The weekend we paid €18 for churros and chocolate!

This weekend I went on my last trip whilst I am here in Spain and spent a few days in Seville with Erin during the last weekend of the main festival there- Feria de Abril.  We stayed in a hostel right near the Cathedral which was really nice, comfortable rooms and nice staff which is always good!  After 3 and a bit hours on a bus I was finally in Seville and met up with Erin when she arrived from Barcelona.  Not really knowing where we were going but heading roughly in the direction of the cathedral we set off, typically we had gone the wrong way only to have to turn round and go back the way we had just came!  We did however eventually reach the hostel and drop off our bags in time for a wander round the city.  In the evening we went to a Flamenco show at the Flamenco Museum which was really good, and well worth the €14 euros we paid for it as there were 2 dancers, a guitarist and a singer, I wasn't sure what I was going to think of it but it was really enjoyable.  After that we, in true Spanish style, went and had paella for dinner in a bar close to the hostel.

On Saturday we woke up to the sound of the rain, brilliant timing for the rain to arrive in Seville the weekend we were there, but as there was nothing we could do about it we just got on with it.  First up we went to the Alcazar, it is an old palace and parts of it are actually still in use, if you paid a bit more you could get a guided tour of these parts, but we had so much we wanted to fit into our day we didn't really have time to do that.  At times it really reminded me of the Alhambra here in Granada, but it was significantly cheaper to get in (€8.50 normally but €2 as students!) After this we went to the Cathedral, with another brilliant student discount, down from €8 to €3!  We were very impressed to have paid to do 2 things for the same amount as the full price entry to just one!  Once we'd seen the Cathedral we headed to the Bull Ring and booked ourselves in on a guided tour and museum visit (of course, student rate applied again meaning that for the 3 things we visited that day we paid under €10 in entry fees- brilliant!) After all of this it was just coming up to 2.30 and we were pretty hungry so stopped for lunch.  The starter was artichokes and ham, which I think would've been really nice, if it hadn't been soaked in so much olive all that it actually tasted like eating a plate of olives (which I really don't like....)  bit the fish we had afterwards more than made up for it.

A trip to Seville this weekend would not have been complete without a visit to the site of the Feria.  We really didn't know what we were expecting when we headed over the river to the site, luckily by now the rain had stopped and the sun was doing its best to shine through, giving us great weather for a wander around.  The feria site is full of tents called casetas that the people of Seville and the surrounding areas hire out for private parties for their friends and family.  There are also some public tents but not very many.  The feria is the opportunity for the locals to show off quite how much money they have with the size and decoration of their tent but most importantly by the clothes they are wearing.  Most people are dressed in traditional Andalcian style, with the woman in full flamenco dresses and the men with the old suits and hats.  There are also loads and loads of horses at the feria, some pulling carriages and some being ridden, clearly being used as an opportunity for people to show themselves and their families off to everyone else that is there.  Once we'd finished wandering round we decided to stop for chocolate and churros (these were actually called bunuelos, their bigger and doughier, but it's the same concept).  We sat down, got served very promptly and then once we had the food in front of us the waiter said "€18 euros por favor" we had no choice but to pay it but we couldn't believe our ears!  €18 for a bit of dough, sugar and hot chocolate!!!!  We couldn't even finish them all, we made a valiant attempt, we really did, but we were beaten and couldn't eat any more.  Once we'd got over that shock we started to head back to the hostel, via a trusty chino shop to purchase some shoes for €4 euros which are the most comfortable things I have worn in my life as my feet were slowly dying from the blisters my usually very comfortable sandles were giving me.  In the evening we practically had to swim to go out for some food and a drink, it had been hailing previously and was pouring with rain - when you're both wearing canvas-y shoes this is not a good thing!  That said we did have a nice selection of tapas at a bar a little off of the beaten tourist route.  When we got back to the hostel we spent quite some time drying out the shoes with a hairdryer before eventually going to bed- after everything we'd fitted into the day we were exhausted!

