city of my ancestors part 1

so i´m sitting here in my hostel in barcelona, keyless, and therefore unable to take a much desired siesta antes de the halloween festivities. so i figured, hey i´ll do the only thing i can: update my blog. lucky you!

barcelona is so different from sevilla! its got a little more bustle to it. i love how chill sevilla is and wouldn´t want to study anywhere else, but its nice to feel this movement for a bit. not that its anything like a big city in the states, but its still faster paced than sevilla. its like a brisk walk where sevilla is a crawl and nyc is probably a sprint. yeah.
today i went to see some of gaudi´s work in the guell park. its the one with his famous benches. even though it was super overcast, the little plaza is still striking. you feel like you are surrounded by waves of earth and tile. i tried to take some artsy pictures, but they didnt come out the way i wanted. we´ll blame it on the lack of sunlight (sure, sure). tomorrow we are hopefully gonna go to the picasso museum (we heard it is free tomorrow) and to see more of gaudi´s architecture. maybe even hit up the beach for a minute or two or sixty.

my visit to (**nerd alert**) the shire

seeing as i'm off to barcelona on friday i figured i needed to get up last weekend's activities. well activity. CEA took us to Ronda! pretty much the most idyllic place. there is this gorge in the middle of the city that runs to Malaga and Gibraltar. and smack in the middle is this huge arch that just keeps going down all the way to the bottom. plus it's pretty high in the mountains so at certain points you can see forever. anyone who wants to feel like they have stepped back in time to an untouched mediterranean town, ronda is the place to go. the arabic baths are just the cherry on top. the only negative thing i have to say is that the restaurants wanted to charge my friend a euro to use the restroom (after she had already used it) and basically chased her out of the cafe. i had bought a water bottle, so i was safe from their wrath, but tia barely got away unscathed. thats an exaggeration.
oh! i also had my first mcflurry here while i was there. now, my friends kept saying how good they are here, but i never saw the point because i dont like them back home. besides, i figured why get mcdonalds icecream if i can get the real deal on any street corner? well i stand corrected. it was pretty much amazing. they put fudge in it! i'm actually really sad i tried it. i should have left well enough alone. oh well!

and on a complete sidenote, everyone here is obsessed with a new life-altering, and life-consuming, phenomenon: farmville. can someone explain this to me? actually, i don't even want to know.

special price, just for you

so here's a well-kept secret for you: moroccan food is amazing. the chicken was so tender, i barely touched it and it fell right off the bone. and can we talk for a minute about the couscous? it was so perfectly seasoned with saffron--i don't think i can eat normal couscous ever again.

we took a bus down to the south of spain where we took a ferry to morocco. now, ferries aren't exactly smooth-sailing, and i walk like a drunk person on them. by the second half us girls had given up moving and decided to exchange massages and give each other french braides instead. works for me! we arrived to see what essentially still looked like the coasts in europe (shocking since they are on the same sea) and i instantly fell in love. there are so many colors and smells to tempt your senses. the market in tangiers was pretty awesome, but expensive. i was glad i didnt really have money with me because stuff was way overpriced. now, i know this is because you are supposed to barter (a lot) but i got the exact same things for 25 euro less in cheuan the next day. we did buy some pita and humus though, and it was incredible. plus the saleswoman saw four of us sharing one pita and gave us another for free! the hotel that night wasn't bad, aside from "george", my friend's suprise cockroach, and the less than clean shower. but the sunset was amazing!

the next morning a group of us got up to watch the sunrise at 6 am (you can't go out in morocco, and its much easier to get up early) and it was incredible. our hotel was on the beach so we watched the sun come up and slowly light the water. it was gorgeous.

