I'm FREEZING and I Can't Even Dance :(

Hola All!

Okay so I've been a bad girl again...I think it's been over a week now that I haven't posted (oddles of sorryness to you all). So what has happened in my life since then...

Dance Classes:

You allllll must be aware of how freaking excited I was about taking my classical Indian dance class. The last time I posted I was about to attend the real classical dance class (not the weird Eastern theater dance crap). It took me 45 minutes in freezing cold, rainy weather to walk to the dance studio. When I got there, there was absolutely nobody there. I waited about 15 minutes (knowing that the Spanish are always late), and finally the teacher of the class arrived and uttered these horrible words, "Nobody else in Granada is interested in this class. We're going to have to cancel it."

You all, I kid you not when I say that a tear came into my eye. MY DREAM...DESTROYED!?!?!?! Okay...so maybe that's a tad bit dramatic, but I really was very upset about it. It's a week later and I've decided that I'm over it. I didn't want to learn how to classical Indian dance...I'll just save that for my time in India (psh...yeah, I'm just going to keep telling myself that :( :( :(

Weather:

And yes I am really going to talk about the weather (I've lived with a 73 year old woman for the past 3 months...what do you expect?!?!?!). It is so freaking cold here. My senora is NEVER cold even when it is freaking 40 degrees, wet, and cold outside. She walks around like it's 100 degrees...so that means that the heater in our house is NEVER on (which is not much better than when it will be on because I was informed there are only 2 hours of the day allotted to heating and then the rest you must suffer from frostbite).

Bethany, Vanessa, and I literally put our hats, gloves, scarves, and winter coats on when we come INTO the house. The thing is that we have to walk so much here (and my entire walk to school is completamente uphill) that one gets hot walking... When we come into our freezer aka home, we rush to our rooms to bundle up for the frigid weather inside (yeah, I know, how ridiculous does this sound).

You all, I SLEEP with long underwear, my pjs, my fleece jacket, my scarf, and my hat on...oh gosh, I feel like I'm an eskimo in training and will be ready to live in Anarctica by the time I leave here (next study abroad experience...here I come!) OH and if I haven't mentioned, windows in Spain are never insulated and I have a huge freaking window in my room that allows tons of cold air through *sigh* *sigh*.

Okay I think I've complained enough :-P

Volunteering:

I started my volunteering last Wednesday. I feel as though I have never learned so much from one night in my life, as I did Wednesday night. I met up with a group composed completely of Spaniards (this is probably the best intercambio Spanish speaking experience I've had in addition to living with my Gabby Gail senora). The only Americans were me and Kelly(both from the ISA study abroad program). We instantly set off on the routine walk through Granada, carrying a bag of food, blankets, and thermoses of coffee, soup, and hot chocolate to offer to those shivering from the frigid night air.

I met so many people that night...men destroyed by alcohol and drugs...immigrants struggling to create a new life in another country...old men driven crazy by doings of life. I met one young gypsy family that had immigrated from Romania. They already had 6 children and the wife was pregnant. Three of their children they had left behind with their grandparents in Romania. When I asked what the reason was for their having such a large family, they answered that they only had one daughter and were trying to have another. What I was made to understand later was that the desire for a daughter did not stem from the mere pleasure of having another girl in the family, but it stemmed from the fact that wives are bought in Romania (by the gypsies) and because they would have to purchase their 5 sons wives, they would need an equal ratio of girls to sell to marriage in order to have their sons be married.

I also met another man that had been addicted to heroine. He told me that the Spanish government's solution to heroine addicts is supplying them with a free drug that is a crude form of heroine, meaning that it has the same exact effect on the person but is easier to produce. The reasoning for this? It is cheaper for the government to supply drug addicts with this drug than to deal with the crimes committed by addicts in need of money to purchase drugs. I was absolutely shocked! Instead of trying to rehabilitate this people, the government was feeding their self destructive habits. In the group of Spaniards volunteering with me was a very nice guy that is actually a medical student. He told me that it costs a lot of money to rehabilitate drug addicts and therefore this was the solution the Spanish government had come up with.

I'll leave you to think of this what you will...

Teterias:

I have decided that my favorite places in the entire world are teterias. These are Moroccan tea shops located throughout Granada, set in an Arabic ambiance with low lighting, cushions, and HEATING. Unlike in the EEUU (Estados Unidos aka America), once you're done dining, you are not rushed out by any means.

It's so relaxing to get a cute baby teapot of tea (out of the collection of literally over a 100 teas offered) and sit and talk with friends. ALSO, on Monday and Tuesdays you are given a free nutella crepe with your purchase (nutella = Europe's gift to the world of hazelnut chocolate spread)...and we all know that free is NEVER a bad thing.

I'm going to miss teterias :(.

Speaking of missing things, I will be done with my study abroad experience in 5 weeks! Like I've always said, I'm loving it here, but I am so excited to come home and see everyone. I even registered for my classes yesterday (yay for getting all the classes I wanted!!!), and the stress of a normal semester of too much to handle reading, projects, and essays is already starting to enter my mind. Oh and then I have a dragon that needs slaying...a big bad green ugly ugly dragon with smelly fiery breathe...aka the MCAT :(.

OH and guess what I'm going to be doing this weekend? I'm roadtripping with my housemates across Spain and Portugal! I know, I am quite the adventurer, aren't I? We're renting a car and driving to Faroh and Lisbon in Portugal. Wish us luck!

I'm also going to be going to Ireland two weekends from now...amidst all of this I will be having midterms in the next two weeks (this means I have to remember how to study again).

I think that's enough for today!

YAY for Obama being our new president :).

Much love,
Eskimo Amen