Takin' Off

Tomorrow morning I have my flight at 8AM to Paris, then to Brussels by train, possibly a day trip to Amsterdam from there, then to Dublin (where we'll be spending a day in Galway) and then back to Sevilla. I was originally going to fly out today, but there's a nationwide 24 hour strike protesting a recently passed law limiting the rights of workers. I was afraid my flight wouldn't take off....if there weren't any workers...so I changed it to tomorrow morning. Now it's just how to figure out packing for 10 days in a suitcase that weighs less than 10 kilos...hmm. Anyway, I won't have reliable internet access for the next 10 days, so there probably won't be any blog posts.

Today in my Women Writers class we talked about the influence of the Franco era in literature in Spain, which was a very interesting conversation, but all I could really think about was "Francisco Franco todavia esta muerte" (Francisco Franco is still dead). Not fair.

Mas Flamenco!

My friend took this picture on her phone, I look like I actually know how to dance!

Miercoles

Just thought I should update today, it's a typical Miercoles, pretty relaxed. Last night we did a walking tour in my Antonio Machado class. First Rafa, mi profesor, took us to El Ataneo de Sevilla, a society of intellectuals to which the Machados once belonged. We only saw from the outside, but it's a place where hoy en dia, they hold art expositions and charlas (discussions). Rafa told us that he's part of El Ataneo de Madrid. Then he said he had a surprise for us, so we walked to Plaza de Encarnacion and he took us up to the top of the Metrosol - Parasol, the big mushroomy thing in the middle of Sevilla. The views from the top are incredible, and since we just change the clocks, the sun was still setting around 9. It was gorgeous. 

Today I'm going to hang out with my intercambio a little later, I hope he brings his dog! I miss my Mitzvah. Then I have Sevillana class. I'm going to be a part of a desfile for trajes de flamenco. It's basically that we're modeling flamenco dresses, it's pretty embarrassing but it's fun to get all dressed up. Yesterday we had our first practice, pictures of that to come too. After class I'm going to meet up with another amigo of Kaci's, his name is Santi. Last night I texted him to make plans for tonight and he said "Porque no estas de fiesta?" (why aren't you out?)...Spaniards are always partying. Liz and I will meet him tonight for a cerveza. =) Demasiado intercambios? Hombre, por favor, jamas! 

Goofballs in Granada

The little one in the middle is my Sevillana teacher, she's adorable. Hay mi ninas! 

My dress is morada (purple) with complementos amarillos (yellow accessories) 

Views from the top of SETAS

 

Hola a Todos!

Lo siento, no he publicado algo en mi blog hace mucho tiempo, he estado muy ocupada! (I'm sorry I haven't posted anything in a while, I've been so busy!). It was a crazy week last week, I met a lot of Espanoles and slept very little, but it was so much fun! On Friday I went to the strangest event/fiesta ever, but I had the time of my life. It was called Rebel Bingo, and the concept of it was bizarre, but it was basically bingo mixed with electro concert mixed with a highlighter party. I had a blast, but only slept 2 hours because I had to leave so early for Granada the next day. In Granada we did a 3 hour walking tour of La Alhambra, then had free time and Liz and I got to meet up with Lucy, who is studying there for the semester. We met up with her and a few of her friends and had a more relaxed night checking out a few of the different bar options in Granada. On Sunday we toured the Capilla Real, which houses the tombs of Fernando and Isabel, Los Reyes Catolicos. We had free time to explore a Moroccan market nearby and then we were on our way home. They whole thing went by in a blur, needless to say, a full night of sleep was very welcome last night.  

Rebel Bingo

En los jardines de La Alhambra

With Luce!

Viajes con Los Padres: Ronda

One of the most famous pueblo blancos, Ronda is definitely among the most beautiful. The Puente Nueva (New Bridge) is the most well known attraction and a hike down into the gorge is a must. Mom, Dad, and I spent hours exploring the trails, finding caves, bushwhacking, and dodging waterfalls. Quite the adventure, and the views were so beautiful! 