and about camels: i totally rode one. for like a minute, but it was so cool! its unnerving when they stand and sit, because you can't quite tell when its coming. and suddenly they kneel and you are almost thrust forward over your camel's long neck. then they bend their back knees before you can regain your balance just asking you to topple over! i mean part of my problem is my famous uncoordination. but it was bad. i may or may not have let out a little scream. after riding the camels we continued on visit the cave of hercules. it was amazing becuase the caves are very dark and the opening looks out to the ocean. it looks like a keyhole and you are spying on the horizon. for a while it hurts your eyes to look at it because you are surrounded by darkness and the light is reflected off the water and streaming in through the gap. but at the same time, you can't stop looking at it.
That day we also visited tetuan, where we wandered around the city with a tour guide. we also had body-guards that they didnt tell us about, but we all knew were there. i mean he didn't exactly "blend in". i loved how foreign it all was to me. the farmers (who we couldn't take pictures of without their permission--which i didn't get) wear these crazy white hats with tassels and maroon string. except when we were leaving this man kept trying to get onto our bus, which clearly wasn't public transportation, and the bus driver, as well as one of our program guides, had to tell him to go away. he was pretty determined to get on our bus.

speaking of busrides, the next morning we got up bright and early again, this time to head into the mountains for our last stop, cheuan. but somehow there were fewer seats this time around and 6 of us had to squish into the row of 5 seats in the very back. funny how that works out. cheuan was my favorite town. the markets were full of spices and dyes and brightly colored thread. our tour guide was this tiny old man with a raspy, yet loud, voice. the whitewashed walls with blue tiles and blue doors were just picturesque alongside the mountains. some guy offered 200 camels for me--i don't know if thats a lot, but hey its story. we also went to a weaver and saw these blankets they make with berber designs. they even had some actually made by berbers themselves. and because the berbers don't have a written language, they tell stories through design, so these blankets are all different and tell different stories! but, being a broke college kid, i clearly couldn't afford one. i did get a pillowcase at a nearby stall...

after lunch we all packed back into the bus to head back to the ferry. now remember the missing seats mystery? well it turns out these american women on our trip had decided they all wanted their own rows and had put their stuff in the seats next to them to make it look like they were occupied. after we started moving one of our girls went up to sit next to one so that everyone could in fact have her own seat, and the woman got all huffy! apparently a banana and bottle of water are more deserving of a seat than one of us. good to know.

so all around we had a fantastic weekend!

oh and if you see pictures of me looking like i'm sitting with a broken neck-thats me sleeping in public transportation. i'm suprisingly good at it, and will probably suffer from life-long neck problems because of it. but i'll be well rested!

Tuscany

I think the trip i took to tuscany, specifically Florence, was the best trip of my life. I love Florence and all its history and culture. I am very glad to be studying in Sevilla, don't get me wrong, but if I was gonna actually live somewhere in Europe for an extended period, i would like to live in Tuscany. The countryside is unreal! There are so many green and yellow hills covered in bushes and olive trees. I can see why the entire area is such a tourist attraction, but i find that fact a little sad as well. It seems to detract from how romantic it is.

So here's the basic outline of this little excursion: Sevilla, Pisa, Florence, Chianti area, Fiesole, Florence, Siena, Florence, Malpensa, Sevilla. jealous yet? lets see, we flew into pisa, so we made a pitstop to take the cliche and yet fantasic "look-i'm-holding-up-the-tower" pictures, and then took a train to Florence. But when we got there we discovered that just becuase a hostel advertises 24 hour reception doesn't necessarily make it true. sometimes it means they actually aren't there at around 8 o'clock at night, and you get to chill in the hallway for 45 minutes. but whatever, i'm not bitter. That night we met some american students on the steps of the duomo and they told us to go to a club called space and that it was good. they lied. it was full of drunk american students, not an italian in sight. this one kid legit couldn't walk. his two friends held him up saying "right, left, right, left" and they dragged him home. and here's the worst part: no entrance fee, no no no, they trick you. thay make you pay to leave. how ridiculous is that!?! needless to say, we didnt go back to space.

