This past week and a half in Granada has been filled with many exciting and cultural experiences here in Granada. I recently went to my first flamenco show which was absolutely amazing. It took place in this really pretty area up on the hillside and inside of caves. The dancing and singing was so passionate and the people did a wonderful job and seemed to really love what they were doing. It was great to see this traditional show and really gave me a good feel for the culture.

Another really fun activity that I did recently was hike Monachil in the Sierra Nevada. I think I can easily say this is one of my favorite things that I have done Granada. The trail was beautiful and had lots of narrow pathways and bridges that we crossed. We followed alongside the river as we made our way towards the top of the mountain and had a picnic lunch. After lunch we went back and headed to the place on top of the Sierra Nevada where I went paragliding. Paragliding was an amazing experience and I loved every minute of it. The view from the air was unbelievable and I was able to see all over the cities nearby and the mountain range which still had snow in certain parts.

Research here is going the same as usual. Participants are still a little hard to find but I was successfully able to run six people last week and am hoping to run a couple more this week. We have to present next week our findings during the lab meeting so I have been working on creating a PowerPoint for that presentation and getting all of my data collected so that I can begin analysis.  

After quite a long journey I finally arrived safely in Kong Kong. Luckily, my advisor here, Carol To, and two students, Chris and Catherine, picked me up from the airport. We took a taxi to my dorm, or "hostile" as they call it. We had to carry my luggage up 3 flights of steps to receive my key and another 3 flights up to my room. I was very lucky to have the extra company to help me with my luggage. My room is nice; just a bit smaller than a Penn State dorm. My roommate, Luna, seems very sweet; she is from Korea and speaks pretty good English. She is here for an internship. There are not many people living in my building. Right now Luna and I are the only two people that live on our floor. Hopefully, some other students arrive this week so I can meet more people!

On Wednesday it was a public holiday for dragon boat racing. I was lucky enough to watch the races with my brother's friend, Sara, who lives here. Sara took me on a "junk" (which is their word for a big boat) to watch the races. The dragon boats were not elaborately decorated like I had expected. It was a really fun and unexpected first day in Hong Kong!

Yesterday, Chris picked me up in the morning to show me how to take the bus to Carol's office. My dorm is quite far from her office so I'm grateful Chris could help me. I met many people within the Speech & Hearing department. I share an office with a few other students. Carol took two of her students and me to a Japanese restaurant for lunch. It was yummy and very nice of Carol.

            It has been a very busy first few days here. My body is starting to get used to the time difference, but it will take a few more days. I'm not sure if my legs will ever get used to all of the hills here! I thought Penn State hills were tiring until I was faced with the almost vertical hills here. Next week, I will return to the office and meet Gary, the graduate student that I will be working with. I am excited to meet him and get to work!

The title of this post is obviously not a temporal reference, as I still have another month exactly before returning to the good ol' US of A.  No, this is in reference to my experiment, which is still going swimmingly but now frustratingly close to completion.  I'm more than anxious to tackle my data (which as I understand it means wrestling with E-Prime studio and R, hoo boy) and I am so very, dearly close to being able to do so.  As I sit now, I'm 33/36 for eyetracks and 29/36 (factoring in attrition, I'm 32/39) for behavioral sessions, and I'm itching to close things down so I can closet myself off and stare at graphs until the Americans present our findings on June 26^th.  On a still slightly lab-related note, I would like to point out the following:

Our lab here is beautiful. I can't say I've been confined to the basements of Thomas back home as I always did eyetracking in Burrowes, but the scenic view of Granada, sleekness of the rooms and design, and the industrial-strength air conditioners that circulate glorious, freezing cold air through the building make this an absurdly agreeable work environment.  Though I have been the only one to enjoy these temperatures so far, basking in the 50-degree air like some kind of bizarre arctic plant, now that we've broken 90 degrees for the first time in Spain I appreciate them all the more.  I do not do well with heat, I mean at all (I'm very much a 55 and rainy kinda guy), and even if my experiment's going to be wrapping up soon I feel like, for the first time ever, I may have to schedule my daily activities around a sun schedule as to not get dehydrated or burned. (Incidentally, the humidity here is extraordinarily low and dehydration slips in quick - I've learned this the hard way from my first few runs). 

Switching over to cultural experiences, I officially experienced my first complete loss of language identification.  Walking back from American Football practice on Monday (the local league here are national champs and invited me to play!), I came across two lovely ladies that looked about my age and were being a little less than inconspicuous with their map.  Now, this is where I have to divert my tale in two so that my readers get the effect of the strangeness of this brief encounter.

What Happened:
I asked them if they spoke English, they responded yes and then asked where a local plaza was.  Since plazas in Granada are like intersections in a US city, I took a look at their map and pointed out they had passed their destination and were heading towards the wrong one.  They actually had to head in the same direction I was going so I invited them to walk with me briefly, and we started strolling.  One of the girls complimented me on my Spanish, and while I graciously accepted the compliment I was confused - when had she heard me talk in Spanish? I identified them as English speaking right off the bat, and don't talk in Spanish to those who address me in English to avoid being rude.  She stuttered something, and then after 30 seconds of mutual conversational dysfunction we arrived at their turn and I sent them on their way.  Walking away, I was still quite perplexed until I realized...

What I Said:
I asked them if they spoke English...in Spanish. "¿Hablái ingle? (being true to form to Andalusian "s" lenition), to which they responded "yes".  When we were discussing the plaza names, I saw the Spanish titles on the map and, without thinking, went right into Spanish, saying something to the tune of "This one se llama Platha Isabela la Católica, you're looking for Platha Carmen!" ...and in that moment I understood two things: 1) the girl's extensive confusion, poor thing, she must have thought I was either messing with her or not entirely all together, and 2) I had no idea what was coming out of my mouth.  Not the slightest clue.  I've noticed a ton of perceptual changes in my Spanish processing - reading is entirely different now, and going back and forth repeatedly, while still demanding, is not nearly the crippling load it was before coming here.  But it seems I've actually gained the ability to lose the ability to control my speech.  Granted, I was extraordinarily tired, but all the same this was a tiny revelation in its own right.  Methinks I need to do some serious reading on executive control when I get home and get back up to scratch.

Well it's hard to believe that my time on PIRE is now more than halfway over. The time has truly flown by and Spring Semester in State College feels almost like a distant memory.  Since coming here I've learned so much about Spanish culture, met some amazing people, and had my first job fully dedicated to research. More than anything I'm impressed with just how comfortable I've become with myself as an experimenter.  It's now normal for me to have 3 ERP sessions stacked right after each other with no break in between. In State College I would have been overwhelmed with just one participant and now I'm not even phased at all. Kaitlyn and I have also become a regular machine with capping people for the study.  For the past few participants we've had them scrubbed, gelled and ready to go in just 15 minutes!

As an appropriate transition for the halfway point of this experience, Britney and I have now transitioned away from testing American Spring Study Abroad students. We've now started recruiting British and Summer Abroad students. We hope that by expanding the variety of the sample pool, we'll be better able to understand the effects immersion has on people with different backgrounds and lengths of immersion.  Like Judy warned us, these participants won't exactly come and recruit themselves so we've had to become more bold in getting the word out about our study.

I consider myself a friendly person, but not the type that would just go up and start talking to a stranger about our research.  In coming to Spain though I've decided to push myself outside of comfort zone and really get the word out about the study.  It's now totally normal for me to accost an English-speaking person on the street and see if they want to come in for our study.  Most of the reactions I've gotten so far have been quite positive and people are usually quite interested in the study.  Getting gratification that other people appreciate the work you do is one of the most rewarding things and I hope this success continues for the rest of our time in Granada. 

Blog 3

I am not up to 20 participants done. I would say that's a pretty solid job. The struggle has now become finding people who have been here for at least a month. Almost all of the spring semester students have left and now the flock of summer semester students has showed up, which is great but unfortunately not immersed long enough for me. Hopefully by word of mouth with the couple people who I know are staying till July I can get the rest of my ten L1 English and then focus on my L1 Spanish participants, which shouldn't be too hard to find.

This past week was a little dry and unpredictable with participants because of the festival that was going on in Granada. I think the story is that every year each city has a weeklong festival to celebrate their city. Since I figured a bunch of the American students would want to experience that before going home, I tried not to schedule anyone for Thursday and Friday. We decided to all attend the festival, Monolo took us. He has been the most helpful person and deserves a million thank you for the amount of things that he has helped us with during our stay here in Granada.

The festival is an amazing place and such an experience. They make this huge area dressed with millions of lights and fixtures, glowing in the night sky. There are rides, food, and tents that have live music playing. The people wear authentic Flamenco dresses with huge flowers in their hair. Young and old they all looked gorgeous.

The plan for this week is to get as many people in as possible and then take a day trip over the Sierra Nevada.

Last week I also got to be a participant in a study for one of the grad students here. The working memory span tasks were super tiring, but fun. And, I got to do my second-ever ERP study and it was great. I'm definitely in the minority, but getting my head twiggled was fun. I think I did pretty good with blinking, but I think it was a good reminder of the pressure we put our participants under and how much they do for us.

This week is the week of the Feria which is the third largest Feria in all of Spain. I heard that this was week of non-stop activities and going into it I really didn't know what to expect. I must say though I have truly been amazed with the quality and quantity of outdoor performances, parades, and overall town spirit.  I've never lived in a place where a holiday can transform every aspect of daily life for an entire city.  People in our lab warned us though that things start to close down later and the week so Ben and I have already been stockpiling food for the weekend. I'm not sure if we got quite enough bread to last us to the end of the festival, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see!  We probably don't, but like all things in Granada you can always find what you're looking for if you're willing to put in the time to search.

On a personal level, I really feel like I'm starting to acclimate to life in Spain. I know no longer find it weird to go for a late morning tostada and coffee and then eat lunch at 2pm. In fact eating a traditional Spanish dinner at 8pm works out quite well after spending many late afternoons in lab and then going on a long run.  After you finish eating the sun is still high in the sky and you still have your whole evening in front of you. As I'm rapidly approaching the halfway point of my time abroad, I'm realizing how much I've become accustomed to this lifestyle and how I'm going to miss many things when I go back the US.  

