Thanksgiving, and other weird encounters in Granada

Please, the next time you see someone you care for, give them the biggest bear-hug in the world. 

I have 22 days until I see my family next and I cannot wait for the hugs I will get!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The thing about studying abroad is, all of these people in your program, and the friends you meet, are in the same boat. We all are here without our loving families and our best friends. Most of us come here without knowing anyone and I wont lie, it is tough. It's impossible for us to NOT get homesick during the holidays but I got some wise insight from my very best friend Danielle: 

"Just remember these bumps are all temporary, don't let the homesickness keep you from enjoying anything." 

She's absolutely right! Even if some of us are getting homesick, it wont be long until I'll be back at home, and then I'll be missing Spain. How ironic...

So this weekend we had our Thanksgiving dinner celebration and a very nice restaurant where we gorged ourselves with: TOO MUCH BREAD, a turkey loaf with blueberry sauce, perfectly mashed sweet potatoes, and then some traditional pumpkin pie. And what is a Spanish meal without some red wine?!

Food will never fill the void of missing your family, but fortunately, it comes REALLY close. 

So naturally, the next night I went out with a few friends for a mexican dinner. I've been craving guacamole and chimichangas like no other. After dinner we met up with our friend Dorothy and hung out with her friends that live here in Granada! Our first Spanish house party guys....let me tell you about the culture difference. 

The Spanish are NOT out of control (well, for the most part). The stereotype is that the Spanish party all the time, and I would agree, but the partying is not reckless like "some stories I've heard about college parties". I do agree that the drinking age should be lowered in the U.S. because it seems that when we finally reach that legal age of 21, it's almost like playing catch-up. I mean, my parents were allowed to drink at 18 and they turned out half way sane (It's a true statement: Have you met my dad? Have you seen my mother's dancing in the kitchen?!)

I want to show you all how our friend dances. I cannot name names, but I'm not sure he's never danced before in his life. Hint: He's in the military. With this knowledge, I am only guessing that he thinks dancing is a lot like wresting or fighting someone. At this house party we decided to document his dance moves. This top photo displays me holding Dorothy by her arms behind her back preventing her from...well basically moving. This is one of his signature dance moves..

And this bottom one is our all-time favorite. He loves to put you in a 'gentle' choke hold and dance the night away. Dorothy is demonstrating this dance move on me. 

So we 'gently' let him know that you cannot put women into choke holds and think it's dancing with them. I cannot stop laughing, he's quite a gem :)

Later, we talked with a guy originally from the Canary Islands who speaks German, English and Spanish! SHEEEEESH!!! How accomplished!!  We asked him to be totally honest and give us his thoughts and impressions of the United States.....

Here it is folks: "We pretend we have a culture, when in fact, we have no REAL culture at all. We act like we're so laid back and cool with everything, yet half our laws conflict with each other (gay marriage rights or none, death penalty or none etc. It's a different law in each state) and we have this "high-fashion" that no one would ever really dream of wearing" 

Don't get mad. It's the truth. When I talk with the kids at the school I volunteer at, I ask what their favorite American food is and they answer with "hamburger and hot dogs". WHAT?! But it's sadly true. The U.S. isn't a uncultured place though, we're just lucky enough to have a mixture of EVERYTHING and anything. No country is perfect, and I'm pretty happy with where I was raised. 

For a lighter subject, something peculiar has been happening to me while running in the park lately. A a week or so ago, I was running along sweating profusely and sounding like I was working with only one lung or something. I've got my music in, no make up on and hair up in a bun. This is NOT a pretty sight. As I am running along, this man comes out of the corner of my eye and starts walking toward me. There are not a lot of people in the park and he clearly saw me running toward him (again, imagine a stressed out ostrich running and panting at you. Thats about what I look like running). This silly man almost walked straight into me as he was talking out loud, TO NO ONE! He was looking at me and I'm convinced he was trying to start a conversation. What, did he think I was going to stop and have a cup of coffee? The whole situation was weird and it made me run a tad faster...

