So There Were Cocktails, Cádiz and one Crazy CLM Class

My exams finally finished and I passed all except one! But in the true spirit of Spain being a bonkers country, the new semester started straight away the following Monday so I had to squish all my post-exam celebrations into four days. I think this new term will have a lot more success than the previous one (touch wood) because I actually like most of my classes and can understand all the teachers. Plus, no Carmen the evil linguistics teacher, which is always a plus.

I was never suited to linguistics anyway. As I said to pretty much anyone who would listen, take subjects you enjoy rather than ones you think will help your Spanish. So this semester I will be enjoying: English Literature II, Introduction to Comparative Literature, Introduction to Literary Studies and Judaism and Modernity. Sounds right up my street.

Surprise surprise, there’s another strike today (these Spanish students seriously don’t need to be complaining about fees, I’ll never be able to pay back my loans). So I have a two hour gap now until my next class and tomorrow’s only lecture is cancelled.

But going back to the end of my exams, it was 8pm, I had just finished and in the grand words of Bridesmaids: 

You go girl, you tell ’em Kristen.

Naturally, the way forward was a visit to Mae West, Granada’s premier club, where girls go free on Wednesdays. We began the night with shots at Chupiteria, cocktails at Amsterdam café and upon entering Mae West found ourselves in the midst of an Erasmus pre-party where we were given stickers with our country’s flag on. Given that the Irish and Italian flags are similar, some confusion was presented to Jayne.

Once in the club we were dancing the night away, avoiding (as much as possible) creepy men and making friends with the USA University Ski Cross Team who were in town for some Winter University sports thing Granada was hosting. Though still to this day I’m seriously critical of the fact that they were wearing their ski jackets in the club. I get that they wanted to look cool, but they’re insulated for a reason and to me, that just screams sweaty.

The night ended with a fight between an Italian girl and her boyfriend (in which she kicked said boyfriend) and I collapsed into bed at 5am.

At the weekend we went to Cádiz for the famous Carnaval, which is apparently the most famous carnaval in Spain, where everyone wears fancy dress and spends the whole night partying. I went as a hippy, Jayne as Minnie Mouse, and Soraya as a Hawaiian. We’re so original.

Before we even got to Cádiz, there were stories to tell. We found ourselves on the bus full of rowdy Spaniards, including a gentleman dressed as Conchita Wurst, who serenaded us with All of Me, and Diamonds by Rihanna. My advice? Work on the stresses of words mate, though your dress was fabulous.

There were also bottles of alcohol to be won and we were advised on how to win these:

‘You can sing a song or do a striptease’.

Needless to say, us prim English girls weren’t joining in.

When we got to Cádiz, after a lot of wandering around, we eventually discovered that the famous Carnaval was really just a giant Botellon. Or in English terms, drinking on the streets. We perhaps didn’t pick the best weekend for it, because by midnight it was pouring with rain, freezing cold and we were literally stood in the streets until 5am.

Am I going to die out here?

I’m still really glad we went, it was the kind of experience you need to have on your year abroad, but I think it would’ve been better if we’d known more people and if the weather was a little better. I thought I came to Spain to get away from the rain?!

But the absolute icing on the cake was turning up to the bus at 5am, ready to leave and finding out that the driver had overslept and we had to wait in the rain for another hour before we could leave. HAHAHA. GR8.

Thankfully we made it back in good time and relatively good spirits, and so far, I’m yet to contract pneumonia.

We’re doing well.

And now classes have started. I have 9 hours of classes on Mondays and Wednesdays culminating in my extra Spanish classes at the Centro de Lenguas Modernas (which are by far the best classes I’ve ever taken – I’m now up a level from last semester and rocking it).

CLM classes started this Monday and we turned up expecting a bunch of get-to-know-you games and an introduction to the course. What we got, was the shock of our lives and we were incepted. But Leo was nowhere in sight.

The teacher introduced himself as Simón, a man who goes against the curve and doesn’t like the structure of a standard lesson. He also told us he wouldn’t be writing anything on the board because he was allergic to chalk when he was younger and permanent marker makes him itch. Also, he doesn’t like anything permanent, and prefers the transience of time. Bloody wishy-washy Spaniards.

Instead of telling each other our names, he suggested we play a game of spies. This game involved creating a false identity the complete opposite of ourselves and putting it into a hat, drawing someone’s out and trying to figure out who they were.

My false identity was Jake, a 50 year old man who loved sports and hated bright colours. Except his ginger hair.

Once we’d spent an hour and a half trying to figure each other out and Simón spent ten minutes trying to work out how to pronounce my name (it’s Chloë. Chlo-e. How difficult is that?? He can pronounce the Chinese girl’s name, Efan, but not Chloë. Srsly.) the whole thing took a turn for the bizarre.

