Jack takes Europe: Day One

I know I've said it eight thousand times, but it is SO great to have my dad in Granada! We've had so much fun so far and I know the rest of the trip is going to be just as awesome.

Yesterday, I met my dad at the hotel after I got done with class. I was SO excited to see him (I don't think a class has ever lasted so long in my life-- I couldn't wait to be done reading about Latin American romanticism and to get to see my dad)! So we hung out at the hotel for awhile, then headed out to get some lunch. After lunch, we went to Café Fútbol for some churros con chocolate (yummm!) and then got my dad a Cuban cigar at the cigar shop in Puerta Real. Then we came back to the hotel for a nap and to get ready for the night. The hotel is awesome and has the coolest shower I've ever seen in my life. I decided that I needed to take a forty-five minute shower to take advantage of the fact that there was water pressure, more than one temperature setting, and no time limit! It was the best shower of my life... especially after five weeks of garden hose-esque showers!

After siesta, we went over to my piso for dinner with Rosario and the kids. It was so much fun and a really interesting dynamic because of the language barrier. We had some great pasta and salad for dinner, and Rosario made flan for dessert. Spainards love to entertain and are always very concerned about their guests being happy, so she insisted on using an entire can of whipped cream on the flan... we got a big kick out of that. My dad brought Rosario and the kids gifts and they were obsessed with them-- it was really cute! Rosario loves the beach (talks about it all the time) so my dad brought her a thing of sand and seashells from Miami. Maria got Hannah Montana pens, and Carlos got a little American Airlines airplane that makes the take-off and landing noises. Carlos loves planes and wants to be a pilot when he grows up, so he was absolutely ecstatic. He spent the whole night flying the plane around the apartment and telling my dad how cool it was. So cute!

After dinner, we went to BADos (our favorite tapas place) for some tinto de verano. Alé, our favorite bartender (the one who let me bartend one night when I told him I work in a bar) gave us our drinks for free because he said it was a special day because my dad was visiting-- sometimes the people here are so nice! After that, we took my dad to Dolce Vita, which is one of our chuipterias (shot bars). We had an oatmeal cookie shot and a gingerbread shot, which were both delicious, and we taught him the "arriba, abajo, al centro, al dentro" toast ("up, down, in the middle, to the mouth") My dad got to meet a lot of my friends, which was great!

Today, I had class and came back with torta de chocolate for us. My dad wants everyone to know that it's even better than he imagined. It's just so good! Now we're going to head out for some lunch and a walk by the river!

My dad's hereeee!

Tinto de verano at BADos

Carlos and the plane my dad brought him

All of us at dinner (in the dining room of the piso)

Okay, so I had a post earlier and somehow it got deleted.... hmmm....

So here are a few pictures from my dad's visit so far and I promise a very detailed blog entry will be coming tomorrow. It's SO great to have my dad here!

Dad's on his way!!!

I CANNOT believe that my dad's on his way to Granada right now!! This is SO exciting! I absolutely cannot wait to see him!

I've been telling Rosario and the kids that he's coming and they're very excited, too. Rosario told me that she can tell how excited I am and made us cheeseburgers for dinner to celebrate. Normally when we have cheeseburgers, we don't have buns (Spanish cheeseburgers don't have them), but today she went to a special store to get hamburger buns to make the meal more American. My favorite was Carlos' reaction "SON EXACTAMENTE COMO LAS DE BURGER KING" ("they're exactly like the ones at Burger King"). I asked Rosario if it would be ok if my dad came over to meet the family and see the piso, and she got more excited than I've seen her the whole time I've been here. She immediately asked me what he likes to eat and drink because she wants to cook us dinner. I'm so excited that my dad will get to see all of this and try some of Rosario's cooking.

Care Package #2!

Today was a pretty ordinary Monday-- had my two classes, went to the gym, and came home for dinner and homework. The best part of the day, however, was getting my second care package from home! My parents sent me makeup, magazines, and maps of Rome and London, plus Nature Valley peanut butter granola bars and pretzels-- both of which I've been missing! Isn't it kind of strange that pretzels don't exist in Spain? We tried to explain them to Julia the other day in Grammar and she looked at us like we were crazy. She then proceeded to ask us if they were terrible for our health like everything else that we eat. I think the only reason I don't like Julia is because of how mean she is about food. She apparently only eats fruits and vegetables and tells us how fat Americans are and how we shouldn't eat any sweets and how one time she tried a little peanut butter and she had a stomachache for the rest of the day because it was so fattening. Um, ok? (I should also add that after one particularly preachy class, six of the eight of us went to get tortas de chocolate in protest. It was the best torta de chocolate I've ever had) I should also put the disclaimer on this rant that people discussing other people's eating habits is a total pet peeve of mine. Eat what you want, but don't criticize what anyone else chooses to eat. It's none of your business and it shouldn't really matter to you. And if it does, keep it to yourself. (Ok, rant over! I promise that's the meanest I'll be on the blog :-))

This time tomorrow, my dad will be on his way to Granada! I CANNOT wait for him to get here!!

