Granada and Sierra Nevada

12 February 2017

We went to Granada and to ski in Sierra Nevada! It was great :) ..although, we did have slight problems with the car on the way there because of the “check engine” light suddenly going on. We had to stop and stayed at a gas station trying to locate the problem with the help of a mechanic on the phone. We never found the problem but because the mechanic convinced us that if the car seems normal and the engine sounds fine we could continue driving as long us nothing weird comes up. Finally, we arrived in Granada at around 1.30 AM and hadn’t had any dinner.. ..and I went straight to bed as the next morning, the kick off to the slopes in Sierra Nevada was at 7.45, which made the trip at least for me a bit of an adventure, having to compromise my basic needs. But in Sierra Nevada I finally got some food and skiing itself was really nice. We were worried that there wouldn’t be enough snow but it was allright. We skied for almost 6 hours and I think we never did a slope twice so that was more than enough for us.

Also, Granada itself is a cute city and very interesting with really exciting history with Arabs and religious game of thrones types of things. We went to see the Arab temple, Alhambra and I must say it is something everyone should see once in their life. Really detailed and colourful beautiful rooms, walls, ceilings and gardens. 

Now I’ve tested the public health care system here too because I got a sick after the trip and had to go see a doctor. It was much better than I expected; everything was smooth and I had no problems explaining my situation in Spain etc., only needed to show my European health insurance card, “the European Kela card” and everything was settled. I got to see a doctor almost right away and didn’t have to pay for anything. The doctor prescribed me some medicine and if I understand correctly, I also got a reduction of those. Although, I must say, my illness wasn’t cured with that medicine and they wanted to send me to a specialised doctor, which was a bit more tricky. They told me to give them my phone number and they would contact me to assign me an appointment. They told me to contact them again if I hadn’t heard anything from then in 15 days. Waiting 15 days was too much for me so I went to a private health center to see a specialist. That was expensive but efficient and convenient.

I think it may now be getting warmer here. But so far the nights have still been rather cold. That’s why I have been sick so often. At the moment I don’t know if I’m happy or terrified by the fact that spring is coming.

 P.S. Note to self: Next time you go skiing in Spain, wear more than two layers of 50 SPF sun screen :) (Yes, I burned my face :D)

With love,
Noora

Stormy weather

22 January 2017

It’s been stormy weather here with lots of rain and wind. I hear this is an exceptional year in Alicante, and I assume in the whole of Europe in terms of weather. I don’t think it has rained this much in Alicante for years. And it shows that this city is not at all prepared for rain. The streets are flooded and what is ridiculous, the pedestrian parts of the streets get slippery when it rains so I guess when they planned it they thought, it would almost never rain.

Unlike in Finland, here the storm also affects the indoors. The nights here have lately been rather unpleasant because of the cold also coming into the apartment.. ..and it’s not only the cold but also the humidity, which makes sleeping really uncomfortable when your pyjama and even the duvet feel like they are soaking wet. With my roommates we now discovered that our heating system also has a function of removing humidity and we used it last night. Maybe it helped a bit.

Let’s see how our electricity bill we because I hear heating with electricity can be extremely costly here. Therefore, we still try and be quite economical with the heating. This of course  means wearing three pullovers on top each other at home but well, I’ve already gotten used to that and luckily brought some woollen shirts from Finland after Christmas. This is why it’s funny when people wonder how people survive in the cold Finland because here right now I’m in fact much more cold than in Finland, because in Finland, when it’s cold, we don’t stay outside for long times and have proper clothes for that and indoors it’s never cold.   

We had planned to go to Granada to ski at Sierra Nevada but now, also because of the weather and some roads being closed due to the flood, we had to cancel the trip at last minute. I’m a bit disappointed because I miss skiing, but let’s see if we can reschedule the trip for another weekend.

Now it seems the weather is getting better and besides, quite soon the winter should be practically over here and the spring should begin, I’m already excited!

Oh and by the way, before the storm began, last weekend we made a trip with 15 other trainees to Elche, a neighbouring city. Was great and I saw bananas growing in trees :)

Bananas!

At work everything continues as before, I’m working on interesting cases and get to write a lot, I’m still really happy with what I get to do and days at work go by fast. And now we had a New Year’s lunch with my team the other day. That was really nice, with a four course meal and chatting with my colleagues. Especially I liked the fact that I got a chance to know my colleagues a bit better because during normal working days everyone is busy and my office with three other trainees is in a different place from the colleagues in my team so during the days I mostly socialize only with the other trainees.

I now got a new roommate. A girl from France, super nice! And besides she’s eager to practice Spanish so we only talk Spanish, which makes me so happy. I went to the movies with her last night and she wanted to see the film in Spanish. I didn’t agree at first but we discovered this film was not even offered in English so finally we didn’t have a choice. I was hesitant but finally understood much more than I thought I would and in fact enjoyed the movie, yes!

And tomorrow I begin another Spanish course, it’s great because I really need new vocabulary. Of course even if I manage to make myself understood, I always use the same verbs and try and make Spanish words from English or French equivalents, which is not always successful :D

Another dear hobby of mine here is running, as most of you already know. A few of my colleagues have now been eager to start running with me and running is convenient because nowadays I practically have company for almost every run.

Today the last of my roommates, an Estonian girl, should arrive and finally all of the bedrooms of the flat will be occupied. It’s nice to get to meet another new person but I’m also a bit nervous if living with three other girls will require me to make much more compromises than I have had to make until now, let’s see. (and let’s hope she speaks Spanish ;) )

With love,

Noora