Three Weeks and Four Countries Later...

Hola Everyone!

So much has happened since I last posted...I've been to 4 other countries, met a group of 60 new students, and have officially started my fall semester...whew!!!! All I have to say is that this post is going to be longer than most. So where shall I start?

I've decided to divide this posting into different parts to make it easier for your to read over a series of days. There's some interesting stuff in the stories I'm about to tell, so you don't have to read it all at once, but read it (that's an order)!

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Part 1: Situation in Granada


Finally the two awaited housemates have arrived! Their names: Vanessa and Bethany. Both of them are wonderful, but I have officially only spent about 5 days with them, so we have a lot more bonding to do over the course of the next 2 months. It's really good to know that they have the same lifestyle that I do...they don't really go out to bars and clubs a lot, so our weekend activities will continue to follow the innocent lifestyle I'm used to at home.


Carmina, my senora...still very moody and still known to take her stress out on the people around her, but the good thing now...she has 3 people instead of 1 to take her stress out on! Another good thing...I can retire to my room, or the room of Bethany and Vanessa, to vent about the situation. Nice thing numero 2: I can tell that because my level of Spanish is a little bit higher than Bethany and Vanessa's (due to the fact that I've been here one month longer than either one of them), I am favored in the conversations. So...senora = good most of the time...dragon the rest of the time (but a dragon whose fire is not as hot as it used to be).


Also, my classes have started here! I love every single one of them. I'm taking a POE (Oral and Written Spanish), Islamic Culture and History in Spain, Present Day Spain and Islam, Spanish History (Franco-Present), and 20th Century Literature. All of my professors are incredible and the information that I am learning is exactly what I came here to learn. From the two classes on Islam, I am getting the exact knowledge about my religion that I hoped to acquire from here, and from the rest of my classes, I am definitely developing the higher level Spanish skills that I want to leave Spain with. The hardest thing: I am trying to take my notes in Spanish...writing a million miles per minute while trying to remember vocabulary words from high school is definitely a difficult task to accomplish, but it is pushing me to improve my Spanish poco a poco.


I'm going to start volunteering with the homeless next week. I am SO excited!!! A group of people from the organization will meet in some of the most dangerous parts of Granada to walk through the streets and talk to the homeless. Because Spain has a socialist infrastructure, everyone is given housing that wants it. The homeless here CHOOSE to be homeless. The job of this organization is to provide them with the blankets, food, medicine, water, etc they might need, especially with winter approaching so quickly. I know that this opportunity is going to do wonders for my Spanish as I will be walking with a group of Spaniards to meet with the homeless + I will be talking to the homeless in Spanish. I know that this is stepping out of the box for me...walking through the shadiest parts of Granada, meeting with people that can at times be aggressive, but that's what I'm here to do...push myself and really learn. There is a quote by Mother Teresa that I will never forget...if we want to witness the presence of God, we nearly need to share tender moments with those around us. Every time I work with the homeless, this quote is verified in my mind. I feel that the lives they live, the stories of how a human life can be destructed, they are stories that have so much to tell not only about the people that tell them, but about humanity in general. ANYWAYS, I'm super pumped and ready to get back to a life that isn't solamente para mi.



Another exciting thing that happened to me today was that I found a place where I can take Indian classical dance lessons! The most ironic thing about the situation was that the night previous I was talking to my best friend Tanvi, telling her that I feel that I have two skills I hope to achieve in my life 1) Reading and writing Urdu and 2) Learning how to classical Indian dance...and *wa la*...there it was, a poster advertising a dance studio that teaches classical Indian dance! I'm going to be giving them a call today and getting myself ready for hopefully starting on acquiring one of the skills of my list. Oh sometimes God is just too wonderful to me :).



I'm also going to be going to the city of Cordoba this weekend. One of the most beautiful and known mosques from the Moorish times is in Cordoba. The pillars of this mosque are like candy canes and I remember seeing a picture of the mosque when I was 10 years old and wanting to go ever since...of course at the age of 10 it was because it reminded me of a stick of peppermint (yummy yummy)...but it has developed into an appreciation for its magnificance and beauty. So there you go! Another life time dream being achieved!!!


