granada:

this weekend our group took a trip to granada, which is a city north and east of cádiz, a four-ish hour bus ride. while there, we saw the gardens of the alhambra, a flamenco show, and the city itself. it was absolutely wonderful: very arabic, very bohemian, and very student-friendly. the weather was great and the sierra nevada mountains were just hanging out in the background, being beautiful. i could see myself living there. i´m returning with my family when they come to visit in a month, which makes me happy. (i will post photos as soon as i have an opportunity. computers with usb ports are hard to find!)

twenty minutes into our ride home this morning, our charter bus had a back tire blow out. we had to hang out at a road-side restaurant for three hours while we waited for a replacement bus to transport us the rest of the way to cádiz. we sat on the restaurant patio, smoking hookah and skateboarding and playing cards and doing homework and being loud. the waiters at the restaurant were, i´m sure, going crazy and cursing us. whenever we finally crossed the bridge to come back to the island (a return much, much later than we had anticipated), i was so relieved and happy. cádiz already feels like home, even after just a week of being here. me encanta.

on the bus rides between cities, we have been able to see a lot of the spanish countryside. it is so much different than i had expected. very mountainous, very diverse vegetation. there are olive orchards absolutely everywhere, covering the hillsides in inconsistant rows. apparently most of the olive oil that is made in italy comes from spanish olives. and there are a lot of olives here in spain. an interesting fact.