Granada!

We went to Granada for 2 days with our program and it was so nice because they organized everything. I stayed in the hotel with Alyssa and Lauren and it was such a refreshing night away. The food in the hotel was buffet style and it was awesome! I was so excited to actually be able to pick what I was going to eat for my meals for a couple of days! Granada was the first city that I've been to that I thought, wow I could have studied here too because the people were so nice and the city would be a great place to live.

The first day we went to the Alhambra (the largest attraction in Granada). It was in the mountains and was just gorgeous...beautiful old buildings and awesome scenery. I can't get over how much detail went into every ceiling, floor, wall, patio, garden, etc...it was incredible! My sunglasses broke when we were entering one of the buildings so I had to buy new ones that day! After the Alhambra, we went shopping at these small souvenir shops...they had scarves, hand-painted dishes and lots of random stuff. I bought lots of gifts and I may have stopped in the Long Champ store and bought a purse for myself on the way back to the hotel. I wasn't expecting to buy it on this trip but they were a good price so I just had to. I couldn't decide between navy blue and black but after 30 minutes in the store and 6 of my girlfriends opinions, I went with the black. I experienced post purchase dissonance and immediately skyped my mom when we got back to the hotel. Luckily she said she would have went with the black...I instantly felt better. A mom's opinion is the only opinion that counts :) We then went and got tapas (appetizers) and in Granada it is customary to order a drink and get a free tapa with it so we got 3 rounds of drinks and 3 tapas for only 6E each...such a steal or as my dad would say, sticking it to the man! Then a lot of people went out but it was already 12:30 by the time we got back from tapas, so Alyssa and I called it a night and hopped in bed!

The next day we walked through a pueblo of Granada and saw all of the unique and gorgeous buildings. We learned that the streets were built so close together to provide shade to the people because of how hot it gets in the summer and that the streets are really confusing to provide protection because only the people who live there know how to navigate the pueblo. Then we stood on a hill and had a great view of the Alhambra and while we were taking pictures, I noticed a girl wearing a love life band! I got so excited and ran over to her and asked her how she knew Holly. She explained that she was roommates with Ashley Stewart at Boston College and she had hung out with Holly in the summer. It was such an inspiration to spot another love life bracelet in Spain. Holly touched so many lives and it was such a blessing to have this encouragement to keep loving life! After this beautiful moment, we went to the Real Capilla de Granada and saw where Isabel and Ferdinand were buried. They were buried in Granada because this was the last city they had to conquer and did conquer in 1492. You can pretty much call me a history buff now! It was surprisingly really cool to see this because of how much influence they had in history. 

I love CIEE trips! And the next one is to Morocco so I am getting even more excited for that! But Lauren, Liz and I are going to Paris this weekend so be sure to keep your eyes open for a blog post coming up next week about that :) I have midterms next week Wednesday and Thursday (I know, I haven't talked about school at all so you probably forgot I was "studying" abroad but the reality of that will hit next week). Until then, we're going to Paris!

xoxo, Rebekah