Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying : February 2016

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Granada

So to finish out my winter break I went to Granada with another Fulbrighter (Teresa) and a mutual friend we have who has lived in Madrid his whole life (Alvaro). We were there for 4 days and most just explored and walked around/did all of those touristy things. Also, quick shout out to Teresa and Alvaro for finding our Airbnb! We had rooftop access and had an amazing view of La Alhambra from said rooftop. Well done you two. I must say that the trip wasn't the most exciting trip in the world but it was really nice to spend time with Teresa and Alvaro and get to know them a little bit more. Also! We did run into another Fulbrighter (Danny) while we were exploring and we had dinner with him one night. Of course we went to La Alhambra, a palace from back when Spain was under Islamic rule. It is incredibly beautiful and the architecture was incredibly detailed. As you can imagine, many of the same themes seen in my Morocco trip reappeared here in la Alhambra. However what hurt the authentic feel for me was seeing all of the maintenance crews working while we walked around. Additionally, we were not allowed to enter certain parts of la Alhambra as they were fenced off.

Actually Granada really is a more controlled and Spanish version of Marrakesh. You see many of the same things like tea shops, the way some of the markets are organized, and even some of the food served, but the feel is totally different. Marrakesh felt authentic and the chaos was organic and I absolutely loved that aspect of the city. Granada is clearly a watered-down version of this and doesn't have the same feel, even though on paper it has a large Moroccan and Islamic influence. For example, there are maintenance trucks and fenced off areas in la Alhambra. Right there the visit has already become more controlled and restricted. For these reasons I think I was less enamored by the city and tourist attractions than my friends, but I should make clear that it is a beautiful city and is 100% worth the trip. Also I was exhausted from my trip to London and Paris and I just wanted to lay down. So that may also have played a part in my lack of undying love for the city.

As we left the city we were all pretty exhausted and ready to just sit and relax in our own homes. PLUS we were extremely cited to try this tea we bought in a tea shop in Granada. The tea was called Mil Flores and was 2-Die-4. There was this little tea shop right outside our Airbnb where you could buy a pastry and a little shop of tea for 1.50. We went there every chance we had, not because the pastries were amazing, but because we wanted the tea. I think they put crack in it....
Actually this trip to Granada and my trip to Morocco have inspired me to drink more tea and less coffee. At Oxy I drank a lot of coffee and when I would drink too much coffee (i.e. during Finals studying or just trying to survive in Raney's Biochemistry of Energy and Exercise class) I would gulp down an energy drink that contained 400 mg of caffeine ON TOP of whatever coffee I had that day. For those of you who don't know, that's a lot of caffeine and probably way too much caffeine. Even in Spain I drink a decent amount of coffee, about 1-2 espresso shots a day which is about 200-400 mg of caffeine a day. So I am trying to cut back and drink more tea.

The rest of my winter break was spent in my bed watching Netflix or going to the gym. Needless to say I was exhausted and I needed to rest up to prepare for the event that is Global Classrooms. After our winter break we only had 1 week before the real conferences took place and my students still needed more preparation. The life of a Fulbrighter am I right?

Until next time!

Teresa and Me doing weird things

All three of us with la Alhambra in the background

London and Paris

The past few winters my family and I have taken a vacation to a brand new city. This year my parents wanted to take advantage of the fact that I am living in Europe. So we all spent 5 days in London and 5 days in Paris to celebrate the holidays!

In London we were kind of on a time crunch because ALL museums are closed between the 24-26th. Since we were only there from the 22nd to the morning of the 27th, we only had a couple of days to see the museums that we wanted to see. We essentially did all of the touristy things in both cities. So here are a few pictures, but essentially what we did in London included: The Tower of London, Winston Church, Chelsea FC's stadium, Arsenal's football stadium, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Abbey Road, Tower Bridge, and A LOT OF WALKING. In Paris we did more touristy things, but a lot more crepe eating which was a huge plus. Of course we saw the Eiffel Tower (we did not go up the tower because the wait was about 4 hours. We ate crepes instead. Great decision.), we saw the Palace of Versailles (which my gosh took about 3 hours to get into because of the massive lines), we entered the Louvre (possibly the most overrated museum in the world, but I did feel awful for the other paintings in the room with the Mona Lisa. They get no love!), and we saw the Church of Notre Dame. Overall a fantastic trip! If I had to choose between the cities I would choose to live in Paris but be a tourist in London. Why? Glad you asked. Paris is a beautiful city and in my opinion is a city you where you can just sit in a cafe or walk around and people watch. I didn't get the same feel in London, but the museums are much more diverse in London. If you don't enjoy art/architecture museums crammed into a vacation (like moi) then Paris isn't the place to go for a short family trip. Go to London because you have a huge selection of museums ranging from art to architecture to 20th century history.

Next on my list is Granada! Not to be confused with Grenada which is an island in the Caribbean. (Shout out to Morgan Carnes for making sure I knew the difference.)