Cadiz and Granada

About 2 weeks ago a big group of us went to Cadiz. This is a beach about 2 hours by train from Seville. Supposedly this is the oldest city in Europe, but there is a lot of speculation about that. We spent the day on the beach just relaxing and enjoying the weather. It turned out to be a cloudy day, but on the up side we didn't get sunburned at all. The water was freezing at first but once you got in it was very relaxing. We also walked around the city and saw a Cathedral and lots of local shops. We came home with sand in every nook and cranny but it was definitely a worthwhile day.

We spent this past Friday and Saturday in Granada. We took a 3 hours bus ride early Friday morning. Granada is almost like a mini Seville. It's a lot cleaner and just cuter. We spent the day at the Alhambra. It is a fortress city and palace. We walked all over the gardens, palace, and military quarters. At the top of the military complex you get a perfect view of the city. The Alhambra also has a reflecting pull that mirrors the Tahj Mahal. That night we ate at a local Moroccan restaurant that was fabulous. We had all day Saturday to explore the city and go to the gypsy markets. Granada is very close to the Sierra Nevadas so it was pretty cold while we were there. None of us came prepared for the weather with our sandals and tank tops. Granada is known for its tapas and teas, so I made sure to try some of those while I was there. They also have a wide variety of spice markets. I bought some safron there that would have cost about 3 times that much in the US. I wish we could have stayed in Granada longer because I really enjoyed the city. We returned to Seville around 8 p.m. that night.

One of the reasons many of us have been missing home is because we are missing Texas Tech's football season. Saturday was the big game against Texas. But we were not willing to miss this game so we all woke up at 2 a.m. Sunday morning and came up to the school to watch the game. We had a bunch of technical difficulties in the beginning but by halftime we were able to watch the game. Even thought we lost, it was fun to feel like we were back home again. We went back home at 6 a.m. and slept until about 2 just in time for lunch.

I am getting to celebrate my birthday today in Spain. I was kinda scared because I knew it wouldn't be the same, but it has turned out to be fabulous so far! I got a package from my friend and my mom today, so that was a great start to the day. And then my host mom made/bought a cheesecake for me and my roommate (her birthday is tomorrow). And tonight we are all going to the river to have churros and chocolate. I have a huge test tomorrow so I can't celebrate too much.

This coming weekend we are going to Lagos, Portugal for another fun-filled weekend, so tune in soon for another play-by-play!!

Cordoba, Cathedral, and Bullfight

Hey everyone. I want to apoligize again for taking so long to post a blog. I got all my homework and projects done last week so I have a little more free time this week. I am going to start off talking about Cordoba, which we visited about 2 weeks ago.

Cordoba was just overflowing with history. I won't be able to recall everything that our professor told us, but I will do my best to give you a semi-accurate description. When the Muslims occupied Cordoba they built an unbelievabe mosque. There are over 900 columns throughout. If you think that's huge, think about this. When the Christians conquered the Moors they decided not to destory the mosque, but instead built a cathedral and dropped it right in the middle of the mosque. We also spent a few hours walking around the city and vistied the Jewish quarters. Even in the 8th and 9th centuries Jews were discriminated against. They were forced to live in tiny neighborhoods and their synagogue wasn't a fraction of the size of the mosque. We were hoping to spend more time in Cordoba, but the heat was unbearable so we called it an early day and returned to Seville.

The next day we stayed in Seville to visit the cathedral and royal palace. The cathedral in Seville is the largest Gothic cathedral in the world, and the 3rd largest in the world. The second you walk in you head automatically looks up. The detail of every little wall and alter is so extravegant, it is unbelievable. I can barely put it into words what we saw. If that wasn't enough we walk up to this tomb and our professor says, "This is the tomb of Christopher Columbus' son." I was thinking, "Oh my goodness! How insane that I am standing right here!" Then he says, "Oh and over there....that's Christopher Columbus." .........I was speechless. I was 2 feet from Christopher Columbus!!!!!! I came to Seville thinking I was just going to learn Spanish. I never imagined that I would learn all of this important history, and see it with my own eyes! Seville's cathedral is also famous for the Giralda, which is a tower that extends 34 stories up. We were able to climb to the top and see the best view of the city. It was extraordinary. The royal palace was another site to behold. When the King and Queen of Spain visit Seville, they actually stay in this palace. We weren't able to see where they actually stay, but we saw many rooms that were once occupied by the royals. The palace also has the most beautiful gardens. The gardens were used for courting. There is a maze inside, and the couple would try to lose their chaperone in the maze so that they could have alone time. Students get in free to the gardens, so I am going to take advantage of that and spend an afternoon relaxing and doing homework in there.