Seriously, though, this week has been a blitz.  Under the assumption that everyone comes in tomorrow, I'll have over 20 eyetracking sessions done in about two weeks - great news considering that is the meat and potatoes of my experiment.  Apart from that I have little to report.  I'm becoming more settled both in Granada and my cuevita that is the eyetracking chamber, and it's really allowing me to start picking up on the smaller details.  I can tell earlier when participants are getting tired or distracted, alleyways are now becoming as distinct as the grand avenues, and I have no idea what's going to happen in a month when I am going to have to head home.  This feels genuinely like an extension of college: I work for a large part of the day at lab, have a network of friends from all over and there's the ever-present bonus of being able to constantly practice Spanish and generally enjoy the vibes of Europe.  Also, now that I feel like I've spent some quality time with Granada I feel comfortable planning trips to other areas of Spain.  On the list so far is Monachil, The Caves at Nerja, and perhaps Malaga if my experiment schedule permits a long weekend.  It really is surreal to think about the fact that I've been here for four weeks.  I keep myself extraordinarily busy at Penn State, but the time there doesn't even go so fast.  Think of my life as a standard with two speeds: 5TH and PARK, and there's honestly very little overlap.  I'm either doing a task or chore, thinking about how to go about aforementioned task or chore, or doing something that requires almost no brain power (usually sleeping or eating).  Granted, I'm taking much better care of myself here than I do at home, simply because I have the time to say "hm...do I feel like taking a nap today?", but all the same it's remarkable how much of a rhythm there is to this place.  At the same time there's a sense of apprehension; two months is a respectable span of time but in terms of adjustment it's at a rather awkward cusp between a "visit" and "living abroad".  To be fair, though, if I spent a semester here it probably wouldn't be enough - when I visit a place I want to actively, intentionally, purposefully, take in everything, not just cruise along.  Even as I type this there's part of me that regrets not exploring every square inch of the feria or running to some unknown sector of the city because, let's just be real right now, when am I ever going to get to come back here?  I generally consider myself to be a scholarly person (who hopefully will have future access to grants) but the extent of the gift that is the PIRE Grant is not unknown to me - this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, so why do the hours go so fast?    

Since my last blog, my time here in Granada has flown by. As of yesterday, I know have had ten participants and three more already scheduled to come in next Monday. In my study I am looking for participants who have been studying abroad here in Granada for the semester and it looks like a lot of the people's programs are ending this week so getting participants in the coming weeks may be harder than it has been thus far. Fortunately the summer programs are suppose to start up about a week after the Spring semester programs end so we should have a new batch of participants in a couple of weeks. 

The biggest problem that I had been having with regards to my study continues to be finding wifi. While I have learned to not expect wifi all the time, it still can be difficult at times. For instance, this past week I have had some type of stomach bug and was not able to really get out of bed on Monday, let alone go outside to find wifi. I had a participant scheduled for that day, but without the wifi, I was not able to instantly get a hold of her and let her know that I would not be able to come in. Luckily, one of the other PIRE undergraduates was planning on running her after me so she was able to just go in earlier during my scheduled time and it all ended up working out.

Next week I plan on participating in one of the current studies for one of the people who also does research in the lab. I am excited about this opportunity to participant in another study and to make a couple extra euros. There is a fair this coming week so we have been advised not to schedule any participants on Thursday because it is likely none would want to come in that day anyways. I am looking forward to attending the fair and experiencing some of the Spanish culture. 

On a more extracurricular note, we've been graced to have Eleanora in the lab with us this week! I'm actually double dipping in her fMRI experiment - once at PSU, and once in Spain; even though she presented her work to us yesterday I'll be doing my best to blindly follow the instructions on the screen and forget about all of the conditions and other paradigms.  Honestly, though, even if she sat and worked me through every individual photo slide it probably wouldn't help.  Though the human brain is a remarkable organ in that it named itself (ponder that over a glass of wine sometime), mine doesn't seem to want to work.  I'm noticing a strange shift in language skill now that I've been here - Spanish is becoming easier to speak at times, and certainly easier to access in general, (the "shift" from whatever language to Spanish takes less effort than usual) but my English is actually starting to, to use a colloquialism, take "hits".  Since English is so uninflected, we host a beautiful variety of adjectives that are used in infuriatingly specific places to express even more specific nuances, and the retrieval of such slightly related adjectives (consider the differences between pretentious, narcissistic, and pompous - a hair's breadth apart in meaning, but separated by a hair's breadth even so) is absurdly difficult for me now.  For the first time in my life, I mixed up the English question vs. statement construction and politely asked a friend "What it is?" in English, only to then realize that I seem to have lost all control of the words coming out of my mouth.  I'm not alarmed, only surprised - as someone who studies languages, a large part of what I do is keeping everything straight; not an easy task when you're in a lab, in Spain, full of Russian/Spanish bilinguals, and your roommate speaks French.  (Eleanora simply speaks everything and was thus excluded from the previous sentence for the sake of avoiding redundancy).  It's just never been quite this hard before, but then again this is my first time immersed in a culture I can actually communicate in.  It seems like there are going to be many more surprises to come, and I'm pleasantly expectant of future challenges.  

Well time to sit down again and write another blog post. It's been a really busy week since most of the study abroad programs are ending this week and it's a sprint to the finish to try to test as many people as we can before they leave.  We have identified some people in other programs some who have been here for a whole academic year and some who are just arriving for the summer. I'm excited to keep testing, but I'm looking forward to being able to relax our pace a bit and analyze the data we've collected thus far.

On a more cultural level I've felt like I've really learned a lot more about the city of Granada. This past weekend was the Festival of Virgins which had apparently been in preparation that been in planning for several years now. It was an elaborate show with ornately decorated floats carried robed children and priests. As we were walking down Calle Recogidas luck would have it that we would run into one Eleonora Rossi! It was a very pleasant surprise as we knew she would be in town, but not exactly when she was getting here. After meeting up with her we decided to go an Arabic restaurant on Calle Elvira which was truly a unique experience. They had menus in English, French and Spanish (for the linguistically inclined) and I tried my first ever Lamb Tajine.

Personally, I feel like I've been slowly adapting to life in Granada. Coming from a fast-paced East coast lifestyle, I knew it would be an adjustment coming to Southern Spain. I think I'm coming to terms with the pace though, I just wish people would learn to walk a little faster on the sidewalks! Then again which surrounded by so much man-made and natural beauty, it's hard not stop and look around to take it all in. I think I definitely have a lot to learn from the Spanish and their relaxed lifestyle and that sometimes it's best not to take life so seriously.

In my free time I've taken to going on long runs and exploring the far edges of the city.  One of my favorite things to do is just to find the tallest hill I can see and just run up it and relax for awhile. Like magic, every time I go up there I feel like I can really clear my head and let all the little things from the day go.  These are truly some of the best runs I've been on in a while and I will definitely miss Granada's scenic vistas. (Pictures to come I promise!) 

The weather has been nothing but nice, a little chillier than the past two weeks and it rained one day, but each day I catch some vitamin D from the sun! Last Saturday we went up past the Alhmbra and found ourselves in a beautiful field of olive trees. The view was amazing; at the top we were able to look out on all of Granada!

As far as research, everything has been going smoothly. We have been able to get a number of students through the University and also by just meeting them out on the streets. There has been one problem that I have been finding. It seems that we haven't been clear enough, and unfortunately I have received two people who don't fit my criteria, even though through email they explicitly say that they do. I have fixed that problem in making myself more clearly in the initial email asking specific questions. The problem is that the students hear spend so much money that any chance they get to make some Euros that jump at the opportunity and aren't as clear with us as they should be. The problem is fixed now though, so that is a plus. This next week I plan on packing in as many participants as I can, a lot are getting ready for finals and are starting to leave to go back home. 

1)      El concepto de "tiempo español" si existe y mucha gente vive en este huso horario especial, lo que es muy diferente que el mío.

2)      También existe una verdadera "puntualidad americana" - estamos obsesionados con ella, pero el resto de mundo no se preocupa tanto de nuestra idea de "Five minutes early is on time, on time is late."

3)      ...tendré que correr entre participantes, el campus, y las facultades diferentes como un loco para pasar cada persona cuando mis planes se desprenden.  Ayer fue un ejemplo perfecto - había esperado un participante solo (quien se quedó dormido el miércoles) para hacer eyetracking, y por una combinación de tardanza y una falta de comunicación tuve que correr cuatro personas en cuatro horas (tuve que utilizar otro conductoral, lo de K2, quien muy graciosamente me permitió de usarlo - Thanks Kaitlyn! Dinner's on me tonight!) ...francamente no me gusta depender de otros, because when things go wrong, when people become upset, you have to take the fall for it.  But I'm re-learning the value of an important lesson: endless, ceaseless, patience, and how to be unassailably friendly, even when someone misses two sessions without contacting you and is then absurdly late to the third.  I consider myself to be a patient person, and sociable enough, but this is truly proving to be culturally (and personally) horizon-expanding experience.  Ah, y tambien he subido una foto de la ciudad del mirador que he comentado en mi post anterior.  How awesome is this?

Last weekend was a blur of testing out the NuAmps system, and it seems like our experiments and that system just don't work together. So, we started using the 64-channel Synamps system, though now we don't have the lab all to ourselves. But it's great that they have options! Now we have to figure out just what's going on with the NuAmps. I'm curious to see how the tasks that are run at the hospitable run on the system here. 

So we moved into the 64-channel lab, and had to test out all our scripts, so Dan capped me twice. But, with my allergies going crazy, trying to not blink was just awful, and my eyes just watered the whole time. I hope none of our participants have bad allergies!

The best news is that I've now run my first 3 participants here. I'm impressed with their level of English - they are all really good. The first participant was superblinky, which if it keeps up for other participants, means I might get to learn a new ERP trick - blink correction.  Now onto data coding.

            In my break from the lab I have gone on a few runs to try and familiarize myself with more parts of the city. Every corner I turn I feel I need to take a picture of how beautiful this place is, as I keep going each street just keeps becoming more amazing than the previous one. As for meeting local Granadians, I'm ashamed to say that my Spanish is still too basic to allow me to converse with most people. I have however happy to say that we have become quite acquainted with the American study abroad community here in Granada. They have lots of helpful tips about how to assimilate into the culture and have also been great participants in our study. I still have seven glorious weeks to yet to come, so I am excited to see what Spain has in store for me. 

