Granada.. is.. the shit. Im really gonna miss it. One more month, peeps! The weather has been awesome, we're all chillin cuz schooooools outttt forrrr summer! I still have 2 finals to get through, so theres been a delicate balance of studying, tanning, hanging, and making the most of gtown before its time to go. The cool thing is that this place still has so much to offer.  During the past 2 weeks, I got lost up in this beautiful neighborhood above the center of town and found my new favorite look-out point. I started going to a free yoga class at some indian dude's house, I started running along the river and fields behind my house, I went on a hike behind the castle in Granada, I took a trip to the most popular beach in the south of spain, I went to a moroccan tapa place that was BOMB, I hung out with a bunch of spaniard friends, met a bunch of swiss peeps, and I've been spending time with some of the girls in my program that I rarely get to see.

Gtown definitely has its own charm, and so does the essence of a "study abroad year," but recently ive been thinking about how i can bring the epicness of this year back to cali. Life is what you make of it, right!? So anyways, here are some pics from June...

"Best beach in the south of Spain" apparently. Sorry for the crappy pic. The water was clear, not too cold, no waves! It.. was.. awesome. This creeeeeepy man followed us around all day. Heres his pic too...

This is my friend Becca. Becca loves health. For my birthday she gave me "health day": a free pass to her fancy gym/spa, a personal training sesh, and a nutritious meal. Very inspirational. Turns out working out is kinda cool. Been doin it ever since!

Running path behind my house

The river that runs thro it!

The place i got lost at, called "the albaicin." I chilled on these benches for a while and studied cuz the sun doesnt go down til like 10pm :)

This is haley--another girl in my program. She is a runnnnnner capital R. We hiked behind the Alhambra and i basically died, while trying to keep up casual conversation. GORGEOUS trail tho--overlooked all of granada and nearby pueblos. We're going on a sunrise hike next week!

(the run with haley)

same trail. helllaaaaaaa olive trees. 

This is my granada family. Ten or so cali kids, 5 spaniards. We got together to make mexican food :) or any other excuse we can find. Gonna miss these peeps aaaaaaaalot.

We also got together to make sushi. Gtown is seriously lacking in the mexican/sushi department.

I went to Murcia, another city in the south of Spain for a weekend to babysit 6 spanish kids under the age of 8. They called me "queso" all weekend--the spanish word for "cheese." haha such a joke trying to understand little baby voice spanish. But we made it! Exhausting weekend.

Just some more of granada :) 

Truth.

Hey friends and faaaaam,

Happy June! May was pretty crazy. I went to my friend Jessica's little sister's first communion. What a trip! Also my sister Shell came to town for 2 weeks.  It was AWESOME.  Aaaalso, my roommates went bat $#!% cray and got reeeeal mad at me for a week or so.  But now its June and all is well.

Jessica and her sister Patricia. The communion was in all honesty a wedding for 10 year olds, minus the groom.  There were gifts (including an ipad), hugest meal of my life, open bar, cake cutting, 1hr church ceremony, and the big white dress.  I love visiting Jess's home town--she has the coolest family.  For example, her mom: she works 14hr days, is an amazing cook, reads A TON, studies english, plays the clarinet, and frequently goes out dancing.  Their family listens to classical music while eating dinner, because "it makes the food taste better"... and the top 40 while washing dishes.  They dance together :)  

18 kids had their first communion that day.  Boys wear little sailor suits, and girls wear wedding dresses.

Jess's fam.  Her and her sister Maria look soooo much alike. 

60 relatives came. 60...

Cake cutting

Their town is known as the city lost in a sea of olives.  Its surrounded by olive trees!

Then this girl visited Granada.  

We didnt see a bullfight but we went to the ring and pretended to be in The Gladiator. 

Went to a beach town and got bottomless bowls of Paella.. a classic southern-spain dish.

My cafeteria food! Love it love it love it.

The Alhambra. (some famous castle)

She came during an awesome week: the fair was here.  Nothing like an american fair.  1 euro beers came out of every vending machine, entrance was free, it closed at 6am, there was verrrry little security, lots of flamenco dancing, unsafe and fantastic rides, people of all ages, and delicious food. 

By her choice, we then went on a bike ride. Pretty epic actually.  A part of granada i hadnt seen before. 13 miles!  Alberto's dad gave us the grand tour and it.. was.. awesome.

She came to class with me too.  Really took an interest in learning about spain, which i appreciated.  This professor is my all time fave this year; reminds me of robin williams in The Dead Poets Society. (he's in the center in white)

The whole town went crazy during fair week.  Its because of a holiday called "corpus cristi," or "christ's body." There we're religious and non-religous parades, constant attractions, shows and events.  Here's a group of little girls dancing flamenco that we ran into in a plaza near my house.

It was a really special time having Shell visit.  It felt so grown up and mature to be in Europe together with my little sis... like we we're friends or something. Haha. It was a great time!  Hope youre all doin well :)  Love you and miss you more everyday! 

Morocco

Right after Kenya my whole program went on a trip to Morocco. I finally know how to spell that word. Thirty californian kids, our program director, and 2 peace core volunteers. It.. was... amazing. We went to 4 different cities, lived with families who didn't speak english, hung out with local students and engaged in discussions about women's rights, arab vs muslim vs islamic, education, sex, stereotypes, you name it. Super educational trip, but so not lame at the same time. Beautiful country, beautiful people.

