california kids take over granada

i made it to the dorms last friday along with the other 60-something university of california students. since 2:30pm that day, it has been a whirlwind of granada exploring, two-a-day gelato runs, ridiculous spanish evenings, and laughing till it hurts with hilarious new friends. i feel like it may be easier to capture this week in bullet points, so here it goes:
- the picture above is my fav plaza. it's called bib-rambla and has several restaurants, a churreria (light-ish tube shaped donuts deliciously made and then dipped in chocolate. can you say heaven?), funkilish fountain, and prime people watching with fairly comfortable benches.
- i've now learned the spaniards are all about descansas (rests). for example, we start class at 9:00am, go for an hour or so, have an hour break, maybe go back for another couple hours, then it's siesta time. siesta time = 2:00-5:30pm nap where all stores, most restaurants, and basically the whole city shut their doors to do some hardcore sleeping, resting, and visiting with friends and family. once it's time to enter the outside world again, there's a couple hours of exploration before everything shuts down (if it opened back up) and then it's time for tapas.
- spain is all about carbs, meat, fried anything, and pastries. how they stay so skinny is beyond me.
- a young person's social weekend calendar consists of meeting up with friends at 12:00pm, hanging in a plaza till 3:00am, then heading to a discoteca (shortly after the doors open), dancing like there's no tomorrow, then walking home at 7:30am. i have now particpated in one true college student Spanish evening--it was lots of fun, but lets just say i need to work up my stamina
- gelato can quickly become a serious addiction. i now look at everything in term of gelatos. my mind: "should i get a hairdryer? i dunno...that's like 18 gelatos. my hair can survive without it."
- these uc kids are fantastic. ironically, i have mainly been hanging with santa barbara folk. sometimes, i guess you have to come to spain to meet people in your own school.
- people do NOT run on the streets during the day. ya, a group of us figured this out when there were locals pointing, laughing, honking horns, and yelling inaudible things in spanish as we trotted down the cobblestones. i guess the responses could also have been due to the fact we almost died of heat exhaustion, and practically swam in a fountain. hmm.

i think i've blabbed on enough for today. so here's some visual entertainment.


here are two of those crazy sb kids in a tetería aka a moroccan tea shop. basically, my new hang out spot--sipping tea with epic/semi- eerie music, candles, delish tea, cave atmosphere, crepes, and funny friends.


here is a group of us getting some coffee and some tapas to begin the evening at 10:30pm. i'm still getting a handle on the spanish time schedule