Granada was an interesting weekend. Friday morning, bright and early, at 7.50AM (okay, okay, i got there at 7.53 but COME ON, that's really good for me!) I met up with everyone at the hotel near my house to get on the bus. The guys carried backpacks, the girls carried either multiple bags and/or (i found the / sign on my keyboard. YAY!) a backpacking bag like mine. Yes, I had both. Although I would like to make this disclaimer that my bag was so full because I brought 3 tubs of pasta, 2 towels because I knew someone would forget (my hostel room was so lucky to have me, turns out a towel isnt something you remember to pack usually), and my wonderful amazing fleece blanket. Drove three hours on the bus to Granada... PHOTO - steph sleeping on the bus (I actually have one of her on the way back to Cordoba too.. pretty sure Im going to start keeping a log of STEPH SLEEPING ON THE BUS photos and present it as a gift to her back in the states... hahaha)
Got to Granada because our class trip was to La Alhambra (see photo of me standing out front of the sign)...
La Alhambra was the Muslim fortress/palace whilst the Muslims lived in Spain. They survived centuries without falling to the Catholic reconquest because Granada is in a great area as far as defensive tactics... lots of mountains, communication system, as well as the snow from the mountains giving them a constant water supply when other areas of the country were in drought... AND heres a few fun facts as to why the Muslim people were not affected by the Black Plague that destroyed so much of Europe. Muslims have to bathe regularly, and at the time, it was considered a Christian sin to see a woman naked, and hence, Catholics did not bathe (lovely, I know... we smell. YAY!)... so the hygiene was a LOT better. Secondly, since they were Muslim people, they were excluded from trading with other European countries and ports... they instead traded with North Africa. WELL, lucky for them, because the plague was spread by rats who were infested with fleas who would bite people and give them the plague. These rats were stow-aways on ships sailing from the Middle East to Europe for trading. As you can imagine, the 4 major port cities in Spain got DESTROYED population-wise from the plague while the Muslims were just fine and dandy. 
When the Catholics DID reconquer Granada, they said they would keep the palace, and are restoring it to this day. In relation to those fabulous Catholic Monarchs I love SO much (totally serious, this is the reason I became a European History major... Isabel I and Ferdinand II), their grandson Carlos V (Charles, to you non-Spanish history people) honeymooned there with his wife, and they built a palace there. Sweet deal. Here that is... well, here is my awesome photo from the inside of it. 
We wandered around the Al Hambra with our guide, who spoke SPANGLISH to us. There were two groups, the I SPEAK SPANISH REALLY WELL and the I AM GOING TO GIVE YOU THE TOUR IN SPANGLISH SO YOU ACTUALLY KNOW WHATS GOING ON tour.... While I have been placed in the higher spanish class, I'm wasn't about to miss out on actually understanding the history of this place, so we went with the SPANGLISH version. Steph and I in front of the relection pool, being ADPi. 
Another fun fact, the piping in the Al Hambra is all based off of gravity, no mechanical pumps or anything like that, so that was really cool. The fountain of the 12 lions is currently being restored, so that was out of commission, but I remember what it looked like from my trip there before. Heres the reflection pool WITHOUT steph's and my giant bodies in front of it. 
And no, this is not a postcard. These are my excellent photography skills. I actually have no idea WHAT I am doing, but I put my camera on manual and started playing with the settings. It's nice to have a film major on the trip who can show me a little about basic settings on my camera. I have no clue as to what they MEAN, but I feel oh-so-talented when I see my photos. I really enjoy photography and wish I had taken a class about it in high school. Sorry guys, I still don't wish I had taken the AUTO class, although I'm sure that would have been helpful.
