Triumph
The lyric “Everybody’s looking for the weekend” was basically the summary to the end of my week.
On Saturday, my roommate, two other friends and I took an early, forty five minute bus to the Sierra Nevada mountains while most of the others went to the beach or Madrid. Not to be biased, but I think I had the best day. Arriving at what is a ski lodge in the winter was crisp air and a beautiful landscape going on in every direction. As my roommate said: “This is like those places people take pictures of to put as wallpaper on your computer.” We spent the day climbing mountains, walking around, and napping on the steps of a planetarium that we hiked to, where in the distance we could see a natural spring and a waterfall along with a family of mountain goats. The most incredible part of the day was hiking up to the part of the mountain that still had snow on it and throwing a snowball off the mountain, while in shorts and tank tops. It was a peaceful day that I didn’t want to end, even though I had to use the bathroom in a creepy bar/hotel that looked like the one in The Shining. Time slows up in the mountains and I found myself being zapped of any worries, complaints, or much sense of time. It was a great way to spend a Saturday by relaxing and hiking, followed by a night of laughing hysterically at Los Italianos, a famous ice cream place in Granada. My friend and I really wanted a Neopolitan looking ice cream but had no idea what it was called on the menu so after many difficult attempts to say “three flavors in one”, we finally pointed at a man’s cone and said “We want two of those!” Language barriers aren’t fun, especially when it holds up my consumption of ice cream.
Today, we took an excursion to Cordoba, which contains the third largest mosque in the world. I was expecting it to be very bright inside and contain the typical Arab architecture of symmetric shapes, and bright reds, blues, and golds. Instead, it was quite dark and the columns weren’t very symmetrical because some were re-used from Roman ruins and the mosque kept getting added on to. As I was looking around, I saw many Catholic relics and portraits of Jesus, since the Catholics took over the city hundreds of years ago. We got to a huge (and rather gaudy) part of the “mosque” that was all Renaissance architecture, built to honor Mary, Jesus, and San Rafael, the patron saint of the city. It was a stark contrast to the mosaic and red and white columned areas of the mosque. I wish I could have enjoyed the trip more but it was a suffocating 105 degrees and I was enjoying the cooler air in the mosque than the tour (sorry!)
I’ve been watching a lot of TV during meals and listening to the radio on bus trips, and I’m rather surprised at how much American culture has been integrated into Spain. Almost every movie I see is an American movie dubbed in Spanish and all the radio stations and discotecas play American music. In a way, it is comforting because it makes me feel a little closer to home but it’s also a little disappointing when you want to be fully engulfed into a culture but everyone is wearing The Ramones t-shirts , listening to Imagine Dragons or Pitbull (he really is Mr. International), holding up traffic by Instagram-ing, and a Queen cover band is being advertised through-out the city. At least I haven’t seen a Starbucks anywhere.
I got a unique opportunity the other night to watch the World Cup when Spain was playing in Spain with my host mom. At first, I wasn’t sure if she was really the type to get into sports so I was trying to think how to politely ask her to change the channel to the soccer game, but ten minutes before the game she emerges from her room holding a Spanish flag and turns off the game. I spent an entertaining (though disappointing) hour and a half watching Spain get their butts kicked and my host mom yelling at the TV and hearing people at the bar below our apartment shouting.
This upcoming week will be the most important event of our trip here: the Corpus Christi festivities. The city is already decked out in lights like we use at Christmas time in city streets and there are more street performers and tourists coming into the city. I’m excited to see how the people of Granada treat such an important Catholic festival that commemorates the body of Christ in holy water. Granada actually hosts the most spectacular procession and events in Andalucia, as I’ve been told. I’ll be partaking in the religious/not so religious festivities surrounding the festival (hooray for no school during the festival!), as well as going to Malaga’s beach and the Pablo Picasso museum and taking a flamenco dance class this week. Here’s to another week that I didn’t want to be over and another exciting, sleepless week to come!
