Jooly Jools

I would like to report that I have been doing lots and lots of fun things and taking lots and lots of pictures of these fun things. I have not dropped off the end of the earth...though I almost did that when I literally went to the end of the earth in PORTUGAL last weekend! Amoung other fun things I have been up to is HIKING IN LAS ALPUJARRAS. Yes the Julia Borges hiking...and enjoying it like a champion! Well, except for the uphill part that where there was a very cranky Julia whining about how she lives on a pancake below sea level and cannot handle hills, especially hills at elevations. But all in all it was a wonderful, beautiful experience! I also went to to a BULLFIGHT yesterday. It was depressing...I saw four bulls slowly and gruesomely murdered for peoples enjoyment. But I am glad I went because it was a cultural experience and all that yadda yadda. And Spanish people literally turn anything they possibly can into a fiesta to the point it begins to become ridiculous. So every Spaniard was drunk at the Bullfight, and tomorrow is the Catholic holiday Dia de la Cruz, where they apparently make big flowered crosses and dance and of course drink. And then on Friday I go to Cádiz a town on the western edge of Spain with my program! 

I had so much fun showing Brooke and Gina around Granada! This city really is magical. I definitely fell in love with it all over again! 

SO EXCITED for next weekend and getting to explore Brooke and Gina's Florence! 

I have tried my best to call it allergies for a few days but the truth is it has finally happened. I am sick in Spain! 

Thank goodness my neti pot finally arrived and I am consuming oranges and zinc up the wazoo. Hopefully I will be better by tomorrow because BROOKE AND GINA ARE GOING TO BE IN GRANADA!

“The Sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.”

--Jacques Cousteau

It's only been a day and I'm already dreaming of going back!

This Friday in Granada there was something called the Fiesta de la Primavera. This festival..if you could call it that..is a gathering of around 25,000 young people in a plaza/parking lot/basketball court were they celebrate the begininning of Spring by drinking lots and lots. This kind of thing would never in a million years happen in America! This type of event isn't really my cup of tea, but I went anyway for the cultural experience and I actually had more fun than I thought I would! Also notice in these pictures that EVERYONE has brown hair here. This was the first time I really understood the Spainards fascination with blond hair!

I went to Rome a week ago and I fell in love with it! It is such a beautiful city! I went into it pretty blind, everything I knew about Rome I had learned from the Lizzie McGuire movie...so not much. It is incredible how integrated the city is with the ancient roman ruins! I saw so much in such a short time there! On the first day Katherine and I just wandered from our hotel and ended up seeing almost everything! Even though we didn't know what everything was yet. We kept saying to each other, "What is this giant building? I don't know...it must be important people are taking pictures of it, maybe we should take a picture too?" Eventually we figured out what everything was, the large building in question that time happened to be the tomb of the unknown soldier! The most common answer too I wonder what this giant building is? Is is that it is a church! There are over 400 churches in Rome! Crazy! Katherine and I kept popping inside of them, because well they are free! And most of them are insanely beautiful. Katherine and I had a strange encounter inside one of them. We were walking around then saw that it had a museum attached so we climb up the stair too it and end up seeing Saint Cammilus' ACTUAL HEART. Honestly the experience was slightly unnerving...we were in this small room and some Italian man would not stop speaking to us in Italian even though we tried to convey that we had no idea what he was saying, and then I whispered to Katherine is that...a heart? And indeed it was a heart encased in this fancy glass display. And the heart had been there since the saint died in 1614! This means I saw a 398 year old heart! 

Well, moving on from ancient body parts, I got to see the Pope as close as any normal person gets to see him! Every Sunday he sits at his window and speaks. Mostly in Italian so I had no idea what he was saying but he did give a shout out thanking Americans for coming to see him. The Pope really knows how to build the suspense.  First he opens up this little window shade, then he opens up the window, then this fancy tapestry is rolled down then like 8 minutes later he finally arrives! By the time he popped out of his window, people were cheering for him like he was a rock star. 

All in all I had an incredible time in Rome! 

I decided this was an important edit! Here is the song Lizze McGuire sings in the Colluseum at the end of the movie. This is the officially the unofficial theme song of Roma, Italia.