This morning we had time to waste as we had to be out of the hostel but my bus wasn't until 2.30 so we decided to pop into an exhibition at a building called the Archivo General de Indias where there are lots of maps and other things from the discovery of the Americas.  Seeing as it was fairly early in the morning and we'd not had the best nights sleep we didn't really make the most of this exhibition and ended up skim reading and looking at the maps and pictures because it was very in depth that our brains just weren't ready for it quite yet!  Other than that we spent our time wandering around, in and out of little tourist shops, drinking coffee and eating lunch before it was time to head off again!  We did happen to come across a little street market that was selling lots of old coins, stamps and other things including old postcards, they were all written and had been sent to people at one time or another, some of them were really interesting as they had Viva Franco! and Viva Espana! Stamped across them.  We could've looked through them for ages.


Now I'm back in Granada I am very glad that this is a puente weekend, because Tuesday is the 1st of May and therefore a festival day across Spain we also get Monday off as well because, lets face it, what is the point in going into work just for one day? Got to love Spain for that!  Hopefully I'll get some work done over the next couple of days, I certainly will if the weather stays as rubbish as it currently is because I won't want to be stepping outside!


This time next week my Mum, Dad and Nana should've landed in Malaga and be arriving in Granada!  I can't wait to see them, they are staying for a week over my Mums birthday and mine too.  I have classes on 4 of the days but only in the mornings so I should be able to spend plenty of time with them.  The scary thing is quite how fast the time has flown, once they leave I have just 2 weeks left of classes, including a visit from a friend from Lancaster and then 4 weeks of exams before it is all over a done with!

The day the Spaniards pretty much kicked me out.

This morning I was sitting in my class minding my own business when I could hear chanting in the distance.  It got louder and louder, I couldn't distinguish the words but it didn't matter because all of a sudden a very angry looking Spanish student burst into my class room!  He got up onto the stage type thing at the front of the room and started shouting at us, he was telling us that we must get up, listen and join them in strike against the cuts and the fact that next year students could be paying up to €1000, I felt like telling him to try £9000 for size but thought I'd be safer not to!  There were quite a few people that weren't showing any intention of moving, Spanish students and Erasmus students alike, but he was going nowhere.  He just continued to shout and look angrier and angrier until people got up and left.  I wasn't sticking around, he was scary!  We stayed around outside the classroom for a bit to see what would happen, someone apparently saw our teacher but she didn't seem to make it down to the classroom.  It seems they were moving on from our building to the other departments on the campus before heading into town to the other faculties.  We stayed for a bit and had a coffee, but then we decided that it was unlikely that classes would be on for the rest of the day and left.  I have now heard that my next class actually went ahead, but I'm not going now I've made it back to the flat already, it's not like I'm going to miss much anyway.

I totally understand why they are striking, and they have the right to do it, but I also agree with what I heard one Spanish student saying to the people organising the strike.  She said to them that as much as it was their right to strike it was also her right to stay and be taught, she wasn't happy about the fact that her class had been cancelled because of the students going on strike.  To me it doesn't really matter, after all I am only an Erasmus student and if I miss a few classes it really isn't going to make much difference to me.

So it seems my weekend begins here as I've been told that tomorrow is some day to do with the founder of the University and students don't turn up to classes!  We also have a puente (bridge) as Tuesday is a festival day, meaning Monday is off too!  I won't be in classes again until this time next week!  Ridiculous, but welcome to Spain eh?

A weekend in Cordoba

I can't remember when the last time I blogged was, but I think it was a while ago.  Since then I have started my own mini series of video blogs on Youtube, they're all on language based topics and you can find my channel here. 

