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!

New Classes

Hola amigos!

Yesterday started a new round of classes. These classes will last until the end of the semester, until mid-May. I'm taking three new classes, along with one that continues from the start of the semester (Cultural Realities of Spain). My new classes seem really interesting - I have Spanish Civilization, Spanish-American Literature, and Teaching English as a Foreign Language. I think I'm most excited about the Teaching English class because we get to help in the English classes here at CCCS! So I could be helping in a kids' English class here, which would be awesome. :)

So the days are definitely starting to get busier, and I can't believe I've been here for almost a month. Part of me feels like I've been here for so much longer... but then part of me feels like this still isn't real.

I'm getting excited for Feria too, although it's not for another two months. Ha ha. Feria is a giant festival here in Sevilla, and it's supposed to be really incredible. But the reason I'm getting excited about it is because I live across the street from where all the festivities will be, so every day when I walk to school I see the men building the huge structures. And the other day they put up an enormous banner over the front of the tallest structure, with lots of designs and flags. It's cool to see it all come together.

Oh! And here's a picture of these fun sculptures that are next to the Cathedral in the heart of Sevilla. There is just so much to see in the city...

Estudiar, Estudiar

Hola!

As I write this, I probably should be studying. I have a final exam tomorrow for my grammar class. I can't believe the intensive period is over already! That means I've been here for 3 weeks. Monday begins the continuation period, and I'll be taking new classes. I'm really excited for that to start (especially since I don't have class until 10:15!).

Oh! And I found a church. It's about a 15 minute walk from my apartment, in the barrio (neighborhood) of Triana (I live in Los Remedios). The service is at 11:00, because Spaniards don't really believe the morning exists. Side note: The first Saturday I was here, I told my senora I was going to wake up at 8:00 or 9:00, and she just looked at me like I had three heads. Then she said, “That's very early.” So I slept until 10:00, and I was still the first person awake. Anyway! The service is 2 hours long (longer than services in the US), but it was great. It's a really small church, with about 50 people, but the room was small too, so people were overflowing into the lobby. There were a couple other students from my program there, as well as American students from other programs in the city. After the service, the members of the church invited us to stay for a big lunch they were having (ahh, just like at home) and for a presentation about all the countries represented in the church. Apparently there are a lot of immigrants in Seville, because I met people from Bolivia, Columbia, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Peru, Argentina, Chile, England, and France. And that was an excellent start to the week. :)

I’ll leave you with my favorite pictures from my trip this past weekend to Jerez and Arcos de la Frontera. The first one is the view from the lookout on the mountain where the puebla blanca (white village) is built. All the buildings in the village are painted white. The second one… well, I think you can figure it out.

Que tenga un buen dia!

La Comida

Buenas tardes!


It's Friday afternoon here, and it's 70 degree outside. Yay! :) I had classes this morning, and then lunch with my senora and her two daughters. They talk SO fast, it's so hard to understand them. But it's a lot of fun to figure out what they're saying.


Speaking of lunch, I haven't really told you about the food here... well, it's wonderful. My senora makes lots of soup, which are always good. There's this vegetable dish that is basically just vegetables in olive oil, and it's very good. For salads, the only dressing is olive oil as well, but that's fine by me. :) And there there are the sandwiches that we have for dinner sometimes: giant, fresh bread that crackles when you bite into it (you know, the kind with the really good crust...) with ham or chicken or this fantastic spread (my senora told me the name of it but I don't know the translation to English, or if there is one). At meals, most Spanish people just drink water, which I think is great.

Possibly the best thing I've had so far is a churro. Yum. It makes me hungry just to think about them. ;) They are covered in sugar and sometimes you dip them in chocolate. I wish you could all come visit and we'd get churros. Also good was this pastel (pastry) that I had the other morning. A friend and I went out during our morning descanso (break) and went to a pasteleria (shop where they sell pastries) and I bought this flaky, semi-eclair pastry. It was filled with chocolate. It was fabulous. :) Some mornings we get cafe con leche (coffee with milk), which I've started to enjoy... I never drank coffee before coming here.

But the most interesting food-related experience I've had so far is the mercado (market). This morning my grammar class went to the market in Triana, and it was great! There are stalls for all kinds of food: pescaderia for fish, carniceria for meat, frutera for fruit, etc. Our professor bought this fruit called chirimoya for us to try (it was really sweet and kind of soft). That market is definitely a place I want to go back to.

So as you can see, I'm eating well here. :) There's lots of stellar food to try, and my senora is a really good cook. Here are two pictures from the mercado this morning; doesn't that food just beg you to reach out and try it?