okay, forget what i said about wanting to live in a cave in the Albaycin, i want a castle. I've been to castles before, a couple in England that were huge and war torn, and one in Southern France that spanned an entire city. But the one I saw today, I could call home. We went on a day trip with the school (again, today reminds me that i hate most of my fellow americans who are in spain right now) to a small city called Guadix and then to the coast of Cabo de Gata for a beach day. But it rained, so I was most impressed with the castle. It was small (in comparison to castles) and the perfect size to actually imagine living and entertaining there. It has a big courtyard, huge ... read more

I've spent all morning finally downloading pictures so you guys can feel a little bit closer to me. :) However, I grabbed the wrong camera cord from home so most of these are stolen from people who were with me on the adventures, and a handful of others I was able to use a friends cord. I'm having it sent to me at my grandma's so I will add more in a couple weeks to come. But for now... LIVE VICARIOUSLY!! http://picasaweb.google.com/anniethescouser oh, and I'm sure there is an easier way to link this directly to my blog, but i haven't figured that out yet either. Google is genius nonetheless.... read more

(children under 18, my aunt Claire says she thinks this is appropriate enough for you, and I won't sensor myself in Spain, so if you feel corrupted, please blame her. Thank you. And reading over it, it seems to be the most vulgar... Sorry Claire. :) sooo, my roommates are hounding me to exchange rooms with them, because they have the smallest room in the house with a small double bed, and a window into the 'patio' of the apartment, and I have the biggest room, with a king size bed and a window to the street. I understand their position (and I can hear them arguing about where to put each others shit) but they also get to split the rent between the two of them and I pay the whole amount, so I'm not ... read more

Crazy weekend. I want to reenact it all for you, but I have to read 'Lola the Detective' for class tomorrow. Friday I bit the bullet and joined the gym. I knew it was a mistake the second I walked out of the office and into the gym. It reeked of sweat and the treadmill is so old that when I run, the belt grabs on the bottom and i actually take a step forward. It warms after a while though so I'll make it work. Also, a lot of the gyms around here train wrestlers so the only floor work I can do is on a matt that was like the mats for the wresters in high school, only they are taped to the ground and I'm sure rarely get cleaned. ANYWAY, its my ... read more

So I've missed a couple days... I've gotten really into the Spanish lifestyle, ie doing as little as possible. It becomes more and more apparent to me daily that Americans are incapable of relaxing. Even on my days off I worried about what the next work/school day had in store. I always had something on my mind that needed to be done. In my Spanish life these days I force myself to go shopping. Can you imagine? Probably not, you are all Americans. Anyway, last Saturday was the grand finale of processions and I again, forced myself to watch all 3 hours of it in the rain so I could be more Granadian... hate to say it though, I am ecstatic to be done with religious ceremonies. Sunday was Easter. The first time that I was ... read more

Yesterday was Maundy Thursday, the biggest day of Semana Santa. I celebrated by drinking at the Chupteria (shot bar) till 5 am the night before, then went on a 6 hour "trek" as my Swedish friend calls it up a huge mountain that overlooked Granada and the neighboring cities. Bad thing was, once we got to the very top we found there was a road that led up there too and hundreds of picnic-ers were barbecuing, there were people playing soccer on the 8 dirt pitches and a group of teenagers had set up a sound system running off a generator to run a huge sound system. Not exactly what you want to see when you've killed yourself trying to get up there through the woods. It was a beautiful hike though all the same. Once ... read more

Met the most adorable Grecian guy last night named.... something Greek. He could have been an underwear model, and I told him that. When I told him that i was from the states, he got so excited, saying "its my dream to move to America" and ran around introducing me to all his equally gorgeous friends. God Bless America if it attracts men as beautiful as him. BUT, then I chickened out without even saying goodbye or 'i hope to see you on a calvin klein ad' or even 'come back to the US with me and i'll help u get a green card, i know this great trick called getting married...' We left because my drinking crew (four guys and me, obviously) weren't doing so hot with the mamacitas and were threatening to leave me. ... read more

I did laundry yesterday! You wonder at my excitement, i will explain. After I figured out how to use the smallest washing machine in the world, I trudged up the 7 flights of stairs (the elevator is broken) to the roof to hang dry my clothes, I think our whole building is forbidden to go up there (which I will probably get in trouble for one of these days) so for now its my own private sanctuary. I was so proud of myself to see my clothes on the line, don't really know why. Then, I laid in the sun, people watched and finished a book. Even doing laundry is amazing. Enough of that; my wet blanket roommates didn't want to watch the game with me so I went alone while they cooked fajitas in time ... read more

So, now i have been here almost a week and I have a pretty good feel for the city. And there is absolutely no way I can do justice to describe how beautiful the small city of Granada is. No way (my best advice is that you drop what you are doing and come here. i promise you will not regret a second of it or a single unearned dollar at home). And it has been so long since I wrote last, I don't know how I will be able to pack everything in. Alas... My class is amazing. Every Spanish class I've taken at the UW has been filled to capacity, like, be there 20 mins early the first week of class or you stand for 50 mins. My class here consists of 6 students. ... read more

Lets just start with this... even on the small Spanish airline I took form Barcelona to Granada had 6, count them; 6, BEAUTIFUL dark haired, darked skinned hispanics as flight attendants, any one of which could have been a Spanish national team futbol player. I imagined they were. I started to get homesick once I was in the cab because I was realizing more and more that the next two days would be hell, finding a place to live, and finding the school in a town I had never been to. At that moment, the taxi driver turned up the radio which happened to be.... Bob Marley. I don't listen to Bob, i mean I know all the words, but who doesn't, but at that specific moment when I heard the words, "I am willing and ... read more