Granada! March 12, 2007

This weekend I travelled to Granada with the center.  It was nice to have a break from travelling by ourselves.  We stayed in a very nice hotel complete with our own balcony, excellent food, had tour buses, free admission, and an agenda.  It was also nice to spend time with the professors (amazing) and other CCCS students.  It was very frustrating at parts to be waiting around for the whole group…very frustrating.  but at the same time it was nice to not have to think and it was nice to hear about the places we were visiting from our professors.

We arrived around lunchtime to Granada and it was beautiful…the sun was shining everywhere, flowers are beginning to bloom, the palm trees look excellent and then there was the beautiful sierra Nevada snow-covered mountains in the background.  beautiful.  kim, amanda, and i enjoyed a leisurely lunch courtesy of our senoras on our balcony and spent the rest of siesta chatting and relaxing.  we probably should have been out exploring granada as we later realized we didn’t have much free time, but it felt so good to relax for once, especially on a trip.  After relaxing we met up with the group to go tour La Catedral y Capilla Real.  It was incredibly amusing because we just had our art history exam on these two buildings and Granada is central in the beginning history of Spain with the Reyes Catolicos, Carlos V etc in which I have an exam next week so it was all very prevalent information.  The Catedral of Granada was beautiful and very different from the other 2 I’ve seen here.  It was much smaller and less decorated, but so beautiful.  The central retablo is curved with beautiful decoration.  La Capilla Real was also beautiful.  The retablo is magnificent and the sepulcros of los Reyes was also neat to see. 

After these visits we had some free time, so Amanda, Kim, Lauren, Megan, and I began our search for Albaycin an arabic neighborhood and some neat shops.  Tensions were running high and it didn’t help matters that our map from Ernesto had like 2 streets on it.  We just started wandering and guessing as to how to get there, and we ended up in a pretty shady place…which we later found out was el Albaycin.  I’m still not sure why but Kim, Lauren, and Megan decided to ditch Amanda and I, which left us incredibly pissed off.  The two of us in this shady area.  We continued our investigations for a little while, which was worth it.  The neighborhood is located on a hill and as you climb the streets of it, watching out for people getting high, drinking, peeing, etc.  you can turn around and see the whole city in front of you with the mountains in the background.  It was beautiful especially since the sun was setting.  It was amazing.  Not wanting to hang around too long with only the two of us, we headed back down in search of some cute shops.  We were very excited when we discovered a shop selling tea.  They had bins of herbs, fruits, etc. ready to be bagged up and made into tea, it was amazing.  The tea smelled delicious.  Afterwards we went to some souvenir shops where I was inclined to get my name done in arabic.  We also were in pursuit of an arabic tea set, which are so cute.  I unfortunately couldn’t find one that was “good enough” and neglected to buy one.  We then returned to the hotel for dinner.  The first course was this yummy sauce with vegetables and fried egg and the second course was a delicious looking hunk of steak and french fries.  I haven’t had a steak let a lone see one in forever and it took every ounce of my body to politely request a vegetarian meal.  I don’t know how the substitute for steak can be cheese, but it was and I attempted to enjoy the 6 slices I was served as everybody else enjoyed their steak.  After dinner we hung around the hotel more, relaxing and such before going out in Granada.  We wanted to hit up a teteria (tea shop) which granada is known for.  We had no idea where to go, but we began searching for one.  We couldn’t find one, so I decided to ask for directions, and thankfully they were very easy to understand.  Unfortunately they led us back into the shady area that we were in before.  Oh well, it was worth it and hey there was 5 of us.  We began walking up hill passing very odd people as we went.  WE were approached by a woman and we thought she asked us if we wanted to come drink in Babylon and we replied no, but do you know where we can have some tea.  ONly to realize right afterwards that she was holding Bible track cards and wanted us to rank in Babylon…oops.  We finally found the teterias and began looking for one that looked suitable.  It was sooo cute and so worth the search.  It had several little tables surrounded by benches each was candle lit and had hookah on it.  The tea menu was so amazing with all these great flavors, I wanted to try every one.  I ordered a delicious fruity tea that had hibiscus and fruits in it.  I got my own little tea pot and adorable glass.  Inside the tea pot floated the pieces of fruit an flower used to create the delicious flavor it was awesome.  We all tried each other’s and decided that we could live in this adorable little place.  After finally deciding that we had spent enough time in the amazing tea shop we headed back to our hotel for some sleep.

