I Cant Believe It

Well, I am almost home! I just wanted to write one more post before heading home. This week was exam week, and I just got finished today. It was stressful for awhile, but I finally got it finished, and I feel really good about my tests. I can’t believe I am almost home. Part of me feels like I have been gone forever, and another part feels like it hasn’t been almost 4 months yet. I have started packing everything up, and tomorrow I will get the rest taken care of. I think Gracia is getting sad that we are leaving. She has been in a weird mood, and just seems sad. We found out from a friend of ours at school, whose señora is friends with Gracia was saying really great things about Britton and I, and that normally every semester there is always something negative she has to say about her students, but this year she hasn’t. That surprised me a ton. Haha I would have thought otherwise, but hey, I guess some people show their love in weird ways. Anyways, I was glad to hear that. Also, Gracia gave us gifts today. We both got a little snowman decoration for Christmas, and a scarf. Gracia makes everything you could think of… aprons, baby clothes, shawls, etc. Anyways, since we got here, all Gracia ever did was just make thing after thing after thing. She would always pack them up and give them as gifts. They were beautiful. She just got finished making the cutest baby clothes for her cousin who is having a baby. They were adorable. Anyways, so Gracia made a shawl/scarf for each of us. I am just so excited to come home, and for it to be Christmas. However, I am not excited for the freezing temperatures that I will return to… I think it’s cold here… and it’s only in the 50’s… I can only imagine what it will be like at home. Anyways, I am so excited to see everyone, and can’t believe that this semester is just about over. I am so glad I came, but I couldn’t be happier to be done with it now. Academically it was the hardest semester I have ever had, and I am so glad I don’t have to continue with it. However, I am so glad that I was able to come here, and travel as much as I did. Anyways, thank you to everyone who has been reading these. I hope I have made them somewhat interesting for you guys. I love you all! I’m almost HOME!!!

Thanksgiving, Granada and Ronda

Well a lot has happened since I last posted. Two weeks ago, since it was Thanksgiving, we didn’t have school that day. However, the school took a field trip to a place about 30 minutes outside of Seville called Italica… it is old Roman ruins. It was actually kind of boring, but hey, better than school, so I can’t complain. After that, in the evening we had a thanksgiving dinner. I think I may have mentioned before that the school rents out a restaurant, and gives them American recipes, and well, they make it for us. It was actually better than I was expecting, but still not as good as my mom’s food… however, she has promised to make me a thanksgiving dinner when I get home… so I’m excited for that. The next day Britton and I left for Granada… a city 3 hours south of Seville. We were told that it is a beautiful city, and if you visit Spain, you have to go to Granada…. So we packed our backpacks and headed out. Granada is beautiful, and by far my favorite place that I have visited since being here. Granada has a ton of history, and the main site to go to in Granada, is La Alhambra, which is an old palace that was used in the 1400-1500’s, during the time of the Catholic Rein of Isabel and Ferdinand. Anyways, this place is sweet. It is huge, with all kinds of forts, and rooms, and fountains and gardens. It was amazing. I loved it. Britton and I were in a shop and the owner of the shop started talking to us and told us that we needed to take a different route up to La Alhambra, than the normal one, because it’s much more beautiful. So we decided to take his advice… and let me just say… it was well worth it. La Alhambra is situated on top of a mountain, and so it’s a decent climb up. The route we took had beautiful trails and bubbling brooks, and waterfalls. It was beautiful. Anyways, La Alhambra itself was just gorgeous. All of the walls are made with stucco, in these beautiful designs. Then there are the gardens… which are the most beautiful gardens I have ever seen. Basically I am in love with Granada. It was incredible. We were there for 3 days and 2 nights. We also went to a church which held the caskets of Ferdinand and Isabel and 2 of their successors. Also, we went to these Arabic baths…. It was so cool. These were in use back in the day, and they have kept them up and running. Anyways, there is a hot room and a cold room, and we had 90 minutes that we could alternate between the two rooms as we wanted. It was so relaxing. It was all lit by candles, and there was this soft music playing in the background. It was really fun, and very relaxing. We needed a good spa day. So that is about all that has been happening with me lately. I have 2.5 weeks left, and I’m looking forward to coming home. I am excited to see everyone. I have attached some pictures below. Then this past Friday we went to Ronda for the day. It actually reminded me a lot of Granada. It was really pretty. So right now as I am writing this, I have 12 days left, and I can’t believe it. I am currently writing a huge paper on Don Quixote, and starting to prepare for my final exams. I am almost home, and am super excited to get back on American soil! Not to mention, it’s almost Christmas! Love you all!

La Alhambra




On our walk up to La Alhambra

Gardens in La Alhambra

The view in Ronda

Ronda

Italia!

