Hooray, hooray, it's a holi-holiday!

This week has been pretty uninteresting if I'm honest, since Erin left on Sunday I've not been up to a huge amount.  Classes as usual and an exam on Wednesday mean that I'm now half way though my classes here and just over a third of the way through my total time in Granada.  Time has flown by so fast since arriving here at the start of February, I'm coming to the end of my 7th week here!

The only slightly exciting thing that has happened this week is that the Spanish decided to go on strike on Thursday against a labour reform that is being introduced, I'll be honest and say I know very little about it (I have bought myself a couple of newspapers in the hope of reading up on it at some point though...) but lets just say they aren't happy!  I went out for a wander on Thursday morning to see what was going on and I have to say there were more shops open than I had been expecting, groups of people shouting here and there but I generally didn't see much.  Apparently closer to the centre things were a lot more active, and I could somewhat see the aftermath of that when I went shopping yesterday and there were stickers and posters and things around but not much.  But that is just Granada, things were worse in Madrid and Barcelona etc as I'm sure lots of you have seen on the news in the UK.  Whatever way you look at it the strike gave me an extra day off, I didn't use the time productively though.

My day was made yesterday by a random smiley Spanish man walking past me when I was walking down Gran Via eating my Smooey yoghurt and calling out "que aproveches" which is the Spanish equivalent of bon appetit and then carrying on his way.  This should show you how little I achieved yesterday if that was the highlight of the entire day!  The only other thing I managed was spending money on clothes. 

Today I remembered what is the worst part of going on holiday- packing!  I'm useless at it and am always over the weight limit no matter what I do.  Annoyingly I have no way of telling how much my luggage weighs for my holiday as I have no scales, on the basis that I am using a smaller case and only taking clothes for a week I surely must be under my weight limit, but the thing seems to weigh a tonne!

Tomorrow morning I'm off to Majorca for a week with some of my friends from Lancaster, I've not seen them since January/February so I'm really looking forward to it.  A little bit of research tells me our hotel is just off the strip in Magalluf, so watch out for us in the background of Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents I guess!

Sorry for the really boring post, hopefully by the time I get back on Easter Sunday I'll have plenty to tell you about, I'm hoping to get to see the Maundy Thursday parade in Palma whilst we're there so don't panic, there might be some vaguely cultural content in it!

A tiring touristy weekend.

This weekend has been a touristy one as Erin came to visit Granada for a few days.  On Thursday I just had one class to go to before going to meet Erin from the bus, I rather unenthusiastically dragged myself up the hill and into the classroom just for the teacher to turn up and tell us that there would be no class.  As you can imagine I was not impressed, not just because I'd got myself up there but also because next week we are missing a class because of a strike and I could really do with the lesson time for Latin if I am going to stand half a chance in the exam.  Still, there is nothing I can do about it, ♫ Que sera sera ♫ and all that, so off I went back down the hill to the flat.  When Erin arrived things were not quite as straight forward as they could've been, the internet says that the bus stop is at Triunfo Gardens so logically that is where I was waiting when I received a text from Erin telling me she had just got off of the bus, yet she was no where to be seen.  Some confusion and rough directions later and we found each other after the bus had quite helpfully dropped her off down the road, not even in sight of the gardens!  With the initial confusion over we spent the afternoon having a wander round the city, and even went inside the cathedral which I'd still not done.  We ate in a really nice restaurant where the food was really moorish (Sorry, I think I have spent too much time around Jack and his terrible puns, I won't do it again...), I had a lovely cous cous dish with vegetables and we also had some arabic tea afterwards too.

Friday brought with it a trip up into the Sierra Nevada.  I didn't really know what to expect but knew that I should make the most of my chance to go up into the snowy mountains and enjoy the views before it all melted away.  The bus ride is only 45 minutes and cost us less than 10 euros for the return which was really reasonable.  The views on the bus journey are amazing and every time you think that you couldn't possibly be driving any higher you turn another corner and up you climb a bit more.  We were prepared for the cold with hats, scarves, gloves, hoodies and gillets but it wasn't as cold up there as we'd been expecting.  In fact we sat outside a bar drinking cold drinks and watching the ice melt before our eyes.  Being so warm and sunny yet surrounded by snow was more than a little surreal I must say!  Whilst we were there we took the cable car up higher, we think it was around 8200ft, to really make the most of it.  It was quite expensive at 16.50 each but worth it to appreciate the views up there, we'd been walking round the bottom of the resort which was absolutely dead, we soon discovered it was because they were all at the next stage up, there were loads of people!  After another sit down with a drink in the sun we headed back down to have some lunch before getting on the bus again.  In the evening we met up with the others to go out for tapas, we tried the Chinese tapas to start off with which was a strange concept but the food was good and that was all that mattered!  The last place we went to had a huge range of tapas to chose from and we had some really good fajitas, will certainly be going there again.

