An English Weekend

Why hello there!

I'm at school right now, and it's raining pretty hard outside. Unusual for this time of year, I think. And a sorpresa - the weatherman definitely did not predict this!

But anyway, on to more interesting things... ;)

This past weekend I went to England! I visited my friend Ruth, who is studying at Oxford. It was quite an adventure - first a flight to London, then two bus trips to Oxford. When I arrived in London at midnight, I had missed my bus by 5 minutes, so I had to buy tickets for two new buses. My first bus was fine, and it dropped me off somewhere in London... then when I found my second bus, the driver was taking a nap with the lights off... haha. So I chatted with my new friend Nico until the bus driver woke up (at 2:30 in the morning...). The people I met on the airplanes and buses were very interesting... :)

But anyway, Oxford is a wonderful town! Ruth was a great tour guide and showed me the countryside and gave me a tour of Christ Church, the college of Oxford that she goes to. We also spent a day in London, just seeing all the sights and enjoying the city. AND we made dinner and dessert with Ruth's friends. It was so much fun to be in the kitchen cooking food... my senora cooks all the food for me (and it's always fantastic, I shouldadd). It was a great trip, and I'm so glad I went. :)

Okay, okay, and here are a few pictures from my lovely English weekend: The first one is of the country in Oxford, the second is of Christ Church (with an adorable British child who ran into my shot... haha), the third is the Parliament building in London at sunset, and the fourth is of Ruth and me with Big Ben (our favorite site of the day!).

Cheers!

Granada and Donana

Buenas dias everyone!

This past weekend I went to Granada and Donana (I just love the names of places here... hehe). Granada is a city about 4 hours away from Seville, known for it's ancient palace and for the fact that you can see the Sierra Nevada from any point in the city. Donana is a beach about 1 away from Seville, and we went there to ride horses on the beach. :)

After spending 2 days in Granada, I think I've decided that city is my favorite, of course, favorite AFTER Seville. ;) We went to a teteria (tea house) and had fantastic tea, and visited the Arab markets, which is this network of tiny stores and stalls with incredible stuff inside. It made me really excited to visit Morocco in 3 weeks.

In Donana, we rode horses across the beach (my horse tried to make a beeline for the water - he was such a rebel). And then we spent a couple hours just hanging out on the playa, and we borrowed a soccer (sorry - futbol) ball from some Spanish guys near us and played on the sand. It was a lot of fun, and pretty sweet to see the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

But now I'm back at school - I have a presentation and a test this week. But on Thursday I'm leaving for England for the weekend! I'm visiting my friend Ruth who is studying at Oxford. I'm super excited. :)

Anyway, here are some pictures from the weekend: (In order) Me with Sierra Nevada in the background, the reflection pool at the palace, some cool graffiti in Granada (the graffiti there is more like art), la playa!, and me with Casita.

Those Monos

Hey all!

This past weekend we took a day trip to Gibraltar. It was fantastic! The water there is gorgeous, and it was fun to be able to say we went out of the country for the day (Gibraltar is technically part of Great Britain... which also means everyone spoke English!). Instead of telling you all about it though, I´m going to post a bunch of pictures so you can see for yourself!

We took a pit stop during the 2 1/2 hour trip, and got something to eat (second breakfast, anyone?). I know, I can´t write a post without mentioning food. ;)

Here we are in Gibraltar (it was really windy!). If you look really closely at the background, you can see some mountains. That´s Africa!

The water was just so pretty there. :)



This is me in the cave of stalactites that we visited.

Finally... here´s a picture of a monkey in a tree. The monos look really cute but... they´re vicious! One of them stole my friend Cristina´s sandwich right out of her bag, climbed up a building, and ate it!

All in all, it was a great trip, and a gorgeous day. Well, I hope you all are having a great week!

March!

Hola amigos!

Happy March! Yesterday it smelled like spring here… that’s a good smell!

Yesterday was also quite an interesting day. I met up with some other American students for breakfast at a restaurant called VIPS. And we had REAL breakfast! Here, breakfast is the smallest meal, and every morning I have a mug of Cola-Cao and two pieces of toast with marmalade. And that’s okay (the marmalade is delicious!) but yesterday morning we had PANCAKES. They were fantastic. After going out for a very American breakfast, we went to our Spanish church, where we spent two hours singing Spanish songs and listening to a Spanish sermon. After church, I went home for lunch, where I spoke a lot of Spanish with my senora. Then it was time for siesta (a great part of the day), and my senora wanted to watch a movie/take a nap. So, she turned on Canal Sur (her favorite channel) and we watched… an old Western movie, dubbed into Spanish. It was hilarious. We both enjoyed making fun of how corny it was. So there I was, an American, watching an American movie, dubbed into Spanish, with my Spanish senora. Quite the collision of cultures!

I find that happens a lot here… the collision of Spain and the United States. In the stores and restaurants, they play mostly American music. My intercambio’s favorite music includes U2, Johnny Cash, and Coldplay. And most of the movies on television are American movies dubbed into Spanish (like my favorite Western), and there are a lot of American shows dubbed into Spanish too (like House, Gilmore Girls, The Simpsons). AND most of the movies in the theaters are American movies – right now The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is huge, and Pink Panther just opened up this past weekend. But the Spanish people say they like American entertainment better – I guess I never realized what an influence American programs had in Europe, but I think America just puts a bigger emphasis on entertainment (and puts more money into it). Anyway, it’s interesting how much of America infiltrates Spanish life.

Alright, and the picture of the day is... from when my friends and I went out for tapas (kind of like appetizers) and dancing last weekend. :) It was a lot of fun, and hilarious to watch the Spanish people sing along with the American songs. Yay dancing!