Time to runaway and become a Flamenco Dancer

October 23, 2013

What. A. Night!!  With my study abroad program, we headed up to the caves of Sacromonte for a night filled with passion, music and dance!

Sacromonte is the original "gitano" or "gypsy" area of Granada.  Hence, this is the location of many Flamenco shows this day in age.  Flamenco was created here in about the 18th century as records show, but they believe its origins are much, much older.  It was a combination of the cultures and traditions of the Gypsies, the Moors, the Jews and the native Andalusians who all lived in Spain during this time period.  Another interesting fact about Sacromonte is that the homes and business are built within "cuevas" or caves.

The trek up to this area is a little bit of a pain, but it's beautiful, especially at night.  As you are walking up the hill/mountain to the cuevas, you walk along the bottom of the hill that the Alhambra majestically sits upon.  At night, there are lights that highlight the Alhambra that make it look even more mystical.  Whenever I am walking this street at night, I just imagine how people used to live in the Alhambra and use to stand in the windows of the towers and I just imagine someone from that era watching us from the windows as we walk by.

So once we got to our location, Cueva de la Rocio, we entered one of the caves and had our very own flamenco lesson! It was so much fun. Half of us would sit and watch while the other half of the group learned a step or two and then we would switch.  Learned how to do some basic moves along with the man playing the flamenco guitar in the background.  I was so sad I didn't wear shoes that had a hard heal so that when I stomped it'd make noise. I didn't even think about it before hand. Oh ya, and Michelle Obama had been there before.  About a year or two ago she visited Granada and stopped at a bunch of local shops and restaurants and they all have received so much more tourism since.  Most of the places have photos of her while she was there as well.  At this cueva, she even has her own chair now. :)

Michelle's chair and picture in the back.

After our lesson, we headed into another cave for wonderful tapas, salad, tortilla española, some kind of meat, haha, and tinto de verano.

Her emotion! 

Dancers in the cave. Notice how narrow it is.

Then it was time for the grand finale! The actual Flamenco show! I can't even begin to fully describe how amazing it is to watch it up close and personal.  I mean these cuevas are very tiny and they dance right in front of you.  Every part of the experience is my favorite, but if I had to chose, I loved being able to see the passion and emotion in their face while they were dancing.  It's absolutely amazing.  My second favorite part, is the music itself.  It is so dramatic and suave.  I've always had a thing for drummers, they're always my favorite person in a band, and here as well I couldn't stop noticing just how talented the drummer was.  Keeping the beat even as it got faster and faster and faster.  Yet another reason I can't wait to hopefully start drum lessons when I get back to the states.

Okay, I actually think I have another favorite part of the night.  At the end of their set, they came back out on the floor and started pulling people up from the audience to start dancing with them.  I wanted to so badly, but at first they didn't ask me but then my friend sitting next to me wouldn't do it, so they pulled me up there with them and I tried my best to combine my moves from Zumba and my new moves from the night.  It was a blast and something I'll never forget.

I'm so thankful for all these wonderful experiences I'm getting to have, especially those taking place in my own beautiful backyard in Granada.

Old photos on the wall in the cave

Old photos on the wall in the cave

P.S. I can't seem to figure out how to download the video of me and my friend Dorothy dancing with the Flamenco dancers, but i'm going to post it as a link and hope that it works.   Dancing the Flamenco!

Weekend in the countryside!

October 18 & 19th, 2013

Man, how I needed a weekend outside of the city.  Before coming to Spain, I had never lived in a city with a large population.  I mean Davis has around 66,000 people and my hometown is what, only 16,000 people.  It was a big difference for this small town Cali girl, moving to Granada, a city with roughly 240,000 (roughly the size of Sacramento).  I love it so much, but until we headed out to the countryside this weekend, I forgot how much more I love small towns and being out in the middle of nowhere.  It's so peaceful and quiet, a place to just catch your breath and enjoy nature!

So the first part of this country-filled weekend began on Friday the 18th of October when we headed to the outskirts of Granada to go horseback riding. It was an event with my program, Sol Education, so the group and I hoped on a bus and traveled into the middle of nowhere of Granada to someone's property where they do organized horseback riding.  I loved it! I mean I haven't ridden horses that much in my life, but something about it just felt nostalgic and homey.  Everyone's horses were so pretty.  They all had names but the only one I remember was Jerriane's horse, Chocolate. Chocolate was a pain in the butt.

Countryside and Granada in the distance. 

The ride took maybe about an hour, through their property.  It was pretty and you could see Granada off in the distance. Fields and animals and just land without a lot of development.  I liked my horse, nice and easy to ride.  He liked to walk fast too, so I started in the back of the group and made it up to the front by the end of the ride.  :)

Me and my horsey :)

Beautiful flower in their garden.

The final product! :) 

The next day, October 19th, we headed back out into the country, to a small pueblo, where our director German's family has a little house.  No one lives there, it only has a kitchen and a garage.  It's where they go to spend the day and it is also where they have their garden.  We went there in order to have a cooking lesson.  We learned how to make arroz campesino and sangria.  It was great to get to help cook again. Don't get me wrong, I'm absolutely enjoying having all my meals be prepared for me, but I do miss getting to cook for myself sometimes. :)

Some of my "Sol-mat

The food turned out amazing! It tasted somewhat like Paella, but it was a little bit different. After eating and sitting around for awhile and having good conversation with the fellow "Sol-mates" we headed off on a walk down to the creek.  Again, exactly what I needed.  Just going for a walk where there isn't city lights and passing cars.  It reminded me a bit of Low Gap Park back home.  Once we got to the creek, a majority of us took off our shoes and went exploring through the creek. But BRRRR the water is freezing.  Basically all the running water through the area is from the Sierra Nevada Mountains so the water is always FREEZING! But no pasa nada. Nothing we couldn't handle.

                           
                                      

All in all, it was a great weekend to escape the city life for just a few hours to catch my breath, soak in the nature and fresh air, before returning back to the busy life of Granada.