¡FUTBOL!

You better believe I'll attempt robbery to bring this home.

I got home about an hour ago and have not stopped beaming since. I played with the team for the first time today, in a city on the coast of Spain and I cannot even express how much of blast I had!! I missed the deadline to play with the ‘A’ team for the remainder of their league games, but I’ll be able to join them once they go into playoffs later in April. This is the mini-est of bummers, because as I’ve said, I had so much fun playing today!!! First off, the attitude surrounding this team is SO reminiscent of Strikers Club Soccer. People carpooling for little road trips where you pass the most beautiful landscapes (Like, really? The Mediterranean Sea was to one side of me, and the snow-covered Sierra Nevadas on the other. Unreaaaaaaal), obnoxious parents cheering us on/ harassing the other team, and girls goofing around before and after the game. Good stuff. Good GOOD stuff!! Ahhhh

Today was supposed to be a good game because the team we played is super physical, and my team has never even tied let alone beat them. And physical they WERE. I was not expecting it… these girls were smaller than me for sure but they were going for it! DON’T worry. I stood my ground and only fouled once :D Anyway, after all the tension created from the physicality, a fight broke out with like 5 min left in the game. Ahahahah it was unlike anything I’ve ever seen in women’s soccer. I saw some hair getting pulled, people getting shoved, the ref wasn’t doing crap to stop it so the coaches and other players ran over. I was laughing myself silly out of sheer excitement of this new experience. Inappropriate? No pasa nada, I’m just the newbie American who doesn’t know what’s socially appropriate :P Oh, and we ended up tying them 2-2, so that felt pretty dang good!

Vocabulario: I was sooooo lost my first practice. It has never before been so deng apparent to me the need for communication in soccer, and all I could do was muster random syllables of poorly translated English soccer vocab. Anyway. I learned reaaaaaal quick that I better pick up this vocab, and that I did:

*****denotes super important vocab that cannot be lived without                      

Word/Phrase	English Translation	Soccer Context
¡Que Buena!	How Good!	Good Job
*****Cambiar*****	To Change	SWIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITCH!!!
Peto	Bib	Pinny
Rematar	To Finish Off	Score
Banda	Ribbon/Strip	Flank
Ronditos	Little Rounds	Keep Away
¡Tranquila!	Calm!	Time!
Fintar	To Fake	Make a Move
Tirar	To Throw	To Shoot
Marcar un gol	Mark a goal	Score a Goal

Other things I have noted:

•  Physicality is frowned upon in practice. If you go shoulder to shoulder or get the slightest bit armsy, coach will say ‘eyyyyy’ (BAD). This presents itself as a problem for me. BUT, somehow, once it’s game time EVERY GIRL TURNS HER ‘SWAG’ ON [that one's for you Weinstein], does a 180 and goes full force to win the ball. I don’t understand how they turn it on and off like that. Can’t. Comprehend.
• Like, REALLY, coaches are chill. The other day at practice a girl had volunteered to take the petos home to wash them, promising to bring them next practice. Not only did she not show up next practice, but when coach called her at practice she told him she was on her way home and would see if she could make it to practice but wasn’t making any promises. Coach laughed it off. We continued practice without pinnies.
• Defense is not a focus. Or really acknowledged at all. Sure, there are people who play defense, and they can clear it and play balls out and win balls, etc. But people don’t work as a cohesive unit, they don’t say ‘force left’, and only call out marks for corners. Somehow it all still works though. Again. Can’t. Comprehend.
• The demand for women’s club soccer here is less than that in the United States. Because of that, they don’t have a buncha different women’s teams for each age group. Instead, once you’re 14 years old you qualify for the women’s team. So literally, people on the team range in age from about 17-30.
• As a result of the low demand, women’s teams are smaller. The soccer the women play here is Futbol 7, or 6 + a keeper. This is done on a field that takes up half the size of a regulation field back at home. That being said, I feel like I’m doing less running but more little sprints, which is good! I have noted when we do fitness at practice (and by 'when we do fitness' I mean…we did a 10 minute Indian run…once….) it’s clear that these women aren’t accustomed to running much long distance and makes me feel like a marathon runner. But then they sprint past me during practice and I’m humbled in 3 seconds flat.

