Stuff and more stuff

Man, I have been busy, and now I sit here chilling in Mickey’s living room on the last day, a little sad that I will soon have to say goodbye to Spain, but also excited as I get to go see my family who I love a lot. So… where did I leave off?

So after our first day in Granada, Mickey and JC had to work so Ariane and I used the day to take the Bus Turístic to get around the city and see the main sights. This bus is absolutely awesome, as it’s stops are all over the city to the main stops, and another bus comes every 5 minutes to take you to the next stop. This way, you can go wherever and not be hassled about getting back in time or spending too long in one spot. You can also skip spots and choose where you want to go.

This is the Sagrada Family, a cathedral that is absolutely magnificent. Gaudi was the architect, and died in the process of making this cathedral. He knew that he would not live to see it completed, and it is still not yet finished, but it is absolutely breathtaking.

Me inside Sagrada Familia.

We then went to the Barcelona stadium, and got to go inside and see it. It is absolutely massive, and is packed every time they play. There was also a museum inside holding the Fifa worldcup as well as the European Championship cup.

We then went to the Olympic stadium where the olympics were held in 1992. I was actually surprised to see that the Barcelona Football stadium was larger than the olympic stadium, but it was really cool to see. Apparently they use it for big rugby matches, etc.

We then got to go to the Aquarium, which was a lot of fun. That is me in the shark tank, where we got to go through a tunnel and see multiple kinds of fish and sharks.

After a long day of walking all over Barcelona, we came back where Mickey, Ariane and I prepared homemade tapas. Ariane is helping set up the table.

My first tortilla. It’s not pretty at all, but it did taste great :)

The next day, Mickey had off work. So we went and got bicycles and biked to the center of the city, where we then hiked up to the castle that overlooks Barcelona and had our lunch of bocadillos up there.

I used JC’s bike, but Ariane and Mickey rented them. If you live in Barcelona, there’s a company called “bicing” that is absolutely fantastic. These stations are all over the city, and you go up, swipe and get a bike for half an hour. This is a huge step to cutting down the use of motorcycles and cars in the city, as you can go to and from work on these bikes. It’s only 20 Euros a year and you get unlimited use, so you can go to and from stations in the city as a form of transportation. This is one of the most genius plans to lower carbon dioxide emission as well as promote health.

We then went to this shopping center. Now that bull fighting is banned in Barcelona, they turned this bull fighting ring into a shopping center. I was very interested in the red and white arch design that was on this ring, as it reminded me of Moorish influences in Southern Spain. This is very interesting, because I don’t believe Barcelona was ever under Moorish rule, however the architecture had a huge impact even in areas that were consistently under Christian rule, which shows a lot of the mixing of culture that we studied in Medieval Spain.

The view from the top of the shopping center, absolutely awesome.

We then went for  a walk up one of the mountains on the way to the castle. The view was amazing as we went.

We got to the castle, which had protected the Barcelona civil war up until the Spanish Civil War.

The view from the top was amazing overlooking the coast where cruise ships and other ships come in from the Mediterranean.

Mickey and Ariane at the castle.

We then went home and rested, went to the beach for a little, then went out for a wonderful dinner where we ordered multiple tapas to try and a delicious white wine. We had octopus, squid, cod fish, shrimp, muscles, clams, etc.

JC, Ariane and Mickey at the boardwalk outside where we ate.

We then went for a walk through a part of the city and went home to sleep and prepare for the next day.

Today was fantastic. We went to a town called Vic, that was outside of Barcelona where they were having the town festival. We witnessed a human Castell, or human castle, which is pretty much a human tower. It was one of the most incredible things I have seen in Spain. It is a Catalunian tradition, and there are teams that practice all year to do these towers. There are multiple bases and supports, and at the very top a child climbs and salutes. The bravery, coordination and trust was unbelievable and makes me want to join a team if I ever live in Spain :3.

