Going out with a bang!

Once upon a time, there was a little blonde girl arriving in a new city, trying to make new friends and survive for four whole months with a new family.  On her first day driving to orientation with her Spanish Dad, Tinin, her hands were shaking and her mind was racing.  The first calming words she heard came from him, "Estas nerviosa? No te preocupes, vas a estar bien." Very simple, yet so helpful.  Then she walked into a room with 32 new face, 32 new possibles friends, 32 different & unique stories just waiting to be heard.  The first night of partying was incredible, it was a whole new world of no last call, party until the sunrises, and best of all no english (minus the americans)!  Then came day 2....the tired trudging around the new campus and then trying to look presentable (minus the shower) for the new family, and what's this? Their dog!  The first day of school happened so fast, then the routine settled in, the friends were made, the trips started to be planned and a whole world of opportunities sat at her fingertips.  She became comfortable with her family and learned about the culture & politics at the lunch table.  Then all of the sudden more than half of the group was leaving, she couldn't believe time had gone by so fast.  She was sad, but thought, one month seems like forever! Alas, the day has come, my last day of school, complete with two mindwreckingly difficult exams (that, don't worry Mom, I'm sure I passed).  All that I have left now are feelings of confused bewilderment, how is it possible that I am getting on a plane to go home already? At the same time though I think, how have I survived this long being so far away from my family, I can't wait to go back home! So there it is, I'm done and all that's left to do is party like a rock star for my last two nights in Spain.

Discovering my new twin

1492- Not just the year that Columbus sailed the ocean blue.  For those of you who haven't extensively studied Spanish history and who may not have much interest, I'll keep my nerd facts brief.  Granada (one of the most historically culturally diverse cities) was conquered by los Reyes Catolicos, Queen Isabel & King Ferdinand, on 2 January 1492.  The Muslim ruler, Emir Muhammad XII (a.k.a. Boabdil) surrendered the city.  Shortly after that, in 1499, all of the Muslims and Jews were forced to convert or leave.  This was an act of Isabel's with the intention to unify Spain under one religion.
As Mattias was driving us the 20 km from Granada to Sierra Nevada early on Friday morning, he told us that the former Muslim ruler, Boabdil, was buried in the tallest mountain.  After our previous trip to Granada & seeing where the Catholic kings were buried, it was very cool to find out that just a few kilometers away lay another great ruler.  Fast forward to around the 1940s and what not so great ruler was dictator of Spain? Franco.  He transformed the naturally dry, bare mountains into a forest of pine trees.  As you can guess, when a plant is not native to an area, it can cause a lot of problems.  The pine seeds spread all over the mountain, resulting in tremendous forests of really weird looking trees.  The pine trees are incredibly tall, but surprisingly bare.  In the spirit of Christmas, think Charlie Brown trees...and lots of them!

Gracie and I started our trip on Thursday afternoon with a four hour car ride into the city (via blablacar.com a great, cheap way to travel all around the globe--heads up fellow students).  Right in the center of the city near our hostel there was a Christmas fair going on, but we were really craving some Moroccan tea & food (you know, when in Granada right?), so we found a nice Teteria (literally house of tea) and dug into some delicious vegetable couscous.  We got a good night's sleep and woke up before the sun to go meet our ride to the mountain, Mattias.  It was about a 30 minute ride up steep & windy roads, but it was so beautiful! When we got to the mountain they suited us up in rental clothes & boards and we rode the gondola up to what we thought was the top.  Not! These mountains are HUGE! It was snowing on the middle part of the mountain, so we were all excited...until we got to the top & couldn't see anything.  It was so snowy & foggy, it was crazy.  But hell we didn't go to sit in the lodge, so we got soaking wet & freezing cold, and had the best time.  At one point I couldn't see and I was leading, so I figured, yeah I'll just follow the lift!  I plowed into a huge snow bank, probably around 5 ft of snow and then Gracie plowed into it behind me.  We were laughing and eating snow, literally the only ones on the run.  I could have stayed there forever and made a snowman, but we decided it'd be safer to head to the bottom portion of the mountain.  That night we got some wine & stayed in, a guy from Wales serenaded our dinner at the hostel, then we hit the hay exhausted around 11.  The next day was absolutely perfect and gorgeous.  The sun was shining, it was a balmy 13 degrees and no blustering winds!  I took a venture and asked the rental guys for nicer boards and they gave us practically new, matching boards.  Ok guys....here's the picture of me and my long lost twin, Gracie.

Don't you just love the candy cane boards? So we headed back on the night bus on Saturday night and when we got in around 5:30 am there were still people out partying, of course! There ends one of the greatest adventures of my time here in Spain. Now all that's left is a lot of reading, a lot of papers, and two exams that total 6 hours in one day, then I'll be home before I know it.