Here's a fun story about Jamee and La Alhambra. As we all know, I am rather tall. Roughly 5'10 (no, I am not converting that to meters). Jenny here is probably my height if not a smidge taller. As I've said before, everything here in Spain is on the smaller side... so when Jenny and I find doors that are smaller than we are tall, we take pictures in front of them. When you go to a museum or a castle or anything historic and important, you would imagine that the doors to all areas NOT on the tour would be locked or at least closed properly. False. This was not the case. I went to stand in front of the door, grabbed a hold of the handle to get into a typical JAMEE THUMBS UP IM A GIANT IN SPAIN pose, and the door gave way and I fell into the room, in front of a lot of my program and a large group of asian tourists, many who found this hilarious. A very awkward moment in my book. I stumbled out of the room back into the courtyard, and Jenny and I took a photo. Here it is. I look a little frightened. Silly things like that make trips memorable.
We ambled along some more, and it's weird the things you remember when you return to a place... when we walked along the corridor with windows of the garden, I was immediately reminded of being there the first time with my parents in 2000. 
I even remember the conversation we were having at the time, and was really kind of shocked and yet proud of myself that I would remember something that, in reality was only 8 or 9 years ago, but that I was so much younger and didn't really grasp how absolutely amazing this was. Maybe that trip is what started the seed for my liking the Inquisition and Spain so much... like, we've all learned about Napoleon or Musolini, but Spain won its spot in my heart.Theres this tree in another courtyard that is said to be the Tree of Eternal Love... that if you touch it, you are bound to find your eternal love. Please believe I not only touched it, I took a photoshoot with it, climbed up behind it, and then got stuck trying to escape from it.
From there we walked to other areas of La Alhambra (by the way, the word translated into Arabic means RED CASTLE, because the bricks are reddish). There's this one building (granted, its part of a castle so it really isnt a BUILDING, but you get the idea...) that has these grand windows and THESE 
I REMEMBER those when I was here the last time. Like, you say the Alhambra and my mind goes RED CASTLE, gets a vision of the postcard-esque photo, and then goes IMMEDIATELY to these. I have NO idea what they are. This is not a door, this a stone wall, so they aren't door knockers. But I can recall LOVING them when I was 12 and apparently that weird quirk stayed with me. I was so excited about them at the time I wanted to call up Terry and yell GUESS WHAT I FOUND!?!? but alas, my cell phone is not for those purposes. side note -- I MISS MY CELLPHONE PLAN BACK HOME. So we then are guided to the GENERALIFE... which no, is not pronounced GENERAL LIFE. Its hen er ah lee fee. Heres a picture of the water fountain and garden from it. again, more excellent photography skills. 
It really was gorgeous. My favorite is this what I assume to be a cherry blossom tree, and you can see the snow-capped Sierra Mountains in the background. Amazing. I'm simply grateful it didn't snow or rain while we were there... I mean, it did at night, but nothing else.
After La Alhambra, the entire program went to this lunch buffet at the hotel, and this girl Ana and I sat with Ramon and his wife Kathleen. Ramon is the program director. He works from UCSD but is here for a year directing the southern spain programs -- Granada and Cordoba during the year and Cadiz in the summer. Wonderful people who have lead such amazing lives together. You know me, I'm a sucker for old couples' romance stories, so I learned all about how they met and got engaged a month later, they have like 10 or 12 kids and have lived in the US and some European countries with them. I think one of their sons is named Jaime, actually. After all their kids had grown up, they became emergency foster parents, and listening to them talk about that was really interesting. Last summer I started reading some books about foster kids and the system, and I really feel like its something I could do later on in my life. But we're not talking about that now, we're talking about Spain.After this we trekked (literally, the program guides and such left to go back to Cordoba on the bus and we all grabbed our bags from beneath the bus and started walking) down the MOUNTAIN from La Alhambra and into town. Roughly 15 people or so from our program happened to have booked the same hostel, so we declared AMAZING RACE status and started going... except none of us knew where it was and we all went together. I have a video of Steph and I stumbling down the hill. So of course, we got lost. Trekking up this MOUNTAIN into the middle of town and the streets are old and they intertwine and its just bad news. It took us like a good 45 minutes and almost being run over by a car in a small alley but we found it. I also took a video of me being very Jamee-like and whining a bit about the hike. We found it, it is AMAZING.