Now that I've taken the time to read maps (in the safety of my apartment), learn bus routes, and generally wander, I can stroll through the streets of Granada with confidence - it's almost an entirely different world.  Being lost, which still happens from time to time, is more of a challenge than an issue at this point, and every time I go running I endeavor to delve as deep as possible into an unknown region of Granada.  Sunday, for example, I was taking my favorite route - the brutal ascent from the bottom of Calle Recogidas up to a viewpoint above the Alhambra.  Up there in the olive fields, the whole of the city is laid out beneath you, and you can enjoy the view from inside a small pergola/terrace-like structure of sorts.  This was the fourth time I had ascended the Alhambra, and each time I had noticed a small, circular viewpoint below on the edge of a hill.  On a whim, I ran on, and enjoyed the second viewpoint for a while before the stares of alerted Spaniards led me to decide to continue on down the hill (which, incidentally, ran away from my district of the city).  I know I don't look Spanish in any way - somehow, being 190 cm tall, white as a ghost, and having green eyes and red facial hair gives me away in this country...pero vale. 

So I ran on, descending down a long and winding highway that led to a part of the city I hadn't seen before.  I knew I was at least two miles from the river, which is the relative center of the city, but that's when the adventure kicked in.  Yes, I didn't know exactly where I was, but my relative-direction compass was still working overtime.  I'm fortunate enough to be the Spanish speaker on this trip, so if worst came to worst I could break gender barriers and ask for directions.  Though the sun was going down, I'm generally too big for people to want to mess with - I've never had the problem of being catcalled at or glanced at or anything else, and Granada is far too touristy of a city to risk being dangerous to generous Americans.  What did I realize in that moment? Quite possibly one of my favorite feelings in the world - that I'm independent, free to do what I wish, and have an entirely new area laid out before me, ready to be absorbed and understood.  I'm comfortable in Granada now, know where to find wifi, all the food I want, and the local sites.  It feels as if I've lived here for a month or more. 

In laboratory news, I've been running behaviorals for a while now, and my first eyetrack is tomorrow.  My fingers and toes are crossed that neither E-Prime nor E-Builder decides to flinch; I'm itching to run my experiment for the first time.    

The first week here in Granada has flown by! I had been looking forward to my trip to Granada for months and when I finally landed I couldn't believe that I had finally made it. Luckily for me, my flights went very smoothly and I only experienced a short delay in Madrid.

Upon arriving to my apartment, Kelsey and I were spared no time to rest and headed out to explore the town with Alvaro, Kaitlyn and Ben.  We sat and drank coffee outside at a café that is located right below the Alhambra. Afterwards we walked around the streets and ended up on a hillside that looked over the city of Granada and had a beautiful view of the Alhambra. On our walk back we saw street performers as well as people sitting outside playing guitar and singing. Even though I was tired and running on only three hours of sleep, I couldn't have imagined a better way to spend my first day becoming familiar with this beautiful city that I will be calling home for the next two months. 

The next day we showed up to the lab, which is brand new and has a really nice view over the city of Granada.  We were introduced to Teresa Bajo, our advisor here in Granada, as well as some of the other people who also work in the lab. The following day was the first day that Kelsey and I decided to take the bus home from the lab by ourselves. Both of us speak enough basic Spanish to get around, however our conversational Spanish is not the best. Assuming that the buses here run like the ones back in State College where they make a complete loop, we decided to stay on the bus and see where all the stops went. The bus eventually stopped and everyone had to get off. We had no idea where we were except that it was not close to our apartment. In order to get home we used "donde esta" followed by a lot of pointing which lead us to another bus that took us back to our home. It only took us a few common phrases to be able to communicate, however without those phrases we would have had a lot of trouble finding our way back.

Over the last week I have been trying to improve my Spanish vocabulary so that I can better communicate with the people here. I have found that one of my most commonly used phrases has become "donde esta wifi" which the Spanish pronounce as "wee-fee". I have never been to Europe before and so I had not been expecting to have so much trouble finding wifi. At first this was frustrating because in order to contact participants I needed the Internet but there is an ice cream place close to our apartment that has free wifi (if it's a good day). Needless to say I will be eating a lot of ice cream this summer.

Today, Monday the 13^th, is the first day that I have begun running participants. I have run two so far and hopefully will be running a third in an hour from now. I have enjoyed interacting with the participants and learning where they are from and how their studying abroad experience so far has been.

I am so lucky and excited to be here in Granada doing research. The city is absolutely beautiful and amazing and so are the people. I can't wait to spend the next two months here and am so thankful to have had this opportunity.  

This first week has been fantastic -the city is beautiful, the food delicious (and the tapas a great invention), and the people warm and patient with my limited Spanish. 

On Monday we got to see the new lab space and meet everyone. What a difference from the Thomas basement - there are views overlooking the city and there are even atria filled with lavender! I only got to speak briefly with Dr. Bajo before she left for a conference, but I will be presenting my codeswitching data from home in lab meeting when she returns and am looking forward to her feedback. 

This week has consisted of figuring out the ERP system here and recruiting participants. Recruitment has gone pretty well so far - I have potentially 7 or 8 people scheduled. The ERP part has been a bit shakier. They have both a 64-channel and a 32-channel system, and since both Dan and I are doing 32-channels, and no one here is using that lab, we thought it would be the best choice so that we could make sure to have time to run all our participants. However, this system uses NuAmps - a DC amplifier rather than our usual AC Synamps.

So far, it's not there yet.  After figuring out the differences in channel layout, it took awhile to create the setup file using a combination of the settings of the amp and the settings we want. We got to cap and run Ben and Kelsey on a bit of my task, and the outcome has been only so-so. The data seem to be at a ridiculously huge scale, but overall we seem to be getting typical ERP waves. Tomorrow we'll meet with a student who has actually used this system and I'm sure will work out the remaining kinks. This has been quite an experience at learning about different ERP systems, trying to dig through different manuals, and troubleshooting.

Hello everyone and welcome to my first PIRE Blog post. I would just like to start out by saying that I am so thrilled to be here in Granada.  When I got off the plane, I was truly blown away by the architecture and landscape of this amazing city.  A friend who visited here once called it one of the most beautiful places on Earth, and from what I've seen I would have to say that I agree. As we sat in the Plaza de Reyes Catilcos eating tapas, watching street performers, and the sun slowly setting on the Andalusian countryside, I truly knew I was in a special place.

But my stay has also been very fulfilling on an intellectual level as well.  The first morning I went to lab I was very impressed by the University's new center for neuroscience research called CIMCYC. It's a beautiful space with dedicated fMRI, TMS, and lots of other scientific equipment. The building itself can best be described as very new and very white (emphasis on the white).  Everyone in the lab has been very welcoming to us, and Kaitlyn and I were thrilled to find out that there was entirely new 32-channel ERP lab that we would have free reign over during our time here (is that amazing or what?). The only downside is since not many people have used it so Kaitlyn and I have been spending almost all of our time in the ERP trying figure out the differences in the two systems. Shout out to Ben and Kelsey who were kind enough to volunteer their heads for capping. I'm not sure they exactly knew what they were getting themselves into, but we couldn't have done it without their help!

As for getting around, my Spanish is still basic at best.  I find that people here talk very fast and I'm often asking them to repeat themselves. I've also found that my dietary preferences have changed considerably, and my new favorite food is anything that I know the word for in Spanish. (Consequently I've been having a lot of café con leche!) I've also been putting the ICM to the test and trying my hand at learning more Spanish. After taking French for 8 years I was hoping I would be able to jump in with conversing with people, but sadly that's not the case. I have been operating by the general rule of adding an A to any French word that ends with an E, but I've found that it works only about 50% of the time. It looks like I still have a lot more work to put in, but I think I'll learn a lot by the end of this experience. 

What's the strangest food I've eaten so far? Probably jellyfish. Or pig's ear. Or whatever made me violently ill following a dinner of many dishes last week. Have I seen the wall yet? Yes. Have I walked on a 2200 year old section of it? Yes. Have I taken a photograph of the photograph of Mao Zedong at Tiananmen Square. Yes. Have I learned any Mandarin? I know my numbers, and use a lot of deictic gesture combined with French or Spanish or whatever else bubbles up from my reservoir of foreign language fragments. What's the most difficult thing to get used to in China? Probably the feeling of being a roving zoo exhibit. Or the looks of surprise when it turns out I can use chop sticks without dropping oily food all over my pants.

The students at Beijing Normal are gracious and accommodating. They teach me Mandarin and run my participants and take me places to buy towels and shower sandals and umbrellas without lace (parasols are the Uggs of China and are easily mistaken for functional anti-rain gear). They enjoy watching online videos, gchatting, and taking breaks to eat ice cream. They have as many questions about America as I have about China, and often know more about US geography than I do (although, in my own defense as a Midwesterner, the value of differentiating one big cornfield from another is dubious). We spend our days together in a hot office sitting at cubicles in the wash of tiny alternating fans, reading papers and cursing Excel or E-Prime. We eat lunch together in the cafeteria, which has four levels, meals for under a dollar, and chefs who will happily quarter, slice and plate huge water melons for a short but never shrinking line of people.

For now, that's as much as I have to say. I must get back to work analyzing some data. So I'll leave you, dear reader, with the promise that you may hear from me again soon, perhaps about the data I'm analyzing, or the food I'm eating, or the places I'm walking to. For those interested in what China is really like (and not simply the American stereotype, which I can tell you is wrong in nearly every way) you should listen to the most recent episode of This American Life called "Americans in China". Until next time.

Tuesday June 5 -Today I had a participant to run in the afternoon. But I spent the rest of my day at the University with my eyes glued to my laptop screen. I wouldn't have it any other way! Amelia, Clair, Sara, and I were scheduled to present our work to the department the following morning, so I spent the day analyzing my data and putting my presentation together. Before I go on, I would like to take a moment to extend a big thanks to my Penn State graduate student mentors Alvaro and Amelia for helping me navigate my data and make sense of it all. It was with their help that I was able to get my bearings and finalize my Powerpoint presentation.  After having finished preparing my presentation, Amelia and I met with Teresa Bajo (head of our department) to touch base with her and quickly brief her on our presentation. Thanks to Dr. Bajo's help, we were well-equipped and ready to go for the following day. After work that night, Clair, Sara, Amelia, and I worked on merging together our separate presentations into one so that everything would run smoothly and coherently come presentation time.

