i'm going to update my blog mom, part 2

So, lots of stuff has happened in the past however many weeks, all to show I'm not cut out for blogging. I'm too lazy to update, and suddenly when I do it turns into an lolhumanz page. And speaking of lolcatz, there are close to several million cats that live around the Alhambra, I think. But back to the point I wasn't making...

Where do I begin? 

I'll start with a photo. 

Here we are at a cathedral in Sevilla, the perfect segway. We went to Sevilla and Cordoba two weekends ago on a program "drop off". This means that we were given money and tasks to complete in both cities, which include finding and booking a hostel and transportation, and visiting certain sights/monuments, to conclude with a presentation. The trip was a mini-disaster on some levels, although I discovered Sevilla to be a very liveable city, and so maybe the trip was beneficial to thinking of my life on a larger scale, which I plan to do sometime soon. Anyway, two days before the trip, Andrew (a classmate) went skiing in the Sierra Nevadas and slipped on a patch of ice. A week later, he had a nail through his shoulder and staples in his chest. So, yeah, he couldn't make it. Pobre Andrecito. The beginning of a bad omen.

Saturday was nice, I think, beautiful out? I don't really remember actually, as everything before 3pm lives in that afternoon's dark shadows. Around 3, we stopped somewhere in Sevilla for ice cream. Unfortunately, around 2:55, someone reached into Katie W.'s purse and took her wallet, including her passport, all of her money, forms of I.D. and credit cards. So by 3:05 we're all freaking out, but somehow manage to skype her parents and the bank, contact the embassy and file a police report within 1 or two hours. 

The aforeposted photo speaks otherwise though, doesn't it? We're all extremely content. Despite the mess, it was kind of fun.

So...more stuff. We went to the Alhambra finally--the bomb it was. I'm over being sick for the past few weeks, which is pleasant for everyone. My host mom's still an amazing cook, and I'll probably be fat when I leave. She made truffles for Andrew and they healed his torn shoulder ligaments. We have french visitors in my house that speak little to no Spanish and so I try to communicate in my broken French. Of course, my sister speaks a little bit French and English, German and Russian. Her boyfriend speaks perfect French, Spanish, Arabic and Rifeño, which is a dialect of Berber (he's from Morocco). I...well, I'm still overexcited when people mistake me for being hispanic. One guy told me I looked like his dominican housemaid on the bus. I'm also called "morena" sometimes on the street, which just means a dark, hispanic girl. Only when I speak more than one sentence do I give myself away. 

I've started working at ROMI, which is an organization for gypsy women, immigrants and their children. There are mostly immigrant children in my neighborhood (less gypsies) from everywhere. I changed my photography idea to dance, assuming it'd be easier to teach ballet classes than struggle with the language barrier in a photography class (since it's in french, anyway). It turns out, offering my dance abilities means that I also could teach Theater ("High School Musical" was mentioned?), Music and English. Hah. Of course, I agreed. Negotiating in Spanish is beyond me. Fortunately, it's less work than I imagined. There are other volunteers- a guy from Belgium, a girl from Japan, another girl from Italy- so, we'll all be working together. My first day was spent teaching English to this hilarious kid from Pakistan and helping with a fiesta for visiting Italian kids, which consisted of Spanish Guitar playing, Flamenco and hip hop dancing. I love it there. 

So, that's some of what's been going on. We're going to a small village next weekend to do a sustainable development seminar. We're also hiking and going to the beach, which I can't wait for. The week after, my good friend Leigh is coming for the week from Berlin and we're camping in the Sierra Nevadas that weekend, which I imagine I will be too lazy to write about. And so this post covers a bit of the past and the future.

I leave you now with an image of the Alhambra from school:

that's a hippie. They're all over the Albaicín. Some sit around there, Mirador de San Nicolas, and play music all afternoon. We have ideas of joining them, and breaking out in something like "britney: unplugged". 

And, more pictures from the Albaicín:

Right here

hasta luego.