La Puente Nueva:

I c u!

You can't tell, but we were in a cave

Bushwhacking!

Smells and Tastes of Sevilla

Experiencing Sevilla with my other senses...we obviously know that half of exploring a new country is the food, but the smells are the closest sense connected to memory. Luckily I'm here in la primavera (the spring) and now I will always connect the smell of orange blossoms to my time here in Sevilla. Their scent is so strong, just standing under the trees it's very noticeable. Unfortunately it always seems that when I want to take a nice deep breath of orange blossom, a smokey happens to be walking by as well. Eso si que es, no pasa nada ( it is what it is, no worries).

Food wise, last night senora treated us to some home made torrijas, a dulce that is only made around the time of semana santa. It's kind of like cold, honey-soaked french toast. I liked the homemade version way better than the bakery version. Right now I'm smelling lunch, and I'm super hungry, hopefully we eat soon!

Viajes con Los Padres: Jerez

We stayed in Jerez for the first two nights of our week, using it as a jumping off point to go to the other towns. Jerez has a nice area that is the old city, but it is surrounded by not so picturesque modern buildings that Mom calls "the icky stuff" outside the city. We stayed on the outside the older area and it was always an adventure to drive in and attempt to make our way around.

While we were in Jerez we hit up some of the major tourist attractions. We did a sherry bodega tour, specifically Gonzalez Byass, which makes Tio Pepe, with a tasting afterward. It was very cool to see the grounds, with many different bodegas housing barrels of sherry. When you walk into them it's very cool and dark and has a sweet, woody smell. There are barrels upon barrels lined against the walls.

We tasted four types of sherry, two sweet and two dry. Of course I know nothing about sherry, but I didn't like the dry ones at all. The one we liked was called Solera, which was made with raisins.

We also visited the Real Escuela Andaluza de Arte Ecuestre to see a dressage show. We weren't allowed to take pictures of the show, but the grounds and track were very grand. It was incredible to see how well trained the horses were, they could prance, trot sideways, rear up on cue...amazing. I couldn't help but feel a little bad for them for the hours upon hours of training they must go through.

Our other tourist destination in Jerez were their Arabic Baths. Mom and I went to check out the experience. We showered off and then went into the dimly lit bathing room; there are 3 baths, one very hot, one warm, and one freezing cold. We were advised to do the cycle as many times as possible. We managed to dunk into the cold one, but definitely couldn't spend much time in it, then floated a bit in the warm one and moved onto hot, then repeated a few times. Then we were called in for half hour massages, which included a face massage! Something I was not expecting. It was a very cool experience. 

Viajes con Los Padres: Food and Flamenco

Definitely took the opportunity to explore more food options in Sevilla on Mom and Dad's budget. They found a favorite restaurant here called Restaurante San Marcos, which we've already been to twice. Last night I got Cordero (lamb) with plums and honey and Dad got Confit de Pato (duck confit) en salsa de naranja. Their first night here we went to Rio Grande, a nice restaurant right on the river. We got pulpo (octopus) to start, I wasn't a fan. I also took them for a bite of flamenco at La Carbonaria, they enjoyed the dancing and guitar, but like me, though the singing is bizarre.

Pulpo!

Sea Bass and Quail Egg

Flamenco

Over the course of their stay, we learned how to order whiskey so that our waiters would understand. Johnny Walker Black Label is the same, but it has to be pronounced with a Spanish accent to be understood. We learned that Rioja is not always red wine, it's a region in Spain that produces reds, whites, and roses, but is most famous for its red. Dad learned that there isn't any dark beer in Andalucia and resorted to drinking Cruzcampos. I mostly sampled the sangria or the vino tinto in our explorations.

