Monday, July 5, 2010

The weekend, and the week ahead

Overall, the weekend was fantastic. I woke up extremely tired at 4 45 Friday to board the bus. I didnt get much sleep because my friends attempted to bring me to a discoteca (night club) with them and not go to bed. They successfully stayed out and came back to the Fundacion at 4 45, giving them enough time to pack for the bus. Needless to say the ride to Cordoba, a city in Andulacia (southern most state of Spain), had plenty of red eyed kids. They started a small dance party in the back of the bus at about 5 15 to the song No Speak Americano, only to pass out shortly after. I managed to fall asleep after an hour, only to be woken up 15 minutes later for breakfast. They played a few awful and extremely inappropriate Spanish movies on the Tvs that also kept me up.
When we got to Cordoba, we immediately were met by a tour guide and started walking. We saw some minor buildings that I honestly dont know why we bothered seeing, but then we went to the Mesquita which is the Cathedral of the city. It was an awesome place. It was very large and alot like the Cathedral in Toledo, however it has Muslim influences as well and so the art and architecture is quite unique. After the tour, we stopped at a street vendor, and I bought a Leo Messi Argentina jersey for 15 euros, quite the steel. It is now the 4th soccer shirt I have acquired sense reaching Spain. Of course, Argentina lost 4 0 to Germany the next day and my Argentina friend, Javy, annouced to a group of friends that he wanted to kill himself and went to cry in his room. He survived however and had a fun evening later.
After the Mesquita, we got a really nice lunch at a hotel, then got on the bus for the 3 hour ride to Granada. Again they played a movie. The opening scene was a guy cutting his own wrists, so I decided my I pod at full volume and watching the country side out the window was my best option. Once we reached Granada, we were free for the night. We caught the end of the Netherlands upsetting Brazil in our hotel and later talked to a Greek couple. We had free time the rest of the day, so we went out for a nice dinner. Then we went back to our room and got ready to really go out. We found a club called Granada Diez with free admission on Fridays so we planned to go there. We held a euchre tournament which me and my partner Kelsey won (thanks Emily for teaching me :) hopefully you read this) while getting prepared to go. We left shortly after midnight. The club was pretty sweet. It was like a converted theater and well put together. They had a large bar over looking multiple levels of seating and a dance floor. The DJ was solid and they had sweet lighting. I got back around 4 am and had a ton of fun.
I woke up at 9 the next morning to visit the Alahambra, which is the famous palace in Granada. Granada is about 350 thousand people located in a mountain valley. From the roof of our hotel, which had a pool, you could see the snow capped mountains. Since our building was the tallest in Granada, we spent nearly 2 hours enjoying the view. Anyway, the Alhambra is so big it took 3 and a half hours to tour. The gardens were really cool and the buildings were all sweet, but our tour guide was a huge bitch. She treated us like small children who didnt know any Spanish and was overall completely rude. Our program directly even got in an arguement with her near the end of the trip. None the less, I enjoyed the tour. Later we found lunch in the plaza and took a quick nap before the Spain game. We went to a large tent in the Plaza Mayor of the town with about 300 people in their. It wasnt nearly as crazy as the Real Madrid stadium, but it was pretty close. We left at halftime to go to a bar because it was over 100 degrees in the tent, no joke. After the Spanish goalie saved a penalty kick, Xavi, a Spanish forward, made a penalty kick 2 minutes later. However Spain ran into the area too early and he had to kick again. This time, the keeper saved it and a defender cleared the ball after a large scuffle. The score remained 0 0. The game appeared to be going to OT when one of the forwards hit a post, however the ball bounced to the Spanish hero, David Villa, and he buried the shot for the win. After the game, the streets were out of control and traffic went no where. We went to a sandwhich place that gave us cheap drinks and we went back to celebrate the game, and the fourth of july in our hotel. We decided at about 2 to go back to the club, this time with more people, and way more girls, and stayed out passed 5. I woke up at 9 the next day, not feeling like a champ, however I managed to sleep some on the bus and felt fine by lunch time. I watched one set of the wimbledon final at a rest stop, Nadal won, and watched Terminator 3 in Spanish the rest of the way home. The trip was sweet. Tonight several people have their birthday, iḿ sure to be out later. Friday morning, I head to Seville. Hasta luego!

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