Wednesday June 6 -  I woke up early today so I could eat a good hearty breakfast at the University before my presentation. Now that I am friends with most of our colleagues in the department, I wasn't as nervous as I expected myself to be. I also found that I wasn't nervous about presenting in Spanish  (perhaps a good sign that immersion has taken its effect?).However, what did put me a bit out of my comfort zone was the question and answer after the presentation. This was a bit harder for me to conquer than the presentation itself just because a lot of people talking at once in your second language (and with an Andalucian accent) is understandably challenging. But, like in all situations where I encounter language miscommunication, I just had to ask for clarification before answering their questions and no pasa nada (everything was okay). Looking back, I think I could have done a more thorough job explaining my graphs. To an audience of linguists, I think my explanation would have sufficed because the material is more familiar. But because the department is made of mainly psychologists, not linguists, I should have spent more time explaining my variables and what was really happening with my graphs so that everyone could understand it. Other than that, I am really pleased with how our presentation went! Having only one participant later in the evening, I was left with a free afternoon. I spent a little time at the University using the wifi to contact participants also to continue familiarizing myself with the programs we use to analyze data. Then I headed back to el centro (the city center) because today was the Tarasca. La Tarasca is the pagan parade that takes place every year on the Wednesday of the Feria. But what is La Feria, you ask? It is fundamentally a sacred week that honors the city's patron saint. But with each passing year, it becomes more and more a liberal, party-going, week-long celebration with lights lit above all the streets and a carnival-fair type park set up with booths and rides just outside the city. But to return to la Tarasca, it was basically a short parade full of bellydancers dancing, big Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand puppets walking, marching band music playing, and colored confetti falling from every balcony. While it was a short parade, I have never seen the streets so packed. It's a wonderful thing to see the community come together to celebrate. After the parade, I went back to the apartment because the other Penn State PIRE becarios and I had decided to host a family-style dinner for our Granadino friends. We spent the day cleaning the apartment top to bottom, planning the menu, and grocery shopping. Then Clair and I went to the University because we had a participant scheduled for the evening. After eating ourselves silly at our family dinner, the whole group of us went to la Feria. As I mentioned before, the Feria is a big carnival style festival in the campo (in the parts outside the city) with booths, rides, and tent restaurants. I rode a tacky haunted house ride and the bumper cars. I'm not sure if Spaniards are more competitive when it comes to carnival rides or if someone was just out to get me, but all I remember is one extremely rowdy bumper car barreling towards me and the next thing I know I wasn't in my car anymore. I was on the ground. Flung like a ragdoll. I guess seatbelts are required on park rides at the Feria? But don't worry, I'm still in one piece! But indeed, it was quite the adrenaline rush. Well anyways, on your next trip to Granada, remember that you've been warned about the bumper cars at la Feria. J

Thursday June 7 - The University was closed Thursday and Friday due to the Feria. I took advantage of my day to take care of some work. As usual, I went to work recruiting participants via email. While I did my laundry, I turned on the TV and to my surprise, I found Spanish-dubbed Desperate Housewives. It made me feel like I was back at home! During the night I tried arachina for the first time with my friend and colleague from the lab, Francesco. Being Italian, he told me it is a type of Italian food I must try before leaving Europe. It turns the guy knows his food! The arachina was like a little hot pocket filled with rice and peas and chicken and sauce. Pretty good. I went to bed early because I had an early bus to catch in the morning.

Friday June 8 - I woke up at 6am to catch my 8am bus to Cádiz, a beautiful city in south-western Andalucía. In short, Cádiz was my favorite city in Andalucía (after Granada of course) mainly for its beautiful coast, it's small town feel, and the sweet people I met. To summarize, I ate shark for the first time and I also ordered a plate of the famous regional plato pescaito frito (fried fish). I caught some rays at la Caleta beach and wandered over to explore the rest of Cádiz's stunning coast. Because I made friends with a boy from France and a girl from Italy, my brain was in language absorption overload by the time I went to bed.

Saturday June 9 - After spending the day in Cádiz, I headed off to Sevilla, as it is en route to Granada from Cadiz (when you are taking the bus). My friend from home is studying there for the summer, so he showed me around the city. We took a walk by the Guadalquivir river and he showed me some of his favorite nooks and crannies.

Sunday June 10 -Sunday morning when I woke up, almost everything was closed. But there was a religious procession going on in the barrios (the neighborhoods) that morning, so I got to see some the church members carrying la hostia (the body of Christ) on a float through the street. It was like a mini neighborhood version of the Corpus Christi. But I was saddened to realize that due to this religious holiday, the great Cathedral of Sevilla (the largest Gothic Church in all the Iberian Peninsula) was closed. But luckily there was a loophole: if you attend mass you can get in. So, after mass, I walked around the church grounds and came across the tomb of none other than Christopher Colombus. To be honest, I expected his tomb to be bigger, but then again, anything would seem unimportant in comparison to La Catedral de Sevilla is. Later, we walked to Plaza Espana, Sevilla's biggest plaza. Its claim to fame are its beautifully decorated plaques that honor each of the autonomous communities of Spain. After this touristy stop, I was in the mood to cool off and relax (Sevilla is so hot at this time of the year). So, we went to Park María Luisa to play in fountains. Before catching my bus home, my friend and I cooked dinner at my hostel with some friends that we made. The Eurocup was on, so the atmosphere was lively to say the least.

Monday June 11 - Today I had a full schedule. I ran three participants. So from the research perspective, we had a very productive day at the lab! Por la noche, I went to San Miguel Alta, the viewpoint with the highest altitude in all of Granada proper. It was quite humbling to see the city from so high up, but my favorite mirador (viewpoint) is still San Nicholas in Albayzin.

Tuesday June 12 - Today, in the morning, Clair and I stumbled upon a new park where we can exercise. It had tons of machines and trails to play on. It was a bit curious though because we were the only young people there. Let it be known that the elderly of Granada really do seem to take care of their health. I hope to follow suit! I also found it curious that they don't wear exercise clothes to exercise. They wear slacks and work shirts, so we stuck out like sore American thumbs with our exercise pants and tanktops! We had a participant in the late afternoon today, and after working at the lab for an hour or so, we went home for a family dinner night at the piso (apartment). I tried (and failed miserably) at cooking salmorejo, which I had eaten in Cordoba and loved. I thought it would be quick and easy, so I invited some of our Spanish friends and colleagues from the lab to join us. But alas, I cannot follow a recipe and instead of adding two teeth of garlic, I put in two heads. But the failed dinner aside, we still enjoyed great company!

 Wednesday June 13 - Clair and I had a 9am participant in the morning and Melissa and Alvaro presented their work to the lab group. They did a great job explaining their work and it was nice for me to get a formal update on what is happening with their experiments and data. After their presentations, I went to Playa Salobreña with Clair and Melissa. This is by far my favorite beach in Granada. I like it because it's got a breathtaking view of the white-washed town, a castle on the hill off in the distance, and a rock that you can climb that looks out over the ocean.

Thursday June 14 - Today was a day for chores. Because I had no participants, I spent the day cleaning the apartment and buying some of those last-minute things that I've been putting off ever since I got here. I bought a cd of traditional flamenco music, some more Granadino clothing, and a whole bunch of other keepsakes. Later that night, Clair dyed my hair black. Although I thought this morena (dark-haired girl) disguise would make me blend in more with the people of Granada, they still call me rubia rubia (blondie, light haired girl!) when I walk down the street. I guess you can take a girl from Pennsylvania but you can't take the Pennsylvania from the girl. Tonight Spain had a Eurocup match with Ireland I believe, so I went for tapas with my friend Hana to watch the game and soak up some futbol frenzy.

Friday June 15 - For this weekend, my plan was to see the small town of Ronda and the weird English colony of Gibraltar. I left for Ronda at 6:50am and spent my time climbing the rocks, playing in waterfalls, and admiring the feats of ancient engineering that are the bridges of Ronda. It was a whirlwind of sightseeing, but it was like nothing I had ever experienced before (I'll have to post pictures). Then during late afternoon, I left Ronda for Gibraltar. To say the least, Gibraltar is interesting. Despite the big signs saying PASSORT CONTROL IMPORTANT, passport control is a joke. I walked from the Spanish side to the English side and the police officer didn't even glance at the passport in my hand. Tonight was an annual Gibraltarian festival that celebrates all the different cultures in the colony. It centered on a Gibraltarian pastry called the Catalina (I wouldn't recommend it unless you like the consistency of paper mache). But there were fireworks and good Indian food. J

Saturday June 16 - Today I took the cable car up the rock (really, it's a mountain, but the locals call it the rock) to see 1) the native monkeys that live there and walk around and jump on you 2) St. Michael's Caves, which is beautiful with its dripping stalagmite forms and 3) the War Tunnels, where the English soldiers lived for three years to defend the military base from the Spanish during the Great Siege. After that, I spent a quiet evening enjoying Main Street and I called it a night.

Sunday June 17 - I got up early today and had a big English breakfast at the Ocean Village port in Gibraltar with my friend Eva. After eating, I made the trek to la frontera (the border between Spain and Gibraltar), ran to and almost missed the bus to Algeciras, and from there bought my ticket back home to Granada. After unpacking and resting a little, I grabbed dinner at a sushi place (a sushi place in Spain...who knew!?) with Clair and Sara. Then, of course, I went to an Internet café so that I could call and message my dad and grandpap to wish them a HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!  I then took a walk to the mirador San Nicholas in Albayzin to enjoy the view. With the view from this mirador, nothing in life can be too bad.

Monday June 18 - Today we had a participant scheduled, but he had to cancel due to an emergency. So I spent the day taking care of chores around the house and trying to re-email any participants that showed any interest at all in participating in my study. Now, if you remember from my first blog, I borrowed Alvaro's mother's flamenco dress for Dia de la Cruz at the beginning of May. Well, my trip here ends soon, so I thought it best to return it pronto. Once I got to his house, his mom invited me to stay for dinner and watch the Spain-Croatia match with them and some friends. Amongst other tipical Spanish tapas, we ate dates with bacon, salmorejo (with the proper amount of garlic this time), croquettes, and shrimp. After the game, I got to listen in on some Spanish political discussion. It was great fun and comprehensive L2 input to boot. I left full and happy, and with some new futbol-watching vocabulary phrases to put in my notebook!