We awoke the next morning and enjoyed a delicious breakfast in our hotel before setting out for La Alhambra.  When we arrived at La Alhambra we had to wait around forever and finally after a lot of confusion and a small problem in which only 2/3 of our group could enter we began our tour.  La Alhambra was central to the city and built by the kings. It has arabic baths, palace, gardens for enjoyment, etc.  It was amazing and beautiful.  We started exploring Generalife which is the place of enjoyment full of gardens.  It was incredible.  The weather was perfect and I could have stayed there forever.  We continued on and explored Carlos V, the palace, etc.  The arabic architecture is awesome.  It is incredibly intricate and ornate.  We climbed up this tall tower and from there we could see all of Granada and the mountains.  It was spectacular.  I love it.  The visit got a little long, but it was so worth it for every beautiful picture and moment.  We then returned to our hotel for a final meal of lasagna, chicken, french fries, and pineapple–delicious.  Afterwards we left for Sevilla.  Granada was so pretty.  It was a little sketchy, but so fun and beautiful

Land of Don Quixote March 8, 2007

Friday night I hopped on a bus at 12:30 at night heading for Madrid and Toledo.  It was probably a crazy idea, but in the end so worth it.  The 6 hour bus ride wasn´t to bad as I think I slept for most of the ride.  When we stopped halfway through the journey..that was when the trip adventures began.  Dazed and confused Kim and I left the bus to stretch our cramped legs, use the bathroom, etc.  I was very out of it and did not really know what was going on, so when the bus began to pull out of the station with me not on it I began to freak out a little.  Kim and I were so confused we had no idea where our bus had gone.  I basically started laughing hysterically, because I mean what else can you do?  Sure enough, the bus had just gone to fill up with gas and it returned minutes later much to my joy.  I was so happy to get back on that bus.  The rest of the ride went smoothly as I slept even more and soon we arrived in Madrid and I was pumped and ready to go much to Kim and Amanda´s displeasure.  they probably wanted to kill me, but I couldn´t wait to get to Toledo.  We had to then catch another bus, which was more unpleasant than the bus to Madrid. But finally at about 9 in the morning a very excited and pumped Sarah arrived in Toledo

Our first task was to find a map which we do successfully. The city was so neat. We had to take an escalator up the side of the hill its on because the city is surrounded by castle walls. So we took the escalator up and began to try and find out way to our hostal. The streets are 10 times more confusing than they are in Sevilla, half of them don’t exist and rodes just pop up out of nowhere. We basically had no idea where we were going half the time, and we lucked out when we found this cute old man who offered to walk us to our street. He was so nice and kind. So we made it to our street and soon found our hostal which also looked like a great place. However when we entered and gave our reservation information, the owner informed us that we didnt have a reservation and that his hostal was full. Ok…well I was determined to remain an optimist and immediately prayed that God would have this work out the way he wanted it to. The man was really nice and he felt awful about the situation so he began calling the other hostals in the area and found as another place to stay. He then walked us to our new room where we proceeded to get dressed and ready for the day. After this and some rejuvination aka café con leche, we were ready to explore Toledo.