I have a video of them making the tower, and I will try to upload it on youtube and post it on the tumblr. This was absolutely incredible. Here are a couple more pictures:

Afterwards we had a wonderful lunch and then came back, where I am now resting and preparing for the flight tomorrow. Spain has been absolutely wonderful, and without a doubt I am going to come back :). Next time I post, I will be in the United States!

Adios!

And the trip has finished… at least the academic portion of it. I am now at Ariane’s Cousin’s Flat typing this message. I am no longer in Granada and in Barcelona. I’m going to take a couple steps back and talk about the end of the academic portion/ the trip and first day in Barcelona.

So there’s not all that much to say about the last two days in Granada. There was a lot of wandering the city and souvenir shopping. You know, minor odds and ends before we leave the city. The last night, we had dinner with the IES faculty, which was an absolute blast! They are all such nice people, some of the nicest I have ever met.

Mmmmmmm :) Our last dinner in Granada with a beautiful view of the city.

Me, Javier, Matt- some of us went for a walk after dinner.

We found a mini playground. Javier is being Pipi Longstockings in the background.

At the end of the night, we all went back, checked our luggage one last time and went to bed. We got up around 6 AM the next day in preparation of going to the flight. Angelines was not awake, which made me very sad for I could not say goodbye :(. We left a very nice note though and i left my email address because I would love to stay in touch with Angelines and her family. They are some of the kindest people I have met and Angelines went above and beyond her duties to ensure we had an enjoyable stay in Granada.

Then it was time for our flight, which left late, but everything else went smoothly.

Goodbye Granada :’(

We landed in Barcelona around 11 AM, got our luggage, said goodbye to Professor Albert and Stein and their kids, met up with Mickey (Ariane’s Cousin), and headed to her flat which is gorgeous. I will take a picture (if she’s ok with it) of her living room some time, which is absolutely beautiful. Her flat is 2 blocks away from the beach, and the weather is absolutely perfect here. We spent the entire day walking around the city, mainly just getting a feel for this new area. We also visited the main cathedral, which was absolutely amazing. Apparently there is always being work done to it so there’s always scaffolding on some part of it.

That is me being all tiny in front of the Cathedral

We had a delicious lunch at Mickey’s Husband’s Bar, called Bar Salvador where we had gazpacho, then I ordered Chicken Gorgonzola and then we had mixed fruit. For dinner, we went and got Japanese food and Sushi, which was a wonderful change in diet from the mainly Spanish diet I’ve had for most of the last month.

We are now resting, as tomorrow we are taking this awesome bus service that makes stops at every major tourist attraction, so you hop off, take a look, wait for another bus, and then hop back on and go to the next destination. We will be very busy for the next couple of days, but I will try to keep updates going on as to how I am doing! I miss my family, and I hope all of our friends who were with us in Spain had a safe flight back and enjoy the US.

Adios!

Ah, it feels good to be back in Granada after being in Morocco. I had a lot of fun there, and it was cool seeing the many similarities and differences between Spain and Morocco. I’m going to post and break this up day by day, so here we go.

Day 1: Traveling

Lots of traveling. We started in Granada, took a bus to Tarifa, where we then took a ferry from Tarifa to Tangier. When we got to Tangier, we met with Mohammad, who is the director of IES for Morocco. We then got lunch and proceeded on the bus to Rabat, with a slight detour at Asilah where we had a short walk in the Medina. In Rabat we met our homestay mother and headed to the house to spend the night. It turns out that our homestay house is so big, other people from other programs are there as well. We shared the house with a couple of graduate students who were from UPenn, studying Morocco business. After a delicious dinner, we called it a night.

So long Spain!

Our Ferry docked in Tangier

Me on the ferry

The beautiful Medina of Asilah. As you can see we are hiding in the shade.