I’m still missing GWS very much, and I keep hearing how strong you are all getting and it makes me so excited!!!  Please, let Dubuque and all the other dirty ass teams at us. They gon be sittin on the flo.

**Also GWS in case you didn’t already pick up on this-- I’m already getting crap for running around yelling CAMBIAAAAA all practice. The women here picked up on that reaaaaaaaaal quick and imitate me often. I feel at home :D**

University of Granada... Round 2

16:00: Wake up from my siesta to get ready for class.

16:10: Decide against wearing my *new* 5 euro boots to class when the weather forecast predicts a 70% chance of lluvia. Don't worry booties, you'll have your day yet.

16:15: Walk towards my bus stop--a different and more reliable one than the first time around.

16:25: Arrive at the stop; read the marquee which states the bus will arrive in 2 min! WOO!

16:30: On my way to class! DANG I'm early and so good at bus-taking now!!!

16:42: Arrive at la facultdad de psicologia. Climb up The Steps [I counted to 80-something last time I scaled them, but my heavy breathing and thus loss of concentration did not allow me to conclude with much confidence the actual number of steps.]

16:45 Hmm. Deciding between getting out of my comfort zone and trying to talk to students, or being anti-social and continuing an intense game of Super Jewel Quest on my phone...

16:46: The latter prevails.

16:56: Walk to class.

16:58 "La asignatura resumirá el 11 de marzo. Conferencia obligatoria en la Aula Magna a las 17:30." ..REALLY???? No class, but a mandatory meeting instead, half an hour later.

17:00-17:15: Waste time. Go to the bathroom. Read flyers. 

17:15: Finally do something worthwhile: start a conversation with a student who's also waiting around for a class. She's super nice, from Uruguay, and has the same name as my sister Sofia :)

17:32: Say bye to my new acquaintance and head to class. YEP 2 minutes late because I'm a real Spaniard and don't show up to anything on time!!!

17:33: Arrive and realize I am still too early.

17:37 There are 8 students out of about 40 in this "mandatory" meeting.

17:39 Meeting begins. I have no idea what it's about or why it's mandatory.

17:40: I catch the words "segunda lengua"...second language. This meeting's purpose is to urge the students to learn a second language, namely, English...I need not be here...

17:41 I also catch the speaker say the meeting goes until 21:30. I quickly start brainstorming methods with which to escape. Whattodowhattodowhattodo...in Spanish classrooms it's deemed rude to leave for the bathroom or any reason really, and you're supposed to ask each time you do.

17:44 Conclude that I'm stuck for the next 4 hours. Might as well get something out of it. Take out a notebook and start writing down useful vocab the speaker uses.

18:05 SAVED. Coach calls so we can meet at 18:30 to finalize soccer logistics. I treat the phone call as a dire emergency, excuse myself from the room, and stride out of the facultad towards freedom.

Third time's a charm?

Nerja and Cordoba!

Last weekend a bunch of us took a 2 hour bus ride to the beach in Nerja! To sum up the weekend in one phrase, I will say this: We WILL be returning!! We stayed 3 nights and 4 days, and the first two days were goooooorgeous, right up around 70 and super sunny each day. We literally posted up on a spot on the beach, broke out some home made bocadillos (sandwiches) for lunch, and spent the day there sipping on drinks and relaxing from our stressful life in Granada :P

Both Friday and Saturday night our Hostel owner showed us around Nerja a bit, taking us out to tapas, a flamenco bar, and a plaza with all the pubs. We were super lucky to have found someone who was as helpful and kind as him, and he's a big part of the reason we want to return to Nerja so badly! Saturday night after a long day at the beach and a sufficient amount of napping, we socialized on the terrace of the hostel while sipping on mojitos, meeting other travelers who were also staying at the hostel. The party got moved inside once a neighbor complained about the noise, so we started playing drinking games in one of our rooms. After a bit of that, there was another noise complaint (GEEZERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) so we relocated to the beach, can't kick us off that property!! We stayed there until about 1 maybe, when a few of us continued on to pubs while others headed back to crash at the hostel. The plan was to leave the pubs and chill at the beach til the sun rose! We probably got to the beach at 4am, and it's just as pretty at night! 5am came along, we were still going strong. 6am...still pitch black...6:30 we gave up and headed back the hostel to pass outttttt.