On Saturday we woke up to the rather disappointing sight of clouds and everything looking generally grey but this actually turned out to our advantage because although it rained a little it made our day a lot easier.  We walked (or more accurately climbed) up to the Alhambra where we queued, in order to queue, in order to just queue again! You'd think we were in England, we like queuing there, it's our national sport, but the Spanish don't generally like to partake in such an activity!  Despite all the queuing we had a really good time, but we did an awful lot of walking and consequently by the end of the evening after we'd been out my feet were in no fit state to walk home and we ended up getting a taxi- stupid blisters!  We'd not eaten anything for lunch before we went into the Alhambra and so were rather hungry when we eventually caved in to the temptation of buying a packet of gullible tourist priced biscuits from a stall, half a packet is a nutritious lunch right?!  We did eventually eat again when we got back into town and went for tapas, including another visit to the Chinese tapas place.  In the evening we went to Paddys with the others for a few drinks, finally arriving back at the flat in time to change the clocks and see an hour of our sleep for the night go flying out of the window...

Today I've not done much, in fact I don't really think I've done anything.  I walked to the bus stop (that this time actually was at Truinfo Gardens) to say goodbye to Erin and then headed back to the flat where I have successfully done one load of washing, written this blog and put my photos on facebook.  For those of you that want to see my photos from the weekend I've put them all (or at least am in the process of...)on flickr as opposed to Facebook where I have only uploaded half.

This week is going to be a short one as the Spanish are going on general strike on Thursday so I won't have my classes.  I do have an exam on Wednesday though which I have no clue about the content so that should be rather interesting.  Oh well!  Just 3 days of classes to get through before a few days off and then off on holiday for a week!  I can't wait now, it should be really good.  As well as looking forward to seeing my friends (obviously) I'm really looking forward to getting to see a Spanish Easter parade on Maundey Thursday.  At the end of this week I'll be half way through my classes out here in Granada and a third of the way through my time in Spain.  6 weeks down and 12 to go!

I'm settled in, now what?

As you may well know from my previous blog posts I've been here for 5 and a half weeks now and haven't really been up to much.  Don't worry, it's not like I've been locked in my room for all this time or anything, I have been out and about but I've not had any big plans or gone any further than the beach.  That's been good for the settling in period but this week I've been hit with the feeling that I really need to do something, because if I don't I start realising how I miss everything and everyone at home and it's far too early to be doing that.  Some of you probably read Lucys blog too and will have seen in her most recent post that she talks of the "post-settling-in and pre-holiday slump" and I think she has hit the nail on the head.  We've gone through our first month or so discovering everything that is around us, got into our routine and now need something to break it up a bit.  For me I think the realisation came over me when I got up at 7 on Monday to head up for my classes and was no longer so willing to do it and just wanted someone else to go for me.  I had this in Brussels too, it was the point at which everything became boring/normal, and I had a few weeks until the next exciting thing I had planned, I think it was going back to Lancaster for the weekend.  This time around the timing couldn't be better, Erin arrives tomorrow and we're going to go and enjoy the apparently brilliant views up in the Sierra Nevada as well as going to the Alhambra which I've still not done yet.  After that I'll just have a few days to wait until I go on holiday and get to see Katy, Charlotte and Vicki for the first time since January.  As if I didn't already have enough to look forward to whilst I am out here I have now planned to spend the final week of the summer term in Lancaster so that I can go to Grad ball, extrav etc, meet a few people that I need to see and also collect my keys to the house for next year, but most importantly catch up with the people that by then I won't have seen in months.  It does mean however that I will be spending around 1 day at home between flying back from here and driving up there, and in that time I'll need to buy a dress for Grad Ball... should be interesting!

My last free weekend before things get exciting!

