We are going to the Alhambra tomorrow and then to explore the city for a bit. Our hotel is right next to the Sierra Nevada Mountains and it's a gorgeous view....
It's the beginning of the end....
Monday, April 28, 2008
Granada
I've made it to Granada all in one piece, I didn't think that I was going to make it earlier today. We had to lug all of our suitcases all the way across town, 30 minutes walking, and I have two suitcases that weigh 50 lbs. each, a backpack and a purse. Luckily Carlos, our tour guide, helped me out and took one of my suitcases...I was struggling...BUT we are all here!
Sunday, April 27, 2008
¡Qué Sevillana!
After three and a half months...I´ve finally found out how to finally look like a Spaniard!
One Last Good-Bye
So many of you have asked, “So how do you feel about going home?” Here is what I have come up with….
Bullfight
Sunday April 27, 2008
Our Final Intercambio
Saturday April 26, 2008
- I went to Itálica, an old ancient ruins about 20 minutes outside of Sevilla. The ruins were pretty cool. The huge amphitheatre was my favorite part, but I’m glad that we went in the morning because it got really hot today…past 96 degrees!
- Bullfighting tickets: We finally got them exchanged and we are going to the bullfight tomorrow at 6:30pm! I’m excited to see this interesting part of the culture…how unique.
- Shopping for a bit: Allison and I had a few things that we still needed to pick up around Sevilla so we went shopping in the Barrio of Santa Cruz for a while.
- Exchange at Bandalai: After lunch we met up with our intercambio friends at a bar called Bandalai. It was amazingly decorated, low lit, with mosaic light fixtures, candles, tiles, and huge comfy couches lined the walls. We got in free with some VIP passes that Alfredo had, he’s a writer and he works in public relations so he has connections all over town. There was a live flamenco band playing, which included a little drummer boy (ha) who couldn’t have been over 7 years old. We drank, we danced, we talked and afterwards we headed to another bar to get some food. We talked some more and then headed out again. Allison, a few of the guys and myself went to the flamenco bar Lo nuestro and we danced flamenco all night. We ended up dancing with the best guys in the house (more like being taught and trying to dance), they were amazing and had to be at least 40, but it was a lot of fun. I’m going to miss being able to go to a bar and dancing flamenco and just being social until 5am.
- Saying “until laters” not “good-byes”: It was really crappy saying good-bye to all the friends that we have made here in Sevilla. But our friends assured us that we would be back again soon, if not for next Feria, and that they would see us again. Thus we said our “until laters” instead of “good-byes.” They are all very different and they all have their own intricacies and I’ve loved getting to know all of them. I think I’m going to miss the hospitality when I leave, and not to mention all of the amazing people that I have to leave behind as well. We exchanged e-mails and such, so I hope that we will continue to say in touch.
La Giralda and Paella
Friday April 25, 2008
The Last Day Of Classes, ¡Ole!
Thursday April 24, 2008
I Ate Snails
Wednesday April 23, 2008
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Sanity Can Be Restored
Tuesday April 22, 2008
Today I lost my right hand to Spain in an epic battle, Emily verses History and Literature. I wrote for a total of five hours straight to complete my last two finals. Even though I lost an appendage in the fight, I’m glad that I’m finally done with all of the tests. I sent in the last of my projects today as well, therefore I’m home free and I can actually enjoy my last couple of days in Sevilla. It’s a rather relieving and euphoric feeling!
A public bus almost hit me today; I still secretly think that the public transportation system is still out to get me. I ended up escaping death by inches, but I’m here to tell the story so all ended well.
I’m exhausted so I’m going to keep things short today, so I’ll leave you with the “Quote of the Day,” which I rather enjoyed. “The only thing we know about the future is that it will be different.” –Peter Drucker
Two Down, Two To Go
Monday April 21, 2008
Two of the four final tests done…and I think that they went well. I can’t believe that we are already taking our finals…where has all of time gone?
I went to the Internet café for a bit to print a few things and to send in a couple of projects. Afterwards I met with a few students and our teacher Carmen in a bar near school to have a study group for our history final that is tomorrow. It went well, we got a lot of good studying done and Carmen, our teacher, was really helpful. I ended up breaking down a little bit and it was a rough end to a 3-hour study session about the history of Spain. Things worked out in the end but I stayed up after that studying for both my history and literature finals. I was pretty stressed out today, but it will all be over with tomorrow afternoon- and that’s my goal! I would be just as stressed out in the States, therefore it’s a normal feeling to have around finals time.
Encarna is leaving tomorrow for a teaching conference in Málaga until Thursday. Therefore she came in to say “bye” to Sam because Sam is leaving on Wednesday. She isn’t doing the travel portion of May Term because she has a different class for her major for May Term. Encarna came in and brought us all ceramic tiles that her son Antonio, the artist, had painted for us. They are all the landscape of Conil, but they are all different in their own special ways. They are really cool, and it ended up working out perfectly because at the beginning of the semester we had joked that we were going to ask Encarna if her son would paint tiles for us…who knew that it would actually come true! My international art collection is growing by the day!
Mother Nature Strikes Again
Sunday April 20, 2008
Today I woke up to rain. If I know two things that don’t go together well, it’s rain and bullfights. Apparently that makes things a little dangerous? It continued to rain on and off up until the fight. We walked all the way to the Plaza de Toros (Plaza of the bulls), bought seat cushions, found our seats (they were good!), took pictures before the fight and then we were told that the fight was suspended due to the condition of the ring (which was too wet, therefore too dangerous). This made the day rather depressing because I actually was really excited to experience this part of the culture. We are going to try and get tickets for the next bullfight, next Sunday, which is the night before we leave for May Term, but I think it’s worth it.
The good part about today was that it was our “dessert Sunday” where Sam cooked/taught Encarna how to make brownies and Encarna showed Sam how to cook as well. The brownies and ice cream were perfect…rich…warm…amazing. Encarna (who keep in mind is still on her diet) ate almost half a pan of brownies and ice cream. She thought that this piece of American culture was delicious.
I finished my night off by studying for my culture and grammar finals that will be in the morning. I’m ready to get these finals out of the way, so I cannot wait until tomorrow!
Sunday, April 20, 2008
You Aren’t The Typical American
Saturday April 19, 2008
After studying throughout the morning, we had another “intercambio,” or now I like to call it hanging out with Spanish friends in the afternoon. We meet up in front of a church and headed to a pizza place called, “Pizzeria Orsini” for lunch. We had a reservation for 17 and a table was waiting for us when we arrived. We all ordered different things and sat, talked and had drinks, for three hours. A popular subject that we talked about was American and Spanish cuss words…before you freak out and think that its bad, it was actually pretty interesting and full of culture. Now I can understand a lot more of the “street-smart” words and I can understand more of the popular culture words. We also shared phrases such as “its raining cats and dogs,” that are less literal.
Today I noticed that the restaurant culture is different here than in the States. It is fine to go to a restaurant with friends and to sit at a table eating and talking for hours. In the States the waitress/waiter that would have your table would be pretty annoyed if you stayed at their table for more than an hour. It might also be because you don’t have to leave tips here as well. Also, since our group had a bill that was over 200 euros, we all got a free shot at the end of our meal on the house. This is a custom here in Spain. We learned the national drinking song of Spain and talked for a while, and then left for another bar. It started pouring as we were in transit to the other bar, so we all huddled under our umbrellas and hurried to the Irish pub that had been dubbed our destination. We sat and talked for a while with our group. I asked them all what they did for a living and then they asked about my job(s) and my parents jobs; I had a hell of a time explaining how at Stellas I pour shakes on peoples heads and that my dad is a produce broker. Both are not the easiest to explain/describe in Spanish. A few minutes later I overheard a guy talking to someone and he was trying to figure out how to say, “I have a cold,” in English. I jumped all over that one and helped him out. I ended up asking him where he was from (Spain) and he asked me as well. When I told him that I was from the United States he was pretty taken back by it and told me that I, “didn’t look like the typical American.” I didn’t exactly know how to take that one, so I shot back at him, “…and what exactly is the ‘typical American’?” He just gave me a “crap what am I going to say now, I don’t want to offend her” kind of look. So I took a shot in the dark and asked if me meant that I wasn’t screaming, ridiculous and drunk. And he shyly nodded yes and said, “Exactly.” I told him that I was here to study Spanish and that was what I was doing, not the other things. He told me that I was doing really well and that my accent was really good. This seems pretty trivial, but it was awesome to me. First off he didn’t relate me with the stupid Americans that don’t take studying abroad seriously, and secondly he complimented my skills. After talking for a little and making plans for later in the week with two of the ladies, I headed home to study and have dinner!