THEN, a few days ago, I was running through that same park, working on my fourth mile. At this point in my run, I'm just a running zombie trying to make it home without collapsing. The man in a tight fitted gray shirt and gray sweat pants starts sprinting at me, across the park like he was trying to start a game of freeze tag or something. Maybe he thought I didn't see him sprinting, but when he got about 30 feet from me, we made eye contact and he slowed into a walk. AGAIN, this man is trying to walk right into the path I am running towards. There was a drinking fountain about 15 feet away and he makes it there staring at me as I am about to pass this fountain. He bends over to take a drink, while still staring, but doesn't actually drink any of the water. He just stands, bending over the water acting like he is drinking but not ACTUALLY drinking the water. Are you getting this yet? At this point I'm running and staring at this situation and he is bending over the water fountain staring at me with the water running. Yet another moment for me bust ass and run faster home. Spanish men are actually so weird.... or maybe it's this park I run in. Who knows.

I leave for Scotland and Ireland in two days! We have a long weekend off of our classes so Molly, Maeve, Abby and I are taking advantage. We booked a 6 day trip! After we get back, there is one week of regular classes, our finals week (AND MY BIRTHDAY) and then we're done! Unreal.... 

Look at how adorable my nieces are. I cant wait to snuggle them!!!!!!!

Halloween in Espana

Halloween is a completely American holiday. Every other country has an actual reason behind their festivities and celebrations, while I was caught trying to explain why the hell we even have Halloween as a major holiday....

The Latin American culture has Dia de los Muertos, where celebrate the lives of those past away. Spain has Todos los Santos, being a predominately Catholic culture, they celebrate a day for all of the Saints! Do we as Americans even have a reason to celebrate Halloween?

In all honesty, I did have a hard time explaining why Halloween is my favorite holiday. I mean I love the costumes, I love excuses to eat loads of CANDY, and getting a little scared (Only once a year though! Ask anyone, I am NOT GOOD with scary movies).

How do YOU explain "trick or treat"????? I definitely need to do my research..

So in Granada, if you ask any 'older adult' about Halloween, they basically put a sour face on and say how stupid it is. Apparently over here, the adults have NOT adopted this holiday yet. Students our age and younger kids definitely do though! Families like to dress their kids up as typical, chubby pumpkins and do the whole "trick or treat" things. Students though, its a whole 'nother ball game. THEY GO ALL OUT! My favorite part about halloween here: get as creepy as you can. If you even TRY to dress skanky, you'll look like an idiot. (This is one thing I wish our American culture would revert to. Im sick of seeing girls' butts & boobies. Your overexposure is ruining my favorite holiday!!!)

Halloween began for me when I got a box FULL of my favorite goodies from my family:

CONTENTS: A magical hat that fits a child, drawings & painting from my widdle niece Jenna, face paint, pumpkin spice granola bars, laffy taffy, chocolate kisses, MY FAVORITE PRETZEL M&MS, dried berries, Swedish Fish and of course Hocus Pocus!! Check out the box, those Charlie Brown stickers were put on by Jenna; they're from a Halloween book Teddy got her last year!!

Its always been a big holiday at the Blau's house for decorating: Our coffin made from old barn siding, a bleached cow skull that is kept in our basement the rest of the year, corn stalks wrapped in orange lights and wicked house decorations.

Clearly my prime years of cuteness were a long time ago. My cousin Alyssa (who just turned 21!!) is in the princess costume, typical ;) 

My Halloween escapes included: watched Hocus Pocus and fell asleep in a pile of candy wrappers, skipped class to go to a haunted walk (which fell through, whoops!) and got ready at our friend's Abby and Maeve's apartment for a night out!

My scary roommate Molly & scary Jeri

We were trying to be 'in character'...

The flash just made me look soooooooooooooooo creepy!!!!! I love it :)

These weirdos wanted pictures with my girls. This photo kills me though ahhahahahhahah Molly 

"No smile" Molly with Abby the biker and Maeve the sheep/mouse

The flies here are just like the men,

you swat them away but they just keep comin' back!!

I'm not even joking. You can bat at these flies all day long and they don't care, they just keep following you! Same goes for the men, they just don't get it.

So in turn, I just learned to drop the 'Minnesota Nice' act and say it like it is.

'Minnesota Nice' : Smile, hug & bake food for basically anyone ya know eh? Strangers included.

YEAH, DON'T DO THIS IN SPAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

The first week and half I walked around smiling at everyone: little kids, old folks and I even said 'hola' to a few people in passing.

In Spain, when you make eye contact, smile or even say hello to a stranger on the street, it means you want 'more than a friendship' with them.

Now that my roomie Molly reminded me of this cultural difference, I understand why so many old men were grinning ear to ear on my walk to school. Damn it Jerianne.

