Now it gets super serious!! Now that I’m back from Lanzarote, and that my next three tests are next week, I need to get down to studying. I have not started studying yet, but that will change as the impending doom of a bad grade starts looming over my head. And to make things worse (caused by myself, cause who else would make my life harder other than me?), I have a weekend trip to Granada. Is it worth it to not study the weekend before a test? it depends on how much I get done during the week. So lets see how that turned out!
School
Now that I don’t have to worry about the VCU Instagram account, but still the VCU Abroad one (which is way more chill), I don’t have to worry about taking pictures during class to post. But other than that, it was a pretty normal week. We spent our classes reviewing for the tests except for next week, except that for Biomechanics (of course they would be the culprit), WE DIDN’T! During our last class of the week for that, we actually went over new material that wasn’t going to be on the test, which was highly frustrating!! Seeing that most of the students got around 50% on the last test, I though the professor would prioritize a review session for the last class. But apparently, he can’t get through his head that he is not a good teacher and that we need more time to learn the material he teaches so weirdly. But literally every other class gives time to review material during class before the test and gives us the entire class to finish the test. So Biomechanics, I can tell already, will be another train wreck.
Our Thursday Signals class was canceled this week, so I had some extra time to study before the weekend. All in all, I studied a lot this past week. I went through 2 Rocketbook’s worth of pages doing problems for Biomechanics, Signals, and Instrumentation, so I think I am pretty prepared. We have a 6 hour bus ride on Friday and Sunday where I can study, so I think I will be fine. I studied the exercises for the class, and I have time to study theory on the bus and the time before the tests. So lets enjoy this weekend in Granada!!
Granada – Day 1
Early morning, but not as early as my other weekends. We had to leave the house at 7:30 to be at the bus by 8:00, but of course, in our usual fashion, we leave at 7:40, get on the metro right when we get to the metro station by the skin of our teeth, and get to the meeting point right at 8:00. But even if we missed the metro, we would have been fine as we didn’t leave on the bus until 8:45. But that’s fine. Now we have a 6 hour bus ride ahead of us with an hour break in the middle for lunch. Very relaxing bus ride, other than the fact that I couldn’t sleep on the bus at all. For some reason, after coming to Spain, I am having increasing difficulty sleeping anywhere. Like on the plane, I cannot sleep there. Any bus, I can’t sleep there either, even if it is cold enough. So that is very frustrating. Could it be because of the fact that I am not going to the gym anymore?? Very much could be, but that is beside the point (Cary Street Gym, prepare yourself for my return).
We get to Granada around 4, and we have a little time to wait until our Flamenco Show!! We walked to the show with a little surprise in the middle of a wonderful and beautiful lookout of Alhambra, the castle in Granada. All in all the walk was about an hour, which would have been fine if not for the fact that it was on and off downpour for the entire walk. I was miserable the entire time. There was nothing I could do to keep dry, and it was supposed to be like this the entire weekend?? I was like hell no, I will not have this experience be like Rome. By the time we got to the Flamenco Show, everyone was soaked, and they all stuff us into this cave-type room and make us wait for 30 minutes for the show to start. At least we got a free soda out of it, which was nice. Wetness aside, the Flamenco Show was amazing!! Some people had differing opinions, but I thought it was truly spectacular. I would have really loved if Matteo and Sara got up and danced, but oh well.
It was the rain really subtracted from the experience. The show was cool, but my soaked socks kept reminding me that I still had to return to the rain. Thankfully when we left, it had stopped raining, so we were able to eat dinner without much more trouble. After that we went back to the hotel and got ready for an early morning to Alhambra!!
Granada – Day 2
We wake up, shower, and head to breakfast. This hotel breakfast was actually one of the best I have had in Spain! Like look at how we get honey.
Super fancy and super good. After that we all loaded on the bus and went up the hill to see Alhambra. We met our tour guides there and, after some ticket confusion, started our tour. It was a super cool place, and very beautiful too!