Only Real Men Play “Table Tennis”
Friday April 18, 2008
We had to wake up early this morning to get newspapers for one of our finals on Monday. We have to find an article from a Friday newspaper and analyze it for a section of our culture final, so I was up and going early today. It rained for a bit in the morning, got clear, rained some more. I think that Mother Nature was having fun watching us struggle. I had problems with the internet all day, went to four different cafes, and still ended up not being able to accomplish what I wanted to get done, so it was kind of a frustrating day in general. I got home and had missed dinner because of all of my unhelpful adventures, so I ate alone. It was just kind of a blah day. I just want to get all of this stuff out of the way and be done with it already.
On a brighter note (no pun intended), the rays of sunshine in my day came in the form of four middle-aged serious “table tennis” (a.k.a. ping-pong) players. They had their battle ground set up outside of the gym that I was sitting by this morning. They were adorned in short shorts, spandex and sweatbands. Clad in nothing but complete amazingness…I now can die a happy woman. They were completely competitive and I’ve never seen a ping-pong match get so vicious. It has pure raw humor at its finest. One of those moments that you see exaggerated in movies had come to life for me and I couldn’t believe my eyes. Player number one, we’ll cal him Pablo, serves to player number two, known as Ricardo, and Ricardo swats the ball back. It jumps over the net and curves to the left side of Pablo’s battlefield. Pablo dives…he hits the ball just as it is about to hit the ground, it pops back up into the air and amazingly goes back over the net. Ricardo returns the hit, but this time Pablo is not so lucky…his bright green ping-pong paddle has failed him and he ends up on his knees pleading asking the sky (God) why? Why? Ricardo 1-Pablo 0. I may have gotten a little distracted from my homework, but with a great game of table tennis like that…how could you not?
I Could Have Filled The Pool With Tears
Thursday April 17, 2008
Today was officially the last day of normal classes here in Spain, ah! I cannot even believe it. These past couple of days have been really stressful because all we have been doing is reviewing for tests, asking questions and clarifying things. It’s been stressful, tedious and boring to say the least. But enough of school…
I got a DVD from Aaron today that he made, its cute…but it made me look forward to coming back home even more…it had a slideshow of all of my friends and such. It was fun to watch, even though it wouldn’t play on my computer so I used Allison’s (thank goodness). Yet another thoughtful and creative gift…I don’t know how he does it.
It was also my last day at the swimming pool for my ONG today. I had a blast swimming with the kids. We played a game where everyone had two pool noodles and the point of the game was to take other peoples noodles. I have some war scratches on me, but as a whole it was a great time. One of the kids that I work with really warmed up to me today and we decided that we have our own “team” and he now loves giving me high-fives. Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention that he tried to eat my foot. Here’s how it unfolded: I was playing around with him and sticking my feet up above the water and he was in front of me trying to grab my feet but he was consistently too slow to actually get them. At last when he did get my foot, he attacked it. It was a great night but it was really really sad. These were the first people that I have made relationships with here in Spain that I have had to say good-bye to. I know that I’m leaving, I’ve been thinking about it, people keep saying it…but until tonight I didn’t really understand the extent of it all. I told David, the director of the water therapy program that this was our last week and he looked at me like he wanted to cry. He told the kids that it was our last week and I got three different reactions: (ps. I'm abbreviating their names for privacy reasons)
1. J.M. asked why I had to go back and if I was flying back to the States. I told him that I thought that I would just swim back instead because I’ve had a lot of practice in the pool. This is where he began to laugh at me and told me that he could out swim me from one side of the pool to the next (completely true)…sad! I ended up telling him that I had a personal boat so he didn’t need to worry. He also proceeded to ask David when we were going to come back…tear.
2. M. just kept asking David why we had to go and why we didn’t want to stay. I had to tell her that I wanted to say, but I couldn’t.
3. A. can’t really talk, but he said a quick “adios” and just stared at me in disbelief. Afterwards as I was walking out of the pool, he was clinging to my arm…I could barely take it. Talk about heart breaking!
All of the kids and David kissed us on the cheeks good-bye, which was the hardest part…some of them can barely talk or walk, and yet they managed to kiss us good-bye. I’m really going to miss them. I’ve had a completely amazing time working at the pool and volunteering in Spain. This is a part of the program that I am going to take with me for a long time. A lot of people can say that they have been to Spain, but very few can take with them the experience of volunteering.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Spanish Hospitality
Wednesday April 16, 2008
Today was our last day for two of our classes….well for “regular” class days anyhow, how sad. We have been doing a lot of tying up loose ends and I will hopefully be ready for all of our finals next week.
Today I received an e-mail from one of my intercambio friends and we are planning on reuniting this weekend for a lunch and then for karaoke (I hope!). I have started amassing my Spanish music collection, so I’m set to sing some Spanish karaoke! I’m excited to spend another day with these Spaniards because they are a lot of fun. Because of this, I’ve been thinking a lot about the hospitality of Spain lately. I started thinking about this because all of our new Spanish friends/intercambios have taken us under their wings and have really shown us a good time while being here. Going from not knowing them a few weeks ago, to hanging out with them regularly has been a great experience. I don’t know if I was in their position if I would have been as accepting of a bunch of students from a foreign country, but I think that is more our culture juxtaposed to their culture. I really like that they are so open and so willing to talk with us and be seen with us in public! Ha. It’s been great having their company. I have talked to a lot more random people here, than I ever have in the United States. I think it has to do with the fact that I want to meet people and it’s good practice nonetheless. Also because I haven’t ran into too many creepers, well that have wanted to keep in contact, so it feels more safe than not. It’s always a group activity and I’ve had some of my best nights by having Spaniards show me around.
Later in the night, after I did as much homework/paper writing that I could possibly do, Allison and I went for a stroll around town. We found protective tubes for the posters (and my painting) that we want to get home unharmed, we took some pictures, bought postcards, and we may have gotten ice cream as well… It was good to get out and walk around for a bit, it turned out being a really pretty day. It’s rumored that it’s supposed to rain tomorrow so I’d rather get out of my room while I still can. I am ridiculously tired today for some reason and I don’t know why. Seville is just wearing me out!
My Lunch Has Eyes
Tuesday April 15, 2008
When your food has eyes that are looking back at you, it’s a good sign that you should probably not eat what is on your plate. I took that advice and ran with it. Today at lunch we had paella, which is a rice stir-fry with a bunch of different kinds of seafood. I can’t eat fish or seafood and apparently there is a difference (Encarna informed me). I kind of poked around my plate for a while, moved the shell and mussel away, tried a bite, and then after a few minutes Encarna asked what was wrong. I told her that I just couldn’t eat it. Allison had a little creature that was mixed in with her paella, which we later learned was a mini lobster slash alien looking hybrid. While Encarna was making me a sandwich I created a sign for the creature, which we named Pepe, to “hold” in its claw. Allison took pictures and afterwards Sam and Allison actually ate the little goober. I don’t know how they did it…especially after its dissection. I felt bad for not liking lunch, but there was no way that I was going to eat the dish.
Dead week is starting to wear on us all and the whole class is getting a little tense and stressed out. I keep trying to tell myself that I would be just as stressed if I was in the States doing finals, but Spanish finals are a bit different. They are in Spanish…I will survive them and hopefully I don’t live up to the name of the week! Wish me luck.
Tonight we had an exchange of our own. When Allison and Sam got home they decided that before we cooked tacos (for Encarna, even though she started her ‘diet’ yesterday) that I had to give them a make-up lesson. Sam and I are trading skill sets. She is teaching me how to cook and I am teaching her how to be a girl. It’s proven to be pretty interesting and funny at the same time. I used Allison’s face as the model and showed Sam how to put on day make-up and night make-up. Allison kind of looked like a Picasso painting because afterwards she had two different “faces.” But when she turned to the side and you could only see half of her face at a time, how lovely she looked! Afterwards we all headed to the kitchen and made fried potatoes and tacos. It was delicious, and Encarna loved them. She asked a million questions about how to make everything and she even mooched some Coca-Cola off of us that Sam and Allison bought earlier in the day. What a diet! Sign me up to be on that one. Sam, Allison, Encarna, Rocio and I had a great conversation about men/ex-boyfriends and relationships in general. I’m pretty sure at one point Encarna even called Sam a conquistadora (conqueror/man-killer) of men. It was classic. She is an absolute hoot.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
That’s It, I’m Doing It
Monday April 14, 2008
Today all of our Spanish professors realized that this was the last full week of classes before their finals and that that we indeed only have two weeks left of Sevilla. How depressing. Talk about pouring salt on that wound 3 times in a row. Although, I’m still optimistic about our time left here. Therefore, Allison, Elsabeth, and I went to the ticket office today (after getting ice cream) to buy tickets for a bullfight this weekend. I have been debating with myself if I actually want to see a bull fight...but I decided that I’m in Spain. I’m almost required to see a bull fight. We learned all about the culture behind the bullfights, the terms and the history behind everything today in our culture class, and it got me more motivated to actually buy the ticket. Now I can cross another “I still need to do this” off of my list before our departure!