This weekend I went to Cordoba for a few days with Jack and Erin.  Wouldn't usually mention the bus journey but I'm going to because we got a free bottle of water, packet of peanuts and a pastry as well as extra comfy chairs and a film to watch!  Once we actually arrived in Cordoba however we met Erin off of her train and got a taxi to the hostel on the basis that we didn't really know where we were going. The hostel was very nice and just what we needed for the weekend.  We spent Friday afternoon eating, wandering round and then eating some more!  On Saturday we went to the Mezquita, the "must-see" attraction in Cordoba, it's a lovely building and well worth your money to take a look round if you're there.  From there we headed to the Alcazar which has some lovely gardens as well as a tower you can climb to see out over the city.  It was a really hot day so we took this opportunity to sit in the gardens for a bit to catch the sun.  We came across a cheap Chinese for lunch which was really nice, and good for the price too.  We also came across a market stall that sold loads of flags, we got some for LULangS, Jack got a Venezuelan flag just for the sheer hell of it and Erin got a Catalan flag, partly because she'd been looking for one for ages and partly because she found it really funny that she could buy one in Andalucia! After this we weren't really sure what to do with ourselves so we went and sat on the terrace at the hostel for a bit and chilled in the sun once again.  In the evening we did a lot more wandering and then gave up on being good and cultural and had kebab for dinner...  Our bus wasn't until 2 on Sunday but as we had our bags with us we didn't really want to do too much.  We ended up walking towards the bus station and stopping every 5 minutes for a 30 minute break, I'm not even exaggerating!  That wasted away the morning quite well and before we knew it we were on the bus and Granada bound, leaving Erin soaking up the sun whilst she did some work as her train wasn't until a lot later.  I'm in the process of loading my million photos up onto Flickr so if you feel like taking a look they'll be there for you in a bit.

This week I have 4 days of classes (although if I overheard a conversation correctly it may even be 3...) before I go to Seville with Erin on Friday until Sunday.  Monday and Tuesday are fiesta here so there are no classes, meaning just 2 days of classes for me next week and then my parents and my Nana arrive on Sunday for the week!  I'll be back with an update for you after Seville, I doubt anything interesting will happen before then.

Bex Trex Learns Esperanto

Another week that has just flown by.

I got back from Mallorca on Sunday and the last 6 days have just flown by, I can hardly believe it.  We didn't have any classes on Monday, I can't actually work out why though because it's not a holiday here like it is at home, so every thing was open, other than the uni.  This meant that I only had 3 days of classes.  There is nothing interesting to report as far as they are concerned though, same old same old now.  The weather in Granada has been pretty rubbish this week, colder than usual and grey, this weekend it's even been rainy and windy- this is not what I signed on for!  If I didn't know better I could think it was Lancaster or even Brussels out there!  Go away rain, you're not welcome here!

I've not been up to a whole lot this weekend, the weather has stopped me from going out but equally being dark and horrible I've had a lack of motivation to actually get anything really done. I have however managed a bit of work, so it hasn't been a totally wasted weekend so far.  I've been thinking about what I am going to do with my blog when I get back to the UK because I've really been enjoying doing it.  I've decided that I want to carry it on, and I'm going to try and go on a langauges-y sort of theme.  I've also started making videos on the same sorts of topics, and here are 2 from this weekend- Bex Trex and the Untranslatables and Bex Trex vs Google Translate.

This time next week I'll be in Cordoba with Erin and Jack, so we're hoping the weather bucks up and the following weekend Erin and I are going to Seville for the Feria so that should give me something interesting to write about.  In the meantime I'll be back if something interesting happens!

Bex Trex vs Google Translate

This is just a quick video showing just a few examples of why you shouldn't trust everything that comes out of google translate!

There are more examples and you can view the google translation of the article with some of my very rough notes on it here:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZiKD-UaZ6qEqBapwLFI55B9gKCX4CKP9V2vLbNHNR...
This also includes the link to the original article for those that are interested.

The title music is Lancaster Uni Glee Club, performing in 2010.
The guitar music is provided by Danosongs.com

Bex Trex and the Untranslatables

This is the first attempt I've had at a video really, my others have mostly be photos and music, nothing quite like this. I hope at least a few people enjoy it, I want to carry on but it depends on me coming up with topics really, if you have any ideas please tell me! I guess I want to go along the lines of languagey/linguistics sort of stuff but I'm open to suggestions.
My blog- www.bex-trex.blogspot.com
Twitter @bexnobes

Bex Trex and the Untranslatables features:
Words taken from:
http://www.acclaro.com/translation-localization-blog/12-untranslatable-words-...
http://matadornetwork.com/abroad/20-awesomely-untranslatable-words-from-aroun...
http://betterthanenglish.com/ 
http://matadornetwork.com/abroad/20-more-awesomely-untranslatable-words-from-...
Music from:
http://www.youtube.com/user/LUGleeC/videos (Performance in February 2010)

An accidental holiday in Magaluf.