Well, I just got back from Italy, and it was incredible! I can’t believe how much Amy and I were able to pack into one week. We flew out of Seville to Rome last Saturday morning. Once we got to the airport in Rome, we had to take a train into the city. We then found our hostel right away. It was actually pretty nice. I was surprised for it being a hostel how nice it actually was. Amy and I had our own room, and we had to share a bathroom, which was fine, except the bathroom was kind of dirty. The hostel also provided breakfast every morning which was nice. So here is what we did in Rome: Trevi fountain, which was beautiful, and much bigger than I had expected, the Spanish steps- Amy and I climbed them several times, St. Peter’s Basilica, which since we were there on a Sunday, we were able to watch mass which was outside, and the archbishop of Spain was there speaking, the Vatican- contains the Sistene Chapel, the Pantheon, and finally the Ancient City which contains Palatine Hill and the Colloseum. Everything that we were able to do was incredible, but I think what I loved the most was the Ancient City… walking around all of the ancient roman ruins was really incredible, and we went inside the Colloseum, which was very different inside than I was expecting, but still really cool to be able to see. Here are some pictures of Rome...

Trevi Fountain


This is an ancient castle and the bridge is the oldest in Rome


Me in front of St. Peter's Basilica


The Colloseum


The inside of the Colloseum


The Roman ruins at Palatine Hill




Amy and I were able to be girls and go shopping also, and there were so many vendors and markets in the streets. Also, Amy and I both love McDonald’s Mcflurries… in the states there are only a few flavors… well in Spain, they have three different ones- kit kat, m&m, and some chocolate one… there is McDonald’s right by the school, so we tend to frequent it…. Well, when we got to Rome, we wanted some mcflurries… (yeah, I know… I was in Italy… gelato right? Well we got gelato too, but got mcflurries most of the time!)… so anyways, we headed over to the McDonald’s in Rome, and found out they had Nutella flavored mcflurries… If anyone has never tasted nutella (Ryan), you probably should, because it’s incredible, and even better with ice cream! Needless to say, Amy and I went to McDonald’s quite a few times…. We realized this would be the only time in our lives when we would be able to order it, so we took advantage of it! It was amazing! We were in Rome for two and a half days, and then took a train to Florence. Florence was a much more peaceful city than Rome, and it was good to be more relaxed after being in Rome, which wore us out. When we were in Florence we went to the Accademia, which is the museum that has Michelangelo’s David- I loved it… Amy and I both had imagined a statue that was true to life size… you know, a guy 6 feet tall or something like that… but it was huge… I had no idea how big it was… also, the hands on David are obviously too big for the rest of the body. I had never noticed in pictures before, but it was really obvious… apparently Michelangelo had been criticized a lot for this mistake, but regardless, it was still really amazing to see. Amy and I also went to the Duomo in Florence, which is this a Cathedral… and is the world’s third largest cathedral of its type, and it was huge… we were able to climb almost 500 steps to get to the top, where there was a little balcony area, and we could see the whole city. It was incredible. There also is a leather school in Florence, and we were able to go in, and watch people making things from leather… purses, wallets, bracelets, etc. It was pretty cool. We also went to this Basilica which had the tombs/crypts inside of people like Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Galileo, and Dante. Finally, we went to the Boboli Gardens which were beautiful. There were all these trails, and fountains, and look out points where you could see the whole city. From the gardens we were able to see the actual city of Florence, and the countryside of it. It was beautiful. Here are some pictures of Florence.

The view from the top of the Duomo

Me in the Boboli Gardens, in front of the countryside view of Florence

We were in Florence for two and a half days, and then took a train to Pisa, where we were only there for an afternoon. While there, we of course, saw the tower, which was pretty cool to be at. Around the tower there were several things to do, so we went into this church type thing (I’m still not entirely sure what it was), we went to some crypt thing, which I found rather creepy, and then we went to a small museum.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa

After we were done in the city, we headed back over to the train station, and rode the train to the airport in Pisa. This was on Friday night, and we were flying out at 6:15 this morning (Saturday)… It just happened to occur this way, that there were about 10 other students from our school who were all taking the same flight back with us… we knew this before hand, and we all decided we would just sleep in the airport overnight because it would be easier than having to check out of a hostel at 4am, not to mention cheaper… Well, not too longer after we were there, did we find out that this airport closed between 1-4am…. Great…. Well, Amy and I decided to ask some people who worked there what we could do… if there were any hostels nearby or anything… which there weren’t…. this one pilot was helping us out, and told us he would open up the airport’s outdoor café for us to sit in… it was just a covered area, and not exactly inside… anyways so about 15 of us were huddled inside this covered outdoor café for 3 hours, in the middle of the night…. It was so cold…. It seriously felt like we were out there forever, but eventually we were let back into the airport, and we flew back to Seville without any problems. So that is my trip. I hope you guys enjoyed reading about it, and seeing the pictures. I have 6 more weeks until I come back home. I definitely am looking forward to coming home, but there is definitely a part of me that will miss this little world of mine over here in Spain. I will see you all soon!