On Friday, we basically just walked all over florence. we went to the plaza del san lorenzo, the ponte vecchio, the duomo (duh), and then we split and i went walking around what was probably residential florence for about 2 hours. it was gorgeous. we got up on top of this hill and could just see everything. then we talked to this lady at a coffee shop and she told us about all these places we could go to. we ended up not going out that night though because we had plans for early the next morning...

The next morning, aka saturday, we were planning to go on a bike tour. the weather had forecasted rain, but we didnt let that dampen our spirits (oh yeah, that pun just happened) and we set out for the tour anyway. So after a nice little van ride with a driver from scottland named andy, we arrive in a castle in chianti. it is used as a winery, and basically made me fall in love with the countryside. not to mention the town itself. everything was so quiant and old. we toured the castle/winery and afterwards go tto try the wine. now at this point it has started raining quite hard and we realize the biking just isnt going to happen. so we tried several glasses of that wine. we also tried a lot of their superb olive oil and bread. then we went and got lunch.

since the tour ended early we decided we werent ready to go back to florence yet, and we asked andy to drop us off at some town near florence and we would just catch a bus back. So he took us to Fiesole, and we found this random little Franciscan monestary! it was so cool! for those of you who do not know, i really like st. francis--he's just plain awesome.

That night, the coolest thing happened! we went to get gelato at some place that we had heard was amazing (which it was) but while we were looking for it, we heard this music echoing through the streets. it was surreal almost. so we found the source, and this man named Ken Mercer was playing music just outside the Uffizi! the acoustics were incredible and his guitar and voice were just echoing off all the marble. a huge crowd had formed and he was playing great songs by oasis, simon and garfunkle, and even zeppelin. and i emailed him when we got back and he said i could post a video i took of him so here you go:

On Sunday we went ot Siena which was rustically beautiful. kinda small though. i think i would get tired of it if i was a student there. But seeing as i was only there for a day, i thoroughly enjoyed it. We got pizza and gelato (fyi i'm basically 800 pounds now) and sat in the piazza and people watched.

Monday kinda sucked only because the Uffizi and the Academy were closed. we had planned to go on monday. so we didnt get to see Michelangelo's David. bummer times. however we did see the fake, and i've seen it in real life before, so its ok. that afternoon we took a train to malpensa because we flew out really early the next morning. to get to dinner we had to walk down this dark road during which two of us made allusions to friday the 13th. that helped. one girl accidently kicked a stick and we all started screaming and blindly running toward the light maybe 100 yards away. it was absolutely hilarious, i almost died.

Ole!

The other night, CEA took us to see a flamenco show. I wasn't sure what to expect because some girls had gone to a show at a different venue a few nights before, and they hadn't come back with very good reviews. But i figured, i need to see a show while i'm here, and this one was free for me. Luckily, my expectations couldn't have been more wrong! the dances were fantastic! and the dancers looked like they were just playing onstage. It was so beautiful and full of energy. Some dances told stories of love affairs with matadors, one women danced with a cola, or the long tail on the dress, and swirled it around like nobody's business. i still don't know how she didnt trip. And the men's footwork was crazy! At times they seemed to glide because their feet were moving so fast. And i never thought a dance could seem so masculine. These dancers though, the men and the women, were just incredible. They danced with such passion and fire! Many times, i caught myself leaning forward in my seat, with a smile plastered on my face, only to look around and see my friends doing the same thing.