1) It has free wireless internet. Granted, I have internet at home, so I wasn't all that concerned, but Stephanie doesn'thave internet in her house here and was absolutely delighted and brought her laptop just for this purpose.
2) It had a communal kitchen. Breakfast was included, and I had brought 3 tubs of pasta, which we ended up eating each night instead of spending money. One night Chris made this fabulous cheese and herb tub and the next night Ilana made a garlic, onion, tomato sauce, spinach tub. Pasta is a wonderful idea.
3) It had HAMMOCKS. Please believe the Americans were all OVER this. Plus it had this little alcove under the stairs to our room which had like a mini diarama of SPACE or something. Photo is necessary to explain.
4) It had a TV room, but we never used it.
5) The bathroom (co-ed) was clean, had ample lighting and one plus, a heater, and 3 showers... all which provided fabulous hot water and came with at least one of the usual 3 soaps you would use... for instance, stephanie had shampoo in her stall and i had shampoo and soap in mine. Don't worry, I brought my own stuff of course.... can't be too trusting of what is actually in those bottles!
6) Linens were included
7) some of the staff spoke fabulous english!
8) it actually WAS really close to the center of town... we eventually found the right path to take.
Mason, Jenny, Chris, Ilana, Steph, and I were in this 6 person room. The hostel had the main building and then this two story building... the bottom floor was the kitchen and the second floor was... our room! We had a little balcony overlooking the courtyard meeting place, the hammocks were right there, it was literally the best spot.
It was called THE STAR ROOM because of the lights hanging inside. The bunks weren't your usual 2 bunk beds, it was 3 bunks vertical, and I claimed top bunk on the one WITHOUT the giant beam going across it. 
Survival of the fittest. Mason, stuck on the bottom bunk, eventually just pulled his mattress out onto the floor and slept there, quite comfortably.
Despite my giant bag of glory, I happened to forget boots for the rain or really, any other shoes besides my converse. And any clothes besides jeans and long sleeve shirts for the weather. So I forgot an outfit for going out clubbing. I'm still learning, I'm not used to a party life. But stephanie was sick (we later found out shes got gastroenteritis or something that sounds really funny when you say it in spanish) so I stayed in with her the first night... here is a photo of her in her middle bunk on her computer with wireless wearing MY PANTS because she forgot. Yes, I brought sweatpants AND pj pants. Like I've mentioned, my friends tend to call me MOM because Im always prepared for things (except clubbing, apparently) and checking on people, and they joke, but they're thankful for it and thats all that matters. I caught up on my journal and I read and talked with people returning from the night.
Next morning I rounded up the troops (yes I did, whether they liked it or not), made some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (another brilliant idea to bring a loaf of bread and condiments, between the pasta and sandwiches we were set all weekend), and we took off for the cathedral.
Another fun fact -- the streets are all cobblestone and no one cleans up after their dog. It had rained the night before and so walking conditions were less than prime. AKA Jamee's pants are really long because I have to buy tall people pants and they ended up in dog poop and I RAN back to the hostel, put on my jeans that i can tuck into my shoes (yes, just IMAGINE how cool I looked) and ran back down. We went to the Cathedral, which is the 2nd largest in all of spain and its gorgeous. Attached was a museum with some cool artifacts in it and a statue of the head of St. John the Baptist. 
Then we were accosted by gypsies time and time again, hence my previous post. The Capilla Real was closed for siesta so we walked up another MOUNTAIN and found this amazing view. I really like graffiti, when done as art, and granada is covered in both kinds.
After this we went to grab food and we ended up at this DELICIOUS kebob place. I got chicken and it was quite literally the tastiest thing I have eaten since arriving in Spain. Do you see how happy I am in this photo? 
