Holy Moly 9 Weeks Down!

Nine weeks in Spain done!

Time has really been flying by.  This week was only 4 days long since Tuesday was an international Spanish Speakers holiday (we didn't have class on Monday because of it). On Tuesday when I went to class there was no one outside, and no one in the metro!  It was almost creepy it was so quiet!

I couldn't do any of the activities this week at school because 1) I had class or 2) I had already done them! Yes, it's gotten to the point where I've done all the activities at school.  I tried (and succeeded for the most part) to be productive this week. And since this blog post is up-to-date and not from 2 weeks ago I think I did well.

I had my second written exam on Friday. I studied a lot, so I'm hoping to do as well as I did on the last one, or better. It's really important to me that I get good grades here, because they will affect my GPA at Clark.

I've finally finished planning all my trips so in the next few weeks look for updates on: Nana and Pa visit Spain, Rome, Barcelona, Granada, Edinburg, Palma de Mallorca, and the end of the semester.... Yes I said it the end. That is how many weeks are left here in Spain. In fact, if my calendar is up-to-date (which is always is...) then Monday is the half way point! Crazy, I know.

I've done some Christmas shopping, but I still need to get a few more things for my favorite people. I can't decide if I should get something nice for myself too. I'm grappling with the spending 18 weeks here in Spain is my present, or do I want to get myself one nice thing. The last time I went to Spain, I got myself some Mallorcan pearl earrings, but I also had more money then.... I'll have to think more about it.

The construction around my house still continues. It's gotten to the point where I have to walk all the way around the block in order to get to the metro station. It's ridiculous. They work from about 7 am to 8 pm everyday and still it's not finished. I'm probably going to be gone before it gets finished, which annoys me, because I really want to see it done....

Next update will be on my day trip to Salamanca!

Sevilla Day 3 and Cordoba

On Sunday in Sevilla, everything is CLOSED. Unfortunately we were completely unaware of this fact. For breakfast we walked to this Panderia (bread shop) and bought some delicious sweet bread and two medium loaves of bread for dinner. The whole thing only cost us 3,80€ (bread in Spain is a million times cheaper than in the US). After enjoying our bread on the roof top terrace we headed out with the intention of starting in Plaza de America and going to the art museum.

in front of a fountain in
Plaza de America

A building with famous Spanish
people on top of it!

On the way there, I started to not feel good (I got a stomach virus). But we kept trudging along. We asked the lady in the tourist information center where the nearest bathroom was and she told us there was once inside Maria Louisa park. So we headed into the park thinking it was right inside the gate. We asked a person working in the park where it was and they gave us some "directions." After walking around for what seemed like an eternity, we still couldn't find a bathroom and had ended up at Plaza España again! So we sat down, regrouped and decided to pick a different direction and finally we made it to Plaza de America where we discovered that the Art Museum was closed. So instead we took some pictures and headed back toward the cathedral defeated. We stopped in Cafe y Te and had a little lunch, then just walked back to the hostel. EVERYTHING was legitimately closed. It was very depressing. So back in the hostel we just chilled in the common room doing HW. For dinner we ate the meat Katie's señora had given us, along with the fresh bread we had bought that morning. It was a good, easy dinner.

On Monday morning we checked out of the hostel and headed on the train to Cordoba. Once in Cordoba we dropped our suitcases off at the bus station (since they had lockers), and took the city bus down to the historic center of the city.

On top of the scary tower!

When we got there we walked to the Alcazar de los Reyes Catolicos (or Castle of the Catholic Kings). We explored around there, the gardens, the inside of the palace, then decided to go up to one of the towers. It was the scariest winding staircase ever! Not good for a girl with horrible depth perception. But we made it up and back down without dying (though I swear we were close of the way down).  After we finished exploring the gardens we decided it was time for lunch. But before we got something to eat we walked across the Roman bridge and took a few pictures (of course).

We ended up in a restaurant that was SUPER busy. I ordered a Spanish omelet; it was delicious but I couldn't finish it because I didn't feel good. After that we went to the Mezquita (or Mosque). The mosque in Cordoba is a Catholic cathedral within an Islamic mosque. It's incredibly beautiful, with an amazing history. They had to completely reconstruct different parts of it in order for people to use it again, and I must say that they did a fantastic job.  We spend about 2 hours just walking around the mosque (it is HUGE).

Inside the Mezquita!

