(This should have been put up yesterday but my computer snacked on the first half that I wrote earlier so I am starting from scratch again this morning.)

On Tuesday, I went down to play some basketball at the lovely cobblestone courts across the street from the University of Granada. It was one of the better runs I have had down there, and some solid players showed up. I was fortunate enough to get on a good team early on, and we only lost a couple games so we spent a lot of time on the court. A little later my buddy Ray from North Carolina showed up, and as soon as he got on my squad, we never sat, not once. But this is anecdote is not about describing an afternoon of undefeated pick up basketball. This is about a genuinely shocking experience that could contradict serious opinions I had of Spanish culture. One of the players I had some good battles with that day was a big Spanish guy, who played me man up and with a style somewhere in between physical and dirty (this on its own is a surprising change, but wait, it gets better). When his team came on the court to play against my squad, the large Spaniard turned to an American teammate of his and jokingly pleaded (translated from Spanish) “Hey how about this game you play a little defense. Not a little, just a little bit of defense please.” WHAAAAAAT?! A Spaniard calling out an American about playing tougher man to man defense? Does this contradict everything I wrote about in my last post? Is this an exception to the rule, or are there a significant amount of Spaniards that actually play, and expect their teammates to play, tough man defense? This is a potentially groundbreaking discovery, and only further research will be able to tell whether or not my initial hypothesis is correct or not…

It has been about two weeks since I last posted, and I apologize to everyone who enjoys reading this blog that I have not taken it more seriously. I will work to get back to somewhere around once a week for posting. Also, another thing to get out of the way is that I was involved in an incident at a club two weeks ago, and my only comments will be all is well now, and I do not plan on returning in the near future. Perhaps the biggest change in the past two weeks is that I have begun taking my University of Granada Class in comparative politics. Up until two weeks ago, all of my classes were run through my study abroad program, and while they are great classes, I am only in there with other Americans from my study abroad program. My UGR (University of Granada) class is a politics class for Spanish students, though as of now, I know for a fact that our class has American, Spanish, English, German, and Belgian students. Should be an interesting experience. The unfortunate part about this class is that it is from 4 to 6 pm on Tuesday and Wednesday, which was my prime siesta time before I had this class. Thus, staying awake in class has proven to be one of the most challenging things I have faced in recent memory. I need to go to work on this. I’m thinking eating faster at lunch and clearing out enough time for a 30 minute power nap, and/or grabbing a Coca-cola on the way to class. This will be a trial and error process, and I will keep you posted on my progress.

These last two weekends, I have been presented with two great intra-Spain travel opportunities. Last weekend, i joined nine other kids from our program, and we headed to the Southern Mediterranean coast to the town of Marbella. Marbella is a town famous for its lavishness, and it is a favorite vacation spot of celebrities and aristocrats alike. My host mom told me that for her, Marbella in a nutshell was the beach, and the 6000 euro purse she once encountered while shopping there. One particular area of Marbella, Puerto Banús, is particularly famous for its lavish yachts and even more lavish patrons. However, we did not experience any of this. One of our friends has an affiliation with Marriott hotels, and so we were able to stay in a 3 bedroom hotel room, complete with a full kitchen, living room, laundry room, and 3 bathrooms for two nights for only 23 Euro per person. To put that in context, the bus ride, round trip, from Granada to Marbella, cost more than the hotel did for two nights. It was perhaps one of the best bargains I have been a part of, and we were all very fortunate to have our friend offer us the opportunity. However, once we were inside this resort, the only excursion we made outside of its boundaries was one to the grocery store to stock up on food for the weekend. After that, we got over the fact the resort was “touristy” very fast, and enjoyed time on the beach, the pool deck, and eating on our balcony with an exceptional view of the Mediterranean, and if you looked close enough, the coast of Africa. One surprise highlight of the trip was the giant chessboard one one of the resorts patios. A few of my friends on the trip played, and it was fun getting back into chess. Hopefully, we can track down a board over here soon and continue playing. Other than that, the sunshine, and consumption of mandarine oranges, chorizo on baguette sandwiches, and a few San Miguel beers highlighted the fact that many times, life’s simplest pleasures are its best. 

Though leaving the sunshine and beaches of Marbella was tough, I had another great trip to look forward to, this time to Cordoba. This was an IES planned trip, so we got comfy charter buses to Cordoba at the crack of dawn, and back to Granada the same evening. It was a great day trip. We started with a tour of some Ruins from the Umayyad Caliphate outside of Cordoba. It was a small city where the Caliph and other people of power lived, just outside of Cordoba, which was the capital at that point in history. After lunch, we toured the Great Mosque/Cathedral (like every church in Andalusia, it is an almost comical mix of Islam and Christianity), and I have to say, it is one of, if not the most, impressive building I have ever been in. The inside is filled with arches of a distinct style, one stacked on top of the other, with a color scheme of alternating brick-red and off white, due to the different materials used to construct the arches, brick and stone. The geometry of the architecture is very impressive as well. Not only do the arches line up vertically, but if you stand at an angle and look through one arch, they line up diagonally as well. Once again, I was blow away how a place of such architectural wonder could be constructed without calculators, computers, or power tools. I can only imagine all the work that occurred on parchment, abacuses, and finally the intense physical labor it took to construct the actual place. It was very impressive and something I will never forget. I plan on posting the pictures I took very soon. It was truly an architectural wonder, and with the Islamic architecture and a full cathedral under the same roof, I would venture to guess it is one of the only places in the world that can make you feel like you are in the Middle East and the heart of Europe at the same time. Truly amazing, unfortunately, upon returning to Granada, I learned that I had been rejected from the UN internship I was applying for, I had been cited for having a messy room by IES home-stay inspectors (a little strange, but I am supposed to keep my room clean), and that the ticket I was planning on buying for Carnival in Cadiz had already been sold. It was an unfortunate damper on a day of architectural and cultural wonder.

So now, as I finish this post, and many of my classmates are raging at unprecedented levels in Cadiz, I am left to ponder my earlier-that-expected return to Oxy, and more importantly, the process of self discovery that comes with being abroad. That has to be one of the corniest terms out there, and I feel only so-so about throwing it out there for this post. I remember hearing about the process of learning more about yourself (…didn’t want to use self discovery again, just did…damnit), and I thought it was all part of the sales pitch. What can be so different? What don’t I already know about myself? Well, about 5 weeks into the experience, I can honestly say that while Mufasa doesn’t come out of the clouds and ask you a bunch of questions that strip you bare, being in a different country, being out of your comfort zone, and in many ways, being alone, test your character in new ways. I find myself seeing some of my flaws more plainly, and being forced with the simple decision of letting them slide or addressing them. I want to be clear, this is not some super crazy, stuff-you-see-on-tv emotional experience, but it isn’t just part of the sales pitch either. I am doing my best to embrace the experience, and confront the challenges I did not foresee in January while I was comfortably posted on my couch watching ESPN. With luck, I will come out the other end of this experience a more complete person. And finally, for those rainy days that you encounter along life’s path in any circumstance, there are always the little things there to cheer you up. Today, it was the discovery of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5aSa4tmVNM

Enjoy.