First off, I'm sorry it has been a while since I have posted anything, and I give all of you permission to assume that means my life has been incredible exiting, leaving me no time to fill you all in. Unfortunately, if you assume that, you will be incorrect. The truth is that besides the craziness the past few weeks with my host family, there has been nothing really post-worthy, sorry to disappoint. I have been pretty busy though, mostly with school work. My classmates at Winona finished classes last week, but I still have two more weeks to go before finals start, and they have been anything but fun.
This weekend I did manage to enjoy myself a little bit though. On Sunday I caught the bus to Monachil, a pueblo a few miles outside of Granada in the Sierra Nevada. From there we hiked up, up, up until I thought my legs would fall off*. Once at the top though, the hike and the view were quite pleasant. We descended into a valley, crossed several rope bridges (a little scary, mostly because heights make me uncomfortable), climbed down to some waterfall, and through a cave. There were some parts of the trail so narrow we had to push our backs against the wall with our arms spread and shuffle tentatively, risking a 5(I know, terrifying)foot drop to the raging trickle of a river below and other times when we had to crawl under overhanging rocks on our knees.
The unfortunate thing about the experience is that I got fried by the sun. My shoulders are like tomatoes. I am not bragging when I say it is hot here, I am complaining. It is hot! Today it was over 20C (about 70F)when I walked to school and that was at 9 in the morning. It only gets hotter here folks. Really hot. I don't know if you know that in Spain they have this thing siesta, which means nap. It happens right after lunch, around 2 until anytime from 4 to 6, and many shops and services close down during that time. It is inconvenient, to say the least, but the reason they do it is because during the summer months (like April through August) it gets unbearably hot during those hours so everyone just stays in their houses. It is funny though, because here they will complain about how cold it is in the winter, when it barely drops below freezing at night. Go ahead, shake your heads. They don't know what cold is here.
*not really
Monday, April 28, 2008
Monachil and stuff
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2 comments:
It amuses me that you are complaining about the hot weather while we are complaining about the cold weather. (Snow in almost-May? Really? My parents couldn't get up to Concordia on Saturday because the roads were too bad and the interstate was closed.) Thus, I have come to the conclusion that we as human creatures like to complain. This amazing thesis is supported by the two points above.
Actually, I would hate the heat too. Probably why I didn't study in Andalucía, eh? ;) That, and my school doesn't offer any programs there. jk, jk...
Thanks for the disclaimer about your legs falling off. I was really worried for a second that your legs had actually fallen off. When I was reading that section, my mind placed you in a tropical rainforest, not Southern Spain. It was quite strange, really.
Alright, that's enough nonsense for today. Glad to hear you are still doing well. Enjoy you last really warm month in Spain! Que todo vaya bien!
ew for sunburn. i was just talking about this with rachel and sam the other day...before we all moved out that is. haha. and they laughed at me because i used children's sunscreen because it is the only kind that comes in SPF 50.
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