Life, Salamanca, Madrid, Midterms

Hello, Hello,

so it's been awhile since I've written anything. I've been pretty busy. We've had 2 weeks of midterms and projects and such so I've been doing a lot of studying. It's finally over and I still have a lot of stuff to do. We have so many papers due in November and I am a little behind in my film class. I've been doing well though, got an A on my grammar class exam, and I did really well on my essay for Art History. Besides the normal, all I have to talk about is my trip to Salamanca and Madrid. I forget normal/day to day things, that could be interesting for everyone else haha but they just seem to kind of pass by. I've been falling asleep in grammar class the last couple of days...it's just sooo boring. haha.
So it's really cold here in Granada! It went from one day being 70 degrees during the day and literally the next day was down 20 degrees. We totally missed fall and just went straight to winter. And our apartment is sooo cold. Carrie and I are constantly freezing...I swear it's just our room too.
So last weekend Carrie and I took a really spontaneous trip to Salamanca and Madrid. We had been thinking about doing it for about a week but didn't plan anything till the night before. First of all, our host mom's mom died last week. We felt really bad, and didn't really know what to do, but she called us as we were walking back from cooking class (which is so delicious) saying that she had already left for Salamanca because her mom died. So we were alone for awhile in the house and Wednesday night around 9:30 we made plans to go to Salamanca the next day! We left Thursday after class around 3 and got to Salamanca at 11:30 (by bus) that night to our hotel. It was a great hotel and only 23 euros a night!!! We were so wonderfully located too, right next to Plaza Mayor!!Carrie has a friend in Salamanca so we met up with her at a bar and hung out for a little bit but went home kinda early (1:30) so we could get up the next morning and do alllll the touristy things because that night we were taking another bus to Madrid. Oh and it was FREEZING in Salamanca...like 35 night, 45 during the day. We did all the touristy stuff the next day...the catedrals, the university (oldest in all of Spain), ate at a cute Italian restuarant, got ice cream, saw a roman bridge etc. It was a really pretty city. All the buildings are built out of sandstone and its small and cute. It gave me a similar feeling as Granada but just a bit smaller. We met these Belgium men who we kept running into all day. They each spoke like 5 languages!! crazy. That evening around 6 we headed to Madrid to meet up with Anna and Claire from our program. We had another nice hostel that ended up being 15 euros a night! But we made up for that cheap price with FOOD. We ate at 2 really nice restaurants and ate delicious food! That night we went out and did a bar for awhile and then just headed back. The next day we slept till noon (haha) and then took a 3.5 hour walking tour around Madrid...we saw the Royal Palace, some sweet plazas, statutes and buildings. I didn't mind doing less touristy things because I've been there before. We then went to the Prado for about 1.5 hours and saw a few paintings before they kicked us out cause they were closing. That night we really went out!! Claire has friends studying in Madrid so we met up with them and went to dinner (we didn't get there till 10:40!). It was another Italian place but whatever, I love Italian food! After that we went to 2 bars and then a discoteca! We met these Spanish guys at the second bar and spoke a lot of Spanish with them! They brought us to the discoteca and we finally went in. It was only 5 euros which is amazing because in Granada its usually 10! It looked just like you would picture a disco. We walked in and it was dark, with strobe lights and crazy green ray lights flashing everywhere, with a stage in the back and we went right to the stage and danced right in front!!! A fight broke out on the stage and we got kinda scared because the body guards were like alll over it and almost worse than the guys themselves...we got pushed around a little bit, but all was well and it made for quite the evening. We didn't get home that night till 7 in the morning!!! My first 7 am-er! haha. The next day we had to wake up and then we just take a bus back to Granada. And then we had lots of work to do..boo
Well then the week went by! habha yesterday was a busy day. We had a special visit for our art history class to the Alhambra! FINALLY. We did mainly the outside (the towers, the gardens, and the courtyard). It was beautiful of course, but really cold. Finally when we were done it was dark but a bunch of us still had to go to this ISlamic Civ. class conference thing. There was this conference taking place at the Law School about Morocco and the Western Sahara. We had to go and try and listen...it was hard considering it was in Spanish and I really didn't understand much! Too bad I still have to write a reflexion about it! haha
Tonight we are going to karaoke , so that should be fun. I am sure we will do something fun for Halloween tomorrow, i'm just not sure what!
Oh and in cooking class the other day we made this delicious stuffed eggplant. It was amazing. we told our senora, and she made it for us today for lunch!!! soo good.
Ok everyone, more seriously, my dad is getting hip surgery today, so think of him, pray for him or whatever it is you do. Keep him in your thoughts! I feel bad because I haven't called home in awhile and I didn't get to say good luck to my pops, so GOOD LUCK daddy, love you!!!
Until Later
love always
Kate