Well it's been a long, busy, but really fun day. My school has been organizing a field trip for our students for the past few weeks and today was the big day! I was invited to go along with the students and some of the teachers so that I could have the chance to see parts of the country that I normally wouldn't have the opportunity to see and experience parts of the culture that aren't typical tourist attractions. On this trip we went to a small town called Rute (in the Córdoba province) about a little over an hour outside of Granada. It was a really cool town with lots of museums, which was surprising considering how small it is (population was a few thousand).
Our first stop in Rute was a sugar museum...and here commenced the eating....that also manufactures a typical Christmas treat called Mantecado (one of my faves!). We were greeted with different chocolate and other sugary treats at the door and from there we got to see how the mantecado was made in the days before mass production. From there they gave us a tour through the sugar museum which was really cool. They had everything from a replica of the Disneyland Castle to Picasso's Guernica to a life-size model of Michael Jackson all made out of sugar and everything looked just like the real thing.
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| Sugar/Mantecado museum |
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| Celia, Álvaro and Ariel excited for the candy |
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| Good to know bunny ears in pics are universal |
After the sugar museum, we took a mid-morning snack break and went to a local coffee shop. From there, we went to a chocolate museum filled with more yummy treats and life-sized chocolate models of the King and Queen of Spain. Next on the list (and this part was for sure scheduled for the adults) we went to an Anise museum/distillery where all of us teachers got to sample a few different Anise liquors and the kids got to try non-alcoholic beverages. From there went to a ham museum (Spain is all about jamón, jamón y más jamón), had some more samples as we quickly toured the place and then it was time for lunch; although non of us were really hungry at that point. The teachers all ate in one restaurant and took turns watching over the kiddos as they ate their bagged lunch. In Spain it's normal to have a beer or two in the middle of the day and the fact that we were on a field trip did not stop some of the teachers from ordering a round (or more) for the rest of the group. The rest of the trip went on without a hitch and we were back in Víznar as it was starting to get dark.
The first weekend in November I made my first big trip of the year. My friends Kerianne, Jessica, Kelly and I went to Paris to celebrate Jessica's birthday. I left Granada Thursday night for Málaga (where Kerianne and Jessica live and where we were flying out on Friday) and stayed with the girls before we left the next morning. We flew into a city about an hour outside of Paris called Beauvais and took a bus into the city. We were a little lost trying to find our hotel but after a little searching, we found it, put our stuff down and made our way to a café for dinner. After that, we decided to head into the center of the city and find the Eiffel Tower. It was absolutely incredible all lit up at night. There were a ton of guys all around that were trying to sell cheap replicas the tower. Anyway, I guess they realized we were Americans and decided to make a sell with us by calling out "Lady Gaga, good price for you...once euro!" No thanks, bud! Needless to say, we weren't buying. But, Paris has always been some place I've wanted to go and being able to stand under the Eiffel Tower while it sparkled at night was breathtaking.
The next day we got up relatively early, grabbed some fruit from a market next to our hotel and headed back into the center of the city to start seeing the sights. We went back to the Eiffel Tower to take some pictures in the daytime. It was really beautiful since the trees in the parks next to the tower were all changing colors. After a short photo shoot at the tower, we made our way to the Lourve. Since Kerianne and Kelly had been to Paris before, they decided to pass on the museum but Jessica and I wanted to go in and find the Mona Lisa. She is so small! We were really surprised because all of the Mona Lisa posters around the museum were bigger than the actual painting. But it was still really cool and I wish we could've spent more time walking through the museum; however, we had many places to go and not much time in the city. After stopping at a crepe stand for lunch, we headed down the Champs Élyseés and took pics of the Arch of Triumph. Later that night, to celebrate Jessica's bday, we went to the Moulin Rouge and at a super cute restaurant close by.
Sadly, my flight back to Spain left early Sunday morning and I had to say goodbye to the girls while they didn't leave Paris til later Sunday afternoon. It was a quick trip but definitely worth it and a great place to celebrate a friend's birthday!
Hope things are going well for everyone back in the States! Thinking about everyone as the holidays are quickly approaching. I'm staying busy and trying to figure out if I can somehow find a turkey here (not super common) to cook for a makeshift Thanksgiving. Or there's always the option to celebrate with tapas...we'll see!
Besos,
Megan