Tambourines, Flamenco Dancing and Clapping, OH MY!
Sunday April 13, 2008
Today the house is buzzing with family members, which isn’t a bad thing in theory. I like Spaniards, its fun to have more people around…but I forgot to mention the fact that when there are more Spaniards there is more noise. Yes, its true, I Emily Beckmann am not one to complain about noise, I tend to be a rather loud person myself, I understand. But after two hours of chasing each other around the house with a tambourine (for the record this word is almost impossible to spell after living in Spain for 3 months, thank you spell check), dancing Sevillanas, clapping, singing flamenco and playing hide-and-go seek (mind you we have a U shaped apartment…which means its all dead ends, honestly how much fun can that be?) it all becomes a little much. I only say this because I had the intention to work on my final papers for two classes…but the environment was a little “distracting” with the circus that we had in our house. I don’t know whether to say if Juan Antonio, Fatima’s 22-ish-year-old boyfriend, or Angela, the 7-year-old granddaughter, was worse. Juan Antonia has some mad tambourine skills and Angela likes to scream (sing) while running around the apartment in U’s. ¡Oye! You can only imagine the chaos. I guess we really got a taste of what living with a real Spanish family was like this weekend, dysfunction and all.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Alejandro Can Actually Talk, Who Knew!
Saturday April 12, 2008
This morning I started the day off by doing the ever so dreaded souvenir shopping. First of all, I hate feeling like a tourist in my “home town.” Secondly, that means that my time is coming to an end. Finally, I had no idea what to buy.
This week the city is alive and hopping with tourists and people from all over Spain that have come to celebrate Feria in Sevilla. Every corner you turn you see women dressed in brightly colored flamenco dresses, you hear some form of music whether it is clapping, instrumental, or vocal, and there are horses with carriages galore. I love the spirit of the town this week. It’s pretty common for groups of people to break out in song and dance at any minute…so basically it’s my perfect world.
At lunchtime we talked to our “host brother” Alejandro, who normally lives in Madrid, is around 30 and is studying Graphic Design, for the first time ever today. Before I thought he was kind of mean…or maybe a mute, but today he was bouncing off the walls and chatting up a storm. We even got a compliment from him that he’s glad that we are actually speaking Spanish here. I shot back (in Spanish of course), “Of course we are speaking Spanish, we are in Spain…right?” He laughed and apparently thinks that most Americans who come to Spain and stay with Encarna haven’t/don’t speak Spanish. I pointed out to him that we are here for 4 months…and its kind of a necessity to know the language. We joked around for a while and when he came home later in the evening he brought Allison, Sam and I a flower…I think he likes us now that he knows that we can actually speak Spanish. He kept making the joke that there were a lot of blondes (Allison and I) in the kitchen and that that was different. He’s kind of a character. We have only seen him 2 or 3 times when he has come home for the different holidays, but I’m glad that he finally talked to us so it won’t be as awkward anymore!
Encarna also decided to bust out the old family photo alum today at lunch…she is such a goober, but I wouldn’t trade her for the world. It was fun looking at all of the kids as they were growing up and hearing the family stories. For the record, they used to call Rocio the “cangrejo” (the crab) because she had long legs and long arms when she was born… Just imagine hearing stories similar to this one!
Tonight we headed out to try a new bar in the Alameda because we had been working on homework for most of the afternoon and we just needed to get out of the house. We had a tinto de verano (½ wine mixed with ½ lemon soda, and its delicious) and talked about a lot of different things. It was a very chill night just talking. I’m super coordinated and took it upon myself to spill part of the tinto on my lap because apparently I like talking with my hands…who knew? The favorite topic of the night was our upcoming return home. Even though the days are dwindling down I think that it’s progressively become harder to be away from home. Each day is one day closer to when I’m coming home, but it seems like each day it’s a little bit harder to be away…These feelings are also mixed with the feelings of not ever really wanting to come back to the States, so as you can imagine…it’s a pretty awkward mix altogether.
Just Call Me Picasso, Kind Of…
Friday April 11, 2008
I started off my day today walking to the post office because I had a package from my grandparents! The package was filled with goodies, as always, and I loved it.
Today is the first day that it hasn’t rained all week and I took advantage of the fact. Allison and I went around town taking some “Sevilla” pictures because I don’t have as many as I would like. We visited a few shops along the way and ended up on Calle Betis (Betis Street) to have a drink with one of our intercambio friends. Her name is Laura, she’s 21, and she’s just a bundle of energy. She was really cool to talk to and we ended up hanging out with her until a little after 8pm. It’s always nice talking to Spaniards and getting their points of view on different subjects and being able to practice our Spanish isn’t bad either!
After dinner Allison and I headed down to the river so I could paint La Puente de Trianna (The Bridge of Trianna) at night. It’s gorgeous down by the river at night because if you cross the river you can see the Cathedral, the Plaza de España, La Giralda and the bullring all in one view. They are all lit up at night, its beautiful…oh Sevilla. We sat on a dock on the river and I painted for a while as Allison listened to music and we talked. Afterwards we decided that we needed to finish our night off “Spanish-style” so we went to get churros by the river. The churrería (the kiosk where you buy churros) was packed with Feria goers and it was fun watching them come and go all done up in their flamenco dresses. As we sat along the river drinking Coke, eating churros and chatting, Allison and I reminisced about good times that we’ve had this semester. We have come to the conclusion that we don’t have enough time left to be sad, therefore we aren’t going to be sad until we actually get on our plane to come back to the States. Although, I have made quite a few Spanish friends that think that the States is “the land of opportunities” (direct quote, kind of me made me sick) and who would be more than willing to trade lives for a while…maybe I’ll just try that! I guess the grass is always greener on the other side, but I’ve grown pretty fond of Sevilla. But in all reality I only have a month left and I’m definitely not going to waste my time being sad, I still have too many places to see and things to do!
Under My Umbrella
Thursday April 10, 2008
Today I slept for most of the day…and it is still raining! We didn’t get home last night until around 4am, so it was nice to be able to sleep in today.
Mother Nature is kind of being a jerk, and she its not really cooperating with this whole Feria and vacation time…I’d love to go out and do more, but its kind of hard to get motivated when its pouring and windy outside. I’m waiting for my umbrella to get blown inside out and die on me. Although, I tend to find humor in most situations and when I was walking outside in the rain today, ironically enough, someone had the song Umbrella by Rhianna playing. I just happened to hear the line, “Now it’s raining more than ever…” Huh, how true? I thought that it was a very weather appropriate song to be listening to.
In the afternoon Allison, Sam and I decided that we were going crazy in our room so we left for a bit and went to the grocery store to get some ice cream despite the rain! When we got home we were soaking but we had ice cream in hand…so the weather didn’t seem as bad at this point. We took a break from sleeping and homework to eat our ice cream and to watch some Will & Grace. It was a good indoor activity for our rainy day!
Next week is dead week (April 14th- April 17th) and then we have finals week (April 21st- April 24th) after that. As you can probably imagine, I have a lot of final projects, homework and studying that I am trying to get done, or at least started this week. I can’t believe my time is coming to an end…it seems like everything has just gone by so fast!
Plans for May Term
From April 28th to May 11th I will be traveling for “May Term” around Spain to Granada, Murcia, Barcelona, San Sebastian, Bilbao and Madrid. Here is the tentative schedule including visits and websites of most of the places we will see. I’m not sure if the websites are in English or Spanish, so good luck! I’m excited to travel around Spain but I’m sure that I will be more than happy to get home on MAY 12 after hauling all of my luggage around for two weeks…oh yeah and to see all of my family and friends!
April 28, 2008: Monday
Depart Sevilla to Granada (Train)
April 29, 2008: Tuesday
Full day in Granada
Visit “La Alhambra”- [www.alhambradegranada.org]
April 30, 2008: Wednesday
Depart Granada to Murcia (Morning)
May 1, 2008: Thursday
Full day in Murcia
May 2, 2008: Friday
Depart Murcia for Barcelona (Train)
May 3, 2008: Saturday
Full day in Barcelona
Visit “Sagrada Familia”- [www.sagradafamilia.org]
May 4, 2008: Sunday
Full day in Barcelona
May 5, 2008: Monday
Day in Barcelona
Depart Barcelona to San Sebastian (Evening-overnight train)
May 6, 2008: Tuesday
Arrive in San Sebastian (Morning)
Full day in San Sebastian
May 7, 2008: Wednesday
Full day excursion to Bilbao (Leave in the morning and return in the afternoon)
Visit “Guggenheim Museum”- [www.guggenheim-bilbao.es]
May 8, 2008: Thursday
Depart San Sebastian to Madrid (Mid-morning)
Rest of the day in Madrid
May 9, 2008: Friday
Full day in Madrid
Historic Madrid Tour
May 10, 2008: Saturday
Full day in Madrid
Visit Reina Sofia Museum
May 11, 2008: Sunday
Full day in Madrid
Visit Prado Museum- [www.museoprado.mcu.es/]
May 12, 2008: Monday
Madrid Airport to the USA!