After that we didn't really have anything else we really wanted to do so we tried to find the Jewish synagog. Unfortunately the map was really hard to read so we ended up walking in circles and never did end up finding the synagog. Once we had given up on that, we noticed that there were some grey clouds in the sky and that it was getting close to the time we needed to start heading back to the train station. So we walked to where the bus had dropped us off, and it started to rain. Then a local told us that if we wanted to go back to the bus station we didn't want to catch the bus at that stop because it has to make some crazy loop on the other side of the river before it goes to the bus station. So he gave us directions to the correct stop, and eventually the bus came and brought us back to the bus station. Finally we were on our way home. It was a great weekend, but boy was it long and tiring!

Sevilla Day 2

You know how difficult it is to sleep in a room with 4 other people you don't know on a skinny little mattress? Well, it's difficult. I woke up Saturday morning when I couldn't stand everyone else in our room coming in and out and in and out. It was driving me nuts. So I took a shower and had some pretty sad toast at the hostel.  Finally, Katie woke up and got ready to leave. We were supposed to have an 11 am walking tour, but it was cancelled because of the rain. 

Gardens of the Alcazar

So instead we put on our sneakers, grabbed our umbrellas and headed out to the Alzcazar. There was a long line when we got there, but we quickly discovered that getting in was free for students, as opposed to 7,50€ for everyone else! Also, the clouds moved out and the sun came in, so the umbrellas got tucked away in our bags for later. That made us happy. Once we got in we spend a few hours wandering around the castle and the gorgeous gardens (mostly in the gardens since there wasn't much in the castle to see). 

Fountain inside the Alcazar.

After spending some time there, we were getting really hungry, and we noticed that the sky was getting considerably darker. We knew we had to find a restaurant ASAP if we didn't want to get poured on, so when we were in this little clothing store, we asked the woman if she knew of a restaurant that had a Menu del Dia. She gave us the name of one and pointed us in the right direction. We didn't actually end  up eating at the restaurant she told us, because we found a different one that was closer that looked appealing. It was a three course meal kind of thing, so I had gazpacho, then pork that had been simmered in a tomato based sauce, and some sort of delicious dessert that I can't remember the name of.  I also tried some of Katie's bull's tail, but I didn't really care for that; it had a weird texture.  It downpoured while we were eating lunch, but by the time we were ready to head out, it was all clear again.

Plaza España 

We then walked to Plaza España, which has a little tile mural for each province in Spain. It was really pretty, but they were reconstructing a lot of things around it, so we had to find some strategic ways to take pictures without including backhoes. 

Me in front of the Madrid mural

After that our feet were really starting to hurt (we had walked MILES), so we went back to the hostel and took a nap. For dinner we had paella at our hostel (it only cost 6€ and was basically all you can eat). It was delicious and included free sangria! After eating we decided we wanted to go out and try to experience the Sevillian nightlife. So we got all fancified and headed out (with our umbrellas) with two girls from our room. We were attempting to get to this free flamenco bar, but the girls couldn't really read a map, so I had to take over since I am the navigator. Then it started pouring while we were on our way there so we popped into a bar and had a drink. The bartender gave us better directions to get to where we wanted to go, and so thanks to him we made it there in one piece. 

Peacock in the gardens.

Once we were inside the flamenco bar we were dying! It was a million degrees in there and you couldn't really see the flamenco dancers anyway. So we decided that was a bust and left (but not before making friends with two American students studying abroad in Barcelona) and went down the street to this restaurant we had seen earlier. We had a few glasses of wine together and asked our waitress for a recommendation for a discoteca close by. She told us there was one in the park next to the University of Sevilla. So we decided to try and go there. One of our new friends joined us in our journey and the three of us took off trying to find this club. When it poured again we sat in a bus terminal. We found a road that entered the park that looked promising, so we walked own it, and we basically discovered a whole little town situated inside the park. When we stumbled across a group of kids (about our age) who told us it was impossible to get to the club we were trying to get to, Katie and I gave up and decided it was probably best that we head back to the hostel since it was already 2:30 am at that point. Even though we didn't end up finding the club, it was still a really fun night. 

Sevilla Day 1

Cathedral of Sevilla

On Friday morning Katie and I took a 9 am train to Sevilla instead of going to class. In reality, I don't like missing classes, but since it was a holiday weekend here in Spain, the only trains available were 9 am and 11 pm. The decision there was pretty easy.

One of the bells in the bell tower.

