Granada Will Forever Hold a Piece of My Heart
Well, it is official. I am all packed up to leave Granada tomorrow night. In about 24 1/2 hours I will be getting in a cab to go to the bus station where my last adventure of the semester begins. My plans for the next week are as follows:
Thursday: Get on a bus at 2 am to go to Madrid. Fly out of Madrid at 11:30 to go to Berlin. Once I am in Berlin I will find my way to the hostel and be reunited with my best friend!
We will be in Berlin for about three days when we will take a 10 1/2 hour night bus to Amsterdam. We will be in Amsterdam for another three days, and we are hoping to take a day trip to Bruges if the train tickets are not too expensive. On May 31 at night I fly from Amsterdam to Madrid where I will hangout / sleep in the airport all night until my flight home to Chicago at 11:55!!!!!
All day today I wasn’t exactly sure of how or when I was going to return home because my flights got all messed up. Iberia was bought out by some company and they are trying to convert it into a low cost airline and use the same pilots or something and so they are striking every Friday and Monday until July. Hence why just about everyone in my program had problems with their flights home since the majority of us fly out on a Friday.
If everything goes as planned, I should be back in the U.S at about 2:15 on Friday, June 1.
I can’t believe I leave Granada tomorrow. I have been a wreck all day long. I randomly cried on my way to school because that is when it hit me that I was really leaving. Then about halfway through because I just wanted to know how/when I was going to get home. Then packing my bags and after everything was packed. The past four and a half months have gone by so fast. I don’t know how it is possible to have experienced this much in such a short amount of time. As hard as I try, I will never be able to put into words how amazing this semester has been and how much it has changed me and my view of the world. I have experienced wonderful things this semester, and I have made mistakes that I am not proud of. Would I change any of it? No. Everything, the good and the bad has taught me something about myself and made me stronger than I was before coming to Spain. I have not loved every moment of it, that is for sure, but I definitely love Granada.
Things I will miss about Granda:
1. Tapas
2. The laid back lifestyle.
3. The nightlife.
4. Seeing the Alhambra all of the time.
5. Being able to travel around Europe whenever I feel like it and have a break from school.
6. School is a joke here.
7. Paella, Tortilla Espanola, y Tinto de Verano.
8. The people.
9. The sun/my tan.
10. Lorca Park - it is the most beautiful place to run/study/just have a lazy afternoon.
11. All of the shopping.
12. How Granada has a city feel and a small town feel at the same time.
13. Every building looks different.
14. All of the fountains.
15. My program director and Fonetica/tutorita/Granada seminar profesor - Veronica and Jose.
16. Camborio
17. Free cover/ free drinks
Things I Will Not Miss:
1. Constantly inhaling cigarette smoke/ having it blown in my face mid-run
2. Having to eat until I am about to explode at every meal.
3. The motos and fearing for my life whenever I cross the street.
4. The 20 minute walk to school.
5. Carmen. This is a tricky one. There have been times she has been super funny, but more often than not, we don’t get along. I may miss her occasionally.
6. The allergies I seem to have acquired here.
7. The time difference. Cannot wait to be in the same time zone as my friends and family again.
Things I am excited for about home:
1. Seeing my friends and family finally!
2. American food - BWW get in my belly!
3. Driving Sally again ( for those of you who don’t know, my car is named Sally the Saturn)
4. My favorite cookies.
5. My job. I cannot wait for camp to start. I love it.
6. Normal Showers.
7. Eating the amount of food I want to eat and not feel like I am about to explode.
8. Cooking.
9. Access to my full wardrobe and nail polish collection.
10. Access to a gym.
11. Being able to hang out at someones house and not having to spend money.
12. English tv and movies- this will be weird to readjust to speaking English all of the time.
Well, these are just a few thoughts to wrap up my last night here before I go to bed. I am sure tomorrow I will be even more of a wreck with saying goodbye to people and what not. BUT I will be reunited with Nina to travel Europe with her for a week before coming home. I would say that is pretty darn lucky. Until next time, It’s been great Granada. You will always hold a piece of my heart and I WILL be back one day.
*The link I just posted the other day I feel pretty much sums up what I have been feeling the past few days.
74 hours….