Tuesday - I spent today checking in with participants, trying to secure a few final ones before my time here in Granada ends. Then Alvaro, Clair, and I spent the evening at the lab going through all our data to make sure we had everything where it should be. Then we had to go through and make sure each of our bags has all the necessary research equipment - to make sure we don't leave any pieces of the equipment behind! On the way home from the University, Clair and I grabbed a tapa, something we're sure to miss back in the states. Once back at the apartment, we went to town cleaning. As of July 2^nd, the place is no longer ours so we had to make sure everything was spotless and looking like it did the first day we got here. Check!

Wednesday - Today Clair and I went to the University early in the morning to finish up some last bit of work. We wanted to go through each file one by one and make sure everything was there one more time. We consolidated all of our data from all the lab booths onto our hard drives and personal computers. We then went through and made sure our handwritten participant sheets matched the data we have. In the end, we have run thirty-six participants (yay!), everything looks great with the data, and we can't wait to start analyzing all that we've collected here. In terms of my upcoming departure from Granada, my friend Sara from home came to meet me in Granada today so that we could travel through Europe together. Although today was a whirlwind of packing, planning, cleaning, and working, it was all worth it come nighttime: we PIRE researchers planned a goodbye party with our friends from the lab so that we could see everyone one last time before leaving. I couldn't imagine a better ending.

Thursday June 21 - Early in the morning today I leave Granada for a ten day trip to San Sebastian, Paris, and Rome. My plan? Enjoy some culinary genius in Spain's most talked-about beach city in the northern Basque region (San Sebastian), stroll on by the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and oogle at Rome's famous Trevi Fountain. I must admit I am feeling a bit nostalgic about leaving Granada, as it is now my second home. But I should think the road ahead will also bring unforgettable adventures, so I can't be too sad!

As always, thank you for taking the time to read my blog. If you have any questions or comments about my trip, my work, the city, or any of my experiences here in Spain at all- please ask (I assure you I will never tire of talking about my summer here). Until then, 'ta luego!

-Un saludo,

Emily

I'm getting realllly used to transportation problems by now. It seems as though I curse every mode of public transportation that I come into contact with, whether it's airplane, train, bus, ferry, whatever. Thus, it came as no surprise that what was supposed to be a simple day trip to Liverpool with two girls from the Centre turned into quite an unexpected adventure.  We spent the day enjoying the culture of the nearby city and responsibly made it to an early train back to Bangor. However,  an emergency situation on the tracks caused us to miss our connection, ultimately landing us back in North Wales well past midnight. This was especially problematic for me since the buses had stopped running by that point and the train we were on did not stop in the small village where I am staying.  Luckily one of my traveling companions, Fraibet, allowed me to stay with her for the night.

This sort of adventure makes me realize that I would never have such a night in my hometown, Towanda Pa. Or, for that matter, in most other places in the United States.  One of the biggest differences I've noticed between "home" and "abroad" is the thorough system of public transportation here. It's really quite impressive that there is a train station and several bus stops in even the smallest of towns, a luxury that is often reserved for more metropolitan areas in the States.  I think about how amazing it would be to have the same system in America, but I understand that this is simply not possible in such a large country.

I only have a week and a half left to enjoy Wales, and in this time I plan to do some last-minute sightseeing, run as many participants as I can possibly can, and attend a couple more talks before going off to Ukraine, Latvia, and Germany. It won't be the last time I see Bangor, though!  In the middle of July I will be returning to the university for their Summer School in Bilingualism. In this week-long event, I will take courses on topics like second language processing, ERPs, and implicit and explicit L2 learning. I can already tell that I will really take away a lot from this, judging by the preparatory readings I've started delving into. All in all, PIRE has been an incredible learning experience in every aspect, and it's not over yet!

I'm writing my first and only blog here at the end of my stay in Granada because my PIRE travels have been a seriously whirlwind experience and they have flown by faster than I ever expected. Everything has been really fun, really productive, and somewhat exhausting at times, so here's a few highlights:

Probably the most important thing to lead with is that Teresa Bajo and her lab group have been absolutely wonderful. From day 1 when Luis showed up at my door to show me my way to the grocery store and then introduce me to some fellow lab members and the wonderful world of tapas I have felt so welcome and like I can count on them for anything. It has been delightful getting to know them all and their work. One thing that really struck me upon arrival here, but which turned out to be very comforting, as well, is to see how similar the work environment is to our own at PSU. The relationships between faculty and students, the relationships and friendships among students, the things they talk about, the fact that participants NEVER know whose experiment they are showing up for nor which lab they should be in (too funny) is all very much like the way we do things in the Thomas basement. Having studied and traveled abroad before, the general cultural differences didn't scare me when I was preparing for my departure, but I was nervous about working and doing research abroad, and that has been an incredibly productive and gratifying experience.

My first week in Granada was mostly spent getting my bearings, and then helping the undergraduate PIRE students get theirs as well, with many thanks to Alvaro, our Granada insider, for leading us around like a tour group on our first couple of days. The second week we began the hunt for participants in earnest. Luckily for us, Clair was really enthusiastic about creating posters and hanging them around the city to recruit English-speakers, so my cell phone started ringing off the hook pretty quickly. It is not particularly fun to watch your prepay phone minutes disappear before your very eyes (not used to that at home), but it was all for a good cause. I ran 10 participants in my first 3 days in the lab. It was a little hectic, to say the least, but it felt good to know I was getting lots of data! And the phone calls brought me to a new realization that I wasn't expecting...after so many years of speaking Spanish fluently, I figured I'd never be comfortable speaking Spanish over the phone - but I'm getting good at it! Thank you, PIRE, for making this bilingual even more bilingual than before!

The rest of my time has been spent running participants, spending 10-12 hours a day on campus because when its 92 degrees outside it's not worth the walk down the hill and then back up it again under the midday sun to take my lunch break anywhere else but the cafeteria. All the men working in the cafeteria know me well as the American girl who needs her receipt (this one's for you, Sharon!) J I ran 37 participants in all - just short of my goal of 40, but I think they'll be sufficient for my needs. Unfortunately, I've been so busy I haven't had a chance to look at any of the data yet.  On weekends I got to know Granada and my colleagues from Teresa's lab - a beautiful city and a great bunch! - and I reconnected with my old friend from Argentina who I met when I studied abroad there in college. His vacation to Spain happens to have coincided with my time here. It was surreal to see him Spain after so long, but a welcome treat, indeed!

This past Wednesday, Sara, Emily, Clair and I presented our projects at the weekly meeting of Teresa's lab group (on Wednesdays rather than Fridays, but otherwise very CLS-like). I had presented the pilot study that I did as a precursor to my current project before, but never in Spanish, so that was exciting and a fun challenge. I'm not really accustomed to talking about my research in Spanish, since we tend to present and publish in English. More interesting was the experience of helping the undergraduates do a preliminary analysis of their data and prepare their presentations. In general, this PIRE experience that I've been sharing with these four girls has been gratifying and reinforcing in terms of realizing my love of teaching and sharing knowledge. I've been realizing day after day that some of the biggest highlights of this experience have been things like hearing Melissa use correctly a word that I just taught her yesterday, or seeing Sara get excited about the number of participants she's scheduled for next week.

In the end our presentations at the reunion de grupo went very well and all of the undergrads did a great job giving their presentation in Spanish! Teresa had said it would be okay to present in English, since everyone in the lab understands English, but after my suggestion (arm twisting? demanding?) they decided to give it a shot and present in Spanish. They all did fabulously well and it has been a true pleasure to see their Spanish improve so quickly over the last few weeks. The data they've collected is shaping up to be interesting, too. I can't wait to get back to State College and dig into it all with them when we get back to campus in the fall!

But alas, my time has zipped by and it's time to move on to the next phase of my journey - a brief vacation here in Southern Spain with my mom, and then back to State College to teach Spanish 3! My experience in Granada has been enriching all around - personally and professionally - and I hope to return again someday soon, and to see all of these wonderful people again. Thanks to PIRE and our PIs for a great opportunity and a great summer!

'ta luego,

Amelia

A lot has happened in the past two weeks, which have been a very joyous time for the British.  The Olympic flame is currently on a tour around the country, and I was fortunate enough to see it pass through Bangor. You could tell that it really brought a lot of pride to the community, which was only strengthened by the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebration the following weekend.  Queen Elizabeth II has been ruling since 1952, and so for this impressive 60 year anniversary a national bank holiday was declared for last Monday and Tuesday.  This meant that the university was closed.  It also meant that I could do some traveling - to Dublin! Luckily for me, there is a ferry service from the nearby town of Holyhead to Dublin port several times a day, and I knew from the moment I discovered it that I needed to take advantage of it.  Despite an endless string of transportation issues and terrible weather, I really enjoyed my time in Ireland.  Everyone I met was super friendly and the city itself seems very welcoming and lively. Even on a Sunday there were quite a number of huge events going on - a Formula 1 racing demonstration, a flower show, and a music festival just to name a few. I very much look forward to one day having another opportunity to visit.

Things have been pretty eventful at home, as well. The B&B I stay at has had several visitors recently, coming from not just the UK but also America and Australia.  Our Australian visitor gave me the chance to climb the formidable Mount Snowdon again. Unfortunately, the weather was very poor and we turned around halfway to the summit. It's a good thing we did, too, because we found an elderly man that had fallen trying to walk down the mountain. My host and his friend were able to help him and his wife descend the rocky path without further harm, thank goodness.

Never a dull moment here! And this includes work. My weekdays have consisted of pretty much constant coding of data and running of participants. Additionally, I'm assisting the department with transcribing some conversations of Spanish-English bilinguals in Miami. Since I don't speak Spanish, they've given me the portions that are predominantly English.  It's honestly very refreshing to hear some American English, I didn't realize how much I'd missed it! To do this, I'm learning how to use the CLAN program. It's very new to me and there is a lot to remember, but I'm slowly getting the hang of it and I feel lucky that I am able to learn this useful skill while I'm here!