Spanish Professors are Ghetto

Well, I am 9 weeks down, 7 more to go. Tomorrow I am flying to Rome with my friend Amy, from Taylor. I just got done packing, and everything I need for the week is in a backpack and a purse. We are not checking any luggage because we just don’t want to have to deal with all of that. Sometimes (I say sometimes, other people might say “generally”) but, sometimes I can be a little high maintenance with my things for my hair, makeup, and cute clothes… but that’s just not going to be happening this week. I will be taking a brush for my hair, and my clothes are far from cute… tshirts people… I did allow myself the luxury of some makeup though… I decided I shouldn’t scare the citizens of Italy. Anyways, I’m all ready to go. I leave my apartment at 6:30 tomorrow morning, and we fly out of Seville to Rome. Lately, nothing too exciting has been happening here. School has been going well, and I have been learning a ton. However, I definitely am in need of this break. It’s coming at a good time. Gracia has been ridiculously great these past few weeks. Britton and I aren’t exactly sure what has happened to her… I think she just all of a sudden likes us or something… I’m not entirely sure. I have to say though, I haven’t gotten yelled at about the light in over a month! She does still try to control us, and tell us what to do. Britton generally listens to her, but I refuse to let a 70 year old women tell me what to do. Haha, I don’t think she likes my stubbornness all too much. I mean, if it’s something about the apartment, or something that actually affects her, I will listen to her, and respect that… but not when she tells me to do things that have no bearing on her. That’s just crazy! And, generally her requests are kind of ridiculous. So because Halloween is next week, today the school had a “costume day.” Which, I find kind of funny since the ages of the students range anywhere from 19-22. However, Britton and I decided to participate… big shocker right? Anyways, we bought these costumes at a hippie market in Seville. Deciding they were probably a bit too inappropriate to wear by themselves, we wore things under them. This is our professor Salva. If you take one look at what he is wearing, you will understand his personality. He is such a goof. He is my prof for Literature. He lived as a foreign exchange student in the states for 3 months, and he remembers a decent amount of English. Every once in a while he will pull out some random phrase in English just to get the class to laugh. The other day, he stopped what he was doing, looked at the class, and goes “That’s ghetto.” It was about the funniest thing that has happened here so far. Not only because of the fact that a Spaniard just said that phrase, but also his wonderfully think Spanish accent that was used to say it. Anyways, so here is a picture of that. I figured everyone would enjoy this!







Well, I dont really have a ton of updates, but i will definitely post a good blog when I return from Italy, pictures and all. I hope everyone is doing well. Love you!

Don Quixote de La Mancha

Well nothing too exciting has happened recently which is why I have not posted in awhile. Generally my days consist of: breakfast, school, lunch, nap, homework, talk to Ry, more homework, shower, and bedtime. Of which I am sure everyone does not care to hear the same things over and over again. So my newest update I can share is about my school’s trip to Toledo. Well, we had to get up at 5am for starters… that didn’t go over so well with me haha. My senora was extra crabby that morning… which I don’t blame her… no one wants to be up THAT early! We got to the school and we all piled into a bus, which much to my dismay would be my new home for almost 7 hours…. Me and road trips don’t generally get along too well! However, it was well worth it. Our first stop was a little bit outside of Toledo, at the Windmills of Don Quixote. They were pretty cool to see. Here are some pictures.

We then continued into Toledo where we got to our hotels and ate some lunch. Then we all went to a church and monastery which were both really cool. The architecture in the monastery was amazing. Here are some pics.

Afterwards we had free time, so Britton and I went shopping. We were in this jewelry store, where I bought a bracelet for myself, and Britton bought some earrings for her mom. The owner of the store was helping us, and he was probably the sweetest man I have ever met. He was the artist of all of the jewelry also. He made some beautiful things. He was very impressed with Britton and I, and that we were speaking Spanish too each other, and he commented that our Spanish was very good… which that made me happy. We talked to him for probably 30 minutes, asking him questions about Toledo, about Spain in general, and about his jewelry. The people in Spain have a tendency as a whole to be very cold people. It is rare when you find someone who actually cares to talk to you, and particularly with Americans. He was incredibly helpful, and the nicest Spaniard I have met. Britton and I asked him for a good recommendation for dinner, of which he talked about one “La Bodera” for probably 10 minutes… Britton and I decided to check it out. Oh my gosh... The food was INCREDIBLE. Probably some of the best Spanish food I have eaten. Britton got lamb, and I got something that originally came with liver, but I told them I didn’t need that haha. Mine was this apple, cheese, salad thing type thing with a raspberry sauce… okay sounds weird, sounds bland, sounds not very exciting for being some of the best Spanish food I have ever eaten…. You guys will just have to take my word for it... it was so delicious! We then got the most amazing dessert… A chocolate brownie soufflé, with thick gooey chocolate in the center… It was like the consistency of chocolate sauce, but it tasted like the best raw chocolate brownie/cake batter ever. It was amazing. Here are some pictures. Everyone likes pictures of food!!!

The next day the school went to the Cathedral which was absolutely gorgeous. There were beautiful paintings, and sculptures and it was basically a museum inside the Cathedral. We were in there for a couple hours, and it was crazy cool. Of course, I have pictures of it too...

Britton and I then went exploring on our own, and we found this church where you can go up in the tower and you can see the entire city. The trip to Toledo was well worth the almost 7 hour drive… It was a beautiful city, with beautiful buildings, and a completely different aspect of Spain than I had seen before.