'Guapa' was taught to us Americanos to mean: good looking, pretty etc. So along with this, about once or twice a day SOMEONE would call me guapa. I took this as "Good job Jeri, you lookin' fine today"









No.

I was suspicious because most days here, I roll out of bed and throw on a pair of running shorts  and go to class for 4 hours in a tiny desk. One day I was about to go for a run, I was stretching against a wall when an older lady came up to me and asked if I knew were some stupid street was. I didn't (since I'm terrible with direction) and she said 'ohhhhh gracias guapa!' and I KNEW RIGHT THEN AND THERE IT DIDNT MEAN PRETTY! I hadn't showered in two days, my hair was in a ratty bun, I didn't have any make up on and was wearing some very unflattering running clothes. So I asked a few people if 'guapa' actually meant "ugly little unwashed weasel" because that's me most days.

'Guapa' here means sweetie or honey or young woman. Again, damn it Jerianne.


Some 'cultural differences' you might want to learn about...

1. Dogs
• A lot of the people here have dogs, but they are ALL small ones. I've seen about 4 big dogs total. Where is the love for my large pups?
• It is totally legal to let your little dog take a big, giant crap in the middle of the street and NOT clean it up. I've come close to stepping in a few steamy piles. 
• Dogs in the city do not need leashes. Beware. 
2. Homelessness
• I live out in the country back in Wisco. Winona, MN (my college town) isn't very big at all so homeless people weren't in my life each day. I am aware of homelessness, don't get me wrong, my sister Adrienne was a volunteer coordinator for homeless shelter in a WI.
• Walking to school I see at minimum 5 homeless folks a day. I'm not really sure what to make of it quite yet. There are homeless people here with cell phones, smoking cigarettes and even hand out lighters (in hopes you will pay them for it). 
• (Particular case I need suggestions for) There is a young homeless man who I see each day. He is very nice and always says good morning to me, though he has never asked me for money. I am my father's daughter (if any of you know my pops, he would probably help you move the sofa you were stealing from his house. Both my parents are almost TOO compassionate.) and I feel that if he is STILL there after my 3 month course here, I'd like to bring him lunch or something. I just don't want to do it now; what if I'm being naive and he ends up following me home or something? Is this wrong?
3. Weed
• I'm not sure if it's legal to smoke or not here. I smell it each day when I walk to school.
• Last week in our last hour of class, 4 boys were smoking weed outside our classroom window. Our professor proceeded to explain the verb "to get high" and the boys started to giggle and covertly blow it into our classroom. This city never gets boring...
• Walking home from class and I ended up turning a corner and almost physically ran into a guy toking it up outside my apartment building. He said 'hola' and I almost lunged into a full sprint to get home.
• Is it legal or is it not? Who knows...
4. Aussie vs. Kiwi
• A few friends from back home, who had studied in Granada, recommended an Irish bar called 'Hannigan's' near our school. It wasn't open for the season yet so we went across the street to Paddy's. They make some really strong drinks at the Irish bars here.
• Paddy himself was bar tending. Since he spoke English, we all flocked for familiar conversation. I found out he went on a cycling trip: 3000 miles in 3 months in the U.S.
• HE BIKED THROUGH MADISON,WI,  THROUGH MY SMALL HOMETOWN AND UP PAST MY COLLEGE IN MINNESOTA! small world..
• At this pub, we met some Aussie boys who were on a vacation trip. By this time I had asked Paddy to turn on a rugby match for his homegirl who misses the game. I was staring at the TV, being totally antisocial when the Aussie boys wanted to talk about rugby. They said they seriously didn't believe that I played rugby, so I told them Kiwis are better. That ended our conversation for the night as well as our short-lived friendship. No regrets.

These are the Aussies - before I told them to "stick it where the sun don't shine" - another famous Randy Blau phrase..

1. No conservative clothing here
• There are butt cheeks for days 
• When we go out at night, I look like I dressed up as a soccer mom compared to all the Spanish ladies (I'm okay with it)
• You cant find shorts here. They are actually just denim granny panties that these girls wear. 
2. Going out at night
• Iphones are realllllllll hot commodities here 
• My phone was pick pocketed
• I have a friend who had her Iphone stolen, she was sent a replacement one and that was stolen at the SAME BAR mine was..
• Pick pocketers are so sneaky here, but we've heard its the worst in Barcelona
• The other night, our professor Javier took the class out to some really local and authentic bars where they had a few drinks and tapas. Javier told us after the final exam tomorrow we can go out for some tapas and few cervesas with him. He's such a funny guy!
• Finding late night (actually EARLY morning, like 5am or 6am) 'drunk munchies' is REALLY hard. My roommate Molly & I discovered a little Shwarma (kebab) place that is cheap and open at 5:30am. SPANISH LIFE COMPLETE!