Simón was not our teacher. His name wasn’t even Simón. He was Juan, and our actual teacher was Ana who had spent the last hour and a half pretending to be a student in the class. Honestly at this point I didn’t know what to believe.

Our faces exactly.

I’m still feeling a little shaken 2 days later and seriously don’t know what to expect this afternoon. Only time will tell.

In other news, my countdown to coming home has begun again: 4 weeks tomorrow, and time is really flying. I can barely believe that after this break I’ll be on the final stretch of my year abroad. It’s actually gone so quickly, and with all the exciting things I have planned, I have a feeling it’s going to go even more quickly from here on out. But more on those another time.

Peace out.

Obligatory Blair gif.

 

So It’s Been A While

Helloo friends! Apologies for not updating in a while (since before Christmas, eek!) but admittedly life in Granada has not been too exciting of late. But since I finish my exams this week and everything will pick up again, I thought I’d give you all an update on what I’ve been up to, before the madness starts again.

Christmas was indeed, the most wonderful time of the year. I was so beyond happy to go home and spend quality time with the most important people in my life – my family and friends. The nearest and dearest. If I’m honest, all I did for two and a half weeks was eat loads and smile constantly. There is nothing more perfect than good food and a warm house (both literally and figuratively – seriously, why does this country have no heating??)

Hugs all round.

Mum and I went to see Billy Elliot The Musical in which the dancing was fantastic; I ate a triple decker burger the size of my head and I spent New Year’s Eve eating, drinking and playing DreamPhone with my bests. Couldn’t ask for anything more.

I came back to Granada to cold weather and even colder studying. (Does that make sense? Either way, it was exam period). Even though we had three weeks left of term, the lecturers seemed to be wrapping things up pretty quickly, meaning I found their lectures increasingly pointless and after one and a half weeks of this, I figured that a more useful way to spend my time would be in the library revising.

Speaking of libraries, it is no 1C here, I will tell you that. The chairs are not comfy, there’s no heating (again) and it fills up twice as fast. Also, no libraries are open at the weekend here. Hilarious. It’s not as if we have exams to revise for or anything.

Luckily Jayne and Nishma provided and their apartment has been turned into our temporary library. Useful because:

a) we’re all studying

b) there’s always tea

c) we’re all there when we get a bit delirious and end up listening to a 10 hour Chinese rap song

d) there’s usually a takeaway at the end of the day. Lusm Pad Thai Wok.

I actually think I might miss our studying sessions…

Alright Hermione, chill.

I was super excited to go home last week and surprise Marissa for her birthday. She had absolutely no clue and her double take when she came into the room and I was sat there was one of the best looks and moments, which I will never forget. We had an incredible weekend with Jamie’s Italian, chicken goujons, long missed snuggles and the icing on the cake, B4J.

If anyone’s ever looking for a confidence booster, go away for six months and come back and surprise people – it’s a total thrill.

But seriously, I had the most amazing time at B4J and didn’t realise just how much I’d missed Birmingham. Now I’m just so excited to go back in September. After I get the rest of my year abroad done (I’m of the full belief that it will become even more incredible as soon as the weather turns, so that’s something to look forward to).

Apart from my time in Birmingham, I also got the chance last week to spend quality time with my family and see my favourite, Rebecca. So all in all it was a pretty perfect week. And Mummy and I went to Coronation Street!

Only the best for the best.

And now I’m back in sunny España. Despite the freezing cold temperatures, it’s still managing to be quite sunny here. Though props to Soraya for convincing me that I was coming back to blizzards and thick snow. Not a drop of the white stuff in sight. Ha-ha.

So on Wednesday my exams finish, I’m finally hitting Mae West again after a lengthy absence and next weekend we grace Cádiz, for another 24 hour extravaganza a la Salamanca. Should be a riot. I’ll keep you posted.

Until next time….

So The First Week Has Been Kind Of Mental Already

Last night I said goodbye to Mum and Dad for good. Until I see them in 6 weeks of course, as Mum constantly reminded me when I told her she might never see me again. Who knows?! I might have eloped with a Spaniard called Enrique by then. (More on someone I actually met called Enrique later.)

We had an awesome few days together and I’m unbelievably grateful that they came out with me. At this point I would like to share a gorgeous picture of the three of us at the Alhambra, but unfortunately it’s on Dad’s phone and he’s thousands of feet up in the air at the moment. So I’ll leave you in suspense with that for now.

I’m trying to decide where to start with recounting the past few days, whether chronologically or in categories or what… it’s all just been a bit mental really.

