommates, and seeing my sister after 6 months. And every interaction I had with strangers or near-strangers added immensely to my amazing memories. Italy was the first country I’ve re-visited from my Europe trip years ago, and I can’t help but feel that two or three or one hundred trips to that gorgeous and gastronomical heaven will never suffice.