1. Randoms
• Fanta Limon (lemon flavored fanta, not lemon lime clear soda, LEMON flavored) is worth getting shipped to the U.S.  It's the most delicious soda!
• Our host mama has grandchildren (over 5) and about once a week we have a big family meal with some of them. THEY ARE ALL SO CUTE! Mateo is the 14 month old who is over like 2-3 times a week and he's SO HAPPY all the time!! I want to steal him and bring him home with me. Mateo goes to bed around 10pm or 1030 though. So basically this 14 month old child can stay up later than both my parents. Wow
• Mars Bar?s They are kind of an older candy, but they are really popular here in Spain. I found some Mars Bars flavored ice cream!

We went hiking in Los Cahorros last Saturday morning. My camera is refusing to charge so I stole some bomb pictures from my girl Shelby.

S/O to her blog as well!

 http://killenadventures.blogspot.com.es/

This shot reminds me of one of my fav states from back home, Utah!

One last fact: 

My hometown population: 472 
Granada, Spain: 239,000

I'm liking the big city, but I'm missing: animal contact, fresh country air, quiet nights, leaving doors unlocked, gravel roads, GRASS and cereal with real milk!!!

A typical day as a student in Granada, Spain

- Breakfast: toast & jam every morning at 8:15am. Our host mama is sweet as pie and makes us a little cup of french pressed espresso then goes back to bed. I'm a big breakfast gal so this toast thing, in the words of my father "ain't enough for a rat to eat". 

- Class: After a 20-25 minute walk to our University, I have class from 9am-1pm. This month is our "intensive" class and after 3 more weeks we change classes up. My main man Javier is so goofy and really funny! From the first day you could tell he just LOVES teaching, that's rare to find these days. A different teacher comes in for the last hour, her name is Pilar and she's a clever little lady.

This is my morning walk to class

- Lunch: I am starved until 2:30pm-3:30pm when we eat a MASSIVE lunch. The first day here we had traditional Spanish paella (lots of rice, veggies & meat almost like a casserole) and my host mama heaped about 6lbs of this stuff onto my plate. Paella is so delicious but I could have been buried by the amount she gave me! After the main meal we have "postre" which is spanish for dessert. Fruit, yogurt or pudding have been our usual suspects.

This is a traditional Spanish dish: Torta Espanola or Frittata. It's  simply egg & potato.

- SIESTA: Take a little napski and relax while most stores & businesses shut down until about 5:30pm then reopen for about three hours. During this time I usually roll around on my bed so uncomfortably full of food and catch up talking to everyone back home. From lunch until dinner it is basically free time for me. I don't have practice, don't have a job here and there isn't a whole lot of homework that we get. Relaxation station..

- Workout: Back home I can eat whatever the heck I want because I always had a 2 hour practice filled with sprints, running drills, tackling, stupid burpees and all this after our initial "let's begin practice with a 2-3 mile run where we all just race each other" run. So here I am learning to not HATE running so I don't gain like 60lbs. After a run each day I am basically trying to be the female Jason Statham in my tiny room here doing some squats, push ups and other "prison like" workouts.

- Dinner: LATE....like between 9pm-11pm. We usually have a pasta salad, a soup or maybe a smaller sandwich. My roommate Molly & I really really REALLY lucked out. Our host mama loves to cook and we've been here over a week without a repeated meal! Last night we had our first "ehhh" meal but we were both raised to not be picky and just eat it anyway. Bow tie noodles, pieces of fruit like pineapple, mango, apples, peach, and imitation crab meat all glazed with a sweet mayo sauce....."ehh".

- Week nights: Molly & I usually stay in and hang out, Skype people and do some social media. Pretty simple, pretty laid back.