The next day I decided to sleep in while the rest of the people woke up early to go to beach and market. I took my own little stroll around Nerja, ate a delicious quiche, bought a cute tunic that actually turned out to be a dress (it's a good thing), and found the most gorgeous display of jewelry I've ever seen in my life. I made sure to compliment the boutique owner on it. I think I must have been in there for a good 30-40 minutes after buying my tunic/dress just looking at every piece and touching everything but then fixing what I messed it up. I realize now this picture doesn't capture every color they had displayed, I must have been so captivated that I didn't notice after I took the picture, ha! Anyway. Super aesthetically pleasinggggggggg:

After my shopping, I met up with everyone else for all you can eat paella!! I actually only finished one plate's worth, so that should have been my first sign that something was wrong!! We walked back to our hostel because rain clouds were rolling in, and we proceeded to nap. I woke up burning up and definitely had some sort of fever, so I kept sleeping for most of the day. Not fun! Trying to sleep that night was horrible too, but I used Irma's cold-towel-on-the-forehead method to get me through the night. I pretty much slept all the next day, skipped class to sleep Tuesday, felt better Wednesday, and now I'm good as new :)

Yesterday (Friday) our program went to Cordoba to visit the Madinat al-Zahra, which were the ruins from an ancient islamic city, and La mezquita, which is the biggest mosque in Spain, and daaaaang was it pretty!! The ruins were cool, situated a few kilometers outside the city, boasting beautiful architecture that mimics the mezquita. It also overlooks much of the countryside of Cordoba which is super pretty but I was too mesmerized by the structure itself to really take any good landscape pictures, hahaa!

We continued on to the mosque which I love love loved, it's so dang PRETTY!!! It's bordered by a bunch of Jewish shops where I bought a prettyyyy neaaaat bottle opener and got some delicious helado while we waited for our visit inside the mosque to begin. Once inside the mosque, I realized how much I already knew about it and could explain as our Islamic Art and Architecture professor prompted us with questions. It's really cool having learned about all the specific arch structures and construction phases of the mosque, and even more so that there's a whole cathedral inside it! It's just overall a really pretty place, I'm obsessed with its ceilings, and its general decorative detailing. So I'll leave you with a few pictures from the visit!

Ceiling in the muslim part of the Cathedral/Mosque

Me posing with a pillar! The  place was huuuuuge

Ceiling of the Cathedral. I coulda laid there all day studying it. SO PRETTYYYY.

How to successfully complete your first day of class at the University of Granada

1. Before your trip, ask a Grandadino/someone who knows anything at all about which bus will take you up to the Campus.

2. Walk 10 minutes to the designated bus stop; arrive with enough time to allow for delays. (An hour before class starts)

3. Wait...and wait...for 15-20 minutes. When no bus arrives, ask a passerby about which buses stop at this station. When she mentions your bus does NOT, proceed up a hill to a bigger bus stop 20 minutes away from home. Begin to get sweaty.

4. Bask in the comfort that there are now dozens of buses passing by at this new station...start to worry when the bus you are looking for is still no where in sight.

5. Ask someone at the station how to get to Campus. Having now been told a different bus, be on the lookout for that new bus.

6. 15 minutes until class starts. Sweating persists. Don't wanna be the newbie American that makes it to class halfway through.

7. At last, the correct bus arrives. Board it, ask another student for the location of the facultad de psicologia stop.

8. Get off at the correct stop with 5 minutes to get to class. Climb up a billion stairs to get into the building, but feel like (super sweaty) Rocky upon arriving.

9. Find the auditorium where class is held, no problem!

10. Read a sign on the door that says "La asignatura de psicopatolgía del adulto comenzará el tres de marzo"...Classes don't start until next week.

11. Have an implosive fit for 15 seconds.

12. Laugh it off. Be happy that you now know how to get to your class. Take your jacket off, put your sunglasses on, and enjoy an hour long (but sweaty) pleasure stroll back home.

:)