Barcelona and a train ride.

This past weekend was one of the most adventurous and fun weekends I’ve had since I’ve been in Spain. I left for a long-awaited trip to Barcelona Thursday afternoon after a long week of exams. I considered it a sort of celebration after having completed my first week of exams in Spain!

Andrea and I went without agenda, our only purpose to meet up with some of her friends there and enjoy the city together. I did have a few things in mind that I wanted to see, but mostly I wanted to relax and soak everything in. I expected a lot since I had heard so many great things about Barcelona, but my expectations were fully met, even exceeded!

The first thing we did when we arrived Thursday night was meet up with Andrea’s friends, a young married couple from her church back home. We shared a hostel with them while we there, the best place I’ve stayed in throughout all my travels, nice and cozy, set up just like a small apartment. That night we walked around the city a bit before getting dinner and then going to bed to wake up early the next day to explore.

We set out Friday morning without any plans, just walking around to see what Barcelona had to offer. It made me happy just to walk around, experiencing the grandiosity of the city which reminded me of walking around Paris or Madrid—so big that it would be impossible to explore the entire city even in a week. We went to the center of the city where the streets were lined with the most fashionable clothing stores and small, expensive boutiques. It was fun to see it walk around, only window shopping, of course, because I couldn’t afford any of it! As we continued walking we stumbled upon a Dalí museum in the middle of all the shops and I was more than pleased! We looked around there for a while, and then continued shopping throughout the city.

Another exciting discovery, almost at the same level as the Dalí museum, was Starbucks! That day I finally was able to satisfy my craving for a good cup of Starbuck’s chai latte, which I hadn’t had since I came to Spain. It was my first cup of Starbucks in over 3 months, and I was so excited I couldn’t leave without getting a picture! It felt like home just to walk in and smell the familiar smell of bitter coffee grinds and sweet pastries—that smell that sticks to your clothes after leaving the store, the lingering reminder of time well-spent in good conversation with close friends. It made me a bit homesick and really excited to catch up with all my friends when I come home. I noticed in this Starbucks that they served most of the coffee drinks in mugs instead of only paper cups. I think the culture allows for this here more than in America. Spaniards go to a coffee shop expecting to spend a lot of time there without any other agenda. In fact, it’s almost impossible to find a place that serves coffee or other food to go in Spain. I’ve found one, a more Americanized place coffee shop in Granada, that does. But it’s the only one. At first I found this rather inconvenient, but I’ve grown fond of the relaxed way of life here. I think Americans could learn a lot from it.


Starbucks! mi amor.

Anyway, as we continued walking around we encountered bands of almost every style of music in almost every plaza throughout the city. We would stop and listen for a while, watching the old men who danced to the songs that really set their feet a tappin’. The guy in this picture was having lots of fun with the music!

We eventually found our way to La Rambla, the most famous street in Barcelona, which led us to the port at the edge of the city. It was nice to see water, and I wished we could have spent some time on the beach! We walked along the water for a while before making our way back to the center of the city, where we made our final stop at the Cathedral of Barcelona. We walked through and admired one of the prettiest cathedrals I’ve seen in since I’ve been in Spain. (And I’ve been in far too many!)


The port at Barcelona me, Brandon, Regina, Andrea outside of a cathedral

That night we went to a Spanish guitar show in a cathedral and watched an apartently well-known Spanish guitarist play a set of his own version of songs written by others. We went back and forth between staring with our mouths gaping in awe and trying to keep our heads from nodding backward in sleep. It was amazing music, but a little too relaxing!


The next day I got up by myself to see a few more sights while the others slept in. I went to the Sagrada Familia (a cathedral designed by Dahlí which is still being built) and then the Picasso Museum. These were my favorite things to see while we stayed in Barcelona and well worth the lost sleep. :-)

the Sagrada Familia


I met up with the others a little bit later for lunch at a restaurant that took way longer than we expected, and made us anxious with fear of missing our plane back to Granada! We got out of there as soon as we could, ran to our hostel to grab our things, then to the metro, and transfered to the train which finally took us to the airport. We arrived only to find out that our terminal was on the farthest end of the airport and took off running as fast as we could, dragging our luggage and dogging the crowds the entire way. We finally arrived, huffing and puffing like we had just ran a 6-minute mile, only to find out we were 10 minutes too late to recieve our boarding passes (even though our plane was still there), and no amount of convincing would get them into our hands! After we stood around frustrated for a while, contemplating all of our options (maybe we could take off for Paris for a day...?) we finally decided on an overnight, 12-hour train ride back to Granada. Ironically, this turned out to be one of the most fun experiences of the trip!