One of our main reasons for heading to Toledo was to go to the sword factory, so we decided to do that first. On our way we encountered another adorable man who owned an artesan shop. Sure he was just trying to sell us things, but he was really nice and gave us a demonstration of how they make their typical art work. They have this black slate like material and they pound the design into and then they thread 24 carat gold into the tiny designs made. It is really neat and the end product is so beautiful. We ended up buying some jewlry from this store. We continued onto to try and find the sword factory only to discover that it had shut down. oh well. We decided to go hit up more of the adorable stores so Amanda could buy some swords and we could marvel at more of the beautiful Toledo craft work. The swords are sooo cool and neat. they are so awesome. The jewelry I basically wanted it all. The crafts in toledo and the ceramic were so neat. We then headed to see El Entierro del Conde de Orgaz by El Greco. It was so amazing to see in real life. We just got done studying El Greco in Art History ( I have an exam on it today eeek) and so it was absolutely amazing to see it in real life. El Greco was a genius. the Church was so pretty. Afterwards we went for some lunch and enjoyed a very nice outdoor meal. We wanted to try and find a spot where we could see the entire city of Toledo so we began searching and just enjoying the beautiful views of Toledo. We found this really neat old bridge and it was absolutely amazing. There isn’t a lot of green in Sevilla and so it was really nice to see the river and green and trees and everything. I love just walking around and climbing rocks and exploring the views.

Later in the day we went on to a museum and a cute plaza to enjoy some more artwork by El Greco, shopping, and ice cream. We finished our sightseeing at the Cathedral of Toldeo which was breathtaking. it is similar to the cathdral in Sevilla but it has artwork by El Greco which was amazing to see in real life. I was in love with it. The church was so pretty. The ceilings were amazing and the baroque architecture was awesome. We finished up the day exploring some more, but we were completely exhausted. So we headed to a local bar for some sangria and tapas to finish off the night.

The next day Kim and I woke up early and headed to a local parish for mass. It was so neat to go to mass. The church was amazingly beautiful and it was nice to hear a personable homily in a church where their our regulars. I felt so good after mass. We then headed down to El Greco Museum…which was closed However, we found this amazing park that overlooked the river. It was so beautiful. I found this small, steep path down to a rock cliff that overlooked the river and green…so of course I insisted that we walk down. It was totallllly worth it. Pictures cannot describe it. After enjoying the views we had to head back to our hostal to catch a bus back to Madrid.

It was such a gorgeous and neat little town. I’m sooooo excited that we went.

El Día de Andalucía March 2, 2007

This Wednesday we didn’t have school, because it was Andulsia Day…similar to several holidays in the US where there are family gatherings, no work, most stores close, and there is a big futból game.

Tuesday night I Wwent to see a professional flamenco performance. It was sooo amazing. It was in this great little theater place that was gorgeous. The stage was a small platform and there were 2 rows of seats for about 50 people in a u-shape around the square. The room was lit with candels and laterns and it was covered in vines and floating flowers. It was so serene and beautiful and very intimate. It was so cool to be up so close to something so amazing. There was a guitarist and a singer that creater the music for the performance, which was amazing. The first dance was a solo dance by the girl dancer. She wore this amazing flamenco dress. The bottom was yellowishk, orangish, and reddish tone polka dots with amazing ruffles and such and the top was peach with some red flowers. It was amazing. I wish I could have taked a photo of it but we couldnt take photos of the first dance. She was amazing though. The flamenco we do at school is nothing like what she did. She was everywhere at once moving her feet so fast all the while moving her manitas (hands) in intricate patterns and turning her upper body in various ways. It was amazing. Then she changed into a simple and classic, but beautiful black flamenco dress and danced with her partner. They were soooo good. It was so neat to see flamenco done right and well. After the dance I went with some people to get some churros…also very good heh. Later that evenign some friends and I went to a bar and sat outside along the river and chatted all night. It was a lovely evening.

The next day…no class excellent. We made plans to go have a picnic with champagne to make up for not finding the champagne restaurant in Barcelona. However, we didn’t think ahead that stores aren’t open, so after finally finding a 24 hour store and a very expensive bottle of champagne we headed out to the park for our mimosas and lunch. It was so fun. The weather was beautiful too. It was in the 70s probably, I was in a skirt, tank top and jacket, and I would have been fine with out the jacket…how sweet is that and its just march…yay. We found a spot along a bike path and popped open the champagne and had a leisurely lunch with our mimosas and bocadillos. It was so fun. Afterwards we explored the park a little and the Plaza de España. It was so neat…I just love parks.