My sleeping area in our homstay, I will try to post a video of the call to prayer and our house later

Day 2: Nausea

Ugh. I woke up feeling pretty awful, my stomach was hurting a lot. I could barely eat any breakfast, and as we began walking out the door, I pulled a quick 180 degrees, went into the bathroom and threw up. I walked with Matt and Chris about 25 to 30 minutes to the IES building, but by the time I got there I was so tired I had to go home and spend the entire day resting. I did not get to experience much, as I was stuck in bed all day, so I will use this post to talk about the house. The house was massive, but not like a traditional house one would imagine. The houses in Morocco are big vertically rather than outwards. Typically, the middle rises all the way to the outside, and then there are rooms in a circular fashion to the middle on each floor. There were 4 floors to the house including a top terrace that was gorgeous. It was great to sit up there and listen to the call to prayer. I have a video of what the house looked like, which I may try to upload on tumblr.

Despite being sick as a dog, my homestay mother was insistent on me getting up and getting a henna. After climbing two flights of stairs, and nearly passing out from it, I got one! I’m glad I did though it was cool to see how they do it.

Day 3: Fez!

I woke up feeling a hundred times better. I must have had some kind of 24 hour virus, cause by the time I was awake I was ready to explore. Dismayed that I missed Rabat, I hopped into the bus excited to be able to see Fez. We first stopped in Rabat to check out ancient ruins that have both Muslim as well as Roman impressions into. It was extremely cool to see the continuation of patterns of powers resting in an area, and using what is there and adding on. Like the mosque in Cordoba, they added to the Roman ruins, making a mosque, the only one we were allowed to go into because it was now ruins. After that we went three hours into Morroco inland to go to Fez! Fez is broken up into two sections: the new and old medina. The new medina is like any city you can imagine. The old medina makes you feel you have landed back in time, as Moroccans have taken lots of efforts to preserve the old medina. No cars can drive through the roads, only motorocycles and donkeys (which we saw a lot of). There were a ton of markets and stands, and was absolutely thriving with activity. We went to a factory where they made scarves as well as a Qu’ranic school where we saw the equivalent to preschool for kids where they memorize the Qu’ran as well as learn Arabic, French and English. We had dinner on our own then headed back to the new medina where our hotel was to rest and prepare for the next day.

The city of Fez from a distance

The market at the old Medina of Fez

Children studying at the Qu’ranic school

Day 4: More Fez!

Waking up, we started part two of our adventure through the old Medina. Because it was Friday, many shops were closed because many take that day as their day of rest. We walked around, seeing a mosque, but not being allowed to go inside as well as we went to a tannery where they make famous Moroccan leather. The smell was absolutely horrendous there, but we got to see how the leather was made, which was really cool. We then had a long break during the day where I swam at the hotel pool, then went back to the markets when more were open to buy souvenirs. At night, we went for dinner  at a place that was very nice, with delicious food. There was a show with many performers, including belly dancers, musicians and a magician. The show was very tailored and stereotyped for tourists, but it was fun nonetheless.

The tannery where a ton of leather is dyed and made. Smelt horrendous, but a cool sight.

Walking through the old medina

Food!

Delicious Tagine and couscous

Day 5: Chefchauon

We woke up that morning, had breakfast, and got in the bus to ride three hours to our next destination, a famous town called Chefchauon that is in the mountains. It was hot, but because it was so high in the mountains it was much cooler and less humid than Fez, which was probably in the hundreds. It was so high, we were at about the same level as clouds passing through the mountains. We hiked up a part of the mountain, getting a gorgeous view of the town. The town is painted in amazing blues and whites, and is closely positioned together like Albaicin. This would make sense, because when Muslims were driven out of Granada, many of them ended up coming to Chefchauon and making it their permanent residence. Apparently the community were very cautious and distrusting of outsiders, and about a hundred years ago they would be against outsiders, and some who visited were poisoned. Now, there are no problems, but it’s amazing that an effect like the Inquisition would have such a strong effect up until the 1920’s. It is now a major tourism site, as we did a lot of souvenier shopping and wandering through the streets. We had dinner at “Casa Aladdin”, which was absolutely delicious. I had chicken couscous :)

Walking through streets of Chefchauon

Me on hike overlooking Chefchaoun

Me at dinner overlooking sunset in Chefchauon

Day 6: Departure

Today consisted of nothing but traveling, as we traveled for 12 hours from Chefchauon, to Tangier, across on the ferry to Tarifa, and then back to Granada. We stopped at a McDonald’s in Tarifa, which was not that bad, and other than that just chilled in buses. I actually got to sleep, despite my inability to usually fall asleep in vehicles.