This one’s for you Dad

So the first thing I did was sort out my Spanish SIM. You can so easily do this at The Phone House, which is pretty much exactly the same as Carphone Warehouse (same design scheme and everything). I had heard that lots of people got a Happy Movil SIM, but I went with an Orange Prepago (Prepaid/Pay as You Go) SIM which gives me 1GB data per month and something like texts for 12 cents, which you can top up at any Phone House, Orange Store or even a Tobacco shop. The data was the most important for me, because let’s face it, I wouldn’t survive here without Google Maps.

The apartment itself had some teething problems, but I’m so glad I sorted it beforehand after hearing about some nightmare trawls to find an apartment. It still doesn’t feel like home (even with all my pics of your lovely faces) but I’m sure it will get there eventually.

Spot yourselves

On Friday we went to the Tourist Office which is actually at the Ayuntamiento (City Hall) in a beautiful square off Calle Reyes Catolicos (which is the main street for shopping, featuring at least three different Mangos and two Zaras). We managed to wangle a map of the bus routes, which he wasn’t strictly supposed to give us but yay for us!

From there we walked back to my apartment and practiced the bus route to uni, not knowing exactly where to get off and ending up at the Pharmacy Faculty, which as you know, is not my forté. After painfully asking for directions, we were pointed to the right faculty and I got to see where I’ll be studying for a year. Here in fact:

Facultad de Filosofia y Letras

We wandered the streets for a bit ‘exploring’ until 3pm when we were supposed to meet Federico (my landlord) but obviously he wasn’t there when we went because this is Spain and nothing happens when it’s meant to. The next day he was actually there and turned out to be a really nice man and probably wondered why we had spent so much time bothering him, when we spoke to him for all of 5 minutes because by that time I was satisfied with the apartment and had worked out how to lock my bedroom door.

Siesta time in Spain is between 2-5 and almost everything shuts down for three hours, except maybe the restaurants and the bigger shops like Zara, Pull & Bear and Mango. But come 2pm, for the most part, Granada’s city centre will become infinitely quieter and this is the perfect opportunity for a late lunch, to do a bit of work or to actually have a nap. I’ve never been very good at the latter but I might have to learn.

On Sunday we went up to the Albacin and the Alhambra. By fluke I’d read about the Mirador San Nicolas which gives the most stunning view of the Alhambra so we stopped there to have a look around and wander the old, Moorish streets of the Albacin.

View from the Mirador San Nicolas

The Alhambra itself was stunning and there is a lot of walking to do. If you’re thinking of doing a trip here, give yourself at least 3 hours to do it all and wear comfy shoes. The actual Palace itself is quite small so you have to book an allotted time to go round it, which takes about 45 minutes to an hour. It costs 14€ for a day ticket, which is incredibly cheap for what you get, but do make sure you plan a day around it, not just up and go on a whim.

By the time we were all Alhambra-d out, my friends from Birmingham had arrived at the apartment, and I was to spend my first night there! That night we went out for tapas with Cherelle’s buddy and some other Erasmus which was a nice way to meet people and to ease you into Erasmus life. And above all it’s so cheap. 5€ for two drinks and two lots of tapas? I’ll take that!

The bed in the apartment is not the same as my home bed and I might as well not have windows for the amount of noise they let in but for 197€ I will manage for 9 months.

The next morning we had a Welcome Lecture for all Erasmus students, which was the most pointless 3 hours of my life. It’s times like this when I’m glad I’ve got data on my phone. We then had to push and shove our way through (because queuing doesn’t exist in Spain) to get our student cards, which are basically just laminated pieces of paper.

Whilst waiting for Emily and Cherelle, the aforementioned Enrique (from way way back at the top of this blog post which seems to have gone on for hours – I have so much to say!) approached me and we had this conversation:

Enrique: Hola, were you in the Plaza de Marbella last night?

Me: No, sorry…

Enrique: So you’re not Julia from America?

Me: No, sorry…

Enrique: Okay, well, I’m Enrique.

Me: Chloë

Enrique: It was a pleasure to meet you (complete with two kisses)

Me: You too.

Fab, thanks Enrique.

Come Monday night, I ventured out to one of the Erasmus nights out with Soraya, Martin and their French flatmates (who seem nice enough).  20 minutes of awkward standing around and people hopping followed, where you ask the following five questions before moving on to a new group of people and asking the same five:

1. What’s your name?
2. Where are you from?
3. What are you studying?
4. How long are you here for?
5. Have you found a flat?