I am SO happy. And then I spilled some of the amazing sauce on my pants, which made me very not happy. Anyway... after this we still had time to kill so we went to a hookah bar where we ordered tea and coffee and the melon flavored hookah. I attempted smoking this (it is legal in the states, it is not a crazy drug, its flavored tobacco), and ended up coughing and not feeling good... I had a headache that made me want to vomit. I don't like smoking in general, so being in a bar specifically catered to smoking was probably not my wisest decision. Not doing that again.We ended back at the Capilla Real, which is a smaller church that Isabel and Ferdinand spent a quarter of their fortune building, and it's beautiful.
Photos were not allowed, but I am Jamee and do not care because this is where my two of my three favorite historical figures are allegedly buried. Here's the deal. The church was ransacked by Napoleon's troops back in the day, and word has it that they vandalized the tombs and the bodies... so if there ARE bodies in the actual coffins, they may or may not actually be the correct ones. But for sake of my heart and my history love, I am going to say that they are in there. 
The flags represent the different areas. The green and white flag is for Andalucia, the area that Isabel reigned on her own, and the Green and red is for Ferdinand and Aragon, the area HE reigned. When they married, they made the first modern state in europe, the yellow and red SPAIN. The tombs from left to right are Felipe THE HANDSOME of Austria (married to Ferd and Isabel's second oldest, Juana THE CRAZY), Ferdinand, Isabel, Juana, and the smallest casket (you cant see it in this photo, sorry!) is that of Miguel, the firstborn grandchild of F-I... however, Miguel died and shortly thereafter his father Juan (F-I's oldest son) died. Basically, I won't get into the history, but F-I had a HORRIBLE time with the death of their 5 children and their grandchildren, literally like everyone died before a proper heir could be born, and it was left up to Juana La Loca to take over Spain (I'll explain about her when I talk about friday's movie) and she finally bore Carlos V who would end up being a GIANT player in Europe's history. But her husband Felipe was a cheating BUTTHEAD. Here is the top tomb thing... One bed for FandI (pictured), another for FandJ... Isabel's head is said to rest deeper in the stone pillow because her head weighed more because she was smarter than Ferdinand.... which is somewhat true because she was the brains behind everything.
We all felt absolutely horrible at this point, we assume from the food, and went back to rest for a few hours at the hostel. I spoke to Stephanie's parents while they were on skype, steph's mom was an ADPi too! I may go to Greece with them for spring break. Back in the room, what started out as a nap turned into 3 hours of us all talking and getting to know each other. It was amazing. We realized that due to Spanish customs and our agreemtne with the program, that the only time we could all just hang out and be together were these weekend sleepovers in hostels, eating together and getting ready together. The ability to invite people to your own home is something we take for granted and I will NOT do that ever again. Jenny had a difficult time in her middle bunk (shes all bruised from getting in and out of it) and at one point ended up on my bed (the most comfortable!) and we fell asleep... weird to fall asleep next to someone after all this time. At home, I have the dogs or I go crawl in bed with my sister some mornings... but here, you can tend to feel isolated really easily, which makes you super grateful for your friends.
Next morning we packed up and headed to the bus station. Here we are saying goodbye outside the plaza, with a statue of Isabel granting her consent and giving money to Cristobal Colon, or better known as Christopher Columbus. THATS RIGHT. My favorite woman in history gave consent to the trip that would end up finding the Americas. Left to right, Ilana, Mason, Stephanie, all from Berkeley, Steph's in my sorority up there, and Jenny from Chicago who graduated HS early and is studying on a different progam but they are all Chinese and dont speak english so we adopted her.
I would just like to show you this photo... when preparing for the trip, I went and bought forks and cups to survive with. The forks are labeled horribly and it made us laugh. Firstly, the brand (I assume its a brand) is called DOLPHIN, and the package is labeled KNIFE KNIFE, but it is a package of forks, and then on the front it says FORKS -- CREAT FOR PARTIES. I can only assume they meant GREAT for parties... not CREAT.
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