DELTA AIRLINES –
DL#109 Madrid-Atlanta 11:00AM- 2:40PM
Layover in Atlanta—insert eating American food here
DL#4458 Atlanta-DSM 7:20PM- 8:34PM
Feria de Abril 2008
Wednesday April 9, 2008
All I have to say is that it pays off to have Spanish friends, especially during Feria. On Wednesday night we went out for our first Feria experience with a bunch of Sevillanos that I met at our intercambio a few weeks back. We had a group of about 20 and it was amazing to go with a group of natives. We got the “inside scoop” on everything and they made it a point to point out all of the important things that we must see and take pictures of. While passing under the “portada” (the large entrance door into Feria) my Spanish friends informed me that I had to make a wish as I walked under, so I did…I would never have known this tradition if I hadn’t been with them!
We walked around for a while and looked at dresses, horses, casetas (a combo of a tent and a house…basically the nicest tent that you’ve ever seen in your life with hardwood floors, china, paintings, lights, plants, the works) and then we headed to a caseta of our own. Someone had a friend with a caseta therefore we all went with. There are a couple of public casetas but the large majority of the casetas are private. Therefore, it’s really good to know someone to get into a private caseta because there are guards at each caseta’s entrance. It was great speaking Spanish the entire night and learning how to dance Sevillanos. They were all amazing to us and it was great finally feeling like we have friends again, instead of just looking like tourists and feeling awkward.
After our first caseta we went to the firefighters caseta, which had a live band playing. The music was a mix of Sevillanas and popular songs. There were even songs that I knew…which amazed me, and songs from the US as well. YMCA anyone? While they taught us Sevillanos, we taught them the YMCA…ha, what an odd exchange of cultures. But it was priceless teaching the Sevillanos how to do the YMCA, they looked awkward, it was hilarious. I’m sure that’s how I look when I try and dance Sevillanos. We ate tortillas, drank rebujitos (a special kind of wine mixed with 7up) and danced Sevillanos, how much more Spanish can you get?
My favorite part about Feria is the fact that it is an “all ages” event. There were children in strollers all the way up to people in their 80’s or more out celebrating. Everyone was happy, enjoying themselves, dancing and having fun with the people around them. I felt really welcomed by the Spaniards and it was a great way to experience the culture.
Even though it had been raining most of the week and most of the day there were still lots of women dressed in flamenco dresses. I couldn’t believe all of the bright colors, mantillas (large bright colored hair combs), flowers, and large earrings, polka dots; I was in awe. If I could get a dress back to the States, I would love to buy one in a heartbeat. One of the ladies in our group got my e-mail and we are meeting up at her house later this week so we can try on some of her flamenco dresses and take pictures in them and so she can cook us a Spanish meal! Well that is the plan at least…I hope that it ends up working out. After tonight, I definitely don’t ever want to go back home, this was one of the best times that I have had in Spain so far. I give Feria two thumbs way way up.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
A Haiku Day
Tuesday April 8, 2008
Today was raining and a little lame, therefore I created Haikus...Can you guess whom they are describing? Good luck!
Tasty taco day
Made by her, it was snazzy
Food that has some taste
Good to fix curtains
International ‘lil sis
No more M&M’s
Make time for yourself
So, how about you call me?
You must eat less salt
La Farmacia
Separated at birth, yes?
Inside jokes can return
Avid blog readers
Sending love and lots of cards
The parents of mine
Sweatpants and t-shirts
Gerber daisies are our fav.
‘Til death do us part
Freshman year, the best
Ernst forever it will be
Can we share our clothes?
Worst driver award
Welcome to the BK Lounge
Pink little Pi Phi
Doh, Homer Simpson
How ‘bout we sing some Colbie?
Jaque Lashier, oui!
Le Baron deathtrap
Cute, always a fashion bug
Missouri, really?
Video maker
Twin from another mother
My worldly pen pal
Hyperactive ‘lil
Best belly flopper ever
Want a Cherry Coke?
Barking over Skype
Best crap-in-a-pan maker
Wine connoisseur
Fixes things I break
Thanks for the seven-word card
Em, clean your room now
Graduating now
From bowl cuts to blonde bombshells
Stop breaking my car
Original cards
Iowa State fanatics
Lets make some cupcakes
Today was raining and a little lame, therefore I created Haikus...Can you guess whom they are describing? Good luck!
Tasty taco day
Made by her, it was snazzy
Food that has some taste
Good to fix curtains
International ‘lil sis
No more M&M’s
Make time for yourself
So, how about you call me?
You must eat less salt
La Farmacia
Separated at birth, yes?
Inside jokes can return
Avid blog readers
Sending love and lots of cards
The parents of mine
Sweatpants and t-shirts
Gerber daisies are our fav.
‘Til death do us part
Freshman year, the best
Ernst forever it will be
Can we share our clothes?
Worst driver award
Welcome to the BK Lounge
Pink little Pi Phi
Doh, Homer Simpson
How ‘bout we sing some Colbie?
Jaque Lashier, oui!
Le Baron deathtrap
Cute, always a fashion bug
Missouri, really?
Video maker
Twin from another mother
My worldly pen pal
Hyperactive ‘lil
Best belly flopper ever
Want a Cherry Coke?
Barking over Skype
Best crap-in-a-pan maker
Wine connoisseur
Fixes things I break
Thanks for the seven-word card
Em, clean your room now
Graduating now
From bowl cuts to blonde bombshells
Stop breaking my car
Original cards
Iowa State fanatics
Lets make some cupcakes
The Beginning of Feria
Monday April 7, 2008
I woke up today at 1pm, which is the latest that I have ever slept in here in Spain but I guess when you don’t get home from Portugal until 5:30am it makes a little more sense. Today I checked my mail, worked on homework and caught up on my blogs from the past weekend. It was a pretty boring day to “kick off Feria” with, but it was raining and there wasn’t much else to do. We stayed up until midnight to watch the kick-off of Feria where they light the huge doorway/entrance of Feria with millions of lights to signify the beginning of the 7-day festival. Feria is a Sevilla tradition filled with flamenco dancing, drinking, eating, spending time with friends, and the beginning of the bullfighting season. There are special grounds for Feria across the river and many people have little houses (“cosetas”) that are set up for the week. It’s common for the men and women to dress up, to ride horses, and celebrate Feria by dancing “Sevillanas,” the traditional dance of Feria.
Also, today I started thinking about going home and I’m not really all that excited about it. It’s probably because this passed week I had to miss Greek Week, Lip Sync, and Pi Phi Formal, all of which I adore. It’s hard to see pictures off all of my friends doing these activities without me…so currently I’m avoiding Facebook like the plague. It amazes me how the time has just flown by, but I’m excited to come home to see friends and family, to eat food with taste and to take long showers again...so don’t get me wrong! I love Sevilla and I wouldn’t trade my experiences here for anything in the world but in the words of Dorothy, “there’s no place like home.”
I woke up today at 1pm, which is the latest that I have ever slept in here in Spain but I guess when you don’t get home from Portugal until 5:30am it makes a little more sense. Today I checked my mail, worked on homework and caught up on my blogs from the past weekend. It was a pretty boring day to “kick off Feria” with, but it was raining and there wasn’t much else to do. We stayed up until midnight to watch the kick-off of Feria where they light the huge doorway/entrance of Feria with millions of lights to signify the beginning of the 7-day festival. Feria is a Sevilla tradition filled with flamenco dancing, drinking, eating, spending time with friends, and the beginning of the bullfighting season. There are special grounds for Feria across the river and many people have little houses (“cosetas”) that are set up for the week. It’s common for the men and women to dress up, to ride horses, and celebrate Feria by dancing “Sevillanas,” the traditional dance of Feria.
Also, today I started thinking about going home and I’m not really all that excited about it. It’s probably because this passed week I had to miss Greek Week, Lip Sync, and Pi Phi Formal, all of which I adore. It’s hard to see pictures off all of my friends doing these activities without me…so currently I’m avoiding Facebook like the plague. It amazes me how the time has just flown by, but I’m excited to come home to see friends and family, to eat food with taste and to take long showers again...so don’t get me wrong! I love Sevilla and I wouldn’t trade my experiences here for anything in the world but in the words of Dorothy, “there’s no place like home.”