This was the week that we had been looking forward to for a long time.  Booked at the end of last year we decided to spend our holiday in Mallorca, it was somewhere we could all get to from 3 different airports, it was a good price and it is a nice place.  We booked a hotel called TRH Palmanova (remember this, it is going to be important...), booked our flights, and all we had to do was wait, so wait we did.  A quick read up on the internet suggested that the hotel wasn't quite in Palmanova like the name would suggest, and on a steep hill, neither of which really caused us a problem.  Easter week rolls around and off we go!  Charlotte and Vicki arrived first having flown together from Manchester, and get told we've been moved hotels as there had been over booking with ours, not a problem, it's just  even further up the hill!  Now I'll take you back to our location, we were basically on the end of the strip in Magaluf!  Not quite what we'd intended, but oh well!  Palmanova itself, when we actually did go there for a wander, is a lot bigger than we had realised and we'd certainly go and stay there again.  The only problem with the location we ended up in was that there was a Spanish festival of some sort on for a few days and there was a huge group of people staying in our hotel, and they weren't the quiet type!  But when this is the view from your balcony, you really can't complain:

The very first time we took a walk down to the beach we realised that we would have to find another route, it is impossible to walk down the main strip without getting stopped at least every 5 or 6 steps (and I'm not even exaggerating) by some promoter or other trying to get you to stop in their bar for a drink.  It doesn't matter how clear you make it to some of them that you're not interested, they'll engage you in conversation, physically block the way, try and split up the group and even try pulling you in by your hair!  It's a bit of a laugh but certainly gets tiresome after a while.  We instead tended to go to places along the beach front or walk over to Palmanova where there are still plenty of lively bars but without the hassle.  We did cave into them once or twice though, the first time was at 4 in the afternoon when we bought beer and sangria and got given free shots of Sambuca, only in Magaluf...

Because we're so cool and so mature we bought a bucket, spade, rake and some little animal shapes, oh and a sive!  We spent quite a while on 2 different days making these creations:



And on a sand related note, the girls buried me in the sand and sculpted me into a mermaid.  I didn't get the best photo of that though!

In general we spent our week wandering, eating, drinking and laying in the sun, so I'm not going to give you a diary entry style blog of what we did for fear of boring you all so much that you never come back!  However, we did go to Palma for the day which was nice, other than paying €4.50 for a Fanta!  We had intended to see one of the Easter parades for Semana Santa but by the time we'd spent the day there we were getting tired and ready to leave so we didn't get to see it.  I just see that as an excuse for me to get back out to Spain another Easter and see it all though!

We also did one of those holiday essentials and played mini golf which was a lot of fun.  Especially with holes like this one where the water gets in the way some what:

I didn't do very well, lets just say that I lost by a long long way and leave it at that shall we?  Whilst we were there Katy and I had our photo taken with a snake, it was pretty scary and we weren't really expecting it to happen, but we had to buy it just to prove we've done it! Apologies for the quality, it really needs to be scanned in at some point.

That  is about it really!  I came back this morning fairly early, I've unpacked, done 2 loads of washing, uploaded my photos, done my photo of the day project and now I've even written this!  Will be an early night for me tonight though, and hoping for my first totally uninterrupted nights sleep in a week! Got a day tomorrow to catch up and maybe do some work before classes start again on Tuesday which feels really odd.  I'm glad though, because I'd quite like the next few weeks to pass, it's been hard knowing so many Erasmus students that have been home and seen their families this week and I haven't.  Oh well, one blank weekend, then Cordoba, then Seville and then my parents are here with my Nana for a whole week which even includes my 21st!  Can't wait!