What a busy weekend! I know I keep talking about how busy I am, but it’s true. With limited time in Granada, I am trying to take in as much as I can! So I left off last time with getting ready for the Flamenco show and Granada’s soccer game…

The Flamenco show was pretty awesome. It is very interesting, because apparently the roots of Flamenco has a history of coming from the gypsies that live in Spain. Apparently the best flamenco in Granada is held once a year at the prison when they hold a Flamenco show, because a lot of the people in prison are gypsies who have committed crimes. It’s interesting also because when people think about flamenco, they think it is very colorful and happy, yet it has a sad past that places a lot of passion into the performances. The place we went to was absolutely incredible as the backdrop for an amazing performance was the Alhambra and Granada right in the background.

Can’t get a better view during a show.

The flamenco dancer.

After the flamenco show, we learned that Granada had tied with the other team, but somehow had made enough points at each field to consider overall victor and is officially a division 1 team. This was huge, as everyone was out in the streets partying and having a great time. Cars were driving around and honking, people were dancing and singing in the street and fireworks were going off. We had a great time going out and taking part in this celebration. I think only the world cup would have been a wilder time!

The next day was my day of rest and work for the day, as I prepared to go to the bull fight. I am very glad I went, because despite the fact I don’t necessarily agree with killing bulls for sport, it’s important to take part and appreciate Spanish culture.

My Reflections: I am thankful I went, but I don’t know if I would go again, if my family went to Spain with me and wanted to go I would, but I wouldn’t necessarily go just for myself. It is interesting because bull fighting is all a display of pride for the matador as he tries to be as showy as possible while not getting injured, as one matador took a knee right in front of the bull, staring it down. I wish I had a picture or video of this, but one matador was riding a horse and made the horse dance in front of the bull, and then dodge as the bull charged. Despite the impressive performance, out of the 4 bulls I stayed for, two matadors had to be carried out of the arena because the bull got them. Not a good day for them I guess. After this, I will post a video of a matador taking on a bull.

Plaza de Toros

Matador facing the bull

Matador showing display of excellent horsemanship as well as courage.

After the bullfight, we had a pretty quiet night, for we went to the jazz club but they repeatedly delayed the show. We eventually left because we did not want to be out too late.

Today in class we learned about the gender roles and the role women played during Medieval Spain. It is extremely interesting to me how when we hear about “Muslim Rule in Spain” back in the Medieval Era, we think about the stereotypical Muslim man, who looks like a vizier from Aladdin or something. In truth, many caliphs had blonde hair and possibly blue eyes, for their mothers were Christians from northern Spain. Although a Muslim ruler would marry, marriage was more of a diplomatic venture, and he would have children with other women whether they were concubines or slaves. 

Starting tomorrow, I will be traveling to Morocco and will be there until Sunday night. I am not bringing my computer, so I will be disappearing for a while. I will have my camera, and I am bringing a notebook so that when I get back I can make a lengthy blog entry about my experiences while I’m there. It will be interesting to see the similarities between some areas in Morocco and parts of Granada, Cordoba and Sevilla. After Muslims were driven out of Spain or forced to convert, many went to Morocco, and areas will look a lot like the Albaicin. Until then, I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer. I will be changing my closing, because I need to get used to Morocco, so instead of Adios, I shall say Salaam!

It’s the last weekend we have in Granada! AH! Time flies way too quickly. So the orientation for Morocco was very interesting. I learned about what we will be doing, so I am very excited for going there :). Matt, Chris and I will be in a homestay with a bunch of people our age, so it should be really cool.

Last night was fun, we went to the science exhibit, where not only did they have cool human body, Escher, butterfly and physics exhibits, they had an interesting exhibit about science in al-Andalus. Sadly I took no photos, but it was interesting, especially the Astrolabe that could tell the time based on the posiiton of the stars. It is incredible how those in Medieval Spain were able to do these calculations and figure out how to tell the time while on a boat. This astrolabe is just one of the many scientific accomplishments made in that time.