We arrived in Sevilla at 11:30 and took a hearty jaunt to our hostel (i.e. we walked from the train station). We checked into our room, dropped off our bags and went up to the rooftop terrace to eat lunch and enjoy the 80+ degree weather. Needless to say, I did get a tan. After we were full and rested we decided to head out on our first adventure. We rented bikes from the hostel and headed out toward the cathedral.  Once we found our way there we parked our bikes and found the cathedral entrance. The price to get in was only 2€ for students AND you were allowed to take pictures WITH FLASH (unlike in 99% of the other churches in Spain). We climbed all 34 ramps to the bell tower, named Girlada. It's 343 feet tall and has without a doubt the best views of Sevilla. We were even up there when the clock struck 4 and the bells rang. On the way down we kept informing people how far they had to go so they wouldn't be wondering like we did.

View from the top of the bell tower. 

After visiting the cathedral we checked out the times for the Alcazar which is located right across the street. It closed at 5:30 and it was already 4:45, and we knew we needed more time for that so we decided to put it off until the next day.  We jumped on our bikes and rode to this store my grandfather had recommended I visit. Both of us ended up buying some awesome souvenirs. Then we biked down to the river to check out the price of boat tours down the Guadalquivir River. They were 15€ so we decided to put it on our list of things "to consider." Then we checked to see if there were any bullfights happening while we were there. Unfortunately, the last one was on Tuesday the 12th and we were only in Sevilla until Sunday.

Our bikes next to a fallen orange tree!

After that we rode our bikes back to the hostel and took a nap. It was 9 o'clock when we woke up, and by that point we were hungry. We went on a search to try to find some bread and fruit to eat with the meat Katie's señora had given her for the weekend. We walked everywhere and there was no bread and barely any fruit. So we asked for a restaurant suggestion at the reception desk.  The man gave us the name of a restaurant that was close to the hostel. So we walked there and discovered that it was a 25 + minute wait. We could not wait that long, so we went to the restaurant right across the street and had some tapas and wine (well, I had wine, Katie had coke). Finally we went back to the hostel and called it a night.

My 8th Week (in Spain, 6th of classes)

This is more of a reflection on my time here rather than a description of my week because in reality I didn't do much of anything except go to class.

So Spain. So far I've really enjoyed my time here. I've really only dealt with 2 minor bouts of homesickness, and those really only lasted one day.

I'll start with my home. I love Loli and Jacinto. They are amazing people. They really do treat me like their own daughter. Loli calls me her "niña" (girl), and she even gave me some Spanish Emergen-C when I had a cold. She makes delicious food, and is constantly asking me if I want more or need something else.  She even told my mom that I'm "her daughter" right now. She gets really happy when I come home from my trips, and I am so happy coming "home." Though it's not my own house, and I always feel like I have to maintain a sense of politeness even when I'm feeling grumpy it's still a nice place to come back to. I would like to add to this section that as I was writing this she popped into my room and gave me a bowl of popcorn and a kiss. Really I couldn't have wished for a better family to be with.

School. I have 21 hours of class per week. Most days it doesn't feel like I'm in class for 4 1/2 hours each day. Recently though, as we have been traveling on the weekends, I haven't had much sleep in my own bed so it's been hard to have class for so long. I'm learning so much Spanish though. It has to be about 10 X better now than before I left. I really want to move up a level though so I guess if I buckle down then maybe soon I can be in 2BB or something along those lines. Art and Literature are okay. Both the teachers are nice, but I guess the subject matter isn't all to interesting to me. But they only meet twice a week, so I think I'll survive.

Friends. I have a few. I wish I had more. I've been trying to put myself out there, but I do feel overshadowed at times. I'm not shy, but I'm not 100% outgoing. I'd say for the most part I'm just kind of reserved and maybe too concerned about people liking me. In TANDEM it's difficult to make friends because they come for 2-3 weeks and then leave to go back to wherever they're from. So the few girls I've met so far and really liked have already gone. It's even harder to make Spanish friends however, since we're really never in contact with Spanish youth. I do have a language exchange partner named Fernando who is very nice. He told me he'd introduce me to some of his friends, so hopefully that will be successful. This is probably the one thing that stresses me out the most. I talk to all my friends abroad and hear how they have all these great friends from where they're studying and I'm definitely a little jealous. My circumstances are different however since I'm living with a family and not in a dorm or an apartment, and I go to a small language school as opposed to a University in Spain. Anywho, I do miss my Clarkies on many occasions.

All in all, I really don't have anything to complain about here. It's the experience of a life time and I'm trying ti enjoy every minute.

