Why is Granada so beautiful?

Palabra del día: Llorar

Translation: to cry

It's not going to be easy to leave Granada in three days... I've already cried about it six times!

Comida del día: Quinoa lentil salad.  A variation on this recipe: http://www.nomsforthepoor.com/2014/03/jerusalem-inspired-quinoa-salad.html
This is definitely one of the highlights of things I've cooked this semester.  Although as the semester got busier, I started surviving on a lot of pasta, eggs, sandwiches and salads, so maybe it doesn't have that much competition?  Either way, it was absolutely delicious.  I had lots of lentils so I used those instead of chickpeas, and I also skipped out on some of the herbs.  I did use cilantro which made it super yummy and gave me an excuse to make lots of guacamole the next day to use up the extra.

Foto del día: 

One last Alhambra photo.  Are you sick of looking at it yet? I'm definitely not.  I took this photo after a wonderful day of hiking on the paths above the Alhambra with my friend Rebecca.  I also discovered a new garden next to the Alhambra that had towers, ducks and beautiful views.  It's hard to believe that there are parts of Granada that I still haven't seen after all of this time!

I'd like to start by sharing two "Only in Granada" moments that I experienced within hours of each other last week.  First, I went to an end of the year party at the elementary school where I did my internship and there was a bar with beer on tap set up on the patio.  Can you imagine a bar with alcohol at an elementary school party in the US?  Only in Spain.  The second moment was later that day when I went for a run and saw a man just casually riding his horse down the street.

I have three days left of my year in Granada, and I'm not at all ready to go.  But I'm going to avoid that subject for now (look out for another blog post in a day or two about that depressing topic) in order to update you about all of the recent fun activities I've been up, since I've been fully taking advantage of my dwindling time in Granada by enjoying my time with the beautiful weather, landscapes and people that I'm so sad to be leaving.  Here's the highlights of the last month, summarized into a nice bullet-pointed list with plenty of photos to facilitate easy-reading and avoid the boredom that is often caused by reading trivial details about someone else's life:

• My theater class went to a puppet show in the puppetier's a small pueblo (village) called Conchar, and first we got to walk around, enjoy the views, and pick oranges off of trees. 

                                               

• Finally went to a Spanish fútbol game! Granada lost, but it was still fun, and we could see the mountains from the stadium!

• We had a four day weekend and for once I wasn't traveling, so I took a "staycation" and went on a few day trips.  First I went to a town called Quentar and hiked to a giant reservoir, then swam to a cave, then hiked back.  What an adventure!   I also went to a town called Guadix which has a very large neighborhood in which all of the houses are built into caves.  Unfortunately, there wasn't much else to see in Guadix and we had to kill three hours in cafes waiting for our bus home.  The third day I spent at the beach, and the fourth day was a festival in Granada called Día de las cruces (Day of the crosses) in which the whole city was out on the streets and many patios were decorated with flowers and crosses on display.

The cave that we swam to at the Quentar reservoir.

Decorated patio for the Day of the Crosses

• We had an international dinner in the Party Piso, with people and food from Spain, Morocco, Italy, the Czech Republic, the US, Mexico, Armenia, and I'm probably forgetting somewhere!  It's been an amazing experience to make friends this year with people from so many different cultures.

My friend Anna from the Czech Republic made a wide variety of delicious cookies which she said she always eats at Christmastime.

• I went on the IES field trip to Cabo de Gata, which I had done last semester as well, but this semester we went for two days instead of one.  The first day was a long hike and the second day we spent relaxing on the beach, doing yoga, and kayaking.  And I was thrilled to get the opportunity to look at this view again! 

• I also went hiking one weekend with my friend Silvia, my internship supervisor Carlos, and another teacher from the school where I did my internship.  The hike was beautiful, of course. 