After that we were given free time for the rest of the day. We had the choice of returning to the hotel via bus or walking all downhill back to the hotel. I was tired as hell, but Panth somehow convinced me to walk back. Geed thing too, cause I got som good videos for the vlog. But we got lunch at an amazing local Italian pasta place that was only takeout. We took the pasta back to the hotel, ate it there, and when the other people went to a museum that I didn’t want to go to (they said it wasn’t that interesting, which I been knew on that), I decided to take a nap. I was going to explore the city later, cause I love just listening to music and wandering around the city. But after my nap…
So I started my walk by just going to the shopping district across the street. They had an Arabic-style shopping street, which is basically very small shops lining an even smaller street. I actually got PTSD from seeing this, thinking back to the overwhelming time over in Morocco, so I didn’t spend a lot of time in there. I continued just walking around, and then I found this super cool spice and herb store that just sold every kind of spice, incense, tea, dried fruit, liquor, it was so cool. And they also had large buckets where you could smell the spice and know what you were getting before you bought it. It was super cool!!
I bought a good amount of stuff from there cause I know I will use it when I get back. However afterward, I wandered into some souvenir shops, wine bars, and got some awesome views from the University of Granada campus on top of the hill.
After that, we got dinner from a Ramen place and went back to the hotel. Now, here comes the fun part…
Recently, I have gotten back into playing MineSweeper, and I have gotten pretty good at it. However, what really makes me mad is that when I have almost solved the puzzle and there is one mine left, and it comes down to a 50:50 chance of where the mine will be, and I have to guess in order to win. So, instead of looking for a game that always gives a solvable puzzle, I decided to build my own MineSweeper game that always give a solvable puzzle using Python. So, that night, I started coding it. Now, about 5 days after starting, I have pretty much gotten a workable version that just randomly placed the mines, but nothing that knows whether or not the puzzle is solvable. After doing some research, I found one version of MineSweeper that had a mode where it would only give solvable puzzles, and you know how they ensured that?? They made a program that could solve MineSweeper puzzles, and if it could solve it, then it was solvable. If not, it wasn’t solvable, and would generate a new board. So that got me thinking, once I made this program that always gave a solvable puzzle, I should try to make a neural network that would learn how to solve MineSweeper puzzles!! I still need to iron out the base game first (and maybe finish my schoolwork, but thats boring stuff), but then I can get started on a solving algorithm and maybe a neural network. I also have started learning about Object Oriented Programming, so I think I am going to transfer my game to that. Sounds like fun, right?? This is what I do for fun, but its cool. Im actually getting really pumped about this, so Im excited to see where it goes!!
Granada – Day 3
This day wasn’t really that interesting. There was a walking tour, and after that we had free time for lunch. But what the fun part was that at the end of the tour, we found a street performance where a group of people were doing improvised dance, and it was one of the coolest things I had ever seen! There were kids from the age of 9 to people who looked in their 30’s, all dancing together and creating something awesome! I don’t have any pictures, so you’re just going to have to wait for the vlog!!
On the way back, I continued studying for my three tests and coding the game, and good thing I was unable to sleep, cause I really needed that time.
All in all…
The trip was super fun!! This city was one of my favorite, right next to Rome. The buildings were amazing, it had a lot of cool history, the people were incredibly nice, a ton of cool views, and not that expensive. Plus tapa culture was amazing, cause when I went to a wine bar to try some local wine, I got cheese and crackers with honey as well as some pork and bread, both small yet super tasty!! But I have heard stories that tapas there can be anywhere from cheese and crackers to hamburgers, which doesn’t seem like a tapa-type food, but I’m not gonna judge.
Super fun city, but I am not looking forward to the tests this upcoming week. Biomechanics I know will screw me up, either from the stress or the grade, or even both maybe!! But after that is over, no matter what it is, I AM GOING SKIING!! It feels weird that my time in Spain is slowly coming to a close and that Switzerland is my last excursion, but I am happy. This has been so much fun so far, and as much I don’t want to leave, I know its about time, and my wallet is saying as much too. My parents come the week after Switzerland, then its finals the week after and then I am back in the States!! Its so close its scary, but until then, rest assured I am living my best life here. Until next time!!
Brennan's Semester in Spain 