After the park Amanda and I headed into the center of the city where we decided today would be a good day to go into the Cathedral and climb La Giralda. The Cathedral was beautiful as always. It amazes me how much money, gold, and silver is in the Cahtedral and I wonder what God thinks about all the decoration in the Church, but it was great to see regardless. Climbing la giralda was amazing. It was sooo high up and we could see the whole city. We could see into the plaza de toros too that was neat. It was so beautiful and a great day to look out over the whole city.

Later that evening, we went to our little bar on the corner for some tapas and to watch the big futból game. We got really good spots somewhow right up at the bar and we were in the center of the action with good views of the game. it was so fun to be in the center of the action and to enjoy watching the game and especially watching the sevillanas watch the game. our tapas were good too. We ordered flaming sausage, but it was a little too crowded to do a good job of roasting them. We started to get nervous that once again Betis and sevilla would tie, however Sevilla ended up scoring a goal which sent the whole bar which appeared to be aminly Sevilla fans into a frenzy…also fun to watch. However soon afterwards this older owman we were standing next to decided to pick a fight with another older lady. Right next to me. Amanda and I were so scared for our lives. The two woman went at it for what felt like forever,and the whole bar was watching and more and more people got involved. Teh bar tender tried to calm it down but the fighting continued on for probably 30 mins and we didn’t stay to see the conclusion. But while the bar fight was going on, nobody was paying attention to the game…where there were also problems. As Sevilla was celebrating their goal…some stupid fan decided to through a glass bottle onto the field which hit the head coach of Sevilla in the head knocking him out cold. The paramedics had to rush onto the field to take him away as he had lost consciousness, memory, etc. They had to call the game and everybody left the stadium. So when we turned our attention back to the game we couldnt figure out what happened and it wasn’t until later that we discovered what we had missed during the bar fight. It was definitely a game to remember.

FYI: Barcelona pictures our up

Weekend in Barcelona February 27, 2007

Well I can proudly and successfully say that I have completed my first major weekend travel I bought a plane ticket, flew to Barcelona, stayed in a hostel, and flew back to Sevilla…successfully

Thursday evening after classes, Amanda and I made our way to the airport for our 11:30 flight to Barcelona. We found our bus and safely made it to the airport to take our flight. Unfortunately it was delayed and we didn´t get our until much later in the night much to my tired body´s disfortune. Despite a slightly sketchy flight, we arrived safely around 3 am. Unfortunately as we arrived so late we no longer could take a bus or the metro to our hostel, so we hailed a cab and began our first adventure-trying to communicate with catalan speakers and finding our hostel. We eventually arrived at the our hostel and payed as much for the taxi as the flight over. The appearance of our hostel or lack their of made us slightly nervous and when we entered the hostel I was basically running on adrenaline just ready to pass out and not really thinking about how dirty the place appeared. Unfortunately, arriving so late or early, Amanda and I could not get in the same room, which we were prepared for. I lucked out and got a bed in a room with 7 other girls…Amanda was not so lucky. I had no idea where Amanda´s room was, but I managed a decent nights sleep in my room. We slept in until about 10 at which point we reconviened to begin our first day in Barcelona.