Well I have tests coming up this week. My first set of tests went well, so I’m not too nervous about these ones… let’s just hope I say that after I take them! In a couple weeks Amy (my friend from Taylor) and I are going to Italy for the week…. The school has a week break at the end of October, and so we are packing our bags and flying to Rome, to spend a few days, taking a train to Florence, which we will be there for a few days as well, and we will spend our last day in Pisa, where we will then fly back to Seville. We have already bought our plane tickets, and made our reservations for hostels and hotels in Italy. I am looking forward to the trip, and I will definitely put pictures on here after the trip. I hope you all are doing well, and I look forward to seeing everyone in 2 months!

Castles and Caves

Well, it has been exactly one month since I left home. Honestly the time has gone by kind of quickly. It doesn’t seem like it has been a month. So my roommate Britton and I took a little adventure today. We went to Aracena, which is a city about a 1.5 hour bus ride away from Seville. When we got there, it was completely different than any part of Spain we had seen before. It was this cute little town, just like people would imagine a quaint little Spanish town to be. It was really cute. We then headed to the center of the city to find our predetermined destination…. Gruta de las Maravillas, to get a tour of the caves which are underneath an ancient castle in this town. They were so amazing. The tour was an hour long, and we were with a pretty large group. Britton and I went to the end of the line of the tour, so we could take our time looking around… we had to play catch up a few times! We were able to get some great pictures of the caves, so here’s a few for your enjoyment…

Just a pic of me and my roomie caving together!

Afterwards, Britton and I climbed this huge hill, which at the top, were the ancient Castle ruins. Gracia had packed us each a couple of sandwiches and an apple for our lunch. We sat on the side of the hill, and ate our lunch. We then finished climbing to the top and we went inside of the ruins. It is still finished being excavated, so we couldn’t see everything, but what was there was beautiful. Here are some pictures...

After that we went to this pastry shop that Gracia told us was amazing…. She was right. This was probably some of the best pastry I have ever eaten. Britton and I then went to this small little park in the town, where there were beautiful flowers and trees. We took pictures in there for a while, and eventually just sat on a bench inside the park. It was a pretty exhausting day and my feet are now screaming at me for all the walking we did. Other than that, nothing too exciting has been going on here. School has been fine these days, I had 3 tests this past week, and they went well. I have another one this coming up next week. Hopefully it won’t be too bad! Well, dinner will be soon, so I better finish this…. Generally we get yelled at if we do not exit our rooms within 10 seconds of the first time she tells us it’s time for dinner…. You think I’m kidding too... I’m not! One time I didn’t hear her say it was time for dinner, and the next thing I know she is practically busting down my door pounding her fist against it! Haha. She was pretty mad. Oops! Anyways, hope you enjoyed those pictures today. Love you!

How to not lose a man.... organization

Well our trip to Cordoba was really fun. We went to Medina Al-Zarra, which is an Arabic ruin… now I’m assuming most people reading this post are saying… Arabic? I thought you were in Spain. Well, the Arabic people invaded Spain a way long time ago (I learned what century in my history class, but I just don’t remember!!!) anyways, they invaded Spain and there are lot of arabic influences in Spain now. Anyways, the ruin was really cool. Here are some pictures.

Also, we went to La Mezquita… which is an old Muslum mosque… Anyways, the Arabic people built this mosque and had basically totally control over Spain, until the Christians invaded them, and took over. The Christians didn’t want to destroy the Mosque because of its significance, but since they did not support what the mosque stood for, they built a cathedral on the inside of the mosque. Other than the cathedral, basically everything else in the mosque is original… which is surprising because on one of the walls it is written in Arabic “Ala is the only God, and Mohammed is his prophet.” It’s kind of weird to me that the Christians kept that in there, but I think they just wanted to keep the history of everything alive. Here are some pics.

So I figure I need to put a senora update in here.One of the things that Britton and I find extremely funny is something that Gracia does during mealtimes. I think I have said before that the TV is like another member of the family. It is on during every lunch and dinner. Anyways, we will all be talking, watching TV, eating, etc, and every once in a while, Gracia will just yell out “Mira!” which means “look” and she’ll point to the tv. Most of the time Britton and I aren’t sure quite why she wants us to look at what it is we’re looking at, but we just look, and try to pretend interested… If we look for a second, and then turn away, she yells out “Mira!” again. Another thing--- There have been several times where we aren’t really watching the tv, we are just talking, and I will start to ask Gracia something, or just say something to her at all, and she will put her hand in my face, shake her head, all the while her eyes are glued to the TV. After she has finished seeing the news clip or whatever it was, she will turn to me and say “now what were you saying?” It’s so funny because Britton and I get the hand all the time. Our relationship with Gracia has gotten to the point where we just mess around with her all the time. She takes jokes well, and she can dish back the insults just as well. Most of the time Gracia makes comments to us in relation to her cooking. She’ll look at us and go “She (ashley) doesn’t like seafood, and she (britton) doesn’t like fried food.” And she mocks us in the way that we talk. Afterwards Britton and I will start to say something, and she tells us to be quiet, and then goes “I’m mad.” She can give us a hard time, but Britton and I know that she secretly likes us though. Also, Britton and I haven’t been messy at all here, but according to Gracia, were never going to be able to keep a man because he will leave us because we are so disorganized. Gracia also doesn’t like the way we make our beds. One day, I was making mine, and she came in and tells me to stop, and she finished making it for me. Britton had already finished making hers, but Gracia didn’t think it was good enough but since it was already made, wasn’t going to fix it. She then looks at us, and says “the only reason Ashley’s bed is acceptable is because I made it!” Maybe one of these days I’ll learn how to properly make a bed… until then, I have Gracia to teach me!!! Gracia also doesn’t know our names. She only ever calls us “chica” which means girl. One time Britton and I asked her if she knew our names, and she goes “yep” She pointed to Britton and goes “chica,” then points to me and goes “rubia” which means blonde. She then says “no I really do know your names, I just cant pronounce them.” Well, I think that’s all the stories I have for this post. Love you all!

