These past few weeks have been a whirlwind of events, traveling, and important learning experiences here in Spain...this is the first time since my last entry I´ve had time to blog so there´s much too share!

The weekend after Kaela´s visit in Granada, I went on a daytrip with CEGRI to Córdoba, which is a city located in Andalucía, on the Guadalquivir river. Today it has a population well over 300,000 but during the peak of the Muslim caliphate in Spain in the 10th century, Córdoba, the capital of Al-Andalus (the name for Spain according to the Muslims) reached 500,000 inhabitants-the second largest city in the world. The main attraction in the city is the Mezquita, or what is now called the Catedral. After the Reyes Católicos pushed the Muslim caliphate out of Spain, this world-famous mosque, an incredible piece of history, art, and architecture, was converted into a cathedral with the use of horrific gothic architecture within the mosque. Despite this attempt to Christianize this Muslim site, the Mezquita remains today one of the most exquisite reminders of Islamic history and culture in Spain. We also toured the remains of the palace where the Caliph (the "king" of the dynasty) and his servants lived. Although over 90% of these remains are buried underground, it was really interesting to see because much of these significant historical discoveries are still being made today.

Last Monday, my friend Marja from the U.S. came to visit me in Granada for her spring break and it was a lot of fun. She left yesterday (tugging my huge suitcase full of every possible piece of winter clothing we could squish into the thing) to return to classes at Marquette and it was really hard to say goodbye at the airport. We had such a great week together and it was wonderful to have a little reminder of home, here in Spain.

Even though I had class during the day, she enjoyed spending time getting to know my host family (as she is a Spanish major and speaks better Spanish than me!), doing a little sight-seeing on her own, and of course shopping! We toured the Albaycin, the Alhambra, the Catedral, various parks, and yes...tapas bars! She was introduced to the famous FREE tapas (delicious appetizers that come complimentary with the order of a drink) as well as churros con chocolate and chawarmas, which are delicious wraps made with shaved meat, spices and vegetables. This food derives from the Middle East and is a favorite among people here eating on a budget. We also had our fill of the always satisfying cafe con leche and bocadillos made by my señora.

Unfortunately, the aforementioned learning experience also took place during Marja´s trip. During one of our shopping excursions Wednesday night, my purse was stolen in a shoe store when I was trying on a pair of flats. Although it was probably the most terrible experience I´ve ever gone through, I am grateful that no violence was involved and that it did not happen to Marja, who was carrying her passport! It´s still hard to think how foolish I was to not have my purse on my shoulder for those few minutes when I was in the store and how I should have known better, after living in such a busy city for two months but I have had some good (and somewhat comical) learning opportunities and "first-time" experiences...

1) First time filing a police report-I remained fairly calm, considering it was in a second language and the police officer, realizing how difficult the language was for me at that moment, only seemed to talk faster. I was very particular to have the (male) officer include the designer name Vera Bradley in the police report, and not just "wallet" (as it was my first piece I ever owned). I then attempted-due to my lack of vocabulary-to explain to him what a paisley pattern looks like... On a side-note, it was quite funny to listen to him attempt to say my last name and proceed to ask my about my Russian heritage-guess again sir!

2) First time going to a motorcyle repair shop to request to have someone cut through the Craftsman lock on my suitcase-The key to the lock on my suitcase was in my purse so after trying to pick the lock with a hairpin (not so easy as the movies make it look) Marja and I toted the massive piece of luggage to a local moto repair shop, where a nice worker from Columbia used a metal-cutter to bust the lock (sorry Grandma!) and proceeded to strike up conversation about how close our homelands were...right.

There were many other firsts, not quite as interesting, such as buying a cell phone on my own and calling my mom with the horrifying news and to "cancel my credit cards." Now the only thing I have left to do is to decipher the text messages I am receiving in order to figure out who´s who and rebuild my phonebook.

Thursday night, Marja and I went out for tapas with my intercambio Jesús and his friend. We went to one Italian-themed bar called D´Cuadros, where we got a heaping plate of tortellini with our glasses of wine...MMM! After that we headed to a more typical Andalucían bar that was decked out in the hand-crafted pottery specific to Granada and other rustic/farm decoration. There we had cervezas con patatas fritas and a delicious potato-pancake.

Friday we left around noon for Sevilla, where we spent most of the weekend sight-seeing. There we saw the world famous Catedral; it is the third-largest in the world and took over a century to build. Supposedly it holds the remains of Christopher Columbus, but who knows for sure. We also saw the Plaza de España, the Plaza de Toros and an incredible Flamenco show. All in all, the trip was successful and I hope to return before the end of my stay here because there was so much I wasn´t able to see.

Now I am busy with schoolwork again and preparing for my trip with Kaela to Portugal in only two weeks! Oh yes, before I forget, today is Father´s Day here, so to all the fathers at home, Happy Father´s Day from Spain! Until next time, hasta luego!