Viajes con Los Padres: Casa Pilatos

After quite a long weekend, I'm finally back to class and to real life (not really). Mom and Dad came to visit and we did a driving tour of Andalucia and the Pueblos Blancos tucked into the mountains. With only a few hiccups due to confusion on the part of our GPS, names Dolores Mildred, we made it to most of our destinations without too much trouble. Mom and Dad toured Sevilla for a couple days while I was in class, together we came upon Casa Pilatos, a rich, very old mansion built in a similar style to Sevilla's Alcazar. It was gorgeous and we managed to slip through in the middle of a tour group, weee it was free!

Back in Sevilla

Finally back to Sevilla after a weekend touring Andalucia with the padres. I have to get my brain back into Spanish mode again! So much English this week. More pictures to come later, if I have internet...

Oops

Oops...didn't get too much homework done today. I went to the river and wrote about half an essay, then got a text from Alberto saying they were at the river, so I spent the rest of the day trying to keep up with all the bromas (jokes) and accents in their conversations. That's totally a form of studying since I spoke/listened to Spanish all day. One of the fun parts is that a few of the people I was hanging out with barely speak English at all, so sometimes they ask me to speak in English to see if they can understand me, and usually they can't! So i don't feel so bad when I can't understand certain things in Spanish, because I can still communicate much better than they can in another language. It's a small triumph for me. One of the guys who asked me to speak English got this completely blank look on his face when I started talking, which I'm sure is a look that occurs all too often on my face here. Now back to warky-wark. I have to analyze a poem by Rosalia de Castro, a Galician poet known for beautiful, but depressing poetry. I also have to write a very short "autobiography" of myself based one the themes of Antonio Machado's Retrato. Not so bad...now I'm just procrastinating.

Gibraltar

Yesterday day I went on an excursion to Gibraltar through Discover Sevilla, a travel agency geared toward students. It was...alright. In truth, it's actually kind of an ugly port city, but it's kind of cool because it's a little part of England on the Spanish coast, and on of the closest points to Africa in Europe. The views of the sea were amazing at Europa Point with swells so big that the ocean spray came all the way up to where we were standing, which was far away from the water. Then we took some rinky-dink lookin' buses up the big rock thing with really windy roads (I forget the name) for even better views, a walk through the caves, and to hang out with the monkeys. 

The Lighthouse at Europa Point

The Rock thingy

Sup dude?

Stalagmites/tites? No se...

We're in a cave...weee! (with Chelsea, Hilary's best friend from home)

View from the rock

This guy was a bully, the monkeys kinda freaked me out a little. One guy got peed on because they jump right on your head.

Betch please.

Greg (Chelsea's boyfriend visiting from the states on spring break) had monkeys all over him!

Nun Cookies!

Today was an adventure day! A lot of people are traveling this weekend, but I stayed in Sevilla for one more weekend before all of my travel plans/madness start. Heather, Natalie and I decided to go on an expedition in search of the famous Convento de San Leandro, where the nuns there sell different kinds of sweets. The interesting part is that they're not allowed to see people outside of the convent, or people aren't allowed to see them, so they sit by a turn table and you kind of yell through it to them and exchange euros for dulces via the turntable. It was quite a search to get there, Sevilla being the labyrinth it is. Also, we were standing directly in front of the convent, which is not clearly marked, and asked a policeman where are "las monjas que venden dulces" (where are the nuns sell sweets) and he pointed us in a completely different direction! After about 45 more minutes of wandering, we returned to our original spot and realized our mistake. No pasa nada, we got to see a lot of an area that we hadn't seen before. On the way there we walked through a bar area we often go to at not, I hadn't realized that during the day it's lined with interesting shops and art galleries. Sevilla needs to be explored at all times of day.

The turntable

This is Yema, the nun cookie someone suggested we should try. The outside white part was basically pure sugar and I'm not too sure what was on the inside. It was too sweet for me and I ended up throwing the rest out, but it's the adventure that counts!