Feliz Día de San Valentín

Sunset over the river

The river before sunset... This is the highest the water's been in years

Me, Alli, Kristin, Breezy, and Sarah 

It's been an awesome weekend! The weather this weekend could seriously not have been more perfect (mid-60s and sunny every day)... absolutely gorgeous! We planned some great stuff and I had such a good time! On Friday after I posted, Alli and Breezy and I went on a little tapas crawl. We decided to kind of wander around our neighborhood and look for some new places. We stumbled upon some good ones and had a ton of fun. 

Yesterday was Valentine's Day, which we all knew was going to be a pretty homesick kind of day. Even though it's not that big of a deal (oh man if I had been gone for Thanksgiving or Christmas I would have had to have been slipped a sedative to get through the day), it's still just kind of hard to be away from home on a day like that. So, we decided to plan a fun day and try to make the absolute best of it. Breezy, Alli and I went shopping in the morning and then went home for lunch and siesta. We met up after siesta with Kristin and Sarah and the five of us went down by the river (a really really pretty part of down that we don't get to very often) to sit and watch the sunset and take pictures and just hang out. We stopped at the Mercadona (grocery store!!) next to the river and picked up some snacks and drinks and had an awesome time just chilling out and enjoying the city. After the sun went down and we all got pretty hungry, we went to Telepizza (Spain's fast food pizza that is SO GOOD!) and got some dinner. We then all went home to get ready for the night.

While I was getting ready (sans light bulb-- my light bulb burned out on Thursday night and I just now got a replacement. No pasa nada?), I found out that the Valentine's Day gift I sent to Matt had been opened and emptied. I had sent him a Real Madrid soccer jersey and some chocolate and he got an empty box in the mail. What a bummer! I guess it's a lesson learned about shipping stuff. After finishing getting ready, I headed out for the night with Breezy and Alli-- we met up with some other girls on our program and had a great night out. 

Today, I got up around 10:30, walked around (bought my lightbulb haha), and went to mass at the Cathedral. I ended up running into Christy, Michelle, and Jill there which was fun. Mass was really cool and really intense. There were fifteen altar servers (all male and ranged in age from probably 6-20), two deacons, and three priests. It was a really cool mass and I'm really glad I went. Afterwards, I walked home with Jill in the gorgeous weather, made it in time for lunch, then crashed and took a long nap. After I woke up, I headed out to get myself a donut at Dunkin' Coffee (why not, right?) and then came home and got to skype with my mom and dad plus Mar Mar and my aunts Susie and Jenny. It was SO great to get to see them! And we're at T-minus three days until my dad's visit! I am SO excited I can't even begin to explain. It's going to be so great to see him and to have a taste of home and to get to show him all the places I've discovered here.

We just finished dinner and I think the rest of the night is going to include an essay on Don Quijote and finishing up The Holiday. I bought it on iTunes this morning and am loving it. We watched it a lot freshman year in Beth and Carolyn's room, so it's got good memories attached to it. iTunes is so awesome for studying abroad-- I've been able to keep up with my three favorite shows: The Bachelor, The Office, and Jon and Kate plus 8. Gotta love it!

Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day! 

65 and sunny :-)

GORGEOUS day in Granada... those are the Sierra Nevada mountains in the background

We are finally getting that great weather that they promised us! After literally a month of cold and rainy days (every day), the past two days have been in the 60s and BRIGHT sunshine! It's been so great! Today, I slept in, lounged around, and then went on a walk around the city (sans coat!), shopped, and explored. It was one of those days where I had to take a step back and realize how cool it is to be here. 

In other news... MY DAD COMES ON WEDNESDAY! I'm SO SO SO excited to see him and to be able to show him around Granada (and we're going to go to Rome, which is a city I've always wanted to see). It should be an AWESOME week! I just can't even put into words how excited I am. I love my dad!

I went out last night with Breezy, Alli, Kristin, and Sarah and had an AWESOME time! We're gonna go out again tonight and then we're all going to get Telepizza (Spain's fast food pizza) tomorrow for Valentine's Day. It should be a great weekend!

My First VLOG!

Okay, so I decided to have a little fun today and make a video blog for today's entry. Hope everyone likes it!!