My attempt to ski & Flamenco show

Hi everyone! I'll try to update more in the coming weeks-- I'm still adjusting to not having internet at home!

Last Tuesday, a lot of people on my program went to a bar called Hannigans to watch Obama's inaguration. The bar is known for playing American football games etc. and we knew that the inaguration would be in English, not dubbed over in Spanish! When I got there, the bar was already full of American students and everyone was shouting excitedly about Obama. It was a lot of fun and really exciting to see the transition, especially with tons of Americans surrounding me. After Hannigans my friends and I went to a few more bars for tapas and had a great night!

Last Friday about 15 of us rented skiis and snowpants, took an hour bus ride to the Sierra Nevada mountains at 8am (I woke up at 6!), and arrived to find that it was pouring and extremely foggy. We anxiously waited to see if the rain would let up, but an hour later the mountain was officialy closed for the day. We were really disappointed, but a few of my friends and I made the best of the situation and hung out with workers in the ski rental shop instead (see pictures!). Hopefully I'll ski at some point this semester since the mountains are so close!

On Saturday I slept late, ate lunch with Maria, and then went shopping with friends in the afternoon. It is sale season in Spain from January-February so we are trying to take advantage! That night everyone on our program went to a Flamenco show at the top of la Albacin and the back of the stage was a glass window where we could see La Alhambra-- it was beautiful! The show was different than I expected but very cool. There were 2 guys playing instruments (1 on the guitar and 1 on the drums), a woman singing, and then a woman actually doing the Flamenco dance. She was so talented and moved her feet so quickly-- it was like tap dancing but much more complicated! After the show, we went out for dinner, to three different tapas bars, and then to Granada 10, a discoteca. We all had a lot of fun!

This week has been going by so fast! I really like my classes and teachers and there is barely any homework which is so different than U of I. I have so much more free time here! I love it! My apartment is great and so is Maria. She takes English and French classes a few times a week so I help her with her English homework and she helps me with my spanish homework too! She's so sweet and always asks if I'm comfortable and enjoying myself.

Tomorrow night I'm taking a midnight bus to Madrid and then flying to Lisbon, Portugal for the weekend! I'm so excited! I'm going with 3 other friends and we're all looking forward to our first trip in Europe.

I hope you are all doing well! I'll write again when I return from Portugal!