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!