- WEEKENDS ARE INSANE - 

- Tapas:  This is a tradition that is only alive in only a few cities in Spain! Luckily...Granada hooks us up real nice. You go out for a drink (wine, beer or juice) and most bars/cafes here bring you out free tapas. These are little sample sized portions of different food such as black & green olives, potato salad, bread kind of like appetizer foods. You get a drink & a small portion of delicious munchies for about 2-3 euro ($3-$4). Tapas are traditionally from 9pm-1am ish

Some of the delicious tapas in Granada!

   My roomie Molly is the smiley blonde! We went out with a few girls in the program for tapas and some "Tinto de Verano" - sweet red wine & clear soda!

- Bars: "Chupiterio" = shot bar, shots for 1 euro. From there, my pals and I have found a few discotecas  and we dance until the sun comes up. Seriously though. Clubs here are open til 6am!!!!!!! Molly & I then either cab it or walk home and sleep until lunch the next day. Spainards party hard so I'm doing my part as a Wisconsin girl here in Spain, it's in my heritage.


- Sundays are for sleeping off the hangovers, going to church and then sleeping some more.

          So that's a typical day in Granada. Wooof.

Getting to Granada,Spain with a little hustle and bustle

Long story short:

- Dropped off by my family (Mom, Dad & Adrienne) in Madison,WI to catch a bus at 1:15pm to Chicago.
- 3 hours later I got into the Chicago O'Hare Airport and dropped off my suitcase, which the night before I had to lessen the load by at LEAST 13lbs to make the limit
- Got through security no problem and found my gate
- I got a Mac Don's burger because who knows when I get one of those bad boys again?!
- 1 hour before my flight...IT STARTS STORMING BAD! Black clouds rolled in really fast, rain started pouring by the gallons, and a few gates over there was something bellowing out smoke. The trip took a turn for the worst.
- This was my nightmare. I hate flying.
          - Delayed an hour
- The lady next to me on the plane didn't speak English or Spanish. It was 8.5 hours of silence, movies, music, and reading.
- Finally we landed in London, but because we were an hour behind, they gave the people who were late for their connecting flights this little orange pass for the 'express security lane' and told us "Run as fast as you possibly can to terminal 5. It's on the other side of the airport!!!!!"
- You're kidding me
- Busted my butt with a 40 lbs backpack and one shoulder, and a beach bag plum full on the other for what felt like three miles to security and to terminal 5.
- Got onto my flight for Madrid which, by the way, didn't have air conditioning on at the time
- I was sweating everywhere and had only slept for four hours
- The guy next to me was in college visiting family in Malaga and wouldn't leave me alone, but fortunately I passed out mid conversation, in the most uncomfortable position, for those next two hours.

- This next part was THE hardest thing I've had to in my life.

- Woke up, got off the plane and I was suppose to find the Metro subway. (p.s. I've NEVER been on a subway at this point before, EVER in my life)
- A Russian girl my age came up to me in line with three tickets to the Metro for the day (kind of sketchy) but I trusted her and we got through the gate!!!!! She was traveling on a miniature vacation between semesters of studying Spanish! We talked on the subway and she was absolutely charming.
- We got off the line and had to to part ways. But I was suppose to find another line to catch.I COULDN'T FIND IT FOR THE LIFE OF ME!
- I cried for the first time of many more to come, and asked about three people for help, in Spanish, and they all replied with different way to go to find this line.
- Finally I tracked down two women (one was definitely intoxicated or under the influence) and they told me that they were catching the same subway line too!
- So I followed the high lady and her friend to an elevator, and for a split second I thought I may get jumped. I then said a quick prayer, too nervous to try to say it in Spanish.
- They did in fact get me onto the right subway line, and they prodded me to get off where there was SUPPOSE to be the bus station I was looking for.
- THERE WAS NO BUS STATION!
- I walked up and out of the underground subway with all of my things (suit case, backpack and bag) down the street, almost ready to cry for the third time when I found the station. Hallelujah!!!
- Bought my ticket to the next bus going out to Granada, and my next instructions were to call my semester tour guide through the study abroad program.
- Couldn't find a pay phone so I asked some young girl (I think it was a girl) and she dialed the number for me and graciously let me use her phone.
- FINALLY found my bus to Granada, and five long hours later, saw a strange guy holding a "SOL Study Abroad" sign. He picked me up and took me to my host mother's house!
- Done and finally "home" after 30 hours of travel.
- I found my bed, slept for twelve straight hours and woke up to lunch with my host family and new study abroad roommate. We ate traditional Spanish Paella and now it is siesta time!!

My room for the next 3.5 months: