Yarn Store!

I found a yarn store! Knitting isn't really a popular hobby in this area of Spain because it never really gets that cold so I was extremely happy to find this little store. I found a pattern for a scarf I want to make for my friends Tony and Josiah so I walked in today after my class was over and I got to say, the whole experience kind of crushed my confidence in my Spanish speaking skills.  Knitting terminology is something that I never thought to learn in Spanish and then with the difference beween the metric system and the needle sizes, I was totally lost.  It took me a good 15-20 minutes to figure out how to tell the man working that I needed needles let alone what size I need.  Thankfully he was really nice and helpful and I eventually got all the supplies I needed.

A comer mi nina!

Jamon, jamon, jamon!


Ham is really big here.   I'm pretty sure that Carmen calls anything that comes from a pig, ham.  Last night we had eat this for dinner:

It's pork, tomato, and onions all on top of mashed potatos. It was quite delicious.

We also eat soup at the beginning of every dinner.   It's pretty much always a chicken broth based soup with some type of shaped noodles and vegetables.

Italiano - Italian

This semester I'm taking a class in Italian along with all my Spanish classes.  Italian was suppose to start today but it is at the same time as my intensive month class, that doesn't end until Friday, so I'll have to miss the first 2 days of class.  I will actually be taking my Italian class in Spanish so that could be a little challenging but I'm sure I'll be able to work it out.  I've always wanted to learn Italian, having sung in Italian many many times, but I would never have to time at UK.  Here I have the time, so I figured why not go for it.

Italian is also a lot more useful in Spain than it is is America.  There are a lot of turist from Italy who come to Granada. About a week ago a man stopped my friends and I and asked if you spoke Italian and if we could tell him how to get to the cathedral.  Italian and Spanish are similar enough that we could at least point him in the right direction. 

Bull Fights are NOT Vegan

Yesturday I went to a bull fight with Greta.  All our guy friends chickened out so it was just us.  It took us about 40 minutes to walk over to the Plaza de Toros and our tickets were 5 euros each. It was definitely worth it for the experience.

I don't know how much you guys know about bull fights but they aren't exactly the most animal friendly event and the are definitely not for the sqwimish. I won't go into all the details but I will say it is quite bloody.  I spent a lot of time in my high school Spanish studying bull fights so I knew exactly what I was getting myself into.        I can't really say the same for the girls around us.  I've actually talked to people who didn't know that the bull is killed at the end. You can imagine how shocking it would be to think that you're just going to watch some men in funny suits wave a cape in front of a bull and then...well like I said, the bull is killed. I was the calm and collected person who was like "It's going to get gruesome now, you might want to close your eyes."  In my opinion, what made this bull fight particular harsh, is that the matadors were not professionals yet and they were really inexperienced.  If you are watching a really good matador the bull dies so fast that it barely has to suffer.  The matador we saw had to stab the bull 3 different times and that just causes even more unnecessary suffering for the bull.

While a bull fight isn't exactly something you say you enjoyed,  I did actually kind of like it.  It's a really interesting tradition to me.  For followers of bull fights, it's considered a fine art and not a sport.  I don't necessarily agree that it's an art, but I think I know enough about the history of bull fights that I can at least appreciate them for what they are.  Bull fights go back to a time of bull worship and sacrifice.  It is suppose to be considered a great honor for the bull to die in the bull fight.  I would definitely spend money to go see another one.  I would really like to participate in the traditional audience roles.  Traditional audience members have a panuelo blanco or a white handkerchief and at the end of the fight, if they liked the matador they wave their handkerchief.  The amount of handkerchiefs being wave determines the price the matador recieves. They either get nothing, one ear, both ears, or both ears and the tail.

Here's a little video you to watch if you want a taste of what a bullfight's like.  This matador is Cayetano Ordonez.  He is one of the most famous matadors currently.  He's also an Armani model.

A que estoy escuchando

David Bisbal - Ave Maria

So my teacher only really showed us this video because she thinks it's funny.  According to her this guy is really popular in America, but I've never heard of him.  She also says he is a huge sex symbol in Spain.  I let you decide what you think.

Rain?!?

So of course the day after I post a blog about how great the weather is and how it never rains, it's going to be a overcast and actually rain.  Greta and I were going to go sit in a plaza and use internet there that is not only free but we don't have to buy a drink to sit there, but as soon as we left the house it started drizzling and now I'm sitting in a cafe eatting churros and chocolate. Well I guess it had to rain sometime.

Hace bien tiempo todo el tiempo

The weather in Granada has been absolutely perfect...all the time.  My title translates to "It's good weather all the time".  This morning I saw the first cloud I've seen since I got here. I actually read in the new paper yesturday that it hasn't rained in Granada since June 7th, or 105 days.  It's part of the reason that water prices here are so high, but I am willing to only take a two minute shower if I can have weather like this all the time.  Carmen told me that October can be pretty rain, but I don't really believe her.  It gets pretty hot here too, like mid 30's for celsius or mind 90's in fahrenheit.   It is starting to cool down a little though. Tomorrow it's only suppose to be an nice fall like  28(82) degrees.  It's almost time to break out the sweaters.