Saturday December 10 – Full Lunar Eclipse/ Real Madrid vs. Barcelona

                Last night I got 10 hours of deep sleep, I am starting to get used to not having Kevin here, he is in Moracco for the week, and I have not been woken up from his noise making. I also watched a full lunar eclipse for three hours online since it was not visible in Europe or eastern USA because it was day time or too light out. I sent Chelsea a text about the eclipse and she said she was checking the time right when it got to her so she got up and watched the moon until it went below the horizon. She said that she could see the start of it but it was below the horizon before it started to change to red. In the evening I walked around with Courtney for souvenirs but I did not get any because I have nearly all of mine.

                I watch the Real Madrid versus Barcelona game with Real Madrid being home, this game is called El Clasico (The Classic). I watched it with my host mom, two sisters, and boyfriend. Real Madrid plays very dirty and Barcelona plays great together. Barcelona won three to one, Barcelona’s scorers were Alexis Sánchez in the 30^th minute, Xavi in the 53^rd minute, and Cesc Fábregas in the 66^th minute. Real Madrid’s lone goal came from Karim Benzema only 24 seconds after the game began. It was a fun game to watch even though Real Madrid played very dirty especially when losing. I am forever a Barcelona fan now.

Friday December 9 – El Parque de las Ciencias

                Matt, Katie M, and I went to El Parque de las Ciencias (Science Park).  I was told it was one of the must see sights of Granada and it was pretty fun, although not as fun as I expected. We went to the outside part first because it was a nice day. There was a mind maze but there was not much to it. We went to an environment exhibit but was rather bland especially since there were not very good animals that were stuffed. Next we went to a birds of prey show that was cool; they had a hawk and an eagle. They have a watch tower that you can go to the top of and see all around the city and to the Sierra Nevadas. There was a tiny hedge maze, a ball maze where you put a ball on a ramp and it went different places but it did not work very well, and there was a solar powered fountain that if the panel was moved from the direction of the sun it would produce less water. Inside there was a body exhibit and that was very cool and my favorite part. There was also an exhibit of geometry art that gave me a headache from looking at but was also very cool. Also, there was an exhibit of accidents but half the hands on things were not working. After that there was an exhibit of Andalucia, the area that Granada is in, and of its roots.  It took a good four hours just to go through everything at a decent pace.

Thursday December 8 – Immaculate Conception Day

                Last night I slept very well because Kevin was not here to wake me up and then I did a work out, ate lunch, wrote a paper for Spanish civilization and culture then finished my application to become a resident assistant for Kansas State University.

                Since there is no school or work in Spain again today, my oldest host sister is back from Madrid with her boyfriend today and I think they are staying for the weekend which I like because they are both really nice.

Wednesday December 7 – Volunteering in Almanjáyar #3

                Carrie and I went to Almanjáyar again to volunteer to help again. When we were waiting outside a random dirty and few toothed man came up to Carrie and started rubbing his bald head on her shoulder and held her arm, I cut in and then he left. The kids were better today, but there were only six and they were all girls; when I say better I mean for them, they were still by far the worst behaved kids I have ever been around ever! One girl had a huge black eye with scrapes around that same eye and her eye had a popped blood vain because it was bright red in part of it. We made paper Christmas trees and they were just crazy and yelling, but I was able to understand their strong accent better today.

                After volunteering I went to the post office to send a letter to API in Texas about wanting more transcripts and while doing that there was a procession for Mary because tomorrow is a celebration of the Immaculate Conception.

Tuesday December 6 – Constitution Day

                Today was the Constitution Day in Spain when they made a bunch of changes to their constitution after the reign of Franco and we do not have school because of it and no one is working, which is not unusual in Spain. I got tapas with Katie M, Allyson, Rachel P, and Rachel K at El Patio del Toro, it was a very nice place to get a drink. I, for the first time, got an Alhambra 1925 beer which was really good; I had an Alhambra beer before but it tasted like metal but the reserve 1925 is a great beer.

Monday December 5 – Adam’s Birthday Celebration

                Adam’s birthday is actually December 6 but he is going to London tomorrow so he wanted to celebrate it with us this night. First, we went to Chile Grande a Mexican restaurant, but I did not get a burrito because I want to wait two more weeks until I am back in the USA. The Mexican food here is very bland and not very good but it was not terrible either; I just would not eat it again. We all got a free round of shots for Adam’s birthday and he got fried ice cream. Next we went to a bar that was supposed to have free salsa lessons but this was the first Monday that they decided to do that so the instructor did not even come and there was no one else. Trevor bought Adam a bottle of wine for his birthday but did not a have a bottle opener and Matt bought Adam a bottle of wine as well and we were really close to where I lived and I knew Cristina would not mind if we came over to open them. When we arrived I asked for a bottle opener and she thought I was alone and thought that it was weird that I was asking for one alone. Then she came around the corner and saw them and laughed and brought out a bottle of champagne for us. We drank those in the house and then they all went to Hannigan and Son’s while Rachel S and I went to her residencia (dorm) to get keys from her roommate because she lost hers the other day. We made it to the bar and there were more of our friends there and we had a great time. We ended up going to Granada 10 because we got free passes from the bartender and we stayed there a while because I ended up going to bed at 7:00, a new record.