Since the train was overnight, we decided to get our own room with four beds so we would be able to sleep. We saw this as a new and exciting experience for all of us, taking an optomistic view on our misfortune with the plane. It turned out to be even more fun than we expected! We bought snacks to take with us to make it through the night, watched a movie on Brandon's iMac and finally decided to make a movie of our own! We made it a horror movie and turned Brandon into a creepy conductor and us 3 girls into the ditzes of the typical horror film. I adopted a British accent to add something a little different to the video. It turned out to be a pretty profesional-looking film after Brandon edited it on his computer and we all enjoyed it (even though I tragically died in the end of the film). We finally decided to go to bed at about 5 a.m. before arriving in Granada at 8! If you have facebook, you can view the video online, but I'll try and figure out how I can get it on here too...

on the train!
The entire trip was certainly an adventure we will never forget! I know for sure that whenever I come back to Spain I will definitely take another trip up to Barcelona. It now ranks as one of the top favorite cities I've ever visited. :-)

look at more pictures: www.picasaweb.google.com/kyla.snow

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I'm starting to catch some of the Christmas spirit in Granada. The weather is finally cold (relatively speaking--Ohio is much colder right now). Christmas candies are beginning to be displayed in grocery stores, snowflakes are hanging from the ceiling in El Corte Ingés, Christmas lights are slowly going up around every tree in Granada, and roasted chestnuts are for sale on almost every street corner. It reminds me of home and makes me very, very happy. :-) I'm excited to see what Christmas really looks like here and the day slowly approaches. Apparently Papa Noel (Santa Claus) isn't very famous in Spain, although he's becoming somewhat popular...I haven't seen one house with a chimney, so I'm not sure how the tradition would work here. Instead, they decorate with nativity scenes and images of the Three Kings. Our family said there would be both of these in our house around Christmas time. In fact, instead of dressing up like Papa Noel people dress up like the Three Kings! I'm really interested to see that. I've heard rumors of a Christmas festival beginning in a couple weeks in a famous plaza in Granada, where they will sell everything Christmas--food, ornatments, nativity scenes--for the whole month of December. I'm so excited for everything going on here as Christmas slowly approaches! I haven't heard any Christmas music yet, but I'm really curious to know what that sounds like in Spanish.


It was nice to come back to Granada and feel a little bit of the Christmas season after a nice Fall weekend in the mountains. I spent this weekend with the ISA group in a region of the Sierra Nevada mountains called Las Alpujarras. The Alpujarras is made up of several small towns high up in the Sierra Nevadas, and many tourists visit all the time to hike through the mountain terrain surrounding the towns. The bulidings in the towns were all white, so walking through them felt a bit like walking through Greece, or what I think walking through Greece would feel like since I haven't actually been there. We stayed in one of the towns for 2 days and walked through two others which are close by, and the trip consisted mainly of a couple 3-4 hour guided hikes through the mountains with ample time to relax and enjoy the scenery. The mountains were absolutely beautiful and I felt satisfied finally getting to experience a little bit of the fall season, which I'm so sad to be missing in Ohio. All the leaves were turning and glowed orange, red and yellow against the bright green grass of the mountainside, and the little towns were like globs of white paint splattered in the middle of the grenery. The mornings were cold but the afternoons were warm, and we all were unexpectedly hot during our hikes. The weather was even warmer than Granada, which is strange for how close we were to the snow-capped mountains! It was a trip filled with good conversation, beautiful scenery and lots of relaxation--definitely on of my favorite trips with the group (although now my legs are feeling those hikes)!


Now I'm back in Granada and finally starting midterm exams for my classes. They kind of caught me off gaurd and reminded me that I'm actually taking classes here...I thought this was just vacation! I've been kind of stressed out about them, not knowing what to expect on an exam in another country and just really nervous about trying to remember all that I'm learning. I've said before that my classes are pretty easy here, which is true as far as work-load goes, but at the same time I'm learning a ton of information! I realized that this weekend when I had to start studying for my exams...