Oh Gracia

Well, since my last post about the bullfight, nothing much has been going on, which is why I haven’t posted anything until now. So I just now realized that I haven’t yet posted some wonderful (sarcasm here) news about my senora… She has decided to give Britton and I a bedtime…. Yes… a bedtime… I am 20 years old, been living on my own at college for 2 years, and I now have a bedtime… Just in case you guys didn’t catch it the first time… I have a bedtime… at midnight… Haha i cant believe it. Britton and I laugh about this all the time. Everyone at school feels so bad for us. Haha... its pathetic. So this one night (before she gave us a bedtime), I was up til around like 1ish… I was being completely quiet, in my room, doing some homework… the next day at lunch, my senora starts going off on me about how I never should go to bed that late ever again… that night that I was up, she came to my door, and knocked, and I said that she could come in… but she must not have heard me, because she didn’t come in. So when she was getting mad at me at lunch, she commented how it was very rude of me to not tell her she could come in when she knocked… I figured it was best not to try to explain that I did answer, but she didn’t hear me. So later on that night, she was talking to Britton, and Britton was trying to defend me, saying that, we aren’t used to having bedtimes, we normally go to bed later, etc. Britton was getting kind of annoyed with it all, and Gracia got really mad, and said so loudly, “At midnight, you have to be in bed, all the lights off, total silence!!!” She then came into my room and repeated that to me. Well, a couple days later, Britton was talking to one of the coordinators here, and they said that senoras can’t give bedtimes…. So I’m not sure what’s going to happen with that. Hopefully that changes soon. Anyways, that’s kind of been a big frustration of ours lately. Not necessarily the fact that we have a bedtime... but that it’s at midnight, and I have to get all my stuff done before then, because every night she comes into our rooms at midnight and tells us to turn off our lights… It's actually more funny than anything, but it can be annoying at times... We got out of school early today… there is a lot of construction near our school, and today during my last class, the building started smelling like firework… sulfer I guess??? Anyways, we got out of class like 25 minutes early so that was nice. Every week on Wednesday nights, my school has a bible study/youth group service at a local church… the group is called “Encuentro.” Most of the students go to it, and its nice just to hang out with each other in a setting where we can speak English and what not. At school, we can’t speak any English at all. We signed a “contract” saying we wouldn’t speak English. So during Encuentro, it is more of a time where we can hang out, just be ourselves… speak our native language… haha. So tomorrow the school is taking the students to Cordoba, a city in Andalucia… (Andalucia is a state of Spain, which Seville is the capital of). Little geography lesson for everyone! Anyways, we will just be there for the day, being tourists and such. We have to meet at the school at 7:50… I am not a morning person… ask Ryan. So we’ll see how awake I am when walking to school!!! Gracia will probably make us go to bed an hour earlier tonight since we have to get up earlier tomorrow than we normally do for school haha. Tonight the students are going out for “tapas.” Tapas are a traditional Spanish food, that are best describe as an appetizer. Generally when you get tapas, you go out with several friends, and you get several tapas to split. I haven’t eaten tapas yet, so I’m not sure what kind of choices they have. They are very small portions though, and one person would not get filled up on only ordering one tapa dish- generally a person would order 2-3 tapas for their meal. Each dish costs between 2-3 euro, so it’s not very expensive. So we are going out for those tonight. I heard they have bull tail… I will not be eating that. Oh! Ryan, you would be proud of me… I tasted calamari today… its not as good as you make it sound… My senora made some for herself and Britton today for lunch… she has caught on to the fact that I really hate seafood… anyways, I tried it… I was proud of myself for even touching the food, let alone actually eating it. But it wasn’t very good… its better than fish… but it still tastes like the ocean… me and the ocean don’t get along very well. Okay, well this entry is longer than I was planning on. I will put a post up about our trip to Cordoba when we get back!