When I got back to granada it was 8:30 on a saturday night so I dropped off all my stuff real quick and  headed out to the grocery store cuz I had zero food and everything real closes on sunday.  On the walk to the store it felt SO GOOD to feel light, and myself, and unnoticed.  To wear a tank top outside!  To be outside and not feel like everyones watching you (like it felt in Kenya).  I felt at hommme.  It was trippy feeling warm water come out of the faucet when I washed my face that night.. and being able to drink the water that comes out of every sink.  Morocco and Kenya were great, but its good to be back in gtown.

I recently got 200 some new songs from a friend, and its great having a new soundtrack to life.  I've also started looking up as i walk from place to place, like to the clouds and sky.  Makes for a better day!  Heres some pics from morocc...

This was a majority of the whole trip.  Laughing hard with my friend Tim.  He funny.  

To the left of her hand is my name in Arabic!  They write without vowels...

We rode camels.  Yayyyy.

BEAUTIFUL houses/cities/suburbs/streets

This is our host family.  I stayed with my friends Callia and Becca (Becs is here in the photo).  Also in the photo is our house mom, Fatima and her creepy little nephew. 

This is Callia and Becca with our house sister, Caucha.  Definitely spelt that wrong.  She didn't speak english, show she just kept hugging us and saying "love" in the sweetest 10 year old voice.  I loved her!

Our house brother, Adnaan.  He was our translator.  Suuuper sweet 16 year old kid.

Best food ever!  Communal, eat with your hands, delicious and healthy.  They literally forrrrced us to eat eat eat and eat more.  To say that in Arabic, they'd say "cool cool cool cool!"

The first night we got there, we were exhausteddddd.  They dressed us up like barbie dolls in classic Moroccan gowns.  

Roman ruins!

More roman ruins. 

Famous tomb of an old king.  They have kings there!  And youre not allowed to not like him.

Open markets (bargainable) 

We visited a rural farm town and got to talk with a farmer and his family for a long time and have lunch. 

Last city we visited... it was all blue!  Such a trip.

These girls are my besties!!!  Callia, Kaitlyn, and Becca (left to right).  Great people.

Kenya

Hey duuuuudes,

I know its somewhat ignorant, and biased, but i gotta say it: Granada.. is.. the best.  Right now every day you can see a constant flow of pollen floating through the air like little cotton balls. I feel like im in a movie.  I'm feeling extra grateful for the weather and how beautiful this city is.  It's possible that I just really enjoy city life: being able to walk everywhere, constantly see people out and about, and things being open at any hour of the day.  PLUS, Granada for sure 100% has thee cutest old people.  I'll do my best to photograph this in the next 2 months.

To the fullest extent that you can dgaf about school, that's whats happening. My departure from this place is quickly approaching!  There are pro's and con's to that, but mostly cons.  I'll miss my deep friends, my spontaneous up-for-anything fun friends, the novelty of living in Europe, the shawarmasssssss, the shawarmassss, the language, and the culture of constant learning/traveling/BEER.

Aside from Spain, I went to Kenya to be in my friend Juju's wedding. It was a TRIP.  Bride negotiations, drama over cows, and strange traditions.  It poured during the wedding!  We had to dance down the isle, which was fun considering my natural lack of rhythm.. in high heels.. on what was functionally a slip-n-slide.  Being with Juju was great, meeting her hubby was fun, spending time at Sammy's home for handicapped kids was the BEST, and visiting all the old schools/orphanages was really good.

Lots had changed in 2 years.  Being there without a team felt a lot different.  I still freakin love it :)  When I am there I am forced to think differently about life as a whole, and i like that.

center of town

crops and stuff

probably my thoughtsy-est stop.  its the road to one of the farthest schools we work with, and its where ive had some of my best realizations about life.

juju has a shop! a little boutique, and it actually does well! she spends most of her time here, and has a little community of similar shops around her.

miss this crappppp. beef samosas, chips (fries), cooked spinach and ugali (the white stuff) 

FAVORITE. green grams (beans), cabbage, and chapati (fatty tortillas)

jk, thiiiis is my favorite. ghideri: beans and corn cooked like soup. its what they eat for lunch everyday (apparently for the past 3 years) at Discover to Recover--one of my all time favorite places.

the girls house! i spent a lot of time here, slept over one night and traded the shirt im wearing in this photo for Irene's shirt-- the blue and grey striped one in the top left corner. newwww favorite. i wore it for the next 3 days.

Discover to Recover. SO SO SO great to be back here. I spent so much time here over the past summers. They moved locations to a bigger place. All the kids are a bit taller now :)

Sammy, the kid next to me, is one of the Kenyans I think of veryyyy often. love that guy

Sammy's house!!!! Sweetest. Kids. Ever. Levenda (in green) reminded me a lot of my sister Meg. Each of the kids we're so sweet. Figures, being Sammy's kids. 

Bromwell. Loved cuddling. 

Sammy. Loved talkinggggg.

Allan. LOVED walking :)

I also stopped by Gilgal, another school/orphanage that has grown a lot. Crazy seeing these kids grow older. 

Lots of new babies. Allllmost all happy ones.