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Part II: My 10 Day Backpacking Trip Across Europe



This is going to be a very long post... I traveled for 10 days across France, Switzerland, and Italy. To begin with, we took a bus from Granada to Madrid at 9:00 PM, a 5 hour bus ride that got us to Madrid at 2:00 AM. In Madrid, something amazing happened. It was 4 other girls and me and we had no idea how we were going to get from the Madrid bus station to the Madrid airport. Me and Kyla (one of the girls I was traveling with) went and asked the bus driver how we could get to the airport...do you know what he did!?!?! He told us that he would take us in the same bus that he had driven from Granada to the terminal we needed to be at...and he did. Of course we tipped him a little, but it was no where near anything we would have had to pay for a taxi to the airport. It's situations like those that make me remember that the world is still a very good place.

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Paris:



We arrived in Paris about 7:00 AM, went to our hostel, put our bags down, and were out exploring. The city was more beautiful than I can ever describe. We went to the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, St. Chapelle, Champs Elyess, and Arc de Triumph. One of the most funny/horrible experiences I had was on the very first day. Kyla, Angela, and Andrea decided that we should do a bike tour which I was completely up for...seeing as I had learned how to ride a bike once when I was 13. It did not take me a very long time on the bike to realize that one week of riding a bike in a person's life is not sufficient for that person to brave the streets of Paris with a big group of people. I ran into 6 trees, over 8 people's feet, and into 2 barbed wire fences...definitely not the best experience of my life. On top of that, there was a guy that was appointed as the "back guide" or the person that had to stay with the people in the back of the group to make sure that they didn't get lost. The poor guy...he was pushing my bike to get me started and helping me off of the ground multiple times throughout the night. At the time, I was horrified with embarassment but looking back on it, it's a story to tell :-P. We did the bike tour the night we got to Paris (a boat ride was included), so it gave us a good overview of the city.



The next day is when we went to Notre Dame, strolled down the Champs Elyess, andtook an elevator up the Eiffel Tower. Kyla, Andrea, and Angela didn't want to go up in the towers of Notre Dame, but I did, and it was definitely worth the 4.80 euro I paid to do so. I felt JUST like Quisimoto from the Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney version)!!!! I saw the gargoyles and everything :D.



Strolling down the Champs Elyess made me realize why people reference Paris as one of the most romantic cities in the world. Anyone out there trying to find a good honeymoon spot, put Paris in your list of cities to choose from because it is all that it is made out to be. At the end of the Champs Elyess sits the Arc de Triumph, another amazing site. We reached there right about sunset, and it was absolutely breathtaking to see the sun set behind its large arc.



Going up the Eiffel Tower was quite the experience as well. It was so surreal to stand beneath it, thinking of the multiple times I had seen it in pictures or on tv...and to know that I was about to set foot inside of it. We went at night, when Paris, the city of lights, was really shining.



Our third and final day in Paris was jam packed with seeing the Louvre (one of the largest buildings I have ever seen), St. Chapelle, and returning to the Eiffel Tower for our final good byes. I will have you all know that the Mona Lisa is definitely not all that it is made out to be. It was quite the disappointment seeing the little painting hanging on the wall. As for the rest of the Louvre, it was absolutely amazing. I did feel quite uncultured, however, as I strolled through the art galleries with no idea of the importance of any of the pieces I saw before me.



St. Chapelle was incredibly breathtaking. It was very small (one room), but it is definitely one the my favorite cathedrals. The walls were completely made from stained glass and when the sun shone through the different colored glass, the result was magnificent.



After finishing St. Chapelle we took a metro over to the Eiffel Tower, sat and stared at it for the final time, and were on our way to Geneva, Switzerland!


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Switzerland:



Before I say anything else, I have one thing to say: Switzerland was my favorite country of the three we visited. It was incredibly clean (although very very expensive), incredibly beautiful, and the people were incredibly nice.



Our first day in Switzerland was spent in the international home to the United Nations, Geneva. We explored the streets, wandering in and out of parks and shops, watching life pass us by. While Paris was amazing, it was nice to go to the laid back atmosphere of Geneva where we were not rushing from one historic site to another. One of my favorite places in Geneva was a park where there were life size checker and chess boards set up (like Harry Potter!!!!). Every board was full of wonderfully interesting old men intensely moving large chess pieces.

