Granada

Granada is such an amazing and beautiful province. I have been wanting to visit Granada since the moment I knew I would be coming to Spain. Finally for my long birthday weekend I had the opportunity. We spent two whole days and it was wonderful.

 Of course the first thing we did was visit the Alhambra. It was quite a journey walking there and we spend over two hours exploring inside. I took so many pictures but only included a few of the best for you to enjoy. Pictures do not do it justice and you really much discover its beauty yourself.

 This is a view of part of the city from one of the tall points within the Alhambra. We walked all over the city in those two days and I already felt like I was getting to know this part of Spain quite well. I cannot believe the amount of walking I have done since I arrived in September... but this is what allows me to try absolutely all of the food I encounter :)

 Those are just a few of the wonderful sights within and from the Alhambra...

 Although we were starving... Tessa had some troubles getting through the more than two hours of walking and exploring so she took a little power siesta on a bench.

 Later that night Santi and I walked up to a view point so we could get a shot. Of course you can't see the snow capped mountains or catch the real view but my little camera did capture this at least.

 The following day we did more walking and exploring of course!! We also enjoyed some delicious gelato and free tapas with our local beer!

 Before we headed back home we did some shopping in the oldest district in Granada. I purchased some tea and Santi bought me a beautiful scarf that you can see me admiring in the photograph below. Enjoy!

Tessa visits Spain

My best friend is finally out of the army and ready to get some vacation time in so she spent just over two weeks with me in Spain. For her it was warm spring weather but now that I have acclimated I still feel quite chilled.

Since she rented a car it gave us plenty of opportunities to explore places locally. Quite close to where I live is a city called Mojácar. It is a small in population city... around 10,000 I believe but in the summer increases to 130,000!!! There are two parts, the old pueblo up on a hill and the new part which stretches out several kilometers along the beach. We drove around and explored both parts as well as enjoyed the most fabulous gelato.

Santi joined in on the fun during my birthday weekend. We headed to the Tabernas desert. This is the only desert in Europe and is where mini Hollywood is located, Indiana Jones was filmed here. We went to explore an old Olive Oil Mill. It was started in the 1930´s but was closed a few decades later and reopened to become what it is today. The old mill has been kept in wonderful shape for the museum portion. We did several tastings of their local organic olive oil and made some wonderful purchases as well. I plan to take my father to this same place when he comes to visit.

The almond trees are in bloom and gorgeous so we just had to stop the car to take a picture!

To finish of the night for my birthday Santi took me to a wonderful nice Spanish restaurant where we had the most amazing meal. I have discovered I am a big fan of fresh pulpo (octopus).

Of course to finish of the evening I ate some homemade banana coconut cream pie just like mom used to make. We also explored the province of Granada but because I have so many pictures to share I have decided to leave that for the following blog post.

Carnaval in Cadiz!

In Cádiz is the third largest celebration of Carnaval! This is where people dress up, similar to Halloween costumes, and drink. It is supposed to be kind of the last hoorah before Lent. Since Santi´s family lives in Cádiz we headed that way for the weekend. 

 These pictures were taken on the coast at El Puerto de Santa María. This city is actually in which one of Christopher Columbus´ships was named. The weather has still been a little chilly... well now that I am acclimated... I guess the low sixties isn´t actually that cold but it was nice to walk around an enjoy the beautiful sunset at the beach.

 On our second night we headed into the city. It was crazy everyone was in costume with drink in hand. The streets and alleys were so crowded you could barely even walk!! I have never seen anything like it. We grabbed a bite to eat and then met up with friends.

 The wig was not actually part of my costume, it just happened to make its way on my head previous to this picture being taken. I was UVAS or in English, grapes, as you can tell though popping my balloons seemed to be a popular activity. It was a lot of fun and we had plenty of hours to experience it. 

We caught a bus back to Sevilla at about three thirty in the morning. We finally arrived back around five thirty and I headed straight for the shower before hitting the sack. I knew I had a long day on Sunday because Tessa, my best friend would be arriving from the States!! I can´t wait to share with you our wonderful explorations together!!!

Valentine's Dayyyyy

Sadly I didn't get a chance to take any pictures of my students for St. Valentine's Day but I still wanted to share my experience with you. I decided to make cookies for my students to accompany the activities that I had planned. I made two batches of sugar cookies, one of which I died red. Dad was kind enough to send me several heart cookie cutters.

 I spent my Sunday making the dough, refrigerating the dough, rolling out all my hearts with my wine bottle rolling pin, and baking them off. It took several hours but I always enjoying cooking and baking.

After cutting out four dozen cookies it was time to refrigerate them again before baking. I decided to use this time to make some strawberry scones for myself :)

After baking, this was the end result! My students loved the cookies and had a great time enjoying all of the fun activities. They seemed to think that this holiday was only for couples but I told them how much we enjoy using this time to remind people of all kinds that we care and love them.

Another wonderful weekend :)

We decided that since we were to be welcoming a new roommate that we would invite over friends and have a small party at our house. We all contributed by making tapas for everyone to enjoy and asked our guests to provide the beverages. We played cards and practiced our Spanish. It was a very successful evening and a great way to introduce our new roommate to the community here.

I found two recipes that I have been meaning to try. Santi was in town for several days and so we decided to finally get in the kitchen and work it out. We made homemade roasted red pepper bow tie pasta with homemade roasted red pepper sauce. We even roasted the peppers ourselves!! It was a lot of work and quite messy but sooooo delicious!

After a couple of days I followed Santi back to Sevilla. I finally had the chance to grab lunch at a place I have heard about for months! The restaurant is called Los Coloniales and it was fabulous!! I can't wait to go back. Before lunch we headed to the Metropol which is where the next two pictures are from. We walked around and enjoyed the beautiful sunshine before I had to return back home.

I am planning some wonderful Valentines Day activities for my students and can't wait to share them with you all!!

More to explore in España... Córdoba!

 I decided to take a weekend trip and meet up with some good friends. Our first stop in Córdoba was of course the famous Mezquita. I have seen so many pictures and had been anticipating this visit for quite some time. This picture is right before we entered.

 The architecture and design is absolutely amazing. Spain is such a beautiful country... I am continually amazed!

 Along with enjoying the history and architecture their is of course the deep conversations which has been captured in this picture haha... it was so nice to catch up with good friends!

 In this picture you can see the arches that are photographed so often.

 Santi also came over and met up with us for part of my trip as well.

 This is the alley of flowers and the most photographed street in Córdoba. It was much shorter and smaller than I had imagined but I got plenty of pictures to add to my archive.

 The ladies at the end of the alley of flowers!

 The ladies before our night out on the town with our wonderful host, Kaleigh!

Here I am drinking the water on the street. I was really scared but Santi told me that it was safe... besides that it tasted a little funny, it was okay. After heading back to the hostel for the night it was time to leave Córdoba behind. It was a great weekend of exploring more of Spain!