Feb 14th – Day of Valentines

Finally, today’s the day! I get to open my cards and presents! My parents sent me valentine cards and also stickers that looked like the heart message candies. Normally they would also get me chocolates, but not when it needs to go through customs. I swear, they have the strangest rules about what goes through and what doesn’t. Any who, I read James’ card, which was really sweet, and open my present. In the card he said that they reminded him of me, so I was curious to see what it was. I loved it! The first was a chunky red bracelet that literally looked like something I would’ve picked out, and the second was a silver and crystal peace-sign necklace. Very me indeed. Now on Valentine’s Day I always have to give out valentines and wear red or pink. However in Spain, it’s not as huge as it is in the states…so I couldn’t find any valentines. But I did give out some of my candy stickers to friends and I wore my pink scarf with a red tank under a black top. Close enough. After both my classes I had to go to the library to print off my papers. I left the copy of one back at my host home, and still needed to print the other. Figures. But oh well, I just needed to have them reprinted and then turn them in. No big. After this I talked with my parents and James on Skype and then went to have lunch and pack for the trip to Granada with Teresa. We leave today at 4pm from Alcala by bus to Madrid then from Madrid to Granada. However I made it on time to meet at the bus station to meet Teresa. Teresa is one of those girls who is always fashionably late, but this wasn’t the time. By time she got there, we were going to be late for our bus leaving Madrid. Which I wasn’t happy with, but then we were able to make it on the next bus leaving Madrid at 6pm. Oh well, as long as we were still going and either way it was going to be a fun weekend. We both slept most of the bus ride to Granada and woke just in time to pull into the bus station. The local buses there stopped running at 10pm so we would need to take a cab. At the bus station though, you have to wait your turn to catch the taxis. So we waited in line, and at one point it became a free for all. So I decided fine, then I’ll catch the next taxi for us so we can get a move on. Well this was a mistake because the next people up were definitely sticklers about the line rule and weren’t going to let someone get in front of them. These two girls came up saying they were in line and making a fuss…I threw up my hands and said it was no big deal, and she could have it…I mean it’s only a taxi, and several more are coming. Not that important enough to fuss over. Then we had another group behind us that thought they could cut in front of these girls, and oh my gosh…I almost thought there was going to be a fight! How dumb, over one cab when they are pouring in?! Seems that you find dumb guys looking to fight in any culture. But the guys who tried to jump the gun we actually not the kind who could actually fight, but liked to pretend they could. Whatever. And they say that Americans are rude. We finally catch a cab and off we go. Granada is beautiful and filled with palm trees, Arabic on buildings and Muslim-influenced architecture. I loved it. Then making our way up the hill towards our hostel, we see the Alhambra. It looks beautiful in the night light with its hint of red in the stone reflecting against the light. The name actually comes from the word alambre which means tint of red, and this red fortress visually attracted attention from far away because of it’s color. Hence why it’s called Alhambra. I couldn’t wait to see it tomorrow on our tour. The streets here though are winding and extremely narrow; so much that the buses here are half the size and narrowed to cut the corners. Geez. Once we got to the hostel, checked in and got to our room, we all felt better. 4 more girls tagged along to go to Granada so we were in a room for 6. The room was nicer than Barcelona hostel with one bunk and 3 beds (two had to share the biggest bed), a bigger bathroom, heater and a balcony with table and chairs. It overlooked the view of the mountains. After putting on pajamas we went to bed anxiously waiting for the next day.