Bullfights

Well, the bullfight was very interesting… Not something that I probably would go to ever again. It was the most torturous thing I have ever seen done to an animal. A lot of people don’t realize all what a bull fight entails, so I am going to explain it… and if you do know, you can just ignore this post!!! So, before I started studying Spanish, I always just thought that the matador has his little red sheet, and just sort of runs around with the bull, and it was more about the matador not getting killed by the bull. Well, that was ridiculously wrong. So the bull fight starts off with a bunch of matadors coming out into the arena, and they prance around for a while, and then eventually a bull is let loose. There are 6 bulls that are used each bull fight- 2 brown bulls, 2 white, and 2 black. The matadors all work together to get the bull tired from running all over the place, and eventually one matador takes over. Before the main matador takes over, the other matadors continue to help wear out the bull…. First, there is a matador on a horse… well bulls don’t like horses too much, so they run toward the horses, and blast into them… the horses have protective wear on, so they don’t get hurt… however, when this happens, the matador on the horse stabs the bull with a spear. This happens a couple of times. Then, the horses leave, and the “helper” matadors then each take 2 spears, and run up to the bull and jabs the spears into the bull. By the time that is done, the bull has 6 spears sticking out of his back. Needless to say, there is blood all over the bull. Then, the matador dances around a little more, and then takes a sword, which is probably 3 feet long, and spears the entire sword into the back of the bull. He does this a couple times. Eventually the bull gets so weak that he will lay down. If the matadors don’t think the show was long enough, they will pull on the horns and the tail to make the bull mad and get up again. But, the bull will lay back down shortly after. Once the bull is down, the matador takes a dagger, and spears the bull in the head a couple times, and then does one final time in the forehead which then kills the bull. Then, the matador cuts off one of the horns of the bull, and ties up the legs. Then a team of horses comes out, and hooks onto the rope on the bull, and drags it out of the stadium. As I said, they do this with 6 bulls per show. It is absolutely disgusting and torturous, and it was a horrible display of “entertainment.” Then, the people here try to justify the fact of torturing the bulls by explaining that the meat of the bulls gets donated to an orphanage. Okay, now I’m all for giving food to people who need it, but at least kill the animals in a humane way… not torturous and for show. We were all pretty bothered by the show. Anyways, that is my soapbox about bullfights. As you can guess, I didn’t enjoy it too much, but I am still glad I went to experience the cultural part of it, but I have no desire to go ever again. Well, I am on my break during school, and class starts again in a few minutes, so I need to get going. Thanks for taking the time to read these! Love you all!

Plazas and Pigeons

Sorry I haven’t posted in a few days… It’s been kind of busy around here! Well, one week of classes complete! I would say it was a good first week of school. I like all of my classes, and my professors are great, except I really don’t like my history class… I am not a history person. I mean it’s not awful, I just don’t love it. Well, last night, me and the girls from Taylor went out. We went to the Plaza de Espana, which is just beautiful, and then we went to El Parque America- which is a park where there are tons of pigeons… I have pictures at the bottom of this blog- two of the Plaza, and the other of the park with the pigeons. We got dinner at an Italian restaurant, and got some ice cream. The ice cream here is so good. It’s kind of like a mix between American ice cream and gelato. Weve gotten it kind of a lot… haha, we probably should chill out on how much we eat it. Its hard cuz there is this “heladeria” (ice cream shop) right by our apartment… so we like to go there frequently. Today, the Taylor girls went shopping in the central park of the city. There is this hippie market that we went to, and there are actually some good things there. The shopping here is great, but some of the stores tend to be pretty pricey… but there are still some good stores that aren’t too bad in terms of prices. We went to McDonalds for lunch… we were craving a taste of America. After awhile, all this bread and potatoes that we eat get to be a bit much! The fruit here is better than any fruit I have ever had though- its crazy good. But the milk here is so weird. Its not like American milk. First of all, it comes in these cardboard “boxes”, and it doesn’t need to be refrigerated until after it’s opened. It’s really weak in flavor, and its just kind of weird. It kind of tastes like our milk, but watered down… a lot. But fortunately, we don’t really ever drink it by itself, so its not a big deal. We just have it with our tea in the morning. Tomorrow (Sunday) I am going to a bullfight. I am not too sure how I feel about going to one, but I figure, I am only in Spain once, I probably should go. Alright, well, it’s getting late, and I need some sleep! Those pictures I mentioned earlier are below. I love you all!

Since everyone's been asking...

Here's a pic of my Senora... Gracia Gomez Rojas... :)

Who really cares about shower shelves?