Once this painful awkward period was over, we were taken to a tapas bar which we practically invaded. I hope there were no locals hoping for a quiet night. This made life a lot easier. Once the drinks were flowing, tongues were loosened and we began to open up and make some ‘friends’ (I say this lightly, as there are friends and then there are friends). Surprisingly, I found that the more I drank, the better I got at Spanish, though this might be the vodka talking. We met a really lovely Italian boy called Marco (who, poor thing, defies the claim that all Italian men are attractive. Though for his part, he was basing his opinion of English girls on Holly from Geordie Shore:

Classy bird…

Couldn’t decide which gif I liked best, so have two to exemplify the lovely Holly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back to Marco. Marco speaks great(ish) English but very poor Spanish, which makes me feel a whole lot better about my Spanish and gave me the opportunity to teach a little bit as well.

I don’t want to encourage any stereotypes, but so far I’ve met a Marco from Italy, an Enrique from Spain and a Ramon from Mexico… and my flatmates are called Antonio, Pedro and Dolores (the latter two yet to be met). This must be what it’s like for foreigners to meet James and John. There are also a surprising number of Tomases.

Yesterday, slightly hungover, I spent a lovely day with Mum and Dad, stocking up on food, having a long lunch and ending the day with a Dominos. Food-centric day you might say, but hey, at least they knew I was being fed. We said goodbye at my apartment and I went straight to distract myself so I wouldn’t get upset. It’s been working so far.

Last night was possibly one of the strangest nights of my life, the kind that probably only happens on Erasmus, so it seems only fitting to recount it here as the end of my first mental week in Granada. (I say that but there’s still a few more day left in the week and I’m going out tonight again… so who knows).

Last night we were meant to go out, the planned event was to a club called CAMPUS but at pre drinks (at 11.30) we found out that most people were going to Mae West. Martin had cleverly gone out earlier to watch footie at a bar without charging his phone, so we had no way to tell him that we weren’t going to CAMPUS. So, we set out to find him. We went to CAMPUS to see if he was there yet, but obviously he wasn’t. We ran into Soraya’s buddy (who is a major keeno) who told us she’d seen Martin at the bar.

We then walked to find the bar (on the other side of Granada round the back of the Plaza Nueva) which was most likely the bar we went to on Monday. But of course Martin wasn’t there either. Someone did say hi to me, but I have no idea if it was Ramon, Enrique or someone entirely different.

So we decided that it was all Martin’s fault that he didn’t have his phone charged and we’d done all we could. We were off to Mae West and we would visit every bar along the way. (There were in fact no bars en route.) By some form of miracle, we happened to bump into Martin on a side street with one of the Tomases (I know him because he always wears a drawstring ruckie, similar to the one I used for swimming in Year 7).

We invited them to join us on our expedition but only Martin came with and I can assure you he was thoroughly told off for not having his phone charged. Mae West was on the other other side of Granada, past the Camino de Ronda, so by the time we got there we were all thoroughly looking forward to a drink.

We arrived at a shopping centre and followed some girls in, as they assured us this was Mae West. In a shopping centre. With bodyguards outside. In a shopping centre. We found ourselves in a Western themed pub that had a club in the back, but as a comedy routine was going on and we didn’t understand a single word, we realised we might have made a huge mistake.

We had a drink in the Western pub and discovered that the real Mae West night doesn’t start until 3.30am and we were about 2 hours too early.

There was really only one solution. TAPAS. 

So we left the Mae West-ern. (Maybe that’s why it’s called Mae West.) And off we went on another adventure, in search of tapas. After wandering round Granada and seeing that only Kebab shops were open, we sought help to discover that there would be no tapas at this late hour, despite the fact that it was too early for the clubs.

So no Tapas. But maybe chips and a kebab (falafel obvs). As we walked past Soraya and Martin’s apartment in search of chips, we heard the predrinks from two hours earlier still in full swing.

RANDOM SPONTANEOUS IDEA – WE THOUGHT! 

What if we actually start out this night all over and go to the predrinks and then go to Mae West, we thought! AMAZING.

So we ventured up to Soraya and Martin’s so Soraya could change her shoes, thinking that our night might finally begin. Within 10 minutes Martin was asleep on the sofa and we just could not be bothered. So I went home, hearing sounds of the Macarena behind me as the predrinks continued to rage.

We shall try again tonight, hopefully with some success! Here’s to more wild Erasmus nights, fingers crossed these will be filled with actually talking to people, actually going to a club and not walking round the whole of Granada. At least I worked off the three course lunch I had.

And on that note, I sign off this blog, wondering what on earth will happen tonight, tomorrow, this weekend when I go to Marbs or next weekend when I explore Seville. Maybe there’s only one word needed for a Year Abroad after all (despite this extensive 3000 word blog post): spontaneous.