Preview of next week

Tomorrow marks the beginning of 7 full days of traveling and sightseeing! Here's what I have in store:

Sunday--tour of the Alhambra (finally!)

Monday--placement exam for my fall classes

Tuesday--Córdoba! About 2 hours out of Granada, our class is going for the day to see the city, tour the Mezquita (a Cathedral-Mosque), and bathe in the Arab baths (massage included).

Wednesday--Meg, Aspen, and I are flying to Barcelona, touring around and spending the night

Thursday--Fly to Geneva, Switzerland, and take the Swiss Rail to Zermatt (a small town in the Alps)

Friday and Saturday--Hiking in the Alps in and around Zermatt

Sunday--Spend the day touring Geneva, then fly back to Barcelona in the evening

Monday morning--return to Granada

I'm really looking forward to spending some time in the Alps, complete with green trees, mountains, snow, and hopefully a little rain! It will be a bit of a refresher from the consistent 90+ degree days these past three weeks.

More to come soon!

He andado muchos caminos

"He andado muchos caminos,
Y en todas partes he visto
gentes que danzan o juegan
y no conocen la prisa
ni aun en los días de fiesta.
Y en un día como tantos,
descansan bajo la tierra."

por Antonio Machado

          ...translation:


I have walked many paths,
And in each place I have seen
people that dance or play
and are never in a hurry,
even on days of celebration.
And one day, like the others,
they'll rest beneath the earth.


As I walk the streets of Granada, I am continuously reminded of this poem. Every day, after the siesta, the cobblestone streets and plazas of Granada begin to fill with life as families emerge from their apartments for an evening paseo. However, the crowds of people are anything but hectic--during the paseo, there is no hurry because there is no final destination; time spent walking is time spent with loved ones. Outside my apartment kids run around the courtyard, playing with toys, soccer balls, you name it, while parents and friends enjoy tapas and a drink.

There is a tranquil harmony of life here.

Even on festival days, like I saw last weekend: Saturday was the offering of flowers to la Virgen de las Angustias. Thousands of people stood in line for hours with bouquets of flowers in hand, wanting to make their offering to the Virgin. Once again, there was no sense of urgency; waiting in line was even more time to to socialize with family and friends, and to pay respect to the church. Some women wore flamenco dresses, the children wore matching outfits, a helicopter sprinkled flowers from the sky, and the church choir sang. And the end result was magnificent: a grand wall of flowers, three stories high.

Running into the Sunset

“That was the real secret of the running people: they'd never forgotten what it felt like to love running. They remembered that running was mankind's first fine art, our original act of inspired creation….Distance running was revered because it was indispensable; it was the way we survived and thrived and spread across the planet. You ran to eat and to avoid being eaten; you ran to find a mate and impress her, and with her you ran off to start a new life together. You had to love running, or you wouldn't live to love anything else. We were born to run; we were born because we run. We're all Running People.”

–Christopher McDougall, Born to Run

We are running people. So why has society become so sedentary? Every day in the United States, people wake up, drive to work, sit at their desk for eight hours a day, and then drive home. For us, that is natural. But that is not who we are. Society has turned running into a chore, a must-do if you want to loose weight. And with that, we have forgotten our love for running.

But not in Granada. Here, we are the opposite of sedentary. Every day I spend at least two hours walking, from home to class to tapas bars and back again. My 20 minute walk to school each day is nothing, whereas at home we complain about a 5 or 10 minute walk to class. There is no need to take a bus, or a taxi. Nightly paseos (walks) are a tradition here, and each night it puts a smile on my face to see so many elderly couples walking about, arm in arm.

Which brings me to another point. “You don’t stop running because you get old, you get old because you stop running”. Same goes for walking, and being active in general. Maybe this is why the Spanish people look so much younger for their age—because they never stop walking.

And don’t get me started on running. In what other city can you run from the heart of downtown to the countryside trails in a matter of minutes? Take yesterday, for example. We went on our usual run along the Río del Genil, but instead of continuing along the river we took a trail up through the hills, forest, and olive orchards. After only 25 minutes of running, we found ourselves standing atop ruins of an old house, gazing across the river at a small pueblo, the buildings all painted white. If only I had a camelback and some snacks, I could have ran forever, through the countryside; up a mountain. Alas, it was getting dark, so home we went. And as we turned to run home, the sky filled with red/pink wispy clouds, and we ran into the sunset all the way home.

Graffiti

Granada is full of some pretty sweet graffiti; here are some pictures I took on the walk home today:

Ronda, Andalucía

I've been in Granada for nearly a week now, and what a week it's been! After spending the past four days getting to know the city, seeing the Alhambra for the first time, and starting a Spanish culture class, we left the city for the first time today and took a field trip to Ronda, a small town 2.5 hours southwest of Granada.

Ronda is a beautiful, historic city and we spent the first few hours exploring. Ronda got it's name because it is rodeado /redondo (surrounded) by mountains. On top of that, the city is built on 100+ meter tall cliffs, with a spectacular bridge connecting the old and new parts of town. (The old part of town was built by the Moors centuries ago, whereas the new part of town was built when the Christians took over during the reconquista, 500 years ago).

As we walked the streets, we saw many old cathedrals, and even a few weddings! Our tour guide says it is good luck to see couples getting married, because their happiness spreads to you.

For lunch we ate at a cliff-side restaurant, with a sweeping view of the farmland and mountains beyond.  Our lunch was spectacular, starting off with a salad with grilled brie, followed by chicken, and helado for dessert. Oh, and did I mention that Michelle Obama ate there when she came to visit?

After lunch, we toured the Plaza de Toros, which was preparing for a big celebration and Corrido next weekend, La Feria de Pedro Romero. The rink was spectacular; it used to be the largest one in the world. But they had to make it a few meters smaller (in diameter) in order to build an extra barrier, because it was too easy for the bulls to jump out of the ring and into the crowd. Yikes!

Plaza de Toros

Preparations for the big fiesta

Looking across the Puente Viejo (old bridge), which was built by the Moors

Puente Nuevo (notice the waterfall below!)

View from the bridge

View from the restaurant