It is almost like my brain likes to torture me. I just looked at the clock to see what time it is (12:18 at night) and instantly thought that I have 74 hours left in Granada. I remember when I still had 74 DAYS left here. I spent all day today studying for finals that start tomorrow. I probably should of been studying last week, but I was too busy enjoy Granada night life before I no longer can. Plus, my grades don’t transfer, all that matters is that I pass all my classes so I get credit for doing them. I am getting really excited to meet up with Nina in Berlin and spend the last week here traveling. I feel like these last three days are going to go by faster than I want them to, I already have them all planned out basically.
Tomorrow- (Monday)
I have a final at 11:30, and then nothing the rest of the day. I will have to study for my Grammar final and put together a presentation for Tuesday, but that won’t take too long. I will probably end up hiking back up to the Abby in Sacramonte to take pictures, or actually go in the Cathedral in Granada since I haven’t done that yet.
Tuesday-
Final presentation at 1 for my internship. Tapas with my friend Nikki, then another final at 6:30. Study a little at some point for Civ/ Culture. Pack on tuesday night- or go out.
Wednesday- Last day
Wake up, go to Lorca’s house in the park since it is free on wednesday mornings…how have I gone all semester without going? Probably lay in the park one last time, or go for a run. Whatever I don’t end up getting to do on Monday, I will do wednesday afternoon, and that includes getting coffee with my friend Helene to say goodbye. I will have Paella one last time, and eat dinner at home. Then go to my favorite bar, Reventaero, for one last drink and tapa before I get on the bus to Madrid at 2 am.
The first few goodbyes I have already done caught me off guard. They were people I wasn’t super close to here, but everyone here has had an impact on my life, big and small. It was so sad to say goodbye to them, and I can’t even imagine what it is going to be live to walk out of this apartment building one last time. I cry sometimes when it is time to move out of Monmouth at the end of the year, let alone Granada.
Source: thetimeistudiedabroad
Carmen bought Alissa and I these little ceramic dishes that have the Alhambra painted on them. She said it was so we would always remember her and our time in Granada. We haven’t always gotten along, but the past few weeks have been really good, and I can honestly say I am going to miss her a little bit when I go home.
Corrida de Toros - Pt. 2
The bull fight that we went to was actually a fundraiser for the The Association of Down Sydrome in Spain, so before it started all of these little kids with Down Syndrome walked around the ring dressed in little flamenco dresses and torero outfits.
Enrique Ponce:
Enrique was the first torero and he is very well known in Spain and has a very classic bull fighting style. It was beautiful to watch him with the bull, but at the same time, I winced every time the bull was stabbed with one thing or another. I realize the bulls are pretty much raised for this and bull fighting has a very deep history, but it is really just hard to wrap my head around stabbing and killing it for sport. Overall it is very impressive how much control the toreros have over the bulls. With almost all of them, then bulls just stand there and stare at the torero until it is provoked. When it was time to kill the bull, I was extremely nervous. I had no clue what to expect. I have never watched anything die ever, and I cried once when I accidentally ran over an animal on the road that was already dead. It took Enrique two tries to stab the bull, and when he did, the bull did not go down very gracefully. It was throwing up blood, and once it went down it was twitching and it was absolutely terrible to watch. I was surrounded by Spaniards who were going crazy for the torero and here I was crying because I just watched this bull die in a terrible way. I really wanted to leave after the first one, but our professor for Granada Seminar told us to stay at least through the second one and just not watch when they killed the bull. He wanted us to see the difference in styles. I ended up staying and am actually glad that I stayed.
Manuel Díaz – El Cordobes :
The second torero played into the crowds reactions a lot more and had a more fun style of bull fighting. He was jumping around and getting down on one knee when doing los pasos and it he was fun to watch. It took him three tries to kill the bull, but once he did kill it, it went down very quickly and easily. After seeing the second one die more quickly and not suffer as much I decided to stay for the whole thing. It is after all something that is very much a cultural thing.
El Fandi:
El Fandi was probably my favorite torero to watch. Instead of having bandilleros, he stuck his own banderillas in the bull. Then, instead of running away and jumping the fence, he faced the bull, ran backwards around the entire plaza, and ended up calming the bull down using just his hand.