Viva Sevilla

After being chastised for being a somewhat mediocre blogger from a "best" friend (hahaha jk), i guess i'll create a new post. Last night, I went to a bar with lots of my friends and we watched the Sevilla vs. Real Madrid game. It was intense. Not only did many of my girlfriends pick prospective boyfriends (most from Madrid--traitors), but Sevilla won! The atmosphere in the bar was tense and thrilling because there were fans for both teams. In fact, my friend tried to high-five a random guy after Sevilla's second goal, and he just wasn't having it. How was she supposed to know he was a Madrid fan if he was wearing a Lakers shirt? After the game ended, the Sevilla fans broke into song and paraded out of the bar, and the whole walk home motorcyclists were honking and waving little red and white flags.
Speaking of motorcycles, i feel like they are especially loud here. Not only are they everywhere (it is Europe, after all) but some people take their mufflers off! The kanis do it, i think. The kanis are the gang here, and one of their trademarks is a loud motorcycle, apparently. Their haircuts are usually a tip off as well, as they practically shave the sides of their heads but not the tops. And the girls always have crazy long hair, and loadddds of makeup. The other night i was bar-hopping with Morgan and Annie, and we saw some kanis. We were like, "be cool, kanis!" but it was kinda a joke too, because it was a group of guys. And, oddly enough, its the girls you have to watch out for. If you so much as give them a lingering glance, they try to fight you. Fortunately i haven't run into that particular problem yet.
So i'm pretty sure just about every girl in Sevilla is gorgeous. And i have to give them props, because they wear heels for hours and hours. They probably can't even feel their feet anymore! It's crazy, i dont know how they do it. My feet hurt by the end of the night, and i'm in cheap flats...
So my neighbors are staring at me right now. They have this thing where they think its ok to blatantly spy on us. One time Morgan, Izzy, and I were doing abs in the dining room and didnt know they were watching until Iva walked in to inform us that we had an audience. It's a little disconcerting to be having dinner or be doing homework and find our neighbors staring at us. But that's Spain!

let's dive right in

Alright, i've been in Sevilla for about a month now, and decided it's time to just start a blog. Too much goes on here and i want/need to keep everyone informed!!

Now then, i think it would be biting off more than i can chew to try and go over my entire experience so far. Suffice it to say, i have been to Malaga, Portimao, Lagos, Jerez and Conil already. And, of course, they were all fantastic. Although i did get verrrry burned in Malaga. Heads up ladies and gentlemen, hours' worth of direct sunlight=sunscreen and lots of it. We had a wine tasting in Jerez at the famous Tio Pepe winery, where they apparently make fantastic sherry. I wasn't a fan though, oh well. Now, Lagos is probably the most beautiful place i've seen in my life. A little outside of the town, in a place called Sagres, on the coast, are all these jagged rocks and the water rushes between them during high tide. I officially was standing in the place people used to believe was the end of the world. How awesome is that?!?

As for the people in Sevilla: we'll i think you find the same thing everywhere. Some are fantastic, and some just aren't. I've had several run ins with grade A creepers. And the guys here catcall like there's no tomorrow. But some of the people are wonderful. In fact most are. For some of my classes we go out and interview Spaniards to learn more about their culture and so far almost everyone has been more than willing to help. They actually seemed more excited than we were and very enthusiastic about answering any questions we had about their beloved city and way of life. One interesting thing i've learned here and that Spain is very fragmented. Sevilla is in the autonomous region of Andalucia and they are very proud of their culture and how different they are from other parts of Spain. In fact, when telling one Sevillian that i want to go to Barcelona he promptly replied, "Barcelona is not Spain". Which i kinda understand, seeing as they don't even speak Spanish there, but Castillian.

My classes are going well, i especially love one professor named Deborah. i have her for two of my classes and really like her teaching style. you know how a professor can make or break a course? well she definitely makes me enjoy and learn the materials for her classes, Contemporary Spain and Popular Culture. i also like my art history class. On Tuesday our professor took us on a walking tour of the Giralda, Cathedral, Barrio of Santa Cruz, Torre del Oro, and the outside of the Alcazar. I love that i'm able to see what i'm learning about in person instead of just looking at slides. We also went to Italica, some Roman ruins outside of town, for this class. It was incredible, the streets have some of the original cobblestones and some of the mosaics still survive. Plus, it has the third largest Roman amphitheater in the world, behind the Coliseum and Pompei.

that's all for now, because i'm going shopping with my roommate, Morgan.