Then on that Sunday we went to a bullfight. I was very nervous at first because I knew that I would be the person that would cry when the bull died. One of our professors gave us a little info session so that we would better understand the fight. One way to look at it is art. If you really start to disect everything they do, then it is easier to understand. One thing that I kept telling myself was that when they kill the bull they either give the meat to an orphanage, or they sell it and give it to a charity. So they aren't just killing the bull for fun. As it happens, I really enjoyed the bull fight. We were lucky and saw a varied show. One guy got mauled but walked away with no broken bones or blood. One guy got an ear after his kill. The better you do, the more appendages you get. The best you can get is 2 ears and a tail. So this guy did a very good job. I wanted to go again, but the season ends at the end of the month and we have trips planned up until then. But I am glad I experienced it, and suggest that all of you at least try it, because you may end up enjoying it!

I am going to post a few pictures of each of the sites, so that you will be able to see what I did. Thanks for being patient with me!!

Coming soon...I promise

Sorry everyone that I have not posted a new blog lately. I have so much to blog about, but just can't find the time to do any of it!! I have 4 projects/papers due Wednesday/Thursday so those are my priorities right now. But as soon as we get back from our weekend trip to Granada, there will probably be 3 or 4 new posts. Thanks for being patient!!

School has OFFICIALLY begun

I have realized this week that my I need to re-prioritize my time here. I have spent the last 2 weeks just taking in the country and the culture and enjoying every bit of it that I could. I thought that I could continue this even when school started. Wrong!! There is a lot more work involved than I expected. So instead of going to the movies or walking along the river, many of nights have been filled with doing homework and translating stories. But then again, I am paying to get an education. But there is so much to do and see here!!

One great ascpect of going to school here is that we get the opportunity to have a tutor. Last night we were paired up with a Spaniard that is also a student. I guess the better word for them is conversation tutors. We are not really supposed to use them for help with homework, but just to practice speaking Spanish with "one of the natives". And also to network here and make friends. I was really nervous at first and was hesitant to have a tutor to myself. But it worked out that there weren't enough of them for each of us to have our own, so i shared 2 of them with 2 other Tech girls. This worked out so well because we all helped eachother and gave each other moral support. Speaking with them was definitely not as difficult as I thought. However, I am sure that they purposefully spoke slowly and annunciated every word for our benefit...but all the same I enjoyed myself very much. We will meet with them once a week for 6 more weeks.

My internship is still going pretty well. I never know what to expect thought because it just depends on where they need you at that certain time of the day. For instance, I have pushed people in wheelchairs around the garden and the halls, helped in the gym, spoon fed yogurt, served beer and wine (did you know they get a choice of having beer/wine for lunch and dinner?), and sat with a woman named Carmen and held her hand for 2 hours while she told me about her life; I didn't understand much...but I think she just needed someone to listen to her. I already have 14 hours done out of the 70 I need, so I am making good progress!

This weekend we have another one of our excursions. On Friday we will be going to Cordoba. I don't know much about it, but I do know that we are going to see a mosque that is there. And then on Saturday we will be back in Sevilla to tour the Cathedral. And then work begins again on Sunday!

I have been in the process of planning a trip to Rome with 3 of my friends...but everything keeps going wrong! I originally found the plane tickets for 35 euros each round trip, but when I went back to book it, they were already gone, and now the price is 3 times as much. So I am checking everyday for another deal and hope I can find one. I have also been trying to plan trips to Barcelona, Cadiz, London, Paris, and hopefully Morocco.

I will definitely post some pics of Cordoba and the Cathedral. I hear both sights are just breathtaking

Italica

I apologize because I should have done this post about a week ago, but totally forgot until now. Last Saturday we had our first excursion to the ruins of Italica. Italica was a Roman city founded around 200 BC and is about 9 miles from Seville, and all that is left of it today are the ruins. We are lucky to have Dr. Inglis with us on all of our excursions because he knows anything and everything about history.

When you first arrive at the city you see a huge stadium/ampitheater where they had gladiator fights. We got to see where are the animals would have been, and the fans, and also all the things that the movie Gladiator did incorrectly. It was so amazing to walk on all of this history.

We later moved on into the actual city, where you can see remnants of houses and courtyards. Many of the walls have since been destroyed, but the many of the tile floors are still intact, and are quite beautiful.

It turns out that one of the main reasons Italica is no more is because they were mysteriously dying. It was later found out that they were using lead pipes for plumbing...so they were dying from lead poisoning and didn't even know it.