The fourth and fifth toreros I didn’t really pay that much attention to. Everything was starting to get repetitive and I was talking to the people next to me. When Nico, the novice, came out however everyone started paying attention again. He knelt on the ground right in front of where the bulls run out into the plaza. Usually the bulls come charging out and are very disoriented, but this one came sauntering out, saw Nico on the ground and charged at him immediately. I was terrified for his life and I am pretty sure we all thought the bull got him and he would be taken out on a stretcher or something. By some miracle of God, he was able to get up and had not been gored by the bull at all. While Nico regained his composure to continue with the bull fight, the others were working to get the bull back under control. This bull was by far the most aggressive out of all of them. When it came time to kill the bull, it was a very difficult task. The bull ended up getting stabbed numerous times and eventually, they just had to keep stabbing it until they were able to break its spinal cord. It was torturous watching them try to kill this last bull, and I was definitely very happy when it was over.
The bullfight was an incredibly cultural experience, and I am glad I went. However, I am not sure if I would go to another one.
I just have a minor love affair with the Alhambra. I will never get tired of looking at it. Whether it is from the patio of Camborio, Mirador de San Nicolas, or just walking around by Plaza Nueva and Paseo de los Tristes, every time I see it I just have to stop and take it all it. It is still beautiful every single time.
Can’t understand anything he is saying? Yup. Story of my life the past 5 months if anyone lets their full on accent happen.
Two Weeks left in Granada
I have never, I repeat NEVER felt so conflicted in my entire life. I have come to love the life I have here in Granada, I feel like things are finally falling in to place when I have so little time left. I keep telling myself I am incredibly excited to go home, which I am. I miss my family and friends to death. There is also part of me that is ready to be back into a routine and be back into what is familiar. At the same time, I feel like my time here is really just starting. Things with Carmen, my host mom, are finally getting really good. We are having funny conversations at dinner, I am cooking next week, we are starting to have meals where she doesn’t turn the tv on. I keep telling myself that leaving Granada isn’t going to be that sad because I will be going back to what I know, and the people I love and miss. I keep telling myself it is going to be okay because I will make it back here at some point in my life.
I had my last cultural meeting with Veronica, my director, yesterday. She pointed out that she knows all of us have a desire to return to Granada eventually. She also pointed out that when we come back, Granada will not be the same as it is in this moment. Just as going home will not be anything like it was when we left. Home has changed, we have changed, Granada has changed. I cannot even begin to put into words how being here has changed me, I just know it has. Veronica gave us a sheet of questions to help close our experience in Granada and to help prepare us to return home. I know it is coming soon. 14 days and I leave Granada, 23 days and I will be back in Batavia. There is still so much left to do and see though, and although this is not a long time, it seems like it is too far away to start coming to terms with the fact that I am leaving Granada, but I know before I know it, it will be time to pack up my bags and move on with my life.
I wouldn’t have actually admitted it to anyone before I left for Granada, but I was absolutely terrified to leave everything and everyone I knew to come to a country where they don’t even speak English. I was suddenly wondering what I had gotten myself into, and would it really be that terrible to back out at the last minute. I know things have changed at home, not only the people and situations, but things I have been a part of. A lot of things have happened while I was gone. Now that I actually sit down and think about it, I am kind of scared to go back home. Will it still feel like my home? How will I even begin to tell people about the things I have seen and experienced this semester? I still have one more week of class, then finals, and an amazing trip with Nina before coming home. I guess I will just have to keep telling myself what I did when I first came here
—-“There are better things ahead than any we leave behind”.
This semester has been amazing, and if this is really true, then I need to start looking forward to what lies ahead instead of being sad about leaving Granada.
Corrida de Toros (Bullfight) - How a bull fight works
Before I go into detail about what actually happened at the bull fight, I will give you a general over view of how bull fights are structured. Even though I strongly disagree with most of what happens in a bullfight, I am just going to give you the facts pretty straight forward. My next post I will talk more specifically about the bullfight we saw and how I felt about it.
Paseillo- Introduction
Every Corrida de Toros, or bull fight, starts with what is called the Paseillo. This is basically an introduction and it is a little parade around the plaza. Everyone involved in the bull fight comes out in order of importance. First is the Alguacilillos, they greet the President of the bull ring and introduce each new torero, or bull fighter. The Alguacilillos are followed by the toreros/matadores, who are then followed by their Banderilleros. Banderilleros are the people who stick arrow like things in the bull. The Banderilleros are followed by the Picadores which are men who ride on protected horses, and they stab the bull to weaken it. The Picadores are followed by the group of people who clean up the sand after one bull has been killed, and lastly the Mulilleros or the men and mules who drag the dead bull out of the Plaza. There is also a band that sits in the stands and the typical music played during a bull fight is called Pasadoble. When the music starts playing, it signals a new part of the bull fight.
