Dear Diary

I've nothing in particular to write about, except that the past week and a half has been pretty great. Let's start with last week...

After informing me that he would be coming for an entire week, Mike arrived last Monday to spend some time in good ol' Granada. After shutting him up in a hostel for 3 days while I went to classes, we then ventured out exploring. I have since realized that Granada is not the best tourist city. There isn't a lot to entertain tourists during the day, besides the Alhambra, a few small museums, and general walking around. Nevertheless, I think we had an enjoyable week that included lots of ice cream and fried food, sitting in plazas, tea with my host family, and the Alhambra by night.


















Hostel street- it was a happening place at night between the hours of 9pm and ___am.


















The hippie neighborhoods of Granada, known as the Albaycin/Sacramonte.


















This is a very special picture...not just because Mike is in it. If anyone (especially one person) can guess why, they'll have the pleasure of knowing they were right, and perhaps some ire.



























A couple shots from the Alhambra. I enjoyed seeing it at night, especially as I will get to go two or three times during the day (for free) with my architecture class. I thought perhaps that because I'm studying Arabic here, I could read some of the calligraphy on the walls. I was very wrong, though I think I saw a few "a"s and maybe an "r".

Anyway, this week is also turning out to be particularly good also. A quick rundown:

• I was informed that I will be living with 3 wonderful and crazy people in a house in the beautiful South Wedge neighborhood of Rochester next year/this summer, complete with a cat, a garden, and some worms (courtesy of Maria's vermiculture). We've yet to find an actual house, but I'm confident in their ability to find one while I'm here.
• I turned in one of two fellowship applications today. I've been applying for two months, and it became a bigger ordeal than I was originally thinking it would be, so I am ridiculously glad that at least one of them is out of my hands.
• I discovered the UR class schedule was up for next fall, and investigated. None of my classes overlap, I won't ever have class until 11, the advanced seminar anthro. class being offered is about perceptions of nature, and I am unofficially taking an independent study course about the resource conflict between biofuel development, agriculture, and ecosystems.
• I'm going to Cordoba on Friday, and Brussels next weekend. (!!!!)
• I had a pretty coherent conversation today with my host mother about what I want to study after college, and my ancestry.

I feel like this entry has been a bit more for myself, to organize my thoughts, but hopefully it gives a glimpse of what's been going on here. Time's starting to speed up...I've been here almost 6 weeks already!