We started off at La Sagrada Famila (The Holy Family) by Gaudi. Words cannot describe how amazing this was. I have never in my life seen something so beautiful. Gaudi was clearly not human, I don´t know how somebody could imagine and design something so elaborate and beautiful. The church isn´t even half done it seems…and yet it is so beautiful. I wish I could see it completely done according to Gaudi´s original vision, and I hope that one day they finally complete it. And when they do I can say I saw them building it!!! how sweet is that. The façades of the church are amazing. They are both complteley different and so beautiful in their unique styles and details. It was simply breathtaking in the detail, stained glass windows, design, mosiac, ceiling, omg….it was fantastic. After La Sagrada Familia Amanda and I headed uphill to Park Grüell, another one of Gaudi´s works. It was definitely work the miles uphill that we had to walk. Parks are probably my favorite place in the world and this was no exception. I wish I could just live in a park…seriously that would make me the happiest person ever, preferably in Park Grüell or Parque María Luisa. The park was beautiful with all the plants and rock formations. WE climbed to the top of the park and from their we overlooked the entire city of Barcelona out to the Mediterranean. It was amazing to see the entire city and then the sea forever and ever. After we walked through the park we headed down to see some of Gaudi´s mosaics and bought lunch and ate it on his series of mosiac benches. The weather was perfect and I was so content sitting on these amazing benches and watching the people mingle about and the children playing. I was really excited to see Gaudi´s lizard fountain, but unfortunately they were doing work on it We saw several of Gaudi´s buildings and other mosaics which were so amazing. I love mosaic. After the park, we headed downhill and back to our hostel to take a break as we were tired from little sleep and too much walking. Later in the evening we headed down into the heart of the city for some exploring. I basically shouldn´t trust my instincts and I need to just follow the map, because I directed us into the wrong plaza and we were like why is it so quiet. Needless to say we were in the wrong place, but it was fun to see anyways We just wandered around for awhile and tried to go see the catedral de Barcelona. It´s supposed to be one of the greatest in Europe, unfortunately there was nothing to see as the entire Cathedral was covered up and underconstruction. grrr… afterwards we walked around and eventually made it to Las Ramblas which is the main street in barcelona full of restaurants and shopping. We just walked around for awhile searching for some food as we were starving. We saw some interesting people, guys dressed as ladies and other interesting people. I also found Custo and was soooo excited. Omg. I could have spent my entire bank account in that store I love their clothes. Afterwards we went to a restaurant for dinner. The service was pretty terrible but the food was decent….especially our dessert, chocolate, vanilla, and passion fruit ice cream. delicious. After dinner, we wanted to find some of Barcelona´s trendy clubs, however, we were both exhausted and upon first glance all we found were Irish Pubs pakced with people watching Rugby so we decided to make the long trek back to our hostel. I think we walked like 15 miles literally that day. Back at the hostel we moved Amanda´s stuff into my room so that we could be together and got a much better nights sleep.

On Saturday we woke up and decided to start our day off at the sea…which is probably one of my favorite things ever.  It was my first time in the Mediterranean…how sweet is that.  We walked along the post for awhile marvalleing at the sights and beauty of the sea.  We headed down to the beach and proceeded to walk and play in the water for a long while.  I could have spent my entire day along the sea.  The weather was goregous sunny in the 60s…the water was pretty cold but not too bad.  The water was so blue and when the waves would hit the shore the sand looked like gold.  I ended up getting my pants soaked while I was wading in the water, what else is new.  After playing in the water, we decided to explore Port Olimpic for a while and hopefully find this Champagne restaurant that we had heard about.  We explored some more beaches, were startled by some old nude sun tanners, and enjoyed the view in which we looked out to sea and at the same time saw the Pyrennes.  After searching forever for the cheap Champagne restaurant we decided to just stop at a little Cervecería for some lunch.  The food was decent and cheap but the service was awful.  First of all Amanda tries to order a coke and somehow we end up getting a coke and a beer..okay?  Second of all our waiter insisted that we speak English with him.  Whenever we would try to say something in Spanish he would repsond that he knew how to speak english so we should just talk in English.  Amanda and I made a point to speak to each other in spanish and such and we ordered in spanish despite the waiters intentions.   After lunch, we went to the Picasso Museum.  the museum features many of Picassos early works…which was interesting to see as the Picassos we have in Chicago are more of his later cubism period works.  His paintings are amazing and we were surprised at how impressionistic they were.  I wish however that the museum had a better balance between his early and later works.  After the museum we went shopping in Barcelona.  We went to Custo again which was obviously amazing and several other really neat stores.  It´s amazing to see what things they can sell in stores here that they can´t sell in the States.  The streets were just jam packed with people so it was hard to do some decent shopping but it was fun to look around and explore some of the amazing fashion and smaller stores.  After shopping we decided to walk back and look for a tapas bar on our way home.  We eventually found a small little bar and decided to eat there.  Once again we were given English menus and spoken to in English despite our attempts to speak Spanish.  The menu was so poorly translated that we didn´t know what we were ordering and Amanda had to ask for a spanish menu because we couldnt understand the english one.  And still the waiters insist on speaking English.  grrrr.  We ordered some wine and tapas and were enjoying our meal and the futból game at the bar.  There was a large party of adults probably in their 30s and 40s eating next to us, and <i offered to take their photo.  This then prompted one of the men to refil our wine glasses with more wine.  Amanda and I were icredibly confused at this but whatever.  A little later on we notice the party call of our waiter and they all start staring at us at the bar…I felt increedibly awkward.  We found out when we tried to pay that the older men wanted to pay for our meal and buy us chupitos if we wanted.  We politely declined the chupitos, asked if they were sure they wanted to pay the bill, thanked them and left.  No thanks to the chupitos, older men are not going to get us drunk…at least our meal was free.  We walked back to our hostel and packed up to leave bright and early Sunday morning.