Gymnastically Inclined
Sunday April 6, 2008
There is nothing like waking up to a woman screaming at the top of her lungs in Portuguese at 3am…and that is exactly how my third day in Portugal began. Thanks to our super sweet hostel owner the lady got kicked out of our building, which would be the first time that he saved the day today. While showering and getting ready we broke the curtain rod above our window, which was about 9 feet off of the ground. Thanks to Allison’s tall proportions and sweet gymnastical (not a real word, but there is not adjective for someone who is good at gymnastics, therefore gymnastical is: a person who is gymnastically inclined) ability, we got the rod back up in no time. We had to be checked out of the room by 11am, which wasn’t the best because that meant that we had to haul our bags around for the rest of the day…eh. Then our hostel owner saved the day for a second time. He let us keep our bags in a spare room while we were gone for the day, thank God. We had some pastries, which were less than par and headed to Belem for the day. We went to the Tower of Belem and then to the Discoveries Monument, which I quickly labeled as “Boatlandia” because there were no less than 50 sailboats sailing right by the monument. We bought lunch and then ate it in a near by park. Afterwards we strolled through a market on the way to a famous monastery that we were going to walk through. Allison found a deck of Coke cards and a “The History of Coke” book…but it was all in Portuguese, which I still don’t speak, so I opted to not buy it. Afterwards we went to a supermarket to purchase “dinner,” got our bags from our hostel, and took the metro to the bus station. We sat in the bus station for the next 3 hours and people watched…which was quite interesting. You get a different mix people who come through a bus station during a 3-hour time period. My favorite was probably the dog that was walking its little old lady owner, which kept me entertained for a good 30 minutes. She was determined to get it in its kennel, but needless to say the canine won in the end. We hopped on our bus at 9:30pm and 7 hours later (5:30am, with the time change) we got into Sevilla. It was a long ride home, but the weekend in Portugal was well worth it with many random stories to tell!
There is nothing like waking up to a woman screaming at the top of her lungs in Portuguese at 3am…and that is exactly how my third day in Portugal began. Thanks to our super sweet hostel owner the lady got kicked out of our building, which would be the first time that he saved the day today. While showering and getting ready we broke the curtain rod above our window, which was about 9 feet off of the ground. Thanks to Allison’s tall proportions and sweet gymnastical (not a real word, but there is not adjective for someone who is good at gymnastics, therefore gymnastical is: a person who is gymnastically inclined) ability, we got the rod back up in no time. We had to be checked out of the room by 11am, which wasn’t the best because that meant that we had to haul our bags around for the rest of the day…eh. Then our hostel owner saved the day for a second time. He let us keep our bags in a spare room while we were gone for the day, thank God. We had some pastries, which were less than par and headed to Belem for the day. We went to the Tower of Belem and then to the Discoveries Monument, which I quickly labeled as “Boatlandia” because there were no less than 50 sailboats sailing right by the monument. We bought lunch and then ate it in a near by park. Afterwards we strolled through a market on the way to a famous monastery that we were going to walk through. Allison found a deck of Coke cards and a “The History of Coke” book…but it was all in Portuguese, which I still don’t speak, so I opted to not buy it. Afterwards we went to a supermarket to purchase “dinner,” got our bags from our hostel, and took the metro to the bus station. We sat in the bus station for the next 3 hours and people watched…which was quite interesting. You get a different mix people who come through a bus station during a 3-hour time period. My favorite was probably the dog that was walking its little old lady owner, which kept me entertained for a good 30 minutes. She was determined to get it in its kennel, but needless to say the canine won in the end. We hopped on our bus at 9:30pm and 7 hours later (5:30am, with the time change) we got into Sevilla. It was a long ride home, but the weekend in Portugal was well worth it with many random stories to tell!
I Met David Copperfield
Saturday April 5, 2008
We started the morning out right by showering, wearing dresses (in honor of Pi Phi formal that we were missing that night), eating pastries and drinking fresh squeezed orange juice. We took the metro and then the train to Sintra, a smaller town close to Lisbon. Rumor had it that there are some sweet castles in Sintra…and the rumors are all true. There are indeed some sweet castles in Sintra and I climbed a mountain to prove it. I climbed up the mountain, through a cobblestone lichen covered castle, in the wind, with a dress on. It was a great day! We stopped at a really cute little restaurant for lunch and ended up getting green bean soup, huge sandwiches and Cokes for only 5ish euros. The best part was that the food tasted as good as the prices. We walked around and went shopping for a while and then had ice cream with David Copperfield…or so he said. The man behind the ice cream counter was somewhat magical and called himself the “David Copperfield of Sintra.” After getting our deliciously magical cones, I thanked Mr. Copperfield and we were on our way. We took the train back to Lisbon and stopped for dinner at a small sub shop that had fresh fruit. It was good eats. It started to get a little chilly but we walked home and headed to bed after a long day of hiking.
We started the morning out right by showering, wearing dresses (in honor of Pi Phi formal that we were missing that night), eating pastries and drinking fresh squeezed orange juice. We took the metro and then the train to Sintra, a smaller town close to Lisbon. Rumor had it that there are some sweet castles in Sintra…and the rumors are all true. There are indeed some sweet castles in Sintra and I climbed a mountain to prove it. I climbed up the mountain, through a cobblestone lichen covered castle, in the wind, with a dress on. It was a great day! We stopped at a really cute little restaurant for lunch and ended up getting green bean soup, huge sandwiches and Cokes for only 5ish euros. The best part was that the food tasted as good as the prices. We walked around and went shopping for a while and then had ice cream with David Copperfield…or so he said. The man behind the ice cream counter was somewhat magical and called himself the “David Copperfield of Sintra.” After getting our deliciously magical cones, I thanked Mr. Copperfield and we were on our way. We took the train back to Lisbon and stopped for dinner at a small sub shop that had fresh fruit. It was good eats. It started to get a little chilly but we walked home and headed to bed after a long day of hiking.
Our First Day in Portugal
Thursday April 3, 2008/ Friday April 4, 2008
Today we sent out for Lisbon, Portugal at 11:59pm. The bus ride to Lisbon is about 6-6.5 hours and I was not very excited for it. It turned out that there weren’t very many people going to Lisbon at 11:59pm on a Thursday so we ended up getting a row of seats (2) to ourselves so we could spread out a little bit. This was amazing because A. I didn’t get stuck next to a creeper, B. I didn’t get stuck next to someone who has really bad B.O., C. I actually got a little bit of sleeping in. Our bus arrived in Lisbon at 6am Seville time, which we later figured out was 5am Lisbon time. We kind of forgot about that whole time change thing, and I’m pretty sure that we were the only people awake in the city at 5am…until we found our food vender. Imagine this: Emily eating out of a neon yellow food vending truck, which we found under the bridge, near the zoo at 5am. I never would have done it if it hadn’t been the only option, but I survived and I’m alive to tell the story. After our gourmet dining experience I headed to the metro station and waited until it opened at 6:15am. I feel a lot like a bum hanging out in the station…without the garbage bags and wretched smell. I purchased an “all day” metro pass for 4 euros, which ended up being the best 4 euros that I have ever spent. Turns out that the public transportation system in Europe is amazing and this one green metro pass got us on any bus, electric tram or metro that we wanted for the day. We took the metro to the stop close to our hotel and stopped a couple of policemen for directions…because we didn’t have a map. Apparently everything is closed at 5-6am, who knew! Luckily our hostel owner is amazing and he let us check in at 7:30am. We were all a little tired so we took naps until 10am and woke up to get pastries and fresh squeezed orange juice. Portugal is apparently known for their pastries, so we took it upon ourselves to try several different kinds…you know, as a cultural experience…Our hostel owner gave us a map and pointed out a few of the “must do/see’s” in the city and headed to the center of the city. We headed to an old church and then toured a castle. It looked more like a fortress to me but it gave a sweet view of the city from the top. We asked an older couple, who ended up being from Canada, to take our picture and we talked to them for a while. Afterwards we went through the center of town again, got ice cream, and bought artwork. I now have an international collection started. In the afternoon we headed to a free wine tasting and did that for a while, which was recommended to us by the Canadians. To end the night we took went for a walk around town, stopped for Cokes, ate dessert (chocolate mousse), got postcards and rode the trolley around town. Keep in mind that we don’t exactly speak Portuguese, but it is so similar to Spanish that we were able to communicate (while playing Charades every once and a while).