Well I need to get ready for my next class. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of Las Alpujarras because I forgot my camera! But hopefully I'll get some from other people and be able to post them for everyone to see what it looked like. I do have other pictures up of other places in Spain, though. They're all on www.picasaweb.google.com/kyla.snow.

Hasta Luego.

Loving Spain and Missing Ohio

I'm writing this blog now without knowing what I really want to write about. I don't know why I'm still up when I have class tomorrow, but I just don't feel like going to bed. I'm really sad for some reason, really missing everyone and everything back home. I'm loving my time here, but I still get random "waves" of homesickness, like right now, when all I want is to be at home with a really close friend talking and sipping a cup of coffee (in Starbucks!). I just want to be with someone who knows me well in a familiar place where I can feel completely comfortable.

In spite of homesickness, the past week has been really awesome and I've made some good connections with a lot of people here. The past weekend I want on a retreat in the mountains of Malaga with some of the youth from the church I've been going to here. There were probably about 50 of us there, so I got to know a lot of people I didn't before. The weekend was filled with less teachings and more time to relax and hang out, to get to know each other--typical Spanish style, right? They really know how to have fun with each other just hanging out, doing nothing in particular. It's nice not to have a strict schedule all the time like I'm used to back home. Time seems to go slower here because of that, and it reminds me that the most important thing is not what I'm doing, but the relationships I'm forming. The theme for the weekend was "Atrevete" which means "dare yourself" or "challenge yourself," and the teachings were focused on living your life to the fullest, being who Christ made you to be. It was good, and I think fitting for me, considering all the ways I've changed just since I've been in Granada. I guess that's what this whole trip has been about--changing to be more like the person God made me to be. Of course this is always hard but worth it! Overall, the weekend was really fun and refreshing, and like any retreat, complete with a talent show! A 3-hour long talent show at that. After that we had a dance party till about 4 in the morning. I don't know how they always stay up so late here. It was definitely a fun night though! I'm in the mountains there in the picture to the left.

So, what else have I been doing....Hanging out in Granada a lot, getting to know the city better, exploring places I haven't seen before and revisiting favorite spots. My favorite thing is just to walk around because there are so many hidden, interesting places in Granada. I always find something new! A few days ago as I was walking around shopping I walked by a store filled with Christmas decorations and it made me really happy but really sad I wasn't in Ohio experiencing the holidays there! Last weekend I was on the retreat over Halloween--not that they really celebrate it much here anyway--and I won't be traveling with my family to Missouri like usual for Thanksgiving. Our program is hosting a Thanksgiving dinner for us since we'll all be missing our families and the plates full of food so much! I think Angela, Andrea and I are going to attempt to cook some good American Thanksgiving food for our family, which I'm really excited about! We'll see how our cooking turns out...haha.

Speaking of cooking, we're planning on making homemade American brownies this weekend with our Senora, which I'm stoked about. :-) I really can't believe how close I'm becoming with this family, especially our madre and hermanita Elena. She calls herself my shadow or "mini-kyla" and she makes my heart melt! I'm not as close with her twin sister Maria, but she cracks me up! She loves imitating people, especially her teachers, which is always great entertainment for us. Earlier tonight she put on an "espectacular" for us, imitating a famous singer here and her music teacher from school. It makes me smile just to think of her with her mom's glasses on the end of her nose, her arms spread wide as if conducting a choir, singing out of key "Mariiiiiia es...la madre de Jesus y mía también...." We couldn't get enough of it, and our laughter only spurred her on more. I love our family! haha. There's a picture of her to the right, doing her imitations.

I should get going since I have class tomorrow morning! Noooo! I guess tomorrow morning I'll also know the results of the election...some friends are going to a place in Granada to watch the results live until the morning, but I don't think I would be able to take it. I'm really nervous just thinking about it! This reminds me of another topic I need to post a blog about later--the difference between Americans and Europeans and how they view America and so on. That will be a really long blog, so I'll do that in a few days.

Hasta luego. Os quiero todos! Os echo de menos mucho.