After a very small amount of sleep due to some rowdy hostel members on a Saturday evening, Amanda and I woke up at 4:30 to catch the metro to the airport.  Completely worn out and exhausted we made it to the airport only to discover that our flight was delayed due to fog in Sevilla.  Finally we arrived back in Sevilla very grateful that we could study in a place where people respect our attempts to speak spanish.  As much as I loved Barcelona, I was tired of being disrespected and belittled into speaking English…I am much happier studying in a community that is more dedicatedto Spanish tradition and the spanish language

Grades February 20, 2007

I got my first composition for my advanced present day usage class back.  I got an A.  I´m incredibly excited.  I have an exam in that class tomorrow…I´m just a little nervous lol.  I hope I do well on that too!! yay!  I´m so exicted about my A

Getting used to life in Spain February 20, 2007

I feel like I am finally really starting to get a hang of living in Sevilla.  I had heard that it might take 2-3 weeks to get over jet lag and to get acclimmated to life here, but I never believed that I would suffer from jet lag for that long.  It´s true though, I am finally starting to have more energy, which is probably a combination of getting used to my class schedule, no more jet lag, and my nose behaving better.  I also just feel like I´m having so much fun here.  Which I am.  I finally have figured out my schedule, I love my señora, I get along with my roommate really well, and I have friends that I do things with on a daily basis.  ON Sundays I go to mass with Erica and Kim at about 6 and then we go get coffee.  during the week I know when we each have our breaks and we arrange times to go to the gym, shopping, or to get some coffee, etc.  And on the weekends, I go out and have fun at the discotecas.  I´m actually starting to make friends with sevillanos, which is probably the coolest thing ever and I´m incredibly excited about it.  I really hope that I continue to make friends here. 

Carnaval! February 20, 2007

This weekend was Carnaval in Cádiz.  It was basically the craziest thing I´ve EVER seen in my life.  EVER.  Its like a combination between Halloween and Mardi gras but ten times crazier.  It was fun and I´m glad I went but I wouldn´t go back

We left for Cádiz at 9 at night and got there about 11:30.  PS: I was a witch.  The town was crazy.  There were people dressed in the most elaborate costumes everywhere.  Never have I seen such great costumes and such effort put into designing them.  It was enjoyable just walking around, exploring, and seeing all the crazy people.  Basically the streets were jampacked with people and alcohol everywhere.  I don´t think I´ve ever seen so much alcohol  in my life.  People had it everywhere.  Some were more creative like the scuba divers that had TintO2 on their backs and piping to drink it out of one of the more popular methods seemed to be to decorate a shopping cart and just fill it up with alcohol, fanta, and coke.  Baiscally people were drinking everywhere.  The ground was covered in bottles of empty alcohol and by the end of the night it resembled a sheet of ice from the alcohol spilled on it.  It was quite intriguing to see the range in ages from about 3 years to 70, although most people were in their 20s.  It was probably the craziest thing I have ever seen and will ever see in my life.   I think I would have had more fun if I had been able to stay with our tour guide, however the number of people made it waaaay to hard to stay together and as a result we never found any of the cultural aspects of the Carnaval.  We did however make it to the beach which was absolutely goregous.  It was fun to go see, but by the end of the night the amusement got old and I was ready to go back

Flamenco Shamenco February 15, 2007

It´s official I cannot dance, and I especially cannot flamenco.  Try as I might I cannot do it.  At least its, fun?  psh. 