Thursday May 31 - When I woke up Thursday morning, I only had four participants scheduled. But it was a lucky day for me because two more participants emailed me in the afternoon to tell me they were free and able to come to the lab later in the day to participate in my experiment. Having six participants in one day is really exciting. It's kind of like when you think you only have a five dollar bill in your wallet but then you find you also have an extra twenty shoved below it. After my full day of running participants, I ran back downtown to meet with the others from the PIRE cohort to start data analysis; we present our work to the department in less than a week.

Friday June 1 - On Friday, I had one participant in the morning. After running him, I stopped by the public library by my apartment to return my book and while I was there I picked out a new one. I told the librarian I didn't like my last book because it was too sad for my taste, so he recommended El Bolígrafo de Gel Verde by Eloy Moreno for me because it's light and contemporary. Although I'm only on page 6 (it takes me a lot longer to read in my second language), I really like the writing style so far. Later in the evening, I went to my friend's barbeque just a little outside the city. It was a nice breezy night and I ate a lot of pancetta, morcilla, and pechuga de pollo. Muy bien!

Saturday June 2 - Early Saturday morning, I left for Córdoba. This was the first time I've ever gone on a trip alone. At first, I was a little nervous that I would be lonely all by myself in a new city, but within the first couple hours, I ended up randomly running into some friends I met in Málaga last weekend. And upon checking into my hostel, one of the workers who had just gotten off work offered to show me around the city's major sites. These include El Puente Romano (the roman bridge), Calle de Flores (a small alleyway covered in flowers), a little restaurant that apparently serves "Córdoba's best" salmorejo (Córdoba's version of gazpacho, which is heavier and richer with some more bread and eggs and jam mixed in), and the Synagogue (which is the only remaining one in Córdoba and one of only three in all of Spain due largely in part to the Spanish Inquisition).  After, I met up with my friends and we went out to dinner. Having already tried Cordoba's famous salmorejo, I had to get a taste of their other famous plate: rabo de toro (oxtail stew). It was unexpectedly delicious. The group of us from the hostel went to a flamenco show, but due the rough economic times in Spain, there wasn't a big enough audience to warrant a show and so it was cancelled. With no other plans for the night, we wandered to one of the plazas where there was a live Cuban music performance. It wasn't our original plan, but it ended up being debatably the best part of the day. Before going to bed, I hung out on the terraza of the hotel and met some friends from Quebec. They'll be visiting Granada in the next couple days, so hopefully I'll see them again. They taught me some buzz phrases in French that I'll definitely be using when I travel there in the next couple weeks.

Sunday June 3 - Today I started the day off right because for the first time in a long time, l slept in and managed to get a full eight hours of sleep- a rarity for me here. After grabbing breakfast, I met up with my new friend Abdou, who works at the hostel. Born and raised in Senegal, he has lived in Spain for the past three years. But these last three years haven't changed much in terms of his African culinary roots because he cooked me an authentic Senegal dish for lunch. We topped the meal off with some African tea, which I really liked because, unlike what I am used to, he added a lot of sugar. Now that I've discovered how good this is, I don't think I can go back to un-sugared tea. After we finished lunch, I headed off to see Cordoba's biggest tourist site: the Mezquita. This building is highly unique not only because it is the biggest mosque in Spain but also because it has a huge Catholic cathedral sprouting right out the middle of it. For this reason, it tells a lot about the long history of both the coexistence and the rivalry between the Muslim and Catholic religions in Spain over the years. After my visit to the Mezquita, I grabbed some food, pick up my suitcase from the hostel, and I headed for the bus station. The ride back to Granada was some much needed downtime. I spent those three quiet hours reading and looking out my window as the hills, olive trees, and the moon whizzed on by.

Monday June 4 - I had a participant Monday morning, but I went to the university a little early to start working on analyzing my data. I updated my SPSS program and started programming my experiment analysis. After running my participant, I had lunch with my friend and he informed me a lot on the background of La Feria (the festival that will be going on this week in Granada). Then, last minute, I got another participant for the day. After running her on my experiment, I stuck around the University to send out a couple emails, schedule a participant for next week, and code some LHQ data. Then I headed home to start preparing my presentation with the other PIRE researchers. We are scheduled to present our experiment to the department on Wednesday so we had to meet to analyze our data and put our presentation together.

Well, that's all for now. Stay tuned!

Un saludo,

Emily J

Thursday May 24 - Today my morning participant cancelled because she was sick. However, I managed to get another participant in her place, which still left me with three participants for the day. For lunch, I ate with my friend Rafa lunch at la Facultad de Filosofia y Letras. Rafa is a graduate student studying Old and Middle English. My talks with him are always enjoyable because he tells me about Old English tales like Beowulf, the transformation of Germanic languages, and of course Spanish as well. Later in the afternoon, my friend Mallory came back to visit me for the weekend. We had tickets to go to Málaga for the weekend, but our bus didn't leave until Friday night. Entonces, we still had one night and a day together in Granada before our trip. For dinner on Thursday, we went to Francesco's house in Albayzin and he made us some authentic Italian pasta. Delicioso. After, Mallory and I went back to her hotel to catch up on some sleep. Sidenote: as it turns out, this hotel (Hotel Reina Cristina) is of important historical note. Federico Garcia Lorca (Granada's most prominent writer) took refuge here while Franco was hunting him down. Later, Franco's troops found Garcia Lorca and killed him. To this day, no one knows for sure where his body is. And what is interesting is that his family doesn't even want to know. I've read this bit of information somewhere along the way in my studies, but it was validated the other night when my friend Rafa told me that Garcia Lorca's niece (a colleague of his from the university) also does not want to know where her uncle's body is. Essentially, the family doesn't want to create a big scene. They want him to remain an untouched legacy. Learning that Rafa knew Garcia Lorca's niece was all very exciting for me because it doesn't often happen that I read about something in my history book and then meet someone who is involved directly in that historical context.

Friday May 25 - Today my participant had to cancel our appointment, but luckily he was interested in rescheduling. But because I had no participants to run and because I was caught up on all my work, I had the whole day free. Although I missed being at the University, I ended up having a wonderful day soaking up Granadino culture. Mallory and I went to las Cuevas de Sacromonte. Sacromonte, or sacred mountain, is the barrio gitano (gypsy neighborhood) located in the mountains above Albayzin. Sacromonte is known for these caves and also for its famous Flamenco shows. Learning about the culture of this barrio interested me, but what intrigued me most as I walked through and read the plaques on the walls was this little factoid: in the 1950s, gypsies came in great numbers to Sacromonte and almost all of them lived in cave houses. This was only sixty years ago that people were actually living in these caves! I would recommend this museum for anyone. The ride up the mountain alone is enough to make you swoon. You get a breathtaking view of the city and it's a nice quiet oasis apart from the inner city. After walking through the caves, we headed back down to the city to eat and pack for our excursion to Málaga. We grabbed a late night bus and arrived at our hostel around midnight. Upon arrival, Mallory and I were extremely hungry and the owner of the hostel kindly made us some Argentine empanadas. As our hostel was right on the beach, we sat outside for a while to enjoy la brisa maritima (sea-side breeze), but we soon got tired and turned in for the night.

Saturday May 26-Today I woke up and got some breakfast. Then Mallory and I headed into el centro (the city center) for a free walking tour, which our hostel offered. The tour lasted three hours and I loved every minute of it. I learned about Reina Isabel, Fernando, Franco, los romanos, los fenicios, los arabes, the Spanish Inquisition, typical Malagueño culture...etc. After, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and then headed to the beach. I have to admit I like the Málaga beach much more than the one I've visited in Granada. It's actually got sand instead of just rock, so my feet were a lot happier here. Also, there are cute little chiringuitos (beach-side cafes) that make for a fun, young, vibrant ambiance. For dinner, we headed back to the hostel because they were making family style paella for all the travelers. After eating, we stayed at the hostel for a while to chat and get to know the other travelers. For the night, one of the girls who worked at the hostel took us out to the centro so that we could see the nightlife. Y hasta la fecha, no tenia nada de lamentar.

Sunday May 27 - Today was our last day in Málaga. Everything ends too soon! After breakfast, we headed into the centro to visit both Picasso's house as well as his art museum.  Here I saw some important Picasso pieces, but found that my favorite is one that's not well-known or highly acclaimed; it's called something along the lines of La Mujer a la Puerta del Baile. It's a small work and it uses a lot of shadows, which makes it a bit mysterious. But I like it a lot because the scene reminds me of one of my favorite pub/restaurants here in Granada. It's made of wood and has a lot of candles. Encantador. After having spent upwards of three hours in museums, we needed a break from cognitive and/or creative activity. So we went to the beach, a different one this time. Soon enough, however, we were at the bust station on our way back to Granada for the night.

Monday May 28 - Today I had one participant in the afternoon. After, I had to a make a copy of my apartment key because the original had been giving me problems for the past couple weeks. After running my participant, I spent an hour or two emailing and scheduling participants. After I finished my work, Mallory and I went shopping at some vintage shops. For dinner, we went to a restaurant where the waiter ended up sitting down with us and teaching us a little bit of Gallego (language spoken in Galicia, northwest of Spain). I have never studied Gallego, so it was interesting to see the similarities and differences between Gallego, Portuguese, and Spanish. After some tapas and a Gallego lesson, Mallory and I went to Clair's favorite restaurant/bar to celebrate her birthday with everyone. !Felíz cumpleaños a ella!

Tuesday May 29 - Today was a bit sad for me because Mallory's stay with me had drawn to a close. Early in the morning, I took her back to the airport and after saying our goodbyes, I headed home for a clerical day full of laundry, cleaning, blogging, emailing, finance-sorting...etc. For dinner, I met my friend in el centro. As always in Granada, I ate well and with good company.