Me and Einstein thinking.

The Butterfly Room

Afterward we went and got tapas, of course :3

The rest of the night we just hung out at an Irish pub (yea yea yea Irish Pub in Spain?), and today I bought my tickets for the bull fight :D.

So tonight may be crazy in Granada… Granada’s soccer team was Division 3, but has risen to Division 2 and if they win tonight they will be a Division 1 team. Apparently the city may go nuts if they win, so tonight I’m going to a flamenco show and then watching the game in a pub.

Tomorow i will be going to the bullfight and then going to Club Booga to listen to improv Jazz.

Until then, Adios!

So this week itself has been insane, it’s really sad because my last full week in Spain is coming to a close. :(! Next week I will be in Morocco, then a short time back in Spain, then the trip is over! I am not ready to go back yet!!!!

Anyways.

So Monday, we went to a Hamman, which is an Arab bath. It is like a spa, and there is a tea room with delicious tea to relax and drink, a cold bath, warm bath, and hot bath. You alternate the three baths in that order, and it’s supposed to be good for your veins. There was also a massage, which was my first and it was fantastic. Sadly i have no pictures because they were not allowed :(

Tuesday was a regular class day, but Matt, Chris and I visited the Cathedral of Ferdinand and Isabella and not only did we get to see inside the Cathedral, but also the site where they are buried within.

The altar of the Cathedral

The resting site of Ferdinand and Isabella

After that, we went on a tour of Granada with new Spanish students. Sadly, they were not as happy to mingle with us as the last group :( But they were nice!

In front of the cathedral.

Wednesday, we traveled to Cordoba and stayed until today. On Wednesday, we got to Cordoba and first went to Medinat al-Zahra, which was a palace built by Abd-al Rahmen III. It was quite an experience, as you look at the remnants in these ruins, and try to imagine the fact that this place was so much larger.

Me at the entrance gates. Note that this is JUST THE ENTRANCE GATE, it is amazing to think how large this palace was, compared to just the gates.

Medinat al-Zahra had three floors, the top was for royalty, the middle was entertainment and the bottom was for the military. As a force to be reckoned with, it was necessary for the Caliph to show off his power through wealth. Because people were upset of this use of wealth, Abd al-Rahman III moved out of the city of Cordoba and made this palace to continue showing off his power aesthetically.

After that, we visited a Jewish synagogue and a house that told a lot of the story of the Jews in Medieval Spain as well as the Inquistion. Afterwards, they played songs in Hebrew, Arabic and Spanish that were popular in those times.

We then had a delicious dinner with red wine (I had a swordfish kebab :3) and wandered through the more modern part of Cordoba, looking at shops, etc.

The next day we got up, and went to the Great Mosque/Cathedral in Cordoba. The Catholics pretty much took the Great Mosque, and threw a cathedral right in the middle of it.

The many red and white arches inside the mosque.

This is a perfect display of how the cathedral was stuck into the mosque as an arch was replaced over the previous arch.

After that, we had free time where Chris, Cat and I went with our tour guide Anna where we saw many amazing artifacts from Roman Spain to Visigothic Spain, to Medieval Spain, etc. It was really incredible, as what you don’t get to see in America is the multiple different cultures resting in the ground with each other, with different religions, traditions, etc.

This is just one minute part of an excavation site where archaeologists are uncovering a massive theatre that the Romans built.

We are now back from Cordoba, and I am about to head out to dinner and have an early night before tomorrow where we have an orientation preparing us for our trip to Morocco! :) Adios!

What a busy weekend! On Friday, we went to a teteria, which is pretty much a bar that serves different kinds of tea with a menu with a wide variety, which was pretty cool. Because we were going to the beach in the morning, we had an early night after a couple drinks and went home.

On Saturday, we went to the beach! We were going to go to Nerja, which is a beach in Malaga, but there were not enough seats on the bus so we got one to Almunecar, which is a beach in Granada, but still close to Malaga.