 I need help.

Happy Valentine’s Day! February 15, 2007

Yesterday was a good day. I had class as usual. I spent a lot of time hanging out with kim which was fun and most of my day was booked with fun adventures. We finalized our plans for Carnival which was good. I’m so excited to go! it’s kind of like a cross between Mardi Gras and Halloween. So I need a costume. Kim and I went looking for one, but so far our search has been fruitless. I’m sure we’ll come up with something…we have to lol.

I went running for the first time today. I didn’t run as well as I had hoped, but it was so goregous outside. I went down by the river and it was bright, clear, sunny, maybe upper 60s. It’s so cool that in my short little run i pass such monuments as El Torre de Oro and such. It was sooo pretty.

After my afternoon class I we walked around and shopped–running errands looking for costume inspiration. AFterwards we headed back to the center for the Valentine’s day party. It was sooo much fun. Everybody was there, and so I got a chance to meet some new people. Its weird because they serve drinks at a school function. They had beer, wine, and soda to mix with the wine to make sangría. How funny is that? I was like okay very different from back home. And then for food they had chips, peanuts, and olives. I was laughing. It was a lot of fun. towards the end Kim and I ended up joining in on a guitar sing-a-long party. Finally at like 11 I returned home completely exhausted. I ate my dinner, showered, and crashed. Oops no homework for me. I should do that now during the break.

Weekend Life February 12, 2007

This Friday we went to the Roman Ruins in sevilla. It was so cool to see something over 2000 years old. I had never in my life seen something so old. It was very cool. there isn’t a lot left…its the ruins after all, but it was very exciting to see. We saw their houses, ovens, bath, and the coolest part the anfiteatro! It was so cool to see it all still intact where the gladiators and lions would come out and such. It was such a beautiful day too, I was glad to be able to see the ruins like this. Afterwards, we went to this gorgeous park El Parque Maria Luisa and had seom lunch and played on the kids playground equipment. It was such a lovely day.

That night we went out to a couple of bars and finally to a discoteca. We didn’t even stay very late and we stayed until 4 am hahah. The discotecas are a lot of fun here. The dancing is a lot more fun and a lot closer to actual dancing than parties and bars in the US.

Saturday we decided to take advantage of the sales in Sevilla, so we went shopping. I love shopping and the clothes are so great in Spain. Its slightly ironic however that the clothes I bought were from H & M which I could have just bought from home. lol. Saturday night Amanda and I went with my roommate and her friends to a bar to watch the big futból game between the two pro Sevilla teams–Betis and Sevillana. It was very exciting to watch. Unfortunately however for the second time in a row the two teams tied, and there continues to be a lot of pent up angre, frustration, and excitement for the fans. Whoever finally wins a game–man I cannot wait to witness the craziness that will erupt in sevilla. Hopefully i’ll get to go to a game soon.

Sunday like usual my roommate and I slept all morning until lunch. We usually just wake up and go to lunch in our pjs however we heard a male voice in the house. My roommate and I went to investigate and we discovered that there was a boy about our age for lunch, so we quickly changed clothes and went to join them for the meal. It turned out that her nephew Pablo aged 18 was visiting for the day. He was kinda what you would stereotype in appearance as a skater/rocker person. he was very interesting excpet he didnt talk at all no matter how we tried to ask him questions. We even decided to do our homework in the family room where he was watching TV but he just proceeded to fall asleep and snore the rest of the day. oh well.

Today is Monday and it is back to class…which is enjoyable. It was the weirdest thing however, during my spanish civ class, all of a sudden the classroom shook for maybe 15 seconds and everybody was kinda like what was that. My professor proceeded to tell us that their were workers outside and that caused the movement, I thought to myself that that was a heck of a lot of movement for some workers. And to my dismay, when I arrived home for lunch my señora informed us that it was indeed an earthquake from Portugal that registered a 4 on the scale. interesting. that was my excitement for the day :0)