An art gallery we stumbled upon

Later we walked up to Plaza Alameda de Hercules for lunch, which is surrounded by tons of cafes. It seems ridiculous, but even after being here a month I don't know half of the things on the menu! Most of them are some for of ham or pork. We ended up walking into an exposition set up promoting personal health and they gave us free scarves and some weird yogurt drinks. Then we met up with a few more CC-CS people and hung out by the river for the rest of the day. 

Walking Tours

Last night we had our first walking tour in my Antonio Machado class. It's not such a great time because our class meets Tuesday and Thursday at 7:30 to 9:30, so it's dark out by the time we leave. We walked up Calle Sierpes, which now is a major shopping area in Sevilla, but it is surrounded by streets named for friends of Antonio Machado. We made our way through Plaza de Encarnacion, up to Calle Duenas, where El Palacio de Duenas is located. This is one of the many homes of La Duquesa de Alba, and the place she got married (my senora tells me it was her 3rd marriage and she is in her 80's) in October of 2011. The building is also part of the inspiration for Machado's poem "Retrato" which evokes a very strong sense of place in its imagery of (roughly translated) "a patio in Sevilla in a orchard of lemon trees". As my professor tells us, patios are a very important part of Andalucian culture. It's a space that most buildings here have, usually decorated in ceramic tiles and in the center of the building. He instructed us to return during the day and promises that it's worth it to see the Palacio. Then he treated us to tinto de verano (red wine with fanta in it, a very popular drink here) and told us to be responsible tonight!

International Women's Day

Never knew about this one before I came to Spain, but apparently it's a big deal in Europe. It is, after all, an international holiday, but I don't think the states pay much attention to it. There's always something going on on San Jacinto/ Puente de Triana, so there was a big set up and a huge crowd of people blocking the street. This was a group of women singing "Stand By Me", which was kind of funny to hear sung with a Spanish accent.

Tutorias

There's a program through CC-CS which sets us up as tutors for kids learning English in Sevilla. The kids we get can be any age, I got lucky and I'm tutoring a 16 year old girl named Paula who's very sweet. She can understand me if I talk a bit more slowly than my usual pace and she can speak a bit, but sometimes gets a bit flustered. She can definitely speak way more English than I could Spanish when I was 16! I go to her flat for an hour every Monday and Thursday and we just chat for a bit (I get 10 euro an hour! Wee!). In the schools here they teach British English, which gets a little confusing for me when I try to help her with her homework. Mostly I just try to keep up a conversation and ask her to tell me stories or plans so she can practice speaking. Today we started talking about money and how it's different in the U.S., she asked me to bring American money next time because she's never seen it before. I told her that I go to college over 2 hours away from home and she thought that was crazy. In Spain, most students go to college in their hometown and live with their parents throughout. It's interesting for me too to talk about Sevilla and how she's growing up there, yay!

Grazalema

Un pueblo chiquitito y precioso, Grazalema is one of the Pueblos Blancos of Andalusia. The Center organized a free trip for us, so I went to explore. There was a bit of hiking to do, which was gorgeous, it was nice to be outside of the city for a little bit. Even the bus ride there was incredible, with amazing vistas of farmlands and greenery. Then we walked down to the tiny town, which takes about 15 minutes to walk around the entire thing, and got tapas. We tried the famous payoyo cheese, which I didn't think was very impressive, but it was alright, and I had chorizo frito (literally fried sausage), which was delicious, but i'm kind of regretting eating it. Then we walked a bit more around the town, it was so quiet except for in the center. Almost no one to be seen on the side streets, which is quite the comparison to Sevilla, where people like to joke that "la mitad de la vida esta en la calle" (have of life is spent in the street).

View from our hike: 

Hiking! (Reppin' AGD)

Pueblo Blanco...get it?

Grazalema is built into a mountain and has amazing views of the farmlands below: 

Lavender: 

Que Mono! (How cute!)