Today we sent out for Lisbon, Portugal at 11:59pm. The bus ride to Lisbon is about 6-6.5 hours and I was not very excited for it. It turned out that there weren’t very many people going to Lisbon at 11:59pm on a Thursday so we ended up getting a row of seats (2) to ourselves so we could spread out a little bit. This was amazing because A. I didn’t get stuck next to a creeper, B. I didn’t get stuck next to someone who has really bad B.O., C. I actually got a little bit of sleeping in. Our bus arrived in Lisbon at 6am Seville time, which we later figured out was 5am Lisbon time. We kind of forgot about that whole time change thing, and I’m pretty sure that we were the only people awake in the city at 5am…until we found our food vender. Imagine this: Emily eating out of a neon yellow food vending truck, which we found under the bridge, near the zoo at 5am. I never would have done it if it hadn’t been the only option, but I survived and I’m alive to tell the story. After our gourmet dining experience I headed to the metro station and waited until it opened at 6:15am. I feel a lot like a bum hanging out in the station…without the garbage bags and wretched smell. I purchased an “all day” metro pass for 4 euros, which ended up being the best 4 euros that I have ever spent. Turns out that the public transportation system in Europe is amazing and this one green metro pass got us on any bus, electric tram or metro that we wanted for the day. We took the metro to the stop close to our hotel and stopped a couple of policemen for directions…because we didn’t have a map. Apparently everything is closed at 5-6am, who knew! Luckily our hostel owner is amazing and he let us check in at 7:30am. We were all a little tired so we took naps until 10am and woke up to get pastries and fresh squeezed orange juice. Portugal is apparently known for their pastries, so we took it upon ourselves to try several different kinds…you know, as a cultural experience…Our hostel owner gave us a map and pointed out a few of the “must do/see’s” in the city and headed to the center of the city. We headed to an old church and then toured a castle. It looked more like a fortress to me but it gave a sweet view of the city from the top. We asked an older couple, who ended up being from Canada, to take our picture and we talked to them for a while. Afterwards we went through the center of town again, got ice cream, and bought artwork. I now have an international collection started. In the afternoon we headed to a free wine tasting and did that for a while, which was recommended to us by the Canadians. To end the night we took went for a walk around town, stopped for Cokes, ate dessert (chocolate mousse), got postcards and rode the trolley around town. Keep in mind that we don’t exactly speak Portuguese, but it is so similar to Spanish that we were able to communicate (while playing Charades every once and a while).
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Well If You Have To Go…Hold It!
Wednesday April 2, 2008
Do you ever have those days where you have too many things to do and you don’t exactly know where to start…so you just don’t do anything? Well that pretty much sums up my day today. After doing my homework for tomorrow I found it hard to concentrate on anything else. I have lots of final papers and projects to do but nothing that is small and easy to work on, therefore I avoided it all. Instead I bought myself a Coke and went to sit down by the river. Today was even nicer out than yesterday; I’d say we exceeded 80 degrees. Lets just say that I had on a sundress and sunglasses and I was hot.
People are starting to get fidgety on the trip. They don’t know if they want to stay, go home, just be done with homework, start traveling, not travel at all…its kind of a random mix of emotions. Personally, I can’t help but sit here and not want to go home. I still feel like there are so many things that I want to do in Sevilla. Go to a bullfight…climb La Giralda…paint “La Puente de Triana” at night…But as of today there are only 26 days left of Sevilla and then 14 days of travel throughout Spain left. I can’t believe that time has gone by this quickly. But honestly who’s counting, right?
In other news: public urination is the new cool thing to do in Sevilla. In the past week I have almost run into or seen a person peeing within five feet of me more than 3 times. It’s more than what I wanted to see and I think that the guys should really get that figured out. Honestly, it’s just gross. For god sakes, at least try and be discrete about it. So hear me out: last Friday night (9-10pm) I was walking down the street by school minding my own business when I almost ran into a guy peeing right on the sidewalk…in the CENTER OF THE CITY! I wanted to stop him and say, “Dude, seriously?” but I’m not sure if that would have been good conversation starter, nor would I even want to make friends with the public indecency delinquent. To make a long story short, I don’t exactly agree with the fact that Spain has no public restrooms, but I strongly disagree with public urination.
Chip and Dale
Tuesday April 1, 2008
I feel a lot better today- thank you Spanish meds! I went to school today, while it was still a struggle, I made it the whole day. I still have my really attractive man voice and hacking cough but at least I can function, so today was a good day. After class today I went and sat by the river to do some homework…ok so I lied, I brought homework but ended up drawing for two hours instead. It was a gorgeous day out, I’d say around the high 70’s. It was great getting out of the house (sick bubble) and relaxing for a while down by the river on such a nice day. While I was drawing I encountered two more Spanish lizards, rightfully named Chip and Dale. Apparently I have some freakish lizard magnet implanted in me, so I’m starting to get used to the little creatures… Although, I am still amazed by how quickly they scurry along. Also as of today, Allison, Melissa and I are going to Portugal this weekend! We do not have school all next week for Feria therefore we are going to travel from this Thursday (our bus leaves at 11:49pm) and get home (around 3:30am) on next Monday. Add another country to my list of international visits!
And Behind Door Number Two We Have...
Monday March 31, 2008
I didn’t go to school today for the first time in years, and I mean years. When I got up to shower I barely had the energy or the breath to make it back to my room. Therefore, I decided to say home and try and go to the doctor. Sure, it sounds like a fairly simple task…but I’m in Spain. After telling our host mom and sister about the situation I finally had someone from Centro Mundo Lengua, the program that I am in, come to take me to the doctor. There is one large difference between the healthcare systems of Spain and the United States. All of the public healthcare here is free, whereas the private is not. Thank God I had Paula with me because she got me where I needed to be and made sure that I got what I needed. She was a lifesaver, cherry flavored, because those are the best. After checking in at the front counter we were sent to door number 2. After walking down a long hallway we finally found doors that were sequentially numbered 1-10. I felt like I was on an awkward game show and I was the next contestant to see what the prize behind door number two would be. After waiting and chatting with Paula for a while, I finally got called into door number two. I entered the room to the soothing sounds of classical music and much to my surprise the words “doctors office” were taken literally here. We sat down at a desk with a doctor, we talked about my symptoms, he listened to my lungs and then wrote me a prescription. I’m not sure that I was up-to-date with all of the medical terminology, but I got through it all and we left to head to the pharmacy. I got my prescribed drugs, stopped at the herbal medicine shop to get eucalyptus, and then headed home. Paula was amazing, she knew exactly where to go and she had a smile on the whole way. Afterwards I took all of my new Spanish medications and I’ve been in bed since. Hopefully I’ll get over the plague here soon so I can start feeling like a normal person again!
Monday, March 31, 2008
Lizard Spotting Number Two
Sunday March 30, 2008
Allison saw the lizard…I repeat…Allison saw the lizard. Therefore, the creature was not purely a figment of my imagination. Allison told me the last time that I saw it that if anyone else saw the lizard we could name it…thus our lizards name is Larry. Larry the lizard, the alliteration gives a nice ring to it don’t you think?
I’m still struggling with the plague today, but now I have cough drops so we’ll see if that helps any. If you have any magical cure that you know about, I would greatly appreciate it.
Today I learned that I’m officially going to the Colbie Caillat concert when I get home and I couldn’t be more excited. Jess, one of my best friends from Simpson and guitar connoisseur, and I are die-hard fans and we play and sing Colbie songs together at home. She found the tickets and we are going when I get back! Pretty darn cool…
Last Call For Mail
As much as I hate saying this…my time in Sevilla in coming to an end, therefore this is the last call for mail. If you have any mail that you are sending or want to send, send it within the next couple of days. I’m not sure that I will get it if you send it after this week! Ah, the end is near…I will be seeing you soon!
Ew, sick.
Saturday March 29, 2008
Today I am sick. Gross, ick, disgustingly sick. All I’ve been doing today is staying in my bed. I feel like crap, to say the least. I have the voice of an old man and a pretty sweet cough going on. Encarna made me tea, so that was nice of her. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I don’t exactly like tea, but it tried to down it anyway. I think that the 80-degree temperature outside is making matters worse because all I want to do is leave the house! Also, I’m a little bit lonely because Allison is gone with Tim all this weekend and Sam is in Conil. But I guess that’s the best if all I should do is sleep. But on a brighter note I listened to Dane Cook, painted, cleaned my room, did some homework and watched 5 episodes of Will & Grace. I think I have a problem with just sitting around not doing anything, even when I feel bad. We’ll I’m just a bundle of joy today, so I’m going to go back to sleep. Hopefully I start feeling better before school starts back up on Monday!
Internship Interviews
Friday March 28, 2008
Today I had two phone interviews for perspective internships. They both went really well and I’m glad that I am able to do phone interviews from so far away! People have been very helpful and pretty understanding of my situation.