One crazy thing did happen to us though...when we got to Geneva it was past midnight and we were able to get on the final tram from the airport to go to the hostel. "The problem?", you ask. Well, we had no idea how the tram system worked or where our hostel was. So there we were, on a deserted automatic tram, with no idea what part of town we were in, not able to see any street signs and with absolutely no clue if the tram was going to stop and turn off at any moment. Well, thank God that the stop that we decided we should get off at was a 10 minute walk away from our hostel. Oh the adventures of backpacking...

The next day we went to Interlaken, the most amazing place I have ever been to in my life. It was a little town located in a valley of the Alps between two lakes. We took a train and a cable car up to the Alps and hiked down one of the most magnificent trails I've ever been on. Here we encountered another problem...the sun was setting very quickly but we thought we could manage to walk to the town below where we could get a train back to our hostel. So we thought, "Hey, let's not get the cable car back and keep walking." What we didn't know? 1) The sun sets very very quickly once it starts setting 2) The hike left in front of us was through a dense forest, down a very steep mountain...and of course we had no flashlights. Well, it was quite the adventure hiking down this mountain in pitch blackness, and of course I had to go the bathroom because that's just how my life manages to work. On top of this all, I was wearing 20 layers of clothing (no joke), and I did not want to find a deserted place in the woods to use the bathroom where it would take me 2 hours just to get to the bottom of all those layers of clothes. I did manage to fall down the side of the mountain and get an awesome souvenier battle scar on my hand which I still have! It was a great adventure and I am glad to tell you that we got back safe and sound.

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Italy:

After Switzerland we were off to Rome! How do I describe Rome? Because pictures speak louder than words I'll name an image that you can see in your head and you'll know how Rome was: garbage can. Okay right...so maybe it wasn't THAT bad, but it was definitely one of the dirtiest places I've been to in the Western world. What was amazing about Rome, however, was the vast amounts of history there. In the two days that we were there we saw the Colosseum, the ruins of the ancient city (the Roman Forum, Palantine Hill), Vatican City (Sistene Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica), Trevi Fountain, and the Pantheon. Also while we were there it rained every single day.

Another thing to say about Italy is that the food in Italy is definitely not what it was made out to be. For those of you in Arkansas, Noodles is still the best place I know to fulfill that Italian food craving.

Nothing too exciting happened to us in Rome. We were safe and intelligent as we had conquered the art of backpacking by this point. What we did encounter was a hostel in which the bathrooms were constantly flooded with toilet water (not fun) and where the showers were co ed (also quite the hassel). We made it with our innocence in tact and our feet dry from the horrible toilet water.

And FINALLY, we went to Venice. Now about Venice...it was definitely a lot better than Rome. There are no cars in Venice so we were free to stroll through the streets without the fear of being killed by crazy European moterists. It was a relaxing end to the trip where we went in and out of shops, took a cruise down the canals of Venice in the vaporetti (water taxi), and reflected on the ten days we had spent together.

And there you go! That is the end to a wonderful 10 days...full of adventure and fun. To see the pictures from this trip you can just click here.
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Part IV: Morocco!

Two days after we got back from this 3 countries in 10 day extravaganza we left for our trip to Morrocco. In Morocco we went to the city of Fes, the Sahara desert, and Meknes. Every part of the trip was full of memorable experiences.

We left Granada at 4 AM in a bus loaded with tired 20-24 year olds. What we weren't aware of as the bus roared to life was what was in store for us in the Meditteranean. It took us 4 hours to reach the ferry that we would have to take to cross from Europe into Africa. It was exactly at this point that the gray clouds above us let lose their fury and a major storm hit the waters of the Mediterranean. Me being me slept through the entire ferry ride, except for a moment when a huge wave crashed into the side of the ferry, forcing it to tilt immensely to one side. My fellow ISAnians were not so lucky. Half of the group was in the bathroom throwing up while the others were holding on for dear life, praying to see the other side of the shore. Good news: I'm here and I'm alive (but barely).

*Note: We later found out that because one person died out on the sea, the remaining ferrys for the day were canceled. Whew, weren't we lucky!?!

After that the entire remaining 13 hour bus ride consisted of a bus of students, green in the face, traveling the country side of Morocco.

About Morocco, it was amazing. It was nice to be in a land where I could again hear the azan (call to prayer for Muslims) as I can in Pakistan. Actually, the country in general reminded me of Pakistan. It was fun to bargain with the shopkeepers, to have to move for donkeys coming down the street, and to meet people full of hospitality.