Getting off the bus at Almunecar.

One of the towns near Almunecar on the beach.

The Beach!

Sadly the water was too cold for most people, so only a couple people swam :( but everyone had a great time as a whole!

After, we got back and took a rest for a while before beginning the night in celebration of Ariane and Matt’s birthdays! We ended up going to a club called Camboria (sp?), which was a lot of American and International students, and it was on the mountain I’ve talked about before called el Sacromonte. Like many houses there, this club was made out of a series of caves, which was really cool!

After a long night Saturday, Sunday consisted mainly of sleeping and preparing for classes. At night, we all went to a bar that was having a free flamenca show. It was mainly just music, but some guy was dancing as well.

As you can see, the guy was getting really into it. After that, we went for some tapas at another restaurant, and then called it a night. Today was very busy, but I shall talk about it in another post :) Adios!

I apologize for the length of time between this post and the last one! This week has been absolutely crazy as Tuesday we visited Alhambra, Wednesday Albaicin, and Today Sevilla all day!!! Time to catch up:

Alhambra was magnificent. Done. Just kidding. It was a real treat to be able to see in person the majesty of this castle. That day was my communal blog entry for our class blog, so I’m going to post what I said here, so I don’t have to repeat myself:

Today our class had the pleasure of visiting the Alhambra, the beautiful fortress first constructed by the Moorish ruler. Not only is Alhambra a source of power and beauty, but its halls echo with the stories of multiple Muslim rulers, as well as Catholic Rulers who would take their place within after the Reconquest. Reading the translation of the poem taken from the walls of Salas de las Dos Hermanas in the Court of the Lions could not possibly prepare one for the majesty that is held within the walls. After reading the qasida in class, we got to experience it first hand while wandering through the numerous halls, looking at both the calligraphy and arabesque artwork that decorate the walls. When entering one room, you take in the art on the walls as there is calligraphy quoting the Qu’ran of multiple beautiful fonts and the ceiling brings a memory of part of the poem read in class.

“…Moon comes to parley, stars clustering there
Turn no longer in the sky’s blue wheel….”

The ceiling is decorated with beautiful patterns of stars that represent the seven levels of heaven, and in the very center, on the very top of the ceiling God is represented. In some rooms, echoes of the claiming of Granada by the Christians can be seen as Ferdinand and Isabella have marked their coat of arms and insignias on part of the Alhambra, as was as Charles V. Alhambra is powerful on many levels at its parts represents aesthetically, politically and religiously the powers of those who have had possession of this magnificent fortress.

A couple notes to add that I didn’t in the blog. It poured. But as soon as we began our hike up the humongous hill, it stopped, and did not end until we got out of Alhambra and ran for shelter.

Calligraphy on one of the walls

The view to the throne room people had when waiting for the king, sultan, etc.

This is the room I was referring to from the poem, and the top of Chris’s head.

On Wednesday we went to the Albaicin which is absolutely gorgeous. This was the Muslim section of Granada, and there is a large Muslim population there today. They consider themselves a different town than Granada despite being connected because it is so different in many ways from the main part of the city. This leads up to the Mountain Sacramonte, where at the very top people have taken caves and turned them into houses. After a long walking tour, we ended with going to a bar that was a series of caves, which was really awesome.

This bell tower used to be a minaret where an official would climb to the top and call Muslims for prayer 5 times a day. Imagine it without the section with the bell. When the Christians reconquered Spain, they had a habit of taking mosques and turning them into churches and cathedrals and slapping a bell on the minarets. Here, you can explicitly see the change in stone from where the minaret was and where the bell was built.

This is Javier’s (the head of the IES program) beautiful terrace in the back of his house, the next picture shows what the front ones are but typically in these kind of cities, the front of the house is very plain, sometimes not even windows, and the inside has an open area with fountains, plants, etc. Absolutely beautiful.

Well… I thought I took a better picture but this is all I’ve got. You can see the walls on front are weight and there are windows, sometimes flowers are grown on the sills of them.