After the interviews I got myself some ice cream, I think I deserved it, and sat in a plaza in the sun. It was a pretty chill afternoon by myself. At night Allison, Tim (her friend who is visiting from Latvia), and I went out for tapas. Tapas are like small appetizers and Sevilla is known for them. Neither Allison nor I had tried them yet so we decided why not!? We got 6 different types of tapas and shared. They were all pretty different but very good overall. I even tried Bacalao, which is the fish that is the most well-known and popular in Andalusia. After tapas we went to the Carbonería to watch a flamenco show. The show was really good and my favorite thing was the flutist. He was amazing! (Anchorman style). Afterwards we strolled by the Cathedral, La Giralda and stopped for ice cream. Overall, it was a very Spanish end to a pretty good week.
The Fresh Price of Bellaire
Thursday March 27, 2008
After classes today we had an “intercambio” or “exchange” with a couple of classes from the Language School in Sevilla. These students are learning English; therefore we prepared small presentations about different “American themes/pieces of culture” and spoke to them in small groups. My group spoke about the US’s educational system and about the life of a student. Afterwards there was a Spanish potluck type of thing. Melissa and I ended up staying until after 9pm and afterwards we made plans to hang out with a couple of people after dinner. We ended up meeting up with them at a bar in the Alameda around 11pm. Allison and Tim, Allison’s friend from her home town that now teaches English in Riga, Latvia, showed up for a couple of minuets and then left. He is visiting this weekend and he’s a pretty nice guy. But I digress, the entire night we spoke Spanish and talked about everything from 9-11 conspiracy theories to The Fresh Price of Bellaire. Interesting fact: they have The Fresh Prince here in Spain, but obviously it’s all dubbed in Spanish…even the intro song. Afterwards we left the bar and headed to Lo Nuestro, a flamenco bar, to learn how to dance Sevillanos, the traditional dance of Sevilla that everyone dances during Feria (which is in two weeks). We spent the next four hours learning how to dance, talking in Spanish and having a good time. I finally got home around 5:30am after a long, but very good and very “Spanish” night.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Leave Your Big Mac At Home
Wednesday March 26, 2008
It’s a good thing that I didn’t bring a hamburger to class today…because today we were told “the rules for eating in the classroom.” We now know exactly what we can and can’t bring to eat for snacks in between classes. Things that we cannot bring to eat: hamburgers (yeah, because I usually bring a hamburger in my backpack for a quick snack), vegetables (darn, there goes my eggplant fetish) and fruit. Can you say random? I literally started laughing out loud when she told us that we couldn’t eat hamburgers in the classroom. I haven’t had a hamburger in months, let alone, why would I bring one to school?
I received a picture c.d. in the mail today from a couple of my parent’s best friends (Gary and LaVonne) and it was a great idea! Most of the pictures are from back in the day (2005), but it was still fun going through all 200 of them and reminiscing. A lot of them made me laugh. The c.d. has a lot of pictures from my graduation party. With this being said, I can’t believe that it’s been 3 years since I have graduated from high school! When I get back it will already be Molly’s turn to graduate. Ah, I’m getting old! I remember when we used to have slumber parities and bake cupcakes at Gary and LaVonne’s and now, we are all grown up. How scary!
Today Encarna cleaned our room and bought a mosquito repellent machine (I’m not quite sure that’s the technical term, but for our purpose it works) for our room, finally! This past weekend I killed 9 mosquitoes in two days, so lets hope this little machine works miracles. While she was mopping she moved our stash of shoes out from under our bunk bed and told us that she was going to take all of our shoes and sell them to become rich. I think that Encarna thinks that we have a lot of shoes, which is really funny because those shoes aren’t anything compared to the collections that we all have at home.
In international news: Mattel has created a “Spanish Barbie” as a part of their Dolls of the World collection. This doll is clad in a black and red flamenco dress, wears the traditional lacey head covering and carries a black fan- the whole stereotypical works. The cool thing about this doll is that its style is based off of the Andalusian style of flamenco. Why exactly is that cool? Andalusia happens to be the region of Spain that I live in! The dolls are 22 euros here, so keep your eyes open for the new “Spanish Barbie” to hit the States.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
What Ricky Martin Song Would You Sing?
Tuesday March 25, 2008
Today was our first day with our new teacher Carman, who is Tracy "replacement." Tracy made it back to the States unharmed and will be having her baby in the near future. But Carmen is a really relaxed and intelligent lady. She is going to make the transition really easy, and I already like her a lot. In general, we have really lucked out with our teachers here in Sevilla; they are all really good resources and amazing to work with.
In other news, I had my ONG tonight and I didn’t drown any children. It was another successful week. Although there was one kid who kept chucking nerf-ish balls at my head, and the thought may have crossed my mind. Other than that we had a really good night, swam a lot and joked around with the kids and director. I think that I may have agreed to go to a karaoke club to sing Ricky Martin this Thursday, so I’ll let you know how that works out. If you have any favorites of Mr. Martin’s, just let me know and I’ll see what I can do! I’m pretty sure it was a joke, but sarcasm is sometimes hard to pick up in a foreign language. So if I find myself singing, I’ll take pictures and make sure to share the stories!
Today was our host moms “saint day.” She is named after Saint Encarnation, hence Encarna, and we had to celebrate somehow (she insisted), therefore we had peaches for dessert. I didn’t really understand it, but it worked out in our favor nonetheless. I mean honestly, usually when I want to celebrate something, I eat peaches. Who doesn’t? What a win-win situation!
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Lets Be Serious, Who Doesn’t Love Getting Tests Back?
Monday March 24, 2008
Ah the first day back after a week long vacation, yuck. To top things off, we got two midterm tests back today that we had completed before our break. Not what I would call a great day, but life goes on. Far too many other things are good in my life to let that get me down. After a not-so-fun day of classes I came home to find three letters waiting on my desk! Woo hoo-mail call! I received a card from my parents/Molly, a sweet postcard from Meridith and a card from Aaron as well. I love getting mail; it was the highlight of my day. After lunch I called Jessie Springer (Ernst to me still) and it was really good to talk to her. I haven’t talked to her much since I’ve been here, other than the occasional e-mail, and I miss her. The rest of the day was spent drafting 5 pages for a final paper. The rough draft is due on Wednesday and it’s exactly that, rough. I guess we’ll see how the final project, 10 pages all in Spanish, turns out! On a brighter note, the weather was amazing today, proving to be yet another gorgeous Spanish day. I don’t know how much longer I’m going to want to stay in my room while doing homework. I might just have to do my homework by the river or in a park, ah what a life!
Easter, Well Kind Of
Sunday March 23, 2008
To bring Semana Santa to an end I figured that Seville would have huge plans for Easter-fire works, awkward costumes, tightrope walkers, but no. They’ve got nothing. Easter doesn’t really exist here in Seville, which seems pretty sad to me and it leaves me a bit confused as well. I understand that the death and resurrection of Jesus is and was pretty important, but what about the light at the end of the tunnel? What about the resurrection? Since Sevilla had a lack of Easter spirit Sam, Allison and I celebrated in our own way. Allison and I kicked the day off right by taking Easter pictures and then going to mass. When we returned home Sam had gotten Easter presents for us all, which consisted of 3 Cokes and 3 desserts. Can you say, delicious? We ate our “family lunch” a.k.a. pasta with tortillas españolas, drank from our Easter straws (thanks Mom), and ate the desserts. Not exactly the nice family meal that I would have had at home, but it worked with my girls here. It was weird not being in the States for my first “family holiday,” so I decided that I would call the family. Everyone was to gather at my house for lunch and I called to say hello. Grandpa answered the first call, but I couldn’t hear anything (oh, Grandpa!), so I had to try back a second time. It was good to talk to them all; I haven’t done that in a while. I’ve got to admit that I did miss being there. I felt a little left out all day when I received messages from friends, called Aaron and talked to the family, but it was to be expected. Overall it wasn’t the plastic grass, egg hunt, family gathering, and going to mass that I’m used to but we did what we could with it!
Monday, March 24, 2008
American Food
Saturday March 22, 2008 #2
You know that you are missing American food when you would give your left arm for a box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. In all reality it’s worth maybe 12 cents in the States, yet here, it’s a delicatessen. A super cool friend of my mine sent me a box of the coveted noodles and powder cheese, and I think I ate half of the box in 3 minutes flat. You know how they have hot dog eating contests? They should have mac n’ cheese eating contests. I’m willing to bet that after four and a half months of being deprived, I would be the prized mac n’ cheese winner.
