Sofia Somewhere

In the South of Granada, below the Sierra Nevada lies 70km of valleys in a region known as La Alpujarra . La Alpujarra extends over Granada and Almería , and is sometimes referred to  as   Las Alpujarras . This region is one of the last areas of Moorish settlement in Spain. The name alpujarra supposedly derives from the Arabic word al-bugsharra meaning "sierra of pastures." La Alpujarra is made up of quaint hillside villages that have an average altitude of 4,000 feet above sea level. They're full of whitewashed houses and are thus known as pueblos blancos (white villages). Surrounded by streams, ravines, and woodlands, the make for some of the best hiking trails in Spain. So yesterday, Lyle and I decided to take a day trip and go for a hike. Our day started with a bit of misadventure -- the bus to the bus station was taking really long, and we ended up missing the 10am bus by just a few minutes. The next bus was still at 12nn, so we ended up visiting a nearby Carre...

Last Friday, a friend of Lyle's colleaguem MJ, invited us to join one of the activities in the school where she works. We had met her before, and had talked about it a bit, and we were happy to go for the day. She warned us that the school we were going to was very different from the schools we were teaching at. The school, IES La Paz, is located in the worst neighborhood in Granada, and it's one of the worst schools not only in Granada, but also in Andalucía. The school is 'bad' not because of the facilities or the teachers, but rather because of the students. The school building is actually quite big and well maintained. They have a basketball court and a football field (something my school doesn't even have). They do receive a lot of money from the government, but they have very few students in the school because nobody really wants to go there. They only have a total of 40 students at the school, and with 20 teachers, it's practically a 2:1 ratio. Unfortunat...

After my Brussels, Sierra Nevada, and Cádiz trips, I spent the last couple of days of February chilling in Granada. I can't believe I've been here for 5 months, yet there's still so much to do and see! I think I'll spend the next month exploring more of the city and the nearby towns. Anyway, a little of what I've been up to since: We caught a free flamenco show in one of the local bars here in Granada. Now flamenco is actually a music genre, and not just dancing. So a flamenco show could be either a flamenco singer or a flamenco dancer or a flamenco guitarist, or a combination of two or all three. The show we caught had cante (singing), toque (guitar playing), and palmas (handclaps). The singer I think was a local singer. I don't know much about flamenco, but she sang really well with a lot of emotion. Not bad for a free show. Flamenco singer and guitarist A guy from Couchsurfing messaged me a few days back to ask if I wanted to meet up; he was looki...