• While on the hike, we started talking to Carlos about the pueblo where his family lives, and then he mentioned he was going there that very day and invited us to come along!  Of course we took him up on the offer.  The pueblo is called Iznájar and is about an hour from Granada.  It is definitely the most beautiful pueblo I have seen in this area.  It has the biggest reservoir in Andalucía and is surrounded by olive trees, with the main part of the town built on a hill and consisting of the typical small white houses that are in many of Andalucía's hill towns.  Carlos was incredibly generous to show us his home and introduce us to some friends and family.  Our first night there we watched the sun set over of the reservoir, and the next day we hung out on the beach, went kayaking, and went for a walk to see gorgeous views of the town and the reservoir.  Before visiting Iznájar, I couldn't understand why Carlos would leave Granada every weekend to go home to a tiny pueblo, but now I'm incredibly jealous that he has the opportunity to be in such a beautiful and relaxing place so frequently and I've been wishing I could go back.

Spending time with Carlos also gave us a chance to talk about our internship experiences and the Spanish education system in general, since in the midst of all of these fun activities and beautiful views, I also managed to finish up my classes and my internship, take exams, and write final papers.  It still amazes me how little I've had to study this year, and I know that with my full WashU course load next year I'm going to be in for quite a shock.  Even so, I still managed to learn a few things in my classes, especially about the Spanish education system.  With my internship, I got to see firsthand how an elementary school works here, and I also had the opportunity to take two drastically different classes at the University of Granada.  I didn't notice too many differences between elementary schools in the US and Maristas, but I did learn that the options for schooling are a bit different.  Just like in the US, there are private and public schools, but Maristas falls somewhere in between: it is funded by both the government and a private foundation, in this case a religious one called the Maristas Brothers, so some of the teaching ideology is Catholic.  Within the school, one of the biggest differences I noticed was that when teachers give feedback to students, they often say, "Muy mal!" ("Very bad!"), which is the kind of feedback that in the US would have kids crying and parents on the phone to the principal.  This probably fits in with one of the cultural differences I've written about before, which is that Spanish people tend not to sugarcoat things - they tell it like it is, and apparently this starts at a young age.

I also learned about the Spanish education system through my music education class at the University of Granada.  This class was actually a bit of a joke: we had hardly any work and therefore I barely learned anything, although this was partly due to the fact that the people in the class didn't know anything about music, so the class focused on learning basic music rather than learning how to teach music, which is what I had hoped to learn.  I was confused why this class ended up being so much easier than the music history course I took last semester, and it turns out that classes vary widely depending on what school they are in: the history course was in the school of Filosofía y letras (history, literature, etc.) while the music education course was in the education school.  Apparently, Spanish students take exams in the middle of high school, and their scores on these exams affect which school they are allowed to study in for college.  For example, people with the highest scores can study medicine, and people with lower scores can't.  The education school has some of the lowest score requirements, so the students end up being less bright and the classes less challenging.  In my opinion, it should be the opposite: we need smart teachers to teach the next generation because they create the future.  But apparently teaching is not highly valued, similar to the US where although we don't have exams to determine who can study what, people are often deterred from teaching because of low salaries, and being a teacher is generally not considered one of the most highly respected professions.

So although my classes weren't all that challenging, I enjoyed the opportunity to learn firsthand about the Spanish education system and to experience a university class that was the complete opposite from my class there last semester.  After having both of these experiencies, it makes me think that there has to be a middle ground somewhere... but I think I'd rather go back to taking WashU classes, despite all of the hard work that is necessary, than attempt to find a class that suits me at the University of Granada.  My internship also helped me to think about whether teaching is something I would like to do in the future.  I enjoyed spending time with kids, although I realized that in terms of teaching I would rather teach older kids (I worked mostly with first and second graders) so that I can focus more on the material and less on behavior.  The two music classes I helped out with were definitely my favorites, so it was nice to learn that teaching music is something I enjoy.  In addition to teaching, this year abroad has also caused me to consider ethnomusicology as a career option, since I've loved learning about Spanish music through playing in the band and taking flamenco guitar and dance lessons.

• Annnddd finally, one more day trip: my friend Annie left last Sunday (sob) and before she left her parents came to visit for a few days.  They rented a car and my friends Silvia, Rebecca and I got to go with them on a day trip to the Alpujarra mountain towns and then back to the Quentar reservoir.  Yet another opportunity to enjoy the beauty of Southern Spain, with some great friends.  These are some people that I am definitely going to echar de menos!