In other random food tangents, today I had a huge craving for popcorn. I’ve had a few bags sent my way but apparently the Spanish microwave doesn’t believe in making popcorn. The other day I put a bag in for four and a half minutes, and here were the results: fourth of it was popped, a fourth burnt, and half it of it was still in kernel form. I’m not quite sure how that worked out but it was a pretty special experience that left me nothing but confused and craving popcorn. Allison and I left the sick bubble that I call our room and hit the streets for a study break. We ended up buying a few Cokes and walking around for a while, until…I saw it. There was a 8ish year-old boy eating a bag of popcorn. I turned to Allison and asked if she want to “take him out and steal his popcorn” but she thought that it wouldn’t be such a good idea. So, it left us with no other choice than to search for the vender. We find the vender a few minutes later, and realize that you can have your “bag” of popcorn a.k.a. 4 kernels for 1.5 Euros. No way, it wasn’t happening. Allison and I headed back home and we passed a movie theatre on the way. Then, it hits me. What goes well with movies? POPCORN. The smallest box that the movie theatre sold, which was still huge, was only 1.5 Euros. How perfect! Like an awkward American, I walked into the theatre bought the box of popcorn and exited the theatre. Allison and I took our popped goodness and sat on a bench, drank our Cokes and enjoyed life. We got a few awkward looks, but I think that it was well worth it in the end.
The English T-Shirt Dilemma
Saturday March 22, 2008
If you were to buy a shirt with words on it, would you read the shirt before you bought it? Would you make sure that you understood what your shirt said? Furthermore, would you at least somewhat be in agreement with what your shirt said? With thus being said, I introduce you to the t-shirts (in English mind you) that I have seen Spaniards wearing:
n To bad to be good. (On a 70 year old woman)
n I heart bad cats. (Really now? Because I’m a huge fan of the “good cats.”)
n My girlfriend is on vacation. (Worn by a guy who was all over a girl…hopefully it was his girlfriend or maybe he should look into going into advertising)
n Sex girl. (Not sexy, it was indeed just the word sex)
n Available to speak. (Encarna’s completely annoying granddaughter, Angela, wore this shirt. It actually fits her really well, but I’m pretty sure she had no idea what it said.)
My favorite shirts are the ones that don’t really make any sense at all. I feel as though they put random English words on a t-shirt and call it a day. Obviously if it’s in English it must be cool. Moral of the story, don’t buy shirts with words on them, especially if they are in a different language. And if you really feel the urge, at least look up the words and know what you are advertising on your chest.
Where’s Meridith When You Need Her?
Friday March 21, 2008
I’ve been lucky so far because I haven’t been sick but then again luck always seems to run out. Today was my unlucky day and I am officially sick. I woke up and felt like crap. I didn’t want to move, eat, and talk, so obviously something was wrong! I woke up said, “No way” and I feel back asleep until 2pm. I got up and ate a little something for lunch, and read for a couple of hours. Before Sam left to run she got me a garbage bag, a pack of Kleenex’s, throat drops, some medicine and a juice box for me from her stash from when she was sick. It was nice of her! I feel asleep again and just hung out until dinner. It’s one of those sicknesses where you just don’t feel like functioning because everything is a little achy. Oh, did I mention that I sound like a man? So my super sweet roomies have taken it on themselves to call me Manuel until my voice gets better. Being sick in the States is not fun but it’s ok because you can chill, watch a movie, hang with friends that feel bad for you, get special emergency doctors appointments because your best friends dad basically owns the pharmacy, and things of the such. But being sick here sucks because all you want to do is to go outside and explore but lets be serious, Spanish isn’t easy when I’m feeling good, I can only image how I sound now that my head feels like its stuffed with cotton balls! I’ve started taking some of the medicine that I brought and lets hope that it works quickly! I guess if I had to get sick its better that it’s this week when I don’t have school, but it’s still pretty lame.
Sardines Anyone?
Thursday March 20, 2008
Today is “Jueves Santo” (Holy Thursday) and it is one of the biggest days in Sevilla for all of the pasos and for the Holy Week celebration. Tonight at midnight is the time that Jesus “dies” and all of the most famous pasos in the city leave their respective churches to head to La Catedral and back. The first one leaves at 12:30am and they continue leaving until around 4am. Most of the pasos are gone this night for around 10-14 hours on foot. So, in the spirit of the holiday, we decided that we were going to go out around 11pm and stay out into the wee hours of the morning to catch the pasos. We found a spot on the curb in the center of the city where most of the pasos pass and we sat and waited for the first paso to go by. The paso closest to us left the church at 1:05am; therefore we had some time to play the name game. I’m especially good at the double S’s, for the record, so watch out if we ever play and you throw that letter at me. Anyway, we waited on the curb for 2 hours and finally the paso called “El Silencio” (The Silence) began to pass by. The cool thing about this paso is that everyone is in dead silence…the crowd, the Nazarenos, everyone. There was something like 800 Nazarenos and then the two pasos as well, so we were there for a while. Afterwards we walked more towards the center to catch the “Jesús del Gran Poder” (Jesus of Great Power) paso, and we go stuck like sardines for a good two hours. I wanted to fall asleep standing because it was 3a.m. so I took it upon myself to rest my head on a hugely tall guy in front of me. He kind of looked at me awkwardly but it worked for me. And don’t worry; Sara took a picture of the matter. After the two pasos had gone by we fought our way out of the crowd. I was almost attacked by a Spanish guy that was trying to tell me how beautiful I was (in really poor English) when Allison grabbed one of my arms and Sara grabbed the other and got me out of the situation. It was sweet because it was something that you would see the secret service do. Allison turned to the guy, said “NO,” swooped me up and we hurried away. I think we killed his self-esteem, and rightfully so. We got home after making our way through the thousands of people around 4am, and I don’t think that I’ve ever been so happy to be in my bunk bed. (Yah, bunk beds!)
Mother Nature
Wednesday March 19, 2008
So Mother Nature is a little pissy this week and she started her tirade just as I was walking out the door to go down by the river to draw. She sent down a gi-normous lightening flash and a monsoon just as I unlocked the door to leave. Therefore, I stayed inside all day and read for roughly…6 hours? What a glamorous life. Allison came back a little later with a Coke for myself and a Diet Coke for herself and we indulged. It was a good day to watch Will & Grace, so we took advantage of that as well. Kudos to Jack, Karen and the gang for saving the day…once again.
A Forgotten Tale…
The house has been a little chaotic this week sense all of Encarna’s “kids” (the youngest is 22) are home for Semana Santa. What do you like to do when family comes in town? Eat! Therefore, I begin my story of our glorious family dinner. The whole family was in the kitchen and Sam and I were just finished up eating (Allison was still in Latvia) when suddenly Sam freaks out and stands on her chair. I look at here and ask, “Seriously Sam, what are you doing?” The only word that could come out of her mouth was “bicho” a.k.a bug. Apparently Sam “saw” a large cockroach on the floor that had now scurried under the table and she was in shock. The girls fled the room, which only left Juan Antonio (Fatima’s boyfriend) to search the kitchen. He threw on his superman cape and started the search. Picture this: four girls screeching from the hallway (in English and Spanish), Sam frantically hopping down from being paralyzed on her chair, and Juan Antonio throwing chairs across the kitchen. After a few moments Rocio came to play the role of Robin and together their team…was stoppable. They found absolutely nothing. When Sam finally came back into the kitchen she was immediately standing on top of her chair again and refused to come down. Therefore, I thought that this would be the perfect time for my dance interlude with the Spanish song, “La cucaracha.” Ironic, because Encarna knew the song as well and started singing along. “La cucaracha, la cucaracha ya no puede caminar…” (It’s a Spanish song about a cockroach.) It was a sight to be seen. I think we almost made Sam cry…it was probably the part when I told her that the cockroach was in her bed and that’s why we couldn’t find it…yeah that probably wasn’t the best, but it was funny so it worked. Afterwards we all started talking about bugs in general and I told Fatima the story of when I had found the lizard in the bathroom. Rocio started laughing and said that she had seen a lizard in there too, this of course she had failed to tell me before, and proceeded to insist that the lizard lived in the bathroom. How glorious! I asked Rocio what color her lizard was and her answer was green. If she were playing the matching game, she would have failed because my lizard was orange and those colors just don’t match up. Unless our lizard is a chameleon then we are talking about a different prehistoric creature…which now that I think about it, I don’t know if I like that idea. I think I would rather settle for one lizard rather then a plethora of lizards. To end the escapade Encarna then pointed out once more that lizards eat bugs, therefore we would be fine with the “cucaracha” problem and that Sam could come down off of her chair. Although, Sam was not convinced and seemed to think that her cockroach could take my lizard down any day. I’d like to challenge her to a dual, but then again I’d rather not see either creature ever again.
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