Here I am at the end of my fifth week living here and I just cannot believe that time has flown by so quickly when I've not even been doing much, part of me is looking forward to how fast the next month or two are going to fly by with all the plans I have, but the other part of me dreads to think how quickly the end of May is going to roll around when all I'll have left to look forward to are my exams- and of course going home.

Today has actually been a really productive day, I got another 800 words of the translation for my dissertation under my belt so I'm really pleased with what I've done today.  I think part of what has kept me going so well for the day was listening to Campus Festival 2012 at Uni on Bailrigg FM (The Lancaster Uni student radio).  For those of you that are nothing to do with Lancaster uni, Campus Festival is an annual event that was started a few years ago and is getting bigger and better each year it seems.  All of the clubs and societies are given the chance to perform, run a stall or give demonstrations of what they do.  There is a really big stage which sees performances from all the main ULMS groups as well as a whole host of others like the dance society and the ballroom dance society, the Gospel Choir and the Glee Club.  Later in the evening there are loads of bands and then it all ends in the orchestra playing to fireworks.  Obviously this year I can't be there, but I've had the chance to listen to it online which I'm so pleased about.  As I write the last act of the afternoon/evening session has finished (It was LUGleeC and as I'm totally and utterly not biased of course.... I'd like to say they were brilliant!) and the evening session is getting under way.

I have been having a think today and have decided that going on a year abroad is harder to do the more involved in university life you are.  If you're the sort of person that doesn't really do much then you probably don't feel like you're missing out terribly.  If, however, you're the sort of person that likes to do everything, take every opportunity and really be a part of what is going on it can be particularly hard at times!  Take today for instance, I've listened to a band that I usually play with performing which has made me realise how much I really miss playing my sax and hearing a group that I helped to set up singing the best I've heard them.  Last week were the students' union elections too which I'm interested in and as much as it's great to have been able to watch/listen/read about everything that is going on it's just not the same as being there!  That said of course I am living in Spain and getting to see and do other things, it's not that I don't appreciate that, of course I do, it just makes me realise quite how much I appreciate Lancaster and everything I spend my time doing there.

I've been running thin on the ground for things to write about recently.  I've started really enjoying writing and would quite like to do it a bit more if only I had topics to write about!  I know there are a few people reading this blog now that are going on a year abroad next year so maybe if you, or anyone else for that matter, have any suggestions of something I could write about please let me know.  It feels really odd to be writing something and expecting a response, usually these are just my ramblings to myself but I have become somewhat aware that there are actually people out there reading this so why not?

Apparently I've been here for a month already?

Now that is a scary thought right there.  Tomorrow I will have been living in Granada for a month and I honestly couldn't tell you where that time has gone.  The scary thing is I have 15 weeks left here, and I have plans for 8 of my 14 remaining weekends!  If the 4 weeks I have been here have flown by so quickly when I've not had plans or much work to do then how quickly is the rest of the time going to pass?!?

This weekend I've not really been up to much, I had a 4 day weekend because my only Thursday class was cancelled.  I could've used this time to work on my dissertation, finalize my essay for Lancaster or even do some of my Lancaster Award forms that I really need to do, but I've not done any of that!  I've done a few bits for uni here but not much.  On Thursday night I went out for tapas, I seem to be getting rather partial to a bit of tapas and sangria don't I..?  Yesterday I went to the beach, we had really nice weather for about an hour an a half but after that it got a bit cold so we went to have lunch at a bar just up from the beach.  Oh, what I forgot to say is that it was a rocky beach as opposed to sand, so not the most comfortable!  We're determined to find a sandy beach round here somewhere though...

Actually, I did do something vaguely productive, I wrote an article for Third Year Abroad called ebooks vs real books on a year abroad, which I am being paid for in Amazon vouchers, so I'm pleased with myself.  At least something was achieved this weekend.

This week may finally be a "normal" week for me where I get all my classes and actually go to uni 4 out of 7 days, but who knows what may crop up to change those plans, another random conference, a protest maybe? (There was one on Thursday, a feminist demonstration to tie in with International Womens Day, you should've seen the amount of police that were out for it, a bit excessive I think.)