This is the first cave you go into for the bar, and there are other caves connected with rooms in them.

Sevilla’s post will have to be short, because I don’t quite know what to say because there was so much and I can’t choose. We visited a garden and area that was ruled by multiple people over time. What is amazing about places in Spain such as this or the Alhambra is that there is not just one monument to be appreciated, but rather a monument has pieces that have all been supplied by different centuries. One second you are looking at a piece made in the 9th century, then BAM you turn around and there’s something from the 16th.

One of the many pieces of the first place we went to.

This is the cathedral we went to, which was once again a mosque that was redone. As you can see, that bell tower used to be a minaret.

Me in front of the altar inside the chapel. The wall behind the altar is in Spanish-style whhere they are like a comic, with pictures portraying different parts of the Bible (from the Gospel I believe), the story pieces become more and more important as you move towards the middle, and more and more important as you go up. Not in this picture, but at the very top middle is Jesus on the cross.

This is the Spanish plaza, that was built to host a huge convention, I forget what year. Apparently it was built right before the market crash and it was a failure. One contribution it DID make was this is where part of the movie was in shot in Star Wars Episode 2, portraying the planet of Naboo.

Welp, I’m tired. This weekend, we’re going to a teteria, the beach and possibly a dance club. Should be interesting! Adios!

Tortilla de Patatas
Ingredients:

4 Potatoes

1 onion

6 eggs

olive oil

salt

Recipe:

1. Fill a pan with cold olive oil and placed in thinly sliced potatoes and onions, and boil for about 40 minutes.

2. Beat the eggs in a large bowl, and add a teaspoon of salt

3. Add the potatoes and onions, and mix (This is the time to add other ingredients such as good green peppers, jamon, cheese, etc.)

4. Allow the mix to settle and turn the pan on. It needs to be EXTREMELY hot. Then, add olive oil to the pan and spread around.

5. When olive oil is simmering, and the mix, and move around with a spatula like a scrambled egg, but not as much. When the mixture begins to solidify, move around in shape of a tortilla.

6. When ready, use another plate, tortilla dish or something to flip the spatula and cook on the other side.

For a softer middle, flip and cook less and for a more solid middle flip and cook longer. If the mixture is too think add water.

Salmorejo

Ingredients:

500 g tomatoes

2 cloves of garlic

30 ml of balsamic vinager or lemon juice

1-2 cups olive oil

50 g of bread

half an onion

water

pepper and salt

hard boiled eggs

other half of onion

Recipe

1. Pit and cut tomatoes into eighths.

2. put in blender with half an onion, diced, and 2 cloves of garlic.

3. Add a teaspoon of salt

4. add 1-2 cups of olive oil

5. Add half a cup of balsamic vinegar.

6. Add a large glass of water (sometimes put some in to be safe, blend, and add more if too thick)

7. Blend until liquified

8. Taste and see if extra ingredients needed

9. Add pepper

10. When served, sprinkle some diced hard-boiled egg, diced onion as well as jamon if wanted.

There ya go! :)

FAMILY- DO NOT MAKE THIS I SHALL WHEN I GET HOME

Adios!

So the weekend is over and we are back to the classroom! Siesta now does not consist of only a nap, but lots of reading before we get together to do another activity. Sunday was primarily quiet as everyone holed up to do the readings before class on Monday. After the readings, we all met up to go take part in the film festival taking place in Granada. The festival was la festivale del sur, or festival of the south. We saw a movie about the Israeli and Palestinian conflict and a Palestinian woman whose child had an immunodeficiancy, and was being taken care of in Israel.

The theatre we watched the movie in.

As promised, I have taken a picture of Angelines’ delicious camidas and there will be more to follow:

Today after class, we had a lot of reading to before we were off to cooking school! There we made a tortillas (which is a spanish omellette pretty much) and Salmoreja which is a delicious combination of gazpacho and tomato soup, served cold. I will make another blog post with the ingredients.

Cooking School!

The chef preparing the tortillas y the salmoerjo

Well that is all I have for now, I will post the recipe in a second. Adios!