Lady Gaga nice price!

It's now less than three weeks until I come back to England for Christmas holidays and I'm making the most of the remainder of my first semester here in Granada.

This week nothing too exciting happened but I did have my first exam in Catalan so hopefully that went ok. Everyone in my norma y uso class (Spanish grammar and syntax) now know me as the English girl. Our lecturer often asks to see who the English people in the lecture theatre are, to ask them a question about the language, generally I'm the only one who actually seems to go so the teacher now knows who I am which is rare for Spain I feel. On Wednesday he asked me (in front of the whole lecture theatre) about English syntax, I have absolutely no clue about syntax in the English language so I just said 'no' and everyone laughed and then we spoke about how it can sometimes be difficult for English people to understand other English people depending on where they are from and the accent they have. 

On Thursday evening Tara arrived and our weekend began. On Friday we went to the same place I take everyone (Mirador San Nicolas), had a walk around Granada and some pretty good food. We also went out for tapas in the evening with some of my friends and had more really good food (calamari and octopus). It was the first time I had tried octopus and it wasn't as disgusting as I thought it'd be. After some more drinks, pool and  table football we called it a night. Saturday was a pretty similar day walking around Granada and we had some really good food at a Moroccan restaurant with a cocktail and some shisha. 

Sunday has easily been the best day of the whole week. Last week the ski season in Sierra Nevada opened and I've been dying to try it out. I've never skied in my life but when it's this close to where I live I think it'd be a mistake to try it at least once. The bus journey is only 9euro for an ida y vuelta which takes about 45 minutes each way, skiing is an expensive sport so I knew it wasn't gonna be a cheap day but as the resort opened earlier than expected some of the equipment hire/liftpasses were cheaper than normal. The lift pass was 33euros for a day with insurance included, and the equipment hire was 25euros for skis, poles, a helmet and goggles. Luckily Becki and Rosie have been skiing before so they taught us for an hour and off we went. We all started on the beginners slope where, naturally, I fell down first time. The hardest thing is getting back up, I ended up rolling on my back with my legs and skis in the air - not my most flattering look. After a few tries I got the hang of it quite well and didn't have any more falls, I clearly got a bit big for my boots so when the girls asked me if I fancied joining them on the blue slope (next slope up from beginners), I agreed. In fairness, they said they thought I was ready. How wrong were we! The best part was the telecabina up to the slope with amazing views and a surreal feeling. We got off and started the decent, then I fell over. It took me about an hour to finish the slope because...I'm shit. I couldn't stop falling over and just didn't have the balance. I felt bad making the others wait so they went on whilst I shuffled down half the slope on my bum (whilst holding skis and poles remember). Unfortunately this was right under where the ski lift was going up to the top so everyone could see me looking like an absolute twat. By the time I got half way down the girls had lapped me and tried to help me again, I fell again and again and they weren't light falls either, legs and skis flying all over the place and I also managed to land myself in to a snow ditch which is always fun. It's a good job I was wearing a helmet or I think I could've really hurt myself. It was so horrible, embarrassing and really hard work trying to get yourself back up once fallen down. Anyway, I finally made it to the end after giving up, taking my skis off and just walking in a grumpy and sweaty face. Although it wasn't quite how I thought it would go it's still quite funny to think about me just shuffling down a ski slope on my bum whilst I was being overtaken my skiers and snowboarders going really fast, including some that could only be about 5 years old - how embarrassing. It really tired me out and I ache a bit but it was 100% worth it. At least I'll know that if I go again I need to keep practising the baby slope before heading to the next one. I don't really think the transition from the beginners slope to the second one I went on is fair. It's so much steeper and a lot different but never mind, it was my first time so I wasn't sure what to expect.

View of the mountain on the bus ride there

All kitted up

Lady Gaga ready for her first ski

Sierra Nevada resort

View on the telecabina

selfies on the telecabina

the slope of death. the beginning of my ski disaster

The town

All in all, today was a great end to the week and we have some good photos from the snow. Next weekend is the puente which is basically a bank holiday weekend meaning we get Friday and the following Monday off. Our tickets are booked for a long weekend Madrid and I can't wait to check it out and meet up with family friend Fernando as it's been years since we've seen each other.

Hasta la próxima

P.S. if you're wondering what the blog title is about, the black men who sell knock offs around Granada apparently also take the trip up to the Sierra to try and flog hats, scarves and gloves. I was wearing some pretty 80s retro ski wear from a vintage shop in Granada and apparently I looked like Lady Gaga. Everytime we walked past he shouted 'LADY GAGA...NICE PRICE' pointing to his array of neon green hats. Pretty funny, I went a long with it and waved to him.