I apologize for not updating in a while - there really hasn't been much to report on. We went to Granada and saw the Alhambra (which I remember learning about in high school and was super excited to go there). Actually, funny story - the bus arrived an hour late to take us to Granada, so our tickets that we had reserved were given to other people (since the tickets have a specific time). Somehow, through some connections that PRESHCO staff have, we managed to get almost enough tickets to tour the Alhambra. The Alhambra is a Moorish palace, and it's gorgeous. I have discovered that I prefer Islamic art to Christian art. The cathedrals that we've been to all look the same - Gothic architecture with Gothic, Baroque, Renaissance, and Neo-Classical art decorating the inside. The Islamic art is also very similar in all of the places that we go to, but since it's ornate in a less-gaudy kind of way (because, let's face it, the cathedrals have a touch of gaudiness to them), it's a lot nicer to look at.
Also, in Granada, we learned that "Al" is Arabic for "the" and all of the Spanish words with "al" at the beginning are derived from Arabic. This is also why Spanish and Portuguese sound so different from other Romance languages (like Italian and French) - because of the Islamic rule in the Middle Ages and the Arabic influence on the language. I was really excited when I discovered why French and Italian are more similar to each other than to Spanish.
I have also been watching a lot of television here (a byproduct of not having a lot of schoolwork to do since everything is lecture based & we aren't responsible for hundreds of pages of reading a week). It's actually probably a good thing, since everything (well, mostly) is dubbed in Spanish, so it's another way for me to be exposed to the language instead of watching programs in English or listening to music in English. I have found that cartoons (dibujos animados) are easier to watch since the mouths don't really look too different with the dubbing, and have been watching a lot of Bob Esponja (Spongebob Squarepants). From Bob Esponja, I have learned some valuable vocabulary words, like "cangrejo" (crab), "calamardo" (Squid[ward]), "aranita" (Sandy), "fondo de bikini" (Bikini Bottom), and more. I have also discovered that Dora la Exploradora is just as annoying in Spanish as she is in English - I watched about half of an episode before deciding that I couldn't take it anymore.
Yes, so that's about it. Nothing too terribly exciting, but the May festivals are going to be starting soon (including the patio contest, so there will be tons of tourists coming to our patio & I may have to prove to tourists that I do indeed live in this house and am not trying to cut the line). Hasta luego, amigos!