Well, classes started yesterday, and I am feeling pretty good about them. I am taking Spanish Literature, Spanish Short Stories, Spanish Grammar, and Spanish History. I like my professors alot. They are all really nice, and very willing to help the students when need be. There are only 4 professors at the school- 2 male, 2 female- and I have each of them once. So today, I was getting ready and my senora comes into my room and tells me to follow her into the bathroom. She then proceeds to show me the shelf inside the shower, and asks me why there is so much stuff on it. She then points to another shelf in the bathroom and says that my roommate and I need to put stuff on that shelf also. I explained to her that Britton and I use all of that stuff when we are in the shower- it is like shampoos, conditioners, body wash, face wash etc. But Gracia thinks that shelf space should not be wasted and we should put some stuff on that shelf. I am not quite sure why she cares if every shelf in the bathroom is used, but apparently, she does. Oh well, I can appease her. It's just kind of funny to me, more than anything. Also, today, she comes into my room, and tells me that I need to keep my bedroom door open to allow for cross circulation of the air in the apartment. So needless to say, my door remained open for the rest of the evening. None of this stuff bothers me, and I am not complaining at all... it is just so funny to Britton and I because there are so many things that are not important to us, but are definately important to our senora. So, I thought Americans loved their tv's.... let's just say that it would not be far fetched to say that the tv is the 4th part of the family here in Spain. Everybody watches the tv at meals. All that is ever on is gossip shows, Torros para Todos (Bulls for All), and sports- which is only soccer. There are two soccer teams here in Seville- Los Sevillanos y Los Beticos. It is one of the biggest rivalries that exists in sports. It is crazy. My senora is a "Sevillano." My roommate and I were talking about one of the coordinators of the Semester in Spain program, David, with Gracia, and she then says that he a "betico." Well, what Britton and I were talking about in reference to David had nothing to do with soccer, so we were kind of confused what our senora was talking about. Gracia said "el es de betico" - which means "he is a betico"- well, she speks so fast, that it sounded like she said "el es diabetico" as in- "he is diabetic." Britton and I were so confused why she was telling us this, and why she even knew that about him. We kept repeating ourselves- he's diabetic? is he really? and then my roommate asking something about sugar in reference to his diabetes. Gracia then realized what we were asking, and starts laughing and laughing because we thought she meant he was diabetic, when all she was trying to say, was that he is for the team she is against. Gracia found that very funny. I hope that story makes sense. Its funnier if you speak Spanish, so I tried to explain it so everyone else gets it! If not, then I'm sorry. Ask Ryan to explain it to you- he is so good at Spanish and all haha! Love you dear! Today we had Gazpacho for lunch- cold soup... its a little weird, but it wasnt too bad. Well, it's bedtime for me. I'll try to keep up with these posts as best I can. Thanks for taking the time to read them! I try to keep them interesting so you dont fall asleep mid-post! However, I'm about to fall asleep while writing this one, so I am going to go to bed. Goodnight everyone! Love you all!

Matalascañas

Friday we had registration and also a safety “class”. I was able to get all of the classes I needed, and Britton and I have the exact same schedule, which is really nice. Classes start Monday, and everyone is feeling a little apprehensive about everything- no one really knows what to expect. Britton and I went shopping, and then we met our group for pizza in the city. There are 47 students in the program, only 7 of which are guys… don’t worry Ryan, none of them are as cute as you!!! Today (Saturday), probably 35 of the students went to the beach. We all met at the bus station and took a bus to Matalascañas, a beach about an hour away from Seville. We were there for about 5 hours. It was really fun. My group is really great, and everybody gets along really well. My señora made Britton and I a lunch to take to the beach. She is so cute… and crazy clean. It seems like every time we see her, she is mopping the floor or cleaning something. Also, people here in Seville are very conscious of water and electricity usage. It’s funny- Britton and I are so used to just turning on the lights when we walk into our rooms, and about 30 seconds after we enter our rooms, Gracia walks in, and turns off the light, an opens the blinds, and tells us we need to use the sunlight as our source of light…oops. Maybe one of these days I’ll remember! Also, she cleans our rooms everyday- except make the bed- we’re supposed to do that… another thing Britton and I failed to do! Fortunately, Gracia has had many home stay students, and understands that we don’t quite get everything the first few days! She is so great- she is so funny, and super caring. She is always asking about us, and how we are doing, what we are going to be doing that day, and when we return, she asks all about it- just like a real mom. The other day, Britton and I were missing our boys, and Gracia came in to the room while we were talking, and she got real concerned, and was asking us what was wrong, and if we were okay. She gave us kisses, and then started cracking jokes to make us laugh. The next day, she asked us how we were doing, and if we were still sad. She is very caring. I love her! Not to mention, her food is really good- besides the fish haha! There are definitely some things that we have to get used to with the Spanish culture. The first has to do with talking with our señoras. Britton and I have always been taught to be police and say please and thank you. However, saying those things in the Spanish culture shows a sign of distance in the relationship. If you say please and thank you, the person will take it as that you are not comfortable with them. Britton and I will always say “gracias” to our señora, whose name is Gracia, and she goes “No, no no, my name is Gracia, not gracias,” as a joke to say, hey don’t say thanks. We are still getting used to this. The second really different thing for the American students is the fact that Spaniards as a culture are very rude people. There is no such thing as waiting your turn in line- it’s every man for himself mentality over here. Everyone tries to outdo each other. We were waiting for the bus back to Seville today after the beach, and Britton and I had been waiting for about 40 minutes. We had tickets, but when the bus fills up, it fills up… so we wanted to make sure we would get on the bus, so we walked to the bus stop from the beach about 40 minutes early. However, we were nearly the last ones on the bus, because all the Spaniards cut the line, pushing their way through. It’s weird to try to get used to. Well, Britton and I are going shopping tonight, so Gracia will have dinner ready soon. I love you all!

