1 week over, 19 more to go...

It´s kind of hard to believe that it´s already been a week since we arrive in Granada. Time crawls like molasses over sandpaper. At the same time, it´ll probably all be over before sooner than I think.
Yesterday we went to the Alhambra and the Generalife, and spent about four hours strolling around the grounds, eating our lunches, taking pictures, etc. I simply cannot do the place justice with words; its an astonishing work of architecture and masonery. There´s a profound sense of history in the atmosphere that would be crushing if it weren´t cut by the trilling laughter of children, the squeak of stroller wheels, the whispers of lovers, the inaudible padding of feline feet throughout the extensive gardens. We walked up one of the steeper hills I´ve ever climbed for probably a few hundred meters to get to the entry gate to the garrison, where we met our tourguides. The group split into three tour, including one in Spanish, led by a woman named Estér. As she explains that the Alhambra was, in its day, an all-inclusive city, we roam around the main garrison area (which is free to all). There´s a huge bell in the main tower in this area, and in a once-yearly celebration women who wish to meet and marry a man touch the bell three times. There are also several of the most spectacular vistas I´ve ever enjoyed. From many points along the battlements there are astonishing views of particular sections of the city or mountains, and from the top of the belltower there is a breathtaking panorama of the city, the vega and the Sierra Nevada. If we hadn´t had another 3 hours of tourism ahead of us I think we all might have stayed here all day taking pictures.
Almost every room and hallway of the inner palaces of the Alhambra is decorated in ornate, handchiseled masonry. Arabic calligraphy winds around windows and fountains-- Estér tells us that the walls of the Alhambra speak, and if they did the name of Allah would constantly careen off stone and marble in a warm hum, propelling the crowds of tourists from room to room. She also takes time to observe a basic stylistic contrast between this and other palaces of old Europe. Where many castles built by Christian rulers display the skill of their craftsmen externally and are simplistic in their interiors, this Moorish world wonder is very simple from outside and shrouds its inhabitants in beauty. Alhambra means the Red Palace. What appears huge and plain in the daytime acquires a vague scarlet glow at night, as though the sheer splendor of the interior has too much energy in it, is the product of too much sweat and death to be contained by the thick tapia brick of the castle walls. Or maybe its just that they throw a few thousand watts of light on it from the outside that reflects the faintly red pigments of the iron that laces the local stone. Either way, its stunning.
More on this when I can post pictures. For now I´m going to try to get into a soccer game. The local team is in the Segundo Division B, which is essentially the third-tier of spanish soccer. Basically I´m going to go see Granada´s equivalent of the New Haven Ravens, except this will probably be way more fun than a minor league ballgame because people actually give a shit in the stands. Then I have to find a place to watch the Pats-Chargers game. And then I have to haul myself out of bed and go to class tomorrow. Great....