Huge man with tiniest poodle puppy. Oh, España, como te quiero. =)


Edit: Ahora el cachorro está acurrucado encima de sus rodillas, medio dormido. Y todavía no tengo ninguna página de mi ensayo. Tàpies me hace demasiado pensativa.

 

I don't wanna go back! I want to play here forever.

In the UB library, reading a book on poetry, María Zambrano, hinduism, and nature. This is the life. 

Pomegranate, Spain

Dammit, so Granada happened the third week of March and I have no idea how I'm going to remember anything. Pictures will help. So will bullet points. 

Granada was by far my favorite excursion organized by CIEE. There's something about the influence left by the Arabic dynasties that makes it so charming and rich.

• La Alhambra was beautiful, really a work of art. I wanted to stay there for a lot longer than we could, sit near the fountains, listen to the water, and read Tales of the Alhambra by Washington Irving. It was the last stronghold of the Arabs before they were kicked out by the Catholic Kings. 

• Our tour guide explained that the sultan always had a "favorite" among his women, who he didn't use for sexual purposes but was the most intelligent and his most beloved. I don't really believe that he didn't use her for other things, but I guess I'll go with that. Our tour guide liked me so much I was named the "favorite". A lot of girls felt he was a little too chauvinistic with the females in the group. Whatever, get over it. I hate feminists. He's just Spanish, they're all like that, they all look. Haven't you been in Spain long enough to figure that out. Oh wait, no one probably looks at you anyway.

• El Albaicín is my second favorite part of Granada, complete with narrow, winding streets, las teterías (tea shops), and other small shops. The first night I ended up eating at an awesome tetería with a bunch of people and later smoking hookah at another one. The food and tea were delicious and I went to bed with a happy stomach and a dizzy head. 

 

• The gelato was the bomb. Other than in Rome, I've never had such good gelato. Gah.

Crap, I forgot to blog about Granada.

Last time I checked this was Catalunya.

I don't know how this popped into my head, but as I started thinking about it, the more it irritated me. So I have to get it off my chest.

The word 'Barcelona' is not pronounced 'Barthelona' here, as many people (all non-spaniards) like to tell me.

Yes, there is a distinction in most of Central and Northern Spain between the ceceo (pronounced with a 'th' sound) and a seseo (pronounced with a 'ss' sound), but with bilingual speakers in Catalonia and the Basque country, there usually isn't a distinction. Which is why I'm always confused when my host mother says "caza", because I think she's talking about a house (casa), but she means hunt. Also, Ibiza is in Catalonia and it's name in it's mother tongue (Catalan) is Eivissa. So no, you're wrong, it is not pronouced IBITHA. Say it like that if you're not from Andalusia and you look stupid, because you are obviously not Andalusian. 


And it's not a lisp, G-d dammit. They don't speak like that because they have a speech impediment, it's a mental choice and their upbringing that makes them either distinguish or choose between the two sounds. 


Before I came here I too was under the misconception that the majority of people here pronounced everything with the 'th' sound. And for a lot of us, we just didn't know any better. But it's when people who have been to Spain once or never try to tell me that I'm not pronouncing Barcelona or Ibiza right. Sorry, I've been living here for the past five months and I have yet to here it spoken the way you think it's said.