Protests

I am literally living through history. I can officially say that I saw the Spanish protests of 2012. This is so crazy!

Here's a video of what was going on-

Spain is protesting against the government. Between 6.5 and 8 million Spaniards have participated in these protests since May. Mostly they are protesting all of the cuts by the government in welfare, spending, and jobs; capitalism and banks; and also the fact that they feel they have no real representation from their political parties. About 25% of the population is unemployed, and 50% of young adults are, and it's not looking like anything will change any time soon.

The protest today meant that no one went to work. There was no public transportation, no stores were open, no restaurants, no nothing. 600 flights were cancelled and trains weren't running. The city, which is usually kept so clean, was trashed. Spaniards take great pride in their streets- they clean them everyday, but there was trash everywhere. Almost every bank and atm we saw had been vandalized.

Most of my professors were out protesting too! I had one class today, which wasn't so bad. At least I didn't have to get up at 8am. It was very important to all of my professors that we understand their part in the protests. My Civ and Culture professor knew she would be participating and told us a week ago we didn't have class. She said it's unfair that the government is taking jobs and money and leaving the people with nothing. My Business professor had class today. He said the school doesn't pay the teachers who didn't come to work, so it's just another business absorbing more money. He said he was going to donate the money he earned that day to the poor who needed food.

People have been out all day with signs and flags. The teachers came into our building and were yelling and blowing whistles so we couldn't hear our professor. Any shops that were still open had protestors outside being so aggressive and obnoxious that they ended up closing anyway. but around 5:30 they all gathered in front of the government building. There were thousands of people, everyone in town was out either participating or just watching. Roads were closed and people just took over the streets. It was peaceful here though, they just walked and shouted. In Madrid it's getting pretty intense. Police have been using force to stop riots. I'm just not sure how far this will go!

I'll just post the pictures.

Thousands of people came out to participate or walk.

One of the ATMs we saw. Almost all of the ATMs we saw were vandalized. Most of the banks had some vandalism too.

One of the entrances to the University. It had signs all over it.

This was actually pretty cool- this is the fountain that is in the center of town. They filled it with soap so there were suds everywhere! The plaza was just covered.

Don't worry, it's very safe. My program is keeping a close eye on things so if anything happens, they'll take care of us. Conchi is also very concerned on our behalf so we can't leave the house tonight. Don't worry mom :) I'm well taken care of!

Getting to know my way around

I don't even know where to start. This is so overwhelming!

Today, we walked up to the Albaicín. It's on the northernmost part of Granada and on our maps it's just a labeled circle- there's no map of the streets or anything that's in the area.
It's absolutely beautiful at the top- we could see all of the city below us and the mountains around us.

At the lowest point on our walk up to the Albaicín.

The road is completely cobblestone. Now, I've seen cobblestone roads around the East Coast but they are nothing compared to the ones here. I would say these were more like rocks just cemented in a path. It's awful to walk on but it fits when we're walking next to these buildings that are centuries old I guess. It took us hours to walk there, mostly because we took our time stopping and taking pictures at every point possible, but also because it's completely uphill! And people actually live up there! We took a bus back down because it was cooling off and starting to get dark, but it was terrifying. Seriously, the roads are barely wider than a car and the driver was whipping around these corners like he was a Nascar driver in years past. There was one point when we came around a corner to be nose to nose with another car. Apparently we had right of way, or were just bigger, so the car backed down the road. Maybe I should call it a mountain.. yea.. this car BACKED DOWN THE MOUNTAIN. I closed my eyes for most of the trip to be honest so I didn't get to see the rest but we made it to the bottom.

This is how narrow the streets are. They can honestly fit through here and not lose a mirror or hit anything!

We walked around the city also. The hardest part about navigating here, is that none of the streets are straight or connect where they should. It's like this big winding circle that has no pattern so it's just knowing your surroundings and going by what looks familiar. This whole 'navigating' thing is REALLY hard for me. I don't even bother to try the map. Just pray that I can make it to class everyday!

There are so many 'parts' to Granada- the Jewish corner, the Catholic side, and the Muslim influence. Each is completely different and occupies a different part of the city. The area where our classes are has small alleys, lots of graffiti, and old old buildings. The area we walk through everyday is modern, there are stores and restaraunts and lots of people. I got a few pictures of the different areas, I don't have one in the area where our classes are but I will soon.

The modern part of town- mostly Catholic influence.

Restaurant in the Muslim influence area- it features a Hookah bar with dinner.

I am on spanish overload. Seriously I'm dreaming in spanish.. it's kinda scary actually. Last night I dreamt that Grady was cooking tapas in a barn and singing spanish songs while Riley was flying a plane (apparently Riley can fly in spanish?). It was weird.

The kids in my ISA group are fabulous. We all went to a little Irish pub last night that was actually showing football- American football- and we figured out it was a known 'American' bar. Figures. We would be drawn there right away. But I gotta say, it was quite refreshing hearing people other than my peers speak english without an accent.

Some of the girls in my group. There are 27 of us I think. The girl on the far left in the stripes is also staying for the year- her name is Deanna and she is so great!

I just can't get over how pretty this was today-

Buenas noches!