Here We Go Again!

Hola everyone! The blog is once again up and running because I have finally returned to my favorite foreign country, Espan~a! I am once again in Granada, still taking classes through the University of Granada's Center of Modern Languages, but this time at the post-grad level. Next semester I will start classes at the university's Facultad de Traduccion (Translation School) with real, live Spanish kids. There's no use worrying about that now tho, because I haven't even started this semester's classes yet. "So," you ask, "why are you in Spain now if your classes don't start until October?" Well darlings, I'm working here too! I'm a sort of on-site coordinator for GRIIS, which is the program that I studied with 2 years ago. The kids got here on September 3rd to start their intensive course, so I came on August 31st to get a bit of a head start.

And it's a good thing I did because our apartment needed ALOT of work. "Wait", you say, "Our apartment?" Yes, our! Being the persuasive little thing that I am, I convinced my good friend Ben that he would like to spend a year in Spain too. He has come to take a TEFL course and (hopefully!!!) get a job as an english teacher, or anything else that earns money. We live in an apartment with 2 Spanish art students, Livia and Rafa, although we have yet to meet the later. Their classes don't start til October either so we're kind of in limbo this month.

So as stated this is not the best apartment in the city...or in the building...or on the floor, but the point is that it's mine and I have 10 months to make it better. Let's take a tour, shall we?

Here I am, sitting on my bed, writing to you guys :)

This is my bedroom! It's the first door on the left when you walk into the hall. It has marble floors and lace curtains and, unlike Ben, I can open my window because it looks out onto a courtyard. (Ben's looks out onto the washing machine)

This is possibly my favorite part of the room: the shoe drawer. Only half my shoes fit in it, the rest are lined up under the bed

 

This is my "vanity", dresser, whatever you prefer. I happen to think it's genius, but I kind of stole the necklace idea from my momma

 

This is my desk, where in theory work will be done. This is the cleanest it will ever be, and that's a promise.

 

The next door down from mine is the kitchen. It looks really skinny in the picture but that's because it actually is that skinny. I figure that's ok though because since I can't cook to speak of, I won't be in there very much.

This is my and Ben's food cupboard. It's a little empty, but I have promised to go grocery shopping tomorrow...or the next day...

This is a Spanish coffee maker! Ours happens to look like a cow. You put the water in the bottom and the coffee in that white middle part and then just let it do it's thing!



Through the kitchen is the patio. Again, it looks tiny and sad in the picture because it pretty much is. Keep in mind that we have not decorated at all yet. That window behind the chair is Ben's.

This is not one of those awesome, sunny patios like hotels have. We have a lovely view of our neighbors, their clotheslines, and the sky if you're willing to lean out a little bit. (We have a rule against it though cuz the railing barely comes up past my knee)

On this patio we have an olde tyme washboard sink, a washing machine, and a fridge. I have yet to use the washing machine cuz I'm afraid it'll be broken like everything else. The fridge is the one appliance that has not caused problems so far.

I wish I could say the same about this little beast. This thing is called a "calentador", which apparently means a water heater. That would be all well and good except that IT DOESN'T HEAT WATER.

The next door down from the kitchen is the full bathroom. The window there opens onto the back of the refrigerator, y'know just in case you need some cheese or something for your shower. The shower, btw, is just to the left.

...and it has an alligator mat! Gracias a Livia

Next door down is the little bathroom. I'm pretty sure it'd fit in well on an airplane.

Around the corner at the end of the hall are the other 3 bedrooms: Ben's on the left, Rafa's straight ahead, and Livia's on the right. "Why is Livia's so much brighter than the rest?" Good question amigo, it's cuz she has not only the largest room, but also the only one with a private patio. Figure that one out...

If you were to turn back ahead, you would find the living room. We've got 2 couches, a table, chairs, tv, and wireless router that doesn't get wireless. See what I mean about broken things?

This used to be a brown leather couch, but it's more comfy with my Thai throw over it. Look familiar? Gracias to Aunt Lisa for that one

 

Well there you have the setting for my glorious life. We are hoping for internet by the end of the week (but that's what they said last week too, so we'll see) and I'm stealing my showers from some British/American friends who live up in the Albaicin for now. I'm also stealing their wireless to post here, to communicate, to answer emails, and to try to fix my blackberry (which also doesn't work). So until the next time I find free wireless, stay well and enjoy your american showers!

 

Hasta la wifi!

