tenemos un dia de perros

...meaning it's raining today. bummer. Well, today on the way to class I learned that basically it's not socially acceptable to walk around with a rainjacket (especially if it's bright green) with the hood on, but rather you should use an umbrella instead...especially if you're female. That's just too bad, because i'm wearing my rainjacket...Also, I am quickly picking up (after being told by my professors and experiencing it firsthand) that Spaniards, and especially Granadinos, are snotty, stuck up, difficult to approach, and even harder to avoid being run into by one of them on the sidewalk, because they OWN the sidewalk. And when you combine people who won't move out of your way, with people carrying umbrellas, you get pushed off the sidewalk, and/or nearly poked in the eye with the umbrella numerous times. fun.

Aside from snotty Spaniards, we went to the Albaicin a few days ago, and to the Alhambra yesterday on guided tours. The Albaicin is the old Muslim community from back in the time when Muslims ruled Granada, up through los reyes catolicos, and beyond. Basically, it's a large, expansive neighborhood, full of houses of old and beautiful architecture, white houses, tiny, windy, cobblestone roads, and beautiful views out over other parts of Granada. From one point in the Albaicin, in a plaza that seemed to be a pretty popular hippy hangout spot, we got an amazing view of the Alhambra, which leads me into the visit we had yesterday. To begin, the Alhambra is the big, old Muslim fortress that the Muslims used, and which served as a city for a period of time for the Muslims in Granada when the Christians were invading. Before going to the Alhambra, I knew it was big, but mannnnn, it's HUGE!!! It's divided into different sections...the ones I remember are: the Alcazaba (i think...), which is the military part of it, consisting of underground prisoner cells, and a tall torre for looking out to the entrance and exit of the city to keep an eye out for Christians or any other invader; los palacios, which was where we spent the majority of our time, and just mesmerized me...there are 3 palacios in the Alhambra, and they're all meticulously built and decorated on the inside with beautiful Arabic art and words and designs just completely covering the walls, poles, ceilings, etc., which is really cool because on the exterior, Muslim buildings are plain and simple, and lacking in any sort of decoration, but on the inside it is completely the opposite, and you feel like you're in an entirely different country/world/etc...; and the last part is called the Generalife, which is basically the gardens. We only spent a little bit of time in the garden, as it was cold and people wanted to leave, but the little i saw was cool. I definitely plan on returning in the spring/summer at least once more to see all the trees, plants, and flowers blooming in the gardens outside, and to see the rest of the gardens, etc. We were also going to see the special Palacio Carlos V, but unfortunately the Prime Minister of Turkey was visiting (cool!) so of course the security was tight and they wouldn't let us into certain sections where he'd be...bummer.

Aside from all that, pretty 'normal' here, I suppose...as normal as could be. I get to take the typical 'spanish shower' whenever i want to shower, which means my hygiene is kind of lacking...Spain is in the middle of a really bad drought, so basically no one can take a normal shower, literally, there's just not enough water. my typical shower consists of (well, we have no shower curtain which complicates things) me crouching under the faucet to wet my hair, turning off the water, shampooing my hair, rinsing it out, turn off water, clean body and conditioner, turn off water, all the while trying not to convulse from freezing. I can't wait till warm weather. and a normal "shower."