I am going to add a few pictures to give you a better idea of exactly what we saw

Internship

One of my classes this semester is an internship. Basically I had to go out and find a job. I would work for 70 hours throughout the semester, without pay, at any kind of business in town. I wanted to go to a place where I would be talking a lot, because I know that I would learn so much more that way. My friend Lorraine and I went to an elderly center today. It is run by nuns and we were told that they are always looking for volunteers. They have also had Tech students work their previously. Lorraine speaks Spanish fluently, so it was comforting to have her with me. The nun we spoke to remembered the students that had been there before and helped us make our work schedule. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we will work 6-8pm; and Saturday and Sunday 10-2pm. If we have an excursion with our class then of course we will not work on the weekend. Both of our school schedules are a lot heavier the last half of the semester so we are going to try to put in as many hours now as possible.

However, we were not aware that we were going to start working today! The nun showed us to this older ladies room and just plopped us in there and left! Now of course Lorraine had no problem with it, because she can speak perfectly, but I on the other hand had some trouble. The 2 ladies that we talked with were very sweet and funny...when I understood them :). Lorraine had to translate a little. And sometimes I would just laugh and smile and nod...and then they caught on and made fun of me for it!! :) But they were very sweet. We then took them to dinner and helped serve some of the people. Unfortunatly they separated me and Lorraine and gave us different tables. I was filling water for my table and then I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do next. The nun walked by me, said something, and then left again. She knew that I didn't speak Spanish very well, but wouldn't give me a chance to figure out what she had said. Five minutes later I am still standing awkwardly at the table not really doing anything and she motions to me to come into the kitchen. She hands me a towel and I start drying the dishes. I guess I wasn't doing what she wanted (which I don't know what that was!) so I got kitchen duty. :( HAHA it wasn't that bad. The ladies in the kitchen were nice. So I will be interested to see what I will be doing next time. I think the hardest part was just understanding them. Older people are definitely harder to understand, but especially when its in another language!!

It is going to be extremely trying and overwhelming, but that is what I need; to just be dropped into the language.

After work, we went to a grocery store for a few things. We ran into our professor while we were there. This is the professor that is doing the internship class, so we told him about how we got a job and everything, and he was very proud of us. We ended up grocery shopping with him and he put me on the spot and made me talk to the cashier. After I talked to her she said, "Estas aprendido?" (Are you learning?) I said, "Si, es evidente?" (Yes, is it evident?) She replied, "Yes." :( HAHA well I did my best!!

Besides missing all of my loved ones, I have been able to mostly adapt to everything here. I do dearly miss Dr. Pepper and 2% milk. As well as air conditioning (although it will be cooling down pretty soon). School is definitely gonna be picking up this week, so my plate is quickly filling up!

First day of class

So today was actually our second day of class...but all the same classes have begun! I had to remind myself that I actually came here to take classes. For a while there, I thought I was just going to be able to explore Spain the whole semester without school or anything! But reality hit yesterday with the start of classes. Honestly it was probably the easiest first day ever. I only had one class yesterday for an hour and a half. It was Advanced Language Skills. We went over the syllabus, bought our books, and started the first lesson. For this first week we are doing a basic review of grammar before we go deeper into more specific parts. This semster I am also taking History of Spain and doing and internship. My history class only meets on Tuesdays, but it is from 5-8. And I have not started the internship or gotten much information on it yet. We have our first meeting about it on Thursday. It seems like I would have a lot of spare time to do homework, but it is amazing how fast the time goes, and what it goes to. I will just have to get better at prioritizing!

I have definitely begun to miss American food already. Not to say that the food here isn't good, because it is, but I would do anything for a nacho belle grande from Taco Bell right now!! However, yesterday was my first experience with squid. Lola made a type of stew with potatoes, onions, tomatoes, and squid. The stew wasn't actually that bad because all of the flavors and textures ran together. But on our salad we had some fried squid. it looked like onion rings, but was actually part of the tentacle of the squid. I have been trying to have an open mind about everything here, so I tried it. If it had had any flavor at all, it might not have been too bad...but it didn't. So it felt like I was chewing slimy rubber. I swallowed, but didn't eat any more of it. But other than that, I have not been traumatized yet by any of the food here.

It remains to be about 105 degrees everyday. So we try to stay inside as much as possible. Even though sometimes its better to be outside in the heat with a slight breeze than inside with no air conditioning. But the weather is perfect in the mornings for the walk to school, and then at about 9 pm around the time of the sunset, the weather is perfect.

After this first week of school, I hope to be completely organized here at home as well as with school and scheduling everything. And it won't be too long before I start to plan my trips to other countries! I can't wait!