Wednesday May 30 - Today I ran one participant in the morning and two in the afternoon. In my downtime, I grabbed lunch with mi amiga Esther and her other friend Laura. Then I took care of some work and booked my tickets for this weekend. Córdoba here I come! At midnight, the Penn State cohort went to los baños arabes in Albayzin. This may have been on my list of top three things to do in Granada. The experience was better than any spa I have ever been to in the U.S. First, we entered a dark cave with sweet smelling candles and sparkling lanterns. The cave was steamy and there were ornate Arabic tiles lining the walls. We sat down to have some sweet tea and then started with the baths. First, you enter el agua templada (warm water). This is where the people congregate and relax. Then, you move to el agua caliente (hot water), which gets your heart pumping and blood flowing. Once you feel you can't take any more hear, you move on to el agua frío (cold water...but in my opinion, very cold water, haha). The point of this all is to get healthy circulation of blood throughout your system. But antiguamente (in the past), the main purpose of the Arab bathhouses was to clean oneself for religious  purposes. Although it is used more as a spa today, traditionally, the Muslims would go to the bathhouse to wash themselves before praying, as it is against religious practice to pray when one's body is dirty. After soaking and relaxing in the waters, we then got massages. This was my favorite part and so relaxing. After we were instructed to take a shower. We lingered a bit in the baths after the massage, but soon our reservation was up, and we had to leave. But I have a feeling I will be going back sometime soon. J

Well, that's all for now. Thanks for reading, and as always, ¡pásalo bien!

Un besico!

Although I only arrived a few days ago, I can wholeheartedly say that I love Granada. I am amazed by the beauty of the city, the architecture, the never ending tapas and of course the gelatto! At first I was a little intimidated being surrounded by fluent spanish speakers 24/7 but each day I am beginning to feel more and more comfortable and am making the transition to living the Spanish lifestyle, which includes interacting in Spanish. For example, the other day we went to the beach, and although my parents pestered me to bring sun screen, it was the one thing that did not make it into my suitcase. So, after a day spent basking in the Spain sun, I ended up with a quite the sunburn. Or as a fellow lab member told me "Eres un tomate." So, the next day I took myself down to the grocery store and although my skin probably made quite the statement by itself, I had to communicate with the workers that I was in dire need of aloe vera. This was my first interaction by myself and although at it was nerve wrecking I was able to effectively communicate in Spanish. So, other than my skin, I would say I am making a relatively smooth transition to Spain. 

Monday was our first day at the University. It was exciting to finally begin the start of our research projects after months of preparation. The only obstacle I foresaw was making it up the the giant hill to the lab, which is actually more like a mountain. However, luckily  we have figured out the bus system, so we won't be climbing Mount Everest every morning. After the hill debacle, we spent the majority of the week hanging posters around town and waiting to be contacted by participants. At the end of the week we had run three participants. It was exciting to finally  start collecting data! I look forward to continue collecting more. Until next time, as is the phrase in Granada " ¡Tal Luego!

Scandinavians have a bit of a reputation for being "slow to warm" - hard to "crack" but once beyond the barrier, a friend for life. For the longest time, I thought that this was merely an exaggeration, a contrast between a "normal" people and the notoriously loud Americans. However, if the past three weeks have taught me anything it's that, while Beth and I may live up to (and quite possibly exceed) the presumed American 'loudness,' the Swedes are definitely upholding their end of the bargain.

The Swedes are very big on their privacy (yet they're willing to give the last 4 digits of their "personal number" to almost anyone?) so subject pools are a BIG no-no, which makes our job rather interesting... During my second week in Lund (week one was quickly eaten up by clerical work), Beth and I walked around campus posting fliers EVERYWHERE in an attempt to drum up some kind of interest.

Fast-forward 1.5 weeks and I've gotten mayyybe 10 e-mails? Beth's had a bit more luck because her experiment, while longer, pays more and is only one appointment. I mean, let's face it, if you were to see 2 fliers on a bulletin board, which one would you choose: 90 mins, one appointment and more pay, OR two 45 min appointments that pay less? I can't say I blame people - I'd probably do the same thing - but I still kind of feel like that kid who was always picked last in gym class.

This week I decided to take matters into my own hands - to fully embrace the stereotype of the loud, outgoing American and just go out and talk to people. I spent the afternoon walking around Lund's version of the HUB, approaching tables, giving a little spiel about the experiment and asking if they'd like to jot down their e-mail address to receive more information. I walked out AF (the HUB-type place) with abouuut 6 e-mail addresses. Oy. To be perfectly honest, I'm starting to get a bit nervous about finding participants, as a lot of the students are leaving in 2 weeks.

Looks like it's time to get creative...

I haven't gotten a chance to do much travelling as of now, because I've been trying to make a solid ground here in Nijmegen, and I feel that I'm almost a pro here!  I've also made some friends thanks to Emma, who introduced me to a friend she has who is staying here.  It's so nice being able to see what it's like living "Dutch life"  I am invited to dinners where everryone takes part in helping to cook a meal, and I've been invited by Sybrine to play volleyball weekly where everyone joins after to barbeque or have a small dinner party.  It's great, and I love that everyone is so inviting that I've met so far!  This Friday I will travel to Leiden to visit the University and meet Wido, and after that I think I will travel to den Haag(the Hague), which is a historical part of the Netherlands with some beautiful scenery. 

I've also been working on analyzing my data from participants, to see if my predictions for my study have been working.  This would not be possible without the help of Bobby and Peiyao, who have been skyping with me making sure I'm correct in my steps of analyzing.. THANKS SO MUCH BOBBY AND PEIYAO!! I will report how things are going with my predictions at a later time!  As for now, I think I will go explore the International festival that is taking place in the park literally right next to my apartment! Sooo cool:)

With the stereotypical British weather finally giving way to warmth and sunshine, my body decided it would be fitting to catch a cold this week. Luckily I've been able to load up on enough aspirin, cough drops, and tea to enjoy the beautiful weather. On Saturday I got a crash course in the history of North Wales. My host, Julia, and I went to Llanberis where I learned about the Victorian-era mountain railroad that winds its way up Snowdon, the now practically extinct slate quarries, and the massive hydroelectric power plant hidden deep inside a mountain. I got a firsthand look at all of these places, and feel as if I've really come to know my surroundings better as a result. Our intense day was finished off by cooking a feast together with a couple friends at their home.

Back at the university, I was full-speed into the routine of running participants and coding their data, but I did run into a couple minor setbacks.  The first issue was that my computer was not so keen on the idea of getting through an entire session, and liked to crash right in the middle of the task.  It seems to be doing better now, but we all know how fussy computers  can be - especially when we really need them to work.  I also had several interruptions on Wednesday, in the form of fire alarms.  I never did find out what happened, but the building was evacuated twice during a time that I had a participant scheduled. We had to wait for the fire truck and police to come both times, and in the end I sent her home, but sometimes these things happen!

I also ran into the usual no-show participants, but I don't want to give the impression that Bangor was all bad this week. I had the great opportunity to meet with Guillaume Thierry, a professor in the psychology department.  As I was preparing for the meeting by reading some of his more recent articles, I was struck by one thing. It seemed that everything he studies, even though the topics may be varied, all have one common characteristic - they are absolutely fascinating.  There was never a dull moment in reading his work, and I was very impressed by this. When we met, it became immediately clear how this was possible; he is just incredibly passionate about what he does. I learned so much in such a short time and really look forward to meeting with him again.

It really has been a full week of soaking up knowledge, and this weekend I'm off to do some more Welsh adventuring to continue the trend. We're heading to Portmeirion, a town with Mediterranean architecture and a history of being a filming site for movies and television shows.

Monday May 14  -- Today Clair and I ran two participants. Until this point, we had set up our participant sharing in such a way that Amelia had been running all the behavioral tasks during her session and Clair and I would just run our own individual experiments in our session. However, due to scheduling changes, Clair and I have begun to run the behavioral tasks as well. Learning by doing, we of course made an error: we forgot to record the audio for the Boston Naming Task. (Yes, whoops is right). But now we know and we won't make that mistake next time. On the way home, I bought some fruta seca (dried fruit) to help balance out all the berenjenas fritas (fried eggplants) I eat here. Knowing I need to advantage of a health kick when it comes, I went for a quick jog with Clair at El Parque de Federico Garcia Lorca. After our run, Clair and I decided to play on the park's zip line. Then we spent what must have been 45 minutes swinging and laughing together like children on the playset until the summer night sky turned dark blue. We didn't want to leave, but the park closes at 10. But when we got back from our run, Amelia invited us to tapas with her friends, Diego and Ali, who were visiting from Argentina. I was thrilled to have them with us that night because I got to pick up some Argentine lexicon amongst all this Granadino phrasing I've been learning. On the downside, I started realizing today that I was officially sick, so I stopped at the farmacia on the way home to get some type of medicine to reduce my throat inflammation. The pharmacist gave me some over-the-counter spray that ended up not helping much. However, the funny part of this adventure for me was that, after a certain hour of the night, the pharmacy is open but the door is closed, so you have to ring the bell and order your medicine through the window from the street. I felt like Dorothy entering the Emerald City.

Tuesday May 15, 2012 -If I have learned anything from my research here, it's that there exists a fairly reliable formula for participant attendances/absences: when one participant comes, the next one won't. In between waiting for participants today, I decided to take a break from Cafeteria food and ate instead in Albayzin at an Arab restaurant called Kasbah. I thoroughly enjoy eating by myself here - especially lunch, because I get to read, collect my thoughts, write, and best of all, listen into the conversations around me. Listening in on the conversations around me is my favorite part because it allows me the chance to get practically unlimited comprehensible input in my L2. However, as it turns out, today the women sitting next to me were British, so I actually got quite a good deal of L1 input. But I did learn a little about London by talking with them! At Kasbah, I tried a foreign flavor of zumo natural (natural juice). It was called Guanabana. It was white and a bit frothy with a hint of pineapple (pretty refreshing for a hot summer day.) After, I had some time to kill yet before my next participant, so I strolled around to get to know the city's side streets a bit better. I stumbled upon a small used book/cd store in Albayzin. There, I found an Eva Peron chapa (pin) for my backpack and a Carlos Fuentes book for a total of 1 Euro.  But this purchase ended up being a little ominous because the day after I bought his book, Fuentes died.  Odd timing, no? For dinner, I went out to Alta Albayzin to celebrate my friend Manolo's birthday. !Que guay!