Lentils and Fish Sticks

The way Spaniards have meals is so different than how I am used to. Breakfast is only bread and tea or coffee, which is fine with me since I generally don’t love breakfast too much. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day, and let me say there is way too much food to be eaten. Today we had lentil soup… I had never eaten lentils before… they were okay, but I definitely won’t miss them once I’m back home. Then we had fish sticks… yeah… fish sticks. I didn’t want to be rude, so I took a bite, and politely told my señora that I don’t eat seafood. That’s what we were told to do at orientation. Because if we say we like something, and if we finish a meal we don’t like, chances are, we’ll be served it again. My señora wasn’t offended or anything, she just wanted me to try it, which I did. Also with that we had bread, salad, and fruit. Britton and I didn’t want to eat bread because it would fill us up, and we felt it was more important to eat the food that Gracia had prepared. When we were asked if we wanted bread, Britton said no thanks, and I proceeded to say no thanks also. However, Gracia didn’t listen to me… She decided that I needed to eat bread, and then proceeded to practically throw the bread at me. Needless to say, I ate the bread. Today we had orientation, which went well… nothing too exciting. We got our cell phones, but that’s another process in and of itself… You’d think I’d know how to make a phone call right? Wrong... Britton and I are going to try to figure it out tomorrow. We also had a guided tour of the city today. The people who give us the tours are around the ages of the students, maybe a little older. We broke off into groups. My tour guide’s name was Kiko. He was incredibly helpful. We walked all around the city, in the central part of the city, and also in the main park of Seville. It was absolutely gorgeous. None of us had been to these parts of the city before and it is so much different than anything I had seen yet in Seville. It was absolutely beautiful. There were beautiful buildings such as cathedrals, universities, and a humongous house which was better off called a palace that some famous Spanish woman used to live in back a long time ago- like 900 years or something. There were also beautiful fountains, and massive trees everywhere. It was gorgeous. One of the areas of the park was just filled with pigeons. It was crazy. I have never been to New York or places like New York where thousands of pigeons congregate, but it was crazy. They were everywhere. They would land on us also. You just stand there with your arms out, and in a few seconds, like 4 or 5 pigeons will land on your shoulders or your head. It was pretty great. We walked for over 2 hours, and I’m pretty sure my body hates me right now. The only good thing about walking this much, is that it will work off all of the food that Gracia makes us eat- especially the bread. Tonight, after I got back from the tour, Britton and I had dinner, but Gracia didn’t eat with us. Later on, I went out into the dining area and sat down to talk with her…. She was eating some kind of seafood that definitely had some sort of antenna… I think it might have been a prawn or crawfish or something like that. Whatever it was, it looked nasty. It had a shell, and these weird little feet thing coming out of the bottom of the body, and these huge antennas, that no joke, were like 5-6 inches long. Anyone reading this please pray I never get served that. I might puke. So Gracia comes into my room today, with a can of jelly bellys and is like “I can’t all of these… I need help.” So I’m thinking, put the lid on… however, she liked the idea of pouring a bunch into my hands better. I’m one of those jelly belly eaters who has to know what the flavors are before eating them, however, there wasn’t a card with pictures and names of the jelly bellys… I ate some gross ones. I’m gonna have to get used to those whole being forced to eat stuff haha. Funny story- Britton brought a box of chocolates for Gracia as one of her gifts- she gave them to her yesterday. This morning we wake up, and Gracia tells us she ate the whole box last night haha. We tried not to laugh. Well I miss you all, but am thoroughly enjoying my time here so far. My next post may not be until Monday, but you can keep checking. Love you all!

Primero dia en Sevilla

Seville is beautiful! Tuesday morning I got up and got ready to go to the airport. I flew out of O’Hare airport with the group. Checking my luggage and going through security did not take long at all. The flight left at 4:45, and it was an 8 hour flight… I was definitely ready to get off of that ridiculous plane. Once we got into the Madrid airport, we had to go through immigration stuff, and we got our passports stamped. We had a 4 hour layover before our flight to Seville. We tried to use the pay phones, and that was a process in and of itself. Literally, after about a half hour of trying, we finally got them to work. The flight to Seville was not bad at all- only an hour. I slept most of the way. We met the SIS coordinators at the airport, and we then took buses to our home-stays. Britton, my roommate and I got dropped off at our apartment, and met our Señora- Gracia Gomez Rojas. She talks fast- crazy fast. And the accent they have in Seville is very different than any accent that we have heard before. I’m understanding a lot more than I thought I would have, but still, this lady can talk! She is really nice, and I’m looking forward to living with her. She has a three bedroom apartment, so Britton and I have our own rooms. About 2 minutes after we brought our luggage up, of course Gracia decides it’s time to feed us- and I’m not hungry at all. She proceeds to give Britton and I mounds of food, and neither of us can eat it all… Then, Britton and I were going to walk to the school so that we could find out where it is, and send some emails- this was around 4pm. However, Gracia had other things in mind- she decided that we needed to take a nap until 6… Britton explained to her that we wanted to get a few things done before it got too late, and Gracia compromised and told us to rest until 5 pm… If you don’t know anything about the Spanish culture, naps and relaxing are a huge part of it. Now, I like resting and all… but this was kind of funny. Britton snuck into my room because she didn’t want to rest either… We found the whole thing really funny, and had to control our laughter so Gracia didn’t catch us not resting. I was tempted to start unpacking, but I thought maybe Gracia would notice that when she sent me to bed, my things were packed, and when I got up from resting, they weren’t… So I just sat on my bed for an hour haha. But in all honesty, Gracia seems like a really great woman, and I think she will be fun to live with. She has a great sense of humor, and we’ve already been laughing a lot with her.