 

Amstie!

Amstie is my pet name for the city of Amsterdam! I paid it a little visit with Katilyn over the last weekend of April. This series of pictures seems like a good lead in, just to reinforce where we are:

That little thing there is Kaitlyn

Sadly that is not me climbing the S

There I am!

Captain Morgan pose!

Casually reclining

The first thing that I wish someone had told me about Amsterdam is that there are more bikes than people. Literally, more. It was there that I developed a deep and profound hatred for bicicles and their riders because I can't count the number of times that I was almost killed by those ugly little machines. They're like an army:

Apparently we picked the wrong (or right) weekend to go because, as we found out after we booked the trip, Saturday April 30th is a huge Dutch celebration called "Queen's Day". It's the birthday of their favorite Queen who died a couple decades ago. They like her so much that, no matter when the actual Queen's birthday is, they say it's on April 30th and throw a nation-wide party then. The Queen was in The Hague but the party went on in Amsterdam without her. The only downside was that with so many people wanting to be in the same place at the same time, there was a shortage of hotel rooms and hostal beds. We were looking at hostal beds at upwards of 100EUR/night until SuperMom (that is @Toni Greenlee) stepped in and lent us her holiday inn points to get a free room on friday night. We booked the mystery hotel room for Saturday night. The deal is that they don't tell you the name when you book it, but it's much cheaper than the rest. It turns out that we had booked the Hilton Amsterdam. If you think we're lucky now, wait til we get to the hotel. When we checked in at the Hilton, they told us that they were all full so the only room they had left for us was the Queen suite on the executive floor. That is luck. And here is where we stayed:

Me in Kaitlyn's bed at the Crowne Plaza

Before we got at the beds

Bathroom, the only picture I have of the Hilton

So after we were done revelling in our awesome beds, we hit the streets. I have a bunch of pictures to show you what these streets actually looked like:

This is the entrance to a surprise mall

Some kind of government building

typical street

Some of the streets in Amsterdam are actually canals. They're beautiful, unlike any other city I've been in. We were sure to get a bunch of pictures.

Me + Canal

One of the main canals

Kaitlyn + Canal

Kaitlyn: "put your arm around me so we look nice"

Me: "ew, I have to touch you? What if I don't want to touch you?"

I finally touched her

On friday we did the flower market and the Van Gogh museum. Technically we were not supposed to take pictures inside the museum, but Kaitlyn is a sneaky little thing and got us some pics anyway.

They're famous for Tulips, but these are actually Daffodils

This is what the museum looks like inside. It's a very modern building. The downstairs with the blue carpet is a bar/cocktail area and the 3 upper floors are museum.

Last legal picure inside

sneaky self portrait

Cherry blossoms

something about dots that is apparently very famous....



On Saturday we went out to experience the party. It looked very impressive but in all honesty, it wasn't crazy. Europeans keep telling me that they're smarter than we are because they know how to properly use alcohol because there aren't strong taboos about it in the European culture. I now believe them. We only saw two really drunk kids and no ambulances so I'd say that, as crowded as it looks, it was a success. See for yourself!

Our first stop was authentic Dutch Heineken!

Kaitlyn got one too!

The main plaza

That's the current Queen. Her face is draped on the side of a museum.

Party on the canal!

Bigger party, still on the canal!!

Centraal Station

Another cool thing they do on Queen's day is that they host a city-wide garage sale. Anyone can set up a table outside their building and sell stuff. It was really cool. Here, check it out!

On a much heavier note, we went to the Anne Frank house Saturday night. It was tough, buy definitely necessary. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside and we respect Annie more than Vinnie so we actually complied this time. We still got what we could though:

The lobby and the ticket booth

The door. Not the one that we go through, but the one that she used.

Right before we got to Anne's house, we played a little hide and seek in an alley. I realize how that sounds, but it was a beautiful alley:

Where am I?

Where is Kaitlyn?

There she is!!!!!

And now for some randomness:

They set up a carnival during the day!

Best sign I saw in the city

These funny-looking things are urinals. This is the Dutch idea of a public bathroom. Obviously, there are no laws about indecent exposure. Ew.



So with that lovely impression, I leave you. Several other cities are on the way, but hopefully I will give more attention to studying for my finals than to updating the blog. No promises though....did you ever notice how having alot of work makes you actively seek out other things to do? This qualifies as "other things".

Hasta pronto!!