Wednesday May 16 - Today was my first weekly meeting with the department.  I went at 9am to the University and listened as Laura, a grad student from the Facultad de Psicologia, presented her work to the group. It was in Spanish, of course, and on a topic that required a lot of statistical jargon. For the most part, I focused on picking apart and understanding the language. Trying to understand the complex concepts on top of that would have been mental overload for me.  Today I only had one participant. He was very charismatic. His English was very good, so we had a quick intercambio and each taught one another words from our respective L1s.Then as usual, I spent the day sending out emails and scheduling participants. While the research went well, I have to say the highlight of my day was a purchase I made: bombachos (also called pantalones anchos or wide pants). These are typical Arab pants that are worn here. If you've never seen them, Google it! They're essentially the Andalusian equivalent to Penn State leggings. Out of habit, I went again to Kasbah for lunch. This time I had couscous con pescado and a maracuya zumo natural. During my meal, I met Sebastian and Luis, two of the servers at Kasbah. They told me where to go to take a Flamenco class, so hopefully I actually get around to signing up so I can write about it for you all in a future blog. On a slightly less nice note, my throat still hurt and I knew it was getting worse. Alvaro's mom is a nurse so she recommended medication for me. I grabbed her recommended medication from the pharmacy and hoped it would work. For dinner tonight, I had tapas with Melissa, Clair, Alvaro, and his friend Diego.

Thursday May 17 - This was a first: no participants today. I have to admit that the lack of regularity left me feeling a little sad. I missed the university! However, I made the most of the beautiful free day by  dando vueltas (walking around the city) by myself. I ate boquarones de vinagre con pan at a restaurant in Realejo and read at a café near Calle Pedro San Antonio. While I was reading at this cafe, I heard an English speaker trying without much success to ask the waiter a question. I figured I could help so I told her I speak both English and Spanish. After having ordered for her, I find out that she lives ten minutes from my house at home in Pittsburgh. What a small world! After having read enough, I met up with Alvaro, Amelia, and Diego to hang out and practice my Spanish. And after that, I had my first Spanish cinema experience! We saw Los Vengadores (the Avengers). It was a dubbed English movie, but even so, it was great for my listening skills because I was able to work on my listening skills without the distraction of me thinking what I'm going to say next (as often happens to me in conversation). After the movie, I was hungry for a healthy eight hours so I went right to bed!

Friday May 18 - I woke up on Friday and knew I had strep throat. I hadn't been able to actually eat hard food for days, and despite the Spaniards telling me that it was nothing and that I should wait to go to the doctor, I decided I had to go. I had one participant in the morning, and after that, I started looking into how to approach the medical system in a foreign country. However, I was feeling tired and sick and I didn't have the energy to get myself to the hospital, so I decided I would wait one more day to see if it would heal on its own. In the meantime, I had to figure out how to pick my friend Mallory up at the airport because she would be arriving the next day on a flight from Paris. To get this information, I stopped by the tourist office in Plaza Mariela and the woman at the desk told me where to go to grab the bus to the airport. I still had another hour or two before Mallory's flight was due to land, so for lunch today I grabbed (as usual) a tortilla Espanola and a glass of water and I read for a little in the open air. I chatted with the camarero (waiter) a little. He wanted to talk about the stock market, and as a result, I think it's safe to say that I am acquiring quite an eclectic Spanish vocabulary during my stay here in Granada. Then 5:00pm rolled around and Mallory arrived! It was so exciting to have a little piece of home with me here in Spain. I showed her to her hotel, grabbed a hot beverage with her, and I showed her the way of el tapeo! My favorite part was her expression when I told her that every drink comes with free food. I'd never seen her so happy. Apparently the prices in France are a bit steeper when it comes to food and beverages.

 Saturday May 19 - Today is the big day. Mallory and I have tickets to the Alhambra. As excited as I am, I realize that I must see a doctor first. I successfully find the Health Center and navigate the system. The doctor saw me promptly and verified my suspicions that I had strep throat. The good news is that I now had a prescription that would make me feel a whole lot better. I don't know if it was a placebo effect or not, but I felt better almost immediately. On the way to the Alhambra, Mallory and I grabbed a quick lunch in el Centro and window-shopped around some vintage clothing shops. Then we experienced the Alhambra. All I can say is that the views from the castle were some of the most beautiful I've ever seen. It was breathtaking and it made me a little dizzy to try to make sense of how great the expanse was that lay before me. I couldn't help but pretend I was a Moorish princess strolling through the lavish gardens and colorful courtyards of the sultan's castle. And standing in the chambers where Washington Irving's (North American writer who stayed at the Alhambra and wrote the famous Los Cuentos de la Alhambra) had stayed, I was inspired to write and read and experience it all. For dinner, Melissa, Mallory, and I got tapas with our friends Rafa and Miguel. Rafa is an Old English teacher at the University and a lover of languages, so he is always ready to teach me words and phrases in Spanish. It's always a great time hanging out with him.

Sunday May 20 - It's Sunday morning, and you know what that means ---church! Although Mallory and I are not normally church-goers, we wanted to experience a mass held in Spanish. We were also dying to see the inside of the big, beautiful Catedral de Granada. It was humbling. After mass, we visited the Capilla Real (the Royal Chapel), where los Reyes Catolicos (Catholic King and Queen) Isabel and Fernando are buried. While they used to be in the Alhambra grounds in the monastery de San Francisco, they have since been moved to this location. It was a bit chilling to be standing at the feet of such powerful people. The museum was very interesting, and for this reason, I couldn't help but buy a short book about la Reina Isabel and the role she played in terms of spreading the Christian faith and unifying the Spanish Empire. One interaction of note here was one I had with a French couple. Not understanding the story of Saint John the Baptist, I asked the couple standing beside me at the altar. As it turns out, they don't speak either of the languages I speak (Spanish or English), and I don't speak their language (French). However, given the similarities between Spanish and France, we were able to negotiate for meaning rather successfully. It was the first time I had ever used my second language to understand one that is totally foreign to me. We also popped into a free art museum on the way home from our activities.

Monday May 21 - Today was very exciting for me because I made my first real Spanish amiga! Up until this point, most of my friends have been male and I was in desperate need of chica time! I met Esther because she participated in my study. It's also been really nice to finally have a friend from the university that is close in age to me, seeing as many of the grad students are a good bit older. I met Esther at la Facultad de Filosofia y Letra, which is about a three four minute walk from my Facultad. There, I met several of her friends and they were a ton of fun. We decided to eat together at that time every Monday. J For the rest of the day, I worked and read. Later, I grabbed dinner with some friends at a cozy little wooden tavern in el centro.

Tuesday May 22 - Sticking with the 1 -1 participant absente/attendance rule, my morning participant showed up, but my evening participant didn't. After work, I had coffee with my friend and colleague Francesco. After, we took a walk around the city and ended up at the manifestacion (demonstration) that was taking place for public education rights. It was cool to see the people stand up for education. I am a World Languages Spanish Education major, so I am glad I was able to witness first-hand the political upheaval that is the current public education system in Spain. In other news, today was Alvaro's 32^nd birthday - Feliz Cumpleanos chico! We got tapas with the whole group tonight. Today, I finally ran out of space in my Daily Spanish Vocabulary notebook, so I bought a new one and am already digging in. J

Wednesday May 23 - Today we have our weekly department meeting again, so I went to the University at 9am for the presentation, which was held by a visiting scholar named Patricia. Another thing of note is that I had my first media de tomate (bread with tomato paste) for breakfast. I was advised by my Spanish friends that this was a must-do while in Granada. It was tasty, but I have to admit, I do love my regular tostada con mermelada y mantequila (toast with jelly and butter). Unfortunately, my 10am participant was a no show. However, I realized that I forgot to send her a reminder email the night before so I can really only blame myself. But now, I won't likely forget to email my participants again in the future. After realizing my participant was not coming, I headed up to the sala de becarios to code the data from the latest LHQs I had received. I spent the afternoon doing that as well as sending out reminders to the rest of this week's participants. Around two o'clock, I had lunch with Amelia at the cafeteria and after, I booked my bus ticket to Malaga for the weekend. I then ran my second participant (she actually came!). I then tried to grab groceries and toiletries for the apartment, but realized that I needed to stop at an ATM first. I must have tried close to 10 ATMs but my card was rejected by all of them. That freaked me out a little, but I ended up buying groceries with my card and decided I would try to withdrawl cash again in the morning (which worked, thankfully). Tonight, I made some dinner, wrote a little, and turned in early.

*On a final note: I just realized today that I no longer have Peanut Butter and Jelly hunger pangs. Usually it's the thing I crave most. But over the last couple weeks, I've been licking my lips for bocadillos de chorizo y queso more than anything else. It seems that even my stomach has flicked its switch to Spanish mode!

This week I ran my first participant and learned some things about the Swedish IRB. Here it is common practice to give movie ticket vouchers (which are equivalent to almost $20!) as compensation for experiments, and participants are not used to filling out all of the paperwork for permission that us Americans seem to encounter on a daily basis. This is making it pretty easy to get participants scheduled--however getting them to actually show up for their appointments seems to be a bit more difficult. Originally I thought that Sweden would be a very timely, orderly place, however it is not common for meetings to begin a full 15 minutes after they were scheduled, which can be a bit frustrating. I suppose this leisurely pace goes along with the typical leisurely long European lunch.

Speaking of lunch--I can't say that my vegetarian self was especially excited about Swedish meatballs and sausage, but Sweden has a lot to offer in terms of my favorite food group--carbs! There are cinnamon rolls EVERYWHERE, three different kinds of bread ("bröd") are served with lunch at the university and every bakery and grocery store serves every kind of bröd a girl could imagine--from olive bread to "dense" bread to all sorts of things we have yet to put into google translate...It doesn't stop there either-- there are pastries that are gourmet by US standards in the 7-11s here--It's dangerous, but awesome. The Swedes are also obsessed with lingonberries--which makes finding strawberry jam at the grocery store REALLY hard (especially when at first you don't know how to say "strawberry jam"--it's "jordgubbe" if you ever get stranded in Sweden), but they put these lingonberries in their bread ("lingonbrod" or something) and as jam, and I'm pretty sure they also use it as salad dressing...and may or may not use it as some type of gravy, as in on meat or potatoes. It is a frontier that has yet to be explored--Of course I'll keep you posted on how it goes!