Day 3 of Africa

Sunday... SUNDAY. We had to wake up at 6 am. Yup. I haven't woken up anytime before 7:30 since crew ended. But we were up and off to breakfast by 6:30. We then jumped on the tour bus and drove to Chefchaouen which was about 2 hours from our hotel. Not gunna lie, the ride there terrified me. We legitimately drove straight through the mountains and the roads were narrow and scary and I swore a million and a half times that we were going to fall off the mountain. I did a lot of praying to baby Jesus on that trip.

Once we arrived there we met up with our local guide who was legitimately about 80 years old, but hilarious nonetheless. He took us around the little town where all the buildings are bright blue and white to keep away the mosquitos (or so he said). We went to a place that makes berber carpets and blankets by hand. There was a beautiful yellow one that I loved, and I couldn't help myself so I bought it. :) I was very happy with my purchase. Then we ate lunch in another typical Moroccan restaurant. I liked the food again, big surprise there.

After we finished with our tour we had to drive to the port because we had a 4:00 boat ride back to Spain (which is 6:00 Spanish time since Morocco is 2 hours behind Spain. Whoever said that countries picking their own time zones is okay was seriously mistaken.) So after a long ride we finally arrived back at the boarder, got our passports stamped, and made our way to the ferry in Ceuta. We lost our tour guide somewhere along the way, but kept Pedro our bus driver, so when we got off the ferry we stuck with the group that was going back to Sevilla so we wouldn't get lost. Then another bus ride to Cadiz, then Sevilla, then a 15 minute walk at 10:15 at night to the bus station, and FINALLY a 12:00 am bus back to Madrid. Yes we had to take a bus back because the last train leaves from Seville at 9:45 pm and we didn't get back till 10:15. So it was stuffy and smelly on the bus, but for the most part we slept and before we knew it (ish) we were back in Madrid, and jumping on the metro at 6 am.

All in all however, it was a fabulous trip. A great way to experience a completely different culture (just not for too long).

Morocco Day 2!

On Saturday we woke up and realized our hotel had an amazing view of the ocean. This was legitimately the only 4 star part about it. After realizing this, Katie and I got dressed and ate breakfast quickly so we could go out in the garden and onto the beach. It was a beautiful day, and the beach was so pretty with the mountains in the back ground. We collected some shells and some seaglass to bring home from Africa.






After that we got on the bus and headed out to our guided tour of the old part of Tetuoan. We had a body guard there since, 1) it was super easy to get lost in the windy, twisty little streets, and 2) it was kind of sketchy. Our guide walked us all around these little streets and we got to see how the Moroccan people live and work. We had a ten minute rest stop in this gorgeous little restaurant where we relaxed and drank a coke. Then we went to an herbal shop where they showed us all kinds of herbs and what they're used for (ie medical purposes or cooking). Katie and I bought some eucalyptus for ourselves since it's supposed to cure headaches, migraines, colds, and stop snoring. After that we went to lunch. The restaurant had all kinds of typical things from Morocco including food. Katie and I got henna tattoos, listened to some Moroccan music, watched a belly dancer, and a guy who had a tray on his head with a tea pot and candles dance around and do all sorts of crazy tricks with out  dropping or breaking anything. The food was delicious: couscous, vegetables and meat in moroccan spices. YUM.

After lunch we got back on our bus and drove to the Caves of Hercules. The sun was streaming in so brightly you really couldn't get a good picture, but the mediterranean sea splashes up through the caves and whatnot so it was really cool.

Next we we to ride camels. Not what I was expecting really. The price wasn't included in the trip, (but it was only two euros so it really wasn't that big of a deal), but the camel ride was literally less than two minutes long. Kind of disappointing, but nonetheless, I rode a camel. It was quite the experience, especially the getting down part. My mom told me I had a SPED camel, but she would say that. I also got some pictures with a baby camel and the man asked us for money for the picture... I gave him 1 dihram which is the equivalent of about 10 cents in euros. He wasn't happy, but dude, I just took a picture.

After the camel "ride" we went to a lighthouse which marks the point where the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean meet! It was really just a rest stop, but since I love lighthouses, of course I have a picture.







Then we made our way to Tangier to our second hotel. We had some free time between our arrival and dinner so Katie and I ventured out to try and find this market our guide told us about. It was basically impossible and frightening to be honest. You could just feel eyes on your everywhere you went. Not fun. So we turned back after taking a breather in a little art museum, and getting some pastries. We just chilled in the hotel and took showers before dinner. We also watched the Matrix, which is a very strange movie. Dinner was yuck to say the least. A fried hunk of fish with bones and some french fries and weirdly flavored green beans. Needless to say, I did not eat much of it. After that we went to bed since our wake up call for Sunday was: 6 am!