Whilst I'm here, apologies to anyone that follows me on Twitter and was bombarded with #lusuelections tweets on Tuesday and Friday, it's all over now I promise! (Until next year...)  I should find out the results of the exam I took last week in the next few days, so that'll be nice to know how many points I have towards passing this module.  I'm only taking enough to satisfy Lancsaster this term, I took a few extra in Brussels but couldn't find anything I liked that worked with my timetable here.  I'm happy that I could pass 2 of the 4, but my Latin class and my Dialect class look like they're going to be rather hard.  As long as I get some points to take back to Lancaster with me though that's fine as I did alright in Brussels so I'm not going to get myself worried about it. Edit: Got 1.5 out of 2.5 marks available so that'll do :)

I've not eaten the most healthy food this weekend (tapas, Mcdonalds, chips...) so I'm going to try harder tonight, no doubt I'll end up snacking on chocolate later though!

This time in 3 weeks I'll be on holiday in Majorca!!!!

Only in Spain...

Only in Spain...

...would it be completely normal to walk into an exam part way though and it not be a problem.

...would it be completely fine for the teacher to walk in 15 minutes late and continue as if nothing is wrong.

...would nobody bat an eyelid when in the middle of the class someone suddenly gets out of their seat, lets it clatter and bang and then walk out of the room. (Today a herd of people all chose to leave at once when the teacher set us an activity to do)

...would I have had a 5 day weekend, followed by a 2 day week, a 3 day weekend, and then just a 3 day week before another 4 days off and it's not unusual at all.

On Tuesday my Latin teacher told us that we won't be having class tomorrow because it is International Womens Day and they want to encourage us to go to some conference or another.  That just means another day off for me then, and brings my week day:weekend ratio to 3:4, just slightly more acceptable than last weeks 2:5!

Today I had an exam, less than 3 weeks into classes and I'm already being assessed.  On the plus side it does mean that I have completed a quarter of that course already, it's nice to know that I've got myself some points already.  I'm only taking enough credits to fulfil what Lancaster need us to take, although I don't have to pass them they do count towards my grade for this year, so I want to do ok in them.

I'm not sure what my plans are for the weekend, tomorrow I think I'll try and learn the Latin that I'm not picking up very well in class and then in the evening I'm off out for tapas (chinese tapas apparently) with Jack and Anna, I met Anna on Twitter/Third Year Abroad funnily enough as she was in Belgium last semester and her blog was listed on the website.  We've not actually met up yet so it should be nice.

The rest of the weekend is a little vague, there might be a trip to the beach on the cards, but if not I really must force myself to get out and see things, take some photos and go for a walk rather than staying in my room even if I am being productive on my dissertation- that is not what I am here for!

The shortest working week ever.

This week I only had classes on Wednesday and Thursday because of the long weekend and the fact that I don't have classes on a Friday anyway.  Not really sure where the weekend went to as it is now Sunday night again!  I'm getting in the swing of things with my classes now, and am pretty ok with them all.  Latin is pretty hard, well it would be hard learning the basics of another language whilst being taught in your second language wouldn't it?!  I'm having to come home and look it all up again in English and then transfer that back into Spanish... it's ok, just going to take a bit more work than the average course for an Erasmus student I guess!  I've also got an exam this Wednesday for my history of women course, because the teaching is split into 4 parts with 4 different teachers we've got different assessment styles for each, of the 2.5 points available for this part I can get 1 point for just turning up to 4 classes and writing any old answer to a question he gives us at the end of class which is really handy!  I hope the next 3 teachers are just as helpful on that front and I'll be fine to just about scrape myself a pass even if the exams go badly.

Friday evening I went out with Jade, Abbie, Jack, Mike and Aimee to a tapas bar where had it been daylight we would've been able to see the Alhambra outside I think.  I paid 10.50 for everything I ate or drank all evening, and I had enough tapas to constitute a meal so that was plenty, plus we were drinking sangria, not fulfilling enough Spanish stereotypes here am I?  Shall I go to a flamenco show tomorrow and then to a bull fight just to top it off?!

As for today and yesterday I've not really done much, I've been over all my notes from my classes and got a substantial bit of work done on my dissertation so I'm happy.  I'm hoping to know by this time tomorrow the results of the Languages Society elections in Lancaster so I can stop boring you all with stuff about that, in case you've missed it I'm running for President, so wish me luck!  For now I'm listening to a live stream of the ULMS Wind Band and Choir concert from the Great Hall in  Lancaster, it's great how LA1 TV are doing this, I know a few more people on their year abroad streaming it tonight, it's great, can't wait to be back there in October playing with them all again myself though, my poor saxes are very neglected these days....