In the first city of Fes, we traveled to the medina (city center), the oldest medina in the country. The streets were so narrow that no cars could be seen. There were over 12,000 streets! We had to be careful to follow the group because once we were lost, it meant that we would have to marry a Moroccon man, have children, learn Arabic, and settle in the medina as no one was ever going to find us :-P.

In Fes we went to a traditional pharmacy (with herbs), a clothing store, a carpet store, and a tannery (where they make leather items). The whole experience gave us a brief but enjoyable look into the lives of Moroccans.

The next day we left for the Sahara desert...seriously kids, I camped for the first time in my life...IN THE SAHARA DESERT. What I'm about to say next will show you how out of luck we were...when we got into our camel wool tents (very smelly), all hell broke lose and it started to rain...in the desert. I kid you not! It was not a little drizzle...it was a full fledge rain storm. I ,as always slept through it, but the poor girls in the tent with me had not been as lucky as me in choosing their sleeping spot. They had managed to sleep under huge leaks in the tent, leading to a wet and cold sleepless night for them all. So, the one day of the year that it rains in the desert is when we were there. THEN, we woke up the next day bright and early to see the sunrise, but of course we didn't see much of anything due to the clouds...oh how lucky we are :).

Regardless, it was an incredible experience. Because the bus could not go into the part of the desert where our campsite was, we took 4 x 4 jeeps through the beautiful sand dunes of the Sahara. There we stayed for 2 days, gathering in the food tent to eat (and complain about the camel smell and rain), rode camels to a large sand dune where we sand sledded (same as sledding in the snow), and rode into a tiny town where we got to meet the people and shop in their shops. The first night we were there, we met a guy our age from the nomadic tribe of the desert called the Berbers (they were the ones overseeing our campsite), who brought out some drums and had me play with him. It was so fun to play the drums again! I had an amazing time and we all danced and played drums. The next night was the actual dance party. A Berber band came and all of Yousef's friends (the guy that I had played drums with the night before) taught us how to dance.

It was an incredible night.

Finally, we left the desert (somewhat to my relief as the bathrooms were disgusting and the shower was freezing cold water drizzling over your body which was only covered by a flimsly curtain out in the open desert). We made our way to Meknes. On our way to Meknes, I experienced something that definitely left its mark on my heart.

In the mountains of Morocco live many people that were previously able to find sustenance in the land on which they lived, but as the years have passed, the money that once used to cover the expenses they needed to live, now is able to barely buy the bare essentials. They have nothing. Before going to Morocco our directors told us we would be stopping in a place where we would see such people and that we should bring as much as we could to give to them...so I bought some food to give. When we actually encountered these people, I felt embarrassed of myself as I handed the sole bag of food I had purchased to a lady clad in mismatched ragged clothing holding a child with large eyes that peered at me from a face covered with dirt, shivering from the extreme cold of the mountains. She smiled as she took my offering, but I knew that it was a smile of relief that for that ONE day she would not have to worry about how to feed her child.

I looked around me and felt proud of our directors. They had brought bags upon bags of clothing and food to give to these people. As I looked out over a cliff of the mountain I saw a small figure running from over a kilometer away. As the figure came closer, I saw the shape of a small child, no more than five in age, stumbling barefooted over the jagged rocks of the mountains as he tried to reach the bus in time to get some part of the goods we had brought. I saw him fall multiple times, but he continually got up and continued to run. Finally, when he reached the base of the cliff, he began to climb frantically where he was helped by a woman. The persistence of the child...the pain of running a distance that most of us never could...it showed me how much in need he was, and how important it is to give, to give to those that have much less than what we have...how important it is to feel blessed for what we have.

After this stop we finally reached Meknes where we only stayed one night. There a guy named Chris studying with ISA in Meknes met us in the hotel and was sweet enough to show a small group of us around. Because it was at night, we walked around deserted streets, but it was still fun to compare the more modern Meknes with the more traditional Fes.

Pictures will be posted soon
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And there you go! THE END! That is an account of my life in the past 3 weeks. Very very long, I know, but if you have gotten here, I congratulate you and give you a big hug for caring so much about my life.

Please keep commenting/e-mailing/facebook messaging. I miss you all tons and tons and I can't wait to come home and give everyone a hug.

Tons of love,
A typed out me