Other general instruments/tools used during a bullfight are La Cumbre which is the pink and yellow cloth that is first used and La Multa, the red cloth that is smaller and used in the end.
A specific type of bull is also used in bull fights. They are called toros bravos and they are bulls that have very broad shoulders and are between four and six years old and weigh more than 500 kg. This are the bulls that the toreros/matadores work with (the words are interchagable, but torero is the term more commonly used in Spain. A torero in training is called a novillero or a novice, and they work with bulls called novillos, these are bulls that are less than four years old and weigh less than 500 kg.
El Primer Tercio (Tercio de Varas) - The Lancing Third
A bull fight is divided into thirds. The first third is when the bull is released into the ring. At this point, everyone who is part of the bull fighting team is out in the ring with las cumbres to distract the bull and start tiring him out and get his blood pumping. Also, when the bulls come charging out of the gate, they are very dazed, so the team works together in distracting the bull until they are able to get it under their control. Eventually the team works its way out of the ring and it is only the torero in the ring. Once the torero has the bull basically under control, the Picadores come out on their horses and when the bull comes over to them, they basically lance or stab the bull in the back to make it start bleeding. The point of this is to start weakening the bull. The men are mounted on horses to have easy access to the top of the bull’s back and then the horses wear protection so that when the bull starts ramming into it, the horse is not injured at all. The horses also were the eye shields that you see them wearing in parades and stuff so they do not see the bull coming and get spooked.
El Segundo Tercio (Tercio de Banderillas) - The Third of the Banderillas
In the second third, the Bandilleros come out and this is when they stick the Banderillas in the bull. This is something that is extremely dangerous and I would assume just down right terrifying. A man runs at the bull and sticks a pair of arrow type things into the bull’s back, then basically has to run for his life and either jump over the edge of the ring, or make it behind one of the blocks. This is where the torero comes in to distract the bull from going after the man that just stuck arrows in its back. After the bull is calmed down and back under control, either the same, or a different, Bandillero will come and stick another pair of Banderillas in the bulls back. Typically two or three sets are stuck into the bull’s back.
El Ultimo Tercio (Tercio Suprema/ Tercio de Muerte) - The Supreme Third/ The Third of Death
This is the final part of a bull fight. El Torero switches from La Cumbre (the pink and yellow cloth) to La Multa (the smaller red cloth) and he holds a sword behind la multa. This is the part that comes to mind when I think of a bull fight, and what I think is the typical image of a bullfight. This is when the “artistic” part happens. This is when the torero holds la multa close to his body and the bull runs at it - these are called Pasos Contrary to popular belief, it is not the red of the cloth that provokes the bull, just the movement in general. Bulls are actually color blind. The torero usually has about 10 minutes for los pasos and show off his style of bull fighting. The closer to the body the torero lets the bull get, the more the crowd likes it. It also shows how skilled they are. At the end of the ten minutes is when it is time to kill the bull. The entire plaza falls silent while the torero aims the sword. The goal is to stab the bull in the right place in the back where the sword pierces the heart, and also, to make this happen in the first try. If it takes more than three tries, the crowd gets displeased, because now the bull is just being tortured. After the bull is stabbed, it continues to run around because it doesn’t bleed out instantly. At this point, many people in the bull fighting team return to the ring to keep distracting the bull and get it running around so it dies quickly. Sometimes, if stabbing it in the heart isn’t enough and it is dying slowly, they cut the spinal cord as well so it doesn’t suffer. The audience then demonstrates how much they enjoyed the performance by waving white bandannas in the air. The president then takes the crowds reaction into account and decides what kind of prize the torero deserves. A torero can receive either one or both of the bull’s ears and at most both ears and the tail. However, if the torero did not perform well, and the bull suffered too much when it was being killed, they do not receive anything other than their lap around the ring receiving applause.
After the bull is dead, the mules come out and the bull is pulled out of the ring and they clean up the ring for the next torero. A typical “Corrida de Toros” consists of three toreros and six bulls, with each torero “performing” twice. However, the bull fight we went to had 5 toreros and one novillero (or novice).
